Stranglehold/Powers
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
- Parent Page: Stranglehold
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Enhanced Physical Strength
At his base level, Stranglehold is easily able to dead lift a car or dent a vault door with a single punch. He is however capable of further increasing his strength level by absorbing ambient emotions or as relayed by himself, even his own. Basically, his muscles become magically supercharged and therefore more efficient without actually gaining muscle mass or increasing density. Unlike many other super-strong posthumans he is however otherwise beholden to the laws of physics. Meaning many larger objects are more likely to break apart as he attempts to lift them than to actually remain intact, even if his body can handle the weight itself.[1]
Dimensional Manipulation
Stranglehold moves between physical locations inside the same dimension with ease and has at times shown an instinctive grasp of his relative position in the world, able to pinpoint his exact location down to a matter of inches. By the same token, he can transport other people or objects along with himself, or apport them into his vicinity in a similar fashion, though the process is apparently not a pleasant experience for living creatures.
Likewise, he shows some ability to reach sub-dimensions close to our own (such as the so-called "Shadow Shard" or the inter-dimensional dance club "Pocket D") under his own power. There is at least one verified report of him breaching the barriers to a further dimension, Omicron Zeta 5, also known as the "Minoan Empire", by himself. However, it is unknown what outside factors might have accompanied this apparent surge in ability and the feat has since not been repeated.[2]
Outward Appearance
When Stranglehold warps space, he literally bends and folds reality around himself, creating a myriad of tiny tears and cracks in the fabric of the world. Since light vanishes through these cracks, they appear a simple dull black for the blink of an eye, then seal themselves before they reappear. This gives him the appearance of being constantly cloaked in a shroud of shadoy wisps that trail his every move when his abilities are active.
Teleportation and Dimensional Shifting
As a rule of thumb, Stranglehold can reach any point within line of sight nigh-instantly and can cover a shift of over a hundred miles with but a few moments of preparations. Longer distances than that usually require several successive shifts, or taking the indirect route by going to a nearby Proto-Dimension that has no spatial relation to our own, allowing him to freely decide his point of re-entry into our dimension. The latter process is guaranteed to take several minutes of subjective time since neither his long-range teleportation nor dimensional shifts occur instantly.
Instead, his body becomes slowly covered by the little black dimensional fissures outlined above, which then suddenly collapse into a muffled flash of light. According to Stranglehold's own accounts, he then travels along a knotwork of magical pathways he calls 'The Web' towards his destination. The Web apparently permeates the entire world, and his abilities allow him to shift himself (and others) out of tune with the physical world and in tune with this magical gateway. Travel in the Web is not instantaneous but not bound by many of the physical forces that bind the material world. Arriving at his destination, he fades out from a pillar of shadow that peels away to reveal the physical presence of Stranglehold.[3]
Dimensional Dispersion
As a defensive measure, Stranglehold is capable of partially or completely shunting incoming attacks out of this dimension and is effective against all known forms of energy, be they mundane, psychic as well as magical and specifically includes the kinetic damage from physical attacks. This form of defense does however not protect him from being cut or stabbed per se unless he is successful at reducing the kinetic energy behind for example a knife attack to almost zero.[4]
Used offensively, this particular aptitude can apparently be used to literally suck the life out of a victim with but a touch. Either simply to enhance the debiliating effect of a punch or hold, or with some amount of concentration to steal a jolt of enemy 'life force'[5] to strengthen or refresh himself, even instantaneously heal wounds. The effectiveness of this process cannot be argued with as gaping cuts will literally knit temselves together, bruises vanish and sore muscles be revitalized.
Soul Extraction and Capture
The ability from which he takes his nom de guerre is Stranglehold's power over souls, by his own admission related to his Dimensional Manipulation capabilities. Other than this assertion of his, little is known over the exact workings of this set of powers. Under particular circumstances, Stranglehold is capable of literally tearing the soul from a being possessed of one and imprisoning it within himself.
Apparently, the stolen souls are in turn used as an emergency reserve of power by Stranglehold. As a final option when all other means of powering his magics fail, he can gain more power from that which is most sacred. This is one of the few methods known to the magical world by which a soul can actually be destroyed and removed from the Life-Death Cycle beyond recovery by any means known to mortal and immortal men alike.[6]
For all appearances (which in this case means, as per Stranglehold's own testimony), the souls retain the capabilities to experience and affect their surroundings while imprisoned and require constant attention to keep them locked away. Stranglehold freely admits to the solution being a bad one for everyone involved, but likewise claims that it is the safest one. In Paragon City at least, people are too easy to bring back from the dead, and supernatural creatures will simply return after being defeated anyway as long as they retain their souls. The estimated count of souls locked away in this fashion is currently bordering on a hundrend to hear Stranglehold tell it, supposedly including more than one demonic "VIP guest".
The intimation here is that his ability to move 'things' through space and various dimensions is not limited to physical objects and forces but also affects metaphyisical ones. Souls, life force, emotions, all these things that are hard to quantify. As such, his abilities of "Emotional Manipulation" outlined below are actually just a part of his Dimensional Manipulation abilities, but since that is not an obvious connection nor common knowledge, it is presented as two different entries here.
The desired overall imagery is that the man himself is a walking talking Hell. He contains souls that exist to be tortured and feed the machine that imprisons them.
Shadowform
By partially shifting himself out of this dimension and into the Web, Stranglehold can enter a semi-corporal state in which he effectively appears as a humaoid cloud of shadowy wisps. While not truly incorporeal, this form is at once more malleable and allows him to blend into naturally occurring shadows in his vicinity, rendering him factually invisible in many situations. This skill is of particular importance during Stranglehold's (and Gideon's) less savoury exploits in the Rogue Isles.
Emotional Manipulation
Another major suite of powers available to Stranglehold affects the realm of emotions. It should be noted that at least on a conscious level, Gideon is by no means an Empath. He just moves (absorbs or projects) raw emotions, without actually being able to quantify or qualify his work.
Emotional Absorption
Stranglehold's magic is mostly powered by negative emotions - his own or that of others. Negative in this context meaning (self-)destructive emotions. Fear, anger, despair, envy and plain old furstration all fit the bill. There is a good amount of speculation that suggests that he could draw just as much (if not more) power from positive emotions if he only allowed them to fuel him, but that Stranglehold subconsciously closes himself off to the very idea.[7]
The actual energy generated by these absorbed emotions is the raw power behind most of his magics (excepting the Bloodlight). Ostensibly, his direct physical strength increases in direct relation to the amount of fear, hate, angst and so on in his direct surroundings. By the same token, though to a lesser degree, it also increases as he himself becomes angrier and/or more desperate.[8]
The mere existence of this ability actually explains a lot of Gideon's behaviour. On some level at least, he enjoys provoking and antagonizing people because the emotional feedback actually serves to sustain him. Likewise, it would explain why he is often found in self-destructive or straight-out abusive relationships or -far more likely- happily picking up women on the rebound or otherwise in a bad situation for a night. Like any moth, he is drawn to the brightest lights.
Emotional Projection
There is more than cursory evidence that Stranglehold can reverse the flow of energy and project emotions outward. He has been known to make attackers hesitate or even flee his presence, or caused men to attack him with unmitigated hate and therefore reckless abandon.
Very likely, these are the feelings of his 'inamtes', the tortured souls inhabiting him, though these might well also be his own feelings. During periods of great stress or excitement, both Stranglehold and his alter ego, Gideon St.John, have been known to 'leak' emotionally, broadcasting their own current emotional state into their direct surroundings.
The Bloodlight
An independent magical ability that doesn't tie into the powers Stranglehold most often exhibits, the Bloodlight is apparently some kind of magic force directly fueled by human life force. As the name implies, the Bloodlight takes the form of a sanguine glow that strikes enemies with overwhelming force and searing heat. Due to the limitations placed on its use, Stranglehold used to only employ it sparingly. For the most part, it was a last resort in desperate situations.
However, during recent action against Scirocco's Cult of Mu he's been forced to up the stakes of his personal war and employ the Bloodlight more casually, despite the risks involved. However, even then its intensity seems severely throttled, only seldomly being pitched to the point where he risks serious damage to his own life-force.
The Teachings of Mu
The main objective of Stranglehold's recent crusade against the Cult of Mu seems to have been their knowledge of the sunken continent's ancient magics. The secrets of the Crimson Lightning are his by virtue of blood he claims, and he will have them. Freely given or taken by force, he's recently begun a trek across the Etoile Islands in search of the Cult's knowledge, contained in writing or in souls. While still in its infancy, his understanding is growing rapidly. Maybe by virtue of his blood, and maybe too quickly to be safe.
Power of the Ritual
Beyond all these paths that needed to be studied but unveil themselves quite naturally, there is always that to fall back on which most people would more readily consider the proper workings of Magic. According to Stranglehold, all ritual is magic and all Magic is ritual. The way couples assure each other of their love, the way rivals fight their wars, so much of it is ritualized and becomes more than just an act through the power of ritual, it is virtually indistinguishable from his brand of Magic.
On a more general level, he views Magic as an independent force. A form of energy that is like unformed clay, with the potential to become anything. A different kind of energy, a physical object or even an abstract. All man has to do is arrange the world so that the Magic can flow into the desired shape. Most often temporarily, with fading actions such as gestures and incantations, but sometimes permanently as well, giving the Magic form and then working it into a physical object such as the mythical staves of wizards, or the cauldrons of witches.[9]
While he lacks the theoretical knowledge and understanding to accomplish anything on a massive scale, employing the Power of the Ritual, Gideon can call forth minor effects. The actual ritual is often simple. It might be as inconspicuous as lightning a cigarette and drawing the right words in the air with the red glow and blue smoke at its tip. It might be as simple as traversing a particular square in the proper geometric pattern. And the effects of these rituals are usually just as sublime, to the point where noone not informed about the workings of Magic would notice anything extraordinary.
For example, Gideon introduces himself to a new city as he arrives, politely requesting the hospitality of some unnamed, undefined force that resides in every locale. Some claim that the soul of the city is an amalgam of the psyches of its living inhabitants and the psychic residue left behind by those who came before them. Some claim that this is a literal supernatural genius loci, but it does not really matter for the purposes of this example. The ritual itself is mostly a polite gesture, but he has yet to get lost or be unable to find what he is looking for (provided it exists) in a city he knows absolutely nothing about. After performing the ritual, he just happens to instinctively make the right decisions on where to guide his steps.
Notes
- ↑ The going theory on why other supers are easily able to lift up a large heavy object such as a plane on one end without physics breaking apart the object's structure is that such other super-strong individuals apply some form of low-level telekinetical field. Apparently, Stranglehold lacks such a field.
- ↑ More remarkable than all of this is however the fact that Stranglehold seems not limited to transporting physical objects but also raw energy and plain abstract concepts such as emotions or an ominous 'life force'. The latter implies a great many things both about him and the nature and potential scope of his powers, or might just be a particular quirk of employing magical means to attain this effect.
- ↑ This form of travel, while not as comfortable as other means of teleportation, offers the advantage that his leaving and arrival both happen in utter silence, which he uses to great effect for surprise attacks.
- ↑ Like his ability to teleport through local physical space, this ability is for the most part intuitive. It is however clearly limited by his awareness of an incoming attack. Surprise attacks can and have taken him down in the past, but obviously not for long.
- ↑ What exactly this 'life force' is or represents is unknown even to Stranglehold himself. Some wizards theorize that it is actually bio-electricity from the brain and nervous system that is being equated to the Crimson Lightning of Mu. Others hold that this is an older, more spiritual power -a gift not of Tielekku- that should not be trifled with.
- ↑ And likewise, those in the world of magic who realize (or plain know) Stranglehold actually possesses this ability react with a mixture of fear and loathing. Immortal beings such as the Mages of the Circle of Thorns are suddenly not guaranteed their immortality anymore, and the Sorcerers of the Tsoo whisper that destroying souls is the worst of Karmas. A sin not even they would dare commit.
- ↑ One simple explanation as to why he would not leech off of positive emotions is quite simply that the emotions (but not their underlying cause) are 'used up' in this process. Taking someone's misery is far more humane than taking their joy.
- ↑ And since he is the constant habitat for a great number of miserable souls, he is always assured of an ample pool of power to draw upon in this manner, even before dipping into outside sources.
- ↑ In this sense, his body, mind and soul are those parts of Gideon permanently aligned to channel raw strength, breach the walls between dimensions and steal emotions and feed on them. According to some Magic-workers, each Chakra present in a human being can be thusly aligned, but those without eastern influences usually find appropriate metaphors as well.
