Stranger

Stranger is one of the twelve power classifications created by the PRT still in modern day use.<ref>PRT Master Reference - Classifications</ref> Strangers have powers related to stealth, distraction, infiltration, or subterfuge.<ref name=":0">Stranger - Powers specializing in infiltration, distraction, subtlety.
Strangers gain powers from unwanted attention or social/collective pressure. - WD Rulebook: Character Creation</ref><ref>Stranger (Powers related to stealth, infiltration and subterfuge.) - Attention of a group/individual threatens emotional/mental security (vs. physical, which would be more blaster). Almost inverse of Master, but not opposite - very possible and common for there to be overlap (often creating a more influential sort of master/stranger cross). - Weaver Dice: Rulebook (Old Version)</ref>

Methodology

Stranger abilities might allow the user (and sometimes their allies) to bypass defenses, mislead opponents, or to avoid notice.<ref>Powers predominantly lend themselves to infiltration. Ability in question might bypass defenses, mislead, or help to avoid notice. - PRT Master Reference - Classifications - Stranger</ref> Some effects may not patently obvious and can potentially be used in civilian guise.<ref name=":1">Detail Generator - Stranger, spreadsheet by wildbow.</ref> They can work through a variety of ways, including but not limited to:

• Obscuring or altering the senses of others<ref name=":1" />, including blinding<ref name=":2">Detail Generator - LIST, spreadsheet by wildbow.</ref>, gas clouds<ref>The core idea with the power is that a Shaker effect is delivered, but the result is Stranger-ish. Area effect coverage with individuals affected, distractions, or avenues for entry. Examples include perception altering gas clouds, forcefield constructs that help provide cover or mislead pursuers, and area-effect gravity tilts that allow alternate forms of approach/access. - STRANGERS, document by wildbow.</ref>, and holograms<ref>Powers in a Tinker-Stranger combination will have a specialty that has some Stranger applications. Examples include cloaking, phasing, hologram technology or emotion altering technology. - STRANGERS, document by wildbow.</ref>.
• Affecting the target's mind to distract or debilitate<ref name=":1" />, using things like hallucinations<ref name=":2" /> and perception filters<ref>Imp</ref>.
• Allowing the user to disable, deny or repossess enemy equipment (and objects in general).<ref name=":1" />
• Granting or enhancing invisibility, stealth or different forms of camouflage.<ref name=":1" />
• Imitating others in appearance, voice and mannerisms.<ref>Changer-stranger powers often involve changing one’s physical appearance, mimicking others, or using altered shape to slip in where an ordinary person couldn’t get. - STRANGERS, document by wildbow.</ref>
• Enabling or benefiting surprise attacks.<ref name=":1" />
• Granting or enhancing skills and abilities while unobserved.<ref name=":2" />

Trigger events

Stranger powers are result of a trigger event involving a threat to emotional and mental security or social or collective pressure, often with a focus on unwanted attention.<ref name=":0" /> This attention can be from individuals, groups, or even the world itself.<ref>Stranger triggers tend to go hand in hand with unwanted attention. This can be singular or from the world as a collective. - STRANGERS, document by wildbow.</ref>

Stranger powers often have a great deal of overlap with other categories: Masters and Changers in particular tend to find parallels with Strangers.<ref>Stranger triggers tend to go hand in hand with unwanted attention. This can be singular or from the world as a collective. There is obviously a great deal of overlap between these powers and others, as a result. Masters and Changers in particular tend to find parallels with Strangers. - STRANGERS, document by wildbow.</ref> On the other hand, the Brute-Stranger combination is a rare one: unwanted attention and personal bodily harm don’t necessarily accommodate each other, and when they do the trigger event generally doesn't lean toward a Brute rating.<ref>The Brute-Stranger combination is rare, given that unwanted attention and personal bodily harm don’t necessarily go hand-in-hand, and when they do they tend to take other forms than Brute. - STRANGERS, document by wildbow.</ref>

Combinations with other ratings

[Coming soon]

Role in the Cycle

From the perspective of the entities, Strangers stand as a mark opposite to Tinkers. Were Tinkers are created to study powers in more depth, Stranger powers tend to be a vehicle or an angle for lesser powers or fully researched powers to be used in a more effective way and serve particular purposes, or to collect data on psychology.

Because the entities have no great use for these powers, the Stranger powers are often incidental, more the result of the individual using their powers a certain way than a plan of the entities.<ref>The entities don’t actually have a great use for this kind of cape, so it tends to be a vehicle or angle for lesser powers or fully researched powers to be used in a more effective way and serve particular purposes, or to collect data on psychology. It stands as a marked opposite to tinkering in this respect, where the powers are being investigated in more depth. In many cases, the Stranger element is incidental, more about the direction the individual goes than about the plan of the entities. - STRANGERS, document by wildbow.</ref>

PRT countermeasures

When dealing with Strangers, the PRT has a full 'eyes on' standard operating procedure. As the threat rating of the Stranger is increased, additional measures are taken<ref name=":3">Full ‘eyes on’ is SOP where possible. Other safeguards include indiscriminate fire and high priority targeting.

Threat level 2+: Team is notified as to stranger classification. Areas may be secured and ‘taped’, to track movement through doors or windows. Passwords in effect.

Threat level 5+: Constant communication between every team member and a relay in the operations room is implemented, complete with passwords and personal passwords.

Threat level 9+: Nonlethal shoot-on-sight implemented for anyone who goes ‘dark’ for any period of time. - PRT Master Reference - Classifications - Stranger </ref>:

Threat level	Additional measures
2+	The team is notified as to stranger classification.<ref name=":3" /> Areas may be secured and ‘taped’, to track movement through doors or windows. Passwords are used.<ref name=":3" />
5+	Constant communication between every team member and a relay in the operations room is implemented, complete with personal passwords.<ref name=":3" />
9+	Nonlethal shoot-on-sight is implemented for anyone who goes ‘dark’ for any period of time.<ref name=":3" />

Known Strangers

Note: This list describes the Stranger ratings of different capes. For a full overview of their abilities, please check their individual pages.

Name	Known ratings	Power description
August Prince	Master/Stranger 3<ref>“Focus,” Prefab said. “We know who these three are. We’ve got a Mover-shaker six, a blaster-shaker four, and a master-stranger three.” If the Prince was the master-stranger hybrid, and Bambina the mover-shaker, then that left the blaster power to Starlet. - Drone 23.2 </ref>	Cannot be deliberately harmed by anyone.<ref>If there's intent behind the action, you can't do it any more than if you were shoving him into an open fire. - wildbow reddit comment.</ref>
Blister	Master/Stranger<ref name=":8">Classification: Master/Stranger Forms subtle bulges of warped space; bulges ‘pop’ on approach, revealing Blister duplicates. - WD Helena, document by wildbow. </ref>	Forms subtle bulges of warped space; bulges ‘pop’ on approach, revealing Blister duplicates.<ref name=":8" />
Circus	Stranger<ref>Question by pendia: What would Circus's hammer space be classified as? Stranger - wildbow reddit comment. </ref>	Has access to an extra-dimensional storage space.<ref>The ones I knew about were some minor pyrokinesis, the ability to deposit items into thin air, to retrieve those items just as easily, and greatly enhanced coordination and balance to round off the package. - Tangle 6.7</ref>
Fog	Breaker 9<ref name=":4">“Yeah, there’s a Breaker 9, a Shifter 8 with Stranger 3 and a Master 6 in that group? I buy that they’re powerful.” - Sentinel 9.1</ref> (Shaker, Stranger)<ref>Fog is (like many breakers) a sub-class shaker, in that his breaker power has a shaker (and stranger) side effect (the broad cloud of semisolid fog he generates). Much like Shadow Stalker. You can see 9.1 for brief mention of these breaker sub-classes, I think. - Queen 18.5, wildbow comment.</ref>	Transforms into mist.<ref>Fog, Geoff Schmidt – Has the ability to partially or wholly become a living mist, with solidity varying depending on his wishes and the ability to erode living matter. - Cast (In Depth)</ref>
Gasconade	Breaker/Stranger 3<ref name=":9">Classification: Breaker/Stranger 3 Unable to affect the world long-term, or be affected long-term. - PRT: Department Sixty Four, thread II [Worm Quest] - Page 47 </ref>	Unable to affect the world long-term, or be affected long-term.<ref name=":9" />
Imp	Stranger 5<ref>He nodded. “Well enough. There’s no risk in letting them near Saint. Imp is a stranger-five, Canary is a master eight, but I would be very, very surprised if she had taken control of anyone here for the purposes of misleading us or breaking Saint out.” - Cockroaches 28.2</ref>	Able to become unnoticeable, to the point that people she attacks don’t remember she attacked them.<ref>Her power renders her unnoticeable, to the point that people she attacks don’t remember she attacked them. - Cast (In Depth)</ref>
Leonid	Thinker, Stranger, Mover<ref name=":5">Secondary powers of sound detection and sound manipulation, adjusting select things to be up to twice as loud or absolutely silent. It gave him a stranger classification, a thinker classification. His third power was a mover power. - Venom 29.6 </ref>	Secondary powers of sound detection and sound manipulation<ref name=":5" />
Miasma	Stranger<ref name=":6">Miasma was a stranger, invisible and undetectable but for an odorless gas he gave off that wore away at other’s minds, causing headaches, ringing in the ears, watery eyes and eventual blindness, memory loss and coma. - Sting 26.5</ref>	Invisible, inaudible and emits a colorless, odorless, poison gas.<ref name=":6" />
Night	Changer 8, Stranger 3<ref name=":4" />	Can transform into an inhuman creature, but only when unobserved by conventional sight.<ref>Can transform into an inhuman creature with enhanced speed and strength and a nigh-invincible exterior, but only when unobserved by conventional sight. - Cast (In Depth)</ref>
Othello	Stranger<ref>“Othello’s a stranger,” Tattletale said. “I’d think he has an imaginary friend who can mess around with us, but I didn’t see any sign of anyone invisible walking around.” - Imago 21.1</ref>	Has a mirror-self that travels in a parallel dimension yet retains the ability to perceive and act upon this one.<ref>“He has a mirror self,” she said. “Who walks in a world very similar to this one. This self has a limited ability to affect our world, and can’t be affected by us. Othello can push himself into that other world to bring his other self into ours, and vice versa. One leaves, the other enters. It looks very much like teleportation or invisibility. It isn’t.” - 21.4</ref>
Shadow Stalker	Breaker 3 (Stranger 2, Mover 1)<ref>Shadow Stalker is more ambiguous. Breaker 3, sublabels are Stranger 2, Mover 1. - Sentinel 9.1</ref>	Her Breaker state makes her semi-gaseous, transparent and capable of passing through solid surfaces.<ref>Capable of shifting herself into a ‘shadow state’, she can pass through walls, is lightweight, and passes these benefits on to her equipment, including shots fired by her crossbow bolts. - Cast (In Depth)</ref>
Valefor	Stranger<ref>Valefor was a stranger, less in terms of his ability to hide, and more in his ability to engage in subterfuge. - Interlude 20</ref>	Has the ability to render anyone he makes eye contact with eminently suggestible to his commands.<ref>Stranger-type capes were classified that way due to their capabilities in stealth and subterfuge. Valefor was more the latter. He wasn’t stealthy, exactly, but his ability to perpetrate subterfuge was devastating. One look, and his target was stunned, rendered eminently suggestible. A hypnotic gaze, so to speak. He’d played up the telepathy angle before people caught on, and the costume that echoed the Simurgh was a token to that. The fact that he could leave suggestions that only triggered under certain conditions was another part of it. ‘Attack so-and-so next week’. ‘Set fire to your workplace the next time your boss pisses you off’. - Imago 21.3 </ref>
Wanton	Shaker, Breaker, Stranger<ref name=":7">“Wanton,” Tecton said, stressing the pronounciation, “Is a breaker-stranger class cape. He can turn into a localized telekinetic storm. - Queen 18.5</ref><ref>Wanton was a breaker, someone who altered themselves or their relation to the world by some characteristic of his power, becoming a shaker effect, a telekinetic storm. - Crushed 24.1</ref>	Transforms into a localized telekinetic storm.<ref name=":7" />

Speculated Strangers

Note: This list describes the Stranger ratings of different capes. For a full overview of their abilities, please check their individual pages.

Note: This list deals with speculation. If you have a relevant and reliable citation, please add that cape to the 'Known Strangers' list. Please add capes to this list conservatively: It's meant to list capes that are generally agreed upon to be Strangers, but we lack proper citations for.

Name	Speculated classification	Power description
The Custodian	Breaker (Stranger, Shaker)	Made of air, invisible and almost completely incorporeal.<ref>I could sense more movements in the air, close… no. That was a result of Lung’s fire heating the air. Further down the hall. If I use enough bugs, try to get a sense of dimensions… A head, part of a torso. I could feel the contours of narrow shoulders, the waist. Female. She disappeared, or she became less coherent, the movements in the air continuing, but ceasing to suggest a general human shape. Another appeared behind us, roughly as far away. No arms, no legs. Just a broken figure. - Venom 29.4</ref>
Grue	Shaker, Stranger, Trump	Creates an area of darkness that disables normal senses.<ref>Ah, so that was it. “And Brian makes that oily darkness that screws up your hearing. The Parahumans wiki said it was darkness generation.” Brian smiled, “I put that into the wiki myself. It’s not wrong, but it does catch people off guard when they think they know what you can do, and there’s something more to it.” Lisa added, “It’s not just hearing. It also cuts off radio signals and dampens the effects of radiation.” - Insinuation 2.9 </ref>
Nice Guy	Stranger	Becomes barely noticeable and cannot be perceived as harmful by anyone within range of his power and perception.<ref>“The tape’s already in the machine, you can hit play to start it,” the man sitting at the edge of the stairs said. “Wait, Weaver, stop. Who was that?” Revel asked. - Sting 26.1 </ref><ref>I could mark the moment he died, because the blanks in my perception began to fill in. Nice Guy, I thought. I’d badly underestimated the severity of his power. - Sting 26.1 </ref>
Satyrical	Master, Changer/Stranger	Splits apart into multiple clones with minimal shape-shifting ability.<ref>He split in two. A slow, oozing process, a lump swelling, pulling free, then forming features. The arms and legs were quick enough, and the details followed, but the new him had no helmet, but slowly reshaped his exterior to match the original Satyr’s costume. - Venom 29.6</ref>
The Slug	Master/Stranger	Can brainwash people and erase memories.<ref>“This one,” Imp said, repeating what the mob’s ringleader was saying. Shouting, judging by the way he was acting on camera. “This traitor, he is how they controlled us. How they planned to control you. He was going to brainwash these ones into a private army… he’s pointing at the weird looking ones they brought from downstairs. This traitor was going to send the rest of you out without any memories, without identities, as Cauldron’s trash.” - Venom 29.5</ref>

References

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