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xxxxxStratford went to boarding school in England, the child of a cold and loveless family. His father caught him using his power early on, and had the groundskeeper beat him for it. He could have found some kind of friendship in the dogs they kept, or the horses, but after "the incident," as his father referred to it, it was made sure that was knocked out of him at the slightest hint.
Boarding school was no better, the bullies there having his number from the moment he stepped in the place. Oxford was his chance at a normal life, but those years were consumed by the scandal of his father losing the ancestral seat, his mother taking up with a Saudi prince so publicly, and the struggle to fund his studies.
His life in finance went reasonably well: he made money, and mostly could forget about his power. He felt he was brilliant, and prudent, and overlooked, however. This came to a head in 2008 when he was the victim of a complicated plot to backstab him and secure the perpetrator a directorship, leaving Stratford unemployed, with most of his considerable wealth evaporated, and alone in his forties.
His father dead now, Stratford got a dog and a small house on the coast. When the locals came on the news saying that the beached whales there would die without help, he went to use his power to do just that, and it didn't go well. Just like thirty years earlier, they beat him for his power, over him protesting that he was putting the whales through the pain of shrinking so much to save them. His dog died trying to defend him against the scared locals. Magneto contacted him in the hospital, and it wasn't hard to convince him to be Chokechain. He was still injured when New York happened, but now he's better, there's a power vacuum in the Brotherhood of Mutants, and Chokechain knows what he's going to do about that.
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xxxxxChokechain's power is growing and shrinking animals, and controlling them. He can only affect one at a time, and it can't get too far from him -- perhaps the width of a room. Simply controlling them can be a gentle thing, but changing their size is more likely to be terrifying and painful to the creature.
Under his control they're tougher and stronger than they might otherwise be, and violate the laws of physics: pigeons can carry him, and earthworms don't suffocate, for instance. Growing something much larger than a large bear is extremely debilitating to him, and anything smarter than a dog has a chance of slipping his control.
Reading or affecting him mentally can be tough as he tends to blur into the creature, and he can be holding it in agony.
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