IN CHARACTER

You want to heal. To do what's right. They can try to suppress who you are... But in the end...

... It has to come out.

Trauma is a pretty standoffish customer. (No word of a lie, I counted - he smiles for a grand total of three panels throughout his run in the comic and spends most of the rest of it scowling or looking impassive.) He can be perfectly amiable and even downright friendly, but he does tend to put out the good ol' fashioned "don't talk to me" signals. He's a rather introverted fellow, he's usually the person in his circle of friends who'll stand back and absorb the conversation and offer the occasional bit of input. He's not really fond of talking about himself at any great length or being the centre of attention. Unfortunately, he's a little more than socially awkward, he was one of the ~*~goth kids~*~ at school, which pretty much says a lot about his life as an outsider. Plus it doesn't really help that the last time he went out of his way to talk to someone, his powers manifested and RUINED HIS LIFE.

Terry seems, at first, to be not much more than an angry emo kid with a strangely appropriate power. Which, well. Is pretty much the truth. He's estranged from his family due to his power (which considers a "condition" rather than a gift) - which is probably what fed into his anger more than anything else. For all the anger and hate he displays, however, he's an inherently good person- just with a few issues to smooth out. Though- when you can't help but pick up on everyone's deepest fears, who wouldn't be? He'd be willing to help out if anyone got close enough to make him care, but he's stuck in a bit of, "the world hates me and I hate it too," place right now.

The thing is, deep down Terry has a natural inclination towards helping people, one that's just starting to be jostled free by people like Justice and Moonstar. His nature as a deeply caring individual comes to light shortly after his canon point, as he immediately begins to reach out to the people around him, offering them help with their own anxieties and fears. He's compassionate and empathetic, almost to a fault - something that consistently puts him at risk of getting into some serious shit later because the things they've asked him to do in exchange for his family's safety and an empty promise of undoing his mothers insanity go directly against everything he believes in.

Generally speaking, he's quite easy-going. Save for a few special people, it doesn't seem to be particularly easy to get under his skin. And even though he generally looks pretty cranky, he also seems pretty mellow most of the time. That said, his temper has proven pretty short. Trauma probably likes to think of himself as someone who'll be smart about things, but when push comes to shove he tends to go running in, fists swinging. And he won't hesitate to go all fear-Hulk on people who push the right buttons. (Threatening his family was more'n likely the core reason for the later animosity between him and Hood.)

Since fear is such a massive part of his life, it's probably important to note his biggest fear - that no one will ever care about him because of what he is. He's terrified by the idea of rejection or abandonment. Feeding into this is also a horrible fear of hurting the people closest to him. I mean, he doesn't want to unintentionally fear out on anyone, but given that all the people he's was closest to when his powers kicked in got the worst of it and he hasn't seen them since. Well, it makes sense he'd be worried about it all happening again, especially with him only just starting to get a handle on controlling his powers. Because of this, he tends to keep people at arm's length, better to be alone of his own volition than to be rejected again because of his powers

Long story short: Trauma's a boggart.

He can sense the fears of people around him and transform into them. The more intense a given fear is being felt at a given time, the easier it is for him to pick up on - to the extent that he can sense people's fears from quite a distance if they start freaking out enough. When he transforms he is pretty much exactly as the person's perception of their fear is. Like with Armory's arachnophobia, he became a giant, grotesque spider (in a t-shirt?) The potential with a power like this is, clearly, quite big and quite dangerous, leading to Trauma having been branded an Omega Level Threat and shoved into the Shadow Initiative. (Though that said, almost every time he's tried to use his powers offensively in canon it lead to an epic beatdown-- He even died once!) It does fall short a bit, seeing as it doesn't work on anything with an inorganic consciousness and anyone who's able to face their fears can fight back effectively enough.

He has, thanks to Dani's tutelage, pretty much got a handle on his powers now - which is good for everyone - though they can fly out of control seeing as they don't really have an "off" switch or anything. People projecting their fears onto him can force him to transform - like in Secret Invasion, his team being worried that he was a Skrull kind of made him turn into one. And then get beaten up. That was a bad day.

Dear Mr. Ward is also immortal, thanks to his lineage. He won’t been in Deerington though! Sucks to be him.

Trauma's major weaknesses come interlinked with eachother. A) he's not much of a combatant, and B) he's really not afraid to throw himself into a fight at the drop of a hat. If he feels personally threatened, or as though the safety of someone he cares about is at stake, he'll just jump right in with his fists flying. Of course, if someone happens to be fearless (such as the time he tried to fight the Hulk like an idiot,) or is able to face their worst fears head on (like Moonstar,) then his powers are pretty much useless.

Also the fact that his power can be triggered if other people are projecting strongly enough makes it easy to be manipulated under the right circumstances. (i.e. when the Skrull Queen subtly suggests that since Trauma is a shapeshifter he could well be a skrull himself, everyone around him becomes scared enough that he's a skrull that he can't help shifting into one.)

Given he hasn't appeared in any comic since he left the Initiative, it's impossible to say for sure whether the powers he used during his whole Nightmare ordeal were his to keep or entirely Nightmares', so I'm going to go ahead and say his skillset is exactly the same as it was before that time he got possessed by his dad.

His only notable skill outside his powers is as a counsellor. Trauma is qualified as an MFCC, which leads one to believe that either Marvel wants us to think that he is incredibly talented (given that you generally need at least an MA to get certified, which he simply hasn't had the time to achieve,) or that the writers actually have no idea what they're doing. Working with what the comic gives us, we'll assume it's the former - they must be at least a little aware that he's unreasonably young for his job, given that time the Hood calls him Doogie Howser.

Skirting myself back on track, it's probably safe to assume he is a gifted and competent counsellor. He's unfailingly compassionate and looks out for his patients' best interests wherever he can - urging Johnny Guitar to talk to him when he gets the feeling he may be depressed, or tracking down Robbie's cat as the only means of real therapy he can get away with - which is, you know, an asset in that field. Not much of an asset where self-preservation is concerned though.

OUT OF CHARACTER

firemansam