Crossovers
- As N Approaches Infinity:
- When Homura chastises Nagisa for her recklessness against the Sōjus, Sayaka yells at Homura, telling her "You don't have to bite her head off!" Homura immediately goes into flashbacks of when Nagisa's Witch bit off Mami's head in the previous timeline and runs, leaving Kisuke and Tōshirō to explain the situation without mentioning Mami's name (none of their audience knows about Homura's time travel and Mami herself is in the audience).
- Kyōko hates the sound of a child crying or the phrase "enough rope to hang yourself" because of her father's Murder-Suicide of her crying younger sister. Tatsuya's cry sends her into a grief spiral of flashbacks that Orihime has to interrupt.
- Ben 10: Unlimited: After seeing his entire family, best friend, and girlfriend be murdered, seeing a team mate die (or only appear to die) is this for him. When he believes that Green Arrow has been blown up by the radiation robot, Way Big tears into the robot.
- BlazBlue Alternative: Remnant (BlazBlue & RWBY): Raven Branwen is this to Luna in thanks to the tribe's attack on her home years ago. When Luna saw Yang's resemblance to Raven in Chapter 46, she ran away in terror. When she saw an image of her, she suffered a panic attack and passed out.
- Bleach: Ultimate Alien (Ben 10 & Bleach): In the remake, Ben watching Evil Knockoffs of his aliens rot away at the hands of Barragan leaves him frozen as he flashes back to Malware disintegrating Feedback.
- Boldores and Boomsticks (Pokémon & RWBY): Shade's Beowolf illusion gets a much stronger reaction than he expected from Lillie, whose fear of Pokémon from the anime has here been directed towards Grimm.
- A Bridge Once Broken (Marvel Cinematic Universe & Wakfu): Features several characters with PTSD: Loki (who's triggered by a lot of things), Clint Barton (mind control, Loki), Tony Stark (being imprisoned and forced to build a gadget, as well as some more common stuff).
- The Chaotic Masters (Massive Multiplayer Crossover): All the kwami are unnerved by the thought of the Chaotic Masters' return due to how the three once purged many of their kind, and forced most of the rest to empower their brides. But Xuppu has it the worst, having been forcibly bonded to the Monkey King to increase his power, and has a panic attack when he senses the Monkey King's return.
- This is a slight warning to everyone out there: Do not try to say or talk about "frozen heart" in front of the Cheyenne89 Pictures
version of Kirby, because it will quickly trigger his trauma by what he experienced in The Frozen Heart's Star. He will mostly even scream out that he is not getting the curse again, usually at the end for someone to calm him down afterwards. - Child of the Storm: Has Harry develop a couple in the sequel as part of his ongoing struggles with PTSD.
- Mind Rape becomes this after Forever Red. Before, it profoundly pisses him off. After, even the slightest implication that he might be controlled by an outside force sets him off, as Crouch Senior finds out. He gets better with time, but it's worth noting that before, his response to the suggested Mind Rape of Carol was anger at the person proposing he do it. After? Alison notes that that if it had been put to him then, he wouldn't have just intimidated and incapacitated the proposer — he'd have killed him.
- Chapter 59 reveals that, following the return of his full Red Room memories, seeing Clark Strapped to an Operating Table is one — once the battle is over, he is shown to be at the very end of his coping ability and anticipating some very bad nightmares. When they do hit the following chapter, they are utterly awful.
- Christian Grey vs. Pepper Potts (Fifty Shades of Grey & Marvel Cinematic Universe): It turns out that an attractive woman tripping in front of Christian Grey triggers him into deciding on the spot that she's his true love and the perfect submissive for him, no matter how he viewed her before. This passes on to Rogue after she is taken over by his personality, causing her to chase down Hawkeye to try to spank him after seeing him trip.
- In the Coreline story Coreline Invasion Of Portland, Supergirl gets terrified when she sees the skies over Portland turning red as a result of the demonic invasion over in another Coreline story: The Shikinami Ranger and the Monster Mashers. This is because the red skies trigger memories of her death at the hands of the Anti-Monitor in Crisis on Infinite Earths.
- The Dragon and the Butterfly: Hiccup almost has a panic attack when he sees the Berk crest for the first time in over a year. Also, considering what happened to her husband, Alma hates anything to do with violence or warfare, which quickly puts her at odds with even the more peaceful of Vikings.
- The Force Is Not A Quirk!: The phrase "bad matchup" is a minor one for Bakugo, considering it's the excuse of the heroes who almost let the sludge villain kill him.
- The Good Hunter:
- Natsume touching Cyril's music box after sneaking into his abode proves to be a bad idea, as the sound it plays immediately triggers his traumatic memories about a daughter of Gascoigne, which implies the "Gascoigne girl side-quest" is canon in this fanfic. Needless to say, he is pissed upon returning.
- From his perspective, his surroundings would distort into that of Yharnam and all the bloodshed that entails whenever he is in battle.
- Chapter 9 features Klaus doing patrol work as a guard in the rain. He struggles to keep his breathing under control due to said rain, as memories of his brutal fight against the Orphan of Kos keep on coming.
- If Wishes Were Ponies: When Harry, Twilight, the Mane Six, and the CMC start setting up shop in England, Harry visibly freezes in their new house when he sees the door to a cupboard under the stairs (despite knowing that it isn't the same cupboard, the Dursleys are long gone, and he won't be expected to sleep in there). The CMC have to snap him out of it.
- Earlier, when meeting the Mane 6, Pinkie Pie had rushed forward, shouted about how nice it was to meet him, and had put her leg forward for a hoof-shake. Her shouting, getting in his face, and raising a limb near him sent him into a panic attack and he dove under a couch in fear (it took Fluttershy and Twilight's combined efforts to get him to come out).
- Lighting Candles: A plot point in the fic is that Tadashi is trying to avoid remembering the last few minutes of his life, as every time something pops up that might trigger said memory his fire powers go out of control. He later learns that he suppressed the memory because it was when he learned that Professor Callaghan started the fire, and then left Tadashi to burn to death after he was pinned by rubble. The memory is so intense and painful that Tadashi almost gives up on being a Guardian all together before Tooth and Jack talk some sense into him.
- In Life's Curse, Death's Gift, Ginny gets quite tense and anxious when she walks on Danny writing in a diary, and the diary seemingly writing back — it's actually a Two-Way Journal he uses to stay in contact with his sister.
- Mike Pines: During chapter 6 of Falling Through The Breach, Gregory and Freddy agreed to meet with Mike and Dipper Pines despite Gregory's reservations about trusting the two of them. Seeing Gregory inside the Glamrock Freddy sends Mike into a panic attack because of Mike's past of losing his younger brother in an accident with an animatronic.
- Mœbius has Mami and cars. Having lost her parents in a car accident, she very much prefers to be outside of cars as much as possible and being in them can induce panic attacks. The second story in the series is about her trying to overcome this trauma.
- My Hero Academia: Unchained Predator: When Miruko is critically injured from Wolfram's strike, her screams of pain bring the Slayer back to when he found the remains of his family, slaughtered by The Legions of Hell. This also proves to be a Berserk Button when the Slayer ends Wolfram.
- During the singles bouts in the U.A. Sports Festival in My Hero School Adventure Is All Wrong As Expected, Monoma triggers one of Hachiman's when he buries him alive in the stadium ring's floor, reminding him of his near death experience trapped inside of the Sludge Villain. While Hachiman does initially panic, he's able to go into Heroic Safe Mode thanks to Taishi Kawasaki's Quirk and proceeds to take advantage of his completely lightless environment to summon Dark Shadow.
- Origins: In this Mass Effect/Star Wars/Borderlands/Halo Massive Multiplayer Crossover; of all people, Sarah has one revolving around her time in captivity with the Flood. Given what happened to her, it's understandable and very similar to Cortana's experience in canon background.
- A rare self-inflicted version in the Peter Parker Needs A Hug series; during a fight, Spider-Man forgets where he is for a moment and thinks that he's back in New York with the Avengers again. This leads to him calling out for Tony ("You see that, Mr. Stark?") before remembering everything that's happened. He breaks down and runs away after the fight. It takes some coaxing from Jason before he finally opens up (first to Jason, then to Bruce) about what he's been through, and starts working through it.
- The Parliament of Heroes (The Owl House, Gravity Falls, Amphibia, and DC Comics): Child abuse is a massive one for Rose, as it reminds her too much of what she went through under her father, Slade. When Rose sees a scene in a movie where a girl is abused by her father, she destroys the TV in a violent frenzy. Upon snapping out of it, she flees in tears, locking herself in the bathroom.
- Roller Brawl: The Mega Cyborg (Mega Man (Classic) & Skylanders):
- Roller Brawl has taunting notes as one. Her older brothers were kidnapped by Kaos after she rejected his romantic advances and he sent a note taunting her about it. When Roll gets kidnapped by Oil Man and Dr. Wily leaves a note as well telling Dr. Light not to send Mega Man after him, those memories resurface painfully for her.
- For Xander Payne, thunderstorms are this to him as a result of being maimed by Elec Man during Dr. Wily's first attack.
- The RWBY Loops: Penny only starts looping after her canonical death and thus ends up with a crippling terror of Pyrrha, the one who (accidentally) killed her. Pyrrha is very understanding, avoiding her for some time, and both of them realize it's not entirely healthy; over the course of the fic, they work together to help her overcome her trauma.
- The Spectacular Spider-Man: Lost in Gotham: Downplayed. When he visits the Kent farm and learns that Clark is an alien, Peter momentarily panics before calming himself. When Clark notices, the spider-teen explains what happened with the symbiote and apologizes, saying he hasn't met any good aliens before. Clark understands, saying he's met his own fair share of evil aliens.
- Storm on the Horizon (Horizon Zero Dawn & Life Is Strange): Max is terrified of being held captive after the events of Life Is Strange. When Apeph tries to pin her down and rape her while holding a knife to her throat, she turns into a berserker as she brutally murders him. It was only the second time ever that she felt zero remorse for killing somebody.
- What Was Created By God (Fate/Grand Order & Percy Jackson and the Olympians): Percy notices how distressed his companion Rider appears around Calypso and comments on the man looking like he wants nothing more than run away. That's because Rider's True Name is Odysseus, the sailor who got imprisoned in a Gilded Cage for years because Calypso took a fancy to him in spite of him being very much not interested.
- In With Pearl and Ruby Glowing, Glomgold got arrested in South Africa where he was assaulted many times by a prison gang, and several decades later he hears the Die Antwoord song "Cookie Thumper", which references South African prison gangs, and he goes ballistic. Several other Palace members also have panic attacks prompted by reminders of their assaults.
- In Dirty Sympathy when Apollo tries calling Klavier an endearmentnote , it causes him to freak out and leave because it gives him flashbacks of Daryan's abuse.
- In this alternate take to Anne playing with her parents and Mrs. Boonchuy gets her from behind, Anne flashes back to Andrias stabbing Marcy through the chest with his flaming sword. Anne breaks out of it finding she is grabbing ahold of her mother's arm too tight, hurting her. Anne decides to go look for Sprig, barely fighting back her tears.
- Dandelion Wishes Don't Always Work: Lady Olivia shows Marcy around her family farm. Marcy finds a log and shows it to Olivia, unaware she's touching the chytrid fungus on it. This causes Olivia to freak out due to losing her mother to that very fungus and desperately tries to wash it off of her. Marcy gets her to calm down when she tells her the fungus doesn't affect humans the same way it does amphibians.
- Eleutherophobia: Tom can't bear to listen to "O Come Emmanuel" because his Yeerk snapped a child's neck for singing it, and he freezes and has flashbacks when he has to go into the Yeerk Pool in How I Live Now. Jake, meanwhile, panics at the sight of housefiles because he's had several near-death experiences while morphed as one.
- What Tomorrow Brings: Tom has a full-on panic attack when he sees Visser Three; he freezes and starts shaking uncontrollably due to the memories of the abuse he suffered in the original timeline.
- The Blood of the Covenant: After being kidnapped and help hostage by the Fire Nation princes (Crown Prince Iroh and his son Lu Ten), Kallik's left with a few triggers (namely the fact that he flinches when someone calls him Zuko, tells him he's Fire Nation, or even if they say the phrase "Rise and shine.")
- Riding the Dragon: Michael Hasek-Davion, traumatized by being defeated by a Battlemaster in the past, open fire on his son's Battlemaster.
- Bruises: After the Trauma Conga Line Hiro went through after being kidnapped by Callaghan, he's left with a few of these (to the point that he can't even say the name Abigail).
- In Swinging Pendulum, Ichigo avoids visiting the Shiba compound as much as possible so he won't end up seeing his young father, who died in his original timeline. During a family dinner, Ichigo gets triggered into an emotional breakdown when he sees his father joke about needing an extremely patient woman if he ever gets married and describing what kind of kids he wants.
- A Certain Droll Hivemind: While it's mostly played for Black Comedy, Misaka-11111 often brings up how ordinary events remind her of one of the many, many times one of the clones was brutally murdered by Accelerator. It's difficult to tell because of her dry wit and difficulty in expressing herself, but she's clearly got severe hangups over... basically everything because of it. Case in point: Koizumi Kyoko is a shy, timid girl who is constantly steamrolled by stronger personalities, including the clone who obeys orders without question. But she has the same power as Accelerator (though far weaker), so Misaka-11111 basically treats her like a bomb that might go off at any moment.I did not understand what she said. How was I not fine? I was merely being paired up with a Vector Controller for training. Why would I not be 'okay'?
"Um. You're... l-looking pale. Although you're quite pale anyway. Paler."
I did not understand why she kept saying these things, though on second thoughts, I felt a strange churning sensation in my stomach. It may have been the hunger from the lack of lunch. It was all the fault of Misaka-10032, for eating some of the sandwiches she brought me. Yes, that was it.
I was not about to die. I couldn't. I had not even had a proper lunch today. They always gave us satisfactory meals on the days we died before.
- Face the Music: Grissom goes through several after being kidnapped, tortured and raped. They include having to let Doc Robbins examine his wounds while his regular doctor is out of town, waking up while Sara's in the bathroom and fearing she abandoned him, when he's finally able to go home and she gives him a glass of water while he's settling in, his accidentally playing music he heard during his ordeal, the first few times he and Sara try to make love, and when she's helping him wash in the shower and gets to his rear. Suffice to say it's a long road to recovery.
- Hell’s Crossroads Greg accidentally gets triggered by Nick running water in the hospital room bathroom after he was waterboarded during a kidnap and torture experience.
- Blackened Skies: Kaede is no longer able to play the piano or listen to one being played after the events of Killing Harmony. Namely, the fact that she was executed on one. This frustrates her to no end, and she attempts to conceal her trauma from the other students; after all, what good is an Ultimate Pianist who can't play?
- Class 78th Watches the Future: Mondo being angry becomes this to Chihiro, considering that Future!Mondo murdered his future self in a fit of rage. Any time Mondo gets angry, he's shown to tense up instinctively, much to Mondo's guilt and shame.
- Extra Life: The sight and sound of elevators causes Chiaki to have flashbacks and panic attacks. Being betrayed and pushed into one was what started her Cold-Blooded Torture, so it's understandable why they would trigger her.
- The Redemption of Harley Quinn: As a result of getting gang-raped by Two Face and his thugs, Harley freaks out when she sees Lyle Bolton hold up a coin, and even moreso when he flips it.
- A Gun to Love's Head: Light is triggered when Mello pulls a gun on him and L due to the psychological trauma leftover from that time when L had his father put a gun to his head and stage a mock execution.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba
- Blade of Demon Salvation: Although the Spider Demon Mother (who is given the name Ito by Genya) is spared by Tanjiro and manages to escape from Rui's family, she still retains traumatic memories of Rui's abuse, which leads her to have a panic attack when she realizes she unwittingly turned back into her original child form (which led her to get horrifically cut by Rui). It takes a Cooldown Hug from Tamayo and reassurance from her that she's safe for Ito to calm down.
- Distance Wakes The Heart Up: Bruno going missing is a big one for his sisters, so when Mirabel expresses a desire to leave to Julieta and when Dolores tells Pepa, they both immediately start panicking.
- Guiding Light (AuroraRose2081): Mirabel is still haunted by her failed gift ceremony despite not being able to consciously remember it. Antonio's ceremony sent her into a feverish Angst Coma.
- Letting Go Of Hate: Kiara accidentally triggers traumatic Repressed Memories of Zira's after mentioning her Ear Notch.
- In the Skyhold Academy Yearbook series, many characters suffer from at least some mild trauma due to the events of the first story. In particular, the Happily Adopted Cole has a lot of trouble with the idea of anything happening to his mother, both because of his past issues of Parental Abandonment and the fact that said mother was kidnapped in the first story.
- Dragon Ball Z: Dynasty: The side-story The Season of Dragon Ramen reveals that Tien and Chiaotzu are unintentionally this for Chi-Chi, since it was Crane School assassins that killed her mother Chika when she was a little girl. It's downplayed, as while Chi-Chi likes them enough as Goku's friends, the sight of them still reminds her of her mother's death as an invasive feeling of dread.
- Lost and Found:
- John is staying at Roy's house while recovering from an 18-month ordeal of kidnapping, torture, and rape. When Roy's kids are reunited with John, Jennifer starts talking about a previously planned Disney vacation. She innocently says she wants Uncle Johnny to have some fun. Unfortunately, this phrase was often used by John's captor, especially when he wanted to get sexual. Johnny ends up retreating to his bedroom.
- The sequel has Roy giving John a gift certificate for a photo for Father's Day, so Johnny can get his first picture with the baby daughter born while he was away. But, Roy kicks himself later because he forgot Johnny was forced to pose for pornographic pictures by his captor, and John has a panic attack at the studio. There's a double example of sorts because Roy forgets, and the photographer, who Johnny incidentally ends up marrying later, has no clue either that John will have a panic attack.
- After a Lostbelt: A Master's Mission: Taida is hit by a trio of buttons that remind her of the Lostbelts during what was meant to be an In-Universe Breather Episode to help her recover. First the sight of ice cream that reminds her of Lostbelt Anastasia freezing Chaldea and its staff, then a pair of kids like the ones from the Lostbelts she had to destroy, and finally being caught by Mandricardo when she trips and reminded of the Mandricardo from Atlantis that sacrifice himself against Lostbelt Artemis to protect her. This causes a flood of traumatic memories from her time as a Chaldea master which makes her throw up in her hands out of panic and run off from her worried Servants.
- In Habenyan Chooses A Bride For Ritsuka, thanks to a painful wedding night with Baobhan Sith in the original edition, Ritsuka has this for any Servant with a sadistic streak, such as Reines El-Melloi Archisorte or Vritra. The only time it wasn't pressed was with Meltryllis, as he sees through her charade and knows she wouldn't hurt him like Sith did.
- Epiphany: Sephiroth unexpectedly hits one when he comes to the labs in search of Aerith and encounters Hojo. She's surprised at how he reacts, defensive and hesitant, until she realizes that through all the loops he's been through and all the people he's slaughtered, random villagers, troopers, herself, on up to the president of Shinra himself, Hojo has always been untouchable, something that is still ingrained in him. It takes Hojo talking about breeding the two of them together to get a reaction from him, namely running Hojo straight through.
- The Fifth Act: Being sent to the past is not good for Cloud's emotional health. Pretty much everything and everyone he interacts with forces a flashback or pushes a Berserk Button or otherwise reminds him of his past. He starts getting frequent Past Experience Nightmares as a result. For example, Sephiroth tries to egg him into a fight by calling him a puppet to make fun of Cloud's Extreme Doormat nature, not knowing that's the absolute worst thing that he can call him. Cloud attacks him in a blind fury.
- Guardian: Lulu refuses to explore a cave on Besaid Island with Wakka, Chappu, and Yuna and gets angry when pressed thanks to her traumatic experience in Yojimbo's cavern with Lady Ginnem.
- Us and Them: For Sephiroth, seeing Aeris strapped to a bed and screaming from a very painful treatment procedure in the hospital takes him back to his time in the labs under Hojo's care. The memory is so painful he doesn't even like to go to the doctor.
- He’s Got a Secret: The fic starts out humorous, with Kaylee laughing about Jayne getting shot in the butt during a job. What surprises everyone is Jayne being tense, shaky, and blowing up at River when she says that “what happened then won’t happen now”. Jayne won’t share, but his sour mood continues and he’s not any happier when it’s time for Simon to clean the wounds. Mal tries to get River to talk, but she threatens to tell his secrets if he doesn’t let Jayne talk in his own time. Eventually, Jayne reveals his father raped him when he was a kid, til he was strong enough to fight back, and that’s why he reacted so badly to Simon.
- Son of the Desert: After Ed reveals that he's half-Ishvalan, Shell-Shocked Veteran Roy practically has a breakdown. Later Ed finds Roy drunk, having tried to drink away war flashbacks triggered by smelling meat cooking.
- Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): The image of Ghidorah and its heads can send Vivienne Graham into severe fits of PTSD, after the creature psychically haunted her for years and after its middle head killed her by swallowing her alive in Antarctica. When Vivienne is first reborn after the latter incident from San's old severed head, the mere sight of his head's visage causes her to relive her death by the middle head's jaws and freak out. When Vivienne witnesses Rodan and Thor clashing, Thor's lightning mixed with Rodan's fire and his crests creates an image vaguely evocative of Ghidorah, causing Vivienne to completely lose herself and charge into the fight in a mad, blind rage (exacerbated by her new part-Ghidorah biology converting overwhelming terror that she feels into overwhelming violent impulse). When San can't snap Vivienne back to her senses, he reluctantly resorts to pushing Vivienne's button down even harder by imitating the moment that she was eaten alive by the middle head, causing Vivienne to collapse into a terrified, whimpering mess. When MaNi ambushes Viv and San, the mere sight of his Ghidorah head paralyzes Vivienne.
- The Rigel Black Chronicles: Harry struggles to return to the Forbidden Forest for the first Triwizard Task, after spending two weeks buried alive underneath it, drugged, tortured, and slowly starving the previous year.
- Owl's Hell That Ends Well:
- Having been abducted and violently abused as an owlet, and having believed for the last several years that her own father Stolas allowed her abduction to happen, Octavia freaks out and teeters on a panic attack whenever she encounters anything that reminds her of Stolas, who she hasn't seen in years. She's even more sensitive about anyone so much as glimpsing the permanent brand that her kidnapper carved into the back of her neck.
- It's eventually revealed that as a nine-year-old child, Blitzo was a victim of sexual assault by Baroness Eathelin after he was hired out from the circus to entertain her son Andrealphus for three months. When he returned home after that time, his mother trying to cuddle him awake on his birthday caused him to lash out in terror and panic.
- Much Ado About Shakespeare: Love's Labours Won: Archie's Trauma Button gets surprisingly pressed when Archie and Horatio discuss consent after they get together as boyfriends. Archie tells Horatio they will only do what is comfortable for him and go as slowly as he will want. When Horatio answers that the same applies to Archie, Archie freezes, remembering Simpson's abuse and rape. He doesn't tell anything, but Hornblower figures it out from the context.
- Turning Over the Sands of Time: Archie Kennedy has a PTSD flashback. It's triggered by Midshipman Wellard's caning, which brings vivid memories of his unjust caning aboard Justinian, plus memories of sexual abuse from Jack Simpson and Lt Eccleston's turning a blind eye.
- Invader Zim: A Bad Thing Never Ends:
- Seeing the human Rat People in the City's sewers gives Skoodge some uncomfortable flashbacks to the Slaughtering Rat People of Blorch.
- Gaz's beloved video games become one of these for her after Aldrich's VR system nearly kills her in Chapter 7, quite noticeably avoiding playing them from then on. Said button then gets hit in Chapter 14 when facing off with Iggins and the Irkens in a High-Altitude Battle with a drone that's operated like a game, severely limiting her skills until Dib manages to talk her through it and into a Heroic Second Wind. By the end of the chapter, she's back on her Game Slave.
- The New Adventures of Invader Zim: Ever since her mission on Meekrob was ruined by malfunctioning SIR units going on a rampage (and almost killing her in the process), Tenn has developed a phobia of insane robots, which causes her to have panic attacks if she's near MIMI when the latter goes into her GIR-like mode (or near GIR at most times). This has been used against her on several occasions.
- UNDERTOW: An Attempted Rape triggers Minx's memories of childhood abuse involving her Creepy Uncle. She becomes an emotional wreck within a few days.
- Words and Music: This one-shot revolves around this issue in relation to Stormer and Roxy's relationship. Roxy kisses Stormer but freaks out when Stormer touches her face. It reminds her of when as a kid someone (presumably her mom) shoved her hand onto a fire. When Stormer rubs her back later, it gives Roxy flashbacks of being stabbed.
- Oh The Weather Outside Is Frightful: Tomoko Higashikata has a fear of snowy weather steaming from how she and her 4-years-old son Josuke were stuck in a blizzard while she was driving him to a hospital. In the present day, just hearing from Shinobu about how they will be a few centimeters of snow causes her to have a panic attack until Josuke calms her down. Snow is also a trauma button for Josuke, though in his case it takes the form of making sure that he and his loved ones are overly prepared for cold weather.
- In Stars, Eyes of Heaven, Jotaro Kujo is the only one to remember the events of the old timeline, including finding out about Kakyoin's death. In Demolition Man, Yoshikage Kira unwittingly triggers this in their first encounter. The empty street, a seemingly dead friend nearby with a hole in his chest, even Kira's physical features- it all creates a mock up of Jotaro's fight with Dio. What pushes Jotaro over the edge is Kira saying "futile" (aka muda). Cue the Curb-Stomp Battle.
- Things Are Gonna Get Easier:
- In the fist chapter Kawajiri Hayato has a panic attack when Kishibe Rohan uses Heaven's Door to try to read him like a book, as it reminds him of the Bites the Dust time loop where Rohan attempted to read him and got killed by Kira Yoshikage's sub-Stand in the process.
- This gets Discussed among the guys in chapter 3, where after the near-death experiences dealing with Kira, they try to figure out if they can ever listen to Queen again thanks to the Musical Theme Naming of Kira's Stand Killer Queen and his subabilities, namely the album Sheer Heart Attack and the song Another One Bites the Dust. Joseph brings up that his fight against the Pillar Man also had mixed results of this since many bands and singers share the same name from figures in his past: he has issues listening to Carsnote , Wham!note , and Led Zeppelinnote after they debuted, but he's perfectly fine listening to AC/DCnote and Santananote .
- Too Far and Not Far Enough: Bucciarati is angry and worried because Giorno keeps ripping his limbs off in order to win Stand fights. When he tries to confront Giorno about it, the younger gangster dismisses it as not a big deal because he can regenerate them using Gold Experience. Fed up with Giorno's lack of concern for his own safety, Bucciarati threatens to spank him, which inadvertently triggers Giorno's memory of being beaten by his stepfather.
- Dandelion Tongue: After Ventus regains his memories of the events of Kingdom Hearts χ (at the cost of his later memories), Naminé is brought in to help by reading his memories and making sketches of Daybreak Town, the Foretellers and the other Union Leaders. This ends up triggering her badly when she finishes a sketch of Lauriam and recognises him as a younger Marluxia, which is confirmed when Ven writes down his name and she spots the anagram.
- Kingdom Hearts Ψ: The Seeker of Darkness: In Whatever Lies Beyond This Morning, Kairi's father has primed a bedroom for Naminé, intending to leave the colour up to her. But when Naminé sees the solid white room, it triggers her memories of both Castle Oblivion and her room in the Twilight Town mansion, causing a panic attack.
- Displaced (The Legend of Zelda): Zelda has quite a few—turns out spending a hundred years fighting a seething mass of evil gives you a few issues. She's claustrophobic, and has a lot of trouble in Eldin because the heat and volcanic red reminds of the Malice. In Gerudo Town everything reminds her of Urbosa, and she passes out in the throne room.
- The Lights of Arcadia Bay: Max ends up getting triggered by half the damn town, since everything reminds her of the friend she lost. Worst is the bathroom where she died; Max uses an emergency exit with a broken alarm so that she doesn't have to walk by it every day. She spends most of her time holed up in her room watching Netflix, and eventually gets into Doctor Who. She has a lot of problems with the episodes that involve Heroic Sacrifices caused by time travel rules, and she grouses that she's the only person on the planet who needs a trigger warning for time travel.
- Meeting A Loud: Lincoln was already traumatized by the deaths of his parents and twin sister. Then his foster home turned out to be abusive, with his ten foster brothers all regularly beating or teasing him. Arguably the most traumatic event in that house was when one of brothers had the other nine hold Lincoln down so they could beat him with a hockey stick. After this, he's visibly startled whenever someone reaches towards him, and he nearly has a panic attack when he sees Lynn Jr.'s hockey stick.
- Shinobu Maehara in The Merry Killers is nearly triggered by her classmates trying to make her wear the color red, knowing she actively avoids the color. What they don't know is that red is what causes her Split Personality to come out and said personality is a psychotic killer.
- More Family, More Happiness, Right?: After hearing Giulia's Armor-Piercing Question who reminded him of his biological father's abandonment, Alberto breaks down in tears.
- Learn to Live With the Unimaginable: Having to watch over preteens is an emotional nightmare for Frank Castle. Even if he's too much of The Stoic to show it, he's constantly reminded of his own children and struggle to not break down.
- In After the Fall, Adrien is temporarily killed by Weredad. Due to this, he's deeply uncomfortable whenever he sees Tom Dupain, as he's reminded of his akumatized form.
- Avoidance: The events of "Desperada": namely looping back in time for months and failing to save Ladybug over and over again, have left Adrien both physically exhausted and emotionally broken. At one point, just hearing one of Jagged Stone's songs makes him think of Vivica, then Desperada, then seeing Ladybug die repeatedly before begging the nurse to change the station.
- CONSEQUENCES: In SINS OF THE PAST, Frederick Valga was one of Lila's past victims from Hamburg, Germany, whose bullying campaign against him causes him to nearly take his own life. When he moves to Paris and sees she's in his new class, he freaks out and rushes out of the classroom. The reemerged trauma leads to his akumazation into Inquisitor, who vows to brutally punish Lila for all of her crimes.
- Pointverse: Even after escaping the nightmare world from Divergent Point: ML Salt, Marinette, Adrien, and Alya are all still disturbed by what saw by the sequel in Onichan. Adrien flinches at the sight of the Ladybug and Chat Noir statues, reminded of the sight of a mob tearing down his statue as proxy for him. Marinette herself avoids it entirely, likely reminded that another her lead said mob. Alya makes sure to stay as far away of Lila so she wouldn't be reminded of the salt scenarios that made her Lila's Psycho Supporter.
- A Small but Stubborn Fire:
- Seeing a guy in a Dark Cupid costume causes Marinette to have a panic attack.
- Adrien inadvertently triggers Marinette when he acts out how he messed with Chloé in the same manner her nightmare version of him in Sandboy did and jumps when he reaches for her shoulder. He is more cautious when he asks to hold her hand.
- Just about everything Sabine does in her desperation to find out what has happened to Marinette ends up reminding her of how cold and hard her own mother was on her.
- Alya informs Sabine that many of the people at school have triggers and panic attacks because all of them except for Marinette and Adrien have been akumatized more than once.
- During her therapy session, Marinette has another panic attack about Cat Blanc.
- Conversations with a Cryptid:
- Formalwear and business wear is this to Inko since her husband only wore suits and seeing them painfully reminds her of his unexplained abandonment.
- Poor Iida was catatonic when Izuku was kidnapped and tortured because it reminded Iida of what happened to his brother.
- Shiragaki notices the physical resemblance between Izuku and All For One and consequently has a breakdown in confusion and sheer terror.
- From Muddy Waters: Shinsou becomes one for Izuku, since his Quirk causes Izuku to see the ghosts of all the people his father killed to give him his Quirks.
- Snap Before You Break: When Aizawa responds to Izuku calling him out for his poor teaching by attempting to restrain him with his capture scarf, Izuku flashes back to Katsuki assaulting him and goes into a fugue state, tossing Aizawa away and fleeing the scene, desperately resisting all attempts to stop him. When he comes back to himself, he finds Present Mic sitting with him up in a tree. The Pro Hero calmly explains how he doesn't like bugs, drawing a parallel between his phobia and Izuku's reaction.Present Mic: I don't particularly like bugs, kid, but you needed comfort, and I can handle a little discomfort to bring you back to us. (chuckling) Thankfully, Koda agreed to ask the bugs to leave this tree alone for a little while and give us the space to be bug-free. Present Mic, afraid of bugs, you might be wondering, and it's true. I'm very, very scared of bugs. It's one of those irrational fears. I know my fear isn't justified, but I feel it anyway. (shrugs, turns to look Izuku in the eyes) Reactions to things that scare us are valid, ya dig?
- In One Half That You See it happens several times. Shouto and Midoriya are held captive and psychologically and physically tortured. They form a Living Emotional Crutch bond and don’t trust others for quite a while because of being tormented with illusions of rescue and bad things happening when they were forcibly separated.
- A nurse doesn’t heed the warnings about keeping the boys together and Shoto panics on waking alone.
- Endeavor tries to physically remove Shoto as he thinks he can get the best care for his son. Midoriya howls in terror in the bed and Shoto has a massive panic attack on the floor. Endeavor gets escorted out.
- Ochako forgets not to touch either one and Shoto reacts badly when she touches Midoriya.
- The boys get well enough to go to class again but panic when they see their classmates in the same gym uniform Shoto and Izuku spent months being tortured in.
- Bury Me In Your Memories: Midoriya is held captive with Aizawa and raped. Later in the story, Bakugo starts spending nights with Izuku to keep him calm while Aizawa resumes patrol. Midoriya eventually trusts him enough and explains his night terrors as the result of the rape. He discusses how he has to fight this trope on being touched or restrained during training. Once, he sent Kamanari flying after the other boy accidentally touched his hair while training.
- In Don’t Touch the Hair Aizawa’s gets pushed when his hair is pulled during training and he flashes back to the nomu holding his hair and slamming his face into the ground.
- Hitoshi or occasionally Present Mic having this trope happen with masks or Hitoshi’s artificial vocal cords as a result of childhood muzzle trauma verges on Fandom-Specific Plot. A couple examples: I Might Have a Guess and It’s Just A Mask
- Silence has Present Mic get a massive panic attack when villains rough him up and leave him gagged. Again it’s due to childhood muzzling.
- Whimper Kaminari unknowingly zaps Hitoshi during a movie and Hitoshi had past Shock Collar trauma, causing a panic attack.
- Safe : Aizawa wants to talk to Midoriya about things he’s observed the boy knows but gets wrong on his tests. Trouble is, Midoriya’s previous teachers verbally and occasionally physically abused him to the point he started deliberately underperforming so he wouldn’t get berated for cheating. Worse, when he did too well on accident, he’d get detention with a teacher who coerced him into sex acts. So when he gets called into Aizawa’s office, he has a full on meltdown because the situation is so similar to the past that he expects Aizawa to want sex too. Aizawa is furious and horrified when he calms Midoriya enough to get the story and gets the teacher arrested.
- Better has Shinsou panic a couple times. First it’s a couple other kids teasing him and calling him “pretty boy”. when Aizawa calls him to his office for a talk because he’s genuinely proud of him. He tells Shinsou he’s a special boy and wants him to lay on his pull out couch because Shinso seems ill. Bad combo because Shinso’s foster dad called him special and pretty as he raped him. Shinso has a huge panic attack expecting Aizawa to want sex too. It’s all Aizawa can do to calm him, and he immediately gets some other heroes and the police to arrest the bastard.
- Hurt Dynamite: Bakugo is training at school and goes into an alley that looks like one he was grabbed and raped in during his internship with Best Jeanist. He won’t answer Aizawa and Midoriya and keeps running and setting off explosions. He sets off a distress beacon and summons Best Jeanist who’s able to break through and comfort him.
- Camera Flashes has press camera noise reminding Bakugo of his mom setting off explosions by his head and he panics and runs to find Inko Midoriya. Best Jeanist, who adopted him, tracks him down and gets him to calm down.
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- Fractured Sunlight: When Twilight first sees Sunset, the Alternate Self of Twilight's childhood friend who died in front of her years ago, she faints. Twilight later refers to her as a "walking, talking trauma trigger."
- Near the start of Hard Reset's final chapter, Spike saying the words from the start of the time loop causes Twilight to freeze in shock, which is the first sign to the viewers about the effects of her experiences.
- RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse:
- BonBon is implied to be twitchy around anything gold, thanks to her abduction by Corona (her girlfriend Lyra being the exception). She definitely is triggered by seeing Corona, even when Corona is (sort-of) trying to make amends.
- Guardpony Fizzleberry Poptwist has bears, thanks to the Ursa Minor that took her horn. Not a good mix with a young pony whose magical aura is the same colour as an Ursa Minor and has no idea about Fizzleberry's issues, whom her job requires her to foalsit.
- Rocket To Insanity: The fanfic Cupcakes is a recurring nightmare of Rainbow Dash's. One day, Pinkie Pie offers Rainbow a cupcake and it triggers Rainbow's memory of the nightmare. She freaks out, thinks her nightmare is coming true, and stabs Pinkie to death in "self-defense".
- Androgyninja's A Drop of Poison: Naruto unintentionally hits one of Kakashi's during the Chuunin Exams, due to his Detrimental Determination. Namely, Naruto refuses to let Sakura bow out of the prelims, overriding her wishes because HE doesn't want her to "give up". Having lost too many of his own friends, Kakashi is triggered by Naruto's reckless disregard for his teammate's safety.
- A Case Study in the Sturdiness of the Rookie 9: Thanks to Asuma encouraging Ino to use her family's Mind-Body swap techniques to terrorize and control her teammates Naruto and Kiba, both naturally grow afraid of her. Since Kiba is easier for her to possess, she targets him much more often — as a result, her presence becomes a massive trigger for him. Ino doesn't take it well once she finds out.
- The Mangekyo Sharingan has a built-in trauma button in Son of the Sannin. Any time someone uses one of its abilities, they're forced to have a flashback to whatever traumatic moment caused them to unlock it in the first place. The author admits that they added this weakness to keep it from being as game-breaking as it was in canon.
- In Sugar Plums Ume has a violent flashback when she sees Kimimaro and has to be pulled out of it by her rabbit summons. This is due heavily to the PTSD caused by her involvement in the Kaguya's last stand.
- Don't Look: In the final chapter, Kaji and Asuka accidentally set off Misato and Shinji respectively. Kaji wearing an actual suit (due to trying to make a good first impression) nearly causes Misato to shoot him and Asuka grabbing Shinji from behind causes him to reflexively try to cut her throat with a box cutter. Both are a result of their confrontation with the Slender Man.
- Ghosts of Evangelion: Shinji and Asuka suffer from PTSD. Asuka mentions that stress triggers it.
- Rise of the Minisukas: As she is constantly haunted by her failure to protect her Shinji in the Rebuild Universe, Shiki reacts volatilely after witnessing Shinji's kidnapping by the Angel, Matarael."Baka Shinji?" Shiki whispers as her eyes grow distant and unfocused. Leader just stares off into the distance where the Angel disappeared. "Baka Shinji? BAKA SHINJI?!" Shiki shouts in an uncharacteristic display of raw anguish, snapping Leader out of her shell shock.
- Echoes of the Dark: Seeing the CPU Candidates of the Crapsack World Alternate Dimension she has been transported to get Brainwashed into working for the Arc Villain of the Lastation arc serves as this for Neptune, as it reminds her of her two Greatest Failures - Neptune's adoptive daughter Peashy getting brainwashed into working for the villains for ten years, and Neptune herself getting brainwashed into working for the villain and almost killing her own sister.
- Maybe it'll turn out okay.: Hearing Kel fall over on the wooden gym floor in his basketball game brings his boyfriend, Sunny, to tears and intense worry over the trauma of the latter's sister's death, despite the present occurrence inflicting nothing worse than a nosebleed.
- This Bites!
- When Nami is testing her Thunder Tempo on her new Eisen Whip, the sight of thunder clouds trigger Cross's recollection of his torture by Eneru. Cross decides to give himself exposure therapy to reduce this fear so Nami won't decide to forgo her power because of it.
- The Buster Call of Enies Lobby makes Robin panic when she remembers how Ohara fall, though thankfully Cross snaps her out of it.
- For Moria, it is the sight of his entire crew demolished by Straw Hats and their allies, which happened to his old crew at Kaido's hand. It's enough to awaken his Devil Fruit.
- A Hero Forged: After her MK 2 suit overheated with an unconscious Luz inside it after saving them from the Slitherbeast, Amity starts to panic whenever she sees Luz in "Iron Witch" mode, worrying that it will happen again without her there to save Luz.
- Of Deals and Traumatic Conversations: Makoto and Ryuji enter Sae's casino-like palace months earlier, and where they meet her sister's shadow who calls her "a burden and useless", terms that she called Makoto once out of anger and stress before. It pushes Makoto into Heroic BSoD. Ryuji is barely able to snap her out of it enough to fight back and escape. However, the sequence of events leads her traumatized in the long term.
- Persona 5 New Game Plus, Joker's Second Chance: While Shiho managed to escape her canon rape by Kamoshida, the fact that she was almost raped has made crowds and trains one for her.
- Royalty-free Rerun: This Persona 5 Royal Peggy Sue fic reveals that just hearing and seeing Takuto Maruki is enough to send Sumire into a full-on panic attack. Considering he essentially brainwashed her before the events of Royal and kills the other Phantom Thieves during the fic's opening, her fear of him is completely justified.
- Gloria in Anachronism has been sent back to just before she began her Pokémon journey. Her original journey was full of violence and trauma. Little things remind her of it.
- Raz from Razputin Vodello AU, suffers from basophobia, or a fear of falling, and tends to freak out when someone he doesn't knowing picking him up or being dropped out of nowhere. Reactions range from seizing up to full-on panic attacks.
- The Silent Horse: During his fight with Shampoo, Ranma runs into the alley where he was nearly gang-raped while in female form, and has a meltdown.
- CRME: Cinder's button in this story appears to be seeing abusive mothers due to her own experiences with Brigit Stark. As a sadistic and borderline Ax-Crazy sociopath, hitting this button causes Cinder to lash out violently. This is what causes her to strangle Melanie Black when she comes back for Mercury. Melanie threatens to kill Mercury if he doesn't come with her. When Cinder confronts her, Melanie slaps her and says something similar to Brigit that causes a flashback for Cinder. This is what makes Cinder beat her up and strangle her.
- Shaggy the Handler: A series that depicts Shaggy as a Shell-Shocked Veteran. When he hears a whistle, he flashes back to Vietnam and panics.
- Little Hands, Big Attitude:
- Shadow's Trauma-Induced Amnesia means that anything even remotely resembling the ARK raid (aka the traumatic event) and several things before that is an instant trigger to him. This includes any mention of firearms, the mere thought of somebody may be looking for him to keep him, and medical sterile environments.
- Rouge's button is being reminded of her appearance, as her tribe abandoned her when she was young because of her albinism. She has auditory flashbacks (which her auditory retrognition power makes worse) forcing her to relive the event.
- Her Fractured Spirit: Callie has a lot of these due to her kidnapping and brainwashing by Octarians. One example is her inability to interact with Marina's brother Marny because seeing Octolings in general brings back bad memories.
- Star Trek: The Original Series writers seem to love using this trope around the massacre Kirk witnessed as a child and the circumstances surrounding it (an agricultural plague leading to famine). Writers for the reboot series have even gotten in on it, despite the fact that the massacre (let alone Kirk's presence at said massacre) has never been established as canon in that series. Just a few examples:
- The TOS fic Both Halves Together involves the crew having to go on rations. Because the massacre was precipitated by a famine, Kirk is understandably unsettled by the memories it brings back.
- The reboot fic The Cheat posits the theory that Kirk's distaste for the premise of the Kobayashi Maru exam, leading to his decision to cheat, is because the scenario pushed a button related to the disaster.
- The TOS fic My Captain includes a scene where Kirk becomes violently ill at the smell of rotting grain. (Truth in Television to an extent — smell is known to be a powerful memory trigger.)
- The TOS fic Both Halves Together
- The War of the Masters:
- Create Your Own Fate: Sheri Walford has several PTSD-triggered flashbacks to her time as a Child Soldier, one of them a blackout that gets her arrested for brawling with Bajoran Militia officers that respond when she's jumped by a Circle-affiliated school gang.
- Myrmidons: Sheri narrowly avoids another blackout when the USS Bajor is boarded by Fek'Ihri.
- Switcheroo AU: It's implied that being left behind in the garden still happened in some form for Spinel. Because of this, she has a strong aversion to plants. This ranges from a general dislike of flowers to nearly having a panic attack when she trips over roots near Rose's Fountain.
- What Might Have Been: Just thinking of her first pearl (or the idea of anyone else sharing her fate) makes Rose either depressed or right to bawling her eyes out.
- Maybe Sprout Wings: Dean has a lot of issues from his time as a slave, most of which he learns to manage, but he panics deeply and unexpectedly at the sound of whirring hair clippers.
- Stand Together And Smile: Heathcliff visits Kirito and this guild and their home. But when Yui walks in, the sight of their visitor triggers a panic attack.
- In On Trial, Cassandra goes through a Trauma Conga Line that, no matter what she did in the past, is so bad that everyone minus the King and one of the guards thinks she's been punished enough. Even so, it leaves her with numerous triggers, including someone trying to feed her (due to force-feeding trauma), baths, anything pertaining to losing your voice, being left alone for too long, etc.
- Discussed in The Brother's Grimm, when Bernard worries that pulling passengers will remind him of the incident where he accidentally killed Seymour Murphy's father (it doesn't).
- Dynamite for the Quarry: Percy has a meltdown on the hill leading to Ffarquhar Quarry when he comes to the bend where he derailed and accidentally killed an entire family. He has another one on the way back, when he looks down into the valley and sees an empty space where the cottage he crashed into once stood.
- In the same fic, 'Arry and Bert have a panic attack when they hear the sound of explosions and are reminded of the time Thomas lost his temper with them and pushed them both into the blasting zone.
- No Engine is an Island: Luke has a panic attack after being bumped by Merrick, which reminds him of the time he accidentally bumped Victor into the sea.
- Total Drama Do Over: Colton has PTSD due to the wartime death of his sister and the dishonorable discharge of his military father for sexual abuse. While he's usually quite cold, being reminded of his family issues makes him act more irrational. This is most evident during the final stretch of Pahkitew Do Over when he learns Abigail may be his sister, and her asking about his family causes him to lose his concentration multiple times; when Noah gets mad at Colton for acting like he's familiar with Abigail just because of supposed blood relation, Colton has a full blown panic episode and violently lashes out at Noah while venting about his older sister's death.
- In Tales of the Undiscovered Swords, Sasanoyuki is the ruthless Iaijutsu Practitioner he is because of repressed emotions in order to cope with being an Absurdly Sharp Blade; his witnessing his past all over again on his kiwame training re-triggers all the pain he's repressed. If that isn't bad enough, when he comes back, Izuminokami unknowingly badgers him into performing tameshigiri, which again reminds him of his own historical cutting test from which he learned of his sharpness. He ends up attempting suicide.
- Riding a Sunset: Hot Rod is revealed to be afraid of fireworks, as the fire and explosions remind him of the night his parents died.
- Shatterheart: When Kurogane tries grabbing Syaoran to force him out of his room he triggers a screaming panic attack in Syaoran, who had been kidnapped and nearly tortured to death.
- A Darker Path: Taylor "kills" a conversation with Emma by referencing Emma being weak in the alleynote "and even weaker now," then pretending to chew on her own hair and offering Emma some. Taylor actually didn't know what she was talking about, she was just following her power's prompts, but Emma flees to throw up in a bathroom.
