Item from Worm by Wildbow
The worst moment of a parahuman's life — the crisis that activates their connection to a shard and gives them powers shaped by their trauma.
Every parahuman on Earth Bet got their powers from a trigger event — a moment of extreme physical, emotional, or psychological crisis that activated a latent connection to an alien entity called a shard. The power you receive is shaped by the nature of the trauma: someone trapped and helpless might trigger with a Mover power that lets them escape. Someone betrayed might get a Thinker power that lets them see through deception. The connection is not random, but it's not kind. Powers are tools built from broken moments. Trigger events are deeply personal and most capes don't discuss them. The PRT tracks them for classification purposes but doesn't publicize the data. What matters for a new cape is understanding that your power isn't a gift — it's a scar that does something useful. The shard connection is ongoing; it influences your behavior in subtle ways, nudging you toward conflict because conflict generates the data the shards are designed to collect. You didn't get lucky. You got broken in a way that something alien found interesting. Welcome to Earth Bet.
Also known as: trigger event, triggering, trigger