I don't think of my childhood family as being physically violent or abusive. We specialized in verbal and emotional abuse.

I tended to gravitate towards other outcasts, but not abusive or violent ones. A friend of mine says that the outcasts gravitate towards me, because they can sense that I'll accept them for their goodness and not be judgmental. That's probably true. I have some wonderful and loving friends who were labeled weird as children, and came out of dysfunctional families. I guess because I never looked for "normal" or external BS; I just looked at who someone was inside. I look inside someone's heart, which I can see clearly.

I had a brief period in my teens where I tried to be "feminine" and "average" but it always felt like a charade so this phase didn't last long.

Way-tres is a slang term. Way is the same as tres, so "mega-way". Way, as in way cool, or way anything; and tres as in tres chic or whatever. I probably made it up years ago.