@JakeKof recent experiences really have me wondering about this. strong habits of avoidance in crisis situations, and close examination of the behaviors I've developed in response to this avoidance (including "forgetfulness") have got me wondering, jeez, just what sort of monster have I got lurking in _my_ childhood that I've been so hot to get away from

@kara well and TBCH, it could be stuff from adulthood that you didn't "count" as traumatic, you know? So many of us are prone to shrugging shiz off as, "well that's just life" but really no, it's trauma.
In other words, IT'S OK PEARL WE GOT YOU BOOBOO IT'S GONNA BE OK! *sobs while singing*

@kara
can we talk for a sec too also as well about how each of the gems deals with trauma in different ways? Ames gets saltfeisty, Garnet withdraws into her own relationship to the exclusion of others, and Pearl, well, she sublimates into her world of compulsively orderly bxs so hard that if anything is out of whack she just LOSES. HER. GUANO.

@JakeKof good points. Amethyst can at least decompress by beating up wrestlers. Garnet's last recourse is, unfortunately, _breaking up with herself_ (partly because she's made fusion _per se_ the pillar of her personal religion, so even that quits working for her when she's discombobulated enough) And Pearl becomes practically robotic.

@kara
And it's all about how they responded to war and oppression really. How fighting that oppression liberated but also scarred them. Omg the layers.