While Ruka's life is...comparatively normal, she's been involved in enough crazy things happening--ghosts, rituals, etc--that she can take things in relative stride. While she might panic a little in her own room in privacy, she wouldn't show such a thing outside of it. She wants to be a strong person and prove that she's capable of handling this as well as any full adult. She hasn't felt like much of a child for a long time now, being the responsible and reasonable one of her group of friends, and the one that people seem to turn to for comfort and help. Madoka mentions a couple times that she wishes they would've waited for Ruka, as Ruka seems able to calm people around her with her own calmness.
So while crazy things might happen on the Barge, she'd try to be rational about how to react to it, and likely will always want to put herself where she'll be the most helpful--whatever that might be. On the other hand, despite being internally a little freaked out, she'd also be rather interested to learn as much as she can. Ruka is more someone who would try to find a lesson to take away from anything that happened to her and figure out how to use it to grow. Think of her as the Straight Man to anyone else's crazy antics.
While Ruka would try to find some commonality between herself and her paired inmates, something to connect with and use to understand them, Ruka would likely struggle with connecting with inmates who don't have any clear reasoning behind their crimes. Someone struggling to survive, someone trying to do what they thought was right-- those she could understand. But those who did things 'just because' or those who endangered children in the progress would upset her and she'd have a harder time knowing how to deal with them given her own childhood trauma. Also she'd have a more difficult time with men, and in particular fathers who abandoned or hurt their children.
However she'd be great with women and children.
Ruka is responsible and rather motherly/big sister-like, but doesn't rally know how to embrace her own inner child well (mostly because she has no memories of being a child to draw on). So while she's great at being a caretaker-type, she'd struggle with being a friend and likely wouldn't notice her own loneliness unless it's pointed out to her. Being a Warden is as much of a chance for Ruka to learn about herself and how to help herself as it is learning how to help others.
Re: REVISIONS
So while crazy things might happen on the Barge, she'd try to be rational about how to react to it, and likely will always want to put herself where she'll be the most helpful--whatever that might be. On the other hand, despite being internally a little freaked out, she'd also be rather interested to learn as much as she can. Ruka is more someone who would try to find a lesson to take away from anything that happened to her and figure out how to use it to grow. Think of her as the Straight Man to anyone else's crazy antics.
While Ruka would try to find some commonality between herself and her paired inmates, something to connect with and use to understand them, Ruka would likely struggle with connecting with inmates who don't have any clear reasoning behind their crimes. Someone struggling to survive, someone trying to do what they thought was right-- those she could understand. But those who did things 'just because' or those who endangered children in the progress would upset her and she'd have a harder time knowing how to deal with them given her own childhood trauma. Also she'd have a more difficult time with men, and in particular fathers who abandoned or hurt their children.
However she'd be great with women and children.
Ruka is responsible and rather motherly/big sister-like, but doesn't rally know how to embrace her own inner child well (mostly because she has no memories of being a child to draw on). So while she's great at being a caretaker-type, she'd struggle with being a friend and likely wouldn't notice her own loneliness unless it's pointed out to her. Being a Warden is as much of a chance for Ruka to learn about herself and how to help herself as it is learning how to help others.
(I HOPE THIS MADE SENSE...)