OOC: You know, I think whether she became an agent or not, Raven would have always been scanning for threats, never letting her guard down.
I'm beginning to understand Raven more and more, and she's actually kind of got stuff in common with me. Think about it. Raven started out young, probably one of the youngest agents of SHIELD. Not to mention her dad is Fury. But she's one of the youngest agents of SHIELD and her dad is Fury. The newness would have worn off and after it wore off she would have realized very quickly that she was the smallest, weakest, youngest, most inexperienced, least resistant to pain, shortest, most fragile agent in the entire organization. And thus she's the easiest target. That alone could scare a kid, scare them into paranoia. But she also must have realized that she would be amazing leverage for Fury, or Coulson, or Hill, or maybe May, or anyone that ever cared for her or sympathized with children. She would be an ultimate tool to bring SHIELD's leaders to their knees. Even now, she knows she's still young, still weak. She knows she's always been in danger, is still a target for many, and knows that they'll never stop hunting her until she's dead for real. She's gotta be a very insecure, very scared girl underneath all the bravado, training, anger, sarcasm, and bad*** tough girl punk image she tries to pull off. And that speaks to me. That very much speaks to me.
Even if she never became an agent, her father is Fury. Raven had a target painted on her back the moment her mom told her dad they were going to be parents. Even if Raven had been raised a normal girl - going to school, playing team sports, filling her room with books, chatting with her friends - Raven is perceptive, she would have known very quickly that life was anything but normal. She would have known that she was a target, that she was hunted. She would have developed the paranoia, picked up the always looking for threats trick, wouldn't have been comfortable in new surrounding for hours. She would have learned to live life in fear.