[quote=@Guardian Angel Haruki] Oh yeah, Ciel would have come off as [I]drastically[/I] different. Before Bartholomew, Ciel was much more cheerful and a little more outgoing. She wouldn't have been the type to just drift away when it came to her friends and family. At the theme park, she would have been quiet, self-deprecating, and apologetic to Malcer. She probably have apologized to him for a normal conversations they had in the past, with her thinking that she insulted him somehow, while Malcer clearly remembers it as a normal conversation. As for Bartholomew, it might have been obvious that he was a piece of hot garbage from the start. I imagine he tries to endear himself to her friends at first, while subtly undercutting them with backhanded compliments. When he sees that the friends see him for who he truly is, he stops trying to make them like him and simply focuses on Ciel. [/quote] I'm sure Ciel's new attitude would spark some measure of confusion in Malcer at first, which begins to transition into concern the more he is exposed to the new her and how she acts around Bartholomew. Being nonconfrontational, Malcer wouldn't have been the first to make accusations or anything, but he would perhaps have asked her "if she was alright" if he ever got her relatively alone. And I'm sure her response would be less than encouraging. Owing to the fact that Malcer wasn't generally the most "in-person socialized" and kinda lived in his own head a lot of the time, he's the kind of person that when receiving one of these backhanded compliments would either humbly shrug it off, miss the compliment part entirely, or directly ask for clarification if he's confused on the intent. Which, naturally, Bartholomew wouldn't really be able to do without digging his hole deeper. Malcer's lack of socialism in some respects leads him to be blunter at times and cut through social shenanigans. A short "I'm sorry?" or "in what way?" and so on might start to see Bartholomew's facade unravel in Malcer's eyes. [quote=@Guardian Angel Haruki] Now that I think more about it..I imagine Bartholomew went behind Ciel's back and sent a message from Ciel's phone/email to all of her friends. While pretending to be her, he basically tried to tell everyone that Ciel doesn't need them anymore and that she was never going to speak to them again. The potential giveaways that it wasn't Ciel writing those messages? 1. Bartholomew tried to make Ciel sound flippant and uncaring so that her friends and family would be angry and not want to speak with her anymore. 2. He used emojis in the message when Ciel doesn't use emojis for serious messages like that. [/quote] You bet the first thing Malcer would think is to ask "Did you get hacked?/What's this about?" on some alternative social media connection if he received such a weird message, complete with screenshot. Although, if Bartholomew was already that deep, it's certainly questionable if that inquiry would ever have reached Ciel.