[quote=@Guardian Angel Haruki] Yup. She would have said "I'm fine,", but Malcer would easily be able to tell that she wasn't. Bartholomew would probably notice that Malcer isn't generally the most "in-person socialized", and would use that to his advantage. He probably would have answered his clarification questions in a way that would have seemed like a save to others, but would have been a deliberate diss that only Malcer would pick up on. [/quote] When I say Malcer isn't "socialized", it's a bit of an odd thing. See, he's a role-player, right? He uses voice-chat. He does actually talk to people and understand socialization, engages with people and understands social nuance. He just doesn't like doing it [i]in person[/i]. He gets uncomfortable, does that thing where he doesn't look people in the face and talks to them with them in the corner of his vision. Before the isekai, he had a bad habit of not paying attention to the body language of other people (or, in fact, sometimes looking like he's not paying attention to them at all), which is why he comes across as "living in his own head" at times. [i]But[/i] he does pay attention to tone of voice, to the actual words coming out of someone's mouth, the context. He's an overthinker, a hyperfixater. The reason he doesn't pay attention to body language is often because he subconsciously considers it "unnecessary", because he's learned how to do with reading people without it via his preferred online interaction. So, when he [i]does[/i] actually pay attention to body language, when he actually starts [i]trying[/i], he's very keen eyed. It's just that most of the time, he doesn't bother. It all comes back to that lack of empathy in him. He normally doesn't care what other people are feeling, what they're trying to convey... [i]But when he does-[/i]