Saw a thread on Reddit about how Azune isn't trustworthy because he's a proven liar and was able to turn off the tears a little too quickly when he asks Occtis for help in Complicated Questions, that he feels inauthentic or even sociopathic. Aside from my reflexive, "No, absolutely not", the Occtis thing did remind me of something.
In 2013, my Mum and I went to Europe for the first time. 24 hour flight from Sydney to London before we were to transfer to Istanbul, got into Heathrow, absolutely exhausted... and it started snowing, cancelling hundreds of flights, including ours.
I had a meltdown. I was exhausted, halfway across the world, and all of our carefully-made plans had just exploded. Crying, hyperventilating, ended up making a little barricade out of our suitcases so I could panic without getting too many stares while Mum attempted to sort out plans. I was a mess.
As soon as she came back and told me that British Airways would arrange and pay for our accommodation while we waited for our new connecting flight, and that she had contacted the tour we were meant to go on in Turkey, and while we'd probably miss Pamukkale and Ephesus, we could still do Cappadocia and just offset the Istanbul stuff for a few days, and that... it was arranged. It was sorted out. We had a plan.
I was able to calm myself down almost instantly. We had a plan.
Azune does exactly the same thing in Complicated Questions. He's panicking, terrified, the plan he's made has been upturned by Murray's refusal to get Demodus involved. He's having a meltdown. And then he realises that Occtis is a perfect witness (and victim), and therefore he Has A Plan again. He's able to get control of the meltdown and calm himself almost instantly, because - he has a plan.
Almost every point the OP of the Reddit thread made about Azune not being trustworthy can be explained by Azune being high-masking autistic. He has a meltdown, but he's able to switch it off as soon as he has a plan. He feels 'inauthentic', because he's masking like his life depends on it, because it does. Most autistic people aren't quite in the same life-or-death circumstances as Azune, with him having to pull up a mask of the willing child soldier who'll do anything to be useful, to the good house guest and student, to the trustworthy Arcane Marshal, to the trusted man on the inside for both the Einfasens and the Halovars.
But masking for any autistic person is exhausting, and can look inauthentic, just because you're spending so much energy trying to be someone you're not. Doesn't matter if that's the child soldier-turned-Arcane Marshal-turned spy, or Nice Normal Perfectly Average Neurotypical Person. It wears on you, trying to live up to expectations.
Azune is quite an exaggerated case. He hasn't had a solid identity of his own since age twelve. When he gets Alter Self, he immediately uses it to make a version of new version of himself. I suspect he's spent so long masking, and masking that hard, that he genuinely doesn't know who he is underneath.
During that breakdown in Complicated Questions, he needed to hold onto A Plan, any plan, for the sake of his survival. He needs to mask because his life very much depends on it.
He's autistic and he's so goddamn tired.
