Hello from the random oc questions tabby kitten!!💙
People don’t behave the same way all the time. In fact, they generally have a mask for every social group – friends, family, business. Sometimes they have a different mask for different groups of friends. How does your character act around different people? How does their personality shift and change?
Alastor's social skills aren’t… great. It’s mostly a result of the amnesia - he wasn’t exactly an open talkative extrovert before it, but now, nearly starting from scratch while also dealing with the fact that many people are wary of him or give him odd looks, the progress is much slower. Alastor doesn’t like attracting attention much, so around most people, he’s polite, rather quiet, and careful if he talks about himself. He’s more at ease at the shop, where his eyes and personality oddities are more accepted as they suit the “magician shopkeeper” role, but when anyone tries to talk to him on non-shop-related topics, it just turns awkward.
It’s not that he’s “completely different” around friends, he’s just relaxed. Once he’s sure that the person won’t judge him, Alastor actually opens up with relative ease, craving the contact. With people he considers family (for the lack of actual relatives, mostly consisting of his S/O and best friends) he does seem different, his energy on display much more often. Alastor is enthusiastic, passionate, somewhat cheeky - it’s just that he’s reluctant showing that louder, lovable side of him.
Marty is near opposite in a sense that there’s a bunch of well-polished “masks” he wears so often that he struggles with knowing who he actually is. Up until recently, he didn’t even have actual friends aside from Asra, because while Marty navigates social interactions with mastery surprising of an amnesiac, he doesn’t open up to people, stuck with trying to perform the roles others expect of him. Mysterious magician, charming shopkeeper, alluring yet casual one-night stand, competent investigator - well. The last one got pried open and broken in the process of forming the first serious crush, leaving him open and scared of that kind of vulnerability.
When trying to act “like himself”, Marty is still lost somewhat, tempted to hide behind a casual lie as soon as the topic of what he feels or wants comes up in some way. But he’s learning, with his circle of honest relationships growing and strengthening slowly, showing a caring, empathetic part of his usual “charming humorous bastard” self.