#from what i've written already ahahhh. because i mean what i was really trying to get at is that barton ain't as sneaky as he likes to-

[mad-hunts]

when the mask comes off of barton, though (and i don't mean his literal mask in this case), i can tell y'all for sure that if your muse were to be around him while it happened... that they'd MOST DEFINITELY be able to tell about 9 times out of ten. because, as i've said before, barton has literally spent an almost frightening amount of time just observing people and tailoring his behavior to that.

and barton, of course, does this in terms of how he should react to certain situations / just how he should act in general in order to not raise suspicion. but sometimes another character may get him SO angry and/or they will do or say something that he views as a slight to him (like one particular trigger for him in regards to this is people saying that they 'see right through him,' or anything of that nature) — that it'll almost seem like barton will suddenly forget how to successfully mimic people.

because it honestly is true about what they say about the eyes being the 'window to the soul.' which is relevant to what i'm describing because the first thing that another hypothetical character here would notice is that all the life just kind of disappears from them, and the look that he gives them is cold. it's like barton is more of a shell of a person than anything else. he also tends to either get really quiet or explode based on the circumstances.

though, that's not all that happens. because although this isn't a guarantee, this is when another character might find barron at his most violent because he no longer has a reason to quote unquote 'hold himself back,' i guess you could say. and he's prone to lashing out physically at people after doing something like staring them down in the eye to see if they'll back down. and if they don't... he might just inhale as if this is the most irritating situation he's been in before doing whatever he was planning to do.

barton also gets a kick out of mocking others whenever he's like this, if i'm being honest. and although he usually prefers to use strength to overpower someone, he isn't above using psychological tactics to get someone to do what he wants them to do. + barton has and WILL do this in ways that might seem immature on rare occasions, though still enough for it to be noticeable. and i believe this is because people with ASPD tend to not mature emotionally + this is partially why they end up being so selfish.

but yeahhh. i know this is a super long post, BUT i just wanted to talk about this because although barton may be good at pretending, he also makes it terribly obvious sometimes that he doesn't as a rule 'think like other people'... as he is constantly having to fake things like empathy. though, this is still a problem area for him beyond cognitive empathy. and thus, to summarize this all, barton is mentally unwell; but he's also a bad person as he chooses to do the things he does in the end + is responsible for his actions.