#Sort of:

[goetiae]

What some fans fail to understand is that Ciel is constantly wearing a mask.

People who have never met him cannot tell that he is a child because he purposefully crafts an image for himself. It is not his "true" self.

We very rarely see "true" emotions from Ciel, and usually only when he is at his limit. There are certain characters (Sieglinde, Finnian, Snake, for example) who he visibly shows sympathy to because, likely, they remind him of himself. Otherwise, he only displays a certain degree of compassion to Sebastian (in later chapters) as well as what seems to be genuine care: he is afraid to lose him.

Otherwise, Ciel masks. He masks as a happy student at Weston, an aloof and mature Earl in daily life, an uncaring person in the Atlantic arc, an unaffected individual in the Ripper and Circus eras, and now, with newer chapters out, he is back to his masking. All breakdowns are private, just for Sebastian's eyes.

Relying on his visual presentation alone to determine how "mature" and "suave" he is is a foolish act, given that he is within a Victorian society and has to rely on appearances to come off a certain way.

Ciel is a traumatized, angry, and very isolated child who acts mature to uphold his position and social status. There is much to say about how he does not view himself as a child on par with others and does not allow himself childish behaviors. This is not the same as a character being naturally "seductive" or "mature".

It is especially foolish to rely on how Ciel acts among strangers, especially adults, to determine how he "actually is" because he never allows the mask to fall in front of them.

He breaks this façade a few times in the manga, but only in front of Sebastian and only when they're alone and/or when Ciel is in so much distress he can no longer pretend.

Sebastian catches him off-guard. Perhaps Ciel feels more secure around him because Sebastian is an ageless demon and not an actual human adult man. His appearance might be misleading but he is not like those humans that hurt Ciel. Still, even that does not fully secure him: Ciel still has traumatic responses, albeit less intense, to Sebastian's closeness at times.

Ciel's response to seeing the workhouse the Circus troupe believed was still standing is a tragic moment, one of the first points of Ciel's breaking. This is a child who has already lost everything breaking down. He has just relived his trauma and not only could not (and would not) take up the role of a savior for other children, he also saw that everything connected to it was a sham.

When the mask falls, Ciel breaks down into aloofness and dissociation, like in the Circus Arc, or two other emotions: grippling fear or anger. The entirety of post-twin reveal scene is him breaking into anger when the mature mask drops.

Fear is especially prominent in the Green Witch Arc when he is so terrified not even Sebastian can touch him and he has to rely on Finny, much closer in age and "safer", to calm down.

It is fairly obvious that Yana Toboso falls into a decent number of typical anime/manga tropes with her characters, but Ciel's breaking of the "adult mask" is written consistently and relatively well. A rather daunting realization to see that there are still people convinced that Ciel is this mature, serious, uncaring person with a seductive personality.

[citrussly]

the poly ships in this fandom are insane (i mean this in the most excited manner possible)

incredible. show stopping. i need to draw men kissing

[drumlincountry]

If your life is horrible and you need a new source of meaning and direction.... Do NOT find religion. Learn to identify plants.

[hydrattan]

I was feeling agitated and artblocked yesterday so I decided to give my brain a rest by watching TV and then the next thing I knew these were in front of me

[vamprismsarchive]

me: you literally have a disorder. this is symptoms

me: no perhaps my soul is rotten

[glitchedsoftware]

people on twitter seemed to like this so sure ill put it here too

[corviiids]

was talking to a coworker and realised i could not for the life of me remember his name but i was too embarrassed to ask because we've spoken multiple times so mid-conversation i started concocting a plan to nudge the conversation towards the ID photos on our building passes so that i could be like oh my ID photo is awful haha the camera they use to take these has a real talent for making me look as unphotogenic as possible and then he would say oh yes me too haha everyone says that (because they do) and then i would be able to say well let me see yours it can't be as bad as mine! and he would show me his ID because we are coworkers and why wouldn't he and this would allow me to see his building pass which of course would have his name on it and then i would be able to say well yours is perfectly nice it must be me that's the problem! and then we would have a polite chuckle about it and i would have his name without needing to ask for it and he would be none the wiser and all would be well but then before i could execute this fine plan a little voice in my head went "so this is some light yagami bull shit you are about to pull" which was such a violent reality check it shocked me completely out of my embarrassment and i went "hey im so sorry your name has slipped my mind could you remind me" and he did and it was fine.

[foolfortune]

[sparrowlucero]

like the most politically neutered movie of all time unironically

[saddest-girl-in-the-whole-world]

I will NEVER not fuck with women using a traditionally masculine title. Tell me more about that girl that's also a prince.

[isabela-merceds]

come on americans, help a girl out

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

we need more divorcebaiting. how strongly can canon imply (without technically outright stating) that these two characters are bitterly, acrimoniously divorced? essential we explore this

[duckysprouts]

when ur just a funky little skater punk hedgehog

(idk if u can tell but only his bangs are straightened, he has braids)

[jackalspine]

@schnuffel-danny hehehe

regarding this post: from schnuffle

[zannolin]

people often think i'm doing it for the bit but unfortunately i Am the type of guy who just says shit like "pray tell" and "indeed" and "naught but the human heart can hope to capture the moon's beauty" (that was actually about my shitty phone camera) and nobody really knows what to do when they hear those words come out of my mouth. myself included.