At his core, Magnus was always going to be Magnus. Alec knew that he'd had to adapt and adjust far more than anyone else because of his age. He'd lived through so much and the Magnus that everyone got to see now wasn't exactly the same as the Magnus who'd been around a century ago. He'd had to change his behavior and his appearance but the private, rarely seen parts of him had stayed the same. Always the same. Alec had seen those parts briefly so he knew they were there, just waiting to be discovered by someone.

"I think even if he tried, he'd fail," Alec remarked with a shake of his head. He didn't look at Magnus as he said this even if a part of him wanted to. "He's too unique to pull off anyone but himself. Maybe he'd be able to fool a mundane or two but I think he'd get bored even with that. He likes who he is."

Alec thought he did, at least. They just hadn't had enough time to explore much before Valentine had put his plan in motion and things had fallen apart.

"I...didn't realize I'd done that," Alec said, sounding mildly surprised. His duty was to absolutely keep mundanes safe from the Shadow World but sitting with Jason hadn't been about that. He didn't know what compelled him to sit and stay instead of walking away but he had and apparently, it'd helped.

"I didn't think this place was real when I first got here," he shared quietly, comfortable with letting Peter know but not anyone else he wasn't familiar with. "I'd just been tossed into a river pretty violently. Still had the stink of it on me when I ended up here. It didn't seem real. It took time."

After the other city, he'd felt almost like he was back at square one, not trusting his own instincts, his own senses. Things had righted themselves after a few days but Alec hated when he didn't know if what he was seeing was real or fake.