Something about this is natural in a way that those events lack; it's difficult to feel friendly under the implicit threat of a right smiting if you aren't, and the obligation so often seems to result in a group of people inclined to get in and out as smoothly as they can. Maybe not everyone here this evening is here because they want to be, but moreso than other times.

Ilde is pleased to be here, which isn't even true of all the parties she attends without obligation.

If we did have to be a little island, who would you be on it with? I'd have trouble deciding. Personality clashes. That's the politest way of saying 'most of my friends are arseholes'.