Irene expects novelty from everyone. No, a correction: Irene hopes for novelty from everyone. She's come to acknowledge that most people don't give it. They can be interesting, but rarely surprising. If Ilde is strange and new- and she is- then so much for the better, but all the humans she's liked were strange and new. Putting it down to species would reveal a lack of ingenuity. Her eyebrows quirk up to articulate that- how stupid.

"Not much fun for you, I'm sure," she remarks. She's slightly less put-together than usual; a night of drinking will do that to you. Her lipstick could do with re-application, her eyeliner is no longer the clinically perfect curve that it once was and her hair is threatening to uncoil from its rigid updo one strand at a time. Of course, considering that they've just been discussing removing people's pretenses, perhaps that's fitting. "I like novelty- I'm only human- but it's best when it's mutual, isn't it? Mutual and surprising, rather than sought out and based on assumption."

Which isn't to say she doesn't test people, poking at their limits and trying to get them to think in new ways- but that's different, isn't it? That's a matter of trying to make sparks fly.