"Forgive my insecurities," Avon said, with a wry smile. "This is all very new and extraordinary.

He turned to Roj, amused. "Humans are contradictory creatures," he replied. "It's an essential aspect of our nature. Resolving contradictions is how we better ourselves. It tends to express itself in many ways, including through language." An unnecessarily arbitrary and overcomplex answer, but he was curious to see how Roj would respond to it - after all, he was likely to encounter plenty of borderline-irrational philosophising if he wanted to socialise with humans.