Irene has been diagnosed with anxiety and depression from a young age, otherwise she had a some-what normal childhood, being the oldest of 3 siblings and having a lightly tumultuous relationship with her parents, being closer with her mother than her father. But at age 13 she had a near-death experience, ever since she’s had consitstent and awful nightmares, as a result shes devolped insomnia and a deeply irregular sleep-schedule . It’s been explained by doctors as being some sort of brain damage, but sometimes it feels like it's more than that, she dreams of places and people she hasn't met yet, things that haven't happened but will, of things she shouldn’t know.

Now As an adult she doesn't really know how to feel, about like, anything. And frankly she has no idea what she is doing or what she wants to do with her life. She's in a major she doens't really care about but is going through with to make her parents happy, she works a deadend job she hates, she's kinda-sorta friends with people she honestly doens't even know if she really likes (or if they even like her), and she's a shut in most of the time. Her life feels so stangnent but she too scared to move.

But somehow through the most absurd comedy of errors she meets Skinner and they, some how, become roommates. His existince in her life just absolutely obliterates any peace she had, not intentionality (most of the time...), as his to is also being pilfered; whether she likes it or not Irene is forced to take her own life in her hands, or else.

Irene is truly the most concentrated distillation of sopping wet cringefail girl who is horribly riddled with anxiety, and has the irrational anxiety mindset of “everyone wants to kill me with hammers” as a result she’s mostly a shut in, only really leaving her apartment for class, or work, and not much else. She constantly teeters on the line of being caring and a massive push-over, she really cares for the people around her but never really speaks up when people are asking too much. Loves to create but often finds herself too tired or out of it to really commit how she wants.

I think Irene is definitely preoccupied with how other people view her to a point it really limits her ability to exspress herself genuinely, and she self-conscious about basicaly everything about herself, how she looks, how she acts, how she speaks, what she likes, or who she's firends with. She wants so desperately to be seen as cool and to be liked, but also feels so bad and "self-centered" for even wanting attention. And at times she can be really unpleasant in that way deppressive, self-deprecating people can be, and I don't think she realizes it, it's definitely a defense mechanism but good lord.

Skinner will always be just an utter anomaly to her, and admittedly their realtionship is kinda complex and weird. I think she goes back-and-forth now how she feels about him, on one hand thats like her closest friend, he radicaly unjudgmental and unconditionaly supportive of her and genuinely seems so happy to

have met her. But on the other, he is just objectivly a weird dude. And frankly I think she's kinda embarrassed to be seen with him, it's awkward to explain to people that they are literally just friends/ roommates, and interternally cringes when he dosn't "act right".

Admittedly she hadn't truly known Christie until a little over half-way through their collage experiences, before that they had only sparring interactions in the library or on campus, Irene developed a one-sided crush on her, she'd built up an idolized version of Christie in her head, she was this cool, stand-offish, fashionable girl who couldn't possibily want anything to do with her- dispite the fact Christie actually seemd intrested in befriending her. They ended up dating for an unfortunate week, before they amicably broke it off and stayed firends. I think Irene subconsciously holds onto that week in some way, but ultimately she's just happy she's willing to say friends with her.

Warning: Nudity