Honey fails to school his expression, more so than before anyway. "Not a time I care to remember in much detail. He tried to take me apart to find out what made me the way I am. He didn't find it."

"Ah. Right." Ivy nods. "I won't ask any more about that. You said you've been shot," she continues, switching tracks. "Fighting in this war?" 

He nods. "More times than I can be bothered to count. I tend to end up being a bit of a target."

"Which side? If that used to be a uniform, there's not enough of it left to tell," she adds, looking at his scorched and tattered clothes. 

Honey considers this for a long moment. He guesses the truth is necessary, but maybe not clearest truth he can conjure. "Both sides, at different times."

She takes this in stride, not even seeming surprised, and starts asking him about what he's seen of the two sides' tactics. 

He explains what he can. He never got very far up the ranks on either side. He was moved from the war-machine to the laboratory as soon as the King recognized his oddity, so he didn't have much experience except as a grunt on that side. On the rebel side, they were understandably not especially trusting, and even once he'd proven himself a foe of King Cole, he'd shown his worth as grenadier and generally stayed to the front lines. In terms of compare and contrast, he can't really remember too many differences, other than the rebellion officers usually softening up a bit once they got to know him.

Ivy seems fascinated, anyway, and is getting him to recount what he remembers of specific battles by the time Martin returns. 

"Here we are! I wasn't sure what you'd like, Honey, so I brought a selection of Ivy's favourites for both of you to share." 

This time, Ivy moves the books herself to clear space for the tray. There is, indeed, a varied selection of food and drink. 

Honey's hands go for whatever seems like it might be sweetest, without even really thinking.

Ivy eats as well, taking a break from interrogating Honey while she does so. 

Martin sits next to her, but he doesn't touch the food. 

"Did you learn anything that might be interesting to Kit?" 

"The workings of Kit's mind are a mystery to me," Ivy replies between mouthfuls. "But there is a greater than sixty percent chance he will be interested in Honey's story." 

Honey raises an eyebrow. "Kit?"

Martin answers since Ivy is busy eating again. 

"He's...the closest thing we have to a captain. If he decides you can stay, you're almost guaranteed a place on the crew. If not, well. He can be difficult to dissuade from a course of action." 

Honey nods. That seems reasonable to him. 'Difficult to dissuade' seems to practically be a requirement for someone ending up with a ship to run. Honey continues to grab whatever's sweet off the tray, though it's probable that he finishes them not long after.

Shortly, the food is polished off.

"I expect Kit knows you're here by now, or will soon. Gossip travels fast in a crew like this one." As he speaks, Martin starts clearing away the empty dishes. 

"He'll find you in his own time, but I can make sure I'm there if you like." 

Honey shakes his head. "No need to take yourself from whatever you might be busy with. I know how there's always something to do, aboard ships like these."

He looks to Ivy. "Any other questions? It's not every day that somebody's got so many for me."

"I'm not an everyday sort of person. And neither are you." 

And she has more questions about the battles he's been in, and what his life was like before joining the army, and whether his parents ever said anything about what might have caused his peculiar qualities. 

The battles, and participating in the war in general, are probably the least detailed parts of his life history, despite making up the majority of his life time-wise. It all sort of blends together, eventually. He was born and raised on...honestly he never learned the name of the planet. His parents just called it "the world," and he's pretty sure that they'd lost their history and some point. He and his parents lived in a big metal ruin surrounded by deep, dark forest. Maybe it was some real ancient crashed ship or something like that, neither he nor his parents had the context for that while they were living there. They lived simply, day to day, hunting and gathering food from the woods, cooking at campfires, washing in the river. The ruin itself wasn't really much more than an odd cave, in terms of how they used it.

His parents always said that there must have been some magic, in the forest or the ruins or both, that made him strong. He has a hard time believing it, the old place was deader than dead as far as he ever saw and the woods never seemed to have anything else magic about them, but, he'll never get to double check, since the whole place got torched when King Cole conquered the planet.

Ivy listens intently.

"I might be able to figure out the name of the planet if you give me more details," she offers. 

Honey shrugs. "I'm not sure what sort of details there are to give?"

"What colour were the sky, the sun, and the plants? Was the gravity higher or lower than other worlds you've been on? Which other planets was it close to?" 

"Well, the sky was blue, the sun was yellow, or yellow-ish anyway, I didn't make a habit of staring at it, and the plants were green. Gravity-wise, I guess, maybe a little higher than average? Never really tried to compare it. And I don't know if it was near any other planets. Planets were just, stars that moved, up until King Cole showed up and that part of my life ended."

Ivy pouts. "Well, that could be any of half a dozen planets in the empire. What about the ruin you lived in? What was that like?"