"She says hello," Kolya translates, patting the wall. 

Coming down from combat strips Honey of his already fairly sparse voice. He’ll stick by the Rose for now, but his mind is mostly empty at the moment, aside from the whisper of a thought that this is pretty different from the welcome he got.

The Rose steps forward to place a trembling hand on the wall. 

"Hello," she whispers. The walls hum in response. 

Ashes nudges Honey. 

"Dunno about you, but I'm starving. Wanna see if we can rustle up something to eat?" 

Honey is definitely interested in getting some food. He'll happily follow Ashes to a place that has some (hopefully the kitchen, but given what he's experienced with Ashes, he doesn't entirely expect it).

It is indeed the kitchen!

Ashes moves about the space like they know what they're doing, pulling out the ingredients for something that won't take too long to cook, but will feed several hungry immortals. Honey is set to chopping and frying a variety of purplish root vegetables while Ashes grills steaks. They're in good spirits, singing to themself as they work.

"The fire burns bright in the heat of the night..." 

Honey happily chops and fries, both actions he's familiar and comfortable with. Once Ashes has gotten to a point in the song they're singing where the tune repeats, he starts humming along as well.

When Kit shows up a few minutes later, with Mac trailing behind him, the song becomes a full-on duet between him and Ashes, the two of them passing the verses back and forth and harmonising on the chorus. 

Martin appears just in time to help set the table. He seems unusually cheerful as he asks Ivy about her observations from the base. 

Honey chuckles a bit to himself as he finishes up the various dishes and people continue to enter the kitchen. This is good.

Just as they're all sitting down to eat, Kolya shows up with the rescued Rose in tow, looking tired but content. 

During the meal, she's quiet and doesn't eat much, spending most of her time staring into space. Eventually, she pushes her plate away, still more than half full. 

Honey looks around the group, seeing if anyone seems to know what's up, lingering probably mostly on Kolya, since it seems like he's been the one handling the Rose.

Kolya doesn't seem too worried.

"You know, that's probably the first meal you've ever eaten as you," he comments, nudging her shoulder. "How does it compare to the memories?" 

A frown mars her pristine features.

"...yes," she says quietly. "That...it must be. I hadn't thought—" She sighs. "You're sure? That I'm not..." 

Kolya nods.

"I'm sorry." 

Ah. Honey thinks he's gotten an idea of what's going on.

It's a pretty scary thought, even if it's one that Honey hasn't personally had to deal with. If King Cole had figured out how to replicate his body, the way he cloned Rose, what would he do if he found out he wasn't the original Honey?

He's not really sure. He continues eating...dinner? Whatever meal this technically is. He continues eating dinner, and tries to let the thought go.

Their rescuee's distress seems to have brought down the mood of the whole table. Even Kit is subdued after that, although his leg is bouncing under the table with leftover energy. 

It doesn't take long before he shoves his chair back and stands, heading out of the room without a word to anyone. 

"Did something happen on Varangar?" Martin asks quietly. 

"I wish I'd been able to join you." 

Honey just shrugs. Honestly, the extraction went smoother than he expected. There was resistance, but not enough to make it anything more than in-and-out.

The cooling atmosphere of the room also brings a question that Honey had been thinking of asking back to the fore. "Martin, you seem...different?"

"Hmm? Do I?" 

Honey looks around the table again, hoping to obtain some context for this.

Ivy gives Martin a dubious look. 

"Did you switch? ...did you switch for this mission." 

"He did," Kolya confirms. "Uh, should I explain it...?" 

At Martin's slightly begrudging nod, he continues, "Honey, all you need to know is that Martin has two...modes. They're not really different people, he has all the same memories, but they think differently in some ways and make different decisions. This time, he switched because there was going to be fighting, and this mode gets less upset about violence."