"What was it like, in the place where you grew up?" He's quiet, but he always is - if anything, his sleeves make more noise than he does overall, including by speaking (but he's doing his best: outside the bounds of his own norms to try and be a little more approachable). "I apologize for not having asked much before - I've never been good at that sort of thing, but even if it's something I'm bad at, I may as well try just a little more."
There’s a moment of silence (there always is when personal questions are asked), gaze on his face to try to see what else there is, but a small smile on their lips all the same. Gran doesn’t mind, they might not approach the topic on their own (or any personal topic for that matter), but they would never turn down a question. And so a humming sound is made while they lean back in the chair and look toward the ceiling of the room instead.
“ D’you know Zinkenstill’s other name ? ——It’s Hermit Island ”, they start after half a minute of pondering, wondering how to most effectively convey the island they know as home. “ Not a lot of people visit, so we make do on our own ! The most harmless island you’ll ever see ”, or so people said. The people who didn’t know of the shrine in the woods, the people who didn’t know of the people with ties to it; people like Gran. Twice had the empire been there, thrice if the time when they were simply passing above counted. How strange that such a tiny island held such big meaning for some people. There’s a grin on their face, and no spoken words of everything that had happened in-between — because this wasn’t a question of that.
“ It’s quiet, and there’s not a lot of things going on, so—basically the opposite to the Grandcypher ”, because that, too, was home. “ But the people there are just as nice. I owe a lot to them. It’s kinda like...a big family ”, there’s some hesitation before saying the last words, a mixture of embarrassment over the honesty and conflicted feelings of the times when the villagers had told Gran the same thing whenever Gran had asked about their own family. “ It’s not the most exciting place, but the food is great, promise ! Hehe, there was a time when we didn’t have a lot of flour and we didn’t know the next time a merchant ship would pass by, so one of the townspeople... ”, trailing off on a story from long ago, finding it increasingly easier to talk about what Zinkenstill was like. There’s some mindfulness regarding the length of it as per usual, but since he had asked something like this should be fine, shouldn’t it? Zinkenstill didn’t seem like a lot to most people, especially not compared to the Grandcypher where things were constantly changing, but despite everything, it was the first place Gran would call home.