Hook nodded. "Overprotective father?" he guessed with a little grin. Oh yes, he'd seen that many times before.

"That, and something of an isolated bubble of kingdoms," Violet said. "But yeah, mostly overprotective father. With twelve daughters, he had to be."

"Twelve?" Hook whistled. "That's quite a brood of children." He grinned. "I pity the man."

Violet grinned a bit and shrugged. "My three oldest sisters have one mother, the five from me on have another, and the last four have their own. Our father remarried a couple of times."

"Then he either never learned or never had to deal with you all," Hook said dryly.

"We had a governess," Violet admitted. "Until Maria was old enough to look after us. But we saw our father frequently as a group."

"As a group, huh? Doesn't much lend itself to bonding time." The comment was quiet and casual.

"There were too many of us," Violet said. "To spend any stretch of time with us one on one wouldn't leave time for anything else." She was quiet for a moment. "Maria got bonding time, I'm sure. And Gillian, and Anne. I got a little. But after me, there were just too many."

Hook nodded, staying quiet. Really, it wasn't his place to poke at wounds like those.

"Well, you said you've never seen a ship like this. How about a tour?" He flashed her a grin. He was bored, and he didn't see the harm in showing her a few things.

Violet blinked and brightened.

"Really?" she asked. "Just like that?"

"Why not?" Hook grinned. "Might be fun." He got up and waited for her decision, already mentally mapping out what he could show her without harm.

Violet grinned and hopped off the barrel gracefully.

"Sure," she said.

Hook led her up on deck and gave her a bit of time to explore and check things out, keeping pace a little bit behind her.

Violet did explore, a little, though she tried not to touch anything. Even though everything on deck seemed mostly harmless, it was still his ship, after all.

"You're not going to hurt anything," Hook said with a snort. "This ship has certainly seen more than one girl climbing all over."

"I don't doubt it," Violet said as she gently dragged her fingers across a couple of surfaces. "Force of habit, I guess. I grew up around magic, so I learned really early that just about anything can possibly have magic in it that may or may not like being touched."

Hook made a face at that. "No magic on this ship or attached to it," he said. "The only magic I use comes in beans."

"Beans?" Violet asked. "Like magic beans? I've heard of those, my tutor mentioned them once when I was little."

"Quite useful things, they are," Hook agreed. "But apparently there are no more now." He shrugged. He wasn't too concerned with that at the moment.

"What do they do?" Violet asked. "It was never really covered in my studies because we never had any."

"They open portals between worlds," Hook said. "Easiest way to travel, especially for those of us without magic."

"Wow," Violet said. "And these things just... grow out there somewhere?" She made a mental note to start taking magic lessons again if she ever got back to the kingdom. Apparently there was still a ton she needed to learn.

"Giants grow them," Hook said. "They're difficult to get, and fetch a very high price." He shrugged.

"I wish I could do proper research here," Violet said. "I can get my hands on everything from gourmet cooking to building a rocket, but nothing about magic or giants or anything like that."

Hook chuckled. "Not here," he agreed. "I wouldn't know how to start researching things like that, though. I'm not much help with magic."