Ugh, fine, make him dig with a blunt instrument. Strange is aware of the awkwardness of it, this gentle probing, but he commits anyway, because what else is he gonna do —

“We’ve been world-hopping for weeks, and I hardly know anything about you. You’re a soldier? It seems you and Tony are close.”

It’s a point of curiosity, wanting to fill in those gaps, feeling out the edges of Provost Stark’s new life here and seeing what became of the former Avenger. There are multiple years to account for, and unlike home, no handy Wikipedia articles or newspaper headlines to read up on Thedas’ local heroes. He has to rely on good old-fashioned gossip, and he’s just not very good at it.