"Worried she'll flatten me to paste, more like." He turns his head to the side and grumbles an aside under his breath with a practiced performativity. Okay, so it's obvious to anyone from Leona to Zaboera that he li- that he. Look, Avan already has enough he can tease him about! Look at that silly bastard face on him! He doesn't need more ammunition!

"Oh, sure, I guess. The other Disciples of Avan, Old Brass, everyone in Papnica, Merle, Crocodine... Once you fight side by side with someone and realize they want to protect something just as much as you do, it's impossible not to think of them as friends."

He definitely wouldn't have become as close with any of the amazing people he's met if he kept on cowering behind them or outright running... All right, now he has another reason to whip Avan the Nerd into shape. To be fair, he makes being a weenie look ten times better than Popp ever did but it's not like that's stiff competition.