"Pudding and a nightgown, was it?" It's weird to him that he can even remember it from Vex's retelling, but it was such a colorful mental image that it seemed to have stuck. Vex had mentioned in passing that Pike and Percy had got drunk and pranked him. Yet of all people who ought to be able to appreciate a joke... It should have been a welcoming home, not disrespect. "You have literally shit in more inappropriate places than anyone I've ever known," Vax reminded.

But he heard Scanlan saying that wasn't the real problem. "I've often thought," Vax added after a beat, searching for Scanlan's eyes with his own," that you had life figured out better than any of us. And whenever I didn't know what the fuck I was doing, when I was so depressed I wasn't sure how to go on... I'd look at you, for a smile or a laugh, and I'd think, 'that's a reason to keep going. To try and find some of whatever Scanlan's got.' ...And that's just me. I can't imagine what it was like for Pike and Grog to watch you go off like that, but I know it would have broken all of our fucking hearts."