"I guess not him him. The version I used to know was a death arena survivor too, his arena was a giant maze, he built a hang glider to get off the ground and see the whole thing and later to get off the ground so he could electrocute everyone else, he's the reason I knew it was doable." 

"Makes sense. I mean--he's Philza Minecraft. Even if he is in a weird alternate universe."

"Youngest victor in the history of the Games," Q agrees. "These days I think he mostly does infrastructure stuff, a few years ago he figured out something important that I don't understand with maglev trains and they redid half the railways." 

The smile drops off again when Quackity says trains.

"...Huh." He sounds vaguely strangled.

"I mean--I mean--great! Great! I'm happy for him!"

Yeah, still sounds strangled.

...ah. Right. Yes. Totally inordinate amounts of train station. 

"You good?" 

"What? Me? Yeah, totally! Totally good. What about you, how was your day."

Quackity has not gotten this far without being able to tell when someone doesn't want you to keep poking but wow he does not want to get into how his day has been. "Not super interesting. I miss my friends but, you know, what else is new." 

"Makes sense, makes sense." He... does not actually have much to say either. The mood's all wrong to go back to bragging about sex with Quackity, and he slept through most of the day. "I think Tommy's off building a railroad too." Might as well share while he's so generally choked up that it's hard to tell the additional choking. 

Yeah, Q can still tell. Sorry, he's paying attention. 

He reaches out to take Wilbur’s hand and says "It continues to be weird that that's a one-person sort of project." 

Holding hands is weird. It's overwhelming and too much and at the same time it's not enough at all. He squeezes Quackity's hand hard, and that helps a little, makes the contact feel more real and less like static electricity. 

"We could make something, if you like. Show you how it's done. It's gotta be something that'll piss off the other Quackity, though."

He squeezes back, just as hard. "Man, he already fucking hates me, I don't know why you think we need to piss him off more." 

"It's fun. Gives me something to do, you know? A goal. Pretty sure goals are good for you."

"...Goals are good, yeah." 

"Why d'you think he hates you?"

Well, there's the part where he talks to me like Schlatt did and dragged me around by the hair until I implied he might care about me at which point he dropped me in disgust, and the part where he generally looks at me like you'd look at a dead rat in your kitchen? 

"Do you... not? He isn't being super subtle about it." 

Honestly, he hadn't really paid that much attention to how Quackity was looking at anyone other than him, and he wasn't there for the dragging him around by his hair. 

Not the point. There was a second question there.

"No, I mean-- why does he hate you, what reason does he have."

Yeah. Still, though, it's a little hard not to think it. 

"...not sure."

That's only a little bit true. The disgust only came out when Q was scared; before then, other-Quackity just thought he was stupid. What are you gonna do, cry about it.

"Hm. Well, I'm pretty sure he doesn't hate me."

Shrug. "I couldn't say whether he hates you. I'm not sure if, like-- not that it doesn't matter but I don't think he hates me about you, you know." 

“I suppose. Anyway, if he already hates you, where’s the harm in giving him a reason to?”

Look, if you want him to treat you like Schlatt treated me, you can ask, and on your own head be it. He doesn't say that. 

"I guess there isn't much of one. I just-- I mean, I would rather he not hate me? Giving him a reason to seems like it would make that difficult?" 

“Why do you even care if he hates you?”

Because he tortures people. Because he goes out of his way to give me nightmares on purpose, for no reason other than that he hates me, and he tortures people. Because he's me, sort of, in some sense. Because I don't want to have to live with the knowledge that even I think I don't deserve to exist.

"I generally prefer people not hate me. Especially when there aren't very many of them around and my options are limited." 

Wilbur considers this. 

“Quackity, if you’re going to work for me, you need to trust me. I’m not here to force you to do anything. If you want to walk away, you can. Do you trust me?”