“—That’s public record, there’s a replica of the original van in the museum, I’m not—I mean, it’s something most people know, I wasn’t there for it. You can ask me about history if you want but I, I have memory issues, I don’t know everything. I mean, I don’t know a lot of things. The van is—I mean, it’s pretty common knowledge.”

"Oh-- yeah, no, I wasn't, I wasn't gonna ask. Like I said, kind of fraught. Just, you know, heads up, I don't have all the context for stuff, I know I don't have all the context for stuff." 

“Right. Yeah. Cool. …Eret’s probably a good person to ask if you ever do want to, they run the museum?”

"Huh. I might check them out, that's good to know." And Ranboo might already know this but he should at least try to reciprocate... "Wilbur's mentioned them a couple times, to me, I-- know something happened there, I've been trying to avoid, you know, bringing it up, when he's around." 

Ranboo has a... vague idea of this. Probably about as much as Quackity does. He knows Eret betrayed L'Manberg and a lot of people still have grudges and it's in the anthem. Either way, though, he's grateful for what it represents, that Q's giving him information and advice. "Thank you, I appreciate the heads-up. Yeah, that's--that's probably a good idea."

(He's also making a small building of stone and white concrete; it's not very tall and Ranboo has to hunch a little to enter.)

After a moment of silence: Wilbur is back! His arms are full of poppies and roses, which he hands off to Ranboo.

"How does everyone here feel about thievery?"

Normally, he would say without hesitation that he is against any sort of crime. This is clearly the wrong response in this circumstance. 

"...tentatively supportive depending on what you've got in mind?" 

"I’m going to steal Las Nevadas’ cows to cook into our burgers. And I’m not going to rebreed them. I’m going to simply kill them."

Q, who used to apprentice in accounting and data analysis at a cattle farm, is exquisitely aware of just how much that is not how fucking anything works. 

He does not say so. See, he's learning. 

Instead what he says is "...so, I might be totally off base here since I'm used to cows working very differently, but if... rebreeding... as easy as that makes it sound, is there a reason we can't just have our own breeding population." 

"Absolutely we could. That's not the point, the point is to steal just enough that it's annoying."

"...right. Okay, I, I see the vision." He can pick that fight later, if he wants to pick it later. 

"So you're not--you're not going to steal all of them, just some of them? That's--okay."

"Tell you guys what, I will even-- how about this-- I'm gonna steal the cows, unless they have a sign or something marking them property of Las Nevadas, property of Quackity, whatever. Then I’ll leave them alone. Okay? So if, if they have an express sign that says 'do not steal, please,' I’ll leave them alone. But if not--"

He does not like that tone of voice. He does not like that tone of voice at all. 

"Right," he says. "Yeah, I— okay. Right. I just, yknow, we might want to have our own, closer, so we don't have to go in every time? But for the first little while, yeah, I see the vision." 

"Sure. Yeah. Let's go see if there's a sign."

Okay. Then they can check if there's a sign. He knows full well, because he's been coming by and hanging out with Fundy every few days for the last month, that there isn't one. But they can check, and Q will be so so outwardly normal about it, even though he's way more fucking nervous than he's been either with Wilbur or on Las Nevadas land before. 

No sign. There is a chest, though.

"Huh."

He opens it and sees... Stacks of steak and wheat! Score. He doesn't even need Ranboo's sword.

"Yeah, pretty good! Ready to go! --Is that enough red for you, by the way?"

"Oh--um, yeah, I just need something to put the red on, that's what I'm struggling with."

"Oh, cool, yeah, I can--I can go find you some wool. There's got to be some around here--does anyone have a sheep farm?"

Ranboo shepherds the three of them back towards the half-built skeleton of a building. "There might be some just in the chests around? Did you know I found a full netherite block in one the other day? It was very interesting."

"Wait, really? Huh. --Do you have shears? Or just two bits of iron?"

"Hm? Yeah, sure." Shears. (These aren't enchanted.)

"Great, now do either of you have any idea where I can find sheep...?"

He lets himself be shepherded. "No clue." 

"Best bet is to find wool in one of the random chests laying around. Or string, actually, and then make that into wool."