“I—wouldn’t know, I’ve never really experienced the alternative. And for most of its experience I wouldn’t know, I wasn’t really part of it after…” They trail off. 

"...yeah. Fair enough." 

"...If you have more specific questions I can answer them. Or I can, uh, show you the rest of the museum. I'm--sorry I can't be more helpful."

"I—" 

Deep breath. 

"I. Was hoping I could learn the context on Tubbo's execution, and about Wilbur's suicide. —I, I can ask someone else if you're not up for it, I just—" 

"I--wasn't there for Tubbo's execution, I can tell you what I know but I don't know very much. I know that Technoblade did it on Schlatt's orders.

Wilbur... Let me show you the other, the other control room."

This room doesn't have a sign outside labeling it. The writing inside reads: MY L'MANBERG / A VERY BIG AND NOT BLOWN / MY L'MANBERG / NEEDN'T FRET WITH WILBUR / TOMMY TUBBO FUCK ERET / I HEARD THERE WAS A / SPECIAL PLACE WHERE MEN COULD / GO EMANCIPATE THE BRUTALITY / AND TYRANNY OF OUR RULERS / WELL THIS PLACE IS REAL YOU / UP L'MANBERG / MY L'MANBERG.

"Wilbur--After the final control room, L'Manberg fought back, Wilbur built his force back, they built everything anew. They held an election, and, uh--JSchlatt won the election. JSchlatt, I believe, if I've got my information correctly, was under the influence of Dream, and they worked together to-- expel, all of the main L'Manbergians, like Tommy and Wilbur. And out in the wilderness alone, Wilbur went insane. I can show you their base, Wilbur and Tommy's, Pogtopia, it's--covered in these buttons. But this one was different. Wilbur came into this room, pressed this button, saying my line, the line I said when I pressed the button in the final control room, it was never meant to be. And just like that, L'Manberg blew up. But Wilbur--Wilbur survived the explosion. Phil had to kill Wilbur. It wasn't--I don't believe it was a suicide."

Technoblade. Notably, not Quackity. Which— doesn't mean Quackity didn't help. But it's something, anyway. 

"Hm." He's staring at GO EMANCIPATE THE BRUTALITY AND TYRANNY OF OUR RULERS like this will convince it to reveal its secrets, like how on earth Wilbur got away with writing that— or, well, maybe he didn't, if someone killed him for it, he doesn't actually remember whether Wilbur specifically said he'd been trying to die or if he just reacted to Q's Wilbur's thing in a way that implied it— or what the word 'emancipate' means. "Why do you say Schlatt was under Dream's influence?" 

"They fought together, in the--in the war, at the end. I think they'd been talking before then, there was--some stuff I don't know the details of, that Dream was, cagey around. I--wasn't very included in a lot of conversations at the time. But Dream is--often behind things like that." Eret does not say I would know, he was behind me, but they think it before they're able to redirect their train of thought to something more useful.

"...huh. I wouldn't usually say Jonah Schlatt sucking needs someone to be behind it, but—" and he cuts himself off before he can get too bitter. "Anyway. Why did Phil have to kill Wilbur, do you know?" 

"--Jonah? I'm sorry, I'm going to be honest, I've never heard anyone use his first name. I'm not sure I believed the J even stood for anything."

"I mean, he didn't really use his first name, just used the initial when something really needed it, and if I hadn't spent two years living with him I wouldn't know it? But he did have one.

Or, mine did. Maybe yours didn't and the J was just a J, who knows. But, the Schlatt I used to know, his first name was Jonah." 

"Jonah Schlatt. Huh. --Right, yes, you had a question. Phil killed Wilbur because he blew up L'Manberg, I believe?"

That isn't really an answer to the thing he was trying to get at but he isn't sure how to phrase a question to get an answer that would be. 

...also, Eret might be wrong. It kind of sounds like a lot of this is guesswork and assumptions. 

"That makes sense," he says. "Was Phil part of L'manberg?" 

"--I don't think so? He wasn't really--here--before then."

Yeah, he's increasingly sure he was right the first time and Wilbur's death was, in the meaningful sense if not the technical one, suicide. Not, like, sure sure, but pretty sure. 

"Right. So—" He gestures towards the writing declaring the rulers, whoever those might be, to be brutal tyrants. "How did Wilbur get away with saying that? —if he did." His bet is on the story having been went insane but he wants to check—

"--It's the L'Manberg anthem."

"It's— what?" 

It's weirdly incoherent? Actually Panem's anthem is in Latin and Q has no idea what it says or if it means anything, maybe it's not weirdly incoherent, maybe anthems are just like that. If the brutal tyrants in question aren't actually rulers of a country Wilbur was part of or in then it makes marginally more sense but only marginally. 

"Or, I mean--pieces of it, it's not in order, but that's what it's from. I heard there was a special place, where men could go emancipate / the brutality and tyranny of their rulers."

"...I guess if you get the independence you can say whatever you want about your former rulers." 

Not that he's thinking about brutality, or tyranny, or anything. 

"They were-- pretty outspoken about their views on the Greater Dream SMP, yes." Not that they're thinking about the next line containing fuck Eret, or anything.

"I know the country doesn't exist anymore, was Wilbur blowing it up the end of it, then?" 

"No, actually! They tried to rebuild one more time and then Dream came back and finished them off."

That does make more sense of how Ranboo having been in its government could have been a surprise to Wilbur. 

"Speaking of Dream, why is he in prison?" 

"Ohhhh boy." Small laugh. "He put Tommy in exile--it was a bit of a long story, Tubbo was involved, but I'm pretty sure he was under Dream's manipulation at the time--and he, uh. I don't know all the details, he didn't exactly allow visitors, but I'm-- pretty sure Tommy attempted suicide there because of Dream."

...it does not sound right that someone who ran a country would be put in prison and is now okay to torture because he drove an exiled teenager to suicide. Dream seems to have been killing people with impunity before that, he destroyed a country, that doesn't make any sense. 

...except that this is a world where six people can demand independence, and get it. Even if they're not good at fighting. Where if you have Technoblade around and he hasn't destroyed you he must be on your side. 

"Was that, like— the last straw for a bunch of people, or something? I mean, it's definitely a fucked up thing to do, it just— sounds like he wasn't really worried about consequences for anything else fucked up he did—" 

"It wasn't-- I don't actually know if he was put in prison right away from that, I don't think he was, but it's--what the earlier straws were made of, it's why everyone agreed he was a bad guy, that he should be there. The last straw was just--he tried to kill Tommy and Tubbo again, and instead of letting him get away with it again, the server all showed up and stopped him and put him in prison."