In the arctic, another Wilbur checks his comms. 

On the one hand, it could be a prank. It's the sort of thing people would do.

On the other hand, _V63 is the suffix Q has. It could be him. Doesn't he want to make a good first impression?

On the third, most compelling hand, he doesn't want to move or do anything that isn't staring at the wall, and it's basically impossible for him to make a good first impression anyway, and one of him was already quite enough, thank you very much, and--wait--if Q's Wilbur is here, then Q won't need him anymore, he's just the copy, the extra--

That thought is enough to leverage him to his feet, even if he doesn't know what to do with it. Paradise is closer to spawn than the arctic; if he aims for spawn then Q will beat him, and if he aims for Paradise Q will probably already be at spawn by the time he gets there. Fuck. Fuck! 

He has to try. (Try what? What are his goals here? What can he do about any of this? He's already on the train tracks. Everything is moving too quickly. He can go to spawn, and--and what's he going to do about it? Kill his double? Ha. He can go to Paradise, and talk to Q, and--and what? Convince him to stay away? Escort him politely to Wilbur's doom?)

He sits back down, heavy, on the bed. Wants to scream. Doesn't. Takes a deep breath. Stares at the wall. If he doesn't leave this room, he can pretend that nothing changed, that nothing will change. He hates himself, for the cowardice of that, and it's almost unbearable, but everything else sounds worse. He's used to hating himself, by now. He stares at the wall and breathes and hates himself and tries to pretend that nothing has changed, that nothing's crumbling down around him.

In the fake desert on top of a tundra, Quackity checks his comms.

Wilbur got other-Quackity, for--well, a lot of reasons, but a big one was Quackity screwing up his first impression. (Not his fault that Foolish--not the point. The point is he's got another chance.) Wilbur's not at Paradise right now, which means he's probably in the arctic, which means Quackity can get to other-Wilbur first. Only fair. He starts walking. Not running. He's calm, he's got this.

Meanwhile: Wilbur is in a forest. Sort of. There are chaotic half-built structures scattered around, and walls, and a small fire. It's phenomenally ugly. Wilbur can get out of the walls if he tries, but he'll probably have to do a bit of climbing.

In a set of buildings that pretends to be a neighborhood that claims to be a country, all of which look like mushrooms, the other Quackity checks his comms too. 

Quackity_V68 whispers to WilburSoot_V63: hi!!!!

He can do a bit of climbing. Mostly. He's not, like, good at it, but he can get out of the walls. He can probably even do it before anyone else reaches him. His comms buzz, once, but he's not looking at them. 

The first one to get there is Quackity. He doesn't look quite like the Quackity that Wilbur is used to seeing: he's wearing a white button-up with a red neckerchief, suspenders holding up slacks, and nice-if-scuffed leather shoes; he's a bit older, a bit less thin; he's not wearing any makeup; and he has a long, ugly scar, going from beneath his lip to his left eyebrow, his left eye milky at its pupil.

He blinks a couple times at Wilbur's scars, taking the other man in, and then he relaxes into himself and smiles--a salesman's smile, but not without genuine affection.

"Hello, Wilbur! Pleasure seeing you here. I know you're probably confused right now, how's this, we can go for a walk and I can tell you what I know? It's not very much, apologies in advance."

Much like the other Quackity, this other Wilbur is a couple years younger than the one Quackity is familiar with. He's clearly not the Wilbur from Pogtopia, though— there's the scar, and a white streak in his hair where the scar hits his hairline, but also he looks like he regularly eats meals and lives in an apartment with a shower rather than in a ravine. 

"I am definitely that," he agrees, affable but distant to match the salesman's smile. This can't possibly be his Quackity, can it, they saw each other two days ago, but who else could it possibly be—? 

Then they can walk down the Prime Path. No particular destination in mind, just something to do. "About--a month, month and a half ago, a fellow appeared here by the name of Quackity. He looked--kind of like me, but also not like me, a bit younger, didn't have the scar, face full of makeup." Gestures to his face. "Not in a, a this is my backstory way, this wasn't me. It was someone else, with a different history, not, not from here like I am. Just like you aren't the Wilbur I know from here. Like I said, I don't know very much. I don't know how or why any of this has happened. But if I had to guess I'd guess you're, you're like him. Whatever happened with him, that's what happened with you."

Himself, and Quackity. Immediately he wonders who else has a version here. If he can get in contact with Techno again, if he needs to worry about S or Snow or the head of Victor fucking Affairs or— 

He wonders if the same thing happened to this Quackity's eye. 

"I suppose that's as plausible a theory as we'll have," he says, instead of that. "You're from around here, then, you know the place?" You know the local Wilbur?  

"Mm, I'd say so. I know it enough. I've lived here for--a bit less than a year now, which is more when you keep in mind it was only really founded a few months before that, and I've been--near the center of a lot of things. There's a few people who know it better than me, but I'd say--I'd say I know the place. Why? Got any questions about it? Tell you what, I'll answer best I can."

Then here, whatever here is, was founded a year ago— and this Quackity is a few years older than his own— but, he reminds himself, with a different backstory. Different histories. This isn't the future of his Quackity, he's something different, something sideways from that. You can't infer how the project is going to go from him. You can't. You can try to feel out the edges, and you can see if there's a Technoblade to get in touch with, and that's it. 

"I suppose to start, what was it, exactly, that was founded a year ago? What do you mean by center of a lot of things?" 

"This" --Quackity spreads his arms out-- "is the Dream SMP. All this land, this place, that's what it's called. Founded by Dream, of course. That's what was founded over a year ago. Other things got founded since then, but to be honest, a lot of them have been destroyed, and they were all--part of this server, part of this server's history. I was--heh--a lot of stuff has happened here, Wilbur. A lot of it because of you. Your double. That, that's what I was in the center of. Gogy, he may have been here first, but he slept through our history." He's walking with a destination in mind, now: the crater. Lots of things are more dramatic to talk about with the crater right there as illustration, and Wilbur's got even more of an appreciation for the dramatic than he does. At least the Wilbur Quackity knows does. It's a safe bet that this one will be the same. "Back in L'Manberg--the country you made--I ran against you in the elections, I was Vice President, and then after you died I was in Tubbo's cabinet. --Excuse me, I know it wasn't you, I mean--the Wilbur I know. I fought against Dream, against Technoblade. When the Egg started spreading--long story--I helped lead the resistance at the banquet. And now I've got my own country. Let's just say it's been a busy year."

Well, that is a lot of information he has no idea what the fuck to do with. 

He's taking inventory as they walk, putting pieces— putting people— together in his head. Dream founded the place, Dream who loves his handler team more than some people love their mother, can't trust whatever he remembers there; there's a George around and as disinterested as ever, not a surprise. This other Wilbur founded his own country— he should ask someone later how and when and where and what's happened to it, what's going on with Techno, what's going on with Phil, why he'd have been in charge of the operation there. Quackity ran against him in the elections, was maybe his vice president— reassuring, really, that the elections went well; Quackity doesn't say it like it's the sort of thing that would be dangerous. He doesn't say it like there was anything at all strange about either of them running. What does that mean, for this place, he wonders? Was Quackity his vice president or someone else's, he isn't sure that Quackity would be his first pick for a right hand but it isn't as if other ideas exactly spring to mind, really the strange thing is that either of them ran at all— and then Tubbo's, but maybe this Tubbo is older, certainly him picking Quackity makes more sense— this Wilbur is, apparently, dead now, which is some number of things which Wilbur is not examining right now— Quackity fought against Dream, fair enough though he's curious how, and Technoblade, which he really can't imagine but presumably there was context, unfortunate how there's really not a delicate way to ask. Whatever the resistance might mean it must have been successful, or Quackity wouldn't be admitting to running it; he'll have to ask what the Egg might be or mean. 

"Fascinating," he says, and means it more than he could say. "You've got your own country? That must be quite the undertaking." 

Quackity tries not to preen too visibly at the compliment. He's cool. He smiles but shrugs, tries to play it nonchalant. "It's, you know, it definitely can be." They've reached the crater; he steps out onto the bridge, just a little bit, turns around. "You see this crater? This is what used to be L'Manberg."

(It is a fairly impressive crater, as craters go, but it is definitely not country-sized. It is, like, small town sized at most.)

...huh. He wasn't imagining that whatever country he had set up and Quackity had helped run in the land Dream founded was the size of Panem, of course, that would be ridiculous, but he was imagining something more like a large town, or possibly a small district. This crater doesn't look like it's even the size of District Twelve, even if you only care about the town at the district's center and don't count the mines. 

It is certainly an impressive crater, as craters go. He can't say he doesn't appreciate the dramatic flourish. "What happened to it?" he asks, this being the question Quackity is obviously fishing to be asked. 

"Wilbur happened. We rebuilt. Then Techno and Dream and Phil happened. --I guess Techno also helped Wilbur the first time, but that wasn't--" He shakes his head. It's weird, to be talking about Wilbur, with Wilbur looking at him. "You can still see a couple things in the ruins--part of the apiary survived, somehow--but most of it, most of it's gone. Past the point of no return."

Part of him, immediately, thinks, oh, well that's alright then. Which is sort of true and also sort of not. If he and Techno and Phil all thought it needed destroying then they were probably right; for all the things he's ever held against Philza, that isn't one of them. But how did it get that bad, that fast? How badly must the rebuilding have gone, if they had to destroy it a second time? 

He needs to find Techno. He needs to find his own Quackity, who is apparently here, has been here for a month, and loop him in on some of Wilbur's plans, and explain them, maybe, so things don't have to go this disastrously wrong. He needs more information. 

"What was it like? Before— before Wilbur happened, and before—" He gestures, expansively, toward the crater. 

"...I wasn't there for it at the start. I, uh, before Wilbur happened, I was--" Did they have a Schlatt? Yes, they did, because on the first day Q dropped Schlatt's Jacket. "When Wilbur ran the place, it seemed mostly pretty nice, except for the walls--there were walls, all the way around it, to, to keep people out--and you and Tommy didn't let me join 'cause, 'cause I was Mexican. I wanted to change it, that's why I ran, I didn't want to destroy it. But then Schlatt won and--I was his vice president, you know, I tried to keep a handle on things--first thing we did was we took down the walls, and, you know, I stand by that--but he, uh--he didn't really like listening to me. So after a while of trying I left, I joined Wilbur in exile, we fought against Schlatt, we won it back. And then, Tubbo had just finished his acceptance speech and--" Half-turn towards the crater, gesture with one arm towards it. "--Wilbur took it all down with him. If I can't have it, no one can, that's what he said."

...he fucking what. 

Everything after but then Schlatt won, and I was his vice president sort of tunnels. Not that he doesn't hear it, but that it all goes on the back burner. He can find out the appropriate way to feel about those other things later; he knows that shuttered-off look. And if there is one thing Wilbur knows about Quackity, it's that he has always, always pretended Schlatt was better than he was. He didn't really like listening to me is probably true but if that's as bad as it was Wilbur will eat a shoe, and in the meantime he would like to dig up his alternate universe self to kill him again. 

"I'm so sorry." 

Quackity shrugs. "The way I think about it, it had to happen, to get me to who I am now, you know? Can't just get rid of the bad stuff and still have me be the same person. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm still mad about some of it, I don't forgive them. But I can either sit around feeling sorry about it or I can move forward."

Where has Wilbur heard that one before? Trick question, he knows exactly where he's heard that one before. At least this Quackity is willing to admit to being mad about it. 

Maybe that comes with time. Or maybe it doesn't. Product of different circumstances, he reminds himself, halfheartedly; it doesn't work very well. 

"I suppose that's a way to look at it," he says, looking again out at the crater, this being the most enthusiasm he can muster in response. "—and you went from that to having a country of your own?" 

"Yeah. I mean, it's--I could give up, roll over, let Techno and Dream tell me what to do, 'cause they think they're so strong. Fuck that. Or I could try to build back up, get more powerful, on my own terms. Stop being people's vice president. And, hey, Dream's in prison, Las Nevadas isn't a fucking crater. So I'd say it's worked out pretty well for me so far."

File that under statements that tell you quite a lot, but not the way the speaker thinks they do. 

"No, yeah, of course, I just mean— that's really cool. Good for you, man." 

Damn it, Quackity, you are not falling for this. You've fallen for Wilbur Soot and his nice voice and his compliments before and you are not doing it again. You are the President of Las Nevadas and this is just--a random new member who you're maybe sort of trying to recruit.

Still, it's nice to hear.

"Thanks. Tell you what, Wilbur, how about I show you around? Around Las Nevadas, I mean."

"I would like that." He smiles— not the photoshoot smile, but the one he reserves for not-quite-candids. "Lead the way?"