"Well. It's... big." He says it in the tone of someone reaching for a compliment. "The builder is certainly competent. And not Sapnap or Karl."

"...I'm not, like, attached to the place as a regional identity or whatever, man, it's not home, I just live here. If you hate it and think it's creepy how quiet it is you can say so. —This house is the one I'm staying in." 

"I don't hate it. It's well-built. Whoever made it did a good job. But it's not--it's not a home, it's not a country, it's like--a huge elaborate set piece. Las Nevadas feels more real than here does, and even that's not--people care about Las Nevadas. This place is--it's irrelevant. It's a mimicry of, of all the places people actually care about. As though if they just make it pretty enough no one will notice that, that it takes more to build a country than just a place to sleep at night."

In his house there isn't much in the way of personal belongings. There's Schlatt's jacket draped over a chair, Wil's headphones on a desk.

"...yeah. That— yeah." 

Wilbur didn't ask for his feelings about Victors' Village or the months he spent with just him and Rosario and empty spaces that couldn't and wouldn't be filled by either of them, and Wilbur didn't ask for his feelings about the city of Dessa and the years he spent in dorm housing with roommates and friends or the fact that if he's lucky he will never see his home again, and also Quackity doesn't want to get into it. So he doesn't. 

"I'm— I mean, my home is a city with two hundred thousand people. I— I don't know, I kind of wondered if this is just, what it's like when a country only has four people in it?" 

"It isn't. It really, really isn't. Even Las Nevadas isn't. People are-- scared, now, of having a country, of having something they care about, because they think it'll get blown up by some--psycho. So they don't. Not that I'm--helping matters."

...he's pretty sure Wilbur was going for charmingly self-aware but actually maybe they should both be sitting down. Quackity leans on him, not quite enough to be a hug but enough that it could be a hug, if Wilbur wanted it to be. 

"Nobody in Las Nevadas seems to even like each other." This is not quite what Fundy said but he's not really sure he wants to repeat what Fundy said without testing those waters. 

"You should've seen L'Manberg, man. It was--the people there cared about each other, about it, about--us. It wasn't--stunningly beautiful, there weren't builds like this--but it was ours. It was everyone's. People were--friends. We were family. There were good times, you know? We had fun together. There was something there. That's why everyone's trying to copy it, they miss it. I get it, I do, I miss it too. But without the people, without the soul of L'Manberg, it's just--it's just empty.

I should--I lied to Tommy about it, I told him that I didn't care, and that's not--I'm gonna be honest with you, Q, that's not quite true. L'Manberg was--it was a lot of things. But people cared about it, good or bad, people cared. No one cares about, about Kinoko Kingdom."

Sapnap sure seems like he cares. 

...he's less sure about anyone else. He still hasn't talked to Karl. He's... not entirely sure what it would look like for Karl to care. George might care but he's asleep, and also George. 

"I wish I could have," he says, instead of that. "It sounds—" but he doesn't know what it sounds like. It sounds kind of impossible. If it were a country, a proper country, it would be really impossible, but even as a house it sounds a little bit impossible. 

"Tommy still--he still loves it. I don't--I don't know about everyone else. But it's not--it's not something you forget. You can ask them, if you don't believe me. --Not Quackity, Quackity wasn't part of it until Schlatt, but Tubbo or Niki or Tommy or--hell, ask Fundy or Eret--it was something, man. It may have been an old drug van but it was more than that, more than--all of this." Sweeping gesture at Kinoko.

"I do believe you. —I've had friends, you know? I've had family. I know you don't forget that." 

"Yeah.

What were you going to show me here? Or just, like, this is Kinoko, it's where I'm sleeping?"

"So the first thing is that I'm kind of looking for projects and one of them was learning how to play guitar and you're the first person I thought of to ask about that. The other, uh, the other is that I—" why did he set this sentence up so he'd have to say the other thing out loud— "the other thing is that I get really bad nightmares and I wanted to see if having someone else with me would help. You can tell me no, I won't take it personal." 

"Sure, yeah, of course. --I'll need to, um, let Phil know. And I don't--own a guitar anymore, you'll have to, um, figure that one out."

"I bet I can figure it out with enough trial and error. —Thank you." 

"No problem, man."

The next few weeks pass mostly uneventfully!

Making a guitar takes some trial and error but less than making elytra, especially once Q remembers he can do things like "ask someone what guitar strings are made of". Having Wilbur around does help— not enough that the nightmares stop, obviously, but it's better. He manages to sleep through the night, mostly, when Wilbur is there, and to not wake anyone else up the nights he doesn't. 

True to his word he visits Las Nevadas to hang out with Fundy. Fundy is genuinely cool! Also he's the most promising lead Q has found so far on friendship, that helps too. (Speaking of leads on friendship, does Sapnap by any chance want to teach him how to fight?) 

He wasn't wrong that he was still going to have leftover time but he's working on it, and not really used to not doing things. Being good at sewing is probably not going to happen fast but circle skirts are, reportedly, extremely easy, and he's not exactly lacking time to practice. And, of course, there's Wilbur, and even without any specific projects— they can find plenty of ways to fill up time, if they try hard and believe in themselves and have a bed right there. 

Sapnap totally wants to teach Quackity to fight. Sapnap is lonely and bored and loves fighting. He's not a great teacher, but he's a patient one, and he genuinely enjoys both Q's company and the excuse to fight.

Wilbur spends chunks of the month helping Q learn to play guitar, but it doesn't take long for him to start withdrawing, spending more and more time locked in his room at Phil's or wandering the server at night instead of in Q's bed. It's hard, not doing things, except for when it's easy.

He does start formulating a plan.

On July 25, 2021, exactly one month after Wilbur had promised one month of staying away from Quackity, Wilbur talks to Phil, and walks to Las Nevadas with Ranboo trailing behind him.

And Q, who was in Las Nevadas to see Fundy, thinks, wait, shit. Has it been a month? 

It's been a month. Shit. Also, fuck. 

Hm. Toll booth is blocked off. Guess he has to go around.

--Oh! Q!

"Hey Q! I was just--showing Ranboo around, picking his brain, learning more about him. Did you know, he was part of the old L'Manberg government?"

"I didn't! We haven't really had much chance to talk. Hey, Ranboo." 

"Oh, uh, hi Q. You're the one who...isn't Quackity?"

"Yeah, that's me. What are you guys up to?" 

"Starting a burger van."

"...right. Would that be the project I signed up to help you with however long ago that was, or is this a different thing?"