#Like it starts out cause of Lancelot or cause someone in his diorama hits on Octavius (to which he is oblivious)

[waggledoogledoggle]

Ok but just imagine for a sec;

Jed puts his hat on Octavius because he’s talking to Lancelot and Jed is still very protective/jealous abt that and in ACTUAL cowboy culture, putting your cowboy hat on someone essentially means that they’re yours. Not in an “i own you” way but in a “they’re mine/off limits” way. It means you mean a whole lot to them and also that everyone else needs to keep their hands off and their eyes away cause they are yours

like lowkey, its essentially claiming them as your spark publically, and is lowkey a pretty romantic thing to do especially if the recipient knowns the real meaning

however, internet culture only knows one of the very minor options of what it means (as in it rarely means this) which is the “save a horse, ride a cowboy” meaning

So Nicky sees Jed plop his hat on Octavius’s head and he is just flabbergasted

because holy shit Jed that is not appropriate

So Nick takes Jed aside and is like

“Dude you can’t do that”

“Do what?”

“Look, I know about the cowboy hat rule, and it’s cool if you wanna do that, but you can just say you want to go and do that in front of everybody like that, especially if Octavius is in mid-conversation”

And Jed just looks at Nick so confused because what the fuck is he talking about so eventually he winds up asking

“ok, Nick, wait a sec, …what do you think the cowboy hat rule is?”

“You know… ‘save a horse, ride a cowboy’…?”

“…EW NO NICK NO”

“No?”

“NO THAT AIN’T WHAT THAT MEANS AT ALL”

“Wait really?”

“YES! Ok, only on the rarest RAREST of occasions does it ever mean that! Where did you even learn that!?”

“The internet!- oh I see my mistake now.”

Idk that idea is just funny to me