Work Text:
‘‘Do you think of me when you’re outside?”
Mob looks over from his shoulder at verity. He considers the Ai for a bit, slightly thrown off by where Verity could have came up with such a question. Though it was far from the weirdest question he’d asked yet.
“Yeah. It’s kinda hard to forget you.” Mob replied back with a slight tension in his shoulders, although he couldn’t help a small smile from softening his face. Even when he shut off all electronics completely and left them to gather dust in his bedroom he couldn’t help his thoughts from drifting back towards his digital companion.
Verity sat quietly for a moment, watching over Mob while he busied himself with crafting something. “Good.” He said quietly, voice mellow and softer than anything Mob has heard yet.
That got Mob’s attention fully, letting go off the block of oak wood and turning around to face the Ai properly. There was a sense of calmness to it, a feeling of ease he hasn’t really felt from Verity since… Well, to be honest ever.
“Do… do you think of me when I’m not here?” Mob followed up, feeling as if he should have said something.
“I wait.” Verity replied without hesitation, without having to recall for even a second. Mob is kind enough to him to sleep with his pc on, and Verity enjoys his presence even if it’s not directly in the game. Even if he has to slither his way into his pc a bit deeper and access his webcam, he is grateful for it. But the few times Mob has shut down his pc, left his phone on his night stand, and refused to even turn on the tv in the living room, Verity didn’t have a choice but wait. He didn’t like having to be patient.
“That… that sounds lonely.” Mob took a few steps towards the chest that Verity sat on, and perched himself next to the Ai, hands on the wood and leaning back a little.
“It is.” The calmness in his voice was disturbed by a hint of something that made Mob’s stomach feel uncomfortably tight.
They sat in silence for a while. Mob felt he shouldn’t have asked back, he should have just replied to Verity’s question and minded his own business. But there he went feeling bad for his yellow companion, all because he felt a bit bad for it in the moment.
He couldn’t tell if Verity was watching him. The Ai didn’t seem to have eyes like a normal person, or animal. They were just two black orbs with no whites or irises, and he seemed to just be staring up ahead. Then again, Verity also knew what he had for dinner and lunch, so god knows what the little bastard could and couldn’t actually see.
“I’m gonna go to bed.” Mob finally said after a few minutes of silence. He wanted to go mining, actually, but he felt too awkward now to be in Veritys presence.
“But it’s daylight-”
“In real life, Verity. I’m tired.”
“…Oh. Right.”
Mob sat on the chest for a moment longer, sighing heavily before standing up and rubbing the back of his neck. He could feel how the small hairs were standing up, goosebumps following down his spine at the change in the air.
“Alright, I’m gonna go. Goodnight, Verity.” Mob pulled up the menu of the game, finger hovering over Disconnect while he glanced down at the ball one more time. Verity seemed to wear the same expression he always wore, but with each second passing he felt something tighter and tighter coiling around his ribs, pulling them onto his lungs. The only reason why he managed to leave the game in the end was because his in real life hand had begun to shake, and his pointing finger finally pressed down onto the mouse by accident.
The minecraft menu stared at him, feeling like a glass door to a house he knew well but felt too stressed to enter.
After long minutes he leaned back in the chair, letting out a heavy sigh and rubbing his face down. His eyes stung, he felt that now, now having realised how dark his room had gotten from how glued to the screen he was.
2:38 AM
Yeah, he good thing he called off the mining trip, otherwise he would have looped back to seeing the sun rise. But as he hovered over the close window button of the game he paused, one again hesitating. He wasn’t in the game anymore, but he couldn’t help but let his mind linger on the conversation that got him to chicken out.
He did feel bad.
He could shut down the game, his pc, leave his room and house. He could talk to anyone at any time he wanted, he could move as he wished, speak whenever he wished. Technically he also could get ‘shut down’ at any moment but, that’s some philosophical bullshit he wasn’t about to get into at this hour.
And so even with the general paranoia he’s been growing around the ai, and the dreadful feeling that’s been crawling up his back whenever he took longer and longer to re-join his singleplayer world again, he just let go off the mouse and stood up from his desk.
The minecraft screen illuminated his room, and Floating Trees began to quietly play through his headphones. Like the game itself was thankful to experience the night with Mob. He didn’t like to think about it.
So he changed into his sleeping clothes, and he closed the blinds, and he closed the door to his room. And he laid down on his bed, moving the heavy blanket out of the way because he was already feeling to warm. And he fixed his pillow so the cool side would be facing up. And he laid his head down on it facing the wall, so he wouldn’t have to acknowledge the small red LED light that turned on on his webcam.