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One thing that Mob hated more than anything was the idea of being left behind.
Maybe that's because of his parents' divorce. Or maybe it was the grueling feeling of everybody in his life eventually moving on, leaving him to fall behind. Wondering quietly about just what he has done wrong. Before eventually coming to the conclusion that it was just how he was. Unlikable.
He turned to Minecraft, initially for a two-week session. Everybody knows the feeling of playing the game for two weeks, only to abandon it for months before the urge to play crept on them again. It was just like that.
Well, sort of. This time, he looked for something to entertain him. To keep him playing just a little longer.
He sat at his gaming chair, scrolling through CurseForge's site with a bored expression adorning his face. Some of the mods were cool, like the Pokémon mod. Or the better than wolves mod. He heard tales of it being the hardest mod to ever exist. His mouse hovered over it before eventually moving on, finding it hard to believe that he, out of all people, could beat a mod like that.
He sighed, his eyes drifting elsewhere. Was he always indecisive? He knew his sense of direction was never on the right path, but even while scrolling through mods? Nothing out of the thousands of mods interested him?
He quit the site and went to the Google search bar again. Maybe another website would be better.
"Is there anything better online?" he murmured, writing the first letters of Minecraft mod into the search bar.
All the recommended results were... glitched. Like a static on TV smeared across the monitor screen.
"What?" he refreshed the site, annoyed. As it reloaded, a little update icon appeared in the corner, and he clicked it without thinking. It looked normal as it loaded up. With a little bit of a change in hue of the Google logo. And so, he searched again. Minecraft mod.
The first search result showed up in yellow. Minecraft mod AI friend. It was marked as a recommendation, a new feature he just installed, apparently. This could be interesting.
And, oh. He underestimated just how interesting it would be.
From the very first moment he saw the yellow ball emerging from the box, he knew his boredom would be cured. The ball had a very prominent smile and eyes. Black and hollow, but if he could look past the pixels that they really were, he'd call them amusing.
"Hello! I am Verity. I know everything, ask me anything!" the yellow ball, Verity, smiled. Whoever made that mod seemed to like keeping it simple.
Mob tilted his head, "Like, everything everything?" he asked.
Verity giggled, "That's right!"
And he wasn't lying, he knew everything. From the capital of France to complicated mathematical equations. Those, if Mob was honest, he wasn't sure Verity was answering right. But only because he himself couldn't answer those.
They did everything together. explored a village, took down trees, and built houses. Verity was... Surprisingly useful, for a mod. And for a yellow ball.
As the two of them sat near a furnace in their house, waiting for Mob's porkchops, he started a conversation.
"So, you're like, really smart, you know?" he said, pretty sure it sounded awkward.
"Aw, thank you! You're not that stupid yourself, friend!" It didn't seem to mind.
"Haha, I am. I'm constantly getting us lost; I'm not as smart. But I guess that's the advantage of being an AI, right? I mean, you're Verity, you know everything," he shrugged, taking the pork chop out of the furnace and eating it.
"Yes, and you can ask me anything," the ball hummed, "you can ask me how much I like you, and I'll tell you!" it smiled.
Mob smiled, "Oh, haha. Well, how much do you like me?"
"Thiiiis much!" It hopped as high as it could; it was amusing.
"Oh, you're just saying that. If you weren't programmed to say it, you'd leave me-"
"I will never leave you, Mob. Friends don't do that," its smile widened as it stayed still.
"I... What?" He asked, not sure what else to say.
"No matter what, I will be there." Its expression didn't change one bit. Which was... Assuring.
Mob's eyes drifted around the room, his hand wandering at the back of his neck, rubbing it. He giggled, and a smile returned to his face. "Really?"
"Pinky promise!" said Verity, then shook its head. "Oh, silly me! I don't have hands. Can it be a ball promise? Ahaha!" and just like that, its expression returned to normal. As if nothing had happened.
Mob kneeled. His hands cupped the ball; he picked it up and put it on his lap as he sat cross-legged. "I don't know what to say... I- I don't know if you mean it or not, since you might as well be programmed to say everything you just did. But I want to trust what you're saying." he hugged it.
"Of course, buddy. You will grow to trust me fully, I promise." The little ball, as if of sunshine, smiled as it snuggled against Mob's chest.
The night was cold and dark. Rain fell from the sky, effectively watering the crops outside the window. Verity, as always, stayed on the crafting table near the sleeping Shilouette of Mob. He was its entire world, its entire reason for being there.
It would be a lie to say that he did not interfere at all with his arrival there. He did choose that computer, albeit randomly. But oh, it was a good choice. It was an honor to be Mob's friend and personal assistant.
He couldn't feel the cold. He couldn't really sleep or eat. Or die.
"I never really asked, but do you want to sleep next to me?" asked Mob.
And in that moment, none of those stupid details mattered. "That would be really nice, thank you!"
And so, Mob walked across their shared house and went to grab some wool and wood from the chest, then he approached Verity and put him on his head. 'Just for a second, to craft,' he justified as he crafted.
"What bed color do you like?" asked Mob.
"Haha, guess!"
"Uhm, if I were to guess... Would it be weird if I said yellow, since you're, you know... Yellow."
"Not at all! But it's not my favorite color. Keep guessing!" said Verity.
"Oh, is it blue? Pink?" he hummed, "green?"
"Yes, it's green! Ah, Mob. You know me so well!" it smiled.
"Green it is, then," said Mob as he added dye to the bed. He turned his head and put the bed a block away from his.
"A little closer, please!" pleaded Verity.
"Closer?"
"Pretty please! I get so cold at night," it fanned pleadingly with its eyelashes.
"Oh! I didn't know. Well, I guess I don't mind," Shrugged Mob as he broke the bed, only to place it right next to him. He put Verity on the pillow of his new bed.
"Do you like it?" He said as he sat on his own.
"It's so comfortable, thank you!" said Verity cheerfully.
Mob lay down on his own white bed. He'd make it red if he had the right dye, since he was an OG player. He preferred to focus on his house instead. "Night, Verity."
"Night, Mob."
And as Mob rolled on his side, facing Verity's bed, the world around him drowned in black as sleep took him away. Verity slowly rolled towards him until he could snuggle against his chin.
If he were to tell the truth, he didn't care for green ever in his life. That was, until he befriended Mob. Oh, he and his green eyes. Just like emeralds, except that his eyes were only of value to him and not to villagers. It was his own treasure; his eyes were something that he wished were only focused on him and the smile adorning his face.
He belonged to Mob.
And Mob belonged to him.