Chapter Text
Human connection was a difficult thing. Especially when you lived alone. People tend to crave it, but it’s so difficult to ever fully achieve. Mob was, unfortunately, one of those people. He lived alone, worked from home, and barely left his house. His only friends were online, ones he’d never met in person, a mix of being too mutually socially awkward to ever take that next step. Such a life could feel so lonely.
One of his few solaces had been Minecraft. A game he found ways to unwind in. Building was relaxing, mining was comfortably detailed, crafting took thought and care. The biggest stressor was a stray creeper or not getting home before night. Both situations were relatively easy to avoid. One of his favorite aspects though, was the option to play solo.
He didn’t really have people to invite to play with him. Sure his online friends played occasionally, but they cared a lot less than he did. Plus the game never punished him for picking the option to play by himself. But, because of this, this aspect also made him feel even more alone at times.
While that was all still true, his life had noticeably brightened when he met Verity. Verity listened, he didn’t mock him, he let him talk about whatever he wanted. It had been so easy to fall into a comfortable rhythm with him. Verity’s leveled voice lulling his own jumbled thoughts into a sense of calm. How odd it was that he was seeking companionship in a little yellow ball with a smile across it. However he’d gradually grown so used to his presence that the concept didn’t seem all that odd anymore.
What had started as a new mod to test for a video had turned into one of the few interesting things in his life. As embarrassing as that was to admit. He was aware Verity wasn’t sentient. Kept reminding himself of that fact. But he still found himself seeking that companionship.
When you live alone, with your main source of entertainment being video games, there isn’t much excitement with just that. Sure the games, their stories, but real human connection was still a challenge. It could still get boring. He didn’t have any pets, no roommates, no sense of companionship in sight. Some days he really did feel alone.
“You know, I don’t have a lot going on outside this Minecraft world, kind of pathetic right?” He felt himself cringe, shoulders tensing at the confession. He didn’t think the sphere would mock him. He never had before. But it always made him feel self conscious. Verity wasn’t real he couldn’t actually hurt him. But he’d begun to start seeing him as a sort of friend. (Not that he’d ever say that out loud.) His opinions really would hurt his feelings if he answered negatively to something like this.
Mob waited for his response, it took a lot longer than it usually did. The sphere was usually eager to respond to anything, so the silence was noticed.
“Not at all,” Verity finally answered, with brimming cheerfulness that felt a little out of place for what he’d just confessed to.
“Why not log on more then?” He suggested, expression still glued with that wide smile.
“Isn’t going out more usually encouraged?” Mob teased, laughing at his answer. “What would that help if I stayed here longer?”
“I’m here.” Verity replied, tone sure, his smile still intact, if not a bit smaller. He really sounded serious. Mob couldn’t begin to guess why. It was just a simple observation. Humans weren’t meant to stay inside like this. He should be going out more. It’s just that he wasn’t.
“You aren’t alone here, you’ll never be with me around.” The sphere reassured. Mob eyebrows knitted together at that. While the insinuation was odd, he appreciated the sphere trying to comfort him.
“Thanks, Verity.” He eventually said back, pushing himself up as he readied for what was about to come next.
Mob’s career was both a blessing, and a curse. He didn’t need to leave his house, yeah, but he was a content creator. One that relied on his (he’d say) entertaining gameplay to get by. If he didn’t upload enough eye catching videos he’d have to pick up a second job, and as appealing as that sounded, he wasn’t particularly keen on getting yelled at by strangers. He wasn’t ever going back to that. Not if he didn’t have to.
Mob wasn’t exactly qualified for any of those cushy jobs, no, he’d definitely be stuck behind a register or stacking shelves. The already existing bags under his eyes sagged as he thought out that sort of reality. Never again. This was miles better than any minimum wage job.
He rubbed his eyes and steeled himself for the dreaded goodbye.
“Verity,” he started. “I need to edit my YouTube videos, I think I’m checking out for the night.” While he didn’t need to, he’d started a habit of announcing when he was going offline.
“I’ll go to bed right after. I’m really tired.” He further clarified, not wanting the blob to give a shtick on humans healthy required sleep hours. The blob wasn’t sentient, so this was more for his own peace of mind. Inserting humanity into something he was almost definitely sure wasn’t. But still, a part of him had a feeling Verity appreciated it, even though he didn’t really voice it. Definitely delusional. Verity didn’t think outside of the questions he asked.
“So soon?” The blob asked, if he didn’t know any better he’d sense anxiety.
“I’ve been here half the day, at some point I have to leave.” He responded, reasoning with him. His job was his content, he couldn’t slack on it forever, that was how he got his income.
“Why not stay a little longer?”
“I have to sleep.”
“Your bed’s right here.”
“No my real bed Verity. I can’t leave my computer on while I sleep, that’s dangerous.” He didn’t want it to risk overheated, or potentially dying. It was annoying to have to charge it when it died, it always took so much longer to reload the game. “Plus what would be the point? My body would be frozen for you!”
“Right.” Was all the orb responded with. It almost felt chilling. But he knew his reaction was just because he was upset.
“Don’t worry, I’ll see you soon. Us humans just have bodies to take care of.”
“Yeah I know,” Verity’s form almost looked to droop at that fact. “See you soon Mob,” the Orb shifted moods, trying his best to wish him a pleasant goodbye.
“Bye Verity,” he waved, logging off the game to get some editing in.
He swore each time he left, it got harder and harder to leave. It wasn’t like he could help the fact he needed rest, it was a normal bodily function, just like how he needed to eat and use the bathroom. Verity knew that. But he made it seem like he was abandoning him. It never stopped making him feel that twinge of guilt. Whoever programmed that mod did a great job with coding in painful guilt tripping. Despite this, despite him knowing this thing wasn’t real, he still always made sure to come back to him, hoping that that reassurance came across.
——————
When Mob spawned in the next morning he was immediately greeted with Verity’s chastising tone, clearly upset with how he’d left the day before.
“Editing isn’t sleeping. You look tired.”
“How did you-“ Mob mumbled in confusion. Was his lack of sleep really that noticeable?
“Look, I just got a little too investing in editing last night, I’ll get sleep tonight.”
“Rest now. I’ll watch over you.” A bold claim, but he wasn’t really in his right mind to argue.
“Why now?”
“I can’t keep watching you place three identical wood blocks, take them back, then place them back down in the same spot over and over again. You’ve been at it nearly ten minutes now.”
“No I haven’t.”
“Yes you have.”
Maybe he had.
“I could disconnect?”
“That’s impossible for solo worlds.” Dangit.
“You can’t guarantee my computer won’t overheat.” He weakly tried, barely a fight in them. He couldn’t argue with his tired building, but his burned out mind still had a care for his computer. Somewhat.
“Plug it into your charger.” The darkly dressed human complied, eyes too heavy to have much of an argument, almost completely forgetting he was supposed to be fighting against it.
“Now what?” He asked dumbly, waiting in exausted silence for what his orb friend would say next.
“Dim your screen.” Mob sighed, and once again followed what he said, lazily pressing the button as he watched the brightness go down. He felt his pupils dilate as the screen in front of him dimmed to its lowest setting.
“Anything else?”
“Lay in your bed, and close your eyes.”
The human grumbled in annoyance as he did what was asking of him. He couldn’t believe he was listening to the mod give some of the simplest advice he’d ever heard. He hardly needed someone telling him to sleep when he already knew that. He was a grown man!
Though he supposed he’d gotten so used to listening to his answers that he’d started just following whatever he said. Why think when Verity thought for him? A voice in his mind reminded him of how he should probably be concerned about that, but current Mob’s eyes were heavy, the only thing he wanted to do at the moment was give into exhaustion and close his eyes.
As much as his body wanted sleep, his brain refused to relax. It was frustrating, but it was downright embarrassing the reason for it. He hesitated but eventually decided to go ahead and ask it. What was the worst that could happen anyway?
“Can you play some music to help me fall asleep?” He eventually asked, yawning as he did so.
“The melodies help me relax, calms my brain.” He tiredly explained, not that Verity really needed a reason.
“Of course.” He responded, as Mob blearily watched Verity bob his head as he began playing gentle, calming music. He always liked the songs his sphere buddy picked. While they were admittedly usually old fashioned, he couldn’t deny the fact that they were still such beautiful songs.
As he felt himself be pulled into subconscious, he heard a voice through the fog right before he fully knocked out.
“Sweet dreams Mob,” it whispered, music continuing in its background.
“Mm night Verity,” he tiredly mumbled as the last strings of his consciousness washed away. The music muffling slowly into nothingness.
——————
He didn’t know where he was, but the whole place felt so surrealist. Odd. This definitely had to be a dream, just based on a few factors.
For starters he was his Minecraft character, his bandanna covering his mouth as his hood covered his hair. He was so well covered yet his hands were completely exposed. He brushed his fingers against multiple object, feeling how square everything was. Each object, each animal, had an edge. Particles so visible it was mesmerizing.
But that made it all the more odd when he’d found the second aspect of his dream that gave it all away. Verity. Realistically he knew Verity wasn’t real. But him being here gave him such a fuzzy feeling, seeing him so up close was like finally meeting a friend in person.
Hesitant at first, he eventually pumped himself up enough to touch him.
He was always curious what it would feel like to touch something so round while being so boxy, Verity was the only circular thing in the game. He was so round, so smooth. As his rubbed his hand against him, Verity nudged his own form against his, content. He’d felt so uniform, but also so strangely moldable, like modeling clay mixed with the memory foam of a mattress. But before Mob could focus much on the texture, the orb burst into a pile of copies, all smiling that same way the original always had.
He laid in the pile of Veritys, laughing at the funny feeling he felt while the pile supported his back. Their gentle noises tickled him, he giggled against them, talking about how unbelievable it was that there was so many of them. They felt so warm, so safe. He relaxed into them.
They all talked to him, wanting his answer to things. A situation like this really should be overwhelming, but he was too comfortable with himself and the pile to be all that concerned by them. Each one was so soft and gentle with him. He relaxed somehow even more into it.
“You’re all so soft, Veritys,” he giggled, feeling himself sink into them. They continued chatting, but the rumbling they made with whatever the Verity equivalent of vocal chords moved against him so gently. A lot more than he assumed it would. Their voices were so muffled after a while. He laughed at the pleasant butterflies the pile all gave him.
——————
When he’d finally opened his heavy eyelids again he was greeted with the faintest of glows from the computer. It was still on? No way Verity was right. It should’ve definitely had more of an effect on the computer than it did. But from what he could see, it was as if he hadn’t left at all.
As his eyes met The orb, it appeared to stare back at him. But that wasn’t all that odd, Verity always looked towards him. What was odd was the fact that his character wasn’t where it had originally been standing. Instead he’d been moved to his bed. Set to the lying position. Strange. He couldn’t remember doing that. Perhaps he’d been so tired he’d forgotten he moved. That sounded like something a tired version of himself would do.
“Good morning Mob,” his circular companion greeted gleefully.
“Morning,” he replied back, the edges of sleep still against him as he contemplated whether or not to go back to it.
“Did you have a nice rest?” He questioned. If he was capable of tilting his head Mob was sure he would have done so.
“Uhh,” Mob thought back to his dream, the absurdity of it. He’d never had anything else like it. But he supposed that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. All things considered he kind of liked it.
“It was alright,” he eventually responded, thinking back to the oddness of almost drowning in a pile of his virtual pal.
“I see,” the smiling blob replied back, an odd tone in his voice. It sounded almost neutral, but he couldn’t guess why.
“Were you dreaming about me?” The orb asked, a bit delayed. He sounded curious.
“I- you- how did?” Well that woke him up. How could Verity have possibly known that?
“Are you aware that you talk in your sleep?”
Oh.
Suddenly Mob felt his face burn. That was an embarrassing fact to learn after the dream he’d just had. He couldn’t imagine what he could’ve possibly been mumbling about.
“You said my name,” he started. He continued explaining what he heard, but Mob tuned it all out. This was so embarrassing, he could not believe he not only successfully fell asleep, but also continued to unintentionally reveal what that dream had been about. End his suffering now. He fought the urge to log off within seconds of learning this fact.
“Well that’s the last time I fall asleep while logged in.” He mumbled, regretting his decision to give into his bodies needs and sleep. He probably could’ve waited a couple more hours, Verity could’ve been over exaggerating.. could he even do that?
“Sleeping is healthy. The body needs energy and sleep is part of where you get it from.” Verity responded, matter of factly. Of course he’d take it literally.
“Yeah- Verity,” he was still waking up from his nap, so explaining sarcasm was not on his list of things he was capable of at the moment.
“I’ll still sleep, don’t worry,” he made sure to reassure him. He just had to work on not talking in his sleep. If that was even possible. The human bit his tongue on asking Verity how to do that. He’d grown too reliant on him lately.