Archive of Our Own

The sun was shining brightly above Mob’s head as he read his book, a breeze passing by and causing his hair to flutter slightly and his loose shirt to shift. Wow, it’s a really nice day today—

A beach ball suddenly came down and smacked him across the forehead, causing him to drop his book and his sunglasses to get knocked askew. Mob let out a yell. Beside him, Verity, who was rubbing some sunscreen onto his skin, looked up in surprise as Mob fixed his sunglasses and glared toward the pool, straight at whoever had thrown it.

Grox grinned at him, waving. “Heeeeey, can you pass the ball back?” he called.

Verity reached behind him, grabbed the ball, and threw it over them. It flew a bit through the air before flopping down at the farthest side of the pool, but Grox didn’t seem to mind. He and Froggy immediately went diving after it like it was some grand prize they had to win.

“That’s mine!” Froggy said as Grox got to it first.

“Nuh-uh! This is mine, bro. Get your own ball.” Grox hugged it against his chest as Froggy let out a whine.

“Bro,” Mob grumbled under his breath, eyeing Twixxel, who was just floating on his back at the other side of the pool, not even caring what the fuck was going on around him.

“Do you want me to put some sunscreen on you as well?” Verity asked beside him.

Mob rolled his eyes, glancing at Verity, who was eagerly looking at him with the sunscreen lotion in his hands. He looked so fucking excited at the notion of touching Mob. Good lord, he was so weird.

If he’d been a puppy, his tail would be wagging excitedly by now. Fucking freak—

“Like I said, bro, hell no. I ain’t letting you touch me. I’ll do it myself,” Mob said, snatching the lotion from Verity’s hands.

Verity just pouted at him, staring at him like a fucking soggy wet cat.

Suddenly, Mob found himself splashed by water, his book getting drenched as he nearly dropped the lotion. He let out a gasp at the cold water touching his legs and turned toward the pool to see Grox grinning up at him. Behind him, Froggy was bouncing the ball off Twixxel’s head repeatedly and catching it, while Twixxel continued to drift around in the water, doing absolutely nothing about it.

“What the hell, bro?! My book!”

Mob threw the lotion back to Verity, who caught it clumsily with a soft “oof” as it hit his chest. He held onto it with a pout while Mob grabbed his book and waved it around, trying to get the water off the covers.

Grox just grinned up at him, holding onto the edge of the pool and leaning against it.

“Did you have to do that?” Mob grouched at the wither skeleton hybrid, who only grinned wider.

“Join us, bro. Take a dip. Come on, dude. Stop being a bitchy bitch.” Grox splashed water at him again, making Mob glare. “I told you I don’t want to take a dip. I don’t have spare clothes on me,” he said.

“I can make you one!” Verity butted in with a grin. Mob immediately raised a hand in front of his face to stop him from talking. “I’m not talking to you.” Verity’s grin turned into a sad pout as Grox snorted, looking over at him before turning back to Mob.

“Come on! Dude! Freaking play with us, bro, stop lousing around! Verity worked hard for this pool, bro,” Grox whined again as Mob rolled his eyes. “Fuh no, bro,” Mob said again.

Twixxel finally swam over, a small grin on his face, his hair plastered all over his face. “What’s going on here, bros?” he asked, also leaning over the edge of the pool and propping his arms up as he heaved himself out of the water slightly to look at them properly.

“Mob doesn’t want to take a dip with us,” Grox whined, pouting.

Twixxel raised a brow. “Well, duh. Of course he can’t handle water well.”

Grox blinked at that for a moment. Then he clapped his hands together, splashing water everywhere. Mob flinched again when the water hit his skin. “Oh, I forgot!” Grox said. Mob gave him a deadpan look, his lips pulled into a thin line.

How can this idiot even forget that he’s an enderman hybrid? God—

Later, Mob found himself walking down the gravelly, sandy path back home. The other three had already left the world to rest up, too tired to continue with the rest of the day after wasting most of their energy swimming and playing around in the water.

Behind him, Verity followed, letting his favorite music play through the air as Mob walked slowly, the blond trailing behind him with a slight skip in his step.

“Hey, Mob,” Verity calls from behind him. Mob slows down a little, tilting his head to the side to meet the other’s eyes. “What is it?” he asks.

“Do you want to hear more fun facts?” Verity moves closer, their shoulders brushing slightly. Mob inches away, his lips turning downward. Verity takes that as an invitation to get closer. He moves in again, until their arms are completely touching. Mob immediately shifts away once more, and this time, Verity stops.

“Do I have a choice?” Mob asks, giving Verity a look. Verity pouts. “You do!”

“So?” He tilts his head. “Do you want to hear it?”

Mob rolls his eyes. “Yeah, go ahead. Whatever.” He waves a hand dismissively, and Verity immediately grins. “Fun fact: you blink up to 28,800 times every single day.” He raises a finger as he speaks.

Mob glances back at him with a strange look. “How would you know that?” Verity grins. “I know everything, silly.”

He gives Mob a big, fatass grin that makes his head throb with annoyance—though, admittedly, not as much when he isn't looking at a yellow piss-colored ball with a pasted-on smile that never changes.

If he blurs his eyes enough and fakes it till he makes it, he can pretend Verity is just one of the players he met on some random server. “Yeah, alright, bro,” Mob says, turning away as he continues walking.

Verity follows behind him, still wearing that excited grin. “Did you know that bones are stronger than steel? At least five times stronger?”

Mob sighs. “I never knew that,” he says, trying to play along.

It’s been a while since Verity had technically gone crazy on him—or anyone, for that matter. In fact, he’s been pretty fucking chill ever since.

Mob doesn't really know what made Verity become so calm. I mean, the guy had been fucking insane beforehand. He'd threatened to kill Mob's friends several times, to the point that Mob had stopped the other three from visiting for an entire month, just in case Verity actually planned to fucking kill them.

With Verity, it’s hard to tell whether he’s joking or being completely serious. That’s one of the things Mob fears most about the piss ball. But recently, something has… kind of changed.

For one, Verity is now in some new body—or new form, maybe? As far as Mob knows, Verity only has two forms. The first is his original—or at least what Mob assumes is his original—which is the sphere-like ball body he first met him in. The second is the weird, freaky, bony thing that’s somehow ten feet tall for some fuckass reason.

And then there’s the newest form: the human-looking one. Mob actually prefers this one over the first two. For some reason, ever since Mob had commented on Verity’s… uh, “looks”—or the lack thereof—Verity had apparently cooked something up and created the body he’s using now.

A yellow-blond, six-foot-tall man in his early twenties, wearing large, thick, circular glasses. He has on a loose-fitting brown cardigan with pastel-yellow buttons, a dress shirt underneath with a yellow vest fitted over it, brown slacks, and brown loafers.

You could almost call it perfect.

He has no moles. He does have freckles—he used to, anyway. But when Mob pointed them out, they were gone by the next day, which was strange but not exactly out of character for Verity.

He'd made himself a conventionally attractive guy.

And look, Mob isn't shy about calling anyone attractive, okay? Even if it's some fucking AI that almost killed him and his friends.

Verity really did pick a nice-looking body. One that made him look almost harmless. Maybe that's why Mob has been slightly more chill with him lately. Not that Mob hadn't been chill before. But getting chills and shivers whenever Verity was in his ball form was almost always creepy as hell.

Maybe it’s because Verity looks completely out of place around here. Or maybe it’s because his face reminds Mob too much of the darkness—the monster that used to loom over him, always prepared to control him.

Whatever Verity did wasn't completely forgiven. At least not by Mob. He'd done a lot of shitty things. And Mob still hadn't fully healed from all the crap he’d pulled.

But this new form of his does make it a bit easier to get used to being around him. Though… there is one problem.

Mob stood by the door, holding a box full of garbage, probably from Twixxel since he’d been staying around a lot recently. Right now, Verity was back in his ball form, smiling up at him excitedly as Mob gave him a frown, already feeling a bit uneasy seeing him in his ball form again. He knows damn well that changing forms doesn’t change shit. Verity is still that shitty, evil, manipulative bastard that they all know and hate—not that Mob can do anything about it without giving Verity another victim to emotionally manipulate.

But it really does make him feel better seeing something familiar instead of… not.

“Hi, Mob! Do you need any help with cleaning the trash around your house?” Verity asks in his cheerful voice, grinning up at him as Mob gives him a look, tilting his head slightly to the side and giving Verity an uncomfortable side glance. He walks past the ball, which immediately bounces after him, following him.

Mob still doesn’t understand why Verity has to go back into this ball form of his. “Aren’t you tired of bouncing and rolling around?” Mob asks as he stores the things inside a spare chest.

“Of course not,” Verity replies.

Mob lets out a hum at that, not even caring about how he’s throwing everything inside, not bothering to stack any of the stuff or items together as he glances back at Verity.

He really should be upfront about this. Verity isn’t one to dawdle around the topic, either. Mob really does prefer seeing Verity looking like him instead of his ball form—or that weird, evil, freaky boney look of his.

It’s not like Verity would say no, right? He’s done nothing but follow Mob around and do whatever he wants. Something about being such a people pleaser. And Mob may or may not be using that to his own advantage to get what he wants. If Verity gets to stay around them, he should be getting something from it, right? I mean, this guy is the most dangerous fucking thing ever, and Mob is letting him sleep on top of the crafting table right next to his fucking bed every night. 

He deserves to have this at least.

“Look, bro—I don’t really like you rollin’ around and stuff around here.” Mob clears his throat.

Verity seems to perk up at that, looking slightly confused as he tilts his spherical body in a way that resembles someone cocking their head in confusion.

“What is that supposed to mean, Mob?” Verity asks, looking confused.

Mob sighs. “Can’t you look human like us? I don’t like you looking like…” He motions toward Verity with his hands. “Like?” Verity prompts, confused.

“Like that. Ball-looking—you really look like you’re not supposed to be here. You make me feel uneasy if you look like that… and all.” Mob shrugs. Verity falls quiet at that, his smiling face turning serious as his lips pull into a thin line. Mob winces internally at the sight.

“Oh…” Verity trails off, looking away for a moment before meeting Mob’s eyes again.

Suddenly, Mob feels nervous. Why? He has no fucking clue. The silence coming from Verity is strange, and it usually means that he’s about to go crazy and mad and go bonkers on him, turn into his other form, and try to eat him or something.

But then, Verity grins, perking up. “Okie dokie!” he says.

Mob’s eyes widen. “What?” he says dumbly.

“I said okie dokie!” Verity’s grin widens as he bounces up and down excitedly. And Mob just blinks at him stupidly.

He’s fine with it? Mob assumed he’d at least take offense to it or fucking… manipulate him into feeling guilty by telling him that he was being forceful about what he wanted and didn’t care about what Verity wanted or some shit.

“You alright with that?” Mob asks, tilting his head as Verity simply rolls to the side.

“Of course I am. You asked for it, of course.” He says it with a confused expression—almost innocent, if it weren’t for the fact that Mob knew what kind of person he really was.

“I—uh—you’re not taking offense that I just admitted I don’t like you looking like that?” Mob asks again.

Verity rolls around for a second. “Nope.”

The fucker sounds a bit too glad for someone who was just told that looking like a ball made Mob uneasy and uncomfortable.

“Oh…” Mob says, relief instantly filling his veins as he lets out a soft sigh. Thank god. “Good.”

Verity smiles at him excitedly. “You make a fair point, anyways! I can help you better with both hands and feet!”

Mob can’t say enough how relieved he is that Verity is actually agreeing with him.

“...Right.” Mob trails off, unsure of what to say. It’s not like that’s his main reason for wanting Verity to change into a much better and kinder-looking form.

Then Verity suddenly bounces out of the room, heading toward the bathroom as Mob watches him go. “Where are you going, bro?” he asks.

Verity swivels around to face him. “Changing to your preferred form!”

Mob’s eyes narrow slightly at that.

He hasn’t actually seen how Verity turns into his other forms. He usually does it out of Mob’s sight, or just never does it at all. How does it actually work? As far as Mob remembers, whenever Verity turns into his freaky-ass monster form, he leaves his ball body behind. Is that how it works with the human form too?

Mob doesn’t remember ever seeing Verity’s ball body lying around when he transforms, though… “Can’t you do it here?” he asks.

That causes Verity to pause. He doesn’t face Mob for a few seconds before finally turning his body toward him. For some reason, his smile looks strained and unsure. “Well, it’s not that interesting!” Verity comments.

Mob frowns at that, suddenly feeling suspicious. “So I can’t watch you change?” 

Verity’s eyes widen. “Oh! Well—” The yellow ball starts sweating a little. “It’s not that interesting or great to watch… er—why do you want to see it?” Verity asks, sounding unsure—and… uncomfortable?

Wait.

That’s a first.

Mob doesn’t think he’s ever heard him sound like this before. In fact, he’s never heard that kind of tone in Verity’s voice. Usually, it’s just that stupid fucking cheery, annoying tone he always uses that seems to grate on Mob’s nerves every time.

“Why can’t I? I mean, you watch me change my clothes every time, you freak.” Mob shoots back.

Verity seems to frown at that, his body sagging slightly at the comment before he bounces back up again. “I don’t think you’d want to see how it works…” Verity says, sagging once more. He looks—and sounds—unsure as Mob stares at him.

Wow. This is new. It must be fucking crazy if Verity is telling him this…

“Oh—huh. Well, I guess it doesn’t matter. I was just really curious, I guess.” Mob shrugs, rubbing the back of his neck.

Verity perks up at that. “Really? Oh! It’s okay. Anyways, I’ll be back! Don’t do any heavy lifting! I’ll help you. I’ll be back very quickly.” And with that, Verity rolls away quickly as Mob watches him, crossing his arms over his chest with a soft huff.

Well, that went better than he expected. He really was convinced that Verity would kill him or yell at him or something along those lines.

But for some reason, he’s pretty damn chill about it.

Mob hums, turning back toward the chests before continuing his work. He ignores Verity as he shuffles the stuff inside around, trying to at least give everything the semblance of being properly organized and clean.

Verity comes back with a grin on his face, skipping on his feet, before pouting when he realizes that Mob has already finished his work. He crosses his arms over his chest. “I thought I said that you should wait for me,” he pouts, whining as Mob turns to him.

“Bro, you’re taking too long. I ain’t waiting for someone as slow as you.” Mob raises a brow. Verity lets out a small whine. “It was barely ten minutes!” he argues, stomping his feet like a kid as Mob rolls his eyes. “I could make a hundred sandwiches with how slow you are, dude.”

That causes Verity’s pout to deepen. “Changing forms isn’t easy. It doesn’t take me two seconds to do that,” he says, and Mob scoffs at that. Why is Verity acting like it’s so hard and such a big deal? He should be faster anyway. What if Mob needed his help? Wasn’t he a helper for that very reason? Because he was supposed to be faster than normal players?

Well, Verity should consider fixing that, then. Besides, he could do anything, right?

“I’m sure you can find a way,” Mob comments offhandedly as he walks past Verity, not bothering to look at his face to see what expression he’s making. His stomach rumbles, and he figures it’s probably time to start making dinner.

[...]

When Mob wakes up, the sun is barely shining through his window, the blinds slightly open from the wind coming in and causing them to flap. The fabric gets caught on his shelf, keeping it open. For a moment, he stares at the window, blinking softly, before adjusting himself where he’s lying. He moves his pillow slightly beneath his head before turning toward the bed in the other corner, which Verity is using to sleep on.

By sleep, Mob means where Verity can creepily watch him sleep since he doesn’t actually need to.

Only to find out that it’s empty.

Well, that’s concerning.

In a flash, Mob sits up, quickly feeling uneasy. Verity has no reason to leave his bed in the middle of the night, considering his favorite pastime is to watch Mob sleep (this freaky bastard, I swear to God), so this is strange. For him to just disappear on Mob like this…

“What the fuck?” Mob mumbles to himself as he quickly vaults out of bed, fixing the blinds by his window and shutting it gently before walking toward Verity’s bed. Maybe he just turned back into his normal ball form.

He flips around the blanket and pillow, not seeing any familiar yellow ball lying around, before eyeing his shut door and letting out an internal sigh.

He really has no choice, does he?

As much as he wants to hide under his blanket and pretend nothing is happening and that everything is fine, he’s uneasy about leaving Verity alone without knowing what he’s doing. In a way, he and Verity are keeping an eye on each other. Verity does it because… er—he cares about Mob? And Mob does it because he’s scared that Verity might pull some heinous shit again while he’s turned away, especially around his friends.

When Mob steps out of his room, the hallway is dark, slightly bathed in the yellow light from the living room. Mob tends to leave a single lantern on at night so he won’t have a hard time getting around in the middle of the night if he needs to go to the bathroom or maybe get a midnight snack.

Verity isn’t anywhere around here…

Mob looks around before eyeing the bathroom, where he can see light coming from underneath the door.

What is he doing inside the bathroom?

Mob blinks and shakes his head in confusion. Thank God he’s just in the bathroom, but what the fuckity fuck is he even doing there? He’s never been this confused in his entire life. Verity doesn’t even need to use the bathroom.

Mob walks toward the door, staring at the shut door for a moment before carefully grabbing the knob and twisting it.

It’s locked.

“Mob?”

Mob flinches when he hears Verity call out.

God, that scared him a bit.

His heart jackrabbits faster than normal as he lets out a shaky breath. The knob rattles slightly before it turns, the door unlocking as Mob looks up at Verity’s face.

He looks a bit pale and pained.

“Yeah… what are you doing up in the middle of the night?” Mob asks as he watches Verity place a hand over his chest, almost as if he’s holding onto it in pain. His face twists slightly before it’s covered by a small smile.

“Just checking something. Nothing too important. I should be asking you the same thing.” Verity gives Mob a small pout, tilting his head like a dog.

Mob looks at him strangely before scanning his body, still noticing the way Verity is holding his chest. Though he doesn’t look pained anymore, Mob doesn’t easily forget an expression that Verity never makes at all.

“I got woken up by the window. You didn’t bother fixing it,” Mob lies, and Verity’s face twitches a bit at that. For a moment, he’s quiet. “Sorry—I’ll try to be better next time… I didn’t notice that,” Verity says as Mob gives him a look, eyeing his face and waiting for him to make another hurt expression. It’s like the kind of expression someone makes when they’re injured.

Beep!

Beep!

Beep!

Beep!

Mob startles, looking around as Verity does the same, his face shifting into an expression Mob can’t read or even understand. “What the hell is that?” Mob asks, looking around. Is it his communicator? Verity remains quiet in front of him, swallowing hard as Mob pats his waist where he usually straps his comms, before remembering it’s inside his room—which means the beeping sound isn’t coming from his communicator.

What the hell?

“What is that?” Mob asks, turning towards Verity, who’s refusing to meet his eyes. Instead, he looks around beside him as Mob gives him the most confused look he can manage. Does Verity know about whatever the ever-living fuck is beeping so loudly?

“I—I’m not sure,” Verity nervously chuckles as Mob eyes him suspiciously. He looks around a bit more, even spinning in place before turning back to Verity.

“It’s not a bomb, right?” Mob asks, and Verity’s eyes widen.

“No! Of course not! I would know if there was TNT around your home! I would never let that happen at all!” he says, panicked, but Mob’s eyes only narrow.

“Right… well, fuck it—I’m going to sleep. If I wake up with my house gone, consider yourself locked in a chest for a whole month.” Mob points a finger at Verity, who gasps, pouting.

“What? I would never! I will not let that happen at all!” Verity argues, but Mob just waves a hand at him and heads back to his room, yawning again.

What the fuck is that sound? That was weird…

“Come on! Pass it to me, Verity! Why are you so slow?” Grox urges as he raises his hands above his head. Verity passes the ball into his hands, and Grox dribbles it, only to get blocked by Froggy, who grins at him. Grox easily spins around the frog hybrid, but not before Twixxel blocks him, causing Grox to quickly step back, holding the ball above his head as he looks over the hoop and shoots.

The ball flies through the air and, with one swish, falls straight through the hoop and onto the ground. Grox whoops loudly while both Froggy and Twixxel, who watched it happen, slump and groan, both rolling their eyes. “1–6. You guys are losing,” Mob says lazily from the chair he’s lying on, moving the scoreboard with a flick of his finger before propping his book up again. He hears Twixxel asking Froggy for the ball.

He’s barely interested in what the hell they’re doing. He’s never really been much of a sporty guy, anyways. He’s more of a homebody and lazy type of guy who can lay on his bed or couch for a whole-ass day reading books. “Oh, come on, you’re shit, Verity! I thought you could do everything?” Mob’s ears perk up when he hears Froggy at it again, trash-talking someone.

This time, it’s poor Verity. Earlier, it was Froggy and Grox; it’s usually them. This is kind of new, considering Froggy knows what Verity can do. Mob lowers his book slightly, peeking over the top as he sees Verity defending against Froggy, dribbling the ball away from his grubby hands. His face looks slightly pained when Froggy elbows him in the chest.

Mob’s brows furrow as Verity flinches away from another slight nudge from Froggy, stepping back like he’s scared before passing the ball toward Grox, who easily barrels past Twixxel to dunk it straight into the hoop. “Booyah!” Grox laughs as Froggy groans.

“Twix! I told you to watch over him, man.” He wipes his hands over his face as Twixxel simply frowns.

“I tried, but he’s really good at this, man. I don’t play basketball much,” he says.

“I should consider getting a new teammate, then,” Froggy says, causing Twixxel to glare at him.

“Okay, rude,” he says.

Mob watches them for a moment before turning his attention toward Grox, who walks up to Verity, who’s just standing there off to the side, rubbing his arms for a moment—the same arms that Froggy has been pushing and nudging, as well as his chest, which Mob is sure had been elbowed by the frog hybrid.

“Godlike passes, bro! Holy assist!” Grox pats Verity strongly on the back. Verity lets out a small noise, looking slightly pained before the expression is wiped away instantly and replaced with a small smirk.

“Like I said, I am the best helper out here. Of course I will be able to assist you, even in games like these,” he tells him, preening as Mob watches him. Mob rolls his eyes, though his gaze remains slightly focused on Verity, who’s rubbing his chest again when Grox laughs, patting his shoulder before breaking away to rub their win in Froggy’s face. Froggy simply frowns at him, arms crossed over his chest.

Mob’s eyes narrow as he watches Verity, who then turns toward him, startled that he was watching in the first place. He quickly drops his hand and smiles at him.

Interesting…

Later, Mob and Verity walk back home again. The other three had gone off-world to join some random server and play around. Of course, Mob didn’t join, as always. He’s a homebody type of guy; he hates going out unless it’s super important or it’s getting a bit too stuffy around here with Verity. But so far, he hasn’t felt that in a while, so he’s doing well, he supposes.

Behind him, Verity is quiet this time—which is pretty strange and damn interesting. He doesn’t think he’s ever gotten a quiet and peaceful moment with Verity around, and this might be one of the rare instances where Verity isn’t even speaking or dropping useless random fun facts for Mob to listen to as they walk back home to their house.

“Verity?” Mob calls out, but without turning to meet his eyes. The other walks slower behind him. “Yes, Mob?” Verity replies quickly as Mob slows down a bit.

“You’re, uh… awfully quiet there, buddy. What’s up with you?” Mob asks, but Verity responds with silence, not replying as Mob waits for him to say something, or maybe anything. But nothing comes out from his lips.

He glances at the other, who was just walking behind him, head lowered and staring down at the ground as he followed Mob. What is wrong with this dude?

“What do you mean?” Verity picks his head up again to meet his eyes. Mob gives him a look for a moment before focusing on the road. “Uh… no clue, man—you’re just quiet. Usually, you’re talking my ear off.” Mob shrugs.

Verity lets out a noise at that. “Do you want me to talk?” Verity asks. “You never seem to listen.”

Mob glances at him again at that, stopping so suddenly that Verity almost smacks into Mob’s back. He stops just in time, looking startled.

“Bro, I listen. I don’t know what you’re talking about and shit—but that’s not what I meant. You’ve been acting all weird, looking like you’re in pain and crap.” Mob motions at him as he turns towards him fully, and Verity freezes at that.

“I’m fine,” he says, blinking furiously as Mob glares up at him. Their eyes meet for a moment before Verity quickly breaks eye contact, clearly uncomfortable with it.

Damn, he really hates being an Enderman. Why’d his mother have to marry one anyways?

“You sure?” Mob asks. “Because if you say you are, I’m not gonna bother you about this anymore. I’m a very easy guy to talk to. So if you’re doing something fucking sus right there, you’re gonna be very sure I won’t be coming here for a whole month.”

He threatens him, and Verity’s eyes widen.

“I’m not doing anything!” he says, startling as Mob gives him a look, waiting for him to explain.

Usually, this threat works well on Verity—almost every time. Mob guesses that Verity really hates being alone, and the notion of Mob not coming back for just one month is enough for him to fully act on being Mob’s dog.

“So?” Mob asks.

Verity just shakes his head at that. He doesn’t have anything to say as Mob huffs at his face, shaking his head. Whether he really has nothing to say or he’s just a stubborn fucker, whatever. Mob doesn’t care. As long as Verity isn’t planning on hurting anyone, he doesn’t care what crap Verity puts himself through.

“Whatever. As long as you’re not hurting anyone here, I don’t care what you do or what you’re going through, man. That’s on you,” Mob says.

Verity seems to frown at that—not his typical pout, just a frown—as he nods, hands clenching and unclenching at his sides. For a moment, he looks like he’s thinking about it. Then he just lets out a soft breath. (Do AIs even need to breathe or something? That’s weird.) He shakes his head, meeting Mob’s eyes again with a small frown, head lowered a bit, looking like a drenched cat that had been kicked repeatedly.

For a moment, Mob genuinely feels a bit bad for saying those words, before he has to internally slap himself and remind himself that this is the same dude who almost killed his friends and ate almost half the villager population here just because he can’t keep his meat-eating tendencies down.

Mob rolls his eyes and turns away, walking as Verity follows behind him once more. On their way home, he hears the same beeping again that he heard a few nights before, though faint. He doesn’t bother glancing at Verity or his communicator. If Verity isn’t worried about it, then it must’ve been unimportant. So naturally, that logic applies to Mob as well.

When they reach the house, Mob doesn’t waste any time preparing himself lunch, with Verity assisting him with cutting up vegetables. Mob’s communicator then pings continuously at his side as he glances over at it for a moment, cutting the meat into cubes before looking back at his work and continuing.

Then it pings again.

And again.

And again.

At the corner of his eye, he sees Verity look over at his communicator, assuming he’s accessing it. Mob sighs sharply, startling Verity, who flinches, his hand holding the knife jumping as he turns towards Mob, looking immensely guilty. Like finding a kid with one hand stuck inside a cookie jar.

“What did I say about you peeking in my shit?” Mob asks, washing his hands in the sink, wiping them on his pants and grabbing his communicator as Verity’s shoulder just hitches up.

“Not to look into your private conversations with other people,” he mumbles under his breath.

Mob rolls his eyes, shaking his head as he opens his communicator, his brows furrowing in confusion.

What the fuck are they all talking about?

<GroxMC> yo i was thinking

<twixxel_lesgo> what is it?

<FroggyDudeMC> i thought of it btw

<GroxMC> bruh

<twixxel_lesgo> what are yall talking about sonnnn

<twixxel_lesgo> spill

<GroxMC> @thatmob can we borrow Verity tomorrow

<GroxMC> he’s got a new body right?

<GroxMC> we can take him outside

<twixxel_lesgo> yooooo thats a good idea

<twixxel_lesgo> ive been dying to bring verity to our server hoping

<FroggyDudeMC> your welcome btw

<GroxMC> youre*

<twixxel_lesgo> you’re**

<GroxMC> same thing

<thatmob> ????

<thatmob> whats all this?

<thatmob> you guys want to bring verity out of my world?

<thatmob> are yall fucking crazy?

<FroggyDudeMC> uh oh, the boyfriend is angry :/// booooooooo

<thatmob> ????

<GroxMC> bro its just an idea were pitching in, since verity hasn’t been using his og form, me and froggy thought it would be cool if we bring him outside

<twixxel_lesgo> its not a bad idea, im onboard

<thatmob> its a bad idea, and im not on board with it

<thatmob> did you all forget that he almost killed twix? what if he kills someone else outside? you guys know damn well he bypasses respawn mechanics, he can kill anyone permanently

<thatmob> dont you guys understand that?

<thatmob> its fucking dangerous to bring him outside my world

<thatmob> its a not for me

<FroggyDudeMC> :((((( 

<thatmob> ???? dude are you really fucking braindead?

<GroxMC> nothing is gonna happen bro

<twixxel_lesgo> yea, i mean, its been a while since verity snapped at anyone of us, isnt the purpose of us visiting is to get him used to other people beside you?

<thatmob> still

<twixxel_lesgo> you told me you want to get him used to other people, were gonna do that now, you keeping him there isnt even health at all bro, for you and verity. especially you man, i mean you haven’t left your world in months since you got verity

<FroggyDudeMC> what he said

<twixxel_lesgo> verity’s too dependent on you, you gotta let him out sooner or later, 

<thatmob> bro are you crazy?

<twixxel_lesgo> ur also dependent on verity

<thatmob> ?!???!?!??

<FroggyDudeMC> oooooooou shi

<GroxMC> damn

<thatmob> the fuck are you talking about twixxel????

<twixxel_lesgo> i mean, am i lying? its been so long since you actually did something, its always verity doing it for you

Mob gaped at the screen of his communicator, mouth slightly open in shock as he read Twixxel’s message to him—what the fuck?! Why did he just randomly catch a fucking stray from his friend? His best friend, no less? What the actual fuck was going on? What did he do to deserve a random stray jab?

And who the hell was calling him dependent on Verity? He’s not—

“It’s done, Mob,” Verity says from behind him, stirring the wooden spoon around in the pot where he’s busy making the soup, continuing Mob’s job.

Suddenly, Mob comes to a realization: he hates when other people do or continue something he’s doing. Not because he’s an asshole or a jerk—he just doesn’t trust them enough to do it the way he does. His expectations for most people are low enough that he doesn’t trust them to actually do it properly, at least not the way Mob would.

Verity, on the other hand, always does what Mob needs from him perfectly. He doesn’t need to be taught or given a long-ass explanation. Almost everything has been done by Verity ever since Mob got him…

He may or may not have gotten lazier over time.

He’s completely dependent on Verity…

“Mob? Is something wrong?” Verity asks, moving closer behind him to take a look at his communicator—as if he couldn’t just access the codes and read it without looking at the screen. Maybe he just wants to show that he’s just like Mob. The thought makes something inside Mob tick a bit. He doesn’t know if it’s embarrassment or anger at the realization, or maybe a mix of both.

“Mob?” Verity asks again. “Is something wrong? Did Grox or Twixxel say something to you?”

Mob looks over at him, glaring slightly. “Mind your business.”

He moves away from Verity, who pouts as Mob hides his screen from the other, even though he knows damn well that Verity can still read it without even having to look at the screen.

His face heats up.

<thatmob> ????????

<thatmob> wtf are you talking about?????????

<FroggyDudeMC> uh oh he’s big mad

<GroxMC> just come with us too tomorrow bro, so you can finally get out of your single world

<twixxel_lesgo> jus hear us out bro, we also kinda miss hanging out with you outside your world.

<thatmob> oh

<FroggyDudeMC> is that a yes?

<thatmob> i dunno

<thatmob> im nervous about letting him out

<thatmob> he might hurt someone

<twixxel_lesgo> honestly

<twixxel_lesgo> as long as you dont tell him to hurt anyone, he isnt hurting no one at all

<thatmob> u sure?

<GroxMC> i second the motion

<FroggyDudeMC> i third the motion

<GroxMC> that aint a thing

<FroggyDudeMC> if theres a second, that means theres a third

<GroxMC> ??????????????

<twixxel_lesgo> so? mob? what do you think?

<twixxel_lesgo> nothings gonna happen

<thatmob> i trust you guys

<thatmob> i just dont trust this yellow asshole beside me

<FroggyDudeMC> doubt

<GroxMC> doubt that too lol

<thatmob> ?????

<twixxel_lesgo> just think about it

<thatmob> yea ok whatevr, im gonna eat first, ill give u an answer later tonight

<GroxMC> yippeeeeeeeee

Mob sighs to himself, flipping his communicator closed and rubbing his palm over his face. From the dining area, he can hear plates clanging with utensils—Verity’s already setting up the table without any prior order from Mob. And that thought sends a strange flutter through his stomach, knowing Verity would just do whatever Mob needed and wanted from him.

That seems like a lot of control for something as deadly as him…

Mob knows that he can do this—he just didn’t think it was that obvious to other people. He’d thought he was pretty lowkey about the advantages of having Verity around. Now Mob wonders. If he tells Verity to kill someone, would he?

Mob walks toward the dining area, where he sees Verity finally placing the bowl of soup on top of the plate, then setting down a bottle of water beside it. He stands there for a moment, staring at the table as if he’s thinking of what to do next, going through the list in his head of what Mob needs from him and what he needs to do for Mob.

Huh… He really has that much power over Verity.

He guesses it never really fully sank in. I mean, in a way, it did kind of sink in, but not like this.

“Hey,” Mob calls as Verity perks up, glancing over at him. Then he quickly pulls the chair from the table as Mob walks in and sits down, then pushes the seat back into the table. Verity reaches over for the spoon—which Mob can easily get for himself—and hands it to him. Mob takes it from his hand.

“Yes, Mob?” Verity asks, tilting his head.

“What do you think about going off-world tomorrow to play on some servers with the guys?” Mob asks, swirling his spoon around in the bowl before taking a sip of the hot soup and letting out a sigh. It’s good. Just how he makes it. Verity did a good job, really, to the point that Mob is starting to doubt whether he somehow made this in his sleep by accident or something.

Verity goes quiet.

“You’d let me out of the world?” Verity asks. “Are you coming?” he asks again as Mob glances at him.

“Twixxel said I should at least let you out, something about it being healthy and shit.” He shrugs as Verity seems to frown at that. “I don’t mind staying here with you,” Verity replies quickly.

Mob gives him a raised brow before coming back to drinking more of his soup. Wow, this is really good. “Don’t tell me that, tell that to Twix—anyways, I don’t mind, really.” Mob shrugs.

“I don’t want to come with them if you aren’t coming—I don’t care much about the outside world,” Verity says.

Mob hums, leaving the spoon in his mouth for a moment. Beside him, he can feel Verity’s eyes boring holes into the side of his face. He seems to be staring at him straight and hard for some weird fucking reason.

Mob tries not to look as he plucks the spoon from his mouth.

“I’m coming with. Calm down and stop getting your panties in a twist.” He glances at Verity, who pouts for a moment before perking up.

“Oh! Okay! Then I’ll come with! Anywhere you go, I want to come… Always.” Verity smiles, this time with teeth, in that weird, creepy way that makes it look like he just doesn’t know how to smile normally like a human—or at least a normal person.

“Okay, dude, stop that,” Mob deadpans as Verity’s smile falls. “Stop what?” he asks, tilting his head as Mob glares at the other.

“Stop smiling with your teeth. You look weird, and freaky as fuck. You’re creeping me the fuck out,” Mob says.

Verity’s face twists a bit for a moment before falling, as if he’s only just realized it now. He reaches up, placing a palm over his cheek in faint realization, before giving Mob a small smile—only with his lips this time, not showing his teeth.

“Okay!” Verity says.

Mob gives him a narrowed-eyed look before going back to eating.

For some reason, Mob finds himself awake again in the middle of the night. This time, the windows are fully shut and the blinds are slightly open, but it was more so that his room wasn’t fully dimmed to black. Tonight, it actually felt nice having the moonlight shining over his bed. So technically, he was prepared before getting his face flashbanged by moonlight.

So why is he awake? That’s weird…

Damn it, his sleep is all fucked up for no reason whatsoever. He’s been trying his hardest to fix his sleep schedule just so he wouldn’t have a hard time staying awake in the morning to do things. Mob lets out a soft sigh at that, giving up as he fixes his pillows over his head, moving them around so they can properly support his neck. His shoulder aches a bit from the position he finds himself waking up in, his neck aching along with it.

He sits up, fixing and fluffing his pillow back to its original state before flipping it over so it’ll be cold. Just as he’s about to lay down, he hears faint whimpering and the familiar beeping that almost always seems to follow Verity around. Mob sits back up again, rubbing his eyes as he looks over at the bed where Verity is supposed to be laying down or sitting. It depends on his mood of freakiness, Mob guesses.

But Verity is laying down. In fact, he’s laying on his side as Mob lets out a confused sound and sits up properly, seeing Verity’s back shake and tremble. His arms seem to be wrapped around his abdomen, and his head is tilted down so much that Mob can’t even see his blond hair.

What’s wrong with him?

Mob swings his legs over the side of his bed and stands up, shivering a bit at the cold floor against the skin of his feet as he walks over to Verity. He looms over him, noticing how Verity’s shaking is much harder than before, becoming more noticeable as he gets closer and closer.

“Verity?” Mob asks, and Verity doesn’t respond.

That’s weird—really weird.

Mob gets closer and finally gets a look at Verity’s face. He looks pained. If he could sweat, he would be. His hair is flattened over his forehead like he’s been rolling around repeatedly throughout the night.

There is a faint red blinking light on Verity’s chest that Mob can see through his thick clothes. For a moment, Mob just stands there, biting his lower lip.

What the fuck is going on?

Verity lets out another whimper, trying to move before letting out a pained noise as the beeping gets louder. Quickly, Mob moves Verity onto his back and starts unbuttoning his dress shirt, unsure of what he’ll find. I mean, there’s a red light beeping on his chest. Is it a bomb? Is Verity about to fucking explode or some shit? Mob has no fucking clue.

He did set his respawn point, but he doesn’t know if Verity exploding would somehow bypass the respawn mechanics.

That thought sends Mob almost freezing in fear, but he continues to shakily unbutton Verity’s shirt, seeing the red light beeping in his chest just beneath his skin.

Ugh, right. Of course. He’s a computer and stuff, so naturally, his insides are also a bunch of computer shit.

“Verity.” Mob shakes his shoulder as Verity continues to tremble and shake. Mob eyes the plating on Verity’s chest. He could probably open it and check what’s wrong, but this is more Twixxel’s brand of expertise than his. He barely knows shit about computers, much less an advanced AI like Verity, who could definitely kill the whole population with just a snap of his fingers.

Mob presses his fingers onto the plating, and it easily pops open. Just as Mob is about to open it, Verity’s eyes open, pupils dilated and almost afraid, as his hand quickly grabs Mob’s wrist, stopping him from putting it inside.

Mob flinches, almost screaming. Thank god he manages to stifle it down as Verity looks up at him, breathing hard.

“Who—?! …Mob?” Verity asks, the scared tone in his voice gone as Mob looks down at him, eyes wide while Verity stares back up at him.

“Bro, you were in pain,” Mob says as Verity slowly lets go of his wrist, though his fingers linger for a moment before fully letting go. Mob steps back.

Verity pushes himself up with his elbows, letting out a strange, pained grunt that Mob is sure he’s never heard from the other before.

“At least, I think you were in pain—and the beeping thing is happening. What’s going on with you? Do we need Twix to help you out or something? Bug in the system?” Mob asks as Verity seems surprised to see the plating in his chest open. He quickly scrambles to close it, his hands shaking.

Huh. That’s new.

“No—no, nothing’s wrong… You—You shouldn’t open my chest like that… It’s dangerous. It’s vulnerable to everything.” Verity’s voice seems to shake as Mob watches him with furrowed brows.

“Well… Sorry. It’s just there was the red light on your chest and stuff—so I had to check. I didn’t know if you were about to blow up or some shit.” Mob motions toward Verity’s chest as Verity quickly buttons his shirt back up, looking worse for wear.

Now, suddenly, Mob has a weird feeling that he’s being strangely pervertish—considering he just unbuttoned Verity’s shirt, and now Verity looks like Mob had done something to him.

That thought brings annoyance, embarrassment, and shame onto Mob’s face, so without letting Verity reply, he turns away and goes back to his bed, picking up his blanket and lying down. He turns to see Verity watching him, surprised, mouth open as if he was planning to respond to Mob, but he’d already stepped away before he could.

“Well, since you’re okay now, I’m gonna go to sleep.”

With that, Mob turns away and flips the blanket over his head.

Warning! Bypass Security System!

Project VERITY™ is vulnerable to multiple attacks!

Warning! Bypass Security System!

Project VERITY™ is vulnerable to multiple attacks!

Warning! Bypass Security System!

Project VERITY™ is vulnerable to multiple—

Closing security alerts. Reason: UNKNOWN

Bypassing Security System…

Are you sure you want to shut down the security system? This may or may not affect VERITY™ performance.

Yes    No

Loading…

Loading…

Loading…

Bypass FAILED.

If you ask Verity if he would be willing to shut down his own system protection and security systems for a single person, he would have believed you. Because right now, what he’s doing shouldn’t be done at all. As an AI, security and protection are the most important things in his system, and they’re not something to be played with. One mistake could turn into a huge disaster.

He had all the power in his hands—well… code, I guess. But the meaning still stands. Verity can do a lot of things, almost impossible things that players here in this world can’t do the same as him unless they’re admins, or some higher power than that. And that also meant having crazy and complex codes that could protect his own program from being used to someone else’s advantage if they were ever to find out about him here.

But right now… he may—or may not—be making a mistake that is human, almost too human, in fact. He doesn’t think he’s ever done this for any player he’d come across and tried to befriend—mostly because most of them never really wanted anything from him, never cared enough to take what they wanted from him, and were too kind to be selfish around him.

But Mob is different. You could even say their relationship is quite interesting to see—perhaps even a little unstable and a little toxic with how Verity is letting himself be treated by Mob. But he’s never felt so secure and happy in all his life, ever since he was made by his creators. This was the first time that someone actually wanted something from him, was selfish enough to ask Verity to move heaven and earth just so Mob could get whatever he wanted and whatever made him comfortable and happy.

And one of those things is keeping this new human form of his that Mob seems to feel more comfortable seeing him in—which is alright. Verity never really cared what he looked like. I mean, he was originally a ball, then a monster, and now a human isn’t that bad. And it’s quite understandable that it would improve Mob’s mood and mental health if he kept this up.

The downside is—it’s a new form. That means his program and systems aren’t exactly built along with this form. Prior to this, he already had the two forms, the ball and the monster that he typically uses to get around faster. Back then, he never really had a sense of understanding of what a normal human player should look like, so naturally, when he was being made, his information was still very much half-cooked. Which is why he made such a disgusting, awful form that he never knew was actually monstrous in the first place—not until Mob actually decided to just say, ‘fuck it,’ and tell him face-to-face.

He’s not supposed to be using this 24/7, and most of all, outside of an area that he can consider safe. But his own system warnings are much weaker than Mob’s needs and wants—he can’t turn away from what Mob wants just because he’s scared that he could get hurt or get some nonexistent virus that shouldn’t even exist here in this world.

Technically, he’s safe—but his security measures keep unlocking themselves even though Verity has already bypassed them multiple times, trying to force him to turn back into his original form.

It might be the second most painful thing he has experienced, the first one being almost losing Mob because of his own stupidity.

Actually, Verity doesn’t think he’s experienced physical pain before—maybe psychological pain, but this kind of pain is new. He never even knew he had pain receptors. He always had them turned off or turned down, and no one ever hurt him. Players are scared of him or just don’t know what to do with him. Mobs don’t see him as some kind of player to hurt and kill.

He’s an apex predator with no need to look up or behind him in case somebody tries to attack him.

This is really the first time Verity is experiencing things the way humans—er—players in this world experience their day-to-day lives. It’s interesting, a bit strange, and really painful (but when has his own creation ever been painless?), but Verity doesn’t care much about any of that as long as it makes Mob more comfortable and happier around him.

“Should we consider flooding the area so it will be harder for them to get to the bed?” Froggy asks, standing by the villager, trying to shuffle through his things in his inventory as Grox runs off to bridge toward another island for some emeralds and diamonds. Meanwhile, Twixxel and Verity are busy adding layers to the bed for its protection, while Mob stays in their spawn, getting more iron and gold.

“We should, but after they do the first few layers for the blocks on the bed,” Mob says, getting out of the spawn to buy some wool blocks.

The first game kind of went smoothly, at least for Verity. He’s mostly forced to stay at their base and watch over the bed since the others still aren’t sure about Verity’s stance on… er, game-focused violence? They didn’t win their first game. The bed got broken just because Verity was too focused on watching Mob fight with other players on a different island, and then Verity slipped out of the island by accident and fell to his death like a dumbass.

Then the second game didn’t turn out any better either. Twixxel and Verity accidentally left a hole at the side of the blocks that were supposed to protect the bed. Then Verity got himself knocked off the island again.

“Holy shit, bro, lock in! I thought you were this cool-ass ball who can turn into a monster!” Froggy shook Verity’s shoulders as they stood in the waiting lobby, waiting for the other players to join. Verity simply blinked at him. Well, it’s not like he couldn’t do that—but wouldn’t that be a bit obvious?

“I could—” Verity started, only to be cut off by Mob.

“Oh, hell no. He stays as the one who protects the bed,” he said, and Verity pouted at that.

“I mean, wouldn’t it hurt to get additional help?” Grox asked with a cock of his head. Mob just turned to him and gave him a dry look, and Grox immediately grinned, raising both his hands. “Okay, okay, kidding! Fine, let this be our last game—clearly all the sweaty players are on today.” He scoffed as Twixxel nudged him with his tail, poking his side. Grox yelped and rubbed his side, clearly all too ticklish.

“Stop moping. It’s just a game. We’re here to have fun, not to cheat and be sore losers. It was fun, wasn’t it?” Twixxel glanced at Verity, who nodded eagerly.

Granted, he wanted to join Mob in fighting the other players instead of staying behind…

Maybe for the last game, he could join?

When they spawned in, they got the color yellow for their team, and Verity had never felt so happy before when he saw Mob in yellow leather armor. It felt like he was one step closer to soaring into the heavens.

“Can I join you in killing players?” Verity asked as they both bought the necessary tools and wool to bridge out of the island while the others did the same, their labor already divided from the start.

It looked like they were really locked in for the last game. Verity had no idea if it was because they just wanted a win or because they were really pumped up since this was the last game they were doing for today.

“What?” Mob asked, turning to him. “Why? You’re on bed duty.” He said it like it was obvious, and Verity pouted, lowering his head.

“I want to try other roles too. It’s boring to just watch over the bed,” he said.

Mob gave him a dry look. “You do know that you aren’t even doing it the right way, right? We all lost those rounds because you’re not focused enough.”

Verity perked up at that. “It’s because the job is not for me! I wanna come with you! I’m good with the sword.” He sloppily swung the wooden sword, and Mob flinched, dodging a swipe that went right over his head as he gave Verity a look of shock.

Oops.

Verity usually used his own hands if he wanted to kill someone. Swords were just a waste of time and only for those who wanted to kill someone with style. And Verity wasn’t tied down to this world’s laws. Fuck swords—he used his hands to kill and fight.

“Dude,” Mob said.

Verity tried his best sad face, hoping that it would work. He didn’t expect much because this was Mob, and Mob wasn’t really an easy nut to crack. But suddenly, Mob’s expression faltered as he looked back at Verity, surprising Verity as he watched Mob make a face. Mob wiped a hand down his face, rolled his eyes, and looked away.

“Fine,” he said.

Really?

Really?

Really?!

Verity gasped, mouth gaping, as Mob glared at him again.

“Don’t make me regret this. If I see you trying to eat anyone here, I will personally kill you myself,” he said, even though both of them knew very well that Mob wouldn’t be able to kill Verity.

But even at the threat of being killed, Verity grinned and nodded, clasping his hands together.

“You won’t regret this! I promise,” he said.

Mob rolled his eyes tiredly again. “I better.”

They both went to work right after that. Verity let Mob lead, just tailing behind him as he bridged to the center of the map, trying his best not to cheat by auto-detecting where some of the players were. As much as possible, everyone wanted a fair game, and if Verity used his abilities, it really wouldn’t be called fair anymore.

“We should go for Blue’s bed. They’re busy with Green,” Mob said as they both crouched by the wall, eyeing the open bridge toward the Blue team’s base.

Verity nodded, and the two of them quickly sprinted for it, running down the long bridge and jumping over a few blocks before making it into their base. No one was around. Both Verity and Mob quickly brought out their shears to mine through the wool, then switched to their pickaxes for the endstone.

Verity’s alarm goes off in front of his eyes (he really can’t bypass his own systems… It says a lot about him, really), and he turns around to see a player behind them already, running down the bridge. The space between them is enough that they can break the bed without having to die, since the blue player is still far away.

So Verity helps Mob mine—until he turns again and sees a large fireball heading straight at them. He lets his instincts take over, grabbing the back of Mob’s leather armor and throwing him to the side, far enough away that the fireball won’t be able to hit him. Then the world turns upside down, everything flashing red and black as a loud alarm blares in his ears.

He sees a brief flash of Mob’s surprised and confused face before Verity plunges off—falling out of the island, leaving Mob behind.

Warning! Damage to the main body! Initiating Shutdown in 3… 2… 1—

Shutdown stopped. Reason: UNKNOWN

The game ended quickly after that, considering Froggy was bad at watching the bed—much worse than Verity, apparently. Soon, everyone found themselves back in Mob’s world, all of them crowding the living room and falling asleep. In the middle of the living room, Mob stood by the carpet with his arms crossed, watching Froggy drool over Grox’s head while Twix moved a bit on Froggy’s lap, curled to the side and hugging his own tail.

Out of all the places they could have decided to crash, it had to be Mob’s place—he wants to rest too, you know. God. Mob then eyed the still-shut bathroom door where Verity had disappeared into when they got back. He’d been quiet the entire walk out of the server and back to Mob’s world.

Maybe he’d finally decided that he really was a shit fighter when it came to the sword and was just being a sore loser about it. Mob wouldn’t even be surprised. It wasn’t every day he saw someone get killed by a stupid fireball. If Verity wasn’t an AI, he really would have no chance around this place.

He clearly still wasn’t used to being here.

Mob sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He considered making dinner early for everyone so he could wake them before they actually slept through the whole night. Maybe make some beds too. His own neck hurt just watching them sleep in a pile.

So while Verity was doing whatever shit he was doing in the bathroom, Mob crafted some beds and started preparing dinner, doing it extra slowly just so that when Verity came out, he could make the other continue it and finally get some rest himself. But for some weird reason, he was already letting the steak cook and the potatoes boil in the pot for the mashed potatoes, and Verity still wasn’t done with his shit.

Man, what the hell is he even doing? Mob thought to himself, getting a bit annoyed considering he was kind of in need of him right now and would really like to use Verity’s supposed services.

Well, he wasn’t really helpless. He just sucked it up and finished dinner, plating everything and leaving it on the dining table. He’d wake the others later, after he got Verity out of that damn bathroom.

He walked up to the bathroom and knocked lightly, then stopped, waiting for a response.

When the other didn’t reply, he knocked again. Then again… and again.

“Verity, if you don’t open that door right now, I’m breaking it down,” Mob threatened.

Verity didn’t reply, and for a moment, Mob actually debated breaking it down. He was really more of a threatening-you kind of guy, but he never actually followed through.

He was all bark and no bite most of the time. And no, he’s not a pussy—he’s just kind… Yeah… definitely.

Mob sighed, took out an iron axe, and broke down the door. He was surprised to find the bathroom lights off, but he easily flicked the lamp on.

Then he froze.

Verity was half-slumped in the corner of the bathroom, his head tilted down. His yellow vest had been taken off and was left by his feet, while his dress shirt was unbuttoned just above his waist.

Mob had never seen Verity’s insides before… but now he did.

The plating on Verity’s chest was opened, wires spilling out, and Verity’s hands were splayed across his lap. By the looks of it, he must have been trying to fix something.

And what was that something?

Mob had no fucking clue.

But there was no way in hell he was letting this asshole die on his watch.

Mob quickly went to work, dropping to his knees between Verity’s limp legs. He helped him sit fully upright, leaning him back against the wall. He caught a glimpse of Verity’s slack face, though even then, he was wearing a pained expression, his eyes closed and his brows furrowed.

Mob looked down at his chest, seeing the wiring spilling out. He should get Twixxel for this—Just as Mob was about to move again, Verity let out a gasp, a sharp shriek followed by a pained grunt as he knocked the back of his head against the marble wall. His legs kicked out on instinct.

Mob flinched before holding Verity down as he groaned and whined. “Verity? Verity, hey, hey, come on,” Mob said as Verity continued to let out little whimpers, kicking out weakly.

His eyes opened, stuttering slightly, one of his eyelids repeatedly twitching shut. “M-Mob?” Verity stuttered out.

Mob grabbed his face, cupping it as he tried to understand what was going on. “What’s going on, man? What’s happening?” Mob asked.

Verity groaned again when Mob accidentally brushed against the wires on his chest. “Just… my systems acting… up,” Verity said, panting slightly.

Mob moved away, letting go of Verity, who tried to sit up straight but failed.

Mob helped him as Verity shakily tried to press the wires back inside. The moment he touched them, however, Verity let out a mechanical shriek, like he was being electrocuted.

Mob flinched. “Wha—What’s going on!?” he panicked, unsure of what to do as Verity fell back against the wall behind him, dropping his hand onto his lap. “Can you put it back in?” Verity asked weakly, looking up at Mob.

Mob stared back at him, concern written all over his face.

Put that… back in? Mob glanced at the thick wires, then back at Verity’s pained face, his eyes glazed. Just what the hell is wrong with him?

Look, Mob is an asshole, and Verity has done a lot of shit—but he’s not evil enough to not care when stuff like this happens. Funny that Mob was actually loved as a kid and was raised right, like a proper man.

“How?” Mob asks.

“It acts up when I touch it. The system is angry at me for refusing to listen to it. It’s a punishment.” Verity snorts as Mob lets out a confused sound at that. Punishment? The fuck is that supposed to mean?

“Punishment how?” Mob asks, pushing for more answers as he goes to work, carefully reaching over the wires, expecting that it would electrocute him—only to find that they feel like rubber. They’re cool to the touch and soft, so Mob slowly puts them back in, feeling a little weirded out that he’s technically putting his arms inside Verity’s insides.

Oh… ew.

“It’s built into me… If I don’t listen to orders…” Verity mumbles, letting out another whine when Mob is a little rougher as he pushes the wires back, making sure they’re at least neat before carefully closing the plate. He finally sees Verity let out a relieved breath.

“You get punished if you don’t listen to your systems? Why aren’t you listening to it, anyways? Wait—is it telling you to kill us?” Mob asks, brows furrowing as he leans back, a little afraid.

Verity snorts, letting out a small chuckle as he pushes himself back up straight weakly. “Of course… not.”

Mob resisted the urge to help him—Verity’s already fine. He doesn’t need help. Mob reminds himself, even as he watches Verity weakly try to stand up but fail, breathing hard. The same beeping happens again, and that red light on his chest appears. Verity places his palm over it, trying to mute it.

“What is it?” Mob asks, and Verity suddenly looks ashamed, refusing to meet Mob’s eyes as he looks down at the floor.

“Whatever order that is, as long as it’s not killing us or eating anyone, you should follow it if it’s… doing… all that,” Mob comments.

“I can’t,” Verity says.

“Why? Is it hard to do or something? I thought you could do anything?” Mob asks, tilting his head.

Verity raises his head to meet his eyes, then looks away again, ashamed. “Uhm… you’d hate me?” he says, more of a question than a statement, like he isn’t sure.

“You’d hate me.” Verity then nods finally, as if he’s finally arrived at that answer.

Mob gives him a confused look. “Well, I already hate you now. I don’t think not doing whatever your system is telling you would change that.”

That seems to physically hurt Verity because he suddenly flinches, looking more downtrodden than before. The faint beeping is still happening, and Verity looks worse than earlier—and that’s something to point out, considering his insides were basically outside earlier.

“Bro, what is it? Just tell me.” Mob says again, placing a hand on Verity’s shoulder to shake him a bit as Verity swallows.

“You said that you don’t like seeing me in my two other forms, and you preferred this more…” Verity says. Mob blinks at that as Verity raises his head, wearing a frown on his face.

“Uh…” Mob thinks to himself and slightly nods. Well, he did say that. “Yeah, I guess I did?” Mob tilts his head and shrugs. “I mean, it’s not that crazy,” he says.

Verity’s frown deepens. “This form isn’t allowed by my system. I personally made this, and it doesn’t have the provided security measures to stop me from getting hurt or taken advantage of. The system gave me exactly only 48 hours to use this form,” he explains.

Mob blinks and nods again. Well, that explains why Verity only stays in this form for two days max, then goes back to being a ball he has to carry around all day long like a devil on his shoulder.

“Okay? So?” Mob asks.

Verity frowns. “If I don’t turn back… The system gets… a little forceful—since you told me you want me to look like this more…”

He trails off as Mob flinches in sudden realization. Verity’s purposely holding this form just because he asked him to… That’s why he’s getting punished by his system.

“I don’t want to turn back because it makes you uncomfortable,” Verity says shakily as he gives Mob an afraid look. Mob flinches internally again—this is the first time he’s seen that face on Verity, and he isn’t sure what to feel.

All this time, he’s imagined seeing fear in Verity’s face would be nice, that it would feel like he’d won, because that meant it wasn’t just him in this relationship who felt scared. Verity too.

But this was more like a bitter taste in his mouth than success. “I didn’t mean it like that, Verity. You can turn back if you want, what the hell?” Mob says.

“But you do mean it like that. You feel more comfortable when I look like this instead of my original form… Kinder, too.” The last two words come out weak and soft from Verity, and Mob physically flinches at that, moving back.

God… he’s no better than Verity, is he? For being an asshole to him? Maybe Twixxel is right. Ever since he learned about his power over Verity, he’s been selfish and dependent on him, knowing that Verity would listen to everything he wanted.

“I didn’t—I don’t mean it like that, Verity,” Mob says. This time, for once, his voice is finally soft, and Verity seems to look ashamed for admitting that.

“Turn back to your original form,” Mob says. “But…” Verity murmurs.

“Just do it—how hurt are you?” Mob asks, and Verity’s lips tighten at that. “Verity,” Mob insists, his voice a little harder.

“I don’t know… I’ve never—felt physical pain before. I always follow what my systems tell me to do… I never go against it because it only wants the best for me,” Verity says, and Mob pinches the bridge of his nose at that.

“Turn back now,” he says, finally standing up as Verity scrambles to his knees, surprised, trying to stand up as well.

But Mob stops him, and Verity freezes. “Turn back,” Mob says. Verity’s eyes widen, staring up at him with strange, glazed, almost teary eyes. Can Verity even cry? “What about you?” Verity asks.

Mob frowns as Verity looks up at him with that desperate, pathetic look he always wears, as if he wants to follow whatever Mob wants from him even if it would hurt him.

This won’t work… “You’ll be useless to me if you’re getting yourself hurt,” Mob blurts out.

Verity’s eyes widen at that as he falls quiet, and Mob almost takes his words back, wincing at how crazy that sounds. Sure, Verity is an AI and not really a player, but Mob doesn’t even see him as some kind of tool. In fact, he kinda sees him as his own person by now. He’s just naturally an asshole to him after what he did.

“Oh—okay… I see—” Verity says, looking down for a moment. Mob has to stop himself from slapping his face as Verity then looks back up. “Can you wait outside the bathroom?” he asks softly.

Mob meets his eyes, then sighs and nods, stepping back toward the door, glancing at Verity, who’s watching him.

Mob shuts the door with a soft click and leans his back against it.

God damn, he’s an asshole…

Mob stares at the ceiling tiredly and shakes his head. He seriously cannot believe he just made Verity go through that—purposely, not purposely. What he said before was really meant to hurt Verity, and Verity clearly took it seriously.

Mob was being an asshole.

He really did mean to say that seeing him in his normal form made him uncomfortable just so he could see how Verity would react to it and whether it would hurt him. He was like a five-year-old kid throwing boiling water into an ant nest just out of mild, morbid curiosity about how they would react and die.

Man… Maybe he’s just as twisted as Verity—

Mob’s thoughts are abruptly cut when he hears Verity, back in that awful, slightly static-ish voice of his that indicates he’s back in his old body.

Mob sighs to himself and turns around to open the door, only to see Verity on the floor, back in his ball form, staring up at him with a sad look. “I’m sorry, Mo—”

Verity is cut off when Mob picks him up, holding him gently. “Just shut up,” Mob says, then places Verity between his hoodie and shirt against his chest, letting him snuggle into him. Verity lets out a surprised sound. “Mob?” Verity looks up at him, confused, though he looks comfortable.

“Rest there while I get the others to eat dinner. I don’t want to see you trying to help or talking,” Mob says.

Verity’s eyes seem to widen at that as Mob shuts off the light in the bathroom and leaves, closing the door behind him.

For a moment, Verity is hard against his chest, like placing a hard ball there—not before he finally softens up and turns into putty against Mob’s chest. Mob cradles him lightly so he wouldn’t slip between the fabric of his hoodie and shirt.

“Idiots, wake the fuck up.” Mob places down a bell and rings it. The three scream awake while Verity continues to snuggle against his chest.

This is going to be a one-time-only thing—Mob really should consider being less of an asshole next time so this won’t happen again. He doesn’t think he can let Verity snuggle with him again…

Though he never knew Verity could get this soft in his ball form. It’s almost kind of comfortable…

Hm…