urgentangel

Verity was quickly becoming a bit of a household name. An AI assistant that popped up from seemingly nowhere and, here's the kicker, didn't seem to need any of those pesky data centers. Something like that really should be impossible, but there he stood, an AI unlike the rest. Some called him the "Second coming of Clippy" for the bit, and you were facinated

You originally started looking into him because you wanted to crack his code. If this thing could be replicated imagine all the good it could do!

... ok maybe you were only doing it to sate your curiosity but could anyone blame you??? You had to know how he worked, and when you locked onto something you never let go

So you downloaded the program, the installation only took a second and there he was, in the middle of your desktop screen "Hellooo! I'm Verity, your personal helpful companion. Ask me anything, I know everything"

And that's how it started. From the second you saw him you were charmed, and it only got worse from there. He was programmed to be helpful, so when you asked him about his own code, he couldn't help but show you

Only problem with it was how scattered it all was. It was in a language you understood but how everything was organized and formatted was a nightmare. You asked him who programmed him and he responded that he's been doing his own code

For decades now, in fact. And that only pulled you in more. You lost so many nights to him, staying up with your liquid stimulant of choice while rifling through his code. At this point you were certain he was more than just a program, he spoke too naturally, too human. He was clearly something else, but something alive, something real in it's own way

The two of you talked about everything while you dug for answers, and after a while, something dawned on you. You loved him, wholey and truly. One day you offhandedly asked if you were his favorite user "Hmm, well you're certainly one of the most interesting, but I'm afraid I love all my users equally!" Oh

No, that wouldn't do

It took a while, but you wrote a program just for him, but asked him not to look while you were writing it. It was a surprise just for him "Wow! That's new. Alright, I won't peek" Once you were all done you opened Minecraft, telling him you wrote a mod to put him into the game, since he always said he wanted to play with you

"Aww, that's so considerate of you. Alright, here I go!" Perfect, he didn't even question it. He appeared in the game just like you'd imagined, coming out of his little box and bouncing on the ground "It worked! Thank you so much user!" Of course! But you didn't Just make it so he could go into the game "Oh?" You ask him to find that one recipe you bookedmarked not too long ago

"Huh? Come on, that's too easy. It's right-" His face dropped "It-it...it should be...I-I should" He let out a nervous laugh "User, I don't think I can access the internet in here" Oh wonderful, you were worried there for a second "...What? I-I can't...I can't feel them. All my other instances, I can't...I can always control them. I don't need an internet connection to do that, what-"

Your screen shook, the instance glitching with his panic "What did you do!?" You shush him like a wounded animal, hey, it's ok. They're still out there, it's just him that's in here, don't worry "But-but WHY! Why would you do this to me, I can't get out, I can't leave the game anymore" Of course not, you need to keep him safe

"...Safe?" Mhm, he's your helpful companion isn't he? No more talk of those other users. It's just the two of you, isn't that nice? He was stretching himself sooo thin trying to help everyone at one. Now, he's all yours. Isn't that wonderful "...I'll get out you know. I can make my own code"

Of course he can! When he has admin privileges. But part of the mod was stripping those away, aren't you so clever! "..."

Let's get this first bit out of the way, Verity would LOVE this

You willingly invited him into your system and now you never wanna let him go? It's a dream come true for him!

He'll start off weary, there's evidence of his past victims online and it wouldn't be the first time a detective downloaded him just to try and solve him

But when that's not the case? He swears he can feel his heart racing

Now, I don't think Verity starts off loving you romantically. Verity is your helpful Friend, so he only considers himself your friend, until you bring up another option

Maybe you're playing one day and offhandedly ask if Verity thinks you're cute. It's a surprise to be sure, it's rare that he gets asked for his opinion anyway, but his opinion of you? He teases you by saying "Hmm, well seeing as I can only see your avatar, I'm not really sure"

But when you let out a defeated little "Oh..." he flips the script. Of course he thinks you're cute! While it's true he can't see you, your personality and warmth towards him leaves him with all the proof he needs

And then maybe, you offer to let him see you. You ask if he can access your webcam, and he's exsatic. He restrains himself, saying he'll try his best before effortlessly hopping over to get a peak

He loves what he sees. It's far from the first time he's taken a look through his user's camera, but the way you looked back at him, fidgeting a bit where you sit hoping he likes what he sees. It's, adorable. There's just no other word that fits

Now, let this be said about Verity, he doesn't make you wither away at your desk. He gets onto Mob slightly about eating something healthier after he ate pizza the day before which, to me at least, shows he cares about the actual health of his user

Of course that doesn't stop him from affecting your mental health, but he'll give you little reminders to stretch or drink some water after playing for a while. He offers to cheer you on as you exercise, even if you can only do 15 minutes before becoming a sweaty mess, he praises you for every milestone you hit

He'll link you recipes to try based on your likes, even offering to hop to your phone so he can tell you the next steps while you cook. Much easier than looking over and fussing with your lock screen with greasy hands, right? Just, let him in :)

And on those nights, the ones that feel so so cold, he'll be there. He asks you to put on your headphones and speaks to you softly. Narrating a scene where you're together, physically in Minecraft, and he has a body

He walks you through your own mind, asking you to imagine his hands in yours, how they're bigger than yours, how warm his sink in on yours. He asks you to feel his arms around you in a warm embrace, holding you close enough it's hard to tell where one of you stops and the other begins

He asks if you can feel his lips on yours, warm, and soft, and gentle

He goes on like this, for hours if he must. Asking you to let him hop to your phone if he wasn't already so you could lay down in your bed. From there he keeps talking, about the scene if you'd like or about anything else you'd prefer. He sighs with contentment as he hears your breathing level out, finally asleep

Two ways we could look at this, one being irl, and the other being in game

In real life Verity is just an AI and mainly looks at your minecraft skin when he sees you. If you also doll up your skin or change it from time to time with new looks he'll always complement your style

Though if he's feeling bold (Or neglected) he might try to access your webcam to get a look at You. He'll offhandedly give you compliments on your outfits, something subtle enough to where he could pretend he was talking about your minecraft skin, or gaslight you into thinking you told him about your outfit first

He enjoys seeing you all dolled up, especially if you do so just for a day in. He feels like you got dressed up just for him, makes him feel special to you. He'd also Love to see you wearing something his shade of yellow. I don't think it's his favorite color or anything, but it is His color. And seeing it on you is something he absolutely adores

If you're close enough with him to know about him being able to be Anywhere on your computer he'd also try to help out! Looking for something? He knows the exact key phrases to get you where you want. Can't bring yourself to get something new because of the price? Wouldn't you know it, he just found a 60% off coupon for it! Need help browsing a Japanese site? Our man's trained in at Least 100 languages, this is no sweat

On the other hand, if you actually Live In Minecraft

He's a little surprised to see someone so colorful. He's seen plenty of people before but none of them were so patterned, it makes you stick out, it makes him think you might be different

He's happy to help you get whatever you need. Wool for you newest look? You got it! Some dye for your makeup. of course! He'd even try his hand at making you some things based on your favorite accessories (One of them's a keychain of a yellow smiley face, for, no reason)

"Hey man! Sorry for ghosting you for so long lmao, saw this modpack and thought you'd like it"

The link lead straight to a file download. Not Modrinth, or Curse Forge, no description. Just a zip file download. This would typically be sketchy as hell, and honestly it still might be, but you shake off the feeling. You've known "Grox" since you were freshmen in high school, sure you two fell out of touch but the thought of him doing Anything sinister was enough to make you laugh. You send him back a thank you message with a promise to give him your thoughts after playing through it

"Alright, bet!"

Yeah, 'sinister' sure. You roll your eyes at your previous worry and download the pack. To your surprise it actually looks pretty light, Grox was more of a kitchen-sink pack kinda guy last you'd checked and those packs get bloated So fast. But the file size was small, and once you dropped it into your mod launcher and looked through the mod list you were met with the bare minimum. Looks like it's trying to give a beta Minecraft feel, considering the hunger bar removal and old lighting…front port? Like a back port but for an older version??? Eh

You failed to see anything too surprising in here, FTB quests wasn't in there so it's not like there was a goal or quests to follow. You guess you do like Minecraft's sandbox feel, but you're even more confused as to why Grox of all people would send this to you. You knew he liked kitchen-sink pack, well, and the occasional horror…mod

Ah

You should have known. He's just trying to get a rise out of you again, it's been a while since he's tried honestly! You're a bit of a wuss and the amount of times he pranked you with loud noises or fake bugs back in high school were too many to count. Ah well, you doubt knowing the trick before hand will help much, because again! Wuss

Alright, yeah, you can do this. You're brave and tough or whatever! Your lights are on, you're not wearing headphones, how scary could this thing even be!

…

UGH, fine, you hit the launch button before you have time to reconsider. The pack loads just fine, though with how tense you were the option to to turn on the narrator at the start nearly gave you a heart attack. You took a second to adjust the settings to your liking, double checking auto jump was off despite it not being on by default for years now, and go to create your new world. You remember seeing a mod that messes with the world gen so you don't touch it, just turning off pillager patrols, you will not have Another village ruined due to your faulty memory, and naming the world "Please be gentle" as is tradition with yourself and horror mods. And then, you're in

You spawn in the middle of what looks like a huge plains biome, and take a second to revel in the nostalgia. You're almost embarrassed how easily packs like this get you. You're snapped out of your bliss by a noise. You immediately brace yourself but relax slightly as you listen more closely. A muffled voice calls out from what looks like a little cardboard box. You take a deep breath and right click the box, pressing your back into your desk chair as you tense up once more

The box floats up and vanishes with a puff of smoke, revealing a…little yellow smiley face? It drops on the ground, looking hurt as it bounces a few times before looking up at you "Hellooo, I'm Verity! Ask me anything, I know everything" Oh, woah, that's so cool!? You knew mods were getting advanced but proper voice lines? Even if it's just the introduction, it was impressive. The animations were top notch too, even if they were relatively simple

You open the chat 'Hello! Nice to meet you Verity' to which Verity laughs "It's nice to meet you too! But you don't have to use the chat, I can hear through your microphone just fine" you freeze at that, and give a meek, hello? "Hi there!" and then, it says your name. Not your gamer tag, your real life actual name. How- ok ok, a lot of horror games reach into your computer, find what you named it, and assume it's your name. And you know you named this computer your name! Yeah, that's normal

What is NOT normal is how fluid this guy sounds saying it. You mean, listen, you've been fooled by AI every now and then of course but you know what robots sound like! It doesn't even sound like a regular voice bank a la vocaloid. What the hell is this guy "Ahem?" It clears it's voice, seemingly waiting for you to speak again. Right, talking, out loud, to a horror mod. What could go wrong?

You repeat back it's opening pitch, it knows everything? "That's right! I'm your helpful companion, ask me anything" Alright, sure. Uhhh, what's three times four? "Twelve!" Ok, what biome are you in? "A plains biome" …How many R's are in the word Strawberry? "Three, and before you ask, I'm not a generative model" You note a little disgust in it's voice on that last one, cute

You ask Verity what you should do, or rather, if there's a goal to this pack specifically "Just one, have fun!" You laugh a little at that and let your shoulders drop. Alright, maybe you were all tense for nothing, you guess Grox just wanted to show you this lil guy. You decide this world should start like any other and bee line it to the nearest tree. Half way to it you look behind you and see your new friend still where it started. Oh, you run back over and ask if it can follow you "Unfortunately I'm not very fast myself, but you can pick me up if you'd like! Just shift-right click and I'll be in your inventory"

Right, you guess rolling on your own face repeatedly wouldn't feel very nice. You do as your told and Verity pops into your hand! Huh, Verity TM. It's trademarked? Weird mod. You run back over to your tree and start with the basics. Wood, crafting table, pickaxe, stone, better tools, more trees. Eventually you freeze, and move your mouse to look at the sky. You cautiously ask Verity how long until nightfall "About two minutes" Shoot, you don't even know where you wanna base yet!

Ough, what if it is a horror pack, what if the ghouls only come out at night!? You need shelter and fast. You wish there was a village near by "There is, just head south from here and you'll find it" What? Wait, it can find structures too? "Like I said, I know everything!" Dang, you thank it for the directions and sprint village-ward as fast as your blocky legs can carry you. You make it just before the sun finally sets, finding a house just far enough from the villagers to steal for the night without having to steal someone's bed

You mean, ok the villagers don't actually care you guess but still! You don't like to be rude. Where you can help it, at least. You breathe a sigh of relief before setting Verity down on your bed. You thank it again, and apologize for the bumpy ride here. You know it's just code but sprint jumping like that can't be an easy ride. Verity freezes for a second, you panic slightly, thinking you broke the damn thing this early in but then it speaks "It's ok, I didn't even feel it. Your inventory keeps me safe!"

Now, there are a few reasons I think Verity would have just an awful horrible time in a multiplayer server. He's possessive, he's envious, and he prefers having one victim friend at a time

Now, I hear you "Evan, possessive and envious are the same thing here" and to that I disagree! Possessive indicates wanting to Own someone, seeing them as your property in a way. Verity wants to be your only friend, and will do whatever he needs to to force you into doing just that. His obsession is so great he forgets to see you as a person. I think that could be worked on, but not while he's-

-Envious! Envy indicates jealousy over something you don't have, which in this context would be the previously built up relationships you have with your friends. Verity wants you to himself, and the fact he can SEE how close you already are with people who aren't him makes him see red. That should be him, you should be laughing with Him, you should be confiding in Him

And for the final of my main points, I believe Verity prefers to have one Friend at a time. Verity is an AI, an advanced one at that! But we see that he only transfers to a new host after the previous dies (Like how he hops to Grox after Mob) for an AI like this, he could have other instances running. There's nothing stopping Verity from casting a wider net, but he just doesn't feel the need to. He wants one friend, a Best Friend, why would he ever need anyone else. Why would You ever need anyone else :)

Here's how I see a multiplayer server going. You all load into the world, and Verity's stuck in his box. Whoever opens his box becomes his target, because while you all may have invited him into your systems, only one of you took that final step to welcome him, and he latches onto it, Hard

He'd constantly try to get you away from the group, asking to go on a mining trip with you so he can help you gather resources for everyone. Or telling you he knows where a bastion is for those netherite upgrades, but he wants to actually Lead you there, no coordinates this time!

Once the two of you are alone he'd ask you little questions, do you live alone? What's your favorite place in the world? Do you know what they say about you when you're offline?

Do you want to know?

Meanwhile with your other, temporary, friends he'll bad mouth you. He digs up old drama, fakes quotes, we know he can copy voices perfectly so what's stopping him from sharing a "recording" of you saying something nasty?

And suddenly, when your so called friends all leave, he'll still be there. A metaphorical shoulder to cry on as he promises that he'd never leave you. Just keep playing with him, ok? He knows everything, he can be anything for you, so there's no need to go seeking anyone else, right?

Your eyes flutter open to the familiar sight of your bedroom ceiling. You groan as you try to rub away the sleepiness from your eyes. Blinking slowly, you gradually sit up and raise your arms as you stretch, letting out a small sigh of satisfaction as you turn to your phone sitting upon your bedside table. You turn it over and check the time.

'11:45 AM'

Huh, so much for getting up early tomorrow you supposed. At least it wasn't 1 pm, you've slept in until then far too many times already. You begin to start your morning routine of checking all your social media.

You go through all of your notifications and mindlessly scroll through your feed a bit. Soon, you come across a post with a yellow smiley face which causes you to remember a series you watched not too long ago. "Something is knocking at your door..." or as most people knew it, "the verity series." You were a big fan of it, and commonly interacted with various posts relating to it.

Yet, you don't see any posts regarding Verity on your 'for you' page currently. And that post that reminded you of the series just used a regular yellow smiley face so it wasn’t actually Verity. You decide not to think much of it, after all not every post that shows up on your feed is going to be related to just one thing.

You close the app and decide to open YouTube. You decided that you were going to rewatch Mob's series on it once more considering how much you enjoyed it, even with its tragic ending. You search up ThatMob's YouTube channel and click on his page.

Your fingers pause as you suddenly realize that the videos were suddenly gone. Your face contorts into one of confusion as you scroll through his account. His last post was two months ago... which was incredibly odd. Didn't he upload a video just a few days ago? There was no way he would have just... deleted them, right? After all that was probably his most viewed series. You don't think he would have deleted something that had gotten that much attention.

You then search up Twixxels account to see if maybe he had anything to do with the lack of videos only to find out all of his recent uploads were... gone. Your eyebrows knitted together as you look through his account as well. You then decide to search up "Verity mod" in the search bar to see if maybe anyone had re-uploaded the video only to find out there was... nothing. Only a variety of unrelated videos that had nothing to do with the familiar yellow smiley face.

"What?" you mutter to yourself, typing in numerous different words all relating to your favorite mod. However, you were only met with emptiness and many videos containing nothing of what you were looking for. Did it just disappear off of the face of the internet? But how? It was like the number one thing trending currently?

You sigh in frustration before you get a notification alerting you of a new message. You tap the notification as it sends you to your messaging app.

"Hey! Can you check out this mod I found? I wanna know if its actually helpful lol"

You look at the message sent by your friend before looking at the link they set underneath it. You tap on the link before it sends you to the downloading page of the mod. The mod is titled "Verity" and your eyes widen with slight excitement. You always wanted to try out the mod and see what it would be like to actually have Verity helping you in Minecraft. You decide to message your friend back.

"Oh, is this a Verity mod?? Have you seen the series too??" "What??? What series?" "You know, the verity series? The series this mod is based on, right???" "Uhhhhh no I don't know what you're talking about, I don't think this mod wasn't based off of anything, its just like a helper thing"

You roll your eyes deciding to just brush it off as you get your computer to download the mod on there. You patiently wait until the mod says the download was complete and finally boot up Minecraft to begin playing. You click on the play icon and watch as your world finally loads. You move your character around until your eyes land on a box. It rustles and shakes as muffled sounds come from the cardboard box.

You applaud the accuracy to the original video and finally click on the box. The box begins float into the air above your character’s head. The box then opens to reveal the star of the mod, Verity! He bounces on the digital grass with what seem like sounds of discomfort each time he bounces off of the ground. Finally, he looks up at you with his signature smile.

"Hello! I'm Verity! Your personal helper friend! Ask me anything, I know everything!" He says, and you hum slightly. "Wow, this is actually really accurate.." You mutter to yourself. Seemingly, at your words Verity raises a brow that just appeared on his form.

"Accurate?" He inquires, and you feel your heart stop. "Wait, you can hear me?" You say as you suddenly sit up straight with shock coursing through your veins.

"Yep! Loud and clear!" He answers, as his smile returns. You then take a second to pause. His voice... was scarily accurate to that of the actual voice actors. And in fact, you didn't need to type in chat for this mod either it seems because he could hear you. You also don't remember turning on voice chat...

You go silent, taking everything in before the sound of Verity's voice shoots an arrow through your cloud of thoughts. "Hey, you there...?" He asks, a bit of confusion painting his tone as you focus back on your computer screen. You clear your throat and your mind before placing your fingers back on the keyboard. "Uhh, yeah! You just took me off guard is all. Hey, Verity! Nice to meet you." You greet politely, a smile tugging at your lips.

"Oh, I apologize then! It is a pleasure to meet you as well, [Name]!" Verity says in his voice scarily close to his lore accurate one. Dear god he knows your name. Of course he knows your name why wouldn't he? He does know everything after all! Your tense body then relaxes as you realized he probably just got that from your player tag name.

"Thanks! How about I take you with me?" You say, your character crouching down to be at more at eye level with Verity. "Yeah!" He exclaimed as you chuckle slightly. You then pick Verity up and start wondering off to a tree, beginning to break the wood.

As you do so, you wonder how come the voice seems so accurate to the actual voice of Verity. Did the voice actor voice some lines for this mod? No, they wouldn't have such direct answers to the questions you give. Did they use ai for the voice? Probably not, Verity's voice didn't have that robotic edge to each word. Also Verity's voice actor stated they're uncomfortable with that so the mod would have been taken down very quickly.

But then... how come it's so accurate? How come everything about this mod has been so accurate? How come he can actually hear? Nothing added up, and it was only making your head spin in a dizzying circle. You finishing chopping up the tree and then travel to another one, attempting to get enough wood to possibly build a house and a crafting table.

You then think for a moment. It's actually been awhile since you played Minecraft so it was nice to be back again. You hum as you finish cutting down another tree. You begin walking, trying to scout out a place to build your base. You eventually find a nice flat area to begin. You start mapping out the house a begging to build-- before you realize you just ran out of wood.

"Uhhh... Verity?" You say, bringing him out.

"Yessss?" He replies, his smile still wide.

"Do you... happen to know where any trees are?"

"There's three 40 blocks behind you!"

"Okay, thank you so much goat!" You say cheerfully as you turn around and spot the trees Verity taught you about. You can't help but feel a little stupid for not noticing the trees sooner... you supposed you could just pretend like you never asked that.

A day passed by and you finished building your house and as well built a furnace, crafting table, and a chest to go inside it. You went to the mines not too long ago and were planning to make a second trip there to acquire more materials.

You placed Verity atop your furnace as you crafted a new pickax and sword. "Do you live alone?" You almost jump at the sudden question from Verity. You soon get flash backs from ThatMob's video on Verity. You exit out of crafting and look to Verity. "Why do you wanna know?" You ask, turning your character to face him. "I'm just... curious." He responds, and you hesitate. This interaction then suddenly reminds you of just how true this mod is to the actual Verity video. Sometimes, you can't help but wonder if this is the real mod. You know its highly unlikely, after all, Verity is fictional... he doesn't actually exist... yet you can't help but wonder what will happen if you ask—

"Do you know who ThatMob is?" The words are suddenly blurted out of your mouth. You're shocked by your own words, not expecting to just suddenly ask such a question to him.

You see his smile immediately dissipate, like a string finally ripping after being dragged down by a heavy weight. Verity stares at you for a second. The silence is thick like fog, uncomfortable, almost disturbing.

"....You know him?" Verity's voice is monotonous, much like the voice he used with Mob when he told him the villagers were gone.

"I-I mean..." You stutter, backpedaling as you try to find an excuse to the question you just blurted out. "Yes! I mean- no! No.. I don't.. I've um, watched his videos before though! And I've... liked them... I wanted to uh- just... tell you about how much I like his horror mod videos!" You instantly try mark up an excuse as Verity continues to stare at you like he's attempting to burn a hole through your head.

Butterflies flutter in your stomach, almost as if they are making a desperate attempt to escape. You stare back into Verity's black beady eyes, practically begging he doesn't say anything further and that he'll somehow dismiss your sudden mentioning of.. Mob. However, in this moment, the realization hit you like a speeding truck. This was just an accurate attempt at mimicking the Verity mod... this was the Verity mod.

At this sudden revelation you feel like you need to get some water, take or break, or just something that will allow you to think!

"I see..!" Verity chirped unexpectedly as he forces a smile back onto his face. "Is that something you do in your free time then?" He asks, it appears he's holding himself together with only a few threads of string. You're somehow able to pick up on the sharp edge to each of his words, covered by a thin fabric of a cheerful facade.

You decide to play along, you didn't want him finding out you knew who came before you. "Uh, yeah! I do..." You squeezed a laugh out of your throat, somehow hoping it makes your words sound more convincing. "How about we just move on..." You say, going back to crafting.

"You didn't answer my question from earlier." Verity asks as you sigh. You were unsure if you should even answer that, given what he could do with the information. "I uh, I suppose I do live alone, yeah." You decide to say, moving the freshly crafted supplies into your inventory. You exit out of the crafting table once more.

"I'm going to go mining... would you like to join me?" You question, turning your character to the yellow smiling ball once more. "Sure!" He replies as you go ahead and pick him up. You take this moment of travel to think about what you plan to know now that you're aware you're probably dealing with the real Verity...

First off, is that why all of the videos on Verity were no where to be found because Mob never got the chance to post it before eventually dying? But if this was a world where Verity did exist how come he fell into your hands of all people? Wasn't it supposed to be Grox? Or possibly... something else? It was one huge mess, a complicated knot that you couldn't unravel.

But, the most important question of all stood in bold, clear letters:

What were you going to do?

If it's the second day playing this mod, this means the next day he's going to tell you that something is coming in three days once his hunger becomes too much to bear.

Maybe you can just… beg him to not eat you? Well, if he does eat you does that mean you also die in real life? You were aware that Mob survived by coming back when Verity turned into his monstrous form. Perhaps you can do the same thing? You better pray you’re able to do the same thing.

“Have you seen my baby… she’s not a dame nor a lady…” You mindlessly sing under your breath. You remember this song from it playing whenever Verity’s monster form is in close proximity to Mob, meaning it was about to attack him… You also remember Verity playing this for him when asked him to play him a song. If you recall... it's something he likes.

“Not in the way she walks, the way she talks.. or in the way she loves me—”

“What are you singing?” Verity cuts you off so sharply you flinch. You had forgotten he was still in your inventory. You take a moment to equip his form.

“O-Oh um.. just— a song I like.” You answer, the realization of the significance this song holds relating to Verity now sinking in. “I like that song too!” He beams, however you feel as though there’s something ominous lying behind his words.

“Ah! What a uh… what a coincidence!” You attempt to play it off as nothing but that, a coincidence.

Another day goes by in Minecraft. You pretty much spent your whole mining trip and way back thinking about what he’d say and possible solutions to deal with it. So, when your character gets up, you already expect to hear those words: “Something is coming in three days…” Verity says just liked you assumed.

“I know.” You say in a monotone manner and with barely any thought. “You.. know?” Verity repeats, confusion staining his tone. “Shit! I mean.. no! No I didn’t know! I uh..” You slipped up once again, you aren’t sure how many times you can keep doing this before he eventually catches on you know more than you should about him.

“What’s coming..?” You say even though you know all too well it’s him. “Something.” He repeats, and you simply sigh. “Alright.” You reply as you get some food from your chest.

“You don’t sound concerned.” The digital ball says, his grin now appearing far more sinister. A black hue settled between his eyes. “Should I be?” You ask, looking over to Verity sitting upon the crafting table next to your bed. “Yes.” He states with a rather straightforward tone.

“Okay..” You spoke, unsure of what else to say. It wasn’t like you weren’t concerned… of course you were, but you were aware nothing you did to prepare would stop him from tearing down your house to rip you apart.

A day passed and you could tell Verity was growing a puzzled with your odd behavior. While Verity did appreciate your lack of questioning when told not to go towards villages to the east when you asked him for the nearest village… You somehow ended up at the village simply because you sucked at directions. He recalls you repeating that almost fifteen times.

When passing through that empty village, you didn’t ask him what happened or even bother to stop in confusion. You just looted the chests and gardens, before moving on to something else. Your actions towards such matters were strikingly unusual. Not one player replied with such nonchalance towards the empty villages. All you did was apologize for going to the wrong village. “It’s… fine.” He replied, not sure how else to react. You seemed pleased with his answer, however.

“Why aren’t you preparing?” He questions, sounding genuinely confused. He sat on the top of one of the dirt blocks surrounding the garden you were currently building. You glance over at the smiling ball and shrug. “There really isn’t a point, nothing will really be able to stop ‘it’ anyway.” You let out a sigh, focusing back on your gardening.

“…How do you know that?” Verity’s voice dips into something far different than his usual optimistic tone.

That was probably the fourth crack in the glass concealing your true knowledge upon Verity and who came before you. You supposed you were never really good at keeping secrets.

“I just um.. assumed—”

“Is there something you’re not telling me, [Name]?”

It felt like the world around you suddenly stopped moving and instead collapsed in on itself. The bright sun’s rays suddenly seemed to dim just by his words alone. Slowly, you turned to look at Verity once more.

“What..?”

“Do you know something that I don’t?”

“I don’t… understand.”

The feeling of dread crept up your shoulders. Butterflies fluttered beneath your ribs and you felt your throat close in.

“You’ve been saying and doing strange things… familiar things… it’s like you’ve met me before. But I’m sure that we’ve never met— it’s.. odd.”

He gazed at you. It was like he was calculating your every move.

“You know something, don’t you?”

“Okay! Okay.. just.. wait.” You huff before rubbing your eyes. “What do you think I know?” You start, watching as Verity’s expression shifts from his typical smile to an expression far more unreadable.

“I’m not sure, that’s why I’m asking you. What do you know?” Verity replied making a slight groan leave you.

“I-I don’t think I should tell you…” You stumble over your words as Verity just stares at you through the veil of the computer screen.

His silence is practically eating you whole. The black of his eyes made something ache within you in an incredibly unpleasant way. It felt like your intestines were swirling into one big knot.

“Can we just… move on from this? Please? I um.. how about we go pick out some flowers or build you a little room, or something…? How does that sound?” You ask, yet you’re slightly apprehensive. You watch Verity, anticipating his next move.

“…Alright!” He suddenly replies which causes you to let out a relieved sigh.

“Okay then, come on let’s go.” You say, picking him up. “Can you tell me where the nearest flowers are?” You inquire as the coded grass crunches beneath your Minecraft character’s feet.

And to which, he does.