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Grox can remember first meeting Mob like as if it were yesterday.
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Grox was taking a stroll outside of the walls of his kingdom to get away from Froggy’s never ending attacks when he saw a small black silhouette in the corner of his eye. A baby enderman was walking aimlessly through the flower forest near Grox’s empire. Taking closer inspection, he saw no nearby endermen who could be this kid's parents. ‘Just go take a look at what the kid is doing…’ thought bitterly the wither skeleton (he wasn’t worried, not at all.)
Getting closer to the baby enderman, who was picking at flowers and covered in dirt, he could tell that he'd been wandering for a while. The clothes the kid was wearing were worn down and covered in filth. His hair was unruly and looked matted to all hell. In all, the kid looked like an entire mess. Grox took a step closer, the kid still hadn’t noticed the skeleton behind him somehow.
“Hey,” the enderman jumped and turned around swiftly, clutching at the flowers he gathered close to his body, “what are you doing all the way out here?” Grox watched as the enderman inched himself away from him, his green eyes never leaving Grox’s jet black ones. He took note of that. Endermen don’t have green eyes. Waiting for a response, Grox took the advantage of looking at the kid at a closer range. His hair was black and a bit overgrown. He had a red scar on his nose (he was guessing it was a scar). And- no mouth. The kid had no mouth. No wonder why he hadn’t said anything. ‘Well now I look dumb.” He huffed as he finally broke the silence.
“Alright kid, since you can’t talk Imma guess that you’re either lost and found yourself all the way out here. Or the other option,” the kid stopped taking steps backwards, “you’re an orphan.” The enderman looked up at Grox with the most (cute) confused eyes his green eyes could produce. ‘Right, he probably doesn’t know what the hell I’m talking about.” Grox completely forgot that endermen have their own language.
“Well, don’t even worry about it. You’re now legally my son.” He knew this was a huge jump, he knew nothing about taking care of a kid let alone being a parent, but he saw this enderman as a breakthrough for his empire. He'll hone his abilities and this kid will be the best asset the Grox empire has ever seen. Grox took the child by his hand and started to lead the way to his kingdom. The kid didn’t fight back, he happily followed. “I’ll have to give you a name.” Grox said aloud as he kept walking back to his palace. “...Mob? Mob. Your name will be Mob.” He tightened his grip on Mob. Yes. Yes, Mob would be a great soldier.
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‘Mob will be a great soldier for my army.”
Those were the same words Grox would repeat to himself whenever he spent more and more time with Mob than he should have. He reminded himself of that when he took upon Mob’s necessities, like bathing him and tucking him in at night, instead of shoving them onto one of his many servants. He would repeat it whenever Mob hit a milestone in his life, such as when Mob grew his mouth and said his first words, “D-Dad!” (Grox executed any servant if they swore they heard him bawling later at night.) Grox killed any and every villager and secret service member who heard him freak out about losing Mob when the kid remembered he could teleport. (After that incident, Mob was heavily guarded and every location he could possibly be at were pinpointed for immediate search whenever he teleported out of his guard's sights.)
If any of his “friends” (Lookout was his only friend) asked about Mob and referred to him as his “son” or anything along those lines Grox always interrupted them, “He isn’t my son. I’m just training him to be a great soldier for my empire.”
Grox would always shut it down. And every time he did, his “friends” (Lookout) would always roll their eyes and move onto the next subject.
(Grox will always hate himself for denying his heart.)
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He’d been called by Mob after months of radio silence on his end. Which was worrisome since the enderman would always call or send a letter to Grox every 2 weeks since he left the house. So, once he finally got a call from the man he didn’t waste a second to get to where Mob settled.
Seeing Mob in front of his house made a wave of relief wash over Grox as he ran towards the enderman.
“Mob! How are you doing?” Grox got ahead of himself and opened his arms out to hug Mob. Surprisingly, Mob backed away immediately as if burned. “H-Hey, get away from me! I barely even know you,” Grox ignored the sudden pain that sentence brought to his heart, “besides, I called you here to take care of my BESTEST of friends, Verity...” Mob pointed his hand to the ground. A yellow smiling ball staring up at Grox.
Grox honestly hadn’t seen Verity there, he had been too focused on Mob to see the small yellow ball there (alarming since the thing was the brightest thing there). And Verity’s title, “best friend”, raised some questions in Grox. Wasn’t that Twixxle boy his best friend?
“...Okay, but Mob I want-” Mob ran off to the hills before he even let Grox finish his sentence. That was strange for the man. But, it was fine. He’ll just talk to Mob once he gets back from whatever errand he was running. He took Verity indoors and waited till Mob came back.
Blinking for just a second, Grox lost sight of Verity. Stumbling to get up, Grox wondered how the hell the ball was able to move that quickly. He looked around the house and found nothing. Fuck. Mob was going to be annoyed. He’ll just wait for him downstairs.
…
He heard footsteps outside, Grox got up immediately to see Mob. He saw Mob holding Verity in his left hand, walking towards the house. Grox saw the absolute terror in Mob's eyes. (He would wonder what happened to cause such an expression on his face.)
“I’m sorry, Mob. I just blinked and he was gone.” He ran a hand through his hair as he glanced at Mob.
“...It’s fine..! You can leave now. Thank you…” Rushing out his words Mob walked past Grox. Grox instantly shifted his head to follow Mob.
“Mob, can we speak?” Grox lifted up his hand to place it on Mob’s shoulder only for Mob to turn around and face Grox. His green eyes were shiny with unshed tears as he looked at Grox dead in his eyes. (The skeleton would never forget those eyes.)
“No! Just… go away. …Please.”
“...Alright.” Grox pulled his hand back and watched Mob return back into his house with Verity in hand.
(Grox would come to regret this day. ‘Why didn’t I push harder…’ he would think.)
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“Lord Grox, there's a box outside the borders. What would you like to do?”
Grox snapped out of his thoughts about the past month's events once a secret service member informed him about some box. ‘They can’t even handle a damn box.’ He quiets down his bitter thoughts and got up from his throne.
“I’ll handle it. Go check it out y'know.” Getting up and walking through his halls, with his guards on each side of him, to handle this mysterious box helps him ease his emotions about Mob and his radio silence. (Grox was worried for Mob, but he won’t admit that.)
Once outside of the boundary that makes his civilization, he took note of a cardboard box. It was moving, obviously the contents inside were alive. The dead give away being the voice coming from inside. The wither skeleton walked closer to the box and opened it. A similar little yellow ball comes out of the box.
“Hello, I’m Verity! Your personal helper friend! Ask me anything, I know everything!”
Verity.
Why wasn’t Verity with Mob..? Verity was with Mob the last time he saw him. Why was Verity here? Multiple questions popped into Grox’s head, and ironically enough, they’re all about the enderman he raised, Mob.
Realizing he was staring blankly at Verity, Grox grabbed Verity and made a run for it towards his palace; his bodyguards are caught off guard by his sudden break (but they followed behind.) Holding tightly on Verity he ran back to his castle, he could hear his guards footsteps behind him.
“Yo, stop following me and leave me alone!” Grox yells at his guards. He just needed some space. Instantly, he no longer heard steps behind him. ‘Good. At least they have some brains.” Finally, reaching past his palace doors Grox bolts to his room and slammed the door shut, double checking to see if they were locked. Feeling secure, he threw Verity onto his nightstand and boxes the thing between his arms, looking down at him.
“Oof- that wasn’t so nice! Let me tell you, you’re so-”
“Where’s Mob.” Grox didn’t let him finish.
“...” Verity’s usual smile leaves his face. And wasn’t that so incriminating.
“Verity. Where is Mob. Don’t try to deny anything, I saw you last with him,” Grox’s hands gripped tightly into his nightstand, it started to creak under the pressure, “so, tell me where he is...”
The room went unbearably silent. Grox finished speaking and Verity wouldn’t talk. And that did it for the wither skeleton, he was patient long enough.
“Verity. Fucking answer me, Verity! Where’s Mob! It’s been months,” the helper “friend” flinched after hearing that, “and he hasn’t answered any of my calls or letters! Tell me where he is!” His claws started to go through the wood and he was shaking with anger (as well as desperation, but he mistook the two.)
“He’s not here…” Grox wouldn’t be able to hear Verity if he hadn’t stopped yelling, but he does, and the answer did nothing but fan the fire.
“What the fuck does that mean! Obviously he isn’t here, dipshit!” The skeleton grabbed onto the nightstand and hurled it across his bedroom, Verity with it. The nightstand exploded as it made impact with the wall, the contents within the cabinet flying everywhere as Verity hit the wall and rolled on the ground. The helper saw a piece of paper fly in front of him. The paper, or rather a picture, has Grox in a red sweater posing with a child who also had a red sweater. Looking closer, Verity saw a red mark on the child's nose.
‘..Mob…?’ On the picture there’s written, “First Christmas (with Mob)!’ In a red marker. ‘No no no no-’ Verity snapped out of his spiraling when more items in the room were thrown across the room. Glancing up he saw Grox throwing books, all in his direction.
“Aren’t you supposed to know everything! So why won’t you tell me where he is?!” Grox didn’t stop throwing items till the moon was in full bloom. Verity hadn’t done a thing except for dodging the books. Huffing, Grox felt his eyes start to burn as he made his way to his bed. Unfortunately, he collapsed on his knees before he got there, only his upper body making it onto the bed. The burning sensation in his eyes started to become prominent when he thought about how he still goes to bed not knowing if Mob was okay. He pressed his face into his mattress as his vision became blurry.
“Why…” Grox hiccupped, though they were muffled. “Why won’t you tell me where my son is…?” Grox felt his bedsheets becoming wet underneath his face.
‘Where are you, Mob…?” He can only think about that till he passes out.
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Grox doesn’t understand why he even keeps Verity.
It’s been two weeks since the AI showed up at his empire and he’s been of no use in finding out where Mob is. Whenever Grox asks him a question involved with Mob, the AI does nothing but shut down immediately or give a vague response. Honestly, Grox has lost all of his patience. He can’t go another sleepless night worrying about Mob. He can’t keep going to Verity with his questions about him. He just can’t anymore. So, he takes it in his own hands. He goes to Mob’s house.
‘I should’ve done this a long time ago.” Making his way inside he can tell this place has long since been abandoned. There’s dust everywhere and the bed is untouched. Leaving the house doesn’t give Grox any comfort, but it gives him the motivation to keep exploring, to find out what happened to Mob. He goes to the house next door. It’s open. Nearing the doorframe, he sees claw marks and old stains on the floor. Grox knows what these stains are. He’d know them better than anyone else. They’re blood stains. Grox steps back from the house. He doesn’t realize how hard his heart is pumping. ‘No. No. No. That can’t be Mobs… It can’t be! Yeah! It can’t be his! The blood is too old! Yeah… Yeah! That would make sense for the color!’ Calming himself down he makes his way off the property.
‘I should look over the hill.’ The last time he saw Mob he went over the hill and back. He should check there, especially with how terrified Mob looked afterwards. Making up his mind, he starts to venture over the hill.
…
A couple hours have passed since he decided to take things into his own hands and find Mob. Hours of finding absolutely nothing that can pinpoint Mob’s whereabouts and Grox is growing more antsy. Standing under a tree to get away from the glistening sun he's able to recollect himself. Sighing, he throws his head back.
‘Is that a hole at that side of the mountain?’ Grox can see a door shaped hole on a side of a mountain by where he's standing between the tree's leaf's. Seeing this as a possible clue to where Mob could be he goes towards the mountain and starts climbing. He’s close to the hole that his upper body is at ground level with the door. Grox looks through the door.
“...No. P-Please tell me no…”
A white hallway with windows on the walls and the one thing that drops his heart to his feet, Mob lying on the white floor in a pool of his own blood, though now it’s dry and flaking off his skin. A gun being inches away from his body. The sight alone is enough to push himself up and run inside the door.
“MOB!” Grox finds himself sitting on the floor and holding Mob's body as if his life depended on it, not caring of the brain matter sliding out of Mob’s head. “Please tell me this is a nightmare. Please tell me this is a nightmare. Please tell me this isn’t real!” Tears start to flow out of Grox’s eyes as he starts to clutch Mob closer to his body. “Please, please, please, please! I can lose a-anyone and everyone, but you! N-Not you, Mob…! Anyone, but you…” Grox sobs out pleads till his bodyguards come and collect him. Even then, Mob still laid motionless in his arms.