Work Text:
Mason has been avoiding Ptolemy for-- Well, avoiding feels like the wrong word. Mason has been working in an area away from Ptolemy with tape over his camera after telling them to stay put at the base for a couple hours now. Mason even gave him something to do (the exact word he used was "enrichment") so he wouldn't be bored: harvest the wheat farm. Ptolemy finished in five minutes and had nothing left to do the rest of the time until Mason came back.
Ptolemy was in the middle of debating if it should open MSpaint and add another drawing to the suspicious folder on Mason's desktop that he still had yet to check because Mason was the loveable kind of unobservant, where you could point something out that was right in front of him and his face would light up and glow like he had just been shown the most amazing thing in the world. It was adorable. It was irritating. Either way, Ptolemy was in the middle of something when that irritatingly adorable face showed back up in the camera view, smiling. Msak was in the entryway of Ptolemy's house.
<msak__> I finished
What?
<msak__> I finished.
No,
I mean
What did you finish?
Mason grins even wider, because of course he does.
<msak__> its a surprise
Ptolemy can't hear him, but they can see Mason giggling.
And?
<msak__> And what?
Mason.
He just keeps smiling.
Are you going to show me this surprise?
<msak__> obviously im gonna show you
<msak__> Silly~
Sighing, Ptolemy steps forward. They loom over Msak, and if Mason were in VR this is where Msak would physically shrink away and slowly look up, holding his hands to his chest like the emotions he felt just at being towered over by the horrifying thing in front of him were enough that he had to physically keep his heart in place. As it is now, Mason just shifts around in his chair excitedly, shoulders shimmying back and forth as Msak turns his head up.
Ptolemy gestures outward with its lower arms, keeping the others politely clasped and lowered.
Lead the way, then.
They could only barely see Mason's eyes with how much he was smiling, and now they can't see his mouth at all. Mason has a hand over his lips, so full of glee he has to stop his heart from jumping through his throat now instead of his chest.
<msak__> close your eyes first
<msak__> ALL of them
Why do you feel the need to specify?
<msak__> because i think it's cute lol
<msak__> four big ole eyes
<msak__> Now close your eyes!!!!!
A huff, and then Ptolemy can't see. They don't have proof what with all visual stimuli of the outside world being removed, but they can feel Mason's smile widen and his shoulders shake with laughter like the joyous little beast he seems to be today.
There is a touch on Ptolemy's left side and this is the beauty of being stuck in creative mode. Msak can hit Ptolemy as much as he wants, leading them around, without a worry in the world or a single thought that he might be hurting them, which is isn't. He literally can't. A 'hit' becomes nothing more than a gentle guiding touch, poking Ptolemy on whichever side he doesn't want them to go, like a herding dog. Mason would be a chihuahua.
It might not be able to hear through Mason's microphone and into the real world, but Ptolemy can hear in game, which means they can hear Msak stop moving, and then the grass rustling as he turns in place.
<msak__> ????
Ah.
Did I say that out loud?
<msak__> one of the well socialized ones at least, right??
...
<msak__> Right???
...
Sure.
<msak__> ur so mean to me ):
Your words
Msak taps Ptolemy on the side again, guiding them forward, and that's how Ptolemy knows they got to Mason. It chirps with laughter and he hits them again a couple times, more insistently.
<msak__> keep movingggggg
Then keep leading.
The sounds of movemement stop again and so Ptolemy cracks its eyes open, just the lower ones. It makes sure not to look at the Minecraft world in front of it because Ptolemy wouldn't betray Mason's trust like that even if it is going directly against his instructions, and just peeks through the camera.
Mason is smiling with his whole face, just like he had been when Ptolemy first closed its eyes, but now his lips are moving, mouthing Ptolemy's words back at them while dramatically dipping his head from left to right.
"Then keep lead- HEY!"
Mason stares into the camera, trying and failing miserably to fake an exaggerated frown. The corners of his mouth twitch upwards far too quickly and easily to give even the slightest impression that he might have truly been upset in the first place.
<msak__> I told you to close your eyes D:<
I only looked through your camera.
"You're still looking through my camera."
Ptolemy's eyes quickly slip shut.
<msak__> you can be a little shit when you want to be
Taking into consideration its rigid facial structure, what Ptolemy has in the way of a mouth quirks into a devious little smile. Msak hits him on the left side, towards the back.
<msak__> just keep moving. We're almost there
And so they kept moving. Ptolemy obediently followed Msak, or followed the direction he lead them in, all the way to this surprise of his that he was so eager to show off. Eventually, it wasn't steps on grass that Ptolemy heard and felt, but steps on wool. Right when he was about to ask, Mason spoke first.
<msak__> You can open your eyes now :))
They did.
Mason is sitting a little further back from the camera than he was before and shoulders are drawn up high like he's holding his breath. He stares at the screen, almost flinching, waiting for Ptolemy's reaction.
In the game, Ptolemy squinted as it opened its eyes all the way. Bright sunlight beamed down into a little forest clearing lovingly decorated to the nth degree. A red picnic blanket sits in the middle of everything, a basket and some plates laid out and ready for a meal. Mason had recently installed a mod that allows videos to played in-game, and a few blocks from that mod form a sizeable screen towards the back. Roses and daisies ring the whole area in a wide circle. Everything is very generously spaced and no low-hanging branches make their way inside from what Ptolemy can see.
Mason
'What's the occasion?' is what he wanted to say. 'If I knew you had something planned I would have changed forms', but Mason beats him to it.
<msak__> Happy birthday
Ptolemy's head snaps sharply to Msak, and it stares at Mason with wide eyes. He sits there, a hopeful kind of smile on his face. He still seems a little scared, but he's melting the longer Ptolemy goes without a message, the longer it looks at him and everything else in-game, taking everything in and taking its time to understand just what this is.
Mason
<msak__> everything's red because i figured that was your favorite color
<msak__> I found a couple pictures of you and you were always wearing red lol
Mason,
I
<msak__> oh and the flowers
<msak__> I didn't know which flowers were on that one floral shirt you seemed to like so I just used daisies
<msak__> hope thats ok
This
<msak__> oh aaaaand!!
Msak jumps away from Ptolemy and runs towards the back of the clearing where the screen it. Mason's face is quickly brightening up as he shows off his plans, but Ptolemy can't appreciate it because it's all wrong. All of this is for Ptolemy, for it, but it isn't--
<msak__> Since you feed on fear i figured we could pirate Iron Lung!!
<msak__> u know the game right?
Mason
<msak__> I'm like 90% sure it came out before 2023
MASON.
Msak stops in his tracks, and his eyes go wide. Mason is scared again and Ptolemy can feel it filling it better than any plans he might have had would. In an instant, he goes quiet--before he was babbling to himself, saying everything in chat out loud and them some, but now his lips stop moving.
Mason.
It isn't my birthday.
I showed you my... classification.
If you wish to celebrate my "birthday", you should do it on the 17th.
<msak__> but that isnt your birthday
Ptolemy sighs, the fans of Mason's laptop carrying the sound for it. It opens the file on Mason's desktop, the file for its classification form. It circles the date in red.
May 17th.
<msak__> Thats Ptolemy's birthday
I am Ptolemy, Mason.
Mason's lips move, and Ptolemy flinches. It can't hear, but Mason's face is so soft as he says it. Full of concern and pity and a gentleness it does not deserve considering all that its done to hurt him. Mason should not be looking at it like that, with that stupid, wholehearted love in his eyes, in the way he tilts his head forward, in the way his mouth forms the sounds to the letters to the name of a dead man.
<msak__> But you're not, and I don't want to call you that anymore.
<msak__> It's a name someone else gave you
<msak__> I'll keep calling you that if you want, but
<msak__> if someone gave me a name after doing that to me, I don't think I'd want to use it.
Mason, please
<msak__> Do you want me to keep calling you Ptolemy?
...
It watches Mason close his eyes and take a deep breath, so deep his shoulders lift and his head tilts back. He makes an 'O' with his lips and slowly breathes out. His shoulders drop, his head comes back down, and Mason looks just down from the camera. He mouths his next words words as he types them.
<msak__> You know, in another life I would've liked to take you on a real date today
<msak__> like to an aquarium or something
<msak__> but I guess this works.
Mason looks right into his webcam.
<msak__> Can I call you your real name?
It He nods.
<msak__> then
"Happy birthday, Ikaika."
<msak__> Happy birthday, Ikaika.