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MCC Party is a mega clown circus by design with all the stealing of the crowns and the general scuffedness. The Lime team consisting of False, Cub, Impulse and Jojo take it a step further by dressing up as clowns (only the men have big red clown noses, because duh).
MCC Party is a riot with a rather confusing (but still gripping) finale, and maybe they drank too many slushies, or maybe it’s just because of their costumes, but when the event’s over, False still feels kinda… clownish. (Or maybe it’s because she beat H up with a spatula, because that’s kind of a thing that just happens.)
False wanders back through the Hermitcraft portal alone and finds the server almost completely deserted. Not surprising considering it’s almost midnight. The fourth level of Decked Out opened last week and Tango’s tinkering with it, so sadly Decked Out is closed for now. False doesn’t really know why, but she feels like she’s at a loss here. MCC Party’s done, her Hermitcraft projects are mostly finished, and she can’t run Decked Out. It does not help that the hermits haven’t been in the Vault Hunters world a ton (at least, not as much as she would’ve liked), and False is feeling kinda bored. Antsy. Just plain weird. And confused about her restlessness.
False wanders around the empty lobby of Decked Out and glares at the maintenance sign like she could fix it with a simple stare. Her elytra flaps pathetically. She’s still wearing her clown costume. She’s certainly feeling like a clown now.
Her communicator beeps, and False gets strangely excited. Ooh! A sign of life! It’s a hello from Ren, who seems to be the only person around. False replies to him, then continues bouncing around the lobby.
Speak of the devil. Of course Ren appears when she’s thinking about Vault Hunters, because she’s been asking (pestering?) him to join if he’s available, and she just wants to hang out with someone. She also likes pestering Ren in particular because they’ve done so many things together that it starts to feel weird when he’s gone. Granted, it also gets weird when he’s around for too long, such as his brain fart of a stream conversation about eating and swimming and peeing “hand in hand”—
False is going to stop her train of thought right there because Ren’s gonna give everyone anxiety about weirdly specific social situations. She thinks she made the right choice to ditch the stream even as Ren’s chat desperately called out to her. “Don’t leave us alone with him!” they had pleaded. It’s funny how they think she has authority over that guy. Ren is a force of nature on his own and sometimes he just says Things. He’s unstoppable. She’s worried for him.
It’s the same when her own chat would whine about Ren being in MCC like she hasn’t asked him already. It’s funny. It’s clownish. Everytime False’s in MCC, someone would bring Ren up, because even though it’s been two years since they last teamed, everyone still has the notion they’re forever MCC teammates. The Ren MCC copium has been going for years, and maybe that’s why False is feeling so insane. Her teammate left her alone and it’s jail for one thousand years. Ren needs to be locked up in the Sands of Time jail. It’s been far too long since they last teamed. (It has also been far too long since the last Blue Bats reunion.)
It’s late at night. False is losing her mind. MCC Party has wiped away her last bit of sanity. She needs a distraction, and she can’t even go die in Decked Out. She doesn’t want to bother Ren in case he’s recording at the grand time of 11:30pm, but then Ren sends her another message.
<Renthedog> You doing anything? :D
<falsesymmetry> nope, just came back from mcc
<Renthedog> Hope you had a great time!!
<Renthedog> <3 <3 <3
<falsesymmetry> lol thanks
<falsesymmetry> what are you doing? :D
<Renthedog> grinding at the industrial island :D
<falsesymmetry> ooh, recording?
<Renthedog> no, it’s too late for that
<Renthedog> >.<
<falsesymmetry> not gonna sleep?
<Renthedog> I’ve got work to finish :***(
So he’s not recording. That gives her free reign. Hmm.
Many things are currently bouncing in False’s discombobulated mind, and for the sake of her sanity, she tries to list them out:
- She’s restless and feeling weird for no reason, so maybe talking to someone who’s even weirder than her can balance it out. (It won’t. They’ll make each other worse. She’s just coming up with an excuse to visit Ren.)
- Late night is always a weird time to be out and about. Maybe she can give him some company. Since he’s out there on his industrial island that’s so far away from everything else. And everyone knows by now that when Ren’s left to his own devices for too long, he just explodes out of pathetic misery and burns down his base or something.
- She can bother / pester / prank / troll / kill Ren, which is always a fun time sinker. What? She’s a good prankster, and he’s a good target!
- It has genuinely been forever since they last played together. Maybe she’ll bug him about MCC again. (Never mind that they basically race at Blue River Raceways every time they meet for a collab. And never mind that they crash stream days to play minigames together.) False’s feeling that old itch. Something about holding on until you can’t anymore. She can be competitive yet play for fun when she’s with him. Sure, False enjoys going full competitive, but she’s also… just kinda silly sometimes. And she misses being silly with Ren.
- She’s dressed as a clown right now. She can do whatever she wants. She’s just a clown on Hermitcraft. It’s totally fine.
And with that in mind, False grabs her rockets and heads to the nether. The rest of the server is silent. False considers herself as one of the quieter hermits, but prolonged silence can drive her insane, especially when Hermitcraft is known for its noise and shenanigans. False almost gets lost in the nether, but in the end, she stumbles into the long tunnel to Ren’s island.
The MCC adrenaline is starting to fade and she’s left with exhaustion, but she’s still restless. Maybe it’s because she’s tired that she’s losing her inhibitions, hence she feels more restless, as contradictory as that sounds? And even though False is a clown right now, the server’s empty, so no one will bear witness to her clownery. Well, no one except Ren, but he’s consistently more of a clown than she is, so she’s fine with that.
It’s almost midnight when she emerges, and she follows the lights to Ren’s industrial builds. It takes her a bit of time to locate Ren because he’s not speaking. He’s building something on a platform. She sees no floating cameras and that further confirms he’s not recording. Sure, False likes bothering people, but not to the point of interfering with recording. (Well, that was that time when she hid herself on her elytra course to scare Ren, and that made it into her episode, soooo.)
False sneaks up on Ren. (It’s painfully easy to sneak up on Ren.) Good thing her clown shoes don’t make loud squishy sounds. She takes a step forward.
“Hey,” she says casually, so very casually as she punches him.
Ren yelps and stumbles. He’s about to predictably fall off the platform (seriously, False’s punched him off so many platforms), but False grabs his arm and yanks him back. Unfortunately, her clown shoes don’t have a good grip, and False’s tired, so she slips. They both end up crashing on the platform and they shriek in pain together.
“W-what was that?” Ren gasps. “Wait, Falsie? What are you doing out here?”
False pushes herself into a sitting position and tucks her hair away behind her ear. She’s suddenly self conscious now that she’s on the ground. “Just wanted to annoy you,” she says truthfully.
“Oh, of course,” Ren deadpans, then he takes a proper look at her. “My dude, what are you wearing?”
False beams at him. “I’m a clown! My team all wore clown costumes for MCC!”
“... Yeah, I can see.” Ren takes a deep breath as he tries to collect his scattered thoughts. “Geez, there’s some tomfoolery going on here.”
“Yup.”
Ren squints at her. “And did this… clownery inspire you to come out to the middle of freakin’ nowhere at midnight, madam Symmetry?”
False shrugs. “Maybe? I can do whatever I want. Including coming out to the middle of nowhere to annoy you.”
“Well…” Ren’s words trail away as he turns to stare at the stars in the sky. It’s lonely working at an isolated island by himself, and he knows she knows. He also knows she’s checking up on him without being explicit about it. “Thanks for coming.”
“No problem.”
They’re both still on the ground, but neither of them bother to get up. There’s no need anyway. Ren stares at False’s mismatched, colourful outfit. “How was MCC?”
“Fun as always. It was more chaotic than usual.” False looks to the side. Now that she’s achieved her goal of bothering Ren, her energy is seeping away. “... Would be more fun if you were there.”
And now she’s said it (again). Geez, False isn’t supposed to be clingy. But can she help it? Even back in the days when they played together, False always had to remind Ren of signups. It felt like she was his personal assistant or teacher or something. She was always nagging him about signups. Heck, she’s still nagging him now. They started out on the same team, and they couldn’t stop teaming— until they eventually had to split.
False shivers. Is it always this cold out here? Or maybe her clown costume isn’t very warm. She stares at her clown shoes. Ren shifts, and his shoulder presses against hers.
Ren sighs. “Yeah, I’m trying to make time for it. But I’m also kinda nervous about coming back, y’know? I’m super rusty. I-I don’t want to let anyone down.”
False blinks and smacks his shoulder. “Don’t say that! You won’t let anyone down! At least you won’t let me down,” she declares.
Ren smiles sheepishly. “You’re a MCC champ. You’ve won so many times, the hermits have won so many times, and I’m… I’m just me.”
False stays quiet. “We won too. The Blue Bats, remember?”
“How could I forget?”
“Soooo… it’s okay. It’s okay to be rusty and fail and be scuffed because we won together already. We’ll always have that, so we can just have fun now.” False doesn’t know what she’s saying. The weirdness is compounded now that she’s with Ren. She blames the late night brain farts.
False resists the urge to grab Ren’s shoulders and shake him. In fact, she probably would’ve done that if she isn’t so tired. For now, she’s content with leaning against his shoulder. “Also, don’t go all sad on me. I want to team with you again. And you specifically. I miss you, dude! I literally do not care how you perform. I just want my MCC buddy back.”
Okay, maybe that hinges a little on desperation, but False is getting kinda desperate. It’s a bit embarrassing, but she somehow can’t bring herself to care. False knows she’s being whiny and Ren got the message like, months ago, but she just… she just can’t help herself. She’ll remind him of MCC signups again, in the way she used to do every month. She’s a clown, alright? She’ll clown about Ren in MCC. It’s normal clown behaviour, that’s for sure.
“... I miss being your teammate too.” Ren’s voice is soft. “Actually, when’s the next MCC? I don’t think I’ve heard news of that yet.”
“Yeah, it’s not out yet. But I dunno, we’ve had a lot of gimmick MCCs this year. We were joking that MCC Party would be the last MCC of this year.”
Ren’s doggy ears droop. “Oh. But I guess the new year isn’t too far away.”
False stands up and brushes dust off her clown pants. “There’s no pressure, but we’ll see what happens next.” She grins and stretches out a hand to Ren. “Let’s sign up for MCC. Together.”
Maybe False looks cringe, offering him her hand when she's in a silly outfit. But Ren warmly returns her smile. He takes her hand and she pulls him up. “Yeah, let’s.”
It’s a lighthearted promise under a starry sky. Maybe one day, some day, if the fates align, they’ll get to be in MCC together again.
Just like how it used to be. Just like how all of this started.
Just two good friends wanting to play minigames together.