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It started out as a simple day. A chill day. Clown was just restocking in his base calmly and quietly. At ease. He didn’t even have his scythe on him (which was a crazy thought for anyone, considering he was practically glued to the thing).
He had been in a few fights the past week and was brewing new potions of swiftness, strength, fire resistance, all the things. Important things for someone like Clown to have at all times. You never know when you could be jumped.
He wasn’t on edge at the moment, however. No one knew where his base was. Not a soul that currently had the ability to tell anyone, so he was fine. He could relax here.
He should have known. Lifesteal is not a place where you can relax, even in your own base. Even if no one knows, to your knowledge, where it is. Letting your guard down is death, and Clown knows that well.
So he should have known better than to let down his guard, to not have his scythe, to not even have his armor on because it dug at his skin and preferred not to wear it if possible. He should have known better. He did know better. He just wasn’t thinking.
Wasn’t listening when distantly blocks were broken. Didn’t hear when near silent sets of footsteps snuck around his base and broke his bed. He only noticed when someone was right behind him,
Clown whirled around, summoned his sword, and locked it with the intruder’s. He didn’t know this player. And with a quick glance behind them, he didn’t know the other four either.
“Well. How come you guys thought it would be a good idea to break into my base?” Clown said smoothly, shoving the first player away from him by the sword. The other players fanned out to surround him.
One player stepped forward from the center of the half circle of people. He wore diamond armor with red flow trims. “Hello ClownPierce. This is interesting, isn’t it?” The man mused, eyes flicking over Clown. “The mighty assassin caught off guard in his own base. It looks to me that you’re not wearing any armor and you don’t have your pretty scythe. Do you?”
Clown stayed silent. That was all true. How could he be so idiotic as to do this? Oh, he was stupid. “True. I don’t need those to beat you five, however.”
The leader smiled. “Is that so?” He jerked his head to the others. “Get him on the ground.”
The other four rushed forward quickly, one of them punching Clown in the jaw enough to disorient him slightly while the others kicked his legs from under him. Clown landed on his side hard with a grunt.
“What was that about beating us? Because it looks to me,” The leader knelt by Clown and grabbed the back of his jester mask and pulled it up to slam it down against the ground. “That it won’t be the case today.”
Clown’s vision went a little spotty. Ow. So he definitely had a concussion. Fun. His tail lashed and he attempted to push himself up, only to find his head slammed against the ground again.
A crack rang out. Not his skull (yet), but his mask. He could see a bit of light seeping through a crack in the porcelain. Shit.
“That’s interesting. Isn’t one of your main things that no one’s ever seen your face and lived to tell the tale?” The leader pulled Clown’s head up to look him in the eyes. Or, looked him in the painted black slits. “Let’s test that theory, yes?”
Clown’s head was slammed into the ground again. His vision went fuzzy and black spots crowded his eyes. His head was pounding. His tail lashed once more, weaker, but was quickly stopped as one of the players stomped on it, pining it to the floor. Ow. That hurt.
Another crack appeared, the seeping light forming constellations that danced against his skin.
“Well you see, Pierce, there’s a fun little bet me and my friends have going on. It kind of involves you, so we’re gonna settle it.” The leader pressed Clown’s head to the floor, not painfully, just pining. “The bet is on whether or not you’re nether-born. Cause Kai and Shadow over here think you are, but me, Wood, and Bo think you aren’t. So. Let’s find out who was right.”
Clown’s face was slammed once more into the stone floor. This time, instead of just cracks appearing, parts of the mask itself broke off, allowing light to shine on Clown’s left eye and temple.
He blinked blearily. Good gods, his head hurt. He could feel something wet run down his forehead. Probably blood. That would explain his rather painful headache.
“Hmm… I don’t know, boys. You think an eye is enough evidence?” The leader asked the others and they all grinned, shaking their heads. “Welp. Guess we’ll have to gather more then.”
The right side of Clown’s head was bashed against the ground hard, causing more pieces of his mask to splinter off and fall away. Blood trickled down from his nose and temple. Ow.
His ear was roughly grabbed and inspected. “Hm. Do nether-borns have ears like this? He’d have like, more warm colors, right? Wouldn’t he look like a demon? Nether-borns are all demon-like I’m pretty sure. Also those eyes are freaky. Orange and blue? Weird.”
Other voices answered. They faded in and out. Clown’s head hurt. And his nose. And ear. And tail. Everything hurt. Were they going to kill him or not?
“Hey, jester boy, blink twice if you’re nether-born.” Clown’s head was yanked up to meet the gaze of the leader player. He didn’t really blink. Just stared blankly. “Okay then, blink twice if you’re not nether-born.”
He blinked twice slowly. Maybe they’d leave him alone if he just answered. He just wanted them to either kill him or leave. This hurt.
“Ha!” The leader exclaimed and dropped Clown’s head unceremoniously. It landed on the stone with a thunk. “I was right! Suck it Kai.”
One of the players, likely Kai, responded but Clown couldn’t make it out. They were too loud. Why were they so loud?
“Well. Guess that means we’re done here. We can lea- actually.” The leader had a grin come across his lips. He grabbed the back of Clown’s mask and yanked it off his head, allowing the jester's messy tan locks to fan out on his face. “There. Now you’ll have such a fun time when you respawn.”
The leader took the mask with him as he turned to leave. “Do whatever with him, just make sure you kill him.” He then exited quickly, leaving Clown on the ground with the other four players.
The next couple of minutes were a blur. Clown vaguely registered people kicking him and stomping on his tail and stepping on his hands. It all just kind of mixed into an amalgamation of painful sensations.
After a little bit, they seemed to get bored and Clown felt something cold at his throat before sharp pain and darkness.
Clown floated for a second before the void spat him out onto grass. Grass? His base doesn’t have any gra- he’s at spawn. World spawn.
They must have broken his bed. That’s annoying. And dangerous, depending on who was around spawn to see a freshly respawned ClownPierce with plenty of hearts ripe for the taking.
Clown struggled to his feet and pushed his hair out of his eyes. Wait. What.
He can’t- his mask isn’t- oh shit.
Clown’s tail wrapped around his leg, disorientation quickly turning to panic. He could see at least two or three people together, just talking. They hadn’t seen him yet. Maybe he could get away before they did.
He tried to sneak around some of the builds at spawn, and maybe he could get away. Maybe he could leave without anyone seeing him and everything would be fine.
The problem with Clown not having his mask was that he didn’t wear his heart on his sleeve, but it certainly showed on his face. He could finely control his body language to make people believe what he wanted them to. He couldn’t control his facial expressions. That scared him.
His face gives away everything he’s thinking, he can’t control it, so he’s vulnerable without his mask, and vulnerability is death. He knows that. Gods, why did he have to let down his guard earlier? All of this could have been avoided if he had been paying attenti-
“Who is that?”
Clown froze. He knew that voice. He actually knew everyone that he’d seen. That was Zam’s voice. He was with Minute and Ash.
Well fuck.
“That looks like Clown, but he- oh, void.” Minute let out a quiet sound. A distressed one. Minute was a bleeding heart, wasn’t he.
“That’s hair. He doesn’t have his mask on, does he?” Ash said.
Clown didn’t give anyone else the chance to get another word in. To gawk at the deadliest assassin being maskless and vulnerable. He couldn’t handle that. So he ran. Sprinted as fast as he could away from spawn, away from the voices, away from the mockery he knew would come.
He wasn’t looking where he was going. Stupid. He bumped into someone, only briefly recognizing them as Squiddo, before tucking his face away, using his hands to cover it, and continuing his sprint.
“What the hell?” Squiddo called after him, but he didn’t stop. He couldn’t. He wasn’t safe. His face was exposed and he had no armor, and even though he wasn’t actually naked he felt so incredibly exposed.
This was bad. This was so bad, he was going to die because he’s exposed and vulnerable and that gets you killed and so he was going to die again and again and again because he doesn't have a spawn point, so he’ll just keep respawning at spawn and dying over and over until he’s on his last heart and the void grabs him and doesn’t let him go until someone revives him or a new season starts, and the void is cold and dark and hurts-
He wasn’t looking ahead. He tripped. Clown yelped as he fell into a cave, landing harshly on his side. Pain bloomed at his ribs and he whimpered pathetically. Could he not catch a break?!
He sat up and scooted himself into a corner. His knees were pulled up to his chest and his tail wrapped around himself. He buried his face in his arms.
Air didn’t seem to be working properly. He couldn’t breathe, he was suffocating, but he didn’t have his mask on, so he should be able to breathe better, but he couldn’t.
His mind still felt frazzled from the respawn. Not just being at world spawn, but respawning in general. It messed with your mind for a little bit, especially if you’d had a concussion before you died. And he most certainly did have one before he died.
He could hear voices distantly. Probably the people he’d seen at spawn. Zam, Minute, Ash, Squiddo. None of them were… horrible. There’s worse people that could’ve seen him. Most definitely.
Clown wouldn’t go so far as to say he trusted all of them, but it could be worse. It could be worse. Except this is pretty bad. This sucks and is horrible and he can’t breathe and the cave air is too cold and is hurting his throat when he tries to inhale.
“Clown?”
He stiffened. That was… someone. He couldn’t tell who. He didn’t care. He didn’t want them to see. He didn’t want anyone to see him like this. Not just without his mask, but like this. Vulnerable, scared, and acting like a child with a temper tantrum over something relatively small.
Only one person has ever even seen him without the mask, but he wasn’t here. It’d be so much easier if he was here. Gods, why couldn’t Branzy be here?
“It’s Minute. We- none of us are looking. If that’s what you’re worried about. Ash and Squiddo left, it’s just me and Zam. We aren’t gonna look. From where we are we can’t see your face or head, just your tail. How can we help you?”
Clown was quiet for a moment. They wanted to help. They weren’t going to look. That was… better. He didn’t know how they could help. A mask would help. But he doubted they had one or could find one.
“Yeah, what Minute said. We want to help, if we can. Could we… um…” Zam trailed off, thinking hard. “Oh! We could find a pumpkin!”
“…what.” Minute muttered, then thought about it. “Oh. Wait. That could work. Carved pumpkin, then we can’t see his face, but he can still see. Clown? What do you think?”
“…yes.” Clown said quietly, but loud enough for them to hear.
“Cool.” Minute said. “Zam, you go find a pumpkin. I’ll stay here.”
There was a shuffling sound, presumably Zam leaving to find a pumpkin. Clown didn’t move an inch to see. If he could see them, they could see him. They couldn’t see him. That would be worse.
“…Clown?” Minute said quietly. “Do you want to talk about… what happened to get here? Cause I’m kind of curious.”
“…I was restocking in my base. I got caught off guard. My mask and bed got broken.” Clown mumbled loud enough for Minute to make out. He could trust Minute, right? Minute wouldn’t… no. Minute was nice. And a bleeding heart. He’d believe whatever Clown said.
“Do you know who did it?”
Clown shook his head. Minute hummed in response. “Zam’s coming back. She has a pumpkin.”
“I got one!” Zam exclaimed happily, then muttered, “I had to bargain with Mapicc for it, but I got it!”
“Clown? Can I come down to give you the pumpkin?” Minute asked calmly. Clown thought about it for a moment. He could see his face maybe. But- no. He’s been nice so far.
“…yes.”
There was a thunk noise and out of the corner of his eye, Clown could see a few orange pixels and a dark grey hand. Then the hand was gone, leaving the pumpkin. “There. I left the cave, we can’t see you.”
Clown hesitated, then, while keeping one arm covering his face, he grabbed the pumpkin and shoved it on his head. He breathed a small sigh of relief. He was hidden. They couldn’t see anything. Maybe his eyes at most. But they couldn’t see him. Good.
“What do you need to make a new mask?” Minute asked as Clown stood and moved to the exit of the cave, in the light.
“Fabric, porcelain, and paint.” Clown replied as he climbed out of the cave. The pumpkin made him top heavy. That was annoying. He also probably looked pretty stupid right now. That was fine. He could deal with that. It was better than before.
“I think I have some of that at my base.” Zam chimed in happily. She was always so happy. Clown had no idea as to why. “We can go there.”
Clown nodded and followed the two silently. His tail stayed close to himself. He still felt off. His face was covered, yes, but it wasn’t… right yet. It was a pumpkin, not a hard shell. Pumpkins can rot, become soft and malleable. Porcelain was hard, tough, and took a good amount of force and time to break. It was clear which one he was more comfortable with.
They tracked a few hundred blocks to a hillside. Zam dug down in a spot and Minute jumped after him. Clown followed cautiously. They could still turn on him. Yank off the pumpkin, reveal his face, mock him, and kill him again. He can’t fully trust them.
But right now they’re the best thing he’s got. So he jumped after them. He landed in water at the bottom and the pumpkin jostled a little. He quickly readjusted it.
“Just over… here! Yes.” Zam said as she pulled a few items from a chest. She set the items down on a small table. Some black and red fabric scraps, black paint, and white porcelain. “I think I have some bells somewhere, if you want those too.”
Clown scanned over the items, then nodded. “It’s good. Bells would be good too. Thank you.”
“Yeah, course!” Zam smiled and whisked away to a different room in search of bells.
Clown immediately went to work, mentally planning how to remake his mask as quickly as possible.
He’d also need a thread and needle. To sew up the fabrics together. To mend the porcelain with the fabrics he’d need probably hot glue? This would just be a makeshift mask until he can hop servers and commission Rat to make him a new one.
Zam returned with two bells, grinning. “I have returned victorious! You need anything else?”
“Thread and needle and hot glue probably. I don’t really know.”
“Wouldn’t you know if you made the first one?” Minute tilted his head curiously.
“The thing is, I didn't. Someone on a different server did. This one’s just gonna be temporary until I can get back to that server and commission a new one. Or two. A backup would be good to have.”
“Huh.” Zam hummed and she looked through a chest. “I think I have some sewing stuff in here and some hot glue in the back storage.” She pulled out a needle and thread and set them on the table then disappeared into the back again.
Clown got to work sewing together the black and red fabric, then as he finished that, he sewed the bells onto the ends of it. While he waited for Zam to return, he painted the porcelain, which was already in the general shape he wanted it to be.
Zam returned once again, this time with a hot glue gun that she plugged into the wall. A rare thing, on Lifesteal. To have actual electricity. Zam was one of the few.
Clown took the hot glue gun and used it to hot glue the fabric to the porcelain. “Do you have crochet needles?”
“I- what? Why do you need those?” Zam tilted her head in confusion and Clown tapped the porcelain with one finger.
“Most of the time porcelain isn’t see-through and I would prefer to be able to see.”
“Oh. Yeah. You want mesh too? So no one can see your eyes?” Zam’s tail swished by her legs and Clown nodded. Then she went into the back room again.
While she was gone this time, Minute leaned over Clown’s shoulder to look at the makeshift mask. “That’s pretty good for a short notice mask.” He noted.
“I’m not the best at… this. Making things. I’m generally doing the opposite.” Clown traced the jet black lines on the porcelain with one finger. He knew what Branzy would say, if he was here.
‘Just because you’re generally destroying things doesn’t mean that’s all you can do. Just look at our casino! I might’ve done the redstone, but you did the interior design. That’s amazing on its own, Clown!’
If only he were here.
Zam came back and handed Clown a pair of crochet needles and some mesh. He used the crochet needles to quickly whittle away at the eye spots on the mask, then hot glued the mesh onto the back of it.
When that was done, so was the mask. He voiced as such and Zam and Minute turned to face the wall so he could put it on. He removed the pumpkin and dropped it to the ground then pulled the mask over his head.
He took a moment to readjust. It wasn’t… great exactly, but it would work until he could commission Rat for a new one.
“I’m good.” Clown said after a moment. “You can turn around.”
Zam and Minute did, and Zam clapped as Minute nodded. “Looks good.” The bat hybrid commented.
Clown nodded. “You wouldn’t happen to have an enderchest laying around, would you Zam?”
“You know, as a matter of fact I do.” She reached into her inventory and set down an enderchest.
Clown opened it and grabbed one of his restock shulkers. He set the shulker down and filled his inventory with potions and his extra gear set. He equipped his armor and put the shulker back in the enderchest and pulled out his scythe. He twirled it a moment, just to show off.
“Well. Thank you both for your help.” Clown said after a moment. “I’ll remember it. Now if you don’t mind, I have a couple people to violently eviscerate."
“Good luck.” Zam grinned and Mkinute nodded.
“Yeah. Good luck. To the other guys, they’re definitely going to need it.”
“Oh, most definitely.” Under the mask, Clown’s grin stretched coldly from ear to ear.
It wasn’t very hard to find the group's base. Clown just went to his and followed the sloppy trail they left behind. Hm. So they were bad, they just managed to catch him off guard. Lucky. They were going to need that luck.
Their base was built into a hill with a clear entrance. A clear entrance. Idiots.
Clown splashes himself with invisibility and snuck quietly into the base, going down a stone hallway before pausing outside the main room. All five of them were there, talking. Their bed was in the corner. Hah. Too easy.
“Dude, I can’t believe we actually did that. Are we the first people to see his face, do you think?” That was the leader, very smug sounding.
A few voices replied with affirmations but Clown simply did not care, so he stepped into the room and tipped his mask up enough to drink a bottle of milk.
“You’re not, by the way.” He drawled and watched with smug satisfaction as all of them froze, stiff. ”But you don’t get to know who that title belongs to.”
“H- heya Pierce.” The leader tried to smile but all he could muster was a tiny upturn of his lips. Clown supposed he was a bit more intimidating with his armor and scythe.
“What, did you think I wouldn’t come and track you five down afterwards?” Clown tsked and twirled his scythe a little, reveling as the player closest to him watched the movement with terror.
“W- well,” The leader stuttered. “We-“
“It was all his idea.” One of the players, Kai if Clown remembered right, yelped out as he pointed at the leader.
“You know, I don’t actually care whose idea it was. You didn’t have to follow through with it. And you most certainly didn’t have to kick me while I was down, literally.” Clown idly picked at a few flakes of dried blood on the blade of the scythe. “So. I’m going to be honest, I did not come here to chit-chat. So none of you are leaving here alive.”
Clown clocked the second they began to panic. Two of them pulled out swords as Clown potted up, but were quickly dealt with. He didn’t kill them. Not yet. He had something to do before that.
Instead, he sliced at their shins, effectively immobilizing them. He repeated it with the other two, leaving the leader. Clown strode calmly to him, as he held a sword shakily.
“I- please-“ He tried, but Clown cut him off with a slash to the side.
“I don’t care what you have to say. But I can assure you, the sharks at spawn will have fun devouring your easy hearts.” Clown knocked the man over and equipped his sword to stab it through his shoulder, pinning him. “Stick around, why don’t you? I’ve got something to do before I kill you. Well, two things, but let’s start with the first one. Easy question, really. Where’d you put my mask?”
“M- my enderchest-“
“Give it to me.” Clown’s voice was clipped and laced with barely restrained fury.
The man nodded quickly and Clown removed the sword to let him access his enderchest. When he pulled out the mangled mask, Clown snatched it and stowed it in his inventory.
“Thank you.” Clown then stalked over to the corner with their bed and broke it. “You know you really shouldn’t keep this out in the open. At least mine was hidden.”
Clown walked calmly up to one of the players and cleanly sliced his head off. The man didn’t even get a chance to scream.
The next person was gotten with a stab to the heart, nice and quick.
The third was inpaled through his frontal lobe.
The fourth had his skull shattered messily against the wall.
All that was left was the leader. Oh, gods have mercy on his soul. Or not. That’d be fine too.
Clown scythe speared through the man’s chest, but not his heart. Clown yanked out the blade as he screamed. Then his limbs were kindly removed for him. Starting with his arms, then his legs, then with a final flourish, his head.
The bodies quickly disintegrated into pixels and floating items. Oh Lifesteal. It never disappoints.
<Kaiii was slain by ClownPierce using [Piercer]>
<Shadow1987 was slain by ClownPierce using [Piercer]>
<BoNotBurnham was slain by ClownPierce using [Piercer]>
<WoodsCanHear was slain by ClownPierce using [Piercer]>
<Karmaidiot69 was slain by ClownPierce using [Piercer]>
[Bonus bc I’m a sucker for clownzy-]
Clown joined a private server soon after his massacre. His scythe and clothes were still bloodstained but he didn’t care. He had had a day and simply wanted to rest.
He entered a small house quietly, but the occupant heard him.
“Clown? You home- oh. It was a murder kind of day.” Branzy smiled as he looked up from his book on the couch.
Clown stayed silent.
“Your mask is… what happened, ruby?” Branzy got up and walked to Clown, nudging away his scythes blade as to not impale himself.
Something that anyone else would get killed for. Anyone but Branzy.
Clown just shook his head.
“Alright. Well, put away your scythe and armor, I’ll meet you in bed. You look tired.”
Clown nodded and went to rest his scythe by the door. Then he removed his armor and walked to their bedroom.
He was vulnerable now. Like he was before. But Branzy wouldn’t hurt him. He never had. He never would. That Clown was sure of.
That didn’t keep him from feeling uneasy.
When he entered, Branzy had already changed into sleep clothes and was sitting on the bed. Clown changed into a sleep shirt and shorts then flopped on the bed, head in Branzy’s lap.
“It’s probably more comfortable to sleep without the mask, you know.” Branzy chuckled. “If that’s okay.”
Clown nodded and Branzy gently pulled the makeshift mask off his head. Clown buried his face in Branzy’s torso and hugged his middle. He didn’t feel like being seen right now.
Branzy’s gentle hands pet through his hair, scratching at his scalp in all the correct and brain meting ways. It made a small purr rise in Clown’s throat.
Branzy readjusted them so they were both laying down, him hugging Clown to his chest. He pressed a kiss to his hair. “Good night, my ruby.”
“…good night.” Clown mumbled back and drifted off into sleep, feeling safe for the first time that day, in the arms of someone he loved.