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Welcome to PAX

Sparrow took a shaky breath as she slid her camcorder back into her bag, mentally preparing herself for what lay ahead. What if her subscribers really hated her? Maybe they only watched her for her collabs? What if the Derps didn't like her? Not everything translates through a camera. Would they find her annoying? Would they think she looked oily and constantly tired?

She bit her lip and shook her head in an attempt to rid herself of her demons. She'd felt like this before her Insomnia meetup and it had ended up fine - great, actually - but that never stopped the doubts from returning to her.

She sighed heavily, receiving a mental slap from herself. The planes and room had already been paid for and she refused to let the money go to waste. Not only that, but she'd just endured a ten hour flight to Seattle, and she damn sure didn't do that for nothing!

It was fine with the Creatures, it would be fine with them. It would be fine.

She stepped inside and stopped immediately; it was absolutely packed! She felt a pang of disappointment shoot through her as she realised she couldn't make a decent 'PAX-packed' pun, but the awe of the colours and excitement contained within the hall won her over.

She fingered her lanyard before wading through the crowd.

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It took quite a while for Sparrow to find her friends- especially since a mob had broken out as soon as one person had spotted her. She'd kindly scribbled her name on things that people had handed her, and took photos with the crowd, a warm smile never leaving her lips. Once the crowd had diffused, she'd continued on her search, finding them huddled around a VR demo and laughing as Chilled thrashed about blindly, hooked up to it. They looked like they were having so much fun and she didn't want to spoil it.

She decided to watch them for a while, gradually starting to feel like one with the crowd, her slight anxiety melting away in the humid hall.

The group let out another fit of laughter, causing Sparrow to smile again until Ze turned around to hide his red face from the others. 'Sparrow!'

The uneasy feeling flooded over her again as the rest of the group spun around to see the new-comer, Chilled almost tearing his own head off along with the equipment. She shifted awkwardly from foot to foot, raising a hand in greeting. She could feel the heat in her cheeks and wanted nothing more than to once again merge into the crowd around her- most of which was now also staring at her.

Her friends all but ran towards her- mind you they would have had the crowd not been so vast. When they reached her, they took turns hugging and high-giving her, leaving her in a bit of a daze.

'You okay?' It was Ze.

She debated for a minute on whether or not to be truthful; they'd likely tell her not to be silly, but people always said that. 'Yeah. I just didn't want you guys to be disappointed.'

They stared at her for a second, processing what she'd meant before jumping in.

'Why would we be disappointed?'

'We've known you for ages!'

'You're not two midgets on top of each other, are you?'

At that, she burst out laughing and turned to Smarty, exchanging a smile with him, before pulling her camera out of her hoodie pocket.

She scooted away from the group, shaking her head as she aimed her lens at them. 'Alright guys, everyone say 'PAX'.'