I'm sinking. Derby felt like she'd fallen into that pit of darkness again, but it had gained a form, a sludgy, slimy form that with each attempt to escape she sunk further and further into the darkness, the overwhelming feeling growing more and more each step. The horrible fluorescent lights above seemed to get brighter as well, trapping her at the midpoint between pure darkness and overwhelming light. This is it, Derby thought. This is what happens when I go outside of my comfort zone. This is why it's safer to just stay insi—

"Derby of Hope!" Brie said loudly, rattling Derby out of her anxious daydream. "You are staring strangely. Is the anxiety attacking once more?"

"I...er...maybe...?" Derby said. It was embarrassing to get anxious about a crowded public place with a gorgeous dark lord right beside her.

Brie picked Derby up in a hug, patting her back as if she was a baby that needed to get burped. "There, there..." The dark lord set Derby back down on the ground.

"A...awawa..." Derby muttered.

"Would it help if I told you a tale of a time I was nervous about a crowd?" Brie asked.

"You...get nervous?" Derby asked. Brie had been so confident and unflappable so far. Outside of not wanting to get married to someone she didn't get to pick, Brie hadn't ever appeared remotely worried about anything so far. "Sure..."

"Long ago, when I was a recently crowned dark lord, my mother gave me a rigorous training routine on the ways a proper dark lord should behave. For some reason, the first time I stood before a court crowd, my legs shook. I felt weak, like I was about to pass out."

"Oh my gosh, that's the feeling exactly!" Derby said. Was Brie secretly just as much of a nervous wreck as Derby deep down? Well, that was probably impossible, but any middle ground they shared on this would be good, right?

"My mother recognized and understood it was not a physical illness that ailed me, but one of the fear in my heart, and pulled me back behind one of the thrones, knelt down before me. She tapped my nose just like this," Brie booped Derby's nose. "Then she said, 'Brie de Meaux, Dark Lord of the Umpteenth Realm, in times of spiritual drought, of body rattling fear, you must remember this. Simply scream out your fears! Like so.' And then she screamed just like this."

Brie let out an incredibly loud yell, one that everyone in the convention center probably heard. It wasn't a panicked shout, it was a triumphant one, turning into a proud cackle by the end of it.

"Er...wow..." Derby said.

"There, you try it! Come on, Derby, just scream it out!" Brie grinned.

Derby wasn't sure why she so easily gave into the request. But actually screaming was easier said than done.

"A...ah!" Derby said, sounding more like a month old kitten meowing than anything.

"No, no, that won't do," Brie said. "If you want that fear obliterated, you must scream much louder!"

"Ah!" Derby said. Brie nodded more eagerly at that attempt. "A....ahhh!"

"Louder, Derby of Hope, louder!" Brie said.

With Brie egging her on, Derby kept shouting louder and louder, until she finally let out a scream that Brie was satisfied with. And by the time that was done...Derby felt strangely...

"How is that? Is that horrible sinking feeling gone?" Brie asked.

"It...it is..." Derby said.

"Wonderful! See, you must trust me!" Brie said.

"I wasn't expecting that to work," Derby laughed nervously.

"Now, shall we enjoy this gathering without fear chaining us down?" Brie asked.

Derby smiled. "Yeah!"

She wasn't sure where to begin with the convention, so Derby suggested they just do a lap of the place to get their bearings. Aunt Emme hadn't gotten back from the parking ramp yet, and Sage wasn't around. So it was still just her and Brie.

"Hey, can I get a picture?"

Someone dressed up as a mummy held up her phone.

"Do you have pictures in your world?" Derby asked quietly. "Sorry, that's probably rude to say?"

"We have still image photography, is that what you mean?" Brie asked.

"Yes? Yeah, I mean yeah. That yes sounded too...confused..." Derby said. "We take pictures with our phones a lot here."

"I see..." Brie nodded. "Yes, formerly entombed girl, you may have my photograph."

The mummy girl squealed as she took the picture. "Your costume is amazing, it looks so real!"

Brie was surprised at the attention, but she maybe shouldn't have been given she had just been screaming and probably alerting everyone in a five-mile radius to her location. Brie ended up getting about twenty more pictures before she got bored of it and started walking faster.

"What shall we do next?" Brie asked. "Surely there is something here that isn't just doting over me. While I don't mind the doting, I could get that at home! Show me something of your world."

"OK..." Derby said. She gasped when she saw a section of the convention dedicated to one of her favorite franchises. "Oh my freaking gosh. There's so much Mow Your Lawn Across the Worlds Simulator here!

"Why would anyone want to simulate such a dull and monotonous task?" Brie asked.

"Well, the name is just kind of a broad one. You see, Mow Your Lawn Across the Worlds Simulator, or MawYoLawAcrWo as true fans call it, started as a simple mobile game with really hot art for all the characters, but it got so big they made an anime of it and four full fledged games, a true multimedia franchise!" Derby screeched as she saw the cast booths. "They didn't put this on the site! This is so wild!"

"So they do other things than mow lawns?" Brie asked.

"Well, no," Derby said. "The general premise is a bunch of characters are isekai'd into a lawn mowing sim game. Ohhh dang, they have the arcade version!" There were booths set up with the rare version of the game only found overseas. Next to it was a fenced off space with fake lawn mowers that people could drive over green rugs. "And one you can play in real life!" Derby scoffed. "Where is Sage? They love MawYoLawAcrWo! Oh my god!"

She pointed excitedly at the lines for the actor meet and greets.

"They don't need any further payments, that's so cool," Derby said. "Well, anyways." She started to walk away, but Brie stopped her by grabbing onto her Mow Your Lawn Across the Worlds Simulator shirt.

"Aren't we going to go meet them?" Brie asked. "You're wearing their emblem even!"

"Oh, gosh, I don't know if I could actually talk to them." Derby said.

Brie gently guided Derby to the lines.

"Huh? Wha? Huh?" Derby said. "Brie, wait!"

"Which ones are your favorites?" Brie said. "I once missed out a meeting and 'greeting' event with my favorite traveling musical troupe, the Tangerine Warrior Goddesses, and they separated shortly after. I don't want you to regret it if this lawn mowing troupe does the same!"

"I...uh..." Derby pointed to the line for Sheli Calli, who played Derby's favorite character, Lawn Mower Deb. "I love the whole cast, but...her."

"Then let us meet her!" Brie said. "Explain this 'Deb' to me while the line goes on."

Derby infodumped as much as she could fit into a fifteen minute line wait about why Lawn Mower Deb was a top ranked character in the franchise. Derby got so into telling Brie about this that she barely noticed when they made it to the front of the line.

"And that's how I pulled my third S+ rank Deb card," Derby said.

"Wow, big fan!"

"I...huh?" Derby blinked, realizing that the voice sounded familiar. In spite of being in line to meet Sheli Calli, actually being face to face with her was something else. She looked so gorgeous in person, her signature and her voice even more heavenly. "I...heh...ohhhhh."

"This is the highly ranked Deb, I take it?" Brie said.

"Sure is!" Sheli said.

"So are you from around here?" Sheli asked as she signed sheets for Derby and Brie.

"Derby of Hope is!" Brie said. "I am visiting from a faraway realm."

"Cool, cool!" Sheli said. "East Valataran gets a bum rap, I think, you see all the desert craziness on the news, but it's really chill here. And so what if Pyre Cani get in fights? The desert's a good place to do it!"

"Ha ha," Derby said, working up the nerve to say what she'd posted many times on message boards and social media sites instead of following up the conversation. "Why don't they just make a fifth mainline console game already? We all want it!"

"I hear you!" Sheli said. "I haven't heard anything, so don't ask me about it. Still doing lines for the mobile games, at least! That keeps me working."

"Ha...ha..." Derby gulped. "I mean, it's like...a fifth game!"

It was clear to Derby that she was blowing this. Why'd she keep saying fifth game over and over? She did manage to croak out thanks to Sheli for being an amazing actor, but after the seventh time Derby brought up a fifth Turbo MawYoLawAcrWo game, a worker at the convention shooed her away.

A few minutes later, Derby pouted as she and Brie drove around lawn mowers, which kept making loud binging noises as they gained points for the lawns they successfully mowed (or rolled over the green rugs to be more accurate). Brie laughed proudly each time she earned points.

"See Brie, this is why I can't do this," Derby said. "I'm just...bad at everything. Now Sheli totally thinks I'm an idiot."

"She seemed to enjoy your pleas for a fifth game," Brie said. "Ohoho! Lawn, kneel under the might of Brie de Meaux!"

Derby still felt down, like she was in the place she wanted to be, a convention with a bunch of folks into nerdy stuff like her, with Brie by her side. But she still didn't fit in. She felt like a slug that had somehow ended up in a gorgeous bird competition.

"No prize ribbon for me when you're a slug..." Derby said.

"Does this world not have a most beautiful slug competition?" Brie asked. "It's a yearly highlight in the Skarlax realm."

"Brie de Meaux!"

The two turned their lawn mowers (which was an awkward motion that took a lot longer than it should have) to see CC leaning against the fence, scoffing.

"You did not mention that weapons would be confiscated at this gathering," CC said. "They even asked me to mute my phone because they said my sound board was 'really really annoying.' Sure I can't get it to stop when I hit the burp sound but it's funny, right?"

"Idiot," Brie said. "They didn't take my mighty blade away because I can conjure it at will. See?"

Brie leapt to stand atop her lawn mower. She snapped her fingers, and her glittering magic appeared around her as a giant sword dropped down from a small portal. Brie grabbed the sword and pointed it at CC like it weighed nothing. "See, fool?"

Derby panicked as a convention worker approached immedaitely.

"Ma'am, I'm gonna ask that you put away the giant sword. We sell giant foam swords if you need them in the fantasy weapons pavilion." The worker said.

"Ugh, fine," Brie snapped again and put the sword back in the portal. "See? They didn't confiscate mine though."

"Whatever! That's because you put it in your weapon pocket dimension! Which takes up a lot of magic energy, by the way!" CC said.

"For you, maybe," Brie said. "It's a fraction of my power to utilize my weapon dimension, as easy as yawning. A weakling like you wouldn't understand."

CC growled and hopped over the fence.

"Er...please don't fight," Derby said, backing her lawn mower up, which made the same noise a large construction vehicle made when backing up for some reason. "Oh, cool! They kept the backing up sound from the games! Initially that was just an error because the mobile game makers had never used a lawn mower before, so the G1 mowers are super janky and weird shaped, which—"

Brie and CC interrupted Derby's rambling by firing fiery blasts of energy at each other. The two blasts collided, bouncing together towards another lawn mower. Thankfully no one was riding that one as it immediately exploded.

Derby felt the horrible sinking feeling again, staring with her jaw dropped, certain all three were about to be banned from the convention entirely.