Not dead yet

Somehow Maddie had let herself be convinced that setting up a panel among the rest of the Arcane actors was a good idea.

The group always did their best to include her, despite everything they see and hear online regarding the (slowly dying) hatewave against Maddie. Their support extended to persuading her to accept the offer for a signing booth at a convention just a few hours away. Truth be told, she's always wanted to go to a con like that as a guest anyway. She's seen videos about it, the impressive costumes people put on and the overall nerdy atmosphere of the place: She would fit right in!

In actuality though, she didn't get to enjoy it one bit.

While the others couldn't indulge in the full extend of the event due to being swamped by fans even before and after their official signing time, Maddie was experiencing the opposite. She was pushed aside by Arcane fans, barely even acknowledged at all, and having to wander around the grounds all alone without any of her friends who'd promised to stick by her side. She doesn't blame them! She should've expected for them to be far too busy for anything. It's not like Maddie minded either, she'd probably get far too overwhelmed being surrounded by so many people at all times anyway, but that still didn't make it hurt any less.

Maddie was just about to buy another trinket that she could bury this horrible day under when somebody tapped on her shoulder. She'd assumed it was just somebody trying to tell her to scooch aside or maybe ask where the rest of the crew was, but when Maddie turned to face the person she was almost dumbfounded: A young person with a ginger wig, blue uniform shirt and a chest plate made out of cardboard. It wasn't anything like the expensive costumes Maddie had witnessed of the other Characters today, but it was the first she's seen of her own Character.

"Excuse me" spoke the cosplayer, very quietly and clearly a bit nervous to be meeting their idol "I think I missed you at signing, could I take a picture with you?"

The gingers heart almost melted. She would've given the fan the entire solar system if she could've, instead only eagerly nodding and scrambling to fix her hair for photos. It was comical how she grinned for the picture, willing to do a million cute poses even when the fan was too nervous to ask for them. If you would've had to guess, it was almost like Maddie was meeting them and not the other way around.

✶

does the lighting make much sense? no not really. do i care? also no not really.

it so nice noticing my own improvement tho