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60.52% The Sphere / Chapter 23: Cosplay

Kapitel 23: Cosplay

"After an enormous response and a successful turnout of nearly 6,000 people over two days last year, Animax Carnival is coming to Malaysia for the second time. This year's event will be larger and better than before, taking place on the 16th and 17th of March at Sunway Pyramid's Blue Concourse."

It had been a solid fifteen minutes since we reached the Sunway Pyramid mega mall and Miss R just could not stop repeating out loud the press release from the Cosplayfun's Wordpress blog. I did not care about having to listen to that over and over again, at first, because I knew she was probably bored having to accompany me to fix my make up. But after a while, it became more annoying when she started to read it in different intonations. It was pretty entertaining for a hot minutes, given her voice and the intonations were quite easy on the ears, but then I had to stop her when I noticed she was getting louder and some people around us were staring at us, like we were some attention seekers.

"Miss R, why in the world would you read the press release again and again and quite loud at that?" I asked her as I putting my compact powder back into my tote.

"Look Marina, I know I'm being pretty obnoxious right now. But I think I need a career change. I think I should be a TV host!" she replied in all enthusiasm.

'Hmmm...she is so random' I said in my heart.

"Oh really? You think so?" I responded to her, without looking at her face. I was actually too busy digging in my tote looking for my lip gloss. You know, women's bag.

"Ah you are just not being supportive of me!" Miss R responded, pouting her lips. Miss Giuliana Rancic Junior suddenly became Miss Sensitive.

"When was I not being supportive!? I was just asking, do you think you have what it takes or not? Do you think you can nail the job? That's it..." I responded to her, but this time more careful, and with a tone downed. Maybe my intonation earlier was not right. Maybe I sounded like I took what she said for granted.

"I think I can do it. It's just..." Miss R being hesitant.

"Well judging from the way you read the press release just now, I think you can, too. But what? What is it that makes you in doubts?"

"I mean...it's not hard to notice it right.. Look at me, I'm very petite. Very short. I think my physical is just not a TV host material. In fact maybe not a television material at all in general.

Well that caught me off guard. I was quite surprised, as to how something like that would come out of someone who worked for a magazine.

"I don't think that's a huge problem, Miss R. In fact I think it's not a problem at all."

"Don't you think I will look tiny in the screen?"

"Nope. I think your size is just decent. How tall are you actually?"

"I'm only five feet..."

That made me laugh right away. Not at the height, but I was laughing at her being very naïve about it.

"Oh really Marina you are laughing at me now!? Fine! I know this is all a joke. I'm not made for TV at all! Why did I even share this with you!" she pouted her lips again.

"Nooooo! Not that! I'm laughing because I can't believe just how naïve you are. Girl let me tell you, your height is just about the same as Eva Longoria's, Vanessa Hudgens' and Kim Kardashian's do you know that?"

"Really?" she asked me back, in disbelief.

"Yes girl! I read it somewhere that anyone will appear 30 percent bigger in the screen. In fact don't you think all the celebrities you've met at work before were smaller, thinner in real life than on TV? Don't worry Miss R, you have my support!" I tried to lift her spirit up. It's just that I hoped she would not Google all the three celebrities I mentioned just now, because they were actually a few inches taller than her. Oops!

Miss R was smiling from ear to ear after she listened to what I've just said. However I thought my encouragement would silent her up and make her fly high in a euphoria dreaming about her life as a successful TV host, with a couple invisible best TV host awards in her hands. But instead I have just accidentally turning up her volume- to read the press release out loud, again! Oh no...

"Rambutan," I called her with that name soon after she started reading a few words from the press release. Again. "I think it's better for you to stop now."

"Huh? But why?"

"Because there's a group of Narutos over there and they are all weirdly staring at us," I whispered to her and my eyes were rolling left and right as a sign to her.

"But they are cute...!" she replied. She was this much from waiving her hand to them before I managed to grab it down.

"Miss R, they are only sixteen for God's sake!" I reminded her. Well I was not sure about that to be honest, but judging from their physical, I guessed it was around that.

"So what?" Miss R clapped back as if she didn't have a clue about the Juvenile Act at all.

"You better stay off of them! The last thing I want to hear is you being accused for messing up with the underage!" my voice went up a little bit and it made a few people around turned their heads on us.

"Oh come on Marina it's not like I am going to..."

"Shhhh. There are a lot of people here! Don't speak anything that might trouble you later," I put my pointing finger on her lips.

"All right! All right! I'm sorry..." she shut her eyes and nodded up and down.

"Good..." I felt so relieved to be able to stop her. Working with her for quite some times, I was able to predict just what would come out of her mouth, mostly. She could be too outspoken sometimes, and that have more than one time put her in troubles. But I also knew it that I should not be too critical or negatively judgmental on her.

"Marina..." Miss R suddenly called my name. But this time I could hear a firm tone in her voice and I knew she's being serious. She then leaned her body towards me and said something in my ear.

"Don't call me Rambutan here ever again."

I burst into laughter after she said that. But her face remained serious and that made me stopped right away.

"Okay! Okay I'm sorry I promise I won't call you with that name ever again here," I raised my fingers to my head, giving her the common swearing gesture.

Soon as we touched down Kuala Lumpur, I was given a task to do a coverage on an event called Animax Carnival in Sunway Pyramid with Miss R. When Daniel was briefing about the event, all I imagined was group and group of people in various costumes of their favourite anime characters, like those little Narutos, and that was all about it.

As usual, before we left for the event, Daniel would call us again to further explain about it. Looking extra joyful and more excited for this one, he explained to us all that we need to know about it, from A to Z. What to cover, what to expect and so on. He also kept convincing us that we could expect more than what we imagined from the event.

Well...as someone who was not really following this anime world, I found myself in quite a struggle to understand what he meant by that. Especially when he kept repeating about the appearance on an infamous celebrity of the anime world, May'n in the carnival.

"I want you to find May'n, when you are there. Interview her and take as much photos as possible," Instructed Daniel, who was so keen to feature the star in the upcoming Hey magazine. The way Daniel mentioned about May'n, her fame in the anime world and the obsession of the anime fans towards her has sparked curiosity in me about this artist. Unlike Miss R who was too obviously showing her confusion about all this anime thing, I just nodded throughout the briefing, trying as hard as I could to show Daniel my interest in it.

"If he is very excited with all these things, then why Daniel himself won't go to the carnival?" said Miss R after we met with Daniel. Miss R was actually less than happy when her name being called out to cover the event. But these cute little Narutos had changed her mind, apparently.

"You were complaining all day long before this about not wanting to be here today. Now with these cute Narutos in front of you, I see girl is losing her mind! So uncontrollably giddy up!" I said to Miss R, teasing her.

"Well that's what people say, don't judge the book by its cover! Hahaha...Now what are we waiting for? Let get in!" Miss R responded, looking more excited than everyone else there.

We both stepped in the Sunway Pyramid's Blue Concourse and took a stroll around. As we were exploring, we were also taking photos and trying to interview as many people as possible. Some of them were very welcoming and cooperative, while some were quite timid and shy. Most of them attended the carnival to grab the chance to play dress up in their favourite anime costumes. It was a rare opportunity to do so in public given that it was only being held once a year here in Malaysia as compared to its origin country, Japan. When I logged into my Facebook and Instagram that day, they were flooded with photos from this carnival with various hashtags. So colourful and happening!

This could be something very new to me, and so my excitement level was probably not as high as of the fans of the anime. But it did not mean I was clueless about it at all. There were a few series I followed back in the school days like Inuyasha and Hell Girl. I also made it to the first few episodes of Fairy Tail. Not so bad, huh?

To be honest, we went there also in costumes, despite our name tags hugely said "Media". I meant of course we would not want to miss out the fun, right? We finally chose to be Enma The Hell Girl, which got Miss R went 'what the hell?' at first as she didn't have a clue at all what Enma looked like. I wore a black Kimono while Miss R went with a red one. But unlike Miss R, I did not put the red contact lenses on, to appear as closed as much to the character because everyone who knew me knew that putting on contact lenses was one of my biggest fears.

'Ping!' my Facebook notification went off. I reached the phone in my bag to check it out. It was from Ally. Ally texted me short and brief. He had promised to join me in the cosplay carnival.

Ally : Marina, I'm dressing up! I'll text you when I reach there.

Me : Okay, Miss R and I are already in. Taking a brief look around.

Ally : Okay Marina!

I was smiling alone thinking about Ally. He was probably still struggling to put on the long white wig that he bought to get the effect of his favourite anime character, Inuyasha. Honestly, prior to this event I have invited quite a number of my friends to come fully dressed up in characters to the carnival. The more the merrier. And I had promised them to put their pictures in Hey if they made it there with interesting costumes. However it was only Ally who showed interest.

As I was waiting for Ally to come, I proceeded with my task there and tried to enjoy the carnival as much as I could. We both continued strolling around in search of any interesting materials suitable for Hey and most importantly something that would make Daniel smile and proud.


Kapitel 24: Robotman

My searching did not take long. After a few minutes of interviewing the participants and the visitors there, something quite interesting has caught my eyes.

"Hmmm, these guys look not too shabby." I said that spontaneously as my eyes landed on a group of three boys whose their aura and charisma had really captured my attention. There was something astonishing about them. I could not really figure out what it was. Maybe their outfits were different and more outstanding than the others, or maybe the way they were carrying themselves in those outfit in such confidence that did it, I was not so sure. I was wondering the characters they were doing because they looked unfamiliar to me. But as much as they were interesting to my eyes, I had a little bit of doubt that I should feature them in the Hey magazine, because the difference they made seemed a bit off from the theme of the carnival.

One of them was topless with just a black pant on and fake tattoos on his body. Another one was in a character from the Star Wars, a Stormtrooper and both of them were 'guarding' the third guy in between them who was wearing a black suit with a robot head and to me honestly, the third guy had my attention the most. To me his style was unique and humorous in the same time. From afar, I could see the robot head was made from a brown box with golden touch to it. The eyes were made from red, oval shaped bulb and the lips were drawn perfectly. I got Miss R to get her opinion about these trio.

"Ummm I don't think what these guys put on match the theme of this carnival," said Miss R. "Especially that Stormtrooper guy! Isn't that from the Star Wars?"

"But the other one does look interesting, doesn't he?" I pointed to the guy with the robot head, hoping that Miss R would take a look at him. But there's no response from her.

"Miss R!" I half shouted.

"What! What is it, Marina?"

"That guy...he looked...interesting...right?" I repeated my question.

"That one? The topless one? Cute!" Miss R moved her eyebrows up and down and gave me such a naughty smile.

"Not that one! I meant the one with the box head," I gently pinched her hand.

"Cute? I meant I can't barely see his face!"

"I know... But what I'm saying is his style. He got flex!" I tried to convince Miss R who was then taking a few minutes to 'scan' that guy.

"Hmmm you are right... He's the only one wearing such costume today."

"So what do you think? For our magazine?"

"Okay. I think let's just get them and get the job done. Put aside their theme hit-or-miss outfits for a sec, and maybe later we can ask him to remove the box from his head as well. From there only we could tell if he's really a unique person or not," Miss R came out with a strategy.

"If it's not?"

"If not...then just drop him from the possible material for the magazine. Easy!"

"Alright then...Let's do it!"

We both came closer to approach them who seemed quite taken away with the exhibition of anime figures at one of the booths.

"Hi, we are from Hey magazine. Can we ask you a couple of questions?" I took the first step in. All three of them were simultaneously turning their heads on me.

"Sure! No problem!" the robot head guy responded, in a very robotic voice. That had made me look at Miss R who was ready to take our photo. Both our eyes were wide opened as we did not expect it at all that he could respond to us in a real robot voice. Miss R gave me a thumb up as a sign that it was a good material for Hey. She loved it and she believed Daniel would give a green light for this to be featured in the official vlog of Hey.

"Oh wow! How could you make that voice?" I asked him, impressed.

"I was born this way..." the robot man answered followed by a big, electronic laugh from him.

"So, can you tell me about the concept of the outfits that all three of you are rocking for the Animax Carnival today?" I asked further.

"I'm The Robotman!" the guy with the robot head said it out loud.

"Ah...The Robotman..." I just nodded at that, not really sure just from which anime this Robotman character was from. But since he introduced himself as that, I just followed along and called him Mr. Robotman from then on. Then I moved to the next guy.

"What about you?" I asked him still, even though it was obvious there that he was wearing a Stormtrooper outfit.

"I am Stormtrooper!" he replied in full spirit. 'Well duh...' I thought. But he's using just a normal voice, without any robotic effect like Mr. Robotman. Something interesting about him really caught my eyes, and it was just how white, clean and shiny his suit was. As I was observing the suit, my mind was playing a guessing game of how much Mr. Stormtrooper had spent on this suit. As far as I know, a suit like that could easily reach thousands of Ringgit. Now if he really had spent that much for this Animax Carnival, I had no doubt- he was really a die hard fan. But I was not sure if a Stormtrooper had made any appearance in any Anime series? I had no idea! Then I moved to the shirtless guy that Miss R deemed as the 'Cute' one.

"My name is Ichigo Kurosaki!" he blinked an eye to the camera. I took a glance at Miss R and she was all smitten. Her face was blushing and before she might lose it, I grabbed her by the shoulder to remind her to keep calm and stay focused. Then I looked back at this self claimed Mr. Ichigo Kurosaki. Up and down. Well, it really was... interesting. I meant the character he was portraying! I had heard about the name before. It was the main character of the Bleach series. But why was he topless? I had watched a few episodes of the series and as far as I could remember, the main character, Ichigo Kurosaki were seen a lot in black outfits like Yukata, coats and alike. Hmm maybe he just wanted to show it off and grab the attention of the ladies in the carnival, including Miss R who has obviously shot by the Cupid now. Thankfully his body was quite lean so it was easy on the eyes. I could not imagine it if he showed up half naked with his belly overflowing to every direction!

"So, would you mind to share with Hey readers, why are you coming here today? Are you guys a big fan of the Animax and a regular of its carnival? Or do you just come to look around?" I continued with the interview.

"We are here because we really really love Anime!" answered Ichigo Kurosaki, in full Kurosaki's move that showed us his enthusiasm.

"Yeah!" continued Mr. Stormtrooper, raising a fist to the camera in Miss R's hand.

"Well it is a different case for me," Mr Robotman butted in.

"Oh really? Well tell me then, what is your motive coming here today Mr. Robotman?

"My motive coming here today is to find me a long lost princess..." he replied.

His random answer has made both Miss R and I laughed out loud.

"Ah I see. So how is it? Have you found the long lost princess you are looking for?"

"Yes I have found her!" Mr. Robotman moved his head up and down.

"Oh really? That's amazing! So where is she? Is she around here now?" I looked around the space to see the princess.

"She's here."

"Well then show us," I honestly became quite excited at that moment. I was such a sucker for a romantic story like this.

"Sure!" Mr. Robotman then digged his hand in the pocket. He was searching for something nobody knew. "Look!" It's a small mirror and he flaunted it right in front of my face. That had me laughing a little. He was being naughty but quite adorable to me. I knew what he was doing at that time. He was trying to say that I was the one he was looking for at the event. That I was 'The long lost princess'. 'Silly him' I thought to myself.

"You are the princess I have been looking for!"

"Oh me?! Are you serious Mr. Robotman?" I asked him back pretending surprised, just playing along with whatever it was that he was up to. A little fun when working never killed nobody right?

"Yes! You are the princess, Marina!"

Miss R and I were both looking at each other soon as this stranger robot mentioned my name. The character that I put on to just play along with him flown out my body right away, making me felt naked and shocked. I looked down on my anime costume. The only thing that mentioned who I was, was a name tag that said "Media". That was it. There was no 'Marina' written anywhere!

"How do you know my name, Mr. Robotman?" I asked him, but with a serious tone this time. He did not answer my question. Instead he just gave me a little laugh. In front of us, there was Miss R busy recording. She also looked quite serious now, like she was covering a criminal scene.

"Who are you for real Mr. Robotman? Who is this guy behind this costume, actually?" I asked again, also in a deep, serious tone. Mr. Robotman touched the box head. Slowly he took it off, revealing his true, real face.

"Eddie?!" I shouted. My mouth was half opened, I believed.

"Do you know him, Marina?" asked Miss R.

"Very well! So so well, Miss R. He was my schoolmate."

I looked at Eddie with my head shook left and right, still in disbelief that he was the actual guy underneath the Robotman mask.

"All right.. all right...maybe you should close your mouth now Marina, before you start drooling," teased Eddie.

"Oh...sorry..." I laughed. "What are you doing here, dude?"

"I told you earlier right? I was looking for a long lost princess," Eddie joked around.

"Oh come on! Be serious please!"

"Okay okay sorry! I'm just accompanying my friends here. So I thought why not I do it in a costume as well. And so, tadaa.." he seemed proud with the Robotman mask. "Oh by the way, let me introduce you...this is Joe, and this is Nas."

"Hi! I'm Joe..." Mr. Stormtrooper took off his mask to say hi. Nas on the other hand just waved his hand at me slowly.

"Excuse me, am I interrupting you guys?" all of the sudden one of the organizers showed up.

"Oh not at all. Is there anything can I help you with?" I replied.

"It's this Miss, in a few minutes we are going to do a game show, and if it's okay with them, I would love for these three gentlemen to participate in it, soon."

"Oh really? But why us?" asked Eddie.

"To be honest, we really like what you guys are wearing. Very interesting and they fit the theme very well. We need these kind of costumes in the game show as it will be aired in the Animax channel later!"

"Wow! you got prizes for joining in?" Joe alias Mr. Stormtrooper asked. He seemed quite interested and excited for it.

"Of course! If you guys are interested, let's go to the respective hall one floor up," replied the organizer.

Eddie, Joe and Nas looked into each other, obviously thinking about the offer.

"How is it guys? Are you in? I got no problem at all!" Eddie expressed his willingness.

"Count me in!" added Nas.

"Well then let's do it! I think it's going be fun!" shouted Joe.

"So how is it? Are you guys in?" the organizer tried to confirm it.

"Yes we are in!" said Eddie.

"Great! Now come with me! We've got a little briefing to do," the organizer said happily.

Miss R and I wanted to join them to the hall where the gameshow would take place. However, we were told that anyone from TV stations, newspapers or magazines were prohibited from entering the hall to see the recording of the game show.

"I'm so sorry Miss, I can't allow both of you to get in as you are both from Hey magazine, I might have to face the consequences, if I do," the organizer told us.

"Why is it so strict?" asked Miss R.

"Because we are protecting the content from possible leaks before it is officially aired on the channel."

"Oh wow! This is not just any game show it seems!" responded Miss R.

"Well.. looks like it!" I sighed. "Never mind… Eddie, Joe, Nas… hope you guys having fun in there! Break a leg all right!" I cheered them up.

To be honest that restriction disappointed me a little bit. I wanted to have more conversation with Eddie. We had not met for a long time. I did not even have the chance to ask him what had been going on in his life. The surprise he gave me earlier had also made me feel more excited.

However, we had to abide by the rules. Eddie, Joe and Nas were leaving me and Miss R.

"So...what are we doing now?" asked Miss R.

"Let's just continue with work," I responded while rechecking my 'to-do-list' in my phone.

"Oh man!" I shouted, hitting my forehead. I just realized something very important.

"Why? What is it?" Miss R asked.

"I should have ask for Eddie's phone number! Ah damn it!" I replied, in full regret and anger.

"Oh...Aren't you guys friend on Facebook or something?" asked Miss R. From the way she questioned me, she seemed to remind me that we were no longer in 2004.

"Hmm you are right!" I clicked on the Facebook application on my phone and searched for his long forgotten profile.

"Marina!" I heard someone shouted my name, loudly.

"Marina, it's Eddie!" informed Miss R, pointed to him.

I turned around and he was still there, just about to take the escalator up. He was aware that his shouting had attracted other people's attention too and so he was just moving his lips this time, not to gain any more attention. I had no problem with it, because even though it was voiceless, I could still get it what he tried to say- 'See you'.

"Okay!" I replied also in mute, just raising my thumb up for him. He smiled, and went up the escalator with his two buddies, going to enjoy their thirty minutes of fame.

Less than an hour later, Ally showed up in his Inuyasha costume, as he promised. I took no time to tell him about what had happened in the carnival, including about Eddie, alias the Robotman.

"Well well well...looks like the game is getting more and more interesting!" said Ally after I told him about Eddie.

"The game? What do you mean?"

"You...Eddie...and Daniel..." answered Ally puzzling around. But I knew it immediately just what he meant by that.

"Wooo...don't get it wrong okay! I have nothing to do with Eddie. We were just high school buddy okay!"

"Yeah...nothing to do with him...YET!" Ally gave me the most skeptical face known to human. I knew he was starting to speculate things up.

"You and your speculations!" I tried to stop him from talking more about this.

Miss R and I continued our task for that day. Throughout the event I was quite happy with all the findings we got from it especially everything that Daniel requested, including short interview with May'n and also coverage on the Cosplay competition there in which Daniel claimed as a 'compulsory material' for Hey's upcoming issue. Miss R, Ally and I stayed there in the event up until the very last minute and the closing ceremony was such a blast!

*****

It was almost 8 p.m. and I started to look around for Eddie, who had promised to meet me again there. Well...maybe not a proper promise, but I took that 'See you' sign he gave me earlier as a promise and I believed that he would keep his word and look for me. In fact, I had even sent him a message on Facebook letting him know that he could text me on Facebook Messenger whenever he wanted.

I really wished to see Eddie again before we went back home. If an hour was too long, a few minutes would do it. I just wanted to know what he had been up to. That was it.


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