The Sphere

"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.

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Previous: Chap 21

Next: Chap 23

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