From Misfortune to Fortune

It was going to be a fateful day even if Asli hadn’t realized it yet but at the moment her face was turning red from embarrassment. She is wearing an off shoulder floral summer dress with her newest high heel, she looked taller and more graceful than usual. She had curled her hair and let her red locks flow with the wind and to make the look perfect she carried a small baby pink purse. By profession Asli was suppose to be a fashion designer but ended up being a secretary to the Rays Martin the most famous stylist and designer. Getting back to why Asli was red from embarrassment, the probability for this to happen to anyone is 0.01%. Asli was suppose to go to Paris for Paris fashion week with Rays but ended up boarding the wrong flight and to top that off she stands in front of Vita convention hall, being yelled at my Rays for being incompetent.

“Are you out of your mind? You had the ticket and the flight number than how could you board the wrong flight? I cannot deal with how incompetent you are, if you can’t make it here in 2 hours you will be fired” Rays yells at her through the phone.

“Rays I understand that I messed up but I don’t know where I am and it might take me more than 2 hours to get to Paris. Please try to understand” Asli pleads trying not to cry.

“Asli let me make this clear to you. I’m at Paris fashion week without a secretary who also promised to be my assistant so I don’t have an assistant as well. Now you either find a way to get here or YOU ARE FIRED and you can forget your dream of ever becoming a designer” Rays says in the curliest way possible.

“Rays please don’t say that, I’ve made so many sacrifices for this. Please give me some time. I promise I’ll get to Paris by tomorrow” tears form in Asli’s eyes.

“No way you are done. You’re fired and I made the right decision to bring Amber with me at the last moment at least I can count on her unlike you. When you get to the office pack your things and leave” Rays after saying this hangs up. Asli stares at her phone in disbelief and is about to cry when she realizes she is standing outside the convention hall and people are coming and doing staring at her. She stops a woman dressed as an infusion of Sherlock Homes and Dr. Moriarty. Asli asks for the direction to the bathroom and the woman motions her inside the convention hall.

Asli enters the bathroom and then she breaks into a sob. “How could Rays do this to me, he fired me for a mistake I had no hand in. I worked for him for 5 years, I did everything day and night, I gave up my life for work and this is how he repaid me. It’s all Amanda’s doing, she probably changed my ticket to get me fired” Asli continues to try. Asli leans on one of the walls and uses the tissues until the box is completely empty.

Asli remains in the bathroom for another few minutes until she hears sounds from one of the stalls. She tip toes to the stall she heard the sound from but the bathroom is dead silent. She knocks on the door but there is no reply. She heads back to the sink, the stall door opens and a man steps outside and tries to leave. Asli sees this through the mirror and screams causing the man to jump and fall.

“What are you doing in here? You must be a pervert spying on women who come in” Asli slowly heads for the door “I’m going to call security.” Asli runs to the door but the man gets there first.

“Got out of the way or I’ll scream”

“Please calm down this is a misunderstanding” the man gestures her clam down.

“Calm down!!! You’re in women’s bathroom for who knows how long and you want me to calm down. Get out of my way or else… or else—“

“This is men’s toilet not women’s” the man finally yells at her “Look around, does this look like women’s toilet to you. I stayed quite because I didn’t want to embarrass you but you don’t even listen. No wonder you lost your job” At the mention of her job Asli starts to cry again. The man tries to leave but he senses it’s his fault that she started to cry again. Asli is on the floor crying her eyes out, the man sits next to her and offers her a tissue.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring up your job but you were yelling and I got frustrated. Let’s start from the beginning. Ok. My name is Doruk and I’m the organizer for this character infusion convention”

“Character infusion?” Asli wipes her tears and looks at Doruk.

 Doruk is tall muscular man, Asli could tell by looking at his muscles as Doruk was wearing a sleeveless shirt and cargo trousers. He had brown straight hair, which were short and styled upwards and his eyes were a gorgeous hazel colour. Asli though he could have been a natural model if he ever stepped on a runway. Asli brought herself back and focused on what Doruk was telling her.

“Character infusion is a hobby for many people. It’s where they pick a good character and infuse it with an evil character. A lot of people who hold stalls here have mini infusion models for people to buy there are photo booths and contest to see who made the best costume. It’s quite popular”

“It sound weird and I’ve never heard of it so it’s not that popular” 

“Well, seeing that you are all better I will have to leave, have some work to get to” Doruk gets up to leave. Asli sees Doruk walking away and the only thing she could think about right now is that she is fired and for the first time in 5 years she is free to do as she wishes. She could think about work tomorrow and have fun for today.

“Wait. Uhhh…Could you show me around, since I’m fired and there is no way I could get to Paris in 1 and a half hour it would be nice to explore something new”

Doruk gives her a sweet smile and hold out his hand. Asli takes his hand and gets off the floor. Doruk a step in front of Asli and Asli for the first time takes in the scene in front of her. The convention hall is huge and at every corner there is a stall costumes, make up, character models and much more. Asli follows Doruk as he explains the purpose of all the stalls present. And then points at the huge stage.

“There are going to be two contests today. The first is where the judges…” Doruk points at three people in normal cloths “…will pick the best homemade costume and the second where anyone at the convention could design and make an infusion costume and have it displayed. For the second contest we have a judge who is also a huge name in the fashion industry.”

“Wait are you telling me that there is a designer who is spending his day at this convention rather than at Paris fashion week” Asli looks at Doruk in disbelief.

“Yes. And it’s none of my business but this could maybe… I mean maybe be able to help you with your problem”

Asli still looks at Doruk in disbelief but then Doruk points at the designer. Asli looks in the direction Doruk points and sees the designer is Asher Ezra. “That’s Asher Ezra!! Are you kidding me? He is way better than Rays!!!" Alsi jumps up and down with excitement.

“Hold your horses. I’ve never seen anyone this excited before.”

“He is the reason I got into fashion and why I wanted to become a designer. I have to go meet him”

Doruk grabs her by the arm and stops her from running off.

“Stop. He isn’t going to take you seriously if you run up to him. I f you want him to take you seriously then show him”

“How?”

“Take part in the contest, Make an infusion costume.”

Asli laughs at the mention of the contest. “I’m a serious designer and this is a stupid hobby—“

“A stupid hobby, is that why Asher is here and not in Paris right now”

Asli thinks about it for a minute and does find it strange. But seeing Asher here made her realize that he took this infusion thing seriously. “Fine I’ll do it, I’ll make the best infusion costume that Asher would be blown away” Asli explains.

For the next hour or so Asli runs around the convention buying things like wigs, make up and different part of the costume. She grabs red fabric and green fabric, armor pieces, measuring tape, pens, paper, scissors and anything that she might need to construct an infusion costume. After she has all her things Doruk shows her to the area where the participant of contest 2 are working. Asli walks to a table furthest to everyone else and spreads her things on the table. She grabs the pen and paper and starts to sketch out her designs, in the next 30 minutes she has discarded seven designs. When finally an idea hits her, the colours and fabric all match and she finally knew the two characters she could infuse.  For the next two hours before the contest officially starts Asli puts her mind and soul into cutting, sewing and embellishing her costume. Then she places her costume on a plastic manikin giving it a face and all the accessories.

Soon two hours are over and the contest begins. Asli has her manikin under a sheet and is shifting from one foot to the other as one by one everyone showcases their costumes. The judges write their remarks on a sheet as soon as the contestant is done explaining. Asli is the 10^th and last contest to showcase her work. She steps onto the stage and pulls off the sheet from her manikin.

Judges look her at design and execution with astonishment. Asli begins to explain her design as an infusion of Loki and Thor. “So what I have done here is rather than making half Loki and half Thor separately and stitching them together, I’ve combined them and the personas and...Uhh as you see I have keep the colour plate within red, green and black to keep the essence of the characters” Asli finishes and waits for the judges to speak.

“Very well know that we have seen all the contestant and their designs I would like them all to join Miss Asli on stage” Asher has finally spoken.

“Even though these were all great designs there can only be one winner today. And the winner is Miss Sarah and her Batman Joker infusion costume” the announcer had said. All hope to be noticed by Asher had vanished from Asli’s eyes and she with all the other contestants left the stage. Asli head to her table and started to pack her things while the rest just left the room to see the convention.

“Miss Asli?”

Asli turns to see Asher walk towards her and behind him is Doruk. She froze in her place in disbelief.

“Yes”

“I am Asher Ezra one of the judges today—“

“I know, I’m a huge fan of your work and I’m so glad to meet you”

“Same here. Now you have already met Doruk and he told me you were a designer. And with the work you presented I must say you are very talented”

“Really!! But I didn’t even win”

“Well the contest runs on a specific pattern which you didn’t follow and I didn’t tell you about because I wanted you to show Asher your real work with any restrictions” Doruk cuts in.

“That’s mean—“

“Yeah but it helped didn’t it.”

Asher smiles looking at Doruk and Asli bicker. “Ok calm down both of you. Asli I wanted to offer you a job as an assistant designer if you want and if Doruk doesn’t mind” Asher offers Asli.

“I would love to. Thank you so much!!! This is like my dream came true. And why would you mind” Asli glares at Doruk.

“Because Asher works for me at my company and if you work for him you technically work for me. And since you have already accepted his offer welcome to Ikon” Doruk says with a smile.

Asli puts two and two together and realizes that Doruk was never the organizer but was just being nice to her. She accepts the job offer and with Doruk and Asher enjoys the rest of the convention.

“By the way you are coming with us to the Paris fashion week. We leave tomorrow morning” Doruk says.

Asli looks at him in shock but joins them again as they walk to the stall.

--The end--