Mission remakes with Eksena Manila.

Yesterday was the first time I joined one of Eksena Manila's missions. Well, two, actually. As it turned out, Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho wanted to feature a couple of the group's previous missions. I jumped at this chance because it would be an opportunity to finally do the LRT chorale and the Slow-Mo, hahaha.

Off to Gateway after lunch (and yes, I had confessed to Opa, it was my first time to ride the LRT 2 alone, hahaha), and by the time I got there, I think I was one of the two agents who had arrived promptly on time. I had to look for RS and his girlfriend, and had to rely on the description that Agent Rob had sent me via text. Finally found them near Taco Bell with fellow newbie agent Karin (sp?), and it didn't take long until other agents had joined us--Denise with friend Lynell, Mikey, Bleue. A little later, after realizing that we had been standing around for so long, we finally decided to grab some tables so we can sit down.

After an hour, we had an uber-long table, consisting of both old and new agents. Basically we were just sitting around as we waited for Pao to arrive with the GMA crew, just talking, how we're going to divide ourselves in groups for each LRT station, and who were going to participate in the Slow-Mo. Nightowl (Joy, our group's videographer/photographer) had her camera handy for photo ops and documentation.

By the time we all got ourselves something to eat, Gwen from GMA finally arrived at 4pm. She broke the news that the train permit they got was for the MRT, not the LRT 2. Oh well. We then boarded the 2 L300 vans that were waiting for us outside the mall, and we set off for Manila City Hall, where our first mission (Slow-Mo) was going to be.

Pao was already at City Hall with 3 others when we had arrived. A quick brief with everyone, then we looked for positions to be at when the Slow-Mo began, and agreed on a signal. Haha, I started a slow walk, crossing the entire space right in front of that KKK statue. Being accident-prone, I walked in fear of the slippery marble parts of the ground, because I had almost slipped when I tried to jump off a step earlier while looking for a position. Suddenly I found Bleue crossing my path, and pretended to slip as I tried to wave to Karin and Thrish. Arg, Thrish had opened her umbrella, blocking her view of me waving to them. Oh well, I kept walking and as I passed Minari who was sitting on the steps, I suddenly heard the signal from Pat, so I broke free from slow-mo and walked towards Karin and Thrish.

We were asked to do another slow-mo, this time we broke into two groups--one coming from SM Manila, and one coming from where we were standing. We were to walk up and down the sidewalk and cross paths, still in slow-mo. I was in the group coming from SM Manila. Hahaha, when we started walking, I could feel more stares than we got from the previous slow-mo. I even felt a woman poking me, trying to push past me, ahehe. I think I even managed to block a couple of college girls when they tried to sidestep Karin and Thrish, who had managed to overtake me even while in slow motion. When we had finally ran into the other group, I bumped into Mikey so I slowly ducked out of his way, only to also bump into Pao, and we made a slow-mo of quite an impact before I started walking normally again, hahaha.

Back to the parking area and began the brief for the chorale. Because we were going to use the MRT instead of the LRT, we divided ourselves up again into 2 groups--one to board at North Avenue Station and another to board the Quezon Avenue Station--instead of the 5, because it was going to be pretty crowded by then, considering it was already rush hour. We ran through the song ("Maling Akala" by the Eraserheads) once, then off we went in our respective vans for both MRT stations.

It took a while before we were permitted to board the platform, and the GMA crew also filmed a bunch of us going up the stairs, waiting around, and waiting for the train. Finally, the train arrived and we all scrambled for seats. Some who hadn't memorized the lyrics had slipped it in their books as kodigo. I had put mine in my phone so I can just text the whole way. It wasn't until after Cubao station (I think) when Pao had began the song. By the 2nd stanza and refrain, everyone started singing along. We were already receiving stares at the beginning of the 2nd stanza, and someone near some group had started complaining. I guess those people were pretty tired after getting off work. When we finally finished the song, the gay guy sitting next to me started looking around, surprised by the sudden silence, so he said "No more?" Hahaha. Pao started singing another song and Minari joined in, until we all got up and got off at Buendia station.

As they always say in Improv Everywhere, mission accomplished.