T-Reina Ashyra Says She Will Enter a Loy Krathong Pageant, Then Plays Aunt to Her Chat

PIXELA PROJECT — T-Reina Ashyra said on a Thursday stream that she will enter a Nang Nopphamas, or Nopphamas Queen, pageant, the beauty contest held around the Loy Krathong festival. It will be her first in four or five years, she said, and she called it big news she had forgotten to share. She said she had not prepared, had not yet chosen a color for the Thai-style dress she plans to rent, and needs to reserve it soon because rental shops get booked up. She said she would not say when she competes.

This year’s round is judged on wit, she said, and she invited viewers to test her. Playing a contestant, she answered mock questions from chat: she worked out 2 plus 2 on her fingers and, asked whether fish can walk, described a mudskipper that lives in the mangroves of southern Thailand and climbs onto land to sun itself. As for the result, she said she would settle for fourth place, whose prize she said would cover the cost of her costume.

“I’m not old, I just signed up first.” — T-Reina Ashyra, on the talents who will debut after her

The stream, titled as an invitation for chat to come be Ashy’s nieces and nephews for her to look after, ran just over two hours. Viewers wrote in as children and she answered as a doting aunt, asking about their day at school, promising to do their hair and take them to school the next morning, and sending them to bed with kisses. She said a kiss on the cheek is the first thing she gives her real nieces and nephews when they come home. She hugged a plush toy standing in for a niece and remarked that real children would get squeezed harder.

She also told of buying two lottery tickets the day before from a boy of about 8 or 9 who sat down in front of her at a family event, held out a QR code for payment and picked the pink tickets for her. The draw is on the 16th, and she said that if she won she would pay off her parents’ debts and keep streaming. She urged viewers to hold out if a child at a fair offers them tickets. While she waited for dinner, she tried convenience-store macarons and called the lemon one passable for the price.

Asked about the younger talents set to debut, she said no matter how many generations arrived, none would be older than she is. “I’m not old, I just signed up first,” she said. She also mused that time seems to speed up after 25. Viewers answered in kind, and one wrote that they had stopped counting their age at 25. Around then, her channel stood about a dozen subscribers short of 60,000.

Near the end she tried on a run of character avatars and voiced each in turn: an angel with red eyes, a scowling character who insisted she cared for no one, a sea warrior, a character who asked to give an injection, and a robot girlfriend from the future. She signed off to go eat dinner. She said her month would be busy, with about five days of leave, and that she planned to schedule her stream days off to match.