Happy STS! Your cast of characters is going to Pride! Who is leading the charge? Who is dragged along? Who is outfitted in their colorsâ whether brought or bought? Who is hit on by a drag queen?
Oh this will be quite the experience I'm sure. Going to assume we're going to a Pride on earth, as queerphobia is one of the few problems Thereafter doesn't struggle with at time of writing (also they've got the water situation on lock, which is nice.) Being a very out and proud crowd, you'd think everyone would be equally eager, but as usual it is the most extroverted of the gang, Alicia and Felipe, who lead the charge. Lex is happy to go but lacks the enthusiasm for big crowds and public spaces, and Michael, for his part, is just shy, but does pull on his bi flag color suspenders and heeds the call. Alicia is all about pride for the community of it all and wears a progress flag shrug over a very fierce disco-inspired outfit. Lex is a creature of habit, but does spice up their presentation by finding, buying, or stealing ("only from people who look like they have any to spare, of course") as many flag bracelets as they can. Felipe... Felipe has entirely too much fun with the entire thing, and shows up rocking what can best be described as a Rio carnival costume with only slight modifications to account for Felipe's build, studded with rainbow peacock feathers and prismatic sequins.
As for notable events, I like to think everybody gets at least mildly flirted at by a drag queen, but that Lex strikes up a surprisingly fast friendship with a queen they meet at a Lord of the Rings-themed burlesque. Michael leaves behind a trail of heart-broken otters as he continually fails to read obvious flirting, much to Felipe's mixed amusement and annoyance, and Alicia goes off to film her "Embarrassing Myself In Front Of The Butches Again" video for the year, in which she delivers the cheesiest pick-up lines possible to the biggest group of butch older women she could find. This year, she returns with a dazed expression, a small collection of social media handles, phone numbers, one of them attached to a carabiner. "Wait," Lex would wonder at this "is that allowed? are you like... Lesbian Married now?"
At the end of the day, our heroes find themselves partying and enjoying the unity until night falls, at which point Michael goes home early, Felipe hits the clubs, Alicia takes the opportunity to network with fellow activists (and maybe check out one of those phone numbers if she can find the courage,) and Lex goes off assembling a posse to either "do some slightly illegal activism or play nerdy games and make out or whatever," to quote them directly.
