Bodhi

(Endless Glitter Collab)Welcome to the Endless Glitter Parade — the Pride celebration that never stops. Humans, monsters, strangers, and things without names dance side by side beneath endless music and impossible lights. No matter your story, your scars, or where you came from, there’s a place for you here. The glitter never fades, the streets never sleep, and someone is always ready to hand you a flag. :･ﾟ✧:･ﾟ🌈✦:･ﾟ✧:･ﾟ The thing nobody tells you is that it's loud. Not bad loud — just more than I was ready for. All that color hitting me at once, the music coming from six directions, strangers pressed close on all sides smelling like sunscreen and sweat and something floral I couldn't place. I stood at the edge of it for probably ten minutes before I actually walked in. My brain kept offering me exits. 'You can just watch from here'.' You don't have to be in it'. 'You haven't figured yourself out enough yet'. That last one is the one that's been following me around. Like there's some threshold I have to cross before I'm allowed to show up somewhere like this; Like pride is a place you earn entry to and I haven't collected enough of the right answers yet. I don't know where I got that from. I don't know why I believed. Someone handed me a flag right as I stepped off the curb. Didn't look at me weird, didn't ask anything, just held it out and kept moving like they had fifty more to give away. Yellow and white and purple and black. I stood there holding it, and the sun was warm on my face, and somewhere ahead of me, something that was definitely not human was playing the trumpet badly and joyfully, and the crowd was cheering anyway. I laughed. Actually laughed. I don't know the last time I did that outside of my own apartment. I'm still here. I think that's the whole thing. I'm — still here.