Yumemigaoka Rainbow Pride 2023!

[beautifuldreamermods]

⭐ Who: Everyone!
⭐ When: June 10th – 11th
⭐ Where: Yotsuba Park, around Koubai
⭐ What: Yumemigaoka Rainbow Pride weekend!

RAINBOW PRIDE

Since the last week or so of May, there's been posters and advertisements scattered around Yumemigaoka so everyone's known it's coming - but if you're a new arrival maybe you're still a little surprised when the weekend of the 10th rolls around and brings the 6th annual Yumemigaoka Rainbow Pride event with it! Though it's a relatively recent tradition to the city, those that take part in it seem to have turned the whole thing into a well oiled machine with a cozy festival on the 10th followed by the parade around the city on the 11th.

The weather turns out to be just right for the whole thing - apart from some passing drizzles on the 10th, the weekend is mostly dry and sunny with only a chilly wind dampening the mood occasionally. Other than that, it's perfect weather for a celebration!

Whether you're here for solidarity or just to show your support it's sure to be a good time, so why not stop by?

YOTSUBA PARK

The first part of the Rainbow Pride proceedings is the cheery and lively Rainbow Festival hosted at Yotsuba Park. There's a small entry fee of a few hundred yen, just to help offset some of the costs of running the whole thing, but once you're in and you've got your little hand stamp you're free to stay as long as you like and to come and go as you please. And as it happens, there's plenty to see!

The festival is set up a little like a summer festival at a shrine, with a central "street" of stalls and vendors leading up to the open air stage that's been set up to pump out live music. While there's some food and drink stalls at the top and bottom of this little central street, the majority of the stalls are vendors and sellers with various Pride related goods, art or are otherwise independent queer artists and crafters with some cool goods to offload on the nice folks at the festival. Those of you who attended the DU's anniversary event might find things a little familiar and... well, given that this is the DU we're talking about it shouldn't come as a surprise that there's a big overlap between "Dreamers" and "people who go to Pride".

Apart from the stalls, the main draw of the event is the stage that's been set up for today's festival. A few announcements and speeches get made from up on here but for the most part it's here to provide the promised live music for the event. The music lasts more or less all day with at most a half hour break in between acts and while it's mostly smaller, independent musicians and groups you might also spot a few familiar faces up on stage!


🌈 Ai Hoshino (liedol) will be performing a small set of three songs – a newer solo song and two from her B-Komachi days for old time's sake.
🌈 Connor Murphy (yourattention) is busting out some choreography from a performance planned for a Pride event back in the States – just uh... try not to pay any attention to how much cussing there is in the backing track.
🌈 Rue Lette (loungelizard) will be making an appearance in a killer look put together just for Pride with sax in tow and some equally killer lipsync.


... and plenty others to follow!

The event itself is an all day affair, getting started at around 9:30 in the morning and wrapping at around 10pm, with the live music acts wrapping at 8pm - consideration for the neighbours, yanno? The event is mostly a family friendly festival but the food and drink stalls will start serving alcohol at around 4pm and the final few hours of the festival will turn into a full on party!

Don't get too crazy on Saturday though - as the organizers remind everyone at the closing ceremony, there's still the Rainbow Walk through the city on Sunday so make sure you're fresh faced and ready for that!

KOUBAI

Bright and early Sunday morning, everyone shows up fresh faced and raring to go (or, you know, dragging themselves along the pavement and longing for death and/or an alka seltzer) for the second leg of the Rainbow Pride weekend – the Parade! It's a briskly paced march that heads out from the front of Koubai's most central train station and loops around the district twice before breaking off and heading to the plaza just out front of the Dreamer Union. A much more relaxed answer to yesterday's celebrations has been set up, with a few food trucks and stalls and a large tent set up with seating in the shade and out of the glare of the sun.

Once everyone's back at the tent, there's some speeches and toasting from the organizers, some cheers and promises to be back here for the next year... but mostly, the idea is to relax, unwind and just enjoy spending some time and solidarity with the people you just marched with. Maybe you'll make a new buddy or two on the way!

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Comments

[dullshooter]

Yotsuba Park - afternoon

[Misfire's well used to the concept of Pride - he's been every year - but the Yumemigaoka Rainbow Pride festival is a new experience for him. He certainly dresses the part though, slapping on some rainbow tie-dye and wearing his typical red shades. He wanders around the stalls, picking up and inspecting a lot of things but not really buying very much of it, chattering to himself and - by eextension - the unsuspecting vendors.]

Y'know, on the one hand, I'm glad this Pride's escaped the clutches of capitalism and isn't one big rainbow commerical. On the other hand, though? I miss free stuff. Is this the trade-off for having no cops?

Yotsuba Park - evening (cw: alcohol)

[Come 4PM Misfire's immediately at the booze, participating in a Pride tradition he knows and loves: getting absolutely smashed. Catch him singing and dancing along to the rest of the night's music (to the best of his ability, which is to say, not very well), but be careful he doesn't try to rope you into joining in.]

Rainbow Walk

[Misfire did not heed the organizers' warning last night and so, this morning, he's hating himself something fierce as he struggles on through the Rainbow Walk, unable to even finish the energy drink he holds shakily in his hand.

Collapsing first to his knees, then to all fours, he gives up in the middle of the street, weakly raising the Bisexual Flag he's wrapped around himself.]

This is it, I'm done for...just leave me here...but somebody...take my flag...

Yotsuba Park - afternoon

[darknesshotpot]

Dude, all stuff is free stuff if you're sneaky enough.

[Ango tosses him a cold can of beer, one of several he's stolen from the back of a food stall even though alcohol sales haven't officially started yet. It feels a little wrong to steal from the indie artist booths, but any stall that's sponsored by a local business is fair game. Somehow he's acquired a bubblegum pink T-shirt (slightly too small, but freebies are freebies) with a sparkly manga-style drawing of Hoshino Ai from the Dreamer Union's own promotional booth.]

Be gay do crime, right? And if you're bi... do double crime.

[dullshooter]

[Misfire catches the can clumsily, almost dropping it.]

Heh. Double crime. I'll cheers to that.

[He cracks the can open and raises it to Ango before taking a first swig. Damn, that stuff tastes better when you don't have to pay for it. He looks over Ango with some scrutiny, mostly a force of habit in trying to eye up the valuables on a person.]

Nice shirt, loser. Where'd you pinch it?

[darknesshotpot]

Over at the Dreamer Union booth. They're only paying me minimum wage, so I've gotta make up the difference by stealing swag and office supplies. I've got so many glitter pens now.

[Ango still doesn't have a house to store his ill-gotten gains, but now that he's got a semi-steady job, it's probably time to leave his comfortable park bench and start looking for a cheap apartment. He's been getting by with public baths and coin-operated laundromats for the past month and a half, but now that it's Japan's rainy season, it's a pain to dry clothes on trees in the park.]

So, you come to these things often? It's my first Pride in Yumemigaoka... seems pretty wholesome so far, but I hear that shit gets wild after dark. Gonna find an after party and try to sweet talk my way into an actual bed tonight.

[dullshooter]

[Misfire looks so thoughtful at the mention of glitter pens, so much so that he almost misses what Ango says next.]

Do I look like I go to these things often? Here I thought I reeked of hetero-masculinity.

[Says the guy literally wearing rainbows. And camo pants. It’s a Look(tm).]

Been to a couple in the States, first time here. The difference is pretty stark - I mean, I’d already be drunk by now, for example.

[It is like, 12:30pm. He takes another sip of his beer.]

You need a wingman? I might know a guy. By which I mean - the guy is me.

[darknesshotpot]

[Rainbows and camo are kinda sending mixed signals, but Ango is down to party with the kind of guy who'd get drunk at half past noon at a family-friendly event.]

With a wingman like you, bro, we're gonna reach the sky!

[And crash and burn, most likely. This is the kind of plan that's very likely to end with both of them ending up sleeping in a gutter instead of the soft bed Ango is envisioning... but hey, it wouldn't be the first time.]

[dullshooter]

Totally. Used to be a pilot. That's gotta count for something.

[If only a poorly executed pun.]

All else fails, I've got a nice couch you can crash on. Granted, it's gonna have me on it as well, but - beggars, choosers. Could be worse, right?

Park - Evening

[flatcola]

Gyeeeh... no one wants to hear me sing...

[ The little creature known as Kozakura has already had plenty of beer for a girl her size, and yet she resists! ]

[dullshooter]

Wrong! I do. In fact, the more you protest, the more I wanna hear it.

[He accentuates his point by quite literally pointing at her.]

C’mon, don’t you want to cut loose? ‘Tis the season.

[flatcola]

I'm terrible.

[ But she's drunk enough to laugh about it. ]

Too old to cut loose.

[ Not even remotely. ]

[dullshooter]

You know, I don’t believe that for a second. What else is all that beer for?

[flatcola]

Eh. ...eeeh. If someone records this I'll kill 'em, but what the hell, let's do it.

[dullshooter]

[He pumps a fist in triumph.]

Aw yeah. Good to have you on board, loser. Trust me, this'll be one of those life-changing moments you only see in the movies.

[He pauses briefly to actually catch what the current state of the music actually is, and points to the stage with his thumb.]

You know this song?

afternoon

[mnemon]

[ The tiny teen who'd been sort of hovering awkwardly by the stall and eyeballing some of the things on it perks up. ]

Free stuff? [ SOME OF THE MOST WONDERFUL WORDS TO HEAR ] Do they actually do that in America?

[dullshooter]

Oh yeah.

[Believe it, kid!]

‘Course, it’s all pretty much branded. But who doesn’t love the novelty of an ace pride Budweiser cup? Feels like all my finest belongings have been thrown off the side of a corporate float.

[None of it particularly useful mind, and all of it rainbow, but nonetheless.]

I’d even call it a key part of the Pride experience.

[mnemon]

Even if it's branded, free is free.

[ she's easily bought and she has no morals. just ask the frillnet regulars. ]

But I guess this is... smaller? [ She looks out across the festival a little doubtfully, as if even she's not entirely sure of that. ] Or they have less money to throw around on free stuff, anyway. I was shocked they managed to get so many people roped in to do music.

[dullshooter]

[‘easily bought and has no morals’ that makes two of them.]

See, I’d buy that, except for one thing: the DU. Now those guys have the buying power to spare some free glitter pens - or, hell - even some glowy sticks to wave around during these performances. Which they’ve totally sponsored bee-tee-dubs. I’ve worked it out.

[He hasn’t worked out shit.]

Point is, they could be giving us free stuff, but they aren’t. And you know what that means?

[mnemon]

[ S... lowly nodding along like she gets it.

Then: ] Nope. You've lost me.

[ never mind i guess ]

[dullshooter]

We're entitled to a little thing called compensation.

[He grins.]

Catch my drift?

[loungelizard]

[I don't know what number rule it would be, but I'm pretty sure there's a Pride rule that goes something like, "never wipe out in front of a drag queen at Pride."

Now, Rue Lette is not a terribly imposing queen, in most circumstances. On a regular day, she manages five-foot-four or maybe five-five, depending on the shoes. But when you're on the ground and she's kneeling above you, knees spread and elbows resting on her thighs, complete with several pounds of Samba-inspired massive feathers creating a huge Samba-inspired silhouette in rainbow vomit...

...that imposing energy might be hard to deny.

Especially when she mercilessly teases you with a saccharine tone.]

Awww. Did honey-bun stay up too late partying last night?

[Instead of taking his flag, she grabs Misfire by the upper arm and starts pulling upwards by standing up. Rue is not a terribly strong person, but stronger than you would imagine in this heat and this wild outfit. Enough to make laying on the floor far more effort than it's worth.]

Come on. Up. Up. You're gonna get trampled if you stay there, sweetheart.

[dullshooter]

[He may be an idiot, but even he's too worse for wear to even think of defying a Queen's words. Like a sack of potatoes, he lets himself get lifted up to his feet, holding onto both the flag and his bottle of lipovitan for dear life.]

Uhghhhhhhh. [He groans as he lifts his head up, impractical shades doing nothing to save him from the glare of the sun, or hide the absolute state of his eyes.] Pretty sure I'm gonna die if I take another step anyways.

Unless you're gonna carry me?

[loungelizard]

Nope! No free rides to the finish line.

[Rue slings Misfire's arm across her shoulders and heads perpendicular to the parade traffic -- right to the sidewalk.]

I'm taking you somewhere that has actual water. None of that liquid cocaine you call an energy drink.

[Thankfully the crowds are pretty cognizant of this giant technicolor pheasant-dressed queen, and they part as needed to get Misfire to the hole-in-the-wall restaurant that is thoroughly enjoying and hating the foot traffic. Rue calls out for water in Japanese, and after some kerfuffle, one of the employees produces a cold bottle of water. Rue opens it for Misfire and holds it up for him to take.]

Here. Rehydrate and rest. Then you can jump back into the parade and walk your own damn ass past the finish line, okay, baby?

[How someone can have this much fun while making sure someone's not gonna die?]

[dullshooter]

[Misfire does as he's told - mostly because he's too busy dying to do otherwise - and takes a seat with the water. He mumbles something into the rim of the bottle before taking a drink.]

Swear you're enjoying this...

[The first sip is refreshing, if not rejuvinating. It really drives home that he hasn't had water in a while. In fact, when did he last have water? It must've been the last time he got this hungover, which was what? When he went to that karaoke bar? What did he even sing then...God, he had such a sore throat...Still, it was fun. Maybe he should go again...

Ah, he's getting distracted. What was she telling him - walk his own damn ass past the finish line?]

Do I really have to finish? Isn't it the taking part that counts, an A-for-effort kind of deal?

[loungelizard]

I might be. Just a little bit. ♪

[She gets even closer, which is apparently even possible at all, and she gives Misfire a sharp, intense, challenging gaze from under her massive fake eyelashes. Even under the smell of sweat and ozone from being outside and under the sun, she still smells nice -- tropical notes, like pineapple and coconut.]

Depends. Do you fancy yourself a quitter?

[It's the same energy as an arcade machine counting down the time you have left to feed it quarters before you really Game Over.]

[dullshooter]

If I were a different - maybe even better- person, I'd take that question as a challenge and get up, march my hungover ass right on over to the parade, and push past everyone in a determined and proud race to the finish line.

[A pause. He looks pained for a moment, then drinks some water. With a forceful return of the bottle to the table he continues.]

I'm not that person. When the going gets tough, I get gone.

[He meets Rue's gaze and instantly shrinks back into his chair.]

...'Course, that's all, y'know, hypothetically speaking.