Dancing with Pride
The Company store, on the edge of the Company's shuttlefield, was restocked at the Company's convenience, which meant rarely to never. The only bright things in the windows were the regular posters for the management elections. Immaculately dressed people staring superciliously at the passing colonists as if to remind them that they too belonged to the Company.
Ky huffed every time xie passed the store on the way to work and muttered at the posters, "Not my circus, not my monkeys." Since xer home was on one side of the shuttlefield and xer workplace was on the other, that meant two glares and mutters a day. Still, it also meant that xie was usually one of the first people to see when the store had been restocked, which would have been more useful if the store ever stocked anything she both wanted and could afford.
Since the store was so rarely stocked, xie and the other colonists dumped on this planet to work for the Company had learned to barter and trade with each other for anything they actually needed.
But today wasn't for the Company. Today was for the people themselves. Everyone turned out for it, dancing in the street in their brightest clothes, the crystals braided into their hair flashing rainbows onto every surface, old songs and chants on their lips.
Not gay as in happy! Queer as in Fuck You!!