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Colour. Everywhere.
No mortal man could escape it.
There was so much of it, more than even his artificial retinas could comprehend. No matter where he turned, nothing was grey. Nothing was dull or bleak, not like most other days. There wasn’t a corner of New York’s main streets that didn’t have a speck of glitter or splatter of paint. A sea of rainbows, powerfully united, passed him by as if he were watching a movie. What amazed him was the extravagance, the spirit, the creativity and the loudness of it all- not only of the cries of joy and freedom, but the personalities of each and every individual that was expressed all in one place...
All of it, overflowing with colour.
It was, perhaps, the only pure beauty humans could create.
An interesting addition to his study indeed, the month of June would most certainly win over his contradictory thoughts of what his study was truly entailing. Maybe the month of June reinstalled some faith in him; this...this was...indescribable. For a man who knew every word in every language...standing in the middle of it all was worth more than any of those words that he could muster. So much so, that words were not worth being spoken. The Vision just stayed quiet, and watched it all happen around him.
It was nice to see Mr Stark happy for a change. It had been a while since he had seen him smile like that. A warming, genuine smile. Happiness radiated from him like he was the sun itself, the brightest star that burned itself up to keep others alive and well. Quite fitting, really. And rightly so, Mr Stark deserved it. He really did. Vision had observed him, how he talked to certain others, how his mind worked, the masks he wore so well...how defensive he got...what caused him to conceal himself so tightly that only the night brought out the worst of his fears... but now, it was day, and Vision watched as Tony shined once again with pink, yellow and blue smeared across his cheeks like war paint.
Even if it was just for one day, Vision was glad he had gotten the chance to witness it. Mr Stark’s true colours were beautiful.
So the synthezoid left him to it, to the people around him that enjoyed their time with him, to sign their flags and take pictures with them on this seemingly glorious day. Mr Stark had explained a little about this event, and it happened all across the world apparently. ‘Pride’, he was informed. Proud of what, you may ask? Well he wasn’t quite sure, because approximately 7.38 seconds later he was ushered out of the door and onto the streets of New York with a multi colour spectrum feather boa around his neck and a lot of questions.
Mr Stark told him that he thought too logically about things sometimes, that he asked too many questions, that sometimes he should just ‘go and do it, y’know?’ An interesting thought, most certainly far from being grammatically correct, but interesting. That was what brought him here, standing in his human phase format surrounded by people of every walk of life, rather confused and incredibly curious. Humans were kissing at free will, laughing and dancing and hugging and helping one another any way they could.
All this life, all the energy and the glory of all these colourful humans was perhaps a little too much for Vision, just for the moment it was overwhelming, so he moved to the side of the street where some participators rested in the haze of the wonderment. Taking off the scarf of colourful feathers for the moment, the synthezoid glanced around, attempting to gather a sense of direction but it was useless without being able to levitate. One thing was for sure though: he had lost Mr Stark. Vision thought that maybe he should just attempt to make his way home, now that he had experienced it all in a snapshot, he could just research more about it, yes? Oh gosh, but would Mr Stark be mad? He wanted him to-
“After this, we should try and find Tony Stark, I heard that he’s here today.” A lady suggested to the lady sitting next to her on a bench, smiling enthusiastically as they both refreshed themselves with a doughnut with multicoloured icing on the top. She seemed to have an accent, not from New York, but somewhere else. She almost sounded Dutch, from what he could hear anyway. She wore a flower crown consisting of the same colours on Mr Stark’s cheeks, they weaved into her long brown hair and flowed all the way down her back.
The other lady, perhaps a little younger, bore lighter and shorter, not quite ginger hair and glasses that were also of a multicolour spectrum. She wore a cropped jacket that was painted pastel variations of pink, purple and blue with the sleeves rolled up a little. Though this lady spoke differently, much what seemed to be British, similar to what Mr Stark said of his own accent. “I was thinking the same thing babe. And then-”
“Excuse me...do you happen to know where Mr Stark is located? I seem to have gotten caught up in the crowds...” Vision tried his best not to be rude or appear strange in this situation, he really did try his best. Besides, they seemed nice, and so did the two others who smiled at him when he approached.
“Oh sweetie, are you lost? It’s alright, you can stick with us, we’re going to find him in a minute” the flower lady reassured, and patted the bench beside her where there was some room for him to sit. Vision did so awkwardly, of course.
This was his first real human interaction outside of the Avengers team, and he was actually a little tense. He was told of the dangers of talking to strangers, but he couldn’t miss the opportunity to ask them things.
“Thank you.” He said after sitting, and then there was a slightly too long pause, before he spoke up again. “Can...can you tell me why- what exactly is the aim of this event?” That was where he started. Yes. A good start.
“Dude, you don’t know? Can’t you tell?” This time, the guy spoke up. He was ginger, also a similar accent to the lady in the jacket, and wore a plaid shirt that was multicoloured to match the different colours painted along his face. To accompany it, he wore what Vision identified as Doc Martin boots that also had the different colours on. Vision took quite a liking to those. “It’s pride!! We’re all proud to be gay as fu-”
“Not all of us are fully gay, thank you very much” said a blonde lady at the end of the bench, strands of pink, purple and blue ribbon entwined into the waves of her golden locks, the same of those colours in sparkling make up on her eyelids and lips. She didn’t talk like the others, she was very much American, but most definitely not from New York. “Whoever you like to kiss, or if you don’t like anything at all, today is your day. If you’re a boy or a girl or both or none or anything in between, we got yo back” she smiled just as bright as the others, just as bright as Tony had done earlier.
“So- all of these people are proud of...what, exactly?” Vision was trying his best to take it all in; it was incredibly fascinating.
“We’re all proud of who we are, and no one can take that away from us.” The lady in the painted jacket took the hand of the lady with the flowers in her hair, most certainly with a look of pride on her expression, and the flower lady smiled back warmly. “Today you get to be who you really are, and no one can judge you for it. They can try, but we don’t care” she laughed a little and so did the others, before rummaging in her bag. “You haven’t really come dressed for the occasion, do you want some-” she pulled out some face paints, but by the time she looked up, the man was gone.
Vision had heard enough to know what he had to do now.
Be himself.
The people on the bench now watched as the synthezoid has gotten up and walked into the sea of rainbows, they watched him smile, they watched him transform. In the midst of it all, he phased back into the form he was born in with no regret or shame or embarrassment what so ever. He was free, he did not have to hide any longer...but he opened his eyes to the sounds of gasping, perhaps in horror, misunderstanding, fear.
The humans dragged their lovers away, clearly frightened of the unknown being before them, clearing as much space between them and him as possible. He turned, carefully, only to see that others had done the same. The people surrounding him were quiet, whispering with bated breath, all their little minds working at a million miles an hour trying to figure out what he was- maybe now they understood how he felt. The parade was held up, everyone trying to see what all the commotion was. Maybe...maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. Maybe...maybe being himself was not the same as them being themselves. Oh gosh, he had made a fatal error, a mistake he could not reverse. Vision shied under the stares of all those humans, unable to figure out his next steps that would reduce the likelihood of causing any more of a commotion than he already had done...but then a familiar hand on his shoulder caused him to look away from the crowd.
“What the hell are you doing?!” Mr Stark whisper yelled to him as he tried his best to hurry Vision out of the line of eye of every camera and video that would go viral in the next five minutes. “We need to go, now” But Vision wasn’t moving, and he certainly was not going to quieten his voice either.
“But the nice ladies and their friends said that I should be myself, that his day is to be proud of who I am...” after saying that, Tony gave him a look that Vision really could not figure out, a mixture of sadness and possibly even pity.
Tony went to say something then, but it appeared as though he was lost for words. How could anyone deny Vision of what he truly was, of the chance to show it? Tony certainly wasn’t going to be the one to stop him. He was growing, evolving.
It was then, that the turning point happened. Something that changed his life forever.
A boy approached them in the middle of the parted crowd. He was short and had light brown hair, but he was none the less colourful than anyone else with a multicolour flag wrapped around his neck like a cape. Vision knew that he could never forget this boy’s face, the first human to even want to come this close. The only one who was brave enough. He was cautious, yes, but that was understandable, yet still he reached his hand up to touch the synthezoid’s face. Vision stayed completely still, while tony of course was on stand by to protect his scientifically produced son from any harm that might occur. But the boy did no harm. Quite the opposite, in fact.
“Woah...so you are real...” he spoke under his breath in disbelief “You’re even more beautiful in person, it’s difficult to tell on TV..” he muttered, but Vision heard it clearly. Yes, he had seen all the theories that surrounded him and artificial life on Earth, how could he avoid them? But this...meant something more. “We accept you, whatever you are. You’re one of us..” he said it with a smile, his eyes wide with awe. And with that, the Vision smiled back fondly. He decided then to imitate life itself the only way he knew how, and phased his own cape to match that of the flag around the boy’s neck.
The colours of purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and red shimmered in the sunlight, waving gracefully in the slight breeze of the afternoon alongside everyone else’s as they walked the streets of New York. Together.
Vision would never forget the first time the world laid eyes on him, the first time he spoke to normal people, the first time he’d witnessed a true meaning to human life.
He’d never forget he first time he was proud to be who he was, June 24th 2018.