Unwavering Support And Unrepentant Cringe

20260616

Prompt from “pridemonthprompts” 2025 list.

“Heh. Wow, this takes me back.” Tom mused with a fond smile. “You went through this whole phase when you were a toddler where you were obsessed with finger paints-”
“Daaaad!” Sam growled, exasperated and chagrined, shooting an apologetic look at their current client - who was struggling not to quake from suppressed giggles.
“Pff, come on, kiddo, it’s obvious your skills have come a long way since then-”
“Could you PLEASE shush!!”
“Alright, alright…” Tom shook his head and looked out across the kaleidoscope of Pride stalls. A joyful patchwork of colours and life.
While obviously they were all in this together, supportive community and all, yada yada, he noted with quiet parental smugness that the queue for Sam’s face/body painting was far larger than the other stall offering such temporary decorations.
And they were almost out of business cards! See, him and Mary had told Sam it was worth getting a run of proper ones printed, even in this so-called ‘digital age’…
The teen Sam had been working on inspected the flags drawn on their cheeks (rainbow on the right, bisexual pride on the left), beamed, and hopped off the stool. Tom handed them the card reader while Sam waved the next customer to sit.
“Cool shirt.” The teen said, flashing an approving grin.
“Why thank you.”
Tom had gotten a custom, rainbow tie-dye shirt with “someone I love is queer” printed both front and back, just for the event - though he was totally going to be looking for other situations to deploy it. And he had a “he/him” badge to match Sam’s “they/them”.
He had offered Sam a matching shirt except with the text reading “someone I love is a dork”, but they’d sighed heavily and (lovingly, he was sure) told him he was ‘otaku level cringe’, whatever that meant. Then sighed louder when he’d retorted it was all part of the parent gig.
A far more fun part compared to getting up at the crack of dawn to pickup a rental van, load it with equipment and a grumpy (adult) child, navigate to an already crowded fairground, and get the stall setup. On the other hand… there was nothing quite as satisfying as seeing your baby come into their own like this.
“…colour any of these stencils however you like, or I can freehand a bird like them.” Sam was saying, in full professional flow. “Do you have any reference photos for what kind of phoenix you want?”
“Nah. I didn’t plan for this. Just saw your stall and…” The customer scratched scratched his - their beard (still shouldn’t assume, bad habit, especially in a setting like this), face scrunched in thought. “I think that one-” they pointed “-looks best. But, like, longer tail feathers? Kinda peacock-y maybe?”
“Hmm. Something like…” Sam grabbed their sketchpad and in remarkably few lines produced an elegant bird. Definitely not a peacock, but boasting long, flowing tail feathers which seemed to be curling at the ends.
The client’s face split into a huge grin. “Hot damn, you should be doing tattoos!”
Tom quickly chipped in “They’re training for just that, and will be accredited in two years.”
“Am hoping to be accredited in two years.” Sam grumbled, as if this was a correction. Then outright cringed as Tom handed the client a business card.
Tsk. The kid really needed to get better at handling promotion. And reading a room - the client immediately tucked the card away. Clearly pleased to have an easy way to keep track of this promising new artist.
Who knows? This could turn into a hire down the line. Sam’s lil website did have rates for parties or similar (after Mary insisted and calculated appropriate amounts, Sam being of the opinion nobody would ever pay them to attend an event).
“In fact,” Tom said brightly, “if you don’t mind your photo being used in their portfolio - all identifying features cropped out, of course…”
“Sure, go ahead! I was going to ask you to snap a pic for me anyhow. You can just take one with both our phones.”
“Super! Thank you.”
“Dad you’re holding up the line!!” Sam grumbled plaintively.
“Sorry.” Tom said, just about managing a straight face, and stepped back to let the artist work.
One phoenix temporary back tattoo coming right up. Coloured in black, white, purple, and green stripes. Presumably some kind of Pride flag colours. There were like a bajillion of them and Tom didn’t pretend to be any kind of expert on the matter.
Both Sam and the customer were overflowing with pride and joy on seeing the result, and that was what mattered.
“I’m gonna make this my profile picture for the month!”
“Awesome!” Tom beamed, and approvingly noted how much the customer had tipped. He added in a conspiratorial undertone “Feel free to include a link to Sam’s website under-”
“Oh my god dad please shut up!!”
“Sure thing.” The customer said, not batting an eye, and Tom nodded thanks.
So help him, he was going to help his baby’s business be successful - dragging them kicking and screaming if necessary! Consider it loving revenge for all those paint stains.

Prompt was “Body Paint”.