Ghost BC - Trans Papas

XI - Ritual

It was an important evening for the Clergy, especially for it's Papa. At first sight, nothing unusual was about to happen, it was the first Ritual of a season, yet what made tonight such a special occasion was that it was going to be first Ritual held after the official coming out of Papa Emeritus IV. He has decided to speak up about being trans to give fellow members of the lgbtq+ community the strength to stand up for themselves and show visibility to who they are.
"I'm so nervous", Copia jumped while jumping around back stage, it was his turn in about four minutes.
"They are going to love you!", Sister encouraged him, patting his shoulder to make him calm down.
"Yes but there's always going to be haters
that-"
"If they don't like who you are they shouldn't be attending tonight's ritual, boy. Let them know their place if you need to", Nihil suddenly growled as he stepped out the shadows.
"Eh.. well true that", Copia agreed, still a little confused about Nihil's sudden appearance. Surprisingly, he had been quite supportive after Copia had patiently explained to him what exactly being transgender was and meant.
"And now go and make us proud, C!", Sister gently shoved his shoulder as Kaisarion started playing and with one last, deep breath, Copia ran from behind the stage up to where he had always felt home. He looked around and let his voice echoe across the whole chapel while his eyes were still adjusting to the light. But as they did and he could see the large crowd in front of him, full of people holding up trans flags, pieces of art they had drawn for him and signs saying "We love you Copia" and "Thank you for helping me" in trans flag colours, he suddenly felt loss for words. And that happened literally, he stopped for the glimpse of a second before he realised the situation and started singing along again. Yet his gratitude was clearly visible, he grinned like a Cheshire Cat and jumped across the stage with huge euphoria the whole ritual long. He was glad to see nothing's changed for the worse but a lot for the better and tonight was filled with positive feelings. As it was his time to thank everyone, he ended his speech by saying "I want to thank all of you for being so supportive of me tonight and just always! I hope you too know how valid you are and that you all deserve a round of applause!". He watched happily as the crowd gave itself a huge applause and continued with his go fuck yourselves speech.
After the ritual has ended, he quickly ran backstage where Sister sat in chair, waiting for his return. She jumped up as her son run from behind the door and was perplexed as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a tight hug.
"Oh C", she muttered worried and laid a hand on the back of his head and ruffled his hair like she used to do when she comforted him as a child.
"It was amazing", he sniffed after a moment of silence.
He slowly loosened the hug and she could see he was crying a little, yet these were happy tears.