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In the year since Horde Prime's defeat and the end of the war, the members of the Princess Alliance had hoped that life would calm down and allow them to return to a mostly peaceful existence. It didn't quite work out that way. Between the dangerous creatures awoken by Etheria's released magic, holdouts of Prime clones still worshiping their fallen leader, and the slew of alien civilizations wanting to make contact with the galaxy's saviors, life had not slowed down much at all. There was enough going on that the Princess Alliance still had to have their bi-weekly war meetings, not that they wouldn't be getting together anyway, but the title made it feel more official.
“Okay, so we're agreed that Catra, Perfuma, and Scorpia will be the ones to go meet with Huntara and the other gang leaders in the Crimson Waste?” Adora was answered with nods and muttered assent from around the table. “Good. It looks like that was the last thing on the docket for today. Is there anything else that we need to go over?”
A look made its way around the table, glances back and forth between most of the members of the Alliance. Eventually, the collective stare made its way down to the far end of the table, and the Princess seated there. Entrapta wasn't really paying attention, she rarely did during these meetings. If something was important, they would let her know if she was needed, and if something interesting came up, she would probably hear it subconsciously and respond. So for now, the tech Princess was fiddling with a trackerpad, reviewing charts and graphs that made sense only to her.
“Well, I mean, since we're all here...” Glimmer started, pausing to look at Bow and Adora, “I think there's something that we've all noticed that we want to discuss.” Another round of nods and quiet agreements made its way around the table, with one exception. Entrapta let out a happy cry as she finished typing something into her trackerpad. She let go of it with one hand, and raised that arm out to a forty-five degree angle, before turning her head and bending at the neck to place her face in the crux of the other elbow.
She was dabbing.
Entrapta was dabbing.
And it wasn't the first time.
They had all noticed it beginning about a month ago. It was slow at first, usually someone would catch it in the corner of their eye and before they could say anything, the Princess would move on to another topic. But as time went on, it was becoming more frequent.
When they completed a mission? Dab.
When a project was successfully completed? Dab.
When a robot ran some new program? Dab.
When the kitchen made food even a little smaller than normal? Dab.
Everyone was content to leave it be, chalking it up to just Entrapta being Entrapta, but in the last week it seemed like it was increasing exponentially. They watched as she returned to her trackerpad, seemingly unaware that they were all staring at her. It was quiet for a few moments as they all tried to think up something to say that wouldn't upset their friend. Entrapta was unique, in many ways, but she had difficulty with understanding people, and at times that made it hard to have serious conversations with her. She had always been secluded, and after everything that had happened during the war, the way that she was treated by both sides, no one wanted to stop her from becoming more expressive, if it seemed that she was comfortable with it. But it was just-
Another happy squeak, and another quick dab.
Weird.
Eventually, all eyes in the room, except for Entrapta's which were glued to her trackerpad, shifted over to look at Bow. He was the one that comforted her on Beast Island when she had expressed her feelings there, and they shared a common language with tech. So when it came to having these conversations with her, Bow was typically the go-to.
He looked around the table, meeting everyone's expectant gaze with a slightly panicked expression. Before he could address it though, Entrapta looked up from her work.
“Oh, are we finished? Great, good meeting everyone.” Entrapta lifted herself off of her seat using her hair and began to carry herself to the exit.
“No! Uhm, actually, kind of, but... Not yet Entrapta.” Bow said, panicked expression unchanged.
“Oh? I'm sorry, everyone was quiet so I thought...” Entrapta shrugged and made her way back to her chair. “What else was there to go over?”
Bow took a steadying breath, “Well Entrapta we, uhm, we wanted to talk about you, actually.” She stared at him with large, unblinking eyes. “We just, uh, well we've all noticed that you... You seem to be getting more comfortable around all of us. And we're happy about that! That's a good thing, but we've also noticed that you've been expressing that a bit... differently.”
Entrapta's face lit up, “Oh, that's good. I've been trying to study how social groups interact lately and it seems like people tend to express themselves in more subtle ways to display how they're feeling around one another without actually addressing those same feelings. If you've noticed, then that means that it's working!” She dabbed again. Not just one dab though, no. That would be too little, this was a great moment. She also used her prehensile hair to dab in the same direction.
“... Yeeeaaahhh. That. That's good, we're all... Very happy to see that, and we're all very happy that you're trying to integrate more, I guess.” He looked around the table for help, but he would receive none. This duty had been bestowed to him by virtue of no one else wanting to do it, so the task was his alone to carry out. “I just uh. We, that is, have been curious, as to what exactly you're doing?”
She stared at him. Cold, empty, unblinking eyes gazing deep into his soul. Her body had straightened back up in her chair, but above her, her hair had remained in its dab, and there was no indication that it was going to release it any time soon.
“With the, with your arms?” he leaned back in his chair.
She was still staring. Still not blinking. Still hair dabbing.
“The dabbing?” He squeaked out, trying to push himself back into his chair far enough that he wouldn't have to continue this conversation.
The room was still for a moment. Before Entrapta finally blinked and the tension seemed to drop at once along with her hair dab. “Oooohh, you mean this?” she performed a very quick dab, “My research showed that it was a common expression of victory and superiority over adversity among today's youth. I am performing the action correctly, right? I didn't get that wrong?” She pulled up her trackerpad, flicking the screen to bring up a diagram of a person dabbing, with labeled instructions on how to achieve the optimal arm angle.
Glimmer and Frosta, being the two youngest members of the Alliance, simultaneously slammed their heads into the table. Mermista sank down into her seat with a groan, and Adora just looked confused, glancing at Catra who just shrugged.
Bow collected himself. Of all the things that he had expected to do today, this was definitely in the bottom third of what he wanted. He pressed his hands together in front of his face as he paused to breathe and gather his thoughts.
“No, no I- I guess you technically got that correct-”
A squeak and a dab escaped the Princess, causing Bow's eye to twitch as he fought to hold his composure.
“Where,” His voice came out through gritted teeth. He relaxed his jaw and started again, “Where, exactly did you learn about this?”
“Oh, Catra told me.”
If someone listened closely, they could hear a faint, brittle, snapping sound play out from inside of Bow's head. He turned slowly, along with every other member of the room, to look at Catra.
Or they would have.
As it was, they saw an empty chair, and an open door with the faint sound of the magicat's squeaking laughter and claws scraping on stone tiles echoing into the war room.
The side of the room opposite from Bow exploded into movement. Mermista's head slammed into the back of her chair as she burst out laughing, an explosive sigh emanated from Perfuma's twitching face, and Adora shot out of her chair to stop Glimmer and Frosta, who had taken off to chase the cat as she fled. Lost in the noise were Spinerella and Netossa muttering under their breaths about the state of today's youth, though the smirk on Netossa's face subtracted from her sentiment.
Bow turned back to Entrapta, who had cocked her head as she watched what was happening. “Okay,” he said, exhaling his tension away, “That makes sense.”
Entrapta looked back at Bow, her eyebrows knit in confusion, “Did, did I do something wrong?”
Scorpia rested a claw on Entrapta's shoulder in a comforting motion as Bow continued, “No, Entrapta, you haven't done anything wrong. And you're right, dabbing is used like what you said, just it isn't as widespread as Catra probably told you. Really it's a very small percentage of the population that does it, and even then, these days it's done as more of an ironic reference. Kinda like saying to someone, hey, look at this, it's not very important, but I want to conflate it for comedic purposes. It started out as more of a dance move than an actual expression, and it just got popular for a while. So, you haven't been using it incorrectly per say, just that you might be... Overusing it, I guess.” Scorpia nodded alongside him as she patted Entrapta's shoulder more.
“Ooooooooooooooooooh, I get it now. Its status as a cultural expression has evolved over time due to its public usage, until it became a self referencing action meant to mock the current situation. Thank you Bow, I'll have to factor this new data into my algorithms for determining the situational constraints around social bonding and personal expression.”
“I'm glad to help, Entrapta,” Bow looked over his shoulder at the rest of the Alliance. Adora was physically restraining Glimmer and Frosta from chasing Catra down the hall, while Mermista had begun collecting bets on who would get to the magicat first. Smiling to himself, he turned back to Entrapta, “And I'm happy that you're trying to-” Bow's mouth clicked shut as he looked at his friend the technical genius, easily the smartest person in all of Etheria, if not this quadrant of the galaxy.
She was mid-dab.
Catra sauntered into Entrapta's lab several hours later. It had been a while since the last time she was in a good, old-fashioned chase, and the familiar activity had left a spring in her step.
“Hey there Wildcat,” Scorpia said, lounging on Entrapta's couch doodling on her notepad, “Which one found you first?”
Catra dropped onto the couch next to her, “Perfuma, actually, once she collected herself she really got into the hunt. Looks like your girlfriend's learned a thing or two since the war.” Scorpia's obvious joy at the compliment brought a smile to Catra's face, “Mermista has your money, by the way.” The Scorpioni's laughter was infectious, and Catra chuckled alongside her friend.
She looked deeper into the lab, stopping once she found the sparks flying off of a robot in the far corner. “How about you, 'Trapta? You get the data you were looking for?”
Entrapta's head popped up from behind the robot, hair pushing up her welder's mask, “Oh Catra! Yes, I did. Thank you again for helping with this. I know that you were worried at first about pushing Bow a little too far, but looking at the numbers I've started pulling from my recordings, I think it was really worth it.” She dropped back down to continue working on her project, “Once I input it all into my database, I'm sure that my plans to integrate societal awareness into Emily will be a resounding success!”
Catra purred gently at the joy in her friend's voice, “Anytime 'Trapta.”