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The display that Graecie was being shown was, frankly, adorable.
Nom and Katie had cleared the common area of all the tables, apparently intent on creating space for something they wanted to do—a human custom, they said, but only grinned mischievously when Scott and Graecie curiously inquired.
They'd briefly made attempts at playing songs from the ship radio, and promptly given up when they realized the song they were trying to play likely was not in the wider galaxy, so of course the duo had resorted to making their own rendition of it.
So now, Nom and Katie were… dancing. For fun.
It was probably incredibly rude, the way the rest of the crew was gawking at them like zoo animals, but Nom and Katie appeared to be having the time of their lives. Graecie was previously unaware that humans did this type of thing for fun.
And, yeah, in hindsight, it sounded really horrible of her to assume that just because of their species, Nom and Katie didn't ever do something that other galaxy-traveling peoples might for fun. Of course they did. Why wouldn't they?
But… Graecie had lived her entire life, and it was a very long life, being told and taught that humans were dangerous; feral apex predators by nature, agile, fast, barely considered sentient at all. It made her want to vomit. Nom and Katie were intelligent, brave, wonderful people. And yet still, somehow, she caught herself thinking of them like animals.
It was hard to think about that when they looked so happy, though.
Katie was grinning wildly as Nom picked her up and spun her around, laughing through the lyrics of some upbeat song just barely within Graecie's scope of English. She was trying to get better, but seriously, there were a ton of words, and different context mattered a lot for most of them.
Context was a nightmare with Nom and Katie involved. She could swear that she knew expletives more than she knew actual words. Apparently, "shut" was a verb or occasional adjective that indicated something to be closed. "Shut up" was a crueler way of saying "close your mouth".
So she was rather confused why they were singing it with such levity.
"Oh, don't you dare look back,
Just keep your eyes on me
I said, 'you're holding back,'
She said, 'shut up and dance with me!'"
Perhaps it was meant to be in a teasing manner? The tone implied some sort of affection, but with the way Katie and Nom were singing, that very well could have just been them. By the time they got to the chorus every time, their actual dancing had become general hopping around energetically.
Without warning, Katie ran to the amassed crowd of fourteen and grabbed Mae by the wrist, dragging her into the fray. Mae's ears went rigid against her skull for a split second, but then her expression shifted to something like elation.
Mae joined into the pseudo-dancing, bouncing around the room like she'd been 'given catnip and coffee', as Nom might say. She also seemed to have picked up some of the lyrics, joining in on a couple and kind of tackling her dance partners for the ones she didn't know.
It spiraled from there. After a little bit of just the three of them dancing, Mae scrambled behind 4C and practically shoved him into the open area, to which Katie's face split into a wide grin and she grabbed him by the hand to spin him, chanting the lyrics the whole way.
Once 4C was in, nobody was safe. He dragged Eloise in the second he was in range, and of course Eloise had to get Bek in on it so they could be dance partners. Owain, perhaps wisely, remained in a corner and tried to go unnoticed amidst the festivities.
Cherri joined in entirely on their own, but not before pushing Apo in and promptly sweeping her off of their feet. Kitty's aloof expression became sly fondness as he, too, joined the dancing group, both paws promptly grasped by an excited Katie, jumping up and down.
"What even is the significance of this practice!?" Scott exclaimed as Nom pulled him in, though he did not protest the action at all. Yeah, Graecie knew exactly what was going on there. Too cute.
"Humans dance just because we can sometimes! It's entertaining and makes us feel good because we're moving!" Nom shouted back, through his laughter. Cam pretended very unconvincingly that he wasn't taking notes.
It was only when Shan and Katie shared a conspiratorial look that Graecie realized the plan.
Before Graecie could protest, Shandrea, her lovely, amazing partner, had roped her into the festivities as well. The woman looked so happy, Graecie couldn't even find the strength to look offended at all.
"Traitors," She grumbled, as Nom, Katie, and Mae cheered.