Work Text:
The first thing she noticed was how weird this was for a dressing room. No, not weird. She needed to stop calling unfamiliar things weird. No, it was just...bright. Colorful. Open to the sky. It hurt her eyes. See, the dressing rooms they had back in Volcano Rock City were dark, consisting of varying shades of blue and were kept at a dim light. Some of them had a bit of a musty smell, but like, whatever. What a stark difference.
Barb walked over to the clothing racks. How many plays did they put on? There was so much variety. Yeah, rock trolls had variety, but somehow pop trolls’ variety had variety. She really didn’t wanna go into the descriptions, so she wasn’t going to. No, she needed to find a dress shirt. Blech. A dress shirt. She was cool with wearing tuxes. Dressing nicely was fine when she could be herself and not playing as some nerdy loser.
She snorted. Why did she agree to this again? Poppy. Right. Poppy.
Where was a stupid dress shirt? Did they have anything that—oh. Oh the clothes she needed were on the vanity. Cool. Alright. Rock on.
Barb picked up the shirt by the shoulder seams, sniffing it. It smelt dusty. She stuck out her tongue. Okay. It’s just a shirt. Just take off your top and put this on. She sniffed it again. Has this ever been washed? Do pop trolls do their laundry? She sure hoped they did.
She pulled her top off, leaving it in a bundle on the vanity. Then, she put on the shirt. It slid on easy enough. Mostly because it was a little big on her. She’d probably have to ask, uh. What were their names again? One of them began with an ‘S’. Whatever. She’d probably have to ask those twins if they could adjust it for her. Wasn’t her fault she was a bit small.
The size wasn’t what really bothered her, though. No, it was the fact that she had to button it. It was almost suffocating; the fabric pressed against her neck uncomfortably. She already missed having her tank top on.
The next thing she took off the vanity were the pants.
“These are so bland,” she huffed. “Who’d wear this willingly?” Barb stepped into the pants, pulling them up. Great. The waist was tight. “Seriously?!” At least she wasn’t new to these types of situations. It...was admittedly a pretty common issue. With an aggravated sigh, she grabbed ahold of the hem and started jumping, pulling up with each jump. On the last jump, she got it! But she lost her balance and fell on her face in the process. Ow.
She blew a strand of hair out of her face.
The things she did for Poppy.
Barb got up and looked in the mirror. To think she had to wear a belt with these. At least that went on easy. Wait. Wasn’t she supposed to tuck the shirt in? She didn’t want to tuck the shirt in. She was going to have to tuck the shirt in. She tucked the shirt in.
Man. She was so glad that there weren’t any other rock trolls around. No. Wait. There were gonna be rock trolls at the show.
Barb hit her head against the mirror. Not hard enough to do any damage to it, but enough to skip through whatever stages of embarrassment she was about to go through. Once she hit acceptance, she pulled back. Hunched over, she began to bare her teeth at the mirror. Grrr. She stuck out her tongue. Blehhh. Nope. She still looked like a total geek.
“BARB!” She nearly jumped, her shoulders tensing as she whipped around. It was Poppy, poking her head through the door. “How’s getting changed goiiiiiiiiii—ohhhh my god you look SO—”
“Don’t you dare say ‘weird’, Popsqueak.”
“—handsome!” She threw her hands into the air with a big grin. Barb felt a fang sink into her lip before turning back towards the mirror. She could still see Poppy.
“Very funny. Me. Handsome. In these. Nerd clothes.” She said it with as much contempt as possible. “This really isn’t a good look for me.” Poppy gave her a sympathetic grin before walking over. “I mean, c’mon, me? The Queen of Rock? In nerd clothes?!”
“Oh c’moooon Barb!” Poppy started adjusting the collar of her shirt. “You’re totally rockin’ the nerd clothes!” Barb stuck her teeth out. “I’m serious! Look, it’ll all be worth it, I promise.”
“You make a lot of promises.”
“But do I break them?” Barb rolled her eyes. “Hmmmm?” Poppy waggled her eyebrows. “Hmmmm?”
“You don’t, but—”
“No buts!” She pressed on the buttons of her shirt. “Besides, you have some room for customization.” Poppy stuck out her tongue, unbuttoning the top two buttons. “How’s that?” Barb folded her ears, annoyed. Annoyed and blushing very slightly. “Oh! Oh oh oh oh wait!” Poppy ran over to the vanity, picked up the pair of glasses, and ran back over to her. “Here.” She slid them over her face. Barb, who was not expecting to have someone put a pair of glasses on her, flinched back, scrunching up her face at the feeling of the temples rubbing against her head. “Hold still!”
“AGH.” Poppy pulled her hands back. Then, slowly, she reached forward and fixed the glasses. Barb twitched her nose. What a weird feeling this was.
Poppy’s pupils dilated as she pressed her hands to her cheeks, making a high pitched sound.
“OHHHHHHH you’re so cute!” Barb’s ear flicked as she stuck her teeth out again. “This is a really good look for you!” She really hoped that her blush wasn’t visible.
“I guess if you think it looks fine…” she grumbled, crossing her arms and looking away.
“What was that?”
“I said ‘grumble grumble grumble, complain complain complain’, duh. What, need to get your ears checked?” Barb shot her a playful grin. Now it was Poppy’s turn to roll her eyes.
“Nerd.”