"I messed up," Scorpia said as she began pacing around the room, "I knew this was going to happen. I messed everything up."

"Scorpia, please sit down," said Double Trouble, scribbling on their notepad, "I can't help you if you don't relax."

"Oh, no, I can't relax," Scorpia said shaking her head, "People are upset about losing their jobs, no one wants to help grow food, our convoys have started dissappearing, I haven't heard any feedback on what to rename the Fright Zone..."

"Scorpia! Sit down!" ordered Double Trouble, "You're giving me a headache trying to follow you."

Scorpia did as she was told and lay back on the couch in front of Double Trouble.

"Now then..." said Double Trouble as they took in a deep breath, "Why don't we start from the begining? What has happened since we last met?"

"Alright..." Scorpia said before taking a minute to think, "It all started with when I made a public announcement of all the changes I wanted to make. I really didn't expect it to go over as badly as it did. People were yelling, throwing stuff, someone lit a fire somewhere. It was total chaos."

"Do you know why people were upset?" Double Trouble asked, writing down a note.

"Well," Scorpia recollected, tapping her chin, "When I suggested we disband our military, someone shouted that I should 'Support the Troops!' I thought that was the perfect moment to segway into my plans for health care and retirement support for our veterans and someone else shouted that I was turning the Fright Zone into a 'Welfare State'. I didn't quite understand if that was a complaint or not, so I told them that yes, the state was going to provide for people's welfare. Then they started shouting something about 'Parasites' who should get a job, so I brought up the new positions I have posted for rebuilding the Fright Zone's agriculture. That seemed to go over pretty neutrally, until someone asked who I expected to fill those positions, and I told them I asked Princess Perfuma to send us some of her people to provide training for anyone who wants to be a farmer. Then they got really angry about Plumerian's 'stealing our jobs'."

"I think I get the picture," Double Trouble sighed in disappointment, writing another note on their notepad.

"I didn't even mention what happened after I told them my plans for Gun Control," Scorpia continued, "Or how they called the food shipments from Plumeria a princess plot to turn us all into something called 'beta soy weaklings'."

"So, the Horde remnants are made up of reactionary, conspiratorial, close minded idiots," Double Trouble translated, writing another note, "I should have probably guessed this would happen."

"Oh..." hissed Scorpia nervously, "I don't really like the idea of calling half of Etheria idiots."

"Half of Etheria?" asked Double Trouble in surprise, "I don't... think... you did the math right there, Princess."

"Well, there's the Horde, and there's the Princess Alliance," Scorpia explained, "That makes two halves, right?"

"Scorpia, the Horde made up a ridiculously small percentage of the population of Etheria," Double Trouble argued, "In the lands that make up your kingdom alone, less than a quarter of residents supported Hordak."

"Huh..." Scorpia said, "But then why were the Princesses so scared of us?"

"You had guns," Double Trouble explained, "Also, Etheria's political systems seem to value plots of empty space over people's actual opinions."

"So you think I should just ignore them?" asked Scorpia.

"Well, not entirely," Double Trouble said, writing again on their notepad, "People like that can do really stupid and dangerous things, so I would keep an eye on them for everyone's safety. But should you dismiss their concerns? Oh my, yes. If I know anything about being a ruler, which admittingly is not alot, it's that you will never please everyone. As Princess, everything you do is going to tick someone off somewhere. At some point you have to be a leader, not a mediator and rule the way you think is right."

"Okay..." Scorpia said, finally begining to relax, "But I'm still concerned about our supply situation. We're starting to run out of food now. People are getting desperate. Crime is starting become a big thing now."

"What's been going on with the food shipments from Plumeria?" Double Trouble asked, continuing to write on their notepad.

"That's just it," Scorpia said, "We haven't been getting them anymore. Raiders have been hitting all our trucks and stealing everything. Here's a report I got from the last convoy."

Scorpia pulled out a sheet of paper from her bag and held it in front of her.

"Our lead truck got stuck in a mudslide today," Scorpia read aloud, "We're in the process of digging it out and clearing a path for our other trucks to go around it. Beverly still hasn't come back from her scouting patrol. Everytime we ask her to report in, she just says, 'I'm on my way.' If she doesn't come back soon, I'm going to have to report her as AWOL."

Scorpia flipped to the next page.

"Next hour," Scorpia continued, "Progress is slow on getting back underway. These trees are impossible to cut through. Beverly still hasn't returned, still reporting she's on her way. I've sent Jameson to go bring her back."

Scorpia cleared her throat and moved on to the next page.

"Next hour: I am really starting to hate these Woods. Jameson complained about seeing a creepy baby thing flying around. Beverly still missing, still reporting she's on her way over the radio."

Scorpia continued reading the next page.

"Next hour: This mudslide was set up deliberately. This whole thing is a trap. I've called both Jameson and Beverly back. Jameson reports he still hasn't found Beverly. Beverly still reporting she's on her way over the radio. We've stopped progress on digging out the lead truck to prepare defensive positions for an upcoming attack."

Scorpia flipped to the last page.

"Next hour: Raiders hit us hard. Looked like a mixed group of former Brightmoon and Horde soldiers. They were led by an archer riding a flying unicorn. We were quickly overwhelmed. Many injured but no fatalities. Took everything from our trucks. Jameson returned with Beverly. She says she was captured shortly after I first called for her to return. Apparently, the raiders had been spoofing her communications somehow. It looks like we'll be returning to the Fright Zone empty handed."

Scorpia finished reading and put the papers back in her bag.

"Well..." Double Trouble said, "That bites."

~*~

DT's notes

Scorpia, Session 3
- Scorpia looks very concerned today, I think something bad has happened
- Scorpia is definitely nettled
- Apparently her new policy changes aren't going over well
- Right, I forgot about the whole bucket of reprehensibles that Hordak gathered to serve him
- Yeah, this is going to be a whole thing now
- Will suggest that Scorpia not take her critics too seriously and take charge of the situation.
- People getting hungry really isn't going to help matters
- And it looks like Bow's resistance movement has gotten started at the most inappropriate time
- I am not even trained to be an actual therapist, much less to advise on how to fight a guerilla army
- You mean a non-binary pansexual thesbian prostitute who grew up poor supports leftist politics, who could have guessed?