"So Catra and Hordak get to wage war against the rest of Etheria and destroy my home and now we're all supposed to be buddy buddy," Mermista groaned as she sat with her arms and legs folded on the couch, "But I lose my temper *one* time and suddenly *I'm* the crazy psycho no one wants to be around."

"Now you have to admit," Catra said from their chair, writing down a note, "Conking Catra across the head with a baseball bat in the middle of a field full of spectators did take everyone by surprise."

"Now, dearie," said a falsetto voice attempting a poor imitation of a posh english accent, "I'm sure everyone understands why you needed to give that evil old Catra the old what for, eh what?"

"I'm sorry," Catra addressed the person in a housekeeper's apron wearing a grey wig who was currently tenderly stroking Mermista's hand, "I don't believe we've been introduced."

"Oh, ah yes, how silly of me," the handmaiden previously known as Seahawke replied, "Missus Sah-spee-she-us Arson, the Princess Mermista's new royal handmaiden."

"Yes, Miss Arson," Catra said, trying to smile politely as they wrote down another note, "I don't think that kind of talk is really all that helpful right now."

"Oh, what poppycock," Mrs. Arson scoffed, flapping her hand at Catra, "Is it not true that Catra currently has your poor friend Adora in her clutches and torturing her as we speak?"

"I mean... that's one way to put it, I guess," Mermista said, her head cocked to one side in thought, "I really don't see what Adora sees in her. Why she got back together with her, I'll never know."

"Got back... together?" Mrs. Arson repeated in confusion.

"Oh, yeah, you weren't at the game," Mermista realized, "So you didn't get to see Adora doting over her like she was her stupid mom or something."

"Oh, dear," Mrs. Arson said to herself, stroking her chin in worry, "Oh, dear, oh, dear, oh, dear. I believe someone may have cocked up something very royally somewhere. I should find some way to inform Master Bow at once."

Catra gave Mrs. Arson a quiet look of confusion. Mermista simply sighed and caressed her forehead in shame.

"That is, what I meant to say is..." Mrs. Arson stuttered, "I should make sure the... Master of the Boat... has used the... proper caulking... on our royal schooner. I don't believe the hull has been properly secured against a leak. Yes, that's it..."

"The point is..." Mermista said, quickly changing the subject, "Everyone is so quick to forgive the Horde for everything they've done. You and Scorpia at least switched sides at the end of the war, even if I think it was a little last minute. Hordak is the only one who I've actually heard apologize for everything, and that is like... the absolute bare minimum. What has Catra done for us lately?"

"Some would say that, right now, Catra is the reason any of us are still alive to hate her," Catra said, writing down another note, "She *did* convince Horde Prime not to destroy our world."

"Yeah, and she's the whole reason Horde Prime was here to destroy us in the first place," Mermista argued, "She almost destroyed Etheria herself when she opened that stupid portal."

"Now, I'm not saying it's right or fair," said Catra as they continued writing, "But people tend to view one another's... redeemability... by their moral acceleration rather than their velocity."

"You've... just... completely lost me," Mermista said.

"What I mean to say is," Catra explained, "The other princesses are more willing to appreciate Catra's changes *because* she was such an awful person to begin with and they want to encourage her current course correction. Conversely, they view your recent actions more harshly because they've come to know as such as brave and noble friend, and likewise want to discourage your newfound violent tendencies."

"Violent tendencies?" Mermista repeated angrily, "We were at war! A couple months ago, the Princess Alliance would be cheering me if I did what I did!"

"But we're not at war anymore," Catra said firmly, "At least not with Hordak's Horde. The reason I tried to set up that game in the first place was to try to show that."

"Well, maybe I don't want the war to be over!" Mermista screamed, getting up from the couch to lean over Catra aggressively, "Maybe I want to give these people just a fraction of the hurt they've given me!"

Mrs. Arson recoiled in fear from her princess. Catra simply sighed and wrote one last note on their notepad before putting it away in their saddlebag. They then crossed their legs and fixed their hair.

"Mermista, sit your stupid butt back down, it's storytime," Catra said firmly, a small flash of anger shining in their eyes, "I'm not going to make any excuses for the many bad choices Catra has made in her life, but you really need to understand what kind of person she is, before you decide to do something really dumb. Oops! Too late!"

Catra mimed covering their mouth as if they just said something scandalous. Mermista continued glaring angrily at Catra as she silently sat back down.

"Do you remember what you told me about Hordak? About how war and anger are the only things he's ever known?" Catra asked, meeting Mermista's stare with a furious glance of their own, "What do you think growing up in a place like the Fright Zone does to a kid? What that kid has to do in order to survive in a place like that? Adora had Catra, and managed to make it as a top dog in her own right for Shadow Weaver and Hordak to treat her with some degree of respect. Adora was the only good thing Catra had in her life, until suddenly she didn't."

Mermista rolled her eyes and mimed yawning as she laid back on the couch.

"Now, picture a urchin from the streets of the Valley of the Lost," Catra continued, pushing through Mermista's ignorance, "I didn't have anyone either, and the Crimson Wastes certainly wasn't much of an easier place to grow up than the Fright Zone. I had one special gift and I had to use it constantly to survive. And it's not like there's alot of work in acting and therapy in a place like that. And we certainly didn't have any magical princesses to come and rescue us."

Mermista turned to give Catra another dirty look.

"So I did what I had to do," Catra shrugged, "I had to steal. I had to sell my body. I had to learn to read people very quickly and accurately, or else I was going to be found used, abused and bleeding to death in a gutter and no one in Etheria would have cared. ...And then I found Catra. And she gave me a part to play in an epic the greatest thespians in the universe would have killed to get a shot at. A story of love and loss and friendship and political intrigue, of heroes and villains more awesome and terrifying than the deadliest monsters in the wilderness. I didn't care that we were the 'bad guys' of the story. She gave me a chance because she believed in me. Because she was the *only* one who believed in me. That's who Catra is. She's the kind of person who doesn't care where a person comes from or whether or not they can fight or use magic or turn into Etheria's golden goddess. She finds value in the people no one else would take a second glance at. I wouldn't be here without her, so I can never, ever truly hate her the way you princesses do."

Mermista sighed and held her head down in shame.

"I'm sorry..." Mermista said softly, "I didn't mean it like that. It's just... we've lost so much because of you. No matter what I do, Salineas still hasn't recovered from Hordak's attack. The buildings are coming back, but the people... aren't. There are more former Horde soldiers working the docks than my actual subjects. Everyone else has just gone off to the Whispering Woods to join the resistance. In the end, even Seahawke left me."

"Oh, there, there, my dear," Mrs. Arson replied, tenderly patting Mermista's hand, "Seahawke told you he left to save our lands from the Horde. I'm sure wherever he is, he loves you very much."

"But, apparently, not enough to prevent him from treating me like an idiot!" Mermista growled, wrenching her hand away.

"Why, whatever do you mean?" gasped Mrs. Arson, holding her hand up to her mouth.

"Look, how about you just go and get the ship ready to leave," Mermista said, "I'll be there shortly."

"As you wish, your grace," Mrs. Arson said as she picked up her dress and left out the door.

"I'm sorry for being hard on you," Catra apologized, "But I really needed to hit you with the tough love if I was ever going to get through to you."

"I know," Mermista said, "Thank you."

"So..." Catra began nervously, "That was Seahawke, right?"

"Uggh..." Mermista groaned, "Yeah, that's him."

"So did he transition or are you both into drag play now or what?" Catra asked.

"It's just a stupid bit he's doing," Mermista explained, "He's supposed to be spying on me for the Resistance."

"Oh, so have you talked to him at all about this?" said Catra.

"I'm waiting for him to come clean to me about it," Mermista said, pulling out a small computer tablet from her pocket, "I don't think he's very good at this. Either that or he's trying to get caught on purpose. I mean, he literally sent this to me."

Mermista tapped on the tablet and handed it to Catra. The screen showed a video of Seahawke in his usual clothes wearing Mrs. Arson's wig with a mustache drawn on with marker.

"Greeting from your handsome hero, my love!" Seahawke cried out, before noticing the wig on his head and quickly throwing it offscreen, "Oh, whoops... I'm still working with Bow here in this... dark undersea cavern... which just happens to have the same coral design as your guest bathroom. You may have noticed I've trimmed my cheek tickler. Let me know what you think. In fact, don't be afraid to let me know *anything* you need at all. For you see... I may be closer than you think!"

Catra paused the video just as Seahawke gave a knowing wink to the camera.

"So this is him basically admitting what he's doing, right?" Catra guessed.

"No, no," Mermista ordered, "Keep going."

Catra tapped the play button as Seahawke was startled by a loud banging noise in the background.

"Come on out, already," Mermista said in the recording, "You've been in there for almost an hour."

"Oh, blast..." Seahawke cursed under his breath before switching back to his posh falsetto, "I mean, coming, Dearie! Just finishing up cleaning the sink! Oh, how do you turn this bloody thing off?!"

Seahawke tapped furiously on the camera as, with a cloth in his other hand, he wiped the marker off his face. He soon gave up and ran off stage right.

"Sorry, dearie," Mrs. Arson could be heard saying offscreen, "I just finished making it neat and tidy for you."

"Uggh," Mermista could be heard replying, "Whatever."

Mermista soon appeared onto the screen looking at the mess Seahawke left on the bathroom sink.

"And stay out of my makeup kit!" the Mermista in the tablet shouted to her left, before turning to look directly at the camera, "What in Etheria is this doing here?"

The video stopped by itself on a shot of Mermista's finger touching the camera.

"So, either way, he's a complete and total moron, right?" Mermista shrugged.

~*~

DT's Notes

Mermista, Session 4
-Gee, I wonder what we could possibly talk about today.
-So, Seahawke is back, and he shaved his mustache and is wearing drag. Will question this change later.
-Mermista feels isolated from her friends since the incident, possibly because they have been avoiding her since the incident
-So Seahawke is an enabler
-I'm going to have to try to sell Mermista on Catra's good qualities, if only I could think of any.
-Why is this so hard? Am I losing my touch? I know I liked Catra for *some* reason.
-I'm going to have to do something drastic and quickly or else I'm going to lose Mermista for good. I'm probably going to lose her anyway, so here goes... something.
-Well, things could have certainly gone worse, I guess.