Chapter 15: Caught Green-Handed/Supports

* **Chase**: Writing a story.

* **Knifez**: Oh, neat. What's it about?

* **Chase**: Us.

* **Knifez**: Um...?

* **Chase**: Us the Shepherds. All of us. I'm putting us all in a fantasy world and writing how we would all react to that.

* **Knifez**: I see... I don't know, I feel like there will be plenty of stories about us once we save the world and everything. Wouldn't those be enough?

* **Chase**: Well yeah, there will be, but we'll know all those stories already. This is an original one created from my own imagination.

* **Knifez**: I see. I still don't think it will be necessary, but I'm not gonna stop you. You do you.

* **Chase**: You're gonna love it, I swear!

* **Knifez**: I'll hold you to that.

* **Chase**: Hm...now, is making the manakete in charge of the police really a good idea? I don't see why not...

## Bohl and Jayde

### C Support

* **Jayde**: Damn it Bohl.

* **Bohl**: Oh? Why is the rabbit damning at Bohl? Has he done something wrong?

* **Jayde**: Yeah, you sure have.

* **Bohl**: Apologies, Jayde.

* **Jayde**: You…aren't going to ask what you did wrong?

* **Bohl**: No?

* **Jayde**: Why are you so weird?

* **Bohl**: Weird is what is wrong?

* **Jayde**: No!

* **Bohl**: Then what is wrong?

* **Jayde**: I am going to throttle you. Hard. With my fist.

* **Bohl**: Bohl has read books on such behavior!

* **Jayde**: Yeah, I'm sure you have. It's kind of what people do when they don't like other people.

* **Bohl**: You speak of fisting?

* **Jayde**: …welp, that wasn't what I thought you were talking about. Damn it Bohl. Again.

* **Bohl**: What is the damning for this occasion?

* **Jayde**: For nothing! Just like the first time was for you leaving one of your stupid tomes laying around and I totally sliced my hand on a page! You're weird and you disgust me!

* **Bohl**: Oh, okay, to be going now, Jayde?

* **Jayde**: Yes. Yes I'm going now. Don't be weird around me again.

## Anna and Julius

### C Support

* **Anna**: Hey!

* **Julius**: Hi?

* **Anna**: New rule.

* **Julius**: What? New rule?

* **Anna**: Effective right now, you're my adoptive nephew.

* **Julius**: Excuse me?

* **Anna**: You heard me right. No ifs ands or buts. You are to refer to me as auntie Anna from now on, okay?

* **Julius**: Uh, no. No thanks. Fuck that.

* **Anna**: Why not? It'll be fun!

* **Julius**: Anna, I'm a full grown man and I don't need to be adopted...as a nephew? By someone who seems to be younger than me.

* **Anna**: Psh, you don't know how old I am.

* **Julius**: I don't care. I'm not your nephew.

* **Anna**: Aw, come on! Please?

* **Julius**: I don't understand why you're insisting on this so much.

* **Anna**: Because it'll be fun! Kayla can be your aunt too. Or maybe she can be your mom or something.

* **Julius**: Okay, I *know* Kayla's younger than me. So no, not gonna happen.

* **Anna**: Damn...

## Florence and Julius

### C Support

* **Florence**: Whatcha doin' bud?

* **Julius**: Dancing. What else?

* **Florence**: Fun! Can I watch?

* **Julius**: Well, I'm trying out a new dance, and I don't really like showing people my dances until they're perfected, so not really.

* **Florence**: Aw man, that's a shame. ...Can I dance too?

* **Julius**: What? I didn't peg you for a dancing girl.

* **Florence**: I'm...not. Being royalty, you're expected to dance, but I always abstained. But it can't be that hard, right?

* **Julius**: You'd be surprised.

* **Florence**: Alright then, here's the plan. You and I come up with a dance together. We perform in front of everyone, and everyone loves it! Sound like a plan?

* **Julius**: I guess.

* **Florence**: Now let's dance!!

...

* **Florence**: What the fuck.

* **Julius**: Not as easy as you thought it'd be, huh?

* **Florence**: I have grace and shit in battle, so why can't I dance?

* **Julius**: You can't expect to be good at something the first time you do it, yo. Give it some practice. I'd be down to see what kind of routine you could come up with, but get good first, okay?

* **Florence**: Damn it. Okay. I can try.

## Danica and Justice

### C Support

* **Justice**: Oh look, it's Danica.

* **Danica**: What's wrong with me?

* **Justice**: You are a liar and a thief. As Justice, I must uphold my namesake by not allowing you to steal anything. So what have you been pilfering today?

* **Danica**: Hey, whoa. I haven't even started today. And I'll have you know that I—

* **Justice**: Good. Keep it that way. I'm keeping an eye on you, thief.

* **Danica**: Hey, I promoted. I'm a Trickster now, okay?

* **Justice**: Sure you are. Old habits also die hard.

* **Danica**: Hey, Justice. Give me a fucking break. I haven't stolen anything today. And I wouldn't steal anything from the Shepherds except as a joke.

* **Justice**: Hmmm... Okay, if you insist.

* **Danica**: Trust me, dude. I don't need you on my ass today.

* **Justice**: Okay, but you bet your ass I'll be keeping a very close eye on you.

* **Danica**: Oh, I believe you. Just keep your eyes away from my ass, okay?

* **Justice**: Gladly.

* **Danica**: Pft. What a sucker. I sure hope he doesn't mind that he's missing a few bucks.

## Janice and Justice

### C Support

* **Janice**: Yo, Justice. Got a minute to help me out?

* **Justice**: Between counting split ends that I need to trim and worrying about if my dad will think I'm weird for doing that? I think I've got the time.

* **Janice**: Cool. So, I might have done some searching for something.

* **Justice**: Is it a new bandana? I've told you, the one you've got doesn't compliment your haircut at all.

* **Janice**: It's not a new bandana. It's better.

* **Justice**: This is…some berry juice?

* **Janice**: Apparently it works as a great hair dye.

* **Justice**: Oh no. No no no. I can't.

* **Janice**: But you can.

* **Justice**: I've told you, I can't dye your hair. It's so pretty!

* **Janice**: No, you've told me you won't dye my hair because nothing works.

* **Justice**: That's just specifics.

* **Janice**: But you've gotta do this for me, my dearest cousin.

* **Justice**: And if I don't?

* **Janice**: Then I tell your dad some embarrassing secrets about you.

* **Justice**: …Deal. Give me the berry juice. We're working a hair miracle!

## Joanne and Rachel

### B Support

* **Joanne**: EEEK!

* **Rachel**: Not falling for it this time.

* **Joanne**: Somebody help! I've been attacked!

* **Rachel**: ...That sounds bad. Joanne, wait up!

* **Joanne**: Oh Rachel, thank the gods you're here.

* **Rachel**: What happened?

* **Joanne**: This bandit snuck into camp and got the drop on me. He got my back real bad. I managed to strike back, but the damage was already done. It hurts really bad.

* **Rachel**: Oh gods. Alright, I'll fix you up.

…

* **Joanne**: Thanks again for the fix, Rachel.

* **Rachel**: no problem. You're lucky I came to help you. I almost didn't believe there was trouble, considering your red herring last time.

* **Joanne**: Oh, that...I'm so sorry about that. Are you still angry at me about it?

* **Rachel**: A little bit.

* **Joanne**: I promise to never do it again. Swear on my life.

* **Rachel**: I believe you.

* **Joanne**: Whew. I can't believe I almost died because of my own foolishness. I need to reevaluate how I do things.

* **Rachel**: It's probably not that big of a deal.

* **Joanne**: No, if you think it's a big deal, it is. I promise to do better by you in the future!

* **Rachel**: Er, alright...

## Augustus and Grace

### B Support

* **Augustus**: Mom, I think I need to talk to you.

* **Grace**: Why do you think that?

* **Augustus**: I've, well, seen you spying on me.

* **Grace**: Me? Spying on you? That's funny.

* **Augustus**: You made it really obvious when you started cheering for me when I was talking to a village girl.

* **Grace**: She looked interested.

* **Augustus**: Mom. No.

* **Grace**: Okay, I'll stop watching you do stuff. Sorry for trying to be a cool mom.

* **Augustus**: No one ever said you weren't a cool mom.

* **Grace**: Yeah, but…

* **Augustus**: And besides, I know why you're watching me. It's got nothing to do with ladies or you being a cool mom.

* **Grace**: Y-you do?

* **Augustus**: Oh yeah. You've made it totally clear.

* **Grace**: ……

* **Augustus**: I'm not going to do it when I know you're watching.

* **Grace**: What?

* **Augustus**: You want me to crack into some of those jokes I've been raised to tell. And you'll just have to wait for them like everyone else.

* **Grace**: But that's…you know what? No. That's right. I'll be patient.

* **Augustus**: Great! That went better than I expected! You're a great mom, you know that? Just don't spy on me for my jokes!

* **Grace**: (I'm spying to see you try and use magic, you silly boy.)

* **Augustus**: Huh?

* **Grace**: Nothing, nothing!

## Florence and Janice

### A Support

* **Florence**: ...Janice? Sweetie?

* **Janice**: What?

* **Florence**: Let's settle this like grown-ass adults, okay? No flying away on your wyvern, no storming out. Let's just talk this out.

* **Janice**: Oh no.

* **Florence**: I want to know why you dreaded meeting me again and what I did...or will do wrong to make my own daughter hate me.

* **Janice**: \*sigh\* Well... I just. Hate what I've been born into. I never asked to be royalty and I'd really rather not be the next in line to be Exalt. All my life, I've been told to behave exactly a certain way, never speak out of line, wear your hair with pride, and if I took even a step out of line, you'd punish me by taking away meals or locking me away from my friends.

* **Florence**: Oh dear...

* **Janice**: I'm not a very good princess and my mother...you...didn't like that.

* **Florence**: I see. It sounds like future me will get drunk on her power over you.

* **Janice**: Future you? Will? More like you just did. You immediately started telling me what to do again. It was just like old times. It made me wish I never came back in the first place!

* **Florence**: I see...

* **Janice**: But I did it. I came back. I decided it would be worth coming back if I could teach this version of you to not be like that. That way, this version of me won't have to suffer the same fate. But I see now that it's hopeless!

* **Florence**: Well so much for settling it like adults. You're throwing a tantrum.

* **Janice**: Just...stop. Stop.

* **Florence**: Janice, look. I'm sorry. I...I don't know how to handle this parenting thing, okay? Do you know how hard it is to one day suddenly be the parent of a moody teenager? Excuse me if I'm not adjusting very well! Let's just both admit that we have some work to do with this relationship and not push the blame to one person, okay?

* **Janice**: I guess I could try. If you try. Because I'm not gonna be the one changing for you. The bandana—and especially the wyvern—stay.

* **Florence**: Fair enough. I'll try my best. And in the future, just tell me if you have a problem with me and I'll try to solve it.

* **Janice**: That sounds...nice. Thanks, mom.

* **Florence**: Anything for my daughter.

## Jimmy and Taylor

### A Support

* **Taylor**: Jimmy, look! Look!

* **Jimmy**: Whoa! You're doing it!

* **Taylor**: I'm riding, I've been riding for a good ten minutes and I haven't fallen off yet! This is awesome!

* **Jimmy**: You're doing great! Keep going!

* **Taylor**: Wow!

* **Jimmy**: Taylor, I'm so proud of you!

* **Taylor**: I guess all it took was some positive reinforcement.

* **Jimmy**: It might have been more than that, because I'm sure you've gotten positive reinforcement before.

* **Taylor**: Eh, not really...

* **Jimmy**: But I thought your parents tried to teach you to ride?

* **Taylor**: They did. They didn't try very hard is the thing.

* **Jimmy**: What, really?

* **Taylor**: They just got me Applejack to shut me up, mostly. They didn't have the patience or the know-how to teach me, so it resulted in a lot of telling me to shut up and try harder.

* **Jimmy**: That's not good at all.

* **Taylor**: Finally, they hired a cheap teacher, but she didn't like teaching me, so that didn't last very long.

* **Jimmy**: I'm so sorry to hear that.

* **Taylor**: It's alright... Thanks so much for teaching me, though!

* **Jimmy**: Hey, it's no problem at all. I taught you to do something you love, and knowing I did that well pleases me enough.

* **Taylor**: This is so great. I'm gonna go get promoted as soon as possible to a horse-back unit!

* **Jimmy**: Best of luck!

* **Taylor**: Thanks!