ROSE: ...
ROSE: Do you think I haven't tried?
ROSE: Do you suppose that I whiled away every second Sburb was magnanimous enough to spare me, after keeping our party from its ever present doom, in some way other than seeking an answer?
ROSE: That I haven't run through every possible future, even if it meant watching everyone I love die in horrendous, innumerable ways? Or that I didn't know how nothing in those potential timelines could have changed, and yet ran through them all again anyway; and again, just in case I had missed a tiny nugget of hope to sift out of the steaming pile of our failures?
ROSE: Is that what you think of me, Karkat?
KARKAT: NO.
KARKAT: THAT'S NOT IT.
KARKAT: I THINK YOU GAVE UP.
ROSE: Hm.
ROSE: Gave up. I see.
ROSE: Tell me, how many times have you watched The Troll Pride And Prejudice Remake With Troll Will Smith In It?
KARKAT: UH, I DON'T KNOW. WHO CARES?
ROSE: Enough to have memorized the script word for word.
KARKAT: I GUESS SO.
ROSE: When you watch it, do you still hope for a happy ending?
KARKAT: EVERY FUCKING TIME.
ROSE: And do you ever get one?
KARKAT: ...
KARKAT: .......
KARKAT: SO WE CAN'T WIN WITHOUT SOMEONE ON THE OUTSIDE RUNNING AROUND PUTTING BUCKETS WHERE THEY COULD NOT LOGICALLY HAVE GOTTEN THEMSELVES AND OTHERWISE MESSING WITH US AT EMBARRASSING MOMENTS IN OUR JOURNEY.
ROSE: No.
KARKAT: THEN USE ME.
KARKAT: WHEN JOHN GOES BACK TO SAVE HIS OWN UNDESERVING ASS, HE CAN FIND WHATEVER DARK CORNER PAST ME WAS HUDDLED INTO AND PUNT THAT GUY THROUGH THE DOORWAY IN HIS PLACE. IT'S NOT LIKE HE WAS DOING ANYTHING IMPORTANT.
KARKAT: AND THEN EVERYONE LIVES HAPPILY EVER AFTER.
ROSE: Heh.
ROSE: Heheheheheh.
KARKAT: WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING? I'M NOT PLAYING JESTER PIE CATCH HERE, LALONDE.
KARKAT: HOW IS ANYTHING I JUST SAID FUNNY?
ROSE: It's cute.
KARKAT: WHAT?
ROSE: How bad you are at thinking five dimensionally.
ROSE: And that you would imagine I was searching through Paradox Space for any workable path, any possible trade offs I could make... and yet had neglected to account for one very important variable:
ROSE: Exactly who I was willing to lose.
JOHN: no one.
JOHN: the answer to that had better be no one, rose.
JOHN: and karkat, come on, let's go and stand over here, where we are at least several inches out of rose's face.
KARKAT: NO.
JOHN: yesssss, it's easy! left foot, right foot... you've got this, buddy. here we go.
KARKAT: NO, I MEAN. NO I'M NOT OKAY WITH THIS.
JADE: of course not!
JADE: no one is okay with this!!
DAVE: its true
DAVE: the rest of us are trying to have our own meltdowns but you used up our entire stockpile of yelling
DAVE: that was supposed to be for everyone bro not cool
KARKAT: NO.
KARKAT: BUT.
KARKAT: YOU'RE REALLY SURE? JOHN'S REALLY STUCK HERE?
JADE: oh my god karkat!!!! DX
JADE: YES!!!!!!!
JADE: :c
KARKAT: OKAY. IF THAT'S HOW IT IS,
KARKAT: THEN SO AM I.