Homestuck Rocks! Chapter 5

[video game noises]

Roxy: Status update: "Okie-dokie-lokie."

[smartphone camera snaps]

[video game noises continue]

Nepeta: [slams console]

Jade: Hey! I was about to beat you!

Nepeta: I doubt it. So, Rose, how is that counter-spell comin'?

Rose: Huh? Oh, uh, good. Great. Thanks for letting me use your notebook, Jane. I really like the song you wrote for the Rainbooms.

Jane: Thanks. [sighs] Hopefully one day, we'll get a chance to play it.

Nepeta: [laughing]

Kanaya: Rose, I think I speak for all of us when I say I don't know what we would have done if you hadn't come back to help us.

Rest of main cast: Uh-huh.

[doorbell rings]

Roxy: Pizza's here!

[zip!]

Rose: [sighs]

Roxy: Don't you want any pizza?

--------

[drawer opens]

[drawer closes]

Rest of main cast: [snoring]

[drawer opens]

Rose: [spits] No. That's not gonna work.

Eridan: Hey, Rose. You're up late.

Rose: Just looking over the counter-spell. We only get one shot at this. It has to be perfect.

Eridan: We really are lucky you're here.

Rose: That's what everyone keeps telling me.

Eridan: Who could possibly need this much whipped cream? Must be nice to have everyone always looking to you for answers to their problems... instead of waiting for you to cause a problem.

Rose: Just because everyone expects something from you doesn't mean it's guaranteed to happen.

Eridan: Well, that doesn't stop them from expecting it.

Rose: Which only makes things harder because the last thing you want to do is...

Rose and Eridan: ...let everybody down.

Eridan: Waaah!

Sollux: I was hungry.

Eridan: I still can't get over the fact that Roxy’s rented a room out to him….

Rose: You and me both!

Eridan: he’s almost as bad as my brother Cronus….. [yawns] I better get some sleep. Good luck with the counter-spell. Not that you'll need it. This must be nothing compared with the stuff you're expected to deal with as a princess in Alternia.

Rose: Eridan? ...Never mind. It's not important. No, I have to be able to do this. I have to.

----

[Rose]
[singing slightly off-key]
Hey, hey, listen
[feedback]
We've got a message for you
We're not all alike
But our friendship is true
Yeah, we're really different
But we still get along
So hey, hey, listen to our song
You may think you're in control
But we're here to prove you wrong
And the friendship in our music
With the power of our song
Gonna stomp our feet, clap our hands
With the magic of friendship
Gonna stop your evil plans

Dave: Eh, that sounded... way better than the last... five times you've played it. Heh heh.

Sollux: Nope.

Nepeta: I think it's purrtty obvious what's going wrong with this counter-spell.

Jade: You're turning what should be the chorus into a five-minute guitar solo?

Nepeta: I have to pick up the slack somehow! Are you purrls even trying?!

Jane: I'm trying.

Rose: It's fine. [nervous laugh] It'll be fine. One more time from the top!

Kanaya: Or, perhaps we could take a short break, try on some of the wardrobe choices I've put together? I'm particularly fond of this one. Eh, of course we could always go with something a bit more modern.

Jade: We're trying to save our school here. Enough with the costumes!

Kanaya: [robotic voice] Oh, you could never have enough costumes!

Roxy: She just wants to make things fun! Isn't that what being in a band supposed to be?

[plays rimshot angrily]

Eridan: You don't have time for any of this! You're supposed to check in at the Battle of the Bands in fifteen minutes!

Main cast: [gasps] Oh, no!

Rose: What? But it's not ready! If we play our counter-spell in the first round and it doesn't work, the sirens will know what we're up to and make sure we don't get a chance to play it again!

[screeeeeech!]

Jade: Then we'll have to buy ourselves some time so you can keep working on it!

Kanaya: But how do you propose we do that?

Nepeta: We compete in the Battle of the Bands fur real! I take over lead vocals again and we stay alive until the finals! We unleash the counter-spell then! [to Rose] You'll have figured it out by finals, right?

Dave: Of course she will. Rose Lalonde has never met a problem she couldn't solve. Right, Rose?

Rose: [not so confidently] Right.

Nepeta: Then let's go win us a Battle of the Bands!