897 Days, 03:34 Hours

His eye twitched. The fingers that curled around the piece tightened further down on it, and when he placed it, it went too hard and it snapped out a piece beside it. Karkat grabbed it, throwing it back up on the planet where it had fallen. His legs sat across two stairs, with a gap on either side.

The conditions were bad enough as it was, without this damn thing in his mind.

"That's not where the piece goes, bro."

He didn't give a response. He never responded. The voice, while close, was sure as hell not what Gamzee sounded like. It was infuriating beyond measure, and the troll didn't know how much longer he was going to last.

The floaters were still around, too. Kanaya had been hovering around John lately, but he was a bit further up and around the other side of the planet right then. So, that was only one person bugging him right then. John could suffer. Fuck, Karkat was just so fed up by all this random bulge spewed nonsense that had started.

Floating around, being annoying, was one thing. But these fake voices in their heads was just insulting. It wasn't even really their friends. That wasn't how Gamzee talked, and it wasn't what he sounded like. This game just decided to push the envelope even further to drive them crazy, to make them stop.

So he did his best to work ignoring it. But every time he heard that fake, spoor slime filled voice, it made him cringe. It wasn't Gamzee, and it was so damn insulting to him, and worst of all the more he hated it, the more that meant the game was beating him. Karkat didn't want to lose. Not when they were getting so far.

Another piece slammed down from his hands. 'Gamzee' gave a laugh, and Karkat kept working, examining each block of the land before placing down another part of this place. Some country he hadn't bothered to remember the name of from last time. It didn't matter, anyway. When this was done, they probably weren't even going to be together anymore. And if they were, why the hell would he even need to know geography?

"Bro, pay attention."

Damnit, no, he was not listening to this voice. He was working. That was all he was going to do, and that was the end of the story. Karkat kept his thoughts straight. Focused. He grinded sharp teeth against each other, the noise helping to block a bit of the noise. But 'Gamzee' rambled on, and on, and on.

He reached by his feet. But there was nothing there. Confused, he glanced down, but he had placed all the pieces he had brought up with him. Well, it meant he was working faster than he had originally thought. With a shuffle, he got to his feet. A step back.

His feet left the ground for a moment.

"Watch your footing."

That made him stumble forward a bit. The gap wasn't large, and there was time to recover before the next one. He spun to glare over his shoulder before he remembered that there was nothing there to glare at. It was all in his own head.

"Karkat?"

Well, at least it was a real person this time. "What?"

"Are you going down?"

"Yeah."

"Grab me a few more pieces, kay? I'll meet you where you're working to take them."

Lazy ass. Whatever. He could carry a few more than his back up the stairs, he guessed. The stairs were annoying enough, might as well only be one of them going down. As he spiraled down, he could occasionally here a faint humming. If John was back to doing that, Karkat would smack him. With the sickle. End of story.

Their piles were close to the base, so that they wouldn't have to travel so far to get them. Planning ahead. He scooped a few from his own pile, and then a few from John's as well. Little sharp edges dug into his flesh, but it wasn't unbearable at least. He glanced back at the staircase. There were just...so many.

Whatever. Better than nothing. Better than being trapped here forever.

"Time to go back up, huh? What a motherfu-"

"Shut up! For the sake of my gogdamn thinkpan not melting into a blubbering piss stain, shut up and get out of my head!"

Karkat breathed heavily, his nostrils flaring. He could feel the anger burn hot in his veins. There was no response for a minute. He waited another.

Dead silence.

He took a step up, and then another. It might have been an overreaction, maybe, but it had worked. So it didn't really matter. The steps rung out as he slammed his feet upwards. He stepped a bit lighter when the creaking got a bit too loud. They couldn't lose more steps. It would end even worse than his mind going, most likely.

John was, in fact, waiting by the spot Karkat worked at when he finally got back up the stairs. Kanaya hung around his neck, slender white, seethrough arms draping. John looked uncomfortable, to say the least. He scratched the side of his head with long fingers. Karkat offered him the pieces. He collected them in a fist.

"You holding out okay?" John asked. Karkat glared.

"Peachy. The image of health."

"I hate the voices too. They're invasive."

Invasive would have been like, third on Karkat's description list, after 'the worst fucking possible thing living in his brain outside cancer' and 'nook scented horror'. But he guessed John was right in that sense.

"Get back to-"

"Work. Got it, red leader."

John turned. Karkat sat himself down. He placed a piece.

"We're back here, huh motherfucker?"

Karkat bit his lip hard enough to draw blood. He was never going to escape.