Chapter Text
Harald’s feet sunk into the snow covered grounds of Rend. He couldn’t recall how long it’d been- hours? Days? Possibly weeks? The thick fog and frigid winds made it near impossible to see, the only light given to him being the poles and iron line that lead him to the facility. Time and time again, he lied to himself about how it couldn’t be much longer until someone would find him. He’d be saved, brought into the warmth of a ship, his stomach filled with some sort of food, and brought back to his crew. Though he wanted to give them an earful of how they should’ve confirmed everyone was there, he just wanted to see something other than a monster. He didn’t care if it meant grueling hours of work, little rations in everyone’s mouth, or dealing with the arguing that never seemed to cease. All he wanted now?
To see humanity once more.
With how sluggish he’d begun to move, he knew he had to rest. With the sound of booming footsteps from the forest giants and subtle growls of eyeless dogs nearby; there was little chance Harald could make it to the facility. With the log cabin just within line of sight of the lights, he trudged his way inside and pulled the door shut behind him. Only when he knew he was in a safe area, Harald pressed his back against a nearby corner with items he and his crew collected and slid down to the floor.
“Hell…” Harald mumbled out to himself, closing his eyes and trying to catch his breath. Though it’d only been a small walk- from the log cabin to where most ships landed -it drained him. All he was able to eat was a tube of toothpaste he was lucky enough to find. Or, at the very least, “lucky” in his own words. His eyes wandered down to the items he’d collected, each of them a reminder of them. A rubber duck, the now emptied toothpaste tube, a cheap smelling perfume, and… it.
A mask. A grotesque, theater mask, with its mouth turned down into a permanent frown. Crying out to him. Taunting him.
Harald considered, time and time again, about using the shovel he carried to smash it to pieces. But he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Each item only reminded him of his crew, those he spent his time with and learned to hate and love at the same time. Yet staring at that mask- the cheerful, laughing face, taunted him.
How the hell did I wind up in this? He closed his eyes, leaning his head back against the wall. How the hell did I let this happen? With his head spinning and stomach growling from desperate hunger, Harald began to try and sleep his hunger off.
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“God, this is such a creepy mask,” Lilith looked down at the frowning mask in her hands as she walked down the hallway. While distracted by it, she bumped straight into Harald and stumbled back.
“Careful, Lilith-”
“Harald, put this on.” Lilith interrupted Harald’s cautious warning and tried to shove the mask in his face. However, he was quick to move and knocked the mask out of her face. Rolling her eyes, she picked it back up and crossed her arms. “Come on, can’t you just be a BIT fun for once?”
“Lilith, this isn’t a joke. We’re already neck deep with how high our quota is.” Harald scolded her. Though he wasn’t one to jump easily, the frowning mask made his skin crawl. Something was off about it, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on why. “Not to mention, it’s not my fault because one of us decided to land on March while there was an eclipse on that moon.”
Lilith groaned rather audibly, bringing over their other two crewmates from around the corner. One was a bit shorter compared to the rest and held a flashlight in his hand. The other, much taller compared to him and the others, held a shovel in their hand. Lilith, seeing her opportunity, walked over to the shorter one. “Sirus, come over here. I want to see you try it on.”
Sirus immediately shone his flashlight in Lilith’s eyes as soon as she got too close, resulting in her dropping the mask. Before she could make her move, he snatched the mask from the ground and tucked it under her arm. “Lil’, you know that Harald is right on this. We need to gather more of this scrap before we head back. This is our last day before we go back to the company.”
Lilith opened her mouth, ready to argue against Harald being so rough about all of this. However, the employee with the shovel in hand approached her and put their hand on her arm. The two shared a glance before Lilith clicked her tongue and rolled her eyes. “Fine.” Rather than allow Harald get another word in, she turned on her heels and stormed off from the three of them.
Harald sighed, instinctively reaching up to rub his face only to have his hand meet the glass of his helmet. “Dammit,” He muttered to himself before looking at the two that were left after Lilith stormed off. Instinctively, Sirus looked away from him to pretend he didn’t see Harald make his mistake. As for the other, they just shook their head. Harald grunted in frustration, “Cy. You go follow Lilith. Sirus, go back to the ship with what scrap we do have. I don’t need more to deal with going wrong today.”
Rather than argue or give any reaction back to Harald, Cy just shook their head at him before walking off to go find Lilith. Sirus sighed out, instinctively wanting to do the same that Cy had to Lilith. However, when he reached Harald’s side, his hand curled back towards himself. He knew better than to bother Harald at the moment, he was too far frustrated and trying to get to him now was a bad idea.
As Sirus left, Harald was left standing there, his boiling anger fading down slowly to nothing but a simmer. He’d tried, again and again to keep the crew on the right track. But they’d continue to butt heads against him, wearing him further and further down. He was promised respect when he ranked up in the company, but was only being dragged back into his own anger.
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Harald snapped back awake as a loud footstep from one of the forest giants stomped right next to the log house. It groaned as it reached down and picked up an eyeless dog despite its barks of protest, though they were short lived. All he could do was squeeze his eyes shut as the snaps of bones cut off the dog’s fitful barks. Though Harald hated the idea of eating such monsters on this planet to survive, he’d done the same. He hated the idea of it, especially admitting it, but he’d done the same.
After all… He couldn’t survive on toothpaste alone.
The very thought of food made his stomach growl desperately again. His hunger shot a wave of pain through his body, his head falling past his shoulders and his vision blurred. Once it cleared back up, there sat the items in front of him again. Harald couldn’t recall the last time he looked at them this closely. Instead of the normally clean items he could remember gathering, they were all… different.
The rubber duck was dirtied up, bitemarks torn into it from the eyeless dogs. The emptied tube of toothpaste was crumpled, showing his desperation for food besides monster flesh. But the mask… That damned, damned mask…
It was smiling at him.
It wasn’t frowning, it wasn’t sad and crying as if in pain- but smiling. Cheerful. Happy. Laughing.
Taunting him.
And Harald hated it.
Reaching over to the wall on his left, Harald grabbed the shovel he stored and raised it above his head. He smashed the rubber duck first, metal shrapnel flying off as soon as it hit the floor. Next, the tube of toothpaste with even more shrapnel flew off. And with the next swing, he hit the perfume bottle and smashed it to shards along with the remainder of the metal spade of the shovel. Holding nothing but the wooden handle. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he stared down at the mask, remaining untouched and unbroken.
This… All of this had to be some sort of joke, right? Some practical joke on him that was being played. His crew must’ve been hiding somewhere on the planet after all. They replaced the mask with this- this smiling one. That’s it. That’s what happened after all. He dropped the wooden handle left by the now broken shovel and picked up the mask. Tears still beaded up in his eyes and rolled down his cheeks. This was it. This is what they wanted, right? For him to learn how to be more fun. As he stared at the mask, the voices of his old crew rung out in his head.
“Do it.”
Who was it? Lilith? Cy? Sirus? Harald couldn’t tell but he didn’t care. This is what they wanted. They wanted to joke around, teach him how to have fun rather than be so hard on everyone all the time. A little joke, a prank, something to teach him. Harald knew it and knew what he had to do.
“Do it.”
Harald’s body moved on its own as he picked up the mask, his arms shaking. He stared down at the mask, the discordant thoughts never leaving his head. All of their voices played over one another, making it extremely hard to hear exactly which one of them was actually talking. But the command was as loud as ever, making it impossible to not hear. This is what they wanted. This is what he had to do. He had to do this if he wanted to see his team again. His mouth moved as he practiced his apologies. He promised to himself that he would be better. He wouldn’t be so rude or crass, he’d learn how to have fun, be nice to Lilith and-
“Do it.”
Before Harald knew it. The mask sat over his helmet’s glass. His breath was ragged as the voices finally ended. This was it. He was having fun. This was what they wanted. Though their voices were gone, he knew finally he’d done what they wanted. Finally, he’d broken apart from being so rude and hard on all of them and shown he could have fun. With wide eyes, the glass of his helmet chipped and cracked away as the mask’s mouth grinned impossibly wider and the eyes glowed a blindingly bright red. Harald knew finally, he wasn’t going to be in pain anymore. He was going to be freed. He was going to see his crew once again. With his voice missing, he was barely able to squeak out one last sentence as the final cracks of the helmet’s glass shattered.
“I did it.”