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(TATB) Ch 1: Stained Mask, Tale Of The One Hundred Year War!
🕑 Added 2024-10-29 02:20:25 +0000 UTC(First Character Introduction)
(VICTOR)
Every time I close my eyes, the same images haunt me, repeating over and over again, like a twisted loop I can't escape.
I see shadows of wailing faces, contorted in pain and fear, their screams piercing the silence. Towering above them, a mountain of decaying corpses stretches into the clouds. The flesh, maimed and blood-soaked, forms a grotesque monument that casts shadows over miles of Lilliputian lands.
The stench is so vile that it sickens the earth, killing crops and poisoning the water.
I force myself to look up, past the rotting mounds of flesh and bone, and I see him. His back is turned to me. In his right hand, he holds a blood-covered mask, its shape and color shifting with every passing moment.
My brow arches involuntarily, and a twisted smile begins to form on my face, twitching with each second as if the muscles in my cheeks are spasming. The man lifts the mask to his face and, as he turns toward me, I see it —a mask of white with two eyeholes shining brightly.
I wake up in a sweat, breathing hard, my muscles twitching uncontrollably.
"That dream again," I whisper, stroking my forehead.
I smile as I look down at my hands, but it's a hollow expression. Beneath the surface, all I feel is a deep, familiar sadness that seems to have taken root inside me.
I glance around at the place I've been trapped in for what feels like an eternity—a cage of glass walls, transparent yet unyielding, enclosing me on all sides. It's been a week, maybe more, but time has lost its meaning here.
"Another day in this tank," I mutter, lying on my back, staring up at the ceiling that never changes. My gaze drifts downward to the thousands upon thousands of Lilliputians scattered across an endless white plain beneath me, like me, tiny and insignificant, yet somehow the only company I have in this forsaken place.
"I wonder what's going to happen today?" I say to no one in particular, my voice barely more than a whisper in the vast emptiness.
***
(Now to the Brob in Question)
(SKYLAR)
I sit down in a dark classroom, anticipation bubbling inside me as Professor Lee begins his lecture. This isn't just any class—this is my favorite: Interdimensional Studies. It's the one subject that makes my heart race, that makes me feel alive.
Professor Lee steps to the front of the room and turns on the massive screen that dominates the wall. As it flickers to life, bold words appear, filling the screen with a title that sends a jolt of excitement through me.
"Lilliputian Society and Culture," it reads, causing my heart to skip a beat.
But it seemed I was the only one excited about the topic. As soon as those words appeared on the screen, the 20 or so Brobdingnagian men and women around me began to whisper and taunt, their voices laced with disdain. It surprised me very little, yet it still stung.
At that moment, it wasn't the physical space that felt constricting, though I silently wished Professor Lee would separate these desks—they were far too close. It was the weight of my fellow Brobdingnagians' words that pressed down on me, heavier than any physical restraint.
"They're nothing but pests," one classmate sneered.
"We should show them their place," another added, their tone dripping with contempt.
And those were the kinder comments.
Each derogatory remark felt like a sharp dagger, slicing through my skin. My hands clenched tightly, the tension spreading from my fingers to my forearms, as if trying to keep the anger from boiling over. But the knot in my stomach tightened with every word, every small-minded jab at the Lilliputians, twisting my insides into a painful spiral. I knew that These were not just whispers; they were the echoes of a society that had normalized oppression, a society that found power and amusement in the suffering of those smaller than themselves.
My eyes narrowed as I tried to peer through the dimly lit classroom, my vision blurring with the rising tide of my frustration. The small, subtle giggles erupting from my peers felt like a chorus of cruelty, a cacophony that only served to amplify my growing discontent.
I was on the verge of yelling, ready to tell those idiots to shut their mouths, but Professor Lee beat me to it.
"Okay, okay," she said, her voice firm but measured. "I know everyone has their own opinions, but you'll save them until the end of the lecture. I promise we will have an in-depth discussion about this topic."
The room fell silent, the mocking whispers and snide remarks extinguished in an instant. No one dared to say another word.
"Good." The Professor nodded in satisfaction as she flipped to the first slide on the massive screen.
"Well then, how about we begin with the 100-Year War."
My pulse quickened at those words. I didn't need to look around to know that, for a moment, every Brobdingnagian in the room shared the same look of anticipation as I did. The 100-Year War—everyone knew of it, but it was a battle shrouded in mystery.
No Brob truly understood how the Lilliputians, beings smaller than a speck of dust, had managed to fight us off for a century. How could such fragile creatures, seemingly insignificant in size and strength, have taken the lives of hundreds of Brobdingnagians? The question had haunted us for generations. Was today the day we would finally get our answer?
"Lilliputians..." Professor Lee began, her voice carrying the weight of the topic. "I think all of you know who and what they are. In fact, even though many would argue against it, it's a fact that the society we have today is because of the Lilliputians."
I found myself nodding in agreement as I listened to Professor Lee's words.
"Brobdingnagians, in our pride, would like to hide the truth," Professor Lee said, her voice cutting through the silence of the room. "But in the end, it is a well-known fact that Lilliputians have always been more technologically advanced than we were. In fact, back when we were still playing with sticks and stones, they had already built high-tech cities."
The revelation hung in the air, challenging everything we had been taught about our superiority. I felt a mix of awe and discomfort at the idea that the Lilliputians, so small and often dismissed, were once so far ahead of us.
"The society we have today," she continued, "is simply because the Lillis decided to share their technology with us, advancing our civilization by leaps and bounds."
I could see the uneasy expressions on my classmates' faces. This wasn't the version of history we were used to hearing. For all our strength and size, our modern world owed its existence to the Lilliputians' generosity. It was a humbling thought.
"What began the war was simple," Professor Lee said, her tone growing more somber. "It was a need for survival, a need for greater resources that could only be found in the lands of Lilliput." She crossed her arms, pausing for a moment as if weighing her next words. "It took much debate and discussion, but in the end, the choice was made: the Lilliputian lands would be ours. For only we, the Brobdingnagians, could utilize the full potential of their land."
A murmur of agreement rippled through the room, but I felt a pang of that same anger rising inside of me.
"Survival, my ass," I thought to myself, anger simmering just beneath the surface. The real reason the war started had nothing to do with survival—it was pure greed. The Lilliputians had given us so much, and in return, we took everything from them. And to add insult to injury, the war wiped out more than half of their population.
"Disgusting..." I whispered under my breath as I continued to listen to Professor Lee. She went on, detailing more about the war, and even showed us pictures on the screen—images that turned my stomach.
The screen displayed scenes of destruction that were impossible to justify. Cities reduced to rubble within foot-shaped craters, flooded streets from what was, to us, merely a bucket of water, and even entire towns carved through by the nails of Brobdingnagian fingers, leaving nothing but devastation in their wake.
I saw the faces of Brobdingnagian soldiers, lit up with the impacts of Lilliputian attacks. The tiny jets of the Lilliputian forces, which looked like mere gnats on the screen, launched small explosions against the cheeks and lips of the giant soldiers. The blasts didn't even leave a mark, merely irritating their colossal adversaries. Yet, the sight of it caused many of my classmates to laugh and smile, as if it were some kind of joke.
Their amusement made me sick. How could they find humor in this? In the annihilation of entire cities, in the slaughter of countless lives? My hands trembled with the urge to lash out, to scream at them, to make them understand the horror they were mocking.
I already knew much of this history, but there was still one question I couldn't shake, one question I had to ask.
"Excuse me, Professor."
I turned my head to see one of the students in the back of the class raising his hand.
"Yes, what is it?" Professor Lee asked, her patience visibly thinning.
"If the Lilliputians were so weak, how did the war last 100 years?" the guy asked, his tone laced with skepticism.
"Yes, I was getting to that," Professor Lee responded, irritation creeping into her voice from being interrupted. "At first, the Lilliputians could do nothing against the massive giants that invaded their lands, and within a few weeks, the war had turned in the Brobdingnagians' favor," she explained. "That was until the Five Warriors arrived."
"The Five Warriors?" I echoed quietly, more to myself than anyone else, as the image on the screen shifted. It now showed five shadowy silhouettes standing atop a high cliff
