Chapter #1 - She Returns

// Chapter #0 - Recap: https://www.patreon.com/posts/49263341
// You should begin there if you're new here!
//





The Tale of the Mad Scientist - Lewd Gamedev Edition

Chapter #1 - She returns

The Mad Scientist steps forward. Each of her old pals that remained by the booth can see the faintly crazed smile on her face. She reminisces in her memories for just a second at the sight of those old faces, nodding to each as her gaze jumps from patron to patron. A sudden stop. Is that a new face? A surprise for certain. She will make sure it is welcomed as one.

She takes the cords still plugged into the monitor and stuffs her mysterious box with them. In doing so, the lid is lifted not even an inch, yet enough for the curious heads to veer towards it. What a cheap gimmick, they think as their eyes roll in a semi-circle and focus back to the mad scientist's words.

"There's so much to tell", the scientist speaks loud at last, "yet nowhere to begin from." 

"Just before I went silent, I promised more and I promised better. I promised animation, narrative and the end of silence. None of that came through. And I could tell you all about it", she said. A deep, resigned breath can be heard.

"Instead, I give you..."

"This!"

A click is heard from somewhere deep within the box. The screen goes black. A face appears.

** CLICK HERE TO SEE THE VIDEO! **
https://gfycat.com/whiterecklessblueandgoldmackaw

The mad scientist stares at the crowd. No reaction. That no longer affects her.

"I know, I know", she shifts her weight idly, "What even is that right?"

"That... Is also this!"

Another click. Another video. Same face.

** CLICK HERE TO SEE THE OTHER VIDEO! **
https://gfycat.com/validmilkyjapanesebeetle

"Isn't this the same video?", someone questions.
"I guess it's, like, a little different...", a reply is given.

"It's not even the full head! Barely just a face...", a voice in the audience murmurs.

"Those eyes look weird...", says another.

"It's even missing key features like the vestigial eyelid and the tear-line", says a more artistically inclined one.

The atmosphere gets heavier. The mad scientist bites her lip in apprehension. She then curses herself for defaulting to such an old habit.

A third click. Yet another video. 

** CLICK HERE TO SEE THE THIRD VIDEO! **
https://gfycat.com/glossythirdamericanwarmblood

"What even is that? Vector graphics?! Big deal...", concludes a random soul. Someone took the bait! She pounces at them!

"Yes, indeed", she says prolonging the pronunciation of the last syllable. The mad scientist bends in a sharp angle towards that particular non-believer. 

"More precisely, those graphics are the contours of Bezier shapes. Mathematical equations used to draw pixels on a canvas."

"These, nonetheless, are not just *any* Bezier shapes...", she gestures widely.

Her voice shifts to an enthralling tone: "Notice the striking symmetry in each of those shapes. The way they interpolate in curves instead of straight lines. The three-dimensional aspect of it all. It's no accident."

"Under normal circumstances, this smoothness could only be obtained by interpolation. By tweening...", she says as if her tongue just tasted something bitter.

"But, a more inquisitive eye will see that something is funky about it", she continues.

"These shapes. Their control points. They are not being linearly interpolated."

A pause. No reactions yet.

"They are also not being quadratically interpolated. They are not even being interpolated by other Bezier curves."

"As a matter of fact", she laughs eerily, relishing in the anticipation of her own words like a true dork.

"These shapes are not being interpolated at all..."


"They are being... Calculated!"

A cloud covers the sun. A storm might be brewing.

"And...", her voice sings in a crescendo, "not a single one of these shapes was drawn by an artist's hand either!", she declares triumphantly.

"Yes, my dears", she chuckles at this new level of confidence she can finally portray.

"This means that every frame and every pixel of this video was...", she pauses for a second, praying that an incidental loud noise helps her deliver the next line.

"PROCEDURALLY GENERATED!!" A thunder echoes in the background. She laughs.

"And why do I make that seem like such a big deal? ", she points her hand at the crowd, though not in accusation. 

"Because it's the beginning of the end of an entire era!", she answers it herself.

The crowd is static. Stunned, even.

A dry cough. "Prior to this achievement...", she continues, trying to maintain her poise.

"Such level of finesse", she says while tracing the juiciest bits of the image with her index finger, "could only be obtained by years of training."

"Years of gruesome grind in exchange for the skill to bend pixels to your whims", she clutches her hand on the imaginary skull she wished she was holding.

"Time. The ultimate gatekeeper. The fundamental currency of all living beings. The toll that must always be paid."

"And even after mastering such mythical skills, the artist still must pay a price in blood, and youth, for each and every drawing..."

"No more! Never more!", she cries to all that can hear her.

"Illustrations are now born from code alone! Measurements, symmetries, arbitrary parameters, numerical functions... Those are the tools that once encoded shall set us free!"

"Each tweak applied to their values, a new image. Each iteration of the algorithm, a better image. Each execution of the program, a new piece of content."

"The ultimate treasures once guarded so heavily by the Aegis of the Brush-and-Canvas now lie at the very tip of my keystrokes. Any notepad, a door into a new world. The Promised World."

"Never again shall we subject ourselves to the idiosyncrasies of softwares-designed-by-committee in exchange for pretty pictures!", she pumps her fist.

"Never again shall we slave over our drawing tablets night after night for pauper returns!", she pumps it again.

"In the Promised World that this new paradigm brings us..."

"We. Shall be. Conquerors!", she says with her fists tightly closed on her hips. The lab-coat dances behind her like a flag in the wind. The last rays of sunlight come shattering down on her skin. 

Darkness suddenly fills her mind. Something is wrong. Conquerors? Why would she choose that word? She doesn’t want to rule or conquer anyone. We all want to help one another. That's how we are. The way of life should be free and beautiful. She mustn't lose the way.

Voyagers. They shall be voyagers, instead.
The sun shines brighter. Darkness has lift its veil.

"However, the sea that separates us from the Promised World is not made of roses!"

She says the last line as she slowly turns her back to the audience.

A dire theatrical faux-pas.

She can hear numerous "What did she just say...?" coming from the crowd. She flusters. Her heels execute an emergency rotation back. She repeats the line.

"This brave little gadget can never make it through the storms lurking beyond the horizon", she says with palpable sorrow.

"Behind all its glossiness... A fatal flaw. A fundamental flaw."

She closes her eyes for a second.

"This precious construct...", she whispers tenderly.

"It was born in 2D, and it will die in 2D", she says never more grievously. 

"The illusion of perspective is, after all, just an illusion. A clever setup of smoke and mirrors."

"If the journey upon us was but the crossing of a calm lake on a sweet summer day...", she says as if she was just there by the side of said calm lake, dipping her fingers in the perfectly still waters as the most gentle breeze ruffles the hair at the back of he neck.

"But what awaits us in uncharted waters is not gentle", she closes her fist. 

She's back at the edge of the raging ocean. Giant waves crash mercilessly at the shore, summoning rain as sharp as daggers.

"It is not friendly and it does not play fair!", she shouts back at it.

"To be shackled to 2D is to embark on this journey with nothing more than a raft is to embrace doom from the very start..."

"No 2D boat can cross a sea this vast and dangerous and still carry any life on it."

Her voice drifts away. Her energy fades into nothingness.

"Even though I'm destined to bring the Promised World to you in a flat screen, a lack of proper support for camera perspective, compositional lighting and physics-based rigging will make such task...", she says as the drama slowly oozes out of her.

"Hopeless to us, mere mortals." The mad scientist shrinks down. The shadows weigh heavy on her face.

"The numbers don't lie. Science's verdict, in this matter, is absolute." She buries her hands in the lab-coat's pockets. A sparkle can be seen dripping down from her face.

"It's such a blessing..."

"... that I have chosen the path of MAD SCIENCE instead!"
Her roar comes from deep within her. The following laughter, from even deeper.

"These last years were not in vain, my dears", she smiles from ear to ear.

"This time, I might have done just the impossible", she inches closer to her listeners.

"Check. This. Out!", she says as her lips annunciate every word in great detail.

The mysterious box makes yet another clicking sound. A date appears on the screen.

** THE FINAL VIDEO! NSFW! VERY LEWD! **
https://www.patreon.com/posts/49536015

"Yes...!!! YES!!!!" She screams maniacally as the incredulous faces starting to get it turn towards her.

"*Yes!* That is a pixel perfect image of the likes no anti-aliasing post-processing could achieve!"

"*Yes!* That *is* in HD. I'd even show you the 4k rendering if it could fit in that screen!"

"*Yes!* That's the screen-cap of it running at 60 frames per second rendered in real time!"

"*Yes!* Those lights and shadows are all calculated from the scene geometry!"

"*Yes!* The slight deformation is perfectly accurate to the world distances of the scene objects and the camera lens' parameters!"

"And *yes*....", she pauses to recover her breath.

"That image is..."

"Entirely..."

"Procedurally..."

"Generated!"

She gives the box a good slap.

The box rattles with the sound of many things.

It's time. The long awaited release.

She places her hand over the box's latch. 

It springs open. 

She grabs the lid.

"The future is n

She paralyzes.

A loud sound explodes through the air from behind the audience. A few seconds pass. Another one. Breaths are held shut. Another explosion.

Someone is slow-clapping. 

Someone. At a familiar corner concealed by a familiar shadow. Step by step, he approaches.

The Ghost of the Consumed Past returns.

Continues in the next chapter! (Tomorrow)