Stories from the Scratch Planet by Adriano Parracciani aka CyberParra

TERA IS BACK
november 2013 translation from italian to english by Heloisa Zal
TheScratchianChroniclesbyAdrianoParraccianiislicensedunderaCreativeCommons AttributionNonCommercialNoDerivs3.0UnportedLicense.

The Scratchian Chronicles - Tera is back

The Scratchian Chronicles - TERA IS BACK

author - Adriano Parracciani aka CyberParra translation from italian to english by Heloisa Zal

Gobo had finished all the scripts of a Scratch game, made by a twelve-year-old boy, and was returning to the Sprite Library. As usual, he was lost in the huge Scratch Cloud and wandering around databases, user areas, system libraries, and others without any permission. He wasn't doing it on purpose; this was just the way Gobo is: absent-minded, with a short memory. Suddenly, he found himself above the boundless users programs area, the most exciting of the whole Scratch Cloud! The sprites could only be there on request and control of a coder, but Gobo pretended to forget it and decided to take a ride. There were lots of things happening at the same time, as always: games, simulations, drawings that took shape, dialogues in several languages, millions of sprites coming and going from everywhere and millions of scripts being performed to animate the coders ideas. In a so dynamic digital world, it was easy to someone notice any lack of activity, so Gobo was attracted to a static area nearby. He walked over and saw her friend Tera, motionless, on that classical white backdrop, loaded into a program with a very significant name: Untitled-8. Using the Spritronic Communication Flux, Gobo noticed Teras satisfaction level was particularly low: GOBO - Hey, Tera, what's wrong with you?

The Scratchian Chronicles - Tera is back

TERA - Cant you see? I'm bored to death. Im stuck in this useless program, without any block of code to be executed. No backgrounds, no costumes, no other sprites to talk to!... By the way, what are you doing here? GOBO - Uhmmm .. Nothing! I'm going back to the Sprite Library and, you know, I'm doing a ride... TERA - Lucky you! You have no idea how many time units I'm here doing nothing! You know I cant stand still without executing any code. I dont expect too much, as a hundreds-of-blocks script, but at least one <move 10 steps> <wait 1 secs> <turn 90 degrees> to be repeated 4 times, or a simple <glide 1 secs to x:100 y:100> ! And what do I have instead? Nothing at all! My script area is completely empty! GOBO - I understand you but, you know, Tera, it happens! Not all the coders are indeed efficient, some are lazy indeed. TERA - Yeah, but why should this happen to me? GOBO - It's the law of chance, we can not .. TERA - Oh noes! Don't talk about the distribution of probabilities, please! GOBO - Of course not, I don't even know what it is. Though, I'd like to say you should have to be more philosophical and enjoy the silence and rest you have! TERA - Rest? If it were up to me, I would write a script with a block <forever> full of blocks <move..> <Go to..> <glide...> inside. GOBO - But you can't, because you're a sprite, not a coder! So, what are you going to do? TERA - If I were able to, I would cry...

The Scratchian Chronicles - Tera is back

GOBO - Cry? TERA - Dont you know? Its what humans do when they are very sad: they put out liquid from the eyes which runs down their faces. GOBO - Ive never heard about it and... how do they squeeze out water from their eyes? TERA - How should I know? And who said thats water? I said a liquid! Maybe it can be She was interrupted by Gobo GOBO - What a fool! I know how they can do that! Humans are coders, so they must have written a piece of code to be able to cry. I'd like to see how this script is... TERA - It's true: you are really stupid, Gobo! For sure, you also believe that humans function like us, running scripts as we do! GOBO - And, why not? TERA - Well, I don't know, but if they worked as we do, we would be able to communicate with them! If so, I could ask my coder to do something for me. GOBO - Yeah, you could ask him to make you cry! As a matter of fact, I dont even know what sad is... TERA - Sad is when the satisfaction level is less than five. GOBO - Yeah, but for this, you need the sad costume. I dont have one, no one has ever done one to me. Do you? TERA - Yeah, I've got the sad costume ! GOBO - Since your level of satisfaction is like this, you should do <switch costume to sad>, but only the coder can do it...But now, I gotta go. I have

The Scratchian Chronicles - Tera is back

to find my way back into the Sprite Library. If the Check sprite Controller realizes that I'm not there, Ill be in a serious trouble TERA - Wait, Gobo, I guess something is happening! Thats it! My coder has just joined Untitled-8 and handles in the sprite area. If I'm lucky; he'll load another sprite and delete me from this project. Yes! Now, he has just uploaded Bat1! Please, delete me...Delete me... Delete me...Yes! Now hes pointing the cursor ... Its upon me ... Yes! Yes! Yes! He deleted me! Hooray! I'm finally out of that ridiculous Untitled-8! Coders of the entire cloud: Tera is back! Come Gobo, Ill get you back in the Script Library in a picosecond. GOBO - Tera, wow, your level of satisfaction is splashed over a hundred!! TERA - I cant wait to return to run scripts!

The Scratchian Chronicles - Tera is back