#technically these were all drawn over a few months and then like compiled together

[quasarden]

In celebration of hitting level 5 (or at least half of the party, with the rest close behind). Finally drew an actual line up for the whole party: Go Diego Go LLC.

Fullsize picture had to be compressed, so I split it into two full size ones. 

#tiefling #aasimar #dragonborn #tabaxi #paladin #barbarian #warlock #artificer #half-elf #sorcerer #my art #dnd #rufus tag #technically these were all drawn over a few months and then like compiled together

[breaniebree]

Can you share your journey as a writer? How the idea of writing fanfics came into your mind? Do you have other own fiction too? Also how do start a particular fanfic? As in do you make notes, timeline or character sketches and stuff or do you just go ahead and write and then make notes on facts?

What an interesting question -- thank you for asking!  This is literally going to be a novel response (letting you know in advance LOL)

My journey as a writer... I guess I always wrote things down, started as a child when I wrote in a diary and then as I got older I wrote a little poetry, none of it very good (though I wrote a poem when I was twelve to describe the loss I felt when my Nana, my great-grandmother died, and my aunt read it aloud at her funeral).  I wrote a few short stories, just little things, prompts from teachers in school and such and then one day I decided I wanted to write my own story.  But funnily enough, it actually came about through fan fiction.  

I used to love this book series back when I was ten called Trash by Cherie Bennett, and I was completely in love with the characters Chelsey and Nick, and when Jazz claimed that she was pregnant and Nick was the father and it did ended on a cliffhanger and I didn’t have the next book, I remember writing my own version of what happened next -- God, looking back, it was probably terrible, I definitely don’t have it anymore.  Pretty sure the book series isn’t that great looking back at it now, but when I was ten, it was great! LOL.  I also wrote a side story for Demetrius and Karma, so even then I guess I branched off into subplots.  When I was fourteen, I started my own original series, which I am still currently working on and probably will be for the rest of my life if I’m honest -- it’s changed over the years, but the characters and my ultimate goal have stayed the same.

How did writing fanfiction come into mind?  

Well, with Harry Potter, it was because of my friend Chris.  We used to talk on the phone every single night after school for hours on end and after HBP came out and Harry and Ginny were FINALLY together only for him break up with her, I was so livid that I had to wait to find out what happened!  I remember Chris and I debated what would happen in the last book for ages and one day I must have ranted too much because he told me to go write my own story if I didn’t want to wait, so I did.  

I was seventeen and it was Harry Potter and the Prophecy Fulfilled: Which looking back at it now, I think it’s not exactly the greatest story lol and you can definitely see where I’ve improved since then.  After finishing HPPH, I ended up still having different ideas, all Hinny, and went on to write a few one-shots: Almost Too Late and Beautiful Mess.  Then I started writing A Different Beginning, which turned into my Beginning series: A Different Beginning, A New Beginning, Why Don’t We Just Dance?, Life Is Fickle Like That, Graduation Party, and The Reunion.  Those of you who have been reading my fanfiction since the beginning know that I originally posted the above stories on SIYE between 2005 and 2007 and had then completed (except for the second half of Life is Fickle onwards before Deathly Hallows was published).  I didn’t start posting on fanfiction.net until 2008 and only recently on Ao3.  Somewhere in between writing the Beginning Series, I also wrote a few other Hinny one-shots including The Greatest Gift, She Never Lets It Get To Her Heart, I Loved Her First (actually Arthur POV, which I later incorporated into the Beginning Series), The River (which is a standalone but also can be read as part of the Beginning Series), When the Sand Runs Out, and then the mini-series Padfoot’s Advice (Late Night Talks with Padfoot 1 & 2, Padfoot’s Advice, and Secrets from the Past).  Then I wrote the short Hinny/Romione story: The Trouble With Secrets and was inspired to write a Jily series, which I did with Crazy Little Thing Called Love, which could technically be a prequel to the Beginning Series as I kept some of the story similar.  I also wrote a Jily one-shot called Flowers and another Hinny one-shot called I Don’t Like Your Girlfriend.

I didn’t plan on writing any more fanfiction as university became busy, but then in 2017 I started writing these little Missing Moments for Harry and Ginny both before HBP and then during, and then after.  I just sort of compiled them on my computer for a while, wondering if it would turn into a story or not and then the idea came to me one day for A Second Chance after seeing some fan art of a five-year-old-Harry in sunshades and a leather jacket while riding a child’s motorbike next to Sirius in the same outfit and the next thing I knew, this story just pored out of me in February of 2018, I had the first twelve chapters written by March and another five by April.  I started posting the Missing Moments compilation, added a few more things including the Remus and Petunia scene from ASC and kept writing A Second Chance and in May, decided it was time to share it and uploaded the first twelve chapters.  

By the time I realized it was going to be a long one, I knew which characters I would sacrifice and how it would end, but how I was going to get there I still have no idea.  I’m not a writer who methodically plots.  I have a few general bullet points at the end of my current WIP chapter and that’s really it.  I add to it occasionally as I go, but mostly, I just write as I go along.  I can’t tell you how many chapters it will be or how long it will take me to get to the next section because frankly, it’s constantly changes.  I do not write in chronological order, which means I am often writing anywhere between 2-6 chapters at the same time depending on what scene has drawn my attention.  I might write something today that fits in the chapter I am currently working on and then by the time I finish writing other stuff, I realize that it doesn’t really fit there and stick it ahead into the next chapter or ten chapters from now.  I write where my heart takes me and where my creativity flows.  

I rarely ever work on more than one story at the same time, though I did write the short Newtina one-shot for my friend Heather as a Christmas present in 2018.  She requested it and I couldn’t write it, I found it so hard as I like them but it’s not characters I loved enough to write so I did it with a Luna spin-in, which I found helped.  I never take writing requests so this was very different for me, but I think it turned out cute: Say Love, ‘Cause We Got All the Time in the World.  I only recently uploaded it a month or so ago because I found it on my computer LOL.

Do you make notes, timeline or character sketches and stuff or do you just go ahead and write and then make notes on facts?

Once I am into the story, my notes are EXTREMELY detailed.  I do have a time line and separate documents for the following:

Character lists and family trees

General notes on: Political stuff, bills I’ve written, the sacred 28 document I wrote, tattoos mentioned, important dates, moon cycle dates of Remus’ life, classes I’ve invented (what they are about, who teaches them etc), textbook list per school year, notes on each Animagus form and information about their animals, actual time tables I wrote up Monday to Friday for Harry’s third/fourth, and fifth year, details of Zee and Tonks’ engagement rings, history and outline of Dante’s circles of hell with notes on how to incorporate into story, notes on pregnancy, character’s wands, geographic locations of characters, and any other little notes I think are important but don’t belong in the bullet points at the end of my current WIP chapter

History and ancestry of each family (from Harry Potter Lexicon, Pottermore, Harry Potter wiki, and my own personal creations).  This also includes manor information for Potter, Black, Longbottom, Nott, and Malfoy.

Hogwarts lay-out including stuff I’ve added or made up

Ministry of Magic departments and people (known and created)

List of spells (including ones I’ve made up and which chapter and which character introduced it to who)

List and pictures of Sirius’ motorbikes with information on each one

List of Pensieve memories and marauder moments (crossed out which ones I’ve shared already, some are written and waiting to be used and others just a general idea)

Terms and phrases from different languages I’ve used in the past

My playlist of songs I have mentioned in the story

An entire document dedicated to Operation FUVP including a Voldemort timeline which I have now shared in the story itself (also includes when and where each character found the Horcruxes)

A list of some of the recipes I mentioned, and 

I have a 72 page document that is literally just detailed chapter summaries to help me remember what the hell I’ve written LOL (also highlights introductions to new characters in a different font colour to help me find out when people were introduced).

Hope this answers your question -- thank you again for asking!

[no6secretsanta]

Bittersweet Awakening

TO: @happykawaiicinnamonroll FROM: @glorifiedscapegoat

Happy Holidays and an amazing New Year to you, KawaiiCinnamonroll! Here’s some post-reunion fluff for your Secret Santa gift. In the spirit of the New Year, having a nice moment between Nezumi and Shion, in which Shion is being a bit of a dumb-ass and Nezumi takes care of him, seemed appropriate.

I hope you enjoy it! <3

***

Nezumi woke to the smell of coffee beans.

He stretched out his spine with a satisfied groan. In his sleep, he’d managed to curl himself into a tight ball, long limbs wrapped around his pillow and clutching it to his chest. He unearthed his face from the plush cushion―pulling himself from the aroma of drowsy lavender fabric softener―and looked over at his sleeping companion.

Shion’s side of the bed was empty.

Nezumi bolted upright.

Panic lanced through the synapses in his brain, tension jolting through his muscles until every inch of him ached. His eyes picked through the darkness of their shared bedroom, searching the dresser tucked in the corner, the slotted solar shades revealing the still-dark morning sky, and the bedroom door left ajar.

Yellow light spilled in through the gap in the door frame, and Nezumi’s shoulders relaxed.

He dragged a hand over his face and then pushed his bangs aside. His hair was tangled, and Nezumi worked a few of them out with his fingers, wincing when he encountered a knot.

Shion’s awake. He’s here. Nezumi carded his fingers through his hair until there were no more gnarls. The primal terror spiking through his veins cooled until Nezumi felt weightless.

Four years had passed since the day Nezumi had almost lost Shion, four years since Nezumi had breezed back into Shion’s life, for good this time. Nezumi’s gut-reaction to waking without Shion at his side was anxiety and terror, but it was a bit better each time. One step at a time. We’ll get there. Someday.

Nezumi’s brow furrowed. It was strange that Shion climbing into bed hadn’t woken him. Nezumi had gone to bed around ten o’clock, leaving Shion to work on his proposal for the committee. Shion had been agonizing about it most of the day, and Nezumi had opted to give him some space to work.

Nezumi was a notoriously light sleeper. The slightest shifts on the mattress were usually enough to jar him awake. He was getting used to having Shion sleeping at his side again―no longer at his back, but in his arms, limbs tangled together in a heap.

But I didn’t wake up this time. Nezumi gnawed on his lower lip. Weird.

And then his eyes flickered to the nightstand.

The digital clock announced 03:14 AM in neon green numbers.

Nezumi’s brows shot up.

He scrambled out of bed, tossing the comforter aside. The sheets caught around his ankles, and Nezumi nearly went sprawling to the ground. He caught himself with a sharp curse and kicked the sheets onto the floor.

The cool Autumn air sent prickles across the bare skin of his legs and arms. Nezumi wore a dark gray tee shirt and boxer shorts to bed, needing no other warmth than the thick blankets and Shion pinned against him.

He grabbed the thin black robe hanging off the back of the door―a welcome-back gift from Karan―and threw it on. The hem brushed his ankles as he clutched it around his middle and bustled out into the kitchen.

Nezumi found Shion in the kitchen, rooting through the cupboards. The concern welling in the pit of his stomach like a fat serpent steadily began to uncoil.

Shion was dressed in the white button-down and slacks he’d been wearing when Nezumi went off to bed. His hair was wild, sticking up in all directions like a brilliant star. He had his back to Nezumi, his long fingers nudging aside various mugs in the cupboard. He moved quickly, a man on a mission.

Nezumi stepped into the kitchen. He pressed his weight on the squeaky floorboard―the same one he’d been irritated by on those mornings after a particularly terrible rehearsal―to announce his presence.

Shion’s shoulders shot to his ears. His hands stilled.

“You’re still awake?” Nezumi asked.

Shion looked over his shoulder. His glassy red eyes settled on Nezumi’s face, and after a few moments, comprehension flitted across his features. “Oh. Nezumi.” He lowered his arms from the cupboard, leaving the two doors open, and turned around. “Sorry. Did I wake you?”

“It’s three in the morning,” Nezumi said, leaving the question unanswered in the air between them. “Why are you still up?”

Shion lowered his gaze. His eyelashes dusted his cheekbones like a thick frost. He was beautiful, otherworldly in a way that made Nezumi weak-kneed every time he saw him. Even after all these years, Nezumi’s heart still skipped a beat at the thought of the young man standing before him. Even when said young man picked at Nezumi’s nerves.

“I have to finish my proposal,” Shion explained.

“Your meeting’s on Tuesday.”

“And I’m behind.” Shion turned back to the cupboard and reached inside. “I need to finish it.”

Nezumi’s eyes shifted to the coffee pot. A gentle vapor of steam drifted from the boxy black container, the eight-cup pot filled halfway with the dark, steaming liquid. The aroma of light-roast coffee beans danced beneath Nezumi’s nose. It would have been a welcomed scent at a reasonable hour.

“And so you’re brewing coffee?”

“More coffee,” Shion corrected. “This is my second pot.”

“That’s healthy.” Nezumi strode across the kitchen and yanked one of the chairs back from the little table. Its wooden legs screeched across the tile. Nezumi flopped into the chair. “You look exhausted. You sure you want to keep working?”

“I have to, Nezumi.” Shion found the mug he wanted and set it on the counter. He closed the cupboards and hurried to the fridge.

“Why didn’t you reuse your cup?” Nezumi asked.

“What?”

“Your cup,” Nezumi repeated, as if he were speaking to a child. “If this is your second pot, then you must have had another cup. Why not just reuse it?”

“Because it was―” Shion paused, and Nezumi could see the gears working in his head. Shion looked at the sink, where his previous mug must have resided. “Huh.” He pressed his lips into a thin, calculating line. “I… I don’t know.”

Nezumi exhaled through his nose. “Shion.”

“I know what you’re going to say,” Shion interjected.

“Then enlighten me.”

“You’re going to say I should come to bed.”

“Give the man a prize, ladies and gentlemen.”

“I have to finish it, Nezumi.” Shion opened the fridge, took the creamer, and poured some into his mug. It was the pretty white one Nezumi had gotten for him a month ago; a watercolor image of a purple flower, not technically an aster but close enough, spread across the bottom of the mug, the green leaves twisting up the handle.

Despite the frustration prickling through him, Nezumi felt a small sliver of warmth at the sight of the mug. It had been a gift to Shion. A gift from him. Nezumi had never given anyone a gift before. It had seemed like such a small, pathetic thing at the time. And yet the moment he’d given it to Shion, those bright crimson eyes had lit up as if someone had set a fire in Shion’s core. Those lips had drawn back in a wide smile, and Shion had thrown his arms around Nezumi. “I love it! Thank you!”

It was amazing, Nezumi thought―how something so small could ground him. We’ve come so far, haven’t we? So much had changed in four years. Like tightly-coiled bugs in a garden, Shion and Nezumi had finally, finally, finally bloomed, their petals brushing against each other and their stems intertwining.

“We’re discussing the new proposal for the West District,” Shion went on. He placed the cream back in the fridge.

After Nezumi left, West Block was evacuated, the citizens ushered into the remains of No.6 with Shion taking on the role of ambassador. The Manhunt had drastically lowered the number of West Block’s citizens, and Shion’s primary focus became finding suitable housing for them. The birth of the Committee―compiled of people from West Block, Kronos, and Lost Town―opened new possibilities for plans regarding the destroyed quarters.

“Some of the Committee members want to turn it into a junkyard,” Shion went on. “Most of the buildings are ruined, and even though we’ve removed all the bodies…”

And given them proper burials, Nezumi thought. Shion had personally led the search to find the bodies buried beneath the rubble. Inukashi’s hounds had lent a hand, their reluctant owner offering their services as a favor to Shion. Shion had also found jobs for the displaced Disposers, tasking them with transferring the corpses safely and respectfully from the destruction and to a patch of land just outside the up-heaved city.

Most of the Disposers had become the Clean-Up Committee, paid a livable wage by the city for their services. Nezumi had been surprised to find so many of the Disposers he recognized trudging through the remnants of No.6 as law-abiding citizens who prided themselves on their work rather than the thugs West Block had feared.

“It’s still dangerous to keep all that rubble just laying around,” Shion said, jolting Nezumi from his reminiscing. “What if kids play there? The wall is gone, and children are curious by nature. Not to mention how hazardous it is for the environment. If we removed it, put the scrap wood to good use and salvaged the metal, we could expand the living quarters and use that land to farm. That would create job opportunities, as well as save money on imported goods.

“We could grow most of our own crops, and once we’ve managed to create a sustainable system, we can work on exporting some of our goods and bringing some money back into the city! That way we can actually pay our workers and make sure people can survive.”

Nezumi rested his head on his hands and listened. He didn’t understand the politics of the Committee as well as Shion did, but he admired the passion in Shion’s voice. That had always drawn Nezumi to Shion, he supposed. He was so dedicated to everything he set his focus on.

Shion was trying his best to make good on his promise to Elyurias, and Nezumi as well, even though it was running him ragged.

“An admirable feat,” Nezumi allowed. “But I doubt the whole ship will sink if you take a few hours to rest.”

Something flickered across Shion’s face that might have been acceptance―and then the coffee pot chimed.

“Coffee’s done,” Shion announced.

Nezumi’s shoulders dropped in defeat.

Shion picked up the pot. The dark liquid inside sloshed within. Shion’s fingers trembled on the handle as he navigated his way to his mug.

Nezumi changed his tactic. “Have you made any progress with it? When I went to bed, you were stuck on your introductory paragraph.”

Shion paused.

“Talking it out is one thing,” Nezumi went on, “but it’s translating it into political jargon that’s stressing you out, right?”

Shion shifted from one foot to the other. “It’s not that. It’s just…” He sighed. “I know what I want to say. But it’s just like… the longer I stare at the page, the less sense my thoughts make.” His red eyes lost focus as Shion stared down at the coffee pot in his hands. “Everything that comes to mind just doesn’t sound right.”

Nezumi felt a pang of sympathy dance through him. “Then maybe you need to take some time away from it.”

Shion gnawed on his lower lip, considering Nezumi’s suggestion. Nezumi played with the sleeve of the robe, the warmth of the kitchen seeping in through the thin fabric. It was too soon to turn the heat in their small, two-bedroom apartment on.

Shion poured some coffee into the mug, and Nezumi’s stomach dropped to his feet.

“You want any?” Shion asked.

“No,” Nezumi said with a dry smile. “I actually want to sleep.”

“Suit yourself.” Shion set the coffee pot back on the burner. He shuffled over to the table, set the mug down opposite Nezumi, and turned back to the counters. “Where’s the sugar?”

“Where it always is,” Nezumi said. As Shion meandered back toward the sink, Nezumi exhaled and pinched the bridge of his nose. He could feel a headache forming. “Look, Shion. No one’s going to blame you if you take a break from it. You’ve been working on that thing all day. If you’re not thinking straight, it’s a universal sign that you need to get some sleep.”

“Found the sugar,” Shion piped up.

“You know,” Nezumi snapped, “for someone so intelligent, you can be amazingly dense.”

Shion sat down in the chair and muttered a retort.

“Didn’t catch that. Care to try again when you’re not sleep-deprived?”

Shion rolled his eyes. He tipped the small canister of sugar upside down and dumped half of it into his coffee.

Nezumi raised an eyebrow. Shion liked sugar in his coffee. Nezumi had lived with him long enough to know that. But Shion didn’t usually take that much sugar.

“You want any coffee with that?”

“Hush,” Shion said. “I need to finish this proposal, Nezumi. I need all the energy I can get.”

Shion held the mug in both hands and took a long gulp.

“Shion―,” Nezumi said.

Shion’s eyes widened. He slammed the cup onto the table and spat his mouthful of coffee back into it.

Nezumi reeled back. “What?”

Shion looked at the mug, then to the canister of sugar. Horror twisted into disbelief on his face. His scarlet eyes glistened and, to Nezumi’s utter confusion, filled with tears. Shion shoved his mug away from himself, folded his arms, and buried his face in the crook of his elbows.

“What’s wrong?” Nezumi snatched the canister of sugar up. He scanned the white label, the brand name scrawled in black and red letters, spelling out the words coarse salt rather than cane sugar.

Nezumi’s lips quirked at the corners. “Oh.”

“It’s salt,” Shion whined.

Nezumi bit back laughter as he stood and set the offending condiment back on the counter. He took Shion’s mug and dumped it into the sink.

“And that,” he said, “would be a sign from the Powers That Be that it’s time for bed.”

Shion’s voice was muffled as he said, “It’s not funny.”

It was pretty funny, but Nezumi would avoid saying so until Shion was in a better state of mind. Once Shion had calmed down, and slept an acceptable number of hours, Nezumi would tease him mercilessly.

For now, Nezumi stood behind Shion and rubbed comforting circles on his back.

“Come on,” he murmured. “Time for bed. You’re probably not making as much progress as you’d like, anyway.”

Shion grumbled.

“You have all day Monday,” Nezumi added. “You’re not going to be much help to anyone if you’re passed out on the table.”

His thumbs continued to rub shapes into Shion’s shoulder blades until Shion turned his face to the side and managed a shaky, “OK.”

Nezumi celebrated silently as he helped Shion up from the table. He clicked the coffee pot off, making a mental note to clean the bean dispenser and empty the pot when he woke up again. He placed his hands on Shion’s shoulders and guided him through the kitchen and into their shared bedroom.

“Change into your pajamas,” Nezumi instructed.

Shion eased through the darkness, toward the dresser. Nezumi kept the door open, allowing the kitchen light to illuminate the room just enough for Shion to find his way. Shion knew the bedroom like the back of his hand―but Nezumi couldn’t count on Shion’s sleep-deprived mind to remember where he kept his boxers if he couldn’t even tell salt from sugar.

Shion dropped his button-down and slacks besides the hamper. Close enough, Nezumi thought. Shion dug through the top drawer, found a black tee-shirt, and pulled it over his head. He fought with the hole before yanking it down.

Nezumi smirked. Hopefully, Shion hadn’t put it on backward. He supposed they’d find out in the morning.

“To bed with you,” Nezumi said. “It’s well past your bedtime.”

Shion’s retort barely made it past his lips. Shion slumped to the bed and flopped down on his stomach.

Nezumi shook his head. He flicked the kitchen light off, plunging the room into darkness. The faint light filtering in through the slats in the window allowed Nezumi a quick look at Shion. He’d curled into the side of the bed where Nezumi had woken up, instinctively drawn to the warmth.

Nezumi crawled onto the bed and lay beside Shion. He wrestled the blankets out from under Shion and tucked them around him.

“Comfortable?” Nezumi asked.

Shion didn’t answer.

Right to sleep, then. Nezumi couldn’t help but laugh. He eased down beside Shion, tucking their legs together. His arms slipped around Shion’s thin frame and pulled him against his chest. The neon green alarm clock announced 03:38 AM. Shion and Nezumi kept the alarm off on the weekends. Nezumi would likely doze for a few hours. If he was lucky, Shion would sleep well into the late morning. Nezumi didn’t mind spending a lazy day in bed. If it kept Shion asleep for more than a few minutes, it was worth it.

Nezumi pressed his nose into Shion’s soft, silver hair. He smelled like the geranium shampoo Karan had given them as a move-in gift. Shion worked it through his hair every other day, and Nezumi had begun to associate the scent with the beautiful young man tucked in his arms.

Nezumi exhaled, content. The warmth from Shion’s body radiated through him. Sleep began to tug at the corners of his mind. Nezumi rested his chin on Shion’s shoulder. He listened to the thump of their hearts, the echo reminding him that fate had granted them a chance to start over. A new beginning.

Nezumi had wandered the world to find himself―and his journey had brought him right back to Shion.

He pressed a long, lingering kiss to Shion’s shoulder. The deep breathing from his sleeping companion soothed him, erased the tension in his shoulders and chased away the nightmares. In the warmth of their shared bedroom, Nezumi closed his eyes, breathed the same air as the boy he loved, and fell asleep.

#glorifiedscapegoat #happykawaiicinnamonroll #no6 #no 6 #no.6 #no. 6 #submission

[hexadecimalmantis]

Argonaut Games Research

This post was originally going to be an absurdly long documentary video, but I realized it would have been a bit boring, so I ultimately decided on making a glorified blog post. 

When I joined BioMedia Project last year, I was tasked with researching Bionicle: The Game and its sequel Bionicle 2: City of Legends. I have talked about both games in great detail many times before, and I think we all know about the issues that plague both of them by now. Bionicle: The Game is seemingly incomplete, and filled with content that was cut early on, and Bionicle 2: City of Legends never made it past a private movement demo. For context about Bionicle 2: BioMedia Project managed to obtain an Xbox build of the movement demo a few years ago. It has a few issues, such as broken audio and some missing graphical effects. I began reaching out to former developers in an effort to piece together the entire story of Argonaut Games, and uncover more secrets about both games. (Initially) With the assistance of Liam Robertson of DidYouKnowGaming?, I began contacting some of the developers. For those of you that are unfamiliar, Argonaut Games was split into two different facilities during the development of Bionicle: The Game. The first being Argonaut London, and the second was Argonaut Sheffield. I decided to reach out to the former developers from the London branch first. I initially didn’t get any replies, but I remained persistent. After waiting a few weeks, I eventually I got a reply from a former artist. Keep in mind that personal details about the former developers I contacted will be expunged in order to protect their identities and to prevent harassment and spam.

This is the first message I received after I inquired about Bionicle: The Game:

“Hi, yes I was lead artist on Bionicle. I'd say that it was a game that we cared a lot about, and to be honest we had high hopes for, at least initially. As always with game dev there wasn't just one cause of the games problems, but probably the biggest was we fell in love with the games setting and bit off far more than we could chew. We should have started with far more cautious goals, but we wanted to tell the whole story. I'm surprised if there was that much unused content on the disc TBH but the original scope of the game is definitely visible in naming conventions etc. we had intended each character to have toa levels and toa nuva (if thats the right term?) their powered up versions - before adding the 7th. Given that they have different abilities that was a huge ask of the team.

(Redacted)”

This message was about what I expected, the devs were a bit too ambitious and were unable to complete their ideas during the given development time. I later asked about the developer signatures stored within the BIGB archives, and asked them if they had worked on any of the Kopaka areas, since I found their signature within a subset of those files:

“the 'signatures' probably just refer to the designers - which is a relatively small subset of the team as a whole. I oversaw the project from an art perspective, so characters env, frontend etc then I ended up doing some animation work on the bull, onua, the weird door thing. I didn't work on Kopaka - that work was done up in Sheffield, I used to visit their studio to review stuff & sign it off.”

I’m sure the Bull was probably the Kane-Ra seen in Onua Nuva’s level. There are some pre-release trailers that show a Kane-Ra attacking the player with unique animations too. After that, I asked him about Argonaut Sheffield and their work on Bionicle 2: City of Legends. To my surprise, I got this:

“No, I didn't I thought they were disbanded alongside Argo”

This essentially meant that nobody from Argonaut London was aware of the development of Bionicle 2: City of Legends. With this information, it was easy to conclude that Bionicle 2 was created solely by Argonaut Sheffield as speculated. After failing to get more replies from former developers from Argonaut London, I shifted my focus to Argonaut Sheffield, intrigued by the messages I received from the former artist.

After a bit of waiting, I got a reply from another former artist.

“Hi,

Yes, I worked on Bionicle as a character artist along side artist (redacted). He was my mentor back then as it was my first industry job. I think we modelled about 130 odd characters/modular models back then between us. The character concepts we're drawn up by (redacted).

Argonaut Sheffield was previously Particle Systems who made I-War, the PC Sci Fi game and some other iterations. It was a technically adept small team and great to work with. I didn't have much to do with the London branch. We went on to try and make some failed movie tie-ins alongside them at a later date. Catwoman, Zorro, Star Wars, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and also Bionicle 2.. which was going to be a fluid parkour type platformer. Which never materialised as after being there just shy of two years, London shut us down.

I'm actually working back in the offices where it all happened now. Which seems strange. I did work at Sumo Digital as a lead Char artist for ten years in between. I know there's a basement full of hard drives still here as one of the old directors still rents some space here.

(redacted)

(redacted)

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

(redacted)”

I received concept art for both Bionicle: The Game and Bionicle 2: City of Legends in this message. The art was later posted on my Twitter: https://twitter.com/HexMantis/status/1099883979942084608

Aside from the plethora of art, this message provided some insight about how Argonaut Sheffield came to be. It was previously known as Particle Systems before it assimilated into Argonaut Games. After this exchange, I reached out to a former programmer from Argonaut Sheffield. This time I provided a set of questions for the developer to answer in an effort to obtain specific information. After waiting for nearly a month, I got a reply:

The questions I asked will be enclosed within [ ] to avoid confusion.

“Hey!

There's some incomplete credits here (redacted)

but you could try contacting (redacted) as he was the lead programmer there. He used to work at PKR too, also owned by (redacted).

(redacted)

[Asked about the main development platform for the games]

1) Yep it was PS2. The PS2 version was handled by Argonaut Edgeware and programmers in Sheffield did ports for the other platforms

[Asked about the cut content from Bionicle: The Game]

2) Sorry, I wasn't involved with that bit. I was responsible for adding the hyper threading features on the PC (redacted)

[Asked about interactions with the London branch]

3) Yep, we worked together on it. Designers and Artists in Sheffield were working on assets for the main game.

[Asked about I-Ninja’s compatibility with Bionicle: The Game]

4) I think they should be compatible with each other. I-ninja came out a bit later though.

[Asked about Bionicle 2: City of Legends]

5) Maybe, not sure as it was a long time ago and I then moved to the Edgeware studio. If they did I guess it was just a prototype for a pitch

Good luck with your fact finding!“

I later asked if they knew of any early builds of either game, and I got this reply:

“Hey!

Sorry for the late reply. I believe everything was archived by Argonaut and EA. I'm not sure if anyone archived it personally at Argonaut or not but there were a lot of people working on it. They created archive PCs with everything you need to make the game from the source assets.

Thanks,

(redacted)”

The concept of the supposed “archive PCs” was interesting, but I doubt any of them are still around after all this time. After this, I contacted another former programmer from Argonaut Sheffield. This time with a focus on Bionicle 2: City of Legends:

“Hi William, I must admit, I'm curious where you found my name in the demo. Do you have a source code drop to go with it, or did I leave my name in an error message in the binary package itself?

Either way, yes I did work on the demo, albeit briefly. The engine the demo is built on is largely the same engine used in Bionicle (the original PS2/Xbox/PC game), Catwoman, and I-Ninja. It has an older pedigree than that too, but those were the games it was used on while Argonaut Sheffield was part of the Argonaut group. I was one of the programmers who ported the engine over to PC & Xbox for the original Bionicle, which is why I was involved in the demo in some capacity.

I'm still in touch with a lot of the designers who worked on the movement demo; the lead designer, (redacted), has said that I can pass on his contact details if you'd like to get in touch with him. You can contact him at (redacted).

Cheers,

(redacted)”

I was not surprised to get confirmation that Bionicle 2 used the same engine as Bionicle: The Game, since most of my existing programs I wrote for Bionicle: The Game were compatible with the Xbox demo. I asked if a PS2 port of Bionicle 2: City of Legends ever existed, since the Xbox demo we have has DualShock button mappings present in the game:

“Ah, I'll bet that's because I'll have compiled and built the disc image, so it's embedded my PC's name into the image. The level select would have just been for test levels where I was looking at specific bugs, performance problems or new features.

I really can't remember if we did PS2 or PC builds of the demo, other than the development binaries the design team would have been using. It's unlikely we'll have done a full ISO for the PS2, because the spiders caused real performance problems and we'd have wanted to show it to the publishers on the fastest available hardware.

By the way, the Xbox version will have reference to PS2 hardware because the original engine was PS2 only. The easiest way to port the engine was to, as far as possible, just get the Xbox and PC versions to pretend they were doing exactly the same thing as the PS2. For example, the game scripts don't need to know that when they get a button press from Cross or Circle, they're actually getting button presses from A or B. So although the names are going to be PS2-centric, they're still doing Xbox specific stuff.”

I was surprised to find out that the Morbuzakh Spiders were the primary reason for shifting Bionicle 2 to the original Xbox. I guess it makes sense, given how little time Argonaut Sheffield had to optimize the game. Switching to the original Xbox appeared to be a quick and easy way to avoid the hassle of optimization.

I later asked about the audio issues present in the Xbox demo, and for some general information about Bionicle: The Game.

“Hi William,

I'm afraid I've got no idea why the demo would be silent - it's been far too many years for me to remember the exact details, and I have no idea which version of the demo is the one which has been circulated. The full code for the audio system will have been present, because it was just a continuation of the engine used on Bionicle, and I'm sure the designers would have had at least some placeholder audio to hook up.

Audio is habitually the last thing to get hooked up in any game development, and since most developers prefer to have a silent build and listen to their own music while they work, it's not unusual for it either to be neglected in early internal builds, or for it to have been hacked to be silent (assuming the demo was one built locally rather than for showing to a publisher).

In terms of the development situation on Bionicle, although we weren't directly in the body of main developers, I think most of us were aware that the game wasn't progressing as well as it should. As well as the code team doing the porting work, our design and art teams were making the 'adrenaline levels' - which were the short lava/ice/tree surfing levels. They were only supposed to be short breaks between much larger levels, but it became increasingly obvious towards the end that these relatively small levels were still a large percentage of the actual content, and the other larger levels weren't coming online as fast as they should. QA in particular do full play-throughs on a regular basis, so they have a very good view of how fast the game as a whole is coming together.

I'm not 100% sure on all of the reasons for the delays in development, having been a relatively junior developer in a satellite studio at the time, but the reasons discussed at the time with leads and producers are fairly common ones that I've seen and heard about on other projects since. Inexperienced publishers or IP holders who haven't worked with game developers before often don't understand the lead times involved in producing content.

It's very hard to explain to customers who are used to working with companies like advertising agencies, who can turn around a complete change of direction in a matter of days, that you need to make and lock down decisions months or even years in advance. I think the penny finally dropped for Lego about three months out from submission that if they kept holding up approvals and kept requesting changes, they weren't going to get any game at all on the shelves - which of course meant we all had to crunch like hell to get the content in good enough shape to ship!

Cheers,”

An example of the aforementioned “Adrenaline sections” is the Tahu Nuva level from Bionicle: The Game. This level is actually internally named “Ta Adrenaline” as well. It’s obvious at this point that Tahu Nuva was originally going to have more than just surfing sections in his level, given the evidence in this message and the fact that he has a full set of unused walking animations.

I eventually contacted the designer mentioned by the former programmer, and got a reply after a month. (This designer was kind enough to restate my questions in his message):

“Hey,

I'm so sorry it's taken so long to get back to you. I was launching a game and I completely forgot about this.

1. What was your role as a designer like when working on both games? What kind of work did you do?

I was lead designer at Argonaut Sheffield, and we were brought in to help out on Bionicle the Game. We were responsible for what was known internally as "the adrenaline sections". The game was split into third person. exploration and combat levels (which were developed by the main Argonaut office in London), and the fast moving on rails sections that we created. As well as leading the team on these sections I was directly involved in the Tahu Nuva Boss Race near the end of the game.

2. Were you aware of content being cut or removed when working on Bionicle: The Game? Did you work on anything that didn't make the cut?

Like with any game there's work that involved that never sees the light of day. There were a lot of changes to the design over time, sometimes for practical reasons, other times because Lego wanted them.  I seem to recall that in the original design you would play as each Toa normally and each one again in their Nuva form in large open levels - with the platform adventure and the adrenaline sections seamlessly blending into each other. Quite soon after we were brought into the project a much clearer separation was made between the two, but I'm sure there was lots of the preparatory work for that ended up on the disc.

3. Do you know if any other character models aside from Matau (The green character) were created for Bionicle 2?

No other characters were made for that demo. I think we had a matter of weeks and everything had to be done very quickly.  That build represents a build that we sent to Lego (And Giant who eventually became TT Games) for approval and hopefully for more funding for the company. And we spent a lot of time agreeing the visual look of the character, as it was very different from what we'd done in the first game.

The work done on Bionicle 2 was entirely done up in Sheffield so we had a lot more control over the content. We knew that the Bionicle audience was getting older, and their gaming needs were becoming more sophisticated and we wanted to do something that would appeal both to that audience and be an interesting game in its own right. We felt that the first game had been so compromised by production issues that it ended up being very disappointing. We wanted to make something fluid and interesting that was a joy to play as a platformer, and had the dynamism and the sense of scale that the Bionicle world deserved.

4. Do you know if any other builds of the Bionicle 2 movement demo exist? Like a build that has working audio?

I don't remember for sure if we ever ended up with a build with audio. But it feels a bit unlikely that we would have got to the stage that we did without their being something in there, especially if the audio assets were on the disk. Somewhere in the depths of my home I think I have a PS2 version of the demo, so I may see if I can get that up and running and find out. As I think - so far - the only people who have had access to the game have played on Xbox, right?

Thanks”

Of course LEGO was being difficult during Bionicle: The Game’s development. They did something similar with Bionicle: The Legend of Mata Nui, and that certainly did not end well. This message was a big deal for us at the time, not only did we get a lot of information about both games, but we also got confirmation that a PS2 build of Bionicle 2: City of Legends actually exists! Unfortunately, this developer never replied again, and I was beginning to lose motivation.

I decided I had enough of Argonaut Sheffield at that point, and shifted my focus to Argonaut London once more. After waiting a bit, I got another reply from a former AI programmer.

“Hi William, sure thing, although it was a long time back so may not remember too much :)

probably easier to use my email (redacted) though as I rarely login to Linkedin.”

We later communicated via email:

“Hi William,

on the unused level front, it’s entirely likely that a bunch of the designers and strat coders ’play areas’ would have ended up in the build. Not sure if you’ve had any background info on how a lot of the Argonaut games were built, but here’s a brief rundown :)

So, when I started at Argonaut in 1997 , I joined the Croc 2 team, who were using the first updated iteration of the engine they built for Croc that had its own scripting language written (originally for the level designers to use) to write all the gameplay elements, while the engine coders focused entirely on the main engine for the PS1 (and a separate small team handled porting the engine to GameCube/Dreamcast, PC etc.). The idea being that ASL (Argonaut Strategy Language) Strats would be cross platform as they were just interpreted by the engine.

As it turned out, ASL strats were a bit too complex for the level designers to write themselves without coder assistance, so Argonaut let them focus on the actual level design itself (using the editor that just became known as the Croc Editor) and got gameplay specialist coders (like myself) to work on the strats. This worked out great as we could focus on individual items or groups of them independent of what was happening with the engine and we could quickly tweak a strat and run it on the devkit without doing a full build of the game (which took *AGES* back then ;) ) as well as some basic debugging capability.

This meant that most of the level designers and strat coders usually had a level slapped together with all the bits they were trying out. I don’t know if my one with all the Matorans following you in a chain still exists, but there were some pretty strange ones. In theory these wouldn’t end up on the disk but the build system was pretty clunky, so it’s entirely likely that some ended up there.

So by the time I got drafted onto the Bionicle PS2 project, I’d worked on Croc 2, Aladdin Nazira’s Revenge, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Bionicle Matoran Adventures on GBA. All but the last one using revisions of the Croc Editor and ASL.  (The Emperor’s New Groove, Harry Potter 2, Malice, Catwoman & iNinja also got written with the engine). I say revisions as not a lot was actually added to either over time. Also, by Bionicle PS2 I was kind of an emergency response coder for strats, as I got parachuted in after the project started to help fix a lot of problems with how ASL was being used and design issues with the levels.

There were a lot of issues with Bionicle (not as many as Aladdin or Catwoman started with and my 4 days on Malice were certainly interesting, but they’re entirely different stories ;) ). Mostly from inexperience as the team working on it had a lot of new hires or ones that had been drafted from other teams that didn’t use ASL or the Croc Engine, so they weren’t familiar with its limitations. There were some HR issues going on too, but I’m not going to get into those. The team were mostly all professional and good at what they did, but struggling with a relatively clunky engine. By this point Argonaut had split off most of the engine coders to the “Tools” team and we had to officially request any engine or editor changes we wanted through their chain of command (and they weren’t interested in working on the ‘old’ engine).

There were also some issues with inexperience in games from the Lego UK side too. So a lot of the overall design rules were a bit flaky and lead to a lot of levels and gameplay getting changed. The “No Weapons” rule was one we thought was pretty odd, considering the swords, pikes etc. in use. Apparently they’re tools, not weapons. So we weren’t allowed to use them as direct combat weapons for gameplay, only for magical ranged effects. There was also a lot of issues of really big levels being designed without consideration for what could actually be rendered on screen at the required frame rate on PS2 with the old Croc engine. Even updated to PS2 and with everything the engine coders could do to optimise it, the engine and ASL were struggling to do what the designers wanted.

I don’t think it’s a case of biting off a bit more than they could chew (we successfully wrote Harry Potter from scratch in 9 months in time to release with the film using the engine but that was very much a dream team of all the right people with the right skills and a publisher working well in sync). More a case of it being a new team of people not so experienced with the system and a publisher that wasn’t entirely sure what it wanted. So things were that bit harder to get done in the time available.

In theory, some older gold disks are likely still around. (redacted) was one of our engine guys on the project and “Master of the Build” (he was the only one who had enough tasteless Hawaiian shirts for the numerous submission build days). I’ll have a dig through my CD collection, but it’s unlikely I’ve got any Bionicle builds surviving. I *might* still have some strat code floating about on an old hard disk. I do seem to have some of the Catwoman build code that used mostly the same (although slightly updated) engine though.

One thing that I think got axed was my chain of Matorans. The idea was a level where you’d be picking them up from around the level and they’d follow you to a rescue point. Normally this wouldn’t actually be that difficult to code, but ASL never actually had any arrays! I’d been asking for them for a couple of projects by that point but they never got added, so my Matorans were each working as their own array elements and frantically messaging one another in a chain, which never quite worked reliably enough with ASL, so we shelved the idea.

(redacted) was one of the strat coders working with me on Bionicle. I think he’d just joined Argonaut then, but luckily, knew his stuff.

(redacted)”

I guess a few of the unused levels I found in the PS2 port of Bionicle: The Game are examples of “play areas” given how small some of them are. This message also provided some insight about ASL, the proprietary language both games were created with. This gave me a good idea about how difficult ASL was to use as well. The fact that Arognaut also had many new hires that couldn’t handle ASL’s idiosyncrasies certainly didn’t help Bionicle: The Game at all.

I later reached out to another former AI programmer affiliated with the previous one. They had some interesting things to say:

“Wow, I'm really surprised that anyone is that interested in Bionicle, because I didn't think it was a very good game, but I'm happy that you felt strongly enough to do this, I guess. That's quite an impressive bit of digging.

[Asked about ASL]

Q1) ASL wasn't a great language to use, it was being developed at the same time as the engine so it was constantly changing and was occasionally broken as well. The turnaround from making a change in code to testing it on the target device was quite slow. And coming from C++ the lack of modularity was frustrating. There was some talk in the team about wanting it to be object oriented, but anything that made it cleaner and less prone to repetition would have been good. My memory of it isn't that good since it was 20 years ago. I remember the collision and animation systems being awkward and crude as well though. Do you know about the other games that the system was used for? Catwoman took the animation engine a bit further, but it was really horrible trying to program the animation blending for finite state machines with a language that was so hard to debug.

[Asked about scrapped content in Bionicle: The Game]

Q2) I don't remember much about what was scrapped. There were different teams working on different levels and playable characters, I mainly worked on the Tahu levels and the final boss. I think there might have been some stuff scrapped from the other characters. One or two of them were developed by the team who were doing the cross platform conversion for us, and we didn't see much of what they were doing and only saw it quite late.

[Asked if any early builds of Bionicle: The Game still exist]

Q3) I have no idea - perhaps Sony or EA have archives of the earlier builds. Someone on the engine team might do, I can't think how or why a strat coder would have one.”

The issues with the collision system they mentioned are definitely present in Bionicle: The Game. It’s quite easy to glitch out of bounds, as speedrunners have demonstrated many times. We later talked about general programming concepts and discussed ASL further:

“Reassuring to know that I'm not imagining Bionicle being pretty bad! I think object oriented was just flavour of the month in 2003, Java was a highly respected language at the time and we thought it was the future. It would have been nice to work in a language that was used in other places, because having ASL on your CV was a pretty crappy prospect for seeking other work. At least if you used Fortran or Pascal it was recognised by employers as a mainstream language. WTF is ASL? I worked in two other organisations that had proprietary languages and it was annoying. The good thing about starting work at Argonaut at least was that ASL was a proven language that you could make games with, and it did let you get down to the relevant bits of gameplay you wanted to take control of. Before that I worked at Phase 3 studios where they had never made an action game before, and we spent a lot of time programming systems that had hardly any effect on gameplay. So I was grateful for ASL and the toolchain for making it easy to do some limited things. I was very impressed by someone on the iNinja team for getting ropes to work with a vertlet algorithm, we stole that later for the green Bionicle to use. I think the High Voltage Software studio might be using a different language with the same initials? I can't see how it could possibly be Argonaut's language. I'm pretty sure there was some talk about opening it up as middleware to sell other studios but I don't think we ever got there. Many of the staff from Catwoman went on to work at Rocksteady, Sony and Ninja Theory, but I think they just started using whatever engine was in place there. You could find hundreds of people who had brushes with the language.”

I asked about other studios using ASL for their games:

“What release date were the games? Argonaut folded in 2004 I think, so the creditors might have managed to sell off the technology as cheap middleware of last-gen consoles

or perhaps they were licensing the tech while we were using it, and I just hadn't been aware of it”

I sent him some notable examples of games using ASL from other studios, such as The Conduit and Ben 10: Protector of Earth:

“That fits the picture then - liquidation in 2004, sell the technology in 2005, two years of learning the systems and developing content, release in 2007

The PS3 would be the current gen console by then, but the PS2 had a large enough user base to make it a viable market, especially for movie tie-ins and children’s games”

I later asked if there was any possibility that Argonaut received parts of ASL from other sources:

“That's an interesting question... I don't know but I think Argonaut were using strats since 1993 and the language gradually evolved from Starfox to Croc and so on. I think it was around before High Voltage existed. It does seem like a massive coincidence that the header is VOLT but there aren't many words that sound cool to programmers so I still suspect it is just a coincidence. Programming was Argonaut's strongest suit, it doesn't make sense that they would buy tech in like that. I was only at the company for two years or so, ask someone who was there longer.”

Then out of the blue, another former designer from Argonaut Sheffield reached out to me about Bionicle 2. After that, I asked them a few questions:

“Hi William,

Great to hear from you. Let me see what I can do to answer your questions!

[Asked about the development process of Bionicle 2]

1. Designing the demo was a bit of a break from the usual licensed Dev. We had creative control so got to decide what direction we'd like to take things in (hence a departure from the 'standard' platforming fare of the time!) My role was predominantly as a technical designer - that was, creating ideas and prototyping/building in the tools. For the demo I was responsible for populating and scripting some of the functionalities in the level.

[Asked about the broken audio in the Xbox port of Bionicle 2]

2. Not sure on the silence in the build tbh... I seem to remember doing some work on creating and implementing some spot FX and seem to remember we put some audio track on the front end screen. With this being a closed pitch demo, I honestly can't remember if we'd created the track or sourced it from elsewhere!

[Asked if they knew about any other builds of Bionicle 2]

3. I believe a have a variety of unreleased games and demos on various formats somewhere. Most of them will be PS2 from that period.

Thanks”

When they mentioned owning a variety of unreleased games and demos, I was immediately intrigued. I later asked if they had a PS2 build of Bionicle 2 and offered to send him a copy of our Xbox build of the game in exchange for it, and to my surprise I got this:

“Hey William,

Cool, I'll have a search when I get some time and attempt to extract it for you!

Thanks”

I was ecstatic. Finally, after months of searching, I was about to get something tangible! But the days passed, and those days turned into weeks. I was beginning to lose hope until I got this message:

“Hey William,

Quick note on my progress - I've not forgotten! I delved into my garage over the weekend and came away with 3 CDs labeled bionicle 2 with various dates on!

I'll attempt to create an ISO of the latest date and share with you when I get a mo (most likely the weekend again!)

Thanks”

Not only did he have a build of the game for the PS2, but THREE of them! After seeing this, I decided to wait for the weekend to arrive. Unfortunately I would be very busy on this particular weekend, but Bionicle was still my top priority! So I proceeded to bail on my friends to wait for an obscure as hell prototype game from a discontinued children’s toy line to show up in my inbox. However, on Sunday, the weekend was coming to a close, and I had heard nothing from the former designer. My waiting and persistence later paid off after I got this message:

“Hi William,

Give this a go - no idea if it works - let me know!

(redacted)”

At last! I finally got it! The latest known PS2 build of Bionicle 2: City of Legends! But there was a problem. The game didn’t boot. Just my luck. But I wasn’t ready to give up. I ended up rebuilding the entire iso with some proprietary tools, and by some miracle, it booted up in my emulator. It’s about what you would expect: It’s similar to Xbox build in many ways, but it is also different. Unlike the Xbox port, the audio works, and there are some extra graphical effects and animations. I was also able to get the game to boot up on a real PS2 without issue.

I can’t say exactly when BioMedia Project will release this build to the public, but I'm sure it will happen soon. Until then, feel free to watch some gameplay footage of the demo on my Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/Dvmzz92F3oo

These past couple of years have been pretty crazy for Bionicle. The Legend of Mata Nui was found TWICE, and there has been so much more activity within the community as a result. I’m glad I was able to make my mark and get this unreleased build of Bionicle 2: City of Legends into the hands of the Bionicle community where it belongs. If you made it this far, Thanks for reading. If you liked this post, don’t forget to share it. I spent a lot of time researching this, and I would really appreciate it. Special Thanks:

BioMedia Project

Liam Robertson

Fraug L. Coolman

#bionicle #lego

[yukipri]

h en l o :3 in your abo au, does yuuri have any ex/es? Do the mates? If yes, what are their relationship with them? are they friends now or the exes (?) bitter?

Longer response, warnings for mentions of past partners, though y’all know what endgame is ^ ^; Non explicit mentions of sex warning.

Yuuri doesn’t have any exes, because his first romantic(?) partner was technically Phichit (even though they never explicitly called it that), and well, they never actually broke up ^ ^; And after that…well, more people are included in their growing relationship but no one’s ever dumped ^ ^;;; He’s very demi in this AU, doesn’t really have casual crushes, and only ever falls in love with people he’s very close to and loves platonically first. And well, given that he already has people, he’s never considered getting into a new relationship unless he’s completely and hopelessly in love with them first. Casual dating was never something he was interested in or could relate to.

Victor has a crapton of exes, because pre-meeting Yuuri he slept around a LOT. From his side, he didn’t consider any of them to be serious, rarely even remembers their names, but some of his ex-partners would beg to differ because he really wasn’t clear in communicating that to them. They were drawn to him because of his fame, beauty, and money; Victor used them for convenience and to temporarily dull his loneliness. It oftentimes ended super messily, super flashily, and digging through gossip magazines will bring up countless nasty breakups/scandals. Some of these ex-lovers pop up occasionally and try to cause trouble, pre-marriage because they think Victor’s tying himself to an unfavorable union having to share his mate and that he really can do better, and post-marriage because they grossly misunderstand their polyamorous marriage and assume that if Yuuri gets to “sleep around,” then Victor can too.

Continued beneath cut:

Yurio has none, because his first ever crush (and only one thereafter) was Yuuri.  He honestly doesn’t even know what his sexuality is because he’s never really thought of anyone else that way. He’s approached plenty of times especially as he gets older, sometimes even by Victor’s ex-lovers who assume the next beautiful Russian legend will follow in his predecessor’s footsteps. But Yurio carelessly brushes them all off because he’s not interested in anyone else, and doesn’t have the patience to even pretend to be nice. A few people try to cause drama regardless, lying about having had a relationship with him and trying to plant seeds of doubt in Yuuri, whose self-esteem is low enough that he can be susceptible to it. But because Yurio’s so stupidly transparent about his feelings and a lot of people (Victor and Beka especially but honestly anyone who knows him at all) have watched his attachment to Yuuri grow, it’s easy enough to shatter with limited drama.

Phichit is…complicated. He had a few casual childhood sweethearts prior to meeting Yuuri, but Yuuri was the only person he had eyes for throughout college (which he started at 16). After their ambiguous relationship drifted apart, he tries very casually dating a few people but he’d always find himself backing out before anything serious actually happened, part of him wondering if this counts as cheating on Yuuri, when they’re probably not even together. He has a bit of angst over it, but reaffirms his relationship with Yuuri soon enough ^ ^;; 

He might not have a lot of experience with others, but he’s still very comfortable with himself and enjoys sex, and post-marriage, is one of the husbands more comfortable having some fun with his fellow husbands. He has less of a strong preference for topping than most of the others, and when Yuuri’s tired or isn’t in the mood, he doesn’t mind volunteering (plus, he might learn more ways to make Yuuri feel good ey).

Minami tried casually dating while in college, but none of them lasted more than a few months because he always seemed distracted, uninvested, and thinking of someone else, all of which he thought was fair. He wasn’t even thinking of Yuuri as a realistic romantic interest (but boy can dream), he just genuinely preferred to focus on skating. Straightforward boy is straightforward, he probably has the least drama of all of them because he actually knows how to communicate and not get dragged into messes ^ ^; All of his breakups were amicable. He completely loses all interest in dating once Yuuri’s pregnant, and devotes himself entirely to their family without ever expecting anything in return. Again, while he gets to the point relatively quickly where there’s no denying he’s in love with Yuuri, and he accepts it, Minami still doesn’t think he actually has a chance with him until the day Yuuri proposes. His fans love his chaste, devoted, and refreshingly drama-free image.

Chris is well known for sleeping around a ton and he’s not at all ashamed of it, but UNLIKE Victor, who left broken hearts everywhere, Chris always tries his best to be explicitly clear to all of his partners that he’s only interested in friendship and sex. He has a hyper sexualized reputation and gossip loves trying to find some dirt on him, but he always seems to have fantastic friendships with all of his “exes,” sex friends, and one-night stands. He enjoys sex and dating and showing people a good time and is honestly fantastic at it, but also considered himself aromantic, which a lot of people found ironic, but those close to him understood. He later re-labels himself demiromantic, having fallen slowly in love with Yuuri over their decades of close friendship. He’s also great sex friends with Victor, which continues through Victor’s marriage with Yuuri (with Yuuri and everyone else’s full knowledge, consent, and oftentimes involvement).

When they were teens, Chris and Victor had comparable reputations for sleeping around, but whereas Chris would have a nice friendly brunch with his partner before cheerfully going their separate ways, Victor would get a vase thrown at his head in the morning when he said something especially callous and would turn up at Chris’s hotel room drenched and with a bitch-slap fading on his cheek going…What did I do wrong? and Chris would be like Mate u need help. Victor likes sex with Chris because even with the bickering over who tops/bottoms, it’s completely no strings attached and fun, and hey they’re pretty well matched in skill and interests and openness with sex. Victor even suggested that they try dating but Chris turned him down flat, he wants nothing to do with Victor’s drama no thank u

Otabek thought he had a relatively normal romantic/sex life, even if it was boring af. His life never seemed to particularly revolve around it, but he had a few partners, some pseudo-serious, although they got fewer and lasted shorter the older he got. He admittedly partially felt like he was going through the dating process because it was socially expected of him, and he never seemed to enjoy talking about it. Yurio, who always spewed all of his romantic woes, honestly thought Beka seemed bored and detached most of the time. Which, a lot of his lovers seemed to think that coldness was cool, but it really stilted emotional connections from forming, and usually eventually ended in them accusing Otabek of not caring. Which, wasn’t exactly false.

Otabek was honestly much more interested and invested in getting Yurio together with Yuuri, and genuinely enjoyed trying to get Yurio to un-spasm himself, especially in comparison to how tedious it felt dealing with his own relationships. He also always prioritized Yurio over any lovers, which led to some pretty angry accusations about the nature of their relationship that he brushed off. As an adult, he was dumped a few times for being invested in not only his best friend, but his best friend’s family more than in his own lover, doing things like forgetting his lover’s birthday in favor of going to celebrate that of one of the kids.

Having his own relationships end because he cared more about a relationship that technically didn’t even involve him, and then him not really caring because it was true seemed to be a trend. He gets a reputation for being a cold and heartless lover, and Otabek supposes the fact that he doesn’t mind being called that and if anything thinks it’s convenient only proves the point. (He’s still incredibly attractive and his reputation unfortunately doesn’t seem to discourage enough people, which he disdainfully thinks really tells you about what people prioritize) All of this combined with occasional too-accurate accusations that he actually wants to sleep with his best friend’s husband adds to his internal angst and prolonged denial of his feelings.

This post has been added to the YOI Future!Verse ABO AU Useful Asks Compilation post ^v^)b

#YukiPri replies #Anonymous #Future!Verse ABO AU #endgame polyamory #past headcanons #eyyyy lookit them all being disasters #well not everyone some of them are pretty chill #but lookin' at u Vic and Beka #YuriYuu #PhichiYuu #MinaYuu #ChrisYuu #OtaYuu #VicYuu

[dammitadolfnomorecake]

🏰⚔️DMODT- 6 full

Hanji knew nothing about magic, but that didn't stop the woman. Over the following month, he found himself being dragged all over the place as he "helped" the woman with her experiments. Sure, he'd learned a few things. Omegas were the only ones who could read the runes in the books of magic, and their alpha masters treated them like lackies because of it. Alphas were only really their in order to command the omegas over what not to do. He had no talent for healing. Not once did a healing spell work the way he wanted it to. He could stop the blood flowing... but he had better chance of healing an injury with traditional medicine. Hanji was practically useless. Yep, all that and that he'd accident upset the prince, who wasn't actually the prince at all. That was the biggest thing he'd learned from Hanji. For some stupid reason, Levi was only playing the part of Prince Erwin, or Erwin was playing the part of Levi's body guard. It had something to do with the way the King and Queen had died. The moment Hanji had let the secret slip, she'd used an alpha command to silence him over it. As it turned out, Hanji had nearly daily run ins with Erwin and Levi. It was so incredibly stupid, but each time they met, Eren secretly hoped for Levi to look at him. It depressed him to think that the prince didn't want him in the castle, and the only thing that came to mind as to why the man would be displeased was due to the apple tree incident. He'd apologised, and been brushed aside. Hanji had told him not to take it personally, but how could he not? He hadn't intended to cause any trouble at all, and he'd been much better at controlling his magic. Even when Hanji was finished with him, he'd head down to small woodland behind the training oval and practice until his nose bled. He couldn't form another tree, no matter how much he tried, but his battle magic had been getting better. He could now summon razor sharp winds... that had succeeded in cutting his arms to shreds, and not much else. He felt as if he'd had a real master, he would have been further in his studies. As the second visit by the Marley forces drew closer, Hanji had less time to spend training him. Armin had been full of enthusiasm over helping him, but even his friend had been drawn into helping around the castle. He could have turned to Mikasa, they'd often eat dinner together as Hanji at with the castle soldiers, but Mikasa had grown on his nerves. She wanted more from him than what he was prepared to give. She'd attempt to scent mark him every chance she got, claiming he didn't know the affect he had on the soldiers. The first time had really hurt him to hear that strangers only saw him as sex ok legs. When he'd returned to his room, he'd begun back on his homemade suppressants. He was omega, but he was also a person who'd sworn their life to Eldia. He didn't need to be a soldier to be strong. Not now that he could use his magic. He just needed to practice, and more herbs. Having been shopping with Hanji, Eren had learned that most places were happy to bill the castle for supplies. Dressed in his pants and tunic, Eren looked just like everyone else in the market place. Hanji had laughed at the impracticality of his robes, and insisted he wear pants. They weren't even the tight white pants of soldiers either, these were black and gave him a little more space to move. Plus, his bleeds or slicking didn't show. With a smile on his face, Eren took his time to savour the sights and sounds of the market row. Children played games in the street, carefree and ignorant of the world around them, or the lack of freedom the whole country was suffering. As he walked, he nodded to the various stall holders he'd met through Hanji. The store he wanted was the apothecary at the end of the road, so it wasn't technically part of the market row, but inside was just as chaotic as if it had been. Bundles of hundreds of herbs hung from the ceiling, their ground counterparts filling jars that barely seemed to hold them. If he hadn't had magic, he would have liked to be a stall holder. He would have liked to hear the stories of the hundreds of residents of capital city. But alas, he'd always be on the outside. Stopping off at his favourite fruit stall, the owner tossed him a fresh apple. With too many apples at the castle, they'd traded the stall owner for potatoes "Having a good day, Eren?" "Excellent. And you?" "Can't complain. Hey. Is it true those thugs from Marley are returning?" "I wouldn't call them thugs, but yes?" The man looked genuinely annoyed, ruining Eren's apple for him before he'd even bitten into it "Did something happen?" "Nah. Nothing you types would be interested in" "Types"? What type was that? He hadn't been born into royalty. It was only by luck that he was training at the castle "I'm plenty interested. What happened?" "Bunch of them stole from us before they took off. Couldn't do nothing to them, being honoured guests and all" That wasn't right or fair "Did you notify Prince Erwin?" "Kid's had a silver spoon in his mouth since he was born" "I've talked with Prince Erwin, I'm sure if you notified him, he'd repay you" "It's not worth the effort. Now get on with you. You're scaring my customers away" Eren nodded "Thanks for the apple" Continuing along the market, he ran into his second conversation of the day. Coming out with his arms loaded with fur L-Erwin could barely see over the pile. It was going to take him a while to get used to the farce being played out. Whenever he saw the big blond man, his mind jumped to Levi. And now he wasn't. When Erwin stumbled, Eren jogged over to him. Steadying the pile of furs as they carried it to the waiting cart. Loading them into the back, Erwin smiled down at him "Thanks for that. Are you out shopping?" "Yes, though not for quite as much as you are" "Prince Zeke wants fur cloaks for his entourage. These furs are being taken to be adjusted by our tailors" "Ugh. Of course he does" Pelts this soft would make such a nice blanket to sleep under on cold days "Yes. He's quite the handful. It feels like some time since we were able to last speak. How are things going with Hanji?" "She's no master of magic. That's for sure, but she tries" "Your magic is coming along, then?" "Slowly. I feel no bond with her though. Not like the one I'd expected. But I've found that dreams can be quite different to reality" "I'm sorry to hear that. I know how excited you were. Would you like a ride back to the castle?" "No. I'm alright. I still haven't visited the apothecary yet. I would have expected the castle to grow their own herbs, or at least have the ones I need" "Have you thought about growing them yourself?" "No. Yes. But after sprouting a tree by accident, I don't know how safe it would be to let me grow more" "We do have glass rooms set up for plant propagation. Compile a list of seeds, and I'll pass them on to the mages" "That would make things so much easier, thank you. This might seem rather bold, but I wouldn't mind attempting to grow them myself. I would like to try my magic on them, and not herbs that everyone in the castle depends upon" Levi might be the fake prince, but Erwin held the real power... "Do you have some idea where?" "Close to the woods by the training grounds, so as to be close without encroaching on the soldiers" "Very well. Draft up some idea, then I'll see that it gets to the prince" "Thank you, very much" "You're welcome. And thank you for the help with the furs. I'll leave you too it" Eren gave Erwin the best smile he could, before hurrying off towards the apothecary. Erwin seemed to still like him well enough, which meant he'd insulted Levi somehow... It confused him, then annoyed him, then pissed him right off. He hadn't done anything to Levi for him to be mad. It'd be one thing if he had, but the real prince of the kingdom wasn't mad at him. Entering the apothecary, the whole process only took a few minutes as he knew what he wanted and needed. A dozen herbs later, the cloud of depression around him lifted. Remembering he was sending the bill to the castle, he added a few more herbs to his own list as a jab at Levi. If the man was going to be mad, he might as make him really mad. Leaving the apothecary store, he found Erwin waiting for him "Weren't you returning to the castle?" "I am. I didn't feel right about leaving you here to walk back" Starting to walk towards the fur cart, Eren fell into step with him "I would have been just fine. I did walk down here myself" "I know you frequent the market with Hanji, but the market can be a dangerous place for an omega. Less desirable people make a game of hunting mages and magic users. You really shouldn't be down here by yourself" Why hadn't Erwin said that before? Had he missed something happening? Had Erwin needed to step in and save him? He hoped not "I'm sorry..." "No. It's not your fault. Since Marley came into the scene under this peace treaty, things have grown hard for the residents of the city. This is not your fault" "Why can't you do anything?" "Because Marley will cry war. Being on the main land, they have a number of allies. Unfortunately, Eldia suffers. The Prince doesn't like it, but... it's either people dying senseless deaths in war, or us trying to find some balance and protecting all we can" He didn't expect such a heavy answer. Maybe Erwin was more than a pretty face? "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to saddle you with this?" Eren shook his head quickly "I don't mind. I did come to the castle to be of use after I took my vow" "I shall keep that in mind. Would you like some help getting up?" Eren's face redden as his mind immediately went to sex with Erwin comment, instead of help into the wagon. Before he answered, Erwin lifted him like he weighed nothing, settling him on the front driver's seat, before climbing up beside him "There wasn't anything else you needed, was there?" "No, just the herbs. Thank you" * Erwin was taking too long for Levi's liking. Standing in the castle courtyard, the stump of the apple tree had been turned into the base of an anvil, a blacksmith working on a horseshoe as he stared down at it. It'd been a truly impressive tree, and he was almost sad to see it gone. It'd provided the keep with shade, and seemed to make the whole space less sticky and humid. But it also provided far too many shadows for would be assassins. Grumbling under his breath, he heard Erwin before he saw him. The alpha laughing heartedly as he drove the cart into the keep. Riding beside him was Eren, the teen laughing just as hard as Erwin pulled up near the service entrance just short of the walkway Levi was glaring at the world from. Jumping down, Erwin said something that Eren raising his hands in protest. It didn't stop Erwin from rounding the cart and lifting Eren down. The whole interaction pissed him off. Erwin had kept him waiting all damn morning, just so he could play hooky with Eren. Passing small wrapped parcels to Eren, lessened his annoyance. Erwin must have given the omega lift back to the castle. Though what Eren was doing out on his own, he didn't know. It wasn't safe for omegas to just be walking around, confirming his thoughts that kid was a naive brat. He'd already copped a lecture from squad leader Ackerman about it, and had an hour long "talk" with Hanji over Eren's progress. Hanji felt that because Eren didn't understand his powers, he wasn't able to tap into completely. Whatever. It wasn't his problem anyway. He had no reason for talking to the omega now that Zeke wasn't there. There was nothing between them, not even the pull of the bond formed on the altar. It was another few days of annoyance and upset routine, before he literally ran into Eren again. Rushing through the castle, the young omega hadn't been paying attention at all, as he ran straight into him. Bouncing back, Eren hit the floor with a thud, while Levi's hand had flown to his sword. Normally people paid much more attention, instead of being shitty idiots "Eren? Are you alright?" "I'm so sorry, sirs. I was supposed to meet with court mages this morning, but Hanji only just passed the message on" The woman was a damn menace. Reaching down, Erwin pulled Eren from the floor "You'd better get along then" "Yes. I'm so sorry" Both of them stepped aside, leaving a path for Eren between them. Levi drew his brow in concern as the scent coming off Eren. He didn't smell like himself, and he left the trace hints of blood behind. Taking two steps, Levi knelt down, reaching out to touch the place where Eren had landed. His finger tips coming back dry, apart from the tiny specks of blood "Is everything ok?" "Eren's bleeding" "Bleeding?" Rising, he showed his fingers to Erwin "That does seem to be blood. But it could be entirely natural" "It's not natural for male omegas to bleed... If he's sick, it could mean trouble" "And if he's not, you'll be embarrassing him" "Then have a word with the head healer. Have them make sure the kid hadn't contracted something contagious. His scent was wrong too" "You know his scent now?" "It smells of rain. Today, he smelt blank. If his magic flared again, he may just bring down the castle" Marley would be there in just a couple more days. Everything had been made perfect for Prince Pin-Dick's arrival "I'll see what can be done. But Levi, if Eren's powers are causing you so much worry, wouldn't it be better to send him from the castle?" Did he want to send Eren from the castle? Something inside him fiercely hated the thought... his alpha sore over him not wanting to pursue the omega, yet... He couldn't bring himself to dismiss Eren completely. Each time he caught a whiff of the omegas scent, or a caught a glance of him rushing through the castle... or even just the thought of Eren being under the same roof as him, he'd find himself scrambling to push the omega from his mind, then scrambling for excuses as to why Eren couldn't leave "No. He may fall into the hands of the enemy. Plus, Zeke may not be impressed at the lack of Eren being there" "Do you think he'd care about Eren, after this time apart?" "Probably. Because it's him and he just wants to be an arsehole. Their rooms are ready, correct?" "Yes. I've checked them myself. We've withstood Zeke before, and we will again" "And the entertainment?" "The finest musicians have been called to the castle. The mages have been given their orders, and they've promised a sky show to remember" "And you've got the updated hunting maps?" "Picked them up with the furs. Arrangements have been made for an extended hunting trip. Tents and camp organised for the forest to the south" He'd prefer not to hunt in the south, but Isabel and Farlan had found signs of illegal poaching, and thanks to shitty Marley messing with his schedule, he hadn't been able to ride out and check it. No doubt, Zeke was sure to blame his ineptness for the poachers "Very well. Everything must go smoothly" "You're worrying too much" Levi glared at Erwin "You're not worried enough. Go make sure Eren is alright, and make go check with Shitty Glasses about his training. If she can't bring his magic under control, we need to find someone more appropriate" "Hanji isn't going to like that" "Between her and the castle, I choose the castle" "Of course you do. Just don't forget you need to check in with the kitchen over the menu for Marley's stay, and you need to be there for gear inspection..." "I know. You take care of your job, and I'll take care of mine" * Eren was sure he was in trouble. Hanji had signed off on his small shopping trip, though asked that in future he went through her over the herbs he needed. That wasn't happening. He didn't want to be a burden on her, not when she had so much to do around the castle as it was. Not being a magic user, or master, Hanji didn't know about the classes some mages had access to. Eren didn't even know about it until he was summoned down to meet with one of the older omegas who was in charge of entertainment while Marley was there. Three or four masters had come together to train their omegas in broader magic uses, but perhaps more exciting than forcing his way into those classes was that he got to take part in the sky show being planned to wow Marley. It was so last moment, he didn't know how it'd happened, yet he was thrilled to be of some use. All his life, Eren had thought that complex magic spells were required for magic, yet the runes in the books were more ideas and suggestions. It was rather weird to read about spells, then have mental images stab at his brain over it. The clearer the mental image, the clearer the results from the spells. For all her ramblings and excitement, Hanji had never told him that. Instead it'd taken a few snarky comments from older mages, who had decided he was particularly useless because he couldn't create a shower of magical sparks like they could. Still. A strong imagination didn't mean a strong spell, necessarily. It was just the first step of the race, and Eren seemed to be on a completely different playing field. Spending hours with the mages, Eren was growing more and more frustrated. He could make a small shower of sparkles appear... around his fingers and that was that. He felt sick to his stomach, exhausted and uncomfortably hot. He didn't understand why it was so easy for everyone else. He'd taken his vows. He was taking his studies with an unusual and almost fanatical devotion, yet all he seemed to be able to do was produce small party tricks. When he closed his eyes, he could focus on what he wanted. A whole sky lit up bright in a shower of silver and blue. He'd done what he was told to do... which had to mean, he was the problem. Had he taken his vows too soon? Or was it because his magic had been useless for so long? Swaying on the spot, he dropped to his knees. Why couldn't he do what everyone else could do?! Left to sit where he'd fallen, one of the other masters took pity of him. Heaving him up by his arm, the man wrapped an arm around his waist as he gave a sniff. Slightly offended, Eren tried to stand alone, but his knees would support him "Stop it. You're liable to give yourself an aneurysm with all this straining" Glaring at the man, he seemed to tower over him, by at least a head "What would you know?" "I know you're learning nothing under Hanji" "Hanji is my master" "Is she?" Eren's scowl deepened "Don't be like that, I know you've suspected as much. The only one who can draw the magic out of you, is your master" Eren was sick of feeling insulted and sick of feeling sick. His head was starting to throb in time with his stomach, his tongue getting the better of him as he angrily hissed "And who are you?! How do you seem to magically know what's happening between Hanji and I?! She is my master!" "We both know you were mounted by a male alpha, not a female" "I..." He didn't remember the ritual. Once the blood of those in the cavern had been drunk, he couldn't remember anything that happened after it. Only a feeling of being right where he was supposed to be, and a feeling of being held warm and safe "Who are you?" "My name is Reiner. I am a master here, and have been since Marley signed the treaty with Eldia" So Reiner came from Marley? Why the fuck was he working as a master here then? Marley had their own mages... "Well, Reiner. Then I must be a magic user who's master regretted mounting me. Would you care to go ahead and laugh?" "I would never laugh. Instead, I shall give you a piece of advice. Seek out your true master, and whatever herbs you are taking for your... condition, stop. Being a magic user requires you to be in tune with yourself and your master. Your master gives you strength through the bonds formed each time you lay together" Eren pursed his lips. Reiner wasn't like he'd expected. The alpha hadn't been insulted by his snappy retorts "And how do you suppose I do that?" "You should feel it. When you're in the company of him, you shall feel it" "And what if I don't?" "Then there's always a spell. Employ the use of a scrying circle. Concentrate on the thought of your master and the answer should be revealed" "Why are you telling me this?" "Because you remind me of myself. Stuck with no way out, except to live up to someone else's expectations. That apple tree you rose, was just a small sliver of the power you have, and we all have high hopes for you" Mulling Reiner's words over in his mind, he let himself be helped back up to the castle. Parting with Reiner, Eren didn't know how he felt about the man. Everyone else had left him, yet Reiner had sought him out to tell him he needed to find his proper master. What happened when he did? Why had they turned their backs on him, and left him to Hanji? He knew he could be loud, but only because he so desperately wanted to be useful. Was that so wrong? And could he possibly solve his dilemma? If Hanji was lying to him, who else was? And why? Wrapping his arms around himself, he suddenly felt very much alone, and incredibly small. He'd thought he was making friends here... but maybe Armin and Mikasa were his only friends? He didn't really know the people of the castle. Even Erwin and Levi weren't who they said they were. How much of all of this was actually a lie?

[jamesstegall]

A musical postcard to MIT graduates

On February 11, I got a call from MIT’s executive director of Institute events and protocol, Gayle Gallagher. President Reif had just announced that MIT would again be conducting commencement online—and to open the ceremony, we needed a compelling piece of music that would evoke renewal as we began to emerge from the pandemic. 

After nearly a year of socially distanced teaching, learning, and living, I envisioned music that not only reflected upon the losses and challenges we’ve faced but also embraced optimism about how we might come back from darkness as a better and more thoughtful society. Involving many music students and highlighting MIT’s iconic campus quickly became priorities. And the intimacy of the voice was a must.

But what was feasible, given MIT’s covid protocols? With few exceptions, students weren’t allowed to play or sing together in the same spaces. And who—on short notice—could craft a composition with such a specific intention, and for the unusual combined forces of orchestra, wind ensemble, jazz ensemble, Senegalese drumming ensemble, and multiple choirs? We needed a composer with the technical and professional chops to tackle such a daunting task—and the heart and humanity to understand why it was needed for this moment in time. 

I instantly knew that Tony Award–­winning alumnus Jamshied Sharifi ’83, with his long history of working with MIT students and his willingness to take on large-scale projects, was the only person for the job. Always in high demand—even during the pandemic—as an arranger, producer, and composer for Broadway, film, and artists in many genres, he agreed to do it at once. 

Because this project would involve singers, unlike the instrumental collaborations we’d done over the years, we knew we had to find an appropriate text. At Gayle’s suggestion, I contacted MIT poet Erica Funkhouser, who compiled some of her students’ recent poems about the pandemic. And once Jamshied read them, his vision became clear. “The emotional openness, simplicity, and, at times, aching sadness of their writing was my guiding light,” he says, “and informed all compositional decisions.” 

From inbox to realization

Though I’ve coordinated other complex, large-scale concerts, this project was uncharted territory. It involved organizing recording sessions for five ensembles, accommodating students not on campus, rehearsing in person and online, and structuring a 10-hour film shoot in five locations on campus. The logistical challenges were mind-boggling—we even had to get a massive crane on the sidewalk outside of 77 Mass. Ave. moved.

On May 3—a month and a day before the commencement-day premiere—Jamshied’s score and midi file for Diary of a Pandemic Year arrived in my inbox. I knew well what he was capable of, but what he’d sent brought me to tears. The flow, the tone, his handling of the text, and the way he shaped this five-and-a-half-minute sonic journey from dark to light—all of it was just perfect. Because he wanted vocalists to hear their parts with real voices, he had also taken on the arduous task of recording all of them for the audio file himself. 

My colleagues and I were off and running to bring the piece to life. Multimedia specialist Luis “Cuco” Daglio—who helped keep Music and Theater Arts musical performances going for 15 straight months—again donned his superhero cape, recording seven separate sessions for groups of MIT musicians. 

So how did the final virtual performance come together? First, all the instrumentalists and vocalists recorded themselves playing or singing to Jamshied’s midi file. Jamshied then mixed and mastered all these tracks—well over 200 of them—until Diary of a Pandemic Year was transformed into a living, breathing piece of music.

“Reading the MIT poets’ selected lines, I began to get a sense of the impact of the pandemic on young people—its larger significance given their fewer years on the planet, its limiting force on a time that should for them be exploratory.” 

—Jamshied Sharifi ’83

During the epic filming day—overseen by Clayton Hainsworth, director of MIT Video Productions (MVP)—the original file was amplified through speakers for all players and singers to perform to live. Even with the restriction of having to play or sing to the midi track, it still felt revelatory. Emmy Award–winning MVP producer and editor Jean Dunoyer ’87 led the video team, which beautifully captured the emotional scope of the composition and the expressiveness of the students’ performance.

“At the end of a long year and a half of meeting to make music over Zoom and in separate practice rooms, filming the music video gave us a chance to perform together in person in a very meaningful way,” says MIT Wind Ensemble saxophonist Rachel Morgan, a graduate student in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. “It meant so much to see what MIT music can do!”

While Jamshied was working his audio-mixing magic, Jean, whom I consider the other magician of the project, was creatively translating the score to film. “I wanted the piece to be an invitation to the community to return to campus, unmasked and in person,” he explains. “The joy of togetherness was the thing that was most missed by our students over the past months, and when the signal arrived that the vaccine was working, the yearning to gather once again was palpable.”

Powerful messages for the future

The work everyone took on to realize Diary of a Pandemic Year was emblematic of the central role music, and the arts in general, play in the lives of so many MIT students. It testified to how determined students, faculty, and staff had been to ensure the continuation of music performance under very trying circumstances since the start of the pandemic. 

As Erica put it, “Diary of a Pandemic Year felt like a musical postcard to the graduates from The World, even though it could only have been created at MIT.” 

Days before the premiere, Jamshied reflected upon the universality of the piece and its central message. “Reading the MIT poets’ selected lines, and the longer poems from which they were drawn, I began to get a sense of the impact of the pandemic on young people—its larger significance given their fewer years on the planet, its limiting force on a time that should for them be exploratory and expansive, and its uncomfortable place in a matrix of unfolding calamities brought on primarily by human inattention and hubris,” he wrote. “The current moment feels hopeful; the birds sing of new life. But I sense in the pandemic a warning, and an unsubtle suggestion that we should not ‘return to normal,’ but seek an evolved, equitable, and holistic way of structuring our world. Our young people know this in their bones. We should listen.” 

Frederick Harris Jr. of the Music and Theater Arts faculty is music director of the MIT Wind Ensemble and the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble.

from MIT Technology Review https://ift.tt/3sLkcsg via IFTTT

#IFTTT #MIT Technology Review

[uniformbravo]

“quick” life update while i wait for my ipod to charge

(do ppl even still use ipods in this day & age. whats spotify)

i never made any posts abt it but i started the new semester & im taking 2 classes, it’s funny actually bc i waited even more til the last minute than i usually do to figure out my classes & spent the 1st week of school trying to see a counselor to find out if i still needed classes and that’s a whole other story for a whole other day but long story short the answer was no but i decided to take a couple anyway

mainly because every time im not in school The Depression takes over & i just needed something to Do so im taking intermediate painting (even tho painting 1 made me want 2 die every day) and animation (even tho i’ve already decided i don’t want to be an animator????)

so heres the thing, okay, since these are classes i don’t need in order to fill any requirements or anything i had to pick them based on nothing, really, like my main reason for taking classes this semester was to give myself something to do, right. i picked painting because my friend had told me she was taking it so i was like yo i’ll just do that too bc we had fun last time & it’s a good way to stay in contact. originally that was gonna be my only class bc i knew it’d be a lot of work and time but then i talked to my school’s art counselor about transferring to another school after im graduated from here and i’d said i was maybe interested in storyboarding so we looked at schools with animation programs and i decided super last minute to just take the animation class here and Boy what a mistake

last semester i was talking on here about a computer art class i had considered taking but dropped bc it seemed kinda... shitty?? because i hated the way the teacher taught and i felt like i wasn’t gonna gain anything from the class??? well animation is taught by the same guy and hhhhhhhhh he’s so fucking unhelpful it’s such a nothing class

see i was hoping to learn some hand-drawn animation basics like timing, squash & stretch, the fucking bouncing ball assignment, shit like that, right. the teacher was like “today we’re gonna go over the 12 principles of animation” and i was like “sweet i’ve heard of that this’ll be good” & literally he brought up a list, read off most of the names, briefly described a few, and told us to google it if we wanted more info like?? holy shit dude????? thanks for nothing oh my god

i’ve been taking a lot of time practicing animating in flipnote studio on my 3ds and watching youtube videos and i’ve been learning so much more from that than anything explained by my teacher bc godddd. basically what the class boils down to is like. flash animation. so far we’ve been working in adobe illustrator and animate & i cannot stand illustrator. i know it’s a good and useful program and if i wanted to i could learn how to use it & eventually get used to it but just the way he teaches it makes me want 2 slam dunk my computer

the computer art basics class was strongly recommended to be taken before this class but tbh i don’t even think that’s the issue here because i tried to take that class and his method was the same; he does a demo on screen that you’re supposed to follow along and do with him and he explains what hes doing as he goes but he goes so fast that if u miss a step ur fucked 

and it’s not just that he goes fast, it’s also that theres no understanding of the program itself, like ok u know how in math there’s all these formulas where if u just plug numbers into them it gives u the right answer? i always understood formulas better when i knew what each variable stood for & why the values were being added or multiplied together because then it made it easier to extract the information i needed from word problems and also helped me memorize the formulas themselves easier because i could make those associations between numbers and purpose. i had the groundwork of the formula, so i could apply it to all kinds of situations

this class is like, he only gives you the very specific formulas required to accomplish very specific tasks in the programs so i can’t make the connections to figure out how to perform other tasks and i get super lost every time & it’s super frustrating & i could ask for help because he comes around and helps people who need it but i sit in the back corner so he never really even looks my way so i feel like i can’t get his attention w/o speaking up or getting up to go get him & i get lost so often that it’s really just a pain to ask him every single time

i just hate when i have a problem in one of the programs & i just have absolutely no clue how to fix it or even work around it? im used to photoshop and illustrator is just so opposite that my brain doesn’t want to work with it so im. 100% floundering in this class

we have 2 assignments during the whole semester, the first was a group project where we hand draw a 3-second animation (~30 frames) and that was literally the very first thing we did in the class with no prior guidance and honestly i suspect that the only reason he assigns it is to fill the requirement for a group project (which i know is a thing bc a lot of my past teachers have talked about it being a thing) so it was literally just. a nothing project

the second assignment is our final which is a 90-second animation (~1080 frames) and we have basically the rest of the semester to work on it, so about a month and a half-ish? and all we’ve learned how to do so far is motion tweening in animate, basically. i mean we did a ball-and-string thing which was kind of different but it mostly involved a lot of copy+paste bullshit in illustrator & also like automatic shortcuts & stuff, there was really no drawing involved at all

also it’s one of those classes where everyone just kind of messes around and does their own thing like?? i saw one girl reading manga on her computer & these two dudes at my table were comparing yugioh cards & i hear like 50 thousand conversations about anime every day & i mean im not one to talk tbh but it’s just the atmosphere, it feels like u either know what ur doing or u just fuck around w/ ur friends and im in the “neither of those” category and the girl who was reading manga is in the “both” category bc every other time i’ve looked over there she’s got this amazing masterpiece on her screen that she made in illustrator & i die inside every time what the fuckkc 

he showed us examples of final projects from last semester and i noticed that some of them were done traditionally or in programs that were obviously not illustrator so i asked him about it & he said it doesn’t have to be done in illustrator/animate as long as it’s 90 seconds long so Guess What i think i’m just gonna make it somewhere else lmaooo i mean i feel like it’s a missed opportunity bc i have these programs at my disposal & im not even using them but god amn. god fuckign damn

im thinking of animating it in flipnote bc that’s what i’ve been using & im pretty familiar with it by now but im not sure because there are some important things im not sure i’ll be able to accomplish with it like backgrounds (which are another requirement for the assignment) and i don’t want to back myself into a corner, especially with how little time i have to do it, so idk for sure. my other idea was to use clip studio paint but i have the pro version which only lets u use 24 frames per animation which totals out to a whopping 2 seconds so idk if i want to have to deal with that bullshit either. right now im considering making the rough animation in flipnote so i can figure out the timing & shit and then slapping it into clip studio to finalize everything (or technically i could even do that in photoshop, since im more familiar w/ it & can probably work faster there- from photoshop it’d be a matter of copying the finished frames into clip studio to export into 2-second clips & then compile those in movie maker & then bam finished animation)

so!!! it’s a lot of shit im dealing with in this class & im just like. if im doing it this way then why do i even need to show up for class. what am i even in this class for im just basically making an animation on my own time with my own resources using none of the techniques taught in the class. im only doing this animation because it’s an assignment for the class im not gaining anything from. it just seems so pointless & the only thing getting me through it is the thought that i could possibly put this in a portfolio somewhere down the line, and for that i’d want it to look nice and not rushed so im thinking that for the sake of finishing the assignment i might just use my rough animation so that i can spend more time on the “nice” version afterward

aaaanyway it’s um Late for me & i went on about this for too long but i needed to get it off my chest tbh, i’ve been thinking abt making this post for like 2 weeks so there u go. i didn’t even talk about my painting troubles good lord. if you’ve been wondering why i havent been online as much lately This is why. also bc im a huge loser and 100% of my free time has been going into watching anime bye

#retag later #me? complaining for an hour?? maybe #school / #i usually reread these & edit them to make things sound better but this time im too tired so if anything doesnt make sense sorry

[zero-page-game]

Building an Emulator

My journey to writing an NES emulator (and later the Apple II emulator) started with a simple question: How can this old hardware be recreated with modern code?

What followed was a lot of learning about the early days of computers and how machines of old linked their hard and software unlike anything we're capable of doing these days. There's a real simplicity and cleverness to how it all hangs together, and I think it's worth anyone's time to jump head first down the rabbit hole of building an emulator.

A Quick Caveat

Before you fire up your favorite compiler and start typing up your own NES emulator, it's worth noting that you're starting down a path many have gone down before. Spending five minutes on an emulator enthusiast bulletin board will give you handfuls of links to people's half-finished work. There are some really bulletproof emulators around these days, mostly because there's a wealth of experience and knowledge (and documentation) around the whole thing. There are a few novel examples of people doing new things in the space, but for the most part it's a solved problem.

So if you're going to go down this road, just know that few people are going to congratulate you or be very interested in the end result. Don't spend too much time coming up with a catchy name for your emulator, because at the end of the day no one is going to choose it over what's already out there.

Why Bother?

So if it's been done before, why bother? Well, for one it's a wholly unique experience in the field of programming. Usually when you build something that has a high tech investment you're dealing with a lot of variables. You don't know exactly what specifications you want to use for it. How much memory would it need? What's the video resolution? How does the controller work? Typically you would iron these details out over months or years before you could even think of building the first product to actually run on it.

Emulators don't have any of these problems. Your task is to recreate the behavior of a known piece of hardware as exactly as you can. Everything about the machine is generally available for your inspection so you're working from a complete and "shipped" technical spec. What's more, you have a massive (and generally very familiar) set of products that have already shipped on the machine. So you have all the known test cases in the world at your disposal at any given time. This means that you don't have to build complex systems and hope an artist or designer can figure them out and use them, you just have to make Mario jump on the screen and have it scroll to the next (which is actually easier said than done).

What you're in for, generally, is a lot of debugging. And if done right this is a fantastic way to get better at that crucial skill set. You'll most likely sit down and read a piece of the documentation for the hardware, write your first take at it, fire up a ROM to check it against, then invariably scratch  your head at the weird result you see. Then you'll check the docs again, cross reference with some other sites, look at the code again, step through it all, rinse, repeat. It can be really tedious and confusing sometimes, but it's incredibly fulfilling when you fix an issue and suddenly a big chunk of a game comes to life before your eyes. That fulfillment generally diminishes a bit when you find the next issue, but over time you see your work get more and more robust, playing a greater number of titles.

Which is the other great thing about making an emulator: It's a lot of fun to test it! You're playing games you may have grown up with, but now you're seeing them through fresh eyes because you know how the sprites are being drawn on the screen and how the color palette works. You appreciate the logic being strung together in 6502 assembly code, and just how little resources were available to make these great titles.

For all those reasons I think it's a really fantastic project if you like to code. Just know when you're into the point of diminishing returns on making your emulator "perfect". It's driven many a coder insane, and as mentioned before, other people have already climbed that mountain before you.

Where to Start?

There are plenty of good resources for learning about making an emulator. It's going to be tempting to want to dive in and figure out how to draw things or make sounds (spoiler: the latter task sucks) but I would stress that you'll want to start out with a solid 6502 emulation. The 6502 is the processor at the heart of the NES. It was cheap and relatively powerful for its price point, so it found its way into many well-known products of that era. The nice thing is that it's also a fairly simple thing to wrap your head around once you get started. I won't go into the details of the registers and status flags, there are plenty of resources for that as well. What I would say though is to get a CPU unit test program like nestest to verify that your work is behaving properly. Writing an emulation for the processor is tedious, but gloriously so. You implement an opcode, test it, and watch it do what you expect. Then you move to the next and repeat. You slowly build up not only a working processor but also your understanding of exactly what it's doing.

One tip I would give you is to pay attention to cycle counts as you write this. It seems pointless when you're just starting out, but being wrong by even a few cycles here or there can cause lots of headaches down the road. The documents will tell you exactly how to count cycles, so just get in the habit of doing it as you go along.

Next Steps

Once the nestest ROM is working, you're ready to start seeing something on the screen. When I started I wanted to jump into the background images first, but I would suggest a different tack: once you have the barest background working, move on to sprites. Why? They're simple and they will show you real working code faster. The first time I could see characters moving around on screen with real code controlling their movement it was like magic.

Now at this point you're going to go out and download Super Mario Bros and try to get it running right away. Don't do that. I did that starting out as well thinking that since SMB came with the system it must be fairly rudimentary. But sadly SMB is not rudimentary and it's not straightforward. It will bite you in a bunch of different ways I can't even begin to explain yet, so just put that ROM on the shelf and come back to it much later.

Instead, try something simple like Balloon Fight. Never heard of it? Neither had I, but it's basically a Joust-alike. What makes it a good choice is that it is actually straightforward and has no scrolling. This means you can pretty rapidly go from nothing on the screen to seeing things moving, to actually controlling those things and playing the game. I ironed out a lot of issues on that ROM before ever setting foot into another.

Off Into the Wilderness

Once you've got those basics working it becomes more of an open exploration of the software space. Do you want to handle scrolling and memory mirroring? Maybe you want to run a certain title so you'll need to wrap your head around memory mappers to actually get at the data. Or you've got those working and you're wondering why your backgrounds don't scroll like they should. Have fun with "sprite zero" collisions! Once you've got a foothold and you can see things happening on the screen, you're either going to be hooked or exhausted.

You'll be able to find your own way from there.

#zero_page #indiedev #indiegamedev #gamedev #emulation #programming

[its-lifestyle]

On the night of June 25, the lights at the Marina Bay Sands Theatre in Singapore shone brightly, casting an illuminating glow on the faces of chef Mauro Colagreco and his team from Mirazur, a restaurant in Menton, France.

Mirazur had just nabbed the title of the best restaurant in the world in the prestigious annual World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2019 list, the first time a French restaurant made it to the top spot in the list’s 18-year history.

“It’s incredible, I don’t have words to explain. I own the sky!” said a joyous Colagreco.

But to understand how Mirazur edged its way to the zenith of the global restaurant scene, you first have to understand how the various cogs of the behemoth World’s 50 Best Restaurants machine work.

The inner workings

The World’s 50 Best Restaurants was initiated in 2002 by the staff of Restaurant magazine in London, designed as an alternative to regular restaurant guides. The magazine is owned by William Reed Business Media, which still organises the annual event (although Restaurant itself is no longer involved in compiling the list).

Over the years, it has evolved into an illustrious global restaurant ranking list imbued with power, repute and prestige. In recent years, the list has started attracting a stronger pull than that starriest of guides – the Michelin Guide. But to compile a list that calls itself the “world’s best” is a mammoth undertaking that is not without its faults.

Although technically every single restaurant in the world is eligible for nomination, the academy tends to favour fine-dining haunts with tasting menus like the one from Osteria Fransescana (pictured here). Photo: Paolo Terzi

To begin with, the list is put together by 1,040 voters from 26 regions across the world (and yes, Malaysia is included under the South-East Asian region). What defines a region though still seems to be rooted in traditionally accepted culinary strongholds – China and Korea for instance, are clumped under one region while Italy and France have a region each to themselves. Given the vastness of China compared to France and Italy, this inequity sets the tone for gross imbalance in some regions.

In terms of the voting, each region has an appointed chairperson charged with selecting 40 voters (including themselves) for their region. The voters are split equally into three categories – chefs and restaurateurs; food writers; and well-travelled gourmets who have to vote for their 10 favourite restaurants in the past 18 months (including four that must be outside their own region). Every year, a minimum of 25% of the panel is renewed and all the suggested voters have to go through a strict selection process.

“We liaise with the academy chair in each voting region on who they propose to be their voters, so they nominate them but with very strict guidelines from us. Then they put forth the panel and we say ‘yes’ or ‘no’,” said William Drew, director of content for the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.

This year, the World’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy also instituted a 50-50 gender split on the voting panel, following complaints that there were not enough female voters and very few female-led restaurants on the overall top 50.

The academy voters now travel all over the globe to eat, as evidenced by the fact that chef Julien Royer’s Odette in Singapore is now one of the top 20 restaurants in the world. Photo: Suasti Lye

“The thing we can control is who’s voting, not who they’re voting for. Where it is within our control, we can control it,” said Drew.

The new voting split does seem to offer a way to try and initiate some positive changes in the restaurant scene.

The academy is slowly but surely becoming more inclusive in its selections for the top 50. Pictured here is the rice broth and peppered prawn heads from Chinese restaurant The Chairman, ranked No 41 on the list. – W50BR

“I think the diversity and the balance should come from the voters. I agree that if 100% of the voters are men, then they will have very masculine opinions. Whereas if you have a 50-50 voter split, I think that’s a fairer assessment and I think that’s where the gender balance should be,” said Benjamin Yong, CEO of the Big Group, who attended the World’s 50 Best Restaurants event and has eaten at over 20 of the restaurants in this year’s top 50 list.

Others had slightly different views. Famed French chef Eric Ripert of New York’s Le Bernadin (ranked #26 on the 2019 list) said he believes the voter demographic should mirror the realities in restaurants.

“I think ultimately at the end of the day, it has to be reflective of what the industry is – if the industry has 50% of women chefs who are excellent, they should be in the list,” he said.

If that’s true, then either female chefs are far behind their peers or the industry itself is still struggling to shrug off old-school perceptions because despite the changes to the panel, this year’s 50 Best still only has five restaurants led by female chefs on the list.

So in spite of the academy’s best efforts, nothing’s really changed – yet.

Contending with controversy

The World’s 50 Best Restaurants has generated controversy from the time of its inception and continues to attract contention – unsurprising, given the power it wields.

Unlike the Michelin Guide, whose inspectors are anonymous and fund their own meals at restaurants, voters in the World’s 50 Best are not required to pay for their own meals (although they are meant to remain anonymous). This in turn, has had the effect of tourism bodies and individual restaurants with deep pockets courting people they believe are voters.

Drew says that even though restaurants and tourism bodies may try to lobby voters to their eateries, they are making wild guesses about their identities, as voters have to remain anonymous. – W50BR

Drew, however, says that although restaurants might actively lobby people to come to their restaurants, they cannot possibly know whether the people they are inviting are voters or not.

“What they do is they lobby people to come to their tables, because that’s their job, to get people into their restaurants. The country’s tourism bodies, they don’t know if those people are voters or not. There are millions of people in the world. Of course they may make a guess – they may be right, they may be wrong,” he said.

If their guesses are right – there is the very tangible possibility that voters can be bought with free meals and in some instances, free trips. Add to that the fact that there is no scoring criteria required when submitting votes and you have all the workings of a potentially biased global panel.

Yong says these overt PR and marketing gimmicks sometimes mean that restaurants that blow their own trumpets can trump others that prefer to remain low-key.

“I was surprised that Ibai in San Sebastian wasn’t on the list – it’s got some of the best food I’ve ever eaten. But I think they are averse to awards, so maybe they shy away and don’t get involved.

“So I agree 150% that good PR goes a very long, long way. There are so many restaurants in the world so at some stage, somebody has to do something loud enough to be noticed for people to say, ‘I should check it out’,” Yong says.

Innes says being awarded the title of the world’s best chef means she gets a platform so people can hear her. – W50BR

Another award that has drawn criticism is the World’s Best Female Chef, an annual subsidiary title bestowed by the academy since 2011 that has been accused of being counter-productive to the concept of equality and inclusivity.

If even the Academy Awards doles out awards based on the best male and female actors – why shouldn’t the restaurant industry single out female chefs for special recognition?

But others have chosen to view it differently, positing that perhaps the status quo needs to be shaken up and maybe momentum needs to be created where none existed before.

This year’s recipient, 28-year-old Mexican chef Daniela Soto-Innes said, “It’s about a platform and when you are given the opportunity to have a voice so people can hear you, it doesn’t matter what the title is, it’s about the opportunity that you are given so be grateful about it and take it in with all the grace. And if people want to think bad things about the opportunity that I am given, it’s not on me,” she said.

With the new rules in place, the legendary Massimo Bottura’s restaurant Osteria Franscescana (which held the No 1 spot last year) will no longer be eligible to compete. – W50BR

The issue that perhaps ignited the most debate at this year’s World’s 50 Best Restaurants award is the fact that previous restaurants that attained the #1 spot are no longer eligible to compete. This means restaurants like Daniel Humm’s Eleven Madison Park, Massimo Bottura’s Osteria Fransescana and the Roca brothers’ El Celler de Can Roca are no longer in contention (all were the prime contenders for the #1 spot).

Instead, all these restaurants get shunted to a Best of the Best list, sort of like a hall of fame for restaurants. This automatically applies to Mirazur now, which means that although he’s only 42, Colagreco will never be able to compete again unless he opens a new restaurant.

Still, most of the chefs on the Best of the Best list – at least on the face of it – seem to have accepted their exclusion from the race with good grace.

“The amazing part of this list is how it’s so global and shines a light on so many areas of the world which no other list has done. And I think the one part about the list we all know is, it’s not so much about your performance, it’s more about the moment.

“It’s sort of like being the restaurant for the moment. Like I know our restaurant is better than it’s ever been but I also understand that it can’t be our moment forever. There has to be moments for others,” says Humm.

Pulse on what’s current

In many ways, Humm’s words echo everything that is good about the list: 1) it has a more global reach and; 2)it’s got a pulse on what’s trending.

This far surpasses the more classic century-old Michelin Guide, which holds court in North America, Europe and a few Asian countries, with notable country omissions like Peru, Australia, Mexico and the entire African continent proving that it doesn’t quite reach the crooks and crevices around the planet that the World’s 50 Best is able to cover.

Just a quick look at this year’s 50 Best list shows a diverse range of entries from countries as far-ranging as Peru, China, Germany, Thailand, Brazil and Slovenia. While there are still gaps to fill (25 of the 50 restaurants are from Europe, India only has one entry in the top 100, there is only one restaurant from Africa in the top 50), there is now an obviously over-arching emphasis on inclusivity and diversity, something the academy is actively trying to ingrain into its voting system moving forward.

“We want to continue to spread the spotlight to different parts of the world. So if we go back 10 years, the spotlight would have very much been on Europe and US and now we see restaurants in Latin America and South America popping up, and different parts of Asia – Singapore, Thailand and in the future, maybe Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines,” said Drew.

The list is also very current in the sense that it is able to capture the culinary zeitgeists sweeping through the globe, from the new Nordic cuisine sparked by Denmark’s Noma and Geranium to the Latin American revival popularised by Central, to Bangkok’s sudden surge in culinary popularity epitomised by restaurants like Gaggan, Nahm, Suhring and Gaa to the currently-trending Mexican cooking encapsulated by Innes’ New York cause celebre Cosme and her mentor Enrique Olvera’s indomitable Mexican eatery Pujol.

Colagreco is an Argentinian who moved to France and now cooks at Mirazur using ingredients from his farm and herb garden. Aside from being the best restaurant in the world, Mirazur also recently netted three Michelin stars. Photo: Matteo Carassale

This makes it transient, fluid and highly adaptable to the times, providing vivid insights into what’s trending in the culinary world year-on-year.

The world’s #1 restaurant, Mirazur feeds into this theory that the list is increasingly becoming adept at championing interesting people and food concepts. Colagreco for instance, is an Argentinian who works in France and recently became the first non-French person in France to earn three Michelin stars – which fits in nicely with the diversity trope that the academy is trying to espouse.

His food also defies definition – he sources his ingredients from his terroir-driven playground which includes a vegetable garden, orchard and herb garden (where he has access to 150 different herbs). Everything on his plates pays tribute to the season’s freshest produce, like the local lemon Citron de Menton.

Colagreco’s story of mixing-and-matching ingredients based on what nature has to offer is one that is being played out all over the world in high-end restaurants putting local ingredients at the forefront – from Russian twins’ Ivan and Sergey Berezutskiy’s Twins Garden (#19 on the list) which sources 70% of its produce from the brothers’ garden outside Moscow, to Central’s (#6 on the list) Virgilio Martinez who forages all across Peru for native ingredients.

If it’s a trend, it’s one the academy has clearly paid heed to.

“To be fair, trends will always play a part, you can’t ignore that. It’s what’s the flavour of the year is and people are always in search of new flavours. “And I think the winner they picked was appropriate – from an observation perspective, it delivered the message they were talking about in terms of diversity. An Argentinian guy with a Brazilian wife cooking in France – it can’t get more diverse than that,” said Yong, laughing.

Olvera’s taco de jaiba desnuda is an example of the Mexican food now increasingly popular across the globe, something the academy has noticed and rewarded on the list. – Grupo Olvera

Ultimately though, seasoned chefs who have been on the list know that it’s just that – a list. It might help drive traffic to restaurants but it isn’t worth getting obsessed over.

“What I say to my cooks is ‘When you come to work, think about your passion – what is it?’ It is to be in the 50 Best or is it about cooking? It’s like an actor who’s on the stage and he’s thinking about the Oscar while he’s acting. If you want the Oscar, you’re not gonna get it, because you forget to act,” concluded the eloquent Ripert.

from Food – Star2.com https://ift.tt/2XXrQPv

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