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theartofmusicology · 4 years

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The move to online schooling across the globe has been a weird and funky process. Our uni goes back to face to face classes next semester but for those still haven’t to #workfromhome here are a few tips;

Establish a REALISTIC schedule - don't think that because school is online and you have more free time that you can create a super intense and productive schedule - you'll most likely burn out within a week or two. Create a realistic daily schedule that is similar to how your life was before schooling moved online. Allow yourself free time for hobbies or vegging out in front of the TV! Don't forget to schedule in your work and study sessions though ;)

Find you motivation - it may be hard to motivate yourself to get out of bed or to get work done when it seems like the world is falling apart but you have to create small and achievable goals that will push you to keep your life on track. They can be as small or as big as you want; put on pants everyday, get B's in all your classes, overthrow the government, or eat 3 meals a day. A great thing I did was create a small vision board in my planner to look at whenever I feel unmotivated.

Use the provided material - you have to time! Actually do the assigned readings, watch the recommended extra videos and do actually do your classwork/assignments. About halfway through Iso I got so bored that I emailed my teachers ASKING FOR WORK ! They loved that I was showing initiative and had more than enough extra work to keep me busy. Use this time to study and learn as much as you can.

Find a designated space - Designate a space away from your bed and other distractions to work. Working from your bedroom is never ideal because your brain associates that room with rest/relaxation and will think that that's the mood it has to go into. I ended up using the dining room table to work because being in my bedroom proved to be too distracting. If you really can't have a separate space, try to change the vibe in your room between study sessions and not. Open a window, light a candle, play different music, just try and get your brain to differentiate the environment of work and play.

Eliminate distractions - studying at home comes with new challenges, DISTRACTIONS!! Your family/roomates, pets, your bed - all of these are new distractions that you have now that you are studying from home. Try having a designated time to work and lock your phone in another room during this time. Communicate to your family that you need them to be quieter and not blast the TV in the middle of your zoom call. A good idea is to separate your study/work space from your bedroom if possible so that you can have a mental separation of the spaces. And even though this may sound cruel, maybe lock your pupper out of your room for a little while so they can't tempt you into cuddles...

Stay healthy - sleep, eat, exercise, repeat! These are things we all know what we should be doing but don't forget to take care of your mental health too. Reach out to friends when the quarantine blues start to set in - they are probably in need of a good chat just as much as you are! Even though it may sound lame - reaching out to teachers is also a great option. They miss you as well and most are super understanding and want to help. Besides simply chatting to your proff might get you a cheeky extension on that assignment easier ;)

Reward yourself - we are all our harshest critiques! Don't forget to reward yourself for achieving your goals and for working. Give yourself a break, buy yourself a new top or make yourself a coffee. Reward yourself however you see fit, to encourage your brain into wanting to work again.

Take a break - please, please, please take breaks!! It can feel counterproductive and 'undeserved' but you need to take care of yourself by allowing yourself to stop. Even if it's 5 minutes stretching away from your desk. Something small is better than nothing. Keep your eyes out for an upcoming post about different kinds of breaks you need and what to do!

~ Sophie xx

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bolbianddolanhouse · 3 years

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BNHA self insert AU [Book 4]

CATCH UP! Book 1 * 2 * 3

Chapter 4: Lets Get Fuckin FUNKY!

Not that big of a time skip, the twins are nearing the end of their second year of middle school. Hanaka has special training time with her dad. Tensei still has to reach out to his mother on quirk training, mainly because he’s been debating and making a new sound for his band.

“...points to the opposed, Iida and Tanaka move on to the next round.”

The room erupted with cheer as the debate duo stood up to give their bows. Tensei was internally psyched out of his mind! He was at Japan’s Grand Prix Debate Tournament and he just got his team to move on to the semi-finals. If they do well in semis, Nationals next year is a guarantee!

“Gentlemen, I won’t lie” Tensei tried to hold it in “the moment they slipped up in their cross examination, they were done for!”

“We saw that! The way you pushed up your glasses before giving your final statement was iconic” gushed one of his teammates.

“Lets go get some food before they do the final draw” suggested one of the boys “They have good food here!”

“Hup! Iida-kun, may I have a word before you go on your lunch?” requested the new coach.

“Ummm sure” Tensei walked toward the coach, then quickly turned back to the group “Get me yakisoba! I don’t know how long I’m going to be.”

The coach waited until the other boys were out of earshot “Alright, you’re not in trouble and nothing is wrong. I wanted to let you know that I spoke to a coach at Waseda Uni.”

“Waseda is here?!” gasped Tensei.

The new coach smiled “I thought you might react like that! They have you on their radar. If you play your cards right, you might be looking at scholarships and offers to get into their humanities programs when you apply for college.”

“That does sound ideal” Tensei pondered out loud “I’ll do my best to make this a clean sweep for our school.”

“Oh and another thing! Are you doing this next year too?”

Tensei got sheepish “I’m not sure anymore. Since I’m still going with my plan to do hero school after middle school” he sighed “That big infraction on my school record doesn’t look too good on me to go to those privates with their absolute units of debaters. I don’t really see the point of doing a third year of this if I’m going down that route.”

“Well, if you change your mind” the coach takes out a pin from his satchel “I’d love to have you as my student coach for next school year.”

Tensei gasped “You want me as Club Senpai?!”

He nodded as they handed Tensei the tiny gold pin “I can’t think of anyone else that’s more than capable.”

“Oh I can’t possibly take this” Tensei handed back the pin “I don’t have a definite answer.”

“Hold on to it, think it over” the coach pushed Tensei’s hand back gently “Give it back on the first day of third year if you’re not joining. I trust you won’t forget nor misplace it until then.”

That was the biggest power move Tensei has ever witnessed. He continued to get his school to the finals and 2nd place overall that day. On the car ride home, Tensei was lost in his thoughts.

“...Tensei? Did you hear me?”

He snapped out of it “Huh?! No, sorry! What did you say mom?”

“I asked if you wanted McDonalds” repeated his Mother.

“Oh...yes please”

His mother turned into the street of the McDonalds their family frequents.

“You’re not as excited as I thought you might’ve been” his mother waited to say until after they ordered “What happened mijo?”

Tensei sighed “I am happy and psyched to get our school into nationals again. And this win is a pretty good note to end on...but should I stop here?”

“Oh I see, you don’t want to quit the team huh?”

“Yeah! And things are making me want to stay” Tensei gushed “Like, coach wants me to be club senpai AND Waseda has me on their radar! Too good to pass up but I want to get started on my quirk training for hero school. I’m not sure if I can juggle everything for my third year.”

They pulled up to the pick up window.

“As a mother, I want to tell you to do the right thing and sacrifice one thing to help you focus” His mother started “But as the chaotic, over-achiever, ‘fuck you, don’t tell me what to do!’ personality I am... Fuckin do it all! Flex on everyone and be THAT bitch. I believe in you.”

Tensei wasn’t expecting that from his own mother “Huh? How is being in a band, being club senpai and hero training flexing on them?”

“Did you listen to yourself saying that sentence?! That sounds cool as hell!” giggled his mother “I’ve gone through all the juggling in my school years and turned out as this absolute beast! Before I married your father I was one of the most powerful women in Japan already with my status as a top agent, college degree and CEO of my security robot company. I didn’t have to get married and start a family Tensei...but I wanted nothing more than to have a family of my own. And I did! All without giving up a single thing, now I’m THE most powerful woman in all of Japan, would you want to mess with a married woman that’s not only smarter, stronger, richer and has four kids?”

Tensei shook his head in fear “If you put it in perspective like that, I would be scared to be on your bad side. With all those titles, it feels like you can make me disappear in a snap.”

“Now imagine yourself! Tensei Oro Iida: Musician, Lawyer and Hero. Serving justice in and out of the court in the day, playing a gigs in the night!”

“Hmmm, that does sound pretty cool” Tensei receives the bag of food on his lap “You really think I can do it?”

“OH I know you can!” his mother exited out of the drive thru and towards home “You’re my son, my children are capable of the impossible.”

That filled Tensei with motivation to juggle all those titles.

But meanwhile, the girls are having a girls night at Petti’s place.

“Oh my! Is this you guys?” gushed Twinkle at the framed photo in the living room “You were so tiny! In your little dresses and with your dads!”

Hanaka looked over Twinkle’s shoulder “Your dad kept this picture framed Petti? This was so long ago!”

“Nya! It’s the only nice picture we took ‘member?” Kyanka giggled as she flopped onto the couch “We threw a temper tantrum so bad that we lost control of our quirks.”

“Ah yes, good times” reminisced Petti as she brought out the snacks “My dad kept that one framed because it was the one time I willingly put on a dress and smiled.” She pointed to the other pictures on the wall “You can see in the other ones that I wear alt-core and scowl.”

Twinkle looked at the other pictures as the other girls ate snacks.

“If you don’t mind me asking” Twinkled started off “Where’s your mother Petti?”

Kyanka and Hanaka stopped their snacking to turn to Petti. They know that she doesn’t respond well to that question and braced themselves in case she activates her Dark Shadow.

“My mom? She’s not in the picture sadly” sighed Petti, surprisingly calm “Dad tells me I was abandoned at his door as an egg. And she never returned to get to know me, so it’s just been my dad and I. Dad doesn’t have family either.”

“Oh I’m sorry I brought it up!”

“No it’s alright! I’m okay telling you” smiled Petti “Like, my dad tries really hard to raise me right. But it’s tough being a single dad and hero! Hanaka’s mom is basically my mother figure and I ask her all my girl questions that I don’t want to ask my dad.” She looks at the her cup of pink drink “I really want to meet my mom someday though. I have her eye color, skin tone and quirk trigger according to my dad. So I get my hot-headed nature from her and I kinda wish I got her normal face and not a bird head! But I don’t have an idea where she could be.”

“That’s so wholesome of you” Twinkle got teary-eyed “I hope you do get to meet your mom. Maybe when we become heroes, you’ll have the resources to find her!”

“That’s the goal” Petti stretched her back “Hopefully she’d want to be in my life at that point, I like to think that she just doesn’t like children.”

Hanaka spoke up “Now that I think about it, all of us look to my mom as their mother figure.”

“But aren’t your parents are together Kyanka?” questioned Twinkle.

“My mom old as hell” blurted Kyanka “How my dad got suckered into getting with an older woman is beyond me, nya. But she’s always away for hero work with the Wild Wild Pussycats, so I ask Hanaka’s mom for girl advice too. She’s a good woman but I wish she’d just, retire and act her age” sighed the cat girl as she flexed her paws “I may not show it, but I’m scared that with her age and not being in her prime anymore, she’s going to die on the job. It’s scary to think about it and I can’t do anything to stop her from going to work. That’s why I want to be a hero, so I can take her place as a rescue hero, making her retire.”

Twinkle was bawling at this point “Such noble causes! You guys are making me miss my mama.”

“Oh geez, get it together girl” Petti stands up “I’ll get you some tissues.”

“Yea, noble causes” Hanaka repeated aloud, making her pause to think “I don’t really have a reason to be a hero. Other than I can and have the means to do so, my parents never made me do something because of our status or family name.” She looked in the reflection of her cup “I don’t really know what I’m good at. Tensei got all the talent and smarts, I have the quirks and good genes.”

“Aww don’t compare yourself with your twin again” Petti said as she walked in with a fistful of tissues “You’re talented in your own way.”

“Oh yea? Name one thing- THAT ISN’T QUIRK RELATED!” Hanaka huffed.

Petti handed the loose tissues to Twinkle “Easy! You’re charismatic, people think you’re cute and go all mushy and do things for you with little interaction.”

“Ooh! You have a good sense of distance” Kyanka blurted “With just a glance, you know how far something is. AND you’re always quick to help out with things, even if you’re not sure if you’re a good fit for the job! ‘member when you volunteered to do the food stall in 1st year?”

Twinkle blew her nose “You’re a good friend! You integrated me into your group and share your food with me. And from the stories Kyanka and Petti tell, you’re always the first one to start things, a natural leader!”

Hanaka was touched “Aww guys, you’re too much!”

“Can you guys not cry at my house?!” Petti tossed a loose tissue at Hanaka “Seriously! I’m trying to chill with the girls, not get all sappy.”

Not too much time passes and it’s graduation season! Of course the ones graduating are Lili and Iwata from their respected institues. Everyone is home for the holidays and decisions have to be made.

“What’s up with you two?” Lili asked as she looked up from her phone “Usually something would be on fire and it’s too quiet for having a full house. What is going on?”

Hanaka and Tensei were face down in the middle of the living room.

“Shh, they’re communicating” Iwata teased “But deadass, why are you guys so quiet?”

Tensei lifted his head to speak “I’m tired as hell! Mom got me on her training regime and my legs are refusing to work.”

Hanaka flipped over “Ow! And Dad had me do so much reading that my brain hurt and eyes burn.”

“Oh man, I remember those days” sighed Lili with a smile “The mental and physical pain of hero training. Aren’t you glad you’re done with all that Iwee?”

“Yup! Thought I’d never get out of that cycle of pain” Iwata sighed back “Just wait until you realize you’re gay after a series of weird events happen.”

“But that part was my favorite!” beamed Lili.

Hanaka furrowed her brow “That sounds like a you thing. We actually have friends.”

“We have friends too!”

“Yea, the ones you’re dating and are going to marry someday!”

Lili and Iwata tried to think of a rebuttal but their little sister was right.

“ANYWAYS! How prepared are you guys for the entrance exam?” Lili asked.

Tensei groaned “Man, I forgot about that! Why can’t we just, take a written exam like a normal school.”

“It’s not that bad, come on Tensei” Iwata coaxed his brother to stand up “The telekinesis shit is kinda hard to master. But you can flex what that metal bending quirk can do to those robos!”

“Literally, you two have the upper hand to easily pass” Lili explained “The test hasn’t changed in decades! It’s always the robots and the ‘big boy’ robot is worth 0 points BUT you get rescue points if you either save someone from it’s path or you destroy it out of safety of others.”

“Then why did you two struggle?” asked Tensei, not believing that the exam is that simple.

“We can go fast but our second quirks aren’t power based” Lili snapped her fingers to instantly transform the curtain into a pair of pants “imagine that but in battle! The most useful thing I’ve done is make netting and a hot air balloon to transport my classmates! I had to learn certain fighting styles and have multiple support items for me to be on par with everyone else.”

Iwa levitated everything in the living room “And I can do all the floaty things but I’m not like mom, where I can crush things with my mind!” he throws a pillow with force at a wall “that’s my ‘force’ with my quirk, yea it helps me fly for a short amount of time but I wasn’t strong enough to stop a robot from attacking me when I was entering UA.”

Hanaka flails her arms “Okay okay I get it! We’re stronger by default! Put me down now!”

“Oof forgot you don’t like getting levitated” Iwata quickly set everything down “But please don’t feel so helpless, we’d kill to have the advantages you two have.”

The twins faced at each other and exchanged looks.

“If you say so” sighed Tensei “Then I guess we’re ready.”

“YAY!” the older siblings cheered and did the little quick claps.

“Don’t clap and cheer! We’re not babies!” barked the twins.

Just out of sight were their parents, looking on at the sight of their children being their usual selves.

“It was getting too quiet around here” whispered Tenya as he hugged his wife from behind “I feel complete.”

“Enjoy it while you can love” Ita whispered back “Our nest is going to be empty sooner than you think!” She gave her husband a quick kiss “Okay ninos, visitas are at the gates. The living room should be nice and tidy! I got the curtains special made for this year’s theme!”

The kids glanced at the pants that were once the curtains and then to the disorganized furniture, shit!

“Okay mom we’ll fix the living room!” Iwa spoke up “No need to come in here and check! You go and greet the guests!”

Lili frantically fixed the pants-curtains as the twins fixed the couch cushions and Iwa floated everything back to the original layout. Just like when they were younger.

With new confidence and old support, suddenly the new part of the twin’s lives isn’t so scary.

-Chapter 4, End-

#mha #bnha #self insert au #book 4 chapter 4 #not canon #ask me anything #will update regularly #//Palma-sama Speaks #sips iced coffee....what's poppin fam? finger guns #okay so life is just kicking my ass left and right BUT HEY! I got new readers :3 hi!#Hopefully my unprompted hiatus made some in betweener readers go back and read everything else? It's alot!#Yay more Hanaka and the squak interaction! And yes that was some foreshadowing on Petti. Kyanka's mom is just old as hell #This is the chapter that overlaps the end of Iwa's part. Here Iwa just came back from his trip with Beizu #Lets see when the hell the next one comes out! I have character posts for the twins queued so there would be something in line in case #swear I'm gonna finish this book! I see yall in my asks! Bear with me #but thanks for reading! I appreciate yall

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himboholhorse-moving · 5 years

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1 2 4 7 8 9 13 18 20 26 27 29 30 32 39 40 41 43/44 45 46 49 51 53 55 56 57 59 63 65 that is. so many dghsdghsdgv I'm sorry I just see an ask meme and go crazy aaaa go stupid aaaa. You can just answer whichever u like from those!! also 69(nice): you seem rly nice and funny from your 🅱️osts and I appreciate u... I hope you can find better irl friends who aren't trash

HDSKFJKS I completely understand but lucky for u I LOVE to talk !!

1) How are you?

Pretty good, actually!! Which is a nice change of pace. I went to Walmart with some friends yesterday and got a few things, baked a family recipe that my friends LOVE, and finally did my laundry (it’s been a couple weeks we love depression and executive dysfunction dfhkjsfd). I went to Cracker Barrel with some friends and earlier and played a 4-way game of Tetris after. :3c

2) Post a picture of yourself.

Here you go !!

4) What is your entire name?

Sierra Alexis and my last name is something constantly misspelled so I’ll give you the name of a historical figure whose name is a letter off from mine: George B. McClellan, to whom I may or may not be related because last name variations are fuckin’ WEIRD.

7) Your zodiac/horoscope and if you think it fits your personality.

I’m a Capricorn sun and moon, and Libra rising !! And from what I’ve read on Twitter from various astrologers, like Milkstrology, I LOVE her, I’d say it’s pretty accurate with my personality!! I like to say Capricorn’s aren’t cold bitches but, I Have A Tendency To Be One !!

8) What did you do on your last birthday?

God what DID I do on my last birthday… it was in January, so like, I SHOULD remember… OH I went to IHOP with my friends !! I share a birthday with another friend and I got a JoJo notebook and something called a Fuggler! They’re stuffed animals more or less but designed to be “ugly.” I got one that looks like Philadelphia Flyers mascot Gritty because I LOVE Gritty… he’s so fun and funky.

9) What is one thing you’d like to accomplish before your next birthday?

Get all my requests in my inbox over on my writing blog done KJHFDJKSF it’s been a few months and life has been. Hectic to say the least.

13) If you could change your eye color, would you?

There’s so much weird as hell brown-eye-phobia so like… I think blue eyes would be pretty neat. OR PURPLE… give me some unnatural eye colors pls...

18) Do you have any tattoos?

Not yet!! I’m going to get one the next time I go back home for break. :3c And I have a few ideas for other ones!! I wanna get a big-ass “Dragon Age: Origins” tattoo that’s the dragon on the cover on my thigh. I also wanna get a DA2 and “Inquisition” tattoo… and the Joestar birthmark… too many ideas…

20) Left or right handed?

Right-handed !! I could have been left-handed or ambidextrous if I broke my arm AFTER I started kindergarten, but alas that was before.

26) Something you are working on right now:

This !! But also the script for my next podcast episode that I record on uhhh Monday I think. Should probably figure that one out dsjfjhsf

27) Do you have any “rules” about food?

I answered that in the last ask !!

29) What would you say is your best quality?

I also answered this in the last ask !!

30) What do you think you’re really good at?

Writing, I’d say! And memorizing trivia about the stuff I’m super into. If it’s stuff pertaining to “M*A*S*H” or old movies or TV shows or actors or specific historical events, I will know that shit FOR LIFE. Don’t ask me to do math pls thank u

32) What talent do you wish you’d been born with?

I wish I was able to do stuff with music. That was never really in my blood, despite all the music classes they make you take in elementary school. I just never learned how to memorize or read sheet music. :/ I would have loved to play violin, tho… my friend plays and she says I would have been a good cellist.

39) Do you sleep with a stuffed toy?

YES… have for years. I still have my Care Bear from when I was 5, Gritty as mentioned above, a plush of my school’s mascot, and a little Fugo !! He’s so tiny.

40) What do you think about the most?

Everything and constantly and all at once. But the past really because I can never let stuff go and even the small things I mess up on haunt me forever… Wish that wasn’t the case but it is !!

41) Share two habits:

Biting my nails and having a very specific routine in which I get ready when I wake up. Like, I’ve gotta go brush my hair before I put my important cards in my left pocket, then put on my silver bracelet, then my beaded bracelet, then my earbuds in my right pocket, then put my earrings in. I HAVE to do it in that order…

And other oddities that include, like, if I need to go around something I HAVE to follow the urge to go one way and not the other, lest I feel the need to go back and fix it. And then which foot goes first before I reach a crack in the sidewalk, or up or down a curb, etc.

43) What are your career goals?

If I can just make people happy or get some kind of joy out of the things I do, I’d call that enough. :)

44) What is your ideal career?

Mmm, either a film historian or a film professor !! Preferably at the college I’m at right now but wherever the wind takes me, I’ll go! Or a Twitch streamer or YouTuber, it really depends on my mood jdhfjskf

45) Is your life anything like it was two years ago?

It was pretty much the same !! Freshman year was pretty lively, I didn’t have a job on campus yet though, or my podcast. Everything else is basically the same!

46) Do you replay things that have happened in your head?

CONSTANTLY… good or bad it’ll play back over and over and over again.

49) Do you have any phobias?

HOO BOY, DO I… fear of heights; fear of insects/bugs/arachnids/bees/wasps; I have a strong dislike of the number 13 but I don’t know if it’s a phobia, I just. REALLY hate it; the unknown, more or less what lurks somewhere beyond where I can see. Not so much a fear of the dark with that one, just what could BE in it.

51) Are you allergic to anything? If so, what?

I answered this in my last ask, as well!

53) Ever come close to death?

Two or three times, maybe? Two of them involved what’s called a laryngospasm, typically it can happen when your sick, which is what happened to me both times. Basically your throat just closes up on your for a hot minute and you can’t breathe. The first time I genuinely thought I was going to die (and my dad still sent me to school that day… HOE), the second time I was also sick and was losing/had lost my voice DURING A JOB RETREAT and it happened in the middle of the night so that was funny sitting there gasping for breath in the pitch dark.

At the FIRST retreat I went on for that job, you had to take pictures as part of a scavenger hunt, and the place used to be an old military fort, so there were still the old bunkers there. We had to take one on top of it and I was taking the picture, and it’s a wide shot so I go to take a step back but before I do I look behind me. If I hadn’t I would have fallen a good 10-15 feet down onto solid Civil War-era bunker concrete. I’d consider that being a “close to death” moment because I really could have died!

55) A random fact about yourself:

I have a half-brother !! My sis and I finally found him after her 23andMe results came back (which she decided to do despite us being like THE GOVERNMENT WILL COLLECT OUR DATA) and we didn’t think our mom would be happy she found him but she was !! My sis might reach out and contact him, she just wanted our mom’s permission first to do it.

56) What are three things most people don’t know about you?

Well, that I have a half-brother. I don’t mention it a lot. Aside from y’all on here and my sister, most everyone else doesn’t know I’m nonbinary! Everyone else knows I’m bi though lmao. And that there were times I’d stretch or bend the truth or lie about something just to impress someone else. It’s a… Bad Habit. Another thing is that most people don’t know I like coffee? Like I need to put a shit ton of creamer in with it because I’m a Bitch, but yeah.

57) An unknown fact about your life:

I wouldn’t call this an “unknown” fact but I’d used to go to work with my dad every now and again when he worked at the Home Depot and he was assistant manager. I’d either chill in the back room which was an office he shared with two other guys, or walk around the store with him. I had my own apron, too, which was my name with “Mini Mac” next to it, “Mac” being my dad’s nickname and something easier to say than my last name. I actually helped a few customers out so I wonder if I should have gotten paid for that despite being like, ages 9-13 when I’d go jshfkjd

And I guess I technically tested video games as a kid? Basically, when my dad was stationed at Fort Knox, they’d get demos of video games that hadn’t come out yet to test I suppose? and I still have a few somewhere. He’d hand them off to me and I’d play them so there’s that.

59) Five weird things that you like:

Eating globs of wasabi for no reason.

Scaring my friends also for no reason.

I wouldn’t say using cotton swabs to get wax out of your ears because it feels good is weird, just more medically inadvisable if anything.

When I was younger I’d like to floss really hard because the slight pain from it felt good. Young me was a #Freaque KJHDFJJDHF

I don’t know if being fond of alphabetizing and reorganizing things is considered weird but I LOVE doing that.

63) A quote you try to live by:

“It matters not how strait the gate, / How charged with punishments the scroll; / I am the master of my fate: / I am the captain of my soul.” It’s from the poem “Invictus” and the last two lines are what I’m getting tattooed !!

65) Weird things you do when you’re alone:

Practice the “Lucky Star” dance. I GOT THE LYRICS DOWN… JUST NEED TO DO THE DANCE NOW…

69) Leave me a compliment:

“you seem rly nice and funny from your 🅱️osts and I appreciate u... I hope you can find better irl friends who aren't trash”

Anon pls 🥺 I do my best to be nice but my friend really do test me sometimes... my feelings bounce back n forth like if they do something my feelings can switch to angry or like, hate, and then if they do something nice I’ll like them again. It sucks but ! I just take it one day at a time. Anon I care for u 💜💜💜

#anonymous #asks #ask games #I love u anon 💜 thank u for letting me just Talk jdhsksjf #Anonymous

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bigbrothernetflix-st · 4 years

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EPISODE ONE

“its week ONE. why is everyone being so cracked i hate it here i absolutely hate it here someone take me out with a sniper rifle” - aria

HOH: Jev UPSIDE DOWN: Jacob & Gina NOMINEES: Kiki & Nash POV: Nash FINAL NOMINEES: Kiki & Mo EVICTED: Mo (14-1)

PRESEASON CAST ASSESSMENT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEdLzVoyttU&list=PLFEwPPy8j010XXwntq80VSU0qLNTNpSIN&index=2&t=0s

JOEY

WOO holy shit this cast is filled with such insane personalities, and I cannot WAIT to play this game!

NASH

tell me why i'm already nervous

NASH

waits patiently for mo to pick another damn person to infect

GINA

skghkdgljhgdlj BRAIN HURTY,, sm people to talk to and everyone is so so nice! just glad I'm not winning hoh

ARIA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-bwCxQGRhk

alternative title: im very mean for 20 minutes

KIKI

so far the cast seems very sweet! a little quiet so far but otherwise im really enjoying talking to them!! and i think the twist is a cool idea but could be dangerous.... maybe a little too easy to expose alliances

GINA

I really like this cast! I'm actually really good friends with Aria (but we keeping that a secret) and I recognize Joshua from other orgs! Also, this twist seems super fun!

ARIA

okay,,,,okay,,,ok,,,k my brain is struggling to complie everything ive learned today i am STRUGGLING!!!!

So!! Lets make a tier list

We're working together (didnt even need to discuss)

-Nathan

-Jacob

-Gina

Asked to work together

-Joey

-Joshua

Implied we're working togther but lower tier

-Jev

-Josh C

-Monty

Super Sweet & Nice

-Bri

-Kiki

-Dem

-Mo

Sweet but i want a response

-Nick

-Emma

_saira

-jake

-Nash

So thats what i've gathered for today mostly, Jacob-Joey-Jev-Joshua all seem to really want to work close with me and we've talked a bit of game ( ITS ALL THE Js HELP) and seem super open while the girls seem more closed off as of now, kinda worried gina isnt gonna be active enough but idk, oh also everyone is noticing bri is CHAOS and that nick is talkative/assertive. more to update in a bit but heres a trust ranking for night one, one more thing jev said he doesnt like nathan or nick :OO and someone else mentioned nick being overbearing

1.Gina (i love her to the moon and back)

2. Nathan( the charisma SNAPPED this game go off sir!!)

3. Josh C (they're also charismatic but they're hecking hilarious and our view are pretty similar)

4.Jev (they cared about me!! and im nice to them and this is just really wholesome)

5.Jacob (LOVE him but we havent talked enough beyond "we're winning this game")

6.Joshua (super fun to talk to, same og community king)

7.Bri (they wont keep info to themselves but shes SO sweet pls take my heart)

8. Joey (hes kinda sketching me out tbh but also he wants to work with me so)

9.Nick (they wouldnt put me up and thats all i could ask for)

10.Monty (PLEASE trust me i need ur braincells)

12.Kiki (sHES SO SWEET AND GOOD AT ART ADORE HER)

13.Mo (existential dread buddies <3)

14.Dem(approached game w/ me,,,but on the first message so might be doing that w/ everyone)

15.Nash (kate protection gang!!!)

16.Saira (we loVE DOGS! and thats it)

17.Emma (feel better soon,,,then pls talk to me k thanks)

18.Aria (dont trust anyone,,,not even yourself)

DEM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykD4dZjsDl0

BRIANNA

https://youtu.be/odNZXz-jNtw

If alliances have been made already, I am gonna have some QUALMS... This cast is very cute, I love meeting new people, let's see we have

Aria - an ANGEL we've been talking about SIX the musical and slime tutorials

Brianna - The first person to recognize me using a Carole & Tuesday song in any of my videos. I'm v grateful.

Dem - He kinda jokes like a mom...

Emma - I'm friends with Emma outside of the game and she is such a chaotic sweetheart. We been in the house a day and she plays Lois Griffon singing Doja Cat... for what...

Gina - I have not talked with her, I just said hi.

Jacob - Jacob is nice. I think I've yet to have a super positive ORG experience with him tho. So. Yeah.

Can I do the rest tomorrow cus I'm tired and just not in the mood. Okay thank you.

SAIRA

I was a little surprised by the amount of people dming me but they all seemed pretty nice! The twist sounds cool, I'm excited to see how it plays out

JEV

i definitely did NOT expect to win the first hoh but here we are, i have no idea what i'm gonna do but i need sleep so that's tomorrows problem

JOSH C

HELLO! it's your boy josh coming to give you some thoughts on the cast. coming into this game, the only person i know of beforehand is.. JACOB who has managed to snake me in both games we've played together so that's cute. i don't really have a choice but to trust him for now bc that's my only outside connection so we'll see how it goes. he's fun to talk to so i don't really mind but my eyes are PEELED for it going south.

my favorites just from the first night are probably aria, kiki, nathan, and saira. for no REAL reasons other than i just feel like i've had the best conversations with them and they were more fun than the rest of the cast. i'm not sure if those will stay the same but that's HOW I FEEL RIGHT NOW!!

i've reached out to everyone and heard back from everyone (other than nash.. dunno what that's about so i'll just let it sit there. i don't REALLY mind bc it's good if i win HOH because it's a good reason to throw someone up there). everyone is cute enough, though i think i've connected LEAST with brianna, dem, joey, and monty? just haven't gotten a lot of energy back from them but i'm hoping that was just FIRST NIGHT jitters of people not putting in their full effort into their social game.

i'm going to spend today just chatting with people so i have a base relationship with them and that way if jev goes the route of asking people who they'd him to nominate -- i'm not someone they name simply for not knowing who i am. trying to be a little SOCIAL QUEEN. fun and funky so let's hope it pays off.

for the twist, i'm not really sure how to play this. i don't think the first round is going to have the BEST power hidden in it but it'd be nice to know that i for sure won't be first boot. (though i'm feeling OKAY enough that jev won't kill me bc we've talked at least). i think i'm going to wait a minute before i ask someone to send me in, or someone just sends me in on their own accord. that way people don't look at me for having a secret power bc it'll be really easy to narrow down who has one and that's just such an unnecessary way to get a target on your back. i like the twist, it's just hard to figure out how to play it and maybe i should just wait until someone does it for me or i'm one of the later people to get it so i get safety when there are less people in the house and it'll be harder to survive.

xoxo gossip josh

SKINNY NICK

https://youtu.be/yNBReh_pBPk

NATHAN

He's here, he's queer... and oddly enough starting off by not doing a Video DR; however, I think when making an initial first impression/trust list this method seems to go a little smoother... First off, coming right off of Big Brother Pasio and thrown into this game has made my head hurt more than it should. I forgot how annoying and tiresome the initial conversations are with everybody. With that said, I have begun to kinda pick out a path that may be suitable for me this season. In Pasio, my goal was to lay low, not be seen, and form connections. That strategy is going to be partially active this time around as well. I'm a big personality, and while that's fun and cute, I learned by keeping a low profile in the beginning portion while remaining social it does wonders. I don't need to be a Skinny Nick character and be talking in the house call and house chat at every ounce I get. With that being said, this season is full of Pasio players... some in which I had both good and bad experiences with. However, pushing that aside I really have my eyes set and locked on Aria. I have a feeling that the other Pasio alumni may see her for how she played in Pasio and I do as well, but I want to make sure her and I are on as good as terms as possible. She did NOT like me in Pasio, so rekindling that flame is ultra important. Alongside Aria, I get to play with both Monty and Jacob who I've had rocky relationships with in the past, but have grown to become great friends outside this. Working with them is going to be vital, but keeping them too close is suicide. With that being said, here's my initial trust ranking:

1. Aria

2. Jacob

3. Nash

4. Jev

5. Josh

6. Monty

7. Joey

8. Nick

- - -

END LIST

JOSH C

okay, well nominations just came out and i can't say i'm too surprised that nash got nominated for eviction considering she hasn't responded to me yet and most everyone else is saying the same. i can't really imagine anyone using the veto on her unless she has a complete social turn around in the next 24 hours but that seems like.. a stretch. just gotta hope she doesn't win! we love an easy first week boot!

i'm a little sad about kiki getting nominated because i've really hit it off with them, but i think it's a good way to secure some trust with them and spark off a relationship. i've been trying to already be like YOU GOT THIS, YOU'RE STAYING! NASH DOESN'T TALK TO ANYONE! and i think they're being receptive. i like that i can joke around with them, so i'm hoping they enjoy me as much as i enjoy them.

i've also had aria and jake come talk to me about noms which means they trust me and that's GOOD. i want to try to secure something with them soon because i think they're both people that would want to work with me and i know that jake doesn't have a lot of connections already so being an early ally of his would be BIG.

just trying to focus on being a cute little social presence so people don't really focus on targeting me early on. i think this is a game full of half social players and some.. not so exciting people so it'll be easy to just slip through by not being the most boring person around. i don't want to promise TOO many people loyalty just yet but i think building a small core for myself will be important to keep me safe and i'm hoping that can come with jake/aria/kiki/jacob(?)

JAKE

chile............. where the fuck am i?

i dont know what dimension i'm in right now with these people but i am ready to show them what i am made of!! so far i've felt..... on the outs of most of what is going on so im just gonna give my perspective on things so far!!

the cast....... ill just do an assessment

dem: said maybe three words to me since we've started... so there's that

saira: seems like a queen! i def need to talk to her more i've been sleeping on her and i think we'll get along well

joey: girl sometimes idk what this man is saying to me but we're rolling w it..

nash: her "sick" ass hasnt responded to my message from yesterday so bye

joshua: oh he can work! hes fun to talk to and i def see some potential to working with him. hes only 16 so yung so pure i remember those days </3

nathan: hes so hot god i literally want to eat his entire ass but i dont wanna be creepy so im trying to subtly flirt with him SDLKJFSKF he seems to be a sneaky player to me but hopefully thats not the case and we can be a showmance later on hehe

emma: LEGEND. QUEEN! PUT SOME RESPECT ON HER NAMEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! my ride or die in this thing <3

jev: oh jevfrey my angel im so happy he's here!!! he's a loyal guy from what i remember and ill def be working with him ESPECIALLY now that hes the first hoh ayyyyY!!!! i feel completely safe with him

kiki: oh i LOVE THEMMMM we had a great connection from the jump and i have a soft spot for them for sure. theyre sadly nominated this week i did not know why jev made that decision but i will make sure they stay know THAT

monty: monty left me on read :( we had a kinda awk convo so idk how monty feels about me right now?? i def dont think he trusts me and ugh i hate the tension!!!!!!!! i hope we can resolve it all and be friends again

josh: KDJKFG i love this man... hes not entire truthful and is def playing me a bit but i think he's great and hopefully he doesnt turn out to be the snake i think he has the potential to be

gina: idk what to think of this girl she doesn't reply much to me and we haven't really spoken much for me to really get a good read of her. i infected her and idk if she'll take that a certain way i came to her with the explanation that we just havent talked as much. idk shes fine?

mo: hahhaha hes a cutie too and i think hes not much of a talker so i think hes nice for the most part it's just kinda hard talking to him sometimes

brianna: um....... yeah we haven't spoken yet and she infected me so idk how to feel about her yet. she claims it was this number system but do i fully believe thats what she based it on? not really.. so ill def have to talk to her more

aria: NOW THIS........ THIS IS ELEGANCE. THIS IS CLASS. THIS IS EXPENSIVE. THIS IS TASTE, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! this 15 year old girl has me shaking to my god damn core with her social game within a 20 minute conversation ive already devoted my entire game to her and our "attention whores" alliance. iM GAGGGEDDDD i really like her and i know shes a big threat but if shes with me then we can do some damage together hehe

skinny nick: SKINNYYYYY i dont have much to say about nick i think they're well connected in this game so i have to make sure i'm good with them a little more. our convos are a little dry hopefully that'll change as the game goes on

jacob: a sweetie.. i really like jacob as a person but as a player he scares the shit out of me DSLKFGFKJ he lied to me like every round in BBHOS9 so i dont rly know if i can trust him. he def has other friends in this community hes playing with so ill have to sus out who exactly that is...

and......... yeah! kiki and nash are nommed. gina n jacob went to the down under. i think jacob will def get whatever power is down there he is one lucky man so i wouldn't be surprised if it's something good. oh well hopefully when i go i get whatever the best thing is a dpov mayhaps!.......

i hope the next hoh is something i can win because i want these people to TALK TO MEEEE tell me where their heads are at for god's sake! me on day 2: why arent you telling me all your alliances? dFGKLF i feel like im okay just gotta talk to some said people more and try to make sure they dont hate me!

JOSHUA

I thought Jev was nice but I'll have to go back on that because he absolutely is not fooling a single person, I thought we'd be allies but he's been acting sus all day so he can choke on rat piss. Joey and nick literally aren't talking to me at awl so... they can choke and die too. Aria is talking to me a lot but I know she talks to everyone a lot sjdkjds queen of big brother pasio... but I trust her for now I guess. Other than that I'm not super like concerned with anyone else I mean brianna kiki gina mo are nice I guess.. mo is a little hard to talk to though so :( anyway glad to be here but my social is kind of rocky skjdjskdj : ( ( ( ( (

JEV

SKINNY NICK

https://youtu.be/0Kb-twzCkYI

trying to hint to dem that I’m not okay... wonder if it’s working

ARIA

its week one. its week ONE. why is everyone being so cracked i hate it here i absolutely hate it here someone take me out with a sniper rifle im sick of this, but its fine im gonna try to do my best to explain EVERYTHING bc whew is there a lot..

First off lets start with the fact ive been talking with everyone from the moment i woke up and my fingers hurt so much but also now people like me and thats all i need in life so heck yes!! So when it was nash vs kiki i start planting seeds to keep kiki with people and then nash wins veto so thats thrown out the window yayyyy-

Things start happening after jev renoms Mo. First off i get a call with crack kills (joey bri me) and we discuss the vote a little bit with Joey leaning towards keeping Mo and Me/Bri wanting to keep Kiki, joey leaves and me and bri talk about the alliance we were invited to (jacob josh jake kiki us) and then i notice theres a house vc which i then go and join alone.

It was silent for a bit before they mentioned they were talking about votes and were being kinda secretive about names but i asked directly so Mo tells me that dem told him that there was 5 confirmed votes against Mo (nash Jacob Nick Joshua/Jacob(dont remember which) and Josh c) he said the names really fast so i mightve missed a few and nathan interjects about my notes and like??? shut up nathan???? anyways i act all shook about an alliance and we talk about votes and apparently when mo campaigned to bri she just sent "hugs" and im caCKLIGN FDSGFDSH anyways that confirmed 5 votes is gonna make people nervous and cause people to keep Mo which like, im not totally against but i just want a unan vote please. Also i think dem & emma dont really trust me which is big ughhh idk if one of the pregame girlies (any of the names from that list) win hoh next week ill throw one of them utb easy peasy

So then i start asking around to gina and she ghosts me??? gina NEVER ghosts me so im sketched out there and Mo is asking for my help when i already told kiki i would save her its such a messsss. So if i had to guess the sides i would say

PREGAME GIRLIES: Nash Jacob Jake Joshua Josh c kiki

UNCONNECTED NOT PROTECTED: Dem Joey Emma Nathan Mo

Whomst: Saira Jev Monty Nick Gina Bri

Help: Aria

So, where do i go from here? How do i make sure this vote comes out hecking even,,, im not sure. nvm i am sure because Mo just told me they want to give up HFBHJBSDFS MO MY SAVIOR ILL NEVER FORGET YOU KING <<<<3333333 okay nvm hes not fully giving up but im giving him an avenue that would make my life much easier where im telling him to have good convos with people so they connect more and if anyone feels moved theyll come to me and ill get the ball rolling with a easy peasy unan vote hopefully. But i think i might be able to manipulate this situation to my advantage WHEW im hyped now!!

So lets say mo leaves the thought of those "five confirmed votes" is still gonna be in peoples heads mainly dem/joey/emma/nathan which might form into a side and go hard for hoh taking out some big social player and then we have two sides going after each other which would be cute.

I would make trust rankings but i trust no one fbhsafd and thats on pewiod

JAKE

WHEW!!!!!!!!!!! im not the first boot :~) let's celebrate that....

but i'm not too thrilled about these noms...... im happy nash won POV she started talking to me more and shes actually really cool so i wanted her to stay. i am sad kiki is nominated i don't want them to go at all..... and mo being the replacement nominee was a shock to everyone i think.....

i don't have a problem with mo leaving cuz we have a weak connection i just thought dem was going up based on my prior conversations with jev. he says dem started talking to him more but i just wish jev would talk to me and emma about his decisions if we're "aligned"?? like whats the point of having an alliance if we don't have any say in your decisions?

today i woke up to a message from josh asking me what i think about being in an alliance with jacob brianna aria and kiki........ and im just like wtf where this come from and he said that jacob is making it and its just his fave ppl??? im like ok like im not one to turn down an alliance but i let him know that i dont rly trust jacob n brianna as much as the others in the alliance. hopefully this makes him feel close to me and not blab his mouth to jacob ab that!

brianna has yet to speak to me and jacob is just someone im always gonna have a hard time trusting sooo if i have to nominate them down the line i won't hesitate unless this alliance is genuine and helping me in the game.

i really only trust emma so far with aria being my secret spy and big meat shield im gonna need in this game. aria's super well connected and im hoping she'll be able to provide me w the information i need to take bitches down later on.

i think i'd be worried about brianna winning bc we've never talked but at least we have this alliance possibly in the works?? and i dont know if nick would nominate me we haven't talked much..

but i want to win the next hoh so people actually talk to me LOL praying i can win

#bbnetflix st

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theonyxpath · 7 years

Link

First off, please join me in wishing Bon Voyage to my good friend, convention roomie, and mad creator of Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau, Eddy Webb. Eddy will be moving this week to Ireland to fulfill a life-goal of living on the Emerald Isle, the land of at least some of his ancestors.

(Since the largest part of my ancestors toiled in the coal mines in Wales…I’m not so interested in returning to the family homeland! Although a visit might be fun.)

We have no idea if Eddy will ever come back to live in the good old USA, but he will certainly be visiting, and our working together isn’t stopping anytime soon!

We planned the Monarchies of Mau Kickstarter so that Eddy would be able to see how it turns out and then ZOOM, right out the door to the airport. At least some of our meeting today was talking about timing our meetings with an eye towards the 5 hour time difference. Now our Monday Lunch Meeting will have to be the Monday Lunch/Dinner Meeting.

M20 Book of Secrets art by Michel Giorgi

Speaking of the Monarchies of Mau Kickstarter, and you knew I would, we’re a whisper of a whisker away from the 48 hour mark towards the end of the KS on Thursday. This is when things start to heat up and with that in mind, we’ve been saving a mess ‘o’ Stretch Goals for just this time. More info and the KS url is below in the BLURBS!

But RichT, you cry out, why wouldn’t you put those cool Stretch Goals earlier in the KS? Maybe they would have driven more interest and pledging!

Honestly, you might be right. But, that’s not what we saw in the Pugmire KS, nor in a bunch of the non-20th Anniversary or non-Dark Eras KSs. So we’re going for the timing that allows us to offer these interesting goals that are often the ones that need to have a bit of a bigger pledge amount to reach the goal.

V20 Beckett’s Jyhad Diary illustration by Michael Gaydos

Which brings us to how we handle Stretch Goals with a lot of our KSs that is a bit different than many KSs out there. Because our KSs have all been about advancing in some way a physical project – whether by making it fancier and deluxe, or getting the traditionally printed books into stores – the vast majority of our pledges are in return for a manufactured product.

And so those pledges we tally up are mostly going towards printing and shipping the physical product rewards backers pledge for. Which means, we have to weigh the pledge amounts that trigger a Stretch Goal being achieved with the actual “extra” money we can put towards that goal.

This was actually something we talked about in our Onyx Path meeting today, as well as shipping costs, and printer errors.

Eddy and I talked shipping costs because with Pugmire being our first venture into Creator Owned projects, I try and include him in just about everything that up till now has been pretty much my sole oversight. And Pugmire is now a whisker away from when we need to pick a fulfillment shipper.

Of course, shipping is like the hidden reef in the KS ocean, it’s the unseen peril that has sunk many a KS in terms of profitability. That’s why you see so many KS creators trying all different shipping cost methods, because it is just an uncontrollable expense that can anything from 50% of the manufacturing costs, to way more than what it costs to create the project!

For Pugmire, Eddy and I made the call to do a bunch of Stretch Goals that plowed any extra money back into doing extra projects to expand the line, so I needed to be very careful on manufacturing and shipping costs or we’d actually lose money on a pretty successful KS. That would be bad.

M20 Book of Secrets art by Vince Locke

Also, besides the usual shipping to fulfill the backer rewards, Pugmire is the first project that we are printing extra books for to specifically get the game into retail stores through offering Pugmire to distributors. We have NO idea how that is going to work out, but it is pretty huge for Onyx Path and a precursor to us potentially working a lot more closely with retailers in the future.

So, for any of you interested in us getting any of our projects into your local retailers, this is the project to keep your eyes on. Like we’ll be doing!

Now printer errors came up because I was talking about the things after shipping that can really bog things down, like when a backer finds out that their long-awaited book has a printing error in it. This can be damage, but usually it’s something more like a book missing a chapter, or weird ink blotches obscuring text, or that funky little folded in page corner that actually opens up and the corner of the page is actually bigger than the rest of the page.

I know why those things happen, and they are part of the “acceptable glitches” that are a part of every printing contract. Basically, acceptable so long as they don’t go over a certain percentage of the printed items, like 1 or 2%. But Mighty Matt McElroy pointed out that traditional printing isn’t the only arena with odd printing errors; the PoD printer has them too.

Like this upside down interior DE Companion that he photographed and sent me:

Y’know, stuff happens.

BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER!

3 days to go, and we’re ramping up to the big 48 hour push! Please help us out by talking Monarchies of Mau up on social media and to your friends, especially your cat-loving friends. Don’t be shy, every mention helps!

We’ve already shot past Stretch Goals for an exclusive t-shirt, an Intro adventure, the first three Mau stories in a fiction anthology, a book of character write-ups featuring the characters submitted by backers, and our second adventure goal – this time by Dennis Detwiller. And we’re almost topping over the next Stretch Goal for more short stories, including one by our very good friend the amazing Joe Carriker, with plenty more to come! If you get a chance, here’s the link: http://ift.tt/2rmHhAG

SPECIAL ALERT: Right now, as I write this, there are still 3 Mau Celebrity reward tier spots that allows you to get your cat or character mentioned in a Monarchies of Mau book! These kinds of reward tiers get snapped up fast in the last 48 hours!

Also, there are still five Conspicuous Canine reward tier spots still open which gets your dog created and illustrated as an NPC in the world of Pugmire! Since one of our Stretch Goal rewards is the Roll of Good Dogs and Excellent Cats, they may even show up illustrated and statted-up in there! If you missed this in the Pugmire KS, now’s your chance!

ON SALE!

ON AMAZON:

We’re delighted to announce the opening of our ebook store on Amazon! You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle. Our initial selection includes these fiction anthologies: Vampire: the Masquerade‘s Endless Ages, Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition‘s Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage 2, Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition‘s Truth Beyond Paradox, Chronicles of Darkness‘ God Machine Chronicle, Mummy: The Curse‘s Curse of the Blue Nile, and Beast: The Primordial‘s The Primordial Feast!

And now you can get these books in the Barnes and Noble Nook store too!

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Endless Ages Anthology

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage II

Mage: The Ascension: Truth Beyond Paradox

Chronicles of Darkness: The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology

Mummy: The Curse: Curse of the Blue Nile

Beast: The Primordial: The Primordial Feast Anthology

And this week, we’re releasing another six fiction books:

Vampire: The Masquerade: Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: The Poison Tree

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Songs of the Sun and Moon: Tales of the Changing Breeds

Vampire: The Requiem: The Strix Chronicle Anthology

Werewolf: The Forsaken: The Idigam Chronicle Anthology

Mage: The Awakening: The Fallen World Chronicle Anthology

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Here’s the link to the press release we put out about how Onyx Path is now selling through Indie Press Revolution: http://ift.tt/1ZlTT6z

You can now order wave 2 of our Deluxe and Prestige print overrun books, including Deluxe Mage 20th Anniversary, and Deluxe V20 Dark Ages! And Screens…so many Screens!

ON DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: To The Strongest (Mage Death of Alexander 330-320 BCE). In the rise and fall of Alexander the Great’s Empire, armies marched and cultures clashed. In the birth pangs of Hellenistic civilization, Awakened sorcerers all over the ancient world met, fought, and joined together. In the chaos of Alexander’s assassination and the wars that followed, Cults became Orders amid conflicts still burning in the present day.

On sale in PDF and physical copy PoD versions Wednesday on DTRPG!

From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: Three Kingdoms of Darkness (Changeling and Geist China 220-280). Famine weakens the empire, and war splits it apart. It is an age of ambition and strife, where the hungry dead walk the earth in great numbers, and the Lost must rely on their own kingdoms. Warlords and commoners, ghost-speakers and orphans — who truly serves the Mandate of Heaven?

On sale in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG! http://ift.tt/2rp8hPL

From the massive Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras main book, we have pulled this single chapter, Dark Eras: The Wolf and the Raven (Werewolf and Geist Vikings 700-1100). The Viking expansion across Europe comes at a pivotal time in history, as new faiths rose to challenge the old and new ways threatened to sweep ancient tradition aside. The Forsaken sail with raiders and explorers, seeking new lands to claim and new spirits to conquer, while Sin-Eaters walk the battlefields bringing the honored dead to their final rewards. The world grows larger and more dangerous by the day, but there are great rewards for those brave enough to fight for them.

On sale in PDF and physical copy PoD versions on DTRPG! http://ift.tt/2rUjKtX

Curated by Matthew McFarland, developer of Changeling: the Dreaming Twentieth Anniversary Edition and featuring authors such as Myranda Kalis, Wren Handman, and Peter Woodworth, this C20 Anthology of Dreams is on sale in electronic/PDF and physical copy PoD formats on DTRPG.com! http://ift.tt/2snBT0X

We dream, and we tell stories. We dream of love and the sort of person who might complete us. We dream of horror and wake breathless. We dream of magic, of flying through the air, or breathing underwater. We dream of fantastic vistas and amazing monsters.

We dream, and then we wake, and we tell stories. Our dreams create the Kithain, the changelings. Our stories are sustenance.

Now on DTRPG, the EX3 Tomb of Dreams Jumpstart PDF/PoD jumps up for sale!

http://ift.tt/2qdriZU

Once, in the time before the gods forgot their names, when the world was flat and floated on a sea of chaos, there was an age of gleaming cities, untamed wilderness, enlightened devils, greedy spirits, and mighty heroes. This was the age of the Exalted, champions empowered by the highest of gods.

Tomb of Dreams will jumpstart your group’s Exalted game—all you need to start playing Exalted Third Edition is this book, pencils, and 10-sided dice. Included here are the game’s core rules, five pregenerated characters, and a self-contained scenario that can start a new campaign or that Storytellers can use in an ongoing chronicle. And for groups that already have the Exalted Third Edition main rulebook, Tomb of Dreams will serve as an introduction for new players and a quick reference during play—anyone intimidated by that prodigious volume need only read Part 1 of this book to get started.

What legends will they tell of your deeds?

Sailing out of the dark, the V20 Dark Ages Companion Advance PDF is now on sale on DriveThruRPG.com! http://ift.tt/2pX42dq

Travel the long roads and deep seas in search of power and experience danger, or tackle the wilderness to hunt monsters and face death. Settlements large and small dot the black expanse with the promise of sanctuary, life, and community. These bastions of civilization present cold comfort, when playing host to vampire warlords and sadistic Cainite faiths. Whether led by a Prince, a coordinated belief, or hounded by monsters from without and within — no domain is truly the same as another.

Dark Ages Companion includes:

• Domains scattered across the world, from small fiefdoms to massive cities. Bath, Bjarkarey, Constantinople, Rome, Mogadishu, and Mangaluru each receive coverage.

• Apocrypha including plot hooks, new Paths, and mysteries to explore in your games.

• A how-to guide on building a domain within your chronicle, including events and servants necessary to make a domain as functional or dysfunctional as you wish.

• A study on warfare in the Dark Ages period, so combat in your chronicles can gain authenticity and lethality.

Bill Bridge’s new W20 novel, The Song of Unmaking, is on sale in PDF/ePub/PoD versions on DriveThruRPG.com: http://ift.tt/2qXQH9f and in ebook form on Amazon: http://ift.tt/2qpQM2V !

The fabric of reality is cracking. Fissures appear in thin air, glowing with balefire. Something is scratching on the other side, pressing, beginning to break through….

The Wyrm’s corruption finds its way into the hearts of humans and Garou alike. Even an ultra-rational techno-cratic scientist can fall sway to its lies. Channeling his hate and resentment through the most sophisticated machine ever created, Basil Czajka has turned a tool designed to peer deep into the heart of the quantum universe into a nursery for the hatching of a horror — a creature whose birth cry is destined to unmake Gaia’s Song of Creation.

The only ones standing in his way are One-Song, a broken-down old Theurge, and Lord Albrecht, whose heed-less anger might be the very weapon the enemy needs to crack the egg and free the Unmaker.

The Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras Companion has arrived in PDF and PoD physical book versions at DriveThruRPG.com! http://ift.tt/2pygIL7

The Dark Eras Companion presents eleven new Eras for the Chronicles of Darkness. Stretching from Ancient Rome and Egypt through the Black Death, the Thirty Years War, the Reconstruction, and the Russian Revolution, the Companion showcases even more of the secret history of this eldritch world. Included in each era are “snapshots” of the various supernatural creatures, including vampires, changelings, mummies, and demons. Also included are lists of inspirational media to help you put these Eras in context for your troupe.

Open the Dark Eras Companion and take another look back in time.

V20 Lore of the Bloodlines awaits in PDF and physical book PoD versions on DriveThruRPG.com!

http://ift.tt/2pj8UuA

Lore of the Bloodlines is a single volume (created via Kickstarter) that revisits some of the bloodlines in Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition, providing story hooks, character concepts, history, and bloodline-specific rules. The secrets of the Baali, Daughters of Cacophony, Gargoyles, Harbingers of Skulls, Kiasyd, Salubri, Samedi, and True Brujah are now yours.

Lore of the Bloodlines includes:

• The history, lore, and nightly practices of nine bloodlines, told from the perspective of the Kindred themselves.

• New combo Disciplines, powers, Merits, Flaws, and other rules specific to each bloodline.

• Revisions and updates of more classic Vampire: The Masquerade material to V20.

CONVENTIONS!Discussing GenCon plans. August 17th – 20th, Indianapolis. Every chance the booth will actually be 20? x 30? this year that we’ll be sharing with friends. We’re looking at new displays this year, like a back drop and magazine racks for the brochure(s).

In November, we’ll be at Game Hole Con in Madison, WI. More news as we have it, and here’s their website: http://ift.tt/RIm6qP

And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM ROLLICKING ROSE (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

Exalted 3rd Novel by Matt Forbeck (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Aeon Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

M20 Gods and Monsters (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

C20 Novel (Jackie Cassada) (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Hunter: the Vigil 2e core (Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition)

The Realm (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Dragon-Blooded (Exalted 3rd Edition)

C20 Ready Made Characters (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Redlines

Kithbook Boggans (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Ex Novel 2 (Aaron Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

DtD Night Horrors: Enemy Action (Demon: the Descent)

Second Draft

GtS Geist 2e core (Geist: the Sin-Eaters Second Edition)

Trinity Continuum Core Rulebook (The Trinity Continuum)

Scion: Origins (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion: Hero (Scion 2nd Edition)

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

Development

Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

SL Ring of Spiragos (Pathfinder – Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)

Ring of Spiragos (5e – Scarred Lands 2nd Edition)

Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition, featuring the Huntsmen Chronicle (Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition)

M20 Cookbook (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Pugmire Pan’s Guide for New Pioneers (Pugmire)

WW Manuscript Approval:

VtR Half-Damned (Vampire: the Requiem 2nd Edition)

V20 Dark Ages Jumpstart (Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition)

Editing:

Wraith: the Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition

Book of Freeholds (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

BtP Beast Player’s Guide (Beast: the Primordial)

W20 Changing Ways (Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)

Post-Editing Development:

Arms of the Chosen (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Indexing:

Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

In Art Direction

Beckett’s Jyhad Diary

W20 Pentex Employee Indoctrination Handbook

Cavaliers of Mars

Wraith 20

W20Changing Ways

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

Storypath Brochure

VDA Jumpstart

Scion Origins

C20 Jumpstart – AD’d and Contracted

Ring of Spiragos

Ex 3 Arms of the Chosen – Sketches coming in.

Marketing Stuff

In Layout

M20 Art Book – In progress…

Prince’s Gambit – New Cards out for playtesting

Gen Con Stuff

Proofing

CtL Huntsmen Chronicle Anthology

M20 Book of Secrets – At WW for approval.

VTR: Thousand Years of Night – At WW for approval.

At Press

Beckett Screen – Shipped to shipper.

Dark Eras: To the Strongest – PDF/PoD versions on sale this Wednesday on DTRPG.

Pugmire – Printing.

Pugmire Screen – Printing.

Pugmire Cards & Dice – Printing/manufacturing.

Wise and the Wicked PF & 5e – Printing.

Dagger of Spiragos (5e) – Out to backers.

Dagger of Spiragos (PF) – Out to backers.

V20 Dark Ages Companion – PoD files uploaded and processing.

BtP Building a Legend – Awaiting errata.

Monarchies of Mau Early Access – PoD files uploaded and processing.

Dark Eras: Requiem for Regina – PoD files uploaded and processing.

TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE: In the US, June 14th is Flag Day. Some people think flags are symbols of the way we have divided the world. Others celebrate the country and ideals they symbolize. My friend Ben loves flags, real and fictional and those he designed himself. I always think of him when flags are mentioned, so cheers to the Big Belly!

#Onyx Path Publishing

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nebris · 6 years

Text

The Next Best Version of Me: How to Live Forever

George Church towers over most people. He has the long, gray beard of a wizard from Middle-earth, and his life’s work—poking and prodding DNA and delving into the secrets of life—isn’t all that far removed from a world where deep magic is real. The 63-year-old geneticist presides over one of the largest and best-funded academic biology labs in the world, headquartered on the second floor of the massive glass and steel New Research Building at Harvard Medical School. He also lends his name as an adviser or supporter to dozens of projects, consortiums, conferences, spinouts, and startups that share a mission to push the outer edge of everything, from biorobotics to bringing back the woolly mammoth. And on a steamy August morning last summer, he wants to talk to me about the outer edge of my life.

Church is one of the leaders of an initiative called the Genome Project-Write, or GP-Write, which is organizing the efforts of hundreds of scientists around the world who are working to synthesize the DNA of a variety of organisms. The group is still debating how far to go in synthesizing human DNA, but Church—standing in his office in a rumpled sport coat, behind the slender lectern he uses as a desk—says his lab has already made its own decision on the matter: “We want to synthesize modified versions of all the genes in the human genome in the next few years.”

His plan is to design and build long chains of human DNA, not solely by cutting and pasting small fixes—a now-routine practice, thanks to recent technologies like Crispr that let scientists edit DNA cheaply and easily—but by rewriting critical stretches of chromosomes that can then be stitched together with a naturally occurring genome. If they succeed, it will be a breathtaking leap in ambition and complexity from the genomes of bacteria and yeast that scientists up until now have worked to synthesize. “What we’re planning to do is far beyond Crispr,” Church says. “It’s the difference between editing a book and writing one.”

In writing the book, Church hopes to bend the human narrative to his will. By replacing select nucleotides—the ACGTs of life, which are scattered throughout the chromosomes—and changing, say, a T to an A or a C to a G in a process called recoding, Church envisions being able to make cells resistant to viruses. “Like HIV and hepatitis B,” he says.

“And the common cold?” I ask.

He nods yes, adding that they’ve already recoded bacteria to be virus-resistant. “It’s in a paper we published in 2016,” he says.

Church and others who are working to synthesize human DNA have created their own effort within GP-Write—the Human Genome Project-Write, or HGP-Write—and its prospects for success have biologists abuzz over the potential for treating diseases and for creating bioengineered cells and possibly even organs. Critics, though, are scratching their heads over the technical challenges, high costs, and practicality. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, acknowledges that synthesizing a full human genome is feasible, but he doesn’t quite see the point. “I think it’s probably within the range of possibility, given enough time and money,” he says, “but why would you want to do that? Technologies like Crispr are so much more accessible right now.”

There are also the ethics of using a powerful new technology to muck around with life’s basic coding. Theoretically, scientists could one day manufacture genomes, human or otherwise, almost as easily as writing code on a computer, transforming digital DNA on someone’s laptop into living cells of, say, Homo sapiens. Mindful of the controversy, Church and his HGP-Write colleagues insist that minting people is not their goal, though the sheer audacity of making genome-scale changes to human DNA is enough to cause controversy. “People get upset if you put a gene from another species into something you eat,” says Stanford bioethicist and legal scholar Henry Greely. “Now we’re talking about a thorough rewriting of life? Hairs will stand on end. Hackles will be raised.”

Raised hackles or not, Church and his team are forging ahead. “We want to start with a human Y,” he says, referring to the male sex chromosome, which he explains has the fewest genes of a person’s 23 chromosomes and is thus easier to build. And he doesn’t want to synthesize just any Y chromosome. He and his team want to use the Y chromosome sequence from an actual person’s genome: mine.

“Can you do that?” I stammer.

“Of course we can—with your permission,” he says, reminding me that it would be easy to tap into my genome, since it was stored digitally in his lab’s computers as part of an effort he launched in 2005 called the Personal Genome Project. (Disclosure: I’ve reported on Church for more than a decade, and he serves as one of 17 unpaid advisers to a small conference series I run called Arc Fusion.) The PGP has enlisted thousands of individuals to contribute their complete genomes to a public database open to researchers and everyone else, and I had donated my genome to the effort.

With my permission and a few clicks on his keyboard, Church can easily pull up a digital blueprint of my Y chromosome. Then scientists in his lab could build a synthetic replica, only with a difference: They would recode my sequence to be resistant to viruses. And if they’re successful—and if they recoded the rest of my chromosomes and inserted them into a human cell, both huge ifs—they could theoretically implant these “corrected” cells inside my body, where they would hopefully multiply, change how my body functions, and lower my risk for viral infection.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. For now, Church merely wants to recode and synthesize my Y chromosome. “It’ll be a little bit of you,” he tells me, “that we’ll keep in a freezer once we’re finished.” An optimized version of me that could one day be thawed out, in a dozen or a hundred or a thousand years. By then, Church explains, scientists might be able to further manipulate my genome. They could make me stronger or faster or maybe even smarter. They could possibly build an entirely new version of me. Who knows what will be feasible in the future?

Synthetic biology, a field dedicated to understanding and reengineering the basic building blocks of life, has its roots in the early 1970s, when a team led by Stanford biochemist Paul Berg made key discoveries about how to cut and paste short DNA sequences from one organism (everything from bacteria to humans) into another (usually a bacterium). This practice allowed scientists to use a microbe’s cell machinery to crank out proteins that in some cases became blockbuster drugs like Epogen, now commonly used to boost red-blood-cell production for those with anemia or on dialysis—or, um, in the Tour de France.

Larger-scale synthetic biology began to take hold in the early 2000s, when scientists began to synthesize complete viruses. In 2010, a team at the J. Craig Venter Institute created the first synthetic, self-replicating bacterial cell. But nothing so far has approached the ambitions of GP-Write or HGP-Write, which take their names from the original Human Genome Project, the massive endeavor that sequenced the 3 billion pairs of letters making up a human genome at a cost of $2.7 billion to US taxpayers. (A second, private effort led by geneticist Craig Venter was completed for significantly less money.) “We are looking at HGP-Write as the bookend” to the Human Genome Project, says geneticist Andrew Hessel, one of the founders of GP-Write and HGP-Write and a former researcher in the life-science unit of software giant Autodesk.

It was Hessel, a lean 54-year-old with a short, prickly beard, who first told me about this new human genome project three years ago when I visited him in his small, funky cottage near the Russian River in California’s Sonoma County. Sipping red wine around a wood stove on a foggy night, Hessel talked about how he began his career in the late 1990s at Amgen analyzing data from Venter’s private human genome effort. “Even as we were finishing HGP-Read,” he says, using his and his colleagues’ shorthand for the original Human Genome Project, “I was looking forward to seeing how we could start making things. Then I waited and waited, but nothing happened. It was a failure of imagination. The technology had reached a certain point, but no one was moving on it.” He watched as Crispr and other gene-editing techniques emerged, but they didn’t satisfy him.

In 2015, Hessel got more serious about a “write” project and asked Church to help lead the efforts that became GP-Write (and HGP-Write). Church insisted they also enlist another prominent synthetic biologist, New York University’s Jef Boeke, as co-leader. The aims of the group range from facilitating the development of faster and cheaper technologies to developing an ethical framework for synthesizing life. They also have a ready answer to the question posed by Francis Collins and others about synthesizing human genomes—why do it? Hessel, Church, and company talk about the potential for large, genome-wide changes that could be used to develop viral-resistant cells , synthetic organs, and new drugs. They draw the line, however, at the prospect of activating a synthetic genome in germ-line cells that could alter the genes we pass down to our kids. “We’re not creating human babies—we’re just writing genomes,” Hessel insists. “The real work to make a synthetic baby will be coming for another generation.”

Last May, GP-Write held its first public meeting at the New York Genome Center. The two-day gathering attracted 250 scientists, ethicists, lawyers, educators, citizen scientists, artists, policymakers, and companies from 10 countries, including China, Japan, Britain, Canada, Singapore, and the United States. It featured sessions such as “Isothermal Amplification Array to Extend Synthetic Gene Sequence” and “Anticipating and Understanding Governance Systems.”

The conference featured presentations about pilot projects that the organization was considering or endorsing. For instance, Columbia University’s Harris Wang wants to bioengineer mammalian cells that can become nutrient factories churning out the critical amino acids and vitamins we otherwise have to consume through food. Another project, presented by June Medford of Colorado State University, aims to reengineer the genomes of plants so they can filter water or detect chemicals. At the meeting, she showed a slide of an airport gate encircled by explosive-detecting shrubbery.

The GP-Write movement had its latest big breakthrough last year, when Boeke’s lab at NYU announced it had fully synthesized six of the 16 chromosomes that make up the genome of baker’s yeast. Boeke plans to finish all 16 chromosomes by the end of this year. “We’re setting out to untangle, streamline, and reorganize yeast’s genetic blueprint,” he says. “Once we’ve synthesized all 16 chromosomes, we plan to create a functioning yeast cell.”

That will be a remarkable accomplishment, but given that yeast has only about one-quarter as many genes as people do, it’s still not anything close to the complexity of synthesizing all or even part of a human genome. The longest of the 16 synthesized chromosomes in Boeke’s yeast genome will measure around 1 million base pairs—base pairs being the doubling-up of genetic letters into pairs that run along each strand of DNA’s double helix, like steps in a ladder. The Y chromosome comes in at 59 million base pairs, and that’s among the shortest of a human’s 23 chromosomes. Some scientists have estimated that writing an entire human genome, all 3 billion base pairs, could cost upwards of $3 billion, which is not only prohibitively expensive but probably unnecessary. “We don’t need to rewrite everything” to make serious changes to the chromosome, Church explains. “Just those parts that are important.”

In 2002, as part of WIRED's effort to explain and humanize the newfangled technology of genomic sequencing, I was one of the first people to be genetically sequenced. Back then, my genomic “read” seemed highly personal, claiming to reveal secrets about my health buried deep in my DNA. As part of my reporting, a San Diego–based company named Sequenom tested me for several hundred DNA markers associated with disease risk factors, ranging from Alzheimer’s and hypertension to some forms of cancer. For instance, Sequenom’s scientists found a mutation on my sixth chromosome that was later found to be associated with a slightly higher risk of heart attack. Like a lot of people who’ve had their genomes sequenced through services like 23andMe, I mentally stored this information under “good to know.” Fifteen years (and zero heart attacks) later, as I contemplated my own personal HGP-Write project, I wondered how it would feel to know that a little piece of me was being partially copied and recoded to be new and improved.

After meeting with Church last summer, I sat down with his team in a conference room at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, a glass and steel marvel situated behind the Church lab’s main building. The team included four researchers and 32-year-old Albanian postdoc Eriona Hysolli. With dark, braided hair and a serious demeanor, Hysolli walked me through how they’ll build my Y chromosome.

Gene synthesis, Hysolli says, starts with the researchers looking up a subject’s digital genetic sequence on a computer. On a glowing screen she shows me a segment of my sequence, which looks like this:

CGG CGA AGC TCT TCC TTC CTT TGC ACT GAA AGC TGT AAC TCT AAG TAT CAG TGT GAA ACG GGA GAA AAC AGT AAA GGC AAC GTC CAG GAT CGA GTG AAG CGA CCC ATG AAC GCA TTC ATC GTG TGG TCT CGC GAT CAG CGG CGC AAG ATG GCT CTA GAG AAT CCC CGA

… and so on. Hysolli explains that, rather than synthesize every nucleotide in my Y chromosome, Church’s team will focus on discrete genetic units, called codons, that determine what kind of amino acids (and, eventually, proteins) are produced by a cell. Each codon is made up of three nucleotides (ATG, for example, or TCC), and by swapping out certain nucleotides in the codons, Hysolli and her team hope to make genome-wide changes that would make a cell resistant to viruses. Once the targeted codons have been recoded, Hysolli will send this genetic blueprint to a company, Integrated DNA Technologies, which creates small, custom-made segments of actual DNA called oligonucleotides, or oligos. IDT will then freeze-dry the oligos and mail them back to Hysolli. She and her researchers will thaw out the oligos and connect them into longer and longer sequences, with each new segment bringing them one step closer to a completed chromosome.

That’s the plan, anyway, and it will take up to a year to complete the process. In the meantime, I ask Hysolli to provide a less ambitious demonstration of how writing DNA works. At first, she is reluctant to do something that she considers easy (for her). But she soon agrees, and we choose a segment of DNA on my sixth chromosome that contains the mutation revealed by my earlier genetic tests—the one that’s associated with a modest risk of heart attack. To create a new and improved version of this gene fragment, Hysolli corrects the risky mutation on her computer. She also recodes this morsel of DNA to be resistant to viruses, just for good measure. Hysolli then orders the recoded DNA fragment from IDT, which arrives several days later.

Once they receive the fragment, the researchers clone it and drop it into the cytoplasm of E. coli, a well-known bacterium. Geneticists frequently do this to take advantage of E. coli’s rapid rate of reproduction. After several days, the E. coli have churned out enough of my altered chromosome that Hysolli sends me a picture of the bacteria in a petri dish containing these tiny bits of me. Not that I can actually see the nano-size flecks. But I can view a splattering of green glowing blobs inside the cell. The blobs are produced by a “fluorescent reporter gene,” taken from a jellyfish, that is routinely used by scientists to tag genes in this way. The smudgy, brown-green soup of microbes speckled with glowing dots is a long way from being a recognizable version of me, but it did make me squirm a bit to think that one day I might be looking at a more complete version of my full genome in a petri dish, all gussied up.

The final step in creating this synthetic mini-me is to swap the repaired gene into cells to be stored. Not just any cells, though—scientists use my white blood cells to make what are called induced pluripotent stem cells, meaning that they can grow into any cell in the body. (This bioengineering is done by a Madison, Wisconsin, company called Cellular Dynamics International, which creates stem cells for pharmaceutical and academic outfits.) Someday these cells could be injected into my body in the hope of changing the way my body works, but right now, “getting edited cells in the body is super challenging,” Hysolli says. “For many tissues, you can inject them directly and wait to see if a small percentage survive and thrive. Or you can inject blood stem cells intravenously and see if they home in on the bone marrow or the thymus.” Until that technology matures, these doctored cells of mine will be frozen and stored, to be accessed by me or perhaps someone else in the future.

Church cautions that the technology behind genome-scale synthetic biology remains nascent, difficult, and expensive. GP-Write has yet to raise significant funds, though individual labs like Church and Boeke’s have raised money from government agencies such as the National Science Foundation and Darpa, the Pentagon’s R&D arm. For now, I’m not holding my breath that I’ll get my recoded Y chromosome—or the tiny fix that Hysolli made on my chromosome six—implanted in me anytime soon. But they’ll be sitting there in the deep freeze should the raft of ethical, technical, and safety issues ever get worked out.

I wonder, though, how this primal code that makes me who I am, for better or worse, might one day be used. I’m all for using the tech to develop new drugs or to make genome-wide DNA programming tweaks that might prevent diseases, if it’s safe and has no unintended negative effects—a really big if. But if we push beyond the therapeutic barrier, I wonder how I’ll feel if I or my children are enhanced to be smarter or stronger. Again, if it’s safe, and if it actually works, I suspect many people would be eager for the upgrade, though you have to wonder whether such new and improved genomes—whether we use genome-scale recoding or other technologies like Crispr—would make us someone different altogether.

How this will play out in future years and decades is anyone’s guess. But the tools are being forged right now that might make it possible to do far more than add a few improvements, says bioengineer Pam Silver of Harvard: “The driver is your imagination.” She is part of the GP-Write project that is setting out to reengineer DNA to make amino acids that humans must otherwise consume through food. Her notion was echoed by geneticist Charles Cantor, a professor emeritus from Boston University who helped facilitate my original DNA “read” back in 2002 at Sequenom. Cantor thinks that scientists and ethicists are actually being too timid. “When I think of writing genomes,” he says, “I like to think of the different genres people could write. Personally, I like fiction—coming up with totally novel genomes, like making people who are engineered to get their energy from photosynthesis, or a plant that can walk.”

The fact that mainstream researchers are seriously thinking about cells that resist viruses and plants that might walk around makes it all the more critical that scientists like Church, Hessel, and Boeke—and younger researchers like Hysolli—publicly talk about all of this, and also spearhead groups like GP-Write to keep everything transparent and governed by standards as often as possible. “I think it’s reassuring to the public that scientists are thinking about this, that they aren’t just off doing mad-scientist kinds of stuff,” says Nicole Lockhart, a program director at the NIH’s Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications Research Program. Or as Hessel frames it: “We may not be able to stop bad guys from abusing this technology, but given that this technology is coming one way or another, it’s always better to have this out in the open as much as we can.”

During one of my final visits to her lab, I ask Hysolli what chromosome they will try next, once they’ve finished synthesizing my Y.

“We’re not sure yet,” she says. Perhaps one of the other small chromosomes, like 21 or 22. Church is encouraging her and her team to go ahead and try the X chromosome.

“That may be a bit much right now,” Hysolli says, given that it has more than 10 times the number of genes and is much longer than the Y.

I gingerly ask her whose sequence they will use for these and other chromosomes to create the rest of their recoded synthetic human genome.

“We could use yours,” she says, offering the barest hint of a smile before turning back to her work.

https://www.wired.com/story/live-forever-synthetic-human-genome/

#The Sisterhood

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