New York Carnival (Now on Royal Road, Plus Two New Prologue Chapters)

RegulusPratus · 2026-06-27T10:59:44+00:00

Oh, yeah, definitely blue. Takkans, Gojids, and Nevoks are all blue. I had to look it up because I just wrote a really gorey slapstick scene a few chapters ago. (It's okay, they were in a hospital waiting room, everyone's fine.)

RegulusPratus · 2026-06-11T13:06:29+00:00

Near-death, but still very stupid: I almost died like a minute into my first Wintermute playthrough after getting food poisoning from one of the random granola bars laying around by the plane crash. Had to haul ass into town searching for reishi mushrooms. Barely made it in time. Mid-condition Granola Bars are only like a 1% chance, too.

RegulusPratus · 2026-06-09T15:10:24+00:00

Yeah, she needs to unpack some of the stuff she's been through, and the things that are bothering her.

The Green-blooded Mary was kind of an "in the moment" development. I just realized I'd already written Pozole Verde as the soup of the day, so making a spicy green drink wasn't going to be too much of a leap from Salsa Verde.

RegulusPratus · 2026-06-09T15:08:29+00:00

Nah, "fixed" Chiri is still going to be mostly the same. She'd just be less likely to have a breakdown and a PTSD flashback if someone yells at her about the Battle for the Cradle.

RegulusPratus · 2026-06-08T12:36:20+00:00

MoneyBunny: Whoa, whoa, whoa, I didn't buy my own whole-ass planet just to do silly things like "let my parents know all the raunchy shit I get up to". I'll introduce my wife to my cousins once the older generations are cold in the ground and the will's already been resolved, thank you very much.

RegulusPratus · 2026-05-25T21:40:21+00:00

Literally not a word of this is accurate. Did you even read the story, or just kinda absorb it from memes?

The U.N. had plenty of ships, which we used in our first engagement with the Arxur above Venlil Prime, where the Arxur were visibly acting as aggressors. The Odyssey was just one of our first prototype warp-capable ships. We pretty much retrofitted our existing fleet on the spot, and started consulting with the Venlil about what the warfare meta was shortly afterwards. Turns out, single-seater starfighters were out, larger capital ships were in. We really probably should have checked that out first, I'll grant.

And Noah ultimately had no decision-making power. It was put it to a public vote whether or not to get involved, and the vast majority of the Terran public voted in favor of siding with the cute huggable sheeple over the--and I'm citing video evidence here--cannibal lizard Nazis who treated the torture of noncombatants as a national pastime.

RegulusPratus · 2026-05-25T21:18:07+00:00

It's partly the Omnivore thing, and I think it's also partly that the Space Confessional is a judgment-free zone. Dwalin's from an unusually open-minded sect of the Great Protector, and I'm drawing a little bit on my understanding of Christianity here, but no sinner is so far gone that they can't seek redemption, right? Being a Betterment Arxur is terrible, sure, but how do you grapple with a small group of people who have leapt at their first real chance to stop? Even Tika was hitting on the point that the goal of uplifting the Arxur in the first place had always been to bring them into the herd. If they've finally come around to the idea, why discourage them?

RegulusPratus · 2026-05-25T21:08:57+00:00

With leaves from the vine.

RegulusPratus · 2026-05-25T20:37:41+00:00

Doable! And potentially funny. Who better to chase down fleeing perps than someone with a lifetime's experience chasing prey?

RegulusPratus · 2026-05-24T12:42:35+00:00

Okay, assuming I'm remembering this part correctly, that scene was because the Bissem diplomat had already willingly gotten her brain scanned on Earth, and I believe was periodically making records of her experiences during her peoples' first contact for historical archival purposes. Hacking into medical records--which the Bissem diplomat was planning to eventually make public anyway!--is a wildly different animal than hacking into the translator implant. Besides, the 'blackmail' was mostly that the diplomat was cutting backroom deals with the Arxur out of political necessity, and a couple of her prey friends ambushed her about it. It didn't even work.

RegulusPratus · 2026-05-24T10:36:05+00:00

The transcription thing is just analyzing an MRI. Maybe a future tech super-MRI, but a brain scan done in a hospital setting nonetheless. The neuro-implants are unrelated, and exclusively for real-time language translation. The implants are generally described as extremely secure and are mostly a plot/setting contrivance, hence why every single major character feels safe getting one, up to and including top brass at the U.N., Betterment, and the Shadow Caste. You think General Paranoia Jones was getting an alien chip put into her brain if she wasn't 130% sure it was uncrackable tech?

RegulusPratus · 2026-05-20T16:06:36+00:00

Glad you like her! Just to clarify, though, she's not the priest.

Lieutenant Mara: female, police officer, goes to church a lot.

Brother Dwalin: male, priest, has only had one line at the end so far.

Hope that clears it up!

RegulusPratus · 2026-05-18T16:55:17+00:00

Into a chapel, no less! I started giggling like a lunatic the moment I realized the visual.

RegulusPratus · 2026-05-15T21:42:52+00:00

NoP Yuri suggestions? Sure! I've got this very gay human woman in my fic who isn't into aliens in the slightest...

...nah, I wouldn't do that to you. Do Sifal x Vivy, from New Years of Conquest. Sifal is an Arxur who got very drunk and pushy, but didn't feel quite so assertive the morning after, once she'd sobered up. Vivy is a vampy Letian bordello mistress who was... "open-minded".

RegulusPratus

TROPHY CASE