Kevin Curry

Psychoprotective Book 2 Chapter 8

“That was fun.” PSI King said as they started packing up.

“Playing with a floating brain was super-weird.” James said. “But you’re a cool dude.”

Parson snorted. “He flirted with every single NPC that didn’t have weapons drawn.” And a few that did, yes.

“What can I say?” PSI King said. “I’ve a lot of love to give.”

“Eighteen charisma is bullshit.” Asha complained.

“Parson’s expression every time was hilarious.” James said. �...

June Poll

Forgot to schedule this, like I did the actual chapter, so... yeah. 

It was interesting to return to one of the original three snippets I put on the snippet thread to provide options for this poll. Was fun. 

As usual, multiple choice, mystery box gives y'all something new. 

To Be a Hero 2

As it turns out, I had a full chapter 90% done that I completely forgot about. So I'm going to, in two weeks, release a third chapter of To Be a Hero.

....Honestly, Chapter 3 is a lot of not-quite-canon-retread, so y'all would likely have thought yourselves cheated if I posted it normally. As a bonus, though? I'm sure it's fine.

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“I have some bad news, young Midoriya.” All Might began.

Before Izuku’s brain could properly melt down, he conti...

Psychoprotective Book 2 Chapter 7

It was a point of pride for Tanya that despite all of these demands on her time, she kept up her job duties at reasonable efficiency. Well, reasonable by her, admittedly high, standards. By the standard set by the tradesmen who normally performed these maintenance tasks, she was putting them to shame.

There was a reason the maintenance department was weeks behind schedule, and it was largely because of mismatches between the actual efficiency of the workers and what the budget thinks th...

Psychoprotective Book 2 Chapter 6

“Why this pose?” Agent Nein asked. He was holding Tanya up by her Psychonauts jumpsuit, the slack provided by the oversized garment allowing her to hang a whole foot below his hand.

“Give her a stern glare.” The art director said. “Like she just got into some mischief and needs scolding.” He pointed to Tanya. “Give me a nice sheepish look.”

Simple enough. Tanya gave her best ‘shounen idiot’ grin, as if a wide enough smile would make Agent Nein less angry. Hand ...

Psychoprotective Book 2 Chapter 5

Despite Tanya’s reservations, there were a few things she could do to mitigate the risk to Harry’s mentality. Mostly, it involved personally moderating the psychic connection and actions. It didn’t quite ruin the usability of the tests, but it did it no favors. If it would have gone catastrophically wrong without her intervention, she probably would be able to tell even without letting it actually go wrong. It just means she’ll need more tests, which is hardly the worst hardship.

Bonus: To Be a Hero Chapter 1 revised

While it's not finalized whether this month's snippet will be To Be a Hero, I still revised the first chapter, expanded it, and as it's already public, and was never posted here, I figured I might as well do that. 

I do have the contents of the mystery box planned if it wins, and I'd be happy to write it too, but if they remain tied, I'm going to be posting the To Be a Hero chapter 2. 

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Izuku Midoriya was having one hell of a day.

Psychoprotective Book 2 Chapter 4

“Agent Mentalis took a vacation?” Tanya asked, incredulous.

“Yep.” Said Jerimaiah ‘Jerry’ Lewitz, her actual supervisor. The technicians tended to fall into two categories: engineers who could fabricate the artisanal psycho-reactive technology that the Psychonauts rely on for their work, and tradesmen who could maintain and fix both the ordinary technology and the psychic technology. Jerry was an engineer, so unlike the tradesmen he was an unathletic man who nevertheless tow...

Psychoprotective Sidestory 2

“We’ve made a lot of progress, Tanya.” Mom said cheerfully. “We’re almost done.”

Tanya grabbed another few bits of floating memory. “First day of school…” She tossed it back into the air, frowning. The ‘plan’ for her new mind had all of the past life memories sequestered in the pyramid, but the third lift memories were to construct themselves around the pyramid once it was sealed. This morning, they had to actively prevent them from doing just that, in fact. They j...

Psychoprotective Book 2 Chapter 3

Darkness. Tanya wasn’t entirely certain what to expect, but she expected the sensory input that the capsule should be sending to the brain to have some kind of effect. Perhaps… Harry had some kind of sensory disorder? It would mean the automatic synchronization wouldn’t function, and would require some additional assistance. From the inside of the brain.

Lovely, she’ll have to figure out how to hypnotize a corpse brain to reach out and link with the capsule. Unless… step 1 of ...

May Poll

It's that time again! I decided to release the poll a little early, because I didn't see the point in scheduling it instead.

As usual, "Mystery box" is something new, and you can vote for multiple options. 

Starting at the 'induction into the Marines' part of Unknown Justice instead of going over Tanya/Tenko's life in Yellow Island was definitely a mistake, so I've added an option to those who think they'd like the story if I fleshed out the start a bit more, 'Start over Un...

Psychoprotective Book 2 Chapter 2

Tanya did not appear in the same place as before. Most entrants into Agent Mentalis’ mind were directed to the central database; as nothing the Psychonauts had access to was more capable of storing and retrieving massive amounts of information than a mind; once server storage increases in utility she’ll be sure to encourage them to switch before Agent Mentalis starts losing information to senility.

Instead, the area was dark and organic, the rounded terrain and struts reminding her ...

Psychoprotective Book 2 Chapter 1

Tanya’s eyes snapped open as her psychic alarm went off. Today was the day! A glance and flex of her telekinesis opened up her psychoisolation bed, and she rolled out of it, catching herself and standing instead of falling to the floor.

“It’s time to wake up, Mary.” Tanya called out. Mary mumbled and turned over in her bed on the other side of the room. Eh, she’s still got some time. Tanya picked up the pile of blankets and stuffed animals, gave them a sniff, and deposited the...

Psychoprotective 27 (End of Book 1)

As it turned out, having a brute of a circus ringmaster punch apart a large chunk of your mind because it was trying to rebel, while effective, was not something that could happen consequence-free. It made Tanya feel a little better for not telling him about “Marona’s” true identity. He refused to listen, so it wasn’t like she didn’t offer, but still…

After going overboard the first day, they got into a rhythm. Three hour sessions, twice a day. Within those sessions, it was ...

Psychoprotective 26

Tanya opened her eyes. Agh, her head was pounding. She was back at the circus, in the giant bed where the Aquato family all slept together. On her left, Donatella’s pregnant belly pinned Tanya down as the woman hugged her close. On Tanya’s right, Augustus wrapped his muscular arms around the both of them. Tanya was wrapped in the blanket she had brought with her, restraint and comfort in one. Everyone but her was asleep.

…It was nice, if foolishly idealistic on the Aquato’s part...

April Poll

It's that time again! Vote for what I post on the 1st of May!

As I haven't announced it here yet, if you haven't noticed I've changed things so the $3 patrons not only get to vote on this, but they get the early release of what they voted on! Seems obvious that I should have done that in hindsight. 

Psychoprotective Sidestory 1

It's the winner of the vote! Enjoy. I'm not great with chapter titles, so for this one, how about 'Being Tanya is suffering'? It's a series of scenes pre-book 1, focusing on Tanya's life pre-fire. 

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It took a while for Tanya to fully understand what was going on. Embarrassingly long, if she was honest. The last thing she remembered was begging Being X for power. Not for mercy, mind you, but for the chance to destroy that monster in human skin. In hind...

Psychoprotective 25

[Augustus Aquato, Ringmaster of the Aquato’s Flying Circus]

Okay, maybe being a Psychic isn’t so bad. Once he got out to the wider terrain, Augustus tried out flight. It took him a minute to adjust the math-oriented power to his weight, but it allowed him to move so quickly…

He quickly realized that he was more comfortable merely lightening his body and leaping about, along with a few bursts of flight to change directions in mid-air. After getting used to his new mobility, A...

Psychonauts 24

This is the last bonus update for March, pushing the early access to a whole four updates. Enjoy.

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[Augustus Aquato, Ringmaster of the Aquato’s Flying Circus]

Augustus wasn’t really a stranger to fighting the little suited men, the censors. He usually cleared out before he took out too many, as he wasn’t sure if he was hurting his children by doing so, but they were… weak.

At least, they usually were. These censors seemed much more on t...

Psychoprotective 23

One thing that was apparent, after a few days of circus life, was that something always needed fixing. Nona, the grandmother (the term was Italian, which made sense given that she wasn’t a grandmother until Donatella, who was Italian, came into the picture), spent the majority of her time doing one of three things: cooking, sleeping, and sewing.

Tanya was still doing a little bit of everything, which was good for finding the comparative advantage of any given worker. Hopefully, she’...

Psychoprotective 22

$5 patrons now enjoy THREE advance chapters! Enjoy. 

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“So convenient, that you’ve hidden in a place where the problems of faith can be addressed… in a much easier manner.” Being X’s booming voice echoed, stroking his malevolent mustache. “All of that pesky defiance, that demonic desire to surpass God… It can just be removed.”

Tanya screamed once more as she leapt out of her… bed? No. She remembers now. She found a rest stop on the high...

Summon Perfect Warlady 3

This story's been fairly inspired for me, so as part of the promotion, a bonus chapter!

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Tanya looked at their collected casters after wiping at their face, dismissing the makeup spell. It was supposed to make her look more respectable to Ansom, improving the odds of the negotiation’s success. Why Ansom was more likely to respect them if they resembled Sailor Moon, Tanya didn’t understand. “Hand me the scroll.” They ordered. Sizemore presented the...

Psychoprotective 21

Tanya awoke feeling clean and refreshed. “Ah, Tanya darling, you’re awake.” Miss Milla said. “Are you feeling better?” Tanya realized that she was getting her hair brushed, the gentle tugging more soothing than anything else.

What did she do? Whatever she wanted, clearly. She couldn’t have waited until she was lucid? Tanya telekinetically slapped herself. This was Miss Milla! She wouldn’t do anything untoward, that’s ludicrous. The worst thing that could happen was her w...

Psychoprotective 20

This is the first extra chapter! From this point forth, $5 and greater patrons will have two advance chapters, for as long as I can maintain that pace. 

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Hot. Agent Cruller’s mind was oppressively hot, to the point that Tanya felt her mental energy drain along with the burning pain on her skin. Her feet in particular were touching an intensely hot grill, but levitation was second nature at this point so it wasn’t a concern after a single point of ...

Psychoprotective 19

With Anima Academy complete, Psychoprotective will now be updated every Monday!

Not only that, but this month I'm running a special promotion for patrons this month! I will be expanding the amount of chapters $5+ patrons get to see in advance! Specifically, for the next two Fridays (maybe a third, not going to commit to it), I will be posting an additional Psychoprotective chapter without accelerating the public releases. 

I considered making it so that the $3+ patron would a...

March Poll

Once more, with feeling! What do I post on April 1st? You can vote for multiple options. 

I decided to start putting an end date on these. There hasn't been a last minute swap of what I needed to write yet, but I started to worry about it last month. Poll closes at the end of the 20th. 

Summon Perfect Warlady 2

Yeah, it was a draw, but I got super-inspired to write this so I picked it to do. I might post a second chapter of this this month as part of the promotion... Depends on how things go, I suppose. 

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At first, Tanya was relieved when they learned that Stanley only had need of the Foolamancer to veil his escape. That was before they noticed the consequences of ending a thinkamancy link in the middle of the day.

“She’s dead.” Tanya sa...

Chapter 42: Settling back down

This is the last chapter, book 1 is done. Book 2 is unlikely, but still possible. Maybe I'll feel inspired at some point. We're moving to a full Psychoprotective schedule for now. 

Next month, there's going to be a special promotion, so look forward to that. 

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Their arrival back to Anima was not heralded with any particular fanfare. Just work…

“Here’s the paperwork for your classes. Staff meeting in tomorrow at noon. Be th...

Psychoprotective 18

[Sasha Nein, M. Psi, Psychonauts Agent]

The last emotional baggage, the last weapon he had against the Devil of the Rhine, was a purse placed innocuously, hanging on a wall in the middle of a half-frozen prison yard. Oddly, the place was swelteringly hot rather than bitingly cold. “Nothing good ever happens in prisons.” He commented, feeling Milla’s attention through the mental link.

“She is still very sick, Comrade Loria.” A voice said, in Russian. “All twenty of the ...

Chapter 41: There's always another quest

Next chapter is the last one before the end of Book 1! I have absolutely no idea if I'll ever write book 2, but I'm setting it up anyway. 

Also, could some of you who haven't voted maybe do so? Only four of you guys have participated in the poll, and it's currently tied. I could just arbitrarily decide between the two, but I'd rather not. 

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Rorik’s outlook was a pretty typical dungeon city: a fortified keep in the b...