February Small Story Poll Results (Patreon)

Alright, it is time to close the small story poll. Remember that this month, given the emphasis on Making Waves (off now to the second of three beta readers LOL) and Horse for the Force, I will probably only be able to get one of these small stories done this month – February is short, and made shorter thanks to my work on Making Waves up to the Super Bowl. I doubt I’ll even be able to get the one small story beta read by Michael before posting. Hiryo, maybe LOL, he and I will see about that. I posted my most recent small story ideas as recompense for this. If you haven’t checked them out yet please do so. The HP ones in particular are kind of important thanks to another post I will be making later today. Kind of amused that I’ve only gotten ‘I like this story over this other one’ kind of comments instead of more detailed responses LOL.

Before talking about the poll results though, I would also like to thank all of you who posted your ideas on the opinion questions. Though I haven’t responded to many I have read them all and taken your opinions on board. 

1. The question about character deaths, which everyone who has read MW15 should have seen the importance of, was the most helpful in many ways. Essentially most people agreed with my own view here: that it should happen if it makes sense in the story, and is realistic, but shouldn’t be forced just because I may dislike the character in question. I should be wary of killing off someone’s waifu (Owen Gray, that made me laugh quite loudly), because it could also change the total feel of the story, and while realistic is good, I shouldn’t go for hyper-dark realism. 

a. But many people brought up a point I had overlooked: that the deaths should have an impact on the survivors. An example of this would be Dooku’s death in Magic of the Force. But for some reason I had neglected to think that even if the characters in question themselves weren’t important, that their deaths would have possibly life-changing impacts on other characters.  So I would like to thank Braeden1002, Justlovereadin’, Tomon and Thomas Edwards in particular for pointing that out quite eloquently.

b. Oh, and Hiryo, I don’t do everybody dies fics. Ever. I think Evangelion sucked ball sack, and I think the ending of nearly every Gundam series came close to that level of suckitude, along with Aura Battler Dunbine and several others. 

c. Ian Cooper: liked your comparison between Suspension of Disbelief and realism. Makes a lot of sense.

2. First let me apologize. I mentioned timeskips here, again, yes I know I’ve had questions about them before, because of Making Waves. In canon Fairy Tail there are two large timeskips, and one of them in particular looms very large because it was seven years long and effected the entire world but not the main characters. UGGGGGGGH. I think it was one of the worst examples of how to use timeskips I have ever seen, and I am still wondering if I should include something smaller or similar. UghX4.

a. On the other hand, people were very split on the idea of seeing scenes of ‘while MC was doing this, X was doing that’ type of scenes. I will here, go with the idea of showing them, but only, if they are better or in some fashion different than it would be in canon. Hence I will show what Tigre is up to in SB&H, continue to give villain POV in both SW stories because it helps show the overall picture (Thanks Tomon), but won’t show what Anakin and Mace have been up to in Magic while Harry and Aayla have been running around creating their third faction.

3. This one acted more like a popularity question about Anything Goes Game Changer. I’ve decided to keep the current format, but keep AGGC in the poll every month until it is finished, then replacing it with Semblance after that, putting my own votes down on AGGC every time. 

4. Again here the two patron story concept was more a popularity question than anything else. Once more, I think I will keep the current format, with a minor addition to be decided in the next post I will be creating today.

5. Here I made a mistake. I should have split this question in two. On the one hand, I was wondering how many people enjoyed the ecchiness become lemony goodness, and if they wanted to see more such scenes even if they didn’t impact the relationships just because lemons are a natural extension of those relationships. The general consensus was only if it’s important, and doesn’t take up a large segment of the chapter. 

a. However, the other aspect of the question was about the furry kink I had introduced in the lime in chapter 11 of FILFy. Less people commented on this aspect, however the consensus was go for it if it has an impact on the story. Considering that Harry needs to let loose his were-side more, it does. I would like to thank Zagan and Tomon for being the first two to comment on that aspect and bring it to everyone’s attention.

b. BIG NOTE: I will continue to label my lime/lemon scenes, and in the future will just add a Furry warning. That way, if people don’t like, they can’t bloody complain. 

And now, without further ado, here are the results of the small story poll!!

Yet again in last place was Semblance of Hope, with 424, 113 of which came from over on fanfic. Seriously, why isn’t it more popular? It can’t just be because I have split up Pyrrha and Jaune, can it? Or is it because RWBY went to crap after the second season? Hmm… 

Sword Bow and Horse brought in 473 and came in second to last. Pretty respectable considering it isn’t over on fanfic, and Vanadis is such a small fandom, though I still maintain that is rather sad and this story could become one of my personal favorites because of the characters and the room for world building. Hopefully at this point this opinion doesn’t come as a shock to anyone LOL.

In third place was Gods, Devils and Wild Horses, Oh My, bringing in 485, 224 coming from fanfic. I think this is rather because more people like FILFy than GDWHOM since FILFy has had lemons and Harry is more popular than Ranma. So it’s placement is understandable, unlike Semblance. 

In second place, in a big upset, was FILFy Teacher!! It brought in a total of 1210 votes, with 437 votes coming in from fanfic. The perverts are strong for this one, hrhrhm. Still, given how much trouble I have with controlling the chapter sizes of this fic, I can’t say it’s a bad thing.

But in first place was Anything Goes Game Changer, pulling ahead by a near whisker with 1283!  That despite bringing in only 140 from fanfic.  Woot!! So we get to see everyone’s reactions to the fight between the Wild Horse and the Bloody Crow. 

Again, Anything Goes Game Changer will be the updated story this month. IFFFF I a have time, I will work on FILFy but don’t hold your breath.

And in ATP news: I was so drained on combat scenes after writing up MW16 that I haven’t even looked at the outline. Ugh. Hopefully this won’t make me push work on ATP back another month, but I am dealing with some serious combat scene drain at the moment. I also want to ask for help: if any of you have been in the military and been trained in or fought in winter conditions, please contact me. That is an area I have little understanding of or history in describing outside of Wild Wolf and a few scattered instances here and there, none of which were with modern weapons or tactics.