Poll Results!

Ahoy, all! 

Since March's poll wrapped up at midnight last night, it's time to announce the results so everyone knows what to expect in the upcoming month :-). In addition, since the Relationship Poll for One Piece: Halfway Broken hasn't had any new votes for a while, I went ahead and shut it down as well, and will be covering the results of that poll in this post as well. First, though...

March's Story Poll

For the first time I had some people take advantage of the weighed poll options! An extra special thanks to those of you who did so! It really helps :-). And it helped get a pretty unequivocal result, too! Even without the weighing, the result would have been the same...but it would have been closer, that's for sure! As is, after applying the weighted votes from you guys and gals who chipped in extra...here's the poll results:

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One Piece: Halfway Broken: 54 Votes

Mass Effect: Eridium Dreams: 19

Harry Potter: Pandora's Box: 8

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Like I said, a pretty unequivocal winner! Though Mass Effect: Eridium Dreams honestly put up a fairly solid showing for a story that doesn't have as much content yet. Poor Pandora's Box was left in the dust...but that's honestly not unexpected, as it has yet to be updated since its initial releases. What this means, of course, is that One Piece: Halfway Broken will be getting another update (minimum length 10,000 words) in March! 

That said, if you happen to like the other stories, don't despair just yet! I'm going to be trying to sneak in at least a small update of Pandora's Box as well. I don't want any story to completely get abandoned. So, when possible, I will try to sneak occasional small 3-5k updates in for whichever work has gone the longest without an update. I do not guarantee those updates the same way I do the Primary Stories or the Poll Winner, but I'll do what I can :-). 

One Piece: Halfway Broken Relationship Poll

Alright! Onto talking about the other poll that has been running this month! This poll was not weighted, it was a pure straight vote. One that was open to the public as well as patrons. Which, as it happens, is why I'm making this particular post Public as well, so that people can see the results. It's not like it's super-secret who won the main poll, after all ;-).

As all of you should be aware, the poll in quesiton was meant to get reader feedback about the pairing for One Piece: Halfway Broken. The results surprised me a little, though hardly in a bad way. Said results were:

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Multiple Girls for Luffy (Nami, Robin, ?) - 74%

A Single Girl for Luffy (Most Likely Robin) - 26%

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That's a pretty darn definitive answer! Add in the fact that I was leaning toward wanting a multi-pairing for the story from the start, and I can now say with 100% certainty that One Piece: Halfway Broken will feature a multi-pairing. 

Unless there's a really strong argument for pushing the boundaries, I will be keeping the number of women involved with Luffy to just three. I'm confident in my ability to balance that many, giving them suitable depth and development. Any more than that and I'm afraid the relationships would end up shallow and mostly about sex. Which isn't what I want, even if some people probably wouldn't protest ;-).

Two positions in the relationship are already effectively locked in as Nami and Robin. Both had good chemistry even with canon Luffy, and the chemistry with the improved Luffy will be even better (I believe). I will also say that I won't consider anyone else from the East Blue. I have plans for the remaining female East Blue crewmates already, including Nojiko. If anyone wants to present a case for the final member, feel free to do so! I won't guarantee you'll get your wish, but I'll consider your arguments at least, so long as they aren't completely out there ;-).

Currently, the three most likely possibilities from purely my own viewpoint are Perona, Boa Handcock and Hina. Yes, I have 100% viable means of bringing Hina onto the crew. No, I won't tell you how, since it involves one of the more major divergences I have planned for the Grand Line. In some ways, I think she'd be the most interesting because of how it could all happen. But I'm open to feedback :-p. Be aware that I'm a lot less familiar with the Post-Timeskip characters, so you'll have a bit more work cut out for you if you want to argue for one of them...