Succubated!

It's Tuesday, so instead of a new chapter we've got a special update as we look back at our "intermission polls."

Volume 2 of this series ("Unhallowed! Rise of the Neo-Succubus") is well underway, and we've managed to keep to our three chapters/week posting schedule so far! Most of the chapters so far went through some significant rewrites and re-generations, since they weren't quite at the quality level of the end of Volume 1. Going forward, the chapters are a little smoother so we should have a little more time for side projects (fingers crossed!)

The first of our polls closed almost two weeks back, so let's take a look at... most popular chararcters! Growing up, this was one my favorite things about reading manga like Shonen Jump, where they publish character popularity polls pretty frequently. The results are predictable sometimes, but you never know!

...but our poll is definitely dominated by our main characters: Father Michael and Yael, whose struggle defines the first half of Succubated! volunme 1, but the prize goes to Micki, the heroine who emerges by the end of that volume. In volume 2, the brand-new demoness known as "Micki" is still in the driver's seat... but a little different too, as you may have realized if you've caught up. How will that play out? You'll have to keep reading to find out, but it's worth noting that even in the votes, Father Michael (4 votes) + Yael (10 votes) = MICKI?! (14 votes) Did you guys do that on purpose?

It's possible we should have done a separate poll to make things fair for our supporting cast, who had a hard time competing with the main characters. Thomas Spencer got no votes at all! (Booo, everyone hates a control-freak religious dad!) The ever-bubbly but insightful Maria topped the list of favorite supporting characters, with nerdy occult-kinkstress Susan and taciturn demon-hunter Cassandra following behind... and leaving just one vote for steadfast Father John Hayes, keeping things going, driving the bus, running the church... thank you, sole fan of Father John. He appreciates you too.

Our next poll, with almost as many voters as the first, was about the kind of scenes and fun stuff you're hoping to see in the next volume. The top three choices here were very close: Slice of Life scenes from everyday life coming in at third place, and Romance/Intimacy at second place, with Gender Transformations taking the top spot! Unsurprising, I guess? After all, this series started out as gender-bender smut with a long-burning transformation into a succubus. But where do we go from here? On the way to becoming Micki and then Una, our heroine transformed several times in dreams, got forcibly "de-transformed" and then broke out of it, and is now her own demoness. That leaves other people's gender transformations (OPGT) and yes, there will be some of those, along with more exploration of our main cast's complicated relationships (some of that's already been showing up!) As for everyday slice of life scenes, Una is desperate for a little of that, and we'll hopefully reach it before long! In the opening chapters of Volume 2, the team's dealing with the fallout of Thomas Spencer's mess...

Fourth place in this poll went to other kinds of bodily transformation, which up-to-date readers will have seen some of already. (Leave a comment if there's anything you particularly liked so far, or are looking forward to!) Rounding out the poll are other kinds of scene, which all had around half the votes of the most popular choices: not enough to win, but still popular enough to matter! Stay tuned for the occasional action scene as well as investigating occult mysteries and eventually... some crossovers! Finally, two of you voted to see more scenes of Vatican officials trying to out-maneuver each other... which makes me wish we had put Monsignor Albert on the character popularity poll, but oh yes, you will be seeing more of him. A little bit more; don't get too excited about chapter upon chapter of Cardinals sending memos!

The poll about artwork had the most voters, 42 in all! This poll was very eye-opening for understanding what most of the readers for this series are looking for: around 70% of the votes were either for "I like the images but it'd be fine if not every chapter had one" or "could go either way, images or not!" Of the rest, 13% of the votes went to choices that didn't favor putting more time into this kind of artwork style, while 15% of the votes said that artwork is a vital reason they read the series.

This poll has been pretty helpful in deciding our new approach: we'll make more artwork when possible or to take a break from writing, but the priority will be on writing! Fortunately we also have a volunteer, Aman2001, who has offered to do some of the AI-generated artwork using other styles and more detail! Aman might not have time to do an image three times a week, so we may reach some weeks where there's no artwork. As SabGry astutely commented on that poll, some chapters just don't lend themselves as well to images; they feel forced, or like a formality. (It's worth noting that the more body parts Una has, from tail to wings to hooves and horns, the more generative AI image models struggle to create an image!)

Our "should this be a book?" poll was the least popular, with only 18 voters... thanks to everyone who voted for answering a question that other readers might have found awkward? Although we're happy to keep working on Succubated and other series for fun, it's nice to think about a book version, which could also help the series find new readers! Eight voters said they'd be happy to support a book in some form, seven said no thanks, and three of your said you'd prefer to support authors through a tip jar. (For you three, you're in luck! We do have a tip jar if you want to buy us a coffee to keep writing, writing, writing....)

The "Tags You Hate" poll had the most choices, and was the most ridiculous in many ways. But we're glad we did it: now we know how many of you DO NOT WANT themes like loved ones dying (a whopping 13 votes against), amnesia (10 votes against), a yandere character (9 votes against) or LitRPG leveling systems (8 votes against). Results are conclusive enough that we can take a solemn oath: Una will NOT get in a truck accident where she loses her memory and wakes up through a portal in a fantasy world (Class: Succubus, Level: 100, Perk: Sexual Energy Gain, Burst Ability: ????) only to be stalked by an obsessive demon-lover who wants to tie her up in a basement. Not going to happen. Luckily, none of those themes were strongly in the plans anyway! If you want a gender-bending LitRPG isekai fix, the closest you're going to get around here is the shared-universe series SYNCHRONY::OVERRIDE, which does take place in a weird alternate world and have increasing levels... but the protagonist may or may not be getting more "powerful" in the usual way...

Another group of tags got around 4-6 votes against each: Ability Steal, Body Swap, Futanari, Mind Control, Sexual Cultivation, and Time Travel. Some of these are already playing a role in Volume 2; apologies to everyone who hates Mind Control themes, but hopefully the way Una and Susan dabble in it while contending with Nezz is a more interesting exploration of power dynamics than most "mind control superpower harem" fantasies. Many of these other tags may show up here and there, but not in a major way.

Finally, we're glad to see that none of you have problems with: Nuns, Vampires, Werebeasts, Power Couples, Boss-Subordinate Relationships, Angels, Goddesses, Martial Arts, or Magitech. We'll take it under advisement (there may not be time to do ALL of that in depth, of course...)

Our very last poll was the most exciting and also the most dangerous... because there's never enough time to work on every project! We preceded this poll by saying that Succubated Vol. 2 is the priority, and it still is... but we also haven't had time yet this summer to work on anything else! Still, it's exciting to know that so many of you are interested in other projects like SYNCHRONY::OVERRIDE and surprise winner... All-American Arachnid Princess? This is great motivation for us to get started, while also not neglecting any of the existing series. Our current priorities are:

1. Make sure we keep up with Succubated, aiming for three chapters/week. The first set of chapters have been longer than expected! We'll shoot for shorter chapters as we continue. If we hit a rough patch, we'll still try to do two/week.
2. SYNCHRONY::OVERRIDE chapters, there are probably about nine or ten remaining. No set schedule, but we won't go lower on this list without doing at least one chapter for every time we do one of the following items...
3. Occasional release of a Spider Princess chapter, although probably not until we have 3-5 chapters. Aiming for shorter chapters here too.
4. Fix up the first six or so chapters of Succubated, which are still leaving a not-so-great impression on first-time readers!
5. Images.
6. Other stuff like an extra helping of "Samira's Curse"... although this is definitely the easiest way for anyone who wants more smutty gender transformations to get a quick fix!

Thanks to everyone who voted in these polls, it was a lot of fun!