gojaimas

[gojaimas]

More Late Comment Replies

Hey people. I just watched Endgame, and since Thanos memes always remind me of my story because they kept coming up in the comments for some reason, I’ve decided to come back and reply to some more late comments. Here goes.

HorsemanOTA: “looks like you finished this earlier this year but i wish i would have come by it sooner, spent the past almost week binge reading this story and have loved every minute of it, i cant say im not disappointed that all three of them didn't end up in a poli-relationship, i was hoping it would have ended like that. The crutch thing i can understand but i feel like they had bonded way too much for it to end way, it hurt me that that was the out for her to be like i gotta squash it and let it be a pair instead of a trio. Got so invested in your version of Lucy lol. regardless i loved just about all of this fic so thank you for the read, hope this review reaches you well. Later Daze”

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it! I’m a little let down that I couldn���t have all three of them get together in the end, too. But I couldn’t just snap my fingers and make everything turn out alright in the end. I wanted to stay true to the story I was writing and it just didn’t fit for that to happen at that point.

J Master 87: “Holy shit. That was down right amazing. I absolutely loved this story, the interactions, the twists and turns. It was everything I could have asked for in a Ben 10 fic. Thank you for that”

You’re welcome! I only had a few real ‘twists’ I’d say, but I’m glad I managed to pull them off well enough for some people to enjoy.

Guest: “Lurking in the shadows huh? Batman, is that you? For being the world’s greatest detective you sure gave your identity away pretty easily”

CrimsonBolt1: “This is enjoyable so far. Reminds me of Little Moments in feel. Nice to see them finally starting to be open and honest with each other. I like your Lucy. Much better inclusion than a random OC.”

I didn’t want to make any OCs major characters in the story. Lucy ended up being a good fit for the role I needed. Also, for anyone who hasn’t seen, shadows59 just started a reboot of Little Moments, so go and check that out.

yuyuyre: “Why, this is my first ben10 fanfic and I'm glad. It's beautiful, truely. Thank you for writing this wonderful story.”

Thanks! There are lots more great Ben 10 fanfics out there if you’re interested, so I hope you find some others that you enjoy, too!

Hassan Elgarni1: “Nothing to do, so I re-read. Sigh. And shit, no more good fanfictions for ben10, plus the fandom seems like it's diying. What to do? We're lost without some drama in our life. No! I mean some dramatic stories to read about, and this one seems to always fit.”

Not to plug for it too much, but there’s that Little Moments reboot now...

Guest: “Can we get that Lucy ending or that afterstory as a Christmas present? We got a snow map in PubG, Fortnite season 7, MCU trailers with Avengers: Endgame, Blackout from CoD, GOTY awards, it’s such a shame RDR2 didn’t bag the prize but can’t really say God of War didn’t deserve it so an update would be the icing on the cake, unless you’re pre occupied with unwrapping presents. Also, can we have a Ben 10 battle royale mode too? Thanks”

Sorry I couldn’t get that Ben 10 battle royale out in time for Christmas. Also, I’m not working on a continuation for this story right now. I’m too busy trying to find time to work on my Legend of Zelda story.

Guest: “Me when gojaimas updates: Ayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayaya”

Guest: “According to the Bible we're all related, so we all share blood so it being forbade by Christianity makes no sense, also great story thanks for making my day less boring”

I don’t really get how I’m still getting comments about this one particular line in that chapter. I never said anything about what should or should not be forbade by Christianity. Lucy was simply trying to figure out Gwen’s reasons for being against incest, and she considered religious beliefs to be a possibility since, regardless of whether or not you think it makes sense, there are Christians out there who are against incest for religious reasons. Neither me, nor Lucy, nor Gwen said that should be the case. I hope that’s clear by now. Anyway, I’m glad I made your day less boring.

dippytrippy122: “Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Simply put this was the best romance-based fanfic I have ever read that wasn't just a humorous jab at the genre. You did so with a pairing I disliked due to its incestuous nature and actually made me enjoy it greatly. You also made sure that the ending wasn't perfect and I respect you immensely for that. Thank you for this wonderful story. :)”

Thanks! It’s always great to hear from people who enjoyed the story despite not liking the pairing. I think that means I did an okay job with recognizing the weirdness of it and not shying away from that.

xSean: “THATS WHERE YOU END IT?! Can't deny I'm a little annoyed with that but this fic was still great over all. The character development and interactions were absolutely superb. Wish there was more clueless, fluffy interactions but I guess they gotta grow up and realise what is happening at some point. Again great fic over all, one of the best I have read in a long time. Only the 2nd Ben 10 fic I've read too!”

Thank you! I’m sorry I couldn’t keep it going for another year or two, but I had to let it end before I ruined it, haha. The clueless, fluffy interactions were always a lot of fun, though. I loved that part of their relationship.

Samian: “Read through it in 2 days and some how I'm sad about that, the pace of your story should have made me slow down and push the ending further away. This was exactly the kind of development in their characters that I was looking for with in the Bwen fics. Beautifully done, really good job. That being said though there were some downsides, over the course of the story you took what made ben 10 what it is out of the story, which was a bit sad in my eyes. I do have to admit that you made it work though and I wouldn't change any of it. The ending is a bit of a letdown in the sense that there is a strong sense of anticipation of where it would have gone too. But again you some how made it work. You really did an incredible job.”

Thank you. I’m sorry to everyone who read this story expecting more alien fighting action, but even from my minimalistic description, “A story about how Ben and Gwen's relationship evolves over the next four years following their summer trip,” I think I made it clear that that simply wasn’t what the story was about. I’m happy you managed to enjoy it anyway!

Slayer of The Abyss: “I really liked how you gave the characters depth and Sense of being real people, the only thing that bothers me is how the thought process of different senteint species could be almost exactly the same, which isnt really your fault. But anyway i am looking forawrd to any potential fic you may write in the future”

Yeah, not much I could’ve done about that. If Lucy was too alien, she wouldn’t really have acted the way she did in the episode she appeared in.

MosquitoesLoveMe: “This story is adorable and you're a wizard at writing to make this happen! The fluff I've read till now has been heartwarming, I demand more fluff for the fluff gods!”

I, too, worship the fluff gods.

MosquitoesLoveMe: “Oh Lucy, you're about as subtle as a brick. Which says something about Ben and Gwen I suppose...“

Ben and Gwen: *oblivious to their love* Lucy:

MosquitoesLoveMe: “I am not sure how I feel about this. The lead up, the talk, and the execution was perfect mind you, and Ben's reaction is to be expected from how he's been portrayed. Maybe it's because we've seen Gwen struggle with her feelings and come to terms with them but we haven't had quite as many chapters from Ben's perspective. But because of that it kind of felt off. I didn't expect both of them to have sorted this out at the same time, but it doesn't even seem like Ben entertained that thought, leading to a blank face when confronted. Somehow I didn't expect that, or rather I expected more than that. Either way considering I'm reading this months after it's been completed, I shall have faith that you'll tie it up well, after all I haven't been disappointed thus far!”

It’s been a while, but I think around this point in the story, I was doing a lot less from Ben’s POV because I wanted the reader to be unsure about how Ben would react as much as Gwen was. As for whether or not Ben has entertained the idea, I’ve shown in the past that every time anything even close to resembling the idea pops into his head, he finds some way to dismiss it and bury it deeper because to him, his cousin was completely off-limits. It took Gwen confronting him with the idea directly to finally get him to truly consider it.

MosquitoesLoveMe: “It was a wonderful journey, thanks for writing this story! It was a pretty realistic end to the story and finished on a hopeful note, that leaves me wishing there was a sequel that goes into how Ben and Gwen handle the trials of their relationship and the adults finding out. That also made me really wish for a chapter from the perspective of Ben and Gwen's parents. Keeping with the trend of maintaining a realistic tone, it's hard to believe they did not at least suspect something was up, especially Natalie. It makes me really curious as to what went on in their heads during the last few chapters. Either way, whether or not you get back to this at a future date, I'm happy you wrote this story and glad I got to read it, cheers mate!”

Natalie was definitely getting suspicious. If I ever do continue the story, I probably will go more into what their parents are thinking. But that’ll be on the backburner for now. Thank you so much for reading my story! I’m happy you enjoyed it!

Well, that wasn’t all the comments, but that’s all I have time for right now. I’ll get to the rest eventually. Thanks again for everything! My fans are truly a joy to hear from.

[gojaimas]

Was wondering if you ever will consider doing a sequel sort of how like shadow59 did and develop their romantic relationship more. To be honest I’m aching for it! Your story was that good! Anyways I really hope in the future I see a sequel. Thank you for writing a great story.

Yes, I will consider it. But it won’t happen for a very long time. I’m just coming out of a long break, and I’ve been finishing up my plans for my next project for a different series, so I want to write the new story first. I’m happy to hear there’s still interest in That Day, though! Thanks for the compliment, I’m glad you enjoyed the story!

[gojaimas]

I’ve finished reading your fanfic about bwen just now and it took me like only 3 entire days. I’d say I’m pretty addicted to reading this!😂😂 I’m amazed at how you deal with their growth as time went by. But I reaaaally want to see more about their story like how they were caught making out and how they handle their relationship since it’s expected to kind of forbidden. Reaaaaallly looking forward to an UPDATE! —Bwen fan from non English speaking country hope my grammars didn’t go too wrong

Thanks so much! I’m really glad you enjoyed it. I’m not working on a continuation at the moment, but it’s great to hear it left you wishing for more!

[gojaimas]

Any Ben 10 fic recommendations?

Well, obviously Little Moments and Breaking Point by Shadows59. Also check out csgt’s stuff. I liked New Horizons by one winged nightmare, I gotta go back and finish that one.

[gojaimas]

This is one of my favorite scenes in the whole series!

Ben is in tears after finding out Gwen is alive, and runs in the midst of explosions to hug her (Ben 10: Secret of the Omnitrix)

[gojaimas]

Late Comments

Hello people. It’s been four months since I finished I Wanted What I Saw That Day, and I’ve received many more comments since then. I figured I’d do some more responses, and give you all a quick update on what my plan is for writing more in the future.

So, I’ve been taking a bit of a break from writing, but I’ve been mulling over ideas for my next story and I think I’m ready to start planning it out officially now. It’s gonna be set in the Legend of Zelda universe, and it will be mostly centered around original incarnations of pre-existing character archetypes that have appeared throughout the series. But just so you know, it will still be a long time before I start posting again, so please be patient with me.

Now, onto your comments:

EternalWisdom: “I just gave a standing ovation for a fanfic of a cartoon from my childhood: That's how good you are. I've already praised much of the technical work such as your pacing and understanding of the characters, but I'd be lying if I said this Final Chapter didn't just play my heart strings like a golden violin. I intend for my own work to (eventually) convince readers of my characters having 3-Dimensional, 'clicking' personalities like the masterpiece you just bestowed upon our nostalgic, incest-supporting fandom. Best of wishes from an avid reader (with a somewhat pretentious name I came up with years ago), yours sincerely, EternalWisdom.”

Wow, thanks! It’s very nice to hear people found my depictions of the characters to be that well done. And don’t worry too much about your name. I’m already hoping I don’t live to regret choosing a broken japanese phrase for mine.

Anonymoose: “Sneaky how Lucy suddenly became the main character. Loved it the ending. I wouldn’t change it or create an alternate. It was perfectly bitter sweet.”

Lucy’s always been sneaky, after all. And thanks, I plan to leave the ending alone for now. I will still consider continuing it in some way in the future though.

justanaverageguy: “"I wanted what I saw that day."...I would pull a CinemaSins and say "Roll Credits," but I would also say it was well used in this work (Plus, it was in the last chapter, after all). I had always thought the "I" in the title was Gwen, but seeing that it was actually Lucy was a great reveal. Lucy truly was the star of this fic. Her character makes this one stand out among anything else (that I've read at least) from this community. I've always seen Ben and Gwen as a great duo ever since I first watched the show, and I will always enjoy fics and episodes focusing on those two. But seeing these three work as a trio was quite a unique take on the characters, and they work so well together. Hats off to you, my friend, for what might possibly be my favorite Ben 10 fanfic. I look forward to checking out what else you may do. I am a Zelda fan too, so I'll probably end up seeing your work again at some point. Until then, ciao!

I couldn’t resist the title drop! It was really fun holding onto the secret of the title’s true meaning for nine whole months while everyone else tried to figure out what it meant. I’ve said before that I’ve probably done more for the Lucy fandom than I have for the Bwen fandom at this point. I would certainly like to see her appearing in more stories. Thank you for your compliments, average guy! I look forward to your reactions to my Zelda story in the future!

jairoesme: “wow that was epic I wasn't expecting the title to show up in there as I read that part it felt so strong. Great story”

Thanks! Seeing everyone reacting to the title drop like this seriously has me giggling. I love it!

Spazbulba: “That was pure magic - it has been years since I was simultaneously both so happy and so sad with the end of a story. Gojaimas You truly are a Legend!”

Truly.

armandaza: “I wanttt moreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, no wayyyyyyy T_T”

More??

Guest: “Well, it took me 17 and a half hours to do it, but I finished it. All 300,000 words of it. I gotta say, this has been one of the best bwen stories I’ve ever read in my life. I was so excited to see that there was a new story to read after not looking for months, I read it all in one day! I was wondering something though. Since you basically have the market cornered on Ben 10 fanfic now that everythings died down so much, I was wondering if every now and then, you could post another story about it. Not necessarily long ones, just a one-shot every now and then and maybe a longer one if you’re up to it (maybe even a few stories with Lucy and Ben or even Gwen). It’s been ten years since Ben 10 ended, so there isn’t much more new material out there for the community to enjoy. I know you said you were planning on moving on after this, but maybe every now and then, when you’re stumped with writers block or you’re just bored, maybe you could throw together a little story for us. If it’s even a fraction as good this story was, it would honestly make everyone’s day to have something new to read, especially if you’re writing it. :) Cheers man, happy writing. -Just another fan”

Wow, 17 and a half hours? Damn, dude. I hope you got some sleep after that. But also, wow, that’s really flattering! I’m glad you liked it so much. Doing little Ben 10 one-shots set in my story’s canon every now and then as I work on my Zelda story is something I’ll consider. I grew really fond of working with those characters, so it’s definitely something I’d love to do again some time.

Guest: “Beautiful. What a journey this was” Dark Ace Demon: “What a journey. Thank you for posting this masterpiece up, truly.“

Thank you! Alexa, play “Don’t Stop Believing.”

Guest: “Just as an FYI, a werewolf is a man-wolf. Wer being the old english word for man." (Context: Chapter 12)

That was based on a real conversation I had with someone back when I was (even more of) a little know-it-all. Gwen is smart, but she’s still a kid. She can make mistakes too. I was the Gwen at the time. I was corrected by Snape when I watched the third Harry Potter movie.

GoodScottish: “That was an amazing read and well worth staying up all night to finish it but its just left me wanting so much more. There is just so many things that i want to know what happens next to. Like what happens to Lucy does she find that special someone? What do Ben and Gwen get up to on this summer vacation? Does grandpa Max find out? What happens when they get back can they keep hiding it? And most importantly for me what happens when their parents find out?”

Many thanks, good scotsman! I know there’s still a lot left unanswered, but that’s how Ben and Gwen feel now too. They still have a long road ahead of them. Maybe I’ll write more of it one day, but I think that was a good place to leave it for now. Also, today I’m finding out a lot of my readers have terrible sleeping habits.

Mason: “Your country is proud of you son.”

Fuck yeah!

Kira Sema: “Anyone else reread this in the span of a couple days and start crying all over again? Because here come the waterworks all over again. I know I reviewed, but had to review again after a reread. I think I've said this before, but I relate to Lucy so much. It's hard not to be considering how she felt. Great story once again. Even though it's 48 chapters, all those chapters were worth it and all as much in character as they could be.”

Thank you once again, Kira Sema! I’ll admit I often cringe too hard at my own writing to reread too much of it, but I’m glad you enjoyed it as much the second time around!

Guest: “I read through this everyday... it’s a bittersweet ending. It was like waiting for an anime episode every week and you feel sad when it’s over, so you go through it again holding onto hope for a season 2.”

I know that feel.

“I’ll even wait as long as for an incredibles sequel if I have to.”

Um. I have some good news for you on that front, buddy.

“I had no idea the story would stop there though so it kinda threw me off guard... I was all “wait it’s really over?!” I thought we’d deal with more of having their relationship bloom, being exposed and we’ll have a year 4 summer trip before coming to an end. I mean having the epilogue near the end of a summer trip would really match the beginning of where Ben and Gwen started off in the story but show us how much has changed between the two of them. But I guess it depends on how we look at it, we could also view it as the “Start of Something New” with Ben & Gwen going to their trademark summer trip as a couple then they were as kids who couldn’t wait to get rid of each other at the end of it in the beginning, so maybe it’s a sign that their story isn’t over yet. Lucy was one of the most breathtaking and heartbreaking characters in this story, kind of like menma, a bit of an airhead. always happy, puts other people infront of her feelings.”

She probably was one of my minor inspirations for Lucy’s character. I think I watched Anohana at some point while I was writing this story, hence the inspiration for the title. I love that little cutie.

Thank you for the rest of your comment too, kind guest! I really appreciate you taking the time to write such a glowing review of my work. I’m glad I was able to give you another Bwen story to read!

Guest: “Mr. Gojaimas, I don’t feel so good...”

I love how Infinity War came out during the time I was posting this. I’ll always associate my story with this meme because of my fans, and I’m very happy about that.

TargaryenFire: “Hey Just came here to say i am loving this story, one of the best i have ever read with this ship. Not wanting to be a bother, but will Gwen's anodite blood come into play in the future?”

Thank you! You’ve probably seen your question answered in a different chapter by now, but just in case: Anodites don’t exist in my story, Gwen is completely human, and a lot of other stuff from the sequels is ignored.

Guest: “Your legend will live on...”

Hopefully in the form of oddly specific fandom inside jokes.

Shirokokuro: “You did an excellent job on this-especially in keeping within the 4-year timeline you had set! It was all so sweet, and that ending of them going on a summer trip together was amazing! Here's to you on being such a dedicated and awesome author!”

Thanks so much! I’m pretty happy with how everything turned out, and I’m glad you liked it too.

Lost: “I think I just binge-read this whole thing. Uh. It was riveting, to say the least. The final connection between Lucy's actions, her memories and the title was very powerful. Thanks for writing this! :)”

You are very welcome! Once again, Lucy steals the show!

Guest: “I read the entire story in a week. I loved the character development and how you effectively gave some deeper understanding of the characters not just Ben and Gwen, but also Lucy, Natalie, Joel, Emily, and Julie. I love you so much for creating this fanfiction and your undeniable talent in writing a story. That is why it pains me even more for how the chapter ended and contiualy wished that Proffesor Paradox or even Gwendolyn could just come up from the future and change Lucy's ideas or yours so that the three could be like a three- man couple. I am just so heart broken right now bailing my eyes out and just hoping there is a continuation (not a different ending) where it can be from Bwen to Bwency (I don't know if that's a word).”

Giving minor characters more development is something I’m a huge fan of, as you can plainly see with Lucy. I’m always happy to hear from binge-readers! Bwency is most definitely a word, and if I ever do a continuation, I very well might make it happen! But for now, Ben is simply following this sage advice from yours truly:

Slykke: “Beautiful shit here. Binge read this in 5 days. Really liked how this was wrapped up and how you turned someone that I forgot even existed in the OS into a favorite. Lucy was amazing in this story and now holds a special place in my heart after this. Thank you for the wonderful read and I cant wait to see your next work.”

“Yes, yes! Praise me more!” -Lucy

Amin: “This has such solid plot that every other fanfic seemed inferior. I kinda wish this story was real.”

Thank you! If any Ben 10 writers are reading this and wanna retroactively make it all canon instead of the sequels, that would be just fine by me.

Guest: “when are we gonna get the Lucy route?”

Not sure. Maybe someday. I am very interested in how I could make that happen.

Guest: “Gojaimas is... GOD. He does a miracle and then leaves us. This was the second coming of Jesus Christ.”

I’m flattered, but I’ve never made a tree.

Well, that’s all for now. Bye, everybody! I hope to hear from all of you again someday!

[gojaimas]

Final Chapter Comments

Proper Prose: “I don't really read author's notes (sorry about that, I like to go for the meaty story first), but it only just now hit me that Lucy was actually the main character. It was her story the whole time. GAWD, I am so dense sometimes.”

Surprise! Yep, I also consider this Lucy’s story in the end. That’s something I always enjoy. At the end of the Lord of the Rings, the hero wasn’t Frodo, it was Sam. At the end of Beowulf, it isn’t Beowulf who slays the dragon, it’s Wiglaf. Sometimes the real hero isn’t that obvious. A well placed perspective shift can completely change your view of the entire story and it’s characters.

Proper Prose: “I don't usually go for incest pairings, but pretty much the sole exception for me is when someone writes Ben and Gwen story and make it WORK. So many take the route of them dealing with the emotional baggage off text to get to the romance fast and even the sometimes it's not more complicated than 'I'm hot, you're hot, who cares if we're cousins let's make out/bang/etc.' I prefer stories like this, where there is a build up and we read what's going on in their heads and their hearts. Where they understand the gravity of their situation and know that their relationship will be far from easy. Very few would understand, fewer would accept and even fewer would encourage such a relationship. They are in for a hard life and they know it.”

That’s yet another thing I can attribute to Oreimo. Near the end, once the brother and sister start dating, the brother says something like “In incest romance stories, this is where the lovers would say they don’t care what society thinks. But I disagree. What society thinks is actually pretty important.” I think he’s right. Even if you disagree with society, the way others view you is going to have a major effect on your life. It’s gonna be a serious issue Ben and Gwen will have to deal with. They can’t just completely ignore it.  But at the same time:

Proper Prose: “Thank you for presenting such a wonderful story for me to read. As I have said, while Bwen, as it's called is the most popular couple in the fandom, very few do it well. You are one of those few.”

That’s high praise, thank you very much!

Anonymous Rex: “Uh… wow. Have to say I honestly wasn't expecting that, though to be honest the mature and bittersweet tone is actually really fitting and hits where you feel it. I guess I'll just say it was poignant. Well done! Well done, indeed. I hope to see more from you.”

Thanks, Anonymous Rex. You’ve been around since I first started posting, and your constructive criticism was a big help back then. I really appreciate you sticking around all this time.

MageofDuality: “Wait ... What? AWWWWWWWW MAAAAAAAANNNN NOW I'M SAD 'CAUSE THE BEST BWEN STORY IS OVER Seriously I LOVED this story! It was such a great slow burn and story that I sincerely hope to see a sequel in the future! I had such a great time reading this and hope you had just a great a time writing it. I look forward to what you do next! Sincerely, a faithful reader MageofDuality”

I loved writing this story. I enjoyed it for the whole two years I spent on the original draft, but I’ve enjoyed the past nine months of interacting with my fans much, much more. You guys are great. Thanks!

The Blade of Osh-Tekk: “This was really interesting. I realize this may or may not be the end, but even if it is, it ended off on a relatively good note. Lucy was a character I honestly completely forgot about, and you gave her her own personality and actually made her a character with character in this, which was pretty interesting. Cheers.”

Taking a character who was on screen for ten seconds and making her a main character of a 300,000 word fic might seem crazy to some, but it’s something I’m actually quite proud of. Thank you!

Vidgamelords: “WAIT. ITS OVER? AW MAN (B10 reference) but no seriously this was an AMAZING story and in lucky to have found it when I did. As much as it pains me to finish it I guess all good things must end. Can't wait too see what you have in store for the future but until then I'll keep my eyes peeled. Have a good vacay.”

Thanks! I’m looking forward to hearing from all of you again whenever I come back.

csgt: “ Wow, what a ride! Congratulations! I'm really glad that you shared this story with us, and I'm happy that you got the recognition you deserved for this, with all the favorites, follows and reviews, very well deserved.”

Thanks a ton, csgt. You’ve been one of my most loyal commenters from the very start, and I’ve always enjoyed discussing Bwen, superheroes, and other things with you. I’m also quite glad I chose to share this story with you people, and I’m happy so many people ended up enjoying it as much as I did. Also I enjoy picturing you trying to figure out where I’m going with my story like:

csgt: “I would love to see your original plans for year 5, so if you ever want to continue this story someday in the future, I'll definitely be interested in reading it.”

My original plans for Year 5 were quite vague, since I didn’t plan out individual months until after finishing the previous month. But there’s definitely a lot of material to work with based on everything I’ve set up so far, especially if I do an alternate ending to Year 4. I don’t wanna give any more details because of potential spoilers, but if I do write it, I’ll be glad to hear your thoughts on it.

csgt: “What a bittersweet ending... Bwen are back together, and I'm very happy for it, but poor Lucy... For some reason, I can totally see the Infinity War final conversation with Thanos on the Soul Stone working for Lucy here:

- Did you do it? [Get Ben and Gwen together] "Yes." - What did it cost? "Everything."

That’s another reason I see Lucy as the true hero of the story. Not only did she do all the work with getting them together, but she had to give up a lot to make it happen too. Now I can imagine her watching Ben and Gwen driving off like:

Animalman1x6: “You did it! Good job!”

I sure did! Thank you!

Kira Sema: “I spent all day reading this, and the final chapter was uploaded as I did. I am crying so much. I feel so bad for Lucy right now, to watch the people you love be with each other with them not feeling the same way as you. I am so glad you had Lucy in here as a main character, you made me love her more than I did. I'm also glad you had Ben and Julie still be friends even after their failed relationship, and glad that Ben had friends at his school and wasn't a loner.”

Everybody loves Lucy! I’m so happy. There were some doubters at the start of the story, but it sounds like most people have come around. Julie’s a character I didn’t even like that much, but I decided to try to make her a good character anyway instead of just bashing her. Seems like people liked her more in the end too.

Kira Sema “I'm also glad you had Emily and Lucy be friends. (I lowkey want them to get together while the cousins are travelling throughout the summer.)”

Lucy x Emily shippers after reading my story be like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulteZYyWAA8

Kira Sema: “I almost didn't give this story a chance. (Not because of it being Bwen, but because I didn't know if I wanted to binge read a long fic lol.) I am so glad I dedicated today to reading the whole thing. It will probably be one of those fics I reread when I need something long to binge.”

Well, if you reread it, let me know if you pick up on any foreshadowing or anything you missed the first time around. There should be some stuff I haven’t heard anyone mention yet.

Kira Sema: “Also that moment when Lucy almost called Joel her dad omg. I loved that you expanded on Joel and Camille as well as their relationship with Lucy.”

I was actually really careful about how the Tennyson family members addressed and referred to one another. For instance, Ben and Gwen always say “Joel and Camille,” while Lucy always says “Camille and Joel.” Ben and Gwen call Max “Grandpa,” but Lucy calls him “Uncle Max” because she’s technically a part of the generation above Ben and Gwen. Most people I know being raised by someone other than their parents don’t call them “Mom and Dad” unless they were adopted when they were really young. I don’t call my stepmom “Mom,” I call her by her first name (which is actually Julie, oddly enough. But she’s Greek, not Japanese.) So it made sense to me that Lucy wouldn’t call Joel and Camille “Mom and Dad” either. However, I thought it would be a cute moment to show how much she’s grown to really view them as her parents by almost slipping up and calling Joel “Dad.” Her relationship with them was so fun to work with, and I wish I’d focused on it even more.

Kira Sema: “I really hope you write an alternate version ending or one shot where Ben and Gwen include Lucy into their relationship. I'm even half tempted to get back into writing and write a fic with the three of them cause of this story. (If I did, I would credit you for the inspiration.)”

Let me know if you do! I’d love to read your take on it.

Kira Sema: “Like while reading it was almost hard to remember that they're 14 now instead of 10 year olds. Being an alien really helped Lucy not care about how humans see relationships. If Lucy wasn't as in their lives as she was, I wouldn't see them getting together like they did. Despite how much it annoyed me at some points, I was glad for how long it took for Ben and Gwen to get together. I usually never leave long reviews like this, but I couldn't just favorite this and move on with my life, I had to say how much I enjoyed the story.  I just want my baby girl Lucy to be happy. I love her now, and I blame you. (I also lowkey ship her with Cooper, from the Omniverse episode they were in but now I ship Bwency way more so thanks for that.) I honestly don't know if I could read another Bwen story without Lucy in it. She just fits them so well, even as just a friend. I just can't believe it's over, but I guess all good stories have to end sometime. I just wish it wasn't at the cost of Lucy's happiness. At the time of writing this I also read your tumblr post about the story and that you were going to do a Year 5. I'm glad that you ended it instead of trying to drag out more of the story if you weren't going to be happy with it. Better to have an ending you're happy with than an ending you half assed because reviewers wanted more. I hope someday you'll revisit this fic and do more with it, but I won't demand it because that doesn't make anyone want to do anything. Wow, this got super long. I didn't mean for it to be, but I just couldn't stop telling you just how much this story impacted me.”

Well I thank you for your very long review. It’s means a lot to me to know my story has had such an impact on my readers!

The Disturbed King: “Sad to see this story go but also happy that the BWEN ship is still sailing smoothly.”

I’ve really enjoyed being the captain of this ship for a time.

Guest: “Hey, I'm the same guy from chapter eight, the one who said that it was his first review. Well guess it my second now haha. I'm still too lazy to make an account but I've followed this story until it's amazing end. In my behalf I'd like to say thank you, for making this great story of what most of us here wanted to be the real ending to the original Ben 10. I really enjoyed every second of reading and can't wait to see what other amazing stories you will write even if their not Bwen related. As I red your authors note on this final chapter I'm glad to see that you might come back to this in the future, I'll be sure to keep my eyes open. On a final note... "OMG LUCY SAID THE TITTLE" she was the one who wanted what she saw, that caught me so off guard I actually started staring at the ceiling in disbelief of what I had just heard. Once again thank you for this wonderful story arch and keep up the great work ;) from your chapter eight anonymous.”

Thanks! I’m glad you decided to comment again, and I’m glad you enjoyed the whole story. I imagine a lot of people reacted to the title drop the same way.

Guest: “The...end? I’m...I’m struggling to accept this, no. No. NO! I understand, we all can’t stay in one project forever and we all have to move on. And I guess this might be a good place to wrap up this story and let our minds take care of the rest—gah I don’t feel like I can handle that! If I can persuade you in any way to continue the series—even if it takes a long while and you finish a ton of other projects in the interval, I just really want to see how we can get the family to accept their relationship. No! More of your Lucy after this please! I’ve never even been into OT3 until this one, mark my words! It was a great read and a wonderful journey, I love how you handled the way the characters growth and the fact Ben will still be...Ben in spite of all the time that passes but thank you so much for this series. Being one of the binge readers feels terrible because the journey ended when I wanted it to keep going! I’d have gladly been one of the first readers if I got into Bwen sooner, I’d know there was something to look forward to! If anything else, I urge you other fanfic writers to go for this OT3 and satisfy my soul! Please?”

I really wanna see someone else go for the true Bwency ending too. If anyone is considering it, feel free to message me if you want any advice.

one winged nightmare: “Very good ending to a great story. Ben was very mature about the whole thing and was actually upset for the right reason. They both have some work and growing up to do but no relationship is perfect. That's what keeps it interesting. All in all I think it ended well for everyone.You're right, it would have been worse if she had been in practice or the charm. Can't believe I missed that.”

Thanks, one winged nightmare. I’m not caught up on the latest chapter of your story, but I like it and it looks very promising. I can’t wait to see where you go with it!

The Dark Imperial: “*sigh* it was a fun ride. soo many emotions. loved almost everything about it. yet for some reason there's this unsatisfied hole in my heart whenever I think about about this fanfic... or is that just me being depressed about being single?”

Me:

Hassan.Elgarni: “Oh maaaaan! Do you know how sad I am right now? But really, this story is some art. You deserve an Oscar, if there is any for fanfics. Imagine a boy with his mouth wide open, as he read the title of the story within a character's speech. That's me. And OMG! It took me a while to recover. while I was reading I noticed some things, which I thought were plot holes. But no, you intisipated that and covered for it. Hint, lucy's thoughts about Joel and Camile finding out. I really hope for a continuation of some sort, but don't force yourself if you don't want to. You put your heart into this story, and I wouldn't want you to put together some words to just satisfy your readeres. Thank you. By the way, I loved my first cousin too once and I had a feeling she did too. But We did not meet much to even talk about it. Actually, we did talk about it, but with some issues we kept postponng it. She's married now. But, at least to me, it was hard to forget about her. And still is. And it's not even considered incest here, where I live. Sigh. Thank you Again.”

Thank you! I’ll gladly accept the fanfic oscar. I try to think of everything, and when characters make mistakes, I like to have it matter. If I go into Year 5, that throwaway line may end up being important.

JMA Blazer: “I really liked your fic. There is nothing I can say to degrade or improve it. Though if it is done, can you mark it as complete please?”

Ah, good point. Thanks for the reminder.

jasongd: “Soob Soob Great Soob story a. great ending Soob congrats BWEN Forever”

Thanks, jasongd. You were another one of my loyal readers from the very beginning. Thanks for sticking around!

Sishen123: “Still loved the story but the ending left a desire for more. To be honest i would love to see a sequel that takes place after they had been dating for a few year and then maybe azmuth like shows up when ben is asleep and puts a new omnitrix on him and leaves him a message. But i think that would be about the time you could have the parents get involve. then you could show the struggle of fighting there parents of so they can be happy together but yeah i still loved the story but i still want more! Peace out :)”

All the Omnitrix stuff is not really my thing, but I’m glad I left you wanting more.

Simbachi Blyet: “So the title... it was just a quote from Lucy all along? So this was not really a Bwen ship, but rather a Ben/Lucy(I dunno what it'd be)ship? Wow. I congratulate you on your incredible story telling and incredible twists. I hope you can do an epilogue, just to tell us how everything has been.”

Yep! Most people speculated that the quote was Ben or Gwen talking, but it was Lucy from the very beginning. It’s definitely a Bwen ship, but Bwency was in there as a possibility.

avo: “i an fucking crying as i write this. god you gave them a good (main) ending? MMMMMMM i expected better of you to kill everyone off in a huge fight. or at least tear them apart. guess that's where the alt ending comes in (i am a masochist don't judge me ok). gehshjsjs i fucking? love this? so much? ughhhhdhdhdhdj you have no idea how much i love this fucking fanfic I can't even articulate myself properly amen. i really like how you gave all of them proper closure in the (main) ending, especially with the attention paid to lucy's feelings. she's much more mature in here than in the canon future (alien force etc) so big ass kudos to you on that. anyway, if you'll excuse me, i'll be crying while rereading all 48 chapters again :')) can't wait for the alt ending extra drabbles your future ben 10/other fandom fics,,,,, thIS FANFIC WAS A FUCKING AMAZING RIDE AND I'M GLAD YOU MADE IT SUCH A GREAT THING I FUCKING LOVE YOU AND THIS FANFIC RHEJKSKDKJDKD ok bye”

Haha, I appreciate the enthusiasm. Thank you!

Well, I think that was all your comments this time. I might do another post like this sometime in the future if I come back and find a bunch of new comments from latecomers discovering my story, but for now, feel free to message me directly if you’d like to talk with me. Once again, I’d like to thank all of you for taking part in this journey with me, and I’d like to thank shadows59 one last time for giving me my initial inspiration. My story took a lot of effort, but it was a lot of fun and reading all of your reactions made it all even more worthwhile.

[gojaimas]

Background and Random Notes

For those of you who haven’t read my bio, I’ll restate it here. Somewhere around the summer of 2015 or so, I was watching a video of a Q&A panel that featured one of my favorite internet content creators, Arin Hanson (AKA Egoraptor).

Pictured: Inspiration.

Someone asked him if he had any advice for aspiring creatives. Ego described a technique he employed that he called "don't break the chain." If there's something you want to get good at, just do it a little bit every day. He's an animator/artist, and even on days when he can't get any serious work done, he'll at least draw a quick little doodle or even just a smiley face or something.

Now, I’m the kind of person who will often get interested in something, try it for a bit, realize I’m not immediately a master at it, and give up on it before long. I’ve started a lot of little projects that I never ended up finishing. Writing, drawing, video editing, game design, all sorts of things. So, I decided to try Ego’s “don’t break the chain” technique with a number of things, one of them being writing. I used to suck at writing. I still think I do, but I used to suck even more. However, the whole point of this was to practice with the hope that I would get better over a long period of time.

I chose to write fanfiction rather than something original because I love cartoons, anime, and video games and there are so many already established characters that I would love to work with. I also chose to write a romance story because I had just watched a lot of great romance anime, which I’ll go into in more detail in a bit. Incest ships have always been really interesting to me because of the whole ‘forbidden romance’ angle, but I felt that most stories I’ve seen about those kinds of ships never really tackled the issue in a realistic way, so that was what I decided to try to do.

So next I had to choose the pairing I wanted to write about. Around this time, Dipper and Mabel Pines from Gravity Falls was a really popular pairing I was seeing all sorts of fanfics and fanart for on Tumblr. I thought they worked really well together too, and Gravity Falls is one of my favorite cartoons of the modern era, so I was originally considering writing a story about them. Incidentally, that’s why I ended up giving the show a cameo crossover in Year 2 of my story.

Admit it. They’re cute together.

However, before I started making official plans for that story, I discovered a Bwen fanfiction that you all probably know, “Little Moments” by shadows59. I loved it, and it was basically everything I had in mind for a slow, longform, realistic depiction of an incest relationship developing over time. I loved Ben 10 when I was a kid, and I’d just rewatched it recently, which was what led to me looking up fanfiction of it. So I decided to use that story as a sort of foundation to build off of, adding my own ideas and writing the story I wanted to write. You can see the obvious Little Moments influence in a lot of places in my story, like the general format of each chapter progressing through time and the way “Dweeb” and “Doofus” are always capitalized when Ben and Gwen call each other those names. There were even a few scenes early on, like when Emily met Ben for the first time, that were directly inspired by scenes from Little Moments. However, somewhere late in Year 2 or early in Year 3 I think is where I kind of branched out and the story really became my own. For those of you who know TvTropes, you could say I “Grew the Beard.”

Left: Year 1. Right: Year 3.

Now, since you all just read the ending, let me explain why I decided to end it there, since I know a lot of you were probably hoping to see who Lucy ends up with or what happens when Ben and Gwen inevitably get caught by their parents. When I initially planned out this story, the first thing I did was come up with a vague idea about what the story arcs of each year would be. Once I did that, I came up with a plan for what would happen in each month of Year 1. After that, following the “don’t break the chain” technique, I would write a little bit each day, usually about 300-400 words but sometimes as little as 150 or as much as 1500. I kept doing that until the first year was done, and then I planned out the months for Year 2. This was how I went until I was done with the whole thing. However, my initial plan was for the story to go on for five years, not four. You see, I’d planned from the very beginning to have Lucy play a central role in getting Ben and Gwen together, but I was also going to do something else with her character. You guessed it, my original plan was for an OT3 ending with all three of them getting together.

I know. I’m sad too.

Year 4 was going to more or less resolve the Ben/Gwen plotline, and Year 5 was going to be about how Lucy ends up joining them. I’ll talk more about why that was the plan later, but like I said earlier, around the start of Year 3 was when I finally got a handle on things. I was really enjoying writing for these characters, and I was starting to make something unique that wasn’t just a rip off of Little Moments. And as you probably noticed, the months kept getting longer and longer. The story was initially imagined as a series of small, almost unrelated events in Ben, Gwen, and Lucy’s lives that would slowly form an overarching story over time. However, once I got more into it, I kept adding more and more detail, and the whole thing started becoming less and less about the little moments and more and more about the big picture.

Once I was done with Year 3, it was time to plan out Year 4. However, at this point, I had already been working on the story for a freakishly long time. Writing Year 3 had taken longer than Years 1 and 2 combined, and I could tell Year 4 was going to be even longer. I realized that, at this rate, writing another two years would take forever, and I was already kind of exhausted. Additionally, I had started this story merely as practice and I hadn’t intended to post it anywhere at first. But by then, I was actually kind of proud of it, and I made the decision that I would post a revised version once the whole thing was finished. I was eager to get some feedback on it sooner rather than later, so with these things in mind, I decided to drop Year 5 and make Year 4 the final year.

Now, I considered just condensing everything and having Ben and Gwen get together and then move on to Lucy joining in all in the same year, but I found that to be impossible to do without breaking my rule about making the story realistic and slow-paced. It took Ben and Gwen three and a half years to get together, and then Lucy joins them in only a couple of months? It wouldn’t have made any sense. So now I had to revise the ending to make it Bwen only, but I couldn’t just leave Lucy off by the wayside without giving her character arc some sort of resolution. Since I was planning to do a bittersweet ending anyway, I decided the best way to end things now was to have Ben and Gwen end up together and to have Lucy decide on her own terms to move on from them.

After over two years of very, very slowly making progress, I actually finished. And not only did I finish, but the story ended up being longer then the fifth Harry Potter book. And after going through and revising everything over the past nine months or so, I think it actually turned out pretty good. So for anyone who wants to learn to write, or to do anything really, I highly recommend the “don’t break the chain” technique. You’ll be surprised by what you’re capable of if you just put enough time into it.

So there you go. That’s a brief history of how this story came to be. Now, I just wanna talk a bit more about Lucy’s character and my anime inspirations. Warning: some spoilers and more TvTropes links. At the time I was deciding to write this story, I had only just gotten into anime a few years earlier. Many parts of my story ended up directly or indirectly inspired by lots of different anime as a result. For example, the very last scene of Year 3 where Gwen finally begins to realize she has feelings for Ben was heavily inspired by the scene in Chuunibyou where Satone realizes she still loves Yuuta.

If you go back and read it, you’ll see I described Gwen doing what she’s doing here.

The way I named my story also came from anime. For the longest time, I never even bothered to have a name for it while I was writing it. But once I decided I was going to post it, I knew it needed a name. The title I went with was based on Anohana’s full translated title.

Spoilers: I cried.

However, the way the name is dropped in the last chapter of my story is based on how the meaning behind the title “Your Lie in April” was revealed in the last episode of that anime.

Spoilers: I cried again.

Incidentally, the scene in my story with Lucy playing violin with Emily as her accompanist was also inspired by that anime.

Now, on to Lucy. I’ve talked a lot about her in my responses to your comments already, so I’m not gonna cover all of it again here, but basically, I love her. She had very little screen time in the Ben 10 series, so I had a lot of room to develop her character however I wanted. She was definitely a genki girl, so her energetic side was inspired by lots of similar characters, such as Hikari from Demi-chan and Karen Kujou from Kinmoza, who you all might know better as my avatar.

God save the Queen. Dess.

On a related note, a lot of the interactions between Ben and Gwen were obviously inspired by various characters of the famous “tsundere” archetype.

Sure, Anime Gwen. Sure.

However, probably my second biggest inspiration for this entire story, behind only Little Moments, was Oreimo.

The show is about a brother (Kyousuke, right) and sister (Kirino, center) who are on terrible terms with each other, to the point where they barely talk at all despite living in the same house, and when they do it’s just to fight. We find out later that they used to be best friends, but then something happened that caused a rift between them for two years. Then one day, Kyousuke finds out his sister has been hiding an embarrassing hobby, and she’s humiliated. But instead of making fun of her for it, he decides to keep her secret, let her talk to him about it, and help her make friends with other people who share her hobby. The show goes on for two seasons, and throughout the whole thing, there are heavy romantic overtones between the siblings. However, even though we all know it’s coming, it isn’t until the bonus episodes after the second season ended that they finally get together and we find out Kirino has been in love with Kyousuke since they were kids. Sound familiar yet?

I seriously love these two.

Now, remember how I said there was a reason I wanted to make the story a Bwency OT3 originally? So, in Oreimo, one of the girls who shares Kirino’s hobby that she becomes friends with is called Kuroneko.

In addition to becoming friends with Kirino, she also dates Kyousuke for a while. At one point, she shows him a drawing she made of him and his sister happily sitting together at a table and tells him it’s her ideal future for him and her.

He doesn’t understand what it means at the time. Later in the series, she shows the siblings an updated drawing that now includes herself at the table with them, saying it was her ideal future for all three of them now.

The siblings don’t get it. Later, when she wants to get back together with Kyousuke, he tells her they can’t because at that point he’s realized that he’s in love with his sister, and Kuroneko is devastated. From what I can tell, the implication seems to be that Kuroneko knew about Kirino’s feelings for her brother (either she just figured it out on her own or Kirino confided in her) and she made it her goal to help the two of them get together. Dating Kyousuke was simply a part of that plan. However, at some point, she accidentally fell in love with both of them for real, and although she was glad she succeeded in getting them together, she was really hurt by the fact that she couldn’t be with them too. Again, sound familiar yet?

So basically, even though Kuroneko had the exact opposite of Lucy’s personality, I gave Lucy Kuroneko’s role in the story. She had the important mission of getting Ben and Gwen together, and her actions drove the plot to the point where I genuinely considered her the main character at the end. I always felt terrible for Kuroneko, so I sort of wanted to right that wrong by having Lucy actually succeed in getting together with Ben and Gwen after she accidentally fell in love with them. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t make it work. But who knows, maybe when I come back to write some more, I’ll do an alternate ending to Year 4 and continue with my original plans for Year 5. You’ll just have to wait and see.

[gojaimas]

Chapter 43 Comments

Wingah: “okay, gonna say this outright. I don't support Bwen. But, I, naively, got sucked into this story. The unique and realistic way it's written makes it enjoyable, and with how the characters are 100% aware of how gross it is, it's just.. Wow. I'm not gonna actively ship Bwen, like, ever, but this will be my guilty pleasure. Well done.”

Wow, that’s really cool! I wasn’t really expecting to get many people who don’t ship Bwen to read more than a few chapters into this story. I appreciate the honesty! Thanks!

NerdZapa: “Hey it might be just me but they already crossed the incest boundary. I see no issue crossing the polygamy boundary while they're at it (was that subtle enough).”

Davidscrazy234: “I feel like they will somehow break ip because of the kiss”

Jeez, not even I’m that bad at kissing.

2562894620: “I've read a few reviews on the review page and it seems that their is some sort of thing going on about another girl, one of the reviewers even suggested that a polygomy happen. Though not to criticize that reviewer or offend any that enjoy such stories, neither should I express my opinions when I'm only finishing chapter 7, I would still like to express my personal opinions that since this story is centered upon the pairing of Bwen it would be best to focus on that. That was my personal opinion givin at this premature stage, thus without a complete knowledge of the exact event(s) taking place later on.”

Oh boy. You might wanna read a bit more and get back to me.

HeartlessAlpha: “If you DO decide to make another Bwen story, could be a romance/drama with Ben 10,000 and Gwendolyn? Like, Gwendolyn tries to help her Ben rediscover his humanity without resorting to seek the help of their past selves.”

Hm. Maybe, but I think a short continuation or alternate ending is more likely.

csgt: “Great chapter! I loved Ben's awkwardness around his parents trying to deny that he has a girlfriend. I'm really looking forward to see more of the parents' suspicions (even though I'm not really sure if they suspect anything now, I think at the moment Ben is just being paranoid) I'm predicting that Lucy will get a locket too, with the pictures she took with Ben and Gwen on it.”

I hope you enjoyed Gwen’s mom being suspicious of her in this chapter. And hey, your prediction with the locket was spot on!

lelcar: “As happy as I am for the outcome of the relationship, there is still the fact they are hiding it from others (besides Lucy). It's only a matter of time before they have to confront their parents and face the music.”

I don’t think either of them are looking forward to that.

The Dark Imperial: “I was so engrossed into the story I didn't notice the chapter ended and kept on reading till I was like "Wtf?" then scrolled back and realized it was the comment reply section. lol”

Haha. If you do that again, just pretend my comments are Lucy breaking the fourth wall to talk with other Bwen fans.

Guest: “Another amazing chapter! I really love the way how you handle the story in a slow and steady pace.. Usually all the bwen stories I have read would jump to the confession and kissing part And then happily ever after.. But gojaimas u broke that typical plot...i love how you are taking this story in step by step way...from ignoring, becoming friends, besties, feelings, realising, neglecting, confessing, dating, kissing.. The journey is nice.. The awkwardness between them is what keeping it real! Next chapter plz..”

Thank you! That was pretty much my intention from the start. The confession scene is always the best, but what happened for them to get there is important too, and a lot of other stories ignore that.’

Guest: “Hey, I've never really done a review before, this is my first actually. But I really enjoy your work, I feel like it's well expressed a well made, so thank you for making such an enjoyable fanfic. I come home and I get exited to finish another chapter everyday. Although I see there is 42 chapter, at least I found something good to read. Thank you kindly for taking your time to read and keep up the good work”

That’s really kind of you, thanks! You probably won’t read this until you catch up and get to this chapter, but I’m glad you're already enjoying it only 8 chapters in!

avo: “the almost kiss scene almost brought me to tears omg also i'm beginning to suspect you're a sadist; a little late though, since i should have noticed earlier. but still i love this story and can and will eventually gush about it again. don't think i'm done with my gushing. you'll be spammed with reviews from my dumb ass when the next big chapter comes out. just you wait. :))”

A sadist? Me?

Guest: “Hapoochapoocheenas...Also known as LORD DING EON on xbox live! Will Ben obtain the omnitrix once more? I'd like to see the effects dealing with Aliens would have on Ben and Gwens relationship.”

Hapoo...Hapoocha...

Cinnamon roll: “Was this an Animorphs reference”

Nope. I don’t know Animorphs. When in doubt, it’s a JoJo reference.

BenXGwen Lightning Warrior: “You should have kissed her, Ben. You had a prime opportunity there, and you missed it. Who cares if you’re in public? It’s not odd for couples to kiss.”

He’s more worried about someone who knows them seeing them kiss. It’s not odd for couples to kiss, but it’s quite odd for cousins to kiss.

Guest: “Lucy best grill”

You know it!

Guest: “when they were gonna kiss... Shia LaBeouf popped in my mind and was like “JUST DO IT” the confession was so like them, it wasn’t cheesy it’s the bittersweet relationship between them we love but Lucy is left alone here.”

Sometimes we all need a little motivation.

Guest: “If you’re in contact with shadow, please tell him to get his shit together for the little moments sequel because I’m at my breaking point waiting for an update even though I’m invested in your story and that’s what kept me going”

Don’t be rude. He’s probably had a thousand fans bug him about it already. He’ll write it if he wants. Besides, you liked his story, you like mine, and you’ll probably like the next story that comes along to follow in our footsteps. There will always be more to read.

Guest: “CoD B4 or Battlefield WW2?”

[gojaimas]

Chapter 38 Comments

public utility: “This is the Ben/Gwen/Lucy threesome fic that Gojaimas refered to: [insert link here]. Gojaimas, you're a pervy LOL”

Also no, that isn’t the one I was talking about. It was a Ben/Lucy thing, not a threesome thing. And jeez, that fic had a lot of spelling errors. I know it’s just porn, but take a little pride in your work for god’s sake. I mean, I didn’t read it. I mean, it was for research I swear. I mean, oh boy...

Guest: “Reading your responses is as engaging as a new chapter. Creating a fanbase is pretty crucial because it can end up being cancer sometimes but yours seem to be awesome, going beyond just Bwen and you deserve it all. Are your social circles aware of your little E-fame or are you too embarrassed to reveal it to em?”

Thank you! Yeah, I’ve been lucky so far with my small fanbase. I haven’t told anyone I’ve been writing this fanfiction, although I do have one friend who knows I ship Ben and Gwen.

Guest: “Lucy having feelings for Gwen is where I kinda can’t put my finger across. I know Gwen doesn’t know or think much about Lucy’s sexuality since her mind is now haunted by Ben and you even mentioned “she vaguely notices it” in one of those our responses. The issue for me here is, you’ve set up Lucy teasing Ben slowly blooming into becoming the real deal from the start, you took 30 chapters for Gwen to come to terms with her feelings and about 15-20 for them to become best friends in the first place. Lucy and Gwen’s friendship always had the sisterly vibe to it and if there was some sort of sexual tension between them then I could buy it but you did it brilliantly with Ben and Lucy and gave the Bency fandom more exposure which I was waiting forever for while simultaneously topping the game of the Bwen fanbase. The first romantic tease I could sense was when Lucy was lying on Gwen’s shoulder on the beach and she jokingly said something along the lines of “you know, with this sunset, this is actually kind of romantic” which lead Gwen to push her off leaving Lucy giggling in the ground and that gained a giggles from me too but those didn’t seem legitimate to me. I mean girls call each other “babe” all the time, compliment each other’s looks, kiss each other on the cheeks, they even grope breasts in anime often but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re into girls. Lucy being that Friend you can share certain things with and always count on even though they can annoy the hell out of you is what seemed liked the bond Lucy and Gwen had. Her now developing feelings for her out of the blue seems unconvincing”

I think the problem you’re having is you’re seeing Lucy’s teasing of Ben differenly than her teasing of Gwen, and you shouldn’t be. Yes, I know girls compliment each other’s looks and whatnot without necessarily being into girls. That’s why Gwen doesn’t really think anything of it and why I didn’t expect my readers to think anything of it either until I let them hear some of Lucy’s thoughts. But now we’ve already heard Lucy say that just because she’s messing with people doesn’t mean she isn’t also serious. If you can accept that her teasing Ben was her way of expressing her growing feelings for him while concealing how serious she was, why can’t you accept that she was doing the same to Gwen? When you think of it that way, it doesn’t seem so out of the blue. I was hoping for it to be somewhat of a surprise, especially since I didn’t think her liking Ben would be surprising to anyone, but I guess I didn’t do that great a job of it.

Gwen and Lucy definitely have that sisterly, “you can tell me anything,” best friend type of relationship right now, and Lucy finds that very important. She’s actually quite afraid of losing that, which is one of the reasons she’s still keeping her feelings a secret. But just because she cares for her one way doesn’t mean she can’t also care for her another way.

Anyway, thanks for sharing your criticism. I can’t exactly go back and sprinkle in more hints for it now, but I hope my explanation will at least help a little.

Robotic Lizard: “Z U C C” Robotic Lizard: “ing*” Robotic Lizard: “ZUCCing*”

Should this mean something to me? Is this a Mark Zuckerberg joke?

Guest: “The title “I wanted what I saw that day” to me as a reader refers to an update.”

Well then I have some good news for you.

Guest: “Despacito Quiero respirar tu cuello despacito Deja que te diga cosas al oído Para que te acuerdes si no estás conmigo Despacito Quiero desnudarte a besos despacito Firmo en las paredes de tu laberinto Y hacer de tu cuerpo todo un manuscrito (sube, sube, sube) (Sube, sube)”

Guest: “It’s intriguing that Gwen is self concisious about her butt considering a certain episode known as “Forge of Creation” in Ultimate Alien. They run into ten 10 year old Ben through a timeloop or something and as you can tell, 10 years old can be hard to handle. Even 15 Ben acknowledges it and asks “did I used to be this obnoxious?” to which Gwen’s “you have no idea”. At one point, he tries to annoy Gwen by pointing out her butt is huge and the context of the way he said it was an insult although I’d take that as a compliment. Cartoon Network would censor the shit out of it if was aired now”

Hahaha, yeah, I’m familiar with that scene. It was a minor inspiration for Gwen having a complex about that.

Guest: “Gojaimas all I gotta say is gozaimasu”

Arigatou!

Guest: “Since they’re supposed to be 14 now and that means on the transition of puberty, you said we should imagine Ben talking with his Yuri lowethal’s voice then does that mean we gotta imagine Gwen having longer hair, a pony tail? Might sound a little pervy with the way I put it but with a more mature body and most importantly, should we imagine her voice associated with Ashley Johnson instead of Meagan Smith? Meagan Smith was a classic but Ashley did great voice work as Gwen in AF and the sequels, she’s still smart but she’s more calm and composed instead of can’t helping herself from getting aggressive because Ben know exactly how to spruk her nerves and Meagan Smith portrayed that perfectly”

Gwen’s hair is a little bit longer now, but not as long as it was in the sequel series and she still keeps it in the same style, not in a ponytail. Her body has matured more by now, and so has Ben’s. And you should be imagining her with her Ashley Johnson voice, which I pointed out by Lucy saying she sounds just like Ellie from The Last of Us. I still love Meagan Smith’s voice and I think it’s perfect for preteen Gwen, but I think Ashley Johnson’s voice is great as well and it fits better for teenage Gwen.

Guest: “Speaking of voice actor, Troy Baker is the real MVP right up there with Nolan North with voicing Joel and them both giving life to the Drake brothers in Uncharted. I mean, hell, his young Joker voice in Arkham Origins and in Asassult of Arkham (The animated suicide squad movie, still better than the live action one) is the closest resemblance I could see to Mark Hamill’s iconic established voice.”

Oh absolutely, those two are real pros. Although my favorite male voice actor is still probably Dee Bradley Baker. His range is incredible and I got to meet him at Blizzcon a few years ago. He’s a really great guy.

Guest: “Everytime Gwen puked or gagged which she normally would when she saw Ben mockingly but this time because she’s in love with him, all I could think about was the ROBLOX death sound. Yeah please pull a bullet in my mouth. OOF”

That’s rough, buddy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f49ELvryhao

Guest: “Man this new few chapter made me feelin’ like waiting for Infinity War. A part of me loves Marvel and a part of me wants to disintegrate them for killing off our favourite characters, this isn’t a spoiler, we all were expecting someone to die while walking in but all good things come to an end.”

> implying superhero deaths are ever permanent

Guest: “This better end well, in quality,which I’m confident it will so far by your writing skill analysis not necessarily in favour of the characters but I can’t help but say if poor Gwen or Lucy ends up in the doghouse, Gojaimas, I’ll have you know that my dad owns Microsoft so he can ban your club penguin account.”

Joke’s on you. I’ve been banned from Club Penguin since 2012.

[gojaimas]

More Comments

MyloMatsuri: “I feel like you could've put this at the very end, after the story was finished. Dont get me wrong, I loved the little interlude. just thought that from a narrative standpoint, it would've been interesting to see this after reading how Gwen, ben, and Lucy reach the conclusion to this story.”

I disagree. It’s important to completely understand how Gwen feels at this point, so I wanted the readers to know everything about her and Ben’s past. Now is the last opportunity to show that.

kinglan10: “So while this author has Gwen describing herself as "not religious," this could mean anything from an Atheist, to an Agnostic, to a Christian who doesnt attend church often and/or doesnt think about God and religion often. And since it's somewhat open to interpretation I choose to pick the one that favors my views, which I'll go as far to say that no I dont believe Gwen is an atheist.”

Pretty much. I wasn’t expecting people to think this much about it. Gwen being religious or not isn’t important, I just figured it would come up at least once in the conversation if two people were to discuss whether or not incest was okay. I can share more about how Ben, Gwen, and Lucy think in terms of religion if people are curious, but it isn’t gonna come up in the story. It’s actually good character building exercise for me to answer unimportant background questions about them, so everyone should feel free to ask me whatever they want about the characters.

csgt: “Interesting twist to make Gwen herself the one who asked for the trip instead of her mother, but Natalie was very supportive of the whole thing. I wonder if this will be a plot point that will come up later, that Natalie might unexpectedly react better to the Bwen relationship than the rest of the parents (usually, in my stories included, Natalie is the most fiercely opposition to the cousins)”

Natalie actually being kind of nice deep down is probably a plot twist no one was expecting lol. I’ve had people commenting recently about how cold she seems compared to Frank, which is how I’ve purposely portrayed her so far, so it was fun to make her show how much she really cares about her daughter for once.

Guest: “I never thought about it before but it was weird that Gwen didnt come out to laugh at Ben hanging when she was in the Rust Bucket the whole time. This fic is now canon.”

Yeah, they didn’t really explain why she didn’t do anything at that point. And I always thought there were some holes in Gwen’s story about being forced by her mother to go on the trip with them. I definitely prefer my headcanon too.

Guest: “Lucy’s into girls? Her and Gwen just seemed like friends in the original serious but oh well. I have friends who’re bisexual so I’m not homophobic but I just can’t seen them as anything more than friends but that’s just my opinion.”

Lucy being bi isn’t something I based on anything from the original series. I just thought it fit because most of the girls I’ve known with her kind of personality have also been bi. Also, I figured she would have sort of a Captain Jack Harkness attitude towards the whole thing, as in, if she can be attracted to aliens who look nothing like her own species, she’s probably not gonna care too much about gender.

Guest: “Nice to see you following your idol Egaraptor’s “don’t break the chain” technique and caring about your fans so even when you can’t get the big chapters done just yet by uploading an interesting nostalgic take on the very first episode of Ben 10. Take your time, it only makes me more excited for it because there’s gonna be a lot of weightage to it. I can assure you’ll be as successful as Ego with your writing skills. Also Game Grumps is great”

Thanks! “Don’t break the chain” is a technique I’d recommend to anyone who wants to write a story as long as mine. I haven’t been watching a ton of Game Grumps lately, but I still love Egoraptor and everyone else on the channel.

Guest: “Something tells me this’ll go real south like ddlc”

What makes you say that, FriendGuest? Everything is fine. I am a perfectly normal hu-man.

Guest: “About the bathroom screen, yes we have seen her express other emotions before besides her trademark smiley emoji and prancing around the playground personality but for someone so seductive and sarcastic, panting from being close to Ben’s touch and running to calm herself down is the thing you’d expect someone like her to and something you’d expect Gwen to do. Deep down, we all have emotions and that can go both ways”

Well said. Lucy is a very emotional person, and that means experiencing both the highs and the lows.

Guest: “It saddens me the producers didn’t have the balls to end Oreimo right. I mean he rejected 4 girls for a short amount of time with his sister? They pussied out and gave an half assed ending. But hopefully, looks like you’ll set the record straight and please all your fans even though the ending is sadly nearing”

I actually suspect that Kyousuke used the “I will do one thing you ask of me” favor that Kirino owed him to break their original agreement and get back together in the end. But I agree, they didn’t end it well. Sorry to all you #RuriSquad people out there, but Kirino totally deserved to win.

Guest: “Julie’s a pretty underrated character tbh. I mean she was plainly made just to be Ben’s Girlfriend from the ghetto but she did have an understanding and likeable personality. They actually had good chemistry in alien force and unlike your story, Gwen was the one pushing Ben to go talk to her. They had their ups and downs in ultimate alien and broke up in omniverse for Ben yelling at a video game when he’s in a phone call with Julie. What?!”

Wait, that’s really how they ended that pairing in Omniverse? God, what were they thinking with those sequels?

Guest: “Uh I’m totally fine with Lucy having feelings for girls but with Gwen seems weird... they always seem to have a Sister or bestie relationship. It’s like pairing up Ben and Kevin to be gay when they act like bros or shipping Captain America and Bucky.”

I never said Gwen was into girls. As for why Lucy would have feelings for Gwen specifically, try not to view my story entirely through the lens of the actual show, as my story differs from it in many ways. If I haven’t done a great job of establishing it using my story alone, that’s my bad, but I hope I’ve done a good enough job of showing how Lucy’s feelings have developed over time.

Guest: “Tara Strong is the voice of my childhood”

Same! I love that woman.

Guest: “Do you watch HighSchool DxD? I mean I know it’s an ecchi anime, it’s like Game of Thrones, you watch it for the plot and the “plot”. What’s your impression on the Season 4 art style?”

I do watch it, and I’m only half-ashamed to admit that haha. I love Crossover Cosmology and I love hot girls, so what’s not to love about it? I’m not a huge fan of the change in art style, but I’m fine with it as long as Koneko is still cute.

Guest: “'This is how we met' that was a genuinely sweet moment between Ben and Lucy and something I wish would’ve happened in the canon timeline.”

Me too. Every chapter I write makes me realize more and more just how much potential the show wasted with Lucy.

Guest: “Since you have interest in drawing, after you’re done with the story, the multiple endings, moving onto others or the one shots. I hope you or someone can illustrate this in a manga or a light novel kind of way or even animate it, although a masterpiece like this definitely deserves an adaption that would be a real big deal”

I was serious earlier when I said I’d pay people to make fan art of my story if anyone was interested. The entire story is way too long for a complete manga or animated adaptation, but individual scenes might work. I might do some drawings of my own once I’m finished with the story, but my drawing practice is mostly on hold while I’m working on it.

Guest: “as much as I adore Bwen, are there any Bency stories at all? Even if they are, I doubt they could portray her character and the chemistry between her and Ben so well that makes me root for them too even this started off as a Bwen Fanfic”

I’m sure there are more out there, but I haven’t seen any. Well, aside from a single erotic oneshot I read once, but I probably shouldn’t link to that publicly haha.

[gojaimas]

Chapter 36 Comments

MageofDuality: “Ya’ know I’m actually feeling sorry for Gwen. I ship her and Ben don’t get me wrong and Lucy is great both as a test to them and herself but geez the way she is just hammering this whole thing on Gwen subtly like a mastermind in the shadows is a bit much.”

Lucy sort of realized that this chapter. Gwen ended up really hurt by the whole thing, and Lucy felt terrible about it.

csgt: “About Lucy "testing" Ben, I'm still not sure if she was more interested in seeing him passing or failing XD I really enjoyed these scenes”

Haha, the best tests are the ones which will make you happy regardless of the outcome!

csgt: “PS: you have an OC named 'Nathan' who has a crush on Gwen, and I also have an OC named 'Natan' who has a crush on Gwen. I'm pretty sure you didn't read my fics so you didn't know that, it's just a big coincidence, but I was quite surprised to see that name popping up here XD”

Oh wow, that is a coinidence. I named Nathan after a kid I knew in middle school who was particularly bad at talking to girls.

Phildev: “I'll admit, I was thinking that adding Lucy as a legitimate love interest was gonna go poorly. But having Gwen temporarily out of the equation allowed this to flow very well!”

Thanks! I think I write characters best as pairs. Seeing Ben and Lucy having their own dynamic while away from Gwen for a bit definitely showed off their chemistry.

Guest: “Lucy is such a babe. Perfect story. Perfect plot.”

Everyone enjoys the Lucy scenes for the...plot.

Jagcity: “I've also been wanting but forgetting to ask about your thumbnail for the story. It's amazing and seems to reflect a lot of their qualities from your story!”

Thank you! I drew it some time last year without any particular scene in mind. It was part of my practice with drawing characters using poses from a reference photo of different characters. For that one, I used this pic of Oreki and Chitanda from Hyouka:

haha.plogue: “Isn't it supposed to be year 5 of the month of January?”

No, the years are measuring time from their first summer trip. Year 1 began in September after the summer trip ended. The story isn’t currently taking place in the year 4 AD.

Guest: “If this ended benxgwenxlucy it will be creepy” Guest: “AHHH they both go well together with Ben I don’t know who to ship just end it with a threesome lol”

You guys wanna talk?

Guest: “That comparison of similarities between the Ben and Gwen in denial of their feelings was brilliant.”

Haha, and people said the Julie arc would never amount to anything.

Guest: “Also, this is the first time I’ve actually seen Lucy feel a little hurt that Gwen was Ben’s main priority because she was just as much as a shipper as the rest of us. She’s precious. Hope she gets a happy ending.”

Lucy is so great. I feel bad making her feel bad. But at least she's still happy about Ben and Gwen making progress.

Guest: “the way you executed why they started hating each other from the flashbacks was brilliant. It was even never explained in the original series as far as my knowledge.”

Yeah I don’t remember them ever explaining it either, so I made it the way I imagined it. Just some stupid misunderstandings with both of them being too proud to stop fighting back.

Guest: “Lucy is my waifu”

This is the best comment I’ve ever received.

Guest: “Thank you Gojaimas for making Bwency a thing, they had so much potential in the original series, especially during their dance”

Oh I didn’t invent Bwency. It’s been here for years: http://thegreatbentennyson.tumblr.com/post/101398479772/lucyxbenxgwen-is-my-ot3

Guest: “Like Lucy giving Ben the nostalgic feeling of his connection to an alien life of any shape or form, you just made me pick up my DS and play Pokémon.”

Ah, Pokémon. The original nostalgia. I like to imagine Ben, Gwen, and Lucy all play Pokémon too. Ben’s favorite Pokémon is Charizard, Gwen’s is Espeon, and Lucy’s is Pachirisu.

Guest: “Is the title I wanted what I saw that day a reference to Ben seeing Lucy shirtless? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)”

I take it back, this is the best comment I’ve ever received.

Car-54: “Regarding Ben, I'm starting to suspect that he has already realized his feelings for Gwen. We just aren't seeing his thought process. He keeps quiet because he assumes that she would be repulsed by the revelation.”

Ben’s basically never been comfortable expressing any emotion other than happiness or anger, so it wouldn’t be a stretch to say he could hide something like that.

Jagcity: “Not really too important but just curious, is the watch and locket real gold or just gold plated? I'd imagine they both used up a fortune of their allowance on those gifts, especially Gwen.”

The lockets and the watch aren’t really gold. They’re likely not even gold plated. They’re probably brass or something else that just looks like gold.

Fan of you: “Your story has surpassed Little Moments in terms of reviews. Slowly we'll get to the favorites and follows too haha.”

I actually just messaged shadows59 yesterday. Apparently he’s been reading my story, so I had a pretty big ‘senpai noticed me’ moment. So shadows, if you’re reading this, and I know you are, my story has more reviews than yours. I only need 180 more follows and 563 more faves until I’m better than you. Take that!

Guest: “you know that daily struggle meme where there’s two buttons and you’re sweating on contemplating which one to press, that’s how I feel rn except one’s Bwen and the other’s Bency. I don’t know why people are referring their ship name as Bwency. That sounds like all of their names combined.”

It is all of their names combined. People are shipping all three of them together. Here’s Lucy’s daily struggle from last chapter:

Guest: “I can literally Google this story or your name and it shows up on the front page, that’s how much exposure you’ve got. Saves my lazy ass the time to go to fanfiction and search it up.”

Sweet! I wonder if anyone outside of fanfiction.net has heard of my story.

Guest: “this is my favourite K-drama”

Yeah but the manga was better.

Guest: “Gojaimas you’ve got goddamn talent you’d be a worth opponent 1v1 me Rust last kill trick shots noscopes only, let’s have a go inside the boxing ring since that’s the YouTube trend now apparently but more importantly, battle me to the death in Dance Dance Revolution.”

No. We must settle this like men:

Guest: “Gojaimas you didn’t reference “Love Me” by Katy Perry when Gwen wanted to hold Ben’s hand I’ve lost all hope”

FUCK! I missed another one! Guys, nobody tell Katy Perry. She’d be pissed.

Guest: “am the only one who would also smash Lucy in her sludgepuppy form? She’s literally like Mystique (Jennifer Lawfrence’s version) from X-Men.”

I mean, that depends. Are we talkin' this:

Or this:

[gojaimas]

Chapter 35 Comment Replies

csgt: “Oh, I forgot to mention it in the past chapter, but I definitely got the feeling that Ben having a new normal watch and Gwen replacing the charm with a normal locket means the definitive end of the ‘hero’ part of their story”

Yeah, pretty much. They’re moving on to new stages in their lives as they grow up.

csgt: “So Lucy is now developing real feelings for both Ben and Gwen? Ohhh, that complicates things… Maybe she will find someone else and get over them? Even though now I’m seeing the chances of ‘Bwenucy’ happening raise a little (maybe 5 percent now instead of 1 percent?)”

Things are a little more complicated now. People have been noticing for a while that there is a chance of the story going in the Bwency direction, so this probably made it seem more likely to everyone. You’ll just have to see how it plays out over the rest of the year.

Davidscrazy234: “If this was made into a live action show, like Arrow and The Flash which cast person would u choose for Ben, Gwen, and Lucy?”

Ooh, there’s a fun question! Let’s see…

For Ben, I’d go with David Mazouz, AKA young Bruce Wayne in Gotham. The scenes where he’s partying and pretending to be a spoiled rich kid makes me think he could totally pull off Ben, plus beating the crap out of bad guys is right up his alley.

For Gwen, I’d say Sadie Sink, AKA Max from the second season of Stranger Things. I’ll admit it’s mostly because she’s a fierce redhead, but she seems talented enough to pull off a character who’s pretty much the exact opposite of Max as well.

And then for Lucy, I’d pick Elsie Fisher, AKA the voice of Agnes in the Despicable Me movies. She did a live action film with Bo Burnham recently too. She’s such a sweet girl and just seems like a constant ray of sunshine, I think she’d be perfect for Lucy.

These actors are 15-17 years old now, so I guess it could only work as a sequel to my story at this point, but they would’ve been perfect for it if the series had started like 4 or 5 years ago.

Guest: “I have a question- is Gwen shorter than Ben in this story? Otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to lean into his chest without having her butt stick out awkwardly.”

Haha, yes, Ben is the taller one now. Gwen used to be taller than him, but he hit his growth spurt and surpassed her, which I sort of eluded to a couple times in Year 3. I remember Ben Ten Thousand being really tall, so I figured this was how they would turn out. The drawing I did of them for the story image is a little closer to what I imagine their current relative heights are now.

Guest: “I’m like the track you’re heading with. Lucy was only featured in one episode in the original and she had so much potential, I always kept an eye out for her. Her characteristics stood out. The wedding when Ben danced with Gwen and then Lucy were really sweet moments. Came for a Bwen fanfic but I’m also in love with Lucy.”

You and me both, my friend. Lucy wasn’t even in the character list for Ben 10 fanfictions until I started this story. If nothing else comes from it, I hope people start to like her a bit more.

Jagcity: “Just a little side inquiry, it seems that Frank loves his daughter (or at least checks up on her) more than Natalie does; I guess Gwen’s mom is simply the stern and frowny type.”

Gwen’s dad is a softie, sort of a typical doting father. Her mom is much more strict, but she’s definitely the one who pushes her to succeed more, which Gwen is mature enough to be thankful for. Ben still finds Natalie mean and scary, and it confuses him that Gwen doesn’t seem to see her that way at all.

Guest: “that bathroom scene was the first time we’ve seen Lucy expressing her true intentions and emotions behind her cherrful happy go lucky mask and she seems to be conflicted… she cares for others which is why she wants Ben and Gwen to be there for each other but at the same, even though I can’t say she’s human, she’s got emotions. She’s just better at hiding it like Ben.”

We have seen her “mask” slip before, which I think is a good way to put it. Back in the summer of Year 2, she broke down because Joel and Camille were missing. That was an unrelated matter, but I hope it effectively foreshadowed how Lucy might not always be the cheerful, happy go lucky girl she appears to be.

Guest: “This was a really effective chapter and it only was that way because of the events and progression leading up to it.”

THANK YOU! Yes! Now you all know why I had to write a story the length of a Harry Potter book before reaching this point. I hope the payoff was worth the wait.

Guest: “I don’t know how to root for right now, it’s like Toradora all over again.”

I’m really glad you brought up Toradora, which is hands down one of the best romance anime out there. It wasn’t one of the biggest inspirations for my story (which would probably be Oreimo in addition to Little Moments), but I can definitely see the similarities.

Guest: “Since you mentioned you’re in college, what’re your aspirations and plans for the future? You’d do great as a author, writer for animes, characters and novels judging by what I’ve seen from you. You seem to have an interest in gaming so you could have a certain paths on that or just take it as a way to kill time. Whatever you’re gonna be in the future you sure as hell are gonna be successful”

Thank you for saying so! I actually graduated about a year ago, but I started writing this story while I was still in college. I’m currently working as an engineer at a medical device company. I have no real training or experience as an author, so I’ll probably just stick with fanfiction as a hobby for now. I’m also learning to draw in the anime art style, so maybe I’ll try making a fan manga at some point as well. In the past, I’ve competed in really low level Super Smash Bros and Magic the Gathering tournaments, but I couldn’t see myself making a career out of it. In about a year or two, I plan to decide if I wanna stick with what I’m doing or go back to school for a bit to transition into something else. I have a friend who got into the game design industry after he graduated, which is something I would love to do as well. Becoming a teacher is another option since I like working with kids and I used to tutor other students in math, science, and programming, plus my aunt is a middle school math teacher. I also have a friend who got into writing for television after he graduated. I was mostly joking, but I already made him promise that if he ever somehow makes it big and gets his own cartoon, he’ll let me voice the villain since I’m “basically already the villain in his life.” I know a lot of my readers are in college, so I just wanna say to all of you that life can be pretty cool after you graduate, and I hope you all do as well as my friends and I have.

Guest: “Do you think Joel is dead in the Last of Us Part 2”

I don’t think so. Wasn’t he in the trailer? Either way, I know I’m gonna play the shit out of that game the second it comes out.

Guest: “God. Been reading from December and this story’s at the TOP of the Ben 10 fanfic section, well deserved. Gosh bless”

Is it really? Awesome! Also, I thought it was funny how you start the comment with “God” and then switch to “Gosh bless” at the end. Lucy prefers “Glob” because she’s a fan of Adventure Time.

Guest: “‘Shut up and put your hands around me’ Gwen is such a tsundere lmao”

Haha, absolutely! I love tsunderes. Totally my type.

Guest: “Since you haven’t seen Alien Force... did you by any chance check out Omniverse since some flashbacks involve the friendship Gwen, Lucy and Ben.”

I only watched a few episodes of Omniverse. I even specifically sought out the episodes that had Lucy in them because I wanted more of her. The show didn’t really appeal to me, but I enjoyed the episodes I saw and the Lucy ones were helpful for crafting her character in my story.

Guest: “We all know Ben and Gwen are gonna end up together and you also mentioned you might write epilogue one shots would it be possible to also write a optionn B) alternative ending where Ben and Lucy got together or would that not fit with the course of the story you’re taking in? Just like how they did Amigami SS, in each 5 episodes, they pair the MC with a girl in alternative ways and timelines of course to see how it would’ve played out. I feel bad for Lucy to be left out and as much as I love Bwen as she does, wish she had her chance too.”

The Bwen ending and the Bwency ending are the only ones that are really on the table right now. I will say that the ending is one of those two options, but I am willing to write an alternate ending for the other one. It’s hard to imagine a Ben/Lucy ending that wouldn’t be completely soul-crushing for Gwen, but I might consider giving it a shot.

Guest: “‘Beeeeeeeen! You...you...You're doing it wrong!’ ‘Give it a rest Dweeb, I'm doing the best I can.’ ‘Ahhhhhhh...Ouch! Wrong hole, Doofus! Do you even know what you're doing down there!?’ ‘Maybe I should've just asked Lucy for help...’”

Hey! How did you get my manuscript for Year 5?? I mean, uh...get this filth out of my Christian Minecraft server.

Guest: “Just wondering, but is this a purely Bwen fic? It seems kinda sad that I read 200K words thinking that Lucy doesn't really stand a chance. I was wondering how much of a jump it would take for all three of them to get together but it doesn't really matter anyways since you already finished writing this work. I just found this piece about 3 days ago and I gotta say I'm enjoying it quite a bit. I look forward to reading what kind of ending you have in store for these characters.”

It’s not purely a Bwen fic. It was my intention for everyone to know Ben and Gwen were going to end up together from the start, but for it to be unclear at this point if Lucy will be involved with them as well. Some of my readers are more convinced it will happen than others, but like I said earlier, I am willing to write both endings. Only one of them is written right now though.