Bernard the Elf goes through a lot of changes over the years, but during the time when he’s Head Elf, he’s generally the busiest one out of all of them at Christmas. Pulling off that night BY ITSELF is a big job, and if some joker decides to make a nuisance of himself and try to ruin Christmas? Just makes his job twice as hard.
Point is, Bernard Waltern always makes the offer of “Y’know, if you want, you can always crash at our house once the whole business is over with”. The Elf usually says thanks but no, and Bernard doesn’t push it, but the offer’s always open.
He does come over some years, of course. Especially when it’s been more stressful than usual (that gets more frequent). But mostly, he won’t even bother them. He’ll just pick one of the more secluded rooms in the big house and sleep the whole day.
Despite Bernard’s best efforts to make sure nobody disturbs him while he’s resting (when he knows he’s there, anyway), Maude has found him on some couch or other several times. But eventually she just accepted him as another cousin Bernard had adopted. Now she leaves him hot cocoa every time.
In all this time, I’ve started posting three fanfics--
Fallen Out Of That Impossible Sky - a wingfic for The Man Who Was Thursday
All Shall Sing The Ocean’s Song - the VoicePlay Moana AU
Be Silent With You - a sidestory for the aforementioned VoicePlay Moana AU, focused on Rachel Moana and Layne Hei-Hei (and completed!)
And introduced at least five other AUs on here, three of which are connected--
MML Star Wars - Cousin to the whole Phineas and Ferb Star Wars thing. I basically only talked about Cavendish as an Imperial commander and his connection to Candace, if I recall, but it was fun (I'm still planning on eventually responding to the responses/reblogs on that post, btw!)
The Journal of Shermie Pines - Dipper and Mabel's grandfather spends a summer with Ford in Gravity Falls when he's a kid (it's part cool adventure, part huge angst, so it'll fit right in, lol)
DuckTales Partridge Family - the Partridge Family in the Duckverse, with Shirley and Della as old college roommates, the Partridges and Ducks as co crazy adventure families, and Reuben and Donald as very tired unofficial dad-buddies.
Poe Strangeduck - Poe De Spell gets amnesia, is adopted as a little brother by a British agent, and becomes a magical detective (also, I'm kinda getting really into this one)
The Bernards - my favourite: a bunch of guys from across the world, and from various very strange situations and backgrounds (and fandoms) come together in a secret room under a bookshop because they want to complain together, dang it!
I’ve had a lot of fun with these, especially the Bernards and VoicePlay Moana. I'm very happy with how things are going with them all, because these are people that frankly just make me smile every time.
In the coming year, I'm hoping to post more frequently (though that might just mean more random story thoughts), give more fic updates, and get a little closer to actually finishing a few projects, and actually starting a few projects, in an official way.
I'm really looking forward to this, you guys! I love these stories, and it's nice being able to put it out there and let it play outside my head for a little while! I'm really excited about these ideas and these characters and the relationships and adventures that they have, and I can't wait to share them with whoever's listening!
And if that means you, thanks ever so much for reading! Let's do this, fellow fans! :)
Okay, since when was there a bunch of guys named Josh getting together and battling over who gets to be the One True Josh and having all the camaraderie as fellow Joshes around the five year old winner?
Because DANG, they get it! They really get it!
I literally just did a post not long ago about being in the fandom of "characters who all just happen to have the same name". And now look! I had no idea all this was going on, IN REAL LIFE no less!
Of course, I was talking about other names, but now I'm wondering if I should have something similar in my thing, even just in the past. A battle of Bernards...
So, sometime after DT17 ends, the Ducks and Partridges go on some sort of trip to London. Since Donald is off with Daisy, Reuben is on his own. He's hoping to just sit this one out, have a little break from Crazy Adventure Family, maybe try some of that tea England is so famous for.
Alas, nope.
Instead, he meets up with the Bernard of the Poe Sherlock Strange whatsit AU, who's also trying to catch a break from his Crazy Adventure Friend. They don't last long before they get swept up in some separate adventure they didn't intend, but probably figured was coming. Probably some baddies who recognized them and had previous issues with them, or something like that.
But they get rescued by a few mysterious strangers, who bring them to a secret hideout. Then they introduce the two to their society.
I'm not quite sure what to call them, but they're the Bernards.
See! See, I told you I'd finally get to the Bernards! It took me ages, but I'm here! We made it!
So basically, they're a bunch of characters named Bernard, from all over the world, of all ages and species, and from many, many different stories I know walks of life. This includes the Rescuers, the Santa Clause, Adventures in Odyssey, Black Books, and a chap who is suspiciously similar to the one from Megamind (but it COULDN'T be, because rival animation studios).
The society has existed since sometime earlier on in the Middle Ages, founded when three Bernards from different parts of the world accidentally met up and found they had a lot in common, including the day they were given their name.
The reason they brought these two back was because they thought they were Bernards. They're both cranky curmudgeons with bad moods (to one extent or another), and have no end of reasons for complaint, especially about these crazy people who drag them into these crazy adventures constantly, and they find, too, that they generally have to clean up other people's messes, literally or figuratively.
Yes, seriously. I haven't found one Bernard yet that doesn't fit that bill, to some extent in each factor.
But anyway. The point of the society is basically for all these Bernards to be able to just come complain with like minded complainers, swap stories, and get a general break from the craziness of everybody.
And now, back to your regularly scheduled story. The ones who did the rescuing were right about the guy from the Poe AU, but Reuben... well, his name's Reuben. They all could've sworn he was a Bernard. He even sounded like a Bernard ("You know who he reminds me of?" says one, and then, in a particularly Dave Madden tone of voice: "Bernard." And the others know exactly who he's talking about.)
Well, something happens. Maybe the baddies, who are in fact quite dangerous, go after the Partridges, or Poe, or both, and Reuben and AU Bernard are desperate to go back and save them. Despite all their grousing about their annoying friends, they really do care about them, and would do just about anything for them.
Like a true Bernard.
And so the society decides to help them out. The Bernards all know what it's like, and they go to help them fight off the baddies and save their friends (though you KNOW they'll gripe about it).
That's another thing they do: whenever one of their members is in trouble (particularly if their troublesome loved ones are in trouble, and they don't have anyone else to ask for help, a few of the other Bernards will come help them out. Secretly, of course, no one is supposed to know about it outside of actual Bernards, otherwise all these folks'll come in here and start dragging them off on adventures again, and then we'll have no end of trouble to... *descends into irritable muttering*
It works out perfectly, though. The annoyingly beloved adventure friends are saved without their finding out who it was. And both of them are admitted into the society (Reuben is an honorary Bernard).
So yeah. This is basically just me flipping out over a bunch of characters who happen to have the same name and a lot of similar traits, and deciding they must have a special Bernard club for them to complain together and help each other keep their respective annoyances safe, because YES.
Okay, but yes, I'm definitely going to be talking about my two DuckTales AU-ish ideas soon, because you must know a little about each of those to understand the Bernards. And I must tell you about the Bernards.
This actually makes me quite happy to see that people get me now - guys that all happen to have the same name coming together is a BRILLIANT idea, and now the world knows it.
But I was into Bernards long before all of Tumblr was into Joshes.
