#ask util

[icewindandboringhorror]

(also feel free in the tags to clarify Why you made the choice you made!! :0c)

[deliriousblue]

THE HEART KILLERS (2024) episode nine

[newttxt]

~Utilities Included Comic Masterpost~

FULL PDF! w/ 3 bonus comics, a doodle page, & thumbnails/sketches!

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Utilities Included by @strawhattery

[potato-lord-but-not]

How long do the pencils you use usually last ? I bought a new set recently and I just figured out they’re the same brand you use ,,

here’s the state of my pencils after 3 n a half ish months !!! the darkest one being smaller is definitely from outlining comic panels, and you can tell which ones I use on the regular lmao

lucky for me tho !!!! my town recently got a Michael’s and I SHIT YOU NOT they have a little pencil section that sells INDIVIDUAL PENCILS in this brand !!!!!!!!!!!! WE STAY WINNING BOYS I don’t have the buy a whole new set once my 2B disappears YIPPEE

[thebirdsandthebats]

Okay @s-p-r-i-n-g-t-i-m-e I’m sure you know plenty BUT I’m going to use your wonderful and hilarious comment on this as an excuse to talk about Bernard, bc I realized recently that there are plenty of ppl who haven’t read most of the comics he’s been in. So get ready for my long overdue:

UNPACKING BERNARD DOWD + HIS TRAUMA (for those who cannot keep up with comics but want to get to know him)

So to start, Tim met Bernard years ago ofc, when they were in high school. It’s established pretty quick that Bernard is an extremely Unserious guy LMAO, the first thing he does is literally circle Tim and try to feel him out socially, see what kind of guy he is. He’s the kind of guy who gets himself in trouble with his big mouth, and seems to enjoy poking at Tim and testing his patience. By the time we meet Bernard again in the recent years, he’s grown a lot, but at his core he’s still the light-hearted, fun, goofy guy with very strong opinions. Just less stand-offish, maybe

Throughout the time Tim spends at this school though, Bernard does experience some wild shit. He lost Darla (somebody he really cared about), he experienced a shooting at his school, and then Darla came back from the dead, kind of scared the hell out of him, and used him to contact Tim again. It was kind of played for laughs, but like. That’s gotta fuck you up. (Robin #140)

Obviously this is the kind of thing that maybeee has a lasting effect on you. And BECAUSE Tim Drake: Robin got cut so short and the writer had to rush to wrap up the series, we’re left to fill in a lot of gaps and draw conclusions about the years we didn’t see Bernard ourselves. But we absolutely get some insight as to his life after Tim left that school and we stopped seeing him in the comics. Spoiler alert: it was hard.

In TDR, Bernard discusses the the cult that he’d been in that Tim saved him from in Urban Legends. He says that “he’d accepted himself”, but others hadn’t. Obviously there’s the natural reading that he means his queerness (which has me chewing through drywall), but I think that he’s speaking very broadly too. Bernard is a very odd example of a civilian, because he’s always getting dragged into things much bigger than him. And even before that, he had his big ideas, his conspiracies, his loud personality. He tended to rub people the wrong way in high school. Then in issue #7 of TDR (the Bernard pov issue my most beloved, weird pacing aside) Bernard refers to this “oozy, sticky feeling” that he ALWAYS feels when Tim isn’t around. He says when he’s alone it’s harder to put one foot in front of the other. To keep GOING. To wake up every day.

I think that Bernard has always felt like an outcast. (Robin #121, he doesn’t fit into any clique). He wasn’t as okay with it as he acted. And I think he wasn’t getting any attention from his parents. (Batman: Urban Legends #5, Bernard’s parents nonchalance to the days leading up to his kidnapping)

So just like Bernard explained to Tim, that feeling got bad. and he wanted to let go. The chaos monsters, the cult, all of it was a means to an end. But then Tim agreed to see him again, and I think that sparked something in him. Because he started learning to fight. When he was tied down to that alter and Tim was saving him, I think it fully sank in to Bernard that he didn’t want to die. Reconnecting with Tim gave him hope and made him really feel something good for the first time in ages.

So now that they’re dating after the cult fiasco, we get to know this current Bernard. A less goading, maybe calmer Bernard. But he’s still himself, of course, rambling about his ideas and making bad jokes and sticking to his guns (he has NEVER been a pushover, no idea where people get that idea?). I think a lot of people complained that Bernard mellowed out too much in terms of attitude, but I think if he seems “nicer” it’s because 1) he’s grown now. It’s been a while since we last saw him, and he’s clearly changed a lot. And 2) because he’s dating Tim now. He likes him a lot, and he’s an affectionate partner. He wants to lift Tim up.

But the fact that he was pulled into a cult still remains. And as lighthearted as Bernard tries to be, that traumatic experience still happened. It said in Urban Legends #5 while Tim was searching for him that Bernard had welts on his arms and legs and had been acting different, so it’s not like he was just snatched up on a whim. He’d spent significant time there. For those who haven’t read much abt the ways cult trauma specifically can fuck you up, I recommend doing a search if you’re in a good headspace for that and want to understand him more. because it’s pretty bad.

And then! yeah. you guessed it. Bernard gets kidnapped again. Chained up next to a BOMB that’s counting down. RIGHT WHEN HE’S WORKING ON HEALING FROM ALMOST BEING SACRIFICED BY A CULT.

And surely this can’t get crazier. He’s almost died twice in the past 6 months. except, remember his parents? In TD:R #7, we really see a little more of his relationship with his parents. He doesn’t live up to their standards, and his dad specifically seems to just want to argue with him. The restaurant they’re at is attacked, and everything goes to shit, and. you know, I think these panels really speak for themselves.

And for the record, when it’s revealed that everyone is seeing their worst fears, Bernard’s parents fears are not about him.

So now Bernard has to deal with that. And we start to see that Bernard is really not as okay as he’s tried to be. He keeps a baseball bat by his door because he’s been kidnapped twice now. And just when he’d likely thought things couldn’t get worse, he heard the Chaos Monsters were back. I can’t imagine he feels safe. He lashes out for the first time since all this has happened and yells at Kate and Tim, because while they’re doing what they feel is necessary to save more people (AND I DONT BLAME THEM AT ALL), Bernard can’t talk about it.

And I will forever be sad and insist that TD:R got cancelled too soon, just before we could get into the really juicy stuff, because things had to be wrapped up pretty quick and this was the only comic Bernard was consistently appearing in. But when Tim is giving himself up to the chaos monsters, Bernard goes out and rallies anyone he knows can help. Things were rushed because there was no more time to flesh out the story the way it could have been, but I’m including these panels just because I love Bernard Audacity Dowd using a fucking flashlight and shadow puppet to call Batman. geeking out for a minute. And then leading the battalion to save Tim with a SLEDGEHAMMER. gay people rule.

So yeah! While I see the vision of how a lot of Bernard’s trauma was meant to be semi-resolved and let him come to peace after saving Tim back, we just didn’t have the time for him to heal properly. I’d give anything to get inside his brain again. UHH IF YOU READ THIS I HOPE YOU LOVE BERNARD NOW and don’t come at me if I left something out, some of my comics aren’t with me rn. Bonus TimBer for the road:

[ahappydnp]

saw someone say in the tags of your reply about not moving that they can’t drive – as the keeper of dnp lore do you know if they’ve ever said whether they like actually do not know how to drive or they just don’t bc they don’t like to? weird question perhaps lol but as a city dweller who never learned to drive i’m so curious to know if they’re #representing

they both got their drivers licenses (phil after failing 5 times and having 70 lessons but passed when his last instructor won the lottery which i'm sure you knew because they feel the need to mention it allll the time for some reason). he shared a car with his mum but hasn't driven since he was 18 because he hated it

dan had a red vauxhall corsa (x) and drove in wokingham but left the car at home when he moved to manchester and then his parents sold it without telling him

[spock-smokes-weed]

now that my ocd has calmed down, I think that no matter the problems with xiaohongshu or chinese cencorship, I still think it's monumental that americans (and to some extent) the rest of the world are able to make communication with a group of people who have been otherwise isolated bc of the chinese fire wall.

it's been emotional seeing chinese people get emotional that for the first time the rest of the world has come to them, and are having this moment where people are able to break down cultural resentment.

[zylphiacrowley]

⚔

[caterpillarinacave]

It is a shame that we as a society do not talk about the parallels between Mortmain and Henry in TID because boy howdy is there something interesting there.

[chrliekclly]

omg just asked about the dept you work in on sunny and then processed ur about info after i sent the ask, what do you do in cam? so awesome you work on set i love film/tv and the making of and also sunny is my fav show

in simpler terms:

[radioroxx]

headcanon that people of the islands sleep schedule is like, four hours later than average.

they wake up at mid day, and sleep well past midnight. kids begging their parents on weekends to pleeaaase please let them step up just a little longer to watch the sun rise. early-riser visitors / tourists having to adapt to their horrid schedule because stars forbid theyre up and about at 10:30.

[skeletalheartattack]

Valve just published a blog post regarding plans for the first MVM update in twelve years for TF2 (to be released later this year, sometime after August), and it shaping up to be the first MVM update to involve community submissions (excluding Robotic Boogaloo).

[twohandsmeetatzenith]

Purple Haze with Only a Memory? 👀 (challenge creator’s main, heheh)

purple haze.... purple haze come home.......

bonus ver with no opacity change & no background bc i wasnt sure if this counted, thank you for the request!!

[phlurrii]

Locking Flurry in a jail cell that only has like 2 bars.

How long until he figures out he's not actually arrested and can just, wake away?

He digs his way out

[transingthoseformers]

Out of curiosity, Do you have any angst ideas currently rotating that haven’t been spoken yet? One of mine is idw style Prowl being in love with Optimus and Optimus using that until Prowl isn’t useful anymore. Because IDW OP is a dick

More than anyone could ever guess

Optimus and Soundwave's interactions in a situation with past megasound, past megop, and Megatron currently unavailable could be so fun imo. Especially considering their very very different dynamic with the same mech. Though, their POVs are so different he hardly seems it does he? (Toxic megasound is just hhhhgh) (so fun)

I understand this is the nuke in a knife fight option but I've been enjoying throwing Tarn and all his implications into the rid15 timespan of aligned where Tarn is so, so out of the loop, the decepticon faction is fractured beyond the point of repair, and it seems like Megatron is just... gone. He died, he came back, and he left. I think it'd be fun to send the DJD after a ghost they will never find. (Especially considering in general the differences between TFP Megatron and idwg1 Megatron here, which might make things worse tbh)

I understand that just about every Overlord centric fic out there is angst based but I've been thinking. We don't dwell on the angst in his dynamic with Megatron enough.

Ohhhhhhu on unrequited prowlop?? Intriguing, especially considering idwg1 Prowl's various interpersonal relationships??

[ed3lsgard]

thought about omark calling helly “kid” in an attempt at friendliness (but it really turns her on in a way that freaks her out bc she already decided to hate him) and got so hard i passed out

i also. almost passed out. yk it’s funny bc i was literally thinking about this today actually. him calling her “kid”, “kiddo”, etc… she gets surprised that it turns her on, and instead of a typical snarky or sarcastic remark she’s left blushing without any objections. mark stays oblivious until he inevitably catches on, impossible not to when she’s left red cheeked with heavy breaths every time he calls her “kid”. this of course carries on into the bedroom. he strokes her hair as he mutters words into her ear,

“you like that kid?”

“are you close yet kiddo?”

“be a good girl and cum for me”

LORD IM BOUTTA NUTTT😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫