''you had been roped into a new kind of fun, aren't you? how naughty of you, dear boy. how gamine!''
(softcore kinky scarebat. cuz lass's heart wants what it wants 💘
but truly, my thoughts process here was both simple an’ messy at the same time. for one, i prob already said it, but i feel like ropes are very their thing. or generally, tying up or restriction of movements. be it cuffs or smth else feels on par with smth they might grow to enjoy. even if i don’t think, they will constantly dab into that territory. esp since it cannot be denied, that when it comes to bandage, there is such a nice element of ‘trust’ in it an’ potential for slight fear play, that welp … yeah. once again, sounds like their thing to me. so i just had to play around with it a bit! at first, i wanted to also draw a couple of similar ideas i had for fear state scarebat, but it felt too bdsm-ish for this set, so i decided to post it like you see it here an’ not include anything else. leave it soft-ish an' playful. even if slightly sexed up.
now, about the next following piece of trivia ... around july *i think?* i had an idea for a fairly short scarebat fic, which would have dealt with the topic of batman an’ scarecrow accidentally stepping into rather peculiar, kinky territory an’ then just being forced to kinda awkwardly deal with it afterwards. or in other words, bruce did smth under the influece of ft, crane liked it an’ bruce didn’t dislike it, either. but it wasn’t meant to be sexual. but jon assumed it was an’ also manipulatively told batman that such treatment helps him to think less ‘bad fear obsessed’ thought. it's not really true lol so now, bruce is kinda has to take responsibility for his purely accidental actions, all while feeling weird that he’s not against it, despite how he should be an’ so on. a fairly simple concept on surface, but unfortunately, since i already have some stuff i need to write first, i wanted to at least, draw smth a bit related to this idea of mine for keepsake almost. including a slight allure to the fact, that in one of the arts it’s implied that crane would have got his bony, flat butt spanked. so here, ya have it.
but anyhow. on a more detailed note, the first two arts are intentionally more clean, then what follows after. in here, it’s mostly about jonathan being creepy about having unconscious batman. thrilled about having him at his mercy an’ also thrilled about a chance to rub his crotch against batman's abs, i imagine an’ then, your good ole scenario, where scarecrow getting snared by both a rope an’ one of batman’s bat-themed cables. he’s pretty stuck an’ fearfully stares up at the batman, who lets himself enjoy the sight a bit longer, than he should. so in short, this first set kinda depicts sexual tension without it being released an’ also involves a rope. a restriction. a moment, where one can forget for a second about the whole vigilante vs villain thing an’ just focus on sensuality of such occasions. a situation, which isn’t uncommon per say, but can have a bit of double meaning or even a food for fantasies later on.
an’ then, we have resolved tension, basically. so needless to say, jonathan is pretty happy where he is. just embarrassed, when maskless. but fairly calm an’ curious, when he has a mask on, bc batman cannot see his expression. as for bruce, he’s a bit thoughtful in the first art, since i imagine, that it’s like a rare moment of peace for him. even if it happens in a bit of a strange set up. i also a dedicated believer that bruce likes to hold crane for comfort reasons. an’ then, we have a bit more usual batman manhandling crane, but sexually this time, an’ i decided to leave it ambiguous what they are saying here. like, i imagine my own thing an’ someone else might imagine whatever else, i suppose. bruce is kinda smug tho. even if at first he had a very different expression in a sketch i’ve made. but i love his lil smirks. he's so full of secrets, haha.
an' oh, also in the beginning, i wanted to leave the arts as they were. like their original color an’ white background, but i feel like it wouldn’t have given off this light dreamy vibe, otherwise. an' i wanted to be tender-ish. since for me, this art set is soft in nature, despite presence of the kinks, which oftentimes associate with rough sex an’ whatnot. but yup, originally, it looked like this.
p.s i didn't tag this post as an adult one, bc well, technically speaking no sex is happening an' no dicks are shown. so yeah. also i feel like comicverse!jon also have a right to show off his nips. arkham asylum scarecrow cannot take this right all to himself after all.)
sup :) out of curiosity, i googled jon and bruce's birthdates and discovered that they technically belong to different generations, with jon being a 'baby boomer' and bruce being 'gen x'. it's awfully funny to me to imagine (even though it's pure ooc) him saying "okay, boomer" to jon during some argument, for instance about technology, just to see his face
honestly, jonathan being a boomer even if a baby boomer, explains a lot lmao. an’ i imagine this why he had never used batman’s gadgets against him. he literally doesn’t know how.
my dude be like :
but honestly, characters who don't get technology all that well are my spiritual animal. i have a grandpa syndrome. it takes me an embarrassing amount of time to figure some tech stuff out, even tho i'm young an' supposed to know those things lol.
also funny enough, i headcanon that BTAS jon is very-very wary of 'way too smart technology'. an' he the kind of guy, who would have the oldest mobile phone in history as if to make a statment.
meanwhile, bruce is out there flexing his confusing futuristic gadgets left an' right.
as per usual, they are match made in heaven, haha.
been rewatchin' BTAS recently. so here's is some of my absolute fav episodes to name. 📺💥
...
(naturally, that's not all of my favorite episodes, haha. BTAS is just nearly perfect in terms of writing of an animated show. aside from a couple of lackluster eps, an' a few that i just don't personally care about much.
but anyways …
‘blind as a bat’ was one of those eps, which actually made me so paranoid as a kid. losing your sight is one of the scariest things, which can happen to a person. an’ i love how they portrayed this via bruce, whose whole life is literally him fighting crime, but how will he do it now, when he can’t see anything? like, it doesn’t stop him of course. but man. it was so gut punching. BTAS not only understood batman / bruce, but they also gave him a lot of vulnerable moments like that. i mean, this was also one of like 2 or maybe 3 eps, where we see bruce tear up an’ it’s always gonna tug at my heart strings. admittingly, penguin mostly was there just to be well, an asshole, but i like how much it says about him, when he giddily an’ sadistically corners bruce, fully enjoying the fact, that he’s helpless.
‘eternal youth’, i gotta appreciate how terrifying this episode is. an’ the utterly messed up the concept behind it. i think, that BTAS had really nailed the fact, that poison ivy is honestly a horrifying person. her rapey gimmick aside, her motivations an’ how far she’s willing to go for it … oh, she’s such a delightful psycho! i love, love ivy who acts like this. a proper female villain to boot an’ who’s also not a one trick pony, but can bring a lot of more of awful an’ chilling things to the table. not to meantion, that it's always good to see batman's other rogues, than the clowns to threaten batman's loved ones, esp if they had no idea that they do it.
‘joker’s favor’, for what it worth i’m happy, that i still can fully enjoy joker an’ harley’s characters at least in some media. i suppose, arkhamverse is fine too, but over the years, i feel like both of the clowns were overused in literally everything under the sun to the point, where i’m unable to stomach them in most outlets nowadays. i jus’ don’ wanna look at them or hear about them or anything … but here? oh, what a blessing! the best harley to ever exist. an’ one of two jokers, that i actually really like. as for episode itself, this has such an interesting flavor to it. not only we get to see what it’s like for a normal gotham citizen to be at the wrong place an’ at the wrong time, but also what smth like that can do to an otherwise a simple, everyday man. also, the joker crawling on his knees like a coward is always great. since i feel like many writers forget that aside from a crazy murdereous psycho, he’s also supposed to be a narcissistic wimp, who’s deeply afraid of death. an’ it was harley’s debut ep too. she’s so casually evil in it as well. an’ that’s kinda why i drew her without a mask btw. since we do see her face in that very ep.
‘nothing to fear’. i’ve talked so much about that ep, but i don’t mind talking about it yet again. a life changer episode for me. i also remember that while ‘pretty poison’ was entertaining as heck, an’ ‘on leather wings’ was breathtaking in some scenes, i’m pretty sure, that it was ‘nothing to fear’, which fully convinced a child me, that i will be always on the clock, sitting next to tv to watch every following episode of this show. so, yeah, forever gentle of this one an’ the concept behind it. also so many parallels an’ bruce’s fee-fees. i love how jonathan would always have that deeper, private key to bruce’s mind. an’ how bruce is always there to terrify him right back.
‘read my lips’, when i was a kid, the twist of that episode made me so intrigued. bc i wouldn’t have ever thought about who the main villain was an’ how the show would handle it. like, you would expect a villain in typical sense. a man or a woman. or smth like that, not an actual dummy an' person who controls him, but belives that he's not. i love how this whole thing made bruce low-key paranoid as well, bc at some point, he also almost believes that the dummy is alive an’ cursed or smth. i also love how he doesn’t right away realizes that arnold is mentally ill an’ not just pretends like he is. bc it would have been such a clever scheme, if it was one to begin with.
to conclude this all, i will prob for sure ref those eps in my upcoming BTAS fic, bc yeah. i have a tunel vision in a way lol. but mmm, BTAS really feels like timeless classic at this point.)
(why yes, shall i get more an' more ambitious in well, uh limitation of my current skillset, but still. more kissing! drawing them kissing gives me life *esp now, when i've got hella sick again lol* if i’ll draw them smooching 100 times, i will prob reach immortality. ooor i will be able to have this engraved on my headstone. one or the other!
but welp, as the title suggests, this collage focused on a scenario, where crane isn’t the scarecrow just yet. i believe, i mentioned that AU-ish idea in another drawing before. but this one, specifically depicting the comicverse scarebat. with this being said, this still implies that jonathan caused bo to crash the car. an’ that he most likely did smth to his predecessor *he didn’t murder him tho*, when it comes to his position as professor, an’ he still has fascination with fear, but it’s way more tame, than what kind of stuff he typically does in canon. it’s a slow-burnish corruption for him. but yeah, he will eventually become the scarecrow, anyways. but for now, he’s jonathan crane. an unlikely ally of the gotham’s new, mysterious vigilante. each art addresses different stages / moments of their relationships. starting from batman’s ambiguous, slightly intimidating flirting an’ ending up with jon getting bold enough to return his affection an’ even be the one, who initiates it. i suppose, it took him a while to realize, that this isn't some cruel joke at his expense or anything.
an' since this is comicverse, i kinda wanted this arts set to look a bit comic book-y too. as if looking at an old comic book page or smth along those lines. the final result, prob doesn't give off that vibe, but i still like how it turned out. as essentially, this art is one of those works that have around 4 different versions of it. an’ i just posting the ones, which look the most 'interesting'. but since filter did obscuring some lil details, here is a recollection of jonathan blushing throughout the whole thing.
i wasn’t able to keep this feature in the posted version, since it ended up looking kinda odd. but in case, someone might have wanted to see this, here it is.
aside from that, i think that in this set, the arts themselves are pretty straightforward, an’ more focused on the action aspect vs specific set up, aside from AU-ish frame. but i do imagine, that in the top right artwork *the one, where bruce is maskless*, while jon’s glasses make it hard to tell where he’s looking or not, his eyes are actually closed, since it’s the only condition in which bruce will openly reveal his identity to him. i also imagine, that since jonathan’s eyesight is pretty poor, sometimes, he might just take off his glasses an’ see bruce as a blurry shadow, but at least, still have some things to go from. like the fact, that bruce’s eye color is blue an’ he’s a brunette. it's their lil trust game, an' despite being curious, crane is too scared to screw this up just bc he wants to see his lover's face. not to mention, that typically jonathan not super obsessed an’ sometimes literally doesn’t care too much about batman’s everyday persona, since it doesn’t change much for him. whoever batman is, he’s the exact same man for him, inside the cowl or without it.
an’ oh yeah, it's indeed part 1. since i have sketched the set up, where bruce aren’t batman *bc his parents had never died in that universe* but jon is still the scarecrow, the notorious criminal. it doesn’t seem to deter wayne’s heir, who flirts with him for some reason tho.
Hello :3 I wonder how if both Batsy and Scarecrow were on the same side, how would that dynamic play out, good or evil. Or if their roles were reversed, I wonder how Scarecrow would be a hero
heya! it’s lovely to see you drop by! an’ hmm, let’s see. i imagine, there are quite a few possible scenarios, regarding how it might work. an’ i suppose, i’ll begin with a ‘simplier’ one.
aka jon’s not all that secret wet dream, basically. a little something that i call ‘batcrow region of terror’. in this set up, bruce is well … a supervillain. i think, that since he will technically possess all of bruce’s typical knowledge / skills, it'll be very easy for him to be pretty much on top of the criminal hierarchy in gotham. more so, considering his riches an’ his well-known public status, he will always get away scot free with whatever he’s doing. even if some people suspect that notorious batman is in fact, gotham’s sweetheart bruce wayne, it’s not like they can prove it. or perhaps, even live long enough to do it *since i imagine, that he won’t be above straight up murder in this scenario* so no arkham or jailtime for him. in short, he’s a very dangerous man to deal with. an’ if he happen to not like you *insert the name of any fellow gotham rogue* welp, let’s just say, there is one more missing person case, out there. this alone had discouraged quite a few villains to not only mess with him, but doing any serious business with him too. but not jon lol. oh no, jonathan was instantly fascinated with someone who controls his whole image an’ crime record with all sorts of fear tactics an’ presence of mysticism. an’ to his luck, the fascination seemed to be reciprocated, as bruce took a noticeable interest in crane’s work. interest so bold in fact, that he was very much glad to fund whatever research jon wanted to do, including the most unethical of his experiments. with the only condition, that he will be able to get updates on each step an’ also be able to use it for his own purposes. naturally, this symbiotic working relationships later on grow in odd sort of companionship, bc they understand one another a bit too well. an’ also they are evil in exactly the same way, pretty much. so romance is soon to bloom an’ crane is head over the heels, living his best *if we don’t consider, that he’s completely insane at this point* life with his big bad bat, who enables all of his worst impulses an’ who also feeds off them himself. an’ all things considering this isn’t even close to the worst case scenario for them. but it is surely one of the worst case scenarios for gotham, which is now constantly getting dosed with fear toxin an’ batman is out there making everyone piss their pants, bc like jon he deeply enjoys terrorizing people. both citizens an’ criminals alike. so overall, i think, that in this scenario scarecrow almost acts as batman’s right-hand man an’ they are scaringly in sync, when it comes to their goals. not to mention, that bruce’s money will constantly save jon’s scrawny ass from jail / arkham too, so they will be a huge pain in the ass for whatever hero, who will decide to try an’ challenge them.
but alright now, let’s move on to a set up, where jonathan is a ‘good guy’ instead. even if i call him that with a very tongue-in-a-cheek way. as honestly, i don’t think that crane can ever be what one might call a good person. mostly bc the very core of his personality is that despite being sensitive an’ wounded, he’s also a scientist an’ the driven force behind science will always be reaching results no matter the cost. that’s just how it is. however, i can picture a version of jon who might not want to cross certain lines, be it due to how he was actually horrified with consequences himself *this happened in canon too btw* or bc he wants to remain in batman’s good graces. either way, my favorite type of set up where crane is on the same side as bruce be a timeline, where jon is very-very close to actually making that ‘leap’ an’ becoming the scarecrow, but the only thing that holds him back is that batman *during his early years* had asked for his assistance, both with chemicals an’ also as someone, who might give him a valuable input on some of the criminals as a psychiatrist. in other words, jon is still very much mentally ill, but the only good thing that had ever happened to him, the only meaningful connection that he has is sorta gluing his brain together just enough to remain on somewhat neutral grounds. an’ ironically, that’s something that the bat can vouch for too, since crane’s presence does make things a tiny bit easier. even if i feel like bruce might get more intense about monitoring jon after harvey gets turned into two-face. after all, there is always something wicked an’ dark lurking inside jonathan’s mind. it’s not like bruce isn’t unaware of its existence. he’s hyperaware about it as anything, an’ this makes them very codependent on one another, even more so, than in the first scenario. i also love the idea of basically the same dynamic, but where jonathan actually used to be a villain an’ got ‘rehabilitated’ or more so, the bat decided to drag his sociopathic ass to the path of ‘redemption’ all due to power of love, an’ from the side it looks like when someone tries to give their twisting an’ hissing cat a bath, rather than jon actively attempting to better himself. but hey, baby steps. according to bruce, scarecrow not killing people is already a big step into the right direction. an’ according to jon, the things that he do for love are also the things that keep him out of arkham an’ spared from the bat’s disappointment. besides he had already murdered all of his bullies, so no unfinished business left there lol.
[rubs chin thoughtfully] honestly, those two would have worked very organically if they happened to be on the same side, whichever they are both evil or not in those set ups.
an’ last, but not the least the role swap AU … or the closest that i can picture to it is that jonathan is still an asshole, but a noble one, perhaps. maybe, this time around he put on a mask to protect those, who live in fear, bc he himself lived like that. meanwhile, bruce is an isolated aristocrat, who after death of his parents *yeah, they still die here lol* took upon a very nihilistic worldview an’ he doesn’t see gotham as anything, but a filth ridden city, that didn’t deserve saving. i imagine that his villainous actions are heinous exactly bc he’s very much like owl-man an’ he’s apathetic toward people to a degree, where he can organize or simply watch unbothered as awful things happening to them, all for the sake of control an’ edging off the boredom. he rarely gets his own hands dirty as well, preferring to observe or intimidate someone by simply pin pointing their weak points for them. basically, picture bruce wayne, but with almost zero empathy. however as a plot twist, he’s still seen by city as a hero. it’s all about manipulating people’s perception an’ about putting behind bars some of the people, who get into his way. an’ he goes like that for awhile, fully unchallenged. until one little strawman decides to insert himself into his business. an’ i think, at first batman finds himself kinda amused by jonathan. he doesn’t think much of him. after all, what this old twink in tattered costume can do? but jon proves to be oddly capable with time, beginning to slowly chip away at bruce’s underground empire an’ also slightly threatening his good publicity. an’ we can’t have that. so they clash at one point, an’ jon takes batman by surprise as he dose him with fear toxin *his last measure weapon* an’ well, for the first time in decades the bat got scared an’ humiliated, brought down to a simple man level. an’ if it wasn’t personal before, after that it surely is now. to a certain degree, i think that their situation be : jon who is psychiatrist in arkham *so that he can try to help the criminals in that way too* puts on a mask at night an’ attempts to do more than that, while having limited resources vs batman who has all the resources, all the leverages, but who is amused by crane’s little self-righteous crusade just enough to let him keep going … bc in the end, just like owl-man, bruce doesn’t truly care if he wins or not. an’ he also thinks, that it’s funny how crane still keeps trying to do the good thing, even if the majority of the city sees him as a weird little psycho. the sheer fact, that in this universe gordon is a corrupt cop an’ takes orders from bruce doesn’t help to make crane look better in the public eye. besides, it’s so much easier to sympathize with someone who looks like batman an’ who makes sure that everyone only sees the ‘best’ of him vs jonathan, whose methods aren’t all that heroic to begin with, but who want to do the ‘right’ thing. an’ oh, scarecrow will still simp for batman lmao. so this prob also makes some things harder, an’ not just a thing inside his pants, haha. bruce is more flirty here too, i think as he catches on jon’s ‘little crush’ fairly easily, but he entertains this as well. he thinks jonathan is kinda cute in that sorta old closet broom way. also jon threatens bruce with therapy an’ psychoanalyse, by proxy are batman’s one true main arc-enemies in any given universe, so yeah. they would have a lot of fun.
aside from that, i imagine, that batman’s suit would look a bit different in this timeline. the ears of his mask are more like horns an’ slightly different color scheme. while jon would look kinda the same, bc he's still broke as hell lol. i mean who needs clothes an' food, anyways, when you can buy books an' stay poor forever. even if i think, that ironically enough, in this version bruce can become crane's 'sugar daddy' almost, esp since he knows that scarecrow is crane, but crane has no idea that batman is bruce. as you can see jonathan isn't super good at his superhero job bc he still doesn't care who is hidden behind the mask lol
so like ........ uh. smth smth ... kinda like that, haha. bruce is a total edgelord in this universe. the big bad king of crime in gotham.
p.s sorry for the long wait, but as someone who is clearly complitely normal about scarebat, i just had to quickly scketh this version of them, haha.
"can it be, that you actually CARE about those creatures!? you are just as crazy as they are!"
and yeah, he sure does care. so let me present you, batman n' his 'creatures' aka you become forever responsible for what (who) you’ve tamed.
...
(i remember watching the lock-up ep as a child, and rooting for bruce to save the rogues. i always was a villain-lover type of kid, n' those 3 were one of my fav characters in the whole show, so naturally, i wanted them to be saved. but that aside, it also simply felt idk, ‘right’ for bruce to intervene? at that age, i didn’t fully understand the complexity behind the topic, but it was one of those episodes that stuck with me for years. it’s actually pretty mature for a kid’s show to show smth like that.
i honestly wish, that the ep was fully focused on inmates and/or bruce investigating the abuse vs how it went into bolton kidnapping gordon n’ other folks. but hey, what we got was nice too!
there is something very lovely about the hero protecting their villains from anti-heros/villain-slayers. it’s a thankless job, clearly. but they still put themselves in harm's way, bc they don't approve of the abuse/murder. even if it’s their enemies. *or in some cases* esp if it’s their enemies.
now about the art...
idk, if the first one *the meme itself* was already done for lock-up ep or not. i mean, probably? maybe? either way, if it was done before, now there is another version for it.
n' ah. the second one is kinda just happen'. i was thinking about batman hanging out with every villain, who was in that ep. and how different it would have been, if it was actually about idk, batman, his rogues n' bolton trying to kill/capture them all or smth like that, rather than how it went in canon. anyhow, batman still wins in the end *naturally* and tries bring them all back into arkham, which is.....yeah, it prob will be difficult. mostly bc no one wants to go back lol. harley wants to see her trash man the joker, jon want to gas the city, wesker *actually* wouldn't have minded to go back, but the scareface wanna do crimes. n' bolton doesn't think, that he did anything wrong, so clearly he doesn't wanna be locked up *hehe, get it* with crazies as one of them. so basically, batman's battle for justice slowly turns into pokemon hunt.
in other words, bruce will have a long night ahead of him, with crane yelling into his ear the whole time. f in chat for our man bruce. he really needs it.)
(so mm. i’m working on BTAS scarebat fic atm, an’ my brain thought that i can also sit down an’ begin drawing smth related to that around 3 in the morning 6 days ago, bc why not.
nothing here is related to the plot of the story i’m working on. or well, not directly at least. i’d say, that i consider this collage of arts as ‘circle’ of their possible relationships in a way. including the ‘circle’ of their expressions an’ what can be or cannot be seen, regarding bruce’s shadowy batman mode an’ how in two arts, jon’s expression is hidden from the view. this all has an extra, tiny bit of a meaning. about which i’m on my way to ramble about. i have some of that good shippy energy inside my weary bones today! what a day!
but alright, so the first one *at the very top* is smth of a scarebat classic to me. snap picture centered on the idea, that even if they will have close an’ intimate relationships, jonathan still be jonathan, basically. still, be somewhat poisonous an’ dangerous to keep this near, even if he’s gentle of the bat back. an’ bruce even knowing all this, still gets tangled into it, as’ their ‘natures’ clash like that. as they are two ‘monsters’ of the night. two people with ideas, that feel larger than they are. this might be a moment in one of their 'fear battles', where bruce is pissed off, or well, righteously angry as i call it, while jonathan faces him an’ what kind of expression he makes is anyone’s guess, but it’s prob an evil one. even if personally, imagine it more whimsical. less dramatic evil an' more campy evil. the whole villainous monologue about how crane aches for bruce to actually see things his way for once. fear is nessasery for everything. it's not just passion of his. it can be smth so much greater. in other words, i think, that jon might attempt to coax batman into joining his case. bruce would not join, but it's still worth a try.
the second one *lower right* is low-key based on AU idea that i have or that be used for any version scarebat tbh. it's kinda universal an' bendy. the mere chance of ‘what if’, bruce mets jonathan before he becomes scarecrow *he will still become one still later tho*, an’ he pretty much seeks his ‘help’ as batman. i imagine, that this can happen early in bruce’s vigilante career, when he an’ gordon ain’t buddies yet an’ bruce need some assistance from time to time. or maybe, he needed jon’s help for one case an’ then, they kinda got on a friendly terms an’ it progressed from there. in this version, i think, jon would try to ‘hold back’ a bit, when it comes to his fear experiments. mostly bc he knows, that bruce won't like him doing smth like this. or he can think, that it can be a bit too early to try an' ease him up to idea of basically psychologically torturing people to progress the science lol. batman is an imposing, terrefying symbol of justice. but in crane's eyes, he's also a soft-ish kind of boy. cannot do smth nasty, just so that it will serve a greater good. anyhow, smth still goes wrong. crane still gets fired, bc even if the bat was none the wiser to what he was doing, his collegues were. which in the end, lead to bruce an' jon having a fight about it. an’ after that, jon pretty much disappears from the radar *like most of BTAS rogues do, when they're about to rebrand from normal citizen into a masked villain lol* an’ returns 2-3 years later as the scarecrow. with all of that in mind, in this AU, crane will have a clear advantage over batman at first, as he used to known him prior to this. an’ he got to see him work / talk, learned a few things about him, while the bat won’t instantly know that scarecrow is jonathan. but i imagine, he will figure this out fairly quickly. not only bc crane is short an’ thin an' obssessed with fear. but bruce also was around the other man a lot an’ considering how ambiguous their relationships were at one point, he also watched crane back. this art captures more sweet moment between the two, howerer. them having heart to heart or maybe, jon thought that bruce had died or rumors had it that he was serious injured in some fight against a villain an’ he was relieved to learn, that it’s not so. can be anything, honestly. regardless, jonathan hides his expression from batman, an’ bruce have his ‘game face on’, as they both don’t deal with vulnerability very well *also idk how do draw the back of jon’s head yet, but i gave it my best shot lol*
the next one *the lower left* is also a classic set up in my eyes an' also my fav art out of the bunch. this 'scene' can be connected to AU above, as in: batman takes his once-a-friend, who is also his-love-interest an’ his-new-rogue to arkham, after jon lost the fight. or as i drawn it, this is an imaginary of ‘what if BTAS did a justice to dark knight of scarecrow comic’. what if we got batman an’ scarecrow personal fight an’ bruce end up carrying jon all romantically into the sunset at the end, like he did in that issue. bruce face here is all shadowy like in the actual comic scene, an’ while i’m not sure if i managed to capture my intention with this one kinda well or not, the idea behind this exact ‘head portrait’ was to get a bit of a mixture between bruce’s unmasked features, his batman persona an’ also a bat-monster creature *that all versions of jonathan seen him as, at least once* it’s a bit of reflection on all of it. on who bruce is, who criminals see him as, an' what jon sees him at, when he's high on ft. in some capacity bruce is all of those things. or rather, they're all part of the same man. as bruce’s core will always be rooted in empathy. an' BTAS bruce is basically a golden standard of batman writing, when it comes to bruce wayne as character an' that very trait esp. so yeah, this art is nod toward that an' more broad approach to what could have been, if they given jon at least one more ep, where he an' batman would have been in focus. i imagined, that in this art bruce carries jonathan from whatever location they had fight in, an’ it’s like early morning, so there is mist. bruce walks an’ reminicents on fights an’ waste of jon’s brilliant mind, along with other things. expression close to melancholic. meanwhile, crane is out cold. an’ it’s one of those rare lax, relaxed expressions that he has, opposite to his sneers, smirks or frowns. as he's only ever in peace, when his mind isn't active. what a nightmare, indeed *mostly for bruce* so sweet dreams, spooky prince. may the big bad bat guard your slumber.
an' finally, the last art *at the very bottom* which shows jonathan during his staying in arkham. in BTAS he had long sleeved uniform, but i think, in the comics based on the series, he been seen in a gray shirt a few times. so i decided to give him that lol. this can also be connected with AU, i mentioned. like, that bruce will still come back to his old friend, even if those visits are somewhat painful. i guess, it will be even worse than when bruce has to interact with harvey as batman. but this also can be smth unrelated to that. for example, bruce needing crane’s assistance on smth, without them having any history between them, besides the canonical one. or it can be them, being in relationships an’ jon is kinda being difficult. each of his progress is shaky an’ he pretty much slips back into his old ways, as soon as he goes out of arkham. but whatever the set up is, jonathan is more accepting of his situation, or rather about what he is. while bruce is kinda torn about it. can hold him close, but cannot truly mend his mind. i also have a feeling like crane tells him smth fear related. be it his assessment onto bruce’s state or their whole ‘thing’. but whatever it is, this isn't a very pleasant talk for bruce.
an’ oh yeah, instead of using song lyrics like i usually do, i used shakespeare’s sonnet for this. an' it's one of my most favorite ones as well. i had to cut out the middle, bc i disliked how it looked. but you can go an' read the whole thing, if you will ever feel like it. i mean, that's fairly short one. but i honestly think, this fits them *an' generally scarebat as a ship* very well.)
Might be ooc, but if Batcrow were to give each other pet names, what do you think would it be?
this is surely not an ooc behaviour for a scarecrow. i mean, jon fairly often calls someone ‘my dear’, ‘child’ an’ so on. naturally, none of this is said in a romantic manner, but arkhamverse!crane has a knack for calling batman a ‘little bat’, which i find very valid an’ larky! this is just such an endearing an’ condescending pet name to call bruce. an’ i imagine, that besides that, ark!jonathan might call him ‘dear bat’ as well *at least, when i made him call bruce that in one of my ficlets, i really liked how it sounded coming from his mouth. so i’ll stick with this for sure* ‘dear knight’ an’ universally fitting for any version of jonathan to say, a ‘beloved’ would do too. he’s a lettered kind, after all. there is also a lot of possible bitterness to be fit into those titles too, if we speak about arkham knight timeline specifically, since it’s akin to being betrayed by your ‘dear’, which is one hell of a thing to swallow. doesn’t mean, that endearments won’t stick. if anything, they shall remain an’ be implemented with a slightly new edge. meanwhile, i think, that ark!bruce, who is known to be emotionally stunted to the point, where it’s hard to picture him doing certain things without feeling that nope, he just wouldn’t do that, ever, he would most likely settle on calling jonathan, ‘doctor crane’ or just ‘doctor’, since it’s not only a small nod to the fact, that they met before jon became scarecrow *if we to believe arkham shadows to be more or less a canon to three other games* but this is also a show of certain acknowledgement of jon’s abilities both as someone who worked in the psychiatric field an’ also to him as a scientist on main too. but that’s as far as it goes. i often imagine, that for ark!bruce to call jon anything, but ‘crane’ or ‘scarecrow’ is already somewhat challenging. even if, i can totally see him calling crane ‘rat’ sometimes tho, an’ not always in an angry way.
now, in comparison, the comicverse!crane as the more dramatic an’ also more theatrical as result, would also use that good ole’ variations of ‘my dear’, but for him, i see a downright open conformations in forms of ‘my love’ an’ also a gentlier nod toward his habit of putting *usually insults* after the word ‘bat’ too. so here, it can be smth like ‘bat-darling’ or maybe, even ‘darlin’ with southern twang? a ‘lover’ might come up as well. but prob only when he’s pissed off, actually. not flirty. all the while bruce, prob likes saying crane’s name the most, esp shorten up version. it feels rather fitting an’ also kinda intimate, as almost no one ever called crane ‘jon’. however, considering, that comicverse is a rather vast space of different time periods, i can also picture bruce referring to crane according to specific era’s ‘common’ monikers as well. hence, i can see bruce from let’s say, late 40s or even 60s calling jonathan ‘old boy’ as an endearment. just like jon would easily call bruce *in any era tho* a ‘handsome devil’. i also think, that bruce loves making an accent on jonathan’s previous profession, so he’d call him ‘professor’ often enough or even ‘prof’. an’ if we take a leap into way older timelines, past eras an’ such, teacher an’ professors were often referred to as ‘masters’, which i feel might be fitting here as well. still, regardless of this, jon would be more likely to sing various praises to the bat, even if for the sake of light mocking. such as calling bruce ‘apple of my eye’ an’ ‘thorn in my side’ under the same breath during a villainous monologue. gotta give all the appreciation you can for an 'enemy mine', ama right
an' then, finally, there is BTAS an’ a very much british jonathan crane lol. an’ i’ve noticed, that it’s not brought up at all, since a lot of people used to jon being southern *me included*, but i love that fact about crane in the animated series. he’s just so hilariously posh an’ also extra evil cuz as we all know, americans have around top three fav ‘villian’ accents an’ british is one of them. so i truly think, his endearments for batman would be aligned with such a detail, therefore i see him calling batman ‘pet’ most of all, an’ also ‘love’. which can be a direct parallel to how phantasm refers to bruce as ‘my love’ at least a few times. as for bruce himself -
i feel like, he would at times shamelessly grill jonathan about all those titles he gave himself. bc how can one not? even if jon is actually into it, funny enough. he has such a big ego for such a lil, scrawny body. so even if bruce calls him ‘lord of despair’ as a jeer, crane likes it an' not so secretly preens at those names. same with ‘master of fear’. smth like this is always a guarantee to gain a reaction out of him. esp if bruce use the 'right' tone. an’ all that crane can manage in humble response is to call him a ‘insolent brat’ in return, which he still says with fondness.
p.s i kinda wanted to make a lil quick drawing for all the versions, but only had an energy for one, unfortunately lol.
