#lotta comm work

[pngjamie]

REAL QUICK !!

IF YOU'VE TAGGED ME IN A POST WITH YOUR OC I HAVE PROBABLY SEEN IT AND I INTEND TO REPLY WiTH DOODLES !!!

I AM JUST TRYING TO ANSWER ASKS AND WORK ON PROJECTS AT THE SAME TIME :"D

ty for ur patience </3

[mossy-paws]

geez sorry for not really being too active lately when it comes to art, I’ve been really busy working on school, personal projects for a friend, a style crisis, and all around just going through severe artblock -.-,, I got some stuff cookin though so hopefully if I can get the motivational crumbs to do so I’ll be able to at least finish some of the doodle-esc projects I’ve been working on

[karofsky]

augh derailed by that concert but <3 good day, good week, excited for the weekend! goodnight friends

[superscourge]

errrm idk if you've already been asked this but do u have any tips on starting commissions bc I've been wanting to set up my own but I'm like super new to the biz... or whatever ok bye

no worriesss i think i answered a similar question a while ago but im not sure so i'll do my best to answer again lol

this got super fucking long so it's going under a cut

commissions are a lotta work and not just in terms of the actual drawing! it also involves a lot of marketing and getting yourself out there and learning to have good customer service. if nobody knows youre taking commissions then you wont get any! plus, if ppl dont have a good time interacting with you during the commission process, then they wont wanna come back and they wont recommend u to their friends. so its important to be patient and amicable and easy to work with when you can and also make it to where u and others can spread the word about ur work!

unfortunately part of getting a decent amount of commission work depends on how much reach you have and what the demand for your work is like, as well as how much work and experience u have to back urself up with (so like, someone with a lot of examples and ppl to vouch for them is much more likely to get comms than someone who doesnt have much going on in those areas). this also plays into pricing which also sucks but its the reality of the situation. if your demand is low and you dont get a lot of orders at all, then you cant expect people to pay a lot for your work even if its worth it. im only able to charge as much as i do bc ive been doing it for so long that i have ppl to vouch for me, a ton of examples to show, and enough of a demand that ppl will still pay that much to get something from me! which is good bc its my only source of income lol

so i guess if u wanna start taking comms u have to do a buncha stuff, i'll try to summarize what i can think of in a list:

set up an easy way for people to see your prices and contact you! i personally use a carrd for my prices and allow dm's or emails, but i also have a ko-fi with commission slots available for ppl who are too nervous to message me directly

figure out how u wanna receive payment! afaik paypal is the most popular way and i prefer this bc i like to send invoices, but i also use cashapp and ko-fi to accept payments

figure out what you want to offer! its good to have a few options imo but u dont wanna overdo it bc then ppl get decision paralysis from getting overwhelmed at how much there is to choose from lol. do stuff that you enjoy doing too bc if u offer smth u dont have fun doing then its gonna be super hard and grueling to work on those orders

figure out your pricing! a good way to do this that ive found is to set a price to start out with and use it to test the waters. if you dont get a lot of bites then u probably need to lower the prices from there, but if u get too many then u should be able to increase the prices! once again tho ur prices will depend on the demand for your work as well as how many ppl see that ur available and how much evidence u have to back ur work up with (so like, examples of it as well as ppl who can vouch for u)

learn to have good customer service!! this is rly important for me. i try rly hard to be approachable and easy to work with because that encourages a good relationship with my commissioners so theyre more inclined to come back and also recommend me to their friends ^^ plus it just makes sense that u should be nice to ur commissioners lol. idk

^ irt this also, while u should try and be patient and kind to ur commissioners, please also know when to set boundaries! have a rules/terms of service available that lets people know stuff like what the commission process looks like, possible turnaround time, how to send payment and place orders, how you go about cancelled commissions and refunds, and stuff you will or won't do for a commission. anything you can think of to establish boundaries and guidelines for working with you

be honest and communicate with your commissioners!!!! transparency is very appreciated when getting a commission from somebody; if something comes up and u cant work on the commission or it's taking a while for some reason, let them know! ppl dont like being kept in the dark. plus, ive found that 99% of commissioners are more patient than youd expect and dont mind waiting for their commission as long as theres clear communication and updates!

pleaseeee send wips and ask for clarification on anything youre even a little unsure about. u dont want to go through an entire comm and finish it after a buncha work and have the commissioner not be happy with the outcome. that leaves a sour taste in the commissioner's mouth and also means u wasted a bunch of time and energy that could have been prevented if you just checked in and made sure they liked what you were doing along the way!

taking slots is a great way to make sure u dont overwork urself and take on too many orders! i personally use a trello to keep track of my orders but i know other ppl use like..spreadsheets n stuff too? so whatever works for u. just make sure u keep the information (order details + contact info) somewhere u can find

uhhh idk if i can think of anything else rn. but i hope this is even remotely helpful ^^ its just my own experiences and u gotta remember that your experience wont be the same as mine so be kind to urself and figure things out in a way that works for u! o7

[sleepymccoy]

Star trek au idea that, if I wrote it, would just be a whole original story cos it's so removed lol

All humans, except maybe Spock's from a culturally unique background. Like, Jupiter which had a civil war and broke contact a millenia ago and has only recently gotten back in touch with everyone. But yeah, all human

They all kinda know each other personally or professionally. But they don't work together yet.

Scotty and Jim find proof of alien life being experimented on by humans on earth. I reckon there's some tale there of Scotty working at this place and one day realising all the wild ass ecosystem set up he's working on would support a certain type of theoretical alien. Investigates, finds a family of aliens being held. Gets Jim involved and they jailbreak someone. Lotta luck in that

I've come back and added a readmore since this post got long lol

They leverage their contacts and quick crew a ship. Scotty prevails on an old mate and fixes up a government ship damage in something that's destined for the scrap heap. Instead he can have it for a few months before his friend gets in trouble for losing it

Jim finds the crew. He knows everyone one way or another, and he picks people he thinks will agree with the free the alien cause, and cajoles them into coming by promising various things.

Once they're on the ship and out of immediate comms, he tells them. There's some pandemonium coming to terms with the mission, but they do all ultimately agree.

So the dynamic is a little bit firefly cos they're on the run from the government and in a small ship, and don't really have a clear aim. As with most of the stories I like to write, minimal action and mostly conversation and character arcs move the story forward.

Preamble is getting on the ship

Arc one is accepting alien presence and meeting characters

Arc two is getting to know the alien and coming up with a plan. Character development

Action scene is getting equipment to implement that plan (build communication array to call home? Make an escape pod to transport the alien closer to home? Finding an ecosystem that will support alien long-term?)

Arc three is solving the immediate issue and either washing your hands of the whole thing or realising there's a bigger thing going on and setting up for a sequel. Finalise character arcs

Cos I'm all about relationship dynamics, and stories for me are just plot that allows you to write relationships, I'd wanna have

Scotty coming out of his shell and discovering other ways of thinking about the world. I always like to make him calm helplessly in love with Uhura but keep it quiet

Jim being a distrusted captain because he got them in on false promises, but becoming trusted by the end. He'd need an arc of building trust with everyone which is cool

Chekhov gets a growing up tale, first responsibility and failure and how to handle adult emotions

Chapel is about opening up and trusting other people. Cos of the missing fiance stuff. There's a few people for her to interact with around that, like Jim and McCoy

Spock is a cultural exchange, but also he needs to develop some humility and appreciate that he's not always right. And that when he is right that doesn't make him superior

Uhura is learning theres life beyond work. She needs to focus early on to learn the alien language, but steadily and much later in the game she'll realise she's missed out on the friendships cos she was busy and need to kick into gear there

McCoy is almost certainly my pov character cos I like writing him so much. His arc can be more internal then, so likely about letting go of guilt.

Tbh I never know what to do with Sulu. Put a pin in that. Maybe he clicks with the alien in a big way and that's how we start getting an idea of the aliens personality beyond "weird and doesn't speak English"

Obviously I'm writing so I'd make it spones. I like the idea of McCoy being a bit freaked by the alien and disagreeing w Spock a lot and some of what he says touches on cultural stuff that's different with Spock too and they blow up a few times. But also, that's where the good dialogue is. Thats easy for me to make romantic, and I think there's something fun in the idea that everyone kinda forgets the bigger picture and focuses on themselves and their pretty stuff for an arc and then suddenly it's the real world again and your date or your miscommunication doesn't fucking matter

McCoy's important relationships to me are with Spock, Jim, and Scotty with a secondary focus on Chapel and Uhura. So they'd end up being the main characters simply through pov priorities

Also I'd probably gender bend everyone cos tos is a real sausage fest. Ladies across the board, except Uhura and chapel. Might make Scotty non-binary just for the fun of it.

[hattiestgal]

Been slowly building up sketches of the gang that'll be being put in art fight this year for ref sheets!

..I don't wanna see any of their ugly mugs for a bit after this though cause ough this was a lotta work... I'll be putting my focus towards my comms till I can clear out my queue!

[splish--splash--minecraft]

Writing Comms

wowie look at this...writing comms....whoa......pls forgive me for the messy post idk how to do this

So! Hi. I want to preface this by saying it's very much a temporary thing (probably only til i get paid again in a couple weeks lmao) but in an attempt to ensure I have enough for rent next month and my hrt follow-up appointment in a week...I'm opening writing commissions.

These will be pretty flexible. Also a max of 1,500 words bc I don't really trust myself to do much more than that. I'm also willing to write a lot so I'm just going to put what I won't write below:

Will Not Write:

-major character death (outside of canon deaths in the life series or death in hermitcraft. so i guess really it's no permadeath lmao) -heavy angst (i'm a fluff guy i need fluff) -violence/major injuries/a lotta blood (some blood and minor injuries is ok) -ships other than scarian, mumscarian, grumbo, and redscape (idk how to write anyone else </3)

Terms of Service

-Payment is either half upfront or fully upfront, I will let you decide -Payment will be done either via Ko-fi or Paypal -Please be patient with me! I will try to get these done quickly (within a week at most) but I work full-time and thus have limited time throughout the day to write -Finished fics from this will likely stay on tumblr and not be posted to AO3 (though this can be discussed) -Please be specific! I want to get these as close to the way you want them as much as possible. Give me details! -Do not feed my works into any form of generative AI

Pricing for these will be $5/500 words, again with a max of 1,500 words

If you're interested, feel free to DM me! And if you're interested in nsfw comms, I've got a post for those over here.

And if you don't wanna comm me but still wanna help, my ko-fi can be found here.

[fawnsflowerbed]

Hello! Long time no see! Hope you're doing okay😊❤

I had a question, so I'm someone who struggles with writing smut which is a shame cause I have all these fantastic ideas but when I start writing down smut, I don't think I write it well? Like I just don't like what I wrote and constantly feel like I could explain it better or maybe not prolong the scene too much or maybe it's going a bit ooc😭😭

So it's a constant battle🥲. If you have any tips on how to write smut properly, I would love them.

Sending lots of love❤🥰

HIHIHIII BELLAAAA!!!! Lovely hearing from you as always my darling 🥰

Uhmmmmm shock and awe for all of you but I am a hardcore virgin. Like, I haven't even had my first kiss. Haven't romantically slept in the same bed as anyone. Hell I haven't been on a proper date. Yeah. But I grew up on wattpad stories and then ao3 so I got a whole lotta exposure so i got you babyyyyyyy

Hmmm there are a few things I can think of, first being read other works for inspiration on language! I loved Lights Out by Navessa Allen and all of her sex scenes are beautifully written but also humorous enough and real enough to feel natural and romantic. Reading other work can really help you figure out what words, dialogue and movements you'd like to add to your smut scenes.

Second is defo EXPERIMENTTTT!!! The best way to feel better at your writing is to do just that, KEEP WRITING!!! I look back at my old smut scenes compared to my new ones and you can SEE how I've improved solely from still writing over the years.

When it comes to explaining the actual like act of sex I always follow three big rules: How the reader feels physically and emotionally, how the character feels physically and emotionally, and how their partnering is affecting the environment. If their breaths are filling the dead air, if they're making the bed creak, if one person can feel the other's heart pounding or see their eyes dilating. Whether it's an intimate encounter or a quickie, sex is between two people (or more, in some cases hehe) so it's important to write for them both. It's not a single person tango!

Play around with scene length! I get feeling like it's too long, I've gone overboard on SO many comms it's nuts lmao. But if you need to get the words out, get them out. It's a first draft. You can always proofread it later and chop out the bits that feel too bulky.

If you're worried about writing them ooc, my favourite thing to do is consume media including that character more often as I'm working. While writing for Sylus for example I go back and play through some of his story scenes or 5 star memories to pick up on body language, speech patterns and overall vibes. It can help you translate that into your work.

That's all I can really think of!! Most of all don't be too hard on yourself! Everyone writes differently, and everyone writes sex scenes differently, and it's a skill like any other. Get out there and write about them there penises, soldier!!!!!

[c-alliecooper]

𝒞𝒶𝓁𝓁𝒾𝑜𝓅𝑒 𝒞𝑜𝑜𝓅𝑒𝓇

Pronouns: She/Her Birthday: 28th April 1990 (27) Species: Human Alliance: Good - Resistance (Institute 2.0) Location: Inside the dome - underground

So What Happened?

Right up until the last moment, Callie Cooper had kept her secret identity as the Institute's top Tech Analyst under wraps. She'd been calm, cool and collected, and then it happened: CODE BLACK. Callie, like most, was minding her own business on Founders day when she received an alert to her phone. What was the 'code black', you might ask? System shut down. But not just at HQ, at every Institute facility around the globe.

While she was juggling this major frickin' disaster, trying to get comms back up or get a damn visual on WTF was happening, the Originals decided to descend. It was all happening too fast, too soon and too at the same time. Callie thought they had been prepared. She was wrong. Things quickly escalated and the cat was well and truly out of the bag in Havensdale.

Soon after D-Day, Callie joined up with the 'Institute 2.0' within the underground Resistance because of course she did! They were her family. Her agents. She got to work right away, setting up underground and began re-tracking the scattered Institute agents. She worked to regain access to her files, she worked to fight against the Bad GuysTM. She has a pretty sweet set up in the underground with her chair, her recovered equipment and snacks.

#Resistance all the way, baby! They will see the sun again! She is an expert at gathering intel, finding creative fixes and hacking your whole soul. She’s also been working on a way to get a message out to all Institute members with some old school tech and a lotta faith (in herself).

Also one of the resident experts on all things InstituteTM, including their tips and tricks. And chips (looking at you Charlie Emerson). The idea of chipping Edward was workshopped, but was ultimately shot down for being too risky. They’d never get close enough.

Ever since Isabel Valentine came to her for help (also getting Isabel involved in the underground Resistance), Callie has been super worried about whatever happened to Christian Cooper. She's trying to science a way out of it for him, but magic is a fickle thing to fight. Generally, endlessly, she's worried about her family (especially Cameron Cooper) as these Dome days go on.

From her chair, Callie has been keeping eyes on Havensdale-- she is #BigSister, the all-seeing eye, looped into every camera in town. Callie is the invisible hand that helps whenever possible. And yes, she’s definitely seen Joey/Rachel/Keith/Robyn doing their wild, vigilante shit (jfc) and helped out from afar. From this she also knows all the daily drama, with her #1 priority being keeping an eye on Cam.

Seriously missing having her fave agent in her ear... And still actively investigating how the hell the Institutes all crumbled. She's been suspicious of the supposedly dead Colonel Q since finding traces of code from an old rival in the scraps from HQ, but she doesn't have the evidence to speak up just yet. Needless to say, there really is something going on every dang day!

For the past year, she's been dating Blake Huang and it has yet to get old swooning over him to anyone who will listen. Honestly, being stuck underground and not having to go anywhere has done wonders for Callie. The situation is terrible, of course, but she was made for this life.

Wanted Connections

tba

[stealmyheartaway]

btw if you see someone reblog art and it doesn't have very many notes you should consider reblogging it :3

a lotta artists who haven't been well established on tumblr in the past are trying it out since twitter's collapsing but they don't have a particularly robust network of followers or mutuals over here to support and promote them so i think it's nice to share their work and their comm posts and stuff.

even if you don't have a ton of followers you never know when one of them is going to see a piece of art you reblogged, like it so much they seek out a commission and end up paying for that artist's groceries or medicine

[vanitythevantropist]

Alright! Since a lotta people have been interested, I have an update on commissions :D

I’m currently working on the comm sheets! The first one, at least👀 Just need to get the whole bank account thing figured out and I could get around to it!

Super excited about it, ngl :D

[cheesycokeart]

Full Scene Comm for @alubune of their Moxie chillin' at the mall!!

Had a lotta fun with this one, I don't think I've worked on anything this bright n pink in a good while. Very refreshing!

[superscourge]

how do you get people to take notice of your commissions? ive been at this for five or six years now and can count the number of comms ive gotten on one hand lmao

WELL this is always rly hard for me to answer bc it really depends on So Much Shit... 😭

like for one thing a lot of it is genuinely luck. like. luck in terms of who sees your work and wants to buy it at the same time mostly? BUT ALSO, this can be helped a bit by How you increase your reach--reach is very important if u wanna sell comms.

ive found what worked for me is drawing fanart, which i know feels like a cop-out to a lotta ppl but it honestly works! and by attracting attention with fanart ive been able to get more eyes on my work and increase the chances of getting a bite :]

another factor is unfortunately following, but that relates to ^ reach and attention on ur work so i dont feel like i need to rly dive into that again x'D

customer service is important too imo. like, how nice and pleasant and easy u are to work with :3 ive worked hard to be really approachable and easy to work with so i think this plays into things. i want ppl to wanna work with me again yknow? if the experience is pleasant then theyre more likely to return <3

one last thing is that like...hmm how do i word this. the appeal of ur art does matter to Some degree i think, but not as much as i think ppl assume? like ok. there are ppl with insanely detailed and intricate work that looks incredible like painterly masterpieces but they are Unable to get commissions bc of some other factor like lack of reach or something. then there are ppl with really simplistic art styles that may seem significantly "less quality" than the painterly masterpieces from the other person but they get commissions out the wazoo. so while i think you do have to have some level of appeal with your art, i dont think its the Only Thing that matters bc like i mentioned ppl dont always care abt how the art looks in terms of "quality" PLUS art is very subjective and one thing could look insanely good to one person but it looks like shit to someone else yknow? so i dont like to place a lot of emphasis on this.

in relation to ^ this, i think popularity matters to Some degree sometimes. i do know ppl who have kind of "lower-quality" (i hate saying that) work compared to others but still get an insane amt of comms bc theyre way more popular. ppl want to say they own a piece by this popular artist yknow? if that makes sense??? so just reiterating its not always about how the art looks, sometimes its other stuff in addition to it

uhhhhh gosh. i hope Any of this was helpful, like i said this is always an extremely difficult question for me to answer bc again things that work for me do not work for everyone because we make different things and are different people! i consider myself EXTREMELY lucky to be able to get the amount of comms i do (i do this for a living; commissions are my Only income which is why i put so much emphasis on them) and i know a lot of people cannot achieve this sorta thing and thats rly sad but its not always completely in our control :(

but i wish u the absolute best of luck and i hope things pick up for u in the future..!!!

[soul-lite]

HIIIIIIII!!!!!! I know it’s been a big chunk o’ time since you’ve seen my completed stuff!! But here’s an epic comm I just finished!! I had a lotta fun working on it :3

[fainthedcherry]

PARAMORE RELEASED THEIR A24 TRIBUTE COVER TODAY. AND I GOT INSPIRED BY THE LYRICS AND THE VISUALIZER.

IMAGE CREDITS BC VERY OBVIOUSLY THIS IS AN EXPERIMENTAL PIC COLLAGE PIECE PRIMARILY BELOW DESC (I DID NOT TAKE THE COOL PICS OBV.)

OK GIANT CREDIT BLOCK GO (Freepik and pexels my beloved saved my entire college year lmao):

1 OCEAN WAVES

2 OCEAN WAVES AGAIN

3 YES A THIRD OCEAN WAVE

4 VERY COOL DROPLETS

5 FLAME. OO FIRE PRETTYYY /POS

6 BG I CHEATED YOU INTO BELIEVING IS RAIN

The drawing though is made by my acoustic arse /lh

THE LYRICS ARE TAKEN FROM THE VID I LINKED. HAYLEY'S VOICE MY BELOVED AND FOREVER DEAREST ENTIRE BAND /POSPOSPOS. I wanna sing like Hayley so badly, she is such an idol to me, when it comes to vocals and I wish to sing as expressive as her some day 🤧✨💖

--

WHAT MORE CAN I SAY, OTHER THAN I'VE BEEN EXPERIMENTING WITH SHORT DRAWINGS, THAT TAKE UNDER A DAY TO COMPLETE TO FIGURE OUT SOME THINGS I WANNA DO AS AN ARTIST AND POSSIBLY COMMISSIONS. + These drawings genuinely kinda de-stress so it's been free therapy too, oops. I wanna do more of these vector-style drawings, that are just me taking lyrics and creating these fun collages, of things that inspire me or I like. It's a chill practice and lets my creativity actually do the work for once, instead of my usual need to outdo myself in every drawing and improve lmao. Improvement is cool and all, but dear god did I not realise how hard my need for perfection last year stress and strangle me tf out. I seriously need to re-evaluate the way I approach art as this massive, intimidating medium, when most artists literally draw for fun, and for me it's been like...A Sisyphean task.

--

If you enjoyed seeing this, I might make a sequel with C'est Comme Ca and w/ Marco in it instead and a red BG,, if I want to, I might turn these into a series, just like those aesthetic icon drawings I made of my 2 boys, started Lotta, and IMMEDIATELY lost that sketch due to my USB's death back in 2022 and lost all motivation for art due to that massive loss /neg

--

Not sure what else to add here other than my thoughts that I already did!! Other than ofc, the usual, MASSIVE thank you to my friend Hollowed-Hartlocke for introducing me to Paramore back in 2019 <3

Think I'm done rambling now tho!! OH WAIT. I can add, that I had to actually pull out Adobe Illustrator just to add stretched text for aesthetic purposes. Then I got so impatient with the effects panel not showing me the usual layer-effects and me being too lazy to look up, whether InDesign was the one, that had the usual layer effects I use in an Adobe program or not. Btw still mooching off my college acc that shoulda been dead long ago but just isn't??? LMAO I'M STILL GONNA USE IT IF I CAN ALRIGHT.

OH YEAH BTW. This drawing took 3 hours. NO I'M NOT KIDDING. PEOPLE WOULD PROBABLY BE SHOCKED THAT SUCH A LAZY LOOKING PIECE TOOK SO LONG. BUT I GENUINELY AM RATHER SHOOK THAT I TOOK SUCH LITTLE TIME TO CREATE THIS. TBF I threw MOST proportion checks and canvas flips I do out the window, so there's a BIG chance I will hate this, if I flip the canvas xD ANYWAY I RAMBLED LONG ENOUGH I THINK NOW. JUST ENJOY EXPERIMENTAL ART

^Before-bed edit; Yeah his torso's a TAD too much leaning to the left, it's off-center to the rotation of his pelvis to be in fact, but maybe? I'll roll with this mistake. It kinda gives the piece its abstract nature..I kinda like the mistake?? This is the first time in my life I ever tolerated a mistake I did and now declare it on purpose and will probably build one into the next piece as well. Hell, maybe it'll yield an interesting result. Anyway, it's 12PM as I write this, and I have to get up at 4AM for my train soOooo, yeah, gotta sleep ASAP for school.

I have NO clue again what to 100% accurately tag this, so forgive me if the tags are wrong LMAO, I just will believe what I believe it has overlaps w/ within art-genre.

This piece kiiinda gives pop art??? So I'm gonna tag it as such as well, but but might be incorrect. If a pop-art enjoyer wants to correct me, PLEASE DO. I'm going off the definitions of pop-art I learned in high-school. So I could most def be wrong about me adding this tag in particular. How tf do people confidently tag their posts when I doubt almost every tag I add man. Tagging is the worst part of uploading art to me due to how hard it is to label art really, not meant to be in a genre. xD

Def adding Paramore tags tho bc I NEED to know more Paramore fans out there bc we feel like such a tiny community, when they're literally one of the most influential rock bands of the 2000s and 2010s imho AUGH

[blueshadesfandomstuff]

Shutterbug and Seaglass Part 6 (for now): The Gauntlet Chapter 5

https://archiveofourown.org/works/62723878/chapters/160575775 - For anyone without an Ao3 account or who don't want to move website chapter five is linked below the cut!

He ends up dropping Timi home, giving her a piggyback the entire way. She’s still in a lot of pain and really didn’t want to come out tonight at all, but knew he’d want to apologise, so she came anyway. Too good to him by half. He promises her he’ll be safe and in future he’ll have a comm for her when they next meet as vigilante and civilian – that way they can keep each other company during his solo patrols, and he’ll know the second she isn’t safe and come find her. Timi thwaps him gently on the head with the jacket he bugged, saying she’ll leave that one in place too but if he ever does it again without her saying to, she’s going to ruin all his socks. Not a threat he takes very seriously, but it’s a real one for all that it’s her trying to make light of him trampling on her boundaries, so he nods as seriously as he can before getting on his way. He’ll text her once he’s Jason again at the end of the night. Or she’ll stay up all night worrying.

Getting a couple of blocks back to the building top that neatly showcases the side of the Pier 11 warehouse - where Scarecrow is hiding – Robin first carefully gathers all the evidence he can, carefully shifting through the footage he can hack from that cameras and then calls for backup.

“Agent A – I’ve hit somethin’ much bigger then I should deal with alone. I know I’ve forfeited Tha Gauntlet by callin’ but… I need N n’ BG here n’ then possibly tha Big Bat. This is a huge deal. Scarecr-”

“If you feel it’s a big enough deal to forfeit The Gauntlet, Master Robin, then it must be very serious indeed. I’ll have Nightwing and Batgirl rerouted to your location immediately. Do you need to be pulled from a dangerous situation?”

“Negative. I ain’t moved ta engage yet. It… It’s really bad, A. Fer everyone’s safety, including Crane’s, we’re going ta need ta do this together.”

“Then it sounds like you were right to call. Well done, Master Robin.” Well at least he has Alfred on his side.

Ten minutes later he sees both Nightwing and Batgirl alight to his location. Robin has his gauntlet up and the footage already running in split screen. He then projects the image up so they others can see it. A handy trick he didn’t know the minicomputer had – another reason to thank God for Bug, really.

“What’s going on Rob? It’s got to be serious if you’re forfeiting this easy.” N starts but BGs already moving past him to look at the security footage, whistling while she takes it all in.

“That’s a lotta Fear Gas! But that alone wouldn’t have convinced you. What else Little Bird?” Robin brings up the logged footage of Crane. The man’s wild eyes don’t quite make it to the vid feed – he’s not quite a good hacker as Bug and she only showed him what to do twice, so there is some snow on his footage – but his erratic movements, pacing and the fact he’s obviously talking to himself all show. Oh, and the scythe and gun duo he’s wielding, that shows up clearly too. The bombs roped around every barrel, just about, also so quite clearly too.

“Crane seems ta be very compromised, even compared ta ‘is usual. He’s already shot n’ reloaded that pistol he’s carryin’ twice, just while I was watching ‘im.” Robin winds the footage of Crane to show exactly that – Crane jumping at a shadow and then unloading it, all six shots, on a wall. Before muttering angrily to himself and reloading with shaking hands. “I can’t be certain, but I suspect tha barrels ar’ already leakin’ n’ with all tha explosives I don’t wanna take any chances. If I went in ahead myself, n’ those explosives went off – we’d hav-”

“You firmly out of commission, if not dead, and the biggest Fear Gas contamination ever seen before in Gotham. A catastrophic failure that I’m glad we’re not dealing with. One that could eclipse even the time Scarecrow tried to add a special version call Liquid Fear directly into Gotham’s drinking water. Which he’s going to try again by the look of those barrels in the middle. Hang on.” BG gets a hold of his gauntlet and fiddles – hacking into the cameras properly unlike him who only had Bug’s lessons to go on and she’s used to laptops not his gauntlet (not that Bug had that much trouble bringing up a non-snowy picture when she’d done it either but that’s his excuse and he’s sticking to it) – muttering to herself a little. The picture quickly clears. “There we go! Yes, those look like the same ‘liquid’ Fear barrels, don’t you think so N?”

Nightwing saunters closer. Anyone who didn’t know him might think it casual, but Robin and Batgirl both know better. That’s Nightwing watching the screens too closely to change his natural walk. A silent Nightwing is one to watch for as Dick’s natural chatterbox nature is turned to eleven when he’s Nightwing. He can talk anyone’s ear off, and has more than enough confidence to do so, while silence means he’s thinking the deep thinks and planning the big plans. Once near he reaches out too, easily cycling through all the security footage despite Robin’s gauntlet having changed significantly from when he was in the cape and reminding Robin II that Robin I also was a fair hand at tech, even if he can’t match Barbara (fucking) Gordon or Timianna Drake – both of whom specialize in analytical thinking and tech work in a way Big Bird and now Robin II don’t. God he still has so much to learn, will he ever catch up?

“BG is correct, as usual, those are liquid Fear barrels. And so were you Littlewing. This is… Stunningly dangerous. Crane planned to go out this Halloween with a big bang! I am so proud of you for calling this in, bud. You had to fight your pride and Batman’s direct orders without going too far and that’s always a hard wrap, but I’m so glad you did. Not only would it be hella dangerous for you, if just had infiltrated alone first, but you’re also right that the knock-ons are bad across the board. We would be scrambling for weeks and people, a LOT of people, could die in the meantime, just from over exposure. Heck Crane is likely going to be unwell for a while as is, and that’s if taking him down goes smoothly. We not only need B and A for this but also the GCPD because that’s the only way was going to get Crane and the explosives at the same time and then have enough hands to neutralize all of the barrels. We’re in for a long night. I’m calling this in, right now.”

And so, it is. Nightwing is correct as usual. It’s a looong night. First there’s the call to Batman which B sounds ready to pop during the debrief. And then there’s the actual plan, which Robin doesn’t get to be an active part of, which is annoying but at least he has Batgirl who’s also been ordered away to commiserate with him. They spend half the time pulling faces at one another and then the rest is spent on Babs recommending good books. Batman appears shortly after the plan is finalized on comms and a quick detour to the Cave, carrying with him a modified cape for Robin that’s black and hooded. Robin quickly swaps it over. The addition brings a lot of stealth to his current ensemble and that’s about to be essential. - Perhaps he could mix them both when he next changes up the uniform? Black on the outside and yellow on the inside? The bare thighs (actually skin-toned under-armor) was already driving him up the wall and were done away with a few months ago but the giant yellow cape look has bugging him for a bit (he’s a walking neon yellow target) and he’d kinda like to make it a little safer before he gets any bigger. He’ll have to talk to Dickie about it all though. Robin takes the thought and pushes it back for now. Fear Gas first, costume changes later.

He and BG are quickly given their marching orders. Robin and Batgirl will be removing all the explosives from the building (thus the stealthy cape), starting from the back – as far away from Crane as possible – and then working their way forward. While R and BG are entering the building, Agent A chimes in that he will be available through comms but will be organizing with the GCPD to come with the Fear neutralization kits to get started, before running over to the fabrication unit and making sure more are made to be supplied later. Thus, he may be slow to respond and thus connects them all together, rather than keeping the usual closed lines for the sake of expediency and safety. For their part, Nightwing and Batman won’t just be sitting around either and will be taking Crane down before splitting up. Nightwing will take Crane back to Arkham before coming back to help with whatever is needed, eventually taking over for Robin so Robin can race back to the cave in the self-piloted Batmobile to get the kits Agent A will have synthesized, while Batman liaises with the GCPD and begins the process of neutralizing the barrels. After that it’s a matter of all working together on the barrels until they’ve all be neutralized.

Batgirl and Robin’s first point of business is to work out how the explosives, the entire place is wired with, work. Turns out they’re all wired in groups of five to a central countdown timer that are all wired to a switch on Scarecrow’s belt. The plan seemingly to be that Scarecrow himself would guard the barrels for the last couple of nights before Halloween before likely moving them somewhere else. Robin’s glad a plan of this magnitude will never have the chance to get off the ground. Neither Robin nor Batgirl is surprised to find all the explosive's rigging is all simply made but in a very rushed manner and thus janky as hell. It both makes things easier and harder at the same time. Locating the wire to cut is easy up until it isn’t and then it takes a little more thought. It’s slow work at first but by the time Batman and Nightwing take Crane down, kicking and screaming, they’re both at a good rhythm. There is a hair-raising moment where it seems like Crane almost gets to the switch first, but Nightwing manages to get a good jab in with the escrima turned to a low enough voltage that it shocks Crane enough to let go but not enough to trigger the switch anyway - or that's sounds near enough to the case since Jason is working this out through sound while trying to concentrate. - Then it’s back to working like a well-oiled machine and Robin focuses down on his task until Nightwing has to actually tap him on the shoulder to signal that he’s back again.

“Good work Littlewing – you two have managed to get through a huge chunk. It won’t take long for BG and I to get the rest. Now off to the Batmobile with you.” Jason doesn’t argue or say anything aside from a tight smile to N and a nod to BG and runs full tilt to where the Batmobile is waiting. The sooner he get it back and full, the sooner he’ll be back here again to help.

Once inside the ride is as smooth as can be, as usual, so Jason takes a moment to check if – Yes! His civilian phone is still in the glove box from where Jason stuffed it while he got ready for the night after transferring Bug’s tracker to his gauntlet. He spends the rest of the trip letting Bug know that he’s safe, that Scarecrow is foiled and back on his way to Arkham and advising her to keep her windows sealed tonight just in case (last thing anyone needs is Bug tweaking on Fear while alone). Bug replies thanking him and then sends him a link to an article showing Batman took down Harvey Dent tonight. So that’s why B sounded so pissed over comms – he was already tired. Oh well, this is worth all their exhaustion. Once he’s wished Bug goodnight he focuses on clearing all evidence that those messages were sent at all. Barbie’s hacking lessons are finally paying off, if not in the way she was probably hoping. Still, telling Bug that he’s safe is worth the trouble. It means she won’t come out again tonight to check he’s okay and he really needs that tonight to stay effective as Robin. Knowing about Dent is a bonus too.

Once in the Cave, Robin immediately moves to assist Agent A with moving the finished kits into the trunk and backseat of the Batmobile, even shooing A gently away to synthesize a few more while Robin packs. It’ll be very worth the extra time later, Robin is sure. Once again Robin lets himself focus on only the task in his hands right now. He’s safe where he is, and he needs to get the everything done as fast has he can. He doesn’t hyper focus as easily as Bug can and can’t maintain it half as long as she or Wing or BG can but he ain’t bad and he’s also got the highest score of all of them at Tetris. He should be able to do this. Carefully but with haste Robin packs the neutralizing kits as tightly as he dares into the storage crates, seals each one, and then packs the crates (also as carefully as he can) into the Batmobile’s ridiculous trunk space. It’s unfortunately not a vehicle with massive storage in mind but it has more room than any of their bikes do, so it’s going to have to do. Once he fills the trunk he turns filling the foot-well and then the long bench of the back seats. He’s contemplating perhaps packing the things into the foot well of the front and driver’s seat too but that’s when Alfred appears, last few kits in a large satchel.

“A valiant effort Master Robin. We’ll do more trips if needed but you should have enough here, with what you have already packed, to neutralize most of the barrels, and with the GCPD’s supply there should be more than enough kits. I will begin the restocking process for both us and the GCPD now but there will be more then enough time for us to get the law enforcement of Gotham their kits in the coming days. Especially with Scarecrow now firmly ensconced back in his room at Arkham Asylum. Part of this seems to have been a bet between Dr Crane, the Joker and Mr Dent for who could cause the most mayhem on Halloween.”

“N’ Crane couldn’t trust, or was too far gone ta trust, tha reportin’ that Joker and Dent were already captured I guess?”

“Got it in one, young sir. Now, here this satchel contains the kits for the liquid fear barrels. Deliver this to Batman directly, and only to Batman, if the GCPD attempts to stop you, enlist Nightwing or Batgirl. Be aware though that Batgirl is monitoring the scene as Commissioner Gordon is in attendance. We must keep her from going anywhere near her father as the building is as lit as it can be at the moment.”

“Heard loud n’ clear Agent A.” Robin says with a small cheeky salute. The corner of Alfred’s mouth hitches up and he reaches out to ruffle through Robin’s temporarily dyed curls.

“Well then off you go, sir. Best of luck, go with you! Please don’t hesitate to reach out again if you need me.” With that, Robin gets back into the Batmobile and it pilots itself back towards the docks.

It’s a long night of neutralizing barrels but with Crane’s removal from the Halloween roster, it’s worth it. By the time they’re finished dawn has come and the sun is firmly risen in the sky. They’re all exhausted. No one says anything to Robin about the Gauntlet that night, but Nightwing, Agent A and Batgirl all congratulate him openly and even Batman spares a shoulder squeeze before they all pile into the showers and then Jason falls exhausted into bed after lugging himself through the manor with only one eye open.