Riddle 026: Raining on Prom Night

[questionauthority]

[A: 726 Anderson Lane - BACKDATED TO THE DAY AFTER PROM.

Riddle me this: Who's as green as his suit and just woke up with the worst hangover ever? Answer: Edward Nigma, of course. Family members and unexpected visitors will find the Riddler downstairs at the breakfast table, dressed in a green bathrobe, half-heartedly fumbling with his daily crossword while he picks at a plate of eggs. He looks incredibly groggy, tired, and somewhat foul-tempered.]

[B: Mayfield High School - TODAY. It appears as though your favorite Ethics teacher is looking a little bit better after a long weekend and some time to recover. On the chalkboard, there appears to be a hastily drawn picture of a man with a long face and a garish smile.]

A dangerous criminal has been apprehended. Caught red-handed. He's responsible for the deaths of countless innocents. Question: How do you proceed? Do you take an eye for an eye and serve him a death penalty? It only makes sense, doesn't it? Especially if you consider the possibility that he may escape from his prison. And it's true. He could certainly escape and kill again. And again.

For the safety of these innocents, and for the good of the people, it may be worthwhile to consider a utilitarian approach. That is to say, you would subscribe to a system of ethics in which you would seek to increase the safety, happiness, and well-being of all mankind to maximum levels. But...

[He draws up another picture on the chalkboard of a cloaked figure, shrouded in a long, flowing cape.]

...there are those who might disagree with you. Those self-righteous radicals who feel as though they should follow the rules. Whose rules, exactly? Their rules. Their morals are absolute. They simply can't be compromised. Even if executing a murderer and a madman will maximize our well-being, murder is still murder to them. Nothing changes that. This is a deontological approach, class. And the ends never justify the means to them.

...so riddle me this. What would you do, if you had a say in this criminal's fate?

[Around Town:

There's a good chance that, after school, you'll find the Riddler on an investigation. He'll be found in one of three locations---

C: Sniffing around the Zemekis Corps Office Building, trying to get a grasp on what exactly it is that people do here.

D: In the Downtown area, glancing into windows and occasionally taking notes on a small notepad.

E: At the Mayfield Hospital, to answer some questions. A hospital in Mayfield seems rather arbitrary, doesn't it? Especially considering that death isn't even permanent. Why would one even be here, then, if that's the case?]

Comments

[have-your-lives.livejournal.com]

[Schuldig's expression, as he listens to Edward, shifts from vicious to merely unreadable. Whether this is an improvement is almost impossible to say, not without knowing what's going on in his head.] You can't hate someone you don't know. And don't presume that you know how I feel, Nigma.

[Nonetheless, he seems to have...throttled back. Whether it's due to anything Edward said, or the effort he's making, or for mysterious reasons of his own, is very much up in the air.] And there is no 'maybe'. No 'perhaps'. What little you think you know about me is a candle in a cathedral, and you shouldn't even have that.

But get this through your head. Any epiphanies you believe you've had, any compassion you've started to feel, any understandings you think you've come to in regards to that boy...forget them. He's a ghost, and one that has nothing to do with me. I don't want to be associated with him, and - as you may have noticed - he bears no resemblance to me at all.

[puzzlerprince.livejournal.com]

...if you insist.

[That's about all he can say, really. Schuldig doesn't want to be associated with his childhood. Edward hardly wants to be associated with his own, either. He can get behind that.]

[have-your-lives.livejournal.com]

I do. [Schuldig isn't quite satisfied with this, but he doesn't see how much else he can say or do can actually enforce his points any more than he has. And in his mercurial mood, he hasn't made up his mind on what, if anything, he wants to do further here. He straightens, pulling away from the desk.] I suppose I never asked. Was killing me worth it?

[puzzlerprince.livejournal.com]

...no. If you must know, it wasn't.

[have-your-lives.livejournal.com]

It isn't as though I didn't warn you. [He's smirking a bit. Changing the subject is returning him to his normal, mocking humor.] No one ever listens to the man who knows everything.

I'd return the favor, if there were any point to it.

[puzzlerprince.livejournal.com]

[He already has, really. And he didn't even have to lift a finger to do it.]

Shut up, Schuldig.

[have-your-lives.livejournal.com]

You're hardly in a position to chide me. This was all your doing, start to finish. If you don't like how it turned out, you know who to blame.

[With that, he turns and heads for the door. Apparently he considers their business, for the moment, concluded.]