Edward Nigma | The Riddler (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
questionauthority) wrote2011-07-03 11:56 pm
questionauthority) wrote2011-07-03 11:56 pm
Riddle 030: Half-Life (50% Droning)
[A - ACTION: The Kitchen of 726 Anderson Lane.
Eddie's in the middle of preparing a nice, hearty breakfast for his family. Question: How best to spend this Fourth of July? Take his beautiful wife and kids out for a picnic in John Doe Park? Maybe see if Jonathan and his family want to come along? Honestly? It's days like this that it feels pretty damn good to be Edward Nashton.
Wait. That... isn't right. It's Nigma. Edward Nigma. He'd taken that name to get as far away from that miserable childhood as possible. ...hadn't he? No, all Eddie can think about now is a childhood here in Mayfield. His old man teaching him how to ride a bike. Playing catch with him in the backyard while Mrs. Nashton made her world-famous lemonade. The day he'd come racing home to tell his father he'd won a contest at school. And his father had been proud of him...
No. Stop it, Edward. You'd cheated that day, remember? Your father was never proud of you. That's why you strove to prove yourself better than everyone else, because you are better than everyone else. You're a genius. Cleverer than Crane. More intelligent than Lex Luthor. You've got bigger brains than Batman.
...and it's here that Edward Nashton---Nigma, dammit---comes to a haunting conclusion. There never was a Batman here in Mayfield, was there? There was never a reason for one. There was never a reason for the Riddler, either. All of a sudden, Eddie's feeling much less enthused about today.]
[B - PHONE: Shortly after breakfast.]
"Bury deep,
Pile on stones,
Yet I will
Dig up the bones."
Memories. Something... something isn't right. I'm starting to remember things that didn't happen. Things that should never have happened.
[Or should they have? What's wrong with the life Edward's leading here in Mayfield? For once in his pathetic life, he has the chance to be happy. Yet again, the Riddler is beginning to question himself.]
None of this is real. ...is it?
[C - ACTION: That afternoon, various places around town.
The Riddler needs to clear his head. Perhaps some of that fresh Mayfield air will do him some good. Those who bump into him may hear him reciting a little riddle to himself. Something to keep him anchored in all of this confusion.]
"Up a hill,
Down a hill,
Over them I may roam,
But after all my walking,
There's no place like my own."
[This neighborhood, these streets, this perfect little slice of American suburbia. This place is a far cry from Gotham. This place isn't truly home.
...right?]
Eddie's in the middle of preparing a nice, hearty breakfast for his family. Question: How best to spend this Fourth of July? Take his beautiful wife and kids out for a picnic in John Doe Park? Maybe see if Jonathan and his family want to come along? Honestly? It's days like this that it feels pretty damn good to be Edward Nashton.
Wait. That... isn't right. It's Nigma. Edward Nigma. He'd taken that name to get as far away from that miserable childhood as possible. ...hadn't he? No, all Eddie can think about now is a childhood here in Mayfield. His old man teaching him how to ride a bike. Playing catch with him in the backyard while Mrs. Nashton made her world-famous lemonade. The day he'd come racing home to tell his father he'd won a contest at school. And his father had been proud of him...
No. Stop it, Edward. You'd cheated that day, remember? Your father was never proud of you. That's why you strove to prove yourself better than everyone else, because you are better than everyone else. You're a genius. Cleverer than Crane. More intelligent than Lex Luthor. You've got bigger brains than Batman.
...and it's here that Edward Nashton---Nigma, dammit---comes to a haunting conclusion. There never was a Batman here in Mayfield, was there? There was never a reason for one. There was never a reason for the Riddler, either. All of a sudden, Eddie's feeling much less enthused about today.]
[B - PHONE: Shortly after breakfast.]
"Bury deep,
Pile on stones,
Yet I will
Dig up the bones."
Memories. Something... something isn't right. I'm starting to remember things that didn't happen. Things that should never have happened.
[Or should they have? What's wrong with the life Edward's leading here in Mayfield? For once in his pathetic life, he has the chance to be happy. Yet again, the Riddler is beginning to question himself.]
None of this is real. ...is it?
[C - ACTION: That afternoon, various places around town.
The Riddler needs to clear his head. Perhaps some of that fresh Mayfield air will do him some good. Those who bump into him may hear him reciting a little riddle to himself. Something to keep him anchored in all of this confusion.]
"Up a hill,
Down a hill,
Over them I may roam,
But after all my walking,
There's no place like my own."
[This neighborhood, these streets, this perfect little slice of American suburbia. This place is a far cry from Gotham. This place isn't truly home.
...right?]
no subject
[It's obvious that Ema's uncomfortable with the topic, but she huffs and answers it anyway.]
It wasn't long after I'd graduated high school. I'd just started nursing school and had come back to visit a few teachers back at the high school--including you. Especially you. You'd always been my favorite teacher and I had a bit of a crush on you. As it turned out, it wasn't one-sided like I'd thought; after telling me how proud of me you were for doing something better with myself and applying my knowledge where it was needed, you kissed me. It was really brief and chaste and you backpedaled immediately afterward, since you're the ethics teacher and it was pretty inapprorpriate.
I wouldn't let you take it back. We dated for a bit after that until my parents insisted I break it off because of your age. I found Schuldig not long after that and you found Susan.
I thought we were over this, Edward. We're both happy, probably happier than we would have been if we'd ended up marrying each other. Why are you suddenly bringing this back up?
[She sounds irritated and more than a little defensive. Apparently, the break up isn't exactly a pleasant memory.]
no subject
[But it isn't a lie. It is true. Edward can remember every single detail that Ema rattles off to him. How he hadn't reacted well to their break up, but had managed to move on just as she had. But that can't be right. He still remembers a desperate moment in an abandoned classroom at the end of the world. ...that had been it, hadn't it?]
You're---you aren't really in love with Schuldig. He's a...
[A monster? Or one of his former students and closest friends?]
no subject
And that's exactly how it happened, Edward. You're too young to be dealing with dementia, are you sure you're feeling okay?
no subject
[Think, think. Come on, Edward, try something else. What's one thing that the real Ema Skye would know about?]
What about... what about your sister? [She did have a sister, right? He wasn't just imagining that heart-to-heart?] Do you remember her?
no subject
Of course I remember her. You should, too; you've met her, too.
no subject
no subject
She lives next door to me. Seriously, did you hit your head or something?
no subject
I...
no subject
Edward?
Do I need to come over there? Or send Keane?
[Because she'd refer to him by his given name, not his self-proclaimed one.
IGNORE THE GOOF EARLIER IN THIS THREAD, I'M AN IDIOT.]