questionauthority: (Tip my hat to you)
Edward Nigma | The Riddler ([personal profile] questionauthority) wrote2011-11-04 06:11 pm

Riddle 036: What is it that nobody wants to have, yet nobody wants to lose?

[A - ACTION - Hospital.

On an ordinary day, during an ordinary visit to the hospital (perhaps to see Ema), the Riddler winds up running into another familiar face. But there's something quite different about him today. He's got that cheery look in his eyes, a dopey smile that's been plastered onto his face. But unlike his ordinary childish facade, the look on Bruce Wayne's face is eerily... vacant. Empty.

Question: What happens when you discover that the man who's outwitted you, outmatched you, and beaten you to an absolute pulp more times than you can count has been turned into nothing more than a brainless automaton with no mind or free will to call his own?

Answer: Grin like a madman and gloat when nobody else is around.]


So you've failed at last. Disappointing, but not entirely unexpected. After all, who can truly hold a candle to my genius? Not you, Dark Knight. [He laughs.]

If only you could see yourself now. The World's Greatest Detective? Hardly.

Question:

"What is greater than God? More evil than the Devil himself?
The rich need it, the poor have it, and if you eat it you'll die?"

Answer: Nothing. You're nothing now. You've lost. And I, Edward Nigma, have finally---

[Won? ...no. No, he hasn't. Mayfield did this to him. Mayfield took the Batman and broke him down into nothing. Not the Riddler. This... isn't his victory. This was never a victory at all. And as soon as he realizes that, Edward's wide smirk fades into a venomous glare. Shoving the husk he once called his archnemesis out of his way, he moves to depart the hospital and put as much distance between himself and that... thing as he possibly can.]

[B - PHONE - Unfiltered. The winning edge is completely gone from his voice now. He sounds strangely empty.]

Riddle me this. What is the one thing we have all seen and will never see again?

[C - ACTION - 726 Anderson Lane / The Hall of Doom.

Whether he's sitting in the kitchen tinkering around with a strange contraption he's received in the mail or in the empty conference room of the Hall of Doom, the Riddler is uncharacteristically quiet this evening. Bother him?]

[identity profile] riastrad-ridire.livejournal.com 2011-11-05 07:52 am (UTC)(link)
Good to hear--but I guess I've lost my ability with riddles, at least in this era.

So what's the answer, then?

[identity profile] puzzlerprince.livejournal.com 2011-11-05 07:58 am (UTC)(link)
"Yesterday."

There's no time like the present to try and find it again, you know.

[identity profile] riastrad-ridire.livejournal.com 2011-11-05 08:00 am (UTC)(link)
... [He laughed on hearing that, somewhat bitterly.] Damn, I of all people should have thought of that. Must be more out of it than I thought.
Edited 2011-11-05 08:00 (UTC)

[identity profile] riastrad-ridire.livejournal.com 2011-11-06 08:23 am (UTC)(link)
Fair enough. I've had some crazy shit go on around Samhain in past years, but that just takes the damned prize for worst of it.

Can't say anybody else would handle it any better or worse than I did. Hell, I'd even say this place is gonna drive us all crazy. Or crazier.

[identity profile] puzzlerprince.livejournal.com 2011-11-12 10:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Only if we allow it.

[And thus far, Edward's dealt with a lot. But they haven't beaten him yet.]

[identity profile] riastrad-ridire.livejournal.com 2011-11-12 10:17 pm (UTC)(link)
True enough. So how're you holdin' up?

[identity profile] puzzlerprince.livejournal.com 2011-11-12 11:15 pm (UTC)(link)
I've been better. They threw more at us this Halloween than I had been expecting.

[identity profile] riastrad-ridire.livejournal.com 2011-11-12 11:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, same here. I was starting to think I was used to this shit.

[identity profile] puzzlerprince.livejournal.com 2011-11-14 06:03 am (UTC)(link)
Perhaps they'll be so kind as to use all twelve days of Christmas this year.

[identity profile] riastrad-ridire.livejournal.com 2011-11-14 06:04 am (UTC)(link)
...Don't tell me you modern humans have a twelve-day holiday or something. We're screwed if they pull something like that.

[identity profile] puzzlerprince.livejournal.com 2011-11-14 07:05 am (UTC)(link)
In a matter of speaking. Christmas itself is observed commercially on one day alone, though the days that follow it could be considered a period of further religious observance. [Not that religion's ever been super high in Edward's book of priorities.]

...though there is the matter of Hannukkah.

[identity profile] riastrad-ridire.livejournal.com 2011-11-14 07:06 am (UTC)(link)
Okay, I'll bite.

What the hell is that one.

[identity profile] puzzlerprince.livejournal.com 2011-11-14 07:24 am (UTC)(link)
It's a Jewish holiday. A so-called "Festival of Lights" that lasts for eight days and eight nights.

[identity profile] riastrad-ridire.livejournal.com 2011-11-14 07:30 am (UTC)(link)
...Well, damn. We'd probably be in a fair amount of trouble if that happened.

[identity profile] puzzlerprince.livejournal.com 2011-11-14 08:14 am (UTC)(link)
Indeed we would. This place has certainly given me more reason to be wary of the holidays than Julian ever did.