#batwithathe

[preriddling]

6?

6: Do you think that killing is ever justified?

“If someone was trying to kill you first. Or hurt you badly.”

[preriddling]

₩ ☩

₩ our muses are caught in a thunder storm together 

The rain was heavy and loud enough along with the continuous dull roar of thunder that he couldn’t hear what Bruce was saying, but he could sort of make out that he was pointing to their left even as they ran down the streets. Sunday evening, everything looked closed, but it turned out that Bruce had better eyesight than Edward, at least when it was dark. 

He was pretty sure (really hoped) the startled noise that escaped his mouth was drowned out too when Bruce grabbed his wrist and yanked him along.

Edward’s glare was met with an even gaze once they ducked inside. He retaliated by flipping his hair in Bruce’s direction, though they were soaked enough that it didn’t make much of a difference.

Bruce looked less than pleased. Edward turned and started to wring out his shirt and pretended he didn’t really care.

☩ a dream my muse has about your muse

There are doorframes that don’t have walls between them, or doors attached. He thought they were made of gold, but when he looks closer, he sees that they’re just painted that way, little flecks falling off and showing dark wood beneath.

He stands in the same place, glancing down at the tiles (that looks like what their apartment has in the kitchen, except with blue designs instead of dirty orange) that radiate from his feet to between the doorframes to whatever’s past them all, which he can’t see because they go off into the pale cream horizon.

Bruce walks somewhere behind him, though Edward doesn’t always see him when he turns his head. Most of the time when he does, he’s holding a pile of books, or a notebook, and he never walks through the doorframes proper, just through where the walls should’ve been. 

Bruce shrugs when he asks why, he can somehow tell even though he’s not looking that time, the sound of his footsteps not skipping a beat, and he says something about that’s what the criminals expect you to do.

The footsteps stop eventually, and when Edward turns around to see why, the only thing he finds is a pile of crumpled papers as tall as Bruce and two times wider, covered in words he can’t make out well enough to read, hastily scrawled in inks of red and blue.

He tries to pick one up from the top, and instead they all tumble down over the tiles. A few roll through some nearby doorframes, and they don’t come out the other side.

(Edward wakes up with a nervous knot in his stomach.)

[preriddling]

If Edward showed up with a black eye, Bruce would be very worried and probably ask a lot of questions about what happened- Did you get into a fight, was there an accident, etc etc- while finding a bag of frozen peas or something similar to press against his eye. Although if Alfred was around he'd probably take over the questions and patching Edward up, while Bruce hovered constantly nearby.

Edward wouldn’t answer. For a few reasons, but the main one on his mind was that if he opened his mouth, he knew he would choke on the lump in his throat, and he’d start to cry. 

He wouldn’t let Bruce see him be weak. He’s strong. He won’t cry, even though it hurts, and he’s scared, he won’t, he won’t--

[parttimejusticearchive]

8, 14, 22, 33, 43?

8. Favorite indulgence and feelings surrounding indulging 

Obviously Bruce is highly disciplined and doesn’t allow himself to indulge very often. But when he does it’s usually to forward his interest in cars or to actually let somebody get close to him.

14. Physical abnormalities? (Both visible and not, including injuries/disabilities, long-term illnesses, food-intolerances, etc.) 

In his later years Bruce walks with a very noticeable limp, as a result of the the stab wound in his knee from the Joker, combined with his years of crime-fighting.

22. Given a blank piece of paper, a pencil, and nothing to do, what would happen?

Likely he would start writing down random notes and clues from cases, or just things that pop into his mind that he’d like to revisit at a later date.

33. Concept of home and family? 

To Bruce anybody that come’s under his care is family. Even if he isn’t their legal guardian he still takes them into his heart when he remembers those he loves. As for home, he’d rather be no other place then the manor, which he considers one of the last mementos of his parents.

43. How far did they get in formal education? What are their views on formal education vs self-education?

Bruce attended a private school in his younger years until he was pulled from it. He didn’t get along that well in a social environment and was home-taught for years until he went to travel abroad.

[exuviiated]

“Why don’t you look out the window?”

Mirrormask Sentence Meme

The night was dark. Not the vague, muzzy, misty dark that Griffin was used to while on stake-outs, when he had floodlights and blinking security cameras to keep him company, but a thick and inky black that was broken only by the frail yellowed beam from his flashlight. He spent the night holed up in a watchtower.

He didn’t like it at all. Bats fluttered around and snatched bugs out of the air, flying in the path of his flashlight ever-so-often.

Things were quiet, though.

“Why don’t you look out the window?”

 And that made Griffin squeak, and indeed look out the window.

"—the Batman‽"

He flung his hand back to grab his shock rod, resigning himself to running.

[exuviiated]

"I shall slip unnoticed through the darkness like a dark, unnoticeable slippy thing."

Mirrormask Sentence Meme

 ”Now you’re not even trying.” He would have sounded amused if he wasn’t so scared. “Nice try, but I can’t let you pass.”

[unriddlingarchived]

Ghost!

i do not think this is good but it's also 1 am so idk how to make it better 

Riddler could've reached out. He could have survived. 

He refused. 

He's done. He's done.

The Batman does not do well in the next months. There is guilt, always. And that's what draws what's left of Edward Nygma directly to him.

It isn't hard. It's like tracking the sound of dragging, clanking chains across stone floors, or a trail of blood. It's a sound, a smell, a feeling, something unmistakable.

The remnants of the Riddler is not seen by the butler at the door, nor the child playing a small game on the stairs, though both twitch from sudden chill.

Down.

The cave is dark and humming with bats and computers and a bat-computer and it's almost enough to make Edward...feel something, but not quite. The Batman isn't here, though the guilt suffuses every bit of stone and metal in the place. 

There is no need to sleep, but time passes quickly regardless. Or perhaps it doesn't. There's no reason to notice it, either way.

There is some instinctive knowledge left that tells him the sky is lightening outside, that the wait will end soon. The puzzle pieces have been identified, aligned, nearly put together. Just one left. One thing. One part.

An engine roars. Time is skipping to the important part, perhaps.

The Batman is there, and he sees.

Just for an instant. Riddler, mangled, eyes blacked out, and then nothing, even as he drops into a defensive stance. Gone.

Not so.

There is more time, more waiting. Edward follows the Batman's guilt through the cave and the manor and the streets and Wayne Industries, unseen. 

But not, as it turns out, unheard.

Footsteps. 

Breathing. Not really. Close. Something that forgot how trying to anyway.

Whispers. Dull, empty. Then louder. Louder. Talking, just outside of earshot, muffled through a wall. 

There is no bursting back to consciousness, to life, to whatever is close enough to life that he can get to in his intangible state.

It builds and builds until he is awake and aware and screaming his fury and terror. The Batman's blue eyes are fixed and it takes him far too long to realize he's looking at him. 

Everything is too much. 

Edward runs and the reek of the man's guilt follows him up the stairs.

It's not like he doesn't have all the time in the world to haunt the one who caused this. 

[exuviiated]

♫

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Courtesy Call-Thousand Foot KrutchKill Your Heroes-AWOLNATIONNa Na Na-My Chemical RomanceDelirium-Les Tambours du BronxLife/Universe-Detektivbyran