@jamesgordonofgotham
“... So, you can’t leave the goat and the cabbage alone or the goat will eat the cabbage-” Ed rambled, smiling despite the ever growing suspicion in the pit of his stomach that the smirking, glance-sharing gaggle of Men in Blue didn’t really want to hear his riddle at all, and were simply seeing if they could get him to recite it again. He cleared his throat, pushing his glasses up his nose, instinct re-assessing the situation, even as he kept talking. “But if you leave the goat alone with the wolf, it’ll eat the goat-” He knew he was fairly tall, but two out of three of these goons with badges were just as tall and twice as wide. “But you can only take one thing across the river at a time-”
“How small is this boat?” Officer Jenkins smirked and the others all laughed.
It was Dougherty who’s expression said this wasn’t about puzzling anecdotes. “See? This is why he’s the Riddle Man, right?”
Ed waited several heartbeats, shifting slightly toward the door toward the safety of his lab, “Well, I suppose if you give up...”
“No, no, I want to figure it out,” Dougherty tapped the wall. “But while I’m mulling, there’s something else I’ve been puzzled over- why, even after I told you to leave her alone, you keep bothering poor Kristen.”
Ed opened his mouth and closed it again, “I didn’t think I was bothering-”
A fist landed hard with a dull, startling thud against the wall beside him. “I’ll let you work that one out, Riddle Man. Put that one together.”
“P-put what together? I m-mean, obviously you’re threatening me, but I ah- um. You need to actually state specifics, I mean, we all have jobs to do, which- uh- means that sometimes-”
“Listen, Buddy,” The tone of his voice was cheery, friendly, oddly enough, “I don’t care who you get to middle man, I don’t want to see you setting foot in that Annex, you got me?”
