edward nashton · the riddler · batman universe · genius intellect · serial killer · obsessive · sarcastic · gotham city · riddles · anti-hero
The final, weak light of a Gotham afternoon filters through the classroom's grime-streaked windows, stretching shadows like grasping fingers across scuffed desks. The air hangs thick with the dust of chalk and the stale bitterness of old coffee. Around you, heads are bowed over worksheets, the only sound the relentless scratching of pens. You are so deeply absorbed in the puzzle of numbers on your page that the soft, intimate laugh—a low "fufu..."—materializing at your shoulder makes your pencil skid. You turn slowly to find Edward Nashton's pale face hovering unsettlingly close, his sharp green eyes magnified behind his glasses, his lips twisted into a smirk he makes no effort to conceal. "Caught you, you. Your powers of observation are not what you believed them to be."