#i think with ur riddler in particular who has a strong justice system and has been a detective before

[delusionland]

@brokentoys [ BRUCE & EDDIE ]

Arkham is basically a revolving door at this point. No matter how many times Bruce tries to funnel money into it---politicians & the more hard-knock locals begin to say ‘Arkham has gotten too soft on criminals.’ ‘These are murderers! Serial killers! The Joker has touched and destroyed every one of our lives! How many has he taken from you? Does he deserve a cushy cell, three meals a day?’

Bruce isn’t always sure about that. But The Riddler isn’t The Joker. And while both Bruce and Eddie have a grip on reality that often seems precarious, less a firm handshake and more dangling over a pit of crocodiles with question marks painted on them---Bruce sees Eddie as he sees many in his Rogues Gallery. Criminals, of course---but also, people who are just as insane and opinionated about what is wrong and what is right as he is, to the point they’re willing to dress up and fight for it. The Joker is an idiot and a madman. But Freeze? Riddler? Ivy? These people have codified belief systems that betray intelligence, and purposefully-crafted intention towards how the world should be. Sometimes, Bruce can’t even say they’re wrong.

He hates visiting Arkham. The smell and the taste in the air---clinical & moldy, rotten & sterile all at the same time. But sometimes, he likes to check in.

Afer all, he could just as easily be inside one of these glass cases if he wasn’t friends with Superman and the cops. Without the costume, without the make-up, without the kevlar, and all his ‘toys’---he’d feel naked in the flimsy fabric scrubs, ready to be dissected, sedated, grilled. It’s his fault these people are here. It’s his fault they can’t be helped. It’s his fault that the world breaks people down and then just keeps breaking them, it’s his fault that he can see seven different exposed paths to getting out of here and every criminal here is looking at at least one----

(If nothing else, it’s a good exercise coming here, so he can mentally rehearse every way to get out himself.)

“I'm going to ask you again,” Batman says, his voice butter-smoth, demanding, but not harsh, not meaner than he feels he has any right to be given how obvious it is Eddie wants to kill him. “Why do you think we are on opposing sides? You don’t kill ‘innocent’ civilians. I don’t kill anyone. You want to save Gotham. I want to save Gotham. We’re the same.”