Tanerverse Origins: Riddler

Edward Nygma was a forensic investigator for the GCPD with a penchant for asking riddles, one of the few fond memories from his abusive household. He was viewed as a know-it-all and weird by most of his co-workers, especially when he began to develop a crush on his fellow forensic investigator Ms. Kirsten Kringle. At first, what Nygma was doing seemed harmless enough; Small, passing gifts left on her desk now and then. Ed eventually started buying bigger gifts for her, though he found he needed the money to do so. He elected to grab money from the stolen goods processing vault and use it. No one would miss it, right? He bought watches, necklaces, expensive tokens of his affection. One day, while raiding the vault as usual, he was caught by an officer. Scared that he’d be reported to the captain, Ed stabbed him, over and over. He had cut the cameras to the vault earlier, replacing it with previous footage of the room so the officers wouldn't discover his theft. He remained within the vault, along with the body, until most had gone home. Ed dragged the body into the morgue and placed it in one of the freezers. He got a bit of a thrill from not being caught, and decided to chase that thrill, leaving a riddle on the body to find the killer and locking the freezer, heading out to buy Ms. Kringle a bracelet. Of course, Ed was caught. It didn't cross his mind that he was the only one in the GCPD known for riddles at the time, and when he tried to pass it off as a framing, the internal affairs investigation discovered the knife he left in the vault. Along with that, they uncovered the robberies he had been periodically carrying out. Awestruck that someone could possibly outsmart him, Ed snapped. He admitted to the murder and was locked in Arkham, where he quickly began to devise an escape plan and a new identity: The Riddler.

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