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English
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Published:
2022-09-23
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499
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1/1
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[ART] Knots

Summary:

I drew a pet snake for the riddler just for fun and because I think snakes are cool.

Initially, I planned on just a drawing but somehow a detailed backstory has manifested in my brain and I just had write it as well.

Mainly inspired from codotverse’s Rogues! Podcast s01 ep01 (timestamp 3:06), where an anon asked what kind of animal would the riddler have as a pet

Notes:

To anyone who’s a fan of the riddler or any of batman’s rogues gallery, I would highly recommend checking out his podcast here: https://www.tumblr.com/roguespodcast

You won’t regret it. it has high production quality, amazing voice acting and the writing is just top notch.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

Edward named him “Knots” after the Gordian knot and its penchant for tangling itself to the owner holding him.

He’s a genetically modified rough green snake from one of lex luthor’s labs. He is unusually large for his species due to genetic engineering and created as a test subject for the sole purpose of discovering the upper limits of reptile intelligence.

Knots enjoyed solving puzzles and memory exercises which are regularly tested on him by scientists in the labs. However, nothing could beat his all time favourite past time: breaking out his enclosures and exploring the vents.

Knots met Edward when he was still locked under lex luthor’s contract at the time. He was obligated to show up regularly in the labs under lex’s orders and knots who was spying inside the vents that day saw an opportunity for escape.

On one typical afternoon, knots escaped from his enclosure for the 286th time and snuck inside one of the pockets of Edward’s suit jacket. Edward unknowingly brought him home that day, somehow bypassing all the lab’s tight security measures.

Knots’s existence in Edward’s home wasn’t discovered until Eddie noticed a number of his homemade puzzle boxes being mysteriously moved around and solved.

After reviewing his home security feeds and with the help of some enticing feeder mice, knots is finally introduced to his new owner.

Edward never puts him inside an enclosure. Being the natural escape artist that he is, there was no point to it. The snake comes and goes as he pleases and Edward doesn’t mind this kind of arrangement.

Aside from being an escape artist, knots also loves sleeping inside Eddie’s bowler hats much to his dismay.

Edward discovered knots could also be taught how to open safes, much to his delight. Eddie couldn’t help but grin at the 13th opened safe right across from him, picked open simply by the clicks and turns of the dial using a tail.

Other than opening safes, Edward has somehow also managed to teach him how to plant hidden cameras and disable certain locks.

Edward’s companionship with knots however didn’t last long.

Knots met his untimely end when he tried to hunt a bat for dinner. Edward found him lying outside his home one rainy night, barely holding on to dear life and lying right next to a dead bat he hunted the night before.

Eddie speculated the snake slipped and fell onto the pavement when he tried to catch his prey.

Edward tried his best to nurse his scaly friend back to health but ultimately, knots succumb to his injuries.

“It was pleasure knowing you my clever and inquisitive friend.”

Knots was buried along with miniature bowler hat Eddie custom made for him.

It was a shame really. All that brilliance, all that potential, only to bested by nothing more than a bat.

"Would I share the same fate? I certainly would hope not." Edward thought quitely.


“Perhaps the private investigator gig wasn’t the worst of my decisions”

Notes:

Fun fact: I was debating on naming him either knots or conundrum but I settled on knots instead.

Another fun fact: I drew the snake first without knowing the riddler actually had a pet snake in the comics. A rather amusing coincidence for me.