For Riddlers
He's giving a present to S/O and they're like "But I didn't do anything to deserve it." They have a mindset that any type of present or affection for them comes from being useful.
You're doing great with requests!
"Deserving" Riddler party x Reader
Ahhh thank you! I hope I'm still doing okay with requests given everything, hahah. I've definitely noticed a drop in note numbers but I guess it's to be expected now I'm not posting as much. As long as someone is enjoying it, right?
TW: implications of emotional abuse
Gotham
Oh no. He understands that a little too well. We don't know much about Gotham Edward's history, but personally I like to think there's a reason we don't know much about his past. He doesn't speak of it. There are no fond hallmark movie moments he can reminisce on in conversation.
He'll want to just talk about it. Perhaps even talk about his own childhood while he's at it. Why he's worked so hard for recognition and then felt so angry and disappointed that everyone merely saw him as a freak. Doesn't he DESERVE good things? He uses it as framework to show how either side of the argument is illogical and toxic.
You don't need to earn good things. Not from him, not from anybody.
60s
Why would you need to do anything to deserve a gift? How is he supposed to shower you with gifts and jewelry and affection if you need to earn it first? Because he's going to keep doing those things whether you think you "deserve" them or not. Really, it'll become a point of pride for him to slowly break that down over time.
You ask what you've done to deserve it, he tells you he looked at your eyes and thought of how beautiful the color was. Your laugh left him tickled. You woke up that morning, you are alive and you are his person. That's the only reason he needs.
BTAS
This is merely an excuse to up the ante. If you don't deserve such things, then why does he keep doing it? Why is he so delightfully infatuated with showing you his adoration when you're not being useful? Perhaps it's because you don't need to do anything at all for him to want to do good things for you. To give you things he wants you to have.
He'll ask you quite plainly if you only give him things or love him when you think he's deserved it. You don't, correct? Then think about it logically. Why should you have to be useful? He wishes you could see the person he sees.
Zero Year
Does not compute. Once you explain it to him, he understands it logically, but not emotionally. For some people, childhood events that can make one person feel they don't deserve things unless they are useful can turn hard the other way. Edward deserves the world. He's intelligent, he's handsome, and certainly he's charming.
So why would you, in the excellence he's deemed for you, feel undeserving? Does he need to wax poetical about you? Tell you of the celestial pedestal he's brought you up upon to look down on the other mortals? You deserve things because you are deserving of everything. Let him show you all the things he can lay at your feet...
Arkham
Don't be absurd, just take the damn thing. If he's giving it you, you deserve it. There was likely a brief point in his life where he felt something similar- Mostly in him trying to impress someone who refused to be impressed (his father). Going so far as to cheat to get his father to acknowledge his brilliance, which only failed. It fizzled away and turned to needing and deserving it all simply for being himself.
He thinks of it as a weakness of yours. Not... trying to be mean or intentionally callous about it, yet it can certainly come off that way. He'll get annoyed if you try to wave off gifts from him or affection because you don't "deserve" it. No, now he's even more determined that you need to have this. And you'll thank him. And he doesn't want to hear you ask that question again.
Telltale
You don't want it? He'll gauge your reaction. If you truly don't want it, you don't have to accept it. He sees that flicker in you, that hesitation that says of course you do but...
"Then I suppose you'll have to accept it or I'll be insulted." And places it directly into your hands.
He is going to trick your self-conscious brain into taking this gift and feeling you deserve it. He won't harp too much on him being upset or mad or anything to make you feel BAD- but he'll use little talk arounds to convincing you to take it. Look, it's yours, so obviously you didn't need to do anything to receive. So thank him with a kiss and think nothing of it.
2022/Nashton
Similar to Gotham, he understands far too well what this feeling is like. Just slightly different reasons. It's practically the entire reason so much of his lifeline was hanging on the renewal project and wanting to be involved in it. If he could be useful and pull himself from the muck....! They'd love him. They'd all have reason to love him.
Seeing that same unhealthy trait in you- Well it's different. It's different when it's you! He'll tell you this while also being the exact same way. If he is in some kind of therapy/is on the mend, he might recognize this pattern. Not only that, he'll take the steps that BOTH of you need to improve that line of thinking.
Little gentle reminders if you say something, "ah, ah! We don't need to be useful to be given nice things and love." When you do the same back, it'll make him soft and gooey. You'll both get better about it, you have each other.
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