Riddle and Idia

In an early vignette Riddle goes to Idia’s dorm room to demand that he attend a pre-orientation Housewarden meeting, but Idia refuses.

Riddle scolds him with, “How irresponsible can you be?,” “You are the most irritating person l’ve had the misfortune of meeting!,” and, “You’re inconveniencing everyone. If you’re going to put effort into anything, at least put it into preparing for orientation.”

Idia still refuses and Riddle follows with, l’ve always been of the opinion that that agitating attitude of yours is the last thing this school needs,” and, “How dare a useless shut-in of a housewarden like you order me around!” 

After Riddle says that he feels bad for Ortho, “having to take on all the work of his irresponsible housewarden,” Idia declares that he is going to attend this year and Riddle responds, “Considering all the effort you put into mocking me, I’ll expect a rousing speech out of you.”

Idia immediately regrets telling Riddle that he will attend the orientation and, ultimately, does not. On the day of the ceremony Riddle observes, “After all that bluster, he still didn’t attend orientation. As incompetent as ever. I feel sorry for the members of his dorm, having such an unreliable housewarden.”

During the NBC event Jack Skellington describes a king as someone who “coordinates everyone else.” Idia says, “Bringing everyone together would be literally impossible for me,” and Riddle replies, “What a thing for a housewarden to say! It’s literally up to us to lead the students of our respective dorms.”

When Idia tries to avoid work (“You guys can do all the actual work”) Riddle scolds him with, “How can you be so utterly uncooperative?! A housewarden should serve as a shining example to other students,” and when Idia describes himself and Riddle as “the useless ones” of the cooking group Riddle responds, “I’d appreciate if you didn’t lump me in with yourself, if it’s all the same.” 

During Glorious Masquerade Riddle tells Ruggie that he is welcome to stay behind with Trein rather than confront Rollo. Idia says, “Ooh, in that case maybe I should…” and Riddle interrupts with, “I wasn’t speaking to you. As a housewarden it’s your responsibility to help!”

When Riddle later volunteers to serve as bait for the firelotuses Idia immediately agrees (“Epel: “You accepted way too fast!” – Sebek: “At least make a TOKEN protest!”).

In Book 7 Ortho is relieved to learn that Idia has Riddle on-hand to help him defend against Malleus, but Cater comments, “I can see it now. Riddle loses his temper on Idia. The end. Either way, those two clearly go together like oil and water!”

Riddle is Idia’s interviewer for his third birthday vignette, and when asked where he would like to go if he could use flight magic to go anywhere Idia replies, “Can I just say my room and leave it at that?” Riddle responds, “At least you’re predictable, I’ll give you that.”

When Crowley and Ortho threaten to alert the media if the students leave Idia to Eliza, Riddle says, “I suspect the headmage would be held responsible if a scandal broke out. He’d have the most to lose.”

Idia later thanks the Ghost Marriage group for saving him from Eliza, saying, “I’m definitely not the kind of guy who’ll swing into action for someone else,” but Riddle says, “I was doing it because of the rules and to get classes started back up. I wasn’t really doing it for you…”

In Book 6 Vil guesses that Idia is “part of the family that runs the Jupiter Conglomerate, which made its fortune in offshore oil and rare metals,” and Riddle says, “I knew the Shroud family was involved with the Jupiter Conglomerate, of course, but I assumed it was pure coincidence that Idia had the same surname! Why would someone from a distinguished family attached to a huge conglomerate act like… well, like he does?”

During the NBC event Idia says “I wasn’t expecting the taskmaster to be so singularly bad in the kitchen,” but when Riddle suggests that Idia try to cook, he refuses.

After Idia declares he is going to take the kidnapped students and “strap you all to chairs so you can’t move, then examine you with a bunch of probes,” Riddle asks, “Do you really think you can get away with such outrageous behavior?!,” but Idia responds, “Uh, no? I was doing a bit. Sheesh. It’s like you’ve never heard a joke before.” (Riddle: “Rgh… Yeargh…!”)

When Riddle is trapped in the library during the Lantern Event Idia says, “TBH I’d be perfectly happy letting a taskmaster like Riddle stay locked in the library forever. But the benefit of attendance credit outweighed the alternative by a hair, so here l am.” (Riddle: “You just have to get in a dig, don’t you?”)

Idia and Ortho intentionally provide the group with collection of “super difficult” crossword puzzles, teasing them with, “Oh dear, did we make it too hard for you?,” and, “If you don’t think you can solve it, wouldn’t it be smarter to ask nicely for another puzzle?” 

Deuce retorts, “That’s the whole reason you gave us a hard puzzle to start with, isn’t it? What a jerk move,” but Riddle says, “You two should have done your research. Rapid crossword solving happens to be a specialty of mine. I’ll have this finished in no time.”

After completing the entire book of puzzles in under 30 minutes Riddle says, “Did you see the looks of vexation on their faces?,” presumably in reference to Idia and Ortho.

During the Ghost Marriage event Idia describes Riddle as “the traditional prince who’s straightlaced due to his royal upbringing, but who occasionally shows some awkward tenderness!”

Riddle is suspicious when Ace starts complimenting Idia, but after Ace reveals his reasoning (“The whole day culminated in him getting dumped at the altar. Who wouldn’t feel sorry for the guy?”) Riddle joins in, praising Idia more than anyone else. 

At the beginning of Book 5 Riddle offers to join Idia for practice sessions in public speaking, which Idia declines, though later Idia concludes, “Presenting stuff to an audience? That’s unplayable difficulty!”

In order to keep Riddle from being angry with him Idia builds a sound library from his own voice and designs text-to-voice software to use for his culture fair presentation.

Idia asks Ortho to keep it a secret until after his presentation so that, after Riddle commends him for public speaking, he can reveal that he was using text-to-speech the entire time: “I’m gonna wipe that smug look right off of his face. Whee hee hee!”

Ortho tells Idia not to pick on his underclassmen but Idia responds, “He’s a grade beneath me in school, but he’s been housewarden longer than I have, so he’s close enough to an upperclassman.”

Riddle visits Idia’s booth prior to the start of the festival and Idia tells him, “I’m good, no worries. You’ll see for yourself soon enough, hee hee…” (Riddle: “…Um, all right.”), and Riddle tells Idia, “Your field of specialty, technomancy, is one of the most fascinating areas of study in modern magic. I’m looking forward to seeing you share your insights.”

Riddle also mentions being interested in technomancy to Ortho in a vignette, a point that arises at the climax of Book 7 when Idia summons Riddle to his dream and asks if Riddle read his culture fair paper. Riddle responds, “‘Next-Gen Security Model Built on the Quantum Encryption of Multilayered Magical Barriers’? Of course I read it. I found it highly impressive… Aside from the fact that you lip-synched the whole presentation with help from a vocal synthesizer.”

Idia then provides Riddle with multiple manuals and guides on technomantic engineering, telling him that they have three minutes for Riddle to learn how to program.

Riddle initially refuses and the two argue about Riddle’s definition of “common sense,” with Idia ultimately concluding, “Ahaaa. I get it. You’re only so bigheaded because your brain’s already crammed to bursting with info. Okay, that explains everything. ‘It’s too haaard! You can’t expect me to learn all thaaat!’ That’s you! Fine! Go whine in the corner for all I care!”

Riddle responds, “Seeing someone even more agitated than me actually calmed me down,” and asks Idia why he did not summon Ortho, instead. Idia responds, “I wanted to but I couldn’t, okay?! Without Ortho navigating for Silver’s group, there’s no telling where they’ll end up. Look, summoning you wasn’t my first choice! I just didn’t have any other options… Ugh.”

Riddle says, “…l understand now…If that’s the case, I owe you a debt as housewarden of Heartslabyul,” and accepts Idia’s task, borrowing character merchandise pens and notepads from Idia to memorize the books he has been provided.

Idia sets up a laptop and coding software for Riddle to use, assigning him to repairing the damaged spell structures of the barrier standing between them and Malleus and Riddle declares, “That sounds just like a crossword puzzle!,” making the repairs as he has learned. 

Riddle drops his work at one point in search of more advanced manuals, telling Idia, “As loath as l am to admit it, I never appreciated even a tenth of your brilliance before today!”

Later Riddle says, “I hate to admit it, but I couldn’t have done nearly as much without Idia’s support. I’ve come to realize people call him a ‘maverick genius’ for good reason,” and, “Once I wake up, I’m going to study technomantic engineering a bit more in-depth. Though I have to wonder… If he’s capable of such incredible feats, why is he so devoid of motivation most of the time?”

In Book 7.5 Riddle comments on how much school Idia has been missing while busy at STYX, saying, “I want to ask him more details about the books I read in the dream…The school library has similar books, but they were all less detailed than the ones from Idia’s dream. Their explanations were more vaguely written. The books Idia had were neatly indexed so I could jump immediately to what I wanted to read. The text was clear and concise, with no ambiguity. They were quite well-written. WHY didn’t I think to note the authors?!,” but Cater and Trey suspect that the books Riddle is searching for do not actually exist: “Riddle might be looking for something Idia created from his own imagination.”