Info
Character Name: Roman Sionis (the Black Mask)
Series/Fandom: DC Comics
Original or Alternate: Original (Canon Point: Right before Catwoman v2 #52; happenings in the Man-Bat miniseries are excluded because I said so.)
Age: 39
Overall Info Rating: PG-13 - NC17.
Death: Check with me first; I'm pretty lenient when it comes to bodily harm concerning my character.
Smut: I'm not super-comfortable writing smut from a male POV, but, hell, if it's for the plot, I can manage it semi-acceptably.
Yaoi - Het - Yuri: Roman loves boobs and vaginas. Sorry, dudes.
Appearance: Well. Let's start off with the face. His face is a... skull. A black skull. Long story short, he had a mask carved out of black ebony, and it somehow was fused to his face during a fire. That was in the 80s, and when Roman showed up again in the 2000s, it had gone from a solid-lookin' block on his face to a whole-head, grinning-death's-mask deal. With ears. He still has ears, though. As for eyeballs, he's apparently got 'em- only thing is, some smoke must've gotten into his eyes during that little fire accident, since the irises are crimson.
Face (and about half of his neck) aside, Roman's skin is normal. Nothin' special, just plain ol' caucasian skin. Standing at 6 feet, 1 inches, he weighs 195 pounds. He's always dressed to impress- crisp, clean white button-up shirts (which he keeps clean during the torture sessions by rolling up the sleeves and wearing a 'Kiss the Cook' apron), tie, and a suit. Sometimes if it's extra chilly outside, he'll slip on a trenchcoat.
Personality: Hoh, boy. Roman is a sick, twisted little thing. There is something seriously wrong with him. He's a hardcore sadist (and from that, it can also be mentioned here that he's a total masochist as well- how the hell else do you think he knows about all of this shtuff so intimately?), taking far, far more pleasure in torturing his victims than he probably should. But does he care? No. It's fun for him, and that's all that matters. What's so disorienting about him, though, is how absolutely jovial and pleasant he is while he's got you tied to the wall and he's shoving a hot poker into your ear. Chatting away, cracking jokes- you can just tell he loves what he does. It's more than likely that Roman knows everything there is to know about the fine art of torture.
Not only does he love to torture people, he's a huge lover of power and control as well. It didn't take long for him to become obsessed with carving himself a large niche in Gotham's criminal word. He might not have been all that good at running a cosmetics company, but he's proven that he's more than capable of running a highly successful criminal organization. Just because you work with him (or, rather, for him) doesn't mean you're safe, though- he has no problem with offing you, and if he does decide your time is up, it's not gonna be quick, and it's not gonna be fun. By the way, make sure you don't attempt to cheat him out of something, or lie to him, double-cross him, anything like that- you can almost guarantee he'll find out, and it's not gonna be fun for you when he does. Of course, it's totally okay for him to do any of the above to you- that's because he's special.
There is one thing he really, really hates, though- hypocrisy. Lying, cheating, rape, murder, torture, robbery, killin' little kids- that's all well and dandy, but if you're a hypocrit, you're not gonna want to come anywhere near Roman. Y'can thank his parents for that.
Despite all of these fun little personality quirks, though, Roman generally seems like a happy person. Although, who knows, it might just be the way his face looks.
History: Roman started his life by being dropped on his head by the doctor. Literally. Right after he popped outta mommy, the doctor dropped him right on his head. Oopsie-daisy. His parents, though, being far more concerned with keeping up appearances, didn't sue the doctor or anything. They just shushed the incident, kept it under wraps. His parents, by the way, sucked majorly.
As a child, he was forced to become 'friends' with young Bruce Wayne (neither of the boys really liked each other), since his parents were 'friends' with the Waynes, wanting to improve their social circle. Thing is, though- his parents hated the Waynes, and were constantly telling young Roman how much they hated the Waynes and how they were only pretending to be their friends to pump up their social status. This, obviously, led to Roman's little problem with hypocisy.
One summer, the family went on 'vacation' to some fancy-smancy wooded place. It was here that Roman thought it would be a good idea to try to pat a raccoon and make friends with it (he thought it was Bandit the Raccoon from some movie he had recently seen). Hey, stupid plan, but he was just a kid. Bad idea- the raccoon chomped him, infecting him with rabies. He had crazy-as-shit hallucinations for awhile, before the chauffeur found him. A doctor was called in by helicopter, and, once again, it was all buried and kept hush-hush.
He made it through school, not an outstanding student, but still passing. After graduating from high school, he began working for his father's company, Janus Cosmetics, being given a nice, high-up-there position. Pretty soon after, he fell in love with a woman named Circe, who worked in the company as a secretary. Unsurprisingly, Roman's parents didn't like this- she wasn't rich, she wasn't in the same social circle as them- she was a secretary. So, what do they do? They demand that Roman end the relationship. More than a little upset with his parents, Roman set fire to the family mansion, killing both of his parents.
Thanks to this little move, he inherited the family's money, as well as the business. Problem with this was that he sucked as a businessman, throwing money here and there without effect, and eventually running the company into the ground by pushing out a line of face-paint makeup that no one wanted. He tossed more money around, and the chemists working for the company came up with a line of water-proof makeup. Roman shoved the product out without testing it, which turned out to be a not-so-good thing to do, since the make-up proved to be poisonous, permanently scarring and disfiguring hundreds of women.
The company now bankrupt, Circe said 'see ya' to Roman, breaking off their engagement. Turns out she was just a shallow bitch who only liked him when he had money. It was now that Bruce Wayne came swooping in, offering to bail out Janus Cosmetics. However, there was one condition- Roman would no longer have control over the company, and Wayne would appoint his own board of directors. Roman said yes, but he was not happy about it. I mean, out of all people, it had to be Bruce fuckin' Wayne. It was at this point that his sanity seemed to slip a little, and he paid a visit to the family mausoleum, smashing his mother's ebony coffin. Taking a piece of it, he carved himself a mask. Ta-da! The birth of the Black Mask.
Soon after this, he found out that, while may not make a good make-up company businessman, he fucking rocked at crime. Pretty soon, he'd gotten himself nice and comfy as a crime lord, forming a large gang which he called the False Face Society. The only catch to being in the FFS was that you had to wear a mask at any and all times when you were working or near Roman. Now that he was a crime lord, Roman figured- hey. Time to screw over Bruce Wayne. With this idea in mind, he started snatching up people who worked in high-up positions at Wayne's company, slapping masks onto their faces that were slathered with the leftover poisoned makeup that had fucked Roman's company over. While he was on the revenge train, Roman decided it was time to get reunited with Circe. Hunting her down, he screwd up her pretty face, too. Take that, bitch- time to get back together. This didn't work out to well, though- Circe ended up killing herself because she wasn't pretty anymore. Roman, with his not-very-there mind, decided that, fuck it, who needs a woman when you have a mannequin? That's right, he replaced his dead fiancee with a mannequin.
Bruce Wayne, predictably, didn't like or agree with having his executives kidnapped, mutilated, and killed. Since Bruce Wayne is actually Batman, this led to that led to this, and he discovered it was all Black Mask's doing. He hunted him down, finding Roman in the remnants of what used to be the Sionis family mansion. Roman thought that now would be a good time to set the ruins on fire to cover for his escape, but this little plan backfired on him. He, himself, was caught in the flames, and horrible disfigured, himself- the ebony masked was fused onto his face. Permanently. Don't ask me how this works, it just does. Shut up.
So, Batman dragged him out of the fire, and shipped him off to Arkham. However, as per the usual in Gotham City, Roman escaped from Arkham and restarted the FFS. He took up his campaign against Bruce Wayne once more, burning down various properties that Wayne owned. His campaign came to a head when he kidnapped Lucius Fox, but Batman saved Fox before Black Mask could have any fun with him. Unfortunately for Batman, Roman escaped. Ha ha.
It was now that Roman went through a really, really bad, unstable time in his life. When Gotham was devastated by a huge earthquake, and cut off from the rest of the country, Roman took off his mask (despite it being fused to his face... THESE ARE COMIC BOOKS DO NOT QUESTION THEM) and started his own cult. The cult's favourite activity was ritual scarring, and membership wasn't voluntary. You either joined, or you died. Batman, with Huntress's help, put an end to this cult, sending Roman to the Blackgate Penitentiary. He didn't stay there long, though, since he escaped.
After this, Roman seemed to disappear for a time, before returning full-force, setting up camp in Gotham's East End. He seemed to have regained control of his mind at this point, no longer locked into a psychotic state. It was here that he started up a criminal organization, dealing with drug trafficking. Catwoman stole some money, diamonds, all that jazz from him, using it to help the poor. Roman, not being the charitable sort, didn't like that. He discovered Catwoman's secret identity, and it's from this point on that they become 'arch enemies', if you will. He becomes obsessed with destroying her life. She started a youth center using the money she had snagged from him- so, hey, take this, he blew it up. Next up on the menu, he kidnapped Catwoman's sister, Maggie, and Maggie's husband, viciously torturing them both. He made Maggie watch as he tortured her husband to death, and, once he was dead, well... that was when the real fun began. He gouged out her husband's eyeball, force-feeding it to Maggie, driving her to utter insanity. After this, he kidnapped Catwoman's friend Holly. All of this sent Catwoman over the edge, shit happened, and it ended with Catwoman and Black Mask fighting. This little fight ended with Catwoman watching as Roman fell off the building.
For awhile after this, everyone figured Roman was dead. Hah, idiots. When Roman came back, it was during the whole War Games fiasco. Spoiler (also known as Stephanie Brown, who was Robin for awhile) was telling the plans behind the War Games to Orpheus. When she finished, Black Mask murdered Orpheus by slitting his throat, capturing Spoiler. He tortured her for a long time, putting her through a lot of shit (including his favourite toy, a power drill). From this torture session, he gained some more information about the plans, and left her chained to the wall, assuming she wouldn't escape. Well, she did, kinda. When he came back, she wasn't all tied up in chains anymore- the little shit had somehow gotten out of them. She came flying out of the shadows like the costumed freak she was, and attacked him. Didn't work, though, since it ended with him shooting her in the left side of her chest, and then kicking her sorry ass out the door and down a flight of stairs.
Roman now took on Orpheus's identity, fooling everyone into thinking he actually was Orpheus, and fucking the entire city up, driving it into further madness. Roman then found out the location of Oracle's clocktower, mistakenly thinking it was Batman's Batcave. He broke into it, and Batman followed him, and they started fighting. And fighting. And fighting. To make them stop, Oracle pressed a self-destruct button for the tower, forcing Batman to save her.
Just like he had in the past, Roman once more escaped.
At this point, Roman rose quickly up through Gotham's underworld, eventually becoming its overlord. Now, it was time to screw up Batman's rep and make everyone hate him. He teamed up with Arturo Rodriguez, a reporter who slammed Batman again and again in the newspapers, etc, Black Mask began dressing up as Batman and doing horrible, horrible things. Unfortunately, the Joker poked his nose in, ruining the whole damn thing. Two sadistic, similar personalities meeting- yeah, not good. A bit too similar to each other for their liking, they clashed, and would have killed each other if Batman hadn't appeared. Roman was finally caught- but, again, not for long. During his arraignment, he escaped, killing two armed guards, three civilian bystanders, and the presiding judge for the arraignment. All while in handcuffs. Pretty impressive, no?
Roman still held power in Gotham, but his hold was getting a bit shaky. Why was it getting shaky? You can thank Red Hood for that, since Red Hood also wanted to control Gotham's Underworld. Red Hood blew up Roman's nice, shiny office building, destroying it; he stole from him; taunted him; led him on and on.
Eventually, Red Hood agreed to peacefully settle things with Roman. Roman accepted, offing all of his capos so they wouldn't freak out about him making peace with Red Hood (hell, the way he looked at it, he could always replace him with new ones). But, turns out Red Hood was lying. They fought, and it ended with Roman stabbing Red Hood with his own knife. Only it wasn't Red Hood, it was some random dude transmitting audio from Red Hood through the helmet he was wearing. Batman arrived after the fake Red Hood had been killed, and that was when RH's helmet blew up, in an attempt to kill BM. It didn't work, and, once again, Roman escaped.
So, now, Roman's pissed. He wants his fucking power back. And he's well on his way to getting it back. He's once more set on destroying Catwoman, demonstrating this by capturing her former (or maybe not, I don't really pay attention to Catwoman) lover, Slam Bradley, torturing him and carving a message into his chest and stomach- "Hi, CW! THE FUN is just beginning. ;)"
Series/Fandom: DC Comics
Original or Alternate: Original (Canon Point: Right before Catwoman v2 #52; happenings in the Man-Bat miniseries are excluded because I said so.)
Age: 39
Overall Info Rating: PG-13 - NC17.
Death: Check with me first; I'm pretty lenient when it comes to bodily harm concerning my character.
Smut: I'm not super-comfortable writing smut from a male POV, but, hell, if it's for the plot, I can manage it semi-acceptably.
Yaoi - Het - Yuri: Roman loves boobs and vaginas. Sorry, dudes.
Appearance: Well. Let's start off with the face. His face is a... skull. A black skull. Long story short, he had a mask carved out of black ebony, and it somehow was fused to his face during a fire. That was in the 80s, and when Roman showed up again in the 2000s, it had gone from a solid-lookin' block on his face to a whole-head, grinning-death's-mask deal. With ears. He still has ears, though. As for eyeballs, he's apparently got 'em- only thing is, some smoke must've gotten into his eyes during that little fire accident, since the irises are crimson.
Face (and about half of his neck) aside, Roman's skin is normal. Nothin' special, just plain ol' caucasian skin. Standing at 6 feet, 1 inches, he weighs 195 pounds. He's always dressed to impress- crisp, clean white button-up shirts (which he keeps clean during the torture sessions by rolling up the sleeves and wearing a 'Kiss the Cook' apron), tie, and a suit. Sometimes if it's extra chilly outside, he'll slip on a trenchcoat.
Personality: Hoh, boy. Roman is a sick, twisted little thing. There is something seriously wrong with him. He's a hardcore sadist (and from that, it can also be mentioned here that he's a total masochist as well- how the hell else do you think he knows about all of this shtuff so intimately?), taking far, far more pleasure in torturing his victims than he probably should. But does he care? No. It's fun for him, and that's all that matters. What's so disorienting about him, though, is how absolutely jovial and pleasant he is while he's got you tied to the wall and he's shoving a hot poker into your ear. Chatting away, cracking jokes- you can just tell he loves what he does. It's more than likely that Roman knows everything there is to know about the fine art of torture.
Not only does he love to torture people, he's a huge lover of power and control as well. It didn't take long for him to become obsessed with carving himself a large niche in Gotham's criminal word. He might not have been all that good at running a cosmetics company, but he's proven that he's more than capable of running a highly successful criminal organization. Just because you work with him (or, rather, for him) doesn't mean you're safe, though- he has no problem with offing you, and if he does decide your time is up, it's not gonna be quick, and it's not gonna be fun. By the way, make sure you don't attempt to cheat him out of something, or lie to him, double-cross him, anything like that- you can almost guarantee he'll find out, and it's not gonna be fun for you when he does. Of course, it's totally okay for him to do any of the above to you- that's because he's special.
There is one thing he really, really hates, though- hypocrisy. Lying, cheating, rape, murder, torture, robbery, killin' little kids- that's all well and dandy, but if you're a hypocrit, you're not gonna want to come anywhere near Roman. Y'can thank his parents for that.
Despite all of these fun little personality quirks, though, Roman generally seems like a happy person. Although, who knows, it might just be the way his face looks.
History: Roman started his life by being dropped on his head by the doctor. Literally. Right after he popped outta mommy, the doctor dropped him right on his head. Oopsie-daisy. His parents, though, being far more concerned with keeping up appearances, didn't sue the doctor or anything. They just shushed the incident, kept it under wraps. His parents, by the way, sucked majorly.
As a child, he was forced to become 'friends' with young Bruce Wayne (neither of the boys really liked each other), since his parents were 'friends' with the Waynes, wanting to improve their social circle. Thing is, though- his parents hated the Waynes, and were constantly telling young Roman how much they hated the Waynes and how they were only pretending to be their friends to pump up their social status. This, obviously, led to Roman's little problem with hypocisy.
One summer, the family went on 'vacation' to some fancy-smancy wooded place. It was here that Roman thought it would be a good idea to try to pat a raccoon and make friends with it (he thought it was Bandit the Raccoon from some movie he had recently seen). Hey, stupid plan, but he was just a kid. Bad idea- the raccoon chomped him, infecting him with rabies. He had crazy-as-shit hallucinations for awhile, before the chauffeur found him. A doctor was called in by helicopter, and, once again, it was all buried and kept hush-hush.
He made it through school, not an outstanding student, but still passing. After graduating from high school, he began working for his father's company, Janus Cosmetics, being given a nice, high-up-there position. Pretty soon after, he fell in love with a woman named Circe, who worked in the company as a secretary. Unsurprisingly, Roman's parents didn't like this- she wasn't rich, she wasn't in the same social circle as them- she was a secretary. So, what do they do? They demand that Roman end the relationship. More than a little upset with his parents, Roman set fire to the family mansion, killing both of his parents.
Thanks to this little move, he inherited the family's money, as well as the business. Problem with this was that he sucked as a businessman, throwing money here and there without effect, and eventually running the company into the ground by pushing out a line of face-paint makeup that no one wanted. He tossed more money around, and the chemists working for the company came up with a line of water-proof makeup. Roman shoved the product out without testing it, which turned out to be a not-so-good thing to do, since the make-up proved to be poisonous, permanently scarring and disfiguring hundreds of women.
The company now bankrupt, Circe said 'see ya' to Roman, breaking off their engagement. Turns out she was just a shallow bitch who only liked him when he had money. It was now that Bruce Wayne came swooping in, offering to bail out Janus Cosmetics. However, there was one condition- Roman would no longer have control over the company, and Wayne would appoint his own board of directors. Roman said yes, but he was not happy about it. I mean, out of all people, it had to be Bruce fuckin' Wayne. It was at this point that his sanity seemed to slip a little, and he paid a visit to the family mausoleum, smashing his mother's ebony coffin. Taking a piece of it, he carved himself a mask. Ta-da! The birth of the Black Mask.
Soon after this, he found out that, while may not make a good make-up company businessman, he fucking rocked at crime. Pretty soon, he'd gotten himself nice and comfy as a crime lord, forming a large gang which he called the False Face Society. The only catch to being in the FFS was that you had to wear a mask at any and all times when you were working or near Roman. Now that he was a crime lord, Roman figured- hey. Time to screw over Bruce Wayne. With this idea in mind, he started snatching up people who worked in high-up positions at Wayne's company, slapping masks onto their faces that were slathered with the leftover poisoned makeup that had fucked Roman's company over. While he was on the revenge train, Roman decided it was time to get reunited with Circe. Hunting her down, he screwd up her pretty face, too. Take that, bitch- time to get back together. This didn't work out to well, though- Circe ended up killing herself because she wasn't pretty anymore. Roman, with his not-very-there mind, decided that, fuck it, who needs a woman when you have a mannequin? That's right, he replaced his dead fiancee with a mannequin.
Bruce Wayne, predictably, didn't like or agree with having his executives kidnapped, mutilated, and killed. Since Bruce Wayne is actually Batman, this led to that led to this, and he discovered it was all Black Mask's doing. He hunted him down, finding Roman in the remnants of what used to be the Sionis family mansion. Roman thought that now would be a good time to set the ruins on fire to cover for his escape, but this little plan backfired on him. He, himself, was caught in the flames, and horrible disfigured, himself- the ebony masked was fused onto his face. Permanently. Don't ask me how this works, it just does. Shut up.
So, Batman dragged him out of the fire, and shipped him off to Arkham. However, as per the usual in Gotham City, Roman escaped from Arkham and restarted the FFS. He took up his campaign against Bruce Wayne once more, burning down various properties that Wayne owned. His campaign came to a head when he kidnapped Lucius Fox, but Batman saved Fox before Black Mask could have any fun with him. Unfortunately for Batman, Roman escaped. Ha ha.
It was now that Roman went through a really, really bad, unstable time in his life. When Gotham was devastated by a huge earthquake, and cut off from the rest of the country, Roman took off his mask (despite it being fused to his face... THESE ARE COMIC BOOKS DO NOT QUESTION THEM) and started his own cult. The cult's favourite activity was ritual scarring, and membership wasn't voluntary. You either joined, or you died. Batman, with Huntress's help, put an end to this cult, sending Roman to the Blackgate Penitentiary. He didn't stay there long, though, since he escaped.
After this, Roman seemed to disappear for a time, before returning full-force, setting up camp in Gotham's East End. He seemed to have regained control of his mind at this point, no longer locked into a psychotic state. It was here that he started up a criminal organization, dealing with drug trafficking. Catwoman stole some money, diamonds, all that jazz from him, using it to help the poor. Roman, not being the charitable sort, didn't like that. He discovered Catwoman's secret identity, and it's from this point on that they become 'arch enemies', if you will. He becomes obsessed with destroying her life. She started a youth center using the money she had snagged from him- so, hey, take this, he blew it up. Next up on the menu, he kidnapped Catwoman's sister, Maggie, and Maggie's husband, viciously torturing them both. He made Maggie watch as he tortured her husband to death, and, once he was dead, well... that was when the real fun began. He gouged out her husband's eyeball, force-feeding it to Maggie, driving her to utter insanity. After this, he kidnapped Catwoman's friend Holly. All of this sent Catwoman over the edge, shit happened, and it ended with Catwoman and Black Mask fighting. This little fight ended with Catwoman watching as Roman fell off the building.
For awhile after this, everyone figured Roman was dead. Hah, idiots. When Roman came back, it was during the whole War Games fiasco. Spoiler (also known as Stephanie Brown, who was Robin for awhile) was telling the plans behind the War Games to Orpheus. When she finished, Black Mask murdered Orpheus by slitting his throat, capturing Spoiler. He tortured her for a long time, putting her through a lot of shit (including his favourite toy, a power drill). From this torture session, he gained some more information about the plans, and left her chained to the wall, assuming she wouldn't escape. Well, she did, kinda. When he came back, she wasn't all tied up in chains anymore- the little shit had somehow gotten out of them. She came flying out of the shadows like the costumed freak she was, and attacked him. Didn't work, though, since it ended with him shooting her in the left side of her chest, and then kicking her sorry ass out the door and down a flight of stairs.
Roman now took on Orpheus's identity, fooling everyone into thinking he actually was Orpheus, and fucking the entire city up, driving it into further madness. Roman then found out the location of Oracle's clocktower, mistakenly thinking it was Batman's Batcave. He broke into it, and Batman followed him, and they started fighting. And fighting. And fighting. To make them stop, Oracle pressed a self-destruct button for the tower, forcing Batman to save her.
Just like he had in the past, Roman once more escaped.
At this point, Roman rose quickly up through Gotham's underworld, eventually becoming its overlord. Now, it was time to screw up Batman's rep and make everyone hate him. He teamed up with Arturo Rodriguez, a reporter who slammed Batman again and again in the newspapers, etc, Black Mask began dressing up as Batman and doing horrible, horrible things. Unfortunately, the Joker poked his nose in, ruining the whole damn thing. Two sadistic, similar personalities meeting- yeah, not good. A bit too similar to each other for their liking, they clashed, and would have killed each other if Batman hadn't appeared. Roman was finally caught- but, again, not for long. During his arraignment, he escaped, killing two armed guards, three civilian bystanders, and the presiding judge for the arraignment. All while in handcuffs. Pretty impressive, no?
Roman still held power in Gotham, but his hold was getting a bit shaky. Why was it getting shaky? You can thank Red Hood for that, since Red Hood also wanted to control Gotham's Underworld. Red Hood blew up Roman's nice, shiny office building, destroying it; he stole from him; taunted him; led him on and on.
Eventually, Red Hood agreed to peacefully settle things with Roman. Roman accepted, offing all of his capos so they wouldn't freak out about him making peace with Red Hood (hell, the way he looked at it, he could always replace him with new ones). But, turns out Red Hood was lying. They fought, and it ended with Roman stabbing Red Hood with his own knife. Only it wasn't Red Hood, it was some random dude transmitting audio from Red Hood through the helmet he was wearing. Batman arrived after the fake Red Hood had been killed, and that was when RH's helmet blew up, in an attempt to kill BM. It didn't work, and, once again, Roman escaped.
So, now, Roman's pissed. He wants his fucking power back. And he's well on his way to getting it back. He's once more set on destroying Catwoman, demonstrating this by capturing her former (or maybe not, I don't really pay attention to Catwoman) lover, Slam Bradley, torturing him and carving a message into his chest and stomach- "Hi, CW! THE FUN is just beginning. ;)"