Alias: None
Allegiance: Independent
Sex: Male
Race: Caucasian human
Age: 32
Height: 5' 8â
Weight: 159 lbs
Appearance: Zsasz's face is a rectangular shape with gaunt cheekbones and slightly sunken in cheeks. His eyes have seemingly perpetual dark circles below them from a chronic lack of sleep. Formerly yellow-blond, Zsasz has shaved his head to make room for a dull red tattoo of an orb surrounded by wing-like markings. His right ear has been pierced, and he will occasionally wear earrings, usually taken from his victims. His back is covered in a similarly colored tattoo. Much of Zsasz's body is covered in scars of varying length, fashioned to resemble tally marks. Often he stands hunched, making him seem more stocky than he truly is. Only very rarely does Zsasz wear a shirt or shoes, and usually limits his clothing to a simple pair of black pants.
Personality: Nothing matters more to Zsasz than ending the suffering of others. In fact, nothing else matters to Zsasz aside from ending the suffering of others. He prefers to follow chosen individuals for extended periods of time, learning their habits, mannerisms, tendency, and quirks. When he feels that he knows his target well enough, he will wait until they are as alone as possible before killing them, usually by cutting their throats. To remember the occasion, he carves a tally mark onto his skin as a physical representation of the memory. If asked about a single mark, Zsasz can recount the knowledge he gathered on the particular victim associated with that tally.
Zsasz is, more than anything else, a predator. His mannerisms tend to reflect those of a beast more than those of a human. He will snarl, growl, or even snap like a feral dog if he feels threatened, and his speech can be slow and stilted. While he is no doubt brutal in his ways, some tenderness does remain in Zsasz, and may occasionally manifest. It is not uncommon for Zsasz to pet, nuzzle, and hold his victims as he murders them. He may also mutter macabre, yet honeyed poetry into their ears.
Goals & Ambitions: Zsasz intends to slaughter as many people as he can in an effort to rid the world of as much suffering as possible.
Abilities & Equipment:
Superior Strength and Agility- Wiry yet muscular, Zsasz is capable of taking down those unskilled in hand-to-hand combat with ease, and can hold his own against those with such experience.
Serrated Blades- Zsasz prefers knives above all other weapons, thinking them to be more reliable than any other weapon. He favors the serrated variety and usually carries at least one with him at all times.
Selective Superior Long-term Memory- Zsasz has close to perfect memory of what he has observed of each of his victims and can easily recount this information on command. This recall, however, does not apply to any other aspect of his memories. Zsasz has an only slightly above average memory when it comes to any information unrelated to his victims.
Business Management- While he almost never employs this skill anymore, Zsasz is very capable of running a business efficiently and profitably. Organizing people and resources would still be an effortless task for Zsasz if his urge to kill were to be suppressed for whatever reason.
Weaknesses: Zsasz is averse to wearing armor or even any kind of clothing, leaving his flesh exposed. Having a form of monochromacy that causes him to see the world in shades of red, Zsasz may be incapable of picking out certain color-based details in his environment. In his attempts to become personally invested with his chosen victims through stalking, Zsasz may allow more time to be discovered.
Personal History: Zsasz was born into wealth, his mother a freelancing computer sciences expert, and his father the owner of a successful business. While he had difficulty relating and understanding other children his age, he developed a very close relationship with his both of his parents which would be consistent throughout the rest of their lives.
Around the time he was nine, Zsasz was diagnosed with cone monochromacy. Unbeknownst to both his parents, his doctors, and himself, Zsasz was in fact capable of making out a single color, red, and its various hues. His vision was and remains completely tinted red. The symptoms resembled true total color blindness closely enough for him to to be effectively accommodated for his disability, but the diagnosis was nonetheless not technically correct.
Zsasz proved himself to be more than capable intellectually and showed particular proficiency in the understanding of economics. On the building blocks his parents had provided for him, he started his own company at 21 while he was still in college. At the same time, he entered the stock market, hoping to make money on the side. Very rarely did his decisions end up hurting his income, and his company had grown exponentially by his twenty fifth birthday. While his decisions could be ruthless when it came to the treatment of his human resources, Zsasz justified himself by pointing out that his ultimate priority was profitability.
At 28, Zsasz lost his parents to a freak boating accident. Devastated by the loss of the only people he truly felt any genuine care for, Zsasz fell into a deep depression. He turned to gambling, and, while he had been excellent with money in a more corporate environment, Zsasz turned out to have little luck in the casinos of Gotham. His habit continued for at least two years as his company broke down from the inside out and his personal finances, both self-made and inherited, were whittled away at. At last, he found himself at a poker table in the Iceberg Lounge, playing against one Oswald Cobblepot. Certain he could win and return his life to normal, Zsasz gradually bet everything he had left on this game. On the final hand, however, Zsasz found that his luck once again had run out, and lost to a straight flush conjured up by Cobblepot.
Alone, lost, and weeping, Zsasz wandered the streets for a while after that game, questioning his life choices. He find his way to one of Gotham's many bridges and looked over the edge for the longest time. As he was about to jump, though, a man approached him with a knife, and demanded his money. In a fit of rage, Zsasz was able to take the knife and drive it through the man's neck. The moment that he did so, Zsasz found himself feeling uncharacteristically satisfied, more so than he had ever been in years. He realized that, for all its thrilling sensations, life ultimately leads to more suffering than any other emotion. The most selfless action that one could ever do therefore must be the act of killing another, preventing any further suffering. His purpose renewed, Zsasz took the knife and sliced a tally mark on his arm as a reminder of the suffering he had removed from the world by taking a life.
Occupation: Professional criminal
Family: Mother- Irene Mallory-Zsasz; deceased
Father- Gabriel Zsasz; deceased
Additional Information: None