He Shouldnt Have Been Surprised That Somebody Would Find This Spot Eventually. Gotham Was Crawling With

He shouldn’t have been surprised that somebody would find this spot eventually. Gotham was crawling with vermin, both the four-legged and two-legged variety and somewhere deep down, Roman knew he couldn’t have expected his makeshift ‘storage’ to have remained undiscovered indefinitely. Unfortunately the pigs had been making life difficult as of late, combing the city bay for missing persons, forcing him to seek alternative dumping grounds for his unwanted trash. Abandoned buildings like this were a dime a dozen here in the area. Derelict shadows of their former selves, these long-forgotten places provided the perfect refuge for dropheads and other sorts of homeless scum. Weeks had gone by, allowing the pile to steadily grow in size as Roman waited for the heat to die down, the evidence of his crimes becoming too spoiled for anybody to be able to determine their causes of death let alone deduce Black Mask’s guilt. Roman suspected he might have had a visitor when he heard odd sounds echoing from down the hallway. His men shuffled awkwardly, looking to their boss for a signal but Roman quietly raised his hand, indicating for them to be quiet. The sounds continued, strange and almost surreal in nature - somebody was definitely here, or an animal at the very least, prompting them to delve deeper into the shadows with a fresh corpse in tow thinking that if another had discovered this location, adding their body to the pile would only save them the hassle of having to find yet another dumping ground. The light of a torch cut through the darkness, illuminating the fetid tomb. Time had not been kind to the bodies, though the seasonal chill had slowed down their rot somewhat. Roman expected to see an animal amongst them perhaps, drawn here by the stench of carrion or maybe some drug addict who’d spaced out, losing his way in search of a quiet place to shoot up. What he hadn’t expected was to find somebody eating the corpses. One of his men gagged, doubling over and vomiting the contents of his stomach all over the filthy floor. Roman elbowed him out of the way with an idle mutter of “pussy” before turning his attention to their unwelcome guest. His gaze held firm, lingering in disgust on the decaying flesh that the man had wiped off his lips.

”Glad you ain’t gonna insult my intelligence with a bullshit line like that. Would be hard to buy even if I hadn’t just seen you chowing down on a week-dead corpse like a starving man at an all-you-can-eat buffet.” Or smelled him; the freshly-open body was particularly ripe. Roman’s eyes narrowed as they scanned Jules - his surprise upon having stumbled across the morbid scene had made quite him forget about shooting whoever he found in here, at least for the time being anyway. “I’ll be frank. What in the ever-living fuck is wrong with you? Can’t be that down and out you need to eat my goddamn rotting bodies. What’s your name, freak?”

Well then. Jules knew it had to be too good to be true.

His nose drew him to this isolated place, the thick scent of human decay luring him like honey lures a bear. There were bodies here- more than one, although the most recent one was within the last week. Bodies of men with dark thoughts, traitors, violent actions... violent ends. Before Jules had even thought it through he was on his hands and knees, his teeth sinking into a corpse's arm as he chewed through rotten flesh and snapped through bone.

Then someone turned their torch on and Jules' head shot up, the detached arm literally hanging from his mouth. At the very least, they certainly weren't cops... not with one of them having the head of a black skull.

Jules let go of the arm and he wiped off the sloughing flesh from his lips. "Gentleman," he rasped. "I'd tell you it's not what it looks like. But that'd be a poor lie, wouldn't it?"

@masquenoire

@caestusvulpes​ They started selling Squishmallows where I work and I want the Sabertooth Tiger so badly asdfghjkl 🐅😭

so what got you into black mask? i don't see him getting rp'd much, just curious. I enjoy your portrayal btw!!!

Thank you very much for sending this, Jan! Honestly, Roman was a very random decision at the time as I’d only just gotten back to Batman and DC in general after... god knows how many years, and was quite intimidated by the roleplaying community after not having written for so long but Black Mask seemed to be one of those ‘niche’ muses - you know, interesting enough and with plenty of backstory and lore to dive into, but not so many roleplayers around so no fear of treading on another person’s toes? I didn’t expect Roman to be so much fun but he has - he’s brutal, he’s crass, just an absolute prick and *completely* unapologetic about it too but that’s the appeal of his character, that he knows what he wants and isn’t afraid to chase it with all guns blazing.

Eliza presses a kiss to his head.

“Nice. Can think of better places you could kiss though...” Roman chuckled, having felt just the slightest amount of pressure and warmth on his disfigured skin.

I love your Roman and I love how deeply you think about his background, connections with others, interactions with his environment, etc…

Every time you post HC I read them and appreciate how much care you put into your writing 🫀

This was such a lovely message to receive, thank you Ciar! I appreciate it very much as often times I don’t like my writing very much or feel something’s lacking, that there isn’t the same depth to it unlike other people’s portrayals. Hearing this really means a lot to me and to not fixate so heavily on negative feelings and thoughts. ♡

Roman can feel most unsettled when it comes to being hugged. He’s fine with being touched, especially on his own terms during acts of intimacy and other sensual games but platonic shows of affection and comfort are something he really struggles to contend with. His parents were far from being affectionate people and when they were, it was only during public events to show off what a ‘wonderful’ and ‘caring’ family they were. Roman can’t help but freeze when hugged, finding the sensation alien to his senses and difficult to accept.