Zachariah Zheng

• General design elements.
  • Brown hair. They put an enormous amount of effort into making it look good when they aren't in a depressive spiral and letting it accumulate grease.
  • Green eyes. They're often tired and it shows.
  • They're 5'6 and thin. They're like a beanpole.
  • The only legitimate piercing they have is their ear piercings, but they definitely wear fake piercings all the time.
• Siren-specific design elements.
  • Z, like most of the current siren generation, is pretty convincingly human. This is accentuated by the fact that they blend in with human society pretty well on account of well, living in it.
  • They have sharp canine teeth.
• Personality.
  • Z is just kind of an asshole, to be honest.
  • They're generally rude to people they meet, though it isn't usually a conscious decision. It's very much a defensive tactic they've developed in the wake of all the anxiety socializing causes them.
  • They're kind of defeatist, at least in the beginning, regarding their depression. They don't believe there's ever going to be a chance for them to get better, and sometimes they don't know if they want to get better.
    • They do get better, eventually.
  • When they warm up to others, they become less of an asshole. Usually.
• Talents.
  • They're good at styling themselves.
  • They're remarkably thrifty.
• Siren-specific abilities.
  • They're out there eatin' people. As they do.
  • If frenzied, they're a physical force to be reckoned with, but that literally never happens, so.
  • They can pass on a siren's curse, and that is their preferred hunting tactic when it comes down to it.

Z's mother, Selma Zheng, was in a distant relationship with a siren in her youth. During that time, she was not only inflicted with a siren's curse, but she also became pregnant with Z. That siren, having become romantically attached to Selma and thus frightened by their feelings, chose instead to run from them, leaving Z in her care. Before they left, however, they left a crucial hint into the cure for the sirens curse. One that would be incredibly helpful to someone inflicted with it.

Setting aside from that little origin story, Z spent nineteen years with their mom, facing the trials and tribulations of any human teenager while facing the added difficulty of being half-siren. While living with Selma, Z was unruly. Their social circle? Whack. Their habits? whack. Z very much acted like a spoiled white kid despite being a low-income Asian one.

Eventually, both Z and their mom would be at their wits end with each other, and Z would leave to join other sirens in an attempt to find a place where they felt they belonged.

Despite this attempt, they found little solace in the company of sirens or humans, and instead shut out the vulnerable parts of themselves and developed and outward persona in order to cover up their feelings towards their supposed isolation.

Or, well, they've always been a little bit of an asshole, but they're more of one now.

Really, the only person Z isn't an unruly asshole around is Paisley, who they met in their freshman year of high school, kissed, became best friends with, developed a crush on, and lived with for a year before eventually pushing her away and setting their own self-improvement ten steps back. She still cares about them a lot, and they wouldn't admit it, but they still care about her.

Not that they'd tell anyone that.

Currently, Z spends most of their time being mad at the world for not recognizing their talent and genius, and finds themselves recruited by Antigone, the main antagonist.

They do make the switch from minor antagonist to major annoyance, eventually, and when they do their story aims less in the direction of petty villainy and more in that of self-betterment and recovery. Z's recovery in particular is a little rocky at first, but they're getting there. They're trying very hard.

• They got really into anime during high school.
  • When I say "really into anime" I mean trashy anime. They watched Yamada's First Time and they've got a lot of opinions on it.
• Similarly, they play bad visual novels and dating sims in their free time.
  • Yes, they have played Doki Doki Literature Club, and they do have a lot of opinions on it, and their favorite girl is Natsuki because fuck you.
• Their mom is Chinese-American and their absent parent is racially ambiguous and so Z just tends to go with saying that they're Chinese-American.
  • They sometimes get profiled as Japanese by weebs and the reasoning is always, "well, you like anime," and they are so Tired.
• They don't know any second languages aside from English. They took a mandatory French class in high school but they don't remember shit from it.

• Paisley. 💞
  • As a crush and a friend, and also as someone they have an admittedly complicated relationship with.
  • Half of the people they've hooked up with or dated in the past remind them of her. It's a bit of a problem.
• Starbucks.
  • Specifically making the most complicated and terrible orders possible.
  • "Hey, I'd like a coffee with so much sugar and milk that it's practically a milkshake, and i want it with eighteen shots of espresso."
• Attention.
• Happiness and fulfillment.
  • Love to actually feel it someday, haha.
  • Please help them.

• People who are better than them.
  • If you were wondering, this massive inferiority complex does come to grips with their crush on Paisley constantly.
• Being alone.
• Their mom.
  • Again, this comes to grips with the fact that they do want to have a good relationship with their mom.
• Florence.