William

Very charismatic, people tend to like him when they meet him, friendly, kind of helps ppl talk about difficult things happening in their lives, so to say hobby psychologist? Tho he doesn't call himself that. He can be flirty but not too persistent, he gives ppl space and usually just tries to be the person they need at the time.

It's the modern age. The internet, smartphones, cars. Easy access to information, travelling is affordable for everyone who saves a little. Even big distances are rather effortless to pass. Let's take our eyes to England, London. A young adult called William. He fits right in with the times. A very modern liberal lifestyle without many restrictions. He's hugging his parents, both light hearted people who only wanted their best for their son. Their… Slightly unusual son, but it's their son, so they don't care about the small details. We will come back to address those later. William is about to seperate from the two and make his way into a country that had peaked his interest for a while already. Japan.
In this place, a slightly unusual story is about to take place. But for William, this story is rather secondary. He will have a supporting role, but he won't get involved too much. That is, because he will have a fated encounter that will bring back some old precious memories, he had almost forgotten about.

As William arrived at the airport he took a deep breath of the japanese air. It was the beginning of a new chapter in his life. He was gonna open a bar in Japan. Everything was prepared. He had been here several times before, he knew the language, he had prepared everything. The only thing left now was to move in and open the bar.
He took a taxi to his new home and opened the door. He would be living in a small apartment above the bar. Only two Cardboard boxes were not unpacked. And for now they would stay that way. One of these boxes contained diaries. A lot of them. He had filled them all himself. And they contained many precious memories. Words and pictures. He had started taking them from the moment he first got his hands on a camera.
And the other box. This one was special. He put his hand on it, left it there for a moment, taking on a melancholic smile, before he looked away and went into the apartment. He would have to take them away from the entrance way the next day. For now it was time to sleep.

The bar was successful. The first few days brought in many customers. All sorts of people showed up. William knew what he was doing. He knew a lot about different sorts of Alcohol, but he knew just as much about people. A lot of customers came to talk to him. And he would cheer them up or give them advice. And somehow after a while the bar became a meeting place for queer people. People who did not fit in anywhere seemed to feel welcome there. Within these people there was a girl that stuck out to him. She was called Obsidian. Objectively a very unusual person and the first step to the encounter he would have soon.
William assumed Obsidian to be a cosplayer at first. She had horns on her head, a tail that could move around. And her eyes… However she came like this over and over again. She reminded him of someone. But he could not tell. Why would she show up like this over and over again? Wasn't it inconvenient? Sometimes it seemed to him, like these parts of her were real.

At the time William did not pay much attention to it. He was doing work in the bar in the evening and went out in the city during the day. Just walking around, trying to get to know people. As he went shopping once he met a guy called Tsubaki. They seemed to have similar tastes in clothes, as it turns out they like similar music and their personalities are very compatible. Over time they became very good friends. It's possible that he became sort of like a little brother to William. They went out doing Karaoke a lot, sometimes they went to concerts together. William would often give him advice for his relationships, watch him mature. For him these years had long passed. He couldn't remember it properly, his first love, his uncertainty back then. Watching Tsubaki helped him remember some of these things.

Yes. Tsubaki was a great friend. Just as him.

Alastor.

William shook his head. Why did he think of this name right now? Alastor was indeed a person he once knew, but he wasn't his friend. Rather the opposite.
William lived his life as usual. And then it happened. The before mentioned encounter. In the corner of his bar there was a hooded person. A person glaring at him with unusual eyes. William served that person as he served everyone else. But he recognized that glare. He knew this person. It was the same eyes as Obsidian, yet sharper, more glaring. Nothing friendly about them. More like… Emptiness. That was Alastor.
„Is it time for me to die again?“, William asked with a smile as all the guests apart from Alastor had left. Alastor shook his head. He looked at the ceiling. „This time… I just want to talk.“

It has been several decades since William had last met that person. You may wonder how it could be such a long time. Maybe you've noticed how many of William's thoughts are the ones of an old man rather than a young adult like I described. I think it's time to explain. Here comes a flashback.

Let's jump in the time machine and go waaaaay back. I'm not quite sure about the exact year but we're several hundred years in the past now. The location is a ship in the midst of the ocean. A man wearing very unique black leather clothes with golden elements on them is the captain of the crew. At this point he isn't very well known. And it will take a few hundret years until his name will appear in the legends. Davy Jones is commanding this ship. Right beside him a young adult, a bandana around his head, but very unusual white hair. And even though his face is carved by the weather and his body a little more sturdy, it's unmistakeably William. He looks different. He's got a saber on his belt, some tattoos that he doesn't have in current times. And two of his fingers seem to be missing. No there's more. Some scars are visible as well. He doesn't look like a bartender. No. This William is a pirate. Working under his captain Davy Jones.
If we take a look up, we can see the black flag. Two crossed sabers below a skull. Other people, Davy's crew members are scattered all over the ship. Some playing cards, some throwing knives, some just talking to each other. A few are working.

A guy with glasses is sitting on an empty barrel that probably once contained Rum. He had his long dark brown hair tied back while drawing on a big canvas. He could do a lot of things. He was able to cook, he could wash clothes, he could clean, he could do all the housewife duties. But he was also a good artist. Many of the crew members had gotten tattooed by him. And when there was a fight, he would stand back and later nurse all the injured. However William could not recall his name. Even though this person was so important to him. They were… More than just friends back then. But it was long ago. Yes very long ago.
Only days after this they arrived at the goal of this treasure hunt. They went into the cave the treasure was supposed to be in. And there were no traps. It went too well. It should have been a red flag, but they got too excited about the treasure to think about such things. They arrived without problems. And they went and collected it. They had found bags full of treasure. And as they were about to carry it back, the traps activated. And soon after that they died of starvation in that cave. Everyone died. The only one to survive was Davy Jones, as he isn't a mortal being.

Davy Jones was buried in sorrow and anger and all sorts of other emotions. And these emotions formed a curse. A curse that would revive all of the crew members. And after they would die they would revive again. They would be reborn in similar bodies however not entirely the same bodies. They would not have their memories. They would only recognize things connected to their former lives subconsciously. Their names would be the same, as their parents will get a feeling that no other name would fit their child, but that was about it. William however was different.
Fast forward a few hundred years, this is one of the entries in his diary:

„I am a ghost. I died long ago. Yet I'm alive. And when I die, I will come back. Again and again. I feel sorry for all the parents who give birth to me. They want to look forward to an innocent child, nurturing it, raising it. Seeing it grow. But their child will be eaten up by me in the womb and I'll come out and I will go back to my old form, haunting the world like a sorrowful ghost. I wonder why I cannot die. I wonder if there is anything left for me to do.
I'm starting to forget who I even am. My name stays the same… I'm William. That's how I was called. Always. Right? I… can't remember many of my old comrades' names and faces… Did we really once cross the oceans together? What was our ship like? I only have my scars and the fading ink of his work below my skin left. What was his name again? I forgot. It hurts to forget. I can't see it properly anymore. The pictures he put in my skin with his needles. Soon they will disappear entirely. And my scars… I think i lost 2 fingers in that accident… no was it 3? They came back. I was regenerated without them at first. But each time it healed a little bit. Now there isn't a trace left of the injuries. I'm losing everything that was me. I feel like I'm disappearing slowly.
Would they recognize me if they met me again? I wonder. Maybe I should just let it happen. Forget. And start over. I shiver thinking about it. I feel empty.“

This went on. And William forgot. He forgot names and faces. But he wrote down everything he remembered. It became blurry. He started questioning his own writing. But what could he do about it? This hopelessness followed him for many years.

Let's jump into the time machine again and see where it leads now. We're getting closer. The later half of the 15th century, England. William is living as the attendant of a local lord. Somewhere in the city a boy is born. He's born to a woman who keeps her face hidden. Apparently suffering from heavy burns. The son wasn't seen by anyone but her and her husband. People are very uneasy about this. They feel like this woman is hiding something. People from the church come to investigate. The father unsure what to do is hiding with his son. He doesn't see any way to escape the situation and calls his wife out to be a witch. She had controlled him and cursed his son. And thus the woman's face was revealed by the inquisitors. She had green spots on her skin, the part of her eyes that was supposed to be white was yellow, her pupils had an odd shape. And most importantly, there were horns on her head. And below her gown she had hidden a tail. And to add to this, she looked as young as 20 even though she had lived so many years already. They were afraid of her. Calling her demonic, calling her a witch, telling her she had made a pact with the devil. It was decided for her to be executed.
Her son on the other hand was given the choice. Either he would be executed along with her or he could prove he wasn't approving of his mother by becoming the person to kill her. This would give him a life as an executioner ahead of him. People often looked down on the executioner. But he did not want to die. So he chose the hard part of life. As a seven year old boy he was supposed to kill his own mother.
He cut off her head, as they instructed him to. But she survived. Her head reattached itself. Next he drowned her. But she survived. She could breathe underwater. Eventually he was asked to burn her. Finally she died. And the boy's emotions had died. He would later become known as the legendary executioner Alastor. Appointed by the god of legends, Ragnarök himself.

William had quietly watched this. The boy reminded him of someone. But he couldn't tell. Alastor lived at the lord's mansion doing executions. It's obviously not all he did. There weren't too many people to be executed, so his main job would be to do surgeries and autopsies. He became a surprisingly good doctor. And after some time it was inevitable: The lord noticed that William was not aging. He became increasingly uncomfortable. Alastor had stopped aging as a young adult as well but that was due to his demonic mother. William on the other hand was scary to him. And thus he was executed by Alastor. For William that wasn't the first time to be executed. Often times his parents had abandoned or killed him upon seeing his rapid growth. It was inevitable. It often took him some deaths in a row to get to a place where he could live in comfort. But this time… It was special. He was executed several days later by the same Executioner. And then again. When he was finally reborn in another area he managed to survive. A few years later as the old lord died and the new one took over, he moved back to the city he lived in before. And Alastor recognized him. And William was executed again. Alastor was absolutely creeped out at this point. He killed him many more times. Never once did he give William the chance to explain himself. To him William was someone like his mother. Someone who had made a deal with a devil. He had collected several corpses of William, all in the same tomb, all looked the same. It was horrifying.

William gave up on talking to the executioner and decided to move to London at one point. It was the elizabethan age. William lived an incredible time of his life there. The Theatre was flourishing and writers such as Shakespeare and Marlowe are favorites of his to this day. He also found it very curious that Shakespeare died on the same day he was born. For William that would be reversed order. He would always be born on the same day he died. That is the reason he got Shakespeare's birthday tattooed onto his collarbone a few decades later. Having the same first name as him was a funny coincidence as well.
It was also the time to finally come to peace with the fact that he wasn't the pirate William anymore. As a last goodbye to his old life, he went on a ship as a sailor apprentice. The ship would cross the place that marked the end of his original life. When he saw the cave they tried to go in. But it seemed like a barrier of sorts was protecting it. People would get horrible headaches or their ships would gain damages, other problems might occur as well. Only William could go in easily. He was surprised to find the inside completely unchanged. He found everyone's corpses… surprisingly well preserved. He found his own corpse as well. And he looked at himself, his former self, and realized how much he had changed. It was a weird feeling. And in his hand, there was a necklace. He took it. He felt like it was something special. It was just a necklace with a bell attached to it. They all looked so peaceful. This place was a grave. For him and his crew. Maybe he would come back again at one point. He laid down on the mountain of gold and treasure and looked up to the ceiling. That all really happened. It wasn't his imagination. His fading memory had not betrayed him. He felt a bit bad about disturbing his own grave but before leaving, he decided to take some items that belonged to them. Not the treasure, just… Regular items that would remind him of his crew mates. So that he would never forget them again. He put them in a bag and left. To him it was also a promise to come back one day.

Back in England he lived a good life for a while. Until he crossed ways with Alastor again and died. He was reborn and following a gut feeling he rang the bell. His parents… Forgot. About him. About his birth. He smiled. This would be useful. That way he wouldn't have to constantly torment people.
More years passed. He met Alastor a few more times, always ending with Williams death, but after taking his valuable items he would disappear to another city. He started enjoying life. Taking the items of his crewmates with him felt almost like traveling with them again. He got over the fact that he looked different now. And so he went on until reaching modern times. He wasn't involved in any of the wars. Generally he lived rather peaceful. He tried his luck as a bartender, a job he really enjoyed. A job he would probably do more often.

At some point he decided to start a little experiment. He committed suicide a bunch of times, in order to see if he could find parents that would accept him just the way he is. And indeed after some trials he found them. Parents who did not judge him for being different. Parents who were confused but not appalled by his rapid growth. They were a bit disappointed that all the toys they bought went to nothing but they decided: Well in that case, William gets a little brother or sister at one point. After living with them for a while William left to go to Japan. And there… He met Alastor again. Flashback end. Back to present.

Alastor did not come to kill him. This time he came to talk. It seems he had changed over the past few years. Executioners weren't needed anymore so he had to find a better job. Considering his unusual looks, it's unsurprising he wasn't successful. Instead he ended up living with some people, who were in similar situations to him in some regard. And he realized, William might be one of those as well. He had been thinking about it a lot. If it was the correct choice to execute his mother back then. He was convinced she was the root of all evil in his family. His father kept telling him the same thing as well. But was that really the case? He figured the only one he could talk to about this would be William. Alastor learned of Williams' story. He learned of his rather odd immortality curse.
Once both of them opened up a little, it was obvious how much both were suffering. And how good it felt to finally have someone to talk to. They met a lot after the bar was closed. William felt an odd sense of nostalgia from their conversations. He couldn't pinpoint it however. Although Alastor's face was covered by a mark, labeling him as a god of death, it looked familiar to William, now that he could take a closer look at it. And the name… When he thought of a good friend, why did Alastors name pop up? That was before they started talking.
As William started to tell his own story, everything started to slowly clear up. Alastor seemed to know pieces of the story before William told them to him. And eventually, William decided to open the box. The second cardboard box. And he decided to show Alastor what was inside of it. The executioner's eyes widened as he saw the contents of the box. He recognized the things, the items William took from his grave. Carefully he took out a picture with a frame.
„Do you know this picture?“ He asked William. He nodded, of course he'd know. It was a picture of William, that the person most important to him drew and always carried with him. Alastor… That that was his name! Alastor was the person… William put his hand on his mouth. It couldn't be, right? The person who had been killing him over and over… Were the others reincarnated as well? Alastor opened the frame and pulled out a rather bad drawing, that kind of looked like the executioner with glasses and without the markings in his face. „This was in here as well. You drew it, didn't you?“ He smiled. For the first time William had seen him smile. And it was that face. That face he had fallen for so long ago.
He nodded. Tears started flowing as William realized: He was not alone anymore. On this Immortal nightmare. It took them very long but for both of them, this moment was rather unbelievable. „So you're… You're really that Alastor? And your memories returned just now?“, William asked to make sure. Alastor looked up at the ceiling, smiling, undoubtedly very happy. „So it seems. By the way, since when did you become a crybaby, your makeup will end up all ugly“, he commented. Both of them laughed, opened a bottle of rum and enjoyed the night, just as they would have in the old days.

Both William and Alastor had changed a lot. Both of them had been through a lot. But sometimes strong feelings can defeat those barriers and open new paths for people to connect or reconnect in this case. [Authors note: Sorry for being cheesy for once. But please just be happy for the two, they've been through a lot and deserve a happy end. I mentioned before, they were more than just friends, yes they were indeed lovers and they will be lovers again.]

While William and Alastor reunited, a different story started to unfold as well. It was one Tsubaki, Wiliams good friend, got entangled with. William did not notice at the time, however, the person Tsubaki had a crush on, wasn't human. It was a creature known as the black dog. He should've noticed from his name: Grimm. It was another immortal being that had been living in the human world for a very long time. William had never met him before, but he had indeed heard rumors.
Only when Tsubaki talked to him about his concerns regarding Grimms occasional disappearances, the refusal to tell him where he would go, William started to investigate.
It was just in time. Because of Tsubaki's involvement with Grimm he was abducted. Grimm did come to his rescue, however, the kidnappers had the upper hand. Had William not stepped in, Tsubaki might have died. However, he decided to trust Grimm. After all, the guy did come to save Tsubaki, without a thought about his own safety. A bit more thinking would've been good but he did rush in, that's what counts.
William decided to keep his involvement secret and occasionally help out Tsubaki from the shadows in case something like this might happen again, but he will mainly stay a casual friend and hobby psychologist for Tsubaki. Not talking about supernatural things and immortality. Just enjoying his time with a good friend.
Thus Williams' story ends.

I'M JOKING! Of course it doesn't. He will have more side appearances in the story that is Grimm vs. Titania. And of course his relationship with Alastor will progress further. He might get a little brother or sister soon. That would be a first for him as well. Not to mention… Grimm is connected to Davy Jones. Who knows. Maybe there will be a reunion at one point.
For this toyhouse entry however, I will say goodbye. I hope you enjoyed reading! I did try to make it an interesting read. Although I do admit my writing could be improved here and there… I'm not very good at this.