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5 years, 11 months ago
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"I promise, I take no enjoyment from scaring anyone. Most people are just afraid of me anyway."


BASIC INFO:

Name: William Alden

Gender: Male

Chronological age: ~600

Physical age: 17

Species: Ghost

Height: 5'7''

Sexual orientation: Asexual

Setting/timeline: Earth, various timelines

Connections: Anita (best friend), Spike (friend)


BACKSTORY:

Short version if you're in a hurry:

Medieval servant boy accidentally finds out a dangerous secret held by the baron of his town. He is promptly executed to prevent him from spilling the news to anyone else. After a few centuries of aimless ghostly wandering, he makes friends with a human girl named Anita - one of the only humans who's ever been able to see him.

Normal version:

William grew up in medieval Scotland in a village called Candlewick. He worked as a servant in a baron's castle. One day, his curiosity led him to accidentally discover Baron Godfrey's darkest secret. William was executed to stop him spilling the news to the whole town (which he certainly would have done if given the opportunity). He woke up as a ghost and could not be seen or heard by anyone, even his parents.

After this, William had a stale existence, wandering aimlessly from place to place. He was very lonely, as he rarely met anyone who could see him, and those who did were usually scared of him.

In the 1900's, he got on the wrong side of a witch and she cursed him to haunt an all-girls boarding school for eternity. After living there for 15 years, he was seen by a student named Anita. To his surprise, she didn't run from him in terror, and they became friends. Anita freed him from his curse, and he can now wander in and out of the school freely.


PERSONALITY:

 Positive: Caring / Honest / Polite / Humble

Negative: Pessimistic / Overly curious / Self-loathing

William is a polite, humble person. Raised to understand the importance of good manners, he behaves in a courteous, helpful way to everyone except those he strongly dislikes – and it's hard to get him to dislike you. He's accepted his lot in life (death?) and rarely complains about anything, though he is not optimistic. However, when he does resent someone, he'll make sure they realise it, acting cold and disapproving towards them while still maintaining a certain politeness. He tends to get flustered when people are genuinely kind to him, since he's not used to being treated that way.

William is extremely curious and habitually pokes his nose in where it doesn't belong. He became a little more cautious after death, but is still very inquisitive. If he develops a friendship with someone, he'll start asking them a lot of questions about themselves, though will stop if he senses them becoming exasperated by his behaviour. He is very quick to apologise.


DESIGN:

William appears as a thin youth with grey skin and hair, both of which are ghost characteristics. His left eye is green and his right is brown. His hair is long, curly, and usually tied back in a ponytail. He usually wears a brown waistcoat, off-white breeches and tattered brown shoes.

William has a large stab wound in his chest that bleeds sluggishly from time to time; because of this, he wears bandages under his clothes to soak up the blood.


ABILITIES:

William can freely pass through objects and people. However, he can also make himself tangible to physically interact with things. He can change his clothing and hairstyle instantly with magic (but can't do anything to remove the execution wound on his chest).

He is invisible to most. Only a few people (generally known as 'The Gifted', though they go by other names) can see and hear him.


RELATIONSHIPS:

Anita

Anita met William after he was cursed to 'haunt' her school. She was the first person there who didn't run screaming or pass him off as a hallucination, and they quickly became close friends. As the years pass, Anita develops a more motherly attitude towards him as a result of the fact that she grows older while William stays looking 17 forever. He stays with her for life, following her through several house moves, marriage, and the raising of her family. Though he often disappears for weeks at a time, he always returns to her in the end. Anita dies of natural causes after a long, fulfilling life, and as she dies, William stays by her side to reassure her that death isn't really frightening.

Spike

A mischievous Poltergeist who William ended up befriending. He's a troublemaker, but has a good heart and genuinely cares about his friends. It's uncertain exactly what kind of relationship they have, but they are undoubtedly close.

Kaitlin

The witch who once attacked William, cursing him to haunt an all-girls boarding school. Since escaping the school, he's had a couple of other encounters with her, which usually end with Kaitlin attempting to curse him again and William fleeing.


TRIVIA:

- Enjoys cleaning and tidying; during the years he was trapped in the boarding school, he'd often clean up in the middle of the night, greatly confusing the staff. 

- Can't resist the lure of gossip, even though he believes it's rude to talk about others behind their back.

- Likes painting (his mother was an artist and he learned from her). He's not a professional, but can paint quite well.

- Is left-handed.