Backstory

Past

Growing up Casper, from the beginning, was supposed to be the one taking over the Pierce empire one day. It was the only thing his father Cyrus had in mind.
His mother Samantha, while knowing about her was out of the boy's life rather early on. She was his mother, yes, but not the wife of his father, who only searched out someone who could grant him an heir.
Despite only having so little time with his mother, he only remembered her fondly. His father however, not so much.
Cyrus cared for him, always bought him what he asked for, trained his magical powers with him and let him roam around and have whatever hobbies he wanted to have, sure. But his father always remained emotionally distant.
He rarely recieved any hugs or joined him in normal father-son activities. He was there and provided for him, but that was basically all he did.
This led Casper to look for approval and love elsewhere. It was draining, but he was happy whenever he made some of his friends laugh and want to hang out more or his teachers gave him praise for his good grades. Still it seemed like he was always busy studying or doing other activities so he wouldn't have to think of what his life lacked, keeping himself busy with other things.

Upset with his son for not keeping up with his magical training, Cyrus forced him to work more on his powers again, forbidding him to go out aside from school until he showed some improvements.
While he made basically no progress with his shapeshifting, his fire magic on the other hand sprouted new results fast.
He managed higher temperatures, lighting things on fire without even looking at them and even his projectiles got stronger. Cyrus was very pleased with this but continued to push him, just like his own father did until Casper eventually came to a breaking point.
The boy was so stressed with trying to improve and do good to be able to get away from his father again that he got too invested.
His projectiles got too unstable that he lost track of their trajectory, he accidentally lit things on fire when only thinking of them but the worst of all the temperature got only higher until his own body got affected by it as well. He kept heating up more and more. His footprints leaving the ground scorched in flames. Others were being burned badly only by touching him. Even Cyrus started having trouble keeping his fire contained.
Seeing everything around him being hurt or upset by his powers only broke him even more. He wanted to do good so badly to be done with this so why was it all going bad again?
Eventually he even accidentally set one of his maids on fire. While she screamed he panicked, only making his control worse until he eventually couldn't handle it anymore and the fire took completely over, sparks lighting up all around him and flames pouring out of his eyes and mouth.
Cyrus went in, trying to calm him down with something he never received before, a hug from his father but even after trying to clear his mind and holding tighter onto his father, it took several of Cyrus's men with ice or water related magic to stop the disaster.
From then on instead of trying to strenghten his magic, his father made the decision to suppress it instead. Not only did Casper almost destroy their home and kill multiple people inside but more importantly he almost got himself killed as well.
He wanted a powerful heir to take over after him, yes, but having a son who was too dangerous for his own good was not what he intended for at all.
Since that day Casper never even tried to use his fire magic ever again. Apart from his father's genuine concern, he was too scared himself of what could happen otherwise. Eventually he even tried to forget this day ever happened to begin with and focused even more on studying and his hobbies than before.

As he turned 14 he first found an interest in performing for a crowd because of a theater course at school. He loved it! Finally he found something he genuinely wanted to spend his time with instead of only looking to get distracted from his life at home, putting on a show and entertaining people.
As he told his father however, he wasn't being taken serious like so often before, brushing it off as yet another silly hobby of his son to distract him from what awaits him in the future.
Time and time again Casper tried to impress him. He practiced his lines with him, did little standup routines, reenacted scenes, anything he could think of but whenever he mentioned he would consider doing something like acting later on in life, his father only rolled his eyes, still not taking him seriously.
This lasted three more years until he finally broke down.
He was trapped in an environment devoid of love with anything he could wish for. Anything but being truly seen by his father.
Despite hating the memory of that day, he really thought that the incident would have brought the two closer as it was one of the most notable instances were his father showed actual feelings regarding him even if it was only terror and fear. But of course, he was wrong.
He missed his mother more than ever. He knew she was doing well for herself and still cared for him from what his dad told him but since Cyrus wanted to handle his upbringing completely on his own, he never saw her again.
He was sick of being trapped in a life like this. All of this just to later in life take over the family business and repeat the cycle. He wanted out.

Present

One day as Casper was packing his things for a perfomance, his father stopped him in his tracks and demanded him to take of his silly costume to accompany him on a business trip to the Mortal Realm but for the first time ever, Casper refused. He was sick of it.
Instead he stepped up to him and told him how his demands made him feel and hurt him but he just laughed in his face.
Angry he got his bag and went to the door but his father stopped him. Again he demanded him to stop his "act".
Casper finally snapped and pushed him away but to their surprise Cyrus got thrown against the wall pretty hard. As Casper looked at his hands they were engulfed in blue flames...
Scared he backed away not knowing what just happened. Didn't the training work? Why was the fire still so easily triggered? As his father got up again, brushing some dust from his suit, he wasted no time and grabbed the boy by the collar so he couldn't attack him a second time.
He mentioned how his powers seemed to still be as strong as the day he almost died so they'd have to enact stronger means of repressing his magic as it clearly hasn't worked before.
Too scared of finding out what those means were going to be, knowing his father's methods of getting what he wanted from his enemies already, Casper tried to get away from him, managing to hold onto his hand until he managed to free himself with another burst of flames. Quickly he ran away, escaping his father's pursuit and every one of his men's efforts to get a hold of him until getting away from the property.
He just ran. He couldn't keep doing this. Not with his magic, not with his life, with everything.
Still distraught in the head, he didn't think much of any consequences and ran through the city streets. He didn't know if he was still followed or not but his legs just moved on their own.
Eventually he grabbed a parked motorcycle and tried to hijack it. Luckily his magic helped him at just the right time and so he raced off into the night.

Casper continued to be on the run. Never staying at one place for longer than two days.
With no money or real plan, he had to rely on his still unstable magic to get around while trying to never use it too much to avoid loosing control over it, to steal gas, food or just keep away any potential threats.
The use of his magic proved to be challenging for a long time though. He had no one to teach him how to use it properly and after almost setting himself on fire, he decided to let his magic rest before it got himself killed.

The horrors of the Circus begin

After driving around aimlessly for some weeks, Casper rested near a forrest but wound up overhearing a conversation.
He looked around the corner seeing glimpses of a purple like aura and two beings in it.
Quickly he hid again. From growing up near powerful demons he knew someone having their own aura meant bad news.
He continued to listen to the two beings discussing some kind of circus. Infact one of them was inviting the other for a show.
Even though Casper knew it was none of his business, he couldn't help but want to join them. The circus sounded wonderful with lots of amazing acts and workers. He wanted to join in on the fun so bad.
The beings continued their little chit chat for so long that the boy almost fell asleep but right as the purple aura disappeared again, he decided to take his chances.
Casper came out and hold up the being who stayed.
As it turned out the jester like being already awaited him since he could sense his presence.
So with nothing left to lose Casper just asked him and then basically begged him to join this circus he heard about.
Even though the jester was surprised at first of such a genuine reaction, he was willing to give him a chance and eventually introduced himself as Discord the ringleader.
Casper would later be brought along Discord to the circus and after performing some tricks for him and doing his little stand up routine, Discord was actually impressed enough to make him a worker as a clown in the side parts of the show.
Casper couldn't be happier. Someone finally acknowledged his talents and offered him the future he always wanted.
He quickly got accustomed with some other workers especially the clowns.
One in particular named Bunny got fairly close with him. Because of the two's bubbly nature and love of doing wacky tricks they grew so close that they performed most of their acts together and became best friends.
With new friends however he also found a new father figure to completely replace his old bonds. He was afraid to admit it at first so Discord only accidentally found out about Casper's feelings regarding their relationship.
Luckily his boss took it lightly and accepted it, or so Casper hoped.

Through all of this however, he never experienced the entirety of the circus.
As soon as he asked Discord about the others and why he can't see certain acts, his boss merely brushed him off and changed the subject.
At first he tried to accept it since it wasn't really his business anyway but with time he only grew more and more curious.
One day he brought up the courage to ask one of the Lords named Lady Mallow about the other acts but she only giggled as if unawhare of what he meant.
So with no other options left he finally dared to sneak into one of the private show areas but even the small glimpse of what he saw was already enough to disturb him.
He slowly backed away but Discord was already behind him.
His boss simply picked him up and put a spell on him so he'd forget what he saw moments prior before sending him away again.
Who knew what else he could have done to him if he didn't "like him" as much...

Future

It is uncertain if Casper really forgot or if he just played along but no matter the case, he'd go on to respect Discord even more than he already did and tried to stay in his lane to keep his circus life as fun and exiting as it started out.

Trivia

Magical Abilities

• Just like his mother and father he is capable of extremely powerful fire magic. His flames are light blue, almost white.
  At first his father trained him to be able to wield his powers better and maybe even strengthening them as he seemed very promising, however seeing how young Casper almost burned down Cyrus' entire empire and got himself heavily injured, Cyrus started to suppress his magic the best he could instead.
• Inherited from his father he is also capable of mind control yet, no one knew about this until Samantha took Casper under her wing again.

Facts

• He inherited most of his magical powers and demonic features from his father apart from his horns, which when not filed down would look like those of his mother.
• While his parents can hide their demonic features, Casper is only barely able to because of his bad shapeshifting skills. He files his horns down regulary since he keeps bumping into stuff with them normally.
• In the same vein, the only thing he actively changes are his eyes. Normally they would be a dark green, almost black with green pupils but he doesn't like how scary they look.
• He's pretty bendy and jumpy which came in handy during his time at a circus.
• He often makes fun of himself since it helps him to cope.
• He has undiagnosed ADHD.
• Just like his mom's the two beauty marks under his eyes aren't natural and only done as makeup. He started doing this after going through old pictures of her his dad still had since he really missed her.
• Even though his inherited powers are pretty strong like his father's, since they have been suppressed most of his life, he rarely tries to use them in fear of what could happen.

Relationships

Cyrus [ Father (estranged) ]

Ever since Casper was little, Cyrus strived to make his son into a powerful demon just like himself since he not only inherited his father's magic but also was able to wield even stronger power than Cyrus ever could. But after Baby Casper almost burned down his father's entire empire, Cyrus deemed him to be too powerful for his own good and instead continued to repress his magic. All of his power hungry obsession with planning on overthrowing Satan himself and growing his business however didn't leave much room for a healthy Father-Son relationship and so Casper never felt love despite from the nannies he had.

Discord [ Boss/Father figure ]

Casper will forever be grateful that Discord accepted him into the Circus and respects his boss greatly. The praise and compliments from him he sometimes gets is what he always wished his father could have done and so over time he saw the Harlequester Demon as more of a father figure than Cyrus ever was.

Bunny [ Best Friend ]

The two met right after Casper got accepted into the Circus and with him Casper immediately felt like the two were sharing the same last braincell- They love to do their tricks together and are always up for a laugh if in the same company. If he's with Bunny he feels understood like never before in his life.

Absol [ Good Friend ]

He met them randomly while strolling through the backstage area. At first he wanted to guide them out but after they explained they're with Lady Mallow he calmed down again. To break the following akward silence he started to do some little magic tricks with a coin and it worked. After their initial encounter both of them seeked out the other when they got time because it left them curious. Over time they befriended each other and like to do stupid shit together.

V [ Good Friend/"Uncle" ]

Casper is very attached to V despite him showing little interest in him at all. He often tries his best to try and get V to smile through his tricks or puns and dad jokes. He even calls him, Uncle V since he sees the circus as a big family despite V disliking it greatly and ignoring him when he does calls him that.

Vienna [ Good Friend/"Auntie" ]

Like V, Casper is very attached to Vienna and even gets a bit of recognition from her back. She finds his behaviour rather cute and therefore has no problems with him calling her Auntie Vienna. Still even though she isn't as closed of as V Casper sometimes wonders if she would like him the same without knowing about his powers.

Neko [ Friend ]

They sometimes meet while he is on break from performances since he likes to step out of the tent to get some fresh air. He was the one talking to her first since he wanted to tell her how pretty she looked. Ever since then Neko tried to look for him herself as his happy nature seems to intrigue her.

Puppet [ :) ]

Casper likes them. They're cute :)

Lady Mallow [ Past Authority Figure ]

Casper didn't get to meet her often but from the few times he was near her she was the only one of the lords who gave him a sort of safe feeling. To respect her was way more easy than Lord Delferno and Lady Baudelaire since he doesn't fear her as much as them.