T. Casket in his early adult life had a LOT of social status and wealth. He and Ghost’s mom, (Sigourney Ghost) only got married after they found out she was pregnant. He had no interest in her or the baby, but she didn’t know; in fact nobody in their lives knew what he was really like. Everybody thought he was charming, a good businessman, and a smart match. It was the 80s, so they got married.

(See here for a short hc about Ghost’s mom being a demonologist/demon hunter in the 80s-90s)

Pretty soon, T. Casket’s mask came down and he started acting like a completely different person around her and Gregory. He was cruel, twisted, selfish, abusive, empty, and scarily uncaring. That’s who he always was underneath, he just stopped hiding it.

The divorce was ugly and T. became a recluse, spiralling in his obsession with power, demonic rituals, and the secret rites of the local occult. Gregory was still sent back and forth between his mom’s apartment to T.’s mansion way outside of town (up to about age 6). T. was more financially stable than Sigourney and had more influence, so he got split custody.

T. managed to dig up and harness some demonic powers, but the mansion itself was a hotspot for demonic activity because of T., and it’s why Cardboard Friend was drawn to that house (T.’s bad vibes literally festered into a portal to hell). Also he has 100% killed and buried people there. I haven’t decided the exact extent of his abuse of Gregory/Ghost/Jimmy.

(Also Ghost/Jimmy are trans, I just don’t have a deadname for them rn)

Sigourney Ghost (demonologist) found out T. was doing all of this and abusing their kid, so she effing killed him and no one in town knows shit.

Johnny Ghost took her last name. She taught him everything he knows about hunting demons, but not everything she knows.

(here’s fanart of dead evil dad)

T.’s obsessions and the costs of covering up his crimes were expensive, and by the time he died, T. was nowhere near as wealthy as he used to be. He didn’t leave a will (or he destroyed it), so what was left of his estate went to Sigourney and Johnny Ghost by intestate succession, but it pretty much just went towards getting them out of poverty. Nobody claimed the mansion, it’s still abandoned, and Johnny Ghost has no memory of any of this or his father. Most people in the area who used to know the Casket family now barely remember the name.

─── ⋆⋅ ♰ ⋅⋆ ───

Dr. Toast (Johnny and Gavin’s dad) is an evil scientist who used Gavin as a lab rat to manufacture Gavin’s powers (which kind of do whatever serves the plot, whether it’s green fire magic, paranormal wobblywoo, sorcery wibblywo, “acalacam”, etc). He didn’t subject Johnny to this because Johnny was the control group.

The experiments only ended because Gavin’s powers were faulty and weak and degenerative to his body, which his dad just saw as a personal failure and a waste of his time. Their family never talks about it and made sure to firmly sweep it under the rug with the rest of their secrets and familial shame. Johnny and Gavin’s mother moved them to the US with their grandmother (not the queen, their other gran) to get away from all of this when they were 8.

Johnny Toast is still sort of in contact with his father because he can’t cut off one person without cutting himself off from the whole royal family, like Gavin did.

So over the years, Dr. Toast heard some details about Johnny’s friends, specifically Ghost, and started looking into what happened to the Casket family. He was intrigued by T.’s work with demonic rituals, found his inhumanity and atrocious parenting amusing, and wondered what they could have done if they’d worked together when T. was alive.

Now Ghost and Toast are adults, and Dr. Toast either resurrects T. Casket or makes a deal with his spirit so they start working together to combine their horrifically-illegally-obtained research and abilities

The adventures of two evil divorced dads running from their many malpractice charges and plotting to kill the sons they hate

Dr. Toast and T. Casket have zero regard for anyone else’s lives when it comes to science or magic. They both believed their work and endless pursuit of power was much more important than the wellbeing of their kids, and they still do.

They had wives and children and successful day jobs because it was the 80s/90s and that’s what was expected of them. They did it without a second thought, not because they loved their wives or wanted a family. They only saw it as something they stood to gain from.

Although they can work in a lab together, they fight constantly because they’re both gigantic egomaniacs who are allergic to making morally good choices

ik his name on the wiki is Jonathan Toast, but after consulting the wisdom of the PIE HQ discord group, we like the name Benedict Toast (breakfast food ass name) and Shirley Toast for the twins’ mom

Also T. can shapeshift into a crow (haven’t decided if this is in any way related to Officer Maloney lmao)

They’re both frighteningly good at manipulating people, and they used to be charming and had a lot of status/money. Otherwise they never would have gotten away with this shit for as long as they did

(yeah somehow Peter Capaldi as Angus Flint is the T. Casket face claim)

maybe someday i wont get hugely fixated on made-up versions of irredeemable scumbag bottom-of-the-evil-barrel characters but not today