Rupert Steiner

Ru was an only child, born into a poor household. From what he remembers, both parents were in and out jobs, and often would be left alone so both could work. It was made very clear to Ru that he was an unwanted child and an unwanted mouth to feed and was treated very poorly and often abused. It was from around the age of 6 that things had got worse though, his parents deciding to try and use their child and claim what they can in handouts and benifits rather than send him to school. They claimed him to be all manner of problems such as sickly, simple and mentally and physically unwell. They would psysically and mentally harm him so he would appear the way they wanted him too. This Munchausen by Proxy went on for about a year, but it was when Ru nearly blew the whole story up by sneaking out to play with a neighbour, that his father completely lost control of his tempter, taking his belt to him.
Ru could bare to take no more, and while his parents argued that evening, Ru took off into the night and never looked back.

Managing to get himself as far away as he could, Ru continued to live on the streets for just over two months. It was a trial by fire to learn about the world other than just through a TV screen. But to Ru, this was luxery and freedom compared to the life he had.
Travellers came into town and that peeked Ru's curiosity, even more so when he found out they were also a travelling circus. He snuck in to the show and his eyes shone with pure wounder at the sight of the acrobats flying about the stage. He was fourced to be incapable of doing anything but now, he could try and do what ever he wanted. He waited till all the audience had gone before the 7 year old showed himself and pleaded to be allowed to join them. The immediate response was telling him to get lost, appart from one lady there who approached him. Vianne saw him for the scared child that he was, and took the boy in as her own, despite what the others thought.

Vianne was proud to have Ru as her son. She could not have children of her own and she felt she was blessed to have found him. He was a child with a kind nature, one far beyond a child of his age; very observant to other people's emotions. Vianne knew that this was due to his cruel childhood, something she gradually found out. The abuse certainly left him mentally scarred as well as pysically, but slowly over the years, training to be an acrobat, he grew to be a seemingly strong and confident individual. It's not to say he is without his scars, but he let's his personality over-rule as best he can, his sense of humor and gift of the gab always landing top trumps.

Ru is unable to read or write due to his upbringing and when he joined the Circus, not many wanted much to do with him being an outsider and Ru felt he wanted to focus on catching up with the other kids on acrobatic training rather than certain parts of education.
Today, he actually is one of the lead performers in their main duel act of the show, specialising In trapez.

He may come across as a typical flirt at times with his travellers charm, but it all tends to be a front for his own low self esteem and mental struggles.