application ♛ taxonomites
Your name/crazy internet handle/whatever: Taryn
Personal journal: buries
Email: wheresthepillow@gmail.com
AIM: wheresthepillow
Characters in Taxon (if applicable): N/A
Character name: Piper Halliwell
Genre (TV/books/etc): Television
Fandom: Charmed
Birthday: 7 June 1973
Canon point: 4x07 Brain Drain-right after the Source throws an energy ball at Piper, knocking her into a wall and into unconsciousness.
Why this Character and Canon point?:
I absolutely love Piper. I’ve loved her ever since the second season premiered on television. The reason why I love her is because of her character journey-from a meek, shy and rather timid woman with little self-confidence and with no ability to stand up for herself, to a sarcastic, quick-witted, confident woman who didn’t take crap from anyone.
I chose my canon point as I felt that the show went shit after this episode. This episode is rather Piper centric and deals with her wanting a normal life-going so far as to suggest making a deal with the Source where he leaves them alone and they stop going after his minions aka demons-and when she’s captured by the Source, she’s stuck in a mental illusion where she’s in a mental hospital, what she knows (her real world) is untrue, she’s mortal without her powers, and Prue isn’t dead, she’s merely come to her senses and declared she’s not a witch. This episode is where I think Piper finds a balance with her Charmed life and her normal life-where she’s finally happy with them both, as when she is saved from the Source’s ministrations, she appears happy to pursue a family with Leo while still being a witch. I wanted to tackle her desire for a normal life-hence taking her from an earlier point in the episode-and trying to see whether I can get her to a place where she’s happy with being a witch and being normal and can easily balance the two with no problems, without the interference of the Source or any crap from the hands of evil. I want her to get there on her own as I feel a lot of her decisions are dictated by her Charmed life and those within the magical universe.
Programmed Possession:
P3, Piper’s club. It will include the entire building and just the space underneath the awning at the front door. No parking lot.
Abilities/Weaknesses:
Basic Witch Powers
→ Spell casting: The ability to cast spells and perform wiccan rituals.
→ Potion making: The ability to brew potions. Piper is exceptional at this.
→ Scrying: The ability to locate a person using a map and a crystal. The crystal drops on the place where the individual is; only works if you have a map of the location where that person is (for example, if the person is somewhere in London, you need a map of London). It’s not reliable as the position of a person can change during the time it takes to travel there. Sometimes uses blood or a personal belonging to focus on that individual.
Charmed One
→ Power of Three: The collective power of the sisters-enhances her powers.
→ High Resistance: Only active when she’s with her sisters. The ability to resist other powers-though can still sustain injury.
→ Agility: The ability to possess inhuman agility, reflexes and speed. Usually possessor only has one of these gifts; Piper does not seem to have one-or has not tapped into one during the course of the show. (Not unless she has Telekinesis).
Individual Powers
→ Molecular Immobilisation: The ability to slow down molecules to the point where time is frozen. This was Piper’s first power, originally triggered by fear. Piper waves her hands-or one hand-and an object/person/environment pauses in time. This power has grown so much that she can do it on command without feeling fear. She can use one hand or use it through an object-such as a toy wand. She can freeze a part of a person-such as their entire body but their head. In the beginning, she could only freeze the area that she was in-such as, she was stuck in a telephone box, thus she couldn’t stop time from outside of the box-and can cover a large area as her power develops. When she travelled to the future, her power had grown immensely that she could freeze an entire neighbourhood block.
→ Molecular Combustion: The ability to speed up molecules to the point where an explosion occurs. This was Piper’s second power and was triggered by anger. This power causes an object or person to explode. Piper uses her hands to use this power. This power has grown to the point where she can use it as a form of deviation-she can blow up a fireball before it makes contact with her. The strength of this power will eventually reach the point where she can selectively blow up a part of a person-such as an arm-and use one hand.
Piper’s weaknesses in a magical sense include her susceptible to possession and being influenced to the side of evil. Piper has been possessed by a life essence and has been body-switched multiple times. She has been transformed into many supernatural beings, including a Wendigo, Valkyrie, Goddess and Superhero, to name a few. Piper can die-and has died nine times during the course of the show. She has been turned into a warlock-a being of evil.
Piper’s major non-magical weakness is her desire for a normal life. She never wanted to be a witch and constantly desired for a life without magic. She has poor combat skills and is seen as the weaker fighter of her three sisters-she relies heavily on her powers (and sisters) to sustain her through physical fights.
Psychology/Personality:
Piper Halliwell was once a neurotic, timid and shy woman who was constantly living in the shadows of her sisters-Prue and Phoebe-and has evolved into a woman who has stepped out from behind her sisters and stands up for herself, speaking her mind and refusing to be taken for granted.
When first introduced to Piper, she is the middle sister, suffering the middle sister syndrome. Her older sister, Prue, took care of Piper and Phoebe while they were growing up after the death of their mother. Her younger sister, Phoebe, was the wild, irresponsible sister who regularly clashed with Prue. Piper found herself to be the mediator between Prue and Phoebe, and didn’t have much sense of who she was as she played Switzerland between the two. During her high school years, Piper wasn’t the most popular student in the year. She considered herself nerdy and geeky, and disliked high school very much. She was reluctant to attend her reunion as there had been no development in her life besides becoming a super powerful witch. She cared too much about what others thought of her.
Being the middle sister seemed to play a large role in who Piper was as a person. When first introduced to Piper, she was meek and shy. She let people walk all over her, despite her own protestations to her sisters. She never had the courage to stand up for herself as she liked to please people. And if there was a problem, Prue was the one who would offer to stand up for Piper. Piper has an incredibly hard time saying “no” at this point in time, allowing people to walk over her and use her, despite her own protests to her sisters. An example is while working at Quake, her boss would ask her to do a list of things, even if she had worked a double-shift earlier that day. He only did this as he knew she wouldn’t say no. It took a lot of courage for Piper to stand up for herself and quit her job, finally admitting that working as a manager at the restaurant was not the same as fulfilling her dream of being a chef.
As Piper came into her powers, she started to grow confident-albeit slowly. Her first power, Molecular Immobolisation, was triggered from fear-which was the embodiment of Piper. She feared life itself. She was destined for this power as she never had time for herself-hence the freezing of time. It can be seen that after Piper gained her Charmed status, she started to realise what she wanted in life -and that was not to be a witch. And for the first time, as seen in the series, Piper fought for what she wanted-she fought against her destiny and constantly questioned her Charmed status, unlike her simply settling for her manager position at Quake, despite interviewing and auditioning for a chef position. Despite how she may be seen to accept the craft, Piper still longs for that normal life where magic is not involved. Even though the spell to relinquish their powers had been burned in their first year as witches, Piper still remembers the spell perfectly. In Piper’s dream world, she’d live a life without magic.
As she grew more confident, Piper slowly developed into a sarcastic and quick-witted woman. She can almost be described as being rather cynical and mean at times. Prue's death played a significant part in the change in Piper's personality. Firstly, Piper’s role as the middle sister was demolished. She had to take the role of the eldest sister and convince her half-sister, Paige, of her true heritage. Piper had to take on a lot of the responsibility left in Prue’s absence. It was considered out of character for Piper to not be accepting of Paige. However, over time, Piper proved to be a mentor for Paige and gradually accepted her. Despite how difficult it was, Piper and Paige grew to have a close relationship over the years. If it wasn’t for Paige, Piper wouldn’t have faced her demons-and that was her anger at Prue for leaving her. Despite the loss of her sister, and the gaining of a new one, Piper still craved for a normal life-even more than ever before.
Piper is a caring individual who cares greatly for her family. However, she is uncomfortable around children, as expressed early in the series. However, a fear of hers is to have a child and leave them motherless, just like her mother did to her. Piper worries that the constant demonic attacks will end up harming her child. She does want children with Leo; however, the timing isn’t quite right during her third and early fourth years of being a witch.
Her Charmed life has effected her friendships. Her friendships are strained and distant at best. This is another aspect of what Piper craves in a normal life. She wants to exist outside of her Charmed status and quit putting her life-family, children, relationships, work and friendships-on hold to vanquish demons. Piper struggles to maintain her friendships and make time for others. She’s determined to retain her friendships despite the interference of magic, however, she never seems to succeed well in this department.
Piper’s dream is to be a chef. She is exceptionally good in the kitchen, thus making her an excellent potions master. This dream was put on hold after coming into her powers. However, she did attempt to gain it by taking a job at Quake. She had originally auditioned for a position as a chef but ended up with a manager’s job. Piper wasn’t happy about this; however, as it was an income, she kept with it. After being incredibly unhappy with it, as her boss pushed her around and she didn’t stand up for herself, she quit her job at Quake after realising that being the manager of the restaurant wasn’t fulfilling her dream of being a chef. Piper soon opened her own club, P3, which would fill the void of her dream for several years. She may not be a chef professionally, but she cooks at home for friends and her family. When she’s nervous, she cooks as she likes to do something with her hands.
All in all, Piper is a caring individual who happens to be a part of a great destiny. Gradually, she has evolved from shy and meek to a woman who stands up for herself and is confident. However, the death of her sister has shaken her to the core, and her already-existing resentment towards her Charmed destiny only amplifies.
History:
The first thing to know about Piper is that she’s the middle sister. The second thing to know is that she’s a Charmed One-a prophesised powerful witch who, with her sisters, will do a lot of good, protect many innocents, and defeat many forces of evil.
At a young age, Piper possessed her first power-Molecular Immobilisation. However, she does not recall ever having been a witch prior to the reawakening of her powers in 1998. Grams had bound the sisters powers to protect the sisters from a warlock who wanted their powers after the birth of Piper’s younger sister, Phoebe. After this event, she grew up without any knowledge of her heritage.
When we first meet Piper, she is dating Jeremy-a reporter who will eventually expose himself to be a warlock, out to get the sisters powers and kill them-and is pursuing her dream as a chef. She recently moved back into the family manor with her older sister, Prue. After the return of Phoebe, their powers are reawaken by Phoebe reading a spell to call their powers. After this, Jeremy’s true intentions are shown, Piper-and her sisters-find out about their powers, and she scores herself a position as a chef at the restaurant, Quake, in the process. However, Quake turns out to be a dud-she ends up as a manager, rather than a chef, and has an exceptionally hard time standing up for herself. This might be a result of Prue constantly standing up for Piper and fighting her battles-and the fact that Piper is the middle sister, feeling as though she’s always in the shadows of Prue and Phoebe. She also is known as Switzerland as she’s always placed in the middle of the two’s fights. In a sense, Piper never pursues the discovery of her identity until she’s given her powers as she’s simply defined as the middle sister-or, as affectionately dubbed, “Switzerland”. During this time, Piper has a difficult time saying no to her boss, constantly going back into work after working double-shifts, only as her boss knows she won’t say no to him. After a truth spell gone awry, Piper gathers her courage and quits her job, realising she is not fulfilling her dreams of being a chef, and also initiates a kiss with Leo-something she never considered ever doing before. She preferred to fancy him from afar and waiting for him to pursue a relationship with her. During this time Piper meets Leo Wyatt-a Whitelighter (guardian angel) under the guise of a handyman-and pursues a sexual relationship with him until he reveals he must return home. She soon learns his true identity, revealing that she’s hurt by his secret, but nonetheless loves him.
Leo departs. Piper opens up a club-P3-which is a step back from her pursuing her dream as a chef. She’s slowly becoming more assertive, though her sisters continue to take her for granted. The club starts off as a dud until Leo pulls a few strings, guiding the sisters into defeating a rather nasty demon who uses Dishwalla’s manager to pull in innocents for him to feed on. After this, P3 is declared one of the hottest spots in San Francisco. Piper pursues a relationship with neighbour Dan Gordon during this time, much to Leo’s dismay. P3 becomes the sister’s source of income as Prue quits her job as Bucklands Auction House and pursues her dream of photography-but has a moment of being unemployed. Piper contracts Oroya fever after smuggling in an illegal fruit; the sisters pull her out of her coma after its been discovered that she has a poor immune system, only to find that the Reawakening Spell they used has not only transferred the disease into a doll, but has woken the disease to the point where it seemed the doll was alive. As people were being infected by this disease, Piper asked her sisters to reverse the spell and she fell back into a coma. She died, though Leo-going against the rules-saves Piper. Leo’s wings are cut and he fights for her. Piper eventually breaks up with Dan-in person, not over the phone, as she respects him too much to do that to him-and pursues a forbidden relationship with Leo.
Year Three sees Leo and Piper attempting to pursue marriage. The Elders-Leo’s bosses-forbid it and during an attempt at eloping, Leo is taken away from Piper before the ceremony commences. Piper goes on strike from being a witch and tries to ignore her witch duties-which aren’t helped by her sisters being verted back into their child-like selves as they try to help save a few fairies from ugly trolls. But after realising her selfish choice could’ve lost them an innocent, she declares herself off strike. During this time, she protests angrily to the Elders and demands they return Leo to her. Piper proved herself to the Elders and Leo is returned to her-with their blessing that the two can wed. The two do wed; however, not without the hiccups of magical interference. Close to the end of this year, Piper is given her next power-Molecular Combustion. She doesn’t like it at first, thinking that it is the Elder’s punishing her for breaking the rules. However, the power proves to be useful, and Piper struggles to control her powers-often blowing things up when she means to freeze them. Not soon after this power, Prue and Piper are exposed as witches on national television after their attempt at vanquishing the Source’s assassin, Shax, and Piper is shot by a wannabe witch. Piper dies, and as Prue is about to be shot by the police squad, time is rewound due to Phoebe making a deal with the Source-at a cost, unbeknowest to them all. Leo, stuck in the Underworld, is unable to know that the two sisters need his assistance-in healing-and Prue is killed by the impact of being thrown into the wall and not being healed in time.
At Prue’s death, Piper is a mess. She gives up on being a witch and declares that she won’t be pursuing it anymore as it’s cost her her older sister. However, Piper and Phoebe gain a new sister-half-sister, Paige Matthews-and have to convince her to help them restore the Power of Three and continue to battle demons, despite the fact that Piper dislikes this idea very much. She struggles accepting Paige-something very out of character for her-and takes on the mentor role, quizzing Paige and trying to bring her up to the level she and Phoebe are at. Piper constantly feels the shadow of Prue hanging over her as she’s now the older sister and has taken on the responsibility left behind. Piper does begin to accept Paige after Paige helps her deal with her grief and admit her anger at Prue for dying. Piper’s control of her powers has grown immensely, and during this year, Leo and Piper consider having children-Leo is for, Piper against, as she doesn’t wish to bring a child into their world at the expense of losing them.
After Piper’s canon point, she falls pregnant with a twice-blessed child, Wyatt; faces marriage struggles with Leo as he is promoted to Elder; finds that her second son, Chris, has travelled to the past to prevent a dark future where she is dead when he’s fourteen (by an unspecified force) and Wyatt has been turned evil; and struggles to balance her Charmed life with her normal life, reconnecting with Leo, raising two boys, and fighting evil all in the same day. Piper opens her own restaurant at the end of the show, and is happily married to Leo-proving that the two are destined to be and have reconnected on a positive note.
In the comics, Piper gains the power of Molecular Acceleration and has pursued her dream of opening a restaurant. She has also had the little girl she met when she travelled to the future. She is, however, still fighting demons-much to her dismay.
Arrival Post (Third Person):
There’s a dull ache at her back when Piper opens her eyes. Finding herself standing, no less, on a platform in a strange metallic room that doesn’t resemble an ounce of the cold, cave structure of the Underworld sends Piper into panic mode. She looks around the room, trying to get a grasp on where she is-and where the Source is, he couldn’t have gone too far-and that’s when she sees something odd in the ceiling. Taking a small step back to get a good look at this thing, Piper decides she really doesn’t recognise it at all. She doesn’t recognise this room and she doesn’t like how she’s feeling.
“Okay, you’ve had your fun and games. Now it’s time to let me out of whatever bottle you’ve stuck me in so I can blow you up.” Piper looks around the room, expecting a demon to flame or shimmer in at any second. She’s sorely disappointed when she sees nothing but metal. She thinks about blasting the wall, but no good would come of it until she’s worked out exactly where she is and why she’s been placed there.
It’s when she runs her hand down her arm that she feels something odd around her wrist. Glancing down, she sees a bracelet covering her wrist tattoo. “What the hell is this?” she mutters to herself, trying to pry it off her arm. Her fingers only slip against it. “It’s like it’s permanently glued to my skin.”
She huffs when she finds her attempts to pry it off her wrist unsuccessful. Piper looks at the stairs in front of her, eyeing them suspiciously as she doesn’t exactly want to descend them and walk into a trap. “My sisters know I’m gone,” she says, her voice strong. They’ve got to know-it was stupid to split up, but she’s been gone for far too long for them to not notice something was wrong-and they’ve got to be working on a plan to get her back safely. “It’s only a matter of time before they come in here and get me. And get this stupid thing off my wrist. What, you’ve forgotten which house to shimmer into now?”
Additional Third Person Sample:
Piper flipped the pages of the Book of Shadows slowly, glancing at each page before turning it. The Manor was asleep in darkness. She had slipped out of bed to walk through the chilled hallways before entering the dark attic.
She hadn’t come up here for a particular reason. Lately, she found herself unable to get a decent night’s sleep. Prue had drummed into their heads the need for constant vigilance. With the Triad gone, there was a bigger source of evil after them. There always was.
She didn’t know why she came up here whenever she couldn’t sleep. The kitchen was too vulnerable for attack, and the peace it once offered was tainted with the brewing of potion after potion. Piper’s unsure of the last time she cooked a decent meal that wasn’t interrupted by a demonic intrusion. The need to do something with her hands when nervous had shifted from cooking slime to flipping the pages of the book late at night. Knowing that her mother and grandmother had once touched these pages, using them to ward off evil, gave her solace; maybe they’d be okay when this was all over. They weren’t on their own, for even after death, they had left them with the tools to continue fighting this battle.
It wasn’t that she was looking for something in particular. The page she sought was long gone, burnt into ash in this very room. What she wanted was in her head, stored for a future purpose if there be one. Flipping through the pages, she held the page between her fingers as she looked to the middle of the ancient book. In the crease, there was the tiny strip of a page left in the binding. The page containing the relinquishing spell had been ripped out close to the centre; though, it still left its memory within the book.
Piper slipped her finger over the paper lightly. The relinquishing spell may be long gone, burnt into the air, but it remained a solid page with its calligraphy and beautiful colours in her mind. It was a secret that remained between her and the Book. The spell might not be there for future generations to look upon, but it could be transformed into a nursery rhyme similar to that of the Woogeyman. It could live on in oral storytelling if she chose that path.
With a lingering hand on the Book, Piper closed it. Now wasn’t the time to pave her own destiny. But she knew, even if by her hand, there would come a time where she would recite the relinquishing spell, bringing her life back into her full control. That was the one thing that she wouldn’t allow to slip between her fingers.