application ♣ betenoire_rp
1. Player Information
Name (or internet handle): Taryn.
Current characters in Bete Noire: None.
2. Character Information
Name: Piper Halliwell.
Livejournal Username: moleculars
Fandom: Charmed.
Image: image
Reserve: here (at the “temp” page)
3. Character Information II
Age/Appearance:
She is 27 at her canon point. I am taking her from 3x22, which occurs in May 2001 (as Prue’s death is stated to be in May, and Piper’s birthday is in June) and her birthday is 7 June 1973 (according to the wiki and my own headcanon, as she is described as a Gemini).
Piper stands at 5'2". She has long, dark brown hair that is straight. She has brown eyes. She is rather pretty, although Piper would consider herself a Plain Jane. During the early seasons of the show, Piper's wrist tattoos were covered with thick bracelets or bangles. Later, these bangles disappeared and her tattoos, which looked like vines, could be seen.
Piper dresses comfortably, usually sporting jeans and a simple t-shirt, tying her hair back or leaving it out. She wears boots that do not have a high heel. She dresses sensibly for demon killing.
From the canon point I wish to take her from, Piper will have long brown hair and no bangs. (As she had them when she was younger, during the season one and two era, and her hair has highlights in the later seasons.)
History:
( wiki )
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 reverted 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.
After Piper’s canon point: 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.
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.
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.
Sexual Preferences/Orientation:
Heterosexual. Piper has not shown any interest towards females throughout the course of the show. The relationships explored have all been with men. When first introduced to Piper, she was dating (and it was stated they were engaged, however, this is a discrepancy as Piper refers to him as her “boyfriend” and this is never really brought up/confirmed) to Jeremy Burns. She dated Leo Wyatt, Josh and Dan Gordon before her marriage to Leo. She has shown interest in a ghost, Mark Chao. She was willing to act out of character to sleep with Rob, a banker, in order to get a loan for her club.
As stated, she married Leo in season three. In season six, during a separation, she dated Brett, Ryan and Greg. After these relationships failed, Piper decided she would give up on men. As a birthday gift, her sisters conjured up a 'Mr Right' (named David Right) to encourage Piper to not give up on love.
She eventually reconnected with Leo and is still married to him by the series' end. Thus, it can be seen that canonically Piper shows interest in men.
Piper is monogamous. She didn’t want to break up with Dan over the phone when she decided she wanted to give things with Leo a shot and that her heart truly belonged to him. She respected him enough to hold things off with Leo and wait for Dan to return home from his trip, where she ended the relationship in person. Piper did share a few kisses with Leo during her relationship with Dan, however, she did not take this further and did ask Leo to stop as it wasn’t fair to Dan.
Piper likes sex, but she likes it with people she truly cares about. She’s not going to jump into bed wit anyone. She places significance on it-she’s only ever seen in a sexual relationship with the men she’s involved with seriously, implied with Jeremy, shown with both Dan and Leo. She only has sex with Greg in season six due to a spell that brought the sisters’ inhibitions forth, and Piper’s was to get laid. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have slept with Greg at all. After she got together with Leo in season one, it was a few episodes later that it was suggested she was in a sexual relationship with him. As stated above, she was prepared to use sex to gain herself a loan for her club (however, it was expressed by Phoebe that this was very out of character for Piper, implying that Piper does not use sex as a tool to get what she wants and she holds significance to the act). Piper doesn’t consider sex wrong, however, she isn’t one to jump straight into it.
Powers:
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.
Reason for playing:
I love Piper. I have loved her since the show first aired. She’s been with me since I was 12 and I cannot shake her. What makes me love her so much is her character journey and how much she has grown. She started off as this meek, shy and rather timid woman who lets people walk all over her and take advantage of her (her sisters included) and she changes slowly into this woman who starts saying no, takes no crap from anyone, and stands up for herself (though, she does falter, an example is when Grams comes to them and undermines every decision Piper makes, making her second-guess herself). She’s such a warm, caring individual who continues to grow through the course of the show (and comics).
I like playing Piper in panfandom games as I like to give her the friends she severely lacks outside of her family. She has friends in canon, but they’re only ever brought up or shown onscreen as a plot device (ie. ‘Brain Drain’, the Source uses her “Achilles heel”-her desire for a normal life, represented by her friends-against her) and is always something she struggles with during the course of the show. I like to give her that support outside of her family and to see her trust and try to find peace within herself, as she’s not exactly happy with being a witch at all. And it’s really fun to see how she reacts to other people and how other people react to her. Especially re: witch. I find that characters outside of her canon challenge her about her powers and can make her realise that they’re not so bad after all.
I think Bete Noire would allow me to explore Piper in a different way. I want to see her taking personal gain and kicking it in the ass and actually using her powers for herself. Piper’s a good person and she’s got an amazing personality, in my opinion, but she’s also very, very angry and very tired from all the sacrificing she’s had to do in her life that I would like to see her either lose control altogether or take action and break the rules (which she is so good at doing for love). I want Piper to be selfish. I wouldn’t mind exploring Evil!Piper (who we were teased with in season three in the episode ‘Bride and Gloom’) where she uses her powers for herself, against innocents (with permission from other players, I don’t want her blowing people up, but freezing them and taking things from them? She actually did amuse herself with the idea of taking a wine bottle from Josh, but personal gain got in the way-and I believe, also, her personality where she just wouldn’t do that-and make her actually do that here, as Bete Noire is corrupting her and she really doesn’t think personal gain really applies here, since she’ll think it’s the Source’s own little amusement park), and just does whatever the heck she wants. I don’t think it’d be out of character for her, as I’m taking her from 3x22 when she gets shot, and she’ll believe that she’s still in that timeline where they’re exposed, Phoebe’s in the Underworld doing god know’s what, and Prue’s missing from her side. Piper’s going to think the Source is up to something again and she’s not going to be happy about it and chill.
I also think that since she’s married in her canon point, and there’s no Leo, she may end up in a relationship which goes against the basic nature of her being as I described in the sexuality section. I think that if someone were attractive enough to Piper and pursued her despite all the things she threw at them, perhaps she would give in, and I wouldn’t mind exploring that side of Piper, as well. As she wouldn’t really consider it real as she’s not really in her home world.
I’ve played Piper where she doesn’t get involved in anything as she’s too scared to, and I’d like to change that up here and have her be assertive, like the leader she is in season four, and someone who is involved. I’d also like to play on the leader role she takes on, as I feel that it could’ve been more organic in the show, and have her develop from a follower to a leader. As well as someone who is independent, as she’s rather dependent on her sisters. And as Piper is a hater of her powers, I think Bete Noire might make her like them and appreciate them more.
4. Original Character Supplement
World History: N/A
Character History: N/A
5. Samples
First-Person:
[ There’s a bang.
Piper gasps awake in a hospital bed, shooting straight up with her hands still as bloody and sticky as ever. They go to her stomach, where she peels away her shirt to see her wound slowly healing. Her hands still shake from what she remembers. It wasn’t a memory. Prue was standing right in front of her and she was in the Manor.
How the hell did she get here? Piper looks down at where her hands can’t help but hover, shaking despite her efforts to try and hold her hands still, and she wonders where the golden glow is from Leo’s touch. ] Leo? [ She looks around, eyebrows creased, and she tries to move her legs but finds that they are dead weight for the moment. ] Prue? Where the hell are you?
[ She pauses, waiting for something before trying to yell out-but her voice is hoarse-] Hey! Someone answer me!
Her first post and a later post in the game paradisa (which features a Piper taken from the same episode as the canon point I am applying for, however, she’s just taken at the end rather than three-quarters of the way through it.)
Third-Person:
“-and be dissected!”
Piper had meant what she said. They should be carted off by the C.I.A. and dissected. She’d never felt like she was truly herself ever since she was given back her powers, and if being dissected by the C.I.A. gave her her answer-what was wrong with her?-then so be it. Prue didn’t understand it. Piper didn’t feel like her Charmed self and herself were compatible. She wanted things her Charmed life kept pushing away. Why couldn’t Prue understand that? She did once.
So when she turned around, and Prue was giving her the Big Old Speech on how blessed they were to have their powers-and, seriously, how could Piper think of such ridiculous notions?-when she felt a sharp pain through her back and her stomach. Her hands felt sticky and her nerves were on edge. She didn’t realise that she was shaking until she looked down at her bloody palms to see red on her pink button-up shirt.
When she looked up, Prue was no longer standing in front of her, but she was somewhere that wasn’t the inside of the Manor. It was rundown, and rather worn out, and when Piper looked around her, she found she was sitting up straight in a hospital bed. Her hands went to her stomach, still catching blood, but when she pulled her shirt away from the wound, she found that it was healing slowly.
Frowning, she looked around. “Leo?” her voice croaked, and she tried to shift on the bed but felt her legs weren’t following. Surely someone would notice she was awake and bleeding, what was once severely? She frowned as no one seemed to be alerted to her being awake. “Where the hell am I?”
A psl with greever (which features a Piper from 4x13) and a log at paradisa here (which features a Piper from 3x22, just taken at the end of the episode rather than three-quarters of the way through it).
Third-Person #2:
( Set some time after 3x22 during the missing scenes of when Piper wakes up; goes AU and presumes Piper woke up, Prue was not breathing, and demons may have come trolling in. )
So good so far. The demon was frozen.
The bad part was that she was alone. Having woken up amongst the limbs of the wall and blood on her hands and face, Piper had discovered that Prue’s pulse had gone still. And demons happened to be showing up at the house to see for themselves the destruction of the Charmed Ones.
So she did what she did best, and she prepared herself. Just the way Prue would’ve done it. Just the way she will when she finds a way to reverse this.
Piper grimaced. He was frozen in mid-step, approaching her in what she assumes would be a menacing way if she didn’t have this particular power in her arsenal. Now, he was frozen in the attic of the Halliwell Manor, looking like a poor toy doll with horrible fashion sense. He didn’t seem menacing at all. To Piper, he was just another pain in the ass who needed to be vanquished, and she was more than happy to follow through with that. With a glance to the left, she had seen the crystals sitting in their box on top of one of the many desks thrown in the attic. She’d trap him in a cage if she didn’t find herself bubbling with rage. Everything she saw was in a hot red.
She clenched her hand as she remembered Prue’s suggestion, said with playfulness a few months back. She unfroze his head and placed her hands on her hips. “You want to tell me what exactly you think you’re doing?” She cocked her head to the side, eyes narrowed in his direction, as she watched him look from side to side and scowl.
“Unfreeze me, witch,” he managed to demand through gritted teeth. Piper rolled her eyes and clenched her hands into fists at the unoriginality of the dig.
She pursed her lips and nodded. “Okay,” she flicked her wrist and his hand, outstretched, exploded with a short, faint burst of fire. Piper grinned, despite herself, “Huh.” That was the first time she’d been able to selectively blow anything up with her power. She wasn’t even confident that she’d be able to call upon that power at all, as it was still new and untameable to her.
The demon, meanwhile, screamed in pain.
Piper took a few steps towards him, cocking her head to the side as she waited for him to glare at her, breathing deeply through clenched teeth. “That must’ve hurt. How about you answer me this time and I won’t take away your other hand?”
The demon looked far from relenting, so Piper shrugged. “Your loss,” she said, throwing her hands out and blowing a chunk out of his shoulder. She winced, “That mustn’t be comfortable.”
All he seemed to manage was spitting in her direction.
Sighing, “I can do this all day. You’ve got plenty of limbs and I’ve got all the time in the world.” Another flick of her wrist and she blew up the right hand side of his thigh.
Name (or internet handle): Taryn.
Current characters in Bete Noire: None.
2. Character Information
Name: Piper Halliwell.
Livejournal Username: moleculars
Fandom: Charmed.
Image: image
Reserve: here (at the “temp” page)
3. Character Information II
Age/Appearance:
She is 27 at her canon point. I am taking her from 3x22, which occurs in May 2001 (as Prue’s death is stated to be in May, and Piper’s birthday is in June) and her birthday is 7 June 1973 (according to the wiki and my own headcanon, as she is described as a Gemini).
Piper stands at 5'2". She has long, dark brown hair that is straight. She has brown eyes. She is rather pretty, although Piper would consider herself a Plain Jane. During the early seasons of the show, Piper's wrist tattoos were covered with thick bracelets or bangles. Later, these bangles disappeared and her tattoos, which looked like vines, could be seen.
Piper dresses comfortably, usually sporting jeans and a simple t-shirt, tying her hair back or leaving it out. She wears boots that do not have a high heel. She dresses sensibly for demon killing.
From the canon point I wish to take her from, Piper will have long brown hair and no bangs. (As she had them when she was younger, during the season one and two era, and her hair has highlights in the later seasons.)
History:
( wiki )
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 reverted 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.
After Piper’s canon point: 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.
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.
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.
Sexual Preferences/Orientation:
Heterosexual. Piper has not shown any interest towards females throughout the course of the show. The relationships explored have all been with men. When first introduced to Piper, she was dating (and it was stated they were engaged, however, this is a discrepancy as Piper refers to him as her “boyfriend” and this is never really brought up/confirmed) to Jeremy Burns. She dated Leo Wyatt, Josh and Dan Gordon before her marriage to Leo. She has shown interest in a ghost, Mark Chao. She was willing to act out of character to sleep with Rob, a banker, in order to get a loan for her club.
As stated, she married Leo in season three. In season six, during a separation, she dated Brett, Ryan and Greg. After these relationships failed, Piper decided she would give up on men. As a birthday gift, her sisters conjured up a 'Mr Right' (named David Right) to encourage Piper to not give up on love.
She eventually reconnected with Leo and is still married to him by the series' end. Thus, it can be seen that canonically Piper shows interest in men.
Piper is monogamous. She didn’t want to break up with Dan over the phone when she decided she wanted to give things with Leo a shot and that her heart truly belonged to him. She respected him enough to hold things off with Leo and wait for Dan to return home from his trip, where she ended the relationship in person. Piper did share a few kisses with Leo during her relationship with Dan, however, she did not take this further and did ask Leo to stop as it wasn’t fair to Dan.
Piper likes sex, but she likes it with people she truly cares about. She’s not going to jump into bed wit anyone. She places significance on it-she’s only ever seen in a sexual relationship with the men she’s involved with seriously, implied with Jeremy, shown with both Dan and Leo. She only has sex with Greg in season six due to a spell that brought the sisters’ inhibitions forth, and Piper’s was to get laid. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have slept with Greg at all. After she got together with Leo in season one, it was a few episodes later that it was suggested she was in a sexual relationship with him. As stated above, she was prepared to use sex to gain herself a loan for her club (however, it was expressed by Phoebe that this was very out of character for Piper, implying that Piper does not use sex as a tool to get what she wants and she holds significance to the act). Piper doesn’t consider sex wrong, however, she isn’t one to jump straight into it.
Powers:
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.
Reason for playing:
I love Piper. I have loved her since the show first aired. She’s been with me since I was 12 and I cannot shake her. What makes me love her so much is her character journey and how much she has grown. She started off as this meek, shy and rather timid woman who lets people walk all over her and take advantage of her (her sisters included) and she changes slowly into this woman who starts saying no, takes no crap from anyone, and stands up for herself (though, she does falter, an example is when Grams comes to them and undermines every decision Piper makes, making her second-guess herself). She’s such a warm, caring individual who continues to grow through the course of the show (and comics).
I like playing Piper in panfandom games as I like to give her the friends she severely lacks outside of her family. She has friends in canon, but they’re only ever brought up or shown onscreen as a plot device (ie. ‘Brain Drain’, the Source uses her “Achilles heel”-her desire for a normal life, represented by her friends-against her) and is always something she struggles with during the course of the show. I like to give her that support outside of her family and to see her trust and try to find peace within herself, as she’s not exactly happy with being a witch at all. And it’s really fun to see how she reacts to other people and how other people react to her. Especially re: witch. I find that characters outside of her canon challenge her about her powers and can make her realise that they’re not so bad after all.
I think Bete Noire would allow me to explore Piper in a different way. I want to see her taking personal gain and kicking it in the ass and actually using her powers for herself. Piper’s a good person and she’s got an amazing personality, in my opinion, but she’s also very, very angry and very tired from all the sacrificing she’s had to do in her life that I would like to see her either lose control altogether or take action and break the rules (which she is so good at doing for love). I want Piper to be selfish. I wouldn’t mind exploring Evil!Piper (who we were teased with in season three in the episode ‘Bride and Gloom’) where she uses her powers for herself, against innocents (with permission from other players, I don’t want her blowing people up, but freezing them and taking things from them? She actually did amuse herself with the idea of taking a wine bottle from Josh, but personal gain got in the way-and I believe, also, her personality where she just wouldn’t do that-and make her actually do that here, as Bete Noire is corrupting her and she really doesn’t think personal gain really applies here, since she’ll think it’s the Source’s own little amusement park), and just does whatever the heck she wants. I don’t think it’d be out of character for her, as I’m taking her from 3x22 when she gets shot, and she’ll believe that she’s still in that timeline where they’re exposed, Phoebe’s in the Underworld doing god know’s what, and Prue’s missing from her side. Piper’s going to think the Source is up to something again and she’s not going to be happy about it and chill.
I also think that since she’s married in her canon point, and there’s no Leo, she may end up in a relationship which goes against the basic nature of her being as I described in the sexuality section. I think that if someone were attractive enough to Piper and pursued her despite all the things she threw at them, perhaps she would give in, and I wouldn’t mind exploring that side of Piper, as well. As she wouldn’t really consider it real as she’s not really in her home world.
I’ve played Piper where she doesn’t get involved in anything as she’s too scared to, and I’d like to change that up here and have her be assertive, like the leader she is in season four, and someone who is involved. I’d also like to play on the leader role she takes on, as I feel that it could’ve been more organic in the show, and have her develop from a follower to a leader. As well as someone who is independent, as she’s rather dependent on her sisters. And as Piper is a hater of her powers, I think Bete Noire might make her like them and appreciate them more.
4. Original Character Supplement
World History: N/A
Character History: N/A
5. Samples
First-Person:
[ There’s a bang.
Piper gasps awake in a hospital bed, shooting straight up with her hands still as bloody and sticky as ever. They go to her stomach, where she peels away her shirt to see her wound slowly healing. Her hands still shake from what she remembers. It wasn’t a memory. Prue was standing right in front of her and she was in the Manor.
How the hell did she get here? Piper looks down at where her hands can’t help but hover, shaking despite her efforts to try and hold her hands still, and she wonders where the golden glow is from Leo’s touch. ] Leo? [ She looks around, eyebrows creased, and she tries to move her legs but finds that they are dead weight for the moment. ] Prue? Where the hell are you?
[ She pauses, waiting for something before trying to yell out-but her voice is hoarse-] Hey! Someone answer me!
Her first post and a later post in the game paradisa (which features a Piper taken from the same episode as the canon point I am applying for, however, she’s just taken at the end rather than three-quarters of the way through it.)
Third-Person:
“-and be dissected!”
Piper had meant what she said. They should be carted off by the C.I.A. and dissected. She’d never felt like she was truly herself ever since she was given back her powers, and if being dissected by the C.I.A. gave her her answer-what was wrong with her?-then so be it. Prue didn’t understand it. Piper didn’t feel like her Charmed self and herself were compatible. She wanted things her Charmed life kept pushing away. Why couldn’t Prue understand that? She did once.
So when she turned around, and Prue was giving her the Big Old Speech on how blessed they were to have their powers-and, seriously, how could Piper think of such ridiculous notions?-when she felt a sharp pain through her back and her stomach. Her hands felt sticky and her nerves were on edge. She didn’t realise that she was shaking until she looked down at her bloody palms to see red on her pink button-up shirt.
When she looked up, Prue was no longer standing in front of her, but she was somewhere that wasn’t the inside of the Manor. It was rundown, and rather worn out, and when Piper looked around her, she found she was sitting up straight in a hospital bed. Her hands went to her stomach, still catching blood, but when she pulled her shirt away from the wound, she found that it was healing slowly.
Frowning, she looked around. “Leo?” her voice croaked, and she tried to shift on the bed but felt her legs weren’t following. Surely someone would notice she was awake and bleeding, what was once severely? She frowned as no one seemed to be alerted to her being awake. “Where the hell am I?”
A psl with greever (which features a Piper from 4x13) and a log at paradisa here (which features a Piper from 3x22, just taken at the end of the episode rather than three-quarters of the way through it).
Third-Person #2:
( Set some time after 3x22 during the missing scenes of when Piper wakes up; goes AU and presumes Piper woke up, Prue was not breathing, and demons may have come trolling in. )
So good so far. The demon was frozen.
The bad part was that she was alone. Having woken up amongst the limbs of the wall and blood on her hands and face, Piper had discovered that Prue’s pulse had gone still. And demons happened to be showing up at the house to see for themselves the destruction of the Charmed Ones.
So she did what she did best, and she prepared herself. Just the way Prue would’ve done it. Just the way she will when she finds a way to reverse this.
Piper grimaced. He was frozen in mid-step, approaching her in what she assumes would be a menacing way if she didn’t have this particular power in her arsenal. Now, he was frozen in the attic of the Halliwell Manor, looking like a poor toy doll with horrible fashion sense. He didn’t seem menacing at all. To Piper, he was just another pain in the ass who needed to be vanquished, and she was more than happy to follow through with that. With a glance to the left, she had seen the crystals sitting in their box on top of one of the many desks thrown in the attic. She’d trap him in a cage if she didn’t find herself bubbling with rage. Everything she saw was in a hot red.
She clenched her hand as she remembered Prue’s suggestion, said with playfulness a few months back. She unfroze his head and placed her hands on her hips. “You want to tell me what exactly you think you’re doing?” She cocked her head to the side, eyes narrowed in his direction, as she watched him look from side to side and scowl.
“Unfreeze me, witch,” he managed to demand through gritted teeth. Piper rolled her eyes and clenched her hands into fists at the unoriginality of the dig.
She pursed her lips and nodded. “Okay,” she flicked her wrist and his hand, outstretched, exploded with a short, faint burst of fire. Piper grinned, despite herself, “Huh.” That was the first time she’d been able to selectively blow anything up with her power. She wasn’t even confident that she’d be able to call upon that power at all, as it was still new and untameable to her.
The demon, meanwhile, screamed in pain.
Piper took a few steps towards him, cocking her head to the side as she waited for him to glare at her, breathing deeply through clenched teeth. “That must’ve hurt. How about you answer me this time and I won’t take away your other hand?”
The demon looked far from relenting, so Piper shrugged. “Your loss,” she said, throwing her hands out and blowing a chunk out of his shoulder. She winced, “That mustn’t be comfortable.”
All he seemed to manage was spitting in her direction.
Sighing, “I can do this all day. You’ve got plenty of limbs and I’ve got all the time in the world.” Another flick of her wrist and she blew up the right hand side of his thigh.