[application] for Babylon Wood

[mysweatershrunk]

She offered me my city and I saw it through her eyes.
I'd waited for so long to see
The magic in the world and the spirit in the stone
That could let a man be free.

The Player
User Name/Nick: Christina
User LJ: lollobrigida
AIM/IM: onlysayinghello
E-mail: lollobrigida [gmail.com]
Other Characters:
Faith Lehane : BtVS/Ats
Ruby : Supernatural

The Character
Character Name: Paige Matthews
Character Journal: mysweatershrunk
Canon: Charmed
Age: 28 (born 8-2-1977 and the episode in question aired 1-8-2006)
From When?: After she gets stood up by Henry at P3 during Mr. & Mrs. Witch.

Abilities/Powers:
Witch - One-Third of the Power of Three: Paige is a powerful witch. Most of her magic is potion or spell-based, and spoken spells are based in rhyme. Everything she puts out there will return to her three-fold, so she has to make sure that she doesn’t do anything that would be for her own benefit. Most of the time, she uses her magic to help others, but even that has to be a self-less type act, otherwise - once more - it has been known to backfire. There are set-spells that are used to banish specific demons, and there are also potions that can be mixed in order to do the same thing. However, she can make up a spell on the fly as long as it rhymes. They aren’t the strongest of spells, but they can do something at least. She can also scry for someone, usually something that works better if she has an object belonging to that person and an accurate map or the area where they might be located.

The strongest spells she can cast are ones that she casts with her sisters. ie: The Power of Three. Put the three of them in a room together and you’ve pretty much got a sure shot at victory. Or... world ending crisis.

Whitelighter: Paige is only half Whitelighter, but it’s still part of who she is. This is mostly giving her the ability to be assigned charges, talk to the Elders and know when her charges are in danger/need her by an audible chiming sound. For the purpose of the game, this won’t really matter. However, her Whitelighter side also has the ability to heal injuries - which will be useful in the game. Basically, her hands generate a warm glow that heals minor to somewhat severe injuries. Her other Whitelighter skills include: hovering, creating a glamour effect and sensing. The one she used the most in canon from those final three would be the glamour since it was easy to hide damage from a bad spell or situation by creating an illusion over it.

Aside from those supernatural/magical powers, she’s pretty good at hand-to-hand combat and the standard fighting skills. She was completely capable of flipping over a police officer when he was insisting that she wasn’t “able” to try and be a cop.

Orbing: Orbing comes from her Whitelighter side and can be two things. It can be a method of teleportation or it can be a mode of transportation.

For transportation, Paige just has to think of where she wants to go and she goes there. Since she also has Whitelighter abilities, she can be called to a charge. She vanishes in a bright sparkle of chime sounds and glittery-air and then reforms in the exact same manner.

For a method of teleportation, she says what she wants and it appears in her hand, or moves in the direction her hand points. For example, she can say “Chair!” and at the same time gesture her hand over toward a demon and the chair will magically orb into the air and toward the demon. She can also send items different places. Luggage that needs to return home? “Home!” and it’s sent home. She’s been able to use it to lock doors, transport luggage, remove items from people’s hands and just move items from one location to another (or into her hand).

It’s very handy. Also - pretty!

Power Limitations:
For the sake of the game, Paige will not be able to orb out of the Woods. Any attempt to do so, will simply just put her at some other random spot. She’ll be able to direct herself to specific places within the Woods, just not anywhere outside of them. Also - in canon her ability to heal is displayed as something she can do on her own in the episode after her canon point. She has the ability to do it, but she just hasn’t had to try it yet. I think that if she was to try and use this ability in the woods - the first time she does would have to be to help someone she really cares about or in a time of desperation. This event would “activate” this ability for her.

Inventory

1 - Pair black thong underwear
1 - White dress with black lace details, w/ straps
1 - Pair black heels
1 - Pair gold hoop earrings
1 - gold hair clip

1 - White Shoulder Purse
Contents of Purse:
1 - Cell phone (flip-style)
1 - tube of lipstick in dark red
1 - compact mirror w/powder for porcelain skin tone
1 - pair of glasses*
1 - bottle of eye drops
3 - vanquishing potion vials (for emergency)
2 - pens (1 black - 1 purple with glitter ink)
1 - pencil
1 - tweezer
1 - black eyeliner
1 - mascara
1 - silver sheen/grey/navy tones eyeshadow
1 - pack mint gum w/8 pieces

*(note - In the future depiction of Paige and her husband Henry, she's wearing glasses. Since I'm taking her from toward the end of the series, I'm just implying that she has started to wear glasses for close-up reading. It's probably related to all of the bright flashes that come from their potions, and she probably will hardly use them, but just in case!)

Personality:

Paige has been through a lot of changes and choices in her life. She went from being an only child, to finding out that she was adopted, to discovering that her newly found family wasn’t exactly what it looked like on the surface. She discovered new powers and abilities and realized how important she was to the world and keeping it safe. She’s resourceful and compassionate, witty and full of spontaneity. In general, she’s a positive thinker, but can see the downside of a situation if only for the reason of trying to figure out a way out of it. She can adapt to new environments with a bit of work and is accepting of all different types of people. Her good mood is often infectious, even if you were dead set on being in a crap mood. When she loves, it’s with her whole heart, but it does take a lot for her to get to that point. She’s a good person and always tries to put the needs of others ahead of her own. She’s also fiercely independent, which means she’ll stick to her guns as long as possible, even if she’s the only one standing out on the ledge. She does have a slight bit of shallow in her, but only in self-reflection on where she wants to end up in life, which is not alone.

Paige grew up as a rebellious teenager. She didn’t feel like she fit in with her own family and most times made every effort to stand on her own feet and do her own thing. She wasn’t a model daughter and later on in her life she found regret in a lot of the ways she felt she treated her parents. She was an only child and she had been adopted, which wasn’t something she was aware of until later in her life. Her birth-mother followed her heart and had a relationship with her Whitelighter, which wasn’t exactly allowed by the Elders. In order to keep Paige safe, they gave her up and she was raised by another family. When Paige was young, there was a horrible car accident and both of Paige’s parents were killed. This was also when Paige first used her ability as a Whitelighter to orb herself to safety, even though she wasn’t aware that was what happened. Paige felt a lot of regret and guilt with that crash, often times she had blamed herself for what had happened to her parents. She used that accident and how she miraculously survived as her turn over a new leaf spot in her life. She stopped her rebel teen years and started to try and do something good with the life she was given. She also always had an ongoing feeling as if she never had the chance to really let them know how much she cared for them. At another point in her life she was able to travel back in time and understand what happened during the accident. Seeing her family and being able to give herself that closure, helped her move on from that point in her past.

After Prue dies, Paige is drawn to the funeral service of her, already thinking that she might be related to the Halliwells. When it’s revealed that she is really their long-lost half-sister, she’s instantly hit with the fact that not only was she not an only child, but that she’s part of a much larger family legacy. It’s a lot to take in, but Paige takes to the idea of sisterhood easily.

However, it does come with a lot of rules, regulations and growing pains at first. When she first comes to the Halliwell Manor, the Power of Three is brought back together and it’s like a new chapter of her life has opened up. Not only does she have her half-Whitelighter side giving her the ability to orb herself, but now she’s also the key to a powerful trinity of witchcraft. It’s instant responsibility, but because her new sisters are hesitant to just let her into the club, she’s given a lot of restrictions that aren’t so much helpful as they are a challenge. She’s told that she can’t take the Book of Shadows out of the house and that she’s not allowed to try out any magic, because there are a lot of things to worry about when working with these things. Not knowing about karma and magic, she just takes the book by dropping it out the window and heads off with it. She learns her lesson quickly, and the sisters help her out.

She’s not instantly accepted by Piper either, who is still grieving over the loss of Prue. They fight a lot, with Paige always trying to do the right thing and trying not to take Prue’s place, but to find her own place. It is something that takes a lot of time for her to get over though, and even as she tries to adjust to her life as a witch/Whitelighter, she still takes on a large amount of the burden on her shoulders because of the family legacy she knows that she’s part of. Over time, she’s accepted into the family and shown how things work and it doesn’t take her very long to move in with the sisters and actually become an important member of this family.

Much like Phoebe, Paige is driven mostly by her emotions and uses them to guide her decisions a lot of the time. She cares about other people and worries about them a lot. The problem with that, is that sometimes Paige is known to put the needs of others way above her own safety. When the sisters all fake their deaths in order to give themselves a clean break from magic and demons, Paige can’t help but try and find out about her new charge. Her stubborn side and the constant jingle in her head, make her go against her sisters choice to be free of magic. She sneaks around, orbs to the location of the jingles and almost exposes the sisters as alive again. Even though she realizes that her sisters will be upset with her, she still moves forward with her idea. She scrys for the girl that she knows is her charge and decides that even though she doesn’t miss her old life, she knows that this is something she has to do for herself. She tells herself that it’s for closure, but Paige usually ends up with her stubborn streak and emotions shoving her right in the middle of something dangerous before it ends up safe and sound again.

It’s because of her emotions thought that she’s able to be a good Whitelighter. She’s trusted with the safety of her charges, who will need her for anything at all. It also came in really handy when she was a social worker, and a dog walker, and all of the other variety of jobs that Paige has had. She even was running the Magic school at one point because in her ever-constant search for who she is and how she can fit into the world, she still manages to make her crusade about helping others. It’s as much a part of her as her witch/Whitelighter status.

Her emotions can also get the better of her, allowing her to trust someone else without actually looking at the big picture or at all of the details. When Paige was first learning about her abilities she was confronted with a young boy that was being abused. Instinctively assuming the father was the one doing the beating, she tried to use her magic to kill him - thankfully she was stopped, because not only would killing the father have been morally wrong - he also wasn’t the one doing the abuse. She’s struggled with keeping a balance between her emotions and the real gravity of situations, and she does tend to charge right into the situation when she feels like she has to. Which - has about a 50/50 chance of backfiring on her, because if there wasn’t trouble the show would’ve been really boring.

Those situations have ranged from Leprechauns in a forest, vampires in a coven, becoming a Superhero, a woodland nymph, Goddess and so on. The series itself put the sisters all into a lot of insane situations and watched them figure them out. Paige, like her other sisters, was just as prone to her life turning upside down as the others. She handled them rather well though, and except in the cases where her own personality was over-powered, she still kept on task to her mission. She helped protect fairies and Leprechauns and made such an impact in their lives that they visited her when she “died”. In fact, the Leprechauns were one of the few people that did visit her urn, which was something Paige focused on a bit too much, wondering what she’d done with her life that no one really cared that she was dead.

Despite no one visiting her urn, she keeps her chin up high - and pretends to be Janice Dickinson. Which is just one of the times where Paige takes a sour situation and decides “the Heck with it!” and turns it around. She’s serious when she needs to be, but she also has a fantastic ability to bring her unique perspective to things. When “Piper” gets arrested, she feels perfectly okay telling her that she looks horrible in Orange. Then she continues to tell her about a documentary she saw about prison and how she’ll be “Just fine if she keeps her eyes low, and her shoulders high.” It’s that spunky - no-bull type commentary that makes her the comic relief, in a biting dark-humor sort of way.

As far as her love life goes, Paige has had more than her share of a rough history in love. Most times, the men she cares about end up in danger. Her first boyfriend (we see her with) was possessed after she became a witch. The next guy we see Paige with seems to be something serious. She sings for him, but once more magic shows her a side of someone she didn’t expect to see and a truth spell shows her that he’s really married. Not so good. She dated another magical person, Richard, but he became obsessed with magic and the power that came with it. Paige realizes that she can’t keep hiding who she is from Richard for his own protection. It’s another relationship that goes south.

The next serious relationship she has is with Kyle, which becomes so serious that she actually goes against her sisters to stay with him. It’s another one of those times where Paige lets her own emotions rule over her choices and it pushes her to stay with him, even when her sisters think that he’s dangerous to her. He’s probably one of the first relationships that she has that successfully goes through the “I’m a witch” transition, which is often something that Paige just skips over explaining because she probably doesn’t want to put that person in danger over them not being worth the truth. Being part of the Power of Three she has demons after her all the time, so it does tend to put a cramp in her love life. The last guy she falls for is Henry, who is a parole officer, which fits into Paige’s need to help other people. Unlike her other relationships, this one takes time and starts off where they don’t get along. They work through their problems and actually end up seeing things eye to eye when it comes to helping someone out. He’s also the first person that Paige heals on her own with her Whitelighter abilities.

In general, Paige tends to be more self-reliant which is probably why a lot of her relationships failed. She didn’t need a man in her life, but she still ended up liking that companionship. It’s something that comes up a lot in her life - that fear that she’ll be alone in the end of it all. When she “died”, she worried about no one missing her. It’s probably a big part of why she needs to make her mark on the world and help out not only magically, but in making an impact on others lives. She wants to help, but it probably doesn’t hurt that they are grateful to her. The main issue is that she saves a lot of people, but she never really sees them ever again. (Except the Leprechauns) The only time she gets actual recognition is during Season 8 when Homeland Security reveals that they’re still alive and had been helping them out. Oprah calls about “Lady Spies” but they don’t want that sort of spotlight on them. When that all happens, Paige takes on the task of getting the press off of them - because once more, she’s doing it not only for herself but to save Piper from the stress. (also to save the reporters from being turned into rats)

She can’t cook, even though Piper has probably tried a dozen times to teach her. In fact, when Paige first was starting to get along with Piper, it was something Piper thought they could share. However, Paige fails at that. She’s not the best driver either, even with her parents car crash. She’s gotten more than a few tickets that she’s had to deal with. Her fashion sense changes about as often as her hair color, going from red to brunette and a few shades elsewhere - depending on the “transformation” that the episode gives her. Most of this I believe is her ongoing search for her identity and sense of self. She goes from tacky low-cut tops and short skirts (which aren’t exactly social-worker) to more professional classy looks later on. Often wearing pants and tailored shirts in neutral colors, instead of the vibrant greens and oranges.

Even when she fakes her own death with her sisters, she’s forced to take on a new appearance as her “alias”. At first she adjusts to her new look, but in the end she has a deep problem with someone falling for her when it’s not really her. In fact she hits it off with a guy and it goes all the way to the point where she’s told that she’s beautiful, and then it hits her that he’s not seeing her. It’s a huge problem for her, because she’s spent so long searching for her identity. For her to have to be accepted and loved by her appearance only, when it’s not her own appearance, is a huge problem for her. it makes her rethink their entire choice to hide who they are from the world.

I think at Paige’s core she’s always going to be searching for that identity of her own. From being given away as a baby, adopted out and then later finding her family on her own - she’s always putting herself into situations where she needs to find out what she really feels about something. She sticks her nose into other people’s business too, which is her emotional side charging through. She worries about her sisters, Phoebe especially, because of how quickly Phoebe follows her heart. She didn’t trust Cole and she didn’t trust Dex either when she saw him with another woman. She’ll go out of her way to protect her sisters, even to the extreme of pretending to be the other woman in order to get a confession out of the cheating boyfriend. With Piper, she’s always trying to make that relationship the best it could be. She does favors, all the time. From being supportive and showing up for speed dating, to watching the boys so she can have time with Leo.

Later in her life, she becomes really close with her nephews, Chris and Wyatt. Even when Chris returns from the future to change events from happening, she seems to take to him very easily. There’s the obvious protective side to her, where she doesn’t trust him and thinks that he’s evil, but once the truth comes out she can understand his need to help out. She also can easily identify with him, being the youngest, the half-whitelighter/half-witch side of him, plus when he comes back from the future he is shoved into his family and forced to deal with things he’s not used to. Paige, totally gets that because she was shoved right into that dynamic too.

In Season 8 she takes on a charge by the name of Billie. She’s very - very similar to how Paige was at the beginning of her own discovery of her magic. Ready, raring to go, and stubborn as all get out. It’s more than just a test of Paige’s patience to deal with Billie, but there is a lot of mothering and protecting that goes on. Paige puts her on a short leash in the beginning because she knows from her own experience, just how bad things can go if she just goes in unprepared. She wants her to succeed, but because of her over-protecting, she also put her at risk more because it just leads Billie to do the exact same thing that Paige would’ve done - go ahead and do it anyway.

History:

Paige Matthews was born to a witch and a Whitelighter, however fearing that they would be in danger for their relationship - and the resulting child, Paige was given up for adoption and raised by the Matthews. She led a rebellious teenage life, with the typical ‘get-into-trouble’ events going on in her life. The car accident that she was in, but miraculously survived, while her parents both died, made her turn her life around completely. She gave up drinking and started to go to school regularly. Because of this turn-around, Paige successfully graduated and even went to a good college. She then got a job as a social worker, trying to help out people that hadn’t been as fortunate as her growing up in a positive environment.

As she grows up, she looks into her adoption and suspects she’s related to the Halliwell’s but doesn’t approach them. Instead she just hangs out at the nightclub P3, but doesn’t introduce herself to any of the sisters. When Prue passes away, she ends up feeling drawn to the services for her and introduces herself to the sisters. Phoebe has a premonition and they realize that Paige is the innocent they were supposed to save from the demon that killed Prue.

This premonition pulls Paige right into the lives of the sisters, where bringing her to the Manor reawakes the Power of Three, giving the three sisters the strongest magic around, when they are together. Paige over time is accepted by the family, as a sister, and moves into the manor that has been owned by the Halliwell family for three generations. The Manor is also where a majority of their spellwork and accidental demon attacks happen.

Through out the time that Paige helps out her sisters, fighting demons and saving the world a lot, she’s exposed to a plethora of personality and physical changes, from becoming a Vampire to turning into Snow White - Paige has more than just passed her initial “hazing” as a Halliwell. (All of the sisters eventually get turned into something - as Phoebe tells Billie during Season 8) She’s subjected to magic gone awry, the back-firing of spells that were done for personal gain, and just plain old demon attacks. Those demon attacks are often by any sort of demon and all of the demons are ones that are well-enough known in the world of magic that they know how to vanquish them via a spell or a potion. It’s always just a matter of tracking down the demon, determining what they want and then making sure that doesn’t happen, before they vanquish them.

She dies 8 times during the 8 seasons of the show (of which she was only a cast member for 5 seasons) and she’s survived all of her deaths either through magical means or going back in time. She’s lost her powers as a witch 6 times, leaving her without her abilities at all. Most of the times these were restored by time-travel or another big event allowing things to be reset.

For a majority of the seasons, the Sisters go up against a huge force of evil. From Cole Turner, to the Source of Evil, to the Avatars, and even at times themselves. Each time, they are put at odds with this large villain from early on and the smaller events lead up to the larger final showdown. These events in general, require the sisters to overcome some large obstacle in their lives. From Phoebe’s love for Cole, to Piper’s anger over losing Leo to being an Elder, to the vanquishing of their evil counterparts - which sets their own world into a hyper-Utopian society where every small infraction is a serious crime - the sisters manage to pull through all of these events by relying on each other and keeping their sisterly bond strong.

Aside from the annual major events and the biggest thing to happen to Paige is her wedding. When she starts to date Henry, it’s a very rough start. They bicker more than get along, but that eventually shifts into a relationship. Both of them come from guarded pasts and both weren’t raised by their biological parents. Their relationship grows more serious and Henry eventually proposes. While Paige, who is constantly seeking her own identity and independence wants to marry him, she’s also afraid of losing herself. Once she overcomes those fears, she has her sister, Piper, turn their engagement party into the actual wedding, knowing that with the lives they lead and the things they’re going up against - that time is very precious.

By the end of the series, all three sisters have managed to find a way to balance their lives and magic. They aren’t saving people every day, but they do manage to help out when they can. They’re all in the process of passing on the tradition of their powers to another generation. In a flash-foward for the series finale it shows Paige still married to Henry and the two are the proud parents of a boy and twin daughters.

First Person Sample:

Excuse me? [put-out sigh] Look, I know we’re friends and everything, but you guys really have to stop just summoning me to your neck of the woods. [glances around, eyeing the place with a bit more scrutiny than she had when she first arrived]

Hello? [grumbles to herself] You help out a few Leprechauns and they think they can just put you on their speed-[cuts herself off as she wanders around some more] Any day now. Seriously.

If this was a real emergency, you guys would’ve come out with it already.

This better not be another one of those ‘surprise’ parties for Deaglán. He’s had four birthdays this year already. I’m not dumb. I can count.

[takes a few more steps, glances around some more]

Have you ever heard the story about the tiny Leprechaun that cried witch? [a pause, as if she expects the woods around her to answer]

You haven’t? Oh, that must be because the witch never shows up for them anymore!

Prose Sample:

They've been too late at times. Spells have failed, potions mixed wrong, scrying has been less than accurate and people have died. Innocents are supposed to be saved, but what about the ones that no one can get to in time? Paige can't help but shake the question from her mind. Each time it happens, she swears it'll be the last time. Each time, she makes a hollow promise to herself that it was the last time. She repeats it in her mind, as she kneels over the girl in the alley. Crimson spilling out from the wound, staining the fabric on Paige's jeans. Her hands were pressed to the wound while she waited for help, but no help came.

This wasn't part of anyone's plan. God didn't ask this girl to die in an alley in a stranger’s arms. Crying out for someone to help didn't do a thing. The passer-byers did just that. Pass by. The girls arm shot up suddenly, in the midst of her struggle for life, grabbing onto Paige's arm. "Just let me go..." Her voice was disconnected and hollow, as if she was already gone.

"I'm not giving up! Stay right here, stay with me!" Paige had pleaded, but by then the grip that was strong moments earlier slipped loose and let her arm lay motionless on the ground.

Her hand clung to the wound for a while until the blood felt cold and sticky on her palm. Paige went to wipe the tears that had begun to fall, but instead just stared at the red on her hands. Things weren't always fair, but this seemed less than right to Paige. She hadn't done anything to deserve this death, simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Paige wasn't even supposed to be there, but she had opted to take the longer route home from her latest temping agency conquest. The gunshot came out of nowhere and Paige thought it was just a dumpster closing at first.

He pushed past her fast and brutal, shoving Paige into the street for a moment and spinning her off her course. She saw the girl lying in the alley, her back arching upward in pain. The scream cut through the silence in the alley, and Paige had rushed to her side. She wanted to call out for Leo, to have him save her. It was just that this wasn't something they were supposed to do. There were consequences above and beyond the single life at risk, clinging to her final gasps of air.

Paige sits there for a moment trying to regain her thoughts and wait for the ambulance to finally show up. Too little, too late. It's mostly a blur. The ambulance lights bouncing off the brick of the building, the chirp of the siren sounding intermittently, while the sound of the zipper on the body bag seems so loud to her. The cops ask Paige a few questions, and she nods numbly until everyone leaves and it's just the memory of the alley and Paige.

She'll finish the short walk to the manor and wash the night from her hands, same as she washes the blood away. She'll fall asleep on her bed like she does every other time, and realize that if she had been a few minutes earlier the girl could still be alive, even if it wasn't supposed to happen, but Paige can't let go. She can't save them all, but she won't let go of them so easily if she can help it.

Special Notes:

In her real life, Paige hides her magic and her abilities. I’m not sure how she’d act in these woods - but I do know that when it’s clear that a world is pro-magic she isn’t as shy about using her skills. I’m not sure how long she’ll keep it a secret, but for the most part I think she’ll keep her abilities and skills close to the chest and letting people inside slowly at first.

I’m also taking her from a canon point where she’s annoyed with her current boyfriend. He had been standing her up on more than one occasion and while she is crazy about him, she’s not so crazy about him seemingly keeping secrets from her and forgetting to call when he’s going to be late/not show up. I picked this point, because I feel like this is where she can decide that she can be independent and return to her sisters any time they call for her help - or she can try to see if it's worth something with Henry. Considering the emphasis she puts on being alone and if her choices to help people is going to leave her with anything in the end, I think this is a good spot for her. It gives her as much canon history to work with for all of her personal issues, plus puts her at a relationship cross-roads.