History

The Bad Seed

Piper was born on July 6, 1995, in Baton Rouge. Her mother was Margaret Anderson, a 17-year-old girl who’d conceived her following a passionate fling with her best friend Brandon James. A messy enough circumstance, further complicated by the fact that Brandon shortly after went on a murderous rampage targeting Maggie’s boyfriend and his best friends, killing five people and seriously injuring Kevin himself before Brandon was shot dead by the police and his body fell into the lake.

Maggie’s parents understandably opted for a change of scenery, leaving the small town of Lakewood behind. When it emerged their daughter was pregnant, they were adamant Maggie give the child up for adoption, and Maggie did just that.

Piper grew up in a series of orphanages, though she spent the longest amount of time at St. Mary’s Home for Wayward Girls, very close to her parents’ hometown. It was an austere, Dickensian existence, but Piper maintained a positive attitude throughout her troubles, cultivating a cheery, upbeat personality that refused to be suppressed no matter what was hurled at her.

Autopsying Crimes

Piper checked into the Crescent Palms motel on October 19th. That same evening, she bumped into a fellow guest who was just leaving her room. Piper’s glasses fell off in the process, and the guest, Brooke Maddox, handed them back to her. A grateful Piper asked Brooke to point her to the ice machine, which she did.¹

Appearance

While by no means unattractive, Piper is uniformly described in unflattering terms by those she interacts with. Part of this is the result of an affected air of dishevelment designed precisely so people take her less seriously.

She has a prominent, beak-like nose, long brown hair, generally kept uncombed, and brown eyes with glasses.²

Wardrobe

The night Piper checked into the Crescent Palms, she was wearing a maroon Bigfoot-themed hoodie, with the decal Keep it Squatchy.³

Personality

Piper projects an aggressively quirky personality, peppering her speech with the artifacts of contemporary nerd girl lingo. This is not a complete fabrication, and Piper is indeed quirky, socially awkward, and interested in esoterica beyond what is generally considered acceptable.

She is, however, also quite cunning, and deliberately plays up her oddness so that people find her annoying, but not dangerous.

Crimes Committed

As the ringleader of the Ghostfaces behind the Lakewood Slashings, committed no less than a dozen murders, and was privy to several more committed by her accomplices, Kieran Wilcox and Gemma O’Neil.

Victims

Development

As the murderer in the first season of Scream the TV Series, Piper was part of the Scream Roleplay Universe from its earliest incarnation. In the 2015 Season 1 AU, she was portrayed by TellatrixForever. Similar to her canon counterpart, she didn’t debut until the second “episode” of the forum.

In a stark departure from her canon counterpart, Piper was not to be revealed as the killer in the forum’s continuity. While it has never been confirmed who the murderer(s) would have been, it is known their identity would have been different from the TV series, ruling Piper out entirely.

Given the forum came to an end before its third “episode” could be completed, Piper never appeared again following her introduction.

The 2016 Season 2 AU accepted the events of the first season as canon, meaning that Piper was understood to be the Lakewood Slasher, and to have been shot dead by Audrey on the dock at Wren Lake, just as she was in the season finale. This was accepted as true in every successive roleplay through to Scream: The Final Retreat, which presented its own version of that finale in the first volume of The Story so Far in 2019.

Other Interpretations

Scream the TV Series

While Piper is somewhat quirky in the television series, she doesn’t play up any of her traits, nor does anybody ever express irritation or exasperation with her behavior. Similarly, no one ever expresses any contempt or incredulity with her so-called celebrity as a podcaster, with characters like Emma and Riley being listeners of her show.

That Piper’s podcast wasn’t only limited to true crime, but also touched on cryptids and other stock conspiracies such as Bigfoot as aliens is also an invention of the SRU, and has no basis in Piper’s initial incarnation.

Quotes

Hey, do you know where the ice machine is? I just checked in, and I swear, you’d think this was the Overlook Hotel, the way I keep getting turned around. And all the palm trees on the wallpaper? Major liminal vibes…

Piper asks her Crescent Palms neighbor Brooke for directions

Gallery

1. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 30 ↩︎
2. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 30 ↩︎
3. The Story so Far, Vol. I: Chapter 1, Scene 30 ↩︎