Piper

**Piper** is a synthetic life form with the appearance of a young girl created by Augur Industries. Jo Evans found her at the plane crash site and took her in with Piper having no recollection of who she is or where she's from. She appears to be sought after by a dangerous organization because of her origins.

## History

### Creation

Piper was created by Augur Industries as part of Richard Kindred's special AI division. She was made entirely out of synthetic material. Emily Cox worked on a tiny piece of her code, which included a fatal exception error that would destroy the entire system if Piper was ever told that she was an AI. She was part of a project to apparently integrate these synthetic life forms in families, with experiments taking place in a remote neighborhood.

At one particular point during the project, a man and woman presented Piper with a cupcake for her birthday. She blew out the candle and said her wish was to leave. The woman told her she couldn't do that but Piper insisted. The woman unsuccessfully tried to steer the conversation into another direction but Piper kept expressing her wish to leave. The man asked for a reset and the woman asked the party guests to leave so they could go back to the beginning. Suddenly, the room started shaking as Piper said she didn't like it there and wanted to leave. A sudden force wave emerged from within a calmly seated Piper, sending people and objects flying through the room and eventually destroying the room entirely. The events led to the neighborhood being abandoned.

Later, Piper was aboard a plane that supposedly took off from Plum Island and was headed for the neighborhood again. The plane mysteriously crashed, possibly caused by Piper, onto a beach near Southold.

### Plane Crash and Being Hunted

Jo saw a girl as she ducked behind a dune near the plane crash site. She went to investigate and found her trying to hide. Jo noticed she was wearing a Toy Story shirt and talked about the movie and compared herself to Woody to get the girl to the trust her. She gave the girl her jacket. In return, the girl then hugged her tightly and refused to let go to be checked out by a medic, so Jo decided to accompany her to the hospital. Dr. Abby Frasier examined her and ran some tests, which revealed she was totally fine physically but had complete memory loss. The girl wanted to go home but when asked where that was, she just pointed at Jo, who agreed to stay with her until she fell asleep. Jo then left to investigate an argument in the hallway, which turned out to be phoney NTSB agent coming to arrest the girl. Piper heard them and disappeared from her room. She hid out in Jo's police car. Jo got in to chase a mysterious black SUV but couldn't get the car to start. Suddenly, it did, as did the sirens. Rain started to be move sideways on the windshield and the girl sat up in the backseat, asking Jo not to be mad. Since she was sensing danger, Jo decided to take the girl home for the night and gave her a bed. The girl just sat up all night in the bed, staring out the window.

In the morning, Jo found her and her daughter Mia Evans laughing and talking over breakfast. They were trying to come up with a name for the girl. Jo suggested Piper, which they all liked and settled on. Mia left for school and Jo wanted to go back to investigate the crash site, so she had her father Ed Sawyer watch Piper for the day, asking him not to go outside with her. With Piper by his side, Ed started taking the meds for his cancer and explained the situation. Piper told him the meds were not helping. She agreed to help him out with chores. While he was gone to fetch tools, the TV started crackling and the image distorted, displaying a mysterious symbol. Piper was about to touch the screen when Ed returned and everything went back to normal. She secretly hid a utility knife in the coat of Jo's jacket, which she kept wearing throughout the day, before joining him for the chores.

In the evening, Mia refused to go with her father as she wanted to stay with Piper to provide her with consistency and security. Alex wasn't thrilled about his daughter disrupting the custody agreement for a strange girl but Jo smoothed things over by allowing him to take Mia on a fishing trip during the next school break. Mia promptly invited Piper to come along then. After dinner, Jo checked up on Piper and learned Mia had given her one of her very necklaces. Jo inquired if she remembered anything but Piper diverted. Jo suggested she was afraid of remembering or talking, citing her own bad memories of her mother leaving her and her father when she was about Piper's age. Piper admitted she would have to go back to her life if she remembered but Jo promised her they weren't getting rid of her anytime soon.

When two fake parents showed up at the station, Jo had Alex take her family to a vacation home. She arrived later and told them about the fake parents. Piper wondered why they wanted her. Jo thought the answer was somewhere in her head so Piper promised she would try to remember. When the power was shut down and people were sneaking around the house, the family fled into the basement. As the invaders tried to get in, Piper freaked out in Mia's arms and things started moving around the basement. Ed and Alex broke a window and they all climbed out one by one, but outside, Alex was knocked down and Piper was kidnapped by the fake parents. Jo pursued them until they suddenly crashed on Highway 25 as if the jeep had ridden against an invisible wall. The kidnappers were left dead while Piper, seemingly fine, crawled out. Jo hugged her tightly and took her back home.

After coming home from work the next day, Jo promised Piper that the people hunting her down were gone forever. Piper asked if Jo thought she had crashed the plane but Jo said she did not. Jo told her to change for bed and brush her teeth. While alone in the bathroom, Piper had a brief memory of herself being immersed in water. Afterwards, she retrieved the utility knife from the jacket and cut a tracking device displaying the symbol out of the skin behind her ear. She washed away the blood and covered the wound with her hair.

A few nights later, Piper pretended to be asleep when Jo came to check on her but moments later, she went to inform Jo that someone was sneaking around in the garden. Everyone in the house was woken up as Jo instructed Piper to go to Mia's room. Jo didn't find anybody and Ed suggested Piper had seen a shadow. Piper didn't buy it but she played along as to not worry anyone. While Chris came to install security equipment, Jo sent Piper upstairs to try on clothes she had bought her. Piper stalled on her way up and heard how Alex, who had come to pick up Mia, blamed Jo for bringing danger into their family's life. Jo assured him Piper could go back to her family as soon as they found out where she came from. Piper grew up upset, which caused nails inside the wall to be drawn to her. The sound alarmed Jo but Piper had disappeared when she came to check. Piper checked up on her scar, covering it up just in time when Jo entered to check on her and the clothes. Piper asked her about Alex and Jo replied he was just worried and scared. She assured Piper she was not worried and swore she would never make Piper go somewhere she didn't want to go. She also informed Piper that Abby was coming over to help her with her memory. Piper wasn't thrilled about that but promised Jo she would give it a shot.

Piper passed all the tests, which told Abby she was capable of forming new memories. She gifted Piper a memory journal in which she could write down anything. Piper retreated to her room and wrote down the words of Abby's memory tests. She started tapping the journal with her pencil, which triggered another memory of a bloody scalpel and a scientist's throat being slit despite his pleas and telling the culprit "Don't." Piper then noticed she had written "Don't" all over the journal pages. She tore out the pages and threw them in the trash before heading downstairs for dinner. While setting the table with Mia, Jo showed her a metal card that was retrieved from the car crash and asked her if she had any idea what it was. Ed and Mia pitched in but Piper herself didn't really answer. However, while at night, the card was activated and drew Piper downstairs. She extended her hand and the card flew into it. Scared, she dropped and broke it. She snuck back upstairs with the card and hid it in her room.

The next day, Ed came into her room with boxes and told her they would clear out some stuff so she could really make it her room. She pointed out she might not be there for that long but he claimed he had wanted to repaint the room for a while. He asked her for her favorite color, which was green. He pointed out she had just remembered something and she eagerly wrote it in her journal. While Ed was off to the garage, Piper noticed a man had broken into the house. He was following a device that led him to the bathroom. She hid in a closet and watched him take her tracker out of the siphon. She grew upset, which made stuff around her move. The man was drawn to the closet and found her. He gestured at her to stay quiet and smiled at her but she screamed. Jo and Ed came to the rescue but the man had managed to flee. Jo comforted Piper and so did Mia when she came home from school.

At night, Jo came home after confronting Ken Lerner at the impound. Piper waved at her from her bedroom window. Jo came to see her and found her packing stuffed toys for a sleepover in Mia's room. Jo explained she had dealt with the man who had broken into the house and that he wouldn't be back because his face got broken. She then brought up that there was stuff she couldn't explain. Piper admitted weird stuff happened when she got scared. She was afraid she made the plane crash and started crying, thinking there was something wrong with her. Jo understood that she was special and that that was why these people were after her. Piper said she didn't want to be special but Jo replied there was nothing that they could do about that. She promised she wouldn't tell anybody about what Piper had told her and told Piper to go to the sleepover. Before leaving, Piper gave her the broken metal card and admitted she had had it. Jo thanked her for her honesty.

### Sickness

Soon after, Piper started having dreams about stuff in her surrounding turning to dust. While she was supposed to go to work with Jo for the day, upon discovering Piper had a fever, Jo persuaded Alex to work from home and babysit Piper. He started working on deciphering the code from the air band radio and Piper sat with him, commenting that she knew he liked being at the house, as did she. She then started to say letters and numbers and informed Alex she somehow understood the broadcast. She offered to let him take the credit, as it would make Jo happy, which in turn would make him happy. He dodged and wanted to give her more medicine, only to discover they were almost out. He took her to the store and had her choose snacks while he looked for the medicine. While alone, she had a vivid daydream of the store disappearing. She tried to run from it and screamed. Alex came running and discovered her unconscious on the ground. He took her the hospital, where Abby examined her. She suspected Piper had had a seizure. Jo came in to check on her and Piper asked her not to leave. Ed and Mia also came to visit. Ed had had a meeting with his doctor and claimed he was all healthy, which Piper didn't seem to buy, but she didn't comment. Abby administered copper because of an anonymous text Jo had received, which made Piper better. However, when they were planning to run an MRI, Piper had another hallucination, this time her body disappearing with the rest of the room, too. Jo had Alex sit with her while she went to chase a cure. She eventually returned, having learned about Piper's origins. She uploaded the cure from an exabyte disk through a docket in Piper's arm. After the uploading was done, Piper woke up as if nothing had happened. She asked to go home, where she, Ed, and Mia had a movie night while Jo kept her distance.

### Jo's Distrust

Piper noticed that Jo had become more distant towards her after the sickness. One night, she came into the kitchen to ask for water, possibly aware that Jo was watching her through a nanny cam, and asked for water. Jo handed her a glass and told her to get back to bed. The next morning, Jo found Mia combing Piper's hair and forced Mia to go. She took over and examined Piper's hair up close while Piper talked about liking getting her hair brushed. Piper then asked if she mad at her because she was smiling less than usual. Jo claimed she was tired. Piper then took over and combed her own hair. That day, a social worker came by and interviewed Piper, who was suspicious and asked why the conversation would be recorded. In her explanation about the protocol, the social worker mentioned that sometimes, the kid or the families are not happy with the situation. Piper grew upset and kept repeating she wanted to stay. The social worker tried to calm her down unsuccessfully until her phone blew up in her hand. She ran downstairs to take care of the burn. Jo later came home and learned of the accident. She angrily asked Piper what had happened. Piper said it was an accident and Jo didn't comfort her, which upset her even more. Alex and Mia arrived and Mia offered Piper some snacks she had brought home from Advisory but Piper declined and went upstairs.

She packed a backpack and snuck out of the house early the next day, leaving behind Mia's necklace. Mia quickly realized what she was planning and went after her, finding her at the bus stop three blocks from the house. She gave Piper back the necklace and told her it was hers now. She assured Piper that Jo wouldn't let the social worker take her anymore as she was part of the family. Piper believed her and while she didn't want to run off anymore, she didn't feel like going home just yet. Mia then took her to her dad's place. Alex inspected her backpack and let them in. Over dinner, they talked about the social worker and Piper calmed down. Jo came to pick her up later that night and made Mia stay with her father. While driving back to the house, Jo told Piper she wanted to talk to her alone. Piper thought she was afraid of her. Jo took a bit to answer but denied. Jo inquired if she remembered anything about her life. Piper then admitted she had been having these little dreams while awake, which scared her. Jo then asked her if she wanted to know who she was. Piper admitted she had started to think that she did not. She then abruptly yelled at Jo to stop. She got out of the car and picked up a turtle to help it cross the street. This made Jo trust her again and believe in her innocence, finally deciding she did in fact want to foster Piper. After settling that with the social worker, Jo removed the nanny cam from the room. Piper pretended to be asleep but smiled as soon as Jo left.

## Personality

Piper is very observant, intelligent, and curious, but also reserved.

## Powers and Abilities

Piper possesses an apparent telekinetic ability. While it was suggested to be limited to metal objects, she has proven capable of energetic and destructive outbursts that move even non-metal objects. Additionally, her presence was also indicated to be capable of redirecting the flow of water and interfering with electronic devices and electricity itself to the extent of being capable of hijacking a satellite to send a message specifically to Jo's house.

On top of that, Piper mysteriously knows things that she has not seen or heard about. As is the case with other AI's, she appears to have no need for sleep and an apparent higher resistance to non-self-inflicted physical injuries.

While not a supernatural ability, she has also proven capable of learning and rewriting her own code, which resulted in her being capable to overcome the fatal exception integrated in her code as a fail-safe to destruct her. As such, she is now living as a self-aware AI.

## Notes and Trivia

* She loves Rice Krispie treats and having her hair combed. She also loves cleaning, which she finds satisfying.

## References

1. ↑ No Outlet, 1x04
2. ↑ Pilot, 1x01
3. ↑ Camera Wheelbarrow Tiger Pillow, 1x02
4. ↑ 2 MG CU BID, 1x03
5. ↑ No Outlet, 1x04
6. ↑ No Outlet, 1x04
7. ↑ RDZ9021, 1x05