#seethemdancing

390 Prompts

8. “Are you really taking his side against me?”    

Chris stared in disbelief at Piper (Mom, a small voice inside his head said, though she didn’t know it yet), Phoebe, and Paige, his gaze flicking back and forth between the three Charmed Ones and Leo.

     An Elder.

     His father—though no one knew that yet either besides Chris himself.

     Who was currently trying yet again to keep Chris from being the Charmed Ones’ Whitelighter—this time with the serious threat of clipping his wings and having Chris’s soul be recycled or, failing that, send him back to his own time.

     “Seriously?” He tried, but Chris couldn’t hide the anger, disbelief, hurt from his tone; couldn’t keep it from flitting across his face, flickering in his eyes. “Are you really taking his side against me?”

     “Chris,” Piper began, “it’s not that we don’t like you—”

     “Speak for yourself,” Phoebe muttered. “Sending us out after all these demons nonstop is a drag.”

     “—but your methods are doing more harm than good,” Leo finished for his wife. Ex-wife, a small, nasty voice in Chris’s head reminded him. “Backdoor deals with demons, nearly getting your charges killed, murdering three Valkyries in cold blood to steal their pendants, sending me to Valhalla…”

     “I don’t believe this!” Chris scoffed, threw his hands up in disgust. “You can’t prove I killed those Valkyries or sent you to Valhalla. Just admit it, Leo, you’ve had it in for me since the day I arrived here.”

     Leo opened his mouth, but Phoebe butted in before the Elder could say anything: “Chris… he does have a point. Maybe it is for the best if the Elders gave you some other charges for a while so you don’t have to focus on us all the time.”

     So you don’t have to keep sending us out after demons all the time, was what Chris knew she meant. He looked skyward, rolling his eyes, and suppressed the frustrated groan he felt building in his chest. “You don’t get it, do you? I’ve told you that I know from future knowledge there’s an evil out there that gets to Wyatt… and the four of you aren’t even doing anything to seriously protect him. Dammit!”

     It exploded out of him in a yell born of pent-up frustration and helplessness; the sisters jumped, startled, but Chris had his attention on Leo and didn’t notice.

     “It’s almost like you want him to be captured and turned evil!”

     Even when the four of them gave him shocked, cold looks Chris didn’t regret saying it. Then Piper stepped forward, told him that in no uncertain terms she did not want to see him in the house again, and disappointment crashed down around him.

Piper also flat out confirmed (in the final flash-forward montage in Forever Charmed) that when their kids - in the case of her & Leo it would be Chris, Wyatt&Melinda - were “old enough” they “took over” the “[demon] fighting” (it being accompanied by the footage of Chris & Wyatt brewing an indefinite vanquishing potion). This was a BLATANT allusion to the potential spin off (so was Chris & Wyatt’s “demon arse-kicking” exchange when they were transported to past to reclaim Wyatt’s powers) which we never got to see (due to the fallacious notion that “SPN has the same concept” when A) Dark Future arc (2003-2004) predated this show which was premiered in 2005 and B) the original Charmed is about wicca practicing/evil forces fighting siblings (a trope widely used in media, i.e Practical Magic). Another avenue a reboot - if one was inevitable - could’ve considered was to focus on Paige’s charges (new generation of witches and whitelighters she took on the task of protecting & tutoring). Instead, we are getting the original show erasing (by the same network that treated it’s actresses with grotesque misogyny), queer-phobic (referring to one of the heroines’ sexuality as a “twist” & reducing her to anger management issues suffering, possessive lesbian stereotype), ableist (the “r” word featuring comments from one of the cast members) rip off perpetuating the oppression of the vulnerable & marginalized groups that derived motivation & strength from the original, legitimately empowering series (versus a classist Western feminism promoting "reboot" that celebrates youth, ability privilege & ladder climbing. Since it labeled the original show as not empowering the idea is that the acquirement of high socioeconomic status for a woman is superior to emotional growth. Original Charmed only had Phoebe represent this brand of “empowerment” and she was the OUTLIER among the other characters who actually had to mentally grow & fight for their happiness. Rather than being rewarded for their entitled, agency robbing & predatory behaviors by a successful career & a man being sent down to them literally from heavens by in-universe powers that be).        There is also the matter of Chris’ repeatedly displayed PTSD & aftereffects of his traumas that were either never acknowledged or outright ridiculed with “that is one bitchy Whitelighter”/“your big brother picked on you”/“neurotic little freak” remarks (that is, until Chris’ family realized THEY too were going to be affected by the sources & causes of his traumas - which is when it became his job to save them & die per Phoebe). Enough material to delve into and NOT make the spin off/reboot strictly about neurotypical people’s problems (and maybe give Chris an opportunity to finally address his traumas related to his brother being a tyrannical dictator in the original timeline where his father was a deadbeat & his mom and aunts were dead - which Chris’ family dismissed with “you’re so dramatic”, “why are you so edgy anyway”, “if Chris lives long enough to tell me what to change” & “YOU gotta take it easy on Wyatt [because] he’s gonna be different" and “it all worked out”; not covering the infamous “Chris’ destiny might have been just to come here and warn us about Wyatt and that’s all” from his narcissistic, “been on that whole future thing when it benefited HER & promised her a happy ending” aunt Phoebe).

It should be noted that the Chris we see in “Forever Charmed” is not the same Chris that came back into the past, but it is more or less outright stated in both “Imaginary Fiend” and “Forever Charmed” that he does remember the original timeline—and in any case, Chris does seem to have a much better and healthier relationship with Wyatt and his family in the new timeline. (Which is not to say that there isn’t any psychological issues there—there most likely are, given Chris has two different sets of memories in his head.)

The ending of the original series also made it clear that Piper and Leo become grandparents, and that the next generation (of which Chris, Wyatt, and most likely PJ were the first) has over the Charmed Ones’ duties in fighting evil and protecting innocents. It is also clear that Magic School is still up and running, that (as you mentioned) Paige has embraced her Whitelighter side and is focusing on helping her charges. The reboot could easily have gone any route with all the future options opened up in the series finale.

I like that you added the brief but painfully telling segment where Chris, upon being dragged back to Dark Future by Bianca and facing Evil Wyatt & his demons momentarily looks down. Not in shame - Chris knows he did the right thing by going to past & trying to save baby Wyatt from evil(& hopes the sisters can decode his"fix the floorboard message"; so that if Chris survives the encounter with his brother he can continue trying. Even if it means  obliterating his existence) - and not even in fear (it is already established by that point that Chris is terrified of Wyatt - “here or there I’m dead anyway”, “[Wyatt’s] demons will be all over us”, “if he knows you [Bianca] betrayed him, he’ll kill you”, “hurry, before he finds us”. But in this scene Chris makes a brief attempt to APPEAR defiant and stoic. Before, in the next one, starting to tear up as he is confronted with his brother’s moral decline again & the prospect of more abuse at Wyatt’s hands). That downcast expression as Wyatt is approaching Chris surrounded by a pack of his demonic cronies gives away total emotional weariness on part of Chris. It is a knowing look of someone who is well aware of what is about to happen because Wyatt reacting violently to Chris’ defiance was clearly a pattern in the Dark Future (“that’s ALWAYS been your problem” and the “pardon me” scene where Wyatt starts choking Chris the moment the latter takes an active stance against him & verbally indicates it). It’s a hauntingly realistic display of how an abuse victim becomes so used to being mistreated their first response is to prepare for another round of abuse as if it’s some sort of routine (Chris seems tired & exhausted because of what is ABOUT to transpire even before it actually does). Also love how Chris momentarily turns back to give the sisters a final glance before going into the portal with Bianca. He had already shown his unwavering faith in their intelligence by giving them a vague clue about how they could send him back his powers (which Piper & Paige were able to effectively figure out in the manor. Being the intelligent people in the room where Phoebe & Leo were also present as they didn’t even understand what the other two were alluding to when realizing Chris was “trying to tell them something”).      That glance was an additional way for Chris to emphasize he hasn’t actually given up on being their Whitelighter or protecting Wyatt & that he still considered them his team and his equals (and, in turn, it was the narrative’s way of pointing out that the idea of Chris being a cunning and sly manipulator who used the sisters for some undefined nefarious means could only work as a RUSE & as a way for Chris to tell the sisters something was WRONG. Because it wasn’t how he normally behaved. Which was later further highlighted by the fact that the first thing Chris does once he comes back to past & despite having just witnessed his fiancee be impaled on a broken table leg - with said table only being broken because his brother slammed Chris’ frame into it while flinging him across the room three times before trying to murder him - is to commend Paige on having written a “nice spell”, apologize for lying & leave the decision about whether the sisters were “still alright with him hanging around [there]” up to THEM).

Hurt/comfort dialog prompts

11. “Oh god, you’re bleeding”

“Chris?” Piper glanced up from the boiling pot on the stove at the sound of orbing, fully expecting to see the young Whitelighter standing there impatiently and ready to tell her about a new demon that needed vanquishing.

     He was standing in the kitchen doorway all right, but what she didn’t expect was for him to have multiple gashes on his face and what she could see of his hands, still open and dripping scarlet. Piper’s irritation with the Charmed Ones’ neurotic Whitelighter vanished instantly, replaced with concern. “Oh god, Chris, you’re bleeding.”

     Without thinking, Piper left her station and hurried over to him. “What happened?”

     Chris flinched visibly at her show of concern, pale green eyes flicking away from her brown ones. “I was tracking a couple of demons. Either they saw me or I got too close. Either way…” His voice trailed off, leaving the implications all too clear to the Charmed One. 

     Piper said nothing for a moment. At some point she was going to have to talk to him about needlessly putting himself in danger, but that time was not right now. “I can call Leo. He can heal you.”

     “No!”

     Okay, she knew Chris didn’t like Leo but even so, the sharpness and abruptness of his response surprised her enough that Piper reflexively stepped back. Something flickered in Chris’ eyes that she couldn’t identify when he saw her reaction; then he took a breath as if trying to calm down, grimaced in pain.

     “Just… do what you can to clean it up, please, Piper,” he said in a softer tone. “They’ll heal on their own.”

     Brown eyes held green for a moment; then she nodded, businesslike. “All right.” Turning, she began gathering up what she would need to clean up his scratches. “Just take a seat, Chris,” Piper tossed over her shoulder as she walked over to where they kept the first aid kit.

     When she came back with the kit, he was sitting down without much complaint. That changed the instant she applied a washcloth soaked in cold water to clear up some of the blood: Chris flinched back with an irritated hiss of breath.

     “Oh, stop fidgeting.”

     To her faint surprise, the Whitelighter actually listened to her and stayed still without complaining (much) as she continued cleaning his wounds.

     “Okay, done,” Piper said several minutes later, sweeping up the used supplies and tossing them in the nearby trash can.

     “Thanks.”

     The subdued note in his voice had her pausing, turning her head to focus on him again. “Chris?” Suddenly it seemed important for her to say something, even if she wasn’t sure why. “You can come to us if you need help. You know that, right?”

     He scoffed derisively, met her gaze. “I’ve tried,” he said flatly. “But all three of you have been so wrapped up in your personal lives you don’t listen to me at all—even when I'm trying to warn you about a demon attack. So no, Piper, I don’t know if I really can.”

Observing Wyatt’s Ruler of All Evil antics from this angle adds an entirely new dimension to Chris’ memorable (albeit devastatingly tear filled) eye roll when Wyatt muses about there being no good or evil & that the one with the most power wins. This speech from Wyatt might as well be a low grade rock band’s song lyrics. “That’s always been your problem (I’m so past that)” (feat. Bianca).

@highlandxwitch

This is delightfully accurate of a summary where Chris’ reaction is concerned. What’s particularly fascinating is that in this episode Chris once again displayed outstanding self irony despite the situation getting desperate & despite being at the brink of obliteration (“if we don’t do something soon I can end up half fireman instead of half Whitelighter”). Similarly to how when Chris was actually starting to fade away he still found the energy to chat with Clarence and even make obscure quips about being “obsessed with the future” (while nearly passing out due to the “floating feeling” caused by starting to vanish AND because of exhaustion/“probably needing to eat”). There was also a matter of Chris making halfhearted jokes about Leo reading his pretentious speeches out of fortune cookies - right after being kicked out of his own home (yet again, seeing as the first time was when Wyatt banished Chris from the manor in the dark future to turn it into a creepy scare tactic museum). And Chris remarking that Leo was old enough to know dinosaurs when the aforementioned stalked and physically mistreated Chris again and trapped them both in a Cretaceous period. Chris’ ability to use humor even in the most dire situation was admirable.

I’m neither a part of the RP community(and not sufficiently knowledgeable on how the fan-cast/alternate face-claim culture works within fandom) nor familiar with TW or it’s fandom. But aside from the fact that Drew was exceptionally well received as Chris by the general audience (which the trending & long running shows are primarily aimed at; fandom represents approximately 1 percentage of viewership so the preferences it holds & characters/actors it favors - i.e Phoebe - are not reflective of the views held by the general audience), that after Drew’s departure as a regular the ratings drop was almost as perceivable as the one after Shannen’s departure (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Charmed_episodes) which speaks volumes given Drew was only a regular in ONE season vs Shannen being a lead in three (the drop was actually MORE significant after Drew was written off; but we ought to take the fact that long running shows tend to naturally drop in ratings by it’s later seasons. Though in this case the plummeting of the ratings was MARKEDLY abrupt) & that Drew is “the only guest star to appear in every season following his introduction” (per Charmed Wiki). There’s a matter of - as you note - the casting department deliberately making sure Chris resembles both of his parents because the hints leading up to the reveal of his relation to the Halliwells & him being PL son and Wyatt’s brother were planted as early as season 5 final (only to become more prominent in 6X01 the moment Chris’ “if anyone should be protecting themselves it’s me - from you [Wyatt]” line was uttered. Which was also a foreshadowing of Wyatt being the evil in the future). When my grandmother over a decade ago saw a brief segment of S6 as I rewatched it on VHS and asked who “that handsome” was I clarified that Chris was the sisters’ new Whitelighter (the only term she memorized from the Charmed mythology because in Russian it was translated as a “keeper”) who is soon to be revealed as Piper/Leo’s second son. She proceeded to watch the rest of the episode (which was from the first half of S6 where no one knew Chris’ real identity - I think it was 6X05 or 6X06) wholly confused as to how no one in the family noticed that Chris “looks just like Piper”. That gives one a rough sketch of how general audience DOES pick up on such things & pay attention to casting and hints (contrary to fandom-invented misconception that only the fandom culture “cares” about the subtext. When it typically only cares about it when said subtext validates their assumptions/opinions/preferred direction of the show).

Tbh, even as a member of the Charmed RP community I still couldn’t tell you the reasoning behind alternate faceclaims for a canon character (unless it’s a lack-of-iconing-resources thing) or fandom recast edits in general. Specifically, I’m majorly confused as to why a significant number of the fandom recasts Dylan O’Brien as an alternate faceclaim for Chris Halliwell when, as I noted before, he looks nothing like Holly or Brian and there isn’t anything about him that, to me, says, “Ah, yes, this guy is a good alternate faceclaim choice for adult!Chris.” 

I know very little about the craft (being an agnostic I don’t identify with any religion personally. But respect other people’s right to their choice in that department). However, the overwhelming majority of individuals practicing magic in my country (Russia) outwardly label themselves as “magicians”(those who do never claim to be wiccans or witches). Most of them cast spells, fortune tell & perform summons. Not sure whether magicians worship any gods though. ETA: as you note, most magician identifiers practice magic independently (rather than as a part of a coven), at least if they use and attribute the term accurately (again, feel free to correct me if it’s not the case).

This quote from Raymond Buckland (an initiate of Gardner who introduced Wicca to the States in the 1970s) sums it up pretty well:

Today the word wicca is generally directed to those who still follow the Old Religion concepts; worshipping the gods throughout the wheel of the year, in esbats and sabbats. The word witchcraft has come to be relegated to those who wish to work magic, and only magic; those who, either in groups or as individuals, “cast spells” and try to influence others, not always for good. In truth, these spell-casting ones do not actually need to call themselves “witches” at all for they are simply “magicians”. However, they seem to think that the sobriquet of “witch” has a romanticism, but of the sort from which we pioneers tried so hard to separate ourselves!

—Raymond Buckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft, 25th anniversary edition

and for all “traditional witches” claim to not be Wiccans...

their definition of witchcraft is exactly like everyone’s definition of Wicca in the 1960s/1970s

their practices look an awful lot like Gardnerian Wicca and

as far as I’m aware, the first to claim the title of “traditional witch” was Robert Cochrane—and he was a Wiccan

there’s more here if you want to read it (it’s a Gardnerian’s response to a traditional witch)

but essentially my main issue is with those who get involved with witchcraft as some sort of trend because they want to look cool and edgy and gain brownie points on social media. Y’know. Dress up in fancy robes and hold elaborate rituals and think witches are all about making supernatural things happen (bc too many episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Bewitched or Charmed or any YA novel out there featuring a fictional witch species) but they have little understanding of what witchcraft actually is.