<div align="center"><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: andale mono;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;">Payton Vincentia Halliwell</span><br/><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 13pt;">Can't let your guard down for a second!</span><br/><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 8pt;">Tagged: the Halliwells</span></span></div><hr/><br/><div class="floatright">(http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u133/kokotigress/Elliquiy/Ashley-Greene_5-1.jpg)</div><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: andale mono;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 11pt;">When Payton had entered and sat down she had been somewhat relieved to see that everyone had started without her, taking their eating as a sign that she had missed Wyatt's ritual. It was just a simple line really, nothing overly ornate or flowery and not even terribly wordy but she could never get that sentence to pass through her lips. As far as she was concerned she didn't have a damned thing to thank the Elders for and she definitely didn't feel the urge to thank a woman who had left her behind with such invasive powers and no clue how to tame them. Usually, rather than say it along with him, Payton found she had to take a deep breath and let it out slowly as she counted to five. The typical rush of anger the prayer brought on had been growing stronger over the years, especially now that her powers had returned to wreak havoc on her life. She wouldn't begrudge Wyatt his ritual but she just couldn't bring herself to join in and so it was probably best that they had gotten that part out of the way before she had come down.<br/><br/>When Brie mentioned not having the endurance for all night partying Payton grinned wickedly, <strong>“Well I most certainly do have the endurance so if you need me to fill in for you at a party or two, just let me know.”</strong> She would love to go to a real party without having to sneak. Didn't people realize she wouldn't get into half as much trouble if they weren't always trying to keep her out of things? <strong>“As for sharing the shower, no worries there. I've been sharing for eighteen years now, another few nights won't make any more difference to me.”</strong> And it was the truth. Payton had never minded sharing anything with family for the most part, she just hated to be taken for granted was all. As the youngest of nine cousins and the shortest to boot, she was often overlooked if she wasn't standing in someones face or yelling at the top of her lungs. <br/><br/>Still smiling despite her overall weariness, Payton caught Tragan's wink to her and let her eyes go wide, flashing him a rather kittenish look of innocence. No one had fallen for that look since she was ten but there it was anyway. The look faded away as her stomach rumbled loudly and she dug into her food with much more enthusiasm than she had expected. For some reason she was starving which was odd since she'd had a Caesar salad for lunch. Wait. No, she'd bought a Caesar salad but hadn't been able to actually eat it because her boss had demanded she take dictation. Dictation for crying out loud! Who even did that anymore?! <br/><br/>Shoveling a bite of lasagna into her mouth she shook herself from her thoughts and instead focused the conversation, relaxing into the ebb and flow of her cousins' banter. When he began, Payton payed close attention to the details of Wyatt's dream, not even blinking when Chris orbed in. Instead she was focused on stamping out the small bit of jealousy that had wormed its way inside her. <em> Chill out Pay! This has got to stop. You don't even want to see her so there's no reason to be jealous,</em> she mentally scolded herself. Of course she probably should have been paying better attention to the direction of the conversation because all of a sudden a thick wave of emotion threatened to engulf her and Melinda orbed away.<br/><br/><strong> “Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.”</strong> She muttered to herself, dropping her fork quietly and closing her eyes as she fought to concentrate on her breathing. She tried not to draw attention to herself as she fought for control, not wanting the others to know her powers were on the fritz. She wasn't even sure if they knew her powers were unbound as she so rarely talked with any of them beyond the usual chit chat occasionally. With each inhale and exhale she forced herself to focus on her own body, her own feelings, even going so far as to pinch herself to help tune out everything else that didn't belong to her. So many emotions all at once and they just kept building, coalescing like a runaway snowball in a cartoon that just kept growing bigger and bigger. It was always like this. One thing would catch her by surprise and then suddenly she was wide open for everything else. They filled her up, altered her own mood, made her heart ache and her stomach clench. There were good emotions but somehow they were always drowned out by the bad. The fear, anger, and worry. Heartbreak. There were always charged emotions around, she <em>knew</em> that. She was so stupid to let her guard down, especially so soon after her earlier episode. It was like they were drawn to her or her range was widening or something. She didn't understand why she had so little control when as a kid she had mastered the ability to turn it on and off so quickly. Goddess she hated this!</span></span>