☀ The Sanctuary ☀ teens with powers ☀ Closed!

[SunnyJustice]

"What's so funny?" Cyprian demanded, pretending to be all mad, like a tough football player guy staring down the quarterback of the opposing team. He was trying to hide how the corner of his mouth was twitching. If he paid too much attention to it, he would let out the laugh he was trying so hard to hide. "Do I got something on my face?"
He grabbed a bunch of snow, cupping it in his hands before molding it into a rather ugly looking snowball. He threw it at Jaai, trying to use a hard overhand throw this time, although he was really bad at those.

"Three minutes until we leave! Everyone better gather up here soon, or there's going to be trouble!" Cilan hollered with a grin. Oh, did he ever have plans... if people were late, he was going to start singing. Unlike his dad Luno, Cilan did not have a very pleasant singing voice. Adamson men were known for their elegant high notes... notes Cilan could never hit. His voice was less like your typical Adamson boy, and more like your average teenage boy whose tone actually changed significantly at puberty. Cilan's singing voice hadn't fully adjusted and it sounded so bad.
He jumped around when Lily left the cabin, in tears. Cilan didn't hear any of what she said as he approached. "Wow, what's going on?" he asked. "Anyone I need to yell at?"

The storm broke, and Rowan helpless in its path. He could do nothing but flinch in pain as Lily left tearfully. He felt tears pricking at his own eyes as he lay his head down on the table, defeated and feeling like he had made everything worse. He would have done anything to alleviate her distress, but he didn't know what he could do. She wouldn't let him know. Was it that she didn't trust him?
Maybe I am the bad person, he thought. I don't know what I have done, but I have hurt her. That is something I would never allow myself to do.
He heard Cilan yelling from outside, but he was too exhausted to react. He knew he only had three minutes, but he wanted to stay in here and sleep for three years. If only Rowan could use his power on himself. He felt like a horrible person, one of the criminals his Aunt Solara would sentence to death.
Those criminals. She had pardoned every one, but she had killed every one. It was a long story and rather morbid. But at that moment, Rowan wanted nothing more than a warm hug from her. He wanted to know he wasn't an evil person, but he felt terrible over what he had just done.
Rowan, the healer, had made somebody cry. Somebody who made him smile more than anyone else. That seemed to extinguish a fire deep inside him, and he was left feeling cold and alone. Was this how the Queen felt, moments before her death in that cold lake? Slowly succumbing to the cold both inside and out? The tears were flowing in silence now, and he just buried his head in his arms and sobbed silently.
What have I done?

---
Five years ago...
"Are you sure you want to watch this?" his mother demanded. The twelve-year-old boy could feel the anger radiating off her, a fire that burned but gave no warmth. It was scary, but he nodded anyway.
"Fine. Come here," she growled and pulled him into her lap. His eyes turned to the screen as his mother's rough, strong hands gently stroked his soft black hair. Some of his family was also sitting on the couch, although he was the youngest boy here by far. He was vulnerable compared to the others here.
It was a family tradition to watch this. The family was known for its anger management issues, so watching the executions would help them control their tempers. If they unleashed their rage, they would probably be the next ones marching up onto that stage. The broadcast had started minutes ago.
The boy was surprised to see there was nothing on this stage. Just Queen Solara, and the condemned criminal kneeling there. He wasn't handcuffed, chained, or anything. Just wearing regular white clothes. She had just finished listing the crimes he committed, and now she was approaching the man.
"What's going to happen?" the boy asked curiously, squinting at the screen. "I hope there isn't a lot of blood. I'm scared." He was starting to regret joining the older members of the family tonight. Normally he would be in bed, but tonight he just couldn't sleep, because his loose tooth was sore. So he had come downstairs to watch.
"There's never any blood, silly!" Willow laughed.
"Don't laugh," Maple scolded. Despite being thirteen, her voice was already beginning to change, and she was well over five-and-a-half feet tall. And growing fast.
"Shh," Cedar said with a chuckle at his kids' antics.
"Hey, it's not my execution. You can lecture me for gallows humor when it's my turn. Even though there's no gallows either," Willow snickered and nudged her sister.
"Enough," their mother snapped at them. "You will end up like this man, if you don't behave."
The boy watched the screen carefully. Solara knelt in front of the criminal, but the camera angle showed both their faces in profile. Besides, the boy could sense their emotions from here. It was peculiar, how far away these people actually were from the screen he watched them on. But he could feel the convict's debilitating fear. The pounding heart, the ice that seemed to flow through his veins instead of blood. The boy was scared too, but he could sense the absolute terror gripping the criminal.
"What did he do?" he asked his mother.
"Murder," Gingko responded grimly. "He killed his sister to become the family heir."
"With a kitchen knife," Willow added. "She was stabbed the same number as my age!"
The boy nodded solemnly. The man was a murderer, and it was his turn now. He had killed his sister in a bloody way. Of course it was bloody, stabbing her eleven times with a kitchen knife would make a horrible mess. How was this murderer going to die? Would it be just as horrendous?
"Is Auntie going to kill him with a kitchen knife?" the boy asked timidly.
"No." Maple was surprisingly quick to reply.
"She never uses weapons," Cedar said. "As a matter of fact, she can't. And she doesn't need to."
The boy had to wonder what that meant. Hopefully, she wouldn't just beat up the criminal until he was dead. That would be very mean. He wouldn't like his Auntie anymore if she did that.
Speaking of his Auntie, he couldn't feel any emotion from her. Or could he? There was something faint, and it took him a while to pinpoint what exactly it was. Something protective, almost nurturing. This wavelength wasn't completely an emotion, but it was something. It was confusing too. Especially since the criminal's sheer horror was overpowering any other emotion he could have picked up on.
Then she placed a hand on the convict's cheek, and looked deeply into his eyes. The fear he was radiating spiked for a second, then seemed to slowly lift. The boy saw the criminal take a deep breath at the same time Solara did. He could swear the Queen had him under a spell.
"You are pardoned," she said to him. "I release you of all guilt and blame."
The boy breathed a sigh of relief. "So, she's not going to kill him? Maybe he can start being good again. I think some community service will help him grow a bigger heart."
Nobody replied to his words.
The boy went back to watching. The fear he felt emanating from the criminal was now completely gone, replaced by an overwhelming sense of relief and calmness. Solara placed her other hand on the man's other cheek, and simply held him like that, gazing into his eyes. She hadn't blinked since the beginning, the boy realized. It was normally hard to make eye contact with her for even a second. The convict didn't seem at all bothered though. The boy couldn't sense a single negative emotion coming from him. The fear never returned.
Not even when the Queen twisted her hands, sharply jerking his head to the side.
The crack made the boy yelp in fright. At first he simply stared, uncomprehending, at the criminal that crumpled to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut. It took him a moment to realize what had just happened.
So that was a pardon by Queen Solara's standards. That was what his 'Auntie' considered lenient.
What was a severe punishment, in her mind?

[Now you know how she executed the criminals... ^_^;]

[artemis,]

Mallory looked over to Arianna. She had... floated off....? Before Mal could answer. She picked up the pup and stood, walking past Cilan. "Please don't sing. My wound doesn't need to be infected." She said with a chuckle. Mallory's eyes darted across the clearing as Lily walked by, and she frowned. "Hey, what's wrong?" She said as she walked up to her, slowly. She knelt down to her position.

[spicy,]

Ari noticed Lily crying and almost fell out of the tree, but quickly caught herself just a few feet above the ground. She fell the other 3 feet and walked over to Lily, "What's wrong?"

[darcy_jensen]

feeling slightly overwhelmed by the two girls questioning how she was, lily wiped her eyes and stood up. she took a deep breath in and looked Ari, and then Mallory straight in the eyes. "I'm fine," she muttered quietly, then repeated the statement louder, and with more confident. I don't have time to be emotional or romantic, she thought to herself, I need to be strong. Cracking her neck, and then her knuckles, she sighed and looked at both girls, then walked into the cabin. "Why haven't we left yet? We need to move," she asked Cilan, hands on hips. she refused to look Rowan in the eyes, as she assumed leaving in tears had hurt him emotionally.

[Lonely_Dream]

"No, it's fine. I think we're almost there...?" He trailed off unsurely as he seemed to see their cabin before it was blocked out of sight by a black dot swimming by...the cabin wasn't there. He squinted his eyes, in some wild hope that he would see it again. That's not a good thing if I start seeing things though, isn't it?

Laurel nodded quietly, much more awake than when she had taken the pills. She turned back to look for Rowan and Lily...but only saw Rowan, shaking quietly with sobs. It broke her heart, seeing someone she thought of as family, crying. She quietly approached him from behind, and slipped her arms around his waist, hugging him from behind. "Shh...not everyone will see eye to eye with each other...mental wounds are very hard to heal...especially if they've been festering for a long time. It's not your fault."

[Shinceon]

Olivia

She nodded but flew close to him in case he fell, she looked in front of them, "we should get there soon now." She hoped that she was right, there was no way of knowing how long he would be able stand with how he seemed to be getting worse.

[Azaline]

Jaai bit her lip, trying her hardest to play her part. She let her eyes flicker from his to the ground.
"I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have-"
A snowball pelted her right in the face. It wasn't so painful, but it was definitely more powerful than the previous one. She stared at him in mock hurt, and he looked nervous for a minute. Taking cues, she laughed and gathered more snow and threw it at him. "I think throwing another few will be all we can do until we have to leave. Do you have everything together?"

[SunnyJustice]

Cyprian pretended not to even notice the snow, even though it was getting rather cold now. He shrugged it off and tried to act all tough. Unfortunately he couldn't hide the shiver that passed through him.
"Yeah, of course I'm ready to go. I brought nothing," he said with a laugh. It had been hard enough getting away from his father in the first place.

"My singing voice is poison?" Cilan laughed at Mallory's comment before following Lily inside. He knew better than to ask her to talk about her emotions. If he said such a thing to a woman of his own family, his head would probably be ripped off and flung a few miles from here.
"Erion and Olivia haven't come back yet," he admitted. "They are late but I'm sure they can't have gone far."

Rowan didn't notice anyone in the room, except when someone wrapped arms around him.
"Thank y-you." The boy closed his eyes as his sobs subsided to faint whimpers. He was focusing on channeling his power to the other person, even though he felt completely exhausted and he just wanted to sleep.
"I n-never wanted to hurt anyone, and now I have," he whispered quietly. Rowan could recognize the girl's voice as Laurel. His sixth sense confirmed it. Everyone's emotions were a little different, and his ridiculous empathy could pick up on that. He just wished he hadn't gone against his nature and upset Lily. He felt like he deserved to be punished for it. A lenient punishment from Queen Solara would be execution at her hands, literally. But Rowan would have signed himself up for a severe punishment, whatever it was, just to rid himself of the horrible guilt he felt.
"Please," he begged. "Please just tell her I'm sorry."

[darcy_jensen]

lily looked past Cilan's build to see Laurel comforting and hugging Rowan, and she eyes narrowed in irritation. She knew she shouldn't assume, and that Laurel was probably just comforting the boy after Lily's actions, but she couldn't help the jealous frustration she felt towards Laurel. It's fine, he's not your boy anyway, she thought to herself, but then again, he did say he loved me, which is a rude thing to do, her other thoughts tried to justify. Shaking her head, she turning her attention back to Cilan's remark, and frowned. "Look, you're the leader of this group. Do you give me permission to teleport about and try and find them?" she asked, trying her best not to listen in on what Rowan was saying, "like you said, they can't have gone that far."

[SunnyJustice]

Cilan had no idea what was wrong with Rowan. Maybe he and Lily had a fight or something, that was why Lily was upset earlier and Rowan was still upset. Cilan knew how emotional his cousin could be. Once he cried because someone accidentally put their lunchbox in his backpack, and he thought he had unconsciously stolen it or something. Rowan ran back to school and literally waited there for the student until the next morning.
He then went to the principal's office and asked to have his 'criminal record' investigated. Everyone in the office had laughed at him because he was so timid about breaking rules, one of the school rules was 'no roaming', and as a result Rowan would only use the same stall every time he used the washroom.
"Permission granted, lieutenant," Cilan told Lily lightly. "I'm sure you can find them."

[If Kylie doesn't post by tomorrow night, I'm killing her off because that makes ten days of inactivity.]