Dearest the shadows I live with are numberless

[drownedfuchsia]

Since the original notice of Titus's disappearance, Fuchsia Groan has lived in a fog.  She's barely eaten, and hasn't spent much time in her room.

Unlike what many would expect, there have not been hysterics.  Instead, she's cut herself off from everyone. It's not been intentionally obvious, more that she would be next to impossible to find.  She's

Comments

[ao_ji]

You know who isn't very good at cheering people up? A dragon. That doesn't mean he won't try though! He's wandering around, looking for people he knows, when he spots the under-dressed young woman and tilts his head.

It was cold and she shouldn't be out in only those thin clothes! Or maybe she wasn't cold? Only one way to find out.

"Are you not cold?"

[drownedfuchsia]

Fuchsia blinks at the dragon. She's seen this dragon before, in a dream of playing and snow, so she thinks. This, of course, will explain her answer.

"No, because I'm sleeping."

She's only met Falcor while awake.

[ao_ji]

"You are?" That is certainly strange! Temeraire crouches down and lowers his head to be closer to her level.

"You certainly look awake to me."

[drownedfuchsia]

"I can't be," Fuchsia replies. "I dream about dragons -- except Falcor."

[blackjewelmale]

If she's out and about late in the day, she might find a tall man in a black, mantled greatcoat, striding along despite a slight limp, leaning on an ebony walking stick. Saetan is out for his early evening constitutional, enjoying the brisk, winter air.

[drownedfuchsia]

Fuchsia isn't enjoying anything at all right now. She sniffles a little, sitting on the floorboards of the porch.

She'll stare at anyone passing by as she's Fuchsia, and that's what she does.

[blackjewelmale]

He'll approach Fuschia, pausing and bowing to her. "Good evening, milady, and may I ask what brings you out here this evening?" he asks.

[drownedfuchsia]

"I'm waiting." It's a hail Mary hope, but it's there.

"I'm waiting to yell at someone."

[ofsandandstone]

Lystra's going for a walk out in the grounds, trying to take her mind off worrying about Titus. The two of them were very ~close~. She's more suitably dressed than Fuchsia, wearing a big, fur-lined coat.

She stops when she spots Fuchsia, looking a bit worried. She looks like she could freeze to death, underdressed as she is.

[drownedfuchsia]

Fuchsia knows little of those Titus knows. Frankly, it's a little more denial on her part than anything. A portion of Titus will always be the little baby dropped on his head.

She doesn't look like she cares if she freezes; that would be because she truly doesn't.

"What?"

She doesn't snap when she says it. It's a much more pitiful question like why would anyone bother with me?

[ofsandandstone]

Lystra hesitates some distance away, wide-eyed and timid.

"You look cold."

[drownedfuchsia]

Fuchsia shrugs her shoulders. She hasn't been thinking about warmth, or cold, or anything.

"I don't know. Do I?"

[daddyissuesjnr]

Here's someone else who's been looking for Titus. He's been practically turning the Mansion upside-down looking for his missing friend. And now he's heading outside, to brood in the cold.

He stops when he sees Fuchsia. He doesn't really want to talk to her, since he doesn't like her at all, but he feels like he should, since Titus is missing. Even if it's just to ask her if she's seen him. And so he's hesitating awkwardly.

[drownedfuchsia]

Fuchsia may not be the sharpest thing ever, but there is nothing wrong with her memory. She can't protect Titus right now, wherever he is, but she can still defend him.

"He's better than you. So why isn't he here?"

Yes, she remembers their very first conversation.

[daddyissuesjnr]

Melou, of course, knows exactly who she's talking about. He was just thinking about Titus himself.

Usually, a comment like that would make him angry and defensive, but given the current circumstances, it just makes him look a little sad.

"I don't know."

[drownedfuchsia]

"He should be here. He needs to hurry up and come back."

She can't find him here. That Fuchsia can't find Titus has shaken her as much as a burning library, or her missing father. Fuchsia can only hope no one will have a story about Titus as Flay did about her father.

"Have you seen him?"

[in_summer_leaf]

If Fuchsia walks into the barren gardens around the side of the house, she'll find Hisoka wandering amongst the bare-limbed fruit trees and the beds of bunched, dead, snow-frosted perennial stalks. He turns around when he catches a glimpse of another person in the landscape. And then he looks very concerned, seeing how inadequately she is dressed.

[drownedfuchsia]

When she wanders, it's only to see if she can spot her errant brother. Fuchsia's so focused on her brother, and looking off into the empty spaces she hopes will soon contain him, that she misses things, like other people, or the cold.

[in_summer_leaf]

Hisoka remembers seeing her at the performance of Agrippina. "Excuse me," he says, softly. "Can I help you? Are you in trouble?"

[drownedfuchsia]

"No." Fuchsia tries to think about the best way to put things.

"I'm lost."