Cold in the Summer.

Serena Callaghan is not in a good place. She hasn't been for a while.

Three days ago, crying in an alleyway - horrid, heart-wrenching sobs as her lungs were tight with unspeakable emotions.

Two days ago, throwing herself into work - literally. It only takes one zone not to be scouted enough and the explosion knocks her off her feet - breaking several ribs in the process. The ribs heal, but she was getting too careless.

Yesterday, she did her time in the Jade Star, staring at her problems through the end of a bottle in the comfort of a back room. She even stayed there that night - the beds aren't great, but the ambient noise of the bar was better than the silence of her apartment.

Today... Today Serena is still not in a good place. She is skipping her usual brunch, again. She is skipping another meeting, again (though her nigh-obsessive attention to detail and back-up plans means that her business runs as usual without her there for a couple days). Skipping a pr session (there's no use pretending to be a hero when she is a terrible one). There's not much she can work on today, and truthfully there's not much of anything she even wants to work on any more. All she can really do is bide her time until she can go on patrol again.

Two boys were dead after one of her missions. Two teenagers, stolen and experimented on, died when she could have done something. She'd tried to take responsibility - funeral costs, grief counselling, trying to find out who took the boys - but it pales in the face of the vast pain the families go through losing their son twice. The blame is clear - and in her mind, it's only correct to blame the one person who could have saved them from their ultimate fate. After all, Serena blames herself as well.

It's not like she has anyone to talk to about it, either - running from her old demons into the refuge of work didn't do her any favors in that area. The fact that many people who approach her first aren't looking to just be friends doesn't help either. Coaxing one of her only friends to open up to her only to run from him when her own demons reared their heads... Well, there's obviously a reason she can't keep anyone around.

Mood music.

Now: The usually well put together hero has really toned it down in the last few days, with little energy for something like that as she heads over to the watercolour sails of the Platinum Bay canopy market.

Setting up in a small corner away from the foodcourt, Serena finds somewhere on the ground to sit with her sketchbook as she just... Watches the people move by. Most don't give her a second glance, but any who did might find a shell of a girl, without her usual energy and attitude.

Tonight: Seraph is running off schedule - her watch should have ended two hours ago. But here she is, staking out an arms deal because if she can't solve her problems out of costume, she can try and solve one in costume. It is going down near where the docks meet the Ravenholm district, and she keeps perfectly still and almost undetectable as she watches. There's a certain... Determination to her. None of the soft and optimistic heroine she began as not too long ago, she just wants to do a jojb and get something right for once.

tl;dr depressed hero goes missing for a couple days, has bad social skills if they dont involve being fake until people like her, and also no friends out of costume. say hi if you like at the market/fair or on patrol.