SILENT NIGHT | OPEN

[ORPHEUS]

[align=center][div style="max-width: 500px; text-align: justify; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 1.4;letter-spacing:.1px"]When others spoke of missing pieces, they typically meant in a puzzle or a mystery. Without those fragments, the full picture didn't make perfect sense and the story didn't pop off of the page. But when Orpheus spoke of missing pieces, they weren't things that made him difficult to be understood by a stranger. The first layer was always easy to see: he was flirtatious and curious and talkative, there was nothing special about that. No, the pieces he was missing went deeper than that, mattered only to him. A sort of restlessness has overtaken him as of late, whenever he stumbled over potholes in his own existence he could feel the jump. Maybe he was thinking about it more with the holiday season upon them again, his mind restlessly jumping through hoops to show him what he was missing, what he could have had. But thinking like that is exhausting, and all he wants to do is ignore it. That only ever works for a while.

He's tried to busy himself since he got here, with weekly tasks and reparation for the holidays. He greeted people at the border, pestered them about their speech — because when he was able to sit and think, nothing felt good. But somehow it all manages to worm its way back in even when he does something, and now he's calling it quits as best as he can.

After staying up all night on accident, unable to settle long enough to even doze off, exhaustion has gotten the better of the lion. Although a light snowfall dusts the ground outside of the observatory, it still manages to be comfortably warm inside. For now, Orpheus avoided the grand circle or — main circle or whatever these people called it. Too busy for someone who tottered a little bit with sleepiness and could hardly open his eyes. Instead, he had found himself in the planetarium, soft eyes on the sky projected above his head. It was dark and peaceful in here, though some part of him begins to miss the snowy sky. Winter always seemed to go by so fast on the coast, but this place is different. A little drearier, but pretty still. Besides, he couldn't keep his eyes open long enough to take in the scenery right now anyway.

It doesn't take long for the lion to settle down on the floor, kicking and twisting until he's comfortably on his back. His white stomach is bared to the world, paws in the air and eyes closed. His expression is clear and soft, almost perfectly innocent as his mind wanders off. Just an hour or so, that's all he needs. Then he can get back to Christmas.