1. Not alone. I generally don't ship much of anyone in fandoms I'm in. It's fun to look at, but I don't participate. :c

3. Like everyone else has been saying, just comment around, ask questions. When your character posts, try to make it open ended so other characters can talk about things. I had this problem a lot when I first started RPing in big games, and it took me a long time to get where I felt comfortable enough interacting. (I still have some issues now, but it's not as bad.) All I can say is good luck.