bakerstreet | since the thing perhaps is to eat flowers and not to be afraid

(harmless) hanahaki meme

hanahaki (literally "vomiting flowers") is a fictional illness that began in japanese literature. most commonly, it happens in the case of unrequited love; flowers bloom in a person's lungs and their love suffocates them until it is either requited or they die.

that's pretty angsty. instead, consider a world where hanahaki is a normalised inconvenience and it's never hurt anyone. flowers grow in your chest from the cultivation of love — for your friends, your family, your dog. and it's a feeling that wants to be known, so maybe you can't help spilling petals sometimes when you laugh, or sigh, or shout at someone. everyone knows what it means and it's something to be celebrated. you love.

maybe you don't want to, though. maybe you chew on the petals and swallow them back, so that no one knows the feelings you're carrying around in your heart. but maybe that's not going to work forever, and sooner or later, you're going to cough those feelings up.

the short version
① hanahaki means your characters cough up flowers. plain and simple.
② it's caused by unspoken love, in any form, platonic or romantic; whether the love is requited has nothing to do with it.
③ the disease is not harmful in any way, and it's no more annoying than a persistent cough; it's treated as more symbolic magic realism here than concerned with the real life implications of coughing up flowers.
④ it's "cured" when a person expresses their love, whether the feeling is requited or not.
⑤ so basically, you can rp any everyday scenario... but now your character might have to deal with the minor nuisance of hacking up petals around the people they love. and those people are going to know what that means.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[scuse the dust, voicetesting! pre- or post-chapter 9 is fine, don't mind the limited icons]

[Things can be easier when you have an assistant, especially one who is very apt at note-taking and very attentive. Some things can also be more difficult, like when that assistant is a teasing piece of shit who would notice any inconvenient traits, such as a sudden onset of regurgitated flowers. As Maya perches on the hood of the car, she pores over her notes in a little book and decides she's going to bother Ignis, since he's closest; the others are nearby, but distracted with doing what is likely only an excuse to waste time in the end. She flips a page in her notebook to see where she's pinned a flower, fingers brushing the paper below it.]

So, you guys and coughing up flowers-- is that usual?

[Her child life was distinctly less filled with flowers, okay.]

Generally speaking, yes. Some of us are a little less subtle than most about it.

[looking at you, prompto]

Even you?

[Maya prods, literally, with the back of her pen at Ignis's shoulder.]

Subtle! What are those techniques? Got a big handkerchief?

[maya that's rude]

Most simply swallow them, I believe.

Hey, Specs. Got a minute to look at something?

[ they're at a rest stop, pulling in for a hot minute to grab a bite to eat and stretch their legs out a bit, when Noct comes up behind Ignis with that conversation opener and literally no further preamble. what is that "something"? Noct's not telling, if Ignis isn't looking. ]

Naturally. [Ignis pushed his glasses into place, tilting his head slightly at Noctis. He'd certainly heard more concerning openers, but that was worth notice.] Is there something wrong, Noct?

Nah. Uh, not exactly. Just need you to be my dictionary.

[ what Noct means by that, if it weren't clear already, should become wholly obvious once he opens his hand. there's a few scattered petals of satinflower there, the two-toned pink standing out sharply against the feathery blooms of the single deep blue, fringed gentian flower they're clustered around. that one had really tickled, coming up. ]

Don't think I've ever gotten these before.

[ Noct's long past being awkward about his chronic hanahaki syndrome when it comes to getting info out of Ignis, at least. he needs ur scarily encyclopedic knowledge, iggy. help him, ur his only hope. ]

[Ignis frowned slightly in concentration at the petals, silent for a moment or two as he examined them and carefully scanned through meanings in his head.]

Satinflower and gentian, if I'm not much mistaken. I believe that's 'sincerity' and...'intrinsic worth', perhaps?

since the thing perhaps is to eat flowers and not to be afraid

Ignis Scientia | FFXV

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

sorry for being so late, omg.

how dare you