you make flowers grow in my lungs

[hufflefluffhouse]

(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.

Comments

LEONARD SNART (CAPTAIN COLD) | OTA

[theonlycaptain]

lacie baskerville ; pandora hearts ; m/f

[perpetua]

Setsuna F. Seiei | Gundam 00 | OTA

[elswhisperer]

[ Assumed CR is A-OK! ]

Kusakabe Hikaru | Doukyuusei/Sotsugyousei | OTA

[zgok]

Dean Winchester | Supernatural | ota

[singlemantear]

[The idea of emotionally constipated Dean coughing up flowers when he's feeing love (platonic or romantic) just delights me to no end.]

[asguardia]

[ Would you care for an AU'd war goddess that's decided to come along for the ride and help the boys hunt monsters? ]

[singlemantear]

[Sure! Are you thinking that she's been helping for a while now and either she's got feelings for Dean or vice versa?]

lan wangji // the untamed

[taciturnly]

sansa stark | asoiaf/got | ota

[eyried]

jiang cheng | the untamed

[fennu]

jaskier - the witcher (netflix)

[lettenhove]

[ either platonic or romantic is fine by me. ota for platonic, 21+ for romantic. ]

Billy Kaplan|Marval Earth-616| M/M| Wickling

[thegayestmagician]

.

tifa lockhart | ffvii remake

[divekicked]

( can fill either role. )

mion sonozaki | higurashi no naku koro ni

[penalizing]

( can fill either role. )

maki harukawa | new dangan ronpa v3 | m/f

[temaki]

( can fill either role. )

Brock Rumlow ☠️ MCU

[hydratrash]

[Cast mates only.]

aerith gainsborough — final fantasy vii (ota)

[bloomly]

( either role. )

terra | kingdom hearts | ota

[solums]

( either role. )

sumeragi subaru | x/1999 | ota

[ritualis]

( either role. )

Nico Acosta | OC | M/F

[anoranza]

Evie Montgomery | OC | OTA

[la_bonne_chose]

Tony Stark // MCU

[call_4766626]

.

[spider_m4n]

Peter had heard it all about butterflies in the stomach, so when the fluttering sensation started making itself known, he had figured it was nothing to worry about. Not everyone ended coughing up petals in that embarrassing way that had made uncle Ben's youth so difficult to him.

He couldn't be more wrong. And this couldn't have happened at a worse timing.

Mr. Stark had just saved the day, after Peter had been almost knocked down unconscious. He had been majestic and wonderful, standing up for him and taking his place, defeating the bad guys, shielding him from danger and taking down their enemies. Peter meanwhile? He was bruised and enduring a coughing fit.

Who knew his mask would suddenly be full of petals?

[call_4766626]

Like a guard-dog seeing off an intruder, Tony chased the last of the henchmen that had tried to launch an ambush on them. He knew that Vison was rounding up the ones that they'd knocked out and they could hand them over for interrogation.

Suddenly, his channel switched as if someone was going to talk, but all he heard was coughing and spluttering. He started to slow.

"Peter? Is that you buddy? You doing okay?" Letting the guy go, he turned around to hurry back to the others.

Tim Drake|DCEU|M/M / or TimKon

[timothywayne]

.