bakerstreet | Unrequited love but...make it fashion

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Unrequited love but...make it fashion

The Hanahaki Disease Meme

The Hanahaki Disease is an illness born from one-sided love, where the patient throws up and coughs up flower petals when they suffer from one-sided love. The infection can be removed through surgery, but the feelings disappear along with the petals...

1- Discovery:
There's the one person who makes your heart leap into your throat- but wait, that's not your heart. Where are all these flowers coming from? And why do they remind you of your beloved?

2- Concern:
Someone you know has been acting strange lately... Coughing a lot, hiding their hands all the time... It's enough to make anybody worry.

3- Sicker and Sicker:
Coughing up flower petals all the time isn't easy to hide. But it's getting harder to even breathe, now. You're going to have to make a decision, and soon...

4- Confession:
Everyone knows that there's two ways to get rid of Hanahaki: Surgery (the risk dependent on the time period), or confessing your feelings. Time to toe up and face your beloved and just tell them that you love them so much you're dying from it.

5- Post-Op:
The other option... You just couldn't tell them, but you weren't ready to die. Still, without those feelings the world seems a little less colorful. Can you still be friends with them now that you have to start all over? Do you want to?

6- Make your own!
There's flower petals coming out of somebody's mouth in some way for some reason- make this prompt your own.

Just as a note, due to the nature of the meme vivid descriptions of coughing/choking/gagging are probably going to happen. If you want it toned down, make sure to put that in your top-level.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[~~Since they don't have a mouth~~ what's this stuff spilling from their eyes and where their mask meets their throat?]

[AUs, canon and cross canon all welcome! Assumed CR is a must and this doesn't have to be one-sided or lethal.]

Edited 2021-08-26 00:43 (UTC)

[mlm for Romantic, but I am open to anyone for platonic love strong enough for Hanahaki to happen. I am here for as body horror heavy or light as you wanna go with this.]

[ so what if they weren't flower petals so much as.. oh I don't know, roses with thorns that wrap around the heart and squeeze *teacup* ]

[You speak my language! That sounds terrible and wonderful and I am absolutely here for this.]

[ The other wizard had always fascinated Caleb, that beautiful moonlight wizard with the star freckles. They did not even share the same plane of existence-- they had caught each other in glances of a magic mirror; his own world entirely separate. A chance meeting, when they realized that their reflections were not their own. He had purchased the mirror from his world's version of Pumat Sol, it had strangely drawn him to it in the darkened corner-- whispered strange moonlit magic to him, the sigils on the frame bearing soft moonlit runes and he had allowed himself to touch fingers against them.

Not realizing that in another world, another existence-- another mirror existed, that one perfectly it's twin though not of the moon.

After having set it up in his own study, he soon discovered that companionship within it-- another wizard just as ambitious as himself, two wizards on different sides of the pane, two sides of the same coin. Perhaps there had been wariness at first, though not on Caleb's side, but it was gradually, feeling that blooming within him and it soon came to the point where he couldn't help but pop in their before his day started to say good morning to the other man, they worked side by side at times-- sometimes silent, sometimes explain to the other what they were doing.

And that was when those fluttering petals started to whisper against his heart in the first glow of love. He started to ache for the very feeling of being next to, being near Essek, of being unable to stop that pleasure when they talked and they synced up so beautifully.

If they had been of the same world? Oh Caleb knew that they would've become lovers-- perhaps. But they were not and that was why that fragile subject never came to fruition, and that realization was the first soft thorn that lightly tickled against his heart. That saddening thought that it was not meant to be, that their worlds could never be each other.

And Caleb suffered alone in this-- the soft pinprick of thorn bearing down deeper and deeper with each day that passed by with greater realization ]

[It started when Essek broke the heart of another. The man, with blood in his mouth, had looked at him - Your heart is so cold, only the sun could thaw it. Truly, a curse in a kingdom of eternal night. The words plagued him for nearly a century, playing in his mind as his heart froze so solid it stilled completely. The more cold and cruel he grew, the more obsessed with his desire to find the sun grew as well.

So when he found that sun framed mirror in this kingdom of dark, he had to have it.

Yet, there wasn't so much a sun on the other side but a man made of fire and ocean, so brightly lit that it was as if he was the sun, glowing with vibrant colors and warmth. Though wary and aloof at first, he did come to realize that this man lived in a world of light. Perhaps.. if he befriended him slowly, maybe this other man, this other wizard would be kind enough to grant his request one day. Take his mirror outside and let Essek burn in the sunlight.

But the closer they grew, the more he befriended him, the more he saw this man of fire and sunlight.. the more he his heart started to thaw unbeknown to him. His smiles for Caleb were no longer forced and cold but soft and genuine, longing. He lived everyday for the man's company, for his blue eyes and brilliant smile, those good mornings and bright ideas. Softly accented words in his mind and dreams, the warmth that transferred between existences - until he woke up to the painful thump of his heart's first beat in decades. The way it beat straight into the thorns that had unknowingly slithered around his heart.

He found his sun, it had thawed his heart and bloomed a most deadly rose in his chest. A fitting curse for a man of ice and darkness.

Perhaps, should life had led them to be in the same place, things would be different.. shared kisses under the moonlight, holding each other by the firelight, careful with this delicate love. Life wasn't so kind... Even if Caleb reciprocated, the likelihood of this disease in his chest withering was unlikely, not with their distance, not without true love's touch.

He could only look upon Caleb and feel his heart beat itself slowly to death for the other man.]

Good morning.

[ it had become a ritual of sorts to meet early in the morning. In fact as he stepped into his own warm study and from Essek's viewpoint-- the sun came pouring through drapes, though it was a soft morning glow, welcoming and inviting just like the man's voice. Now as Caleb approached the mirror, he could already see Essek's reflection there and that was perhaps what made the pain perhaps a bit tolerable within that chest, the painful thrum as he could feel each prick seem to draw blood slow at a time.

But he smiled through that pain, because he did not want to upset his mirror companion with something that he could not do anything about, and even if he could, perhaps it would've been futile. But his gaze was warm and soft as he stood there, and if there was the briefest hint of shadows under the eyes, likely Essek may not notice it for the soft warmth of that smile. ]

Good morning to you as well, I apologize for being so late. Frumpkin was demanding breakfast, as well as the other cats.

[ Caleb tended to tell Essek of his day to day life, rambling about the mundanities that he went through in the times that they were not apart, he leaned against the table where he had the mirror propped up and then he cast a look at the visage of the other man, perhaps admiring in his own way. And it seemed as if just to look at the other caused his heart to beat faster, and those pinpricks to rise higher and yet he couldn't stop himself ]

Did you have a good trance?

[ He had found out quite a bit about the other man, his habits as well and knew that the drow tranced every night; the first time that Caleb had asked if he had rested well, he had been almost amazed at the surprised look on the other man's face, as if he had never heard such a simple inquiry before. Had no one ever shown him kindness, he wondered? ]

Edited 2021-08-26 22:29 (UTC)

[Morning. A concept he heard about vaguely, but now he could watch it distantly from his mirror. There was no sun that rose here, there was only night - endless and everlasting. Until Caleb he did not know there was a ritualistic way of greeting based on the sun's position.. good morning, afternoon, evening, night... All of it basically meant hello, but it could also mean goodbye. It was strange, but he liked greeting Caleb properly.

And hated saying goodbye.

Seeing the man now made his heart do a strong thrum, piercing it straight into the thorns surrounding it, but he had expected it, known his heart would bleed as it always did for this man. So.. he smiled, soft and pleased to see the other. Always, even if it meant pain and suffering, even if it meant going without a trance, if it meant his pallor was becoming more gray as his chest filled with blood that would not feed his body..]

It would not do to neglect Frumpkin or your other cats, I do not mind waiting.

[Perhaps he did not mind it, but he did not like being parted from the other for any length of time, yet they still parted every one of Caleb's nights, every errand or need that must be met... He would never begrudge Caleb's life outside him, only wish he could be a part of it instead of sitting here waiting for Caleb's return and stories - waiting for death.

It was still awing when Caleb cared to ask after him, inquire about him.. no one has ever cared, not unless it benefited them to pretend. Yet this man of fire and sunlight, of oceans eyes and stories of the colors of a sunset.. He looked upon Caleb through the mirror, looked upon his sun, and felt his heartbeat pick up against those thorns.]

I-- [Lying to Caleb hurt, it made his heart hammer, but to tell him the truth would get questions..]

It was a rough rest. And yourself? Did at least make it to your bed this time?

[ His beautiful Essek, there to greet him. And through the pain, the lack of sleep-- his steps carried him unfailingly back to the mirror. When had it started that they couldn't get enough of each other? When they tried to spend every moment together, barred only by the mirror to make it a physical reality. Caleb's sleep had become a non-entity of course, he had fallen asleep at his books again last night-- attempting to find a spell that would allow the veil that seperated the worlds to part.

Came research on mirrors, trying to see if it could be made a link. Oh he studied so hard, because he wanted to be able to, for one time, just touch him. Feel the skin against his fingertips. Perhaps tell him that his favorite moments had been to spend them here with Essek, in quiet research and beautiful conversation, he had subtly hungered for the man's presence.

The sunlight did much to hide Caleb's own condition, leaving light pressed against shadows and contours that had been turned by the sickness of thorns and flowers, just as likely the darkness did the most to cloak Essek's own-- the dark rendering such things unnoticible. Both of them, their worlds shielding the other from the reality of what lingered between them. And yet Caleb would not give up researching.

Would not give up trying to find a way, a spell. Something.

Though he'd been trying to figure out something in secret, perhaps a surprise for Essek. Perhaps wanting to look into those eyes one final time and murmur to the other man that his most favorite times ad ever been in front of this mirror where he'd allowed his love to grow. Even though it would kill him? He'd never regret this, it was not in his heart to, he would let thorns pierce him and the flowers choke him ]

I.. I was busy with research, my friend.

[ he glanced over to the cup of tea that he had settled on the work table, a tea that was laced with a slight painkiller, something that would numb the pain but a little, and with each passing weak the dose grew stronger. ]

I should tell you a secret, Essek-- I have been working on research of mine own, I've been trying to see if there is any way for the mirror to become a doorway-- it's been what's kept me up for the past month.

The petals have only become a problem in the last few days. Concealing is an art form perfected and for years, he's hidden the blood red evidence, controlled the cough, and suppressed the urge to gag. When he can't rid himself of the petals discreetly, chewing and swallowing them is his remaining option. Bitterness coats the inside of his mouth and burns his throat, robbing him of any appetite. Two hours after a late night League meeting, his chest constricts painfully. Throwing up a trashcan full of petals doesn't alleviate the pressure.

The disease is progressing past the point of concealment. A choice will need to be made soon.

[Canon, crossmedium, crosscanon welcome.

Canonically speaking, he's busy dying over Ed Nygma. Or it could be worse and we could say that whatever lingering attachment of sorts he has for James Gordon, even if it isn't love, is killing him. GUESS I'LL DIE /meme shrug

He survived Bane's attack on the city and all he got was this lousy disease.]

[ooc; either role.]

[ooc: possibly pre-sorcery Stephen?]

[ooc: Either role.]

( no preference for role! open to crosscanon/medium, assumed cr, ocs, the works. anyone in unrequited love ( ... or is it 🤔 ) with him will likely be growing a chest-full of cecilias. )