bakerstreet | Rain will make the flowers grow

Rain will make the flowers grow

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

[ooc; either role.]

[ooc: Either role.]

[ it came around last week. at first ryu thought it was that the herbal tea had done something to his stomach, and that’s why he was retching fragrant petals all over the place. maybe he had a small flower garden in there? the thought is obviously terrifying and he’d stupidly sat on it for a while, thinking he can save the doctor a visit (and therefore avoid causing a whole situation for everyone around him). but after spending days drinking hot water to flush it out (kill the garden?), the problem persisted.

and now he’s sat slumped over kazuma’s desk while the other paces about restlessly (of course he’d notice eventually), feeling the wood bite into the prominent bones of his cheek and elbows. he hasn’t been able to keep anything down lately.]

Maybe it’s that rolled omelette I had a while ago? They were shaped a bit like flowers…

[People didn't just retch flowers. That was nonsense for fairy tales. But Kazuma couldn't deny the evidence in front of his face. Petals littered his desk and floor, a pile of colorful, fragrant sick that fluttered around his pacing feet. Ryu looked wan where he sagged against the wood, pathetically throwing out reasons as illogical as his sickness.]

"That's not how food works," he pointed out, in case the omelette had ruined him of reasoning.

[Pacing wasn't helping. He needed a solid enemy, something to stab or hit, something easily fixed.]

"You said it's been a week. What did you do a week ago? Remind me how it started."

…I went to get groceries with Iris and Miss Susato. It started raining on the way back, so we rushed home. Other than that, I don’t think I did much.

[ with clients so scarce these days, can you blame him? he idly kicks at the wastebin near the desk that’s full of fragmented petals ]

I did drink tea, though…maybe I ate a seed by mistake?

Edited 2022-01-09 01:36 (UTC)

"Again," he said, stopping to turn on his ill friend. "That's not how food works. You look awful," he added, taking in the sallow complexion, the lethargy.

[There wasn't anything else to do about it. Since he'd arrived, confessing his suffering the last week, Ryu seemed to have grown worse.]

"Put your shoes on. We'll go find a doctor."

Now? But don’t you have a court hearing coming up tomorrow? I don’t want to take away from your investigations…

[he takes a long pause to cough up petals. this is his life now. ]

…how about a book on plants?

[Kazuma stared, incredulous.]

"You're coughing up flower petals and haven't eaten in days. I think this is a little more important. Besides, hopefully they'll figure it out and get you on medication or ... something."

[Pointedly ignoring the comment on books, Kazuma fetched Ryu's shoes himself and held them out directly in his miserable face.]

"Come on. I'll carry you if I have to."

Oh! Er…

[ he’s not sure where the mini-panic attack comes from. or maybe he does. kazuma’s a little close, isn’t he? resisting another floral spell, he relents. ]

…Alright. I think I can carry myself though.

[ he pushes himself up with help of the chair’s rim. ]

Edited 2022-01-09 03:31 (UTC)

[For a second, Kazuma was sure Ryu was about to pass out on his desk. His face had paled, turned green, paled again. Then, slowly and with what seemed tremendous effort, he sat up.]

"You're getting worse."

[Now he was actually worried. Could this be deadly? Some incurable disease? Without much thought, he came forward to loop Ryu's arm around his shoulder, supporting his weight and still holding his shoes in one hand.]

"We'll hail a carriage."

[ kazuma is steady against him despite ryu feeling like a floating log. he’s not sure he’s drank tea hotter than his face feels. ]

but i’m gonna — urk. what if it gets all over you?

[ he does reluctantly take off his indoor slippers, though. can’t have kazuma carry his shoes all day. ]

"What if flower petals get all over me?" he asks, already pulling Ryu toward the door. "I'm sure they'll wash out eventually."

[Ryu is heavy. Heavier than he remembers. Even just supporting him, Kazuma can see his friend's time in England wasn't one of famine. Which makes his next decision harder as he opens the door, drops the shoes and braces himself, then hefts Ryu into his arms, teetering precariously toward the wall before finding his balance.

Right. A carriage.

"You--urk!--you do the the hailing," he says through somewhat gritted teeth, making his way down the front path toward the road.

Edited 2022-01-10 03:53 (UTC)

[ryu yelps. for a second he thinks kazuma’s going to topple them both, but he doesn’t. ryu doesn’t have the energy to protest being lifted, though. he clings like a defeated koala. ]

…c-cabby! over here, please!

[ surprisingly, a horse-drawn cab does pull to the side. feeling faint, ryu just sort of lets time blur after that.

during the bumpy ride, he struggles to breathe. he’s got a dreadful feeling that maybe neither of them may want to face: that he’s getting worse. his leans heavily against kazuma. ]

Kazuma, my — my chest…

Edited 2022-01-10 04:37 (UTC)

[Ryu's breathing gets worse as they ride and Kazuma has to wonder if the petals have entered his lungs. Can that happen? Where are they all coming from in the first place? They're manifesting by the handful seemingly out of nowhere.

Ryu's sad little voice makes his heart skitter in panic. He's not a doctor. He doesn't know what to do here. This isn't something can fix.]

"Why is it getting worse all of a sudden?" he asks even as he leans out of the carriage window, left open to let in the summer breeze, to urge the coachman to drive faster. When he sits back in the seat, providing support with his arm and checking Ryu for fever for what feels like the hundredth time, he tries to sound calm. "We're almost there. Did you need me to do anything? Did you need to lie down? Do I need to open the other window?"

No, i—

[ his chest — it hurts. between the petals pouring non-stop and the fullness in his chest reaching its limits, he feels utterly overwhelmed and helpless. that terrible feeling only grows. Wheezing, he takes kazuma’s hand, weaves their fingers together, looks at him blinks back his tears; they’re not from crying so much as the pain ]

I’m sorry, Kazuma… I don’t think I can… I - I have to tell you something…before...

Edited 2022-01-23 16:54 (UTC)