Nonlethal Hanahaki Meme

[caughthell]

Hanahaki. Flower disease. A tragic symptom of unrequited love where the sufferer coughs up meaningful flower petals until they waste away and die or have their love returned...

...is not what this meme is about. This meme is about hanahaki as a disease roughly as serious as the common cold. Any excess of repressed feelings can lead to you coughing up flower petals. Sure, it won't kill you, but who wants to start hacking up daisies in front of their crush? That's so embarrassing.

A useful flower meaning chart!

Comments

[wroughtandtempered]

[ IT'S ALSO A GOOD THING SHE REMEMBERS HOW HER DAD TREATED SORE THROATS,

developing an apparent feather allergy or some fucking nonsense is just her luck, but she's not a baby and can deal. oh no, she has to drink herbal tea with honey in it all the time, how terrible, guess she'll just have to suck it up and be hydrated.

what is terrible, though, is being a fucking dumbass who doesn't remember she's developed a stupid feather allergy, and being reminded the next time she tries to pick Kit up in her mouth while goofing around. she does at least manage the bare minimum of not spitting him out or accidentally tossing him in her urgency to not cough all over him, but it's a near thing that ends with her coiled into an embarrassed knot and wheezing hoarsely into her own stomach. ]

[electricflock]

[PEEPS and flutters his wings, unfolding into his human shape to flutter his hands instead, crouching down next to her]

Eve? Are okay? Did you breathe in a feather??

[wroughtandtempered]

Nnn— shit, maybe, sorry—

[ it does actually tickle more like something is stuck in there, gross. sorry Kit, your plumage is very nice, there are just also places it doesn't belong—

except what she ends up spitting out is a rather bedraggled little blue-purple flower. ]

...oh, fuck me.

[electricflock]

[...trills in a tone of UMMMMM??]

[wroughtandtempered]

[ pinning her ears all the way back, and sitting back to scratch awkwardly at the base of her neck with a hindmost foot ]

...dad used to cough up flowers sometimes.

[electricflock]

But um. Eve's element isn't plants?

[what do catbirds know about hanamaki, they're broadcasting how they feel 200% at all times for everyone within 100 feet to hear]

[wroughtandtempered]

Neither was his. It's— a curse, I think? So element doesn't matter.

[ huffing, sharp, and then half-coughing again ]

...It's not serious, or contagious. Just a pain.

[electricflock]

[peep PEEP]

Is serious! Curses aren't not serious!

[wroughtandtempered]

They are when all they do is make you cough up flowers.

[ ...her grandmother also didn't exactly describe it as a curse, but she is not going into why the old woman called it a blessing. nope. fuck that no thank you. ]

[electricflock]

[keeps peeping like a gosling, sticking out his foot to tentatively poke the blue flower with a toe]

Lungs not supposed to have flowers! ...but isn't often? Haven't seen you cough up flowers before.

[wroughtandtempered]

[ KIT THAT'S GROSS. snagging it with a middle claw ]

This is the first time. It's just my throat, I can make tea for it.

[electricflock]

Just tea?

[already making a mental note to send someone to a pharmacy to buy EXTRA SOOTHING tea,,]

[wroughtandtempered]

[ ...

scratching at her throat again, looking off to the side. it's definitely a nervous gesture, not a reaction to the coughing. ]

... and figuring out why. I guess.

[electricflock]

[peep peep peep— cluck?]

Why?