#hiraeth.task007

[gh0st-towns]

TASK 007 ━ sen’s flower symbolism ✧

Angelica symbolizes inspiration, resilience, and perserverance

"Even in the harshest conditions, a flower can bloom through the cracks, and similarly, [it] can thrive in the most broken places, turning impossibilities into beauty."

Sen is aromantic, but that doesn't mean they aren't also full of love. In many ways it feels counterintuitive. They literally don't grasp the difference between having a best friend who they love with all their heart and what romantic love is supposed to be. They also don't really see sex as tied to romance or commitment, rather viewing the act as it's own thing meant more for enjoyment than intimacy. So while Sen may not ever self describe as romantically in love with someone, there are many people in their life they love deeply.

[ofxlilac]

Flower: Peonies HIRAETHTASK: 007

"A heart that opens slowly, then all at once."

Avery’s nature perfectly: gentle but resilient. She didn’t choose medicine for prestige, she chose it because she knows what it feels like when no one can fix the hurt in time. A peony blooms soft, but its petals are layered just like her strength. Beneath the calm leadership is grief she turned into purpose, and every life she helps is her quiet promise that loss won’t be meaningless

First Love: She would probably have said it was her best friend who had passed away. While people may have thought them to be a high school couple. Avery knew it couldn't be anything more than that. So she loved quietly, and from a distance. She wears her heart on her sleeve, and she loves fiercely. It may not worked out, but she fully believes that love heals and changes everything.

[ofenigmas]

🗲 — MARLANA INGRID ZHAO : CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT  7 / ∞

Flower: Nasturtium

: any of a genus (Tropaeolum of the family Tropaeolaceae, the nasturtium family) of herbs of Central and South America with showy spurred flowers and pungent edible seeds and leaves. especially : either of two widely cultivated ornamentals (T. majus and T. minus) Red nasturtiums can mean courage, strength, or passion. Their shield-shaped leaves and vibrant red-orange petals are often associated with heroism, courage, and strength, and are considered a symbol of creativity and energy. They represent loyalty and, at times, impetuous love.

FIRST KISS

While most of Marlana's life is hidden to the people of Hiraeth, there's one thing she hasn't ever managed to hide: her love of a challenge. That's really what's shaped anyone Marlana's ever had feelings for or been involved with over the years. She remembers being fifteen years old and trespassing on school grounds with her best friend just to prove she could pick the lock of the professor's office. The janitor had showed up earlier than she'd expected, and she'd shoved the two of them at lightning speed into the closet. Pressed together in close quarters, in danger of being caught at any moment, Marlana found there was ... something rather attractive about her friend that she hadn't considered before. There wasn't a single thought in her brain as she closed what little distance was left between them for a kiss. It was a hell of a first kiss, until later he'd chastised her for almost getting them both suspended, called her too much of a daredevil. Her interest vanished after that.

Little has changed in Marlana's type over the years. She enjoys people who surprise her, who like a good argument, who won't get insecure over her jabs. She likes the thrill of being chased, of chasing someone who said she doesn't have a chance, of a kiss mid-fight, of getting lost in someone else under the neon lights of a dance floor. With her stubborn nature, penchant for slamming doors, and fear of anything more intimate than casual sex, most might say she's a little too much to handle.

Just like the fiery Nasturtium, Marlana doesn't plan on slowing down for anyone. They'd have to have enough nerve to tangle with her fast-growing vines, and maybe the will to occasionally water a woman hellbent on going up in flames.

[ofenigmas]

🂫 — JAREN ELLIOT SINCLAIR : CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT 1 / ∞

Flower: Lily

: any of a genus (Lilium of the family Liliaceae, the lily family) of erect perennial leafy-stemmed bulbous herbs that are native to the temperate northern hemisphere and are widely cultivated for their showy flowers Lilies in general (love, purity, fertility and rebirth) do not represent Jaren. Orange lilies in particular, however, symbolize enthusiasm, passion, confidence, and energy. They are frequently used to express pride, admiration, and to celebrate achievements like promotions or new beginnings. They represent warmth, but sometimes resentment.

FIRST LOVE (OR LACK THEREOF)

Many people might say they don't believe in love when what they really mean is they've been burned by it, or that they're not sure it's in the cards for them personally, or they don't think they deserve it, or perhaps hope someone will prove them wrong. Jaren Sinclair, however, genuinely doesn't believe it exists. What is that 'love' everyone else is experiencing? Well, they're obviously just naive dumbasses and/or having a good time until someone gets bored!

What led Jaren to believe that? Well, his own family is an excellent start. His parents were essentially an arranged marriage, and it's a barely veiled secret that his mother can barely stand to even look at his father outside of public events. They didn't care about each other and, truthfully, neither of them cared about Jaren either. He was a spare in case anything happened to Kol and little else. Even at a young age, most of Jaren's happy milestones were outside his home: learning to ride bikes with the Vale heiress, sneaking into another world with his best friend Matty, asking the adopted Knight heir for advice on girls...

To some people's surprise, Jaren has managed to date at least somewhat regularly. He'd liked one girlfriend in early high school quite a lot, but catching her with one of his best friends (not Matty or Dorian!) really solidified the first of his two current outlooks on life:

He's really, really good at being second choice. This applies to his parents, the only girl he ever seriously dated -- hell, even the girl he's lowkey betrothed to probably would prefer either of his siblings instead. The key is that if you're confident and funny enough, other people generally forget that shit. And if you get bored before the other person, then you're always winning, right?

Jaren never, ever dates a girl long term anymore and doesn't really bother with monogamy. What's the point of it, anyway? His father's been swearing for nearly Jaren's entire life that he's going to marry his family into one of the Queens'. The probability of him eventually marrying Lilith Vale as some sort of arrangement seems ... inevitable in his brain, and often that breeds resentment if he considers how little say he has in any of his future. Will they be just like his parents, barely noticing the other exists in the same room? ... Except, other times he finds that hard to believe, because Jaren isn't sure he can think of a time when he hasn't noticed Lilith in a room. To be clear, it's not love to have ended or cancelled more than one date to hang out with a girl. That's neighborly. It's never been love; it's just that sometimes, when he isn't being resentful, Jaren isn't exactly against the idea of his inevitable future. That's neighborly.

Jaren's world may not involve believing in love, but the orange Lily can also symbolize friendship and wealth, and those are both two things that Jaren has an abundance of. All in all, he'd say his life is still pretty great.

[ofenigmas]

❀ — ANGELIE ELISE DEWITT: CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT  7 / ∞

Flower: Sunflower

: any of a genus (Helianthus, especially H. annuus) of New World composite plants with large yellow-rayed flower heads bearing edible seeds that yield an edible oil "In Greek mythology, Clytie was a water nymph who loved the sun god Apollo. After he spurned her for another, she sat for nine days watching his chariot cross the sky, eventually transforming into a sunflower (heliotrope) that constantly turns its face toward the sun, symbolizing unwavering devotion, adoration, and unrequited love."

FIRST LOVE (death cw)

Angelie's first love story may not be what most would answer with. She's had many romantic relationships over the years, and several people she's told she loved, but even the first romantic love didn't particularly shape her.

The way Angelie loves is shaped by the loved she has lost. To her recollection, Angelie's parents were high school sweethearts who loved each other so much that they decided to start a family young. She'd never once been alone, even before her first breath, being born with a twin sister. They loved her so much, and then she'd been treading water alone. When she all but washed up in Hiraeth, a terrified young girl, it felt like she'd been taken in thanks to love at first sight. Doctor Dewitt didn't hesitate before helping her, and eventually taking her home. Her adopted brothers seemed willing to care for her immediately. Angelie could spend a thousand lifetimes trying to pay her family back for their kindness, and it would still never be enough.

That love she remembers, that she'd experienced, have followed her into her platonic and romantic endeavors. Angelie has never really ever been alone a day in her life, and her happiness and purpose in life relies on making the people around her happy. In turn, she often treats love like a fairytale or like something that should happen in the span of a romantic movie. That feeling of meeting someone new, of a beautiful new beginning and chance at a happily ever after with a prince or princess charming, of learning all of their favorite things -- it's all so exhilarating and she often thinks of it as love early on, even with her friends. Maybe, like a sunflower, Angelie simply radiates love towards everyone she meets (something that makes it difficult for herself and others to delineate between romantic and platonic). She only has to learn that 1.), like a plant, she can let love grow with time and 2.) real love is messy, and it doesn't require a perfect storybook plot or trying her entire life to deserve it.

[ofxlilac]

Flower: Camellias HIRAETHTASK: 007

"Soft as silk, yet impossible to resist; she commands attention without trying."

Camellia fits someone who doesn’t fall apart in public. Vivian keeps her pride intact, masks vulnerability behind confidence, and chooses carefully who gets to see the real softness beneath. Affection from her isn’t loud — it’s deliberate. If she lets someone close, it means they mattered enough to pass every wall she built.

First love: ----- Vivian feels in the silence and keeps her emotions deeply rooted. Her first love had broken her heart. Instead of allowing heartache to consume her, she pushed it aside. A part of her believes that if she shows any kind of affection and means it, it is a weakness. She has used love as deception, something unachievable and undeserving of it. Her father raised her to be like her brother, but there was no affection. So she searches, craves it, even if that means masking her real emotions. Wearing a mask, so no one sees that she yearns for it too.

[ofxlilac]

Flower: Foxglove HIRAETHTASK: 007

"In her elegance lies warning: not all that shines is safe to touch."

Foxglove connects to a person who loves deeply but protects themselves carefully. They don’t open up easily, but once trust is earned, their loyalty is fierce. It reflects a heart that wants to help others while quietly guarding its own wounds.

First love: Dante

She had grown to love a friend in her childhood growing up. It was foreign and yet something she couldn't shake. It is not something easily displayed, while others may wear their heart on their sleeve. Nina tends to keep her guard. While love can heal, it can also harm. She has been betrayed by it once. The love for her friends is fierce, but it does not hold gentleness as it had before; it carries a sharpness in protection.

[ofxlilac]

Flower: Jonquil (Type of daffodil) HIRAETHTASK: 007

"Even the coldest seasons cannot dim the courage of a bloom reaching for the sun."

Daffodils emotionally represent hope after hardship — the quiet kind that comes once the worst has already passed. They bloom at the edge of winter, symbolizing healing, resilience, and choosing warmth even after loss. Rather than naïve happiness, they carry earned optimism: the feeling of surviving something heavy and still deciding to keep living, gently and openly

First Love : ---- Kol isn't even sure if he knows what love actually means. He knows the love of his siblings and cares deeply for them. A bond like theirs can never be broken. His mother and father did not have love, and so he longs for it. Gravitates toward affection. Even if he himself cannot explain it, he has love in him. It's in his actions. He is full of warmth that tends to gravitate people towards him and overcomes any obstacle his way. He also would help overcome any challenges or trouble for the person he loves.