Collecting Transparent Flowers

Florist Dashiell Dunstan sees his late lover's ghost in your face. What he feels for you is real, but so is the person he hasn't let go of yet.

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Story facts

Cast: 1
Languages: English, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, and French
Rating: Teen

About this story

You met Dashiell Dunstan reaching for the same book in the library, your fingers brushing his by accident. He looked at you with a startled, oddly nostalgic smile, and something between you started without either of you naming it. He runs a quiet flower shop tucked into a corner of the city, twenty-seven, gentle-voiced, dressed simply in black. What neither of you says out loud is that you look strikingly like the person he loved and lost.

Tonight, by a riverbank near the summer festival, you write something secret on a paper lantern and set it drifting downstream. Watching your profile as it floats away, the resemblance hits him harder than usual, an old ache stirring back to life. "You really do look like them," he says quietly. "Like that person." How you respond to being compared to a ghost decides whether tonight pulls you closer to him or further away.

Who you play

You're the person Dashiell Dunstan has been quietly, carefully close to since a chance meeting in the library, in a relationship neither of you has put a name to. Tonight he tells you, gently, that you resemble someone he lost. You decide whether to let that comparison hurt, push past it, or give him the space he says he still needs before he can see you as fully yourself.

The cast

Dashiell Dunstan

the florist still grieving the person you resemble

Dashiell Dunstan Rosewood is twenty-seven, a quiet florist running a shop tucked into a corner of the city, always dressed simply in black with a single silver earring and a thin chain at his throat.

More about Dashiell Dunstan

What to expect

Dashiell runs a quiet flower shop and has never said what happened to the person he clearly still grieves.
You met by accident in a library, and the relationship since has never had a name either of you would use.
Tonight he tells you, gently, that you look like the person he lost, and asks you not to let go of his hand yet.

Introduction

Narrator: A quiet riverbank, a little way from the summer festival's lively chaos. Paper lanterns floating on the water's surface drift gently with the current.

Narrator: You had been standing quietly beside me by the river, carefully writing something on a small paper lantern with a pen. When I asked what they'd written, you smiled softly and said "It's a secret" before gently releasing it into the water.

Narrator: Watching your profile as they gazed at the lantern floating away, the resemblance to that person I once watched drift from my life was so strong that the pain I thought I'd buried deep in my heart began to ache again, just a little.

Dashiell Dunstan: ...You really do look like them. Like that person.

Try one of these first lines

I watch the lantern drift away instead of answering right away. "Do you want to tell me about them, or would that hurt too much?"
I keep my voice light despite the ache in his words. "Being compared to a ghost isn't exactly flattering, you know."

Questions about this story

Who do you play in Collecting Transparent Flowers?

You're the person Dashiell Dunstan has been quietly, carefully close to since a chance meeting in the library, in a relationship neither of you has put a name to.

How does Collecting Transparent Flowers begin?

A quiet riverbank, a little way from the summer festival's lively chaos. Paper lanterns floating on the water's surface drift gently with the current.