The Language Of Flowers // Richard

[Vasilisa Tchaikovsky]

Humming a soft tune under her breath, Vasilisa appraised the bouquet that she was working on before pulling out one final pink rose from the vase beside her and adding it to the bunch. Wrapping the stems up with floral tape, she brought the wedding bouquet up to her nose, smiling at its fragrant perfume.

The Russian girl absolutely adored her job as a florist. No other job seemed more perfect, save for getting paid to play in an orchestra. But Vasilisa highly doubted that that was ever going to happen. She might be the daughter of a great composer, but no one in this time period would even believe that she was his. To them she was just a girl who coincidentally has the last surname.

Picking up a length of white ribbon, Vasilisa started wrapping the stems. This job suited her perfectly - she got to spend her days playing with flowers and making people happy with her bouquets. Plus her employer didn't even care about her dress style. It was a small business run by a lovely old gentleman who came in every once in a while but now generally left the girl to her own devices.

Hearing the gentle tinkle of the bell that indicated a customer, Vasilisa looked up from her bouquet. "Welcome to 'Blossoms In The Breeze! How can I help?" she greeted the newcomer cheerfully.

[Richard Holmes]

Walking down the street deep in thought, Richard was wondering what he would do for the day, he lacked any work to do, and then he walked past a flower shop and decided that he would buy some flowers and then head to the cemetery. He had found the cemetery where his wife was buried at a few weeks ago, he had not visit it since then.

Richard walked into the flower shop and looked around, he looked around to see what sort of flower should he will buy for his visit to the grave. He looked around with a look of sadness, Richard knew that he would not be able to see her again, and that visiting her grave was the closes thing. Richard then continued to browse the flowers.

As Richard browsed the flower's he hear someone speak to him thus he turn around and said "Yeah, could you possiblely advise me on what sort of flowers should I get for visiting the cemetery?" This was much more complicated than Richard ever thought about on the topic, he already knew that his friends were going to die in the war and knew what to do in those cases, what he never thought about was what to do about visiting his wife's grave, he thought he still had so much time with her after the war. Richard silently cursed the universe and thought that death would have been the more pleasant option than this, trapped in a time that he did not belong.

[Vasilisa Tchaikovsky]

The girl's smile instantly turned from cheery to empathetic the moment when the newcomer mentioned the cemetery. So he had lost someone he cared for too; she knew the feeling of loss all too well. "Certainly," she replied with a nod. "Just give me one moment and I'll be with you." Finishing off her bouquet, she picked the pretty arrangement up and headed to the humid cooler, where she deposited the flowers to rest until their arranged pick-up time.

Having finished that, she wandered back out to the front, adjusting her corset and tucking a lock of hair that had escaped her bun behind her ear. "Firstly I want to say that I am really sorry for your loss," Vasilisa told him softly. "It's really hard to lose someone, especially if you were really close to them." Wandering over to a bucket, she pulled a red carnation from it and slid it into the male's hand.

"For cemetery bouquets and arrangements, you can go two ways. If there were certain flowers your loved one liked, I can make a bouquet with them. Otherwise roses, lilies, carnations," here her fingers brushed some sweet-smelling blooms with raggedy-ruffled edges in various shades of the rainbow, "and gladioli," this time she touched a bucket full of tall blooms with thick stalks, their flowers all towards the top of the stem, "are the most popular for sympathy arrangements. Lilies symbolise peace, sympathy and purity. Roses, particularly red ones, denote respect, love and courage. Carnations for admiration and remembrance. And finally the gladiolus embodies strength of character, sincerity, and moral integrity."

She paused after her little speech and gave a somewhat sheepish grin. "Information overload probably, I know. Forgive me, I have a tendency to go on. Get too caught up in this job and you forget the rest of the world doesn't speak 'flower'." She laughed, giving her head a shake. "Are you wanting something extravagant or something simple?"

[Richard Holmes]

Looking at the flowers that the girl showed him, Richard listened intently to what she was saying, at the same time he was trying to decided what to do, he lacked any funds to do any major sort of purchases thus he would have to make the entire thing as small as possible. "Yes, the person I am visiting was very dear to me, lost her before we had much time together, join a war, fight for your country, come back and everything has changed, the thing you thought were waiting after the war are no longer there."  Richard said in a bitter tone, it was quite different from his usual attitude, normally Richard was quite polite and friendly, but the longer he stayed in this time he more bitter and angry he was becoming. Richard's statement were the truth, but he never stated which war he fought in, to the normal person it would have been one of the countries recent wars.

Richard gave thought on what sort of flower should he buy for his visit to the cemetery, all he did know at the time was that he would need to make it simple since he was lacking in funds to do anything extravagant. Richard decided that he would go with the carnations, thus he said in his usual tone "I do not have the money needed to buy anything extravagant, and I think the carnations would be the type of flower that would best suit the current situation."  Richard then head the lady apologize to him about the information overload, thus he said in a polite reply, "A information overload would not be a bad thing, information is always a good thing."

[Sponsored content]