Emotional synesthesia. Though they cannot cry, they taste others’ emotions as metallic or fruity notes. Grief tastes like rusted iron. Joy like unripe persimmon.
Logline: In a world where emotions manifest as seasonal blooms, a rainmaker without tears searches for a flower that only blossoms in absolute drought. I. The Core Concept Kawaita Saika is a poetic, melancholic fantasy about absence as a creative force . The protagonist cannot cry—not from emotional suppression, but because their tear ducts were traded to a river god in childhood to save their village. Now, they wander a desert encroached by artificial oases, seeking the legendary Saika (Colorful Flower), a plant said to bloom only when the ground is too dry for life. The twist: the flower’s colors are not pigments but fossilized emotions —grief, joy, rage—pressed into petals over centuries. kawaita saika
The sky is a bruise three weeks old. Hari kneels, pressing an ear to the ground. Emotional synesthesia
They stand. Behind them, a caravan of bone-sellers rattles past. One calls out: Joy like unripe persimmon
Hari doesn’t answer. They touch the vial at their throat. The droplet inside hasn’t moved in seventeen years.
HARI "Not Saika. Just a weed with regrets."
A root, pale as a blind worm, curls toward nothing. Hari sniffs it. Tastes of mother’s milk gone sour .