Private Finished Can Plants Get Lost?

Oh, damn, was the first thing that entered Kalvin's mind when he heard Carmin's answer. And it wasn't because he didn't believe the guy. It was mostly because it was so difficult to link what he was seeing to what he was hearing. Without a word, we gently took Carmin's hand to get a better look at the bracelet.

"Huh. That's gotta be rough," he ended up saying after he confirmed Carmin's age. "But... I don't understand. Is this youthful appearance a part of your powers or a side effect of it?"

Kalvin had seen people on the island who were at peace with what they had. Although, a lot of them were probably born with them and thus couldn't imagine a version of themselves without those abilities. And while he had scarcely met people like him and Carmin who had very different lives before their powers came to fruition, most of them were learning to accept their powers. This was the first time Kalvin realized how some of these abilities could be so unwanted.

"Maybe so, if that's how you see it," Kalvin said. "But don't you think there's more to it than how you see it? Have you tried to see where the limits of your, er, condition reach? There may still be so many things you don't know about your new self yet."

"A curse? Like a literal curse? You mean like a curse from a witch in a fairy tale?" Kalvin asked incredulously. Up until now, he thought Carmin had been a metahuman like him. The fact that he was affected by magic was so far-off from what Kal had been thinking this whole time.

He even tried to do the math. Carmin would've been somewhere around 12 years old when he got the curse. He couldn't think of a reason for anybody to curse a boy like that. Unless he had been a terrible person in the beginning. It would've been a realistic possibility only if Kal had not seen Carmin's friendly nature even when he was out of his proper self. The other's friendly and even somewhat endearing personality as a flowerless person spoke volumes about what he was as a person. "But... I don't get it. Why though? Why would someone do that to a kid?"

Kalvin shook his head. He'd met terrible people throughout his life. He'd met human traffickers, drug dealers, thieves, and even a killer once. Yet, he couldn't help but feel that the person who cursed Carmin had to be at the top of that list of terrible people, even if he had never met her.

"What about a cure? Don't curses come with some kind of secret cure?" he asked, unable to stop himself from hoping for Carmin. "Did she mutter some kind of incantation when she cursed you? The secrets to undoing them are always in those incantations."

He was, of course, basing all this knowledge on what he knew from media. He might be very wrong, after all.

Kalvin still couldn't believe that such cruel people still lived in the world outside. He sighed, shaking his head at the witch's cruelty. All for a flower. They were already at the dorms at this point. He turned to look at Carmin. "Wherever she is, I hope bad karma gets back at her. She deserves to experience what she made you go through," he said with a bit of hatred in his voice. However, he also knew that justice didn't work that way. Not even ideally. Really, it's why the best he could do was hope. Honestly, he'd love to take her down a notch if he didn't fear her cursing him too.

"Anyway, we're here," he said, now feeling awkward. He was glad Carmin had told him more about himself. Not many people told Kalvin about themselves. Also, Carmin was sort of one of the few people he's had a lasting conversation with. "Um, thanks, I guess."