Finished Flowers and Powers

Early in the morning, Carmin always used two mirrors to check the leaves on his head. Bugs seemed to really like laying their eggs in them, so this little routine had been developed to find the leaves and remove them before the bugs hatched. Although, today's find was a little more peculiar than bug eggs. There were small brownish specks all over a bunch of the leaves. He didn't recognize the condition, but he could tell it wasn't good. He wanted to pluck the leaves out and let new ones grow in their place, but reluctantly decided to leave them in for the time being. Just in case. He decided he'd try to go to a flower shop and see if they could fix him up. Flower shops usually had everything he needed after all.

With that, Carmin packed up his backpack for the day, found the closest flower shop using his phone, and headed out. He didn't usually like heading out into the city so much, but this was important so he didn't waste any time. Besides, the shop wasn't really that far in.

After a relatively short walk, Carmin had arrived at the storefront. It really wasn't so hard to get there, though the next part was always a little more nerve wracking. Clenching his fist, he would open the door and walk inside. A shop like this always made him weirdly uncomfortable. Something about lovely flower shops. Still, it was a feeling he'd need to overcome. He would likely be back in the future, so he might as well suck it up and get used to it.

Carmin walked up to the front desk, curiously glancing at all the flowers living it up around him. When he got there, he stood on his toes, reached up and tapped the service bell.

@ArcanaFate

Hearing the employee call out, Carmin took the extra time to look around curiously. He saw a few plants that he recognized, all of which seemed to be in tip top condition.

Before long, footsteps could be heard and Carmin turned back to face the front desk. He only realized someone was there when he heard the voice, unable to see them over the inconveniently sized table. As they stopped talking, he assumed they were experiencing the same trouble, so he took a step back to hopefully get into a better view.

It worked, but what he saw came as a surprise. It was Gabe. His eyes opened wide, finding that this actually made a lot of sense. Of course he'd work at a flower shop, he had that weird power to make plants grow. Then it also explained why all the plants in the shop were in such pristine condition.

"Um." Unfortunately, Carmin didn't see this as a good thing. He didn't want Gabe to see his weird problem, he was hoping there would be some random person here who would fix him, send him on his merry way and never see him again. But he needed to get rid of the spots, so he decided he'd have to just deal with it. "Well..." He looked around a little as if to check if the coast was clear before handing over top secret info. "Something is kind of wrong with my leaves..." He shifted nervously in his place as he spoke and avoided eye contact. He tilted his head as he finished speaking, displaying a group of leaves decorated with brownish spots. There were a bunch of only somewhat bad ones, but four leaves in the center of the bunch were almost entirely covered in the spots. "I was, uh, wondering if you guys might know what is wrong or how to fix it?"

The initial part that Gabe said about it not looking good caused Carmin to worry, looking up at him with a little fright. Though the reassurance offered seemed to dispel most of his fear. Being called little buddy was annoying, but Carmin understood that Gabe was just trying to help and managed to let it pass. If he really was a plant expert, which seemed pretty believable at this point, then it was probably a good idea to stay on good terms with him.

The two pats caused a totally different worry in Carmin's head, the realization that Gabe might have thought he was a kid. He blushed a lighter green than usual at the thought, unable to properly pay attention as Gabe started asking the first question. "U-uhm." This was always a difficult thing to explain, and he hadn't improved at saying it at all.

"I don't really know how long, I only really noticed them this morning... but uh." He rubbed his shoulder a moment before tearing the band-aid off. "You know I'm not a kid right? I'm like eighteen..."

Gabe didn't know, not that it came as much of a surprise based on how he had been treating him. What did shock him was Gabe's reaction. Carmin wasn't sure what he expected, but a heartfelt apology certainly wasn't it. Regardless, hearing that he deserved to be treated based on who he really was rather than his appearance was actually pretty touching. It was nice to hear that Gabe thought that.

Sure, it was annoying when this happened, but the apology kind of made it hard for Carmin to get upset. It was maybe a little too genuine for him to even think about turning it down. "Oh, uhm, yeah it's fine, don't worry about it." It was partially his own fault, he should've told Gabe his age right away when they met.

Back to the brown spot issue, Carmin held up his arm and gave it a suspicious look. "I'm pretty sure it's all in that one area. I looked around and didn't see anything anywhere else this morning." Assuming it was pretty new was probably a safe bet, Carmin nodded at the mention of that.

Then there was the mention of powers and physiology, resulting in a slight frown. as far as he was concerned, he didn't have any. "Well, I can sort of regenerate, just takes me a while unless its the leaves or flowers. These guys come back pretty quick." Carmin plucked a flower right off his arm and held it up. "I can also grow roots pretty quick if I'm standing in dirt. Apart from that, my body is basically just a plant that can somehow think, talk, see and hear. I, uh, don't have any nerves I don't think, so nothing really hurts." As he spoke, a bud could be seen growing back the flower that he'd picked.

It was a lot of questions, sure, but Gabe was asking them to help him. He replied with a quiet "It's okay." If plucking the leaves would fix the issue then that was probably going to be pretty simple.

Carmin watched as Gabe brought out a little stool and offered him a seat. “Oh-okay” Complying, Carmin would take a seat, though he seemed hesitant at first. He wasn’t too sure what Gabe was planning, but he had suspicions that he was about to get a hair cut. He watched the counter in suspense as Gabe disappeared, getting just a little startled when he returned with shears.

What Gabe said after seemed to confirm Carmin’s suspicions. That being said, it probably was for the better. If he cut the leaves himself, it would be quite the hassle. Gabe could see behind him and was probably pretty good at pruning plants.

“Hmm. I think that you can look at it like my body is a stem. The roots for the flowers are those ones that I can turn off and on, so right now none of these have roots.” Carmin would brush a hand through some of the leaves on the top of his head, ignoring the fact that some of them were sick. “All of this and me are just one plant.” The idea of having to dig out a section of himself was partially worrisome, but he was fairly certain that it still wouldn’t hurt him. What did worry him was the thought that some sort of infection had already made its way through most of his body. “Um, if it can make it to roots, does that mean it could be in a stem too?” He made a tiny gulp after he finished speaking.