Salem Northwood
Several years. He'd never actually experienced an earthquake before, at least consciously. Maybe a few small tremors had shaken the city while it slept, but nothing that could shake buildings down or cause ceilings to crumble. "Oh." he murmured, watching her examine the carnage. Looking at it, it didn't seem as bad as it had a few seconds ago. Perhaps being in the event had made everything seem more magnanimous that it actually was. Although, it didn't take much to make large rocks falling towards one seem more terrifying than they were. Which was still pretty terrifying. He managed to swallow his distress over the situation. It was almost laughable, after all the times he'd nearly been hit by cars while jaywalking or driving recklessly, this situation seemed more deadly by tenfold. Perhaps it was the weakness he could feel in his body. He was in much more pain than he wanted to let on, but his difficulty breathing, the nausea, an the headache weren't just going to go away on their own. And he would have been crushed if Ket hadn't pulled him out of the way. There was no way he would have been able to pull himself to their safe little spot in his condition. Maybe he should thank her for that at some point.
Not now though. They weren't out of the danger yet. At least, he wasn't, not while he was in this unfamiliar place. So instead he just studied the strange mark on his hand, which Ket seemed to have the inverse of, and watched his little fire dance around. It was warm, and he could already feel the warmed blood rushing to his cheeks and his extremities. That on its own was comforting. He didn't notice Ket's interest right away, not until she near enough that the firelight flickered against her fascinated features. Why would she be so enthralled by this? She had that strange glowing stone, didn't she have a Gifted who could imbue inanimate objects with such bright light? But he didn't say anything. He kind of liked the attention. Okay, he really liked the attention. Already there was a smile on his face, his teeth whiter than his skin.
When she questioned his abilities, it gave him a small start. "I don't have a lighter or anything." He said, lifting an eyebrow. "I'm Gifted. My talent is fire. Don't you have Gifted people here? Like, people with supernatural talents?" He asked. Maybe she'd just never seen a such a strong fire talent before. He was the one of the only listed fire starters who could create fire without a source, maybe that was what amazed her? If it was a small place then maybe only a few of the people were Gifted?
As she reached out a finger, he moved his hand back just a little bit. "Wouldn't do that if I were you." He said, trying to sound serious. He didn't know if he could make the fire cool enough to touch. He'd done it a few times, but his ability wasn't acute enough yet to accurately control. Especially when he had a hard enough time controlling his temper. He didn't want to take a chance and accidentally burn her. But he wouldn't actively stop her if she was stubborn enough to keep trying to put her hand in the flame. Especially since both of his hands were touching the flame, and it didn't seem hot. He'd had people try that before. To him the flame was pleasantly warm, and that's all he really cared about.