Salem Northwood
No Gifted? He'd had suspicions, but the confirmation still sent his mind reeling with questions. Who led them? Why didn't they have any Gifted anyway? They were so common, shouldn't they at least have one? It was so strange. But he didn't push the topic. Maybe they did have a Gifted with a less obvious talent then he had. Or maybe whoever it was kept quiet. Or maybe they had a different word for Gifted here? He wondered again about the stone. Someone would have had to imbue it with luminary qualities, right? He turned his mind from the spinning questions and focused on her hand, which was very close to his flame. Her fingers were very dainty, but very worn. What an odd mix. "No, it's just pleasantly warm to me." He said, his breath flickering the firelight. "Nothing hot burns me." He added, tilting his head slightly. He was almost able to see the situation from her perspective. If she'd never met a firestarter before, he was probably very strange. And maybe a little scary? But she didn't seem scared of him anymore. Just fascinated.
The sounds made him look up as well, and he felt more than heard Ket's exclamation of pain as her finger met his fire. A tiny twinge of pain jolted through his own finger. Empathy pain? His mouth opened slightly, he meant to tell her to put water on the small burn so it wouldn't blister, but the sensation had been so odd. This whole situation was just odd. His blue eyes tracked her as she called out to the source of the voice as he hunched closer to his fire. He was really starting to miss the sun.
She knelt in front of him again, the light from his cupped hands making strange shapes dance across the bottom of her face. Her hands cupped his, they were incredibly warm, and snapped his palms closed like a book. The fire flared for a moment before suffocating between his thumbs. Salem turned his eyes up to her pale, wide ones, and nodded slightly. Keeping his ability a secret could also help in self defense, if everyone was not so small and nice as Ket. He wasn't sure why he trusted her, perhaps it was because she seemed about his age and, well, he'd just woken up and needed something to hold on to, but rationality told him that he'd run into trouble sooner or later in a strange place with people who were not like him. No outsiders. No Gifted. How old was this civilization, and how had no one found it from one of the cities before this? It didn't add up.
He accepted her hand up, not trusting his own knees. Once standing, he shifted back and forth, gingerly balancing his weight. His head spun for a few moments, blood rushing from his already pale face, draining the color from his lips, before he normalized. "Thanks." He said, forcing a smile as he accepted the blanket. He swept it over his shoulders, using his headphones to secure it on his back. It helped his hands a little bit, though he didn't generate enough body heat to do himself much good.
Then the owners of the voices Ket had been communicating with came into view. Salem instinctively took a half step back. It wasn't that he had problems with authority...well, actually, it was that he had several issues with authority. Being the spoiled and Gifted son of a rich and influential family made him clash with pretty much everyone who'd ever tried to tell him what to do. And this man, with his grizzled, muscular physique, looked just the time. Salem stood very still as the man examined him, as one might do when being inspected by a large dog, but when another one of those mysterious glowing objects, Salem had to lift a hand to shield his eyes from the brightness glaring into his eyes, which caused the blanket around his shoulders to fall back, revealing more of his attire.
Suddenly the mood in the room shifted. Tension sprang up from nowhere. Salem's shoulders tightened, but he had nowhere to flee. His second instinct was to make his own path and escape that way, but he didn't want to hurt Ket. So he just stared down the barrel of the gun. It looked like a toy kids used when pretending to be cowboys from a long time ago, filled with BBs that only left small round bruises on the skin. But the way the man held it told Salem that it was most definitely not a toy. He wasn't sure exactly what to do, so he just lifted his other hand so both were just above his head, the backs of his hands forward. Blood rushed through his ears, making his knees feel faint.
Before anything bad could happen, however, Ket interceded, placating the weapon bearing man. Salem slumped in relief almost instantly, double so when the girl managed to convince the man to lower the gun. He pulled the blanket close to his chest again, mouth pulled in a thin, tight line. He forced himself not to flinch away from the light, though it did nothing but aggravate his headache.
When the man spoke, slight trepidation in his voice, Salem couldn't help but snap, the fear in his system burbling into a froth of annoyance. "I'm albino." He was smart enough to not add 'Of course I'm pale.' after it, but his tone was still antiseptic. Unconsciously he began edging nearer to Ket. His annoyance died just as quickly as it had sprung up, casing his frame to wilt. "I'm fine." He told Ket in a tired voice, trying to convince himself more than anything.