Graham slowly stirs to awake after passing out. He suddenly sits up in a slight freak out from it being dusk outside. How long has it been!? Is the first thought in his mind but where's that lady who helped him out? In fact, her treatment made him feel lighter after overflowing and the numbness in his flow has mostly gone away.
"Seems like you were asleep for a long time even with my sun stones helping you." Dr. Carver says walking back into her tent. She holds a bowl with a pleasant smell of food before sitting down on a chair. She gives him a slight smirk looking at Graham's reaction to seeing her bowl of stew. "I can tell you're starved after sleeping that long."
"Huh? Yeah... I'm that easy to read?" Graham felt a bit of embarrassment with him being that easy to read. His body feels much better but moving shows there's soreness. It's lessened by a huge degree compared to earlier. He's incredibly hungry from resting whatever happened during that night. "Whoa, is that beef stew?"
"Mhm, you can get some outside but take it easy since you're still sore." Dr. Carver points towards the tent's entrance before starting to enjoy her stew. She's carefully watching Graham's movements as he stands up. It's clear his body is in slight pain from moving but She's glad her treatment worked on some level. "Oh yeah, you had trace amounts of something poisonous in your body."
"That monster..." Graham paused as he was walking to the tent's entrance. He remembers his fight with that humanoid monster within that forest, those spikes must've had some type of poison or venom in them. Did his body overflow in reaction to that? "I should be more careful fighting them if they can have that kind of thing!"
"I would recommend it, I'm hoping to study your internal energy." Dr. Carver gives Graham a wink but he shrugs it off. She's interested in that kind of internal energy, It's nothing like anyone in this village and wants to research its nature. She gets a confused stare from him and he seems to be thinking about that.
"That's really what this place calls flow, huh... Not a bad way of referring to it" Graham nods while rubbing his chin. Dr. Carver has no idea what that means and looks pretty confused at that statement. He walks out as she shrugs it off for something later since he needs to replenish energy soon.
Graham looks out the village in this dusk light and the smell of meaty stew to the left leads him to a makeshift kitchen. Sal has a huge pot with that stew with a white haired lady helping in serving it. Nea notices him from a distance before running up to him with a wide grin. He's a bit surprised at her coming over here this soon. "Oh hey, Your name is Nea, right?"
"Yup, oh- Sorry for sloppy introductions!! I'm Nea Lahti." Nea seemed excited but became nervous remembering her manners. She freezes up with her thoughts racing at her forgetting basic introductions and memories of her shoving water into his mouth. She slumps a bit knowing how badly she handled this. "Uh... I'm also sorry about how I handled learning who you are."
"It's fine, I'm Graham R- Re-" He suddenly covers his mouth with a shocked look. He can't say his last name but why? Trying is a struggle for him while clearly knowing it, when did that happen!? He tries to act cool since Nea didn't need to know that and pretends to clear his throat. "Sorry, my throat is still sore."
"Oh, that's okay! Nice to meet you, Graham Re." Nea smiles at Graham and he smiles back while internally cringing. She turns to wave at Sal who's busy with serving some of the survivors and doesn't seem to notice. She looks disappointed that her friend is too busy. "Well, the wait for food is going to be awhile."
"Ah, I'm fine with waiting." Graham says with a grin while walking towards the line and Sal instantly notices him. He tilts his head in confusion at Sal's sudden nervousness at his presence in the line. He's merely here for a bowl of stew that Sal is serving but totally unaware about Sal's view of him. Nea finds it a bit funny to see her friend acting like that.
"Uh- What's wrong, Mr. S-Sal?" The white hair lady asks Sal, who's wearing his emotions on his sleeve , nervous. She's a rather small person compared to the very tall Sal and has a series of glass bowls in her area. She has an incomplete bowl in her hands like It's made of soft clay with how she treats it.
"That's the man who fought the giant monster." Sal says in a whispering tone into her ear. He doesn't realize why she suddenly became flustered during that. The people in front of Graham get concerned about her when she suddenly ducks under the table. "Floella? We still need bowls for everyone..."
Floella quickly finishes the bowels before holding it up for Sal. He sighs before taking one of the bowels that were finished earlier. there's a box full of spoons by the giant pot of stew. The civilians that were waiting for their service are just relieved to get food after that disaster. Sal hopes she's not going to stay there for long, It's pretty close to the stove that he's powering with his powers.
"Wow! what a creative use of pyrokinesis, you're not even burning your pants." Graham says leaning over Floella's work table to check out his cooking setup. He clearly got tired of standing in line and just walked around everyone. He's unaware of the issue in that, so he doesn't really care for the people in line reactions. "You must be pretty skilled to manifest or your clothes would be burned."
"Wha- oh, It's a pretty important skill for fire users like me." Sal didn't even notice his presence. It's pretty surprising but he's not wrong about it taking some skill to not destroy your clothes using fire abilities. The stove is designed to be powered by pyrokinesis. it's a simple leg into a leg forward into an opening in it and releases the desired heat. "It's a rather decent training exercise for my flame control and energy reverses."
"Interesting ideas, I wish my power had a usage like that." Graham can't help but smile at learning about another planet's life. This fills him with an excited feeling since he has only read records on a old ship database. He's just happy to be around people. Floella peeks from below her table to see him and he waves to her. "Hi, I thought you left for something."
"H-Hi, I'm just doing my work down here for n-now." Floella meekly waves back then quickly ducks under the table. She's screaming in her own head because of that response. It's her own grave now and she just dug it deeper, will this be worse is her main worry. She doesn't notice but Graham nods at her answer to Sal's continued confusion.
"Don't mind her, this is pretty common when she's nervous." Sal shrugs it off before starting to serve the next one in line. He doesn't want to seem favoring someone over others even if Graham is last night's hero. Only people who were in the battle really know about him right now. He looks at him with a raised eyebrow realizing what he meant. "Wait, really? your power seems very unique to me."
"Yeah, It's only really good for forming stuff." Graham was starting to feel weak in the knees, his stamina was already low and his hunger wasn't helping. There's only a few left in line, so he can wait for a little bit more. Sal has a decent serving speed which is good to him since he probably wouldn't last long without food right now. "If only uniqueness meant usefulness! I would love to have something like your power since I like food."
The dusk light was fading to night, a cold front covers the village but Graham internally assumes this is a town from its appearance. Sal got pretty quiet after he said that but he thinks that his final few servings needed to be completed since it was getting late. He's very patient with getting food and these people did suffer from a disaster. Sal seems glad that people are enjoying it, this can't be a good situation for everyone.
"Sorry Graham, there's barely any meat or vegetables." Sal's huge stew pot was almost empty at this point. He lets out a nervous small laugh before blankly blinking for a second when Graham looks at him being clearly confused. It suddenly hits him that he forgot that not everyone knows his hearing range. "Oh! I have enhanced senses, It's hard to not overhear people sometimes... You sound super different without that sore throat."
"Aw... That's fine, I'm good with this much!" Graham's face gleams in excitement at eating a plant that's not slightly poisonous. Floella suddenly comes out from under that table with her biggest bowl today, her whole body shakes like she's conflicted about pulling this off. He instantly understands her goal in making such a bowl. "I will finish the leftovers, everyone seems fed for now."
"Wait, why does he get the leftover-" A random civilian yells out but stops when Floella turns to him. That glare makes his whole body shake as a strange pressure floods the space even Sal freezes up. Graham doesn't mind as he scoops up the leftovers into his large bowl before taking one of the last spoons. The civilian nervously shakes his head when Graham offers the ladle for the stew. "S-sorry, Lieutenant Floella."