The Grimoire's Chosen Ch. 8 (Worm) (Patreon)

A/N: In which Jason has his first 'encounter'.

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He’s distracted, undeniably so. Can’t be helped, really. In one night he’d found out the young woman he was supposed to be tutoring wasn’t planning on operating in good faith, met her sister the famous parahuman healer, and oh yeah, chose to download five years of training in three different magical disciplines into his skull.

Blood Magic, Necromancy, and Demon Summoning. The things Jason could do with the knowledge he now had in his head were honestly a little frightening, but also more than a little invigorating. So yeah, to say he was distracted as he made his way home would be an understatement. Normally he’d have his head on a swivel. Normally, he’d be focused on his surroundings, as bleak as they might be. Tonight though…

He doesn’t see the hand coming as it reaches out of a nearby alley and grabs him by the scruff of his neck, yanking him off of the street and into the darkness. A knife is suddenly pressed against his neck as he’s pushed back against the wall behind him.

“Gimme your money!”

The stench of his assailant’s breath blasts over Jason like a wave. Druggie, has to be. And then it hits him… he’s fucking being mugged. Not exactly an uncommon occurrence in Brockton Bay, and it’s not like it’s never happened to him before. But he’s usually careful enough to avoid the worst encounters. He’s usually smarter than this.

He tries his usual strategy first of course.

“Man… do I look like I have money on me?”

It’s even worked once or twice. He doesn’t look like he’s especially rich, after all. A quick glance will show his clothes are pretty worn down and he’s clearly stretching their lifespan all the way to the end. Unfortunately, while it might seem like a perfectly logical thing… it runs afoul of one obvious fallacy.

It doesn’t matter how down on his luck Jason is, or rather appears to be. There’s always someone worse off. He might not look rich, but he definitely doesn’t look homeless either. And even if he did, the homeless stole from each other all the time as well.

“I don’t fucking care. Give me whatever you do have on you, or I’ll fucking kill you.”

This is where shit gets hard. Jason has his wallet and his phone. He doesn’t want to lose either to this fucker. Technically, most wouldn’t be able to do anything with either. His wallet really doesn’t have any money in it, and Jason could shut down the credit cards fast enough by reporting them stolen. And the phone is locked so it’d have to be factory reset.

But it’s obvious from the mugger’s breath that he’s looking for his next fix… and he’ll probably think he can trade Jason’s wallet or phone for drugs. And Jason really doesn’t want some drug dealer to get his ID either.

Trembling knife still at his throat, Jason considers his options for a moment, staring at his mugger. And then he sees it… Keen Eye must be activating, because he can see something in the other man’s eyes that he doesn’t think he would have picked up before. Uncertainty. Fear. Almost… almost like he doesn’t want to do this.

Taking a gamble, Jason leans forward and isn’t surprised when the mugger hastily pulls the knife back so he doesn’t slit his own throat on the blade. It still cuts into his flesh a little bit, something warm dripping down his neck. Jason ignores that though and gives the mugger his best crazy person grin.

“Then do it, bastard. Fucking do it.”

For a long moment, there’s silence in the alley as the druggie stares at him with wide eyes. Playing chicken like this is a good way to get yourself killed in a city like Brockton Bay, admittedly. The whole ‘tough guy act’ only lasts until you meet someone who’s willing to call your bluff and put you in the dirt just for a hit of their drug of choice, or even to secure some cash for their next meal.

In this case though, Jason isn’t exactly bluffing. And it seems that his would-be mugger can see that, because the man suddenly curses and steps back, stammering.

“S-Shit man… d-didn’t know you was a crazy… f-fuck, I’m going, I’m going…”

Jason watches the mugger go, making sure he actually leaves. Then, he brings his hand up to his neck and swipes his thumb through the blood he shed. Not just blood… Lifeblood. Lifeblood was a special thing in Blood Magic. It was blood that could have meant his death if too much of it was spilt. Something like blood from a slit throat definitely counted. Or blood pumping straight out of a skewered heart, that would count too.

Pulling it away, he watches as that blood turns into a droplet under his control, his breath hitching as he brings it down to his chest almost reverently. Pulling up his shirt, he places the droplet of blood against the center of his chest and watches it disappear inside of him.

A moment later and he feels a surge of strength. Miniscule in nature, but there, nonetheless. Truthfully, it wasn’t anything special… he’d need a lot more blood to really start enhancing himself. And using his own blood in any great quantity, specifically his Lifeblood in such a way, was basically doomed to failure. You couldn’t make something out of nothing after all. There was always a cost. Just like you couldn’t drink your own piss to stay hydrated forever, you also couldn’t really enhance yourself using Blood Magic if you were only using your own blood.

Still, touching his neck… he can feel that the small cut on his throat has already healed. A smile spreads across his face. This was why he’d been so confident in forcing the mugger to back off. Because even if the man had slit his throat, Jason was sure he could keep himself from bleeding out long enough to use Flash Air to end things in his favor. And at that point, the mugger would be free game. Jason would be justified in doing whatever he had to, both to defend himself and save his own life.

… Is it bad he almost regrets that it didn’t come to that? He almost wishes the mugger had tried to kill him after all. There was so much he could do with a fresh body. So much he could do with all that blood… but at the end of the day, Jason knew it was better that the man hadn’t died then anything else. He was glad not to have anyone’s blood on his hands but his own.

Snickering at his own joke, Jason hurries back home. Enough excitement for one night, he figures.

-x-X-x-

Ding!

Alchemical Prodigy – Lore – 200 Points

You have a truly prodigal mind, one that is able to process and absorb information exceptionally quickly, increasing your learning speed by ten times what it once was. Additionally, you have a sort of intuition that guides your alchemical pursuits, giving you brief flashes of inspiration and insight that can help you to progress your alchemical knowledge even without a teacher or source of information to draw on.

You now have 300 Points saved up!

Ah, he did so love the sound of brand-new powers in the morning. Jason wakes up with a grin, his eyes opening as he takes in his latest pull, reading it out to himself. Then, he blinks and wakes up a bit more, reading it again.

Prodigal mind? Ten times the learning speed? No, not just learning speed… ten times the processing speed!

Keep!

Alchemical Prodigy Purchased. 100 Points Remain!

Alchemy by itself wasn’t that big of a deal, though his new tutelage in the three darkest of magics did come with some alchemy on the side so Jason wasn’t going to scoff at it exactly. The real value though was in what the power said it would do for him in general. He’d always been told he was a smart guy. But in reality, Jason was just a hard worker. He put everything he had into everything he did and it barely let him scrape by. Now?

A slow grin spreads across Jason’s face and he gets ready for his day, downright excited for what’s to come. Arriving at the University, he settles in for his usual TA duties under Professor Dallon… and to his delight, finds that his new power does in fact help him out there. The responsibilities of being a Teacher’s Assistant, especially one for someone like Carol Dallon, were no joke. But now… Jason was flying through it all. It was just so… easy now.

He finds himself floating on cloud nine all day long, right up until he reaches Victoria Dallon’s apartment. He can only hope that the blonde isn’t going to try to backtrack on their agreement from the previous day. He really just hopes she’s ready to actually learn.

Of course, what he’s not expecting is for her to be dressed like she is when she answers her door and lets him inside. Last night, when they first met, Vicky had been wearing blue jeans and a cute top. Nothing out of line, though maybe it had been a tad unusual for her to be so dressed in her own apartment. However, she’d been waiting for a brand-new man she’d never met before to show up, so it made sense.

In a similar vein, the fact that she was wearing a pair of shorts and a tank top that doesn’t even reach her belly button ALSO could technically make sense, Jason supposed. Her new outfit looks very casual, the sort of thing you might wear when you were home and could truly get comfortable. Even still, they’ve barely known each other for two days. This seemed a bit… inappropriate.

And given the rapport he was trying to develop with Ms. Dallon, Jason knew he had to say something.

“Vicky, are you sure you want to be showing that much skin for these tutoring sessions?”

Looking at him in ‘surprise’, Vicky blinks… even as Jason’s Keen Eye lets him pick up on the fact that she’s faking her reaction.

“Huh? What do you mean, sir?”

Sir. That was new too. Jason files it away though for the time being and gestures to her.

“You’re showing off a lot of skin to a man who you’ve only known for two days. I suppose if you’re comfortable with it, I am too. But I just want to be forthright that I noticed.”

There’s some real surprise in Vicky’s eyes for a moment… before she grins and lets out a laugh.

“Wow. You’re really blunt, aren’t you sir? So you noticed, did you? Noticed my tight young body?”

Okay. It was official. Vicky was trying to seduce him and she wasn’t even being particularly subtle about it. The only question was… why? But to be fair, that wasn’t even a particularly hard question to answer. He already knew why. Vicky didn’t want to dance to her mother’s tune anymore. She didn’t want to pass that test at the end of the month and she didn’t want to go to Brockton Bay University.

And because of that, she also didn’t want his tutoring. She wanted him to take her mother’s money and lie about earning it. She didn’t want him to teach her anything, she didn’t care about his own integrity as a man and as an instructor. She just wanted him to give up on tutoring her altogether.

He was a little surprised that she was jumping to this so fast, but he wasn’t going to let her get to him. He’d given her an opportunity to put more clothes on if she wanted to, and she’d passed on that. So… wordlessly, Jason moves over to the living room and sits down in the same chair as last time. Then, he looks over at Vicky who’s still standing by the door, staring at him dumbly.

“Come sit down, Ms. Dallon. Let’s get to work.”

He’s expecting Vicky to make a scene; to try something else… but his assertive words and confidence demeanor seem to continue to work on her, because after a moment she hurries over to the couch and sits down.

“Err… yes sir.”

Jason won’t lie, having her call him ‘sir’ is kind of nice… even as he’s trying to tamp down on his arousal over the title. He can’t allow her to seduce him away from tutoring her. He won’t let her win.

Instead, he focuses on the matter at hand. Unfortunately his brand-new prodigal mind doesn’t help him with teaching others. He can process and absorb information faster, he can learn things himself faster, but he can’t teach other people any faster than he could before. Fortunately, he likes to think he was already a pretty good instructor and tutor to begin with.

However, combined with Keen Eye, his new mind does let him process Vicky’s actions and reactions a lot faster. As their tutoring session starts in earnest, he’s able to discern some interesting things. For one, despite her obvious seduction attempt, she was actually listening to him and doing her best to follow along.

If there was one thing Jason knew even before he got his powers, it was the difference between an attentive and inattentive student, and Vicky surprisingly fell into the first category right now.

That wasn’t stopping her from seemingly being more than a little aroused in his presence, however. The longer the tutoring went on, the more hot and bothered she got. Until suddenly…

“O-Oops! I dropped my pen!”

Jason can only watch mutely as Vicky does the most blatant ‘sexy secretary’ bit in the history of the world. Instead of just leaning down off of the couch to grab it, she even stands up fully and arches her back as she bends over at the waist, pushing her pert behind up into the air.

… Seriously? He was really starting to get conflicting information from what his eyes and his powers were telling him here. On the one hand, she really did seem to want to learn from him. On the other hand, she really did seem to want to seduce him so he stopped trying to tutor her.

But it couldn’t be both, right? So what the hell was the truth? And how the hell was he supposed to move forward when she was escalating like this? He wished he could say he was controlling his own reactions perfectly, but he was only human at the end of the day… and if she was going to bend over in front of him like that, he was going to wind up with a throbbing erection in no time.

-x-X-x-

A/N: Will try to keep this up to date at the end of every chapter, get on me if I forget please. Though if it gets too out of hand, might have to change it at some point.

Jason's current banked points:

100 Celestial Points

Jason's current powers:

• Flash Air (Gained in Chapter 1)

• Transformation Pendant (Gained in Chapter 4)

• Keen Eye (Gained in Chapter 4)

• Blood, Death, and Demons (Gained in Chapter 6)

• Alchemical Prodigy (Gained in Chapter 8)