Cambrian

The Grimoire's Chosen Ch. 13 (Worm)

Added 2024-08-22 15:09:42 +0000 UTC

A/N: Moving things along.

Also make sure to read the closing Author's Note if the vote confuses you.

-x-X-x-

Glancing in Taylor’s direction shows that she’s not too fussed one way or the other. In fact, when he looks at her, she just shrugs, leaving the ball firmly in Jason’s court. With a sigh and a rueful smile, Jason just shakes his head.

“Alright, sure. We’ll sleep here for the night…”

Vicky crows in victory, pumping her fist in the air. Taylor, meanwhile, climbs up off the couch and sidles up to him. Reaching down and taking hold of his cock, the surprisingly confident young woman smirks.

“Somehow, I don’t think sleeping is what Victoria had in mind…”

Seeing this, Vicky stops her little victory dance and stares intensely at him and Taylor, stopping just short of licking her lips as she does a passing impression of a hungry predator.

Taylor is right. Sleep is the last thing on the blonde’s mind, and not something any of them get much of that night…

-x-X-x-

Ding!

Multifunctional Gauntlet – Magitek – 200 Points

You have a personalized multitool-toolbox. A device that looks how you want and can be kept on your person at all times. It’s somewhat bulky, so it is something you need to wear, rather than pocket – but in exchange, at the spur of the moment, it can do any job you need of it in terms of machinery – everything from a screwdriver, hammer, wrench, or even a blowtorch can be called upon with naught but a moment’s notice from within it.

You now have 500 Points saved up!

Sitting behind his TA’s desk at Brockton Bay University the next morning, Jason does his due diligence, quietly reading over the offered pull. However, even before he reads it, he knows what he’s going to do.

Pass.

It was the kind of thing he might have picked early on, or before he’d found out he could bank a pull and save up. But now? When he was so close to picking up the Staff of Magnus? No, no thank you. Frankly, at this point Jason was chomping at the bit, just waiting for the next pull from his power. The moment he had six hundred points, so long as he wasn’t anywhere public, he was going to buy the Staff. Frankly, he couldn’t wait.

He-

“Jason! Earth to Jason~”

Blinking out of his own thoughts, Jason flushes a bit and gives Crystal his full attention. He’s not sure how long his fellow TA was trying to get through to him, but admittedly, he’s been sort of avoiding her so far this morning.

Well, not avoiding her necessarily, they work in the same room together, so that would be impossible. But he hasn’t exactly initiated conversation with Crystal yet today, in large part because of what he and her cousin had done the night before… and this morning in the shower as well.

Swallowing thickly and pushing down those mental images, Jason gives Crystal an apologetic smile.

“Sorry, lost in my own head. What’s up?”

Huffing, Crystal raises an eyebrow.

“I asked how you and Vicky have been getting along, Jay. You know, now that it’s been a few days of tutoring. She giving you too much trouble? Let me know if she is and I’ll set her straight for you.”

Jason stares at Crystal blankly for a moment, because holy shit was that a lot to unpack. Least of which was her calling him ‘Jay’, seeing how she’d never done that before. But the rest of it… could it be? Did Crystal actually not know Vicky’s intentions?

He’d sort of been operating under the assumption all this time that Crystal had kind of set him up, so to speak. As in, he’d assumed she knew about Vicky’s plans from the get-go. Jason didn’t think Crystal was intentionally malicious about it, he just figured she didn’t know he would be so against helping Vicky for a boatload of money… or something.

Only now, as Crystal asks him point blank how it’s going and he finds himself looking at the studious older girl, does it strike Jason that Crystal probably didn’t know anything about her cousin’s plans at the end of the day. And even if she does, he’s not going to risk it by spilling the beans either.

Smiling somewhat wanly, Jason shrugs.

“Oh, no. She’s been… fine. A good student, really. We’ve been going over the fundamentals for the time being, but we’re moving into her problem subjects soon enough.”

Crystal slowly nods, and then flashes him a big smile.

“I really appreciate you taking on this job by the way, Jay. I’ll have to find some way to reward you personally, once the month is over and the tutoring is all said and done.”

Jason blinks at the slightly husky tone Crystal takes when she uses the word ‘personally’. Surely not… and yet, the events of last night run through his mind. He’d really been quite oblivious, hadn’t he? And as a result, he’d walked face first into a threesome with Taylor and Vicky. Not that he was complaining, but… could it be? Did Crystal actually have a thing for him?

… Nah. He was imagining things. Shaking his head, he gives his fellow TA a smile and then turns back to his work.

“I’m already making a lot of money thanks to you, Crystal. You’re a good friend for offering me this gig.”

Whatever Crystal might have said in response, Jason doesn’t find out, because before she can respond, a waspish voice fills the room.

“Mr. Allen. My office, now.”

Jason jolts as Carol Dallon suddenly calls him away.

“Right away, Professor!”

Giving Crystal an apologetic look (why did she look so crestfallen though?) Jason hurries to follow Carol into her office.

“Close the door.”

Swallowing nervously, wondering if he’d made a mistake of some sort, Jason closes the door behind him, before moving to stand behind the chairs in front of Carol’s desk. He doesn’t dare sit down without her telling him to… he knows full well that’s a great way to almost immediately get on the older woman’s shit list.

Leaning back in her chair, Carol looked at him for a long moment, her lips pressed into a thin line. Finally…

“I’ve been told by my niece that you are the one she chose to tutor my daughter for the next month. Is that so?”

Carol has to know it is, so why she’s asking, he doesn’t know. Still, Jason nods sharply, even as he keeps his back ramrod straight.

“Yes ma’am. That’s correct.”

“Very well, give me a progress report.”

Cold relief that he hadn’t taken Vicky up on her original offer fills every fiber of Jason’s being as he barely hesitates for a moment before launching into a completely honest report regarding Vicky’s tutoring so far. Well, honest to a certain extent. Obviously he leaves out certain things, such as Vicky’s offer and also the fact that they’d had sex the previous night. Carol didn’t need to know about that.

But he has his ducks in a row, regardless of last night’s threesome, and the fact that he’d spent the night at Vicky’s apartment. He can even show Carol his work, having been writing everything down from the tutoring sessions so far, and when he asks if she wants to see it and she says yes, Jason hurries to retrieve it for her.

All in all, there’s simply no way for even someone like Carol to say he hasn’t been doing what she’s been paying for. Sure, she can argue over how well he’s been doing it until the cows come home if she chooses to, but he definitely hasn’t been shirking his duty, no sir!

Finally, the short-haired blonde grunts and closes his notebook, before handing it back over to him. Jason takes it and stands there, waiting for her to start telling him how he needs to improve, or what he should be doing instead to prepare her daughter better. Which is why he’s more than a little surprised when that’s not what happens at all.

“Good work, Mr. Allen.”

Wait, what?

“I can tell you’re taking this seriously, and that you have Victoria well in hand. To be perfectly honest, my greatest concern was finding a tutor who would actually try, rather than someone who would just take the paycheck and let Victoria do whatever she wanted.”

Jason blinks rapidly as Carol practically hits the nail on the head, at least in regard to her daughter’s motivations. Seeing his reaction, Carol smiles… and isn’t that the most frightening thing of all? It’s more of a smirk than an actual smile at least, but it still sends a shiver down her spine.

“I know my daughter. She’s struggled with my authority and with figuring out her future ever since… well, for a couple years now. Victoria has always been a bit of a late bloomer, so I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that she’s going through her rebellious teenage phase late as well, despite no longer being a teenager.”

Sighing, Carol shakes her head.

“Still, I’m pleased with what you’ve shown me so far. Keep it up, Mr. Allen. Not just to earn the rather sizable chunk of cash I’ve invested in your services, but also if you want to continue on your way to that internship at the end of the year. As of right now, you are in my good graces. But it’s not easy to stay there. Do I make myself clear?”

Swallowing down the urge to say ‘crystal’, just because he doesn’t know if Carol would take it as a pun and get upset, Jason just nods.

“Yes ma’am.”

“Good. Dismissed.”

Jason returns to his TA’s desk in a bit of a daze, and when Crystal tries to talk to him, he just shakes his head and gets back to work. Fortunately for him, Alchemical Prodigy does all the heavy lifting because otherwise he’d probably be too distracted to get anything done… and then he’d likely be out of Carol’s good graces just as quickly as he got into them.

Though, truth be told… Jason hadn’t known that Carol Dallon HAD good graces. He’d always assumed if he did manage to get the internship he was gunning for, that it would be begrudgingly at best on Professor Dallon’s part. And yet… now here he was, having gotten an honest to god smirk out of the woman.

Was the sky falling down? Was the world ending? Well, maybe to that second one, given that the Endbringers were a thing. Still… holy shit. Just… holy shit.

-x-X-x-

Ding!

Don’t Give Up! – Source – 400 Points

Despair is the ultimate enemy of Magical Girls in this world - use too much power or dive too deep, and you’ll vanish forever. And life is full of plenty of hardships already without having to put growing up into the equation. It’s a good thing you seem built to deal with that, right? You’re good at holding onto hope despite things like your friends dying or breaking down, and though you may still shed tears, it will take more than a cruel and cold universe to make you fall to despair. Your willpower is boosted greatly by this, and emotion-based magic is just a little stronger in your hands to show for it. Just be careful - holding onto hope can turn into insanity if you focus too much on the impossible. But if something is possible? You’ll only give up when you’re ready to give up.

You now have 600 Points saved up!

And there it was. A couple hours before he was due over at Vicky’s, the next pull comes in and Jason is fortunately at home, in his apartment when it happens. He doesn’t hesitate. He pulls at the Staff of Magnus in his ‘Banked Slot’ and once it’s definitively front and center in front of him, he goes ahead and buys it.

Keep!

Staff of Magnus Purchased. 0 Points Remain!

He puts ‘Don’t Give Up!’ in his Banked Slot afterwards, because even if he might not end up getting it, he’s got nothing else to put in that slot at the moment. At the same time, the Staff of Magnus materializes before him, hovering in the air seemingly under its own power rather than falling to the ground.

Letting out a slow breath, Jason reaches out… and grabs the Staff. Immediately, he feels a surge of power flow through him. The thing had already come partially charged, but in this case ‘partially’ was a bit misleading. The Staff came with understanding, a sort of intuitive knowledge of its capabilities… and its capacity. Said capacity was so large, so massive, that it honestly beggared belief. So ‘partially’ still meant a metric fuck ton of power, Jason was happy to learn. Power enough to do a number of different things at the moment, in fact.

See, Jason hadn’t let himself be completely distracted by Taylor and Vicky, or by his work the past day. Ever since he’d locked in the Staff of Magnus, he’d been considering both what it might make him capable of, and what he might use to power it.

The Staff could drain power from people and magical objects, and if the people didn’t have power, it would drain their life instead. Part of Jason wondered if the latter might apply to Tinkertech, but that wasn’t something he anticipated getting to test any time soon. At the same time, he didn’t necessarily want to drain the lifeforce from anyone. He wasn’t a killer, so even using it on criminals seemed like a bad idea.

However… he did have five years of knowledge regarding Blood Magic, Necromancy, and Demonic Summoning crammed into his head. Five years of training, five years of practice, five years of skill.

There were ways he could use each magical discipline to potentially power the Staff, and ways he could in turn use the Staff to power spells from each magical discipline. However, the clearest cut way for him to power the Staff through his magical knowledge was likely to be Demonic Summoning.

He could summon demons and drain them of their lifeforce, secure in the knowledge that they were literally from Hell and therefore fair game. Heck, he didn’t even have to kill them necessarily, with his knowledge he could do a little demonic summoning, drain them to an inch of their lives, and send them back to the Hell they came from. Of course, that was likely to get them killed since he was basically sending them back weak and alone into the demon equivalent of gang territory, but… such was life.

There was so much he could do, now that he had the Staff of Magnus. But he was going to have to get his hands a little dirty in order to power it.

-x-X-x-

A/N: Going to clarify this vote, since its more complicated than it seems on the surface It's basically the choice between me having Devilish/Demonic expies from other properties show up when Jason does Demonic Summoning, potentially complicating matters because they aren't as evil as he thought and therefore not guilt-free targets, OR him just summoning your run of the mill bog-standard demons from Hell and using them as energy batteries guilt-free.

Essentially the vote is between those who want to keep this a purely Worm setting as much as possible, and those who don't mind having some outside-Worm characters make an appearance at poor Jason's expense.

Also, if you pick Option Two, feel free to suggest devilish/demonic expies for Jason to potentially summon in the comments below. They will not be one-to-one carbon copies to be clear.

-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:

0 Celestial Points

Jason's current banked power: