(Pov Jason)
Jason felt dizzy. Not uncomfortably so. Though given the warm, almost haze-like feeling, he doubted that was possible. He did doubt he should try to stand up for a few minutes, though. Not that he wanted to, or could. With Jasmine straddling him, it was nearly impossible for him to even try. Though thinking about it, to the degree that his admittedly currently slow processing speed did such things, the fact that he currently had a neck wound and a couple of fangs very close to an artery was reason enough to not try. He didn't think Jasmine would do anything on purpose or even think the thought, but when sharp objects were close to fragile important things, like an artery, tempting fate seemed like a bad idea.
He felt the telltale warmth of whatever it was Jasmine did when she healed wounds as her hand touched his neck. The touch was brief before she moved back in and placed a small kiss on his neck, her tongue darting out to get whatever droplets that might have ended up in the wrong place. As she sat up, she smiled at him, though her eyebrows were still creased with concern. “Thank you, Jason. I really needed that. How do you feel?” Her hand moved up, carefully brushing some hair out of his face.
“I… Dizzy, I kinda feel like the rooms” - He hesitated, looking for the word- “tilting. And I feel slow.” He could hear his words coming out slower than he wanted them to, or maybe faster than he meant them to?
Her eyes glanced over his face, shifting focus rapidly. “Well, that's all rather normal. I did take more now than last time, so that explains the dizziness. It should wear off in not that long. You just need some water to help you make more plasma, and it will be fine.” She got up and started walking towards the pitcher of water. She poured a large glass and picked out a tablet and a peeled mandarin. She handed him the glass and tablet. “Drink, and take this. It's an iron supplement. It should help you get back to normal over the next few days.” He took the tablet and drank deeply of the water. “And eat this to help you with vitamin C. Though if you want something else, just ask and I can see if we have it.”
He split the fruit and ate a piece of the sweet, but slightly sour snack. “No, that's… fine. Mandarins are great. Thanks.”
Jasmine nodded and walked over to her desk. She picked up her laptop before she started walking back to the couch. “If you want the dizziness to subside a little faster, you should lie down.”
That sounded fantastic. The dizziness was getting on his nerves, if only slowly. The couch was good, comfortable, but he doubted the armrests would make good pillows. And Jasmine wasn't the type for decorative pillows. He knew he would get a bed if he asked for that, but he didn't actually want to sleep.“Yeah, I think I am gonna do that. You got any pillows or something?”
A lopsided smile spread itself across Jasmine's face. “I could go get you one or ” - She lightly slapped her thigh with her free hand- “Or you could use me. I wouldn't mind a little aftercare, so to speak, and I think you would benefit from it.”
Jason motioned for her to sit. “Isn't aftercare a sex thing? That doesn't really fit for this, does it?” He lowered his head down on her thighs, putting his feet up on the armrest. It was soft, and quite frankly the pillow would have been a worse option.
Jasmine raised an eyebrow as she started running a hand through his hair. “Well, I would say you allowing me to sink my fangs literally into your neck, and then drink your blood is rather intimate. Isn't it? While it might be easy to joke about you being my human capri sun, that's not how I actually think about it.”
Jason nodded. “That makes sense, I think?” It was probably better to wait a few more minutes until the effects of the entire feeding thing wore off. It would certainly make his thoughts flow more. “How much did you drink by the way?”
She hesitated for a moment. “I think, a little over half a cup.” Her eyebrows creased, and he could see the cogs turning as she did some arcane taste-based mental calculus. “Yeah, around that. It's about as much as I feel safe drinking from you on a semi-regular basis. So it won't be worse than this for the dizziness. You need to replace the blood after all, and you need a few days to do that, so you should be back to normal in about 3 days. In theory we could speed that up with medical intervention. But you aren't blood cattle, so that's not an option.”
A knot tied itself in Jason's chest. “Blood cattle?”
Jasmine's eyes shot up after a few seconds as the realization dawned on her. “Ohh gods no. Jason, we don't have blood cattle; that's not a thing. It was done by some clans back in the mess that was Scandinavia in the eighties and nineties, but the mage houses and the other clans took issue. That was a very small number of clans, and let's just say that they don't exist anymore, and it's not because they voluntarily disbanded. Mom can probably tell you more about that; she always uses the term purge when she talks about it.”
Jason didn't feel like pushing. While the tension in his chest had eased at the clarification, he quite frankly didn't feel up to having that conversation. Not that it wasn't interesting, and if he ever did meet her mother, he might just ask. “Hey, so that's interesting and all. But do you wanna watch a movie or something?”
They ended up watching Sharknado 3. Why he had suggested that, or why Jasmine had gone along with it he had no idea. It was fun, though, in a mind-numbing, don't-think-about-it sort of way. He had gotten fully back to normal, at least in his mental faculties, in a matter of minutes. Though he doubted standing up too quickly was a good idea.
Still, a question had been nagging at him, one that came from pure curiosity. People always forgot that conversations done in public weren't private. Some could hear you, and that was simply a fact of being in public. He would never eavesdrop on anyone, well, not intentionally. That would simply be rude. But waiters always heard things. Even things that might be intended to be private.
“Hey Jasmine.”
Jasmine hummed in acknowledgment, her hand slowing slightly as she ran her nails across his scalp.
“So I was working this weekend, and I overheard someone- I think it was one of your engineers. Or West Stars engineers or technicians or whatever. Anyway, he was talking about how odd it was that they were installing, you know, mechanical power extraction in addition to, you know, electrical power extraction. Is there a reason for that? I kinda got curious. It's perfectly fine if you can't talk about it.”
Her hand stopped, and he heard her sigh. The sounds of Sharknado 3 still playing in the background. “No, it's fine. We should have that conversation anyways.”
“We should?” His tone was higher than he wanted it to be.
“Yeah, we kinda have to. Jason, why do you think West Star exists?”
It was an inane question. In fact, it was condescending. Companies existed to make money; that was what they did.
“To make money.” He delivered the answer in the flattest tone he could muster.
Jasmine chuckled. “Well, yeah, obviously. I should probably have chosen a better question. Yes, West Star exists to make money, but that's not the main purpose. Do you remember that book you read to Sam? Vinters bestiary.”
While few would ever have equated Jason's intellect to a scalpel, he certainly wasn't the dullest knife in the drawer either. He had asked himself, when Jasmine said those things actually existed, what would happen if they spread. He hadn't wanted to ask at the time.
“So West Star exists to build back up infrastructure in case of what, an anzu reaches North America?”
“Not in case Jason. In preparation for when.”
Apparently it took the body more than an hour to replace the amount of plasma Jasmine had drunk from him, and the room started spinning as Jason shot up.
“What do you mean when?” The sounds were difficult to get out, getting stuck in his throat.
“Yes, when. The things that keep them contained to Scandinavia won't last forever. And if I am right, they might already be failing. No one else have been making any of the massive preparations needed to reduce the consequences of that. So when the clans got here they decided they would. We are planning to stay after all.”
He had hoped she would correct herself. Say it was a hypothetical. People needed to know didn't they? “Shouldn't we warn people?”
Jasmine laughed briefly. “The Scandinavians have been doing that for decades. They have given detailed instructions on what to do, and how. And, aside from some very minor preparations, no one has actually been listening. Well, no governments anyway.”
For some reason, that was not particularly shocking. After all, slow, gradual problems were easier to ignore. Like soil salinity in a poorly irrigated field, or rot in a load-bearing wall.
“How long do we have until you know, one of those things might show up here?”
Jasmine considered that for a moment. “Before it shows up here, probably around fifteen to twenty years. But that's not the main problem.”
His tongue moved across his palate, like cheese against a grater. “It's not? Because I am fairly certain continuous large-scale EMPs, and you know refrigeration not working is a really big problem. Or heating not working in the winter. If that gets here, people will starve. If we have that long to make preparations, shouldn't we use it?”
(Pov Jasmine)
It was almost painful, watching the near pleading look in his eye as he spoke. She had expected him to react strongly; who wouldn't? To the sure knowledge that in their lifetime their entire way of life would die. Not a slow, gracious petering out, but to be violently ripped from their arms. It was almost cruel. Was this how her mother had felt in those early days, like he does now?
“That's what we have been doing for the last fifteen years, Jason. And those are all problems, big ones. But the problems start long before any of those creatures even get here. The first few creatures that get past the leyding chain won't be that big of a problem. They will cause some local damage and raise insurance prices somewhat. No, when the larger things, like an anzu, start migrating, that's when the big problems start.” She drew a breath. “You get all the problems you mentioned close to them. But most of Europe, which will be hit first, is extremely electrified. Where do all those people, potentially millions of them, go?
“Millions?” He said the word slowly
“Yeah at first, then tens of millions, then hundreds of them. They become refugees; they need to be housed and fed. But then you have also lost massive amounts of infrastructure. Unless someone kills it, that bird is still there. Other than the Scandinavians, there aren't any military forces with actual experience dealing with these things. So the bird lives; it's not like you use guided munitions against a living EMP factory. It hunts, and does the things all birds do. Well now you have a massive area where electronics can't reliably work. Including car batteries. And then comes the next one, and the one after that. And all the other magical creatures.”
She gave him an apologetic smile. His hands had turned a slightly pale hue.
“The largest problem is that by the time any serious infrastructure project here gets started. Well, then the largest refugee crisis in human history has already started to scale. The financial system will be in free fall as both internet routing hubs and entire stock exchanges simply drop off the map. And any adapting nation would have to build all that infrastructure while dealing with said refugee crisis and the logistical networks around them collapsing. That's not easy, in fact it might be nearly impossible for most societies.”
“How… How bad would it get? Like it doesn't sound good, but how bad would it really get?” She could hear the slight vibration, the tension, that had entered his voice.
“Exactly? I don't know, no one does. But by the time things start to stabilize, probably around ten to five percent of the current human population are left. Most will die from the collapse of logistical networks, some to the creatures themselves, some to human conflict. If we are lucky, we can keep the survival rate in the northwest at around fifteen percent. In general, well-prepared rural areas and small towns might do better than large cities. If they prepare. But they won't be left unscathed.”
She hesitated. Sometimes a thing needed to be named, if only to make it both more real and simpler to process. “There is a reason people back in Scandinavia called the emergence of magic Ragnarok. It's not the same type of end of the world. But it is the end of the world as it exists now.”
The quiet that blanketed the room felt heavy, darkening the shadows that already stretched in the rather poorly lit room. Jason's eyebrows were creased with what she expected to be concern. Though it might be better if it was doubt, it might have been kinder after all had he been allowed to live without this knowledge for a few more years. Yet as the silence stretched, it only grew heavier. Like the pressure increasing as you sank deeper into a pool, or the ocean. Though she was left with no question over what he was thinking about. The same thing anyone else in this situation would, family, loved ones, friends.What would happen to the farm. The question any normal person would ask themselves. In fact it was slightly odd he hadn't asked any of them.
Reaching out, she lightly touched his hand. “Jason?”
He blinked, his voice had gone gravelly quality, like the sound of tiers of driveway. “Yeah, I am fine. Just thinking.” He went quiet again, and she started slowly caressing the top of his hand with her thumb, letting him think. At least the pressure of the silence had eased. “Jasmine?”
“Yes, Jason?”
He drew a breath and seemed to try to steel himself for what he was about to say. At least if she judged by the way he tensed his shoulders. “What… What can we do in preparation? Also, if something like that is coming, I wanna learn to fight. Not necessarily to fight people, but some of those things in vintners they… I want to be able to do something against something like that. I should know how to shoot a gun, better than I do at least.”
Fuck he's serious about that. The entire concept chafed, like a hand dragging a cat's fur the wrong way or nails against a blackboard. Still, for the briefest of seconds her mind flashed back to her father lying dead next to the corpse of that thing, sword in hand. Her mother looking distraught in a way Jasmine couldn't quite put into words, standing over the thing's corpse, her spear embedded in its neck.
Jasmine sighed, her body deflating. “Are you sure you want that, Jason?”
A fire had lit in the boy's eyes as he nodded vigorously. “Yes, I am sure.”
The most important thing anyone learned when it came to battles, be they military or corporate negotiations, was to pick your fights. This wasn't one she was going to win, no matter how hard she tried to convince him otherwise.
“Fine, I'll teach you. But if your primary focus is on magical creatures, then learning how to shoot isn't gonna help. Hell, I have some magical protection against projectiles, on the low end of the spectrum for creatures, and I can probably survive being shot point blank in the chest with a .50 BMG. It would also not help that much to try and teach you to use the ranged weapons that can work on most creatures; you aren't strong enough to use most of them, most baseline humans aren't. So we will focus on melee and maybe crossbows.”
He beamed at her, though it seemed more determined than purely happy. “Sounds great.”
“But Jason, don't be offended if I ever treat you soft or squishy. From my perspective, you are. Any pure baseline human is. I very much prefer it if you never have to use anything I teach you. And if we ever end up in a combat situation where I am with you,, the best thing you can do is let me handle it and try to keep yourself in cover. That clear?”
“Sure.”
She smiled then, though she suspected it was a sad smile. “Great. Now on to something more cheerful. I have something for you.” She got up and walked over to her desk, pulling out a small black wooden box. She was trying to force his mind on to something else, though given the way he had cocked his head, it didn't seem like he minded the distraction.
“What is it?”
“See for yourself.” She handed him the box.
To say the confused expression on his face was entertaining would have been the understatement of the century. At least she got to test how well her public speaking and political training were ingrained. Both left much to be desired given the amount of effort she had to put into suppressing the smile that threatened to split her face in half.
“Ehh… I like it?” He hesitated. “But, and not to sound like a broken record, what is it?”
Ahhh the eternal question, Is jasmines estimate right? do they actually have over a decade?