The Grounds

[zesend]

He sighed after Vergil spoke. "No, actually, I don't. I generally don't get along with people." He rummaged around in his pockets, lighting another contraband cigarette. He took a drag, making sure to blow the smoke away from the other boy. "I usually don't care about anything or anyone unless I find it/them interesting. Or annoying, but that doesn't exactly push me to be very pleasant. Plus..." He paused to look back at the two cartoon illusions, who had since established elaborate fortresses and recruited armies. "Hallucinations can be very unnerving. If you live inside one for too long, you forget what's real and what's not, even though I can't fool the sense of touch. It's far too real for you realize. As a result, I don't get what you call 'volunteers."

[Vergil von Wulf]

Vergil went to sit next to the boy, making himself comfortable by tucking his behind him. He appreciated the obvious gesture of minding him while he smoke, the health problems related to the act well known whether you're the smoker or around them. First things first, he could tell Zesend was being very honest not because of his energy but because of his tone. It was blunt, almost an "I have nothing to hide" sort of tone, with a sense if finality and underlying sarcasm that wished to convey how obvious this all was. He too was watching his current illusion as he spoke, "I cahn see vhy vould noht be havfeeng ahny.." Biting at the inside of his cheek a little, he didn't know why he was doing this, "Buht eff yu ahre en honehst need ov a pursohn, I cahn halp vhen I ahm frei."

[zesend]

Zesend took another drag off the cigarette, eying the freshman carefully. It would certainly be a breath of fresh air to be able to constructively create hallucinations - explore his boundaries, what he could and couldn't do, the boundaries of the hallucinations themselves. Normally he didn't have more than a moment before the 'subject' freaked out and broke physical contact. Theoretically, he could create tangible hallucinations, given enough practice. This would, no doubt, be incredibly difficult, however. "Cool. Now look, something I've been wondering about is the person I affect. Namely, whether they can control the hallucination to some degree or another. Being that it takes place in their mind, it might be possible for someone to change the hallucination out of sheer willpower."

[Vergil von Wulf]

Vergil now looked at this not only as a way to venture out into helping someone, even if they were a complete strange, but as a way to make a friend even if it was a bit on the weird side of things. He looked up to the boy he was sitting next to and listened to the curiosity running through his mind come out of his mouth smoothly as if it had been sitting there for years. He looked back down and unwrapped his wings, "Vhell... vould yu lyke tu geev et ah try?" Standing, he stood next to Zesend now and awaited the touch on his shoulder or a refusal- whichever came first.

[zesend]

Zesend tilted his head as Vergil asked him if he wanted to test out his theory. Of course, the answer was yes. He clapped his hand on the boy's shoulder once more and they teleported to the open ocean, standing on top of the calm sea. Instead of fish that scuffled below, however, it was people. The ocean was as clear as glass, every litle thing visible. Hundreds of feet below, people milled around on the ocean floor as if there was somewhere to go. Having half a cigarette left, he took a drag and blew a smoke ring, which solidified to a large golden ring, then filled in with glass to complete a mirror. "Interesting." He commented. "To some degree, I have control. I can change the environment and its inhabitants, but after that it has a mind of its own. A mind which might actually be yours."

[Vergil von Wulf]

"Mein..?" Vergil asked aloud, looking around with a bit of a daze. The shift between worlds was unexpected and took a few moments to get used to. It was such a strange experience. You're standing in the middle of a very dark school ground near a tree and all of a sudden the world lights up and there was the ocean beneath their feet. He wanted to try something to test if it was his mind who had control now but the disbelief in him couldn't allow him to.
Vergil tucked his wings in a little tighter and felt a little at a loss now, "Vhat du I du?"

[zesend]

The daze was to be expected, but it annoyed Zesend nonetheless. "The people. I don't know what they're thinking, can't make them do anything. I can only put them there and take them away. They're not mindless drones; they can have intelligent conversations, which means the intelligence is spawning from somewhere." He gestured to the people with his cigarette-holding hand. "Make them do something. I can't, and chances you won't be able to at first, either, if you can at all. I might be dead-wrong and I simply can't control everything, but I have to test theories to explore my power. Maybe we should try something simpler, eh?" The scene swapped to a bustling city, businessmen in their suits, drug dealers hounding random passersby; if one weren't aware it were all a hallucination and couldn't touch anything, you could swear it was real.

[Mykel Rahs]

Mykel jumped down from his bolt, smiling when he saw Vergil. He opened his mouth to call to the younger, then noticed the new boy, hand on Wing's shoulder, and became curious. Settling at their feet, Mykel lay back to wait for Vergil to come around and notice him.

[Vergil von Wulf]

Vergil fought the daze a little better this time when the ocean was pulled from under them and the were at a relatively easy to believe scene: on the streets of a metropolis. He looked around and felt a little out of place with the wings on his back so they continued to stay tucked against his back, Flug cooing in his core on and off to relax him like he did the sentient spirits at times. He stopped forward but stayed within Zesend's grasp as he tried to get the attention of a passerby.
Nothing happened as expected. Vergil waved a hand and politely excused himself and explained he has a question but the people set there continued to walk by and ignore him, some on their bluetooth headsets while others annoying chattered to one another. Again he tried to get someone's attention, the attention of the woman walking down with the stroller in her hands, but he was ignored still. Finally Vergil just got flat out irked and boldly asked a business man nearby for the directions to the nearest coffee shop. The man, somewhere around his forties, looked up from his phone and found Vergil standing there sans wings because that was one thing he did not want others to see. He pointed down the road, "You take this road until you his Miller Ave, from there you just take a right and it should be somewhere to the left hand side- it's hard to miss kid."

[zesend]

Zesend watched as Vergil tried in vain to get the attention of the people walking the streets, but as expected, nothing happened. Then, the boy made a bold move and got a reaction. Zesend dropped his quickly-swindling-cigarette in sheer shock, pointing as his mouth gaped. "That," He managed to say, regaining his composure. "Is a very good start. I've never been able to interact with my hallucinations, and you're able to do it within the first few tries. Maybe emotion is necessary? It seems that whenever you got angry, it worked. Do something else. Try to make someone do something. Make them trip, bump into somebody, anything you can think of. This is an experiment, after all." Zesend instructed, becoming visibly excited. This was a small step in his 'training,' but it was a step nonetheless.

[Mykel Rahs]

Mykel waited a bit longer, then finally grew frustrated and grabbed Vergil's ankle. "Oi! Wings! C'mon, wake up."

[Vergil von Wulf]

Vergil was visibly flustered, feathers on his wings ruffled. Zesend's excitement was flooding her energy immensely and he could tel that this in fact new for the boy. Anger was a good catalyst it seemed but he didn't think he could get angry, maybe annoyed, but that was that. He looked around to find the man who had given them directions gone and tried to pick a new person or something else. Tripping might be a good start but bumping was even better as it was a slight movement.
He stared for a while at this woman coming from around the corner down the road, walking her poodle. She was having a gab session with someone on the phone, an affair, a friend, who the hell knows, and continued to walk unobstructed. The harder he stared, the less affected he seemed and he was about to speak to Zesend when something grabbed his ankle and made him jump, "Scheiße!"

[Mykel Rahs]

Mykel was pulled into the "world" Vergil and the other boy stood in, and pulled himself up, hand resting on Vergil's wing. "What the hell?" He murmured, staring around. "It's like New York." He blinked, turning to Vergil and.... "Who are you and did you do this?"

[zesend]

"Son of a-" Zesend almost finished the curse when he saw a new person - a guy grabbing Vergil's ankle, lying on the ground. He sighed in exasperation, rolling his eyes. "Get up, you idiot. And maintain physical contact." He was now slapping his forehead with his hand. "No, I just happened to be some random guy who got some really good acid. Yes I did this, you moron." He pointed to the new guy. "How do you force someone to get angry?" As soon as he finished this sentence, his jaw dropped. The city had expanded. This seemed to support the idea that the hallucination drew upon the minds of the ones being affected, but it didn't help him a single bit. "And what's your power?"

[Mykel Rahs]

"I control lightning, and if you force Wings here to get angry or scared, well, it won't turn out too well. It's like mixing blur with blur, you don't know what'll happen." He replied, shaking Vergil lightly. "Wings, are you alright?"