Once Bitten, Forever Intertwined | Man x Boy | Ⅰ

𓊈𒆜 ＴＷＥＮＴＹ- ＥＩＧＨＴ 𒆜𓊉

𝐼 𝐿 𝒮 𝒜
•❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅•

Ilsa found himself back at Cassian's castle after their weekend getaway, and admittedly, he was glad to be home. Cassian, true to his word, had allowed them to stay in for the remaining two days of their getaway... which was fine, but honestly he could've just done it at the castle. Not that Ilsa could really complain, not with how lovely Cassian had been. He'd kept him entertained, playing board games and reading to him, and the last night Iden had gone to stay in Helix and Felix's room for them to have a lovely dinner and some private time.

They'd shared wine and Cassian had fed him, it was lovely. Just spending the time with Cassian was enough to keep Ilsa entertained, though. Cassian had told him stories, which Ilsa had to say, was probably his favorite part. He loved fables, and the ones from the vampire realm were much different from the ones in Caelestes. Also, Cassian's voice was nice to listen to, smooth and low, it hit his ears and just made him want to listen and listen.

When they returned home, however, things settled quickly back into normalcy. Ilsa had his next session with Shadow today, which brought him to what he was currently doing. Sitting in the garden, under the moonlight, trying to read tarot cards once again... only without an audience, because Shadow hadn't shown up yet.

Ilsa still had about twenty minutes to play with, so he wanted to practice a bit. He'd been slacking a significant amount, and while he was growing settled in Tenebris Regni, he still wanted to be able to protect him and Cassian. Death with immortals was permanent, yes, but there was still one person Ilsa had no way of understanding.

Isandro. He was a mystery. With more and more of Ilsa's memories being proven untrue, it raised the question in his mind: Was Isandro the same as Isoloses? Had he felt just as trapped as Ilsa had, or maybe more so because he was close with their father? It also raised the question of how much of Isandro and Isoloses's memories had been fabricated as well. While Ilsa knew the wars they fought in were real, he did wonder if his father had coerced them... magically.

It was possible, albeit rare. Vampires are typically depicted as having the power of compulsion, but they don't. The power of compulsion comes from dark magic that even demons hesitate to use because it can have some... shitty effects.

Compulsion was arguably worse than altering one's reality, because while the compulsion makes them believe something, it doesn't change their memories of said event. It just means they don't believe them. With having your reality played with, it's horrible, and Ilsa agreed with neither frankly, but at least he truly believed what was happening.

Compulsion often manifests symptoms of schizophrenia, and it involves a range of problems with cognition, behavior and emotions. Symptoms of compulsion sickness are the same. Delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, and reflect an impaired ability to function. Compulsing a belief into someone's head is basically what starts it--it's a delusion, a false belief not based in reality.

Then the hallucinations start, and they serve to solidify the fact that the compulsion is fact and not just compulsion. Messing with Ilsa's reality was different, because while none of what happened actually happened to him, it was similar almost to a dream that he could remember... at least now that he knew they weren't real. But before, they had been real, there was no question in his mind that what happened was what happened.

Because the compulsion cannot change the active memory, it means that while the person truly believes that they remember incorrectly, that they were seeing things--just any rationality that is plausible in their situation, whatever it might be--they still remember fully what happened. For instance, a compulsion spell could make someone believe that instead of seeing a demon, they saw a human. But they still saw what they saw, and the compulsion cannot change that.