An Intervention and An Encounter with Desire
Summary: Kacy's friend Noelle intervenes when a boy throws rocks at Matthew in the waking world. This results in her getting to have a one-on-one conversation with Dream. The day afterward, Kacy encounters Desire, who mentions some things about Dream that causes the girl to be upset and not want to sleep.
It was the Sunday before Labor Day of 2022, September 4th, 2022 to be exact. Red-haired, green eyed, 13-year-old Noelle McDowell was wearing a blue t-shirt, tan shorts, white socks, and black and white striped shoes and walking to the convenience store down the road from her home to buy a bag of chips for her family's barbeque; thankfully, the walk only took 5 minutes.
When Noelle was passing an empty lot, she saw something that made her blood boil. A brown-haired, brown-eyed boy wearing blue jeans, a green t-shirt, and white socks and shoes was throwing rocks, with one of them hitting a raven who had been sitting on the ground. She immediately recognized the boy as a bully from school and yelled "What the fuck are you doing, Warren?"
"None of your beeswax, Tristan." He growled as he dropped the rock he was holding
"Do not use my dead name, asshole and leave that bird alone!" Noelle got closer to him and was about to throw a punch when she thought they heard the raven saying something that sounded like "Morpheus".
"You would do well to listen to her advice, Warren Thompson." Another voice said.
Warren started to panic as he saw that right beside Noelle was a being who had black hair, icy blue eyes, pale skin, and dark clothing consisting of black jeans, a t-shirt, and a leather jacket in addition to black shoes. Said human looking individual was now glaring at him. Nonetheless, the boy tried to sound brave and demanding when asking "What are you going to do about it?"
Noelle stepped back and watched as the strange man (who she realized was probably not a man at all) took some sand out of a pouch and blew it towards Warren, causing him to fall into a state of sleepwalking and head home. Then she saw the being go over to the raven and touch it, healing the injuries that the latter had sustained in an instant.
"Is he going to be all right now?" Noelle asked. She recalled Kacy telling her, Ingrid, and Tanya about Dream aka Morpheus and realized that this had to be him.
"His name is Mathew, and he will be fine, Noelle McDowell." Morpheus said to her. "His attacker will make it home and be given horrible nightmares for having attacked one of my ravens." His expression softened after that. "You have my gratitude for interfering despite the risk. I will see you later."
Just like that, Morpheus and Mathew were both gone thanks to the sand. Noelle wasn't sure what to think of it as she continued on, arriving at the convenience store and going inside to find a big bag of regular potato chips. She found it, paid for it, and then headed back home. Once she got inside her family's one-story home, she immediately texted Kacy, Ingrid, and Tanya to tell them all about it.
"So, Noelle's one friend of that girl you talked to twice in her dreams and you want to chat with her when she sleeps tonight." Mathew was saying in response to Morpheus deciding that he would speak with Noelle as a reward for her intervention. He was now sitting on his boss's right arm while the latter was on his throne in the castle's throne room.
"Yes, Mathew, she is Kacy's friend. While it was foolish of Noelle to not call the human authorities instead of intervening herself, she did have good intentions nonetheless and I know that she has a love of animals." Morpheus explained. He also knew that Noelle had gotten this interest due to the fact that her father was a veterinarian and her mother worked at an animal shelter.
"All right. She seems like a good person." Mathew seemed to think that this decision was a good idea.
Morpheus briefly stroked Mathew's head. "You should rest for the remainder of this day even though you are completely healed. I think a break will do you some good."
"Thanks boss." Mathew went into the library to chat with Lucienne and see if he could help her out.
Several hours later, long after her family's barbecue was over, Noelle had gone to bed and her dream self was now in a place that looked like a video game arcade with a small area to buy snacks. She was sitting at a table there and saw that a vanilla milkshake was in front of her while various other dream characters were playing the games.
Then Morpheus appeared to the redhaired girl and smiled. "Hello again, Noelle McDowell." He had a chocolate milkshake in front of him to drink as he sat across from her at the small square table.
"Hello Dream. Kacy told me about how she got a chance to talk to you." Noelle was not sure what else to say as she started sipping on the milkshake in front of her. After all, what could someone say to the embodiment of dreams and nightmares as a good conversation topic considering that Dream knew everyone very well, or at least, knew what occurred to them and what they did when they were in the Dreaming?
"I am aware of that." Morpheus then asked her. "I am curious about these video games that you love so much and thought that talking with you about them would be a suitable way to repay you for intervening when Mathew was injured despite how foolish it was to put yourself at risk."
"Well, video games are not as young as the Internet…" Noelle began a spiel about the history of video games, talked about which ones were her favorites, and more. Her face was lit up like a Christmas tree as she did so since this was something she was highly obsessed with.
Morpheus listened closely as he sipped the milkshake in front of him and Noelle occasionally paused to take sips of her own drink/snack. When she had finished, he asked the girl "Do you wish to make your own video games, Noelle?"
"Yes, I do want to be a video game designer. That's what I want to do after I finish transitioning." She answered. "I know it's going to be tough, but I do want to achieve both of those goals. I'm just worried that if I don't, people won't see me as the girl that I am or take me seriously when I get that dream job." She sighed sadly before finishing up the milkshake in front of her.
"You are female, Noelle McDowell, regardless of what anyone else says. I think that you are capable of achieving both of your goals if you are willing to put in the effort and not give up." Morpheus assured her. He was normally not sympathetic to mortals, but this needed to be said.
"Thank you, Dream." Noelle was crying tears of happiness at this assurance.
Before Noelle knew it, Morpheus had moved himself so that he was sitting next to her in a chair, his milkshake also long gone as he placed an arm around her. "You are welcome, Noelle. Would you like to play some of these games here? This part of the Dreaming is one that has video games that were never made in the waking world, whether for arcades or playing at home much like my library has books that were never published."
"I absolutely would, please! Thank you again!" Noelle immediately got up from the table and ran over to an unoccupied arcade cabinet to begin playing, her mood improving immensely.
Morpheus watched and smiled at the scene. He decided that perhaps he would give Noelle ideas for video games that she would want to make in the future as soon as possible. "Farewell for now, Noelle McDowell. I hope you enjoy yourself." He whispered. Then Morpheus left the dream arcade to travel to a few other dreams and observe them as he had not done that in a long time.
The first thing Morpheus had done was briefly travel into Tanya's dream; in it, she was playing some of her favorite songs on a piano for a large audience, sitting on a bench instead of in her wheelchair. He watched for a bit before traveling into Ingrid's dream of returning home to visit her relatives in Sweden. Then it was on to Kacy's dream of being in Walt Disney World as her family was planning on going there during Christmastime. Several more pleasant dreams from various individuals from all over the world were visited next as well as less pleasant ones. Morpheus seemed pleased that he did not need to intervene in any of them at this time as he returned to his castle and then opted to sit on his throne, perhaps not knowing that Kacy was going to be targeted by some of his younger siblings. He did think that perhaps he could see her again and eventually become a mentor to her simply to see if that would help encourage her to achieve her goals since she was not confident enough to do it yet.
It was on Labor Day itself that Kacy and her family had their own barbecue in the afternoon for lunch. Tomorrow, Kacy and Seth would start the homeschooling assignments that they needed to do, getting breaks for lunch and to go outside and exercise. Since Anita worked from home, she would be able to help her children with their schoolwork if they needed it. After it was done for the day, the two siblings could relax for a bit before having to do their chores. Kacy didn't mind this at all. Being on a schedule was a necessity for her and it helped her avoid executive dysfunction. For now, she was drawing a picture of Dream's castle as it had appeared when she had seen it. It would take her a while to finish it, but sadly something or rather someone interrupted her.
"So, you are the child that my brother seems to have taken an interest in." Someone said in what sounded like a sensual voice. "I know you're just as curious about him and wish to know more."
Kacy stopped drawing and turned her desk chair around. Laying down on their front on her bed was a blonde-haired, golden-eyed individual who looked to be nonbinary. They had on form fitting clothing that was not anywhere near as dark as the clothing worn by Dream and looking at them made the mortal teenage girl think of well, everything she currently wanted: to be accepted by everyone, to be successful in writing great stories that everyone could enjoy, and yes, to be able to know more about Dream.
Not sure what to make of this, Kacy asked them "Who are you and how did you know that?"
"I'm Desire, dear Kacy. It's what I do. Besides Death, and Dream, and me, there's Destiny, Despair, and Delirium as far as Endless siblings go, and our parents Time and Night. We don't talk about our prodigal brother though." They answered, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world and sounding condescending at that.
Kacy didn't ask about said prodigal brother; she figured it wasn't her place to do so. Instead, she had another question. "Wait, there's a real Father Time?"
"Of course!" Desire stated.
"I think you don't like Dream very much at all." Kacy commented as she changed the subject.
"That would be the biggest understatement of the century, little Kacy. He is stuffy and stupid and can be cruel. Just ask his ex-lover who wound up in Hell for rejecting him or his son whom he disowned." Desire did not mention any other cruel things as it would not have been in their nature to reveal every terrible thing that their older brother had done even if Kacy had asked. They then vanished, leaving a shocked and scared Kacy to just sit there, dumbfounded.
"Kacy, you need to come down to help get the garbage out!" Joseph called up to her.
"Okay, Dad! I'm coming." Kacy was not sure whether she had just imagined that whole conversation with Desire or not, but she did know that chores would hopefully help put it out of her mind.
After doing her chores, having dinner, and brushing her teeth, Kacy was not sure that she could sleep at all. Was any of what Desire said true assuming that the whole conversation was not just her imagination? She really wasn't sure that she wanted to know that and so she just stayed up the whole night, convincing herself that Dream would not notice that she was absent from the Dreaming. If any of what his younger sibling said seemed to be true, it angered her that he could be like that. He was so nice to me, how can he be cruel, the brunette girl thought sadly to herself.