having trouble sleeping

after the fire

the way he feels after a day of classes

sometimes, he just has to let it out

a dream-training session with Scott

Full Name: Theodore Michael McCaffrey
Nicknames: Theo, Teddy, Teddy Bear, Teddy Krueger (he does not care for any of them)
Age: 17 (going on 30)
Birthdate: February 26th (it’s just a day)
Home Town: Windham, NH (no, you haven’t heard of it for good reason)
Sexuality: Homosexual (but probably not particularly interested in you)

School: Noctrem Academy (though he never quite fit in)
Power: Dream Manipulation. The ability to manipulate the dreams of one’s self and others. Requires that the user and target both be in a dreaming state or unconscious (Theodore can enter a lucid dream easily, but has no natural ability to cause sleep in others). Useable on any individual within 500 feet of the user, training can enhance this range. Once contact has been established, the user exerts complete control over the dream save for the actions of the target’s avatar within it. Injuries in the dream are not inflicted upon the target (though psychic injury is a possibility with further training), but can prove unsettling enough to have an emotional effect for hours or even days after the dream ends. The user has uncontrolled access to the target’s subconscious while in their dream; accessing the subconscious removes control of any element summoned from it from the user, though (training can allow for less restricted access). Only a single target can be affected at a time (though multiple targets could be affected singularly in the course of a given night, and with training, affecting multiple targets simultaneously is possible). Targets are unable to awaken from dreams that the user controls until that control is relinquished or the target experiences physical pain (the amount of pain required to rouse a target can be increased with training).

Theodore is well aware of how much others underrate his power, particularly the students of Noctrem. He encourages the notion that his capabilities are ultimately no worse than an inflicted bad dream, but he has found a variety of uses for dream manipulation in his studies. He can conduct secret meetings that leave no trace and cannot be eavesdropped upon practically. He can choose not to reveal himself in a dream and use guided-imagery to gather information about a target, or even influence them toward a course of action by attempting to create a “prophetic” dream [often, he’ll re-create it for several nights, playing upon superstitions about recurring dreams to make it seem more significant]. Obviously, he can torture a victim in any way he chooses via nightmare, and the inverse is possible as well. It’s exceedingly simple for him to cure things like sleep disorders or engineer dreams that will leave a target feeling invigorated. The most potent application of his power discovered thus far involves using his own dreams to train himself. Since he controls the relative passage of time and doesn’t tire in dreams, he can easily practice in a Danger Room like scenario for twelve hours in the midst of a two hour cat-nap. He’s used this capability extensively since discovering it, and can extend the benefits to others as well if he enters their dreams and so chooses.

Likes: Scott | Horror Movies | Dreaming | Iced Coffee | Blood-Orange Juice | Quiet Conversation | People Who Respect His Privacy | Being Underestimated | Philosophy | Revenge Served Cold
Dislikes: Anything Mainstream | Tepid Beverages | Loud-Mouths | Immaturity | Clutter/Disorganization | People Who Ask Unnecessary Questions (example: Can I ask you a question? YOU JUST DID!) | Things Most People Consider Cute | Accidentally Revealing Things About Himself
Fears: Losing the ability to tell the difference between dreams and reality | Ascertaining that the Scott in his dreams is only a construct of his subconscious

Personality: Theodore tends to keep to himself as much as he’s able. He prefers dreams to reality, largely because he has had very little control over his own life. He comes across as very mature, at least compared to most teenagers. He does his homework, excels in his classes, and doesn’t tend to cause trouble. At least, he doesn’t appear to cause trouble.

Since Scott’s death, he’s slowly been growing into his former school’s villainous reputation. He can be quite petty in using his power to get back at people over the smallest slights (after all, proving that he was the source of a nightmare is almost impossible), and has begun using it to subtly manipulate his classmates as well, using their dreams to find out what they value or fear, or even to nudge them towards doing something he’d prefer they do.

Nobody really knows the real Theo, though. They see him when he’s awake: mildly depressed, extremely serious, and kind of a geek. He comes off as reserved, and sometimes slightly condescending in the way that teenagers who think of themselves as very grown up can. He tends to get along better with teachers than his peers, and doesn't seem to discriminate too much between students from either school (he interacts with everyone as little as necessary equally). When he’s in dreams, he’s very different. Confident, even cocky. Actually pretty funny, in an off-beat way. Scott was really the only person who saw him as he was (a few others may have, but not enough to separate it from his waking baseline), but every so often, it comes out in the waking world as well. He’s a lot more capable than anyone but him knows, and it can be hard to not want to put people in their place from time to time.

He's very cagey about what he can actually do. It's common-knowledge (at least among Noctrem students) that his power is Dream Manipulation, but most people have no idea what it entails. He tends to respond non-chalantly with things "It's kind of like Inception, only not drivel" when questioned, shrugging his shoulders. Even when people do learn a better definition, it still seems pretty weak on paper- hardly the stuff of a hardcore villain- so most tend to write him off.

History: As a child, Theodore suffered from several sleep disorders (narcolepsy, night terrors, and sleep-walking). Doctors were baffled by the extreme degree and combinations, and sleep studies proved ineffective in finding a solution to the problem. Things came to a head when he was ten years old and fell asleep for six days straight. Nothing was apparently wrong with him, but nothing would rouse him. When he finally did wake up, he was oddly preoccupied most of the time; it turned out, he was lucid dreaming, fumbling through the discovery of his own powers. His sleep issues cleared up, and that was seemingly that.

When he was thirteen, a friend was sleeping over his house and he accidentally stepped into said friend’s dream. It was the first time he realized that what he could do extended out of his own head, and after that, he began intruding on every dream he could. When he began to look into his father’s dreams, he found some fairly disturbing images of things that had been done to him while he was sleeping. When he brought it up to his mother the next day, she couldn’t say anything, and when he brought it up to his father he was beaten within an inch of his life.

He ran away from home, alternating between a gritty homeless life and the paradise he could create in his dreams. He caught a somewhat lucky break for the first time when a teacher from Noctrem Academy deduced what he was capable of doing and offered him a chance to learn to use his powers to get what he wanted from life. Theo leapt at the chance.

Noctrem wasn’t the refuge he’d hoped for, though. Most of the students considered his abilities only slightly more useful than superhuman basket-weaving, and he was picked on as a result. That only stopped when he entered the dreams of Scott Everett, a boy with omni-dexterity who was one of the more powerful kids in the school. He was shocked to find that Scott was dreaming of him, and the two began a secret affair that occurred only in their dreams. Scott did put a stop to the bullying, and for the first time in his life, Theo was actually happy.

That happiness was torn away when Scott died in the fire that destroyed Noctrem Academy. It happened only days after they had come out as a couple, and Theo was devastated. He barely moved through life numbly, simply accepting what others told him to do, and he tended to sleep half the day away. Then, he dreamed of Scott for the first time since the fire.

He wasn’t consciously doing anything, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t his subconscious at work. Fully realizing that it could be some sort of psychological coping mechanism at work, he readily embraced the idea of picking up where they had left off. With his dreamtime with Scott available, he slowly returned to normal, or at least, seemingly normal. Not quite, though. Scott had always encouraged him to be more assertive in real life, like he was in his dreams, and Theo finally started to take heed of that advice. He began using his powers to torment those who had tormented him, visiting them with nightmares or discovering embarrassing secrets and revealing them discreetly.

He really has no idea if the Scott he still loves is real or not, but he doesn’t particularly care. Losing him nearly broke him the first time around, and even the thought of having to go through it again makes him contemplate suicide if it actually happens. He knows what people will say if they find out he’s involved in a relationship with a dream, so he tells no one about it. He just goes about his business at school, continuing to excel at everything besides seeming powerful.

Anything else? Theo’s dream-time training sessions have resulted in a lot of skills that no one suspects he possesses. He’s quite intelligent to begin with, and with the unlimited resources available to him, he’s become very proficient in several styles of martial arts (armed and unarmed), marksmanship with a variety of ranged weapons, and a variety of other talents ranging from lock-picking to parkour. He keeps himself in peak physical shape in order to make use of the muscle-memory imparted from many hundreds of hours of dream-time training (though his physical capabilities are only above-average for a teenage male).