Morpheus

You're sorta stuck where you are
But, in your dreams you can buy expensive cars,
or live on mars and have it your way

And you hate your boss at your job
well, in your dreams you can blow his head off
in your dreams,
show no mercy

And all your bad days will end
And all your bad days will end
You have to sleep late when you can
And all your bad days will end...-- The Flaming Lips, 'Bad Days'

Trouble with dreams is they don't come true
And when they do they can't catch up to you.- The Eels, Trouble with Dreams

( on what I do )

Name: Morpheus

Pantheon: Greek

Parentage:
Son of Hypnos (also called Somnus)and Pasithea; Nyx is his grandmother

Patronage: Dreams

Residence:
Mortal and immortal world, as he sees fit. He kind of likes big cities. Lots of people crammed together, lots of chances to play. Morpheus doesn't care for New York City much (the city that never sleeps, right?). He keeps an apartment in London and one in New Orleans.

Personality:
Morpheus loves his job description, pure and simple. He always has and always will. He believes, wholeheartedly, that his brothers got raw deals. He is utterly fascinated by the human mind and what it can produce—especially while under his power.

He not only believes his brothers got shafted, but he doesn't like to let them forget it. Morpheus is arrogant; he knows that he has more sway and more power than they do and reserves the right to be the asshole brother about it. He has rubbed elbows with kings, which makes him almost famous in his mind. His fifteen minutes of fame don't seem to end, though.

Morpheus likes words; he's found, over the years, that it's more fun to talk his way into someone's room than it is to just appear there (though he still does that, too, just for the shock value.) It's a game to him. One he has gotten very, very good at.

He doesn't like nightmares, and usually, if someone under Morpheus's power is having a nightmare, it's their own doing (since nightmares fall under the power of one of his brothers). The human mind is capable of doing far worse things than he ever could. He just ...gives people a push. Sometimes over the edge.

He is fascinated by insomniacs and spends a lot of time around them. Morpheus himself rarely sleeps and cannot dream. It is difficult for him to rest and almost impossible for him to dream the way mortals do. He kind of wishes he COULD dream.

In the human world, he chooses a handsome face (intentionally) and acts like he owns the place. He swaggers and saunters down the street and generally irritates an awful lot of people. He is, if nothing else, mischievious.

History:
"The father Somnus chose from among his sons, his thronging thousand sons, one who in skill excelled to imitate the human form; Morpheus his name, than whom none can present more cunningly the features, gait and speech of men, their wonted clothes and turn of phrase. He mirrors only men…"


Morpheus was chosen by his father for his vocation because he was so good at imitating humanity. Ovid catalogued much of the god's exploits in his Metamorphoses; Hera commanded Iris to have Somnus summon a dream that would cause Alcyone to dream of her husband, Ceyx, drowned. Somnus chose Morpheus for the task, glossing over his brothers, including Phobetor, and Phantasos.

Morpheus took up the task, flying to Alcyone's town, Trachis. Once there, he took up the form of Ceyx and went, pale and naked and drenched from the ocean, to Alcyone's bedside. He spoke to her as if he were her husband, and told her he was a ghost. Morpheus told Alcyone how Ceyx had died, and not to "feed her heart with hope" in vain. The poetry in the words was probably not entirely Ovid's.

Morpheus told her to mourn, and Alcyone was entirely convinced that this was her husband's ghost. Morpheus could even mimic Ceyx's gestures and voice. He left soon after; though Alcyone tried to embrace him, Morpheus slipped through her fingers.

Morpheus is principally concerned and responsible for shaping the dreams of humans concerning humans. His brothers (all of them together are called The Oneiroi) reign over different aspects of dreams—including dreams about animals and inanimate objects. He has special responsibility extending to the dreams of kings and heroes.

Since the time Ovid wrote about him, his job description has not changed. Morpheus is responsible for the dreams of regular men, kings, and heroes. If you get him talking about some of the dreams he's been responsible for, Morpheus will gladly take credit for visiting Shakespeare, among other writers, and working out the plots of famous books and movies while authors slept.

He gets a big kick out of the fact that Morphine is named after him.


Other special traits:
Can shift form to appear as any human he wishes. Keeps track of dreams and who has them, if they're of interest to him.