Daye was born and became the sun. Or, the son? The details on the matter are not nearly as accurate as they would like to be. No matter, however. The reality is simple enough: Daye Lee was born two hours before sunrise — 4:32 AM, to be exact — and welcomed a whole wide rushing world with a loud, blood curdling cry. This could have been expected. His parents were learned people, after all, with their fancy degrees hanging off walls and their careers with companies that might have been more bad than good. But it came as a surprise as all too many of Daye's interests came to be to them, in time.

Noelani Ro and Ronald Lee were always six coffee cups shy of wired on any day that ended in y. Children of more liberal families themselves, their adherance to strict foundations and stability came as surprises to everyone but themselves. After all, why take a risk when risks had already been made in their coming together? In their having been born? Korean immigrant boy met Korean-mixed-culture girl and somehow, tradition straight from the palace grounds of Seoul had been all that clung to their bones.

Hawaii, for its children, provides no matter what the parents want. Every time Noelani or Ronald tried to get the boy to stay inside, to stick to a book and work through his assignments, Daye was running off with a neighbor or a community elder to help them. With gardening, with shopping, with just trying to bring groceries in from a cart — the task at hand didn't exactly matter as much as right to be outdoors embracing the sun and the sea and the nature of it all. He was a spark plug right from the start, shining even on the worst of his fashion and hair days. And everyone loved it! Except his own parents who never understood more than the prose of beauty and glory they had harrowed down to enlightment phrases, posters and the occasional tear-jerker film.

It left community to adhere to. The boy found a comfort in school and attempts at learning. Not big atttempts, of course, but good little steps. He could walk even on days when running wasn't the most ace idea. The problem with Daye was always a simple enough thing like that. Others were racing toward an end goal and he, well, he liked to stop and smell the roses. Then shout about the roses. And probably turn the loose roses into a kind of garland to wear around his head or neck or wrist. He really, really enjoyed the flowers. The turtles, the world itself all seemed like a thing to embrace much better than school or his home that waited, always, for parents to arrive.

But home was far from sweet nectar petals and warm sunshine. It was a father who got home tired with take out and a mother who came home all too tired to do anything. Truth be told, Daye was raised more by personalities on television and the video games his parents bought (whatever had the most talk at work, whatever other parents said needed getting) than by real life people. His mother was always off saving this part of the world or that and his father was always working on soil tests and water tests and trying to get energy flow to exist with the least amount of damage on the world itself. Little heroes, really, except they weren't great at being anything but that; Daye's support system was Japanese Protagonists and neighbors who tried to give him knowledge of more than the water's edge.

It wasn't adventure that Daye craved, though he was often more showman than boy. It wasn't even a taste of something unknown, although he tried on his mother's jewelry and make up too often. It was just something more than loneliness. Or fighting, which happened more and more as Daye grew older; fights about who had what responsibilities, fights about what Daye had to do and be, fights about Daye needing to Grow Up. They'd back down a little each time but never by much; they weren't ever the parents who were showing up to events to cheer for him even when Daye was winning and getting classes gifted to him. Piano, dancing, archery, they never really cared.

The one memory that fit with it, some big idea of a loving, happy family, was when his parents sat with him one Christmas and helped him set up his new Xbox One and they actually sat down to play the games with him. A few hours of adventure together, of laughing and trying to find places to go, figuring out buttons and manuals. A night full of Zoo Tycoon and Assassin's Creed would never be topped. Even when Daye sparked out a bit laughing his parents were happy about it. Occasionally, they'd join him after that, one at a time sitting by to ask what he was playing, try to sit and watch before working in some conversation about his future. Games became the place to connect and as weird as it is, Daye's always liked that.

It was better than being alone.

Naturally, this made things more and more video game oriented as Daye grew up. He never really quit all his adventures but he always made time to game; it got easier, too, when he was on his own computer in his room later at night and he started making friends overseas. The time difference made things awkward but they always found time to meet up. One became two, two became three until there was a whole crew of them, a bunch of teammates who knew how to rely on one another and make something of friendship. World of Warcraft, League of Legends, even buying one another video games on Steam when birthdays and Christmas came around. The Dream kids were more important than almost anything, especially when Daye made his transition into high school and felt the awkwardnss of puberty taking swing at him.

That didn't matter for long, though, and they were the safety raft he held onto when his parents told him he was moving to California. Glendale, which sounded more like a boring professor than an actual Place to LIVE. But Dream made it better. Mark even told Daye that they lived close enough to maybe hang out; and before the first year of living in California was done, they all saved up some money together to all meet up and go to Disney together! The Summer of 2021 was, by far, the best two months of Daye's life. His parents hated it, called him three times a day to nag, and he had to work extra hard to get the money together TO go on his own but ㅡ he managed, as did the rest of his friends, and they all got to hang out.

And it just made sense, it seemed, that his Dreamies were the reason for meeting the dream. From that fateful day things have just seemed to fall into a kind of roleplay place. School gives Daye a little more room to grow again ㅡ no surfing or hula dancing these days but, hey, he's got music classes and glee club so complaints about that come slow. And then, of course, there came the odd thing with magic growing slowly, surely, until Daye got caught having to watch Reverie and Kilig fighting in the brilliance of their all-too-much. His sparks broke out in a hiccup of fear, the way they've always done when his emotions got to be too much, and broke the Switch he held in hand. The combination of it all, of forever dreams and endless magic, spiraled out of control with the way his circuits fried up with the game and... well, Daye's new life was born.

But even that's has served the boy well, getting closer to Mark and figuring out some games together ㅡ and the ways their bodies could press together or shift into more pleasure. Training isn't even all that bad! Jasper works with him, testing out new animals and summons and creations he might shift into, and though it's meant that Daye holds the secret of Jasper's superhero ways it works, too; all of Dream as their little individual lives still managing to be pillars of strength to one another. Better than shorelines. Better than family. It's the one thing he hopes never, ever fades, as he steps out from one stage of life and hopes for Juliard, or even just Carnegie Mellon before the rest of his dreams come true.