After introducing myself to the adults, it's about time I introduced myself to my host. The main character in this story! The ordinary in every way little girl I happened to get attached to. I focussed myself onto Celestine's conscious and pried into her dream.

It was an interesting dream. There she was standing in the middle of a little world that she shouldn't have known about. So a few of my memories leaked into her dream, huh? She was standing in the middle of an elevated road of concrete and asphalt. Blurs of cars were buzzing by her left and right at great speed. On one side of the road there were the tops of houses. Very narrow houses that were built right next to each other like you would expect in a city. On the other, a great big building made of brick that rose five stories and was covered in windows evenly spaced. There was no cityscape further out, though. The world was just a disk of a few buildings and this elevated road. The blurs of cars would be enough to make this scene a nightmare for a child who had never been on Earth.

I materialize myself to the best of my ability in front of her and snap my fingers to pause the dream. I've never been good at figuring out if I'm dreaming in my own dreams. I always relied on Gene for that. When you are the host of many egos, eventually one will figure out how to determine dream from reality and initiate a lucid dream. That is what I'm doing for Celestine now. Does this make me an ego now, too?

With the dream paused, the cars themselves didn't sharpen or anything. They are just blurs. Celestine was just looking at the one right next to her, not noticing my presence in front of her. Her form in this dream was actually smaller than her real self by about half a foot. She was wearing a pale pink pair of pajamas, they didn't suit her so I snapped my fingers again and replaced the pajamas with a dark purple nightgown that went down to her ankles. That got her attention and she turned to look up at me.

Actually, how did I look to her? I looked down at my arms and they were human, but the skin was nothing but static. White and black dots danced over my skin rapidly. All over my body. I wasn't wearing clothes, but I had nothing to cover up either. I had no genitals, I had no secondary sexual traits. My body was that of an adult, but lacked any distinguishing features that would make me male or female. I waved my hand to materialize a floating mirror and looked at my face. Featureless. Nothing but static. No eyes, no nose, no mouth, only bumps on the side of my head where ears would be, no hair on my head. I guess this is what happens when you're in the static world for too long. Your own sense of self becomes blurred. I pushed the mirror away and looked back toward Celestine, who was still just starring at me.

"Interesting dream you've been having here, little Tina." I waved my hand a bit toward her and called her by her nickname. She was probably 5 meters from me, but my voice would carry to her as if I spoke right in front of her. My voice was something else odd. Instead of an obviously male or female voice, my voice sounded as if two people spoke at the exact same time, one man and one woman. "Ah, this is new." I put my hand to where my mouth would be, but my mouth didn't move when I spoke.

"Who are you? And where is this place?" Her voice was strong, but her body betrayed her and gave off fear as she spoke with the gestures to convey the language of her people.

"I have given myself the name Novos. And this place is your dream, though the is something that must have slipped in from my memories. Although I have never been to this particular location before, this is a location that could be on my home world, . I apologise if it frightened you."

She looked at me completely confused. Did I not say something right? I put my hand to my face again. Ahh, that's right. I have no face, so I cannot fully communicate with her using her native tongue. Probably abut half of what I said was understood and the rest could be misinterpreted any number of different ways. This is going to be a pain. I need to teach her English now.

I pull out a white square and use my finger to write the script of her language on it. At least I can still communicate this way. On it I write as little as I can to get the meaning across. "I am Novos. This is a dream. May I approach?" I snap my fingers and the board disappeared from in front of me and appeared in front of her.

"What are you, Novos?" She asked, not answering whether I can approach or not.

I pull the white square back to me, erase what I wrote, and then wrote, "A spirit from another world." I was not going to lie to her like I did with the acolytes and her mother. I need her to trust me.

I let the square float to her to give her my answer. "Are you here to hurt me?" Her voice was shaking, but the words were strong again. Keep up that brave face, little Celestine.

This much could be said without gestures. "Never."

She understood my reply and the heartfelt feeling I conveyed. Her fear dwindled and she started to approach me of her own accord. When she was in front of me, I knelt on my right knee to face her. This was still a dream. She and I had complete control of it, though she didn't realize this yet. I held my right hand out and manifested a teddy bear. It had more distinguishable features than me, which was a bit sad. It was nothing special. Just a stuffed animal to give her to help her calm down a bit more. The bear is an animal that doesn't exist in this world, so she would have no reason to fear a caricature of one.

I held it out to her and she just looked at it suspiciously. Her tiny hands lightly touched the fluffy exterior of the plush and she gripped it. She hugged it tightly and forced her face into the fluff.

I brought back the white square and wrote a new message for her. "I would like to teach you my tongue, so that we may speak ."

"Is that the words that voice used today?" She spoke when she raised her head to read the message.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

I'm going to change things up a bit. I am going to speak to her in English while translating it to her language with the white square. ""

I stood back up, stepped back a bit, and manifested a wooden table between us with cushions for seats. It's a Japanese-style table that I saw many times in anime. Seemed appropriate to bring this here for us to sit and speak. Though this is just the weeaboo in me, too. I sat on my cushion in a seiza style. If I still had a human body, this would probably be uncomfortable. This is a dream world, though, so there is no pain. I move the white square to the table. ""

This girl has a photographic memory because of me. I wonder how long it will take before she picks up English in this manner?

"." Yes! She said yes! Making progress! She sat on her cushion with her legs out in front of her and under the table. Her eyes were glued to me until she heard my voice.

""

"What did that voice say to me today? What is that voice?" Of course this would be the first question. It scared the hell out of her. Anyone would be afraid.

"" It might seem like I'm saying a lot, but there are very few words appearing on the white square as it translates. That's just how different the languages are.

"Thank you!" She was smiling now. This girl was fated to be a housekeeper with how excited she is with being told she did well with cleaning. If I had a face, it would be a pokerface.

""

As she read that, her face gave a weird expression. She combed her fingers through the soft fur of the teddy bear resting on her lap. "C-can you leave?" Was the question she asked.

This was going to be hard to answer. I simply don't know. I never tried. Probably can't. If I tried, though, I don't know if I could return. I decided a visual representation of what my afterlife was like before coming here would be best. I manipulated the dream world, cast away the buildings, car blurs, and the road we sat on, and replaced it all with static. My static world. Needless to say, this upset her. It upset me when I was first here, too. "" I cast away the static before she would think this another nightmare and replaced it with darkness. I lit a few light crystals on the table. "" The white square turned into a little video player and replayed my first glimpse of the world through her eyes. I replaced it with white again and spoke, ""

"It's... scary." She murmured, clutching the table and the teddy bear like her life depended on it.

"" So far there is nothing for her to gain by accepting me, though. I already gave her the system ego I made. I already gave her photographic memories. There has to be more I can do! Think... What did my own egos do? What did we do together? Lucid dreaming, yes. That was one thing and was probably the one thing that kept me from taking my own life. But there was more than just that.

"I..." She started, I interrupted her.

""

She didn't answer. She just leaned forward, squishing the teddy bear against the table and herself. She repositioned her legs and just laid against the table, lost in thought, head against the white square and the wood. "Hmmmmmmmmmmm..." She hummed against the table before rocketing up to her feet. She dropped the teddy bear, climbed onto the table, then looked down at me from above. Then she pointed her finger at me and declared, "I want to paint!"

"Huh?" If I had a mouth, it would be open.

"You heard me! I want to paint!"

"." She jumped off the table and landed head first into my chest. This is the quiet, completely normal in every way little girl named Celestine? She had her little dream-self arms wrapped around my waist and was rubbing her head against my chest like a cat. "" All I could do is pet her head a bit in this out of nowhere display of affection. Does this mean I can stay? Wasn't planning on leaving even if she said to, but still... Hope she isn't like this when she's older, she'll win the heart of every man who gives her what she wants. This isn't supposed to be a reverse harem story...