Desree or Des was born in Bristol, Rhode Island on May 23, 1984 to Christof and Karen Sheperd. Both teachers at the local high school. Desree grew up the older sister, her brother, Johnathan born a few years after her. She lived a relatively normal life, going to school, making friends etc. Family lived close so she had constant contact with uncles and aunts, as well as cousins and especially Nanny and Papa McFarland, her mother's parents. She spent many times at the ocean side with them. A talent she began to foster was her adeptness for piano and vocal talent. Everything in the world had a creative edge for her and the empathic child became more and more familiar with those around her.
It was in middle school when she started having rather vivid dreams. She would have an over active imagination and after being made fun of a few times in school, she quieted about such experiences and continued on with life. During high school, she began to feel and see things, and during a lab hour for chemistry many say that she suddenly went still and stood staring off into no where. But for Des, it was much more. She wandered the beach side near her families house, not for very long before she felt herself reeling and falling to her back, suddenly back in her classroom. She was sick for a few days, feeling faint and unsteady. After that, Des began to expand her realm of thought and would force her mind elsewhere, she began to find she could travel while staying in once place.
The main problem though, she would be drained and utterly exhausted after. It wasn't till her brother started having nightmares that she found a practical use for what she was experiencing. Curiousity and the want to help drew her to his room one night. As she stood by his bed she touched him and thought of him, forcing herself towards him. A part of her detached and she became one with his dream. Within darkness consumed and she herself shuddered in fear at the monsters that plagued her brother's dreams. Soothing him as best she could, it was quite the refreshing and tiring ordeal. For a few nights after that, she attempted to do so and it was on the last night that she couldn't wake herself from his dream. The next morning her parents found her next to John's bed, collapsed.
She was taken to the local hospital and for a week she was in a coma. Her junior year of high school. It was John that would help bring her back. Having seen her in his dream he was left alone with her doing what he thought he could, he talked to her and asked her to come back. It was his voice that helped Des find her way back. It was a miracle they said and for another week, Des spent the time recovering.
College. Providence College to be exact. Close to home and closer to family. Craving those attachments, Des and her brother had grown closer after that experience and his suspicions were slowly revealed to him and he kept his sisters secret. Des persued a social worker degree and excelled in the program. She would eventually graduate summa kum laude and top of her class. But college was not just a breeze, Des found and sharpened other sides of her powers, something she had come to understand as Astral Projection.
Her powers were not limited to just effecting the mind and dreams..but she found that if she concentrated, that inner energy that she could move around and see with, could be tangible if just for a bit. And the closer it was to herself, the more tangible it was. She could push things, buffet them as if she were actually expelling a powerful force against them. It drained her immensely. She could even use it to shut out thoughts and more if her travels became too dark and mysterious. Almost a forcefield, but nothing to block a real attack, more wandering thoughts.
Des graduated and after some thought decided to move to New York City. There were neighborhoods with children that needed her help and what better place to make a difference? Several years would go by and as her contact with the children grew, she found that those deeply troubled would seek her out, would draw pictures of her. Des knew the reasons. They could sleep and she understood them better than the others. She could see what was wrong, not know.
She was there, when the bomb went off and thankfully the organization she volunteered at was in an older basement of a tall business building. It was there that she and several others survived, though she still carries a few burns and a broken wrist from the building collapsing. Now she is trying to help people piece their lives back together, along with her own.
