Mateo

Mateo Christopher Garcia[8] is a teen Dream Chaser of the Brooklyn Bureau, Izzie's older brother and Cooper's former best friend. Mateo is a very creative individual, and spends much of his time drawing. He learned of the Dream World after dreaming of his comic book character Z-Blob, only to discover him in his backpack the next day at school.

Mateo is one of the most artistic kids you’ll ever meet… but too nervous to share his work! His life changes when he discovers an hourglass portal into the dream world.[9]

The talented artist who's learning to become confident

Mateo is one of the most artistic kids you’ll ever meet (he even created Z-Blob, possibly the greatest sidekick ever!), but he’s often too nervous to share his work for fear it may not be good enough. We know lots of kids (and grown-ups) can relate...[9]

The super imaginative, but not super confident artist

Mateo’s mind knows how to wander! Sometimes it comes up with the most wacky, creative ideas (like a five-feet-tall dream world pencil), and sometimes it keeps lingering on thoughts about insecurity and second-guessing.[9]

Personality Mateo is regarded as an artistic introvert who exhibits traits of protectiveness, softness, and curiosity. Despite his outward appearance of nervousness, quietness, and weakness, he harbors a secret bravery and resourcefulness. And ever since he learned about the Dream World, he's grown more confident and became a leader with incredible potential.

Mateo possesses a wildly powerful sense of imagination, capable of bringing to life one of his comic characters, Z-Blob, in his dream, so completely that the little thing was able to cross into the Waking World. For Mateo, the art of Dreamcrafting can come exceptionally easy, and this imagination helps him to even utilize Lunia's Hourglass, which only a Dream Keeper should be able to use.

Despite his ability, Mateo is frequently held back by his lack of confidence in his own abilities.

Appearance Waking World Mateo has brown hair with two blonde streaks, styled in dreadlocks. He has vitiligo, resulting in a distinct spot around his right eye that is lighter than the rest of his skin. He wears a blue sweatshirt, black pants with a green belt, and red shoes. For sleepwear, Mateo wears a blue t-shirt with a superhero on the front and red boxers with white spots.

Dream World Season 1 Mateo retains most of his Waking World appearance, except for the spot and his right eye, as well as the two blonde streaks at the front of his dreadlocks which are now green. He also wears a green cape, a different belt, a green bandolier with a gold buckle and an image of an hourglass on it, and the shoes are changed to boots with images of an hourglass on the sides.

Season 2 Mateo wears a white sweater with a green collar and Z-Blob surrounded by a red edge underneath a light blue puffer vest, khaki cargo pants with a red belt, and white and red boots, stylized with a black 'M' on the sides and red ones at the front. The green spot around his eye has spread and one of the green dreadlocks is now red.

Abilities Dream Crafting - Being an imaginative person, Mateo possesses the ability to create anything he can imagine in the Dream World. This includes a wide range of creations such as creatures, weapons, and vehicles. Mateo often uses this power to equip Z-Blob with a robot suit or transform him into a diverse array of vehicles. He is also able to relinquish Z-Blob as the Guardian of the Grim Realm and make the Nightmare King the new one, all without his hourglass (shown as his Dreamkeeper potential). However, during the time when Z-Blob assumed the role of Guardian of the Grim Realm, Mateo's dream craft creations lacked refinement. This was due to his overwhelming fixation on Z-Blob, causing his other imaginative creations to be flawed versions of Z-Blob. However, after Z-Blob's return, Mateo loses this issue; in fact, soon after the return, Mateo begins to unconsciously begin making stronger versions of the dream creature's armoured form. Dream Bashing - Mateo has the capability to merge his Dream Crafting skills with those of other Dream Crafters, enabling them to enhance the creation process or merge two creations into one. Drawing - Mateo loves Manga and is very good at painting, and creative writing, he can even make his own comics. But Mateo keeps it to himself because he's scared of it being rejected by others even though it's very great, it wasn't until Private Eye people saw his drawings. Ms. Putnam did think they were a little edgy for a festival but they were very good and Ms. Putnam asked him to hang them up for the festival. Leadership - Mateo is the one who takes initiative and brings the team together for the fight. Mateo is always encouraging his teammates and is always ready to fight if things get bumpy along the way, always turning the tide. In "Fistful of Doppelgangers", Mateo taught Astrid what it was like being a leader, to take charge but also to take advantage of the situation instead of always fighting against it, and even though Astrid didn't admit it, she was impressed and grateful towards Mateo for teaching her that. Strategy - Mateo can come up with clever plans that don't always involve dream crafting, usually when Mateo reverts to Plan B (running or fighting) he's able to make a skilful plan to fix the situation as seen in Cheat Code, The Grim Escape, and Monkey and the Bandit. Mateo knows how to think ahead but sometimes this puts him in a complicated or unwanted position but he's learned to improvise on an idea and change a plan at a moment's notice. Athleticism - While Mateo doubts this skill often, he's very fast and strong, in The Anomaly, he survived a long fall from the observatory without any damage, Mateo was able to keep up with Z-Blob on Jayden's bike. In Short Sheeped, Mateo did make a weird but successful plan to distract the wolves and score, Mateo made the final goal with a headbutt, and the team winning. Later, Mateo dribbles and passes the ball around with Cooper and Izzie. In Monkey and the Bandit, Mateo was able to move away from the door very quickly and hide in a bush before he was spotted and climb to the observatory window to help Z-Blob. Engineering - Mateo was able to build an Edison Bomb in the Waking World before Z-Blob destroyed it by mistake, as seen in Z-Blob in Left Alone Part I. It's likely that Mr. Oz or Cooper taught Mateo to do it or he found the instructions somewhere and practiced.