Even in silence there was sound. Cars honking. TV sets. The bass of a far off club. People made noise. Living people did, anyway.

Noel had her goose down pillow stuffed on top of her head. Even then she could hear the blood rushing in her ears. Going to sleep was hard. Getting up in the morning was even harder. Where the whole of Noel's apartment was controlled and strictly structured chaos, her bedroom was very soft and comfortable. Anything to help to her poor sleeping habits.

He laughed. The sound echoed between the walls as if they were made of something much more acoustically inclined than cheap chipboard. When his laughter died, the silence seemed to tighten around us. The light dimmed with the sound until the island of light grew smaller. When the light and laughter were gone, the floor dropped out from underneath her.

The memorymancer jerked awake. Falling dream. Great. She frowned and it pulled at her scar. Finally she stuffed her pillow down and threw off the covers. Silence wasn't so bad. Now it was the heat that was to be blamed.

Her mother had always told her to pretend she was falling asleep and then she would. Laying on top of the sheets, she relaxed more and more. The dreams weren't so horrible as they were confusing. She knew that she was missing the bigger picture and she was okay with that... until the pieces of that picture were paraded on the backsides of her eyelids.

There was no air conditioning at the beach and the heat made the ocean like wading through soup. The air was ovenlike. Even though the tops of the palm trees were waving, the air down at ground-level was as stale and close as the swimsuits most people were down to.

Noel lay on her stomach in her swimsuit and board shorts under the thinnest strap of shadow left by the thinnest little tree. There wasn't a tattoo or scar on her visible skin. Her brown hair was streaked with sunlight and pulled up into a water spout. There were towels laid out around her as if others had come and gone. Apparently someone had to guard the stuff. And that someone was dozing off in the heat.

Brian sighed as he sat tired in front of his laptop... Well he was always tired but now especially because of the late hour. He was looking up on things for how he would make a living for himself and he actually just had found a few ideas but now it was time to sleep a bit. He yawned as he stretched out getting ready for bed.

A bit later he was cozy in his bed a tired but pleased smile on his face. Sure getting a room in this place is only a temporally solution but he was happy whit it. He sighed as he slowly fell asleep ready to exchange the real world for a world of dreams.

As he slowly dosed of he let his own mind wander trough the many possible dreams. Most people where sleeping peacefully or having rather ... special dreams that they don't wanted to be disturbed in probably. That's the downside of living in a place whit growing up teens. But not discouraged he wandered of further and further till he found new and fresh dreams.

Suddenly he came across one that seemed rather strange ... He couldn't lay his finger on it but it was worth checking it out discreetly. Slowly inside the girls dream a small orb of light appeared as he manifested himself there in his most basic form and looked around at the kind of area he was in.

Instantly he was surprised and pleased. The beach ... oh it had been so long since he had been on one. The orb flew around eccentrically as this made him remember the times that he went to the beach whit his family. But after a bit and luckily that nobody could see the strange orb he got a grip himself and started to scout this place. Quietly hovering over it until he saw who had to be the dreamer. A girl laying on the beach into the sun. Maybe this wasn't a odd dream after all or was there more to it.

When dreaming it's strange the details that are important and which are not. In the girl's hands a book flickered into and out of being. It was as if she couldn't quite decide if it should have been there. When she had it and flipped through the pages, there was never anything readable on them. Sometimes they were blank and sometimes the characters on the page were arranged in ways that made no sense: some upside down, some larger than others, sometimes just a heap of letters overlapping.

Noel did not seem to mind this oddity. It was normal in dreams for unimportant details to change when she wasn't quite paying close enough attention. And for now her attention was placed squarely on the horizon. The water was picking up the light of the sun and throwing it back at her. She was going to be so sunburned tomorrow.

She sighed and rolled over on her towel. Above her was... a tiny sun. A bright spot in an already bright dream. She pulled some sunglasses out from seemingly nowhere. Ah. Much better. "Well that's new." Before, her focus had been on the ocean and the focus of her "hearing" had been with the mild, slapping waves. Now that she'd spoken, other voices could be heard from the other people on the beach. Come into the water! and [iIt's soooo hot.[/i] Most of the people were some distance away, but they seemed a bit more real.

Noel sat up on her towel and inspected the orb as closely as it would let her.

As he made his way over the coast line he noticed that the girl had noticed him ... So much for being unnoticed and sneaky. The orb slowly descended and circled a bit around the girl to make sure her attention was on him. "Enjoying the beach miss ?" The male voice seemingly came out of the or but echoed a bit as if it came from quite a distance.

The orb flew at her side over one of the other towels and slowly started to grow larger and change his shape. Soon the shape was humanoid as it slowly descended onto the towel as the light faded away slowly.

Brian sighed pleased as he was laying beside you now on the towel whit only his own dark blue swimming shorts on. "Hmm the small pleasures of life ... You got to know and appreciate then." He was wearing a set of sunglasses as well and had one arm under his head for support while in the other he had seemingly a ice cold drink from which he was sipping from the straw. Even tough food and drinks had no meaning in dreams it was great to set the mood.

"Are you a ghost?" She wasn't sure she should be talking to a ghost. The heat didn't seem to phase him, but Noel's skin was damp and sticky. The sun was merciless and no amount of sweat seemed to cool her. She fanned herself with her book.

Since when did strange balls of light turn into people. "Or an angel maybe...?" If he was really an angel he would make it not so stinking hot out here. He would also know that he was on someone else's towel. That was sort of rude, wasn't it? Someone else had been using that, though she wasn't quite sure where they were now... or... who they were...

But orbs of light just didn't turn into people. That wasn't natural. Noel narrowed her eyes behind her sunglasses.

He laughed as he finished his drink and threw the glass away carelessly behind him before slipping up the sunglasses so he looked directley at you. "A ghost ... noh im not a ghost ... or do i look like one to you." He yawned as he brushed a bit sand of the towel

He streched out sitting up as he looked over the water. The heat was nearly unbearable if but he seemed completley unafected by it. He sudenley made a gesture whit his hand and a cool sea breeze waved over bringing some refreshment "And no calling me a Angel is a bit too much flatery at my acount ... Just call me Brian thats good eneugh."

He got up now fully wandering over to the water just quitley watching over the ocean and enjoying the vieuw as he left the girl to her own taughts for the moment. He would explain himself soon eneugh.

No sooner had she thought it, he did it. A refreshing breeze came and plucked at her hair and cooled her skin. An angel. Not that she'd ever heard of an angel named Brian before, but she would thank her maker for this anyway.

Except after her mental prayer she didn't know what to say. Brian the angel was already down by the water. Was she supposed to follow him? Noel looked around at the empty towels around her. There... wasn't anyone here. So she got to her feet and walked over the sand as if it weren't hot. The mind doesn't cover all details in dreams.

"I'm not going to immaculately conceive or something like that am I?" Of course, she would do as she was told by the angel, but she didn't have to like it. A baby would really be a very bad idea for her. She would make sure to point that out to him.

Noel put her toes in the water. It was warm, but still cooler than the air around them. Such a hot, hot day.

He was enjoying the sight when she walked up on him and asked her question. The moment he heard her he started to laugh. His laugh echoing over the ociean. "No no no ... Oh god no. I think you got the wrong idea here ... " It took him a while until he didn't chuckled anymore before he turned to her.

"Ok lets see ... to put it bluntly what you see before you isn't real. At this moment you are dreaming about this place and i am just a visitor who droped by. I am a mutant who controls sleep and dreams." As he waited for her to react he was still chuckeling shaking his head "Me a angel ... Best one i ever heard."

He... laughed at her. It had partially been a joke anyway, but... Noel looked down and watched the water suck at the sand around her toes. She was sinking into the sand.

She was still willing to believe in the whole wings and halo shebang until he mentioned the word mutant. "Angels appear to people in dreams all the time, jerkhole." Embarassed? Yes. Getting angry? Oh, you bet.

The more she thought about it, the more she remembered who she was now. Her shape changed slightly. Text tattoos appeared on her inner arm. A scar sliced up her face in a wicked half smile. Her hair darkened and straightened. She looked older. More put upon.

"If this is my dream, get out. You're trespassing." She was a bit alarmed that she hadn't woken up, actually. Also, if he was a visitor here, he shouldn't go on mocking the dream's owner. That was just plain rude.

Seeing she got a bit upset he managed to get his face straight and stopped laughing as he obviousley didn't made a good impression. But then again most people kinda got sore if you entered their dreams. "Sorry sorry ... Didn't wanted to mislead you and yeah you got a point there ... I guesse ... But wouldn't they look more angelic and less casual then?"

He gazed over at her noticing that her own dreamform probabley changed back to her real shape. The onley major changes where a few tatoo's and a scar that she sudenley got on her face. It distracted him a bit making him wonder how somebody got such a thing... A acident maybe ? He didn't knew.

He cleared his troath as she bluntly told him to get out of her dream. "My apoligies miss ... Because of my ability's i can't dream myself so i end up in the dreams of others. But i mostley look out for people whit bad or disturbing dreams. Your one was a rather special one ... i couldn't make out if it was good or bad so i tried to take a sneak peek in but you spotted me..." He shrugs as he looks back at the sea "I'm sorry i didn't want to ... tresspass if you call it like this ... So everything is well i hope ?"

She did not want to point out to him that angels could and did appear in whatever form best suited their need. Because he would no doubt laugh at her. Again. And she didn't really want to come to blows in her own dream.

> "I'm sorry i didn't want to ... tresspass if you call it like this ..."

First he ignores her demand to get the heck out of her head. Then he tells her that he purposefully trespasses on whomever he pleases due to a mutational defect. The cheery on top was that he was here to help.

> "So everything is well i hope ?"

"All is not well. You're still here." She raised an eyebrow at the NOT angel before turning back toward the horizon. Glancing around, she realized that she actually recognized the place. Noel had been here what felt like hundreds of times with her family. "Why are we in California?" She nudged the sand with her toes. Her swimsuit changed into a casual pair of capris and a Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy tee shirt.

This would be getting annoying. Every now and then there was some people who acted like that. Instead of being glad that she had somebody to talk to she kept being annoyed. He sighed shaking his head while muttering silently"This is gona be a long night ..."

As he turned around his own normal clothes apeared over him. A blue jean, his shirt and favorite brown jacket. If it was realy summer he wouldn't be able to wear those things from the heat but he prefered to be dressed like that in his dreams.

"Why would i know why we are here... I never been in California before. Its your dream after all shouldn't you know why your mind makes these things up. Some form of memory if you ask me..."

> "This is gona be a long night ..."

Noel arched a brow at him and plucked at her tee shirt. She was still being affected by the heat. There was no way that she had this waking dream thing down. "It might go faster in someone else's head, yaknow." Or he could go back to being a little bubble of light. She definitely liked him better when he did not talk.

>"I never been in California before."

That surprised her. If they were sharing a dream then shouldn't he know something about it?

"My family used to come here all the time. They—" She turned around to look at where the towels were, but they were no longer there. "always sat under the single palm. I remember that much…" Or had it been a double palm? As she was debating another tree was suddenly in place. "Yes. X marks the spot." So why had it been lacking before?

> "Some form of memory if you ask me..."

She looked at the dream invader and narrowed her eyes. She would keep her personal opinions about him to herself for now. They didn't seem to be making him leave.

"Can you only enter the dreams of other mutants?"

He ignored her comments for now as he watched her turn around and remember things. This caused the dream to alter and take form of what was real again. "Dreams are vague ... You often remember things but not fully so thats when your imagination fills in the blanks. The moor clearer you remember something the less dream it becomes and it slowley turns into a memory.

He crossed his arms as he followed her when she walked back but the dreamwalker never left a imprint behind in the sand. It was as if he was there and yet not fully. Even tough she was looking at him suspiciousley he smiled. "No i can enter everybody's dream if they are just asleep. But from your remark i think its safe to state that you are one aswell ?" he looked curiousley at her while the two trees gentely waved in the wind.

"My mutation has to do with memories and lies." Come to think of it... she couldn't even taste this interloper's words. However her lie detector mojo worked, it apparently didn't work on people who only existed in her head.

Great. Now she sounded crazy.

"So now I have to re-live a memory? Because I started the dream her? Can't we like- change the channel or something?" Because an ominous wind was now blowing. She didn't especially want to see where this dream was going.