Zaria looked at him , "I'll be nice if she will." she said simply, though her smile seemed kinda feral, though Zaria wasn't sure how true of a statement that was, she hoped it to be true so Gabriel wouldn't be mad at her. Zaria looked at her slice of pizza and took a bite of it, doubtful but grinned when it was actually good.

Gabriel sighed at Zaria as he worked his way through the pizza, just now realizing how hungry all the work he'd done earlier that day had made him. He seriously got that feeling that if any problems arose, Zaria was going to be the one that started them. He didn't tell her that though as he knew it'd start an argument. He just hoped that he could stop anything from happening. They ate the rest of the pizza in silence.

Zaria sighed and watched Gabriel through the rest of the meal, she reall would attempt to be nice at dinner because of him. She just hoped Anya wouldn't try and start anything. Finally as the pizza was slowly finished, Zaria stood up and smiled, a true (non-smirking) smile at Gabriel and said, "I have to go but I'll see you tonight."

In the yellow city streetlights, which were just starting to flicker on as sunset loomed, the sign for Maxine's Diner seemed to glow. Oh, there was a neon one in the window, too, but the graffiti-style logo on the pitted-brick side of her building was a classic. It had been added to over the years. Some of the spray-painting had been sanctioned, other additions not, but nothing had been removed. Yet the original graffiti still shined through.

From the outside, it was a bit of a hole in the wall, but locals of both mundane and arcane persuasions knew exactly where to go. It was one of Dash's premier burger joints and a hidden gem. Located in the Church District, it was also as much a safe haven as carefully neutral St. Peter's Cathedral, or any of the smaller places of worship (churches, mosques, temples, shrines, and so on) scattered unevenly around the area.

Inside, it was a strictly seat-yourself system. Patrons had their choice of booths, tables, and counter seats, and any one of those choices was well-lit and comfortable. The wood-paneled walls were covered with artsy black and white photographs of the city and its people. Acoustic music played just loudly enough to be heard over the chatter of the employees and patrons, and the tempting aromas of the busy kitchen hovered over everybody, waiting to pounce on the indecisive.

Almost as soon as Anya had chosen a booth on the wall opposite the counter, the owner herself hovered with place settings and menus in hand. Maxine was a tall, broad-shouldered woman, visibly strong yet undeniably female. She wore her long, dark red hair up in a tight, no-nonsense bun, and her hazel eyes sparkled playfully as she sidled up to the table.

"Well, well," said Maxine, grinning. "Look who the cat dragged in. Ash, it's been too long!"

"I don't get out much," replied Anya. "You know that. Maxine, I am waiting on some people, though. I'd rather not order until they get here."

"Socializing. How interesting." The woman raised one expressive eyebrow. "Should I expect trouble?"

Anya smiled, and flashed a bit of fang. Maxine flashed more in return. Hers were thick, crude instruments compared to Anya's, meant for tearing rather than puncturing. Not that they were comparing. To them, it was both a private joke and a code. Anya's dinner companions were arcanes, and her friend would be keeping an eye on things. As would some of the waitstaff.

"Right." Maxine nodded. "Well, how about I get you something to drink and we can catch up on all the Pit and Pack gossip while we wait?"

"Excellent plan. You're right. It really has been too long."

Heather stared blankly at the clock in front of her and sighed, detention was so boring. She hadn't brought her school bag as she'd meant to go back and get it with Sam once they'd met up, but the exploding restaurant had thrown a spanner in the works. She'd tried to explain that 'She was helping out at the exploded restaurant' to Mrs. Elwood, her maths teacher, but she waved her finger in an all-knowing way and said "Heather, you know full well that the site of an explosion is no place for young girls like yourself." and handed her an after school detention slip for 'lack of required school equipment'. Time was passing sop slowly... Sam had already brought his school bag when they'd met in the park so he was standing just outside the detention room, waiting for Heather to come out. Bzzzt! The egg-timer went off, signaling the end of detention. Heather sighed, banged her head on the old wooden desk she was sitting at in a sign of frustration, and then ran out of the room. She hugged Sam in greeting and they started heading towards the church district.

Sam quickly returned Heather's hug and hurried after her, for someone so small she sure was fast. After a short silence he hesitantly decided to ask Heather about something that had been bugging him, he hadn't been able to talk about anything Arcane during lunch. Too many mundanes about. "Hetty?" He asked, to check if she was listening. She grunted in reply. "How... do you tell if someone's arcane?" he faltered, he'd seen quite a few odd looking strangers during his life but half of them were probably just mundanes.

Heather stopped walking, describing and explaining weren't her strong points. "Um..." she faltered, trying to think of how to explain it to Sam. "Remember that guy we saw a couple of weeks ago, and you said he made you feel... Weird?" She started, Sam nodded. "Well, I think he might have been arcane, a warlock judging by his stature. But that's not the point, Arcanes usually give you this weird feeling, or seem to be more aware of their surroundings." That was actually a pretty good explanation, Heather was pleased with herself. Sam nodded, he appeared to understand.

----

It took another half an hour to actually get to the restaurant and by then it was nearly six o' clock, nearly dinner time. Heather took a deep breath and opened the door, a wave of sound and smells hit her and she stood there for a second, momentarily stunned by how homey the restaurant's inside's were compared the outside leaning over to Sam she whispered, "Can you see Anya?".
"Yeah, over there." he replied and pointed to a booth opposite the counter, the only current occupant appeared to be Anya. Heather smiled and advanced upon the booth, Sam a few feet behind.

Zaria spent the rest of the day roaming around the city, as she did most days, thanks to her elf blood Zaria was capable of wandering during the day and she didn't really seem to suffer much sun sensitivity as long as she applied sunblock and she usually wore dark sunglasses on sunny days, fortuantely the sky seemed relatively overcast and her sunglasses stayed stored in her bag.

Zaria had to admit to being really bored as she roamed through the city, but she didn't care she had nothing better to do and being bored made her relatively calm and she had a feeling she was going to need to be calm to deal with the snake woman for dinner and play nice as Gabriel wanted her to.

As the sun slowly slipped from the sky Zaria headed towards the designated restaurant and stepped inside, she sneered seeing the snake woman but sighed and made her fighting instinct relax, she stood near the door though waiting for Gabriel to arrive.

After the explosion Tait quickly headed to work, sure he would catch heck for being late, though it seemed all of the office had been distracted by the explosion, since it had happened so near the office and there was no issue for him. He passed the day as he normally did helping customers with computer complaints and just typically troubleshooting type stuff, being his typically overly polite self. Before he knew it the day had passed and he was leaving the office and on his way to the restaurant.

By the time he arrived at the Maxine's Diner, the sun was just slipping below the horizon creating a golden glow over the entire city. He walked in, immediately spotted Anya and walked over to her, "Hello," he said smiling politely, "How was the rest of your day?"

After splitting ways with Zaria, Gabriel had wandered his way out of the city and spent the rest of the day resting at the on top of a grassy hill. The landscape here was nice and the air fresh now that he was out of the city. He couldn't wait to go flying. He had flown in of course but that wasn't the same as a leisurely fly over the country side, letting the wind take him where it willed.

The sun was getting low in the sky when he started back towards the city, letting him know that it was dinner time. By the time he made it there, the sun was already down. He had to hurry, sure he'd be the last one to the burger joint. He found the place with little effort. It wasn't much at first glance, but the more he looked at it, the more he liked it. When he opened the door, the first thing he saw was Zaria.

"Hello there, why are you standing here by the door?" Gabriel asked with a smile.


Finally, the sun was down. JJ transformed as she did every night and stretched her wings. A quick glance around told her that she was alone. Over the course of the day, she'd seen some interesting things. It was always a curse to see but be unable to move. Her stone form had opened eyes always and there really wasn't a thing she could do about it. She would go investigate later, but for now, she would see about food.

JJ's nostrils flared. Her extremely sensitive sense of got an unusual scent nearby, very very nearby, as if it were on her...

"And that is why Gary now refuses to get his teeth cleaned," finished Maxine. Anya couldn't help but chuckle as she tried to think of an equally interesting bit of gossip. The trouble was, members of the Pit didn't meet very regularly, and while close, they'd never be as cozy as a werewolf Pack. Which was why the wolves always had better stories.

Luckily, Anya was saved by Heather and Sam, just as she was about to tell an old story involving a game of Twister. A story that Maxine had heard multiple times already. Anya, who was facing the door, saw them first, but Maxine of the super keen ears heard them at the same time. "Looks like your friends are here. They're young," she said, moving away from the table and studying the door.

"Yes, well. Circumstances," Anya shrugged. "I'm expecting a few grown-ups, too."

"How many?"

"Three more, I hope."

"Hmm," Maxine studied the booth. "Pull up an extra table if you need it. But those two are small enough, I doubt you will."

"Thanks, I'll do that."

The werewolf went back to work as the kids approached the booth. Anya waved them over, smiling. "Hi, you two! Come take a seat, don't be shy. Glad you could make it!" Her chat with Maxine had put her in a more chipper mood than usual.

Soon after that the scent of blood and silver reached her, and she noticed that the vampire woman had slipped in. Zaria remained standing by the door, however, and the naga decided to let her come over on her own. Maxine noticed, too, and was already keeping a close eye on the arrival. When the dragon joined her, a grin on his face… well, Anya noticed that too, of course, and her friend noticed her pretending not to notice. One more raised eyebrow in the booth's direction, and Maxine went back to her duties.

And then the dreamwalker arrived, and came directly to the table. Anya had, without really realizing it, missed Tait. Not in the same way she'd missed Gabriel -- scent memories were strong like that -- but as a friend.

She did hope he would never find himself in her dreams.

"Hello, Tait," she replied, sliding over in the booth to make more room for him. "Good to see you here. My day went… well. Once I finally got to work. How was yours?"

The imp squeaked as the stone started to move, softening somewhat into flesh. The imp hadn't expected that. (Not that imps had expectations persay.) The gargoyle had just been a convenient place to rest and to… well, not plan, but watch for opportunities. It would find something to do eventually. Yawning, the creature stretched its own wings, and tugged at its perch with little clawed hands. Yep. Definitely fleshy now. Maybe it could hitch a ride back to the park, so it could find more kids to play with. Kids were fun!

Zaria flashed a bright smile at Gabriel, not a hint of her normal smirk contained within it, "Waiting for you." she said, and avoiding the naga she thought silently but definitely did not say out loud. "Let's join the rest of them." she said as she began walking over to the table, walking her normal confident stride, she gave her best polite smile and bit back the need to snarl as she greeted all the people at the table.

Tait shrugged, "Same old, same old kind of day despite it's interesting beginning." he said as he greeted everyone else, he sent an equally polite smile to everyone. It was just his nature, he'd seen so often that people may present one face and be one person when awake but who they were in there dreams entirely different, it really destroyed any biases he may feel about a person.

Gabriel shrugged and followed after Zaria. He greeted all of the others cordially. Everyone appeared to be in a good mood right now. "Hello all. how are you this evening?" He sat down at the booth. It did appear that he was the last here, but he must not have been too late, so that was good.

JJ spun around, trying to locate the smell. She couldn't find it, but an itch caused her to lift her wing and what she saw there was a strange little winged creature. The gargoyled gaped at the thing then shook her wing, trying to dislodge it. "Hey bub, I am not a park bench! Skedaddle!"

"Looks like everyone's here now!" Heather beamed and sidled in next to Anya and was quickly followed by Sam.

"Hi guys!" Sam said as he made himself comfortable, scanning the crowd for other Arcanes. He may as well get his skills up to par... Hm, most of the serving staff seemed a little... Magic, for lack of a better word. He leaned over and nudged Heather in the shoulder, interrupting her staring match with the table, at least that's what it looked like. "Hetty?" he murmured gently.

"Mmm?" Heather gave in reply to Sam's question to whether or not she was listening, she'd been zoning out when he'd nudged her.

Sam pointed to one of the waiters and whispered conspiratorially, "Are they... You know... Arcane?"

Heather sighed, this was going to get old fast; Sam asking every time he saw someone who might be arcane. "Who? Oh, them... They could be." she replied in an airy voice, distracted by the menu. "Oh, chicken burgers sound good." She grinned wolfishly and looked around to see what the others were doing.

Sam bit his lip in excitement, more Arcanes! This was going to be fun, being an honorary member of the Arcane world. But there were more pressing matter at hand, food. He followed Heather's lead and picked up his menu, Sam was never one to turn down a free dinner.

Anya did little more than nod as Zaria and Gabriel. She really didn't want to speak to them just yet, for opposite reasons. The vampire, she didn't trust. With the dragon, well, she didn't quite trust herself.

Tait was cordial if a little colder than he had been that morning. The naga did not hold that against him. She understood it all too well. "Yes, we did have some excitement," she replied. "Did you two get to school okay?" she added, turning to the kids. Now that was an enthusiastic pair. The mundane boy seemed to be taking things surprisingly well. Then again, given his friend, maybe that wasn't such a shock.

All of this was awkward, though, and Anya hoped that they could get down business soon. That would be easier to do over dinner. She studied the menu, not that she needed to. "The chicken burgers are good," she agreed, and was about to add more when Maxine appeared at the end of the booth.

"Welcome to my diner," she beamed, watching Zaria out of the corner of her eye. "You don't look like you're ready to order yet, but if you need descriptions or suggestions, I can help you out. Just ask! Our special of the day is the French dip sandwich with your choice of side and a drink. And the dessert of the day is caramel apple pie, if you save room." Maxine winked at the kids. Between her wolves and Anya's friends, they were probably safer here than just about anywhere else in the city.

The imp squeaked again, and dug its claws even deeper into the gargoyle. It wasn't going anywhere. Well, it was, but it was determined to hitch a ride. If it couldn't go the park, it hoped for a restaurant. Maybe a bank. Actually, it didn't really matter. There was stuff to do everywhere! It did like the gargoyle, though. She was interesting!

Zaria sat down and had to add a bit of smug satisfaction when the naga ignored Gabriel, maybe she was feeling wrongly possessive for nothing, but that didn't mean she liked the naga or anything. When the owner of the diner walked over Zaria felt her gaze on her, even though she pretended to be looking at the entire group, Zaria new she made the own nervous. She also knew that the owner was a werewolf, the scent of dog permeated the restaurant heavily so she sent a grin over at Maxine, her fangs showing clearly.

Tait sighed and shook his head, he was a bit tired than he normally was, perhaps something to do with the lack of rest he had truthfully gotten last night, he may just have to skip out on his stroll tonight, he needed real sleep. Plus the day had been a very busy one. He sent a grateful smile at the diner own when she came over, "Why thank you," he said, "We will." He was polite as ever, almost painfully so.

Gabriel nodded politely at the waitress. There was something about the woman that told him she probably wasn't human, but he had no skill pin-pointing what she could be. Dragging his thoughts from that, he opened the menu and scanned it quickly, finally setting on a simple burger. he wasn't too hungry now since he'd eaten plenty of pizza for lunch. He looked up at Anya over the top of the menu, wondering why she was suddenly quiet. maybe she had come to her senses and lost interest in him?

JJ squealed in anger and frustration, launching into the air in an attempt to dislodge the annoying creature. It also helped her work out a bit of anger. The imp wasn't letting go and so JJ flew quite madly and unknowingly in the direction of some resturant. She managed to pry the imp from her wing, but only in time to see a graffited wall right in front of her. JJ swerved and instead slammed her way through a window into a homely looking building that smelled of burgers.

"Yeah, we got to school okay, getting out was the hard part." Heather laughed and rolled her eyes. She then smiled at the waitress, "Sounds deli-" she began, but before she could finish her sentence one of the winds at the front of the diner was shattering. She covered her face until she was sure no stray slivers of glass were going to pierce her brain; "What just happened...?" She asked in a wary voice, instinctively holding on to Sam's shoulder in a feeble attempt at protecting him and stabilizing herself at the same time.

"No idea." Sam replied while staring pointedly at the shattered glass, something inside appeared to be moving. "Watch out..." He said in a rather bad attempt at acting the hero, "I think there's something in there. I saw it move."

Maxine returned Zaria's grin with a tight-lipped smile, then started taking drink orders. Anya just studied her menu, not meeting anyone's eyes, much less Gabriel's. Most scents were background noise to her. It was one thing for werewolves, who could differentiate between scent and taste. For nagas, learning to ignore things was a necessity that began almost at birth. The werewolf scent of the restaurant was one of those things, and while it added to the warm, homey atmosphere of the place, it wasn't something Anya really thought about.

But the dragon's… It didn't matter what she chose to order tonight, she decided, because she would only be tasting him, anyway. And that was okay, it really was…

The kids were talking to her, and she was nodding, and then there was a crash. Something had shattered the window, and glass was everywhere. She ducked, tugging at one of them, as though they didn't know well enough to get down. Then it was over, and she sat up again, staring.

Whatever had come through the window was surrounded by Maxine and three of her waitstaff. They'd clearly been through this sort of thing before. When would that wolf replace her windows with shatterproof glass, anyway? Anya thought to herself. Ridiculous.

The imp squealed. It hadn't expected this! But hey, it had gotten a ride, and to a restaurant, no less! Pity about the gargoyle. It wasn't much of a roost now. It hopped off the creature, and half jumped, half flew to the kitchen, following the delicious odor of grilling vegetables. It wondered if they were organic.

Gabriel's eyes went wide and he stood to get a better look of what had just happened. He couldn't see much past the staff that had surrounded...someone...or maybe something. Really, all he knew was there was a lot of glass everywhere and he was very glad he wore boots.

JJ stood up slowly, rubbing her head and blinking past a bit of blood that had gotten into her eyes. wha?? she touched her head gingerly this time and found a few bits of glass in her forehead. In fact, there was glass in her arms and shoulders too where she'd buster through the window. She was glad for her thick, stone like hide. Yes, it was all starting to fall into place now. even better, she seemed to have gotten ride of the annoying imp.

Unfortunately, JJ had new problems. She was in a building. People were staring at her and now, there were strange wolf smelling people surrounding her. Damn. Unable to think of any better response, she simple waved a hand slightly.

"hi."

Heather froze, the gargoyle she'd spoken to last night was emerging from the glass. She opened her mouth to say something, but she had no idea what to say. Eventually she decided to point out the obvious, smooth. "You just fell through a window...? Hi?" Heather said in a voice slightly higher pitched than normal, what the heck was the gargoyle doing? This was dangerous; she was risking letting out the secret of the Arcane world to the mundanes. If the secret was out... Heather shuddered to think what the mundanes would do to the creatures of myth and legend once it was discovered they were real.

Sam jumped, a creature with grey skin and a horrifying face was rising from the shrapnel, it reminded him of a gargoyle. He sat there staring at it, this creature looked dangerous despite it's 'warm' greeting. Heather was suddenly talking to the gargoyle as if she recognised it, maybe this was one of her Arcane friends? He doubted it, this gargoyle didn't look anything like Heather's type. He was tempted to hide from it, but that would be childish; it hadn't shown any signs of hostility yet, apart from smashing a window.

Zaria jumped slightly in surprise when something suddnely came crashing through the window, she hadn't been expecting that and the smell that came with it was just odd, arcane for sure but far more odd than she would have expected for even an arcane. She looked at Gabriel to make sure he was okay and then spared a quick glance for everyone else. She had noticed something go flying off towards the kitchen and she had a feeling it was going to mean trouble, and while she usually enjoyed causing some trouble of her own she wanted to prove that she could be normal too. So she slowly stalked off towards the kitchen

Tait was nearly knocked over when something came flying through the window, he looked around trying to figure out what just happened when he noticed the staff of the restaurant gathered around whatever had come in through the door stood up and waved. He blinked.

Maxine did not play around. "Who are you, what are you, and why are you dive-bombing my territory?" Her voice had gone from clear and chipper to low and throaty, almost a growl. The gargoyle wasn't a creature she recognized. Or rather, she did, but she didn't normally recognize them as alive. It even smelled like earth and stone. She and her staff blocked the view of the creature from most of the restaurant patrons (which was good, because they were mostly mundane and all of them were staring at the broken window), but that wouldn't last for long. They had to get it out of here.

For once, Anya was glad to be tall. It helped her to catch a glimpse of… well, whatever that strange-smelling gray creature was as it stood up. From its body language, it didn't seem hostile. Not from where Anya was standing, anyway. But looks could be deceiving and body language faked, so who could say? Then Heather spoke to it. Anya stared. "You know this, um, person?" Not that it mattered, really. What mattered was keeping the creature out of sight, and covering up what needed to be covered up. She did hope Tait would stick around for that. Zaria, too. Where had that blasted vampire run off to, anyway?

The imp loved the kitchen. So much to do and see and smell and taste! It let out a little whoop, and after a quick look around, glimpsed cutting boards full of vegetables. Tomatoes and onions and potatoes, oh my! It settled by a mound of diced tomatoes and proceeded to roll around in them and eat them, like a cat in a pile of catnip. It knew something was tracking it, but who cared? This was heaven!

JJ finally came to her senses. She wasn't used to flying through windows after all. Now though, her mind was thinking very clearly and she threw up a quick illusion as her nose told her that there were mundanes around. She now appeared human to them, but it only worked on the mudanes; the arcane people would easily see past her illusion.

JJ glared at the wolf-smelling woman. "Hey, its not like I did it on purpose! That little green creature nearly made me fly into the wall!" she yelled, but quietly. she didn't like all this attention. She looked around, just now realizing that since the imp had flown away, the others may had not seen it. Great, she was going to get blamed for this then!

It was as she was looking around that JJ saw Heather. Her eyes went wide and JJ took a step back. Crap, someone here could recognize her and that was very bad. really, why did she keep running into this fairy anyways?

Gabriel looked around and noticed that Zaria had left. everyone was looking at the strange creature except someone he could just barely see in the doorway of the kitchen. Maybe that was Zaria? He walked quietly towards her, wondering what she was doing.

Zaria looked at the little green creature as it flitted around the creature and a look of confusion flashed over her face, two creatures in such a short time that she didn't recognize. She was beginning to think some really interesting arcanes were coming out of the woodwork. She cocked her head to the side and looked at the creature and said, "While I know the others didn't see you I did and I must ask, what do you think you are doing?" she opened her mouth in the stereotypical vampire pose her vangs sharpened, hoping to intimidate the creature.

Tait looked around and noticed a few mundanes and sighed, he didn't want to have to hypnotize twice in one day he turned to Anya and whispered, "Do you think I should hypnotize them or do a memory replacement spell?"

Maxine growled soft and low, deep in her throat, but backed down slightly. The invader seemed more confused than hostile. Not an immediate threat. Just… suspicious. "A little green creature?" She hadn't seen anything like that, or smelled one. But that wasn't important. The important thing was, the creature's magic shimmered, and didn't seem like the steadiest of veils. How long would it last? "Must have been pretty powerful. Look, we need to get you out of sight. There's a… holding area out behind the kitchen. If you would come with us, please?"

Anya was still staring at the creature, and wondering what Maxine was planning to do about it, when Tait whispered in her ear. Right. The mundanes. She cringed a little. "Whichever causes less brain damage," she whispered back. Not that either would, but the idea of memory replacement made her nervous.

The imp stopped rolling long enough to look at the strange people entering the kitchen. One of them had blue hair. The other one had pointy teeth. They did not seem very scary. Fun, though! The creature waded out of the pile of tomatoes, now more mushed than diced, and pointed one little clawed finger at a bowl of minced garlic. A bolt of neon green lightning hit the bowl, and scorched garlic flew everywhere, like sizzling a snow over the heads of Zaria and Gabriel

JJ grumbled under her breath some, but complied with the wolf-woman's wishes. they may not believe her now about the imp creature, but she'd show them eventually that this wasn't all her fault! She concentrated on her illussion to hold it better, then nodded. "I'll come with you just because I can't stay out here long." The gargoyle looked around nervously. Sh didn't want to be here anymore than the others wanted her.

Gabriel blinked and looked around Zaria. "Hey, what's going on-?" He was interupted by what he saw. There was a small creature in the tomatoes. Just as he saw the thing, it seemed to notice then and with a small flash of green, he was suddenly breathing in a cloud of garlic!! In between choking on the stuff, he managed to yelp, "What is that thing?! Get it!"

Max groaned as continued to stare at the screen. Really, that was far from the answer he wanted. Why couldn't they have just been a weird creation of the hippie? A heavy sigh escaped him, and he pushed a few buttons, the screens flickering for a moment, then going black. Low overhead lights just barely illuminated the room, enough to see the outlines of a few objects. If he couldn't smell the hippie, then he might have not even known where Ted was. The migraine pulsating behind his eyes was enough to drive him mad by now, and worse, he had no time to relax... these 'creatures' had to be taken care of before they caused too big of a mess.

He hated to do this, but... "And how do we close the door?" This hippie seemed to know quite a bit about this, and if he wanted this solved quickly, well... he'd have to rely on someone else. That generally was on his list of things to never do. "I need this taken care of quickly." He added to emphasize his point. Hopefully Ted had the solution, they could get this taken care of, and he could move on. Well, if he could ever get rid of this damned headache.