Ted shook his head, pale blond ponytail sending small sprays of dust and garden dirt in various directions. He'd opened doors to different dimensions before, to capture special arcane beasts of his own, and each door had been different, both in the opening and the closing. But he'd never opened a hell door. He assumed it could be done, but he'd never looked into how, much less closing them again.

"No idea, dude," he replied to Max. "Best thing to do would be to find out who did open it." If there was anyone on this side of it that had…

"Fine. Come with me," ordered Maxine, gently (for her) grasping the gargoyle's forearm. One of her waitstaff, a deceptively small woman with short black hair and a cunning smile, took the other. "It would be best if you didn't fight. We really would rather avoid that." She nodded to the waiters present, who went to work cleaning the mess, and hoped that Anya's arcane friends could help clean up the other mess. The one involving witnesses.

She led the creature through the kitchen, into what used to be a small storage room. In fact, it did still have large sacks of flour piled against the concrete walls, and they served as seats. There was also an emergency exit door, locked and alarmed. JJ would have to get through the wolves and the lock to escape, of course, but Maxine showed no indication of wanting to hold her against her will. For long. She did, however, have a few questions first. "Please, take a seat."

JJ growled as the wolf people grabbed her arms and pretty much dragged her away. The gargoyle knew better than to make a scene though. They went past the kitchen which was paramount to torture with how hungry JJ was getting. All she'd wanted was a nice breakfast when she woke up...

She looked around as they entered a small storage room. It wasn't homely for sure, nor did it look like she could escape easily if these wolves were shady people. Looking thourougly annoyed, JJ plopped down on one of the flour sacks as she was asked to.

"okay, lets get this over with. what do you want?"

Zaria coughed from the garlic smelling cloud and then growled, "You think just because I'm a vampire that garlic will affect me?" she asked the creature, "I'll have you know that's a stereotype." she coughed again and then let out hiss as she advanced through the cloud to the creature, she was going to catch it and take care of it.... She advance slowly on it until she was right up next to it and she reached out and grabbed the creatures wings, pinning them together. "I do believe the store owner will want to see you," she hissed.

Tait sighed and rubbed his temples, he really wasn't going to be dreamwalking tonight, that annoyed him but he supposed it couldn't be helped. He just enjoyed those nightly strolls they were relaxing and now he wouldn't be able to relax on a night he needed to do so. He had to perform these spells though so it was a sacrifice he must make. He slowly began the incantion not only for the memory replacement smell but also for the hypnosis spell, that way the memory replacement spell would hold and not leave a blank gap for the people. He slowly began building up a memory of a group of teenagers through a brick through the winow of the diner and completely removed all traces of gargoyles presence in the mundanes minds. When the spell was completed he sighed and swayed slightly before taking a seat, he really was out of practice if three spells in one day could weaken him that much.

JJ's escorts sat down on either side of the gargoyle, while Maxine remained standing. She was in charge, after all. "I want to know who and what you are," she replied, echoing her earlier questions. "I want to know why you have crashed into my restaurant. I want to know what I am supposed to tell my insurance company, and you can drop the illusion now. You don't need it here." The werewolf had installed a few small security cameras in the room, but they were pretty low-tech and she doubted they could see through magic.

"Tait?" she asked, grabbing his arm and helping him sit. "Are you okay?" Anya didn't know what he'd done, exactly, only that he'd done it and that she'd have to trust him. As far as he could be trusted. She couldn't be certain about that, but she did like him. That was something. "Um, here." Her fingers found the nearest glass of ice water and pushed it toward the dreamwalker. "Drink this."

The imp squealed, a noise like a high-pitched police siren. How had the vampire caught him? Damn. His friends had lied to him about the garlic thing. If he got out of this, he'd rip off their wings and… and eat them! Oh, that was motivation to get out of this. The imp took a deep breath and spat at the vampire, specks of acidic saliva sizzling on whatever surface they came in contact with. Imp spit. It was never pretty.

"Yeah, I guess you could say I know her; I met her last night. She threatened to eat me." Heather said in a sarcastic voice, aimed at no one in particular. She looked around uncertainly and tried to figure out what to do, everything was pretty much already covered. She sighed and sat down again, why was this gargoyle following her?

Sam watched everything in silent awe, wondering if it was always this exciting in the Arcane world. "Cool..." He muttered, forgetting his previous fears. Maxine and the other waitress had everything under control, right? Wait, he heard something that sounded like a muffled explosion coming from the kitchen; what the heck was going on in there?

(( I'm sorry that I took so long, I had no idea how to reply and for a while before that I was too stressed to go on D: ))

Zaria growled as the acid burned into her skin, she hissed and bared fangs that seemed to have sharpened in just a moment. "You will pay for that imp..." she said as she wiped her hand over her face, revealing tracks of red bleeding skin. The blood dripped down her face slightly, as she stared at the tiny creature. "But I think I'll let the werewolves decide to do with you, your blood may be poison besides you smell disgusting.

Tait smiled at Anya and took the offered glass of water and gulped down half it in one gulp and then collapsed into the table next to Heather and Sam at the table, looking at exhausted. "I'm fine," he said "just really out of practice and therefore my magic is rusty and requires far more energy than it should."

Gabriel waved a hand to clear the garlic away. By now it was starting to settle and he could clearly see that Zaria had caught the thing. Interesting, the garlic had no effect of the vampire woman, but he shouldn't have been surprised. the garlic myth was probably just something the vampires created to hide any real weaknesses they might have. His thought were broken by a growl from Zaria. He quickly strode up to her and took the imp.

"Zaria, are you alright?" he asked, worry in his voice. "How about you clean up your face and I'll take this creature to the werewolves." He continued to look at her with worry.

JJ dropped her illusion as it really was rather tiresome to keep up. She regarded the werewolf woman as she repeated her questions. He voice was calm when she spoke, but hidden in that calmness was a certain amount of threat. she really couldn't help that. it was in her nature.

"I don't see how who I am is of any importance, but I will tell you that I am a gargoyle." She smirked, expecting to see shock and possibly some fear. "I already told you that I didn't crash in here on purpose!! And really, how am I supposed to answer that question?! I don't freakin care what you tell the insurance company! tell them the truth for all I care."

this was getting annoying. there were too many questions and she could still smell food from the kitchen area, even in here. maybe after this was over she could steal herself a meal. or....eat the imp. that was a nice plan and it caused her to smiled, fangs showing.

The werewolf snorted. "I can see that. How are you alive? I've never seen anything like you that wasn't made out of stone." Maxine shook her head. She had the feeling that the gargoyle really was telling the truth. "Well, that's what I'll put in my claim, anyway. A big hunk of stone fell through my window. I'm not insured against magic."

She scratched the back of her neck, ignoring the gargoyle's challenge. "Look, I'm willing to let you go, but only if you help me put up some plywood. You seem strong enough. If you're good I might even feed you."

Anya tried not to be disturbed by the sounds coming from the kitchen. Though the fact that Zaria and Gabriel were both in there worried her. What were they doing? The rest of the kitchen staff was in the dining area calming down customers frightened by the broken window, and the rogue teens that had apparently caused it. The dragon… She didn't want to think about what they were doing, and remained seated. Everything was under control. Yes it was. "Ah, I see," she replied to Tait. "I'm glad you're okay. How… how do you get more energy, exactly?" She wasn't trying to ignore the others at the table, but keeping the kids out of the kitchen seemed like a good idea. Not that they seemed inclined to go there, but starting a conversation, or trying to, wasn't such a bad strategy. She hoped.

The imp squeaked again, then hissed at the blue-haired man that grabbed him. How dare he? He was just starting to have fun with the vampire, too. She was vulnerable to acid but not garlic. That was interesting. That had possibilities. But the man was strong. And didn't seem vulnerable to the acid. The imp was trapped! Out of desperation, it sunk a mouth full of sharp little teeth into the man's arm, hoping to escape.

"alive? Does it really matter?" JJ asked, annoyed and yet, she wondered the same thing some times. "I just woke up one day. its been so long it seem so I hardly remember..." She perked up at the mention of food. Had that woman been reading her thoughts?! It didn't matter. she was going to get food!! If JJ were a dog, her tail could be waving. She actually had a bony tail, but she wasn't about to wag it.

"Oh hell ya! If you feed me, I'd help you fix up that window in a jiff!" JJ exclaimed.

Gabriel cried out in annoyance as much as pain, but did not let go of the imp. Instead he moved his grip so that he was holding the creature pretty much around the neck with its wings still pinned to its back. this way he wouldn't get bitten again. "Ug, what is this thing?!" he complained. "I feel like I should just throw it away!"

Zaria looked at Gabriel concern covering her entire expression as she looked at him. "Are you okay?" she asked as she inspected his arm, "Maybe I should try and suck out any venom it could have left in you." she turned and hissed at the creature again, "You are a pain in the ass..." she said, "Give me one good reason why we shouldn't kill you."

Tait sighed and rested a hand on his forehead, "Through actually sleeping instead of dream walking. I didn't sleep much last night because I walked through dreams longer than I planned. That means with all the magic I've done today and lack of rest tonight I won't be able to dream walk at all." He groaned in frustration, displaying he clearly did not like that ideal.

"I'm fine," Gabriel said. "That acid this thing spit at you looked far more painful this a little bite." He raised an eyebrow at the thought of Zaria sucking venom out of his arm. "Do you think that's necessary? I mean, do you think its bites are venomous??" He was starting to wonder if they really should kill the thing. It didn't appear capable of speaking and he'd hardly feel guilty killing an evil unintelligent creature.

Heather folded her arms and looked away from Tait, she didn't know why but he was grating on her nerves. "Maybe you not dream walking would be for the best; some dreams are meant to be private, you know." she said in an agitated voice, being snide probably wasn't going to help anyone but Heather didn't care. She tried to avoid looking at him without making it seem childish but soon gave up, she pushed the palms of her hands onto her eyes and rested her elbows on the table, naively pretending he wasn't there.

Sam looked from Heather to Tait and sighed, why was Heather being so rude to the dreamwalker? Even this morning things had seemed a little... Weird. He breathed out slowly and rested his chin on the table and began tracing the whorls of the wood using his pointer finger, soon engrossed in his own thoughts.

Maxine smiled. She still didn't entirely trust the gargoyle, but the body language spoke of a loyal puppy. Or something like it. That couldn't be a lie. "Well, then, come with me to the kitchen. I'll fix you a burger myself. Fries, too, if you're good." She nodded to her packmates, who stood, one on either side of her "guest." There would be no trouble.

Speaking of, since the wall and doors of this room were almost soundproof, Maxine wasn't happy about the noises coming from her kitchen. She shouldn't have been hearing anything, even with her keen ears. It really was about time to check that out. "Follow me," she nodded to the gargoyle and opened the door.

The kitchen was a mess, the smell of garlic everywhere, acid pitting her shiny pots and pans, not to mention… Oh damn. Two strangers and a monster. This was turning out to be quite an evening.

Actually, no, now that she looked, the strangers were friends of Anya's. She'd recognize that blue-haired man anywhere by his strange scent alone, and the woman was clearly a person to be watched. For now, at least, she was on Maxine's side, though. Anything trying to trap the little green creature was.

"No, don't drop it!" she ordered the man. The imp squeaked in protest. "The last thing we need is it on the loose."

Anya looked at Tait, then Heather, and back again. "Okay, what am I missing here? Tait, did you…?" Pure speculation, and maybe it would be best not to pursue it. Sam probably had the right idea. "So, Sam… er… How was school?" Small talk? Not necessarily the best idea, either, but what else was there to do but sit tight? Maxine and her staff had things under control.

Zaria look at Gabriel's arm, "I guess it's not necessary but I'd rather you not be poisoned. I like hanging out with you too much to lose such a promising friend so soon after meeting you." she looked at his arm, "But if it creeps you out too much or you don't want to, completely understandable." She turned to look at the werewolf and sighed, saying, "We caught this little....thing... making a mess of your kitchen, figured you wouldn't want that." she smiled slightly at her not realizing how creepy she looked with blood tracking down her face and her fangs standing out. She shoved a hand through her hair pointing it back revealing her very elven ears.

Tait looked at the young teenager next to him and frowned, he bit his lip to bite back a sharp retort before saying softly, "That was an accident, I know I already told you that. By a rule I won't walk into nightmares so I'm not sure why I ended up in your dream but I am sorry. I can assure you it won't happen again..." Tait sighed and rubbed his temples and looked at Anya, "And yes I ended up in her dream last night. No I am not a creeper and this is the strangest set of coincidences ever."

Heather took her head off of her palms and glared at Tait, "It's not just that. Dreams are what occur when our bodies shut down, we don't really have control over what happens, well, some of us do... That's beside the point! The point is, if I had known previously that some stranger could waltz in and out of my dreams as he or she pleased, I would never be able to sleep." She huffed.

Sam didn't bother trying to calm Heather down, she was impossible when she got like this. "Yeah, school was good. We've started writing stories for English." he said to Anya, he decided to leave out the bit where Heather was given detention; that would probably make things even worse.

JJ smiled and followed the werewolves into the kitchen. what a mess. Her nose told her everything she needed to know, basically that there was a lot of garlic in the air and her little imp 'friend' was here. The gargoyle had to cover her nose again the strong garlicy smell.

"See, I told you there was a little rotten creature!" JJ exclaimed, glaring at the little green thing. "Hrm, can I eat it?" Although that hopefully wouldn't be necessary if she got a burger! ooh, cooked meat. that was a rarity for her. She traveled a lot because a moving stone statue was pretty suspicious and it made finding a steady meat provider rather difficult.

"If I start to feel ill, I may have to have you suck out any venom that might be there," Gabriel said to Zaria. "I don't feel a need to do such a thing right now." The thought really did creep him out some and he would only resort to Zaria's fangs if absolutely necessary. He was saved from any more of that conversation at least for now as the restaurant staff came into the kitchen along with the creature that had crashed through the window.

"What should I do with it?" He asked, holding out the imp to maxine.

Tait let out a frustrated groan before turning a harsher than normal look at Heather. "Well be glad it was me that wandered into your dream if one of my brothers had found you." Tait shivered, "Let's just say it wouldn't be pretty. They prey on young innocent girls like you...." Tait looked at her, "Dream walkers are not a kind race in general. We feast of the terror of those in nightmares, feeding the darkness that naturally lies in our souls..." Tait looked down, "I'm ashamed to say I used to be just like them. It never felt right to me.. my soul is white, where my family's, my people's are black..."

Zaria nodded to Gabirel, "Let me know if you feel in anyway strange." she said, sounds almost like a normal person for once. Zaria turned to look at Maxine, "I say we let that" she pointed to JJ "eat it. I see no reason to keep it alive..."

Heather folded her arms and looked down at the table, avoiding Tait's eyes. "Yeah, Whatever." she said sulkily, Heather wasn't particularly good with words and decided to let the argument drop. She swivelled herself around so she was facing them and joined in Sam and Anya's conversation, "School was okay, the only class I enjoyed was English though. Maths was boring (as always) and the teacher forgot to take us for Science. Again."

Sam exhaled with relief, Heather seemed to have given up the argument. "Oh yeah! I forgot about that. That's the third time Mr. Mitchel hasn't come to class this term, I wonder what he's doing?" He said in response to her comment, absent-mindedly humming tunelessly.

Interesting. Zaria's pointy ears caught the werewolf a bit off guard. Well, everything about the woman did now. What was she, a hybrid? In any case, the solution was not a bad one. "Sure. Let the gargoyle eat the damn thing. But I'm not going to cook it up and put it on a bun." She'd fix the gargoyle a burger and fries to wash it down. Maybe even a shake. There was no way the imp tasted very good, after all.

The imp squeaked again, and struggled against the man's grip, kicking its limbs and twisting its limbs. It really didn't want to be eaten, but it wasn't talking, either. There were more where it came from. They would avenge it. Maybe.

"Maths is usually boring," Anya replied to Heather, half smiling. She truly did want to stay out of the argument between the fairy girl and the dreamwalker. It was disturbing, to say the least, thinking about dream invaders. Even benevolent ones. No wonder Heather was feeling violated. "What do you write about in English?"

Heather nodded in agreement, "Especially with Mrs. Elwood, she's terrifying and boring at the same time." she laughed, rolling her eyes. "Sam's in English two, but I'm in English one so I started my story a week ago-" she poked her tongue out at Sam "-And so far it's about this guy named 'Tiranius' and he's been chosen to be the new king. It's not very original, but it works." she said, shrugging.

"Well, yeah, as Heather said I'm in the lower English class-" he blushed slightly at this "-And I pretty much only finished my planning today; I think it's going to be about some wolves... Um... That hunt things..." he said vaugley, he'd actually spent most of the class doodling pictures of wolves into the margins of his work book and daydreaming about dragons.

JJ grinned in excitement, gnashing her sharp teeth. "That's alright, I don't mind my meat raw! give it here!" the gargoyle exclaimed, trying to snatch the imp from Gabriel.

Gabriel eyes the strange gargoyle looking thing then gave the imp to JJ. He was careful to make sure the gargoyle had it before he let go. he was NOT going to catch that thing again.

JJ simply tossed the imp into her mouth and ate it like that. It was slightly sickening, but at least she wasn't playing with her food and like...pulling off the limbs and eating them separately. she did that sometimes, but she was afraid she wouldn't get a burger if she didn't behave.

Tait just rested his head against the table and half listened to the conversation around him. He was tired and pretty sure he just creeped all three of them out. Oh well it was better of they knew the truth of his kind sooner rather than later. He should probably try and guard some of them from his family, that would of course involved entering their dreams...

Zaria made a disgusted face at JJ at the creature but she was glad the thing was gone it had been an ultimate pest and her face still stung from it's acid spit.

Maxine was already washing up and firing up the grill when she heard the crunch of the imp. It didn't bother her, of course. She'd done her fair share of crunching. So had her werewolf staff, two of whom -- the ones who'd been escorting JJ -- joined her in sanitizing a cooking area and preparing burgers and fries for the gargoyle and the others who'd caught the imp. The smell of grilled beef and seasoned potatoes soon filled the kitchen, almost but not quite overwhelming the odor of garlic.

"We can't eat in here," she warned, arranging the food artfully on two. "For one thing the place needs cleaning. But go on and find a table, illusions up, and I'll join you in a few." With a first aid kit, she privately decided, studying Zaria's wounded face.

Anya hadn't really had a normal school experience. Well, she had gone to a mundane public school, like most of her kin, the better to learn how to blend in with human society. In the long run, the method mostly worked, but that didn't mean she'd ever quite fit in. Heather was lucky, Anya decided, to have a mundane friend like Sam. Someone to share secrets with. "Both of those sound like they'll be good stories," she offered. "Sam, maybe you should talk with Maxine about wolves. Maybe she'll give you some ideas."

Tait, meanwhile, both looked and smelled exhausted. If dreamwalker exhaustion carried notes of musty ginger, that was. The naga had to feel a bit bad for him, living on so little sleep. And he had been so nice to her, too, in the coffee shop. Not at all creeped out, and very helpful. She really wasn't sure what to think.

Sam glanced furtively towards the kitchen, "Somehow I doubt now would be the best time to discuss my will-be bestseller." he said quietly more to himself than Anya. Suddenly realising that he knew practically nothing about the naga, he decided to try inquiring into her life. "So, enough about us! What do you do?" He said, leaning back slightly.

Heather was rather keen to hear what Anya had to say, apart from the fact that she was a naga of Order they new next to nothing about the woman sitting across from them. "Yeah, let's hear about you!" She said, ignoring the fact she was being pushy. Despite her parent's association with the Order, Heather didn't really have a good first-person view of the arcane world; her parents had always tried to keep her sheltered from their work. They promised to let her join when she was older, meaning years older, and Heather was hungry to know the going-ons in Anya's life as it might enlighten her about the current events of the Arcane world.

About her? Anya swallowed, then gulped a mouthful of water from the nearest glass, which happened to be the one she'd given Tait. Well, it was comfort water. There was more where that came from. What in the world was there to tell, for one thing? That wasn't extremely boring, that was.

Wait, no, boring was good. She could deal with that. "I'm a legal assistant. To a public defense attorney. I type up legal documents, do research, that sort of thing. Then I go home to my apartment, curl up, and watch movies. Sometimes I go shopping." Yes, that about covered it. That's what she typically did. The legal research took her to interesting places from time to time, but other than that, Anya didn't do much that was truly Arcane. Oh, she spent most of her time at home in her true form and talked about recent events with her parents over the phone, but it was the Mundane world that took up most of her time.