When you emerge from the lower level, the main rooom has undergone a massive change. The rooof lights are off, and the main illumination is given by the coloured light of the uplighters on top of the false walls. It reflects off the lighter part of the upper wall. It is suplemented by the obelisks, each of which now has a flame springing from it's tip, either by concealed gas jets or something more arcane. The cuniform symbols on each glow with a cold blue fire.<br/><br/>The effect is that of being in a walled compound under a desert sky at twilight, an effect heightened by the brilliant stars projected on the ceiling, splashed across the surface like droplets of white fire. An astronomy nerd with a sky atlas and a watch would gladly tell you they're correct for the current location and time.<br/><br/>You don't see Ptricia for a moment, and then she emerges from the shower unit. Her Sphinx form is draped in a white linen robe that covers her entire cheetah body like medieval barding. Draped across her shoulders is a mantle of cloth of gold, a long scarf inscribed with ancient symbols and ending in rows of tassels. The ends almost reach the reach the floor. The simple gold torques she wore on her wrists are replaced by full bracers, intricately chased with symbols and studded with gems.<br/><br/>The headdress you saw earlier in the display case is now on her head, a close fitting hood of gold and blue stripes, surmounted with a helm of gold, set with what look like saphires. It has a forehead pillar inset with lapis lazuli stripes, and twin cat ears so finely crafted, you swear you can see them twitch. Ptricia has added to her face, putting rings of Khol around her eyes, and additional patterns to blend with her tearstripes to form wedjat symbols.<br/><br/>It could easily have looked ridiculous, especially on the rocker chick you knew ten minutes ago. Instead, she has suddenly acquired a grace and presence that makes the whole thing stately and impressive. But not slow, she stalks over to you, one of the mantle tips rises and grabs hold of a fancy looking staff hat is resting in a top box. The tassels act like fingers, gripping it.<br/><br/>"Good. Take it all over there..." The other mantle tip points to the open area with the audio gear racked along the edges.<br/><br/><blockquote class="uncited"><div>"Ptricia! What's going to happen? What are you going to do? What? Just, generally, what?"</div></blockquote><br/><br/>"No time for details. First I'm going to do a detailed analysis of that collar, and the enchantments in it. I can't disarm it without knowing how it works. Then... well it depends on what I find." She starts taking things out of the boxes and giving orders.<br/><br/>"Chris, open up that portable pool here, and pour in the flask of sand. Spread it evenly now, I need the base covered. They are sands from the Nile delta. I will truly stand on my own turf when I act. Reizu, get the philosphers stone. Maybe I can't handle it directly, but place it in the sands, and I can mediate it's power without it destroying me."<br/><br/>She looked up at the sky, frowned, and shifted the pool around a few degrees with her forepaws, muttering something. Then she stepped into it and raised the staff. A tarcery of glowing blue lines expanded out from around the pool, forming a 20 foot wide, intricate circle of magic in front of her, glowing with more arcane symbols. She guided the placement of the other items with waves of her mantle tips.<br/><br/>"The Book of Going Fourth over there... The Pamphlet of Getting a Better Place in the Queue, right next to it. The sheaf of Hathor, at that point, the Catnip Mouse of Bastet, at the apex. Place it on the scrolls of movement, we want to enable mouse scrolling. It's the 10th hour, so place the moon symbol at the ten o clock point. The Epic Flail at nadir, reversed. We don't want to have any Epic Flail, which is why we're using the Negating Position."<br/><br/>She scooped up a large earthenware jar, and pressed it into Reizu's hands. "The Cream of Isis. It will help heal some of the physical injuries the magic inflicted. Smear it on your face and swallow some of it, don't worry, it's vanilla flavour. As any girl will tell, you, there are few hurts that can't be made better with liberal amounts of vanilla Isis cream. Especially with chocolate flakes sprinkled on it, but we don't have time for that."<br/><br/>She looked around, and nodded, her face set in a satisfied expression. "Right, that should do it. Reizu, front and centre! In the centre of the circle please."<br/><br/>OOC: Yes, the puns are very, very bad.<img alt=":D" src="./images/smilies/icon_mrgreen.gif" title="Very Happy"/>