A huge glass house which contains tropical plants and animals. Free entry, hurrah!

[There's a sign outside the glass house reading:

ANCIENT EGYPT EXHIBITION: WEDNESDAY 07/26 - WEDNESDAY 08/02

Entry - $10
Kids/Conc. - $5

Sounds interesting. There's always something intriguing about pyramids and Egypt and all of that profound history. Why not go and see the exhibition? Inside the glass house, follow the signs and walk into a large room reserved for this sort of thing. It's been decorated to look like the inside of an Egyptian tomb. Sand coats the floor and there are tables covered with incredible Egyptian jewellery and other such things. There's even a sarcophagus with a real mummy inside. On the mummy's left hand, middle finger, is a ring with a huge red ruby set into it. It's a very attention-grabbing object. There's a sign that says "Please Do Not Touch The Displays". But that ring...]

::Sharon walks into the glass house and slowly follows the signs to the room containing the exhibition, where she hands her voucher over.::

(This sand is a little corny.)

::She treads lightly over it to avoid getting any in her shoes towards a table covered in jewellery.::

::Having taken her time appreciating most of the exhibition, Sharon finds herself in front of the sarcophagus, her eyes drawn to the ruby ring.::

(Wow. That's beautiful.)

::She stares at it, mesmerized, the rest of the room completely forgotten, and slowly reaches out to touch it. Ever so slowly, she attempts to inch it off of the mummy's finger.::

::Dante walks up and pays for everyone and goes through, looking in awe at the sarcophagus. After a minute or so he recognises Sharon::

"Aren't you that demon girl from the shop?"

::Sharon jumps guiltily and drops the ring on the floor.::

"Demon girl? My name's Sharon."

(I'm also a woman, not a girl.)

::Dante's eyes go to the ring and then back up to Sharon::

"...I don't think you should be touching that."

::Luke arrives with Dar and Veronica, paying for them all without knowing that Dante had already covered the charge. Nevertheless, the trio enter the exhibition to meet with Dante and Sharon and...::

"That's... there's no words..."

"Oh, Sharon, you aren't seriously looking for Andrea here, are you? Of all the places you'd find that girl, somewhere educational is hardly the..."

::Dar trails off, looking at the ring. It's very beautiful.::

::Having been talked at by three people, Sharon decides to answer the one she likes.::

"No, of course not. I felt like I needed some time off..."

::She follows Dar's gaze to the ring, and coughs, feeling slightly protective of it.::

"My. Isn't that something?"

"Yes. It, ehm, fell off."

::She crouches down to pick it up, supposedly to put it back on the mummy's finger, but instead she keeps hold of it.::

::Dante stares at the ring and then locks onto a power, which he uses to telekinetically pull the ring into his hand::

"I better check to see if it was damaged."

::He holds it close to his face as he angles it against the light, illuminating the stone so it looks even more amazing::

::Veronica picks her way over to the others, hating all the mess.::

::A low groan comes from the throat of the body everybody is standing beside. There is nobody else in the room.::

::Sharon jumps and turns around, then looks back at everyone with a glare.::

(Who did that?)

::Veronica steps back a little, looking unnerved.::

::Dar slaps Luke on the chest.::

"Luke! Excuse yourself!"

"That wasn't me!"

"Thieves..."

::Luke slowly cranes his head to the source of the voice and stares at the mummy.::

(It couldn't have been...)

::Veronica quickly turns to anger.::

"I told you guys coming here was dumb!"

::Dar looks at the mummy, bemused.::

"Oh! It's this fellow!"

::She smiles at him.::

"Must be someone in a suit. Bit hot in there, aren't you?"

::She chuckles and pokes the mummy in the chest.::

"I hope they're paying you well enough!"

::Sharon turns around again and steps away from the Mummy quickly.::

"Dar, I'm not sure touching that is a good idea."

"Sharon's right, let's go."

::Luke takes Dar's hand and starts dragging her away from the sarcophagus.::

::The mummy suddenly reaches out and grabs Dar's other arm, much more strongly than Luke is doing. It takes a creaking step out of the sarcophagus and towards our heroes with a loud moan.::

"Thieves will be punished."

::Yanking Dar away from Luke with huge strength, the mummy spins her into the coffin where she disappears into the blackness. She will reappear in the grand hall in the pyramid.::

"Dar!"

::Sharon's not dumb enough to run forwards, though.::

(I hate magic!)

"What'd you do to her?"

::Luke lunges at the mummy.::

"I TOLD YOU GUYS!"

::The mummy grapples with Luke for under two seconds before the ex-whitelighter also finds himself thrown into the sarcophagus, following Dar. He turns to Sharon.::

"You have my ring."

::Dante has the ring. He releases it from his hand and suspends it in front of the mummy::

"There. You have it back. Now return them."

::The mummy grabs the ring and slips it back onto his withered finger. It glows bright red, capturing them all in the light. Dante, Veronica and Sharon find themselves all flung into the coffin by the power of the ring, where they will fall through to the grand hall with Luke and Dar. Now that the room is empty again, the mummy steps back into the mouth of the sarcophagus and closes his eyes, becoming still.::

::Paz arrives with Aidan and they both entery with the coupon and shit.::

"Egyptish."

::Is all Paz has to say on the matter as they enter the decorated room full of Egyptian artefacts.::

"I wonder if they were you know, powerful and stuff. Maybe they were, stronger than us maybe even, like, you know..."

::He bites his lip in thought.::

"Primal. Primal power, like raw, no science or anything to hold them back."

"I dunno. They were really into astronomy and the gods and stuff. Maybe they had some kind of otherwordly powers to draw on..."

::He moves along, looking at various artefacts.::

"No doubt they had alot of magical power, I mean just look at the things people have uncovered."

(I feel like a science geek!)

"Yeah, they're pretty. Now the world is a little ugly compared to how nice the things were in ancient Egypt."

(Now I feel too simple.)

"Mummy's freak me out so."

::He motions to the body.::

"They're like presents, because they're all wrapped up, it's like 'Hey, happy birthday, I got you a decaying corpse!'."

::Paz laughs out loud at this, shaking his head as he looks up at the mummy. As his smile fades it is replaced with an unsettled, revolted look.::

"They really are gross. Gross and scary."

::He rubs his hands over his forearms.::

"I mean, that's a dead body."

"A dead body it may well be, but at least it has good taste."

::He points to the nice ring, looking at it intensely, mainly so he doesn't look at the rotten body wrapped in high class toilet roll.::

"Perty shiny things make me smile."

"I admit, it's a nice ring."

::Paz looks at the red stone set in it, the light just reflecting from it's smooth surface.::

"I want one like that."

::He holds up his hand, looking at the place where the fing would look nice.::

"Don't tell me you just thought about stealing from the dead."

(Perty...shiny...smile...)

::As he reherses this in his mind he ponders over the ring, perhaps he could buy Paz one!::