Not much help from the divine

Layla squirmed in the cramped room, hoping that some plan would somehow reveal itself. The narrow elliptical walls didn't provide much.

There was a squeak. Layla almost jumped out of her skin - instead, she saw the hot tap turn on, apparently by itself. Layla blinked.

Wait, Marc had said Khonshu could sometimes affect things in the real world. Nothing too fancy, but if she couldn't directly talk to Taweret now... what, was she meant to talk to water?

The water started to steam. Layla's attention was quickly drawn to the mirror. Slowly, letters squeaked into view on the mirror

LAYLA

The mirror filled up. After a few seconds, the letters steamed over; Layla breathed a sigh of relief, half from just having the sight of her reflection obscured, and half from knowing that she was actually talking to someone.

More letters started to form

AAAAA

"Okay! I get it," Layla said quickly.

Well, if nothing else it confirmed she was actually talking to Taweret. The excitable hippo could be... distinctive.

"I'm gonna guess that my clothes vanishing is something to do with god stuff, right?" Layla said.

YES, the letters appeared in the steam. Layla grimaced.

"So can you undo it?" Layla said. "Now, ideally? Quickly?"

There was quiet for a few moments. Layla squirmed. Eventually a question mark appeared on the mirror.

Did the goddess not understand that she was naked?!

"I want my clothes back!" Layla said urgently. "As soon as possible, please."

A few more seconds passed. Another word appeared in the steam.

AVATAR?

"No! Not those clothes, my clothes!" Layla said. "I'm not agreeing to be your avatar."

AVATAR

Taweret wrote the word again, underlining it that time. Annoyed, Layla looked away. Okay, sure, there were upsides to being able to summon a costume whenever she wanted, even if going back out to her seat in full superhero regalia would hardly be unobtrusive (and probably uncomfortable given a few of the accessories). But she wasn't going to yoke herself to some goddess just to deal with a temporary setback.

She'd thought Taweret wouldn't be like Khonshu, just trying to take advantage of any chance to get an avatar. Layla turned the tap off, grimacing. She could figure that out later, or maybe find a better way to actually confront Taweret about trying to make her an avatar again.

Still, apparently so long as she didn't approve, it wouldn't happen. Layla hesitated. Okay, it was tempting, but she could hopefully find a way to resolve this predicament without ending up in the position Marc had taken such pains to keep her out of. She could handle a little embarrassment if it kept her off the gods' cosmic chessboard.

The hot tap went back on. Layla jerked it off, face warming.

Back to square one. Still no plan for what she was meant to do, and all that had changed was a layer of condensation from the steam on her breasts. She quickly wiped it off with a towel, and flushed as the mirror cleared up, giving her a renewed view of her naked reflection.

Plans, plans...

There was a knock at the door. Layla couldn't yelp but squeak, bumping back into the wall as she was caught by surprise.

"Er," a flight attendant on the other side of the door said. "You've been in there a while. Is, um, everything okay?"

Why did she sound like she was putting it delicately? Wait, had she heard around her streak to the-

No, don't think about it. Layla gulped, unsure of how to answer.