fandomtownies | The Arms Hotel Lobby, Tuesday

Normally, Mary tried to avoid phone calls from her friend Polly, the most popular beautician in Las Vegas. She was a really good friend, but Polly also loved to talk about stuff that was completely inappropriate and sometimes Mary didn't want to hear extremely graphic descriptions of Polly's sex life.

But after a few weeks of not hearing from her, Mary thought she'd call Polly to see what was up. When the number turned out to be disconnected, Mary called the front desk at the Montecito to see if someone could connect her to Polly at the spa. They had no idea who Polly was and tried to claim that the property didn't even have a spa.

"Okay, this is absurd," Mary told the person on the phone. "Can you just transfer me to Danny McCoy or Delinda Deline? They'll know who Polly is." Except that wasn't going to happen, because Danny and Delinda did not exist for the person on the phone. Mary was going to be on the phone for a while, calling everyone she knew in Vegas to see if they were still there.

Welcome to the Arms Hotel
Dumped by Portalocity? You're welcome to stay here!
Today's Specials
The Best Fried Chicken Ever
Chive and Parsley Mashed Potatoes
Chocolate Truffle Pie with Strawberries

[Open! The OCD has been traumatized by an image of a goat.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Phoebe was relieved to see Mary and the other woman probably got hugged tightly before she let her go and stepped back.

"So glad to see a friend."

"Good to see that you made it in one piece," said Mary, smiling. "Did you have any trouble with Portalocity? I've had so many cancellations from people who just could not get here."

"Didn't use Portalocity," Phoebe said. "Cole shimmered us here."

"Smart move. I wouldn't trust Portalocity to get me anywhere right about now," said Mary. "As it is, I canceled my travel plans for Thanksgiving, and now my friends that I wanted to visit have vanished! I have no clue what is going on."

Phoebe's smile faltered. "People are disappearing. My sister ... and my best friend, Lana..."

"So this isn't just an isolated thing," said Mary. "Something really bizarre is going on."

Phoebe nodded. "It's why so many of us are coming back here. It's safer here." She gave Mary a faint smile. "Do you still have the cabins?"

"Yes, I do. Would you like to stay in the same one as last time? It's available," suggested Mary.

"Yes, please. It's me, Cole Turner, and Samuel Anders."

"I'll give you the special Portalocity rate: free breakfast because I'm charging Portalocity for all the cancellations," said Mary with a smirk as she handed over three keys.

Eve couldn't believe she was back in Fandom for this damn reason, of all things.

But at least she had a place to stay. Tim and Gwynn didn't. But they would when Eve was done.

She smiled at Mary in tired relief as she approached the desk.

"Welcome to the Arms! Let me guess. Having trouble with Portalocity?" asked Mary.

"Aside from getting re-routed a ridiculous number of times through the same three places over and over again before it coughed us out here, not so bad." Eve shook her head. "More like I got to see the place I was in get eaten away over the course of a few days by whatever's making stuff disappear."

"That seems to be going around," said Mary, feeling more and more worried. "I had a rough weekend so I hadn't talked to any of my friends back home. Today I found that they seem to have vanished."

"So many places are gone now," Eve said. "So many people."

She gave another tired smile. "So obviously I need a room. Except it's not for me," she explained. "It's for two of my friends. I've got a place to stay, and they don't."

"That shouldn't be a problem. I've had so many cancellations since this whole mess with Portalocity began, so there are more than enough rooms available," said Mary.

"Thank God for that much, at least." Eve gave a mirthless laugh. "Need the best room you can possibly put them in -- I can afford it and one of them's in pretty bad shape. I want her to be able to rest... and mourn... in luxury."

It wasn't much, but it was what she could do.

"I'll see to it that she's as comfortable as possible, then," said Mary. "Something tells me that things will get worse before it's over, but that's par for the course in Fandom."

"This is so not the way I wanted to come back to Fandom for a while," Eve said, shaking her head. "And thanks, Mary. For making her comfortable, I mean. She... she needs it. She just lost her entire world. Literally."

Mary shuddered to think about that, knowing that her own friends seemed to be missing. "I'm only too happy to help. Who knows when it will happen to the rest of us? That's why we all have to stick together."

The Arms Hotel Lobby, Tuesday

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