A Message From Portalocity, Monday Afternoon

[spin_kick_snap]

At some point in the day, various Portalocity customers would receive the following politely-worded message from Portalocity's automated system. True to form, it had been designed to look like an individualized message, stressing how much Portalocity cared about you, paying customer, but at some point, someone fell down on the job.

Probably the damn gnome.

Dear VALUED CUSTOMER,

We see that you have recently TRAVELED/CONTACTED/EXPRESSED INTEREST in or to EARTH DESIGNATION 13F21O65L568D. We regret to inform you that portals to this planetary designation are currently nonfunctional due to PLANETARY QUARANTINE. This affects INGOING AND OUTGOING portals. We hope this issue will be resolved as quickly as possible. Our estimated timeframe for this issue is UNKNOWN. The estimated date for resumption of service is NON-EXISTENT AT THIS TIME (dates subject to change without notice). For further information regarding portal closures and policy, please contact your nearest Portalocity branch office, TBD, or contact us directly 1-800-383-5633.

Thank you for using Portalocity! We hope to serve your travel needs again in the future!

Regards,
SIGNATURE

[And with that, portals to Kathy's world are closed. If you want to have gotten this message, you did! It's not like Portalocity's great at organization. Or caring. Available for on-island reactions and threads if anyone would like!]

Comments

[vdistinctive]

Eliot didn't check his email until well after the kids had been sent back to their own times and dimensions, and he and his partners had celebrated his birthday in a proper grown-up style.

The email was . . . not reassuring.

"Hardison? The hell is this?" It wasn't he thought it was, right? It was junk mail or something.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Hardison was looking at his own message. "Sent to me, too," he said. "I'm puttin' a trace on it, but my guess is it's legit. I could make a fortune offa my spam blockers if I was interested in goin' legit."

But what did he need another fortune for?

"You been showin' interest in portals leadin' to any specific worlds recently?" He already knew the answer. It was the same world Hardison had been looking up, ever since his TA had gone after Eliot's.

[vdistinctive]

Eliot couldn't stop staring at the word "quarantine".

"Kathy's," he said, though he knew he didn't need to specify. "In case she ends up needin' back up."

He'd been telling Stealth they should be trying to quarantine. He hadn't meant the entire world, though.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Yeah, this hadn't been Stealth's call.

"You want me to give Portalocity a ring?" he asked. "I'm pretty sure I got a coupla IDs that have their stupid fancy memberships an' all. I know one's a Mythril Circle Member or somethin'. That might be high enough to get to speak to a real person an' maybe get some answers that ain't canned responses."

[vdistinctive]

Part of Eliot wanted to say no, that he was sure it was some other world that they happened to accidentally click on once. Or one Pinkie had set up for class or something.

But he'd learned a long time ago that hiding your head in the sand never improved anything. "Yeah," he said. "That's a good idea. Thanks."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Course," he said, reaching for the phone. "An' you an me both know that just what's said officially ain't always the full story. I bet there's one portal still available for folks willin' to pay for it."

And to get the girls home safe, he knew they'd be willing to pay for it. Whatever the cost.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante scrolled over the message quick, spotting phrases like 'planetary quarantine' and 'unknown'. His thumb halted over the screen, stopping the scroll, and he stared at the wall for a couple of seconds, maybe more. Ah. There was that all too familiar feel of having your worst beliefs confirmed. Felt like a slow fall down a long pit, hitting a couple of branches of somebody else's bullshit on the way.

He opened the texting app. Then shut it again.

He tossed his phone onto the bed. No point.

Then he realized that Anders had dodged a fucking bullet, and if he hadn't let Carys-- fuck.

[hexentotchen.livejournal.com]

Hanna read the notice, and stopped immediately in the middle of the park. Quarantine? Had things gotten *that* bad?

Kathy was stuck there. Kathy's family was stuck there. This was-- not good. Beyond not good.

Slowly, she started walking again, wondering what could be done about this.