Arthur Milligan

Arthur "Art" Milligan is the original name of a visitor to the Inn who later became Elizabeth Lee, then Penelope Lincoln.

Early Life
Art was a native of San Francisco, California. His mother died in 2005 and he had not heard from his father in years before then. He first came to the Inn as a freelance writer on assignment with Maxim magazine, intending to write an article about Old Orchard Beach's "Oktoberfest in August" Beerfest. Because the Inn's owners would not permit him to rent the two-bedroom suite solo, he offered an online acquaintence, Jake Matthews, the other bed. Art also created the blog as a way of collecting thoughts from his fellow visitors.

First Transformation
Sometime in the early hours of August 31, 2006, Art awoke to the sound of screams in one of the other rooms. Rushing to find the source of the commotion, he stumbled, finding his body no longer the size he was accustomed to. Upon glancing in the mirror, he found himself in the body of an unknown asian woman later identified to be 23-year-old Cambridge, Massachusetts native Elizabeth Lee. Forcing his way into the adjoining room, he found Jake had been transformed into Ashlyn Shelley. They soon found that everyone who had stayed at the Inn that night had been physically transformed to the previous visitors to the inn.

Art later learned the completeness of this transformation when he found himself to be menstruating in late September.

As Liz
Prompted by a call from Liz's co-worker Zoe, Art resolved to go to Cambridge in order to live Ms. Lee's life, reasoning that "if we do figure out how to reverse this curse or spell or whatever we're under, I probably shouldn't mess Liz's life up any more than I'd want the next guy using this room to mess up mine" as well as confessing, optimistically, that it might make good material for a novel. Art was joined by Jake, who as Ashlyn was also bound for the Boston area.

As Liz, Art acted as manager for a movie theater and lived with Liz's longtime boyfriend, Raymond Kim. Taking advantage of their conflicting schedules by working mostly nights, Art went as long as he could manage without spending much time one-on-one with him. One of their first encounters had Raymond kissing his "wife" on the forehead as she slept, only to startle Art into bolting upright and giving Ray a fat lip. Even when Ray and "Liz" did spend time together, Ray did not seem cognizant of any change to his wife's mood. Being that the relationship had lasted several years and become comfortable, it was months before Ray pushed the issue of physical intimacy.

On a return visit to the Inn in late September, Art met the man now inhabiting his original body, Jeremy Boyd, as well as the new Jake. He began looking for ways to potentially switch back to his own body.

After an incident at a Halloween party that saw Liz being aggressively hit on by a guy in a Fred Flintstone costumecostume, Art was determined to dig up more information on a possible way to restore victims' proper identities. He deduced, from finding Boyd's luggage still stowed in the closet of the room, that his body was still in "limbo," and if they stayed at the Inn in the reverse order from their original visits, they could potentially return to their original bodies.

Affair
In early October, Art learned that Liz had been carrying on an affair with her co-worker Stewart. After grappling with the moral implications, he decided that carrying on the affair in Liz's place fell under the domain of "not disturbing" Liz's life and reluctantly continued it, with Liz admitting she had intended to leave Ray for Stewart at some point.

In November, Art agreed to a lunch date with Stewart, understanding it was likely code for sex. This soon became a regular occurrence, and Art admitted to enjoying it, not only for the physical act, but because there was something paradoxically freeing about having a reason to feel tense: the secrecy of the affair enabled him to act out his actual discomfort at being Liz.

After surviving the confusion of the Christmas shopping season, largely by communicating with Liz for recommendations, Art spent New Year's Eve with Ray, who resolved to spend more time with his girl. This led to a night of intercourse, which Art had conflicting feelings about, noting he had officially become a "two-timer."

On Valentine's Day 2007, Ray proposed marriage to "Liz," at which time Art, overcome with guilt, confessed Liz's affair. He expressed remorse at having to do so, feeling at the very least he could have done better. He briefly felt there was a moment he could have confessed not being the real Liz, but rationalized that that would have made an even bigger mess than confessing the affair.

In the aftermath, Ray worked to rebuild his relationship with the woman he thought was he girlfriend, while Art informed Stewart the two would no longer be hooking up without commitment.

Return to the Inn
Art enacted his plan to restore his original body in May of 2007, with Jeremy confirming via a brief phone call that he had returned to his original body, staying at the Inn during the first weekend of the year it was available. Art gave notice at the movie theatre, citing a lack of desire to negotiate for extra time offto allow the transformation, as well as to curb the Stewart situation. He covered for his return to the Inn by telling Ray he was going to New York for an audition.

After an emotionally charged goodbye with Jake, who had properly assumed the permanent identity of Ashlyn, Art returned to the Inn on Friday, May 11, 2007, encountering Jeff Miller, Drew Dawson and a third unnamed party who had not posted to the blog. The group bonded over their experiences, spending their final days in their new bodies drinking and celebrating, mingling with locals and playing up their appearances in ways they had not previously.

When Jeff revealedhe had taken a look at the "letter" with his luggage, Arthur looked at his and found none labeled as being from "Arthur Milligan" - instead finding "R.J. Hobart" and "Nell Lincoln."

Art learned the leaning of this sometime arond 2:30 AM on May 24th. shortly after midnight he began to feel something like "an electricity" in the air around him, followed by one that felt like "a thousand tiny IVs" in his skin. At first, he was amazed and excited to find himself getting bigger, but noticed that his breasts were increasing in size, as well. Though he initially hoped this merely meant "well-defined pects," he noted that there was no male member forming at the base of his crotch, and that his nipples were becoming perkier and larger, in addition to the weight of growing hair on his head and darkeing skin. He found that he had indeed become Nell, while Drew had become R.J.

As Penelope
After helping console new victims and guide them toward solutions, Art, as Penelope, set out for San Francisco, first stopping in Boston to briefly chat with Ashlyn and confirm his new appearance. Upon arriving in San Francisco around midnight, Art explored "his" new apartment briefly before falling asleep. He found himself waking up before 7 AM with no alarm, and had time to do a 5 mile run on the treadmill, a feat that impressed him.

After rediscovering the city and showing Drew around, the pair had dinner. Art declined Drew's invitation to stay the night, citing a resolution not to sleep with a person just because the original owner of a body had. However, he later reversed this decision and the two began tentatively dating in July.

Art began to work Nell's job, strenuously studying recordings of lacrosse games she had called, contending with difficulties from her co-anchor Mike and her producer George, who were both baffled and dismayed at the woman's "sudden" loss of ability to broadcast the sport. He spoke with "R.J." about finding other work, including being shopped around as a writer, specifically with a manuscrupt in progress about a murder mystery based on his experiences as Penelope. Later, R.J. presented him with an opportunity to work with Maxim again, albeit this time as a pictorial subject: an offer Art was not entirely comfortable with, but permitted himself to be convinced by those around him, particularly Ashlyn.

In August, he received a letter from the original Nell, indicating she had decided to stay as Jeremy Boyd. Art was compelled to take ownership of Nell's life, identifying himself as "Penny," and confronting the original Jeremy that both "Penny" and Nell were better men than he was.

By October, Art was mulling a move to Los Angeles, where Drew was considering relocating to further pursue showbiz clients as an agent, and Art was tempted to make a clean break by escaping the presence of Jeremy Boyd. They attended a Halloween party as Xena and a piomp, respectively, with Art noting that Drew's costume choice didn't seem fitting for someone who had spent a year as a woman.

In January 2008, accompanied by Louisa/Marie, she confronted Boyd in a bar and he revealed he had been coaxed into sending Penny and R.J. in his place by Vera Lane (in the guise of Dex Langan)

The relationship with Drew (now entrenched as R.J.) continued through the new year, although by March the two experienced some friction stemming from their professional relationship when he encouraged her to continue only being an onscreen personality and forgoing her aspirations of writing, in the wake of early rejections of her first manuscript. In May, the two finally called it quits, with Penny citing a desire to move back to Boston and pursue different goals.

Return to Boston
In June, after picking Louisa up in Los Angeles and meeting Parker and Dana Costello, she and Louisa visited the original Marie Desjardins and Jean-Michel Therriot in their new identities in Salt Lake City, Utah. This was the first encounter the two had had with other victims of the Inn since their initial transformation. Upon Penny & Louisa's arrival, Jean-Michel pointed a firearm at them to allow Marie to escape with their eight-month-old daughter Casey, in case the two women had been sent by Andre Trudeau. Once they confirmed they were not, the pairs got along very well, and Louisa was finally able to inform the original Marie of her mother's passing.

By July, Penny was set up back in Boston and working for a startup commuter paper, Boston Today. Not long after, she found herself in a bar called Sidebar, where she encountered Raymond Kim. Curious to see what her "ex" was up to, she chatted him up for some time before Liz arrived and interjected, displaying her engagement ring. She encountered the couple again in December at a party thrown by Ashlyn, where they seemed oblivious to her true identity, and had fallen out of touch with Ashlyn as well. At this same party, she met a man named Chance Owsley, to whom Ashlyn gave Penny's number, convincing her to try dating someone who was neither from the Inn nor inherited with a new body.

Appearance
Art's original appearance is first described only as "a bit scruffy looking." Art's first impression of Liz's appearance is that she is "kind of pretty," with short brown hair and almond skin. She is slim, and noticeably shorter than Art had been. Jake notes early on that Liz's body has an "elegant, sexy quality" and a killer smile.

As Penelope, Art had a tan complexion and long light-brown hair, with wide eyes and perfect teeth. Her body was lean and athletic,but feminine ratherthan muscular, with long legs, a fit abdomen and large breasts.

Personality
Throughout his/her time writing for the blog, Art portrays a rational, calm, reserved personality. Along with Drew Dawson, he was the one to organize the visitors during his initial transformation and determine the details of their situation, identifying the nature of the curse. Art conveys great attention to detail in all aspects of his life, being as meticulous as possible when acting as someone else and feeling anxious when he feels ill-prepared to do so.

He describes writing as not merely his job, or an activity, but an identity: a compulsion or perhaps even an addiction.

He is described as having an affinity for chewing gum, at least early on.

Quotes
"Typical writer; I've barely arrived at the inn and I've already got the computer plugged in so that I can start in on this."

"I'm Arthur. Something happened to me... to us, if you're who I think you are."