By and by we'll defy a little bit of gravity

[the_death_card]

While Jack knows it's good for him, doing a lot to stretch how far his magic will go before he's exhausted, playing with the door trick is also fun. He's been picking locks for so long now that it's almost boring, especially when his actual magic has progressed to the point that, increasingly frequently, doors will unlock themselves before he even knows they were locked to begin with.

Using the Eye's network is something different. It's a constantly moving lock that, if he hits a slightly different pin in a slightly different way, will open a door to somewhere completely different. He's already found a dozen different places across the United States and a half-dozen more outside of it that have all led to some fascinating afternoons. Every time he finds somewhere new, he thinks to ask Jacob or Max or Andrew for a list of connected places, but so far, he's forgotten to actually do it. Finding them randomly is more fun anyway.

Things have mostly calmed down around the suite, now. He knows most of them have returned to their normal sleeping habits, helped along by their brand new connection. That's still new and something he's getting used to, but like someone said, it feels like a natural next step after the year they spent living on top of each other and how close they've all become since then. It is still something they're all figuring out, though, which means that they're still taking it easy on rehearsals. Normally, that's not something he would mind, but today, it's lead to some restlessness that he knows no jog or trip downstairs to the gym will do anything to help.

When he catches himself rereading the same paragraph in his book for the third time in a row, he groans and levers himself into a sit, setting his book to the side and leaning down to grab his boots where he kicked them off earlier. There's an inquisitive ping at the back of his mind that he brushes off as he stands and grabs his jacket, heading out of his room and toward the stairs.

"I'm going out for a while," he calls to the suite at large on his way downstairs. "I've got my phone."

Merritt doesn't look up from behind his book but he does wave a hand at Jack in acknowledgement, and there's an accepting nudge from someone through the connection. Jack flips a wave back at Merritt as he slips out of the suite, closing the door behind him and heading for the elevator. He pauses once he gets there to run his thumb over his middle and index fingers, calling up a spark and touching it to the keyhole set between the standard call buttons. He can immediately feel the pins that make up the Eye's network, and he drifts over a few of them before settling on one. He nudges it into place with his magic and then pulls his hand away and hits the down button to call the elevator. It comes almost immediately, and Jack steps inside, hitting a button at random and leaning back against the wall to watch the numbers drop - and then stands straight again when it slows to a stop with the usual quiet ding.

For everywhere he's been so far, what he finds is entirely unexpected. If he didn't know better, if he hadn't already seen the Peninsula's lobby dozens of times, he would think something had gone wrong with the magic and he had just been taken downstairs. Ahead of him is another hotel lobby, and he stops just outside the elevator, trying to figure out where he is. Just ahead of him is a small desk bearing a stylized sun - and when he looks at it for more than a moment, the paint seems to shimmer, revealing an equally stylized eye set into the paint. The desk is attended by a dark-haired woman in a blue shirt with a name badge pinned to it, and she looks up at him after a moment, smiling immediately. "Good afternoon, Mister Wilder. Checking in?"

"Uh..." Jack begins intelligently, and her smile turns a little less polished and a little more truly amused as she stands up, smoothing her shirt out automatically.

"Or did you just happen by?"

"That one," Jack returns, a little relieved, and she laughs.

"You aren't the first," she assures him, "but welcome to the Sun Veil Resort. We're located on the Yucatan Peninsula with access to the amenities of Cancun with our own specific brand of privacy for our members and their guests." It's clearly a standard speech, but Jack gets well enough what she's saying - or, rather, very carefully not saying.

"You mean this is for the Eye."

"Of course," she returns before her smile fades into something more solicitous. "Would you like a tour? We do have open rooms at the moment, and I'm sure you and the other Horsemen would enjoy a visit."

Even if this isn't where Jack intended to end up, Jack doesn't even need to think about it before he nods. "Yeah, that'd be great." Saying they would all use a vacation and change of scenery after everything that's been going on is puttting it really mildly.

"Give me just a moment, then," she returns with another smile. She turns her attention back to her desk, hits a few keys on her ocmputer, sets a small bell on the desk, and then rounds it, gesturing for him to accompany her. "Right this way."

Comments

For Henley

[the_death_card]

Jack stays out longer than he means to, in the end, but he finds out the resort is actually kind of huge. Lillie had shown him some of the types of rooms they had, and then some of the cabanas, and then the pools, and then the restaurants, and by the time they get back to the lobby, it's been well over an hour. Jack has long since shrugged out of his jacket, and he doesn't bother to put it back on as Lillie leads the way back to her desk.

"So?" she prompts. "Should I set up a reservation?"

"That would be awesome," he agrees, leaning on the front of the podium and crossing his ankles and setting the bottle of water she had picked up for him to the side. "They're gonna love this." Lillie chuckles again and turns to her computer. "Though I should, uh. Maybe go actually tell them about it and pack and everything, so maybe make it for tomorrow?"

She nods, hitting backspace and then beginning to type again. "The cabanas, right? Four of them?"

Jack nods. "Yeah, that'll work." Considering how infrequently Henley sleeps in her own room anymore, it feels a safe bet. "And thanks again for showing me around."

Lillie hits a few buttons and then sits back. "It was my pleasure. It's nice to meet you."

"Same," Jack says before he straightens, picking up his water. "So, uh. We'll be back?"

"We'll be here," Lillie returns, and Jack pushes away from the desk, heading back toward the door he stepped through.

It barely takes a moment for him to find the pin for the suite, and he doesn't bother with the elevator this time, just steps through onto the hallway leading into the suite. Immediately, he feels the connection click back into place at the back of his head, and he lets out a breath as he pushes open the door to the suite and steps inside, tossing his jacket over the nearest piece of furniture.

[the_highpriestess]

"Okay, so that was super weird," Henley starts from the top of the stairs and as she pads down them. If she was Daniel, it might not be hard to imagine her just standing there, waiting for him to return, to capitalize on the theatricality of it all. All things considered, even so, it's not really much of a stretch of the imagination, particularly when she doesn't continue until she's hit the bottom of the stairs. "That was like, I don't know, going just out of range of a radio station or something."

Her sense of the connection didn't really break, she could still feel Jack there, however faintly, like the faintest snatches of a song through the static, but -- yeah, it's still weird, even if they're all getting used to it from Dylan. He's back at work; their connection is constantly strained by the distance. This was more, less, she's not sure. She wonders where Jack ended up and that might be a prompt to answer that question without actually asking it outright. She can sense his -- excitement, she thinks, too, and now she's curious, if she wasn't before.

[the_death_card]

Jack looks up at her and breathes out a laugh. "Felt weird for me, too," he agrees. "Guess I know what it's like for Jacob now." He opens his water to take a drink. "You been waiting on me to get back?"

He wasn't surprised that she was here, thanks to the connection, but he's less sure if she's been waiting or if she felt him get back and came out then.

[the_highpriestess]

"Yeah," she agrees, making a brief face. She imagines Dylan isn't dealing with that several hour service outage well, even if he's been careful about keeping any displeasure to himself -- she knows she wouldn't be.

"But a little of both?" she admits, when she forces that thought away. She definitely felt him get back and came out, then, but she was also kind of waiting on him. She did mention being curious as to where he ran off to, didn't she? To the point where she's just going to ask outright, now. "Which, speaking of, where'd you go?"

[the_death_card]

Jack shrugs to the first part of that and then grins. "Uh. Cancun, believe it or not? You know I've just kinda been finding random places in the Eye's network, and I ended up at this hotel." He caps his water and then holds the bottle out to her so she can see the custom label with the same stylized sun from the clerk's podium. "And, uh...." He reaches into his pocket, coming up with a shell he picked up when they went down to the beach, to hold it out to her, too.

[the_highpriestess]

"Seriously?" she asks, reaching to take the shell from him. It's not that she doesn't believe him, mind, it's just -- well, like Dylan has said, she's still in awe of everything they can do, the magic, real or otherwise, not about to lose its charm now, if ever. Shaking her head, that in mind, she turns the shell over in her hand, then looks up at Jack, radiating dim amusement. "If there's a spa, you're gonna have to teach me how to get there."

What girl could say no to the idea of a spa on the beach?

[the_death_card]

"There's a spa, and like three restaurants, and four pools and it's kind of huge," he returns with a grin - that then turns sheepish. "And I might have made a reservation starting like, tomorrow, considering we're all just hanging out." He pauses a beat. "So, uh. We can go check it out, if you want. Or we can just try and convince Daniel and Merritt to go tomorrow." Another beat. "Or both."

[the_highpriestess]

She arches her eyebrows at the mention of a reservation, though she doesn't seem displeased, only surprised. It fades quickly enough at the idea of checking it out now, however, and she nods immediately, enthusiastically. "Oh, I've gotta see this. The boys can wait until tomorrow."

[the_death_card]

Jack snorts a little at Henley's dismissal of Merritt and Daniel but grins, definitely - and as always - on board with showing off. "Lemme change shoes real quick," he requests, already heading for the stairs, to jog up them two at a time. His boots were fine, but they were kind of a pain to slip off when their tour wandered onto the beach.

[the_highpriestess]

As promised and after getting Daniel settled, Henley shoots Merritt a text for Alma's address, and then it's off to Paris. It doesn't take her long from there to find her apartment building, and standing outside, she checks the text a dozen times, just to make sure she has the right place, before ringing the intercom for Alma's unit.

Rocking back on her heels, she looks up at the building and waits. It's all she really can do until someone answers -- or doesn't. She also has Alma's number on hand, too, just in case.

[the_star]

There's a moment's pause before there's the sound of Alma's voice through the intercom. "Allo?"

She knows she's expecting one of the Horsemen, but she's also not entirely sure it is one of them.

[the_highpriestess]

"Bonjour," Henley sing-songs back. Then, rather than give her own name and risk someone noticing her (and never mind the fact that she knows enough about illusion to keep people from noticing her), she continues a little cryptically, "Votre trajet est ici!"

Seems she knew more French than she let on. Never mind the fact that Danny probably knew that from their time in Paris, before.

[the_star]

When she speaks again, it sounds like Alma's laughing. "Bonjour," she returns brightly. "Just a moment."

There's a pause - and then a buzz as the door into the building unlocks. Come on up, Henley.

[the_highpriestess]

"Merci," she chirps, regardless of whether or not Alma can still hear her and as she pulls the door open. She makes sure it closes again behind her, and from there, it's only a few minutes more before she's knocking on Alma's door properly. She waits, patient, for her answer.

[the_star]

Alma opens the door almost immediately after Henley knocks, only pausing long enough to make sure it is her. "Hi," she says when she sees her. "Come in."

The narration won't describe the apartment again, since it's mostly the same since the last time they did.

Alma closes the door behind Henley. "I'm almost ready. I just need a few more things."

[the_highpriestess]

"Take your time," she tells her, stepping a little further into the apartment and off to one side so she's not underfoot. Never mind the fact that her attentions are more focused on the rest of the apartment, interested in how Alma's chosen to decorate and what it says about her, her eyes on anything but the woman herself. It's almost jarring how much life is here, compared to Dylan's apartment, even if she knows the reason for it.

"It's not like we're in any hurry," she continues, absently. "We're on vacation."

[the_star]

Alma laughs softly as she heads for her bedroom, coming back out a moment later with a bag. "This is probably the least planning I've ever done for a vacation, but I get the feeling there wasn't much planning at all?"

For Daniel

[the_hermit]

Dylan and Alma wander off to hopefully relax; Henley and Jack change into bathing suits and disappear down the beach fast enough he's pretty sure they actually used magic; and Merritt comes out to claim one of the lounge chairs under an umbrella. He has the most recent book he's been reading in hand, as well as a glass, a mini-bottle of bourbon, and a bottle of water on the table next to him. The bourbon goes into the glass, and he takes a sip of it before he sits back and opens the book.

It's been a long time since he could actually relax, could actually stop thinking about his next play, when his head wasn't running a mile a minute trying to think of how he would survive in this reality Wade had left him in. Things had been better since the Horsemen, now that he had a team, how that he had people who he was almost positive weren't going to turn around and stab him in the back. Still, it's rare that he actually relaxes - but this is close, and he takes a breath of salty air as he looks to his book.

[the_lovers]

Unfortunately, Daniel doesn't let him enjoy the peace and quiet for long.

He probably feels him before he sees him, Daniel's mind a quietly simmering pot. He's doing well to keep actual worded thoughts from projecting -- and, probably, from letting the others feel his anxiety, though the distance also probably helps with that -- but he is anxious. It's written near-plainly on his face, too, when he rounds the corner and finds Merritt sitting in a lounge chair. It also twists with something like relief when he sees him, though it's quick to snap back into place. It feels almost like stage fright, and Daniel carries it with him as he beelines for him.

"Merritt, hey." A beat. "You got a second?"

[the_hermit]

Merritt distantly feels Daniel coming, mostly ignoring his approach until Daniel rounds the corner and it's clear the younger man is heading his way. He flips his book over so it's resting on his stomach. "So you really are always just a big ball of anxiety, huh.
Even in Mexico."

He's mostly teasing with his words; the slight concern he's projecting through their connection is far more real.

[the_lovers]

"Oh, ha-ha," he answers, rolling his eyes. Again, his nerves dim for a moment before resurfacing. "But seriously, just -- just come upstairs with me."

Never mind the fact that there is no 'upstairs' here. Still, his meaning is clear. He wants Merritt to follow him to his and Henley's room.

[the_hermit]

Merritt frowns at him for a moment, the concern growing as Daniel's nerves grow. That's enough to make him mark his place in his book properly and push himself forward a little on the lounge chair so he can get to his feet.

"Where's the fire?"

[the_lovers]

"Not sure I'd call it a fire, actually," Daniel corrects, already turning to head toward their cabana. The relief that keeps threatening seems to root itself a little more firmly in his posture, now that he knows he has Merritt on the hook, but the anxiety remains, too.

[the_hermit]

Someday Daniel will stop thinking of everyone like an audience and start realizing that the others have his back, that Merritt's really just making a fuss because he's obligated to give Danny a hard time in all things. Obviously today's not that day. But anyway.

Merritt follows him back toward the cabana. "Fine, what's putting the curl back into that chemically straightened head of yours?"

[the_lovers]

Someday.

Today, however, he throws a glance over his shoulder as he answers, "Well, you know. When your dad caught me in bed with your mom, last night ... " A beat and then, "Seriously, though. It's kind of a visual. Do you have, like, no sense of anticipation?"