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

[onebehind]

Lacing their fingers together, Dylan offers her a smile, real and warm, before starting forward. As they head out of their little area, he calls back over his shoulder, "We'll be back. Gimme a call, if you need us."

Or a poke, via the connection. Either way.

[the_star]

"Have fun!" Jack calls, the smirk obvious, and Alma smiles, shaking her head in amusement as she falls into step with Dylan.

When they've gained some distance from the cabanas, she says, "Since Henley didn't say you were there, I'm guessing you hadn't been long?"

[onebehind]

"I think I had just enough time to see what the kids grabbed for me, and look around the room," Dylan confirms, nodding. A pause follows, and then, almost wryly, he tells her, "You know, they broke into my apartment, to pack my shit?"

[the_star]

Alma can't help but laugh at that. "I think I should maybe be more surprised than I am," she decides after a moment. "Did they at least pack you useful things? And not, say... the toaster?"

That feels like something the others would have done to tease him.

[onebehind]

"Pretty sure they did something," Dylan tells her, making a face, "but so far, I haven't found any toasters. I figure it's just a matter of time before something ridiculous falls outta my suitcase, though."

Blame all the giggling he got, through the connection, while they were in his apartment.

[the_star]

She giggles again. "Knowing you're dealing with a bunch of magicians? It could be anything. Rubber chickens or... actual chickens."

She heard about the "exploding" poster they sent to the FBI office, after all.

[onebehind]

"If it's actual chickens, you're helping me clean 'em up," he decides, making a face at her. Because clearly, at this point, if actual chickens are involved, it will have been her fault, somehow. He's surrounded by traitors, he swears.

[the_star]

She doesn't reply to that immediately, just looking thoughtful.

"That would be funny, though. Imagine: a chicken laying eggs on the desk of that coworker everyone seems to hate. Feathers everywhere in the FBI office."

She's not sure if she actually knew Cowan's name before, but she assumes he'll know who she means.

[onebehind]

He does, and his expression softens a little, as he considers it. "As long as the chickens stay in Cowan's office ... "

He'd just have to make sure his and Fuller's doors were closed, when all of this went down.

[the_star]

"Well of course," she agrees easily - and maybe a little too seriously. "We can absolutely chicken proof your office." She pauses a beat. "Keep it on the other side of the road."

You are surrounded by smartasses, Dylan.

[onebehind]

Dylan groans and starts to pull away from her as if to turn, apparently intent on leaving. He gives up on it after a second or two, and turns back to her, frowning deeply, though the expression doesn't quite reach his eyes. "I dunno why I put up with you assholes."

He is indeed.

[the_star]

Alma reaches out to grab at his arm as he starts to pull away, laughing. She loops her arm through his, pulling him a little closer. "It's because you love us. Obviously."

[onebehind]

"For some fucking reason," he grumbles, though he lets her pull him back to her side. The lady doth protest too much, really. He does love all of them and he could think of a thousand reasons why.

[the_star]

Alma just laughs a little more, readjusting her hold on his arm to a more comfortable position and then patting him gently. "Just one of the wonders of the world," she teases.

She pauses a beat and, slightly more seriously, asks, "So where are we going first?"

[onebehind]

He keeps up the teasing for a second more, if only to ask, "Oh, I'm supposed to have a plan, now?"

When he sobers finally, it's with a shake of his head. "Seriously, though. I don't know. I was just kind of wandering." If she has something in mind, he wouldn't be opposed.

[the_star]

She nudges him a little. "No?" she admits - and then nods. "That's fine? I wasn't sure if you were especially curious about anything."

As she's mentioned, it's not like she's ever stayed anywhere like this before, so she just wants to see all of it.

[onebehind]

"Does all of it count?"

He's not entirely teasing -- he, too, wants to see everything the resort has to offer. He's not sure he's ever been anywhere so fancy, despite his connections, for all that he hasn't taken a vacation in as long as he can remember. His revenge and his more mundane work with the FBI has consumed everything.

[the_star]

"That's what I was thinking, so we'll claim it does," she returns decisively. "This is absolutely the fanciest place I think I've ever seen, let alone the fanciest place I've stayed."

[onebehind]

"You mean Interpol didn't put you up in the Venetian, when you came to Vegas?" he teases, as they drift towards a building in the distance. He has no idea what it is, but they need to start somewhere, even if they plan on seeing everywhere.

[the_star]

Alma snorts. "Even if I had been in Vegas long enough to sleep, I would have been lucky to get the cheapest thing in the area. Especially because it was my first time in the field."

If there had been anything good about her days of leave while they sorted out who to blame for the debacle that had been the Horsemen, it had given her a chance to catch up on sleep and get over her not-insignificant jet lag.

[onebehind]

"We oughta do that, sometime," Dylan decides after a beat, all at once more serious. "Do the whole tourist thing, in Vegas. I mean, I don't think I've ever stayed at the Venetian."

Never mind the fact that he could probably do better, taking her to Italy for a gondola ride, if that was something she wanted to do.

[the_star]

She smiles at that. "Absolutely. And I don't know why you would have unless you made a point of it. I never stay in Parisian hotels, after all."

Considering she lives there. She doesn't really do much in the touristy areas in Paris, either, considering her favorite bakeries and restaurants are more ones that only the locals know.

[onebehind]

"Yeah, well, you ever wanna ... "

He shrugs. He wouldn't be opposed to playing tourist in Paris, too, even if he knows that all the quiet, local places are probably better. He'll probably take her to some of the local places in Vegas while they're there. Lunch in one of the casinos on the Strip is great and all, but there are some real gems off the Strip, too.

[the_star]

"I absolutely want to," she agrees immediately and with a smile.

"You might actually know enough French now to not immediately get pegged as américain," she teases, considering they have been working on his French.

[onebehind]

"Oh, good," he teases back, "I always wanted to be mistaken for français."

In all seriousness, though, he's glad she judges his French to be passable, at least, now. He can't say he didn't wonder how he'd do, speaking the language to someone who had no reason to go easy on him.