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

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

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."

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"Performance issues, Mister Wilder?" Henley teases, trying to keep that bit of struggle, no matter how understandable, from shaking Jack too much. Reaching for where she assumes there to be a light switch, curtains to the balcony at the far end of the room drawn as they enter, she pops her eyebrows. She'll look around, take in what they have to look forward to in a minute. Right now, she's taking pleasure in mocking Jack -- and, apparently, Daniel in mimicking him.

"We've all got our off days," he tosses back just as lightly, trying for mimicking Merritt in reply to her mimicry of Daniel. He's not that bothered by almost needing to go back to the manual way of doing things instead of the magic one, considering he should have figured that the Eye would have precautions against people like him.

Anyway, he turns his attention to the room, looking it over as the lights flick on - and then looking to Henley for her reaction. Jack's already had this moment, after all.

From the outside, the cabanas look too small to be comfortable, too small to belong to a resort that's obviously as well-appointed as this one. Like so much else with the Eye, though, it's all about the deception. Inside, the room is much larger, this one containing a king bed with a wooden headboard loaded with light and dark blue pillows and covered in a white bedspread. To either side sits a nightstand of the same wood as the headboard, both holding a white-shaded lamp. One of them also holds a phone.

At its foot is a bench with a few more cushions and a coffee table holding a bowl and stack of what looks to be travel magazines. The bench faces the currently covered windows and, tucked into the corner to the left of the windows, a large television on an entertainment center. Beyond the bed and bench is another small seating area with two chairs and a table holding a currently empty ice bucket and set of two glasses, a lamp beside them. Beside that is a desk with a black binder, likely containing information on the resort and another, simpler chair.

To the right of the entrance is another door, and Jack drifts to the side to turn the bathroom light on and peek inside. It's as nice as the room itself, holding a bathtub large enough for two with jacuzzi jets set into the sides and a large, glass-walled shower next to it. There are two sinks with the usual assortment of sample toiletries and a basket of fluffy, perfectly white towels. There is a door just inside the bathroom that Jack knows to hide a closet for luggage. The toilet isn't immediately visible, but Jack can see another door backed by a full length mirror just beyond the sinks.

"So?" he asks when he steps back into the main room.

"Uh huh," Henley answers, still in echo of Daniel's tone, somehow. If he has a response to that, from his own mind or Merritt's, however, it's lost on her as the lights come up and she starts to get a good look around the room.

Drifting away from Jack, she skates by the bed, the bench, gloved fingers grazing both as she goes, heading idly towards the sitting room. She pauses in the doorway there, taking it in, too, then turns, making the rounds over towards the window. She doesn't make it beyond there, too entranced by the view as she peels back the curtains. It reminds her of home, somehow, despite very obviously not being California for all the reasons she and Jack already discussed. Regardless, she wants to be here, with all of them, now.

"Wow," she breathes as she finally turns back to Jack. She's been speechless very few times in her life and most of them have been in the last few months. This is another. "Just -- wow."

Beyond the curtains is a deck leading to a common area with a half a dozen chairs set around a currently inactive fire pit, sunlight glinting off the stones. What draws the eye though is the beach and ocean beyond: the sand is nearly white, the water clear turquoise.

"Right?" Jack returns, grinning hugely as he moves into the room and closer to her. "I was pretty sure shit like this only existed on postcards."

"In a totally photoshopped sort of way, yeah," Henley agrees, shaking her head. She glances back towards the window, turns towards it entirely after a beat, and peeks back outside. When she returns her attentions to Jack, she shakes her head again. "And we are totally getting some marshmallows and graham crackers and stuff for that fire pit."

"Hell yeah," Jack agrees, still grinning. "Oh, and there's, uh..." He reaches to unlock the sliding door and push it open, stepping out onto the deck and making room for Henley to follow him. "There's that, too," he adds, nodding toward the hot tub that was just out of view from inside the room.

Spotting the hot tub, Henley groans in relief, then stretches dramatically. When she settles, she says, "I'm pretty sure I'm gonna live there, like, all week." She'll get someone else to bring her some of the s'mores when they're done.

Jack breathes out a laugh. "Pretty sure you'd be a like... permanent prune, if you did," he returns, holding up his hands and wiggling his fingers a little in illustration of skin getting wrinkly after being in water for too long.

"Or turn into a mermaid," she counters, running her fingers along the rim of the hot tub in a way that can only be described as loving. "Either way, totally worth it, trust me." She's pretty sure, at this point, her kinks have kinks, and Danny sucks at giving back rubs.

"Or that," Jack agrees. "Though, don't think you're not gonna have to share. I'm all about getting in there, too."

He's definitely looking forward to chilling in there for a while and enjoying being outdoors.

Henley gives him a long, teasingly appraising look, before finally humming. "I guess I can let you share my hot tub. If I have to."

The other boys may or may not be allowed, depending on how she's feeling -- or so is the implication, anyway. She'll probably let them all use the hot tub. Probably.

"Works for me," Jack agrees with a grin. "Everybody else can find their own," he adds decisively. He'll definitely back her up in giving the others crap about being allowed in the hot tub or not.

"Uh..." he adds after a moment, looking to the other buildings in a semi-circle around the common area. "So those are all pretty much the same, just with slightly different decorations and stuff. You wanna see the beach? Or go find the pools?"

They can make a secret clubhouse sign out of cardboard or something, assuming they can find some. For now, however, Henley just follows his gaze around the area, an echo without meaning to, before she looks back to him. "Can I say both?"

She's torn, otherwise.

Jack laughs, nodding as he gestures down the wooden dock leading away from the room and hot tub. "Yeah, sure, c'mon. We'll go down the beach a while and then back up to the pools."

He starts down the walkway, toward a small set of steps that lead down to the beach. There's a row of umbrellas and chairs set up near the row of greenery that creates a natural divider between the beach and the living areas of the resort, though only a few of the umbrellas are open. The beach itself is pristine, the water beyond sparkling and blue.

There are a few people around farther down the beach, some in the beach chairs, some on their own towels enjoying the sun, but they're far enough away that they aren't likely to cross paths.

"Wonder if they're part of the Eye, too," Henley muses, as they move across the beach. She sheds her shoes, despite making sure they weren't heels, once they hit the sand. A pause follows, then, whether or not Jack actually has a guess on that one, she continues, "And man, look at the water."

It's beautiful. Better, even, than California, and despite how many people their beaches see, tourists and locals alike, that's saying something. They take great care to keep their beaches clean.

"I think everyone here is?" Jack returns and agrees. "Or, like... friends and family at the least."

He turns toward the ocean, too, nodding. "It's crazy. I thought shit like this only existed on postcards and in tourism videos." This is the first time he's been to a beach that he actually wanted to spend time on instead of just heading for the nearest boardwalk.

Henley throws another glance in the direction of the umbrellas, briefly tempted to go down there, talk to whoever's sunbathing. She thinks better of it, however, if only because she figures they don't want to be bothered on their vacation any more than she would want to be. Later, she thinks, some other time, some other place. There will be plenty of time to compare notes with other magicians, with real magic, later.

Forcing herself to return her attentions to Jack, that in mind, she flashes him a small, amused look. "And now we've gone around in a circle." She doesn't blame Jack for being taken aback by how picturesque this place is for all that the East River is not, but -- well, he said that already.

It's entirely possible she'll run into some of them at the pools later anyway.

Jack looks back at her - and then reaches out to slap her gently on the arm with the back of his hand. "Hey, some of us didn't spend years in La La Land," he teases, because while he loves New York, it's definitely not known for the same sort of beauty as the west coast.

There's also the fact that he's never had a real vacation ever. He's definitely a little fixated on the whole idea of spending time here with their family.

He's also going to belatedly try to stop that drifting through their connection. It may or may not work.

Henley waves him off, and while she starts to say something in response, some snarky answer on her lips to continue the banter, it dies as she catches at least a part of that, despite Jack's best efforts. Her expression dims a measure at a time as she tries to find some way of reassuring him, somehow, without beating him over the head with his own embarrassment or upset or whatever that he's never been on a real vacation.

"We're going to have to find you a pair of swim trunks or something," she decides, finally. It's subtle enough, she thinks.

"Sorry," Jack murmurs as her mood changes, as he realizes she picked up on that after all. He doesn't mean to be stuck on things that happened in the past, and most of the time he doesn't think about it too much, but every now and then, he's reminded of the fact that this is the first time he's really had a famiiy, the first time he's gotten to do a lot of things most people do when they're kids.

"Oh, crap, yeah," he agrees a moment later. "I hadn't even thought about that."

Well. He had thought about swimming and the hot tubs and so on, but it hadn't occurred to him yet he didn't own a bathing suit. He would have gotten there eventually and probably called room service or something.

"You're fine," Henley assures him, reaching, now, to touch his shoulder. She's not bothered by that shift in Jack's mood any more than she wishes she could do something about it. Hence her changing the subject, abruptly, to him and his lack of swimsuit -- and why she goes back to it, now, as she lets her hand drop again.

"But yeah, we can pick something up, here -- " There has to be a little tourist shop somewhere around here, she imagines. " -- or I know a couple of places out in California. Or ... " There are plenty of places to pick up a pair of decent swim trunks, if not here. She might look for a new bathing suit, too, while they're at it, because why not?

Jack shifts a little closer to her, into the touch, but grins as she refocuses on the other subject. "You just wanna use me as an excuse to go shopping," he teases, and it is possible he picked up on that part of it through the connection.

"On the plus side, it means you won't have to shop?" she teases. If he gets dragged along with her, he'll be doing the carrying, not the shopping, after all. "Seriously, though. You need a swimsuit and I need a new one. Let me take you out."

Jack squints at her for a moment, looking more puzzled than he really is. "I... don't think that's how it works but I learned like a year ago it's better if you're doing the planning, so..." He trails off with another grin at her. "Soon as we finish the grand tour," he promises a beat later and slightly more seriously. He really is willing to go with her to get stuff - and not just what he needs. He'll never turn down spending time with any of them.

Near-immediately, Henley starts to argue. She stops, however, when Jack doesn't, giving up on the protest in the same breath. A hum follows instead, agreeing, satisfied, and smiling, she nudges him again, if only because she can.

"Let's hurry it up, then. I'm already looking forward to dragging you all over Hollywood and Highland." More she's looking forward to getting everything taken care of so they can come back, enjoy the vacation, but it works for the joke. Shopping is not actually more important than here and now and the Horsemen.

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