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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"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.

Jack nudges her back in turn. "We should actually get around to telling the others to pack and all that at some point," he reminds her, like he's worried about how long it's going to take them to go shopping. He's really not, but he feels like he needs to object.

"But fine, fine. Let's go, then."

He gestures for her to lead the way and then falls into step with her, guiding her through the rest of the resort, showing her more of what he saw on his tour until they eventually work their way back around to the lobby. "So, uh... I think that's pretty much it."

"Well, I guess I could always go shopping on my own ... " she decides, looking mock disappointed as she knows Jack is just teasing, anyway. She's teasing, too, to be honest, the insinuation there that, if she goes shopping on her own and leaves Jack to let the others know what's going on, she will buy him the absolute worst swimsuit she can find. A speedo comes to mind -- followed immediately by images of a pair of faux denim short-shorts swim trunks she saw, once.

Either way, she follows him, taking in everything, thoughts of terrible swimsuits giving way to the repeated ideas that she and the other Horsemen will have a good time, here, that they need this, that it's beautiful. Even without the connection, all of that would be clear in the smile that lingers on her face at the end of the tour, soft and warm and pleased. Not to mention, "Yeah, I'm so ready for this."

"And bring me back something like... pink and orange plaid or something? Yeah, pass," Jack returns. "You've just gotta make sure Daniel doesn't kill me when he finds out I went bathing suit shopping with you."

He grins at her assessment. "Right? I figured it was about time we had an actual vacation instead of a, like... 'sit around the suite' vacation."

"I promise I won't let Danny kill you." She thinks she can distract Daniel by reminding him that, while he wasn't there for her to pick it out, he can still take some enjoyment in the way she looks in it -- and out of it, later. She's definitely going to take advantage of this not-sit-around-the-suite vacation and Danny, and --

-- and belatedly, she tries to nudge the metaphorical door on their connection closed a little, as Jack probably doesn't want to hear all of this. She also turns about eight shades of red. Turns out women think about sex just as often as men.

"Sorry."

"Thanks. That'd suck starting out a vacation with him sending spectral tigers after me or something."

He's also just going to make a face at that, shuddering.

"Not Merritt, thanks."

Not that Jack is mad, and that's clear in both his tone and his side of the connection - but they both know Merritt would have objected to her stopping that train of thought.

"No, I know. I wasn't ... " She didn't mean for him to get all of that. She wouldn't have allowed Merritt it, either, if he'd been here, even beyond knowing that he's really not as interested as he pretends to be, for the sake of the teasing nature of their relationship. She's just still getting used to this as much as any of them area, and -- God, she really needs to be more conscious of their connection, especially if they're going on vacation for however long. None of them need that window into her and Danny's sex life.

"Ugh," she finishes with, finally and for lack of anything else.

Jack stops walking forward, turning to face her. "Hey, no, I was teasing," he says quickly. "We're all still getting used to this, and no, I really don't wanna know what you and Danny are doing, but, like. We can take care of our side of it, too? Like... it shouldn't be all on you to have to worry about stuff not bleeding over if we can close a door on our side of it, too."

She and Daniel shouldn't have to do all the work in keeping the others out if the others can pull their own curtain.

"I know," she promises. "And I'm not ... " She doesn't regret her part in this, in choosing to have the connection remain. She loves the idea of being that much closer to the Horsemen, so she's not having second thoughts because of a moment's frustration.

"I'm just trying not to traumatize you guys," she finishes, rather than say that, however. She figures her feelings on the matter are clear enough, without. "Or make you do all the work."

It shouldn't be all on her, no, but it can't be all on them, either.

"You're pretty traumatizing a lot of the time," he teases, like the two of them are that extreme in their PDAs (spoiler: they're not).

"But we'll figure it out," he assures her. "I mean, it's still new. We figured out the four of us living and working together without killing each other, though, so this is gonna be easy." He offers her a more sincere smile, now.

Buoyed somewhat by the teasing, albeit if only for a moment, she makes a series of sick, wet kissy faces at him, miming that PDA. When he sobers again, and she does, she lets out a breath, allowing herself to truly relax, and nods. "Okay, yeah, good point."

A beat.

"We got this." It'll work out, and she can expect she'll be forgiven for anything that slips through until it does.

Jack makes a face back at her - and then nods. "We got this," he agrees - and then pauses a beat before he adds. "And hey, if it makes you feel any better, I'm pretty sure the only reason we're not getting grossness from Paris is the distance thing."

"Thank God for that," Henley breathes, equal parts amused and horrified, teasing and serious. "I want to think about Jacob having sex even less than I want to think about you guys thinking about me and Danny having sex."

A beat.

" ... and 'think' has definitely stopped sounding like a word, at this point." Which is true but also a way to get away from thinking about Dylan having sex in spite of herself.

"You think so?" Jack shoots back with a grin - and then snickers because yes, it has, but he had to get it in there one more time.

"But yeah. What are we doing now? Shopping, right?" he checks. "Are we going back through the lobby or am I just finding a door?"

"Ugh, stop," she demands, shoving him lightly. She sobers, however, after a moment and at the question, glancing over her shoulder in the direction of the resort proper. When she looks back to Jack, she pops that shoulder in a shrug. "Whichever's easier for you? I mean ... "

He's the one who's going to get them there, after all.

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