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

[the_lovers]

Again, Daniel glances briefly towards the stairs. When he looks back to Merritt, almost reluctantly, he asks, "To be continued?"

They really should actually start taking care of things, if they're planning on leaving tomorrow.

[the_hermit]

"Anytime," Merritt returns. "So I'm calling Agent Dray?" he asks, turning his attention back to Henley.

[the_highpriestess]

"I think that's the plan, yeah," Henley confirms, her amusement over Merritt and Daniel's tiff fading into something more serious. "And me and Jack still need to run by Jacob's place to throw together some stuff for him."

Though, whether Jack wants to pack, himself, first, or get that out of the way before packing for themselves is up to him.

"Though, try not to freak her out," she continues, regardless and after a beat. The very few times Merritt has called, it's been in the middle of a crisis situation. She doesn't want Alma to think this is more bad news.

[the_death_card]

"Let me put this down and we'll run by Dad's," Jack says over his shoulder from the middle of the stairs, apparently in response to Henley's thought.

Merritt watches him go and then looks back to Henley. "What am I telling her besides that we're going on vacation? Though.. that might be enough for her considering how often stuff is crazy around us."

He doesn't mean that as a bad thing, either, considering he's including their shows and that Alma usually has to be on the job around them.

[the_highpriestess]

Henley offers Jack a nod, a sense of understanding accompanying it (that's fine, take your time). Merritt, on the other hand, gets an almost apologetic smile, if only because, "That's about the gist of it. Oh, and that we're going to the beach."

So, she should probably pack a bathing suit and sunscreen and clothing for warm weather. Other than that, though, she's not sure what else Merritt should tell her.

[the_hermit]

"Right. Don't panic, just vacationing, got it." He passes the mental equivalent of a thumbs up through the connection as he turns toward the couches, taking his phone out of his pocket to scroll through it, looking for Alma's number.

Meanwhile, Jack reappears at the top of the stairs, his hands free, now. "Okay. You ready?" he asks Henley.

[the_highpriestess]

"Yep," Henley declares, abandoning her own bags in Dylan's usual seat. She doubts anyone will mind, given that Dylan's not here and the fact that they're all going to be packing soon, anyway. She'll grab them when they get back, on her way to pack for herself.

"We'll be back in a bit," she continues, for Merritt and Daniel's edification, and that in mind.

[the_death_card]

Merritt shoots them a thumbs up with his free hand as Jack jogs down the stairs, heading toward the door.

"You think we should let him know we're about to break into his apartment?" he asks Henley with a grin as they head for the elevator again.

[the_highpriestess]

"He'll figure it out," Henley tells him, mirroring the grin. If Dylan doesn't figure out where they are through the connection, he'll probably feel one of them drawing on the knowledge of where he 'lives' in Vegas, period -- assuming, of course, Jack doesn't already know. Either way, though, she doesn't think it'll take Dylan long to catch on to where they are, even if he doesn't understand the why.

[the_death_card]

Jack snickers a little as he stops in front of the elevator and pulls on his magic. "This one might take me a minute," he warns her, because yeah, he is going to have to try and get a sense of where they need to go through the connection.

He reaches out for the connection and for the Eye's network, looking for the one that pings correctly. It's a little more complicated, but it's still really just a lock, so it shouldn't take him long.

[the_highpriestess]

A flicker of confusion echoes back across the connection, Dylan not sure what Jack is feeling for or why, followed by the ebb and flow of mild panic as he reaches back, afraid that something might be happening again, gauges that no one feels upset, at least, and lets go, relaxing. He might check back again in a few minutes, when he can get to somewhere he can call Jack, the distance too much for conversation, as new as the connection still is, but he can at least take comfort in the fact that it's not an emergency for those few minutes. It helps, too, that Henley feels that, Jack not the only person Dylan reached for, and sends something soothing back. It's okay. They're okay.

And closer, now, much to Dylan's continued bewilderment, as they step through the door Jack opens and into an alley somewhere much hotter than New York, but in a different way. Dylan's FBI apartment isn't far; they're in Vegas, now.

[the_death_card]

When Jack finishes messing with the network, he sends dismissal back through the connection. They're good; don't worry about it.

"Nice," he comments outloud when he gets a sense of where they are, grinning at Henley - and then looking a little more chagrined. "He's gonna call in a minute, isn't he."

[the_highpriestess]

"He's definitely gonna call," Henley confirms. There's a flicker of guilt there, for worrying Dylan however briefly, but it is just a flicker, then and then gone, fading back into something more playful. She's excited about this, still, all of it, and that in mind, she continues, "Think we can make it to his apartment, before he calls?"

It's a game, now, a race.

[the_death_card]

Jack's grin brightens again, turning more mischievous a beat before he turns to start jogging down the alley, heading for where he can feel Dylan's apartment is. That's going to be the hardest part of this, considering he doesn't expect to have any issues actually getting inside.

[the_highpriestess]

It's not long before the apartment complex where she assumes Dylan's apartment to be comes into view, and while he still hasn't called (she can sense his impatience to get away from whatever he's doing, so he can call), she still starts to slow as they approach.

"Hold on a second," she calls to Jack, to get him to stop, too. When he does, she continues, "Do you think we should just barge in there? I mean, like ... " Maybe they should take a minute, make themselves relatively invisible, just in case. She doesn't think they're going to be noticed, but she also doesn't want Dylan to have to explain why the neighbor saw two of the Four Horsemen breaking into his place.

[the_death_card]

Jack stops as Henley calls after him turning back around to face her. He makes a face at himself when she speaks. "Right, yeah, that's a good point. We can go all stealth mode or whatever. And there might be a backdoor? Like, a fire exit or something?"

He turns around again, considering the building and where they might find one.

[the_highpriestess]

"There's gotta be," Henley agrees. She, too, takes a moment to look around, then wryly, she suggests, "Around back?" Where, you know, one might expect to find a back door.

[the_death_card]

Jack picks up on the sarcasm despite the fact that she doesn't actually say it and offers her the mental equivalent of an eye roll as he heads for the back of the building.

It doesn't take him long to find the previously mentioned backdoor - nor does it take him long to get it open despite the fact that it's clearly labeled as a fire door. He holds it open for Henley and then heads for the stairs, jogging up them toward the floor he picked up from Dylan.

[the_highpriestess]

Henley offers him a sense of a sour face in return, then, cautious, pulls a shroud of illusion around them, regardless of whether or not Jack's already done the honors. Better safe than sorry, she figures, not wanting to blow Dylan's cover over something fun, and with Jack doing most of the rest of the magical heavy lifting, well -- like she said, better safe than sorry.

That done, she follows him up the stairs, to the second floor, Dylan's apartment the first door they come to, that a subconscious choice, him wanting to put himself between the other people that live here and any potential danger. He would have preferred a first floor apartment for that reason, too, but he wasn't that lucky. This serves, though, and inside, the apartment is neat but seemingly lived in, done in blacks and whites and greys, another subconscious choice. There's a sketchbook on the coffee table, one of Dylan's safe for work ones, sitting between two couches and just inside the door, with an empty mug abandoned beside it. Scattered around, there are a handful of bookcases, displaying books on true crime and art and baseball, spaced out by sports memorabilia. There's a hallway, just next to one of the bookcases that leads back into the bath and bedrooms, and a kitchen off to one side, but Henley ignores all of it, taking in the room here, first. It's all oddly Dylan, as much as the suite is, and not at the same time. It's like things are missing. Things are missing, if you know really know him -- about half a life's worth. No magic can ever be found here, after all, no pictures of his father or decks of cards, and it's jarring, somehow.

Shaking her head, pulling herself out of the moment, she glances to Jack quietly.

[the_death_card]

Jack appreciates the magical help, yeah.

He turns away from the alarm's keypad, scanning the room briefly. There's a sense of him being vaguely unsettled by the whole thing, too, and he shakes his head a little to clear it before he looks to Henley. "So, uh... I guess we should try and find a bag or a suitcase or something."

[the_highpriestess]

"I wanna say it's probably in a closet somewhere?" Henley guesses after a moment. Before they so much as start in that direction, however, Jack's phone starts to ring, and even without the connection, Henley can guess who it is. She can't help but look amused all at once, any lingering disquiet going with it.

"Better answer that," she tells him, nodding towards his pocket. As if he wouldn't.

[the_death_card]

Jack looks equally bemused, chuckling softly as he fishes his phone out of his pocket and swipes to answer it with barely a glance to confirm the number. "Hey, where do you keep your duffel bags or whatever?" he asks into the phone.

[onebehind]

Dylan is silent for a moment, clearly baffled by the question, that not quite in line with -- whatever he thought was going on here. When he manages to find his words, he asks, "Wait, did you just break into my apartment?"

That would explain a lot.

[the_death_card]

Jack's grin is audible over the phone line. "Yep," he confirms, popping the 'p' a little. "We might have booked a vacation?"

They definitely booked a vacation and they are definitely kidnapping you, Dylan.

[onebehind]

"Okay," Dylan drawls, this slowly starting to make more sense, even if it's a little abrupt. Still, for all that he never takes off, he's pretty sure he'll be able to sell Evans on letting him have a few days. Though, "When? For how long?"