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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Jack just looks amused as she drops back down. "Kinda glad Merritt's the tallest of us." He rubs his fingers together, calling up a spark before he reaches out to touch it to the elevator's call button. It takes him a moment to find the one for the hotel, longer than it usually takes him to find either the warehouse or the suite considering it's still new. "At least things are kinda even."

He's usually the shortest in any group. It's nice that they're all more or less matched.

"You're still the shortest of you boys," Henley tells him, teasing, as if she sensed his not-quite upset about usually being the shortest. Never mind the fact that Danny's about the same height, if not the same height. Never mind the fact that she's the shortest, period, of all five of them. She still has to bust his balls.

It'll give them something to do until they 'land' and the doors open.

"I'd threaten to go find a goth shop and get some platform boots, but we all know I'd bust my ass in them," he returns, levering himself up out of his corner as the elevator slows. "You can keep the heels."

"You sure?" Henley asks, mock-innocent, as she, too, shifts, preparing for the doors to open and Jack to lead them into Vacationland. "You might surprise yourself."

Heels are -- no, actually they are that much of a pain in the ass. Never mind.

"Pass," Jack says again as the doors open, revealing the same view of the hotel lobby he had found earlier in the day. "And, uh. Welcome to Cancun?" he offers, gesturing for her to lead the way out of the elevator. He wants her to get the same chance at a first look he had.

Humming, Henley steps out into the hallway and looks down it, into the lobby Jack noted when he first arrived. She makes another soft noise, as she shoots a glance back at him. "If I didn't know better, I'd wonder if you hadn't just told me we were going to Cancun, and then made me sit through an elevator ride."

But the ride was too short. But the front desk, what she can see of it here, is different. But a lot of things, really, but it's still amusing. She wonders if Jack had a moment where he doubted himself, too, when he first arrived.

"Right?" Jack returns, amused. "I thought I'd done something weird with the trick when I first saw this place. But yeah, it's, uh. Definitely not New York out there." He gestures, vaguely, meaning to indicate the windows that make up most of the walls of the lobby - and the view beyond them.

"Kinda makes me wonder if I had the same thought because you had it earlier or if I just had it, period," she muses, absently, apparently not truly bothered as she drifts into the lobby and over towards the windows. After a minute of looking out over the beach beyond them, she shakes her head faintly and lets out a breath of a laugh, "Wow."

It's the best she's got, immediately.

"Huh," Jack returns after a moment. "Good question. And I don't know. I mean, we were out of range, so I doubt you heard it from me before, but..." Maybe him remembering having that thought is what made her have it. Who knows. He ponders on that as he follows her into the lobby and across to the wall of windows overlooking the beach. "Right? I mean, I still love how the city looks, but this is..." He trails off, leaving the breath-taking unspoken.

"But you thought about it again, just now, and ... " And that's where she pulled it from. Or maybe not. Again, though, she's more amused and curious rather than actually bothered by any of this. It's weird, but it's not bad weird.

Again, the thought doesn't linger long, if only because she's busy taking in the view outside the window, yes. She shakes her head after a beat, and without being able to peel her eyes off the beach, outside, "God, this is better than, like, Venice Beach and El Matador combined."

The fact that she's not freaked out by it means that Jack's not going to be either - he might be if she was, but they'll deal with all this together, so it's fine - and he grins. "Especially considering there's not gonna be like fifty thousand college students all over the place."

It's theirs, the Eye's, and he's so ready for some time with just his family.

"Always a plus," she shoots back. Admittedly, sometimes she doesn't mind the crowds, sometimes she goes to Venice Beach just to people-watch, but -- yeah. She's ready for a break, alone with the family. She'll more than happily take the quiet and the privacy afforded by it, right now.

"Come take a walk with me?" she suggests, rather than put all of that to words, however, knowing Jack likely got it all, anyway. She starts towards the doors tentatively, shooting a glance back at Jack.

"Yep," Jack agrees immediately, turning away from the windows and taking a couple of quick steps to catch up with her. "I'll show you some of the stuff she showed me, and their, like.. cabin things and everything."

Cabins, cabanas, whatever. He's pretty sure it's essentially the same thing.

"Sounds good," Henley decides, hanging back a step, then two, so that Jack can catch up with her, lead the way. And if it isn't clear enough why she's hanging back, she makes it so with a gesture and a, "Lead the way."

Jack does take the lead, heading down a hallway that leads out of the lobby and to the outdoors. It feels as nice outside as it looked, and Jack glances back at Henley again as he starts toward the cabanas, pointing out some of the other things Lillie had shown him, too.

"You know, considering Aria and the Peninsula, it probably shouldn't've surprised me so much that the Eye has stuff like this."

"You and me, both," Henley agrees. Still, despite her waning surprise, she's grateful the Eye does have places like this. It'll be nice to get away for awhile, after all the shit that's happened, lately.

And speaking of, as they get closer to the cabanas, she nods towards them, curiously. "Have you been inside, yet?" Are they even allowed to go in before their reservations start?

Jack knows the feeling. It's why he went ahead and put them down for this without asking the others, first. They need a break after everything and before they get back into a heavier show schedule.

He glances at her and then follows her nod toward the cabanas. "Oh, yeah, the, uh... Lillie took me inside a couple of them. They're really nice. Like... all our hotel rooms have been nice, but I feel like it's different when there's a beach right outside, y'know?" He shoots Henley a grin.

"I... was going to say I don't know if any of them are open now, but if they're not, we'll just find one nobody's using and help ourselves."

It wasn't like locks had been an issue for him for a while, now, and that was before his actual magic had progressed to the point it has.

"Definitely," she agrees. Don't get her wrong, she loves New York, but well, there's a reason why she stayed in California for as long as she did that goes beyond that just being where she started out. She could have stayed in Chicago, with Danny, even after they broke up; she could have gone east, instead. She'd gone back to Los Angeles because she'd missed the people, the culture, the beaches that both revolved around, and New York is sadly lacking, in that department. So, yeah. She's totally on board with having the sun and sand right outside, even if it's just for a week or two, now.

She's also on board with a little maybe breaking and entering, and that in mind, she continues, "But yeah. Let's find something."

Jack continues leading the way through the property, heading toward the cabanas, toward the same ones the concierge had shown him before. They still look uninhabited, but Jack knocks lightly, pausing a moment before he tries the handle. It's locked, and he gives a little shrug before he reaches out again to rest a hand on the knob. There's the slight feeling of static in the air as he pulls on his magic - and he frowns as it takes a moment before he turns the knob to let them in. "Okay, I guess it should figure the Eye would know about people that can unlock whatever they want," he admits as he pushes the door open.

"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.

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