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]

Daniel is silent long enough to flash Merritt a (teasingly) cold smile. When he drops it again, he holds up one finger, silently asking for a second, then ducks back into his room. When he reappears again, it's with a ball of clean socks, possibly meant for his suitcase -- which he proceeds to pitch at Merritt's head.

[the_hermit]

Merritt raises an eyebrow at Daniel at that request, getting through the connection that he's planning something but not exactly what - and then sputters as the socks come flying at his head. "Why I oughta..." he grumbles as he turns to find them again, intending to throw them back at Daniel, but there's still definite amusement there.

Jack just snorts, shaking his head a little, equally amused.

[the_lovers]

Daniel immediately ducks back into his room, when Merritt turns to look for the socks. He peeks back out, a moment after that, just the top of his head, to make sure Merritt isn't coming up the stairs. Either way, though, he seems more amused, mentally, himself, rather than actually concerned.

After a beat, though, he does note, "Yeah, I'm gonna need those back."

[the_hermit]

Yeah, no, Merritt's that dedicated to getting Daniel back to go up the stairs; he was mostly joking with that, in the sense of his "oh, you" after Daniel said he was touched.

"These your lucky ones?" he asks - but he does toss them back up to him.

[the_lovers]

"The ones I'm going to put on the door, when I'm busy with your mom," Daniel corrects, effortlessly. He turns, that said and socks back in hand, and tosses the clothing back into his room, before returning his attentions to Merritt. He's expecting a good comeback, but for now, he's smirking like the cat that caught the canary.

[the_hermit]

"Probably a good idea," Merritt returns dutifully and casually. "She needs hers for the circulation in her legs."

It's not so much a comeback as it is a comment on the fact that, if Daniel is going for Merritt's mother, his taste toward women leans toward the really, really old.

[the_lovers]

"Yeah, okay, I'm sorry I said anything," he answers, his expression nothing less than horrified and all at once. Why would you force that mental image on him, Merritt? Why?

[the_hermit]

You asked for it, Danny.

"They match those orthopedic shoes she wears so well, though. I know you're a shoe guy."

Is he a shoe guy? Merritt doesn't actually know.

[the_lovers]

Once again, Daniel holds up a hand, indicating that Merritt wait just a minute, and once again, he returns with a ball of socks aimed for his head. And if the sentiment isn't obvious, he tells him, "Screw you, McKinney."

[the_hermit]

Merritt just laughs a little as Daniel returns, smiling up at him. You love him, Danny.

[the_lovers]

"Yeah, no, not really," Daniel shoots back, never mind the fact that Merritt didn't actually say that out loud. He doesn't seem bothered by that fact, however -- nor does he actually mean what he says. He does love him. For some fucking reason.

"But anyway, uh," he continues after a beat, before trailing off. He's creating a space for wisdom.

[the_death_card]

"Um... Agent Dray?" Jack prompts after a moment, because he's not sure where that discussion ended.

"Will be ready to go when someone wants to go pick her up," Merritt repeats.

"Alright, cool. I guess I need to actually pack." Not that it will take him that long, but still.

[the_highpriestess]

"Me, too," Henley says, dipping into their bags for her half of the haul. "Meet back down here in, like, an hour?" That seems like a reasonable amount of time to pack.

[the_death_card]

"Sure," Jack returns - though it definitely won't take him that long. He's more content to let her set how long it will take her, though, than trying to make her rush. It's not like they're in any great hurry, anyway.

[the_lovers]

"Yep," Daniel agrees, already ducking back into his room.

Already halfway done, then, he's the first to reappear at the top of the stairs, dragging his suitcase along with him. He sets it down near one of the couches, once he's downstairs, and then takes up the seat next to it, settling in to wait. If he reaches for a deck of cards to occupy himself with, to pass the time, it's absolutely muscle memory, at this point.

[the_death_card]

It's not long before Jack comes downstairs, his duffle bag over his shoulder. He drops it on the other couch and flops down next to it, kicking his feet up onto the coffee table. "You know, I didn't even own a swimsuit until like... half an hour ago," he comments, because he's still a little bemused by that.

[the_lovers]

"Okay, I'm from a more landlocked state than you -- " And never mind the fact that Lake Michigan is right there, and plenty of people go swimming there, in the summers. " -- and I owned a bathing suit. So, how'd you manage to pull that off?"

Living so close to any number of beaches.

[the_death_card]

Jack shrugs, tamping down the thought that comes to mind that he's never really had a reason to own one, given that he doesn't know how to swim. "I'd never really been outta New York before we did all that travelling - and it's not like we really had time to hit up the beach during all that."

[the_lovers]

"What a homebody," Daniel teases. A pause follows, largely for effect, and then he adds, "But okay, well, uh -- congratulations on your first bathing suit, I guess?"

[the_death_card]

Jack narrows his eyes at him a little - but then grins. "Thanks. Little sad I missed out on ones with like... baby turtles, but I'm happy with what we found."

He pauses a beat, too. "You ready for this?" For vacation, he means.

[the_lovers]

"You realize that Henley could probably make you some, if you're really that into baby turtles." There's probably fabric like that, somewhere, right?

It's largely rhetorical, anyway -- he doesn't expect an answer, nor does he really give Jack time to give one. Instead, he drops his head onto the back of the couch with a dramatic groan, and if that's not answer enough, as he rights himself, he answers, "I'd say like you wouldn't believe, but well."

He needs this. They all do.

[the_death_card]

Yeah, they do.

He smiles, chuckling a little as he watches Daniel. "You take vacations without somebody having to force you into them, before you met us?"

He can't imagine why he would think Daniel would be the kind of person to never want to stop working. No idea.

[the_lovers]

"Please," Daniel scoffs. "Do I look like Mister Most Likely to Take a Vacation to you?"

Honestly, he's not sure he ever has taken a real vacation. He's sure Henley pulled him away from his work a time or two, while they were dating that first time, but that was nothing like this. That was dinner or a night out on the town, not days removed from work, not little bungalows on sandy beaches. And that's to say nothing of his family who, well, weren't really the vacationing type, to put it mildly.

For all that it's meant to be a joke, for all that this is just banter, he can't help but make a face at that last thought, as he feels his own mood sour just the tiniest bit. After a beat, too, he mutters, "Sorry."

[the_death_card]

Jack chuckles a little, nodding. "Yeah, that's what I thought."

He waves a hand at Daniel both physically and through the connection, dismissing the apology. "We've all got that shit in common," he assures him. "It's why I kinda assumed and went ahead and signed us up without asking, first. Pretty sure none of us have ever had a, like... actual 'family vacation'."

There's a sense of the air quotes through the connection and as he raises his hands to mimic them in a gesture, too.

This is a family vacation for them. It's why they went and broke into Dylan's apartment and why they're going to pick up Agent Dray.

[the_lovers]

"Pretty sure none of us have ever had a, like ... actual family," Daniel shoots back, his choice of words mocking and at odds with what's going on in his head. He's glad he has them; he's glad they have this.