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_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.

[the_death_card]

Jack snorts, amused, and reaches up to run a hand through his hair. "Yeah, good point," he agrees - and there's an echo of those same feelings. Just because Jack is a lot more open with that sort of thing than Daniel doesn't change the fact that he is glad to have them.

[the_lovers]

Daniel is uncharacteristically silent for a moment, following that, armor momentarily stripped as his mood turns towards something both thoughtful and hesitant, like he's debating sharing some great secret with Jack. He is, perhaps, as after a beat, he ventures, "One of these days, we should do the whole tourist thing in Chicago."

He may not have fond memories of his blood family but he has fond memories of his city and he wants to share them with the Horsemen.

[the_death_card]

There's a sense of Jack waiting for whatever Daniel has to say - but he doesn't stare at him while he considers, picking up his phone for a moment before he looks back at the other man. "Yeah man, definitely. I've never actually been up there."

Just this once, he'll save his opinions on Chicago pizza.

[the_lovers]

Daniel appreciates Jack not busting his balls about Chicago pizza, right now. For all that his heart's a little bit on display, right here, right now, he probably wouldn't have taken it well.

"Okay," he says instead, something pleased in that one word. "Great."

[the_death_card]

They all like to pick at each other, but they also all know when not to bust each other's balls at this point.

Jack just offers him another grin - and then looks up toward the suite's second floor. "So should we start taking bets on whether Henley or Merritt'll be ready next?"

[the_lovers]

Mood shifting away from the serious, Daniel follows Jack's gaze up the stairs. He effects a mock-thoughtful look before he answers, "My money's on Merritt." A beat, then he clarifies, "You realize that Henley's room has become, like, this walk-in closet-slash bunny hutch, right?"

[the_death_card]

"Yeah, I take it back. Not betting against you on that one," he agrees easily. "Also, Merritt basically wears the same thing everyday."

Not that his wardrobe has a lot of variety, but that's beside the point at the moment.

[the_lovers]

"Yeah, that really doesn't hurt, either," Daniel agrees. This time, when he pauses, it's mostly for effect. "You think he actually owns any shorts? Or is it all, like, khakis or whatever?"

[the_hermit]

"Are you saying you actually want to see me show some leg, Danny Boy?" Merritt asks from the second floor of the suite, amusement in his tone, and Jack grins as he tilts his head to watch the other man make his way down the stairs.

[the_lovers]

"Oh, God," Daniel groans, as if he hadn't thought about shorts entailing skin. He takes a moment, clearly trying to will the mental image away. "Please don't."

Don't have shorts, Merritt. Please don't wear the shorts.

[the_hermit]

You started it, Daniel.

"We're going to a beach, right? You know that involves bathing suits. What if all I have are Speedos?"

[the_lovers]

Daniel takes a moment to consider that, before, "You know, I don't think that'd be so bad, actually. I mean, you're pasty enough under all the -- " He gestures to himself, bodily. Merritt is, as a whole, just pasty. " -- that it'd probably keep anyone from being able to look at you for too long."

The beacons are lit and all that. Not that he has any room to talk.