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]

"Sadly, I don't think there really are any good ones left in LA," she tells her as they head for the elevator.

She pauses when the reach it, calling up her magic before pushing the button to call it. The doors open almost immediately and she steps inside, waiting for Alma to join her before hitting a button for their floor, at random. It doesn't matter what she picks -- when the doors open again, they won't be in Alma's apartment building anymore, but in the lobby of the hotel.

[the_star]

"Too touristy?" she guesses. Alma has a feeling there aren't too many places in LA that aren't super touristy, even though she's never actually been there.

[the_highpriestess]

"People bring their friends from out of town to see this quiet, little beach they know about, and then they tell their friends, and then suddenly, it's not so quiet anymore," she agrees with a nod. "It kinda sucks, but ... "

That's the nature of the beast, she supposes.

"Jack's beach seems super quiet, though."

[the_star]

"It would stand to reason," she begins, "if it's just for the Eye. And friends of the Eye." Since she wouldn't count otherwise. "I don't think Jacob's ever told me how many of you there are, but I can't imagine all of them coming and bringing their friends at once."

[the_highpriestess]

"I think he said a few hundred thousand?" she guesses. She's pretty sure that's right; she second-guesses herself almost immediately despite that. A shrug follows, either way. "But yeah, I'm pretty sure not everyone's gonna show up at the same time, with company."

Intent on saying something else after that, it dies on her lips as the elevator slows to a stop. Suddenly vibrating again, she hurriedly tells Alma, "You go first," in the heartbeat before the doors slide open. She wants her to see the hotel, even if it is just the lobby.

[the_star]

Alma reaches for her suitcase's handle as the elevator stops. She offers Henley a smile, knowing what she's doing - and then steps out into the lobby. Immediately, her eyes widen, her mouth dropping open slightly. "Wow," she says simply, struck just by the lobby.

Yeah, she can understand Henley's excitement, now.

[the_highpriestess]

"It gets better," she promises her, gently.

A pause follows, a moment allowed for her to take at least a measure of it all in, and then, a little louder, she ventures, "You wanna go by the rooms, so you can drop your stuff, and then we'll do the five dollar tour? Or ... " Or does she want the tour now, her luggage left to the staff, like theirs had been?

[the_star]

Alma looks around for that long moment, struck - and then looks back to Henley. "We can drop off my things. I'd like to see where we're staying."

And yes, she would like to see more of the resort, but she assumes the Horsemen are already getting settled in, so she wouldn't mind to catch up in that regard.

[the_highpriestess]

"Fine by me," she agrees, brushing past her finally, to lead the way. They can still take their time, as they head in that direction, so Alma can at least take in some of the resort, if not the whole experience. "C'mmon."

[the_star]

Alma waits to let Henley lead the way, considering she doesn't even know the general direction they need to go. She will walk with her once they get outside, though.

"This is definitely the fanciest place I've ever stayed, even when we've taken vacations before," she says once they're outside.

[the_highpriestess]

"Same, honestly," she tells her. "I mean, the Aria was nice and everything, but it was still kind of just a hotel room, you know? This is way different."

Not that that was a vacation, per se, for all that they were working at the time, but still. That was probably the fanciest hotel she'd ever stayed in, at that point, and this definitely trumps that.

[the_star]

Alma nods, because the Aria is also nicer than anywhere she's stayed before. "Definitely. I've never been anywhere this... spread out."

That's not quite the way she wants to word that, but it's close enough.

"I've also never been to Mexico, so this is new that way, too."

She hadn't actually done much travelling that wasn't for work.

[the_highpriestess]

"You speak any Spanish?" she wonders. She's not sure if she'd be more surprised if Alma did or if she didn't. She knows how smart Alma is, after all -- and how much she likes to further that intelligence, if all the books in her apartment are any indication. She also knows that knowing two languages is already a lot, however.

[the_star]

"Sort of?" she returns. "It has a lot in common with French, so it wasn't that difficult. But I also don't have much chance to use it."

She's a little out of practice - and she's likely to end up mixing French phrases in with the Spanish if she doesn't think about it carefully.

"You? What do you speak?"

She hasn't had much chance to talk to any of the Horsemen, and she would like to know more about all of them - but maybe especially Henley, considering Alma absolutely knows what it's like to be a woman in a traditionally male profession.

[the_highpriestess]

"Mostly just the French," she admits, a little embarrassed all at once in spite of herself. "Merritt speaks some Spanish, but he might be the only one. I'm pretty sure the rest of us just speak English and Bad English."

Little does she know that Dylan speaks Chinese -- or that he's been picking up French from Alma, when they've spent time together.

[the_star]

Alma chuckles a little, recognizing the reference. "Merritt also speaks some French, I think, though it's terrible."

She's mostly joking - she knows he lived in New Orleans for a while, so she can't really blame him for the accent.

"Jacob mentioned speaking some Chinese, too."

[the_highpriestess]

Henley nods -- Merritt does, in fact, speak some French.

Beyond that, though, she doesn't clarify, eyebrows going up at the idea that Dylan speaks Chinese. Obviously, that hasn't come up, and isn't something she would have guessed. She supposes it makes sense, though, if only because, "Wonder if he's spent a lot of time in Macau or something."

She at least recognizes that there's a presence of stage magicians there. Probably because it's the Las Vegas of Asia.

[the_star]

"I think so. He's been learning French, and we were talking about languages and it came up. He mentioned there being a lot of magical history there - something about the oldest magic shop?"

They'd had an actual conversation about it, but Alma doesn't feel like she needs to expound on the whole thing right now.

[the_highpriestess]

"I feel like I've heard about the shop, at least," Henley decides after a moment. Whether that's her own knowledge, her own experience, or something she's pulled from her connection to the Horsemen, now or before, she's not sure. Either way, it rings a sort of bell.

"I've never been, though," she finishes after a beat and regardless. "Going to Paris was the first time I'd really been out of the country." Barring, say, taking a day trip down to Mexico, back before you needed a passport to get over the border.

[the_star]

"Really?" Alma asks, honestly surprised by that. Henley seems like a well-travelled person. "How much touring did you do while you were working with Daniel before?"

She assumes they were mostly within the United States, but she is curious all the same.

[the_highpriestess]

"Not a whole lot," she answers, a little embarrassed for reasons she can't quite name. Maybe it's the fact that she and Daniel were something of a train wreck, before, and that there's a certain amount of shame that comes with that. Maybe it's just that she wishes she was more travelled, and not just another Boring American with no sense of the world outside themselves.

Either way, after a moment, she continues, "I think our biggest claim to fame was a couple of the theaters on Michigan Avenue in Chicago." On the Magnificent Mile, where most of the Broadway theaters are. "I don't know if Danny knew a guy or what, but ... "

It had always felt oddly a little above their paygrade, so to speak.

[the_star]

Alma looks vaguely apologetic, considering she didn't mean to bring up unpleasant memories with that question - or imply that Henley is a Boring American. She wouldn't apply that label to any of the Horsemen, just based solely on their choice of profession.

"I've never been to Chicago," she admits. "I'm guessing that's the big theater district?"

[the_highpriestess]

"Like Broadway in New York," Alma confirms with a nod. She doesn't question that Alma might not be familiar with that -- everyone knows Broadway, whether they've seen it in person or not. "Except half the theaters in Chicago were owned by gangsters, back in the day. They don't really advertise that part, though."

[the_star]

Alma definitely knows Broadway - and she has seen it, even though she's never actually seen a show.

"From what I know about Chicago, it sounds like half of the whole city was owed by gangsters back in the day."

She's... half-joking with that? That does seem to be Chicago's reputation, anyway, from what she knows both from actual history and from fictional representations.

[the_highpriestess]

"Pretty much," she agrees with a shrug, only half-kidding, herself. If she plans on elaborating on that, for better or worse, however -- well, it's something they'll have to come back to, later, as the cabanas are nearer, now.

"And here we are," she tells her, as if it's not obvious. Daniel's voice drifts out of an open door, though what he's saying is indiscernible, if she needs further proof.