and straight on til morning

[princehonorable]

The deep level of mistrust that David holds for his current predicament knows no bounds.

For one, finding himself aboard the Jolly Roger with a pirate, the evil queen intent on making his wife's life an unhappy hell, and his distressed daughter? Not good. Watching Rumplestiltskin evaporate into thin air and doing god knows what where he can't see him? Even more not good. Walking through the Captain's cabin door and stumbling when his sea legs give out from under him because there's no more ocean to compensate for? Yeah, that part is what David's really trying to get used to.

He doesn't have his sword because he'd been looking for a map and didn't think he'd need it to defend himself, but Hook had apparently rigged himself up a portal that led from the seas outside Neverland to this strange building. He'd arrived just as a party was breaking up and he'd watched odd people in mad costumes filter out through the hotel -- though some people went through doors and never came back -- and try as he might, the best answer that he could get out of anyone was this and only this: Nexus Hotel.

He thought he'd seen a familiar face or two, but they were only passing by and wouldn't stop to answer his questions, which is how he's found himself sitting at the bar, chocolate milk in hand and staring forward as he tries to think up a plan.

He will always, always find his family, but sometimes it seems like the universe truly enjoys testing him.

Comments

[thelostprince]

He tapped the rim of his glass, silently asking the bartender for a refill, but he kept his attention on the man he was speaking with.

"Getting who back?" he asked. "Sounds like quite a bit of trouble." Not that Loki disagreed with trying to fetch a family member from certain harm; rather, before his fall, such a thing would never have been a question for him. But the fact his own family apparently hadn't given much thought to their youngest son tumbling into an abyss tended to sour his perspective.

[princehonorable]

"My grandson," he replies, knowing how it's going to make him sound, but not actually caring right now. Somewhere, Henry is out there in the clutches of Pan or whatever nefarious plan he has in place and David isn't going to abandon his family to that fate, especially not after losing Emma. "He was kidnapped. Stolen."

[thelostprince]

Loki considered the man for a moment. Not out of confusion, since, while the man did not look grandfatherly to him, that was really an individual's perspective. Loki was a young man on Asgard, but ancient on Earth; and while even they grew old and aged, it did take quite a while. Still, he didn't think he was looking at something similar. That didn't strike him as quite right. "Who took him?" He asked. "The doors that lead to this place are rather tricky. You might even find him here eventually. Or you'll never see him again, though from what I understand this place eventually lets you out."

[princehonorable]

"Tamara and Greg," Charming says, though the names mean little to him and he's sure they mean very little to this man, too. "We didn't think they were anyone, but they had come to our town with the ulterior motive of stealing Henry for...we don't know, some sick purpose, probably," he says heatedly. "I can't let him be taken from us, not like ... I just can't," he says firmly.

[thelostprince]

The story didn't make him pause, since he wasn't terribly interested in the details. Instead he tipped his head slightly to the side, in vague confusion that, knowing him, could be completely fabricated. "If you so desperately want him back, what are you doing standing here and drinking whatever that is?" He asked. "Am I missing your grand plan or is that just how it's done where you're from? Perhaps you're waiting for someone," he continued, in the tone of voice people employed when they had a tendency to carry on a conversation with themselves. "I wonder who."

[princehonorable]

"I keep trying," Charming says, the pain heavy in the words. "Every time I go back to the door I walked through, it brings me somewhere else. And I try and I try and it either stays closed or it opens up to another room in the hotel and Henry is out there with Pan while Snow has to cope with Regina and Rumplestiltskin..." He presses his lips together tightly. "If you know the way out, tell me," he insists.

[thelostprince]

Loki shook his head. He probably would have done the same thing if he had known a way out, but as it was, the truth suited him in that moment. He dragged the tip of his finger over the rim of his glass, looking almost careless about each word her carefully dropped. "The way out is more complicated than you might think," he said. "If you find yourself lacking the aptitude to control a door to do your will - well, then you may have to make do. Some go as they please. I can reach my world just fine - but it lacks a certain charisma. I prefer it here."

[princehonorable]

"I don't," Charming says curtly, staring at him curiously as he lifts up his chin as if in challenge. "What about you? If you can open a door to your world, then you might be able to get to mine..." he falters, now, struggling to remember the name. "Who are you, anyhow?"

[thelostprince]

"I am Loki," he said, frankly; his name was usually explanation enough, though these days it tended to inspire a great number of reactions, including - for the first time in his life - a complete lack of recognition. But as he lifted his glass to his lips, he suddenly froze, and narrowed his eyes at the other man, and put the glass back down on the bar with a bit more force than normal.

"The lack of facial hair and tittering woman really threw me off," he said. "Unless it's not you. But if it is I have to say, I'm impressed."

[princehonorable]

"Loki, huh," Charming echoes, not recognizing the name at all. "You can call me Charming," he says, not wanting to give his name in these circumstances and besides, Snow's anointed name has been one he's responded to for years. "I'm not sure where the facial hair or tittering women come in, though," he admits, confused as to what Loki's talking about.

[thelostprince]

'Charming' would be the sort of idiotic name Fandral would try to give himself in a flash if for some reason he couldn't use his own. But Loki didn't think this was the case. Fandral had a certain flamboyant personality which Loki didn't think he would ever be able to tamp down, no matter what the circumstances. Unless there was a strange sort of brainwashing or alternate reality at work. Possible. He picked up his drink again.

"You look like someone I know," he said. "He takes down fair maidens faster than he can take down the enemy."

[princehonorable]

"Well, there's only one fair maiden I've ever had true eyes for," Charming assures, given that before Snow had taken his heart, there had only been passing fancies. "Maybe you know my twin brother? He's...the sort to take maidens down with a flick of his tongue and a quick wave," he dryly says.

[thelostprince]

"No, I am thinking of someone else. But if you have a form shared by more than one individual in the universe, that's certainly something to think about," he mused. Was there more than one consciousness populating a form similar to Loki's? What an odd thing to consider. "Have you gone through portals before? You do seem relatively calm about all of this."

[princehonorable]

Charming sighs heavily. "If this were my first time wandering into another world, I might be worried, but I lost track after falling into the sleeping world," he says. And that had been before finding his way to Neverland. "What about you? You don't seem to be too stressed about this place."

[thelostprince]

"I know doorways. They're a hobby of mine," Loki said. He was always stuck between wanting to talk about his passions and keeping them under wraps; sometimes he found a good medium was to downplay what he knew. Which even then, he ended up saying quite a bit when he wasn't careful. But this was a new world, a new leaf, he didn't need to worry too much. "Each world has its spots, but this building is different. Instead of cracks in reality they manifest entirely as doors. The hotel itself seems to be a gathering point. Keeps things neat, but difficult to control."

[princehonorable]

Charming listens carefully, hanging on every word in the event he'll find a way out of the maze if he only pays attention. "So then you might know the way out," he latches onto that. "Which doors? Which ones would you try to get back to where you once were?"

[thelostprince]

Loki laughed. "All I have to do is find a door that feels agreeable to me, and I direct it from there," he said. "And it may or may not be so for all the others here, but for me it works just fine. Some doors are fixed entryways and exits, though. Those I can't control, or at least, I've no interest in attempting to break their bonds. That could be dangerous."

[princehonorable]

"Then maybe you can find Neverland agreeable?" Charming suggests, given that if this man can control the flow of how to get out, then Charming wants to use him. "I only need to travel one way, I'll even owe you a favour for it if you do."

[thelostprince]

Loki chuckled. He wouldn't have minded tricking this poor sot into believing he could do such a thing easily, were it not for the fact it would be so very short lived. As soon as Loki tried to open a door that would be it, and he had more important things to do than waste his time on small jokes. Like drinking. "I don't know where your world is," he said. "There's nothing I enjoy more than being owed, but I'm afraid it would be highly unlikely I could pinpoint where you want to go from a hundred million possibilities."

[princehonorable]

And unfortunately, seeing as Charming had only been on the cusp of Neverland, he has no idea what the world is like either, which bodes poorly for describing it for easy access. He sighs, heavily, some of the fight bleeding out of his shoulders. "Then how do I get back?"

[thelostprince]

Loki raised one shoulder in a shrug. "No idea," he said. Helpfulness wasn't exactly in his nature, but the topic was one that interested him. "It might work differently for you. Just keep trying doors, I suppose." He motioned to Charming's glass. "Alternatively, you could start drinking harder stuff. Or give both tactics a shot simultaneously."

[princehonorable]

"If I become too inebriated, I'm fairly sure the universe would take that as a sign to deliver me back to my group," Charming says wryly, given that he's been privy to the universe giving him terrible timing in more than one universe. "So then, who is it I look like? What's his name?"

[thelostprince]

"Then maybe you should order some of this," Loki said, holding up his own glass. "And the scoundrel's name is Fandral. A friend of my brother, and the sworn enemy of every heart he's broken. Which is a lot, apparently."

[princehonorable]

"My brother went by James," Charming offers, not having known a Fandral in his time and he's known some strangely named friends. "And I'm David. So neither of us seem to bear your brother's friends' name," he admits. "And while James had his share of womanly company, I only ever had the one."

[thelostprince]

Loki tipped his head to the side, a smirk hovering on his lips. "David," he repeated, disregarding everything else the other man had said, except for that. "You introduced yourself as Charming."