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]

"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."

[princehonorable]

"I could also say I'm John Doe or James," he admits. "I've had many names. I was born David, became James at someone else's behest, Charming by my wife's deeming, and John Doe thanks to a curse," he says and when he puts it like that, it's more complicated than anything. "David or Charming is what I go by these days."

[thelostprince]

"So you went by James, and your bother is James," Loki remarked, his voice rather teasing and somewhat acidic. "Hm. Do you have any identity issues or have you mostly got it all sorted out?"

[princehonorable]

"My brother died," Charming clarifies. "And his father didn't want the kingdom to know that its' prince was gone. Luckily, we look exactly the same," he says with the bitterness reserved for when King George is brought up. "The King asked it and manipulated me into what he wanted. He's done things I'll never forgive."

[thelostprince]

Loki rotated his glass a bit, the ice chinking against the sides. The ice never melted, not as long as he didn't want it to. "Hm," he said. "I don't think my kingdom really cared when it lost one of their princes. Not enough to create a doppelganger situation. But your King sounds like a bastard nonetheless."

[princehonorable]

"He's not our family's favorite person, by any means," Charming assures coolly, given that his actions in the Enchanted Forest had been bad enough, but what he did in Storybrooke against him? How did James ever grow up with him? "You're a prince too, then?"

[thelostprince]

"Yes. We have so many things in common, don't we," Loki said dryly. Except, of course, when it came to least favourite family members Loki was probably that person.

[princehonorable]

Charming arches his brow at the tone Loki seems to have taken. "Don't worry, we won't be best friends," he assures, pushing his empty glass away from him. "As soon as I get back to Neverland, I don't intend on lingering here for very long."