Welcome to Gaia! ::

Horace had paused in plinking rocks at Jordan's window to actually text him. His tent was strapped to the top of his backpack, he had a couple of blankets inside as well as a few snacks and large thermos full of hot coffee. He was ready. Horace hoped Jordan was, too. A keycode was required to get inside Jordan's complex and Horace had forgotten to ask - plus, it was kind of fun to toss pebbles at what he was pretty sure was Jordan's window. Even if he missed a lot.

He picked up another pebble (made sure to pick small ones - he wasn't about to break a window) and tossed it up. Clink,

"Was afraid I might break your window, though." He dropped the rock he was holding and it clattered alarmingly loudly on the sidewalk. Horace nearly jumped from the noise.

"Uh, anyway, I was thinking we could do the whole stars on the other side thing, if you wanna..." He looked oddly sheepishly or embarrassed. "That is, if we can find our way there."

"Are you implying my arms are too noodle-like to launch a pebble like a bullet?" He grinned. It was easy to lose the embarrassed feeling when Jordan was so easy-going. "What if I've got biceps for days?" Horace was being silly and he flexed one arm, the effect ruined by the jacket he wore.

"Sadly, my glasses don't seem to show ways into, just out of... At least I haven't seen anything glowing on this side." He did a slow scan of their surroundings, just in case. "Nope. So I guess we just duck in and out of a lot of doors and hope we get lucky. Do you need to grab anything before we begin our quest - I brought enough stuff for both, I think."

Horace snorted and, to his credit, managed not to shock Jordan. "No, just looking to be able to pick up guys, of course." He winked at Jordan.

"Let's go wandering and see - if we don't end up there, we can always be lame and camp in my backyard." He turned a corner and, although Horace had not noticed it, the atmosphere was decidedly different.

"I guess I just need to practice more. Or get a spotter." He grinned and debating making a crack about Jordan being the spotter, but that would mean he'd be more of a wing man than being lifted. And maybe that was weird and not what he wanted and Horace just wasn't sure and.... He was definitely over-thinking again.

He drew in a deep breath. "Yeah, it feels... different. The houses here are all dark and I don't think they are normally. People are usually home." Horace looked around. Everything seemed darker without all the lights from the houses polluting the sky, although some of the streets still had lights. "I think we're here. There's a park three blocks thataway and an empty lot over in the other way - or we can try to make it over to where the creek is. What do you want to do?" It felt kind of like being a little kid and sneaking out at night to play in the woods. Horace was glad that, of all things, at least the woods were no longer frightening to him.

"Maybe I could use some practice." He shot Jordan an almost shy grin as he skirted his way around a lamp post. "Nice bow." Following suit, he saluted the night sky. "Thanks, buddy."

Then he started moving again. His memory was spot on when it came to directions as long as he'd traversed the area before. Horace could memorize maps easily, too, but it was a little harder to parse that into 3d surroundings sometimes. "Creek's good; it's this way. Chilly should be okay - I brought blankets and stuff, and we have each other." Which was the stupidest thing to say - so incredibly flirty and he coughed awkwardly.

"i mean, I have stuff. So... I'm not gonna lie, I get cold easy, so I tried to prepare."

"Yeah, as long as we don't burn down the forest." He huffed, a song now thoroughly stuck in his head. Skidding a little, he hopped off the pavement and into the 'forest'. It was actually just a few trees, the it thinned near the creek. Past the creek was where it got thick. Which was fine by him; Horace wasn't frightened of the woods, but he didn't like them.

He held out his arms. "Ta-da." Crouching down, he shrugged off his backpack and began rooting around. It was damn heavy and his shoulders were entirely too happy to be free of their burden. Horace rolled them as he freed the sleeping bag. "Hey - wanna help me spread this out so our asses don't get stabbed by branches?"

"Nice to know my flammable self is safe from your fiery clutches." He sighed. "Yeah, they hurt a bit. My fault for carrying so much stuff, though." Horace began to pull out random thing after thing after thing.

Beer, blankets, coffee, two mugs, some popcorn, some random snacks, and a thing of pork lo mein. "Huh. I don't remember throwing that in there. Maybe I, uh... tend to overpack." He looked at Jordan sheepishly, the movement sending a twine through his shoulder. Wow, what was he - some kind of weakling?