Owner Pose
Lydia Dietrich     This is it. The universe has been saved. Michael has been defeated and returned to his place in the Silver City. All of reality can take a collective breather and just enjoy life for what it is. At least for now. Lydia is taking this moment to scroll through wedding dresses on the internet. Sure they haven't set a date or anything, but it's nice to do something so mundane after nearly four months of mystical shenanigans.

    She's sitting in her chair with her legs crosslegged and is swinging back and forth in a small rocking motion as she browses. She's currently dressed in her 'Team Bella' t-shirt and some panties. It's her morning and she should probably feed soon, but she's too distracted to do anything about it at the moment.
Raven Darkholme Normally Raven manages to return to their shared room before the sun sets and Lydia wakes, tonight however was the exception. Instead of making it back in time, she choose to finish off one of the smaller projects, and pass on a major one for the asteroid, both of which would have nagged her first thing tomorrow. By taking the extra hour, she was officially free and clear of anything major, save for emergencies of course, for the next two days.

The door slides open to announce her return, in her hand a mug of coffee along with an apple fritter. She'd done her work out today, she earned that fritter and she was going to eat it slowly in her room. Dressed in her usual 'business' attire for the asteroid, that being her white suit with the very low cut blouse, she kicked off the heels the minute she was inside the room.

"Forgive my tardiness love," she says, heading straight over to place a soft kiss on Lydia's lips. "I'm free through the night now, with no need to get up early."
Lydia Dietrich     Lydia makes a little sound of contentment when she's kissed. "Mm, you're forgiven." She cups Raven's jaw, and stares lovingly up into her eyes for a moment before turning back to the computer. "I'm shopping for wedding dresses," she says. "I know we haven't really had a chance to talk about our wedding but I figure this is something that I could do."

    "I think that what we wear to the wedding is a personal choice," she explains. "It should be something you should be comfortable in, something that you like. The wedding itself should be something for both of us, but our dresses?" She turns and gives her lover a smile, "Or in your case your suit, should be an expression of ourselves." She lets out a little laugh. "No, I've never daydreamed about this at all," she says sarcastically.
Raven Darkholme Raven gives another soft kiss and starts chuckling as she is bombarded with wedding stuff. A soft smile plays across her lips as she sets her coffee and fritter down so she can to drag her chair over to Lydia's desk and sit down. She listens to every word, and how they are said, the excitement in her lover's tone. It was obvious, she had in fact been day dreaming about this, probably for a long time.

"I couldn't agree more if I tried," she offers once she is settled in her chair by Lydia. "I could probably look over dresses and such for weeks and not find the one that spoke to you. So it is a personal choice." She pauses to take a sip of her coffee, still watching Lydia's face and eyes.

"I think however, the first step in all this is setting a date, then we can look at..." her eyes catch the dress presently on the screen, the last one Lydia looked at. "Oh I could see you in that, and out of it, the white lingeree that you'd be wearing..."
Lydia Dietrich     Lydia gives Raven a wicked grin. "Oh, I already have the lingere picked out. You're going to have to wait on our wedding night before you get to see what it is."

    She reaches out and takes Raven's hand in her own. "But you're right. We should settle on a date first. I'll be honest, though. I have no idea how far ahead we should be planning this." She strokes her thumb over Raven's knuckles, enjoying the texture of the smooth skin. "I mean, we could rush it and set it out a couple of months from now, but that seems too soon. Maybe four months?"
Raven Darkholme Setting the coffee back down, Raven turns herself more toward Lydia and lays her other hand on top of one being held, to stroke over Lydia's hand lightly.

"Which would you prefer, the emotional or logical response?" She asks with a grin, tilting her head slightly. "No, scratch that... you're getting both."

"I want you to have the wedding of your dreams," she states, clearly going with emotional first. "The band, the location, the cake, the flowers, all of it, all the bells and whistles that make the wedding day into a fairytale."

Leaning over she places another soft kiss in her lips, then boops the end of Lydia's nose with her own before sitting back up. "Do achieve that however, four to six month, bare minimum, and that's all depending on the location and if there's a waiting list of some kind to get into it."
Lydia Dietrich     Lydia kisses back and giggles a bit at the nose boop. "I'm not going to let you off that easy," she says. "This is your wedding too. It wouldn't mean as much to me if you didn't have some input on what /you/ wanted in it. I know you're not much on ceremony, so we can keep it small and simple. I'm good with that. This is your day, too, but I /do/ insist it being a Jewish wedding. I hope you're okay with that."

    She considers Raven's words for a moment. "That's another thing we should talk about is location. With our teleporters we can literally go anywhere in the world for this. That's.... too many choices for me. It might be easier to cross off places where we /don't/ want to do it, first."
Raven Darkholme Raven smirks, one brow lifting as she levels her eyes on Lydia. Of course the woman wasn't going to let her off the hook, she expected that would be the case, but she had a plan all the same.

"Yes, it is my wedding as well," she says as another smile appears. "And yes, I will give input toward the decisions, but the one thing that is important to me, the most important, is that you have everything you want for this wedding. You want a Jewish wedding," she nods, smile turning to a grin. "then it's a Jewish wedding. You want big, we go big, because I want the world to know I love you, and everyone on the planet to see... okay, that's too big of a guest list, but you get what I mean."

Reaching up she caresses Lydia's cheek softly, moving down to rest her hand against the side of her neck. "This is our day, so promise me you'll tell me all the things you want, even if you think I won't want it or don't like it? Okay?"

Another small kiss and she sits back to nibble her fritter. "We already know it has to be at night, so what places at night are the most amazing? Obviously snow is out, I don't want to be cold," she grins again and winks. "Unless you want my wedding suit to be ski cover alls and a parka."
Lydia Dietrich     "Okay, I'll make a deal with you," Lydia says with a sly grin. "I'll name something that I want out of the wedding, and then you name something. It can be something small, a little detail, like what kind of champagne you want at the reception, but the important part it's something /you/. Then I'll name something, then you, and so on."

    She nuzzles her cheek into Raven's hand "I promise."

    She leans back after stealing a pinch of apple fritter and pops it into her mouth. "Hm," she says thoughtfully. "Maybe one of the national parks. It'd be fairly free of light pollution so we'd get to see the stars. Or Paris. It /is/ called the City of Lights after all."
Raven Darkholme Well shit, it was in fact that Lydia did in fact know Raven, and just sneaked right past the potential loophole the cobalt mutant had been intending to use. For a moment she just sat there, staring at her lover until finally Raven just starts laughing.

"You sneaky bitch. Just closed my loophole," she wipes her eyes, shaking head in disbelief. "And that means you win, yes, I will try very hard to think of things I might want as part of all this."

Still shaking her head, she chuckles a bit longer then takes a sip of her coffee. "Paris is a beautiful city," she finally says, giving Lydia a look between 'I will get you back for that' and 'I love you so much'. "There are lots of locations in Paris, wedding venues, and if you pay enough they'll even let you open them up at night, because we also have to think about the reception, where it will be, what we'll serve, and all that sort of shi... stuff for a wonderful wedding."
Lydia Dietrich     This time it's Lydia that leans forward and sneaks a kiss. "I love you very much but you can't pull a fast one on me. I'm too wily for that." She leans back in her chair and brings Raven's knuckles up to kiss, and to savor the flavor of her cobalt skin.

    "I have an idea on that," she says, "but it's /your/ turn to come up with something. I'm not in any rush, though. You can take a couple of days to mull it over."

    She brings Raven's knuckles up for another kiss but this time there's a little prick as one of Lydia's fangs pierces the skin, bringing with it a drop of blood. "Mm," she says, the coppery tang flooding her senses. "Yours is the best. I think there's something about the emotional attachment that we have that sweetens the flavor." She shakes her head and chuckles, "I'm sorry. I haven't fed yet, and I'm beginning to feel it."
Raven Darkholme Raven doesn't even flinch when the fangs prick her skin, in fact she smiles more deviously at the act.

"Exactly how are you supposed to think on an empty stomach," she asks softly. Leaning in close to Lydia again, she reaches up and pulls her hair off her neck. "I want German beer at the reception," she then adds, wiggling her brows. "Back to you... after you eat of course."
Lydia Dietrich     Lydia's eyes flash red as her eyes are drawn to the neck. She's gotten to the point to where the sound of heartbeats and the pulsing of blood in the veins are mere background noise, but when it's offered to her like this... well... her senses go in overdrive. Her eyes zero in on that spot in the neck where the carotid artery is, and her senses fill with everything Raven. Her smell, the beat of her heart, everything.

    It takes willpower to not just leap out of her chair and attack this willing host. Instead, she gives Raven a seductive grin, her fangs showing in full force as she gets out of her chair and straddles her, taking her in her arms. The golden motes of light that surround her swirl in anticipation as she leans forward and quickly bites down on that sweet spot, and then everything is blood.

    A soft moan of extasy escapes her as she takes the first drink. It's at this moment, when the rush of blood first hits her tongue that she's the most vulnerable, where her whole being is about taking in the lifeblood of another. When she feeds on other people she tries to remain cognizant of her surroundings, but with Raven? It's impossible. She lets herself get lost in the sensations that flood her, the blood she takes ever more sweeter from the bond that they share.

    Too soon, she's full. She wants to stay there, drinking for as long as she can without mind of the consequences, but that's the Beast speaking to her. If it had its way it would drain her lover dry, but she won't lose herself to the beast. Never. She extracts her fangs from Raven's neck and licks at the punctures, sealing the wounds closed.

    She gives Raven's neck a playful nip as she leans back and lets out a sigh of contentment. "God," she breathes. "As much as I miss food, I don't miss it enough to give that up." She leans forward and gives her a kiss, the taste of her blood still on her lips.
Raven Darkholme The one thing that most people don't know, can't possibly realize, is just how addictive the sensation of being fed on by a vampire can be. For one brief moment of pain, the reward was a few moments of pure ecstasy that coursed through Raven's entire body, like a wild fire spreading through a dry forest. Certainly it could be painful, she'd seen that once, but with Lydia it was something far deeper, more sensual and wonderful. Her lover obtained the sustenance she required to go on, and Raven got a moment of sensual heaven on earth.

It was just that however, a singular moment before it had to end. With Raven's recent discovery of her own accelerated healing, she knew she could give Lydia all that she needed and more before any real risk, but her love was always careful and she loved her all the more for it.

Accepting the kiss, her own blood touching her lips, she offered a kiss of love and passion, letting her arm wrap around Lydia's body and pull her close in against her own body. Only when the kiss ends does she whisper, "My food never makes me want to scream in pleasure, so I'll agree with you even if I've never known your side."
Lydia Dietrich     Lydia laughs, and extracts herself from Raven's lap. "This is true. The feelings I get ... it's not erotic, really, though it certainly /can/ be. It's... God," she says, stumbling over her words as she tries to explain. "It's like the best ice cream you've ever had times a million. Except warm and... mmh."

    She sits back down in her own chair, her cheeks having a bit of color to them now. "Okay. Where were we? Oh, yes. You wanted German beer." She wakes up her laptop and opens a blank document, writing out a couple of notes. "Okay. Jewish wedding. German beer. We'll put Paris as a maybe for the wedding location, and we'll give it, say, two weeks. If we haven't come up with something better than that we'll lock that in."

    "As for the reception, I kind of want to have it in the Garden, here. I just think bringing all my friends and family to sit beneath the earth would be delightful," she says. "To share with them a slice of what I see every day. Once we get the list of attendees, I'd submit them to you for background checks, of course, but I doubt you'd see anything that would concern you on my side. And we'll have to get Bruin on board. It's /his/ territory, so I'll give him veto rights if he doesn't want that many people up there."

    "Once we've settled on a location and a time we can have another conversation on who to bring. I don't think either of us want anything too big," she muses, so we should probably keep it to close friends and family."
Raven Darkholme Raven doesn't willingly let go at first, holding on for a little longer then lets Lydia escape back to her chair. There was still planning to be done after all.

"The garden would be a great place for the reception," she offers, reaching for her coffee cup again. One thing Lydia got from Raven's blood... caffeine. "Just have to remind people to remove their shoes or Bruin will have a small herd of cows over the damage to the grass."

"Paris for now, give it a couple weeks... though, could you imagine getting married in the garden? The earth just hanging there as witness?" She grins for a moment, then shakes her head. "I think some place beautiful /on/ Earth would be good too, just playing with..." she stops suddenly as she realizes something. "Wait... is it a good idea to have German beer? I mean... we Germans were kind of nasty fuckers to your people."
Lydia Dietrich     Lydia laughs at an image that gets stuck in her mind. "Can you imagine doing the entire wedding and reception barefoot? Though, now that I think about it, having you step on a wine glass to break it barefoot is probably a bad idea." She gives a little pensive "Hm" and shakes her head. "Something to consider later."

    She turns back to her laptop and adds, 'Reception in the garden (Bruin permitting)' to the list. She considers the list for a bit and then makes a note after the Jewish wedding entry: '/How traditional?/' "A fully traditional Jewish wedding is something of an all day affair, and I'm not going to expect my family to stay up all night long for it, so we'll trim it down to the important parts."

    She lets out a little laugh at Raven's question about the beer. "What happened in Germany was the result of evil men. Those men have passed, and the country has moved on. We can't punish the sons and daughters of Germany for the evils their parents and grandparents did. German beer is fine. Since I was never really a beer person, you can choose the brews."

    "Okay," she says, leaning back in her chair. "It's your turn again."
Raven Darkholme "Wait, how is it my turn again," Raven protests, lifting a brow. "Shit, reception in the garden... damn it."

Reaching for the fritter she shoves a larger bite in her mouth and chews slowly, prolonging the time before she can talk. She enjoyed spending time with Lydia, and talking about all this, but she had no real wants regarding the wedding itself. Was that a bad thing? Did it mean she didn't care as much as Lydia did? What did it say about a woman who couldn't get excited and take an interest in her own wedding?

For most, they wouldn't notice the slight changes to Raven's face, the minute differences from her usual neutral mask that indicate the concern suddenly running through her head. Lydia was not most people, she was one of the two people on the planet who knew Raven well enough to actually pick up on the signs.

By the time she swallows, she has managed to get the majority of the mask back in place. "I'm not stomping a glass barefoot," she says plainly, though a slight smile plays at the corners of her mouth. "I mean I will if I need to, but would prefer not to.... and yes, I'm stalling." She sighs softly, shaking her head.

"I think, my love, I might be truly broken... because I don't care. I love you, I want to marry you, but the details... I just... I don't care. What does that say about me?" She glances up to Lydia's eyes, an almost desperate expression passing over her face before the mask slides in place once more. "Uh... chocolate cake with raspberry filling?" Where did that come from? "Is... my favorite."
Lydia Dietrich     As Raven's expression goes from her careful neutral mask to the hints of concern, Lydia's brows furrow in worry. "Oh, sweetie," she says, getting out of her chair to crawl up into her lover's lap. "You are the most important thing in my life." She curls her arms around Raven's neck and leans in to give her a slow, languid kiss. "You've /never/ been one for material things. Well, except for that weapon rack, but I don't think our guests will appreciate you bringing your fine collection as decoration."

    "We don't /have/ to do this, if it truly bothers you." She rests her forehead against hers. "I'm okay with skipping everything and just having a nice dinner with our friends and my parents. It wouldn't be the same if you aren't into it."

    But when Raven mentions dessert, Lydia's face softens into a smile. "Chocolate cake with raspberry filling is /perfect/. See? You can find things to add. I can make all the big decisions, but I want enough of you to be there to know that you're a part of it, too." She leans back and gives her a peck on the tip of the nose. "It's these little things that I want. Other people might not notice but /I/ will. I can go, 'Yes, this beer was hand picked by Raven,' and 'Our wedding cake is Raven's favorite,' and I'd be /proud/ that you participated as much as you could."
Raven Darkholme Raven wraps her arms around Lydia, pulling her close, almost clinging really. It should matter, this one thing, and deep in the back of her mind there was a single voice whispering things about weddings and what might be good ideas. She'd been married before, but none of the decision had been hers to make, they were just things that happened and there had been no real love. She thought, at the time, there was love, but there wasn't. This time however, this was real, this was love and a desire to be with and by Lydia's side until hell froze over... and Azazel might make that happen, so probably longer then that too.

Lifting her eyes up to meet Lydia's again, she places a soft kiss on her lovers forehead. "I want to do this," she admits plainly and truly. "I want all our friends to see us commit to love and life together, that's what weddings are for... a 'show' for friends and family of just how important and serious the love is. I want that I just... the big things don't matter to me."

Finally releasing part of the death grip she had on the woman, she sits back a little and smiles. "I can do little things," she adds. "Like the colors, weddings have those right? White obviously, not merely because of the wedding dress, but because I like white... and green, emerald or kelly green, you can pick which one of those greens. German beer, chocolate cake with raspberry filling, white icing, covered in green and blue flowers. Those are the kinds of things I can deal with."
Lydia Dietrich     Lydia nods, smiling softly. "That's all I'm asking of you." She looks over at the computer and two hands form from her ectoplasmic motes of light. She doesn't have quite the control to do fast touch typing with her powers, yet, but it's enough for her to type out Raven's desires. "There," she says. "I added the details to the list. I'll take care of the food. We'll need to have kosher and vegan options for our guests, unless there's something you desperately want."

    Letting the hands dissipate she turns back to her lover. "You know, when I was looking at wedding dresses, I was thinking that you could model them for me. It feels weird asking you to make yourself look like me in a wedding dress, but I just can't think of a better way of knowing how it'd turn out."
Raven Darkholme For a moment Raven watches the tendrils typing, always fascinated by how Lydia uses the ectoplasm for that kind of thing, but her yellow eyes shift back to the woman's face.

"All food is good, more important to make sure the guests have choices," she says first, only after taking a moment to think on it. "Nothing pretentious though, that's about the only thing I can't stand."

Then her mind wanders to the idea of making herself look like Lydia. Not once, ever, had she ever thought of doing that. Even when Lydia hated her, she hadn't considered being her for revenge purposes, so thinking about it now gets her giggling. "That is such clever idea," she laughs. "I could totally do that for you, help you find just the right dress.... which leads me to tell you," she smiles. "I might wear a dress, I haven't decided that yet."
Lydia Dietrich     Lydia nods in agreement. "Nothing pretentious. Most Jewish weddings come with hearty meals. They don't want to let you leave the party hungry. You saw how much food my mother made for us at Chanukah. Imagine something like that."

    She, then, laughs with Raven and nods. "Isn't it? It'll be weird looking at myself like that." She tilts her head at the mention of wearing a dress. "Really? I always took you more for a suit kind of person. I know you like the slinky kind of dresses, but I didn't think you were into frilly."
Raven Darkholme Raven's eyes sparkle for a moment, and she licks her lips. "I remember your mother's cooking alright, and that dish which I can't remember the name of... I need to get the recipe for that for Eddie to try making cause it was /really/ good." She grins broadly, though at the back of her mind she finds herself wondering just how Lydia's parents felt about the whole idea of them getting married.

"Frilly? No... but I've seen some pretty sleek and elegant wedding dresses in magazines," she shrugs slightly as she talks. "I thought I'd at least look, though most likely I'll find a suit more to my liking. Now... when do I become you?"
Lydia Dietrich     "I'll make sure to get some recipes from her next time I talk to her," Lydia says. "I'll also ask my grandmother for some good Polish recipes, too."

    "Hmm," she says, enjoying the idea of Raven in a sleek and elegant wedding dress. "You'll have to show me what you have in mind. Whatever it is you choose, I'll enjoy it the most peeling it off your body at our wedding night."

    "Speaking of which," she says, placing her hands on Raven's chest to sit herself upright. "I am still riding high on that feeding, and I'm nearly naked." She gets a wicked glint in her eye, "Feel like rectifying that before going to bed tonight?"
Raven Darkholme There are two things that will get Raven to her feet faster than a cheetah darting across the Serengeti. One is a mutant in danger or trouble, and the other is Lydia mentioning anything at all relating to the bed.

Scooping Lydia up as she stands, she wiggles her brows before nibbling lightly at her lovers neck. "We can get you more naked, and solve all those problems... might take all night, but I'm willing to give it the old college try."