driftfleet | You can check out anytime you'd like.. [Hotel Corona Mingle]

You can check out anytime you'd like.. [Hotel Corona Mingle]

Who: The Fleet!
Broadcast: If you want
Action: Hotel Corona or Planet Ikke
When: December 7th onward

a wheel-shaped space station

[After the mystery and isolation of their last destination, the Marsiva seems determined to head to brighter, busier territory. After a long journey through remote, nebula-painted space, speeding along at a brisk pace for the Host ship, the Marsiva brings her Fleet to a sudden and prominent point of traffic.

It seems that the Fleet has happened upon some sort of vacation destination! Maybe Atroma thinks that the passengers deserve some rest and relaxation... or just wants to distract them with something huge and shiny.

Welcome to Hotel Corona! Feel free to enjoy yourselves and enjoy the sites! If a hotel resort isn't your thing, you can head on over to the nearby planet and explore it's icy wonders.

In order words: it's a mingle!! Everyone get in! ]

[>> Plot Post]

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[There's a moment where it's clear he's trying to picture what Kitty has said... and fails to do so. Eventually he just shakes his head.]

The rooms here are eclectic, to say the least. I don't know who would actively choose some of them.

I don't think I want to meet the people who would choose some of them. [She smiles. It's almost normal for a second which is weird and so the cycle continues.]

Yes. [He certainly feels it, these days.] And it's still older, all the same.

Your time is just as confusing.

[After a pause, he moves over to the table, shifting some things aside.]

While you're here, I have something to show you.

...did you need me for something?

[She had mentioned trying to find him. If it was just for the apology about the incident in his room, then it could prove a useless question. But he's got a lot on his mind, so he would rather get to the point if there is one.]

It's not something that can be helped.

[ It sounds snappish, unlike Leto at all, who has always had a tight grasp on his temper, who never raises his tone. He picks up on it quickly enough, drawing in a sharp breath. ]

It's not something that can be fixed. Or dealt with. I knew he would leave. What else am I suppose to do but watch?

[Something about that reminds her so much of her Erik that for a moment she's at a loss for words. It happens every now and then. A tilt of the head. A word choice. A look. She just hasn't really noticed it since he came back. Since things changed.]

...Um, yes.

I have something for you. [Pushing ahead.] Can I meet up with you to drop it off? It doesn't have to take long. [Which also leaves it open in case they want it to take longer.]

I'm not exactly a commander of any kind.

[ She lacks the patience for that. ]

[He considers for a moment, then nods.]

I'm in the museum cafe.

[ There are times where Raven feels hyper aware of everything that makes Hank who he is, as if she can predict his movements and his thoughts before he can even begin to act them out. She's conscious of how he holds himself, his words, his smile, and right now she can feel the nervousness rolling off him in waves, enough to have her a mixture of concerned and curious all at once.

But he's going, and he doesn't need her prompting to get through it. He can do this, and it charms her completely.

When he starts speaking, though, she can feel her own anxiety prickle up under her skin, her eyes widening as she takes in everything that Hank is saying to her. She has a small feeling, an inkling, that she knows where it's going and it's enough to make her heart rush a violent speed in her chest, as if she had any control over it - and she takes a deep breath, doing everything within her power to listen before she reacts, before she does or says something that'll upset the fragile balance between the two of them in the moment.

He pauses, watching her, and Raven swallows the lump in her throat, blinking back the wide eyed look she's sure is plastered on her face, her eyes searching Hank's for a moment in complete and utter stark disbelief. ]

Hank, are - I...

Just being myself, I suppose.

[he's watching her closely, and the disbelief isn't a surprise to him, not really. In all honesty, this is coming out of nowhere; they've never talked about it, and if it ever came up it was when they were joking around. Even the promise he's referring to came up at a time when neither of them really stopped to consider the heaviness behind the words.

He waits a moment more, than lets out the breath he didn't know he was holding]

When we first met, I fell in love with you. And - I thought, "this is someone I want to spend the rest of my life with." A lot has changed since then, but . . . that hasn't. My feelings for you haven't. And I promised you that I would keep reminding you, for the rest of your life.

[he pulls the box from his pocket, hesitating for just a moment - a deep breath, that he lets out as slowly as he opens the box. Inside sits a simple, almost traditional ring, yet it's anything but simple at all.

As nervous as he is, as much as he feels like he's going to panic and mess up, the words come out clear and without a stutter]

I want to keep making you promises that'll last a lifetime.

Will you marry me?

[Misty is excited!!! She's always wanted a tattoo but never found the time or the money for it. So when Adalwolfe mentioned going to get one himself, she couldn't pass up the opportunity to join him.]

It looks cool as hell, is what I think! [She beams.] And perfect for you. That's the important thing.

[ At first, there's a quiet, almost hysterical part of her that can't quite believe that Hank McCoy is actually doing this, that he'd worked up the courage to ask her to marry him. It had taken him goodness knows how long to ask her on a date, or to admit that it was something of a date, and now here they are and it feels like they've leapt a thousand miles forward in the space of no time at all.

Naturally, her first instinct is to shut down and back away. Not because she doesn't want this, but because the idea of being tied down, of being stuck, of being attached to someone makes her skin rise in goosebumps and panic flood her - but then she stops, and she pauses, and she breathes, and she turns her head to look at Hank and swallow, focussing on the man in front of her and what he is offering her rather than what her mind is conjuring in the moment, some flooding nightmare that would never come to pass.

Hank loves her. He's fallen in love with her, as much as she has with him. She had already promised to remind him as often as she could that her love for him was a flame that was never going to burn out. She was going to spend the rest of her life at his side, teaching the X-Men, helping the children grow, as a Professor and as a sister and as a friend. The idea of thing being something to tie her down... It doesn't make sense. It's just like Hank has said, right there, right now - he wants to make a promise with her, one that would last forever.

(A young Raven Darkholme had never dreamed about her wedding. Who would want to marry a blue freak, after all?)

Leaning forward, her finger touches the ring, gently as if it might burn her, before her eyes glance up and her face breaks into a soft smile, something warm and fond and impossible for her to fight. ]

Hank.

[ Leaning in, her hand moves to press into the back of his neck, holding him gently - as she always does - before she leaves a kiss against his mouth. There aren't any tears or shaky fingers or desperate, breathless sounds, because, really, to Raven, this isn't frightening. It's nothing they haven't mentioned before. It's... A bond. As formal as Charles adopting her as his sister, as her agreeing to follow and help Erik, as her coming back to Hank. It's a formalisation of all the promises she had made him and the thousand and one others she wanted to keep, every single day, for the rest of her life.

That isn't scary at all. ]

Yes.

[Did you need to break another piano there, guy?]

Talk, drink, bury yourself in work, beat things up with smaller audiences? I've tried them all to varying degrees of success. Would not recommend the sleeping with anyone evil thing though. Tends to have long-lasting results.

We are. Lucky us.

[She tips her head a little.]

But for some of us it was less about Barnes and more about keeping the Avengers together.

It'll probably take about ten minutes to get there from here. [Big place.] See you then. [AND HE WILL! DUN DUN DUN...! Okay, it's just Kitty with a wrapped package. Didn't really require music cues.]

[even as she touches the ring, even as she leans in, Hank doesn't breathe. Logically, he knows what the answer is. There's no theatrics, no emotions getting out of hand - just the next step in their relationship, that technically speaking, they took a long time ago. All this was doing was following tradition, putting a name to what they were, and giving her a symbol of it all. Logically, he knows all that.

But he isn't thinking with his brain right now. No, his heart is in charge, and it feels like forever passes until she's touching him, leaning in - the press of her lips against his and the one word he knew he would hear but still feared he wouldn't.

He doesn't move away; instead, he lifts his other hand to her cheek, leaning in to kiss her a second time, soft and chaste, even though there's so much more behind it. Another promise made between them, for the rest of their lives.

He knows he's supposed to put the ring on her finger but he can't seem to stop kissing her]

You were breaking up? [Tell her the story that Steve told her for the first time in the future from now. RP timelines *sparkle*]

Those work for people more human than me.

[ Quietly. ]

I don't need to eat. I can't sleep.

Spent most of my life not being human enough. Look at me now. Too human for you. [She smiles softly at him which resolves into a more neutral, tender look.] I know nothing really makes it better. It's just...managing the symptoms.

[ Nothing else seems to matter for a moment and, really, why should it? This is theirs, for her and Hank, and they've never been very good at following conventional rules. It's taken them a long time, an incredibly long time, to get here from where they were almost more than two decades ago and she's not going to dwell on what should be when she has this, right here, waiting for her and accepting her.

The kiss is soft and gentle and that's all it needs to be. Hank's hand against her skin is familiar and she knows, she just knows, that she is never going to get tired of it. She's never going to want to give it up, never going to want to stop feeling his body against her own, the taste of his mouth or the warmth of his skin. No one else will do because no one else is Hank McCoy - no one else is good enough.

When she leans back, mostly to breathe and fight the sting of tears she would never admit to, Raven rests her forehead on his and softens, her fingers rubbing against the skin where they lie without pause. ]

I need to get you one too.

[ He nods. That's true, but Leto is frustrated with himself. Frustrated with loss. ]

I suppose I will just manage.

[had he felt bolder, or more confident in his words, he'd make a comment about how the nebula was pretty but not as pretty as she was, and so forth. But as it is, he doesn't think he has to. After all, she has all of his attention and has had it since they left. Even now, with his nervousness easing, she's the only thing here deserving of his attention.

He laughs into the kiss and faintly shakes his head, his thumb brushing over her cheek. She's ridiculous, as always, and it doesn't matter if he just proposed to her and he loves her that much more for it. That they've gotten to that point where they can just slip back into who they are after moments like this]

I don't know if that's how it works. Besides, I have the watch you gave me - doesn't that count?

[ah, but - he leans back just enough so he can take her hand, carefully pulling the ring free from the box and slipping it onto the proper finger.

It still feels a bit surreal. More than a bit]

[He's in his 'usual' spot in the cafe, a table in the back corner against the windows. Erik puts down the book he was reading when Kitty approaches, glancing at the package she's carrying but not commenting yet.]

You made good time.

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You can check out anytime you'd like.. [Hotel Corona Mingle]

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