xp_logs | Log: Forge, Doug, and Marie-Ange

Backdated to Friday morning. After Mark's birthday party, Forge winds up at breakfast with Doug and Marie-Ange. Some good-natured teasing is given, but possibly not received in such good measure.

Forge used his fork to push the crust of his toast around the plate, soaking up the last vestiges of his fried egg before popping it in his mouth and chewing. While he'd been in no condition to drive home after Mark's party, and had fallen asleep within seconds of being dumped on Doug's couch, he'd woken up without any hangover but a horrible cottony feeling in his mouth. Nevertheless, a handful of aspirin and numerous glasses of water had been the appetizer before heading out to a local "greasy spoon" by the brownstone.

Across the table, Doug was busily devouring an oversized Denver omelet. He'd put up with the eye-rolling from both Marie-Ange and Forge when he'd ordered it. "Some party," he murmured around a large forkful of omelet. "I hadn't quite expected Mark to be so literal about Madonnarama. That shapeshifter friend of his was, um...talented."

"I thought he... she.. " Marie-Ange stabbed into her waffle.. "English needs a ambigious gender pronoun!" she protested. "Mark's friend was very nice. And did a very good impression of Madonna. Many Madonnas. Who I am not unconvinced is not a shapeshifter herself."

"Bah, image change is nothing," Forge insisted. "Look at Scott. He looks younger than he did when I left for Attilan." He stopped for a moment, glancing at Doug and Angie. "What? Am I the only person that sees it? Anyway, yeah. You two have had your share of gender issues this year, huh?"

Doug covered his face with his hand and snickered quietly. At Forge's curious expression, he grinned. "You do remember you spent two years in an accelerated time frame, right?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

Forge shook his head as he moved one empty plate aside as the waitress slapped down another plate of hash browns and eggs. "How can I forget? It's completely screwed up my entire thing for older women," he said rogueishly, winking across the table at Marie-Ange.

Marie-Ange shook her head in amusement. "So I take it then you will not be competing with Remy for the attentions of his girlfriend?" She really needed to find that sketch from the year before and send it to Forge. Or Remy. Or Ororo. Perhaps as blackmail.

"Remy has a girlfriend?" Forge mumbled through a mouthful of hash browns. "I thought he had a wife or something. Ah well, it's Remy. I wouldn't try and compete with him for the last donut in the box, the man can kill me sixteen ways with a paperclip."

"Remy has a wife. Or had. I'm not sure. And he has a girlfriend. It's...complicated," Doug told the other man, recalling meeting up with Belladonna Boudreaux-Lebeau in New Orleans. His expression was studiously neutral, and he weighed what to say and what not to say.

Marie-Ange giggled. "Remy is dating Ororo. I thought that was well known. It is not as if they have made much of a secret of it..." Filling each and every depression of her waffle with syrup was important. It made the waffle taste better. "You do know those are not made of potatoes but of customers who walk out without paying, yes?"

"Mmm, cannibalism..." Forge mumbled through a mouthful of hash browns, before stopping and looking from Marie-Ange to Doug and back again. "Ororo? Ororo Munroe?" As if there was another, he thought. "Remy and Ororo? Ororo and Remy? That's it, I've come back to some strange Bizarro dimension, where right is wrong, up is down, and Ororo Munroe is dating Remy LeBeau."

"Hey, it's better than the Bizarro-world where Angie dated -you-," Doug shot back, his tone obviously teasing as he took Marie-Ange's hand in his and squeezed. It was nice to be comfortable enough to be able to joke about it. "It gets better when you realize his...wife? Ex-wife? You know, I'm not sure whether Remy actually got a divorce," he mused, then got back to the subject. "Anyways, Belladonna's a sorta crazed highly-trained assassin who's got a mad-on for killing Remy."

"Well, that makes sense," Forge said, biting back his instinctive response to Doug's jibe. Even though the entire faux-dating ruse with Marie-Ange had been for Doug's benefit, Forge had found himself enjoying it somewhat. And given the opportunities in Attilan that he'd realized too late, that particular issue cut a bit closer than Doug had perhaps intended.

"So," he said as he set his fork and knife down on an empty plate. "If you guys need a few minutes to finish up, I'm going to call in and let Scott and Ororo know I'll be around a bit later this morning. Be right back."

"Does it make more or less sense then any other relationship here? Logan is seeing Sarah." The distaste on Marie-Ange's face was apparent. "Betsy is dating Jim Haller, and I and Marie have managed to date Garrison -and- Doug. At this rate, you should go on a date with Marie just to make it a trifecta."

Forge managed to simultaneously do a double-, no, triple-take and look somewhat flustered as he got up from the table. "Yeah, whatever, I'll get right on that," he grumbled as he fished his phone out of his pocket. "Right after I launch myself into space and develop the ability to fart helium."

Lacking a suitable comeback, Doug kept politely quiet as Forge stepped away from the table with his phone. "Maybe we're too rough with the teasing," he said quietly to Marie-Ange. Then he thought about it, and snickered. "Nah."