Forge & Inez - Personnel Matters

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Inez comes to Forge with some questions about one of the mansion's residents



"Foooorge..." Inez singsonged as she leaned against the
doorframe to the security specialist's office. "I need a faaaaavor..."

Glancing up from his Economics of Technology book, Forge arched
an eyebrow. "Afternoon, Ness. No, I won't do your trig homework for
you."

Inez pouted and walked in to sit on the edge of Forge's desk. "As if,"
she huffed. "Can't cheat too well when your math teacher's also your
boss." Part-time now, she reminded herself. Adrienne was rather
insistent that Inez's work at 64Square not interrupt any of her
studies.

"No," she said, "more of a personnel question."

"A personal question?" Forge replied quickly.

Inez rolled her eyes. "Personnel. People here. Specifically the hottie
with the Australian accent."

"Monet?" Forge was surprised. He wouldn't have thought Inez would find
Monet to be a "hottie" - but then again, she was the closest
thing to physical perfection one could find inside or outside the
mansion, nice quirk to the mutant genome if you could get it, he
figured.

Inez reached down for a loose paper clip and flicked it off Forge's
nose. "Um, no. Tall guy, great hair, sexy accent...?" Sheesh.
Men. Give them one inch of assumption and they'd be a pervert
for miles.

"Marius?" Forge was suddenly glad he wasn't drinking anything
at the moment. "Yes, right, Marius. What about him?" Oh god, don't
let her ask what I think she's going to ask...

Inez shrugged slightly, and might have blushed a little under her
summer tan. "Marius. Cute name. So tell me about him. What's he like?"

Thanks, God, Forge thought wryly. Why do you do this to me?

"Marius, um..." he began. "Great guy, yeah. A bit of what the Aussies
call a 'blokey-bloke'. Real fun, good friend now that he's over the
whole biting people with his hands thing..."

That sounded weird to Inez, but no weirder than anything else she'd
seen here. "So what kind of girls does he like?" she purred, sliding
up on Forge's desk more. "Is he seeing anyone right now?"

So much hate for you right now, God... Forge cursed internally.
Searching for a tactful response, he stammered for a moment. "I don't
think Marius... 'sees' anyone, really. Not for more than about
forty-five minutes at a time. And his type is... well... um... it's
probably safe to say you're not it."

Inez's smile vanished and she raised an eyebrow to match Forge's. "Gay?"

"No, just merry," Forge replied. "Marius definitely likes the ladies.
A lot."

"Oh," Inez said quietly. "It's not an age thing, is it? I mean, I'm
seventeen..."

Forge decided to just bite the bullet. "It's a mutant thing," he said
flatly. "Marius's power used to require him to feed off the bone
marrow of other mutants to live. Trying to date other mutants just
reminds him of that time. He pretty much sticks to the flatscan
population. It's a thing with him, that's all."

Inez looked momentarily dissapointed, then just shrugged. "Oh well.
The cute ones always have something, don't they? There's always a
reason."

"Tell me about it," Forge sighed, rubbing his forehead. He could just
tell this was going to give him a headache later.

"Well, not like you're suffering, dating the princess and all," Inez
teased. "How's that working out for you?"

Forge glanced up through his fingers at Inez and scowled. "You know,
when I looked at my schedule for the day, 'Discuss Personal Life With
Students' wasn't anywhere on it."

"Ouch. Well, I think you two are cute. Not in that way. But, you
know." Inez giggled and hopped off the desk. "It's sweet."

Forge wadded up a sheet of paper and threw it at Inez. "Go do your
trig homework, Ness," he ordered. "Although if you're interested,
Marius hits the gym a lot. You might run into him, who knows?"

Inez blushed at the quick thought, then cleared her throat. "Mmm. I
mean, um. Thanks, Forge. You're not such a bad guy."

"Yay for me. Now get the hell out of my office."