If all this was was interference from the mysterious greys that inhabited their world, then there wouldn’t be this much uproar about it. If it had simply been an act of outside compulsion, there would have been an awkward sort of embarrassment over the whole thing, a laugh to shrug it off. Silas might not know either of them deeply, but he knew enough that this was something else, especially if both of them had felt the need to keep him in the dark after it happened.
Ah, and there it was. Between the mix of anger and distance happening between Evelyn and Ralph, Silas couldn’t have put words to how he felt if he wanted to. And he didn’t want to. He wanted to feel angry. He wanted the fires of rage that would let him get something out but that wasn’t what he was given. Instead, when he spoke again he sounded tired. Hurt. Unable to look either of them in the eyes. “What did you do?”
@ask-human-ratchet
Evelyn might as well have slammed the door behind her. Ralph winced when he was very clearly called out. Perhaps it was cowardice to hope he could salvage anything from this situation, but clearly he wasn’t going to get away with lying. “We didn’t do anything,” he was quick to cut in, looking at the table and occasionally glancing to the wall. “Just…”
Finally he sighed. “I was… upset. Later I figured out I was upset because it had been grey magic and not… on her own volition. So, I pulled away which Eve noticed and recently she saw through my wall, I suppose.” Ralph’s brow furrowed, one hand absently rubbing his beard, trying to think of the words. “She wanted to talk about it, but I didn’t. I thought it was smarter to not acknowledge it. Clearly, she disagrees.” The last was said with a hint of frustration. Ralph considered briefly if he should relay what she had said originally, but decided against it. It wasn’t his place and more so, he couldn’t do that to Silas.
So it would blow up in his own face. At least he’d keep Silas out of the explosion as much as possible.
@yggdrasilushxrt
However many loops of pacing Evelyn completed were lost on her. The bitter muttering continued on, but she still listened to the exchange inside with one ear. As more talk of the grey one came forth, she finally came to a stop.
One hand fished out her phone and she scrolled through saved images. The blur of pictures stopped on that one specific message that kickstarted this entire mess. She stared down at it and felt her stomach fold in on itself. She only showed that anonymous charm to Ralph because she wanted consent! And it just.. made everything like this. At least that’s what her presently jumbled thoughts could tease out. Ralph was being a coward, but maybe he as doing that so she didn’t become a homewrecker.
Eve returned her phone to her pocket and leaned against the wall beside the door, eyes stinging with wetness and her arms hugging herself hard. Words suddenly failed her and all she could do was listen.
@codenamesilas
Evelyn’s mutterings became a static background noise as Silas’ focus homed in on Ralph. The more that things were put into light, the harder it was to parse their reasons out but it seemed his initial guess had been correct.
He liked to think himself a logical man where it counted, and the next logical step seemed to be putting this behind them and moving on. Why, then, did he feel so caught in between both of them. Like a simple ‘all’s forgiven’ wouldn’t quite mend the wounds?
His silence lasted a good while, until it dawned on him that it really wasn’t what they’d done that was getting to him. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me?” The words were out before his head had any time to intervene, louder than even he expected.
@ask-human-ratchet
