Closed Running Out of Patience PV Percival

⋖ 28/Mar/2024 @ early morning | OUTFIT | ENGLISH [#715380] | FRENCH [#b654a9] ⋗
INTERACTIONS @Percival Gray | MENTIONING n/a
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Confirmation of Santario's infection came as a shock, the following query a slap to the face as it effectively called Evelynn's observation to question. She stood in silence as he went on, her feud with him temporarily set aside in favour of information as he filled in the blanks that the lioness hadn't even realized were there. Eyes followed as he stepped back, though thoughts turned inwards about the source of the infection. She doubted it was a hag. Santario would have been too smart to let a hag kiss her; just as Evelynn doubted that Gray had kissed a hag, though she wasn't about to open her mouth to inquire about that or counter the logic of his statement.

With the call for attention, lips thinned. The fact that she had been listening attentively already seemed lost on Gray, as he apparently felt the need to command her to listen closely anyway. Hairs on the back of her neck stood like hackles on a lion's mane at the patronization. Temptation to finish the earlier job that she had stopped herself from completing rose to the forefront with his snark, but she once again compelled herself not to be goaded into reactivity. As he spoke, some of the tension that had gathered in her posture loosened. She even nodded along as he went on to describe that they'd dealt with the slug, relieved that all had been well in the end. "Good." They weren't easy to manage. She knew that from experience. So at the very least, respect for that achievement could be silently extended to the group.

As he went on to describe their making up and discussing the future, though, a shadow of discomfort creased her lips. Intimacy had never been something with which she did well. It was a topic best avoided and one she was generally able to expertly deflect. Fortunately, he would neither go into great detail, nor dwell on their relationship for long. "She moved back to France?" Lips parted slightly, expression bemused. Of all the possible outcomes she had imagined, the various pathways to demise, or the ways in which great evil could have befallen her, never once had it seemed possible that the reason for Santario's absence could be entirely benign.

Brows furrowed faintly, her gaze scrutinizing as though not initially certain whether to believe his words or not. For everything she disliked about Gray, however, she had never doubted his words. He had always spoken in a way that left her to conclude that he fully believed everything he said. Which meant the only way this could be false would be.. "And you are certain that she actually did relocate, and this was not merely a convenient story implanted into your thoughts to make you believe that to be the case?"