My understanding from reading this is that the author possibly introduced some tension into the research group by letting it slip to the VR-oriented professor t

My understanding from reading this is that the author possibly introduced some tension into the research group by letting it slip to the VR-oriented professor that he didn't see anything VR related in the proposal, and it is likely this professor then went to the other professor (the one who pitched the proposal) and asked why it wasn't there. It feels like because of this, maybe the two professors were unsure if they could trust the student any more and just basically froze them out (hence the awkward interactions) Edit: Alternatively the resulting issues from the one professor's project not being within the proposal caused it to stall out or have to be re-pitched, which in the academic world could likely cause a delay or cause issues with the funding, and that would also result in the professors not being overly thrilled with that student.