forum boarding school dark academia murder mystery queer love triangle rp (closed, but feel free to stalk <3)

Started April 13, 2020 by @darling-velocipede group

tune

Leon gave a sort of passive tired smile, her eyes duller than before. Zephyr and Kate had always been quick to go at it, and Lee loved her own sidelines. It had been a life from the bleachers, and she couldn’t say she hated it. If anything, her sun-soaked bleachers were a safe space. Where the metal was warm, the stands empty and peaceful; a perfect vantage point for what happened on the field. It was clear that Zephyr and Kate were starting players, though, always stepping out to the turf. And here Lee would be, cheering them on or offering them a side of the bench when one of them got too tired.

She had always liked the benches lining the sidelines. It was a place to offer people a peaceful seat beside her.

However, the sudden information posed by Zephyr bit at her skin, the coldness creeping in under her heavy jacket. Still, she showed no sign of her change in tone, just calmly looking over to the boy beside her.
“What about him?” she mumurmed, her voice a sort of melodic hum. Although, when Zephyr met her eyes, it took her quite a while to form the words. The sun beating off the beautiful deep chocolate irises, and illuminating his face perfectly…
She shook the thought somewhat brutally aside. Leon didn’t want to have to deal with that feeling now. In fact, she didn’t want to have to deal with it ever. That was a part she’d keep down— deeper than the rest of her emotions, which always ceased to boil over. She had been doing it already for long enough. Why stop now?

“Yeah,” Kate yipped, breaking Leon’s thoughts. Her eyes flicked back up to the conversation as Kate continued. “What’d you find?”
Zephyr, who had been staying inherently still, gave a light sigh.
“First of all,” he said, voice bolder now that he was in his domain of books and the like. “I believe it’s quite interesting— the whole situation. The whole story is decently entertaining, and I suggest reading some of the background of the school—.”
Kate raised an eyebrow, drawing her latte closer. “Is there a punchline, Zeph?”
The boy stopped, taking a brief moment to adjust his wire-frame glasses before continuing.
“I was just going to say, the whole situation is odd, is it not?” he muttered with a lowered voice. There was a slight hint of curiosity to it.
“Are you suggesting we investigate it?” Kate asked, no hint to read on her emotionless face.
Before Zephyr could answer, Leon sat up, laying a hand passively on the table.
“I’m in,” she said, her voice stronger. It was shocking, to say the least. Never before had she been so bold as to purposefully get roped into some mystery mission.

Leon had always liked the benches on the sidelines. Though, it was nice to go out on the field once in a while.

Kate's eyes widened. Out of the three of them, she would definitely have thought Leon least likely to go along with some mystery investigation into the murder of a random professor. It wouldn't be the first time she was wrong about one of the members of their little group. Kate always stated her opinion in situations like this, but for once Leon had beat her to the punch. She wasn't sure how to feel.

"I'm in too," Zephyr agreed, the two of them looking annoyingly friendly. Something about it made Kate more angry at Zephyr. She had to be reasonable, and stop her anger now before it escalated and ruined something.

"So is some kind of Scooby Doo thing? Like we're all going to be happy friends who solve mysteries now?" Kate asked, narrowing her eyes. Okay, so that wasn't exactly fixing it. Why did she do this to herself?

Kate's attitude had obviously annoyed the others, Zephyr especially. Leon's face fell a bit, and Kate instantly felt bad–not just for her last slight, but for being a bitch today when her friends clearly just wanted to be, well, friendly. At least Leon definitely did. Zephyr was being weird. Of course, it wasn't the first time. Kate just had to lay down her weapons and agree. It shouldn't be so hard.

"Come on, Kate," Leon responded, her expression kind, like usual. Leon always seemed to be playing the mediator with her and Zephyr when they were being dumb, which was a lot. Kate pursed her lips, staring at nothing for a moment before giving in.

"Fine," she sighed. "But only because it's our last year together." She gave both of them a smile, her animosity temporarily forgotten.

"So how do you propose we get started with this?" Argument dropped, Kate seemed almost gleeful. Or maybe that had more to do with how Leon was studying her; a thoughtful sort of expression, equal parts relief, a sort of admiration, and something else too hard to place. This was the undercurrent to every one of their meetings recently, far more subtle than the way their time together was winding down, though infinitely more painful for Zephyr. He was already beginning to regret even leaving his desk that morning.
"On second thought, what if this is a bad idea?" Zephyr ventured lamely. "It might take time that should be spent studying. Or something." Both girls looked at him perplexedly and Zephyr's neck burned. He'd never enjoyed people looking at him like he was an idiot. Taking a swig of his coffee and wishing it was something stronger, he braced himself for another contradiction and the resulting bout of confusion.
"Gah, never mind. If we're going to do this I suppose we should start at the library, find what news we can about the murder. Or suicide. It could have been a very aesthetic suicide." Swallowing the rest of his coffee and tossing down a few dollar tip while avoiding Kate and Leon's gazes was no easy feat, but he managed it, pulling on his coat as he moved for the door. He could feel their eyes on his back.
Another thing for them to do together, sneered a petty corner of his mind. He knew how irrational the thought was, how foolish it would be to find irritation in their alliance against his odd behavior, but he still had to swallow his pride in order to slow down and wait for them to follow him out the door.

Leon watched as Zephyr discreetly tipped the server. How she wished she could do the same.
Though the water wasn’t much, she liked to be kind where she could. And unfortunately… there were times when she couldn’t. This was one of those times.
She took another sip from the plastic straw, her eyes following Zephyr as he pushed to the door. She gave a small glance back to Kate, who was already up and walking after him, remarks of sarcastic wit at the tip of her tongue. Though Leon drowned it out; she was just simply happy they would be going on an adventure.

While she was quite the quiet one, she loved a little exploration once in a while.

She watched as the two made their way to the door, her heart swelling. It may have just been the light music with the evening sun casting a passive orange glow on the cafe, and the way they bickered on their way to the door, but she was happy. More content than she had been in a while.
Not to mention, equally as scared. The full feeling in her heart… while it was something to be acknowledged, she wanted to push it down with the rest. She loved these people. As friends.

With a last peaceful smile, she pushed herself to her feet, tossing the empty water cup to the trash and slipping both of her hands within her flight jacket. It was tearing at the seams, but the worn-ness was comfortable. She joined her friends by the door, following out after Kate, who followed nonchalantly behind Zephyr. Book-ends, it had been a habit of theirs. Once the walkway widened, they all walked side-by-side, Kate taking up the middle and Leon closest to the street. Their shadows cast among the walls to buildings, walking just paces behind.
“So,” Kate began, turning her attention to Zephyr. “Any ideas once we get to the library? Do you even know of any other… documentations?”
“Not a clue, but I’m sure there’s something,” he replied. Kate gave a half-hearted nod, their footsteps filling the growing silence.

Luckily, the library wasn’t too far from the coffee shop. The three of them chattered about the mystery while they walked there, in the same order they always walked. Something about it was equally comforting and saddening to Kate, as she thought of how soon they would go their separate ways.

Soon enough, the three of them reached the library. It was a nice place, a gust of cool air hitting them as soon as Zephyr opened the door. The three of them filed into the library, the space feeling practically cavernous compared to the simple coffee shop.

“What section do you think the murder might be under?” Leon asked, scanning the bookshelves and chairs in the library. Against the left wall, there was a small row of old library computers. The right wall held bathrooms and a staircase to the second and third floors. If they were looking for a book, they might be looking a while.

“We could try the old library computers,” Kate suggested, glancing over at them. They worked, certainly, but they looked like they hadn’t been replaced since 2008.

“There’s some sort of document area,” Zephyr added. They’d been to this library multiple times, but had never had to find specific documents or files. The one would probably know the most was Zephyr.

“What should we start with then?” Leon asked diplomatically. “Books, computers, or documents?” Kate wondered if they wouldn’t end up looking for all three anyway.

Within a few hours of searching it had become clear to Zephyr that, a, Kate was insufferably impatient and accordingly bad at combing the extensive archives of Thomas-Thyme Library, b, Zephyr himself was becoming impatient and growing poorer at keeping his focus on the endless sheets of laminated newspaper replications he was combing, and c, Kate was being too loudly beautiful for him to think. It was easy to say which of the three irritated him the most. The way his eyes seemed to find their way to wherever she sat, glowing in an angelic gold light from the high, dusty windows of the old Grecian building, hair falling in front of her eyes until she pushed it back with long, thin fingers. And of course the godforsaken freckles on her shoulders. He'd tried so hard to reason these feelings away– it's simply an aesthetic appreciation. He'd recited those words like a spell crafted to protect him. He'd recited those words until they lost their meaning and dissolved to sounds and syllables. He'd tried to fight the feelings away, tamp them down with bricks, harsh words, and two glasses of wine too many alone in his dorm at 3 am. She's nothing, he'd scrawled in his journal on one such night. A petty, horny crush on my part. An idiot. She's crass and rude and foolish, bold in the wrong ways. He called her things he'd never admit in those pages; a bitch and a whore. His handwriting fell into illegibility after that and he found himself unable to decipher a word the next morning. But at the bottom of the page was the most marred. i love her he'd scrawled. Three tiny, pitiful words. He ripped the pages out and burned them in the steel kitchen sink. Ashes clogged the drain.

When he found blurred images of that very night returning to his mind he threw his pen down on the table among the scattered stacks of useless papers he'd been studying and stalked across the room to Leon who was reading in a corner, elbow propped on her backpack as she read a police report of the night.
"Have you found anything?" Carefully marking her place in the text with her index finger, she looked up at him.
"Not much you didn't already tell us, but there is one unusual detail– the handle of the dagger had no fingerprints, his or otherwise. It was so perfectly sanitized, in fact, that whatever combination of chemicals did it had begun to eat into the metal by the time they found him. Much stronger than any industrial cleaner. Much higher PH than any one could buy, because it'll burn right through skin if you so much as brush by it. Only chemists and the like can legally get any."
"No fingerprints at all? That's unbelievable."
"Well, was he a chemistry teacher?" Kate had appeared beside him, leaning over to see Leon's work. Zephyr jumped at her sudden presence, the skim of her warm skin against his arm, and bit his tongue to stop himself from saying something stupid.
"No, he was a classics professor– he taught Roman and Greek history and Latin language. But you might be onto something," he offered instead.
"So we think another chemistry teacher killed him? Think he had a torrid love affair with the chemist's wife or some shit?" She laughed. "How can you be taking this so seriously? This is a case from ages ago, guys. We're not going to find anything out. But since you both seem so content to play Nancy Drew for a day, I've found something. His apartment number, in the teacher's housing. The building is still there, and the room hasn't been remodeled I'm sure. You know how this school is for their vintage architecture." She rolled her eyes. Kate had always been openly mocking of their stuffy private school, maybe because this had been her dad's first pick for her, and to say they got along would be a vast understatement. "Anyway, the person who lived there for a time moved out a month ago. It's empty now."
"So you're suggesting we break in and look around?" Leon looked far too thoughtful, like she was considering Kate's batshit idea.
"Yes."
"This is ridiculous! You just said it yourself, Kate. It's a waste of time. When I proposed it, I thought you guys understood I meant research. Here. And maybe going to the bridge where they found the body." Zephyr couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"I never said it was a waste of time," Kate responded coolly as she studied him. "Stop putting words in my mouth. I suppose you only do it because you have something else you'd rather put in my mouth, though" She supplemented the comment with a rather pointed gaze downward, smirking, if he didn't already catch her meaning. Zephyr's stomach dropped, but Leon just laughed, albeit a bit nervously, glancing at him with a sheen of apology in her eyes. This wasn't the first sexual innuendo she'd tossed in front of them, and neither was a stranger to dick jokes, but Zephyr wasn't often on the receiving end.
"Oh please," Kate followed when they'd sat in a tentative silence for a moment too long. "It was a joke. You two are such grandmas. Now are we going or not?" Leon took the arm Kate extended to her, pulling herself to her feet as she smiled gamely.
"Come on, Zephyr," Leon's tone was light, matching her expression. "Let's do a little breaking-and-entering, Scooby-Doo style."
Zephyr sighed as he followed them, head buzzing with contradicting images– the burned pages of his journal and Kate's grin, her dirty jokes and the way Leon caught her eye, the dead professor.
If she said that, does that mean she's thought about sex with me? Just passively, of course, but like- FUCKING SHUT UP. His stream of consciousness was abruptly cut off and he internally kicked himself. As he weaved through the maze of towering shelves to the exit, he could have sworn some of the marble busts that topped them were judging him too.

Leon let go of Kate’s arm a little too late, the feeling lingering a bit too long. Though she pushed down the butterflies fluttering in her stomach. A somewhat violent image flashed through her mind of holding one of the butterflies at gunpoint, threatening to pull the trigger if they didn’t freaking stop. She had never been one to have violent intentions— she normally left that to Kate and Zephyr— but when it came to imbecilic notions, she definitely had other plans.
Still, her face ceased to show any kind of discomfort, awkwardness, or otherwise. She had gotten too good at it, by everyone else’s standards. By her own, she just enjoyed the fact that her heart was too far down her sleeve for her mind to ever hear.
She passed the two of them a somewhat playful smile as they exited the Thomas-Thyme Library. As she stood in the middle of Zeph and Kate, she put her elbows up onto their shoulders. Being taller than Zephyr it was easy, however as the same height as Kate, her arm was decently balanced. It was a little hard to keep in place as they walked, but she tried her best.
“What’s with you today, Lee?” Kate asked somewhat insultingly, her voice biting.
“Don’t know,” Leon replied, unwaveringly letting out another smile. “Felt daring today.”
Zephyr ran his fingers through his hair, dropping his hand limply afterward. His heavy overcoat ceased to hinder his actions, although the thick cloth would seem like it to any other. Though with these sorts of sophisticated clothes, the boy was a natural.
“Have you been listening to…,” he paused, squinting. “… Journey? Is that what that band’s called?”
Leon nodded affirmatively. “Their Escape album. The best one, in my opinion. Besides the Greatest Hits album.”
“Isn’t that cheating?” Kate muttered, glancing over. Leon almost bit her tongue, meeting the girl’s bright green eyes.
Again, shaking the uneasiness aside, she replied. “Of course not. If it’s a part of their official discography, anything’s game.”
“I knew it,” Zephyr mumbled. “They always get you… ‘amped,’ so to speak.”
Lee looked over, meeting his eyes as well. As her stomach churned with those stupid butterflies, she had to resist the urge to drop to the floor and scream.
One beautiful person on either side. This was a little bit of Heaven and Hell, all at the same time. And, frankly, Leon didn’t know if she could handle it. Even if she could, she figured it wouldn't go well by any stretch.
Feeling her face flush, she averted her gaze to the ground. It was hardly noticeable, not passing over the thick and peaceful mask she kept plastered on her face.
It was impossible for her to even consider the possibilities. The whole “what if he/she likes me back?” was completely foreign. Leon never even entertained the thought— nor ones even remotely relating to it.
Shaking her head, she looked back up to the sky.
“Even so, I’m in a good mood today regardless,” she said smoothly. Her words loosely rolled from her tongue, like they were perfectly rehearsed— as many of her words sounded.
“Uh, alright.” Kate raised an eyebrow, but let the subject drop. “Anyway, Zeph, what’s the deal? If you didn’t want to investigate this guy— y’know, the whole breaking and entering deal— why did you pose the idea in the first place?”
“Like I said, I just thought it was interesting,” he explained somewhat nervously. “And now with a little more information—,”
“Now with a little more information,” Kate repeated a slight bit louder, cutting him off. “We can break in and know what we’re looking for. So, let’s get crackin,’ hmm?”
Leon smiled yet again. “Yes, ma’am.”
Zephyr shook his head, closing his eyes. After running his fingers through his hair again, a small smile tugged at his lips. Leon’s widened, but Kate just gave a playful roll of her eyes.
He looked over to the other two, the evening sun shining off his silver glasses. “Roger that.”

Kate actually thoroughly enjoyed spending time with her friends like this, despite the butterflies in her stomach that she attributed to anxiousness, though she knew exactly why they were there. Was it completely idiotic that she was more nervous about looking dumb in front of Leon than breaking and entering an empty house? At least that was straightforward–sort of. It wasn't like she had done anything like it before.

The address was a bit father from the library than they had realized, causing their walk to take several minutes. But, pretty soon the three of them arrived at the address.

"This is it," Leon proclaimed, all three of them staring at the apartments for a moment.

"No shit, Sherlock," Kate responded, crossing her arms across her chest and studying the building.

"So you want to just, go in?" Zephyr asked, making it clear once again that this idea made him uneasy. Kate didn't exactly blame him; this was a dumb idea. But that wasn't going to stop her.

"Yeah, come on," she responded, not one to back down from a challenge. She walked closer to the building until she was standing on the porch. The others followed, Zephyr still looking a trace reluctant, but, if Kate wasn't mistaken, a bit excited as well. She smirked.

Luckily, the kind of apartments that the man had lived in were the kind that more or less looked like regular houses, but with one apartment on top and one on bottom. The apartment they wanted was on the bottom, so they didn't have to climb any staircases and look even more out of place than they surely already did.

Once they were all on the porch, they each looked slightly nervous, but slightly excited. The one to actually try the door was Leon, which surprised Kate just a tiny bit. She felt another zing of butterflies that she did her best to quell. She had to stop thinking of that. She had admitted her dumb crush to herself a while ago, but had never brought it up. Despite her fights with Zephyr, she didn't want to be the one to spoil their group dynamic.

Luckily, the door was unlocked and it swung open on creaky hinges, making them do an anxious glance around. "Stop looking so suspicious," Kate hissed, even though she was sure that she looked just as suspicious as the others.

They stepped inside, one at a time, with Leon in the front and Zephyr in the back. He quickly shut the door behind them, it making another loud creaking noise. The three of them studied the apartment. The front room was fairly boring, with nothing but a moth-eaten couch and broken TV. It looked like it hadn't been cleaned in several months, either. For several movements they all just stood near the door, looking ready to bolt. Kate would've laughed if she wasn't sure that she had the same expression on her face.

"I'm not sure if I'm glad the door was unlocked," Zephyr said, shivering even in his woolen coat. It was freezing inside the old building, a swift current of cool air circulating through the house. There must be an air conditioner somewhere in their, left on high for far too long on an already cool day.
"Might have been fun to try and pick the lock." Kate grinned, despite being clearly as on edge as the other two. She isn't quite as good as playing immortal as she thinks, Zephyr told himself. It made him feel vindicated, even as she took another opportunity to make fun of his every word. Leon was quiet, rubbing her arms; from nerves or the chill it wasn't clear. Zephyr found himself slipping his coat from his arms and holding it out to her as she opened her mouth to protest.
"Just take it." He practically threw it at her and Kate glanced at him bitterly. He couldn't imagine why. Studying the empty apartment, he steeled himself to take a step forward. He didn't want to be a coward, especially not in front of Kate.
"I can't believe we're here and now you guys are too scared to even look around," she laughed, not making any move to begin herself. Gritting his teeth, he pushed himself further into the room. The light-bulbs were bare, as were the walls. There was a bathroom, a small kitchen/dining room, and the living room with it's threadbare couch and unfortunate TV. He wouldn't have imagined the faculty housing to be this poorly furnished, but perhaps some of the stuff they gave the teachers was waiting in storage for the next resident. Overall, the place was disappointingly unassuming. It hardly made for an exciting setting. He grabbed the handle of one of the cabinets in the kitchen and flung it open.

Something fell out with a crash, and Zephyr and Kate both screamed, voices equally high in pitch as he scrambled back away from whatever object had just tumbled out, pressing himself against the table and shielding his face.
"What the holy fucking hell was that," he shouted, perhaps unnecessarily. But Leon simply moved forward, calm and unaffected, scooping up the fallen object as she wore the closest thing to a smirk Zephyr had ever seen on her. She held it out to him. It was a box of sea salt, half empty, store-brand. And, apparently, prone to making quiet loud noises when dropped from height.
"You were saying I was being weird?" She smiled serenely. "Come on. There's a lot left to look through." Beginning to climb the stairs, she was quickly tailed by Kate who scrambled after her without so much as a backwards glance at Zephyr. He slammed the cabinet closed moodily and went to search the couch cushions.

Leon couldn’t say she wasn’t relieved when Zephyr stayed behind. First, she wouldn’t have to deal with his and Kate’s bickering, and second, it was better to deal with emotions from afar. And with a room hosting only a single distraction, it seemed easier.
But… she also couldn’t say there weren’t downsides.
Sure, she only had to deal with one, but it was her and Kate. Alone.
Not like it hadn’t ever happened. So why was today so… difficult? Why was she more… emotional today? She hated it with a burning passion— something she very rarely had.
Of course, she didn’t show it. As cool, calm, and calculating as ever.
She pushed through the door to the upstairs room, hearing the clicking of a clock get louder as she did so. A grandfather clock came into view, about the only thing in the room next to a small rocking chair and cases upon cases of books. Each looked old and dusty, housing nothing but either fables or tales from long ago. Without a second glance, this man was certainly a classic history teacher. Greek and Roman books lined the shelves, all written in a Latin dialect of some variation. Lee brushed her paint-stained fingers against a binding, brushing off the dust and breathing out of her nose quickly so as to not inhale the thick stale scent.
“Historiarum ab Roma?” Kate mumbled, leaning up against the bookshelf beside her and reading off the words engraved carefully in the spine. Leon's heart leapt too high within her throat— from Kate appearing randomly or how close she seemed to be, Lee didn’t know. It took her a minute to push down her will to jump out of her skin before speaking. It was odd for how fast her heart was beating, she seemed completely calm.
“It means Stories from Rome,” she replied nonchalantly. “It’s in Latin.”
“Well, Zeph did say he was a Latin teacher, right? With some Greek and Roman history? Seems to all tack up,” Kate murmured. “I’m really not seeing anything out of the ordinary.”
Kate pushed herself from the bookshelf, beginning to search around the rest of the room. The ticking of the grandfather clock gave the room quite the eerie feel, Lee resisting the chills creeping up her spine. She continued to file through books, trying to see if any pages were missing, or any had been added in.
Suddenly, an odd sound escaped Kate’s mouth. It sounded like a sort of scoff and gasp at the same time, as she stepped quickly back from the clock and shook her head. Lee spun, glancing from her to the object of target.
“What?” Lee asked, her tone too mellow.
Kate just outstretched her arms, exaggeratingly motioning to the clock.
“Look… look at how new it looks,” she mumbled. “Without maintenance for… what? 50 years? It’s… it’s on time perfectly. This wood isn’t damaged— the polish is newer. Is that weird at all? The round thing—,”
“The pendulum bob and lyre,” Lee corrected, but Kate just shook it off.
“Yeah whatever. It looks… glossy. Is it possible they just put this here for, like, storage purposes?” she asked.
“Maybe,” Lee replied, slipping a book back into its shelf. “But I don’t know if I’d count on that.”