Broadripple's #1 Himbo

“You shouldn’t sneak up on people man.” Domenico took a deep breath, although  it was quickly followed by a chuckle. “I was about to rip your skull open with this you know?” He joked. Not that he would ever do that. “Anyway what are you doing outside at this time?” Well the same thing could be asked to him couldn’t it? Yep.

“It’s that clattering… I think it’s the fucking thief… want to catch him in the act.” Yep, truth was, he wasn’t doing a good job with that thought, chatting with Leo was unlikely to help his cause in any way. In fact they were wasting precious time.The guy could hear them and simply dash for the woods.

Speaking of that… He could hear some rustling coming from behind the cabin. “What was that?” He dashed past the corner. Nothing.

“Maybe it was just the wind…” Although there was none that night and his instinct told him otherwise. “But come on it’s never just the wind, right?.” He muttered, more to himself than to anyone in particular, a grin on his lips as his gaze shifted briefly to meet Leo’s. “Besides, there is nothing around here that might have caused the clatter from before.”

His attention kept darting from place to place, trying to catch at least a glimpse, it was too dark, just twisted wood as far as the eyes could see. Too many hiding spots. Fuck. Maybe it was just imagining things, besides, they were not in a movie after all, it could have very much been just the wind. Which perhaps was somewhat comforting, as if they were in one, the finale would have probably been pretty grim for either of them.

That noise again. This time he could swear that something was moving between the threes. He tried to lit its source with his phone (after all whoever it was, they must have noticed them by now), still nothing, but he could swear that he had seen some movement.

“Fuck. He’s getting away… Let’s go man. Maybe we can still catch him.”

“I don’t think you can rip a skull open with a baseball bat.” Too much blunt force. You could definitely crack one open. Something sharper was needed for ripping. Or maybe Leo was just watching to many serial killer documentaries. That was a very likely possibility. “What are you doing out here at this time?” He turned the question back on him raising and eyebrow suspiciously. All kinds of shenanigans go down in the middle of the night. 

Leo felt kind of bad, watching Nico dash around the corner. The sonic the hedgehog theme just kept playing in his head. He was going to have to make a video of all the soccer guys running to that. 

“Why would the thief be doing thievery in the middle of the night. Were high school students. Some of us would be awake anyways.” Was thievery even a real word. Leo was going to have to look that up on a dictionary whenever he got connection.  His head whipped around at the sound of a rustle. for a moment he thought it was the wind. Then he heard that sound again and realized it was never the wind. 

“What are we the mystery gang?” He whisper to Nico as he followed him. Why did they have to be the ones to follow the noise into the creepy woods. Leo could swear he saw something move out of the corner of his eye. If he died tonight he was going to haunt Nico specifically. 

☀: What is your favorite thing about life at the Retreat?

Look I know there's a lot of complaints about retreat life. I get it. But it brought me to a place where I got to meet Emma the Frog. She’s definitely my favorite part of this retreat. I don’t know what I’m going to do when we move back into the dorms and I have to leave her behind. 

☾:  Who was the last person from school that you dreamed about?

I had this really weird dream the other day of Luna poisoning me with tea. But not deadly poisoning. Like make my hair fall out poisoning. She’s been really mad at me lately and I’m not even sure what I did. And then Amos planned a funeral for my hair. 

✚ : What were you doing at 12 am last night?

Location: Just outside the Senior Cabinn

Plot Opportunity: **001

Open: Anyone

@ba-central

What was that? Domenico could swear that he had heard a strong clattering or something. Yeah it was enough to bring him back from the sweet embrace of Morpheus. Could it be just a dream? Maybe… Besides, the retreat wasn’t exactly quiet during the night, between the ‘music’ of the forest and the snoring of his roomies. Thanks god that he was actually a deep sleeper. And yet… that weird noise still managed to shake him up from his torpor. Truth was, his instinctive reaction was to just turn sideways and go back to sleep, but an idea had wormed its way into his mind.

What if it was that damned thief? The one that had stolen his beloved zippo and had ransacked through his things, strained a favourite t-shirt and in general gave him the nasty feeling of having his personal space invaded, not long before. Could be right? Perhaps they were working on another prank.

It would be sweet wouldn’t it to caught him (or her, but Nico believed himself enough in teenage psychology that he was convinced that the odds of actually being a girl were pretty low)? Yep definitely. Now of course there could be a thousand different explanation, but to the still barely awake mind of the seventeen years old there was no doubt. He was about to get that asshole.

As quietly as he could manage, unwilling to wake up the whole room, the young man left the warmth of his bed. Heart racing a little already.  Was he scared or something? No way, right? Right? For a moment he thought about putting on some clothes, clad as he was just in boxers briefs, yet he didn’t want to waste precious time. The thief could go away any minute from now. Instead he took just the baseball bat from one of the boxes under his bunk, the one that he had brought in Nightmore after the theft*, together with his phone, in case he needed a source of light. Although, given how far they were from civilization, that usually the stars were more than enough, even in that god-forgotten place. Good, with no light he would be harder to spot by his ‘quarry’.

He didn’t close the door behind his back when he left the room, better not to draw attention to himself. Swiftly he navigated the darkened retreat, stepping lightly on the path in between the cabins. Not the first time he had found himself sneaking around, nor probably the last. Yet, despite all of his outward bravado, the eerie atmosphere of the retreat still gave him the hibiby-jibies, he could feel the adrenaline raising already.

There it was. The senior cabin. And the source of the noise. He hid, leaning with his back against one of the wooden walls, the source of the noise was just past the corner. Now he only needed to peer past it before deciding what to do. (And to check if the source of the noise was actually someone from the staff being caught by the staff half-naked and with a baseball bat outside at night wouldn’t have been easy to explain). Speaking of which. What was that? This time he could swear that he had heard steps. Coming from the opposite side of the clattering though. Fuck. He turned swiftly to face the newcomer, the baseball bat raised in his left hand.

“Woah…” His eyes widened when he recognized a fellow student. “Sorry… I…” He whispered, ruffling the head on the back of his neck.

“Be quiet ok? I think it’s the fucking prankster.”

Leo had already been out and about when he started hearing the noises. Ordinarily he probably wouldn’t be out at this late hour. But he hadn’t been able to sleep so had decided to go exploring. In the pitch black dead of night. Like a genius. 

At first he ignored them,figuring it was probably just the Forrest or his imagination. He had an over active imagination during the day. It really only got worse the more tiered he was. He really needed to figure out how to get access to coffee at the cabins. 

He had been rounding the corner at the cabins when a quick movement caused his life to flash through his eyes. He admittedly hadn’t accomplished very much. But he was also only 17. So no regret. He barely stopped himself from screaming like an idiot. He did not want all of the cabins thinking he was the latest murder victim. 

“Dude what the hell?” He whispered to his friend. All he was doing was minding his own business, in the scooby doo way. Like pretending your not doing something but following a noise anyways. He was going to have nightmares about getting brained with a bat now. Broadripple didn’t even have a baseball team, where did he even get a baseball bat?

Leo was not good with keeping quiet. Ask anyone. He was a bit of a loudmouth. But when someone swings a bat at your face, well your at least quieter. Peering around Nico. Leo strained to see what he had been creeping towards. “What are you looking at?”

location: outside senior cabin time: monday 13th of july 3:46 am  starter: open @ba-central

It took a lot to stir Logan from a slumber, while his other classmates complained about the constant noise that came with the retreat, he found it soothing, reminded him of nights on the road with his parents. He found himself lulled into a deep sleep by the buzz of activity around him, it was a sign that he wasn’t alone, which comforted him. 

The sound that couldn’t be described as anything other than a clatter was not comforting. He sat up in his bed quickly, his head instantly going to the accident, and he had to take a few deep breaths to realize that he wasn’t back in the van but safe in the cabins. At first he thought that he had dreamed up the sound, it wouldn’t be the first time he dreamed about the crash, but then he realized his classmates had also awoken, rubbing sleep out of their eyes and getting up to investigate what had make the sound. 

He made his way towards the senior cabin in his pajamas, the pink hairs on the back of his neck standing straight up. Logan didn’t scare easily but he couldn’t denying the eerie feeling in the air. “This is giving me a weird feeling man.” He said to the person closest to him, rubbing his arm that was covered in goosebumps despite the warm weather. 

Leo had been pulling an all nighter trying to finish a paper he put off. The soft glow of his laptop blocked by a sheet he had taped up. He may have no service but he could still type. Glancing at the time he had to keep from groaning in annoyance. He really didn’t want to wake his classmates up. He didn’t want everyone mad at him in the morning.

Luckily, or unluckily. He didn’t have to worry about waking the other student’s up. As the banging sound that had been going off outside was waking them up. He debated if it was worth it to follow them outside to go looking for said banging sound. Eventually deciding he was up anyways he followed them, watching as they split off into the night. He swore to god, If he died out in these woods because Amos had decided to prank them, he was going to haunt him for the rest of Amos life. 

“Oh definitely, apparently the Forrest doesn't care that its not a Friday. “ A Friday the 13th reference was the only thing he could think of to say to Logan. To distracted by how different it looked in the dead of night to put much effort into it.

Turning his back to the direction he walked, and facing Leo, the blonde’s face lit up with amusement. It always seemed this way when he was around Leo, he always managed to bring out that side of Amos. The one where bright teeth glistened on his face, mouth stretched into a wide smile, and his eyes danced with mischief. “Slice into me, Leo. We can use my blood if you can get it.”

He keeps walking backwards, not so much watching where they’re going. Not that it mattered much anyway, Amos never visited the lake, and he barley knew how to get back. “You say that like you’ve got an idea, come on now don’t tease. You know some meanings they can search? All I’ve got are pentagrams and stick figures.”

Leo briefly wondered if Amos would trip over a root or rock. The way he was walking backwards he just might.  Maybe Leo should take his phone out. After all, if Amos did fall, Leo was going to want photographic evidence. He couldn’t help grinning back at Amos, his smile was contagious. “This has taken a decidingly violent turn.” All Leo had wanted to do today was unpack and go frog hunting.  Now he was plotting their first prank of the retreat and it was already getting violent.

“But teasing is so much fun.” He generally was pretty free with what he said and thought. But right now  he thought that It would be more fun to withhold the symbols he was thinking of rather then give them right out. Plus he hadn’t really been thinking of anything specific. “Pentagrams would work but stick figures might be a little to obvious.” Leo was known to some of broadripple for not thinking things through, but if he was a stick figure in the woods he would look twice. 

ba-central

At first, when they were just getting off the bus, he had almost laughed at the sudden make over the Retreat had gotten. It certainly made it look more colorful with all the stuff that were laying all over the place, but it wasn’t until he got closer that he realized that all those stuff he had originally thought was trash or food was nothing more than their belongings. His belongings. All color drained from him face in that moment. 

Arlo rushed straight into his room, only to come face to face with an even bigger mess. Well, not really, the entire Retreat seemed to be in the same conditions but from the way his heart started beating the moment he saw his clothes laying all over the ground, one could’ve argued he had stepped into a war zone. He completely ignored whatever was going on outside of those four walls, as he took the time to carefully rearrange every item of clothing back into his suitcases. Some clothes were scattered on the floor, some he found on his roommates beds, and others he had to search for in the grass outside. He didn’t utter a single word to anyone as he did so, he could only handle so much right now.

He had been going through, his now organized belongings, over and over again but each time there was one item that was no where to be seen. His sunglasses. The black ones, to be more precise. He had found some of his stuff outside before, maybe he just needed to keep looking. Arlo was scanning the grass, but it was difficult to spot anything among all the clothes, books and other belongings that he couldn’t even care to name that laid all around the Retreat. 

“You gotta be fucking kidding me.” He muttered to himself. He brought another three pair of sunglasses with him, but that was not the point, they were his and he wanted them back. Who the fuck had even done this? “Hey, you!” He called out without realizing he was stepping over something that certainly wasn’t grass and most definitely belonged to someone. “Did you see a pair of sunglasses laying around here somewhere? Black ray bands, golden earpiece.” 

Leo was finally getting to see how much damage had been done to his stuff. He’d been sidelined by Sister micheal asking about his whereabouts today. Frankly he was kind of proud she had though he could pull this off while surrounded in class by tons of witnesses. He just hoped she didn’t ask Emma about him. He knew she wouldn’t have anything good to say about him right now. 

Right now he was just trying to scan the grounds for anything that was his. Whoever did this had really gone all out. He had seen a book of all things hanging in a tree. It wasn’t the only thing up there of course but it was the thing that had surprised him the most. 

Leo turned around at the sound of a voice bellowing in his direction. Looking around he saw no one else seemed to have noticed or cared. So it was probably aimed at him. “ I haven't seen any sunglasses like that.” He had seen a pair of orange sunglasses but someone had stepped on them. He wanted to be no where near whoever’s they were when they found out. who even wore orange sunglasses? People at broadripple tended to be very protective over there things, no matter how replaceable they were. Or ugly. 

“Have you seen pinke hoodie lying Around? small golden crown on it?” Leo loved all of his hoodies equally. But The Brad Mondo one was one of his favorites. It was just so soft. H hadn’t been able to find it yet which was confusing since it was such a bright color. He figured it couldn’t hurt to ask Arlo.

“Leo, Leo you’re missing the showmanship. Touch it and you’ll know cornstarch is cornstarch. Maybe the cafeteria will have some discarded mince blood, if we’re lucky meat scraps if you’re not so gracious as to offer your own for the sake of art.” Holding his arms in an exaggerated shrug, Amos would turn and begin walking through the forest. He was roughly going in the direction of camp, truth was he’d never been that good at navigating through the trees.

“Perhaps a butcher in town can offer us some help, I’d hate to turn to the alternative. We’re better than those occultists.” Over dramatised were his words, he never would have dreamed of harming an animal for the sake of one of these escapades. However he was more than serious about the butcher contemplation. “Maybe string some sticks into patterns and dangle them above? Quite a sight to stumble into.”

“Wait why dose it have to be my blood?” Why couldn’t Amos use his own blood for his own prank idea. He was slightly miffed at the fact the Amos had just said he didn’t have the showmanship. If their was a Drama club at broadripple he’d probably head it with how dramatic he could be. Leo was so busy thinking this over he almost forgot to follow Amos. He had to walk a little faster then normal to catch up. He hoped Amos knew where he was going because Leo sure as hell didn’t.

He snorted at what he imagined the look on the butchers face would be. Did the town even have a butcher? It seemed to small for one to want to set up shop there. “But what kinds of symbols are we talking here. Ones with creepy meanings for them to google or freak out over? Or the creepy ones everyone knows.”

She froze for a moment too long, but she couldn’t have been able to help it. She wasn’t expecting to run into him in any time soon. Of course, she wasn’t a complete idiot and she knew it was bound to happen at one point but she liked to think it would’ve taken a little longer than it did. The Retreat wasn’t as big as the academy but she liked to think it would be big enough, to keep him away from her. Guess not. “Well, clearly.” Luna looked down at the paper bag on his hand, she wanted to snatch it right out from him, and so she did. “Thanks.” She offered him a weak smile, her tone was more poisonous than it was grateful. 

Luna stood her ground, she didn’t move an ich away from him. If he wanted her gone than he would have to walk away, she was just fine where she was standing. At the same time, however, she wanted to see if he would say something, that would allow her to spit out the venom she had been stocking away ever since she heard a certain rumor.

Leo had to suppress a flinch st the tone of her voice. He wasn’t entirely sure why she was being so vicious towards him. It was almost like it had come out of nowhere. If he was really honest with himself he would realize this had likely been coming for a long time. But he wasn't. “No problem.” He mirrored her smile. His tone not quite viscous but definitely annoyed at this whole situation. 

Leo could normally talk a mile a minute, and yet right now he was at a loss for words. Something that didn't really happen to him all that often. Really he considered it a talent how he was able to blab endlessly. After a beat of silence he finally found something to say. “So how do you like the cabins?” He could have cringed at how awkward he sounded. He must be losing his touch.  

Frankie raised his eyebrows. “Do it for the vine?” he repeated. He hadn’t heard that expression in years. It made his lips curl up into a sad sort of smile. “Wouldn’t that be a bit difficult since the platform is defunct?” he said very matter-of-factly.

“Have you ever used one of those?” he asked. “I watched that movie - Ouija - it didn’t really end very well for any of them.” He had been terrified for a full week afterwards and couldn’t sleep, so he probably wouldn’t be meddling with those forces any time soon.

Leo gaped a little at Francis. Vine would never die. “As long as we still have the vines then vine itself will never die.” Leo briefly wondered if he could get him into vine by showing some of the bible vines. Some of them were pretty funny after all. 

“Not personally, but I plan on doing it sometime at this retreat.” It really was the perfect time for it. Creepy woods, middle of nowhere. Maybe they could even talk to the spirits of the students who died here. That would put the creepiness of this place overt the top certainly. “Maybe you can join us when we do, I promise you wont die.Probably” Leo didn’t even think that the ouiji board would work. But it was fun to throw out that probably. He liked to work people up sometimes. 

the initial relief jonah felt at being instantly forgiven was replaced by confusion.it was a blessing to be instantly forgiven but it felt like the absolution came too easily.“really?you’re not even like a little bit pissed?”,jonah asked tentatively.upsetting people made him sick to his stomach but he would have understood if leo was angry at him.he frightened the shit out of him and caused him to tumble head first into a creek.yes it was an accident but it was the kind of accident that lead to people being embarrassed or getting cholera.he deserved repercussions.

“got it ,no more scaring people.scout’s honor."a warm smile was on his lips.he made sure to do the scout’s salute while saying his vow.he didn’t do the scout salute out of irony or social etiquette.he meant it as a genuine basis for honestly.it was the same as how he still used pinky promises as a foundation of trust.but only with his younger sisters,using the scared pinky promise with anybody else would be embarrassing.

the word examine piqued his interest.in general he wasn’t the kind of person to examine things or go hunting for answers ,preferring to take things at face value, . so why anybody would examine the creek was lost on him."you were examining the creek ,huh? what were you looking for? bacteria? or maybe a human-fish hybrid monster?”

Leo didn’t really understand why Jonah was so upset about being forgiven. Most people would move on. If they apologized at all that is. Leo himself wasn’t used to immediately being forgiven either, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t accept it and move on. “Dude, you’d only piss me off if it was on purpose. And it wasn’t was it.” Leo was fairly certain either Jonah was secretly a fantastic liar or didn’t have a lying bone in his body. Something told him it was closer to the second one.

“Were you a boy scout?” That wouldn’t surprise Leo at all. Leo had been a boy scout. But only for like 3 weeks. It didn’t work out. Sometimes he did the scouts honor thing as well, he just usually didn’t mean it. More of a joke to him then anything else really.

The day Leo went looking for bacteria was the day he started using his brain in science class. Who would even go looking for that in the first place. Leo may be a nerd but he wasn’t that kind of nerd. “I was trying to see how good it was for frog hunting. Pretty sure I’ve scared them all off for now.” What a bust this had been.

It wasn’t that Amos had anything against juniors in particular, rather fresh to the school with pride drenching their steps they were such fun targets. Ones that wouldn’t know the half of what they’d gotten themselves into, or better yet, had enough fire to bite back as Amos held his stomach often doubling over in laughter. It was all too fun of a game for him when the boredom of no internet service would take hold. 

“The kind that caused the plague,” Amos would lift himself from the tree at Leo approached, another step away from him just to be cautious the other didn’t attempt to throw him in the lake. He knew he would have tried himself after all. “What do you think, big footsteps, ectoplasm, maybe something a bit more Blairwitchy? I’m sure we could hang some omens overhead for them to find? A pint of blood maybe, you’re willing to give it up, yeah?”

The history buff in him had to bite his lip to keep from going off on a tangent about how the plague had happened and that there were even still real cases popping up every year. The USA actually had an average of seven cases a year. Leo had to think for a moment about Amos asking for his blood. It didn’t surprise him that Amos would, no what Leo wanted to know was how his friend planned on getting his blood. He had images of Amos coming at him with a knife flashing through his mind. 

“Omens should be easy, and we can always make fake blood you know.”  All they needed was some corn starch, food coloring and soap. Things that should be fairly easy to find. They’d say it was for an art project. Which technically it could be. Depending on how you would define art that is. 

Frankie smiled slightly. He knew he shouldn’t have said that. Leo didn’t strike him as the kind of person that would ever take a challenge lightly. He smiled, “Right, of course. It’s all worth it for a fun story.” He could surely use it for an anecdote when he made a speech in the future. Maybe his Valedictorian speech.

“I think we should probably move somewhere a little safer. Just in case. You can’t tell funny stories if you’re dead,” he pointed out, motioning towards the fire.

“Do it for the vine.” Leo nodded sagely like it was the best advice he could give. Vine may be dead but the sentiment still held. Just with TikTok now. The only problem with that was that do it for the tiktok just didn’t flow as smoothly.  Maybe he was still heartbroken over vine and that’s why. 

Moving was fair enough. He may not be scared of that creature but Francis might be. He wondered if they’d ever see the same one again, or if it would just be a different one. “Well with the right Ouija board technically I still could.”