Realistic or Modern Murder, We Wrote (A Scooby Doo Inspired Roleplay)

[KingofAesir]

Episode 1: "And the Gala Murder"

4pm

---​

mood

"Not in the pool!"

location

Brennan Mansion -> Treehouse HQ

interaction

Valerie Dohrn _em_

Somewhere outside, a bird sang loudly as it fluttered down outside Devyn Brennan's window and perched itself on the sill. It was a robin, with its red breast shining brightly in the mid-evening sun. Devyn watched as it preened itself, wings stretching out wide. She fumbled with her camera that had been sitting precariously on the edge of her desk and the bird took notice, startling and taking off into the sky. Devyn sighed audibly and shuffled up closer to the window, hoping to catch another glimpse before it disappeared. All she saw this time was the tall tree looming over her bedroom window, casting a foreboding shadow on the side of Brennan Mansion. In that tree, sitting way up high in its branches, was a lone raven and it was staring right at her. Devyn shivered at the sight but raised her camera slowly to capture a picture of the moment. When she pulled the camera away, the bird was gone. It was suddenly eerily quiet outside, the song of the robin long gone and the ravens call silent, not even the wind could be heard blowing through branches. On the camera, a photo slowly built itself up on the electronic screen and revealed the raven she had captured, as well as at least fifteen others sitting on branches around it.

“What the hell?” Devyn mumbled and cast her eyes back up to the tree where she immediately startled and pitched backwards. The tree branches, in the short amount of time she’d been focused on her camera, had filled again with an uncannily large amount of ravens. They cawed and made other noises that sounded more like screams to Devyn and this terribly loud cacophony lasted all of ten seconds before going completely still again as the treachery of ravens took off at once. Devyn was left staring at the empty tree for what felt like years before the silence was breached once more by the excited howling of one Tipsy Rogers. Devyn closed her eyes and ran a hand down her face, shaking off whatever weird feeling she’d just been overtaken by moments before. Whatever that had been, Devyn shoved it far into the back of her mind. She had far more pressing matters to worry about at the moment, like the fact that her mothers ridiculous “charity” gala was tonight and she needed to ambush her friends. She pulled her phone out to put her plan in action, but was interrupted before she could even get one text out.

“Devyn,” Her father, Chief Andrew Brennan, appeared in the doorway looking disheveled and tired, “You tell that Rogers boy of yours that I’m going to ring his neck next time I see him. That damn dog of his is always causing a ruckus.” He pointed, accusatory , in the general direction of Sean Rogers’ house. Devyn opened her mouth to defend her friend but Andrew was already gone. With a heaving sigh, she turned her attention back to her phone, where she exchanged a few messages with her friends, and rolled her eyes at Sean being his usual gross self, before she started getting ready to leave for Treehouse HQ.

“Devyn Anne,” She hated when her mother did that, “You remember that my gala is tonight. You need to come, we’re trying to keep up appearances since that fiasco with your father and his harlot of a secretary.” It was a few minutes later and Devyn was being accosted by her mother while trying to escape the house. This “charity” gala she was hosting was nothing more than a front to try and get people to forget that her father, the all great and honorable chief of police, wasn’t all that great and honorable at all. Devyn had never understood why Eliza Brennan was so adamant on staying with a man who treated her like a forgotten trophy on his shelf. All of this, this money, this status, it wasn’t his and there would be close to no repercussions for her mother should she leave him. But that wasn’t happening anytime soon, so here they were, stuck in this terrible back and forth.

“It’s not her fault that dad is a cheater, Mother. You should really stop blaming the women he takes advantage of and see the real problem.” Devyn shouldered past her mother, who grabbed her harshly by the elbow.

“Your father is a good man who works hard for this family, he’s working on his issues and you will not-”

“Will not what? Tell the truth?” Devyn shrugged her mother's hand off of her, “He’s not working on anything, Mom. But sure, whatever you say. Happy family.” She grinned brightly at her mother and turned on her heel and out the door and down the street.

She didn’t bother to go through the front door at the Dohrn’s house, instead reaching over the side of the fence and pulling up the lock to get entry directly into the backyard. The treehouse that Valerie Dohrn’s architect father had built for them what felt like centuries ago now was standing resolutely above the ground in front of her. Through one of the small windows, she could see the back of her friend's head and she erased the rather irritated look she had on her face in favor of a bright, cheery one.

“V!” Devyn started up the treehouse's stairs, “Valerie, my favorite friend.” Devyn appeared in the doorway, still grinning bright, “Hi, babe.” She plopped down on a purple colored bean bag to begin their wait for the boys.

coded by weldherwings.

mogy jazzyball

 

[mogy]

episode 1: "...And the Gala Murder"

4:05pm

---​

mood

"That dog is the best wingman ever, but only I'm getting ass tonight."

location

His room --> Treehouse HQ

interaction

KingofAesir (Devyn Brenner), _em_ (Valerie Dohrn)

Sean's room always smelled putrid. The worst mix of weed, dirty boy socks, and dog food that one could imagine, but ten times worse, if not more. It was a side effect of being poor that the big bags of dog food for the family dog, Tipsy, were too big for the pantry, so they ended up in the one free corner of Sean’s room. Weirdly enough, the smell never stuck on the brown-haired boy or his clothes, and he always managed to smell like the cheapest deodorant available, but the smell stuck with everyone who ever came inside his room, including his mom and his brother. That’s why there was no expensive sign on his door to deter trespassers. The smell would take care of them.

Sean himself, during the years he had been going through puberty, got used to the smell, and after a while stopped noticing it entirely. That’s why, at the moment, he was just finished with a blunt, laying on his bed, looking at the star stickers on the black ceiling. The window was, of course, closed, as was the door of his room. Somebody needed to nurture the masculine musk of weed and socks, and who better than the horny designated weed hippie?

As he stared at the ceiling, it was almost as if the stickers were starting to dance, though every time he would focus on a different one, all would go back into their place. And then, the most usual thing happened; phone in his pocket vibrating; a text from someone. He couldn’t help but smile and puff some air out of his nose when the text turned out to be from Val. Even though it was just about the family dog Tipsy going over the fence again, it was Val who was texting him. She was the epitome of the girl next door—incredibly smart, super funny, always smelled amazingly, her eyes glittered in the sun, her hair was soft, she was just short enough, and, well, coincidentally enough, she was the girl next door. Literally.

“Scooby! Did you let Tipsy out again?!” The boy yelled loudly enough for the whole house to hear, putting his phone on the bed next to him.

“No! You did!” A child’s voice could be heard yelling from somewhere in the house, reminding Sean of his own mistake. Shit.

With a loud groan and impressive strength only he could muster with his many remarkable muscles (obviously), he got up from the bed, putting his phone back into his pocket and then rubbing his eyes. Another groan escaped his mouth as he headed for the kitchen.

The house, like said previously, was pretty small, and even with the kitchen adjacent living room, the entire place felt small, but it was enough for the family of three; four if you count Tipsy.

“What are you drawing?” Sean leaned over Scooby’s head to see what the 9-year-old had assembled with the crayons their mom bought him. “What the fuck is that?”

The Roberts boys certainly were not the best artists the world has ever seen, and Scooby’s drawing definitely proved that.

“It’s the lady. She lives in the forest. She’s my friend.” The kid responded almost nonchalantly, which earned him a face of scrunched eyebrows and confusion. It also earned him judgement.

“You’re so weird.” Was the last comment Sean made before ruffling his brother’s hair and then going to the fridge, opening it, taking a big gulp of the orange juice from the container, and then going to the front door to put on his shoes.

Val’s house was just one painful, scratchy fence jump over, so it didn’t take much time for Sean to reach her backyard and see the one and only, big stupid Tipsy, looking up at the treehouse he knows he isn’t allowed in after last time.

“Go home, Tipsy! You’re not getting ass today. She’s too small for you.” The dog looked up at Sean with a pleading look, but Sean was not budging. “Now.” There was no way that he would let this dog ruin his chances with Val by killing her own dog, and when Sean wasn’t budging, it didn’t take long for Tipsy to slowly pull himself towards the fence and then jump over it. That, however, didn’t go without a few looks back to see if Sean budged, but because he didn’t, Tipsy simply had to listen to him.

After that, there was only one thing left to do—climb into the treehouse.

So he did, only to be met with a beautiful sight. The two ladies he loved more than anything in the entire world, except, of course, his mom. “Why hello, ladies. Fancy seeing you here.” The most charming smirk on his face made his words pop. He didn’t shy away from taking a seat next to Val, giving a wave to the redhead sitting in the purple beanbag.

coded by weldherwings.

 

[_em_]

EPISODE 1: "AND THE GALA MURDER"

3:30PM

mood

"Time to get your butt sniffed, Noodles."

location

Dohrn House -> Treehouse HQ.

interaction

KingofAesir (Devyn)

She was sitting at her desk doing homework when her phone lit up.

‘is tipsy in your house i cant find him’

Noodles, the black and white Cavachon in her lap, perked her head up, almost as if she knew the message was about her suitor. Valerie pet her head, “Looks like your man has hopped the fence again.”

‘bro’ she shot back jokingly, ‘he might be let me look’.

Getting up from her desk and placing Noodles on the ground, she walked over to the window, unsurprised when she saw Sean’s massive St. Bernard sniffing all over the backyard- it was a daily occurrence. She sent him a confirmation text.

“C’mon, girlfriend,” she said as she picked Noodles up, “looks like it’s potty time.”

Pulling on her Uggs at the backdoor, she released her tiny dog into the fenced wild, causing Tipsy to immediately start running circles around her unbothered, peeing form. Valerie pulled her phone out of her back pocket to find a storm of texts in the group chat. She immediately gave them the okay to come over despite not reading through what the problem was, then opened the backdoor and announced, “My friends are coming over!” to whichever dad happened to be listening. She immediately got “Aww, does my baby have friends!?” shouted back, to which she smiled good-naturedly and replied, “You say that every time, and every time it’s not funny!”. There was a muffled “Yes it is!” as the backdoor shut.

She made her way to the treehouse, settling on the couch and waiting. The leaves rattling outside the windows were starting to turn, a couple having blown in when she’d entered; she’d have to ask her dad about the logistics of bringing space heaters into a fully wooden structure soon. After all, he was the one who had built it using his architectural skills. She watched Noodles and Tipsy chase each other, wondering when they would realize she wasn’t with them anymore.

“Hey, dude.” she greeted Devyn as the redhead joined her, “What were you guys texting about? I didn’t even read it.”

coded by weldherwings.

 

[KingofAesir]

Episode 1: "And the Gala Murder"

4:12 PM

---​

mood

"Get dressed up with me or die."

location

Treehouse HQ

interaction

The Gang jazzyball mogy _em_

Dev had already begun going over her words in her head when Sean made his appearance in their no-so-secret secret hideout. His lanky frame popping up in the doorway brought back a flood of memories of the same thing. A smaller, baby-faced Sean standing in that same doorway tales of a detention slip on his lips. Sometimes when Devyn looked at him she still saw that same insufferable trouble maker, gap-toothed and shameless. It was the same with Valerie, it was hard not to still see the overachieving tiny shrimp of a girl that she had once been. The same girl who listened to her cry and rant about her parents on almost a daily basis in Junior High, the one who gave her a key to her damn house and barely even acknowledged when a shadow appeared in her room at 3 in the morning. It was hard to think about these things though, when she knew they were coming so close to everything being different. There would be a day when this tree house was empty. When her Mr. Dohrn stopped bothering to upkeep it, or when he could no longer do so, and it would fall apart like a long forgotten memory. Dev hated the idea of being forgotten.

She shook away her flashback and gave Sean a roll of her eyes as he took a seat next to Val. His grin, though, was kind of contagious so she couldn’t help but let one creep on to her own face. Val said something about what they had talked about in their group chat and Dev let out a sharp laugh through her nose. Leaning back in her beanbag, she closed her eyes as she began to relay the happenings to Val.

“Oh, nothing. We just discovered Flynn has a beret fetish and Sean was unapologetically gross, as per usual.” She waved her hand around in front of her face as if dismissing it as unimportant. Before anyone could say anything about the beret fetish thing, a warm and familiar voice floated up from down below and soon after Flynn was quite literally falling through the open door. He had been the last edition to their group but Dev remembered the way he smiled with his eyes the first time he had met them, dragged over by Sean to their lunch table Dev had smiled right back at him he’d always had this aura of joy that was impossible to ignore.

“Jesus, Flynn.” Dev laughed softly as she got up to help their friend up, “Here, love.” She pulled him up to his feet and brushed down his clothes that had been wrinkled in the fall. Looking him over, she fixed a stray lock of his hair before snatching a box of Lemon-Ups from the floor and meandering over to the center of the room.

“Alright, now that we are all here, I’m ambushing you.” Dev flashed pearly whites and popped a cookie in her mouth, “My mother is hosting her fifth charity” She did quick air quotes, “gala tonight. She has required me to attend and I do not plan on doing that shit on my own so…..” A bereft pause, “all of you have to come or I will literally die of boredom.”

coded by weldherwings.

[/border][/border]

 

[mogy]

episode 1: "...And the Gala Murder"

4:13pm

---​

mood

"The perfect shot."

location

Treehouse HQ

interaction

KingofAesir (Devyn Brenner), _em_ (Valerie Dohrn), jazzyball (Flynn Jiang)

Sean remembered the times when it was just him and the girls very well. He was biggest ladies’ man that he could be; bigger than any other guy in Silver Creek Middle School. I mean, the nerdy girl, and the spoiled girl—it wasn’t going to get better than that. So, at times like this, while Flynn still didn’t arrive because he was late for whatever stupid reason, he would let himself reminisce about those simpler times when his crush didn’t need to be reciprocated for him to feel good about it. And, of course, he loved his best bro, but it was quite obvious that the dude kind of stole both of his girls. Not cool, but he was the one who invited Flynn to the group in the first place, and he wouldn’t blame the lovely ladies for his own insecurities. Not that he had any. But if he did have some, he wouldn’t blame the ladies. Yes, that was what he meant. Completely.

Now, Dev always acted like she didn’t care much for Sean, but Sean knew that she had him in her heart 100%. She would always be the one who would wave back, who would smile back, who would pretend not to laugh at his jokes but secretly found them funny. He looked at the ginger girl as she once again dismissed his amazing jokes as being perverted and weird. He couldn’t help but roll his eyes, smile still as evident on his face. He didn’t mind being called perverted nor weird because he knew he was just a romantic at heart. And everyone else knew that too. Right?

The proof was the girl sitting next to him who acted to hard-to-get, but Sean would get her. He would. His view shifted from Dev to the girl of his dreams, looking a bit down at her, his smile growing just a little bit. She didn’t seem to pay any attention to him, but it was fine. He was paying attention to her. To her hair that smelled like flowers even if he wasn’t directly smelling it. The clothes she was wearing which were exactly her. Oh my God, he was absolutely nuts about her. But before he made his daily moves on her which would probably go right over her head because she was short, the epitome of the word ‘dumb’ crashed into the treehouse, making it shake just a little bit, surprisingly not scaring Sean in the process.

“Oh, hell yeah, dude! Thanks.” He reached for one box of the thin mints, the one that promptly landed in front of his feet, opening it like a little kid that just got a new Lego set for Christmas.

He didn’t wait before stuffing like 6 of them in his mouth, looking next to him, and realizing this was his perfect shot. And not like all of those previous perfect shots. Those were fake perfect shots, but this one was definitely real. The one.

He took a thin mint out of the packaging, put it in his hand and stretched like guys do in movies. The hand holding the thin mint perfectly found itself behind Val’s head, resting over her shoulders. “Fhin-Mint?” He asked, mouth still absolutely filled with half-chewed treats, crumbs falling out.

Whatever Dev was saying, well, that didn't matter. He was trying to impress his lady, and nothing is more important than love. Maybe thin mints, but after them, love was the most important.

coded by weldherwings.

 

[_em_]

EPISODE 1: "AND THE GALA MURDER"

4:10PM

mood

"Do-Si-Dos or Do-Si-Die."

location

Treehouse HQ.

interaction

KingofAesir mogy

Flynn was a hot mess, and it wasn’t just his inner circle that knew it- the whole town seemed to be aware that he could barely remember how to tie his shoes in the morning. He was sweet, though, and had made quite the first impression when they’d met him years ago; she was pretty sure Sean still had the scar to prove it. So when he quite literally came crashing into the treehouse, no one flilnched. Devyn helped him up, and they all moved on to eating the unfortunate amount of Girl Scout cookies he had, for another year in a row, been coereced into buying. Besides, he knew where they stored the first-aid kit if he once again needed to break into the Hello Kitty band-aid supply.

Valerie remembered hearing about the Brennan’s past ‘charity’ events. They were becoming an annual thing, apparently, just like Flynn’s Girl Scout problem. “That’s new.” she replied to Devyn’s force-invite to the gala, “Do your parents even want us there-”

Then, suddenly, Sean was in her face, offering a half-eaten Thin Mint from the arm that was wrapped around her shoulders. She stood up, laughing, “Is everyone tripping today or something? You guys are gonna really hurt yourselves eventually.”

Plucking and opening a box of her favorite cookies from the spilled pile, she sat down on the opposite end of the couch from Sean, taking a bite for emphasis, “And everyone knows Thin Mints have nothing on Do-Si-Dos." She turned her attention back to Devyn, "Anyways, you were saying?”

coded by weldherwings.

 

[KingofAesir]

Episode 1: "And the Gala Murder"

4:20 PM

---​

mood

"Don't say no or I'll murder you slowly."

location

Treehouse HQ

interaction

The Gang mogy _em_ jazzyball

Dev was going over what she could potentially force her friends to wear to the gala as she paced back and forth across the treehouse floor. She wasn’t worried about Valerie, she could dress herself just fine. She was only slightly worried about Sean simply because she didn’t know if she had ever even seen him dressed up. Flynn would probably wear what he had on at that very moment if someone didn’t give him explicit dress code instructions. Her pacing was interrupted by Val shrugging away Sean’s advances and imploring Devyn to continue. Sean definitely had not been listening so she made a point to pick up an abandoned stuffed animal that was lying in the corner and throw it directly at Sean’s head.

“Listen, this kinda thing has a dress code and I need all three,” She stared pointedly at Sean for a moment, “of you to wear-” Flynn’s voice speaking up and asking what a gala was cut off her speech and she couldn’t help but giggle a little at the question.

“It’s like…well it’s just a fancy people's party. Like Homecoming but with guys with little trays walking around everywhere.” Dev had continued her pacing, mimicking a tray carrier and bowing in front of Valerie, “Would you like some caviar, miss?” She spoke in a fake accent, laughing at her own joke as she straightened up again. She picked her box of cookies back up from where she had placed it when she picked up the stuffed rabbit she had thrown at Sean, and continued on with her speech.

“So, since it’s fancy you guys have to wear some nice clothes.” She plopped a cookie in her mouth and got half-way to swallowing before she was speaking again, “Oh! Val, your dress that you wore to the last Homecoming would be good.” Dev nodded satisfied, before whirling on Sean, “I need you to at least wear a shirt that has a collar on it, or a sweater, and black pants or jeans or whatever. Please, and thank you.” When she was done antagonizing Sean she turned to Flynn.

“Flynn, I saw suspenders in your closet the last time I was over, and you definitely own a few button downs so I think you’re okay.” Dev grinned at her friends, “As for moi, I have a dress I have yet to wear that I think will blow all of your minds and you can thank me later.” She returned to her bean bag with her cookies.

“My mom has been in like psycho, crazy lady mode lately since the secretary thing so she’s probably not gonna be super friendly.” Devyn sunk lower in her bean bag, “She literally told me yesterday, and I quote,” She cleared her throat and put on her best Eliza Brennan impression, which sounded more like Mrs. Piggy if she smoked than her actual mother, “Devyn Anne, I want you to start trying to talk to that Miller boy whose family runs the lumber mill. Maybe he can find you some friends who better suit us.” Devyn rolled her eyes hard.

“Reid Miller. As if! He looks like someone took a nine iron to his face and then tried to fix it with plastic surgery.” She huffed a sigh, “That woman will be the death of me one day, I swear by it. But, anyway, you guys will come, yeah? I’ll probably end up throwing myself off my balcony if you don’t.” Devyn put on her best puppy dog eyes as she awaited definitive answers.

coded by weldherwings.

 

[_em_]

EPISODE 1: "AND THE GALA MURDER"

4:30PM

mood

"We don't talk about Bruno. Or that night at homecoming."

location

Treehouse HQ.

interaction

KingofAesir mogy jazzyball

Valerie wasn’t much of a party fiend, she’d rather stay in and study, but the redhead lamenting in front of her never passed up an opportunity so the rest of them always got dragged along. Regardless, she remembered last homecoming well. She’d actually been excited to go; the dress Devyn had just told her to rewear was why. It was the perfect shade of orange, with the perfect matching heels. Her hair had been cooperating with the curling iron- it had all been great.

Then the four of them arrived at the actual party after her dads had taken an unfortunate amount of pictures, and then, well…Sean had just been weird. All night. He was fine when the two of them were doing their corny poses for the photos beforehand, but as soon as the actual party started he got quiet. He couldn’t meet her eyes, and whenever she tried to ask Devyn about it she would sip her drink (of punch that was absolutely spiked, and she knew it too) and laugh. Valerie didn’t understand what was funny, but she figured Devyn was tipsy.

Sean never told her what was wrong; he denied being weird the next day. She apologized for denying his invitation when he had asked her to dance after dinner was served, her feet had been hurting from the heels. She hadn’t meant to upset him. You could’ve asked Devyn, ya know. Or Flynn. she’d said. He laughed; said he hadn’t thought about it. They moved on.

But Valerie still thought about that night. The way he couldn’t look her in the eyes; the way he seemed embarrassed or something.

“Your so dramatic, Dev,” she laughed, “Of course we’ll come. Right, boys?”

coded by weldherwings.

 

[mogy]

episode 1: "...And the Gala Murder"

4:32pm

---​

mood

"Ew, homecoming."

location

Treehouse HQ

interaction

KingofAesir (Devyn Bakery), _em_ (Valerie Dohrn), jazzyball (Flynn Jiang)

Hurt themselves? How would Sean ever be able to hurt himself when Val was the one who just ripped his heart out of his chest and threw it out the treehouse window? She wasn’t taunting him, nor playing stupid games of hard-to-get, so why did it seem like she was? Ugh, Sean was completely aware she was going to be the end of him one day, but that day definitely, 100%, was not going to be today. So what, she didn’t want a thin mint? Big deal. Like it matters anyway, right? It wasn’t like he offered her a kiss or something.

Wait, a gala?

What?

“Yeah, what’s a gala?” He asked, mouth still full and spitting out crumbs, agreeing with Finn’s confusion. And then as Dev explained, making sure to give Sean a special glance when the conversation came to dress code, he couldn’t help but roll his eyes, leaning back on his hands. She knew he wasn’t a big fan of dress code when it came to any sort of occasion. He literally only put on clothes in the morning because he would get arrested otherwise. Clothes were just a bother all around. These guys didn’t get it.

Then the conversation turned to homecoming, and, well, that’s when Sean kind of tuned out. Like completely. There weren’t many traumatic events in Sean’s life, but after homecoming, well, he had nightmares for days. It was just one unfortunate event after another, and when that punch bowl ended up all over his jeans, he wanted to just die of embarrassment. The way everyone looked at him. Like he was a dog or something.

Yikes.

Yikes dude.

He managed to chew through the however many thin mints he put in his mouth previously, swallowing them and then cleaning his teeth of any leftover residue. Not like he could contribute to the conversation anyway.

“Uh, yeah, I’m in.” He commented, looking up from the floor towards Dev. “If I can flirt with your banging milf mom.”

coded by weldherwings.