Welcome to Hickstead, home to both Seven Oak Stables, and Blue Acre - two rival stables. Both offer opportunities for their clients to reach the highest level of excellence. Each stable differs from the other, so choose wisely and never forget, loyalty is everything... Meanwhile as the stables battle it out, there's trouble brewing at the university. Be careful, if you don't pick a side you may get caught in the cross-fire...
This is an chilled out rpg with a super friendly and relaxed atmosphere! Remember to sign up with your characters full name in all caps and don't forget to do your claims! Thank you and Welcome, we've been established since 10th March 2009 but unfortunately have had to close guest view of our boards due to multiple sites ripping off our hard work, such a shame! Come chat to us in Discord before joining if you like!.
Link walked from the bus stop along the road towards the housing estate with his rucksack slung over his left shoulder. He'd not long finished school and was keen to get home and hole back up in his bedroom - his safe haven lately. Exams were in full swing at school which meant his usual overactive brain was more lively than usual. It had been english lit today, which meant lots of writing, trying to cram all of the thoughts and ideas that swirled around in his head onto paper in the allotted time. Never an easy task. He glanced at the larger houses as he strolled past, heading to his own home at the end of the avenue - where the more budget friendly options where. He had to admit they did live in a nice area. He hadn't known anything different but he couldn't imagine living in a busy city. There was something calming about small towns.
Reaching the house, he fished his key out of his jeans pocket to open the door before walking inside. Link dumped his bag over the banister by the straps then moved into the kitchen, not bothering to announce his presence to anyone who might already be home. His dad was probably passed out on the couch and he didn't feel like dealing with him under the influence at the moment. He grabbed a can of sprite from the fridge and all the stuff he needed to make a ham & cheese toastie. He'd have to wrangle some money out of his dad at some point since they were running low on a few things. He jumped up onto the counter and cracked open his can, taking a sip while he waited for the toastie to cook under the grill.
16 - smart ass - hyperactive - high school - single
Jace was already home from school. He'd left after getting into a fight with several older boys who had decided he was their enemy. It was needless to say that seven against one was not fair or favorable odds, and despite his very best efforts, he'd been pushed into the ground and given what for.
So well before lunch time he had limped his way into the house, ignoring his father as he went to the bathroom and examined the cuts and bruises on his skin. The person in the mirror didn't look like him, didn't feel like him. But it was wearing the same bruises and cuts, healing and new. The tears had come suddenly and unexpectedly, so he drowned them under freezing cold water for almost an hour before he stepped out and gone to his room, fishing out fresh clothes and subsequently passed out on the floor for a few hours.
It was the sound of the front door opening and closing that woke him. Whatever faint slivers of happiness were in his dreams broke apart and he frowned. It annoyed him. He got up, finding his throat dry and wandered down to the kitchen, his hair all over the place as entered. Spotting Link on the counter, he frowned.
"The fuck are you doing home already?" he grumbled, grabbing a glass from a cupboard.
He yawned and winced a little bit as a bruise pulled at him, before he turned on the tap and filled his glass. He looked tired, but that was never anything too unusual considering that he was known to stay up all night doing his own thing. He was sporting a new cut on his forehead and his lip was busted, knuckles bruised, arms grazed, nothing too weird either.
Derek frowned as one of the containers threatened to spill out of his arms, huffing as he wrangled them back into some kind of order in his arms. Derek used to just buy ingredients; an array of vegetables and meats and the odd extra that might be useful, but he'd quit doing that when he'd kept coming in to find the vegetables had gone off, left to rot in the fridge because nobody had thought to try and use them. It was disappointing, and he'd been angry at the waste of money - he wasn't exactly Mr Money bags, and a part of him wondered why he bothered - but every time he looked at the empty fridge and one of his brother's hungry faces he knew exactly why he did it. If he didn't help, who else would? Instead, he'd taken to mass cooking simple meals that his brothers would eat if they were hungry enough, packing them into containers and taking them over when he had time - pasta meals, chilli, curry... easy enough to re-heat.
He gave his usual knock on the back door - the singular wrapping on his knuckles before entering, just about managing to juggle the full armload into the kitchen, seeing two of his brothers already there as he put everything down onto the counter. "Hey," He said, taking in both of the younger boys - Link looked somewhat harassed, Jace looked like he'd been in a fight. Derek's brow furrowed. "What trouble did you get into now?" He asked, the instant irritation at Jace flickering a little. It was that whole thing of who would he have to sweet talk now into not pressing charges, or to remove a suspension from school or avoid it becoming a bigger deal.
mav woke with a start when his phone buzzed under his head. it took him a moment to realize that he was laying on top of his bed. he inwardly grumbled to himself and spent more than a few minutes berating himself for falling asleep in the middle of the day. this whole lack of energy crap he was curently going through sucked. he'd been warned about that, that it could be months before he felt anything like his old self again but that thought terrified him. he wasn't an invalid, he wasn't sick, he just needed to get over it and damned if he was going to take it all lying down. he got out of bed and when he opened the door to his room he could hear jace downstairs and he rolled his eyes a little. of course if anyone was home it was that brother. he sighed a little as he headed down the stairs and towards the kitchen because it smelt like something was cooking and that didn't seem like a jace thing to do. he scratched his shoulder lightly as he walked into the kitchen and was surprised to see link sitting on the cupboard and derek dumping containers down on the bench. "hey." he said as he took in the three of them.
"the better question to ask him is what didn't he do." mav said as he walked across to the fridge and he grabbed a coke from the fridge and he went to sit at the table in the room. he hoped he didn't look as worn out as he felt but there was a part of him that realised with jace in the room, he doubted anyone would really look at him for more than a second or so. "are you cooking that or burning it?" he pointed to the grill that link was sitting next to, smelling whatever it was that he had in there. he wasn't hungry enough to ask for some of whatever it was but that was beside the point.
Link looked up at the sound of approaching feet, years of living under the same roof helped him identify the body before he'd even entered the room. Jace. He narrowed his eyes slightly at the sight of his brother covered in cuts and bruises, again. "The fuck are you doing home already?" He shrugged lazily and jerked his chin towards the clock hanging on the kitchen wall. "School finished an hour ago dumb ass." As his brother moved closer, he got a better look of the fresh cuts on his face. Clearly they'd happened recently.
His head swivelled at the sound of knocking at the back door, revealing his older brother as he stepped inside holding a mountain of containers. He smiled and eyed the food gratefully as Derek put them on the counter. "Hey, thanks." He said, gesturing to the food. "What trouble did you get into now?" Link snorted and rolled his eyes. "been running his mouth again obviously" He said then lifted his sprite to his lips to take a sip as his other brother wandered into the room, nodding a 'hey' to him. "the better question to ask him is what didn't he do." He smirked slightly, agreeing with Mav. "are you cooking that or burning it?" He looked down at the grill and popped open the lid before his toastie had time to burn. "thanks." He fished out the hot snack and tossed it between both hands as he lowered it onto the plate nearby to stop his hands from burning. "How're you doing?" He asked, looking back to Mav.
16 - smart ass - hyperactive - high school - single
He shrugged lazily and jerked his chin towards the clock hanging on the kitchen wall. "School finished an hour ago dumb ass."
Jace shrugged, he didn't care what time it was. It just seemed to him like it was too early for Link to be home. Hearing the back door open, he turned back to look and spotted Derek coming into the kitchen for whatever reason.
"Hey, thanks." He said, gesturing to the food.
"What trouble did you get into now?"
"I-" He didn't get to say much as Link interjected.
Link snorted and rolled his eyes. "Been running his mouth again obviously." He said.
"The better question to ask him is what didn't he do." He smirked slightly, agreeing with Mav. "Are you cooking that or burning it?"
"How're you doing?" He asked, looking back to Mav.
Jace finished his glass and set it in the sink with a shaking hand, feeling threatened and cornered with so many bodies in one space, not that it ever mattered to his brothers. They all liked to pick on him.
"I didn't ask for the assessment," Jace growled back, his eyes looking between them all, "What the fuck would any of you know anyway my day. You didn't give a shit last week, last month, ever really so shut the fuck up."
He leaned back on the counter and started picking at his knuckles so that he didn't have to focus on them as much. He just had to find a way out of the room before they all dived on him and attacked.
At Link's thanks, Derek inclined his head to acknowledge. He just wanted to make sure they were fed, he knew they could go out and buy their own or whatever but pizza only cut it so far and the younger lads didn't have so much choice. He would do it regardless of the reception he got, but the thanks and appreciation was always welcome. It made him feel that it was worth the effort - though any time he returned to find the containers empty he felt it was worth it. He didn't even entertain the idea that the food was being thrown away.
He moved a few things in the fridge as he started stacking, frowning as he found a few molding vegetables from a shelf - and then sighing when he saw a whole corner of mold covered food tucked at the back. He ignored the conversation happening behind him in favour of cleaning out the shit. "Do you all live like savages?" he interjected, dishing out the disapproval to each of them as he began stacking his meals in inside. He was happy to help but they were all old enough to at least clean up the trash.
"I didn't ask for the assessment. What the fuck would any of you know anyway my day. You didn't give a shit last week, last month, ever really so shut the fuck up." Derek's frown deepened and he looked at Jace. "There's no need to be rude, since when didn't we care?" Jace might be the quickest to rile his temper but he was still his brother. "If we didn't care you'd have been locked away by now." as if Jace didn't know how of his many messes his brothers had fixed over the years.
he half grinned as link pulled the toastie out of the oven and couldn't help but smirk slightly as he saw the smoke that had started to come from the surface, so it had almost burnt. "aren't you supposed to be the genius?" he joked as he rubbed his hand over the back of his neck and he looked across at derek as he started putting the things he'd brought in the fridge. it took everything in him not to frown and say something sarcastic to derek because deep down he knew they all needed to do better. "we're not housebroken yet." so he decided to settle on a joke as he rested his arms down on the table as link asked him a question.
before he could answer though, jace had seemingly listened to just that part of the conversation and assumed the question was about him so he opened his own mouth and went off on a little tirade. mav rolled his eyes and looked at link. "typical isn't it." he shook his head a little before he looked back to his other younger brother. "he wasn't even talking to you jace." it was then that derek piped into the conversation saying they did care, because jace wasn't behind bars. he raised a brow slightly and took a sip of the coke, muttering into the can as he did. "no better place for him actually."
"Do you all live like savages?" Link took a sip of his coke as he looked at Derek, tilting his head slightly with a grin. ”Yup. .that reminds me, I need to go sharpen the spears before we go hunting later.” The last month had been tough, organising a house with a million males - adolescent males at that - was a nightmare. He didn’t know how his mother had done it, which only made him miss her more. He’d tried figuring out the washing machine and could successfully wash most things now without doing much damage. The first few tries had been a disaster. He’d almost flooded the place but practice makes perfect – reading the manual also helped. "aren't you supposed to be the genius?" He shrugged, picking up the toastie. ”I am a genius. . just an easily distracted one” He rolled his eyes as he heard Jace’s outburst, making a cat fighting noise before biting into his toastie, letting his brothers deal with the tantrum.
16 - smart ass - hyperactive - high school - single
Jace could only frown between his brothers. Why did they pick on him so much? He didn't get it. He began chewing on his thumb nail furiously, barely noticing how far back he was chewing it. His other hand began to fiddle with the zipper of his jacket.
"There's no need to be rude, since when didn't we care? If we didn't care you'd have been locked away by now."
"Dad would love that, wouldn't he?" Jace spat back. "He's always saying that I'm a fuck up, so why does he bother?"
It wasn't strictly true, but that was how Jace took the ranting and raving about school and how his father was constantly called to collect him.
"Typical isn't it. He wasn't even talking to you Jace."
Immediately Jace faced Maverick, "Well he wasn't talking to you fuck-stain!"
As Link hissed at them all, he turned around with his own feral growl; feeling cornered. He was never sure which brother was going to poke or prod or make fun of him, so he reacted violently accordingly.
"we're not housebroken yet.... Yup. .that reminds me, I need to go sharpen the spears before we go hunting later." He rolled his eyes as two of them chirped up with their ridiculous answers, but the slight twitch of his lips threatened at a smile. "Well, you see this stuff here? It's mold - mold is bad, you throw it out. And then the plate goes in here..." He indicated the gone off food with his index finger as he grimaced and chucked it, putting the plate into the dishwasher and then adding a few others that had piled up in the sink. "Sometimes I have to remind myself I don't live here anymore," He muttered, though it wasn't meant in a horrible way, just that he sometimes wondered if he should have stayed- then again, he'd probably had lost his mind if he had.
"no better place for him actually." He frowned and shot a look at his brother, "Mav, don't." He wasn't the peacekeeper really, he was terrible at it, but he couldn't stand there and listen to them snipe at each other. Then Link made that damn noise and he let out his own grunt of frustration, "Link, not helping." God honestly sometimes he felt like their father. "Dad would love that, wouldn't he? He's always saying that I'm a fuck up, so why does he bother?" And here it went, he gave a heavy sigh and turned to face Jace for the onslaught. "Well he wasn't talking to you fuck-stain!" Derek folded his arms across his check, brows lowering as there was a further growl. "You are not animals, enough of that shit," He snapped slightly, jesus where the hell was dad's head at these days, the kids needed proper managing. "No, he wouldn't love that Jace, none of us would. As fucked up as you are sometimes you are still our brother." Maybe not the best choice of words but his tether was wearing short.
he saw the way his older brothers lip twitched at the ribbing and he couldn't help but smirk just a little. people might look in and think they lived like animals and that they treated each other worse but they didn't really. ribbing each other was one of the ways they showed they cared, actually it was one of the main ways. though he did admit that sometimes they took it too far. but today, he was enjoying it. perhaps because it had been a while since he'd been in the same room as this many of his brothers. he hadn't been at their mothers funeral or there in the week after her death. by the time he'd got out of hospital derek had moved out of the house, their father was a drunken idiot and everyone was dealing on their own. so he'd spent the first few weeks recovering in his room. he made sure to look pointedly at the dishwasher and he tilted his head slightly. "that looks far to complicated for savages like us. too many buttons." he said as he waggled his fingers a little before he let a proper smile slip.
but the mood didn't stay quite as light for long. he knew better, but he couldn't help it. "fuck stain, that's a new one. losing your creativity are you you heaping pile of psychotic deranged energy," of all their brothers he and jace were the two that butted heads the most. they weren't the closest in age but they were the closest in order and jace had been making his life a living hell for the last seventeen years. okay that might have been a stretch but it had felt like it. "you can't think it's not the truth." but he didn't say anything more on that matter. none of them would ever go so far as to have their brother committed, because he was their brother and that was the part that sucked, the fact that no matter what he put them through, that fact wouldn't change and they'd always have his back when push came to shove.
"Well, you see this stuff here? It's mold - mold is bad, you throw it out. And then the plate goes in here... " He let out a huff as he frowned, turning his attention to the eldest brother in the room. ”I’m not an idiot derek. I’ve done the dishes like four times this week already, its someone else’s turn.” He half shrugged, nibbling on his toastie. It was hard keeping up with everything. He’d had exams to study for as well as work. "Sometimes I have to remind myself I don't live here anymore," He took a sip of his drink, his expression darkening slightly as he heard Derek. ”Maybe you should leave properly like Keith then.” He muttered. "fuck stain, that's a new one. losing your creativity are you you heaping pile of psychotic deranged energy,"
Link snorted and took another bite of his toastie, trying to muffle the laugh that so desperately wanted to come out. The insults the brothers had come up with over the years had been interesting. "You are not animals, enough of that shit," He bit his tongue as derek snapped at them, holding back the comeback that threatened to bulldoze out of his mouth. He hated being told off, it made his smart mouth want to fight back. "Dad would love that, wouldn't he? He's always saying that I'm a fuck up, so why does he bother?" Link rolled his eyes and shot a frown in Jace’s direction as he dragged their dad into the conversation. ”Because he loves you dipshit.” There dad may have been the tougher parent growing up – not that he was much of a parent lately, but he still loved his kids, he just had his own way of showing it.
16 - smart ass - hyperactive - high school - single
"No, he wouldn't love that Jace, none of us would. As fucked up as you are sometimes you are still our brother."
Jace felt something give, like glass breaking, the light in his eyes dimmed and his fist clenched around the glass in his hand tightly, shaking. He didn't even register the pain as the glass broke in his hand.
"Fuck stain, that's a new one. losing your creativity are you, you heaping pile of psychotic deranged energy. You can't think it's not the truth."
His chest shuddered painfully as he fought to regain the ability to breathe. His thoughts were whirling around in a maddening spiral, his throat tight and his vision blurred but he didn't understand why that was the case. He didn't care that his face had gone red or that he had started the nervous twitching that came when the voices started to join in the yelling.
"No one likes you. And you're going to end up alone and you deserve it!" he snapped back, voice breaking. "Because you're a fuck up!"
He wasn't even looking at his brother's anymore, turned to face a space no one was stood in. He threw the pieces of broken glass at the sink, the shattering pieces flying everywhere before he took off up to his room, leaving a small trail of blood on the floor. He slammed the door behind himself and shrunk down on the floor behind the door, cradling his hand to his chest. He felt tears fall onto his cheeks and he immediately covered his mouth trying to smother out the sobs trying to break out.
"that looks far to complicated for savages like us. too many buttons." Derek rolled his eyes, "I worry for you, if you can't even find the on switch to a dish washer.." He retorted, well aware he was being tested somewhat. He had to admit that he brothers didn't have make him feel like he was adjusting to life as a father; the constant fights and back and forth repartee. He wasn't so sure he wanted them after all this, or perhaps just the one with nobody else to fight with. He knew well enough that the boys could handle putting on a dishwasher, it was whether they wanted to or not was the issue - dad sure as shit didn't. ”I’m not an idiot derek. I’ve done the dishes like four times this week already, its someone else’s turn.” He sighed and rolled his eyes, "sometimes it's not about keeping tally, unless you all want to get unwell." Mold wasn't good for a person, and if they didn't look after themselves they'd all start to fall sick.
”Maybe you should leave properly like Keith then.” His frown became a glower as he looked at Link. "Like I said before, none of you shits are bothering to take care of things. Do you want me to repeat your whinge from a moment ago?" He couldn't help but snap a little, his patience lost. You try and do something nice, try to look after your family, and this was what it came to - don't bother, leave then, I already did it boo hoo. Christ. "fuck stain, that's a new one. losing your creativity are you you heaping pile of psychotic deranged energy," Derek frowned, shooting Mav a look, "Oi. Watch your mouth." He was reaching the end of his tether. Coming in to feed and clean up a bit was one thing but he didn't appreciate all the angry bullshit.
The shattering of glass pulled his attention again and he turned for the source, his back immediately up. That kind of noise was usually following the chucking off a glass, or a plate, and he had to fight the urge to reflexively duck just in case. "What did you do?" He asked Jace, glancing him over curiously. "No one likes you. And you're going to end up alone and you deserve it! Because you're a fuck up!" Derek shook his head, "Seriously, enough of the crap." He snapped again, stepping forward to check Jace's cut when the boy was suddenly gone. "Fuck," He muttered, "Jace! Come back so I can check your hand!" He called out, hesitating to leave the glass broken on the floor for someone else to step in. He shook his head and went to grab the dustpan and brush.
