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!.
It was late, another Saturday night, with the rain coming down heavy outside. Jace had been absent the whole day, having left his phone turned off and on the side table in his room. He had simply slipped out before the sun had risen and was only just returning, not quite ten o'clock. He was drenched through, hair hanging in front of his face like a bowl of limp, scraggly noodles. He was cold, but he couldn't have been bothered to try and get out of the rain, having spent the entire day simply walking around in circles and ultimately having sat down at his mother's grave for a few hours at some point.
He didn't know or care if there was food left over for him from dinner, or even if his siblings were awake or if his father was already passed out on the couch yet. None of that mattered as he trudged in through the back door, leaving plenty of wet, muddy shoe prints on the grey tiles. He slipped out of those shoes and walked through to the kitchen, looking for whatever he felt like eating - not that there was much that he wanted to eat, because he didn't know any more. He was so used to things just being handed over to him by his parents and told to eat it.
Brushing back his hair from his face, he pulled a random biscuit from one of the containers and began gnawing on it with disinterest, staring out the kitchen window with a blank expression, oblivious to the puddle of water forming around his feet.
mav pulled into the drive of his family house and he shut his car off, hearing the rain splat against his car as he sat there in the darkness. he'd been at a friends house for the evening, eating bad chinese, drinking cheap alcohol and doing his best to forget about life. he wasn't drunk but he was well aware that he'd had one too many to be able to drive without getting in trouble but he'd gotten lucky on the drive home, it had been all clear of the local cops. he waited for a lull in the weather before he grabbed his leftover chinese and the bottle of whisky he'd brought home with him and he made his way inside.
he left his wet shoes on the porch outside as he shook his hair off as he walked through the open front door, that might have worried him if he hadn't been a little bit inebriated, and he almost tripped on a pair of soaking shoes sitting in the middle of the floor. "jace." he grumbled as he dumped the bag with his stuff in it on the bottom stair and he grabbed the shoes and he carried them upstairs. he didn't know where his brother was in the house but he didn't care, he walked straight to his bedroom door before he pushed it open and he tossed the soaking shoes onto the top of his bed, landing them almost square on the pillow. "scooore." he half whispered to himself as he closed the door again and walked back down the stairs.
he grabbed his bag from the bottom stair as he walked through to the kitchen to find a fork. it was there he saw his brother, soaked from head to toe just standing there, munching on a biscuit and dropping what looked like a liter of water a minute. he rolled his eyes a little as he pulled open the cutlery drawer loudly and he grabbed a fork. "have you ever heard of a towel?" he said as he pulled out the chinese container from the bag and he chucked in the microwave so he could nuke it before he ate it.
Jace's thoughts were scattered, non-existent. Nothing felt entirely real or tangible. The biscuit was dry and tasteless as he stood there aimlessly.
"Have you ever heard of a towel?" he said.
The words broke the out of place calm as he turned to look at his brother, "Ever heard of I don't care?"
He moved to the bin and threw the biscuit away which had only been a third consumed. He didn't feel right but he said nothing - they dismissed him anyway. He pulled out the box of cigarettes from his pocket and looked at the soggy mess before throwing them in the bin too, along with the lighter. He'd just nick a fresh box in the morning or something. Or he'd go without, depended on how much effort it was going to take him.
He was beyond caring all that much, the paranoia wasn't gnawing at him for the moment, all he knew was that he was tired. Impossibly tired and that his bed was calling for him, but he didn't move from the spot he had beside the bin, his expression twisting to that of confusion, seeing a shadowy figure by the kitchen table which was screw over his mind. Did he ask about it? Or did he leave it alone?
he couldn't help but roll his eyes when his brother said that he didn't care. of course he didn't care. he'd never cared about anything but himself, well at least it always seemed that way. it made trying to keep the place they lived in clean, although it wasn't like they were all making a huge effort but when jace made non, came through and messed the house up regardless it just made it hard. "every time you open your mouth," he said as he pulled the half heated chinese out of the microwave and he grabbed a spoon and sat down at the table, digging into the rice half heartedly.
he paid vague attention as jace moved to the bin and threw out the biscuit he had been eating and while that wasn't strange it was when he threw out the soaked cigarettes. he hadn't smoked before but he did figure the smokes could just be left on a surface and dried out, but he didn't say anything about that. it wasn't his money that his brother was wasting so that didn't bother him as much as the biscuit did. he gave his father money for groceries, he brought groceries into the house and like his older brother, didn't like seeing them go to waste. it was then he saw a confused look cross onto his brother's face and he followed his gaze back over his shoulder, but he couldn't see anything there. he turned back to see jace's face and he raised a brow as he dug his spoon back into the food. "what's wrong with your face?"
Jace barely paid his brother's reply much mind. He was too fixed on the shape near the table. It was vibrating, smokey... it was hard to focus on it.
"what's wrong with your face?"
Jace's expression remained twisted, taking on hints of frustration.
"Why can no one see it?" he asked, ignoring Maverick entirely no, "They always come back. They aren't welcome here, no one sees them. They get me into trouble a lot, these things... I want them to go away. I don't like them."
His hands were shaking at his sides, even he brought his hands up to push his hair away from his face. The figure he could see seemed to move closer to his brother, his anxiety picking up.
"Stop moving to him. Go away. Leave me alone!" his voice was taking a slightly desperate twinge.
well that was a little weird. normally when mav bit his brother would bite back and tonight he wasn't. it was almost like he was transfixed on something else in the room, someone else even though there was no one else in the room with them. he set down the spoon on the table as he watched his brothers face twist with frustration and he couldn't help the fact he felt a little worried about his brother. he may be a shit and he may be bat shit crazy but he was still a breckah and they were blood, that meant a little something.
"what can't we see?" he asked as he turned in the chair, his arm hooked over the back of it as he searched the room for whatever his brother might be looking at. "if i could, i'd make them leave you alone." he said honestly as he turned back to his food while keeping an eye on his brother out of the corner of his eye. it seemed quiet for a few moments but then his brother spoke again, this time sounding more anxious and he shook his head a little before he got out of the chair and he walked over to jace. "fucks sake jace, there isn't anyone there." he said as he looked back over his shoulder, as if to make sure before he looked back at jace. "now shut up before you wake everyone else in the house, okay?"
"What can't we see?" he asked as he turned in the chair, "If I could, I'd make them leave you alone."
Jace started picking at the scabs on his knuckles anxiously, not registering the fact that they almost immediately started to bleed - "It's right there!" he insisted, pointing at the shape behind Maverick's chair, "It's too close to you. I don't know how to explain it."
"Fucks sake Jace, there isn't anyone there," he said as he looked back over his shoulder, as if to make sure before he looked back at Jace. "Now shut up before you wake everyone else in the house, okay?"
Jace watched his brother look back over his shoulder again and when he looked back, the blood rushed from his face. Panic rushed his system in a massive wave and before he think about his actions, he threw a punch at Maverick and staggered backwards away from him, shaking.
"Get away from h-him!" he hissed, though it was lacking the normal level of bite he usually had in his voice, "Let him go! Fuck, just go away!"
Jace couldn't tear his gaze away from his brother, the space where his face had been filled in darkness that had an awful smile spread across it.
if he hadn't been worried about the fact that his brother might suffer a mental break there and then he'd have walked away from him. he'd have left him to his mutterings and hallucinations because he normally couldn't be bothered. but that had been before. when he could let his mother know that jace was in one of his .. whatever this was called. he could have gotten his mother before, his father even and left them to deal with the person they'd created and kept alive to turn into his brother. but those options were gone. his mother was buried on the other side of town and his father seemed to be buried right along with her. his older brothers had left and he was the next one in line to deal with jace. it left a sour taste in his mouth but he needed to step up for his younger brothers, the way his mother would have wanted him to.
he could see the bleeding on his brother's knuckles and he frowned a bit, wanting to offer a band aid or something but knowing there was no point in trying. jace wasn't listening and he certainly wasn't in the same kitchen that maverick was. in the past he'd have jabbed, he'd have riled and he'd have done what he could to send his brother into a tail spin because it's what he'd done for the last seventeen years. if his brother was around he stirred him up. "jace stop acting like a fucking fre.." he cut off when he saw the colour drain from his brother's face and he worried for a second that he was either going to pass out or throw up right there and then but what happened, he wasn't ready for.
had he been healthy, he'd have had a better chance of avoiding, or blocking his brother's fist but he lacked the ability to move quickly right now and his reflexes were on the slow side, hindered by the alcohol he'd been drinking and the medication he had pumping through his system right now. the blow landed on his ribs and it landed hard. the pain, enough to send turn his vision into nothing but a bright white and he felt himself hitting his knees, the fabric of his jeans burning more than a little. he gripped his hand to where his brother's punch had landed and he tried desperately to catch his breath but he couldn't. it took all he had in him not to curl up on the floor and give into the light. "w-what .. the f-fuck!?" he coughed out as he curled around his hand lightly, the fingers of his other hand gripping onto the floor tile as he lifted his head and could just about make out his brother.
Jace stood there, heart racing as he stared down at his brother, his face mostly cleared. He knelt down near him, frowning slightly, colour returning to his face. He wasn't sure what to do now, he'd never gotten rid of the shadows before like that. They just stayed put and sometimes got worse. He scratched the back of his head slightly and tried to work out what to do.
Then he sat down on the ground in front of him and started picking at his fingers. From one extreme to another, Jace was now quiet and almost normal save for his obsessive finger picking. His breathing still wasn't completely calm, but he was no longer so hostile towards his brother, still baffled by what he'd done.
"Does it hurt?" he asked, tilting his head slightly, "When it touches you, does it hurt at all?"
It was the first thing on his mind, still baffled about the shadows.
he was half aware that his brother had knelt down as well but he couldn't focus on that, all he could focus on was the pain beating through his chest in time with his heartbeat and trying to draw a proper breath. they were broken, he knew they were broken. he'd felt this pain just weeks before, though his brothers fist hadn't packed as much punch as monster's hooves had. he was more focused on trying to breath than he was on what jace was doing so he was a little surprised when he sat down in front of him. for a second he was worried that he was going to start in on him again, considering for the first time in a long time he'd actually been trying to help his brother rather than piss him off, this was a great way to thank him for it, but he couldn't help but thinking it wasn't enough for jace.
"the fuck?" he asked his brother when he asked the most stupid question he could have. did it hurt. did jace think there was another reason he was on all fours on the floor of their kitchen trying to draw a proper breath? the next part of his brothers question just confused him even more, he shook his head a little as he slowly drew himself up onto his knees so he could sit against the wall, his hand still holding onto his chest. "just leave me a-alone jace." he doubted jace would listen if he tried to argue that no shadows had touched him and he was in too much pain to really try.
Jace sat across from him and tilted his head slightly to one side, almost like a puppy hearing a something new for the first time. It easy to see the little gears turning over in his head, the genuine confusion coupled with a soft concern that was rarely ever there. He carefully reached out, his movement much more cautious, and touched Maverick's cheek lightly before retracting his hand and dropping it to his side.
"Ma always said to be nice," he mumbled, "I try. I do. But it's hard."
He began fiddling with his fingers, picking at them until they looked sore, but he didn't lash out at his brother, just sat opposite him, looking up from his fidgeting occasionally to see Mav before dropping his eyes again.
"I miss her. When she left, things got worse... She kept it all at bay. Now its noisy, angry."
He was talking almost mindlessly, drawing up his legs and wrapping his arms around them as he rocked a little bit.
he couldn't help but flinch at the touch of his brother's fingers to his cheek, more because he hadn't been expecting it than fear. he was looking at the floor rather than what his brother was doing as he did his best to breathe through the pain, willing it to go away so he could move from the floor in the next few hours. "i k-know jace.." he said, though he didn't quite know if he believed him. what he did know is that jace wasn't like the rest of them and he knew it must be hard, but that didn't mean he got a free pass on anything, there wasn't a brother in the family that didn't get put through hell simply for being one of them.
it was quiet for the next while, no sound in the kitchen apart from the ticking of the clock that hung above the fridge. he couldn't tell how many minutes had gone past, whether it had been hours or seconds or whether it was now morning, he couldn't quite focus on anything but the pain that refused to settle, no matter how still he sat. "we all miss her." he said, not quite ready to pander to his brother, just yet anyway. he opened his eyes and lifted his head from the wall to look at his brother. "help me up?" he asked him, holding a hand out to him, hoping it wasn't going to be a mistake.
Jace just stayed seated across from his brother, not moving, not entirely there as his mind went elsewhere. Perhaps it was the most peaceful he'd been - despite the initial violence - in a long time. There wasn't much a time where his family could've pinned him down for being simple and easy to deal with. Not even their mother had had the patience for him some days, but what he was now was far worse than before.
"Help me up?"
Blinking, he looked at the offered hand and studied it with a slight head tilt, the gears clearly working through the request. It wasn't like he wasn't able to do the right thing, he'd proven on the rare occasion he could do some things right and without violence. Hesitantly he stood up and took Maverick's hand, taking a moment to get over the contact before putting strength into the grip to assist him. He continued to study him once his brother was standing, his grip relaxed and easy to get out of.
he didn't know what to expect when he held his hand out to his brother, whether it would be smacked away, he'd get punched again, helped to stand or just ignored completely. so when jace actually gripped his hand and put actual effort into helping him stand up, he took it, used his brothers strength to help him stand and once he was standing he leaned back against the wall, his arm wrapped over his ribs and his breathing shallow. fuck it hurt. it almost felt like that had hurt more than the initial strike from monsters hooves but maybe it was just because he couldn't quite actually remember that.
the fact his brother seemed calm and almost normal at the moment was a little unsettling. he was used to the menace jace had become, the one that caused the trouble, the violence, the anger and the unpredictability. calm wasn't usually a state he saw his younger brother in anymore. "why don't you let dad get you help ..." he asked him, not really expecting an answer but the question needed to be asked. as much as he had never really gotten along with jace, fought him for their parents attention for years and resented him for years when he'd been younger because he'd dared had the same birthday as maverick, he did care about him, as much as he could never show it to him.
