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 had been a full day of shopping in Willow Bridge City for Harlow Alenko. So full, that apparently, it was hard to shove all of the bags into her Audi TT Roadster, something that she was currently finding baffling. There was a dark overcast in the skies, giving the young woman pause on whether or not she wanted to have the car fold it's ceiling away. Looking over her bags once more, as well as the bags in her assistant's hands, Harlow frowned - something was going to have to go, and she knew exactly what: "Cordi. Put my bags in the car. You're going to have to find your own way back home." The look on Cordellia Jones' face said it all, but not a peep escaped her, causing Harlow to coolly smile.
The woman managed to get all of Harlow's bags into the Audi now, and just in time too, since raindrops started tapping away on the ground and the car. Harlow slinked on into the driver's side, ignited the engine and started to drive off. Although, she didn't make it far, the weather appeared to have other ideas as the light rain quickly turned into a torrential downpour. This was the one thing Harlow absolutely hated about driving herself. Maybe she shouldn't have left Cordellia Jones behind in the rain. Well, there was one place to seek shelter until this hopefully sputtered off.
Harlow made her way to the Silver Stag - deep into the heart of Willow Bridge City - and as she pulled up to the driveway, the hotel staff immediately recognized her car and quickly came to her beck and call once she parked under the awning. Getting out, she handed her keys over and proceeded to head inside, a few people running after her to try and grab her belongings so they could prevent the owner's daughter simply from dropping them wherever she pleased. The hotel lobby soon gave her pause, as she spotted someone she knew all too well, "Get me a London Fog,"Harlow said before making her way to the front desk now like a dangerous tiger on a prowel, "Wendy. Baby brother. You do know that you don't have to work, right?"
While Harlow didn't quite have the ugly relationship with her youngest brother as she did with her younger sister, it was still hard to not poke him simply for fun. Most of the time, she was rather indifferent to his existence, and forgot about him constantly, but every once in a while, it was like he appeared before her and she had to ask him about his weird behavior such as having a working job.
Wendell looked at the massive ticking grandfather clock in the main lobby, almost hypnotized by the large pendulum. Work had been going well, something that he found enjoyable. While he didn’t do much, he was learning a lot of new programs. Things that would benefit him in the long run. Plus, it was giving him a reason to siphon money to an account that his family knew nothing about. It’s not like his parents didn’t have any offshore accounts themselves.
As he was finishing up organizing some room keys that were dropped off earlier that morning, Wendell picked up the chaos of one of his sister’s returns. He briefly looked up and did the most massive eye-roll possible in his brain.
Heels loudly clicked towards him. She still doesn’t know how to walk in heels, he thought to himself. Fucking thunder foot.
“Hello, Harlsburg. I’m getting paid by Dad, so it still counts as getting an equal amount of allowance…you like to burn a hole through. The parents are in the lounge. I’m sure Mother would love to see all the new outfits you purchased,” he responded, noting all the massive bags staff were struggling to carry in. He would treat them to some coffee later. And not the lobby coffee.
Harlow rolled her eyes at the use of 'Harlsburg' as a greeting. Perhaps she deserved that given that she had called him 'Wendy', but nonetheless, the young woman was still annoyed by her youngest sibling, "Can't you call me something more feminine?" she deadpanned, not bothering to hide her annoyance. While she tended to treat her baby brother just a tad better than her sister, typically she felt indifferent about Wendell, her attitude would always skew towards tempter the more often he poked the beast. While she ignored his quip about how she was burning through her allowance, Harlow couldn't help but to point out what felt like the obvious, "Yes, well, you could intern at headquarters than behind the desk the hotel like a common employee." Its not as if Wendell were like Cary Davies.
She perked up a little bit at the mentioning of their parents being in the longue, "Oh?" Brown eyes looked down the lobby towards the great doors, that was rather tempting, although something dawned on her mind, "I don't know if that would be fun. Mother and Father have seemed distracted as of lately." And she wasn't sure why, but something was going on. The young woman figured it nothing, if it were something worrisome, surely they would have informed their children. And yet, hushed whispers remained in the halls and were quickly silenced whenever she entered the room. Her attention returned to Wendell now, her brown eyes staring at him, "Maybe I'll stay with you. I've already ordered my drink anyways, and I can't imagine you want to be rid of me this early in the conversation." Actually, she could, but Harlow was inclined to be a bitch for trying to shake her that easily.
“Like what? Harlot?” he teased back. Wendell didn’t know why, but despite not being a big fan of Harlow, he liked the banter that came with her. It was a game between all of them, to see who would crunch their nose first at an insult or something like it.
His fingers gracefully typed away at the computer for a few more minutes. He did have a job to do after all. “Yes, but Dad insisted we keep an eye on these..what he says…common folk.” Granted, none of the people who entered the hotel were common folk. There were a lot of upper-echelon people. People with big pockets and bigger egos. The common folk were the employees. At least there was no leniency with them, in his father’s eyes. However, Wendell tended to override a bit behind the scenes.
Wendell clicked around a bit more on his mouse and shrugged. It was probably true, his parents being distracted. There were a lot of heated discussions. His parents were trying to hide it, but despite the massive house – things could still be heard.
The face he gave her was non-emotional, as he shrugged again. “Yeah, that’s fine. Just don’t get in the way of the paying clientele.”
The follow up to 'Harlsburg' did nothing but cause a rather dramatic sigh to escape her lips. She was going to loose this game of banter fast, it's not as if she had much on her mop of a baby brother, "Well, I am a lady after all," Harlow replied now, doing her best impression of Marie from cats, rolling shoulder and snooty look included. It was perhaps one of the few moments that she was willing to show to her youngest sibling that she wasn't always a villain, but those moments were for him alone - their sister was never lucky, but that was also because Harlow thought her a backstabbing bitch thanks to how their parents raised their pair of daughters.
Dark brown eyes merely watched Wendell type away now at the computer now, and it took everything to not roll her eyes at such a move. The young woman never understood why he took this little job seriously, she doubted her parents did. Speaking of parents though, that next comment caused Harlow to raise a perfectly manicured eyebrow, "Why am I not surprised that even Daddy would call the clientele here 'common' folk when really the only common folk are the help." Still, the young woman glanced casually over her shoulder now to take a gander at the folks in the lobby - each and every face she knew from Hickstead or the magazines, their only crime to being 'common' was that they ranked lower than the Alenkos on Forbes.
She returned her attention to Wendell now, who merely shrugged at her speculation over their parents fighting. Harlow couldn't help but to frown now, dark brown eyes studying him closely. Did he know something that she didn't? As his hazel eyes looked at her, Wendell seemed to show indifference to her once more that he didn't care if she stayed around or not. It was funny, her baby brother could think he was better than the rest of them all he wanted, but he had that cold, indifferent Alenko attitude and air down to a pinch, "I won't keep you from your silly job." She replied, watching as her cup of tea was placed in front of her now before the hands disappeared once more. Now that there was no one to eavesdrop, Harlow once more rounded on her baby brother, "Wendell," yes, she meant business, "Do you know what's going on with our parents? Did you hear something they don't want us to know?"
Of course, Harlow would get up into it all. Granted, it appeared all the siblings of the Alenko household knew something was up. At least, it was something that Wendell could agree with Harlow on. He didn’t know how much of an advantage of emotional warfare he would get by getting Harlow to suspect things. But Wendell also didn’t want to give it all away. Mainly because he had the ears of the staff.
“I just know their arguments have gotten longer and more frequent,” he replied. “I overheard Dad on the phone a few weeks ago, something about hiding something. No idea what, but once he saw me approaching – he quickly hung up. So, something is going on, and I have no idea what.” It was seventy-five percent true. Wendell truly did not know what was happening, but the only twenty-five percent was he did know more than he was letting on.
“Did you notice anything else weird from them?” Wendell was curious to see if his sister would respond, or just tell him that she wasn’t spilling. But she started it after all
Of all the people who she thought might know what was going on - it would be her little brother. The runner up would be Cary Davies of all people. But Harlow tended to prefer to tussle verbally with her siblings over the hired help. Brown eyes watched the sixteen year old boy like a hawk, waiting to see if his face would betray anything. It didn't however, for that was the Alenko way, but Wendell did surprise her - he gave information up freely, which almost felt suspicious. Harlow's eyes narrowed at him, "Hiding something?"
Whether she was directing it at Wendell or simply repeating what he had said, the young woman decided to leave that a mystery. Still, Harlow found herself mulling it over as she took a dainty sip of her London Fog now, "Weird...he better not have lost our money." After all, what else could be scandalous enough that their own father would hang up the phone in front of Wendell like that? Harlow hadn't witness any odd behavior like that, only that she knew something was off - call it a child's intuition. Guess no deed went unpunished though, as her baby brother prodded her ever so slightly, "Just that they're not themselves. They don't seem...to love each other like they used to." She knew itwas a funny description of their parents, cold and stern, but they had still loved each other, "There's defilingly a rift - even if they're not fighting each other with words in front of us, they're using their eyes."
She gave a thought, taking another sip of her tea before finally asking, "You work here. Do you think Cary knows something? He's everywhere after all. Think he would talk to me?"
For once, he and Harlow were on the same page on something. Their parents were the perfect power couple in public – like they were oh so ever trained to be. But home life was interesting, to say the least. Harlow was still the perfect child – but it was evident she was feeling the lack of attention. Weirdly, he felt bad for her.
He tapped a finger on his chin. “No staff had said anything, and I know they don’t know anything since Mom and Dad are secretive about it. Or the staff are too scared to speak.” Wendell stood up from the stool he was on and stretched his arms. “Cary would probably know, but I’m sure you may need to bribe him with something. They say the most silent ones know.”
