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!.
shutting the door of his car, mav made sure it was locked before he walked towards the library. it had never been a place he'd enjoyed going, school had never been his strong point and he certainly wasn't the brains of the family but now he found himself spending more and more time here, and he didn't hate it. it wasn't the library itself that had grown on him, more a person who spend almost every spare moment in it. the falling hadn't been the surprising part for him, the surprising part for mav was the need to spend as much time with theo as he could.
he had a bag of take away in his hand, because if there was one thing that was certain, it was that theo had forgotten to eat dinner. it was why he spent so much time at the library now, because if theo was there, that's where he wanted to be. even if it meant falling asleep with his head on the desk and waking up with a crick it it, it was worth it. he walked through the doors and walked the same path he did most evening. he smiled when he saw theo with his head bent over a book, coming up behind him he set the bag down on the table next to him and he slipped into the chair beside his. "funny meeting you here." he said as he reached to touch the back of theo's neck lightly, not wanting to distract him to much from what he was reading.
maverick hadn't been home since the drama had gone down with jace being taken from the home. he'd packed some clothes into a backpack when the arguing and fighting had died down a little and he took his father up on his offer to walk away. was it permanent? mav didn't know. he hadn't known that when he'd rocked up on theo's dorm doorstep. that's where he'd been since. theo's floor was a lot more comfortable than being at the house, knowing that his father was letting his brother walk all over them, even though keith hadn't been in their life in years. in mav's mind, his father was putting keith first, what he wanted above the rest of the family needed, which was to be together. they might not always get along, fight like cats and dogs and put decent sized dents into each others skulls, but their motto was that they stuck together. no breckah left behind had been the motto he'd been raised with. until that had been blown out of the water.
he'd come back to the house when he knew no one would be there. his younger brothers would be at school, his other brothers would be occupying themselves with work or their lives and he was certain that his father wasn't in the house. at least he'd checked the drive and garage before he'd gone into the house. the sight he was greeted with almost made him emotional. there was his pup, henry bounding down the hall to meet him, followed by the older danny. he crouched down to greet both dogs and he ruffled their ears. "hey boys." he said softly. he'd missed them, their company and henry keeping his feet warm at night but he hadn't thought stowing him into theo's dorm would make him a good house guest so he'd asked crev to look after danny for him. he seemed to be doing an okay job but man had mav missed the pup. "i wish i could stow you away with me.." he said as he straightened and headed up the stairs without checking if there was actually anyone in the house.
he needed new clothes, the ones he'd grabbed in the rush had run out and even though he was washing them, he was sick of wearing the same three items of clothing every day. he rubbed his hands over his face as he reached the landing and he stopped to catch his breath. the last few days he'd been feeling progressively like death and he was hoping it was just stress. with what was going on at home, sleeping on a dorm room floor, sitting with theo until all hours of the night while he was awake because mav didn't want him to be alone, skipping meals because it was easier than taking his lunch to work and cheaper than buying food every time he needed it. taking more than a few drinks every night to help himself relax so he could fall asleep and stop his mind racing with that could have been happening at home and it was all starting to take it's toll.
he was exhausted and he knew he looked it. of course he was telling people he was fine, he'd never admit weakness to anyone, it was how he was raised. he stretched a little as he reached around to rub his lower back, the strong ache he'd been feeling the last few days was getting worse and no amount of pain killers he took was touching it. he was more than a little sick of being less than healthy. before his accident he'd rarely gotten sick. he'd been healthy as a horse and almost literally as strong as an ox, but now he felt like what he only assumed a nineteen year old stuck in a ninety year old body would feel like. close to death but no where near the sweet relief of rest.
once he was in his room, he started grabbing the clothes from his cupboards and shoved what he needed into the backpack he'd brought and once it was full he dropped it at the end of the bed and sat down. he almost groaned with how comfortable it felt. he looked at his watch and thought it wouldn't hurt to just rest for a moment. he'd close his eyes for a second and then he'd get up and be gone before anyone even knew he was there. he forced himself to get up from the bed though so he could close the door, just in case someone came home and saw his door open and got curious. he dragged himself back to the bed and dropped onto it, fully clothed, reaching out to grab his pillow so he could stuff it under his head and he was asleep before he'd finished getting settled.
he had no idea how long he'd been asleep when he startled himself awake, his neck aching from the angle he had been sleeping on and the pain in his back so much worse than it had been this morning. he moaned a little as he rolled over, cringing a little as he felt the back of his shirt was sticky with sweat. "fuck.." he mumbled as he pressed his fingers into his eyes. it was then he caught a glimpse of the time as his watch lit up. what!? it was 2 am. how had he slept for nearly twelve hours. he'd only meant to take a nap. he sat up straight and while his eyes adjusted, he realised just how awful he actually felt. it only took a few seconds for him to register that he needed to move. he scrambled from his bed and ran as fast as he could to the door, clambering for the door handle he threw the door open before he could even think about being quite and he staggered down the hall to the bathroom.
as he reached the bathroom door, he lost his battle before he could even touch the handle, a mouthful of his stomach contents landing on the hallway floor with a loud retch. he coughed as he managed to get the door open, forcing it open with his shoulder as he dropped to his knees beside the toilet, bunching over it as he totally lost the battle to keep what he'd eaten that day in his system.
mav watched the scene unfold before him and listened to the explanation his father gave them for the five alarm fire alert they'd all been given which had caused them all to rush home without warning. of course the crux of the problem laid with keith, it seemed that since he'd come back to town to have nothing to do with them, he sure caused a few problems. he thought he was doing okay keeping his mouth shut during the explanation although, he knew he couldn't help the look on his face that kept getting madder and there was no way to hide that.
but then, then his father had, what maverick could only call the gall, to defend keith to them, after everything he'd just explained, he was telling them to leave keith alone. "what the fuck?" he said as he straightened up and stepped forward a little. "he's caused all this and you're letting him off? he's taken one of your sons away from you and that's fine?" there was only a few words he could think of to describe keith right now and even he drew the line at saying them in front of his younger brothers. "you're even willing to loose the rest of us to protect him?" there was no denying that he was pissed and he couldn't deny that there was a part of him that was half tempted to take his dad up on the offer of letting them go. "derek and I have damn near given everything we had to keep this family together after mom died while you were circling the fucking drain .. and you throw it back in our faces because you want to keep keith on your good side?! he walked away from us years ago. he is not family!"
mav grinned at the joke and he shrugged a little. "i guess i could try to deny it but, i'd be lying." he said with a small laugh. he couldn't help it, he hadn't been raised in an environment that would let him sit on a couch all day, he was sure his father would have had his guts for it. he bounced on the balls of his feet a little as silence fell, though he had to hide a grimace when it jolted his ribs a little and made them ache. he laughed in earnest as the question was asked and he shook his head and held his hands out slightly in front of him. "nah, i doubt i could run fast enough to catch you to kill you." he grinned. "plus it's a long way to drag a body to my car." if crime shows had taught him anything, it was that leaving a body in the middle of a campus would get him caught quicker than he could spin a story.
he nodded a little as theo agreed to run with him and told him to set the pace. well now he was slightly worried and he couldn't put his finger on why. if he ran to fast, he'd likely pass out before too long and there was no wat that was something he'd risk happening in front of a stranger, especially the stranger with the quick grin. but if he ran to slow it might mess with theo's pacing or perhaps he'd judge him. mentally he shook himself when he reminded himself that he didn't care about that, at least not usually. "got it, lets go." he said as he shook his legs slightly to wake them up a little before he took off at a jog, his hand resting on his ribs lightly to support them.
he knew that keith had come home for a reason. his older brother didn't seem to do anything that had anyone's best interest at heart, unless it helped himself in some way. the selfish bastard. he hadn't gotten the whole story from the stuff he'd heard from his brothers and father but he was forming a picture in his head and he didn't care if it was wrong. keith had fucked his family over and that was something he didn't think he should be allowed to do, considering he wasn't part of it anymore. he'd left work early when his father had called the family meeting. he'd had the late shift at work, sorting the horses out for the evening and helping settle them in but his boss had let him go without question.
he walked inside and kicked his boots off, making sure to at least leave them tidily at the front door to put away later, even when things were happening his mother's influence was still there. the house didn't feel right, and that was saying something. if you'd have asked him yesterday if the house could have felt worse than it had after their mother died, he'd have laughed but today, he didn't know what it was but it felt wrong. "and how the fuck are we going to make keith pay for it." he said as he walked into the living room, catching link's comment as he sat lightly on the arm of the couch.
mav laughed when sam mentioned that telling him to bring him random things wouldn't go well and he just shrugged a shoulder slightly. "i grew up in a zoo, i'm pretty sure i could terrify most people with what i've eaten because someone told me i couldn't." there had been a time when he and his brothers had been just brothers, young and without a care in the world, well other than making each other as miserable as they could for no reason. dares, jokes and fights had been a dime a dozen between them all, though some of them had been worse than others.
"yeah i know that feeling." his job didn't pay brilliant either and some of it went to housing his horse at blue acres but it was enough for him to live off, usually. it hadn't been since his dad had fallen off the wagon and him, derek and stephen were covering the expenses of the house, it felt like it was a pittance. "some days i doubt it." he said, almost quieter than normal. he couldn't deny it, there were days when he woke up disappointed that he had, because it was another day in a world that didn't seem worth it anymore. "here's fine." he said as he looked around. "i mean any other place is just going to be filled with other people and that sounds .. awful." he said with a grin. he wasn't the biggest people person, in fact he downright hated being crowded, which had made growing up in a house with no personal space hard but he'd had to suck that up, it wasn't like he could ask his parents to get rid of his brothers.
he let the grin spread across his face in amusement at the joke. it was true, there were plenty of people who preferred sitting on a couch than being up and about, he wasn't one of them. he didn't think anyone in his family really was, or whether they'd have been allowed to be considering what their father did for a living. "yeah, i've never understood that" he had the feeling that the guy was like him. much preferring to move his body than letting it waste away.
it felt like a stupid question but mav struggled a little at small talk. he wasn't a big conversationalist to start with, talking to people he didn't know was always a big of a struggle, but he didn't want to just not try. it would rude to just walk away and even though his mother was gone now, the manners she'd tried to beat into him and his brothers had stuck somewhat slightly. "i guess you're one of the only ones on campus" it was no secret that they were the only two out here, it still felt a little odd, that in all this space it was just them. "i'm ready to go again if you want someone to run with." he wasn't really, but he figured it was a safer option than just standing there, they were just getting cold.
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.
well his dad had a point, money didn't fix anything, though he wished it could. then they'd have a chance to go back to what they had been before their mother had died. the only thing it would fix would be the negative his bank account was now in but taking the money almost felt like it would be a slap in their face to his mother, he didn't know why. it just did. though he'd never voice that reason to his father, there was nothing that could make those thoughts become reality with words. "just start paying for everything now and give derek and me a break on keeping your other kids alive and fed." he said as he took a sip of the coke, that was as little of an argument he was going to make on that, though he knew that it was very possible it would turn into one, arguments were the way him and his father discussed everything.
he couldn't help the scoff that he let out as his father asked the question. "it matters now?" he looked across at his dad. he mentally bit his tongue though, it seemed that his father was at least trying to have a conversation with him and he could tell he was actually sober so he figured he should put a mental effort into not being a shit for a few moments. "i'm on light duties anyway." he said as he drained the last of the can and he crunched it with one hand, tossing it into the bin that was by the back door.
he shook his head when his father asked if he was hungry. "not really." he hadn't really gained his appetite back since he'd been released from hospital. "be sure to let the little shits know you cooked it for them." it was a small thing but he knew it would probably mean more to them that it did to him at the moment. he wasn't in the mood to really acknowledge how good it was to see his dad trying, but he knew his brothers would. they were better than he was, he wasn't ashamed to admit that to himself.
he did his best not to jump as there was suddenly a voice behind him, but he couldn't help it. he'd grown up in a house full of brothers and one of their favourite tactics for torture had been the jump scare. he'd learned to expect it but they'd grown up in the last few years, well slightly, so he wasn't as used to it as he once had been. the jolt from his jump pulled at his ribs a little and caused his hand to tighten a little across his shirt, his fingers gripping it gently, but he hid whatever trace of a wince there might have been. it had been almost beaten into him his whole life that weakness wasn't something you ever showed, no matter what was happening. stiff upper lip, a steel gaze and an iron clad resolve. that was how you dealt with life.
"hey." he said, letting his mouth turn up into a semblance of a smile. he knew the face but he couldn't place the name. but that wasn't uncommon. he didn't go to the college so he really only knew the faces of the friends he had, he hadn't put much effort into getting to know the names of anyone else on campus, maybe it wasn't the polite thing to do but it wasn't like he was here all the time. "oh yeah, to much sitting on a couch and not enough cardio." he didn't elaborate further but he let his hand drop from his chest and he straightened a little. "are you out here to run?"
he slid the pastry closer to him and he chuckled a little as sam joked about testing out the theory. he would eat just about anything, normally, his appetite was nothing like it had been before his accident now though. "how about next time, bring me random food until you find something i don't eat." he said as he picked some of the pastry off and put it into his mouth. "one's enough for now." he said with a smile though. he almost laughed a little as sam agreed with him not bouncing around the shop with any more coffee, though he knew he wouldn't be anywhere near as bad as his little brother, crev, would be. as much as he was a good kid, he could be like a bull in a china shop and well-meaning as he could be, he wasn't known for being careful. the joys of being the baby of the family he guessed.
"and i'd like to get out of here before midnight." he agreed with a smile as he pulled another piece of the pastry off. he watched as sam moved off to finish cleaning up and he was left there to kill the last few minutes of his mate's work shift on his own. he didn't mind, it gave him the chance to finish off the pastry he'd been given. well, that was dinner sorted at least, he wouldn't need to go home later and try and find whatever his brother's hadn't left him. he stood up from the booth as sam grabbed his stuff and headed over to him, ready to leave if he wanted or he'd sit back down if sam wanted to sit for a few moments after his shift. he didn't know how he did it, he could never work on his feet all day. "another pound earned." he said as he stuck his hands into his pockets as sam asked the question mav knew he would. he didn't mind it from sam though, the guy was genuine and he knew that he was asking because he would care if something was wrong, not out of obligation. "still kicking, that's a good thing so i've been told." he said with a smile. so it might have been deflecting a little, but he could never come out and say anything but he was fine, it wasn't possible for him. he'd tried once and it had felt so wrong he'd never tried it again.
his dad wanted to repay him for the bills he'd paid for while he'd been finding the bottom of the bottle? he hoped his dad extended the same offer to derek who had been helping out just as much money wise, keeping them topped up in food when mav had still been laid up after the accident. technically he should still be laid up, but the money had been running out fast and he'd not wanted to spend any more time laying down than he had in the last few weeks. he couldn't see the harm in going back to work early, especially with his boss making sure he really was only on light duties, riding the calm horses, much to his annoyance. though with the way his body felt now, he could only imagine he'd be feeling a whole lot worse if he'd had to ride horses he'd needed to jostle with.
he watched his father set the table and briefly he was taken back to a time when all his siblings, minus keith, would have been sitting around the table with them, their mother and father sitting together, laughing and keeping in control of the chaos that happened around dinnertime. he frowned slightly, trying his best not to picture it in his head, because it was never going to happen again. "i don't want your money." he said simply as he took another sip of his coke. it wasn't like he was going to be able to handle another horse in the near future anyway, because as good as his father might look today, there was every chance he'd be back on the couch and drunk the next day. "i rode horses, i mucked stalls." he said, his job wasn't interesting, but he loved it. he hadn't been meant to muck the stalls either, but once he'd been told not to, his nature had kicked in and he'd just had to. he was paying for it now, everything hurt, but it had been worth it.
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.
he grinned a little when his brother rolled his eyes and he looked back at the dishwasher. they all knew how to use it and he would use it, when he could find the energy to do more than sleep and do the rehab he needed to do, chores tired him and he hated it. he also knew that the one person who needed to step up was the one person not a part of this conversation and the one person that he doubted would hear it at the moment. they were all dropping the ball but none more than him. "it's the off switch i'm iffy on." he said, though the joke wasn't really there because he couldn't help but feel the trickle of guilt that his brothers words made him feel. he might have had a reason to not be pulling his fair weight with the housework but it didn't stop the guilt that the sink was full, the bins were overflowing and the washing was piling up despite some effort on his part to keep it from happening.
that didn't stop him from frowning a little when his two brothers went a little harder at each other and he shook his head a little, resenting being called a shit by his brother simply because he couldn't clean. "lay off derek. maybe some of us are trying as hard as we can and i'm sorry if it's not up to your standard." he said as he gripped his hand around the can of coke he had sitting in front of him. unwarranted, perhaps. unjustified, yeah sure. but he'd said it anyway because he hated the whole situation. his tirade to jace hadn't gone down well with either derek or jace so he simply rolled his eyes at his older brother. he couldn't help but jump when the glass smashed and he looked at jace, wondering what the fuck he'd done but he was gone before anyone could ask him.
"leave it." he said as he stood up carefully from the table to stop derek from getting the dust pan and broom. "one of us lazy shits will clean it up." he said as he glanced to the blood on the floor and the stairs where jace had vanished up. he also figured that derek was the best person to go after jace because mav wasn't about to chase after him. he didn't really know about link but he doubted jace would really like to see him considering how much they'd ribbed him. "you know you want to chase after him." he said as he grabbed a cloth to drop onto the floor so he could wipe up the blood as best he could with his foot. jace was also the only brother derek hadn't been ragging on the whole time mav had been in the kitchen, so a break from being told how crap he was being at the moment sounded like a few seconds of peace.
