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!.
heather tugged at her sleeve as she settled down on the couch after getting up to get some water. it had been a few days since her incident with joe but she was still feeling the effects from it. she'd been checked out on the night and the verdict had been a not so mild concussion but nothing that was serious enough to require her to stay in hospital. just painkillers and the advice that they needed to watch for the usual problems and then other than that it was bruising. she still had something of a dull ache at the back of her head but other than that she was feeling pretty much back to normal. it was the bruising that was the problem, her cheek was still an ugly shade of purple, though it was turning yellow around the edges as the days went on and the finger marks on her throat were only just starting to fade, so she'd hidden from the world because of it. questions would be asked and she wasn't about to throw her brother into the deep end with it. there was no way of keeping something secret in this town, people always figured it out in the end so she thought if no one saw it, no one could spread it around. but that had meant lying to sam and that was something that had been eating her up inside.
she'd tried to be as gentle as possible when she'd said she couldn't see him all those times, tried to explain it in a way that worked but she'd been running out of excuses. there was only so many times she could sat dustin had caused a family meeting or something. she'd actually thrown her phone at her siblings a few times when he'd rung because it had taken her voice a few days to come back to a somewhat normal and she hadn't wanted to let anything on. she was about to pick her book up from the table in front of her when the doorbell rang and she frowned a little. she wasn't wearing a high necked shirt so her bruises were visible, because she hadn't been expecting to see anyone who didn't know what had happened but maybe it was important. like a parcel or letter for her siblings that they needed her to take in. she could do that. she could open the door a crack and take a letter or box and stay in the shadows. she chewed her lip as she walked to the door, taking something of a deep breath before she opened the door a crack, expecting to see the postman there. instead, it was "sam?"
it was like she hasn't heard him say her name and she certainly didn't notice that he'd stepped toward her until he wrapped his arms tightly around her and that's when the flood gates that she'd been trying so desperately to keep closed opened on her. she let go of her upper arms and she wrapped her arms around her older brother and she clung to him like she was afraid that he'd vanish right in front of her eyes if she let him go. she clung to him as she sobbed into his chest, her face pressed against it like she had done all those years ago when he'd come back to take her and their siblings away to safety after their parents had been killed in the fighting. she'd been so young and while kara avery had done their best to look after her, it hadn't been until dustin had gotten there that she'd felt safe.
she prided herself on being strong now, in not needing anyone and being in charge of her own destiny and not letting anyone tell her what to do but if there was something she was afraid of it was losing her family. she'd kept it together when he and avery had come home hurt from the army, been there for them, had tried to cheer them up by being the smiling little sister she thought they'd wanted. then as she'd grown up and life had happened, she'd changed. she'd found a love that no one agreed with, but she'd found a sense of stability. her family were back, apart from joe but he was safe working for the army but in helping people, away from the fighting. she'd become a teenager then, grown moody and had been trying to find herself, who she was with people telling her who she should be. she'd fought with her siblings constantly, trying to keep some measure of control in her life. then she'd lost the love she'd been counting on forever, they'd almost lost avery and holly in a car accident but through it all she'd shed as little tears as possible but now, it seemed to all be catching up with her.
her sobs had slowed somewhat when he spoke to her softly again. she was still holding onto him with something of a death grip but she'd calmed down enough that his words reached her ears and she sniffled as she nodded just slightly, her face still buried in his shirt. she didn't trust herself to speak just yet so she just stood there, not willing to let her brother go just yet but she did turn her face slightly, wiping her eyes against her shoulder roughly to try and rid the tears from her cheeks and she took in a few shuddering breaths before she gained the courage to loosen her hold on him and she dropped her hands slowly from around him and she tried to shift back from him a little. "when the fuck will they just leave you guys alone.. " she asked him but she didn't really expect him to have an answer to that. she did plan on following him to france, at least in a few days. if he didn't get this sorted out she didn't want to be left here. their family couldn't just uproot and go with him but she could. he'd told her she knew her brother knew exactly how stubborn she was.
everything in her wanted to bite back at him for that. but as much as she wanted to chew him out for sticking his nose in, for interfering and making choices for her that she hadn't wanted made, she knew she had to pick her battles. if she wanted to get any further into finding out what had happened she'd need to bite her tongue. besides she'd have plenty of chances to do that in the future, she was sure of it. it wasn't that she didn't know he'd been trying to look out for her, it was the fact she'd been robbed of knowing what could have been. and that it hadn't been her or joel's choice. it had been dustins. that's what hurt, the what ifs. where she'd be now and if things would be any different.
whatever she was expecting the situation to be. it hadn't been that. it had never been that. she felt her skin go cold and her heart started thumping in her chest. her mouth went dry and she felt sick but she did her best to hide it. instead she let the anger that was bubbling in her veins become the thing she focused on. it drove her to step forward, to almost square up to her older brother as she shook her head slightly. her eyes angry but not really at him, at the people who were doing this to him. "then we go. we go somewhere they can't find you." in a heartbeat she'd pack up for her siblings. she liked her life here and she was just starting to find herself and who she could be with sam but her siblings, as much as they argued with each other, meant everything to her.
she shook her head again and folded her arms over her chest harshly, pressing them against her torso as she gripped her fingers into her upper arm. "then i'll just follow you. this isn't something you can do alone" she said as she stepped back, noticing hayden kiss dustin's cheek and whisper something to him before she departed the small shed and closed the door behind her. "and if they don't let you out of it .. i'll stay there. they need people to take photos in france." she took another step back from her brother. "or i'll just join the army. at least then you'll know that someone's there." she was vaguely aware that she wasn't making much sense, or doing much to hide the fear that was starting to show on her face.
she couldn't do it again. she couldn't do the waiting. she couldn't do the not knowing whether her brother was alive or dead. she'd done it before, she'd lost her parents to it. that loss had almost broken her. "i won't sit by the phone waiting to hear if you're dead dustin." she shot at him as she dug her fingers into her upper arms a little more, her knuckles going white as she tried to steel herself. "you can't ask me to be okay with losing another parent!" she'd meant to say a brother, that he couldn't ask her to be okay with losing a brother ... but they both knew he was more than that to her.
** [ hayden whispered "go easy on her" to dustin before she left ]
should she have been listening? no. she did know that. she she also know that their family wasn't able to keep their nose out other peoples business. she watched as the two of them pulled apart and if she wasn't so worried about where her brother might need to come back from that she might have felt a little guilty for interrupting them but the second she'd heard their voices she'd had a sinking feeling in her stomach and she knew from past experience that it was a feeling that would lead her to devastation. "you don't get to warn me about boundaries and privacy dustin."
whatever she'd been expecting her brother to tell her, it wasn't that. the army was something of a difficult topic in her family. it had taken her brothers away from her when she'd needed them most, the army they'd served had played a part in the battle that had killed their parents and then it had caused fights amongst them when she'd wanted to join her brothers and play her own part in the service.
"tell them you can't go. you've been out for years. they can't just call you back now." she said as she stepped into the shed, within arms reach of both dustin and hayden. she looked between both of them and shook her head a little. "you don't even live in france anymore. what do they want you to do? just ... drop everything and go." she said as she frowned. "and you want to go alone?" she knew her brother, she was almost certain he did.
heather was more than ready for this day to be over. it had started out bad and had just gone from bad to worse. it was like the universe had conspired for her to have everything go wrong. she'd had to borrow her brothers car that morning because hers has decided not to start, her professor hadn't liked one of the photo's she'd submitted for an assignment so now she either had to take another one or try and find another one she'd taken that suited what it needed to, she'd spilled her coffee all over her jeans at break and hadn't had time to change out of them or go home to get another pair because of course it had to be the day with the heavy class load and then she'd discovered that she'd left a whole book at home and couldn't get the feedback she needed before submitting what she'd written. she was looking forward to getting home, taking the longest bath on record, ordering pizza regardless of what was on offer for dinner and then drinking hot chocolate till the cows came home.
stepping out of the university doors she frowned and sighed when she was it was raining. well that was great. the sun had been shining half an hour ago. she pulled her jacket up over her hair as much as she could as she ran across the parking lot, thanking god that she'd at least made the smart choice to wear sneakers that morning. as she reached the car she threw her book bag into the car and was about to throw her purse into the front when she spotted something she didn't want to spot on a million years. a flat tire. she could have cried, right then and there she could have curled up into a ball and laid there till time ended. she let out a frustrated noise instead and moved to the boot, grabbing the jack out and hoping she remembered everything from when caleb had taught her to change a tire. she dropped to the floor carefully, kneeling next to the wheel, the rain falling heavier now, the water soaking through the knee's of her jeans as she fiddled with the jack, trying to find the right spot to put it.
dropping her camera light onto the kitchen counter, heather glanced around the house quickly and wondered why it was so quiet. there should be at least three people cluttering up the place by now. unless plans had changed and she was on her own for dinner. she hoped not, not that she couldn't eat alone it was just nice not to. taking off her jacket she tossed it across the back of one of the kitchen chairs and she brushed some hair back from her forehead. she heard a small cheer from the backyard and she smiled as she went to the window. if dean was around, then that would mean at least hayden or dustin were about the house somewhere. she headed out the back and watched dean kick the ball towards the little set of goals he had. "you're gonna be a football player when you grow up?" she asked as she walked over to him.
he abandoned his game, for at least a few moments, to run over and greet her and she scooped him up into his arms, grunting a little as she did. "your mum needs to stop feeding you." she said as she tickled him lightly. over his giggles she heard voices coming from the garage at the back of their garden. So that's where they were. heather was about to set dean down and play ball with him again when something in the tone of the voices changed and she stopped to listen for just a second. she didn't often eavesdrop on her siblings, but she did when it sounded like something was wrong. and as someone who was well used to getting bad news about her family, she was attuned to picking it up. she set dean down and ruffled his hair lightly, "how about you go in and watch tv? while your mum and dad aren't watching." she said with a small smile as she watched him run inside to the coveted tv. crossing the garden she stood in the doorway to the garage, resting a hand on the frame of the door as she laid eyes on her brother and his partner. "what's wrong? where do you have to come back from?"
Since have humans walked the earth, so have other creatures; creatures that most believe to only exist in myth. Creatures like vampires, demons, werewolves, witches, shape-shifters, fairies, and elves. It’s not really known which came first, for it was too long ago to remember and anyone alive then is now dead, and they didn’t even leave a ghost for anyone to ask. Ghosts weren’t around since the beginning, they came after the first person died (human is what is believed). Though not everyone or everything that dies becomes a ghost, only those who choose to, become one. Choosing to become a ghost is rare, most don’t choose that path for themselves, but even rarer than that is the times when all the species have gotten along. To this day, there have only been three periods of time that there has been peace between them all. The most recent of those three periods was just around 500 years ago, when a special school was built for all the species to come and learn at. It was built as a kind of peace treaty among the species, a place for them to all live in harmony, for a certain period of time at least. The school was called Forevermore Academy.
The peace treaty didn’t last for that long though, soon the kids in the school were fighting which broke the treaty. The teachers tried to bring the students back together, but they did so in a way which some believe made things worse, while others think it was genius. They deiced to get a group of students, at least one from each species, even a ghost, and have them kill off the trouble makers, in whatever way that they pleased. And they wouldn’t get in trouble for it. It was suppose to make the students stick together so that they wouldn’t be the ones killed off and to stop the ones causing trouble among the species, and in a way, it worked. But like all things, nothing works out exactly as planned. Some kids decided to fend for themselves and actually started causing more problems, but they were quickly killed off. The group of kids in charge of the killings fashioned themselves the name of ‘The Execution Squad’.
Since then the killings have turned into more of a game, and there is always and Execution Squad roaming the halls, but no one ever knows who they are. If someone does find out one of their true identities, they are either killed or scared into not telling anyone. Though the only ones who ever find out are ones that actually survive the game, since that’s what it’s been called for a while now. It’s a game for those that don’t value living, who are causing too much trouble, or someone on the Execution Squad just doesn’t like, play for their life. It’s extremely rare that someone survives the games, for they normally have to do something that they would never want to do and they die instead of doing whatever it is that they don’t want to do. Humans tend to die the most though, for they are the ones normally chosen, even if they do make up the smallest percentage of the school.
Everyone knows about the games, even if it’s not something they tell you upon arrival. And it’s definitely not in the little school pamphlet that you get when you enroll. No, they want people to come to their school, and telling them that they might not make it out alive isn’t a way to get them to come to the school. Here at Forevermore Academy, it’s a whole different high school. Its life or death, and you might just be stuck here forevermore. [/size][/blockquote]
