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!.
She grinned, a mischievous look in her eye as he turned to look at her. As if they weren't both fully aware that he had a ridiculously good body. Besides, with her cooking the majority of their meals she made sure there was a healthy balance of good and bad - considering she was often cooking for the 5000, she had to look after the family and make sure they didn't live off a diet of pizza and chicken nuggets. "you're just jealous i can eat anything." She gave a small squeak of surprise and then let out an easy laugh, narrowing her eyes slightly on her husband. "You keep telling yourself that, sweetie." She teased, swatting him on the butt in return and winking.
"never leo, never." Lily rolled her eyes at the boys antics, but she gave her husband a soft look. She got it, even if Leo didn't (the dense clotpole), that Luke had to do this because this was their party, for their girls. She stopped teasing for a moment and rested a hand on Luke's arm, raising onto her tip toes to press a kiss to his cheek. "I pronounce you King of the BBQ," She said proudly, "just don't poison anyone or they'll never let you live it down." She added in a quiet whisper. She chuckled at the talks of a bet and rolled her eyes as she went to grab her drink. "Come on now guys, I think that's enough ribbing on the cook, or he'll poison you all on purpose," She warned, though she knew he wouldn't actually do that. It was all in jest and no harm done but she didn't want Luke developing a complex that they really thought he was going to make them all sick... it wasn't without cause but still.
Lily took a swig of her drink, glancing over to Bella when she helped pick up the plates. "probably, i started around their age. i'm also going to start a book, take bets on how long it'll take them to get married." She gave a soft laugh at that, watching the two play for a minute. "I'm not even sure who is chasing who anymore," Lily admitted as they zipped by again, the other way around this time. "I think I could get in on that bet, though I only need Claire to be happy, and I'll be happy - no matter who she ends up with." It would be sweet if their childhood crushes remained and they ended up together, but she didn't care if it didn't happen. "Is anything ready to take over yet, hun?" She asked Luke, glancing over the smoking options.
She thought she heard the sound of a door, but as she paused and cocked her head, she didn't hear anyone call out. Generally, people called when they walked in - with so many in the house it was common courtesy to let the rest of the troops know someone had entered. Not that there were too many accidents, but at some point they'd all walked in on each other in less than a desirable state of affairs. Sometimes, as much as she loved her family, the idea of a cosy cottage with just her, Luke and the kids was tempting as hell. But then they'd have a family meal, and the love of her family would swamp he all over again.
Naturally, Luke managed to creep up on her. Usually she saw him coming, he wasn't exactly light on his feet or good at hiding with his tall stature. But now he'd caught her red handed; well shit. "lily! what the hell happened?" Lily turned and let the shirt fall from her teeth with a sheepish grin, "Hey hun," She tried to placate him with a smile and a soft sentiment. "Uhh, my secret boyfriend got a little over excited?" She tried to crack the joke, hoping that it might soften the sight of her back. She smiled at the gentle touch of his hand on her shoulder, knowing he was worried about where was okay. "did you fall?" She shook her head. "Not exactly.. Adonis got a little keen and took me gravel skiing..." She bit her lip, "It's really not that bad, I swear. I just.. need some help cleaning the rash, please?" She asked, holing out the cloth to him.
Lily sighed as she twisted in the bathroom mirror to try and get a better look at the blossoming bruise. Of course it had to be in such an awkward place for her to check. Adonis has always been a handful, and he still was now in is older age. His temperamental attitude had usually just equated to being feisty under saddle with the occasional face pulling, but a recent stint of stable rest had sent the horses' crank meter off the charts. The stable hands no longer handled him on her request after three of them had almost lost fingers, and she wasn't interested in risking their limbs, but even with her the animal had tested his limits more than usual. She had decided to take him out for a walk for the first time in a week - knowing that he was likely to do something stupid, she'd clipped on a lunge line and used his bridle, thinking a bit of grass would settle him and hopefully keep him interested enough not to be too much of a prat, she'd led him the short walk across the courtyard to a patch of grass for him to hand graze.
He had been doing really well until a horse in one of the small paddocks nearby had decided to find the world exciting and shot off with a buck and a fart, spooking Adonis. Lily had been a little lax on the rope, having been lulled into a bit of a false sense of security by his calm, she managed to grab the line to hang on to the horse as his head went in the sky and he began showing off some impressive airs above ground. She'd thought she had him under control until the kick. It caught her off guard - his legs had been going in all directions but after a buck he suddenly spun and aimed his ass toward her rather than away like his previous bucks, catching her in the back. She'd managed a ninja move to avoid taking the brunt of the kick but it still hurt like a bitch, and then just as she'd stumbled, he'd yanked forward and she'd hit the ground, refusing to let go of the rope and proceeding to be dragged onto the gravel a fair few metres before her feet had found purchase and she'd been able to brace against his weight and stumble into a half run, bearing down on the lunge line until Adonis had stopped.
It had probably set back his recovery and she hoped it had been worth it for the bugger. Her family weren't on the yard at the time and she was glad not to have to deal with that, waving off the concern of the stable hands that were around and a couple of liveries who came to investigate, taking the prancing moron back to his stable and finishing up the yard before she limped home. She was hoping to hide it from Luke, like she'd done in the past. She knew he hated seeing her hurt and she hated having that age old conversation of why she still liked horses and would be going back tomorrow, but he'd caught her so many times trying to patch herself up and he always gave a sigh, sat beside her and started wrapping the bandages regardless. With her shirt lifting and being place-held by her teeth, she could just about see the injury on her back. The bruise there was nothing she could do for, but the gravel had scraped some impressive angry grazes down her back and she knew she needed to clean them. He would see them eventually - unless she never planned to be naked in front of her husband for the next few weeks - but if she could at least make them look less awful.... she flinched as she managed to twist her arm awkwardly around to rub the antiseptic against one of them.
"do you think those two will ever stop chasing each other?" She smiled at Bella as she looked after the running children, giving a slight shake to her head. "I hope they don't, it's too adorable." She laughed, "I wonder if they're playing kiss-chase," She joked; they mostly had family here today but they'd invited some of the kids friends to make it a proper children's party. She always felt so lucky that their kids all got along so well though, she loved how close she was with her siblings and now -most- of her cousins, but to see all of their kids playing together, growing up so close, she absolutely loved it.
"please tell me they're just for me and everyone else is having sausages?" She raised an eyebrow at her husband and then went to pat his stomach, "I think you might want to start watching your weight as it is, honey." A slow smile spread across her face despite the fact that the aforementioned stomach she'd just patted was rock solid. She didn't know how he did it. "Please tell me it's time for me to take over the cooking so you don't ruin it," Lily glanced up as her brother came to join them, rolling her eyes. "What is it with men and fire? It does not make you an automatic macho man." She rolled her eyes and went to pick up Luke's discarded tongs, pointing them at her bother and then Luke, "No arguments about the BBQ, or I'll be cooking it," And she snapped the tongs together twice with a sharp clack to emphasise her warning.
As she heard the door go and another excited child come charging through, she turned to wave a greeting to Ashley and Damon. "Hey! Welcome!" She called out, leaving them to filter their way through the troops of people as everyone greeted them in turn and the kids turned to drag Josh into their fun and games. Claire toddled over, pausing her running with Zeke and grabbing Jare on the way, "Joshyy come play!"
Lily frowned as she watched the exchanges, taking a step back as everyone talked over themselves a little, though everybody seemed to avoid getting irate at least. She chewed her lip as Tripp came forward, glancing at the boy well known for trouble-making. She didn't think he was capable of harming anyone, not on purpose... but as she knew with her brother, sometimes a prank could get out of hand. Perhaps he had meant to set something up and it had gone wrong. But she wasn't one to point fingers or judge.
"Alright, why don't me and Naomi collate lists of our liveries and workers, and then give these over to the Serenity, and then the police can pick this up with interviews. I'm sure you need to follow up after the witness statements of the fire anyway, right?" She glanced to the police woman and then Naomi with a kind smile, hoping that this would settle everyone. "Hand the jump over to Serenity, and let's clear up the last of this debris for now."
and that concludes the thread!
<3 LUCAS JACOB COLE | THREE DAUGHTERS (ROSE, FELICITY, CLAIRE) | ONE SON (SLADE) THREE HORSES (SAFFRON, REBEL, ADONIS)
Lily hummed to herself as she finished the frosting on the twins birthday cake. She'd gone for chocolate, as it was the least likely to call any arguments, and she'd almost asked someone in town to make it but decided she could go to the trouble of doing it herself. She was a decent cook and baking wasn't too much of a side-ways step from that. Everything looked perfect and she was pleased, her family had taken her strict instructions and followed them to the letter without too much of a grumble. Lily couldn't help it, Flick and Rose were growing up so fast and heading toward the age were they were going to remember these kinds of events, she wanted it to be special. She hadn't tried to vomit too much girlie-ness into it, knowing that Flick didn't particularly like pink, whilst Rose did. She'd gone for a variety of colours, thinking 'rainbow' instead.
The decorations looked wonderful and once she'd completed the piping, she carefully put the case away for the moment they would light the candles and sing happy birthday. The kids were already running about in excitement, dashing in and out of the kitchen as they chased each other. A blonde head streaked past, quickly followed by a darker head slightly older, as Claire and Zeke zipped past her. "Careful!" She called to them, knowing she would be ignored as they chased each other with loud giggles. Her caution was followed with a soft smile and she picked up a plate of uncooked chicken wings to take out to the garden where everyone was mostly congregated - placing them next to the open BBQ to be cooked.
Lily grinned as Naomi laughed at her comment, glad that she could give her a little bit of a morale boost in such a dark time. She headed to a part of the wreckage that nobody else was stood at, and started digging through the rubble. Sadly, a lot of it was long gone, and she quickly discarded several buckets of rubbish, feeling bad but at the same time better for clearing a small area. The quicker they were able to do this, the better it would seem - at least once the ground was clear, they could start to rebuild and wouldn't have to look at the sorry state of the ruins.
Something flashed in the corner of her eye and she frowned, turning her head she thought she saw someone duck behind on of the outbuildings, but a quick blink and she saw nothing. Someone else who was digging in the rubbish gave a shout - they had found something important and other people started to gather over in interest. Lily frowned, dropping another piece of ruined tack into the rubbish pile she was making and heading over. "What is it?"
Lily gave Naomi a sympathetic smile as the woman turned and looked up at her, enveloping her in a warm hug. She couldn't imagine what she would do if it had been her, she couldn't do anything but support Naomi and her family as much as possible. They might well be rivals, not that Lily saw things that way, but she refused to let that kind of thing come between things when the situation was dire. "Thank you so much for coming to help." Lily nodded and stepped back, "Of course, we couldn't not." She promised, she was a huge advocate for women supporting women especially in business. "Pretty much damage control, clean up. That's where the tack room was, and we're still trying to see what can be salvaged from it, there are buckets in there, and a table over there for what it found."
Lily nodded, taking a look at the wreck and trying to control a grimace. It looked awful, though she hoped if anything could be salvaged it was something. She saw her brothers peel off to start helping, glad that Leo kept his grumbling to himself; even he knew the seriousness of this. "I'll try and help search through and see what can be salvaged - a woman's eye is normally much better at that," He half smiled, knowing women were good at mending and some men liked to throw things.
Lily pulled up in the car park, managing to squeeze the truck into one of the last available spaces. It looked like turnout was high for Blue Acre, and Lily was glad - she was bringing another full car load of people but it made her feel better to know that many people had arrived to help. She temporarily locked the doors as Leo tried to make a run for it, ignoring his noise of protest. "Behave yourself," She warned, twisting around in the drivers seat to shoot him a firm look. He rolled his eyes and muttered something but she figured that would be sufficient and let him loose.
Locking the truck behind them, Lily made her way over to a group of people standing just aside from the huge mess of what remained of their barn. A heavy feeling settled in Lily's stomach and she swallowed - they were lucky nobody had been seriously hurt, including the animals, but it still hurt to see the site of the devastation. God knew how Naomi felt about it. She gave the group a quick wave and sought out Naomi, "We're here, where would you like us?"
<3 LUCAS JACOB COLE | THREE DAUGHTERS (ROSE, FELICITY, CLAIRE) | ONE SON (SLADE) THREE HORSES (SAFFRON, REBEL, ADONIS)
GENDER: female AGE: twenty-five D.O.B: 30th may SEXUALITY: straight STATUS: married PLAY-BY: ashley tisdale HEIGHT: 5ft2 HAIR: blonde with some browner highlights EYES: bright green
"GO AHEAD, LET YOUR HAIR DOWN. SAPPHIRE"
TATTOOS: none SCARS: a couple of little ones from general life DRINK: socially SMOKE: nope DRIVE: yes GLASSES: reading glasses HOME: seven oak stables BORN AND RAISED: london, england
"AND FADED JEANS. I HOPE YOU GET YOUR"
kind hearted, passionate, home maker, strong willed, stubborn and often bull headed, will put her foot down and is not easy to persuade otherwise, helpful, confident, professional, protective, thinks before she speaks, social, caring, firey at times, pushes herself and is hard on herself, very hard worker and will overdo it, struggles to relax and take a break, likes being in control, good at getting her brother out of trouble, puts other people before herself, will do anything for people who need help, tough nut, optimist but also a realist, good at thinking on her feet/being put on the spot, fast thinker, witty
LIKES: horses , days off spent with family , her siblings - most of the time , having girlie days; spas and shopping , getting up before the sun rises , cuddling up on the sofa with luke , affection , getting things right on the first try , summer water fights DISLIKES: horse abusers , time wasters , getting up late/oversleeping , onions , leo messing with her paperwork , being taken advantage of , oranges that aren't easy to peel , movies and tv shows that don't know when to quit STRENGTHS: social/people skills , excellent at persuading people , cleaning up leo's messes , organisation and planning WEAKNESSES: will run herself into the ground/burn out , can't let go of control , bossy at times , sticks her nose in things she shouldn't sometimes FEARS: spiders , failing , losing people , not being good enough SECRETS: she's tried reaching out to amber on a couple of occasions but been knocked back , her comfort tv show is mcleod's daughters
"DREAMS. JUST GO AHEAD, LET YOUR HAIR"
STATUS IN SOCIETY: working/middle class OCCUPATION: owner of seven oak stables/instructor EXPERTISE: eventing , handling leo WEALTH: moderate PROUDEST MOMENT: her first customer at seven oak stables. it finally meant she was making her stamp in the world and that her efforts with the yard were paying off MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT: she's got quite a few, leo likes to mess with her and she's often been the brunt of his pranks
"DOWN. YOU'LL FIND YOURSELF SOMEWHERE"
FATHER(S): marcus nick white - 48 - construction worker/lives off benefits MOTHER(S): marie samantha white - 48 - occupation unknown STEP-PARENT(S): none OTHER HALF: husband - LUCAS JACOB COLE - 25 - lawyer student/fire fighter SIBLINGS:LOGAN JASPER WHITE - triplet - 25 - instructor/part owner of seven oaks LEONARDO SAMUEL WHITE - triplet - 25 - instructor/part owner of seven oaks JAMES EDWARD WHITE - half brother - 25 - instructor/part owner of seven oaks COUSINS:ASHLEY HARMONY WHITE - 22 - vet nurse @chriswhite - 24 - stable hand/bartender AMBER ELENA WHITE - 23 - barwoman CHILDREN: claire - 4 rose - 3 felicity - 3 slade - 1
A rocky childhood, though there were a string of good memories throughout. Home life was relatively settled for Lily's first few years, right up until she was out of her toddler years and approaching double digits. Her father was laid off work, and had to scrounge for two jobs to replace the wages he had previously been getting. Her mother quickly became overwhelmed with having three children, the housework, and then having to pick up an evening job to help pay the bills - from there things began to deteriorate. Lily knew Leo picked up the slack - doing what could to look after her and Logan, counting himself as the eldest of the triplets and the one that needed to protect. He tried his hand at making their meals and looking out for them - but he often burnt the microwavable pizzas, and forgot to cut crusts off the sandwiches. Their mother eventually walked before the kids were ten, up and vanishing one day with not a trace. She never contacted them again.
Left with a hell of a lot to handle, Leo's father forced responsibility onto Leo, and Leo took it. Helping them with school work though he wasn't the smartest of them, and packing their lunches. Lily ended up taking over the more maternal side of their lives when she saw how much Leo struggled; likely in their best interests when it came to cooking dinner. As they neared eleven, their father finished descending his slippery slope and became a fully fledged alcoholic - lashing out with mostly his words and then eventually he brought in his fists at whichever child was closest. Leo soon learnt when the temper tantrums were coming and how best to get his siblings out of the house before they could bear the brunt of their fathers anger. They took to going to friends, and when a few years older, parties - Lily never really touched drugs, but she enjoyed the drink and the socialising, finding herself naturally drawn to people and enjoying dancing and chatting.
She met Luke in Primary school, around the age of 6, Luke having picked up Logan as the shy triplet's only friend, he was inducted into their lives quickly, almost like an extra limb. Leo and Luke butted heads right from the word go, but Lily liked him - he was funny, he was charming and he looked out for Logan when her and Leo couldn't. Luke grew up alongside them, and over the years, feelings developed. Lily tried to hide them, to squash them down, but she soon realised she was in love with him when they hit their teens and she couldn't stand to see him with anyone else, and couldn't stomach dating herself. How could she not, Luke had been in her life from almost the word go, spending almost every day together, laughing together and playing games together - and looking after her. He had been one of the few good constants in her life, aside from horses, and she couldn't help herself. By some miracle, he seemed to feel the same. What started out as stolen glances and scary feelings turned into hidden touches and then developed to secret kisses. Neither of them felt they could tell her brothers - Leo in particular, and both of them were afraid of what could happen - of ruining their friendship or Logan and Luke's brotherhood. In the end, they couldn't deny their feelings. After a tipsy night together they admitted they were in love, and told the others - Logan was supportive and unsurprised, Leo was not best pleased but dealt with it in the end.
The only thing that came from the family that was good was the cousins. They lived over in Ireland with Leo/Lily/Logan's father's brother (their uncle) and his wife. Leo got on like a house on fire with all of them, but him and Chris had a particular penchant for trouble and pranking. Lily was relieved to have a girl in the family and stuck herself on to Ashley whenever able to. They visited the cousins for some school holidays and sometimes they came to them, but the visits petered out when they were older, their father stopped caring, and the teens had other things going on. Amber was never part of this - unfortunately, her father - also brother to Lily's dad - did not wish to be involved with the family or have much to do with them. Lily never knew that Amber had tried to contact them, though she tried in later years and got told to - essentially - get fucked.
The only other constant in Lily's life was horses. She joined the yard when Leo found it, and along with her siblings she worked on the yard in her free time in exchange for lessons. She loved the freedom horses gave her, and having something to focus on - competitions to work towards. She didn't love the difficult one's like Leo did but she did enjoy riding all different types and learning to improve her skills. She found she enjoyed all disciplines and dabbled a hand in eventing with a horse she loaned from the stables, doing well on multiple occasions. When Leo had his accident, she was terrified for him, and though it made her nervous to return to the yard she couldn't give it up - and Leo encouraged her not to stop riding, no matter the scare of what had happened to him.
As Lily hit her later teens, she started to dream of getting out. Her father frequently lost his jobs and tried to steal money from Lily and her siblings and their hard earned cash from their part-time occupations. Lily began to stay out more and more, like her siblings - often spending nights at Luke's, with or without Logan, or she joined Leo at his parties. One day, a letter came - out of the blue, she suddenly found herself the owner of a run down, barely going stables in the South of England. A distant great aunt Claire, had bestowed the yard upon her - though Lily had no idea why and had no recollection of ever meeting this person. She did all the research and ensured it was legit before telling her siblings and Luke, wanting them to come with her. Logan wouldn't go until he finished college, and Leo didn't want to leave him. Desperate, she went to Luke and begged him to come with her - but he wouldn't. He didn't want to leave his education either or his parents, and though she understood, it broke Lily's heart. Leo packed her off, forcing her to go - if she didn't accept the offer, she would lose it, and he promised to take of Logan and they would come down to join her soon. She tried to make things work with Luke, but long distance was difficult, and in the end they decided to take a break.
Not a few months after Lily had left London, her brothers came down to join her. Following a party where Logan had lied and said he was out, Leo had come home to find Logan beaten to a bloody pulp and barely breathing - he'd immediately taken him and their things and hauled them down to Lily. Whether Logan liked it or not. Lily was delighted to have them, though she still missed Luke, and they settled into life together, giving a half share to each brother to help. Roughly a year after her brothers had come, Luke suddenly reappeared into her life - Logan picked him one day and Lily came home to find him there with packed bags; he was moving in. She was overjoyed to see him again, and though they started as friends, old feelings quickly resurfaced, and following a bout of secret dating, they once again came out to the others as in a relationship - and eventually married.
When James came across from Ireland to join the family, they learnt some surprising news that he was actually their half brother - James' mother had slept with their father and managed to hide the truth for years, up until a routine blood test turned into a DNA test. Lily welcomed James in - who she had seen as her brother regardless for years, and gave him a gift of a share in the stables.
