Alex is my comfort character too lmao

Heather Proudstorm/Sandra Proudstorm | 21/19 | Eventer/Show Jumper | Titanium "Storm" and Open/The Great Rebellion "Shade" | School Horse: WO Descendants Of Khan "Khan"/ WO Legend Rise "Legend" | M: Sandra/Heather, Open

-Heather would be at the outdoor arena, riding Khan in a easy trot while she rises and sits from the saddle time to time while her sister Sandra was watching her from the fence with Toby. The red brunette looked focused at the task at hand but in actually reality, her own thoughts were distracting her while sitting one last time in the saddle before bring the gelding up to a canter since she was just gonna do some light exercises with Arabian gelding for today. After a while, The young woman brought the school horse to a halt before dismounting, gently grabbing the reins before leading the horse over to where Sandra is to just chat about the event that Olivia has told her a bit. The dark haired woman was beaming with excitement, seeing her light blue eyes light up like a Christmas tree- "So, is that a yes that we're going?" -Heather playfully teased- "Well, of course that it's a yes." -Sandra replied with bit of a giggle-

Dublin | M: Open

A faint trace of smoke drifted calmly into the morning air, undisturbed by the rising mist it neighbored beneath the early sun's glow. Soft whinnies and nickers occasionaly broke the silence of the sleeping stableyard, yet left a sense of wonder. How could such a place with so much life be so still?

Though, to one nerve-wracked newcomer, the scene was only eerie. Exhaustion tore mercilessly as a tightness in Dublin's chest, welcomed by the trembling and twitching of his entirety as he tapped on the first-of-many cigarettes he'd be having that day. An awful nervous habit, it was; his ocean eyes glared at the ground with a heavy sense of anger and disgust toward himself. But he wouldn't do anything to change this. No, he was quite comfortable with a cig in hand.

Despite how unapproachable the young man appeared, behind him a spider-like equine begged for his affection over the pasture fenceline he'd been leaning against. Dublin had just set the big white gelding loose in there after a hasty trailer trip over to the facility, courtesy of his aunt. But it seemed the horse wasn't ready to leave his friend. As much as the jumpy young brunette could get angered or upset in a dime, Danny was always ready to shove that big, wrinkly nose in his face and press up for never-ending cuddles. It could get quite annoying at times, having no "personal bubble" to stand in. Dublin went on to ignore the horse as best as possible, to his credit. Then only after enough bonks to the face did he squawk and cuss a bit and step a few yards away from the fence, out of reach.

Tap, tap, tap of a finger on the edge of the cigarette sent a pinch of ash gliding to the ground. He stared at it as he picked himself apart inside, all but groaning over the situation he was in. Thousands of miles away from his home country of Scotland in a place where people ooh and ah over the difficulty of understanding his accent; surrounded by strangers in an unfamiliar home, when dealing with people happened to be what he struggled with and failed at most in life. He just wanted to go back to his aunt's place at the other end of the state, where he could feel safe and understood. Out here-- sure, all were united by the love of horses, but he was so scared of messing up socially. Frustration and lashing out came stunningly quick and was hard to make up for. Plus, he figured he would be noticeably behind the other people in riding skill. Surely they'd been on the scene for longer than him, and that'd be something worth some gossip.

Thought after thought ate away at him for what felt like eternity until a long-awaited sigh escaped. His mind silenced and the tension throughout his body left for a quick but thankful moment. An impulse had the burnt out cigarette shoved in his jacket pocket and him speed-walking down the path toward all of the buildings. Every inch of him screamed not to go yet, but he knew he could play the waiting game forever. There was no point standing out there any longer when his aunt had already left. There was no leaving this place anymore. It was time to man-up and face what lied ahead, regardless of how poorly he could handle it.

So, fists clenched, Dublin made way with an unintentionally startling expression. He needed to find someone that knew what they were doing, and what he should be doing. Otherwise he was just a dim-witted trespasser.

Louis Wright | 19 | Baby | Dublin

Right. Well. Lovely morning as usual. Outside, the fog had given way to a lighter mist that created a mystical effect on the entire property. At some point soon, the sun should start to peek out and dispel the slight chill, bringing some life to everyone. A few people were already up, primarily the racing students, he presumed. So, Arlette must be among them somewhere, preparing Hidalgo for his training session. One of the last few before he would leave once more for his final defining races of his young career.

The barn he was in however, was empty save for himself and the mares. His tall, lanky figure was leaned against a stable door, watching an equally as impressively tall bay mare as she languidly grazed away at her hay net. Her eyes blinked from time-to-time, lazy and content. His too, were like that, the steel gray eyes lacking energy and drive. In all fairness, he hadn’t slept properly all night because he had decided to abruptly return. He had his reasons.

The reasons were also the reason that he would cast glances at the watch he had tightly strapped around his wrist. His entire mannerism was one of bored anticipation; he was, in other words, lying in wait. Reggie was bound to come down and see Loca at some point very soon. Loca was always the first one to be tended to, as if her poor behaviour gave excuse to be given more attention. For Louis, keeping her was an absurd idea. Regardless of whether she intentionally started, or was deliberately spooked into it, a horse like that would be prone to doing it again, and again. Better to save the medical bills and send her packing.

At least, that was his thought on the matter. Reggie may be a brilliant mind, but he was always a stubborn fool when it came to Loca. Speaking of whom, it may pay to give her a visit. Perhaps across the past few months, he’d managed to correct her faults. So, leaving his own bay with a kiss, he strolled down to a stall in one of the corners, seeking out the fiery chestnut in the gloom. There she be, in all her arrogant glory. Yet, dare he not approach the doors, a metre space and strong door be between the two. This day, her day it wasn’t. Her eyes were rolled, her ears were pinned, her forehead pinched in anger.

Her irritated huff sent him chuckling; as amusing as ever was she. It seemed that Reggie would be having fun with her, assuming her hadn’t already given her a brief visit before he should have left on a jog. But enough of waiting for Reggie to come to him, Louis decided to go and see him out. By now, he should be returning, under the assumption that he had not been struck by jetlag and was sleeping in.

Making quick strides out to the main yard, he spotted another rider walking towards him, coming out of the mist. If this were a movie set, and Louis the director, he would have been very pleased at the effects. It was very good. This male was shorter than his, but with similar coloured hair and a very pale face that Louis was well accustomed to seeing. At that moment, a keen gleam came into his eyes, partially masked by the pleasant surprise on his face. Calling out to the other, he crossed the distance with long strides and introduced himself.

“Absolutely my pleasure to meet you. The name’s Louis, you know what? That isn’t too important here. ‘ve got to know about you – you remind me of someone else. Actually looks a lot like you.”

“He doesn’t look that dense though – you should smile, probably would suit you.”

Trystan Bergman || M: Olivia Lancewood || OPEN

To be completely honest- Tryst was struggling to keep up. Olivia was chattery and bubbly and her quick movements were hard to track. Tryst let out an involuntary giggle and quickly stiffled it with her hand. She could feel her cheeks lighting red and looked downward to the ground beneath her. Olivia was kind and was obviously trying her hardest to make her feel more comfortable. She listened intently as the girl told her of her small home town and could not help the giggle that escaped when she spoke in Tryst's own mother tongue.

"Not bad I must say..." She did not wish to embarass her so she kept her corrections to herself and continued to intently listen to the Irish fairy describe where she lived before the United States. When asked about her own home Tryst smiled and remembered it fondly.

"I am from a town called Zossen. It is about 45 minutes outside of Berlin." She chuckled at how "small" Olivia felt her home was.

"We had 17,000 people in the city but even less on the outskirts where my fathers estate is."

She recalled the lush fields now and could almost smell the sweet aroma of the German Chamomile that painted the hillsides. She remembered making crowns out of the flowers when she was young and plaiting them into her hair.

"You must have a ride around here somewhere... what is your horse like?"

Of course she had shifted to equine talk, it was her absolute favorite thing in the world. She itched to get back in the saddle (despite the throbbing in her rear from today).

"My own Krigare might enjoy a riding budy sometime if you wish to join us?"

She hoped the offer would be accepted becuase if so that means she had made a new friend in her first two days at the Estate.

Sean Hutchinson | 22 | Instructor | M: open

Sean drove down the long, tree lined driveway, just wanting to finally make it to the large stable that was coming into view. Once hemade it into the parking lot, he parked in a row of spots, which though was only fair, he had a trailer to unload. As he hopped out of his truck and went back to take his horses out, one of them began kicking the divider in the trailer. Sean sighed, knowing it was going to happen, and unlocked the door of the trailer, letting it fall to the ground slowly. He unlocked some of the stall barriers, and pulled out Playa, who may have been kicking, and walked her to stable blocks that read "Mares". After finding her stall- one of the few empty ones, plus it had a piece of tape reading her name, for when she arrived. Sean had seen geldings nearby, so he would probably end up waking farther.

---

Sean sighed as he set down his heavy wooden trunk in the tack room. He still needing bring in some other smaller bags and boxes. Then he'd blanket his horses, and find his housing. Sean walked in with all his other boxes, and began unpacking. He set his covered saddle down on an empty saddle rack, pulled his five wrapped bridles out and hung them on their spots, each labeled with bronze nameplates above. Sean took out his horses's stall plates, along with a drill and ten screws, and walked down to their stalls. He hated to break to silent peace, but it needed to be done. No one would be out at five on the morning.

---

Sean shut the door of Playa's stall, finally done with his horses. Their trailering stuff was in bins in the trailer, they were blanketed and had standing wraps for the night, and were fed. Sean finished listing off what needed to be done, which fortunately all were done, and stopped at his truck. He got in, turned it on and backed his trailer into an open space near the other trailers. He got out, unhitched his trailer and drove off to find his housing.

Katarena | Alex, Max, OPEN

Katarena loosed the reins, letting them casually sit on Hugo’s neck as she worked on some new techniques she had read about the week prior. She was working on seat and leg aids that would transition him most easily to being ridden completely bridleless, which was her three-month goal for him. Just like everything else in her life, Rena had Hugo scheduled for every day of the next three years and beyond. He didn’t seem to mind, though, he was a happy-go-lucky gelding who shared the same workaholic tendencies as his owner. On the few occasions the little bay horse had been forcibly removed from his routine because of injury, he had quite literally gone insane.

After another lap around in either direction practicing downward transitions from the trot and walk, the coral-colored watch around the rider’s right wrist started chirping, indicating that it was already 0615. Despite getting in between midnight and one, Rena wanted to get a ride in on Hugo before everyone got down to the barn. He hacked terribly in company and she wanted to give him her first ride rather than the school horse she had been assigned. Not knowing her new project horse, she assumed it would be better to hack him in company and get to know him in an environment where people would be around if she got hurt.

Slipping off the side of her horse, Rena slid her stirrups up and tucked them. Discreetly, she admired herself in the dressage mirrors as she walked by the next arena over, Hugo following behind her like a puppy. She didn’t want other people to think she was vain, but she knew she had the capability of being a bit self-obsessed at times. Inwardly, anyway. Yet, today, she did look good, or at least, she thought so. She’d been working out non-stop since they’d gotten to Virginia, and it was paying off. She could see the difference in an already slim, solid figure through a light gray tank top and black breeches. She then glanced back to Hugo, who still had the reins hanging over his head, and had stopped briefly to look at himself in the mirror. She held the left rein near the bit, coaxing him forward, then dropped it again, letting him walk himself in. She glanced back at his figure, now admiring how good he looked. He had gained a lot of muscle on a new feed and conditioning regimen that had built up his topline noticeably. She felt nothing but pride as she walked him in, letting him linger near his stall as she untacked him. There was no one else in the barn and he wasn’t going anywhere, so she felt safe to do it. During the busier barn hours it would have been a travesty to take up half of the aisle, but this was no busy barn hour, especially after the social gathering the night prior. As she untacked Hugo and prepared him for his bath, her mind started to fly a million miles away.

Relationships were complicated. Friendships were complicated. Everything that had transpired in the last twenty-four hours exceeded the realm of complication by lightyears. An ex-boyfriend, one she had once loved more than anything, had come back into her life. She’d come here to escape Max, and he hadn’t taken but a few weeks to track her down and mess up her new life. She’d built her old life around him, and this new life, it was supposed to be hers. He was taking it from her, just as he’d taken her joy, peace, and everything else, including sanity. On the other hand, Alex was a complete wildcard. He wasn’t anything like her typical type, but something about him was extremely alluring to her. She saw so much of herself in him; whatever people consisted of, they were especially similarly manufactured. Yet, she was terrified. She was angry. Why couldn’t she have met Alex later on, after she’d journeyed through all five stages of grief? She felt so far from herself. So far from assertive, so far from confident, so far from ready. If she pursued Alex with the effort she typically placed into things, she’d regret it. She couldn’t see him without imagining how it would end, and she knew that made her not ready, as much as she wanted to pretend she was. She had ‘won’ the breakup at the expense of her own healing. She appeared strong and as though she’d moved on by bottling up her feelings and throwing all of her walls up. For just a second, she looked at Alex and thought she was ready to pursue romance and adventure again, or at least consider it, feel it out. As soon as Max had arrived, the foundation she’d built back up came crumbling down.

Rena finished bathing Hugo and returned him to his stall, placing several treats in his bucket as she exited the stall, forgetting to ensure it was shut all the way. She went back to the tack room, cleaned her tack, then placed it back in her tack box. She found the tack labeled ‘Magik’ and pulled it out, walking it out to a nearby saddle rack. She walked through the barn, turning right at the little intersection between the two sides of the barn and walking straight until she came out on the side the schoolhorses lived on. As she made another right turn into the barn aisle, she nearly hit a familiar figure, though her catlike reflexes had allowed her to dodge out of the way in time. She looked up at him with a forced smile, eyes struggling to meet his. Eye contact made her uncomfortable, but looking anywhere else was worse.

“Alex,” she greeted, “you’re up early.”

Though she smiled, she still felt the regret, resentment, and embarrassment of the night prior. She hadn’t felt likeable, attractive, or successful in any of the endeavors she’d applied herself towards, and while Max had startled her, she surely felt to blame. She had control of her feelings, why had she let things go so badly? She should have talked to Alex--really talked--at the ice cream social. Gotten to know him. She shouldn’t have agreed to the night drive, or the club, or anything else. She should have played hard-to-get and just gone in for the night after a successful night of socializing. None of it felt good to her.

“Hey, I want to talk to you-” she stopped, hearing footsteps approaching from the other side of the barn. She glanced up, glad she hadn’t continued. None other than Maximilian Petrova stood a few feet away, bridle slung over his shoulder, boyish lopsided grin on his face. She thought he looked nervous, but she also wanted him to feel nervous. She figured she was probably just projecting.

“Katarena,” he greeted. She took a step back, away from Max. She realized what she had done and took another one towards Alex. Her olive-colored skin had paled significantly, and she felt dizzy. All of the words had been taken from her brain, it was just blank.

Finally, she formed a few that somewhat resembled coherence, so she said them. “What the hell do you want, Maximilian?” Oh God, did she seem emotional about it still? Was she too angry? Too ‘I haven’t moved on’-esque? She wanted to punish him, not show him she was still hurting. She had to be the strong one, the successful one, the winner.

“To say hello,” he smiled, and the blank expression on her face turned into a scowl. “I missed you.”

He went in for a hug and she stepped back three more steps. “Don’t touch me. Don’t ever touch me,” she said it with a venom in her voice she even scared herself with. Here was another terrible interaction Alex got to witness, and in this moment, she couldn’t even care. She was beyond angry, hurt, broken, and every other emotion. Standing before her was the man that had once been everything to her, and now he was even worse than a stranger.

Pain manifested in his eyes and he raised his hands defensively. He looked like he wanted to cry too. “I’ll leave,” he promised, “I would never hurt you, Katarena.” She scoffed in pained disbelief, tears now streaming down her face. Her morning had gone to hell in four minutes, and all she wanted to do was run away, find a quiet, isolated place, and cry. She was trying her damndest to hold it together in front of these two specific human beings, the only two she could not want to be crying in front of less. She wiped her eyes with the wrist that didn’t have a watch on it, and listened to the last words he spoke before he walked away. “I shut Hugo’s stall door,” he glanced dejectedly towards Alex, assuming the worst about the status of their relationship, “you never could remember to do that…”

After he’d turned and walked away, Rena continued to hypervigilantly erase any tear-stains from her face, though they kept coming. She took a prolonged moment to find words she could say without her voice cracking, then smiled in a very broken way at Alex. “You know, I’ll just text you later.” She winced in emotional pain, before adding, “I need to go.”

She walked out of the barn very quickly, not feeling safe enough with him or with the her she had become to handle things differently. Normally she would have cracked a joke, acted with indifference, even blown it off. She didn’t feel like herself. She was bargaining, she was broken.

Finding a seat on the picnic table beside the pond, Rena sent an ‘I need you’ text to Viktor that she knew he wouldn’t see for several more hours through tear-stained eyes, then bawled her eyes out until her cheeks burned from the salt of her own tears.