#fhtask1

What was their life like before?

Their relationships started out just like any good love story - boy meets girl at university. Boy falls for girl. He was studying history at York. She was studying English Literature. One night out their eyes met across the bar and the rest was history..... Or rather Noah saw a girl saying no and a man who wouldn’t listen. They spent the rest of that night together. And then the next. And then their last month of uni. Then girl had to go home to look after her sick mum and that should have been the end of it. For anyone else that would have been the end of it. But Noah, for some crazy reason, followed her. 

That was how Noah ended up in Aramore. At first he stayed in the B&B to not put unwanted pressure on her family; he wanted to give them distance, if they needed it. He spent a lot of time at the castle in those days, learning everything that he could about it and the town around him. About the magic. 

After a month or so, Evelyn approached him one morning. He could remember that the sun was shining, light glinting off the deep blue of the loch behind her. The wind had been tugging at her hair, pulling the strands out from behind her ear, as quickly as she pushed them back again - an eternal fight that would continue for the next 19 years. If he really thought about it, he could still see the way her eyes glistened with the tears, and the way her lips had trembled. She said she understood that it was probably hard for him, and awkward, and that he didn’t owe her anything and could leave if he wanted to. 

That was when he told her he loved her. It wasn’t long after that that he’d moved in with them. Then he got a job at Nailed It! and the rest, you could say, was history. 

Her mum sadly passed away a year later, but she left them with her blessing, and her home. While they discussed it briefly at the start, it was quickly decided that there was no reason to live Aramore. Sure, it reminded Evelyn of her mother and her passing, but it also reminded her of all the good times they’d had together and, more importantly, Evelyn was looking forwards to bringing up children in the same town that she’d grown up in. 

Despite having a year off work, it took Evelyn no time at all to get a job at the local high school and, although he had no experience since university, when a history teaching role came up, Noah applied for that. He got it. 

 A year on from that he proposed, in the castle overlooking Loch Ayre in the exact same same place where they’d stood and had their first discussion. They’d been talking about their future and he’d realised that he didn’t want a future without her. Their promise was sealed with a ring of copper wire - the only thing that Noah had had in his possession at the time - and, even though he had eventually brought her a proper one, she’d worn the copper wire right up to their wedding day. 

One year later and they were both still living in Evelyn’s mother’s house. Noah was now teaching History at Aramore High School full time, and Evelyn was still teaching English. One night while Noah had been getting ready for bed, Evelyn had come running up to him holding something in her hand. She was pregnant. They were pregnant. They were having a baby. 

The next 6 months raced by. Their little baby was the size of a lettuce, their nursery had blue walls and an assortment of furniture was waiting to be put together. Noah had been washing the dishes when Evelyn screamed. He couldn’t remember what he had been expecting when he’d dashed into the bathroom that night, but he hadn’t been expecting the blood. It had been everywhere. All over their white tiles. That’s what had stuck in his head. The white tiles that were no longer white. 

They’d rushed to the hospital but it had been too late. Evelyn had miscarried. Their lettuce was dead. 

For a week or so it was difficult between them; it took 2 days for Evelyn to stop crying, and Noah wasn’t much better. But then they sat down to chat. This happened sometimes. They’d just try again. So they did. 

Their next baby only made it 4 months. They’d listened to its heartbeat. They’d started on the nursery again - purple this time. This time it took Evelyn a week to stop crying. It took even longer for them to get int he right place to try again.

Almost two years after they’d gotten married, they went to see a doctor who told them that it was dangerous for Evelyn to keep trying to have a baby; that it might not be just the baby that died next time. Evelyn was distraught. All her life she’d wanted children; she’d dreamed of raising them in this town, in this house. 

For the next few weeks she was inconsolable. The high school was forced to put her on leave and, most days when Noah came home from work, she’d be sat on the couch, staring into the distance. He was worried that things would never be the same again. 

Then, one day, she was suddenly back - his Evelyn. He woke up to her leaning over him, smiling wider than he’d seen her smile in months. She was holding a leaflet of some kind and then she said the word that would change his life forever - Adoption.

It wasn’t long before one, two, three kids joined their little family and they finally got their dream. Maybe Aramore really was magic. 

What is their life like now?

Two months before the roleplay begins, Evelyn was in a car crash. She didn’t make it. It was just supposed to be a day trip to a nearby town to pick up some new furniture for the house, but when she wasn’t home by 6, Noah knew something was wrong. He was on the phone to the police immediately and they started asking him all sorts of questions, like he was a suspect for something that hadn’t even happened. 

Maybe they’d already know then; maybe they’d suspected. It was another hour before he heard the news. A hit and run. She’d died alone, lying on the road to Aramore. That was the hardest pill to swallow. The killer was never caught, but Noah doubted they’d ever be found. They probably weren’t from around this area. 

The toughest part had been breaking it to the kids. But the aftermath wasn’t easy either. Everywhere Noah looked reminded him of Evelyn. This whole town embodied her. The cafe where they’d had so many dates over the years. The restaurant where they’d celebrated almost every birthday. The castle - their castle. Sometimes he just goes there to stand - to remember. 

Where do they want to be in 10 years/the future?

Noah doesn’t see 10 years in the future. Noah doesn’t even see tomorrow. He takes every day as it comes, as the task that they are now Evelyn isn’t around. He does it for his kids, who count on him to be the strong one (and he’s trying, he’s trying so hard). He does it for his friends, who now only look at him with pity. He does it for himself, because he deserves to be able to move on. 

He was never the best at what he did but he was never the worst either. He was just… average. His grades were average, the size of his friend group was average, his success would ultimately be average. It wasn’t a bad thing by any means but it didn’t offer him a lot in terms of opportunity either. He was a quiet guy which meant he didn’t always excel in interviews which meant he settled for jobs that he didn’t really want but had to do to make a paycheck - it was one of the reasons that he didn’t stay in one place for too long, moving from business to firm to business.

That was how his life became a boring work-sleep-repeat. Going into the office early and spending too many hours at his desk, then going home to eat last night’s Chinese before falling asleep on the couch. Working hard for little reward.

His last job lasted a while. It was in the finance office of a well-known business in the area, one of his first achievements that he was proud of, and he worked himself to the bone every day to the point of exhaustion. He was six years in the job when he received the letter from a long lost relative. He’d never even heard of the woman before the letter that described a fruit farm in a town in Scotland that he’d never heard mentioned anywhere. That was the day his life simultaneously ended and began.

A few months after opening the letter, he had worked his notice period, packed up his life into his car and drove the long hours to Aramore, where he found a home at West Aramore Fruit Farm - a run-down little farmhouse with a run-down little barn to match. He spent his first few weeks in Aramore redecorating, and in some cases rebuilding, the farmhouse. A time in which he learnt that pipes were incredibly delicate and electric shocks hurt but by the end of it he was pretty proud of himself for what he had accomplished. Once the new furniture came and everything was in its proper place it was a home, one of the first homes he had truly had.

With a new home came new issues and even though the housing situation was sorted and the bar was up to standards for storage, the actual farming part of it was something that he hadn’t really put too much thought into. Like a fool, he thought that it would be as easy as growing normal plants - another thing that he wasn’t all that great at really - but he was sorely mistaken.

After many failed attempts at trying to grow the simplest of things, he realised that he was completely out of his depth and that this was the worst idea he’d ever had. Instead of focusing on farming and growing fruit, he spent his days - and nights - in the Drovers Inn, sipping his way through every bottle of whiskey on the shelf until someone took pity on him and lent a helping hand. Marcus became his saving grace, feeding him whiskey and alcohol whilst also showing him the ropes of growing. They worked together for a few months but eventually he managed to figure it out. He’d never put so much effort into something. He listened to the advice from Marcus, took it in his stride and tried to do it exactly as he explained it. There was many a night where he threw in the towel, chugged some liquor and told Marcus he was done and moving back to his old town and going back to finance. Then the next morning he would groan, hold his head in his hands and drag his ass out of bed and back to work.

Five years later and the farm was thriving just like it had when his grandma had been working on it. He visited the Farmer’s Market every Monday and could often be found making various deliveries around town during the week. There was still a lot that he had to learn and with the ongoing cold he was struggling to keep a lot of his crops alive and it meant that people couldn’t visit and pick the fruit themselves which meant that he wasn’t making money from that anymore but he was surviving, just like he had the past five years. 

NAME: AGE: TIME IN ARAMORE: EMPLOYMENT STATUS: 

What was their life like before Aramore? 

What is their life like now? 

Where do they want to be in 10 years/the future? 

What was their life like before Aramore?

As the youngest of the family, Aiden grew up being secretly rebellious. At home in front of his parents he acted like an angel, doing his homework, going to piano lessons, whereas outside he was a different person. Drinking underage, smoking, trespassing with his friends who just had to see whether that big old building really was haunted.

Rebelling became pretty boring pretty quickly, though, and by the time he turned eighteen he was over most of it. Getting someone to buy alcohol and cigarettes wasn’t needed anymore because they were all of age. Now that most people in his friend group could drive they went to places they were allowed to explore. The smoking was something that carried on but drinking so much just for the sake of drinking was already exhausting and he only really went all out when it was someone’s birthday. Obviously he hid all of these things from his parents and still, to this day, hides the fact that he smokes from his dad.

His mom leaving was something that still didn’t make sense to him. She had seemed happy and content in the life they had but apparently that wasn’t the case. One moment she was there and the next she was gone. Aiden didn’t really have time to think about what it meant for their family because before he knew it they were moving from their home in Edinburgh to a small town he’d never heard of called Aramore. 

What is their life like now?

Aiden hated the whispers and the gossip that started when they moved to Aramore. He had no idea who Mother Nairna was until after he got the job at the local library where he spent the dead hours reading through the history books, trying to learn as much as he could. He’s managed to avoid the topic as much as possible, often changing the topic or distracting the person he’s talking to if it comes up in conversation.

Aramore itself is beautiful and, despite the cold, he’s glad that they moved to somewhere smaller and quieter than the hustle and bustle of the city. It’s easier to make friends and he feels like he knows most of the faces in the neighbourhood already.

Where do they want to be in 10 years?

BIO

What was their life like before Aramore? 

Hailing from the historic town of Bath, Cassie lived an uneventful life. Her mother and father were lovely people who thoroughly encouraged her to pursue her dreams. She got great grades in school and had lots of friends, with whom she spent a great deal of time. But when it came to the end of sixth form, she found herself lost. Her friends were getting accepted left and right and, admittedly, Cassie was getting acceptance of her own. But none of it felt right; she felt lost. 

One day she was flicking through her parent’s old photo albums and she finally found her answer. A small little town in the Scottish highlands, called Aramore. It looked beautiful on the pictures, all sun and snow and gorgeous architecture. She knew the moment she saw it that it was the place for her. 

She rejected all her applications that night and she told her parents over tea. They were shocked, to say the least. Disappointed is another way to describe it. Either way, by the next day she’d packed her bags and started the drive to Aramore. 

What is their life like now? 

5 years later and moving to Aramore turned out to be the best decision Cassie had ever made. Sure, she’d had to stay at the B&B at the start and put way too many hours into working at the Riverside Cafe, but now she had her own little shop just a short walk away from her house. She had friends a plenty and woke up every morning to this beautiful town. She couldn’t ask for anything more. 

Where do they want to be in 10 years/the future?