open — an inspector calls.

[perceptual]

Who: Helly and YOU!
When: Last week of Christmas
Where: Your very home...
Open/Closed: Open
Applicable Warnings: n/a, will update as necessary!



You open your door to find a cheery redhead standing on your doorstep with a plate of cookies resting in the palm of her hand. If you look closely at the cookies, it's pretty obvious that they're shortbread from the store and definitely not homemade – but it's rude to stare, so don't scrutinise too closely.

"Hi!" Helly says brightly. "I'm Helly. I live on this street. I just moved here." A meaningful pause, with some deliberate emphasis on that phrase that hopefully makes sense, before she adds, "I was wondering if you wanted a cookie."

Maybe this is a little too close to the memory of the salesman for anyone's comfort, but Helly's thought about this. The only way to go door to door asking questions of people without rousing too much suspicion is to lace it thickly in the false pearly-white cheer of Sweetwater, until she can get some privacy. She rustles the cookies on the plate a little insistently, and lifts her eyebrows in what she hopes is an understandably meaningful way.

OOC — as I said in the CR meme, Helly is going door-to-door to introduce herself and try to suss out who here is in a similar boat to her. You can tag in if you'd like to meet her and thread out a conversation, OR we can just handwave that our characters have met in advance of the event!

Comments

INDEED

[perceptual]

Promising. She reminds Helly a little of Ms Cobel, which is certainly ominous, but maybe that's only because she seems very severe, pulled taut. Helly shifts her weight from one foot to the other. "What a coincidence," she says, her lips pressing flat in an almost-grimace. "When did you... move in?"

[frauseufzen]

The redheaded woman at the door is clearly young, unsure, and-- if she is to be believed-- dealing with rather a similar situation to Agathe herself. She also, blessedly, seems to have enough sense not to say it outright.

"Recently," Agathe replies flatly, her meaning difficult to miss. "Yourself?"

[perceptual]

"Last month. Pretty suddenly." That could mean anything, she hopes, but to aid the implication a little, she raises her eyebrows very deliberately.

[frauseufzen]

The hint is taken, even if Agathe's expression doesn't change a whit.

"Would you like to come inside," she asks, with zero inflection.

[perceptual]

"Sure," Helly says, but she isn't actually certain if she does, mostly because this lady is giving her the creeps. It's the authority figure vibe. She wouldn't be out of place on the severed floor, for sure.

"I'm Helly, by the way," she says. It's the second time she's introduced herself, but she wouldn't be getting very far in this whole 'get the lay of the land' thing if she didn't at least get everyone's names.

[frauseufzen]

"Agathe," comes the stoic reply, and the woman steps back to admit Helly with a cursory glance out the front window. Once they're both inside, she closes the door carefully and turns to look at the younger woman, her face still frozen in its perpetual scowl, but with a little additional tension at the corners of her eyes.

"Are you from," she chooses her words delicately, "somewhere very different?"

[perceptual]

Helly's shoulders sag a little with relief, if only because she knows Agathe isn't from here. They don't ask questions like that. They don't want to know.

"Very different." It feels like enough has been said that they understand each other, so Helly continues, only a little hesitantly, "I just wanted to know how many more of us there are."

[frauseufzen]

Carefully watching Helly's reaction, a bit of tension leaves Agathe's shoulders as well, though it's barely perceptible.

"A fair few," she says in a low, conversational voice, "from what I have seen. And I believe we all arrived at once."