Miki Inoue (phantasm) wrote in serenityhills, @ 2008-08-07 22:55:00 |
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Current mood: | curious |
Current music: | Dawn of Tears - Uncertain Life |
Where's Nancy Drew? Nowhere near here.
She was going to kill Egon. (Not that Egon was her friend’s real name, but it was what she had dubbed him since they were kids.) Miki had no idea how he’d discovered this place or even how he’d managed to get her an invitation to an open house event. All the young private investigator knew was that she was here to find out why a few of her and Egon’s contacts had vanished from existence. Running a normal investigation firm was hard enough, but Egon just had to have the bright idea of going multinexus. Or was it multiverse? Miki couldn’t remember. It was all the same to her. She was still getting used to the whole thing. (And one day she’d force Egon to explain how the hell he’d discovered this stuff in the first place.)
So here she was, in this little gated community of happy go lucky neighbors called Serenity Hills and drinking a bottle of water she’d brought. Like she was going to trust the offered beverages or food. But boy did those cookies look go- Miki shook her head, shaking her thoughts free. Focus. She told herself. You’re better at this! The open house had apparently picked a perfect day to happen. It was sunny and breezy and the cheerfulness of the community seemed to bounce from house to house. There was a smiling and friendly woman, who looked a little like Eva Mendes to Miki, giving tours of the houses. Obviously she was the core realtor. Miki recycled the names she’d memorized and took a triumphant sip of her Evian. Talia St. John. That was the realtor’s name. Now if only Miki would focus on her own.
It had taken her an hour or two to memorize her cover for this job. Her name was Michelle Drew, (har har, Egon) or Miki for short. (Thank god. On such short notice she might have slipped on her own first name.) She was a single woman struggling as a poetess. Oh, how she hated that part. She was horrible at poetry. If anyone asked her to recite anything she was so freaking screwed. She was going to kill Egon. He couldn’t have let her be a photographer? At least then her photo ops would make sense! But nooo. Egon had said they already had a photographer in the community.
“What does that have anything to with it?” Miki muttered under her breath. She realized she’d spoken and quickly checked to see if anyone at the open house had noticed. Nope. It didn’t seem so. She relaxed on the outside while remaining on mental guard again. Maybe the place only wanted one of each profession or something, like some sort of neighborhood Noah’s Ark, only with careers rather than animals. It was possible.. if somewhat (somewhat?) ridiculous.
Miki wandered over to one of the smaller houses, a cute little two story house with white siding and a black roof. She pulled out her camera and snapped a couple pictures of the structure before turning to the community and the others at the open house. She snapped a few pics of them too. It was perfectly normal for a girl to take photos of her possible neighbors, right? If all else failed and anyone grew annoyed, Miki figured she could claim it was for inspiration for her work. And hey, that wouldn’t even be a lie! She slid the camera back into her messenger bag and headed on inside the house. Hey, it was one of the only houses in her fake little budget for this job. She made another mental note to grill Egon about where he got the cash to front this little adventure.
“Huh.” She stood in the foyer of the house and tilted her head to the left. Then to the right. It was so.. clean. And furnished. Completely utterly furnished. Unfortunately the furniture was definitely not Miki’s taste. The sofa had flowers on it! Flowers! The mahogany tables were nice though. “It smells all.. pine cone and minty.” She wondered if she could get what they were using for her real home. She liked the smell of pine cones and mint. It made her think of Christmas and winter.
Out came the camera again as she explored. More pictures were snapped. Little bits of décor turned over. Drawers opened. Ooh, hey a large fridge! Miki was delighted at that. It could mean more junk food! Ack. Get back to work.
Frankly Miki was at a bit of a loss when she finally finished exploring the house. She had soon found herself back outside and wasn’t entirely sure what she should do. She knew she had to show interest. Try to get inside. Buy a house. But hell.. she’d never done that in her life! She had an apartment that she got from her grandmother. Some P.I. she was. Nancy Drew she was not. Her childhood dreams were shattered.
She needed a cookie. To hell with paranoia. She was going to get a cookie and enjoy it. Damn straight. And was it just her or did that cloud look a little like Grace Jones in that second Conan movie?