✦ MIMI KEENE, CIS FEMALE, SHE/HER ✦ IMOGEN CHURCH the TWENTY-FOUR year old has been in Hidehill for HER ENTIRE LIFE and was a STRANGER to Jade Parker, the missing first murder victim. Whispers on the streets are that the MIRAGE ESTATE REALTOR/PLAYPEN BARTENDER who lives in HIDE SQUARE. She is said to be HARD-WORKING and CYNICAL but I guess we’ll find out for ourselves.
Tw: helicopter parenting, self harm, injury
Imogen was raised up in the Horwick neighborhood of Hidehill by her helicopter mother, Jacqueline, and her physically present, but mentally and emotionally checked out father, Harun. From day one, she was going to be her mother’s ‘mini-me’ whether she liked it or not. It had started harmlessly with matching outfits but gymnastics was what heightened everything.
Gymnastics was a dream Imogen’s mother had never achieved and so it was thrust onto her. It was fun to start: mom supporting her on the bleachers with a mega watt smile, her enormous collection of leotards, the shiny medals and trophies. But once there was officially talent there, suddenly the big dreams were within reach. And so Jaqueline pushed. There was always input: Imogen could eat better, train harder, increase the difficulty. Time for friends didn’t exist and by the time she was fourteen, she’d started to homeschool. Gymnastics had become her entire world and she hadn’t even chosen it.
Tw: self harm / injury: Everything came to a head at the U.S. Olympic Trials. Just barely eighteen with the weight of the world on her shoulders. She’d long since just started going through the motions— having failed at having any sort of conversation with her mother where she had autonomy. She was starting on the balance beam, her best event. In truth, she’d always hated it, it’d been her mom that had tried to force it down her throat. ‘You’re just so good at it!’ Somewhere between mounting the beam and getting through the middle of her routine, Imogen had had enough. She couldn’t do it anymore. And so when she went for combination, Imogen shifted her body in order to miss the beam on her landing, falling and hurting her ankle. The gasps from the crowd felt like her taking her first breath.
Her mother had been devastated. How could it all be over after everything they’d done? Imogen was relieved, happy to put it all behind her. So what if she had to lie and say that her ankle was worse than it was, she got to go back to high school. Got to feel normal... for a short bit. Because Jaqueline was persistent. If it wasn’t one dream, it could surely be another. And that’s how Imogen ended up at Mirage Estate. It’d worked sooo well for her mother and they could be a team again! Just... perfect.
As she entered adult life, Imogen had learned to separate herself, like Jekyll and Hyde. During the day, she was the perfect diligent daughter, a wind-up toy that played her part. At night, she stripped all of that off and became the opposite.
Being a realtor these days isn’t exactly the most lucrative career— you know, given the murders and everything. In order to make some extra money, Imogen works part-time as a bartender at The Playpen. Her mother would die if she knew, but that was part of the appeal.
Imogen goes by a few nicknames, largely Gen or Mo. Her mother tried desperately to call her Genny, but she’d put up a fight— though it still occasionally makes an appearance.
Yes, she does have her face on a bench, three actually. And at least one billboard. She hates them with her entire being. Every once and awhile, she’ll visit a bench and sharpie in some devil horns or blacken a tooth.
Has a pet bearded dragon named Lizzie McGuire.
She does not believe in love and thinks that relationships are transactional. People just want things from you, never you.
Connections:
Old gymnastics teammates, whether its from their days as toddlers learning what a somersault is or further into her career.
Someone she was seeing in secret around 16/17. Her mother found out and forced her to end it because she needed to focus on the Olympic dream.
Exes.
Specifically one ex that she dated for the sole purpose that it would piss of her mom, ONLY for it to backfire and her mom ended up loving them. So Imogen ended things before really giving them a shot.
Friends.
Ex-friends. Maybe they stopped speaking when she left school?
Someone she’s sold a house/apartment to.
FWB.
One-night stands.
Fellow wine enthusiasts? Maybe a “book club”.
So much more but I am drawing a blank :)
