Sally Starlet

"The most rambunctious resident in Welcome Home, Sally Starlet shines above the rest. She’s a fire-cracker who is willing to let her imagination run wild in the name of a new adventure, albeit at the occasional expense of her more cautious neighbors. Thankfully, she’s got a good head on her shoulders and perhaps, one could even say, a sunny disposition to match!"

- from Sally's character card.

"Celestial, astronomical, stupendously fantastical - so few words can capture the radiance of Sally Starlet!"

- Sally describing herself.

Sally Starlet is one of Home’s nine residents, and a member of Welcome Home’s central cast. Appropriately for a character so heavily associated with the theater, Sally was responsible for many of the show’s more elaborate segments. These would most often revolve around the rest of the cast acting out a play on stage for either the viewer or any remaining neighbors, with Sally herself acting as the director and/or leading lady. These plays were most often fairy tale adaptations with a twist, either at Sally’s request or Sally’s expense. Sally is also responsible for creating Home’s Halloween equivalent, the Macabre Menagerie of Monstrous Mischief Making. Although it is difficult to determine her exact status, several items imply that she is still active.

For a full image gallery of this character, please click here.

Once upon a time, Sally was known as the brightest star in the night sky… but even this title was not enough for her. Dissatisfied with her fame amongst her fellow stars, she descended to Earth as a shooting star after catching a glimpse of the humble blue planet, and subsequently found herself in the humble little town of Home, where she currently seems content to be known by Home’s entire population of 9.

Materials recovered by the Welcome Home Restoration Project also reveal that Sally’s puppet was a live-hand model that could require up to three puppeteers to operate, given that her head was much larger than the other puppets. Although recovered footage shows that Sally the character is able to glow in the dark, it is unknown if her puppet was designed to reflect this.

Sally is a small yellow humanoid puppet with deep blue eyelids, an oval-shaped red nose, and a head shaped like a cartoon sun, with a round center in the middle of alternating orange and yellow triangular “rays.” Her standard outfit consists of a sweater with white cuffs and a colorful checkerboard pattern of red, yellow, blue, orange, and green; blue overalls with orange and yellow pockets; and red and white sneakers.

Sally is a loud and proud thespian, with extravagant tastes and a flair for the dramatic to match. All the world’s a stage, and as far as she’s concerned, she may be the only one with the power to take advantage of it. Although her insistence on getting the rest of the neighbors involved with her artistic endeavors stems from a genuine desire to bring out their potential as actors, her perfectionist streak can make her a rather demanding teacher. It is rare that she will go out of her way to be cruel towards another neighbor, however her confidence in her own knowledge and talents may lead her to dismiss valuable input from them, especially if it does not align with her preconceived notions. Despite (or perhaps even because of) Sally treating most things with only the utmost seriousness, it can sometimes be difficult to tell when she is being sincere, versus when she is acting in service to what she believes would be a “better” narrative.

Initially, Sally is never seen directly in the prologue outside of illustrations, although there are several implications that Wally is still in contact with her. We see (and hear) more of her after the July 27th 2023 update, in both publicly available audio and hidden pages such as the bug videos. Like her fellow neighbors, she expresses confusion at the caller's apparent silence in her Talking Telephone Toy audio, suggesting that the call was received in real time. In the bug videos, she is heard interacting primarily with Poppy, Howdy, Julie, and of course, Wally.

Sally first becomes a person of interest in the October 13th 2023 update, in a recovered storybook record titled “Happy Haunting to Boo and Yours!”. After a series of disappointing attempts at scary stories from various neighbors attending her Macabre Menagerie of Monstrous Mischief Making party, Sally becomes frustrated and decides to tell her own. She speaks of a mysterious presence that lurks around Home at night, looking for neighbors to eat – thus explaining why Home's population remains so small, and why the neighbors stay indoors at night. Although the story itself isn’t particularly graphic or out of place within the context of the record, this section of audio skips on the story’s opening lines a few times before proceeding in much higher quality than the rest of the recording. This once again suggests that these events are taking place in real time, and that Sally’s story, however facetious it may sound, is of some importance.

Sally’s suspicious behavior continues in the March 9th 2024 update, in which she is the one to invite Eddie to the Homewarming party, reassuring him that the rest of the neighbors have delivered each other’s presents already. After Eddie attends the party and almost immediately experiences what appears to be a dissociative episode, the first thing he sees upon coming to is Sally conversing with Frank in front of him about how hard Eddie had been working that day. When Frank addresses Eddie directly, however, Sally leaves before he realizes that something is wrong with Eddie.

The piece of Merchandise introduced in the October 18th update of the same year - another storybook record titled "Brick-By-Brick," and the first of a series - focuses heavily on Sally's relationship with Poppy. Upon informing her that her play is an adaptation of "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allen Poe, Poppy becomes frightened and drops out, claiming that she will be busy "re-cozying" her nest. Sally, though disheartened, accepts this excuse and leaves. Later, while preparing for the play with the other neighbors, Barnaby asks if Poppy "chickened out" again, and although Sally is initially defensive, this does help her realize Poppy's true reasons for dropping out of the play. Overwhelmed with guilt not only for not recognizing that Poppy was afraid but for putting on a frightening play where she could potentially see it, Sally ponders what to do while the other neighbors offer suggestions. Eventually, they settle for sealing Poppy's windows up with bricks so that Poppy may have some peace of mind and so Sally can put on her play after all. Curiously, one of the voices that greet Poppy at the end of the awayfrompryingeyes.net recording sounds similar to Sally, but is left unidentified in the corresponding transcript.

Sally and Poppy appear to be close, and are depicted together in recovered material often enough that the WHRP suspects them to be best friends. The two collaborate on set designs for Sally’s plays often, and are always excited to work with one another. Though Poppy always prefers to err on the side of caution, it is rare that she will shoot down any of Sally’s ideas outright (though she will take it upon herself to fill in the gaps of Sally’s more outlandish ideas.) Sally tries her best to get Poppy out of her comfort zone and onto the stage, but the poor bird’s skittish nature seems to relegate her to behind-the-scenes work more often than not. As seen in "Brick-By-Brick," Sally places a lot of trust in Poppy, and is reluctant to accept the idea that Poppy could ever lie to her.

Although Sally aims to improve every neighbor’s star power, she seems to particularly favor Julie when it comes to lead roles, and the two are usually able to keep up with one another by virtue of sheer enthusiasm. Although Sally is willing to keep an open mind when it comes to Julie’s suggestions for her plays, she is often frustrated by the latter’s apparent inability to take most things seriously. Julie is far from dismissive of Sally’s theatrics, however, going out of her way to praise her writing in 10-14-js.

Barnaby's desire to entertain through comedy is said to clash frequently with Sally’s passion for more serious stories, as he is apparently the most frequent culprit for her plays going awry. However, this is only according to the WHRP themselves so far.

Frank and Sally's relationship seems to turn from amicable to rivalrous on the turn of a dime, likely as a consequence of the both of them being two of Home's most headstrong residents.

For as-of-yet unknown reasons, Sally is dismissive of Eddie to a degree that is rarely seen in any other neighbor. In both the WHRP's findings and secrets such as the bug videos, she often ignores his input, attempts to outdo him, and refuses to acknowledge his talents outside of manual labor, even when they could serve her well (such as him being able to recount specific details of various classical novels or archetypes from the commedia dell'arte.) Eddie is also the only neighbor that Sally never graces with a “lengthened” nickname - instead, she only ever addresses him as “mailman.” Curiously, it is Sally who invites Eddie to that fateful Homewarming party, as well as the one to lead Frank to Eddie as the latter begins to come out of his dissociative experience. It is currently unclear what significance this apparent shift in behavior could hold.

Note: In order to ensure that this wiki has the most accurate information it can, this list does not cite any posts prior to January 2021.

• Sally is roughly 3 feet tall, although she claims to have once been the tallest by virtue of having previously lived in the sky. [Source: 1, 2]
• Like every other neighbor, Sally is an adult. [Sources: 1, 2]
• Sally is, unsurprisingly, an extremely picky director. [Source: 1]
• Sally’s favorite food is eggs, due to their versatility. Being able to be prepared in a number of different ways means she can eat them regardless of what mood she’s in. [Source: 1]
• Sally dislikes the taste of coffee. If she were to have one, it would be a black coffee with so much sugar and creamer that the flavor would be nigh unrecognizable as coffee. [Source: 1]
• In a band or other musical arrangement, Sally would be the conductor. [Source: 1]
• Whenever Sally recites poetry or rehearses a script, Poppy often mistakes it as Sally talking to her, since they live next door to each other. [Source: 1]
• The character of Sally was first created in 2020. [Source: 1]
• Sally’s favorite kind of cheesecake would be lemon meringue cheesecake – a preference she shares with Poppy. [Source: 1]
• In an Alice in Wonderland adaptation/AU, Sally would be the Caterpillar. [Source: 1]
• Sally’s voice was originally inspired by American actresses Barbara Minkus and June Foray. [Source: 1]
• Sally’s favorite Muppet would be Uncle Deadly. [Source: 1]
• Sally would be a poor chef, since she would only care about the food’s appearance. [Source: 1]
• Sally would be a good dancer, if only because she’s determined to beat whoever she’s up against in a dance-off. [Source: 1]
• In a Splatoon AU, Sally would likely be an idol. [Sources: 1, 2]
• Sally is the type of person to claim that everything in her scheme of the day has gone exactly according to plan, regardless of how much things have derailed. She is also very quick to get very offended on Poppy’s behalf. [Source: 1]
• Sally and Julie’s friendship is “flinging each other around repeatedly like a couple of dream pets.” [Source: 1]
• Sally would never pick Barnaby to play the role of a dog in any of her plays, because he deliberately goes out of his way to act as un-doglike as possible. Asking him to play the part of a different animal does not solve this problem. [Source: 1]
• Sally would take offense to the insinuation that she would not be able to perform in any weather. [Source: 1]
• Sally may struggle to lengthen Barnaby’s name. [Source: 1]
• Sally’s habit of lengthening her neighbors’ names originally came from production staff member Rocky’s habit of jokingly claiming that Walliford was Wally’s full name while on call with Clown. [Source: 1]
• Sally is the best singer among Home’s residents, if only on a technical level. [Source: 1]
• Sally can be a bit difficult for Wally to draw, since she keeps changing poses. [Source: 1]
• Sally’s favorite Disney movie would be Mary Poppins (1964.) [Source: 1]
• Sally is the hardest character for Clown to draw. [Source: 1]
• Not even Sally knows what the back of her head looks like sometimes (at least not in the case of Barnaby causing more mischief.) [Source: 1]
• Sally's insistence on referring to Eddie as "mailman" and only "mailman" appears to be less a deliberate insult and more a designation. [Source: 1]
• Sally sees the stars in the sky as being beneath her. Them being physically above her has no bearing on this. [Source: 1]