- "Sometimes I envy them all, not remembering anything."
- — Sally to herself.
Sally Boyle is the second protagonist of We Happy Few. The player gets to play as Sally when they finish Act I.
As Sally, the player is tested on their knowledge of how well they'll survive in Wellington Wells, with minimal assistance from the game itself, given they've learned mostly everything when they played as Arthur.
Sally decides to escape out of Wellington Wells when she realises it's far too dangerous for her and her terrible secret to stay any longer.
She lives above her shop at St. George's Holm.
Appearance[]
Sally is a short, slim woman with short, dark brown hair, and green eyes.
In contrast to Arthur's everyman appearance, Sally is mod and glamorous. She wears a short white tube dress with two black curved trims at the front, with a white shoulder cape-like piece that also has a black trim, as well as black latex sleeves and leggings. Her black kitten heels almost blend in with the leggings.
She wears a white skull guard hat with white cat-eye goggles on top, functioning both as an accessory and as eye protection.
If she's wearing her proper suit, she'll wear white cotton gloves. Her gloves are gone when she's wearing the torn suit, in which her nails are painted white.
Her happy face mask, unlike most wellettes, has red lipstick on top.
Personality[]
Sally is a clever and resourceful woman who tends to persuade the people around her to obtain what she needs. According to Arthur, Sally "always had a knack for making useful new friends."
Even at a young age, Sally was great at convincing people to get what she wanted, including people much older than her. Her mother, Mrs. Boyle, often belittled her over her interests and how different she was from the other girls, wanting her to dress and behave like the others. One time, she also questioned what Sally did wrong after a group of girls said lies about her.
General Byng compliments Sally on her deception skills, says she's “[...] as clever a liar as I am. You can lie with the truth." This trait causes quite a few people, especially other women, to see Sally as nothing more than a selfish and deceitful 'witch' who cares for nobody but herself.
Unlike Arthur, she's come accustomed to knocking people out, reacting far more aggressively towards her enemies rather than hesitantly, she rarely forgives what she does. She also doesn't have a problem stealing from the deceased/unconscious.
More often than not, Sally does things without thinking ahead, such is the case when she infiltrates Byng's safe house to steal his boat key, only to get shot at by a multitude of tranquilizer darts, knocking her out. Other times she tends to come up with a reasonable lie on the spot, getting out of trouble.
Sally has a tendency to mention gender roles, generally what the world expects her to be, versus who she really is. Other times, she notes her abilities, such as being able to run and climb despite wearing heels, or questioning why dresses weren't made with pockets. In one instance, she concludes society wouldn't have let her become a chemist, were it not for how Wellington Wells turned out after the War.
On her own, Sally is very judgmental of herself, not only convinced that she's a terrible mother, but also that her closest friends actually hate her, despite it being far from the truth. She cares deeply about her newborn daughter, Gwen, and goes to great lengths to protect her and keep her existence a secret from the rest of Wellington Wells.
Her love for her daughter acts as the main motivation behind most of Sally's actions throughout the game, from risking her life numerous times, to her eventual escape out of Wellington Wells, with Gwen alongside her.
Sally often questions why her mother let her live, if the argument they had during dinner was deliberate, or if she simply didn't care what'd happen to her.
History[]
Born in 1934 at an unspecified date, it can be concluded it must've been before 22nd July, as that's the day the children were sent off to Germany. She would've been 13 at that time, and therefore be old enough to not have to go on the train.
The oldest of two younger sisters, Sally had a strained relationship with her mother and would often clash with her. She went to live with the Hastings after her mother poisoned the whole family with foxglove mixed in their supper, as to prevent Elizabeth and Anne Boyle from being sent off to Germany, leaving Sally alive due to an argument.
During this time, she got taken in by Mr. Hastings and became friends with Arthur Hastings. Over the years, their friendship grew ever closer, occasionally running off to smoke already used cigarettes from German soldiers, stargazing, sneaking off to restricted areas and lockpicking stuff, coming up with what they were going to be in the future, and comforting each other when they got reminded of their pasts.
At the age of 16, sometime after Arthur's mother died, Mr. Hastings coerced her into sexual intercourse. Arthur caught the two in his deceased mother's bed and got furious, causing Sally to run out of the house and never be seen again.
Several years later, Sally would eventually end up being the shopgirl at Stewart Adams' Apothecary, collaborating with him over various devices and drugs. It's unknown what happened to Sally between leaving Arthur and later becoming a shopgirl, as it's never specified.
At some point, Sally and Stewart visited Haworth Labs, to which she immediately took interest in Anton Verloc and his knowledge in chemistry, wanting to learn everything he knew. She'd quit being an Apothecary's shopgirl to instead join Anton at the labs, getting into a relationship.
In 1961, Sally learned everything Anton had to teach her, in which she became as good a chemist as he was, some would argue greater. With the knowledge she learned, she created Strawberry Joy with what little supplies Wellington Wells had left, though Anton would take credit over this creation. Sally would learn more about Anton's plans for a Permanent Solution, leaving her worried of what it entailed.
One night, Anton threw Sally out in the rain to be "taught a lesson", heading over to the Weird Sisters for comfort. While there, the sisters hint to Sally that she's pregnant, as she hadn't been taking Joy (a contraceptive) whilst with Anton. Knowing this, she decides to leave Anton in fear of what he'd do to the baby, taking her notes about Joy with her. She'd give birth to Gwen months later, presumably in either August or September of 1964.
Before Gwen's birth, Sally would've opened up her own shop at her house, advertising her creations for the wider public. One of her creations being Blackberry Joy, a variant of Joy that made the user forget, but still kept their head clear enough so that they could focus on their tasks. This version of Joy would become very popular among the Constables.
Sally turned to General Byng for protection from Anton Verloc, who quickly grew resentful and jealous over her departure. Robert protected her from the authorities despite her non-conformist lifestyle.
Events of We Happy Few[]
Act I[]
Sally is encountered by Arthur in an alleyway in Maidenholm. She recognises him instantly and is visibly excited to see him. She also notes that Arthur is off his Joy, but promises not to turn him in. She offers to get him a Letter of Transit so he can get into the Parade, and mentions that she's close with General Byng. This opens up an old wound that causes Arthur to lash out at her, but she tells him where to find her.
Later, Arthur approaches Sally in her house and apologises for being rude earlier. He and Sally work out a deal to get him a Letter of Transit in exchange for cod liver oil. She kisses Arthur, causing him to run in fear, but he goes back in briefly to receive directions for the oil.
Later, Arthur brings Sally the cod liver oil and is furious with her, as he feels that she sent him on a pointless quest for an equally pointless souvenir. He also hastily brings up how Sally had sexual intercourse with his father. Sally, while heartbroken, still gets an apology from Arthur, saying "Look, I don't hate you. In the strangest way, you're completely innocent. You're practically the only one I know who is", before suggesting they escape together. Sally agrees, but says that they need to leave at dawn, causing Arthur to abandon her as he's had enough of doing everything for her benefit, and wants to find Percy as soon as possible.
Act II[]
At the start of the game, Sally is in the middle of creating Blackberry Joy. During this time, a desperate regular customer, Spud Murphy, breaks into Sally's lab looking for a fix. He pushes Sally aside and damages most of the house while she blacks out, even making it to the top floor where he discovers Gwen, Sally's infant daughter. Sally uses a knockout syringe on Spud to rescue Gwen from being smashed to death.
After a bit of back and forth, Sally eventually finds that Spud had destroyed her reserved bottled of baby milk for Gwen, forcing her to go find some from Lionel Castershire. She lies to him that the milk is for something she's brewing at home, which Lionel agrees to give her after she obtains old Uncle Jack records from the Garden District that a client of his is dying to get hold of.
While this is all happening, the Bobbies grow ever agitated due to the lack of Blackberry Joy. And after Sally manages to get baby milk and feed Gwen, she's quickly detained and taken to the Wellington Wells Constabulary for an interrogation, making thinly veiled threats in case she refuses to make some Blackberry Joy soon.
On her way home, Sally finds that her lab is ablaze due to negligence, destroying most of her lab equipment. This forces her to retrieve her lab equipment from her old house in the Garden District. While there, she remembers the night she found her whole family dead from the poisoned soup. She takes her old equipment and returns home, fixing her lab.
Needing to get the materials necessary to create Blackberry, she decides to visit Stewart to see if he's got the materials she needs, only to find his wife at the shop instead, who tells her to get out. Instead, Sally goes to see Harry Cavendish, an old employee at Haworth Labs.
During their conversation, Sally suggests she steals Dr. Hughes' bag in order to get evidence that he was the one who messed up the calculations and not Harry, preventing him from hurting anyone else in the future. After this is done, Sally learns how to extract Mercury from the Toxic Water at Ratholm, prompting her to go visit the abandoned island.
After getting Mercury Amalgam, Sally returns to the Apothecary, retrieving her improved Pituitary Extractor from Stewart, a device she needs to get the next ingredient. She goes back home to send a message to Mikey Forrester regarding someone who's been exposed to mustard gas, soon finding out that someone's gotten into her apartment while she was away.
Robert Byng had recently come into her house uninvited, waiting to receive some of Sally's special drugs to forget his awful past. During their exchange, he hears Gwen crying upstairs, and while he questions it, Sally convinces him its nothing. After Sally wakes up from their meeting, she finds he's gone, and hopes he's forgotten about Gwen.
Downstairs, she reads a message from Mikey telling her to meet him at their usual place, in the alley of the Old Government Printing Office. While there, she sees Arthur ducking into the alley, and the two reunite.
While both Arthur and Sally are happy to see each other at first, it quickly goes downhill as the two remind each other of what happened 16 years ago, Arthur eventually leaves Sally behind. And she goes off to see Col. Lawrence, extracting fluid from his pituitary glands.
After getting the fluid, Sally figures she should go and visit The Weird Sisters, who are the only other people who know about Gwen. Instead of immediately helping her, they send her on "character-building" errands and quests first, and after stopping a suicide cult from poisoning themselves just so an old Wastrel, Father McKenzie, won't have to die alone, they give her a Net to catch some Butterflies in order to create Pheromone. She realises the only place that has the butterflies is the same location Ollie Starkey lives in.
Sally heads to the Old Train Station to catch the butterflies, finding it collapsed, hoping the butterflies survived. She also finds the place full of violently murdered Headboys and several Plague Wastrels feasting on their corpses.
At last, with all of the ingredients gathered, Sally creates the batch of Blackberry Joy. She doesn't have a moment to lose as a Bobby comes knocking and asks for the Joy, which Sally supplies him with. He takes her to the Wellington Wells Constabulary where Sally has a show put on for her in their gratitude. Though she's warned again not to be late the next time.
As Sally leaves the stations, she has a feeling that something is wrong with Gwen. Rushing back home, Sally discovers that Gwen has developed a rash on her face, fever, and a runny nose. Sally figures out quickly Gwen's gotten measles, and that the treatment for it is cod liver oil. She heads off to Haworth Labs, knowing Anton has some oil over there. While there, Anton calls for her to get arrested by the Bobbies, though they refuse to do so, allowing her to leave safely.
Remembering Arthur, she heads to the Garden District to see if he can help her, promising to get him a Letter of Transit in return. She then goes to get the paper from General Byng, and after giving her the letter, he reveals that he wrote himself a note regarding what he heard at her house the last time they met. He offers to take Gwen out of the city, but won't let Sally go with her, causing Sally to angrily reject him.
Being informed of Byng's Bristol Pilot, she heads off to the boat house to see how it looks, being informed that while it's mostly patched up, the boat motor won't turn. She offers Pt. Hardy a boat motor from Dr. Faraday to fix the boat, secretly planning to escape Wellington Wells using the boat.
Since Sally hasn't been near a boat, she decides to go look for Captain Strawbeard, hoping he can teach her about boats. She soon finds out that he's off trying to rescue Eddie MacMillan from being used as a sacrifice by The Yam Cult. Rescuing him herself, and gets a book about boats from Strawbeard in return for the noble deed.
Figuring Arthur must've gotten the oil by now, she heads back to the swing set to get the oil. Arthur is angry at Sally, believing she sent him off on a pointless quest for an equally pointless souvenir, bringing up how she seduced his father when they were younger, Sally snaps back at him, asking what else she could've done.
He apologises and begins to leave, but Sally offers to leave with him. Arthur is initially willing to go at first, but decides to leave without her when she says that they'll have to return to her house to get something and leave at dawn. Sally calls out to him that she has a baby, causing him to stop briefly, but it seems to be the final straw for him. He leaves, saying it's nothing personal.
Finally on her own, Sally breaks into General Byng's safe house to steal his boat key to activate the boat. While she's searching for the key, she gets knocked out by a tranquilizer dart. When she comes to, she discovers that Byng has locked her away in the safe house, planning to keep her there until things in Wellington Wells get back under control. Sally fights back against him and escapes, locking him in his bunker.
Sally heads back home to Gwen to discover that a Joy Doctor has broken in, and upon learning of Gwen's existence, Sally knocks him out. Due to the discovery of Gwen, Sally hastily packs up her things, hides Gwen in a bag that Lionel adjusted for her, and makes her way to General Byng's hidden boat.
From there, she tells Gwen that things are going to get better. That they'll be the "Two Musketeers" for now on.
Epilogue[]
Sally and Gwen are briefly seen again during Constable Peters' monologue.
Quests & Quotes[]
See Sally's Quests and Sally's Quotes
Relationships[]
Arthur Hastings[]
Arthur was Sally's childhood friend, and as they began to spend more time together, they eventually developed feelings for each other. The Hastings took Sally in to live with them after her mother poisoned the rest of the family, though she later ran away from them after Arthur found out she and his father had been sleeping with each other.
Years later they find each other again, and while everything is fine at first, Arthur remembers what had happened and grows cold towards her, though he still helps her out.
In both of their cutscenes with each other, Arthur abandons Sally to leave Wellington Wells on his own, as he doesn't have the time to wait around anymore. When Sally reveals to Arthur she has a baby the game leaves his response deliberately ambiguous: from Sally's point of view, she told him about the baby, he paused, then left without a word, whereas from Arthur's view she never said anything about the baby, just that she wanted to come with him, but he would have to wait until dawn.
Because all playable characters are supposed to be unreliable narrators, what really happened is up for the player's interpretation.
Ollie Starkey[]
Not much is known about their relationship, Ollie mentions that she and Arthur used to play at his house when they were younger. It's also heavily implied that she was the one behind Ollie's scrambled memories, as he begged her for something that would get rid of him remembering his past mistakes. This resulted in him consuming an Oblivion pill and leaving holes in his memories.
Mrs. Boyle[]
Through memories, it's revealed that Sally and her mother did not have the best of relationships, Mrs. Boyle would find anything to judge or shame her for. Most of their interactions regarded Sally's relationship with other boys or girls. At one point, Mrs. Boyle tells Sally she will never be a mother.
Sometimes Sally will talk to herself, one of the things she asks herself is why her mother let her live. This is also left for the player's interpretation.
Gwen Boyle[]
Gwen is the infant daughter of Sally and Anton, though Anton doesn't know of her existence. Sally deeply cares about Gwen and does anything and everything to ensure her safety.
If the player were to ignore to take care of Gwen, it will take a toll on Sally's mental health and she will do poorly at everything, with guilt weighing heavy on the player's shoulders. If the player takes care of Gwen, Sally will get a status effect that gives her extra strength in all kinds of actions.
Sir Robert Byng[]
After Sally left Anton and made a business of her own, Robert became one of her patrons, as a result of that he began to protect her from Anton's advances. The two are very close to each other.
After Robert finds out about Gwen, he tells her he's able to spare the baby, but not Sally, this is what leads to their relationship falling apart.
Anton Verloc[]
Anton picked Sally up when she was the local Chemist shop girl, working for Stewart Adams. They worked alongside each other since then, Sally knew parts of Anton's "Permanent Solution". Because he's the creator of Sunshine, it's possible he let her take it while she was together with him.
After some time, Sally manages to synthesise Strawberry Joy, though he takes credit for the creation. It's implied the two worked on another drug after Strawberry's creation in '61, though it's never elaborated on.
When she left Anton, the staff hid away her personal notes from him. She and Anton have since become rivals of one another, though it's clear that he still desperately wants her back at the labs.
The Weird Sisters[]
At a young age, Sally would go to the weird sisters whenever she was troubled, they encouraged her to stay the way she was and to hold on to her chemistry skills. They were also there for her when she was pregnant, helping her prepare for Gwen's arrival.
Edmund MacMillan[]
Not much is known regarding Sally's and Edmund's relationship, though it can be assumed they became friends when she and Arthur began spending more time together. Eddie says that Sally is good and that he can trust her.
Dr. Helen Faraday[]
Not much is known about their relationship, but it is clear that they know each other. Some people are surprised to hear she even knows Dr. Faraday. When the player retrieves the Unicorn Song for Helen, she calls Sally a clever lass.
Nick Lightbearer[]
Nick Lightbearer is one of Sally's clients, listed to be given "Sally Special's" on her clientele list. Sally mentions how he made her listen to his songs many many times, she even has a keycard for her to use to get into Nick's Pad, this is so that she can come to drop the special pills at his house while he's passed out - as he usually is.
The player can find Nick's Diary at his home, in it he states that Sally is a 'fucking genius' and that he could kiss her. He, like many other civilians, wonders why she doesn't take house calls anymore.
Related Notes[]
- And Then There Was Sally
- WHY DID SALLY KISS ME?
- I Am An Awful Person, But
- Spud Dropped By
- Too Close!
- Arthur!
- Cod Liver Oil???
- Guess Who's Gone Off the Rails
- Fucked Things Up Again
- Such a Kind Offer
- Did He Even Hear Me?
- Gwen's Getting Better!
- He Took the Monster Out of the Bag
- An Unwelcome Guest
- Hope, Skip, and a Jump
Sally’s main trait is her expertise in chemistry and herbalism which she uses to create various drugs and chemicals. Her creation, Blackberry Joy, is a favorite of the constabulary and several other authorities of Wellington Wells.
She can also craft various psychedelic and other useful toxins. Because of her more stealth-centered gameplay, her Combat skill tree is replaced with a Survival skill tree.
The only way for her to knock people out is to use Knockout Syringes.
Icon | Name | Description | Effect |
---|---|---|---|
Charmer | Greetings make people even less suspicious. | ||
Petite | Slower carrying corpses: Cannot wield heavy weapons at all. | -30% speed whilst carrying corpses. | |
All Thumbs | Rubbish at anything mechanical. Never learned to sew. | Must buy advanced crafted gadgets from shopkeepers. Must buy outfits from Mrs. Pankhurst. | |
Chemist | Chemically brilliant. | Can craft drugs no one else can. |
General[]
- Sally writes her notes with lower case letters, even the I's.
- Sally is unable to breastfeed Gwen because of all the strange chemicals she puts in her body.
- It's implied by the Weird Sisters that she got her interest in chemistry from her mother's knowledge of herbalism.
- It was Sally's idea to make different flavored Joy. When German supplies began to run out, she came up with a new compound and the idea to call it Strawberry.
- Constable Peters happened to be the one to find Sally after she had run away from home and tried to keep her from seeing the corpses of her poisoned family members, to no avail.
- When Sally was younger, her and her sisters used to live with their grandmother during the holidays, it's now that she realises it was done so that her mother could have time off not having to worry about keeping everyone alive.
Other[]
- Sally Boyle's name and character are based on Dr. Robert Boyle, a famous physicist and founder of modern chemistry.
- In one of the concept arts in the book, The Art of We Happy Few, Sally's hair is dark brown with part of it coloured blonde.
- Cutscenes that Arthur and Sally's experience together go about slightly differently. This is in line with the theme of perspective and memories that the creators intended for the game. The same thing happens between Arthur and Ollie.
Quotes[]
Sally talks a lot to herself while wandering around on her own in Hamlyn Village or Garden District. A full list of her quotes can be read here.
- TBA