| “ | Just gimme the list, babe! We’re not on Broadway yet!
— Penny to her spirit Phantomime (Chapter 8, Page 17
 ) |
” |
Penny Spender is the younger sister of Richard Spender, and the student of Ángel Guerra. She works as a waitress at Lakeside Lunch at the Mayview Mini Mall, and as a mascot at Jackpot Junior's, along with a dozen other jobs to pay for her tuition at Mayview Academy.
Appearance[]
Penny has short, blonde hair with bangs swept over her left eye. In Chapter 5, she wears a pink collared t-shirt and a brown skirt under a white apron, a pink nametag, and black earrings. On her right wrist, she wears a yellow wristband and a multicolored beaded bracelet; on her left wrist, she wears a pink wristband. In Chapter 6, her attire is mostly the same with an additional blue ziptied bag that has white stripes, although she changes to a darker pink tee shirt and ditches the apron when sparring. In one of Chapter 7's flashbacks, Penny wears a blue and white suit with a lighter blue plaid tie. In Chapter 8 she wears a J.J. Junior mascot costume and a white t-shirt.
Personality[]
She's resourceful and driven. She has a rebellious streak, as seen when she pickpockets wallets from the rich people attending the gala, apparently without any other reason than boredom. She is determined to leave behind her life in Mayview to pursue a carrer in the performing arts, and she sees her spectral powers as an obstacle to her goals.
Paranatural[]
Chapter 5[]
After Valerie Day and Mina Zarei take their seats at Lakeside Lunch, Penny introduces herself as their waitress, and gives them both glasses of water before leaving them to look over the menu. After Penny takes Day's order, she notices a fly and attempts to stab it with her pen before Zarei stops her by grabbing the pen in her fingers. As Zarei watches the fly drop into her glass of water, she accidentally twists Penny's arm backwards. As the fly's ghost floats away, Penny takes Zarei's order before leaving the table with their menus.
Later on, after receiving a text from Hijack while possessing Richard Spender's body, Zarei bumps into Penny while she makes to leave. Zarei tells her to "watch where [she's] going", to which Penny responds "That's MY line, lady!!"[4]
Chapter 6[]
Penny is shown having swiped Zarei's lantern from their encounter earlier, bringing it up to Mr. Guerra to sell it. Mr. Guerra tells her he'll pay the usual amount for the tool before beginning a sparring lesson with her, warning her that if she lets off any white spectral energy in front of the wrong person, she would be in for a lot of trouble.
Chapter 7[]
In one of Richard Spender's flashbacks, a younger Penny is seen at the Spender family's gala talking to a younger Ritz Price-Lee about the dog photoshopped into the Spender's family portrait. Penny then spots Spender sneaking into his room and and confronts him. After some back-and-forth, Penny asks to come along with him on the camping trip, so as to escape from the world of her parents. Spender refuses, claiming that she still has a place in that world, while he has his own world now. Later, Penny watches heartbroken from her window, as she sees her older brother run away, leaving her life for good.
Chapter 8[]
Penny, dressed as J.J. Junior, joins in on Max and Mr. Puckett's conversation, and she laments about how her father never loved her. After having a good cry and stealing Mr. Puckett's wallet she stumbles upon Paige, Gage, Youth Culture and Ritz Price-Lee in the Jackpot Junior backrooms, and is attacked by a newly turned Ritz when she recognizes her. She manages to escape Ritz and Gage, but drops Mr. Puckett's wallet, and accidentally reveals her white spectral energy to Ritz.
Relationships[]
Family[]
- Richard Spender - As a kid, Penny felt put aside by her brother: Richard would spend most of his time outside the home in an effort to avoid their parents, excluding Penny from his life as well, as he believed that she "still had a place" in their parents' world.[5] Contrary to his opinion, however, Penny still looked up more to him than their parents: the night of the gala, she expressed the desire to go camping with him instead of staying like her parents wanted her to, but he refused.[6] Furthermore, Penny resented him because his distancing from his family made the pressure on their parents' expectations on her shoulders, as they demanded her to be the perfect son that Richard hadn't been.[7] When Richard moved out, he even neglected to say goodbye to his sibling, destroying once and for all their already tense relationship.[8] In the following six years, Penny has never heard from her older brother again; she even believes him to be tucked away in some distant tropical paradise with the wealth he'd stolen, and thinks he's a "scumbag" for this.[9]
- Bill Spender - Penny never had a good relationship with her father, despite the text labelling her the "flawless favored child"[6]; she has stated that her father never loved her[10] and that he cares more about his public image than his own family [6]. After Penny came out as trans to her family, her father cut ties with her, refusing to pay her tuition at Mayview Academy.[9]
Friends[]
- Ritz Price-Lee - Ritz and Penny have known each other for many years (at least six); they were friends when they were kids. At the gala, Ritz told Penny that she was "no fun to bully", and they were comfortable enough with each other to discuss Penny's disfunctional family.[6] However, they haven't kept tabs on each other in high school, despite them both attending Mayview Academy, as Penny doesn't recognize her immediately when they meet in the backrooms of Jackpot Junior.[9]
Spirits[]
- Phantomime - Penny and Phantomime are very affectionate with each other. They share passion for the theatre, indeed Phantomime's identity is centered around it. Phantomime considers Penny's white spectral energy a gift to be used for helping out spirits, and the latter, while indifferent to such a cause, feels grateful to have a powerful ability like her partner spirit's at her disposal. Phantomime's perfectionist attitude is sometimes at odds with Penny's unwillingness to form the proper bonds of trust required to activate Masquerade Mimicry. [11]
Other[]
- Ángel Guerra - Penny agrees to train with Ángel only because it's the condition to receive payment from the tools she brings to his shop; outside of this she thinks little of her teacher's sermons and of the paranatural world in general.[9] Nonetheless, she still abides to his admonishment of keeping her white spectral energy a secret. On his part, Ángel doesn't trust her much either, due to her habit to steal from him from time to time.[11]
Abilities[]
General[]
Thanks to the lessons of Ángel Guerra, she has notable fencing skills, and has her reflexes always at the ready.
Spectral[]
She is capable of making Spectral Fist constructs, such as swords. Her spectral energy's color, white, means she is a universal donor and recipient for spirits; thanks to this, she can always recognize the presence of tools nearby by the faint pull they emanate in attempt to attract her. She is used to keep her spectral energy suppressed at all times, to avoid suspicion.
Medium[]
Penny is a medium for Phantomime, whose unique skill is called Masquerade Mimicry. It is a mimic power that can copy the abilities of other spirits in the vicinity who put enough trust in the user, or whom the user knows well. The bonds of trust are represented by glowing strings that Phantomime can weave to create a costume based on the the mimicked spirit's appearance. Phantomime describes this mechanic as "being everybody's understudy". However, Penny doesn't utilize this power to its full extent, since she is wary of forming personal connections with other people, but has found a way to cheat that allows her to get by, which Ángel described as "slapdash shortcut spirit fusion" .[11]
She has learned how to enter spirit trance at will, but while in it she can't move anything but her face, at the risk of breaking the connection.
Quotes[]
- Agent Day: "I'll have the wurst sandwich."
- Penny: "Well that's subjective!"
- — Penny and Agent Day (Chapter 5, Page 151
)
- "EWWWWW!! GROSS A BUG EWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWW!!"
- — Penny (Chapter 5, Page 152)
- "I'm NOT Mom and Dad."
- — Penny to Richard Spender (Chapter 7, Page 40)
- Phantomime: "Not everyone’s so lucky as to haunt a pretty girl!~♥"
- Penny: "Ha ha stoppp!~♪"
- Phantomime: "No YOU stop!~♥"
- Penny: "No you!~♪"
- Phantomime: "No, you, my love!~♥"
- Penny: "Okay but stop though 'cause this guy's about to mangle me."
- — Penny and Phantomime (Chapter 8, Page 17)
Trivia[]
- Penny's name is a money pun playing on her last name 'Spender'. Her other family members have similar puns for their names.
- Penny is an aspiring actress, and views the stage as her true calling.
- Penny appears to be the only human character in the comic that has naturally white spectral energy (Boss Leader is a spirit masquerading as a human, and Ángel Guerra shifts his spectral energy to white using the power of Polaris). Due to Boss Leader's explanation of white spectral energy, this seems to imply that Penny has been in contact with a Wight.
- Penny is a trans woman.[12]
- Penny works more than a dozen jobs to pay for her Mayview Academy tuition, as her parents have cut her off for being transgender.[9]
- Penny's dream theatrical role is a one woman Christine/Phantom combo in The Phantom of the Opera; or Viola in an extra-queer Twelfth Night; or Mercutio in a Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead-type retelling from his perspective (which Penny has already written a script for).[13]
- Preferably, it would be something with a sword fight.
Gallery[]
Official Artwork[]
![Penny answers a question in the Q&A.[14]](/wiki/File:Penny_Q%26A.png "Penny Q&A.png (356 KB)")
Comic[]
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)References[]
- ↑ Chapter 7, Page 40
- ↑ Chapter 7, Page 37
- ↑ Chapter 8, Page 17
- ↑ Chapter 5, Page 218
- ↑ Chapter 7, Page 40
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Chapter 7, Page 37
- ↑ Penny: "The only reasons Mom and Dad let you do what you want is cause I'm their backup you." (Chapter 7, Page 39)
- ↑ Chapter 7, Page 72
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 Chapter 8, Page 16
- ↑ Chapter 8, Page 12
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Chapter 8, Page 17
- ↑ " If it wasn't already clear, Spender's younger sister is trans and takes Penny as her new egregious Spender pun name some time between this flashback and the present day." -Post-script
- ↑ Q&A #4
- ↑ Q&A #4