Appearance

Apparel & Accessories

If not themed for a crime or crime spree, Penny wears a masculine-seeming pinstripe suit with a rose in the buttonhole. She has a matching dark-colored wide-brimmed hat worn just so to partially shade her left eye.

Specialized Equipment

In a shoulder holster, Penny Dreadful carries what appears to be a Glock 17L -- a traditional "gangster's gun" as depicted on many a pulp magazine cover of the early 1900s -- which is probably a disguised Gadget purchased from a villainous Gadgeteer.
 
Somewhere on her person, Penny also keeps a Taser Wand.
 
Some adversaries have reported a weaponized "book" that can fire razor-sharp "pages", but this customized Gadget does not appear on every caper.
 
In the inside breast pocket of her suit coat, Penny usually has a spare pair of disposable gloves and a set of magnifying goggles, in case she needs to make an immediate inspection of a rare book right away. She keeps an assortment of sealable acid-free opaque bags folded neatly in the pocket of her slacks.

Mentality

Education

Masters in Library Science from Blüdhaven College

Employment

Penny Dreadful is what happens when a reticent young librarian gets a dose of mutagen and goes very, very, very bad.
 

Intellectual Characteristics

• flamboyant


• vivacious


• openly scornful of the "subliterate masses"


• vicious when enraged


• spiteful


• egocentric


• erudite

 

Known Languages

• American English (native, New Jersey shore accent when distressed)

 

• French (fluent, slightly antiquated 1800s vocabulary)

 

• Latin (fluent reader)

 

• Spanish (proficient reader, conversational speaker but not adept at understanding most spoken variants)

 

• Mandarin Chinese (basic)

 

• Swahili (beginner written, often with a translation guide handy for frequent reference)

 

• Mi'kmaq Listugu (beginner reader only)

Personality

Motivation

Penny Dreadful's ultimate goal is to have The Greatest Library Of All Time. She wants to fill it with rare and important volumes from all cultures, ideally in multiple versions. She seeks to protect all books, great or coarse, from the dullards of the world who fail to value and preserve them.
 

Quotes & Catchphrases

"Innocence has no contract with bliss." You cling to your supposition of innocence all you like, missy, but if it is bliss you wish, you had best suddenly recall the combination to that vault door. I will give you four seconds, shall I?

— Penny Dreadful likes to quote lines from a variety of literary sources when she makes her threats.

Savvies & Ineptitudes

Penny Dreadful is not much of a combatant, and she knows it. It's one excellent reason to employ contractors from the Henchmen's Union -- tough, burly men who know their business, so she can get on at applying her own skillset. She is a savvy researcher, an expert appraiser of antique printed matter, a well-read student of military tactics and financial strategems, but she is a mediocre shot and a relatively wimpy melee fighter.
 

Likes & Dislikes

Penny hates adaptations, especially recorded visual media adaptations. She loathes Disney movies, reviles Peter Jackson and everything he touches, despises Francis Ford Coppola, and begrudgingly makes exception for Dale Wasserman's body of work only because Man of La Mancha provided the soundtrack for Penelope's one pleasant romantic relationship during college.
 

Virtues & Personality perks

Penny Dreadful is many terrible things, but she is an unwaveringly loyal boss to her Henches. She offers medical benefits, a prepaid anonymous bail fund, and PTO in her Henchmen's Union contracts. She never sends her Henches to stall the Hero while she escapes alone. When hospitalized during the Will of the Earth caper, her first urgent thought was for the safety and future of her "Boys".
 

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