#penny/cathy

[baubeautyandthegeek]

Physical Collapse - Cathy Durant/Penny Blake

A/N: Day 11 for @medwhumpmay , Second GIF made for me by @whoreofthecottage

Cathy Durant is many things, weak is not one of them, so when she comes close to passing out it’s clear something happened. She’s barely awake by the time Penelope reaches her, sprawled at the bottom of stairs, Frank hovering like the menacing figure he always was. Penelope pays him no attention, waiting for Cathy’s eyes to close to settle to work, checking her over and talking softly to her the whole time, keeping her on the edge of passing out until she’s sure that letting her rest won’t kill the other woman. Cathy wakes in bed, tucked in neatly, Penny settled at her side, watching her with a quiet warm intensity. She is, at last, safe.  

[sunshades]

miss penelope 🧵 + cathy 🌿 warmups induced by listening to too much mountain goats today....

[startrixis]

Happy pride month 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

[sansloii]

[ cú, for penelope ] The light above flickered for a second. He automatically glanced up but, as soon as he did, the elevator stopped and all lights went out. He waited for a few seconds before turning on the light of his phone and pressing the emergency button. “Talk about timing, right?” Weird, he thought these things only happened in macabre and old buildings, not in ones that were supposed to have their own power supply.

Penelope, unlike the stranger she shared the elevator with, didn't look up when the lights to the elevator flicked. That isn't to say that she didn't see it or her brain didn't acknowledge it — it's more that she was in the middle of typing out a test to her girlfriend when it did. Only when the lights subsequently shut off does she look up, thumbs stopping mid-sentence as she stares up into the darkness.

For fuck's sake… really?

For a split second, the though of her being the cause of it bubbles up to the forefront of her mind — as if she hadn't been standing and minding her business not five minutes prior. However, the thought comes and goes like any errant thought does and she doesn't dwell on it further.

Her eyes then drop to the other occupant as the light from his own phone illuminates the the elevator's buttons, watching him press the emergency button. The text is now momentarily forgotten as she too, switches on her phone's flashlight — if only to be able to see a little better herself.

“It's shit timing…” she breathes out, “Honestly — it couldn't have stopped at like… a floor, or something? Or opened at one?”

Unprompted | @caemthe

[the-physicality]

.

[pupsmailbox]

MEDICAL︰GORE ID PACK

NAMES ⌇　aceso. addison. aden. aero. airmed. aliza. alora. althea. ambrose. ambulette. ame. amelie. amor. amore. angel. angelique. angelo. anna. anthony. apollo. arabella. arzt. asa. avian. babe. baby. bambi. bandage. bandagette. blanche. blanchette. blood. bloodette. bright. brigid. cal. carla. carmelita. catherine. cathie. cathy. cecil. chamomile. charge. charles. charlotte. clara. clemence. clement. connie. cora. corina. corry. cosmas. cross. crosse. crossette. daisy. daniel. david. delilah. desdemona. dorothea. dropsy. edema. edith. eira. elias. eliza. elizabeth. ellison. emil. emily. emma. evangeline. feronia. fleur. florence. fragilette. frailette. galen. ginger. gram. grimm. hansen. harmonie. harmony. hazel. healer. hira. hospette. ida. incisionette. incisionne. ivie. ivy. jace. jackie. james. jason. jayla. jayr. jen. jennifer. joasias. john. josiah. joy. jules. kaison. lace. lain. laryn. leah. lee. leigh. leuk. lucie. luciel. lucile. lucy. lue. lues. lyra. lyrica. mae. maebell. maggie. maiya. malachi. mark. mary. marybelle. may. maya. meddette. medette. medicel. medicette. medicinalle. medilita. mercia. michael. michelle. milo. milu. mitzi. moraxella. morgan. natasha. needlette. nile. norrie. norry. nursesse. nursette. nursie. nwurse. nyura. palsy. penny. phoebe. phoebus. pille. pillette. pott. potter. quinn. raphael. ray. red. redde. reseda. reye. richard. robert. rose. salmon. savior. scalpelle. scarlet. scrivener. scrubbe. scrubette. scrubs. serra. shiga. solitude. steven. stitch. stitches. stitchette. susan. sylvie. syrinelle. syringe. syringette. thomas. triage. vasc. viper. vitas. vitus. wiel. winnie. yves. zika. zoster.

PRONOUNS ⌇　ache/ache. ai/aid. aid/aid. aid/aide. amb/ambulance. ambulance/ambulance. bacteria/bacteria. band/age. band/aid. band/bandaid. bandage/bandage. bandaid/bandaid. bile/bile. bl0/bl00d. blood/blood. bu/bubonic. bump/bump. ca/care. care/care. chick/chicken. chronic/chronic. chu/chu. clean/clean. cold/cold. cough/cough. crab/crab. cross/cross. cross/crosse. cure/cure. cyu/cyu. die/dying. doc/doc. doc/doctor. doctor/doctor. dra/draw. drug/drug. fe/fever. fever/fever. flu/flu. fluff/fluffie. fragi/fragile. fragile/fragile. fragile/fragility. frail/frail. frail/frailty. gauze/gauze. germ/germ. gown/gown. gross/gross. he/heal. he/heart. he/help. he/hem. heal/heal. heal/healer. healer/healer. heart/heart. help/help. herb/herb. herb/herbal. hos/hospital. hospital/hospital. ill/ill. in/inject. incision/incision. infect/infection. injure/injury. IV/IV. iv/iv. ivy/ivie. ivy/ivy. lace/lace. li/live. love/love. lung/lung. luv/luv. mas/mask. mask/mask. med/med. med/medic. med/medical. med/medicine. medi/medic. medi/medicine. medic/medic. medical/medical. medicine/medicine. nee/needle. need/needle. needle/needle. nu/nurse. nur/nurse. nur/se. nurse/nurse. out/outbreak. pain/pain. pat/patient. patient/patient. pi/pill. pil/pill. pill/pill. pla/plague. plus/plushe. poke/poke. red/red. sa/save. savior/savior. sca/scan. scissor/scissor. scissor/scissors‎. scrub/scrub. shi/hir. si/sick. sic/sick. sick/sick. sick/sickly. skin/skin. sle/sleep. sneeze/sneeze. so/soft. soap/soap. sore/sore. stab/stab. stem/cell. stitch/stitch. stu/study. su/surgeon. sun/sun. sweet/sweet. symptom/symptom. syn/syndrome. syr/syr. syr/syringe. syri/syri. syrin/syringe. syringe/syringe. tape/tape. te/test. virus/viruse. ward/ward. we/well. wrap/wrap. ☎ . ☣️ . ⚰ . ❤️‍🩹 . 🌀 . 🌡️ . 🎀 . 🏥 . 🏨 . 👨🏻‍⚕️ . 👩🏻‍⚕️ . 💉 . 💊 . 💐 . 💤 . 📞 . 🔬 . 😷 . 🚑 . 🤒 . 🤢 . 🤧 . 🥀 . 🥼 . 🦠 . 🧊 . 🧑‍⚕️ . 🧠 . 🧪 . 🧫 . 🧬 . 🩸 . 🩹 . 🩺 .

[vhsscreengrabs]

𝚂𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚌𝚎: Cathy's JC Penny After Thanksgiving Sale Ad (1998)

[chaotic-catholic]

My Poppy Playtime Logic AU ships

My AU is a crossover with Mickey Mouse (comics/Mix-Up Adventures), BATIM and Cartoon Cat btw :)

StarStudent ⭐️💡 : KickinChicken (Wyatt O'Hara) x Bubba Bubbaphant (Alvin Pickett)

AppleLove 🍎❤️ : PickyPiggy (Olivia "Via O'Hara) x Bobby Bearhug (Amanda "Mandy" Wugson)

SunFlower ☀️🌻 : DogDay (Cyrus O'Hara) x CraftyCorn (Calista "Cali" Boulder)

ThunderDrop ⚡️💧 : Hoppy Hopscotch (Megan Boulder) x Frowny Fox (Todd Hunnie)

MoonCow 🔔🌙 : Molly McMoo (Serena Hunnie) x CatNap (Theodore "Theo" Wugson)

[I no longer ship the Smiling Critters out of respect for the lead artist's wishes to not ship them :)]

Kiss&hug 🩷💙 : Kissy Missy (Melissa "Missy" Kissinger) x Huggy Wuggy (Huggard Wugson). Besides Bobby Bearhug, CatNap and Poppy they also adopted Amethyst (oc), Lime, Lemon, Rose, Iris (Mini Huggies) and Thierry (Xavier's son)

SpiderParents 🕷🩷💙 : Mommy Long Legs (Marie "Molly" Payne) x Daddy Long Legs (John Clerck). Sissy Long Legs (Cindy) is part of the family along side Brother Long Legs/GT Baby Long Legs (Carlson) and canon Baby Long Legs (Jasper)

JokingFlower 🦕 🌼 : Bron (Thomas Clarke) x Daisy Green. They adopted Bunzo Bunny (Buddy) and Baby Bunzo (Kazi), Buddy is 15 years and got the job to pay his top surgery

MusicBox 💛❤️ : Boxy Boo (Bobbi Turner) x Box She Boo (Barbara "Barbie" Rutter). Roxy, Soxy and Paul are their children rather than Boxy Boo's younger sibling figures

LoveHoney : 💚🍯 : Love Bug (Liliana "Lili" Bianca Payne) x Lilly the Frog (Pamela Hunnie). Molly and Cathy took the news of becoming stepsisters suprisingly well

CandyBee 🍬🐝 : Candy Cat (Candace Caisley) x Cat-Bee (Catherine "Cathy" Beatrice Hunnie). Besides Molly McMoo and Frowny Fox they also adopted Clever Claws (Leo), Jolly Jaws (Sunny), Silly Shelly (Darell) and Jerry Giraffe (Edric)

LoveMic 💜🎤 : Lovey Dovey (Lovina "Lovey" Dove Kissinger) x Billy Beagle. They have a baby daughter named Holly

FlowerCat 🌸🐈 : Amethyst "Amy" Wugson x Sylvester "Sly" Catt. Amy was originally named Lilac because I thought that was the color I'll get if I mix up Huggy and Kissy's color (Gametoons version) but I was mistaken and found a flower named Amethyst. Amy is genderqueer (any pronouns)

AcidicMusic 🍋🎵 : Lemon Wugson x Melody Radeville. Radeville because her greatuncle is Mortimer Radeville

LimeSpot 💚🖤 : Lime Wugson x Bucky Blackspot. He has two other brother Barry and Barty. Lime is demi-girl (she/they)

PenMill 🖤💜 : Penelope "Penny" Blackspot x Melinda "Millie" Radeville. Penny is genderfluid (any pronouns)

They plenty more but I'm gonna stop there

[tickfleato]

some art fight attacks and revenges! penny for @crowned--corvid, cathy for starsystemerror, aughust for @levviathan and noodle for evergreen!

[incesthemes]

Trick or treat!! :-)

happy (late) halloween!!! sorry this took so long, but for you i started writing this fucking tozer/irving fic that won't get out of my head for the life of me. it's based on the apparent fact that tozer's sister left her abusive husband to live the rest of her life as a man. the survivors (who? doesn't matter) return to england and resume their lives, but sol struggles in the absence of his sister and decides to get a little gender about it. irving invents queer heterosexuality over this.

Cathy left two of her dresses in a trunk at home. Sol pulls them out one at a time; they haven’t gathered dust over the years, but there’s a stiffness even he can feel in the material that comes with disuse. He runs his fingers over the wool like it will tell him a story, but he’s never been particularly imaginative. The gowns stay silent. Cathy is gone, Solomon concludes one more time, and she’s left her life behind her. She probably doesn’t even know that her brother is alive. Well, not so much, but alive. The clothing will fetch a fair price; she took good care of them, and there’s hardly a tear in the seams even years after she probably acquired them. He can take these to market, pawn them off, trade the coin for soup. Survive until the Navy calls him back, because the Navy doesn’t care if he’d spent four days in the arctic or four years. The wool is warm in his hands, but England’s winters aren’t so dominated by ice; even the Thames runs freely this year. England’s winters are the summers of the Canadian arctic, and now he is dressed down to his shirtsleeves in the middle of December, thin linen to cover his arms where the ladies and men of West Brom’s are bundled tightly in layers. He doesn’t know any of those ladies, none of those men. Their faces are different, even if their names are the same. And most of the names are no longer the same, either. The streets are crowded and the world is smaller than he’d known before. The baker left for London, he’d been told, three years ago, fleeing poverty. The farmers have rotated out; God knows where the ones he’d known have gone. The city has modernized while he was away, and it’s only now in the midst of this growing city that he understands how fast the world changes and leaves people behind. These dresses would earn him a pretty penny. He would survive in this new world with these new people and new contraptions and new rules so vastly different from the rules of the arctic. Cathy’s mirror glints in the fading light of the dying sun (the sun always sets here, always comes back up). He turns and blinks in the bright flash, and when the spots clear from his eyes he’s staring at himself, the simple jade pattern bundled in his lap. The skirt drapes nicely over his lap, the bodice clutched almost desperately in his fists. The creeping English twilight threatens to take all the world with it, and he grips tighter to Cathy’s dress like it will take him back. He holds the bodice up to the last bits of light trickling through the grimy window, and then he holds it up to himself. In the mirror he sees the outline of a young girl, smiling and gay, long hair twisted up off her shoulders but clumsy in its fashion. He wonders where his sister is now. He wonders why she left her dresses. With a deep sigh, he collects the endless yards of fabric in his arms and deposits them with much less grace and care back into the trunk.

[shadowredfeline]

Here's a drawing of Mac and he Summoned his Persona, Izanagi.

and Before i tell you guys the story, i found something pretty bizarre. You remember how i have Tory's voice is Cathy Cavadini as Blossom and Penny is Tara Strong as Bubbles, i was gonna add those voices for them, but then i realize, Damnit! Lisa already got them for Sheila and Sweetie! and i was like UGH! Now i have to find a different Voice for Tory and Penny Ramcat. a Bit like how my other P-Pal who used Halley's Voice for Yinna the Panda, since i was going to use her for Mayu's voice, but i'm sure my Filipino friend and i might find a good voice for Mayu in English. And i have talked with my other P-Pal on Twitter X about and he said it's okay since we have our own choice. But not to worry, i'll see if i can have Vivian Nweze as Cheezborger as a replacement for Tory's Voice, and i even thought of a Young Actor to play Penny. Even though i'm not a fan of having Young Actors to voice some of my OCs, but i might have to get use to that since my friends usually gets Young Actors to play some of their OCs. So for the Voice Replacement for Penny is i'll choose Pyper Braun as Bitsy from Superkitties, since i do like the show a lot.

Anyways back to the story.

Mac summoned his Persona, Izanagi and Sheila and Sweetie were shocked that he summoned a Persona. Sheila and Sweetie weren't sure what Mac would use his Persona for, so Mac thought he can get back at his brother Terrance every time he tries to bully him, and he was also going to get back at Fosters as well as for Bendy and Duchess and Bloo too. Since Bloo has caused a lot of trouble, then Mac would use his Persona and test out his skills. But if that happened, then Frankie, Madame Fosters and Mr. Herriman would be shocked too, and they might warn Mac to be very careful on summoning his new power. Even if Wilt, Eduardo and Coco would agree with his situation.

People i tagged @bryan360 @murumokirby360 and @rafacaz4lisam2k4

[juliakristeva]

favourite female characters poll, honourary tagged by @normalbrothers <3 i love women

***EM BUTTON

tagging: anyone who fancies doing it

[startrixis]

Some pride stuff with my OCs

[sansloii]

oldest vs youngest muse?

In one corner of the room, we have Penelope — who is standing somewhat stiffly against the wall. Her arm are folded across her chest and she's staring… very intently at the opposite side of “much too small” space…

At the opposite, we have Joseph — who is staring right back at Penelope with a stern expression. He, too, is standing rather stiffly where he is… but he seems much less on edge compared to the young being.

…that is, until he gives her the slightest frown.

“…”

“Get me the fuck out of here.”

Age difference: 16 or 17 years

[abellinthecupboard]

List of poets whose work I've posted:

Poetry Magazine selections

The Adroit selections

Diode Poetry selections

Rust & Moth selections

Sixth Finch selections

When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry

Ada Limon

Adam Zagajewski

Adonis

Allen Ginsberg

Amy Clampitt

Andrea Cohen

Anna Akhmatova

Anna Swir

Anne Sexton

Ben Johnson

Billy Collins

Cathy Linh Che

Carolyn Marie Rodgers

Chard deNiord

Christina Rossetti

Czesław Miłosz

Dalton Day

Denise Levertov

Dian Million

Donika Kelly

Dorianne Laux

Edward Hirsch

Elizabeth Bishop

Elizabeth “Sister Goodwin” Hope

Ellen Bryant Voigt

Gloria Bird

Gregory Orr

Gwendolyn MacEwen

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Jack Gilbert

James Hayford

James Longenbach

Jenny George

Jim Harrison

Joanna Newsom

John Berryman

John Dowland

John Keats

Jorie Graham

Joy Harjo

Kitchen McKeown

Kuhu Joshi

Langston Hughes

Linda Pastan

Lisel Mueuller

Louise Glück

Mary Karr

Mary Oliver

Mary Tallmountain

Matt Hohner

Matt Rasmussen

Matthew Arnold

Michael Gray Bulla

Miles Walser

Morag Smith

Natalie Diaz

Ocean Vuong

Penny Shutt

Phil Ochs

Phillip B. Williams

Robert Hedin

Roberta Hill Whiteman

Ronald Wallace

Ruth Stone

Sayat Nova

Sean Eaton

Sherman Alexie

Stephen Kampa

Sugawara no Michizane

Thomas Lux

T.S. Eliot

Violeta Parra

Wanda Coleman

W.H. Auden

William Carlos Williams

Will Alexander

Wisława Szymborska

[hoeratius]

I’m doing my dissertation with Flowers in the Attic as a case study! Penny for your thoughts?

Okay, with the caveat that I haven’t a clue what your dissertation is on so not sure how relevant any of these thoughts are – here I go!

Note – this contains spoilers for Flowers in the Attic.

Who is the target audience for Flowers in the Attic?

This is not me describing the target audience.

This is me not having a clue what the intended audience is for a book that features phrases like "Oh, golly-lolly!" as well as erotic descriptions of a toddler’s underwear.

I read this for the first time when I was about 12 and again now I’m nearing my thirties. The first time round, it felt naughty and like I was reading something that was clearly Adult Literature. Now, I see the childlike phrases and excessive use of exclamation marks and think it’s not just because of the narrator, but because of the audience as well.

Like, this book is twee.

It’s about so many layers of incest and child abuse and neglect and religious extremism and repression and it somehow manages to be twee. HOW?

The incest (let’s just get that over with)

Everyone in this family is into everyone. My edition has questions at the back for a book club discussion, and one of them goes:

Had their father not died and they were all still living together, do you think Cathy and Chris would have instead developed sexual feelings for their parents? Why or why not?

And like, those sexual feelings are there the entire way through.

Cathy wants a husband like her father, who gives her a ring and ‘vows to forever love my Cathy just a little bit more than any other daughter’. When their mother calms Chris down, you get a paragraph like ‘Kiss, kiss, kiss finger his hair, stroke his cheek, draw his head against her soft, swelling breasts, and let him drown in the sensuality of being cuddled close to that creamy flesh that must excite even a youth of his tender years.’

Like – Okay! Cool! That is a way to describe your mother! And your brother! Like, this could just be an embrace between a mother and her son and instead it becomes this incredibly loaded, sexual passage. And that happens constantly. The narrative is obsessed with sex, with the sin it might bring and with the changes bodies go through to make it happen. I didn’t count how often Cathy thinks with jealousy of her mother’s breasts but it’s a recurring theme, and I’m kind of glad their father died before Cathy hit that part of puberty because I do not need to hear whatever feedback he’d have given her when she first goes shopping for a bra.

The Aryan perfection

Did you know they are blond? And blue-eyed? And so pretty, prettier than anyone else their age? Perfect? Like dolls? Did you get that??

Maybe it was a eugenics plan to maintain the most Aryan family in the universe, but good lord, has Cathy internalized it.

The good bits

After Cathy and Chris have a sexual encounter where he kisses her breasts after stabbing her with scissors, Cathy asks:

“Chris – what we did just now – was it sinful?”

Again, he cleared his throat. “If you think it so, then it was.”

I’m too early in my thoughts to have anything very coherent to say about this, but it does show their complex relationship with sexuality in a really interesting light. Does anything other than P-in-V count as sex? What is the boundary between normal familiar affection and incest? (Personally, I’d say the family cross the line from ‘normal familiar affection’ constantly but equally, I can see why kissing people on the mouth doesn’t have to be inherently sexual or inappropriate. It’s just that V.C. Andrews’s prose makes everything sexual.)

I also thought it was very bold of VCA to have Chris describe the sex as ‘rape’ immediately after it has happened. Keeping in mind that this book came out in 1979, he is the romantic lead, and it was (I think???) aimed at teenage girls, I was not expecting them to name the beast by its name. Even if Cathy assures him it wasn’t rape (and let’s not get into the victim blaming paragraph, jfc), having it out in the open immediately? Actually sensational.

On a different familiar note, I loved the way they kept waiting for their mother to return and the way their love faded differently for all of them. Cathy’s turning to bitterness sooner (prompted by jealousy over Chris’s affection?), versus the twins becoming alienated and addressing her as ‘Ma’am’ by the end… And yet that constant hope that she’ll show up, the disappointment when she brings gifts rather than freedom…

Corinne’s wilful closing of her eyes to justify the neglect haunted me– the way she stops looking at the twins, doesn’t see how Chris and Cathy are maturing. Especially because Cathy is in exactly the age where so much is changing in her body and there is the horror of being perceived (the paragraph where she describes wearing loose clothing to hide her new curves and feeling like she’s being seen anyway – I remember that.)

And at last: the reveal of the arsenic. Iconic.

The bad bits

Other than the writing (so many exclamation marks!! What the fuck!!! The action of going down the stairs doesn’t need this emphasis!!!!!), I just want to say, with my whole heart, that the twins are the most annoying characters in literature. And their insistence at the start that everyone will surely love them, they are so cute and perfect?

Honestly, if I’d been the grandmother, I’d have thrown them out of the window during their first tantrum.

Overall verdict

Do I like this book? I don’t know. I tried to come up with more bits that I disliked, but everything – the twee-ness, the weird sexualization of everything, the “Oh boy”s and stilted dialogue – it all feels very organically entwined. I definitely understand why it became a middle school obsession when it came out in 1979 and it’s going to haunt me for quite a while to come, I think.

I don’t think I’ll read any of the follow-ups, but I might (might) treat myself and reread the De Beers series one day, or that one set in New Orleans with the evil twin. VC Andrews(‘s ghostwriter) was not afraid to go big and there is a certain appeal to such shameless commitment to drama.