This is gonna be the first of a small series, I think? A lot of my headcanons revolve around my fanfic Shrike, and that doesn't necessarily appeal to a lot of people. Besides, I do have separate hcs for Shrike!Penelope and OG!Penelope, so that's the basis of this little series.
There WILL be some overlap between Shrike and these headcanons, though, just for you eagle-eyed readers who've read my stuff.
This is the first part, focusing on Penelope's appearance! I'm merging what we know from the novel and how SUOL-nim draws her since I imagine Siyeon as less precocious about her appearance than Penelope. I've included some links in the list to elaborate on further.
——— SPOILERS AHEAD ———
Physical Appearance
Penelope, as a villainess in a dating game, is portrayed with sharper beauty than the innocence of Ivonne.
First of all, unlike the roundedness of the manhwa, her eyes are incredibly sharp, catlike, and upturned. I think a better description for her eyes would be "danfengyan"(丹鳳眼), which are "vermillion phoenix eyes". There are two types of phoenix eyes, with danfengyan being the sharper one with double eyelids. Danfengyan is also associated with the beauty standard of China, a symbol of nobility and majesty in ancient China as well.
Additionally, it's also associated with more historical vibes, with their charm brought out the most by the opulent clothes of nobility.
It would certainly lend to a villainess feeling if a pair of aristocratic eyes gaze down at you with grandeur.
This chart is often used in Chinese eye shape posts, especially English ones.
While we're still on the topic of her eyes, the novel has them as green while the manhwa is this blue-green hybrid. I'm going to combine these together and add a bit of a magical element to them.
I think Penelope has eyes like nacre(also known as "mother-of-pearl"), eyes that shift from blue to green when the light hits them just right. I actually do have a reference picture for what her eye color looks like.
It also fits the idea of the "Mermaid Tear" jewel matching Penelope's eyes in the canon novel.
However, they now have a hazy, glassy quality to them that is normally hidden by a mask that Penelope wears, from the result of the pain she has suffered.
Reference
Penelope has aegyo-sal!! The cute little puffs of fat underneath your eyes which are all the rage in East Asia right now, it softens her eyes a tad.
She has long, thick magenta lashes, pretty well-defined like the manga-lashes trend. The lashes are a bit darker than her hair color.
In the same vein, her eyebrows are actually magenta/dark pink like the novel cover! Just a tad darker, with a slight curve, a bit thicker than the pencil brows that manhwa girls usually have. They're naturally set in a manner that makes Penelope look aloof.
She has a cute button nose but a higher nose bridge than Ivonne, making her look more elegant than cute. In addition, she has a more pointed nose tip than Ivonne as well. A small aristocratic nose.
For her mouth, Penelope has a full bottom lip with a slightly smaller upper lip, which has a defined cupid's bow. The novel cover has her upper and lower lips the same size, but I just think it's because the lower lip isn't colored in as much.
Edit: She has small, subtle mouth-corner dimples. The ones around the lower lip.
Her face is pretty sharp and slim, with a mix of doll-like elegance but the classical villainess sharpness.
Penelope's skin is extremely pale like the purest of pearls, both from her intense skincare regimen, the beauty standards of Eorka, and the fact that she rarely exposes herself to direct sun. Parasols are her best friend.
Her magic is subconsciously used for small things in her day-to-day life, so I would imagine Penelope's desire to fit into the nobility's beauty standards influencing it to affect her appearance.
Her hair, no matter how long, maintains its perfect curls and mirror-like shine. Its vivid rhododendron hue contrasts sharply with her skin.
I think that the "appearance-enhancing magic" was dimmed down when Siyeon was transmigrated in since she is a tiny shard of the original. It's gonna be my in-universe explanation for why Penelope's hair went to waist-length later on, Emily having to cut it because of the lack of magic supplying it with healthy nutrients.
Her hair, thusly, reaches to like. Her knees? Very Long Hair.
I'm referencing another Tumblr user's post here, I'll edit the post with the link when I find it. BUT. I've been drawing recently and trying to diversify the body shapes we see in manhwa.
I feel like Penelope's body would be more mature, "shapely" for lack of an appropriate term. She wore a lot of extravagant and mature dresses that weren't age-appropriate but suited her at the same time(I will have to fact-check this).
TLDR: hourglass body yo... peak example of beauty standards...
If she wasn't so ostracized, and her personality was less abrasive, I feel like her nickname would've been "The Temptress" or something, with her body being lusted over by other men(which feeds into her disgust at their hypocrisy. Will go into this in more detail in later posts). Think Roxana's 19-year-old body(Roxana) or Larcy(I Will Fall with the Emperor).
Tiny waist, which is even more pronounced by the tightlacing she does.
This is also due to my headcanon of a fictional plant named "Scipretta"(seen also in Shrike). Penelope was continuously dosed with it since she was 13.
Scipretta is a plant of Delman origin, from its Western Plains and has been cultivated for six centuries. It was used for physical enhancement of secondary sex characteristics, especially in females. Essentially, Scipretta would push puberty along, full of magical growth hormones. It was often taken by Delman concubines to appear more physically attractive. Unrefined, it acts as a mild poison that eats away at one's energy, causing the trend of "Slumbering Nymphs" in Delmanese culture.
The Eckhart maids regularly dosed her with it to cover up potential signs of malnutrition while harming her as well. Then, if someone were to be suspicious of the malnutrition, they could point to her body and say "how could Lady Penelope have a perfect body like that if she wasn't eating well, and being taken care of like a princess?"
However, Penelope does have a naturally beautiful body, the Scipretta fed to her was of questionable quality and really sapped her of her energy. When Dona was kicked out, she stopped getting dosed.
She has sharp shoulders, slender and pale limbs, and she has long fingers that are good for playing instruments. Her decolletage and bone structure are quite pronounced.
Clothing
Everything, and I do mean everything is expensive and extravagant.
Penelope wears a lot of dark colors and subtle but expensive patterns and fabrics. However, she does have a large variety of clothes in all cuts, styles, seasons, and occasions. She easily has one of the largest wardrobes among the noblewomen.
As mentioned above, Penelope tightlaced her corsets. It had the side-effect of making her not hungry even when she was starving from malnutrition. It kept it off her mind.
She carries parasols and fans, embroidered with beautiful lace and patterns.
Her accessories are as numerous as one may believe, with countless unique, stunning jewels in her collection. She has a lot of expensive, gem-studded accessories because they can be pawned off, especially if she has to escape to a place that doesn't use the standard currency.
Penelope has a lot of pieces and even luxurious gifts from foreign admirers.
They range from tame, to cute, to extravagant.
Her dresses are all structured with large skirts, but as she mentally matured during the time loops, she gravitated toward less structured silhouettes or mermaid gowns. In addition, her clothes began to cling more to her body, emphasizing it along with lower-cut necklines(think something along the lines of the Hunting Competition red gown).
She shows her shoulders off often with off-shoulder clothing.
Her layers also grew more sheer, like sheer overskirts, sheer sleeves, and other sheer details.
Scent
Flowers: She has that sweet, floral scent of roses, lilies, or fragrant rhododendrons.
Fruit: Penelope sometimes has notes of bergamot, which does wonders for stress. For fruity scents, she picks ones that induce calm.
Cloves: A hint of that spicy, woody scent, especially when she wears rhododendron perfume.
However, Penelope always carries around the scent of sweet flowers, which comes from her magic powers, described later on.
Makeup/Nails
While Penelope favors deep reds and pinks for her lips, she does wear lighter lipcolors during daytime occasions.
Her cheeks are constantly dusted with blush, a subtle all-over and concentrated a smidge more around underneath her eyes.
Her aegyo-sal is highlighted by highlighter(ha) and pink eyeshadow.
Speaking of eyeshadow: her eyes are highlighted the most with bold colors, but Penelope tones it down with shades of pink, red, and coral, as well as gold and silver powder to tie in the looks. She knows her makeup and how to not overwhelm a look.
As for nails, while she prefers to match her nails to her outfit, Penelope favors jelly-colors or pearl-patterned nails. The sort of blurry, glass-like nails that are popular all over East Asia right now and fast entering the West.
She imports a lot of products, accessories, and clothes(both styles and fabric) from all over.
OG! Penelope Eckhart Headcanons: Personality, Opinions on Characters
Part 2!
This section might not seem like much, but I will be adding in my own headcanons and also the evolution Penelope goes through after the time loops!
——— SPOILERS & TRIGGER WARNING AHEAD(mentions of sexual assault) ———
In addition! Other characters mentioned may be OOC according to the novel, but that's because OG and Siyeon are very different people! Please also keep in mind the curse that basically makes everyone hate/distrust Penelope and the Ancient Wizards!
Calliope lovers, beware!
Personality
Penelope was volatile and miserable in her life as an Eorkan noblewoman. Due to the abuse and neglect she suffered at the hands of the servants and the Eckharts, she often lashed out.
Her outbursts were often violent and continued the vicious cycle, and also impacted her social life with those outside the Eckhart duchy.
Due to her lack of etiquette teachers, Penelope was further isolated in high society and made to be ridiculed. In later regressions, she would tunnel-vision into gaining that noble education she was denied in her first life.
Her coping methods were often extreme, such as excessive materialism, alcoholism(especially after she started regressing), excessive sleeping, an eating disorder(when she was younger), and self-harm.
She also ran away often after the regressions started to happen.
Penelope was very violent and verbally abusive to the servants as well, which was her method of expressing her frustration in her situation.
However, she secretly did charity work, handing money and food to starving homeless and orphans. She thought it would be worth it if she could help others without entrapping them in a noble family like she was.
A part of her is childishly bitter about the fact that despite their poverty, they can smile so brightly, while her luxury brings her nothing but cold comfort.
Throughout countless time loops/regressions/Iterations, her personality took a drastic turn.
Because she focused on noble etiquette for several Iterations, Penelope is much more poised and a master in formal etiquette and language, easily reaching levels of Imperial etiquette. In addition, she studied foreign etiquette as well.
However, it's all a mask.
Her sharp tongue is known to cut through anyone in her way.
In addition, she is much more independent, working towards freeing herself from the Eckharts and the cursed semi-immortality she's been given.
The constant torture, humiliation, helplessness, and betrayal in her lifetimes have turned her jaded and bitter. She became much more violent, but her anger has more restraint.
Penelope is extremely vicious and sadistic when pushed over the edge, often delving into physical torture.
Penelope essentially developed some sociopathic tendencies.
Lack of remorse(but guilt can develop in some cases), manipulative behavior, impulsivity, and deceitfulness are some sociopathic behavior.
Penelope also developed promiscuous tendencies, which are related to her daddy issues caused by the duke. It causes her to seek out validating male attention, especially in a sexual manner.
On the other hand, she also sneers at their hypocrisy, of lusting over her and their high expectations and all the nitty-gritty details of their lust.
She's pansexual and demiromantic(which kind of sounds obvious but she trusts NO ONE with her heart).
She has embraced the title of “greatest villainess in the world”.
The Eckharts and MLs
In addition, Penelope hates the Eckharts, having enacted her revenge on them several times.
Derrick she especially hates, since there have been lifetimes he's taken her against her will. However, at some point, she's had to pick up the pieces enough that sex has lost all meaning to her, except transactional.
This is around the time when she starts murdering Derdick if he even tries to touch her.
To Penelope, any physical touch from Derrick, or even close distance makes her anxiety spark up and her violent urges to rise quickly.
For Reynold, she hates him just as much, for how he's treated her with such aggression since childhood, and also because she knows that he's the one who framed her for the necklace.
She's fucking pissed, for lack of a better term. She's often the most verbally explosive when talking to him, uncaring of how her words cut deep.
She has resorted to physical blows before, and nothing tastes better than seeing him crushed underneath her feet.
The duke she just feels bitter hate towards. He made a lot of promises and broke all of them. Penelope is disappointed, for lack of a better word.
He treats her like a political pawn in many lifetimes.
Callisto Regulus
Callisto Regulus is one of the people Penelope hates the most. Not only did he kill her a bunch of times, but she was also forcefully married off to him for political gain several times. Duke Eckhart doesn't care about og!Penelope especially since she doesn't call him "Father" or act like a tamed dog for him.
He was rough with her, and often left her with wounds and bruises from trying to conceive an heir, which would derail the Second Prince's Faction's plans.
She has died at least two separate times during sex from him choking her too hard and from the pain of him breaking her bones on accident.
In addition, she's been poisoned and assassinated A LOT.
Early on, there were also a couple of lifetimes where he pretended to love her for the Duke's support, and she naively loved him back.
She learned to hate him REAL QUICK after everything got revealed.
He was probably one of the few who she actually carried a child with, but it was never full term, or there were complications with the birth. The lack of emotional connection didn't really give him the incentive to save her.
Winter Verdandi
Alright. She fucking hates him as well. Big surprise.
Especially since he was the one who brought Ivonne back and ruined her big day.
He also used her as bait for Laila like in the manhwa, but in a crueler way.
Penelope married him more than Callisto and tried to woo him the most to secure her future against Laila.
Unfortunately, he's still a bastard affected by rumors and basically cheated on Penelope with Ivonne.
yknow what, all of the romanceable MLs have cheated on Penelope with Ivonne at some point.
There were several lifetimes that he delivered her directly to Laila underneath the brainwashing.
She also hates him, perhaps the most after she's made aware that HE'S the one responsible for her hell.
She was pregnant by him for only two lifetimes, each one ending badly, especially with the magic from him and the powers from her.
Winter never let the children get too close to her, fearing that she'd use them as blackmail or hurt them.
Which, rude.
Eckles
She ALSO hates him. Big surprise.
There are several lifetimes where she sought him out herself like in the manhwa and paid for his freedom.
He's arguably one of the most manipulative MLs along with Winter, with Callisto being more of the blunt type.
There have been several lifetimes where Penelope ran away with him to settle down as commoners, but he turned out to be super obsessive and controlling.
After that incident when he broke her legs to prevent her from leaving the house, she stopped relying on him as a potential path out of the duchy.
There have been several regressions where he restored Delman and reigned as King, kidnapping Penelope to be his concubine or wife.
She's most bitter about him because she genuinely trusted him the longest.
With Part 1's mention of Scipretta, he fed the refined version to her in order to make her subservient.
Eckles often drugged her to keep her complacent and willing to his advances.
He'd switch from soft and caring love to obsessive yandere, throwing Penelope off.
Yeah a basic TLDR: all the main characters SUCK ASS in their treatment of OG Penelope.
Note: This will only be the English portions since I don't speak Korean or Japanese (ノAヽ)
Reminder: DO NOT SHARE IMAGES OR SCREENSHOTS OF SUOL-NIM'S STREAM. WE AREN'T ALLOWED TO DO THAT.
Season 3's recap
Thank you to @eloise-writes-things, @leila-lirui, @bluebutterflyrose, and @karmablacks for helping supplement some of this information when I was outside or when I was sick ^^
This time she's streaming on Youtube instead of Twitch! However, the VOD will still not be saved afterward.
As speculated, the cover is Winter and Siyeon(our transmigrator FL), with the necklace Winter gave her in the caves :)
volume 6 will be out this summer(approximately)
Unfortunately, she doesn't know when the English translation will be licensed since it's between Gyeoeul-nim and the publisher,,
Her voice is so nice... she speaks Korean, English, and Japanese too!
Return of the pink underlayer for the magenta hair!
She talked a little about the Alice in Wonderland dress! The color was specified in the novel as "sky-blue", and SUOL-nim thought it would be fitting for Siyeon to wear such a dress while adventuring with our White Rabbit, Winter
Ahh I had to leave the house for a few hours so the stuff below are all my panicked notes. Some of these are out of order, sorryyy
SUOL-nim showed us the concept arts of the characters individually.
Fun fact, Siyeon and OG!Penelope's concept art has them wearing the same colored shoes, but Siyeon's shoes have low heels, almost like flats.
She says that out of all the characters, Callisto is the hardest to draw. This is especially since his golden hair has narrative importance and the aesthetic is hard to nail down.
The webtoon is mostly SUOL-nim's own work! She doesn't really speak to Gyeoeul-nim about work matters or help in adapting some scenes.
It takes her a week to finish a chapter, so she doesn't really have a "backlog" of progress. This is also why there's an extra week of break after four weeks.
One of the most memorable changes she made in the adaptation was changing the Empire's name from "Inca" to "Eorka". She reasoned that because "Inca" is the name of a real Empire, it would be confusing. Thus, she changed it.
The anagram of "Eorka" to "Korea" was completely accidental.
She has an Instagram for her SUOL account(like how she has a personal and a work Twitter) but has no plans on using it since her Twitter is overwhelming.
She doesn't have a favorite dress, but one of the ones she's especially attached to is the white Goddess dress since most of Penelope's wardrobe is dark.
She shows her folders occasionally, and we get little peeks of concept art for characters like Ivonne, the assassins, Penelope's male disguise, Cedrick, Emily's Hunting Competition dress, Winter's layered clothing, and minor characters, as well as the tiny bird monsters.
She also showed the dress concepts for Season 3!
In addition, we got to see a rendered concept of Penelope(think the promotional portrait) as well as a version of that style for Reynold and Penelope's faces in her folders.
There was also a WIP with Eckles and Penelope, perhaps a small illustration she scrapped, hasn't released yet, or just a concept.
We also got to see a silly doodle of Penelope, a redraw of a Crayon Shin-Chan frame(it's a popular kids manga/anime in East Asia).
The original was Shin-Chan trying to decide between a few identical outfits; the VADD version is the one where Penelope is surrounded by objects representing each ML.
The ointment from Reynold, the scroll from Callisto, Winter's mask, Eckles' collar, and Derrick's bird cage.
Her rendering is immaculate; Siyeon glows off the page.
The info after this is second-handed since I'm still sick and I fell asleep an hour before it ended ;-; but my throat is killing me and my ears were ringing
The Eckles Penelope art is the preliminary sketch for the physical Vol. 6(from my calculations!)
She moved to sketches around this time ^^
For the top row, SUOL-nim drew a Penelope, an Eckles getting dressed, and a sulky baby Reynold in a onesie. To the right of him is a doodle of him and Derrick in high chairs, with the Duke and a heavily pregnant Duchess watching over them.
On the bottom row, we have Emily in a noblewoman's dress and a fan with her hair pinned up(with feathers!), the head butler Pennel, and an overworked salaryman Cedrick on his phone.
Edit: He's chatting about Callisto with his feet on the table while thinking about strangling Callisto loll.
The stream was approximately 6 hours long!
Also, something she reiterated for a bit: Season 4 is planned to come out in August/September. The dates are tentative but she wants to get it out to us by that period.
It was nice seeing a lot of the discord and tumblr crew!!
Also, the stream tea: SUOL-nim requested that we translate our comments that weren't in Korean, English, or Japanese since she has to moderate the chat still and she doesn't want to feel left out of her own stream. Even if it's conversing amongst themselves, they should still translate.
A group of Arabic-speaking viewers actively ignored her and there were small fights in chat, and she even addressed this issue TWICE.
And in the end they still didn't do it, so... PLEASE RESPECT SUOL-nim's stream rules! At the end of the day, it's still HER stream! She has to moderate it! Don't make it unnecessarily difficult for streamers to stream!
Hey, I just remembered that way back when u made the first og penny hc posts you mentioned one of the posters where her hair was glowing and that's how u pictured it being? i don't think i've seen that one before so if it isn't too much trouble could u link it or post it here? tysm
Hi!
It's actually this poster/promotional picture!
Her hair is so much more saturated here and dreamy looking, it's so prettyyy
