P + C Forever and Ever (Patreon)

Some long overdue exploration of Penny, Cupcake, and their relationship with each other. They’re actually dating, cuz I’m tired of characters pining for each other indefinitely. I’ve got a headache, so I’m just gonna copy and paste some notes I wrote in an earlier comment.

Penny and Cupcake are in a relationship, but it’s a fairly recent development, so they’re still pretty awkward and dumb around each other. They’re still figuring out how to shift from a friendship to a romance, so they switch constantly from being comfortable around each other to instantly nervous, sometimes one of them will accidentally be flirty and smooth as hell, then realize what they’re doing and panic/walk into a wall. There’s also the tricky social aspect to navigate- they’re a queer mixed-species pred/prey couple with a massive size difference, they got a lot of funny looks even before they were dating. Perry and Tibbs make it look easy, Penny and Cupcake need an instruction manual, and desperately

Before Penny unexpectedly inherited the boarding house and had to drop everything to become a landlord, she was preparing for a career as a children’s entertainer (specifically a clown). Cupcake has an engineering degree, but has a secret dream of one day being a stand-up comedian. She likes the idea of putting people at ease through humor, but people mostly only find her funny by accident. So she took a few classes at the local community college to learn the mechanics of comedy, and that’s how she and Penny met. Penny also struggles to be funny-on-purpose, kids just aren’t much into clowns these days and find her balloon animals and juggling pretty dull, especially compared to their darned dopamine-dispensing smartphones. Yet Cupcake and Penny find each OTHER very funny indeed- Penny adores Cupcake’s deadpan delivery, and Cupcake finds Penny’s whacky shenanigans rather endearing and cute. One of their love languages is humor.  

Penny: Oh my darling Cupcake, I’m through monkeying around, I have to confess- I can hardly BEAR to be apart!  

Cupcake: Hm, 0/10. Your puns get lemur and lemur by the day, boss.

 Beyond this, their dynamic is very similar to Pandora/Cupcake- you have the emotional impulsive idiot boss vs the serious, reserved, hyper-competent assistant. Cupcake is Penny’s assistant and aids in the day-to-day operation and management of the boarding house. She bails Penny out when she gets in over her head and is generally the voice of reason. She is the more hesitant one in the relationship because she does not want to hurt Penny (it would be very easy to maim her partner by accident), and she secretly thinks Penny can do better than a big bore bear like Cupcake.

Penny meanwhile is totally enamored with everything about Cupcake- her intelligence, her strength, the warm personality hidden beneath her stony exterior. Penny’s had a crush on Cupcake pretty much since the moment they met. Penny is the flirtier, more insistent one in the relationship, perpetually craving attention and touch, but also secretly afraid of being too needy and losing her closest friend. Their friendship has been very easy and natural, their romance is fumbling and awkward and new. It’s further compounded by their size difference, which can make certain physical acts (eg. handholding, kissing, etc) a bit unnatural, even sometimes requiring a bit of time for them to work out the logistics of it. Still, they are very devoted to each other, thus they experience soft, increasingly frequent moments where they actually click.

  Much like their pony world counterparts, Cupcake still calls Penny “boss” and “sir”. Cupcake is indeed on Penny’s payroll, the lemur is her boss. Their working dynamic spills into their relationship, Cupcake lets Pen, her tiny boss, take the lead on most everything….but not EVERYthing, wink wink~