Doctor Penny

Meet Doctor Penny.

It actually started a few years ago with a Halloween costume. She’d always been fascinated by historical clothing and equipment, but instead of making a standard replica, she threw accuracy out the window and built her dream version: sleek black fabric, huge dark lenses with pink metallic rings, an elaborate hood, and just enough pink ornamentation to make it unmistakably hers. At the party, someone asked who she was supposed to be, she said 'Doctor Penny,' and the name just stuck.

The funny thing is, after Halloween she realized she actually preferred being Doctor Penny. There’s no tragic secret or injury under the mask; she’s just a naturally reserved person who discovered that social interaction is far easier when nobody can read her face. Behind the mask, she doesn’t have to worry about what expression she’s making or if she’s smiling enough, which weirdly makes her way more outgoing and confident. So she kept wearing it, first to conventions, then to grab coffee on the way home, and eventually the line between Penny and Doctor Penny blurred. She’s fully aware that walking around like a Baroque pestilence warden is ridiculous, which is half the reason she loves it.

As a museum collections and restoration technician, she's amazing with her hands and knows an absurd amount about historical textiles, leatherworking, and the history of medicine, though she is emphatically not a medical doctor, despite strangers constantly asking her for health advice in public. She does have standard clothes for the gym, the beach, or lounging around the house, but the mask, hood, and long black gloves are completely non-negotiable. The gloves in particular turned into a running joke: there's nothing weird underneath them, but once people started asking why she never takes them off, she decided keeping up the mystery was much funnier than giving a real answer.

At this point, everyone in her circle is totally desensitized to it. If you go to a farmers' market, a pub, or the movies with her, she’s just hanging out, dry, witty, super easygoing, and casually looking like a chic Renaissance-cusp omen in pink trim.