penna_nomen on AO3 - writing fic for multiple fandoms including the Caffrey Conversation series for White Collar. Easily distracted by books, and penguins, and... well, just easily distracted, okay? Banner art commissioned from Will Quinn
About me: English literature major working in IT in the Pacific Northwest. She/her. Posting fanfic as penna_nomen. Joined Tumblr in July 2023.
Fanfic on AO3:
Co-author with @silbrith of a White Collar AU series called Caffrey Conversation
Posted in many fandoms including Discworld, Doctor Who, Good Omens, The Good Place, Murderbot Diaries, Psych, Red White & Royal Blue, Schitt's Creek, Supernatural, and several of Jane Austen's novels.
I prefer writing stories with happy endings, often with a mix of humor, fluff, and angst.
Writing Goals:
fanfic goals: Complete my Devotees series for The Murderbot Diaries and write the finale for the Caffrey Conversation series. Participate in various prompts, challenges, and exchanges for fun when I have time (and not pressure myself to do them all).
original works goal: Figure out what to do with my sci-fi WIP titled Prime Conditions. One of the characters is an opinionated purple duckling named Amethyst, and she's my Tumblr icon. She thinks of herself as my plot duckling, which is like a plot bunny but louder.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
“I mean—I mean, no, Ilyukhina brought it up, but. Apparently lots of people think this.”
Stratt sighed. “Is there a problem with your coworkers, Dr. Grace?”
“They think I’m sleeping with you!” It felt irrational to be getting worked up about this—oh no, your coworkers think you’re sexually active and sleeping with the most powerful woman in the world, the horror. But now I was also getting worked up about Stratt not being particularly worked up about it too.
“Have people been saying things to you about this?” she asked, still extremely not worked up about it.
“I mean,” I said. “Uh. Mostly no. I only learned about it today.”
“Was anyone pressuring you, making uninvited or invasive comments, distracting you or themselves from your jobs?”
“Well, Ilyukhina made a joke,” I said. “But that’s just how she is.”
“I can have a talk with her, then,” Stratt said, and returned to the invoices.
“I think she felt a little bad because she did drop it,” I added, feeling like I needed to defend Ilyukhina’s honor. “It’s not—it’s that lots of people think this.”
“You’ve said,” Stratt said, clearly exasperated. “So what’s the problem?”
“What do you want me to say? People think I’m having sex with you!”
“Yes!” she snapped. “People think that. And I’m asking you what part of that is making you so upset. Are they concerned because they think I’m taking advantage of you?”
“What? No! No—or, jeez, I don’t think so. Not that anyone said.”
“Are they accusing you of taking advantage of me?”
“No!”
“Are you interested in another woman on the project and you’re concerned she’ll think you’re already taken?”
“No!” Why was every suggestion Stratt came up with such a nightmare?
“Are you interested in a man on the project, and you’re concerned he’ll think you’re straight?”
“What?”
“I am trying to determine what the problem here is,” Stratt said. “If nobody is bothering you, nobody is making accusations of sexual coercion, and it’s not interfering with any actual sexual interests you have—then why are you being so insistent? What do you want me to say?”
“I…” I didn’t know. I guess I wanted her to commiserate, maybe. Acknowledge that it was stupid and wrong and they were stupid and wrong for thinking it.
She stared at me for a few seconds, then sighed, put down her papers, and rubbed her eyes. “Dr. Grace, are you trying to ask if I want to have sex with you? Is that what this is about?”
“No!” I whined. “That is—that is not what this is about.”
“Then what is it about?”
I stared fixedly at the titanium reports. “I don’t know,” I eventually mumbled. “Just, it doesn’t bother you? That people think that?”
“Dr. Grace, if I let it bother me what people think about me, I would not be able to make this project happen.” She paused, and waited for me to look up at her. I was regretting ever raising the topic, but when I met her eyes again, she didn’t look annoyed anymore. Just tired. “People will think what they want. I thought you, of all people, would know how to handle people thinking unfair things about you.”
It’s not like I haven’t given myself this pep talk before, or had conversations like this with students before. It’s not like I didn’t know this. And it’s not like people thinking I was… with… Stratt changed anything about my life. But it still felt like something deeply weird and wrong that I was desperate to correct.
“It doesn’t hurt at least a little, though?” I asked. “When people are just… really convinced they’re right, like they know who you are better than you do and you’re just lying about yourself for no reason?”
“Lots of things hurt,” Stratt said. “And people think unhelpful things all the time. But until it interferes with what they actually do, then they’re just thoughts, and all you can do in response is write it off as their own problem to deal with and refuse to dwell on it.”
“Inspirational.”
“The world is dying. It’s the only way to get through the day.”
I managed a halfhearted grimace. “That does put it in perspective.”
“Mm.” Stratt took a sip of her coffee, which I knew was not decaf and definitely was not healthy this late at night. “If it helps at all,” she added, “I know we’re not…” Her lips twitched into what was almost a smile. “…‘together.’ And I’m entirely happy to keep it the way it is.”
From someone else it could have been an insult. From her, I think it was genuinely meant as a reassurance. And darn it, it really did feel like one. “It does help, a little,” I said. “Thanks.”
"And it seems like it's worth your time, right? And, by the way, there's actually- the superpower inside of feeling alien is admitting that you might be an alien."
Into the Mud Podcast Ep. 81: The Superpower of Feeling Alien with Project Hail Mary's James Ortiz - What James Ortiz would say to people who feel foreign and alien
sorry i’ve been MIA for a week, my schedule was completely booked (ironically, not with reading). but i am back and still thinking about how Murderbot is the ultimate representation of corporate burnout.
like, the most unrealistic part of The Murderbot Diaries isn't the space travel or the rogue AIs.
Society: "You can be anything you want!"
Murderbot: "I want to be perceived by absolutely no one while Sanctuary Moon plays in the background."
it’s the fact that Murderbot gets freedom from its corporate corporate overlords, looks at the vast, infinite universe of possibilities, and immediately chooses to use its newfound liberty to just... sit in a corner and binge-watch 35,000 hours of space soap operas.
Martha Wells really captured the exact feeling of coming home after a 9-to-5 shift where you just want to stare at a wall and not interact with another human being for 3-5 business days. It’s not just a sci-fi series, it’s a mood character study for tired introverts.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
"rickrolling is mean" rickrolling is the gentle, kind, prosocial descendant of what we used to do on the internet, which was putting a redirect to goatse in every possible misspelling of a url
So the next time I get optimistic about something, I want one of you to punch me in the face. Okay, not really, because let’s be real, that would end badly. Maybe remind me to punch myself in the face.
On the team feed, ART said, SecUnit, status report.
Or punch ART in the face. I sent back, I wish I could punch you in the face.
ART said, I wish you could try.
System Collapse (The Murderbot Diaries, #7) by Martha Wells
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Friendly reminder that taking care also involves feeding your soul with things that make you happy and fulfilled! 🌸 It’s not always easy, but whenever we can, we should look to making ourselves a life where we can do more than just survive.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
It has just come to my attention that after my week of vacation, I need to go back to work? This seems unfair. I was getting really good at being on vacation, and I think I should be allowed to continue exploring this skill set.
