Madison “Maddie” Ceto is a young gorgon from Nova Scotia, descended from a family whose distant roots trace back to the Greek islands but whose branch has lived in Atlantic Canada for generations. She grew up in an otherwise fairly ordinary household where having snakes instead of hair was considerably less noteworthy than mythology would lead people to believe.
Maddie's snakes are living extensions of her, each with enough individual personality to make maintaining a hairstyle something of a negotiation. She can influence and coordinate them, but not every twitch, glance, or investigation is consciously directed. They react to things around her, occasionally become interested in inconvenient objects, and have been known to betray Maddie's mood before she's ready to admit to having one. She regards them less as pets than as an unusually visible collection of opinions attached to her scalp.
She can also petrify people, although not by accidentally making eye contact with them. Petrification is an intentional defensive ability that requires deliberate effort, and Maddie has complete control over whether she uses it. She finds the popular assumption otherwise particularly annoying. Sunglasses are a fashion choice, not safety equipment, and someone meeting her gaze across a coffee shop is in considerably less danger than someone asking for the seventeenth time whether they're about to become a lawn ornament.
Maddie herself is cheerful, social, and prone to enthusiastically disappearing into whatever has captured her attention that week. Gardening, crafts, music, travel, obscure hobbies, and ambitious little projects have all taken turns occupying large portions of her brain. She likes making things, trying things, and dragging friends along when something sounds sufficiently interesting. Her enthusiasm tends to arrive before a detailed plan, although she's usually resourceful enough to construct one afterward.
Growing up visibly unusual taught Maddie to be comfortable with attention without necessarily enjoying all of it. She's happy to answer sincere questions, but has little patience for people treating her as a mythology exhibit. Touching her snakes without permission is still touching her, regardless of how cute somebody thinks they are, and the snakes themselves may have opinions about the attempt.
For all the ancient legends attached to gorgons, Maddie's life is thoroughly contemporary and mostly ordinary. She has friends, hobbies, errands, half-finished projects, places she wants to visit, and several dozen snakes who occasionally make grocery shopping more complicated than it needs to be.
She does possess the supernatural ability to turn someone into stone.
Mostly she uses conflict-resolution skills instead. 🐍🪨