Medusa

Melinda Ursula Faulkner, better known as Medusa, was an Earthling refugee from the Earth-666 iteration of reality. The youngest of three sisters born and raised in Oxford, Mississippi, she was brought up in The Faith of the First Mother and was already a skilled witch when a Calamity brought an end to her universe. But it was here, in Eden, that she became the “monster” who would inspire Greek mythmakers in future versions of reality.

Appearance & Personality

As Melinda, she was an astonishingly beautiful blonde-haired human woman. As Medusa, her legs were replaced with a long serpent’s tail, her skin turned a sickening shade of green, and her golden hair was transformed into a menacing tangle of snakes.

Before she was cursed, Melinda was a kind, flirtatious, and wickedly funny woman. After her transformation, Medusa remained a kind and loving sister and mother, as well as an incredible comedian and practical joker, but she would never again be the flirt she had been. And she would never again trust anyone outside of her immediate family.

Supernatural Abilities

Any mortal being who made eye contact with Medusa would be near-instantaneously turned to stone. But beyond that, remember, she was also a trained sorceress.

Biography

Warning: Here there be spoilers.

Life on Earth

Melinda was born in 1897 and raised primarily by her mother and her sisters. While her father was present for the first years of her life, he was driven off by his wife and the older girls when he fully devolved into a fountain of misinformation, bigotry, and anti-Black racism.

Once she was old enough, Melinda began attending meetings of the Faith with her mother and sisters. These were held in an abandoned church downtown, and it was there, in 1908, that an 11-year-old Melinda met another woman who would survive the end of their universe: a then 18-year-old Glinda the Good.

Four years later, when the Calamity struck during a Faith meeting, the rising waters of Gulf of Mexico swept Glinda off in one direction and Melinda and her sisters in another. Sadly, though all both survived freaking armageddon and ended up in the same post-apocalyptic paradise, the sisters and Glinda would never see each other again.

Life in Eden

Melinda and her sisters arrived in Eden on the Sea of Tears and were swept ashore near the city of Saltgate (later called the City of Hearts). Despite Melinda’s protests, they took shelter in a temple which had once been devoted to the worship of the goddess Athena. And though it took some time for them to recover from their ordeal, they were back to practicing magic and rebuilding their lives soon enough.

In 117, as the older sisters prepared Melinda for her First Touch ceremony, a windswept sailor arrived at their door and begged for a place to stay the night. Given that Melinda had not yet selected someone to join her in the ceremony, and given that the sailor was all kinds of handsome, one thing led to another. And so it was that Melinda and the sailor made love with each other under the roof of Athena’s temple.

The next morning, Melinda woke to find the sailor gone—and the savings she and her sisters had collected gone with him. And then, to add insult to injury, the goddess Athena appeared from the aether and cursed the sisters for defiling her sacred space.

Life as Medusa

In what could have been a tragic set of events, Melinda found herself pregnant. Given the changes made to her body, she felt certain the baby—with no way to make an exit—would kill her and die itself in the process. But her sisters came up with a plan. They snuck out into the city at night, when they were less likely to encounter an innocent and turn them to stone, and found the surgical implements to deliver the baby via caesarean section. As trained midwives and powerful sorceresses themselves, they felt like they could handle it. And handle it they did.

Of course, the moment of truth came when the baby emerged and made eye contact with them for the first time. They had hoped the infant would be immune to the effects of their curse, but they weren’t sure until baby Daisy looked upon each of them without turning to stone.

Together, the three sisters raised young Daisy without incident until the girl was seventeen and almost ready for her own First Touch ceremony. Then, tragedy struck. Still angry over the defiling of her temple, Athena sent the Headless Horseman to dispose of Medusa, her sisters, and her bastard daughter. But while the Horseman made quick work of the three adult women, the young woman called Daisy was able to hold him off. And so, ultimately, the legacy of Melinda Ursula Faulkner continued for generations to come.