Madalena Serrano
Madalena Serrano (a.k.a. 'Mad Maddy')
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Dr. Aranda carries a build shaped more by discipline than vanity. Years of solo fieldwork in extreme climates have kept her frame lean, wiry, and capable, with the kind of durable muscle tone common in career hikers and endurance runners.
Body Features
Lean, utilitarian build shaped by fieldwork more than fitness culture; every movement has the precision of someone who doesn’t waste energy. Her olive-toned skin is tan from sun exposure, each wrinkle in her brow or smile a testament to the rich life she has lead.
Facial Features
High cheekbones, weathered eyes, and a lined brow that rarely softens—her face looks like it’s used to squinting into wind, equations, and laughing at her own jokes. Her nose is strong and defined, the kind that might’ve been called noble in another century—unmistakable, and the first thing people remember.
Identifying Characteristics
Right index fingernail never grew back correctly after a field accident. Her voice has a low, steady rhythm, often mistaken for calm—but it’s just calculation.
Physical quirks
Will only work with music playing—often subjecting her companions to hours of Portuguese Fado. She favors Amália Rodrigues's song ‘Gaivota’, especially the line: 'In that sky where the gaze is a wing that does not fly.' She usually chuckles and adds, 'Amália and I would have gotten along. Science has always been my wing that doesn’t fly..'
Special abilities
Colleagues call it “seismic intuition”—an uncanny knack for spotting voids, faults, or buried anomalies. Maybe it’s luck, maybe it’s magic. In truth, she just does the homework and reads the data better than most. But if people want to mythologize her a bit, she’s not above letting them.
Apparel & Accessories
Wears her gear like a second skin—patched, personally modified, nothing off-the-shelf. It explains why she is sometimes not very uniform with the rest of the crew.
Specialized Equipment
Expert in harmonic frequency mapping and low-impact subsurface scans. Carries a custom modded field scanner she calls “O Surdo” ("The Deaf One")—half joke, half reverence.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Born in Évora, Portugal, Madeline Aranda was raised by her grandfather after her parents were lost in a coastal research accident. She grew up surrounded by field gear, old journals, and dry Alentejo soil—learning early how to read both people and terrain. Her quiet persistence and sharp eye for pattern recognition developed long before she knew what to do with it.
Sexuality
Conservative in her expression of it, but passionate when it matters. She does not 'kiss and tell' so few know this part of her past, and when asked she will usually respond with something corny like, "Science is my only true love!"
Education
Completed her undergraduate and master’s studies in Earth Sciences at the University of Lisbon, with a concentration in geophysics. Later accepted to ETH Zurich on scholarship, where her doctoral thesis introduced a novel method for harmonic subsurface mapping in unstable terrain.
Employment
Has worked across four continents and the ISS. Early career included humanitarian water-table surveys in Northern Africa and seismic stability analysis for undersea pipeline expansions. Most recently contracted by a multi-agency space consortium as a lead subsurface analyst for the Mars Expeditionary Survey Unit.
Accomplishments & Achievements
Madalena co-authored papers on "Frequency and the Detection of Subterranean Voids" that was recognized worldwide. She also developed and field-tested the Aranda Oscillation Protocol, something she is fighting to make standard in portable frequency mapping.
Failures & Embarrassments
An early version of her device collapsed an antiquity site tunnel after she assured them it was harmless. She has never forgiven herself for the damage done to the artifacts within, mostly broken pottery and mysteries that can never be answered.
Mental Trauma
She remembers losing her parents in vivid details. She keeps herself busy in all her waking moments to avoid dealing with it, even after all this time. She tends to keep those emotions close to her chest, but others can sometimes notice her drifting in and out during the conversation.
Intellectual Characteristics
Highly analytical and data-driven, but prone to intuitive leaps that have often prove accurate in the past. Not easily rattled, except by unexamined variables. Fluent in both technical and field-level communication, she can pivot from equations to blunt orders without skipping a beat.
Morality & Philosophy
Pragmatic utilitarian with a strong inner compass. Believes in minimizing harm and maximizing clarity. Doesn’t lie unless someone’s life depends on it—and even then, she hates herself for it.
Taboos
Despises dishonesty in technical data or field reporting. Believes sugarcoating problems is how people die. Unspoken but firm aversion to keeping mementos from failed missions.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
To uncover what lies beneath—literally and otherwise. Mad Maddy believes the truth is always there if you ask the right questions and dig the right hole. She isn’t chasing glory or firsts; she just wants the silence of a solved mystery.
Savvies & Ineptitudes
Savvy: Subsurface analysis, frequency modeling, rig maintenance, and crisis triage under isolation.
Inept: Social nuance, media appearances, and cooking anything more complex than tea and nutrient bars.
Likes & Dislikes
Likes: Early morning stillness, Fado music (especially Amália Rodrigues), handwritten notes, quiet dogs.
Dislikes: Grandstanding, groupthink, overly optimistic mission briefings, artificial scents.
Virtues & Personality perks
Methodical, fiercely self-reliant, and impossible to rattle once committed. She makes others better by being the constant that doesn’t break.
Vices & Personality flaws
Has a reflexive distrust of authority and an unhealthy tendency to shoulder blame alone. Can be cold, and when tired, dismissive. Smokes when no one's watching—even off-world, when she can rig the filters.
Personality Quirks
Flicks her fingernails against her suit frame when thinking. Has an old ritual of tracing three dots on the back of her wrist with her thumb—origin unknown, possibly superstition.
Hygiene
Fastidious in gear maintenance, less so in personal grooming. Will go days without washing her hair but won’t touch a scanner with dirty gloves. Keeps her space clean but lived-in—organized chaos by design.
Social
Contacts & Relations
Maintains loose but loyal contact with a small circle of former field partners, mostly geologists and off-world engineers. Sends handwritten letters to her godson on Earth every solstice. Not close with extended family, though she holds no grudges.
Family Ties
Raised by her grandfather after her parents died in a research accident. No siblings. A cousin back home handles legal matters on her behalf. She rarely speaks of them, but she always remembers birthdays.
Religious Views
Agnostic with a folkloric streak. Doesn’t believe in gods but leaves offerings at fault lines “just in case.” Says silence is holy and doesn’t trust anyone who can’t sit in it.
Social Aptitude
Introverted, dry-humored, and allergic to small talk. Gains respect through competence, not charisma. If she bonds with someone, it’s because they’ve earned it the hard way—and she’ll guard them like a fault line afterward.
Mannerisms
Rests one hand on her belt or hip when thinking. Often stares past people while processing, which unnerves them more than she intends. Says “hmm” in ten different tones that mean completely different things.
Hobbies & Pets
Kept a desert lizard named Vento in her 30s, released it before her first off-world contract. Hobbies include mapping terrain no one asked her to, and reconstructing broken tech for fun. Favors Fado music and tends a single, battered bonsai she insists is older than half the mission crew.
Speech
Measured and low-toned, with a soft Alentejan accent smoothed by years abroad. Chooses her words like she’s laying stone—deliberate, sturdy, and never more than needed. Swears in Portuguese when annoyed; the sharper the mood, the slower her English gets.
Wealth & Financial state
Modest. Most of her income is tied up in old field gear, travel debt, and a storage unit in Lisbon she hasn’t opened in five years. Doesn’t spend, doesn’t save—just moves.
Studied subsurface imaging at ETH Zurich, focusing on using sound to catch a glimpse of what lies beneath the soil. Most known for co-authored papers on "Frequency and the Detection of Subterranean Voids".
Doctor of Geophysical Sciences, Lead Subsurface Analyst, Mars Expeditionary Survey Unit
“In that sky where the gaze is a wing that does not fly.” When the verse hits, she often smirks and mutters, “Amália and I would’ve gotten along. Science has always been my wing that doesn’t fly.”
Portuguese (native), English (fluent), Spanish (fluent), and French (conversational).
Comments