"a chance encounter with an old friend will clear up an even older mystery."

she only wears the hat to scare hatchlings
awakened: pluto, disappearing pisces / plutoii, raptorik bladedancer / crimson, cinnabar plaguebringer / pestilence, styracavus / plaga, boilback slink / duskreaper, tengu caller
fourteen curses

lore rundown for the future
from some sort of lab??
plague-aligned and raised even though shes technically shadow
everyone is scared of her, its kinda like how they view the fae twins
prefers weapons over magic- maybe she was born with strong shadow abilities (emblem) and shunned them for some reason?
how can i tie in canon lore with hers- cult experiments? maybe that's why she shuns her shadow heritage?
courting saule; matching jewelry
skilled spy; knows the ins and outs of the strand
eros' owner suggested that her egg was kidnapped
lioness was just a successful version of venus

The first thing Venus did when she arrived at the Tourmaline Archives was plan three different escape routes and learn the patterns of the scholars. She learned quickly that there was almost never anyone on top of the stacks- it was hard to fly in between the shelves, and a dragon wouldn't risk damaging the scrolls- but she climbed up without much difficulty, and watched and listened until she found what she needed.

If the elderly Fae librarian with his arms full of scrolls had turned around, he might have noticed a serpentine figure silently slipping towards the shelf he had just left and carefully sliding a scroll out of its cubby, then vanishing into the gloom behind the stacks. He didn't, though, and Venus slunk around the corner in the opposite direction.

She climbed up an abandoned library ladder and scaled the rest of the shelf until she reached the top. She had to frequently duck her head to avoid the lanterns hanging on sturdy chains from the ceiling, but other than that, it was smooth sailing.

The second thing she did was check on her siblings.

Her older brothers Eros (good name) and Fergus (not a good name) were still alive, thank the Mother and every star she's snuffed out. She couldn't find much about Eros other than that he was in the Windswept Plateau, but Fergus was a messenger in some minor Royal Court.

She found out that she had two younger siblings, too- CrimsonSmoke and William. Does no one understand the value of proper names? Really? Really? Although she felt no emotions towards them than a vague apathy, she took another scroll and found that CrimsonSmoke lived on an island tourist trap named 'Atlantis' and William was part of an order of knights.

Apparently, C.S. had completed the training required to become a full Void mage. Venus wished she felt anything other than a roiling nausea in her stomach.

She was Shadowborn herself, after all, and the only other Void mage she knew- a Skydancer named Gildie- was.. admirable in her dedication. Terrifying and awe-inspiring and an utter delight.

But.

Venus




"What in the Lightbringer's name is that?" Saule asked, wrinkling her pointed nose.

Venus leaned over her shoulder, not seeing anything immediately out of the ordinary. "What?"

"The- the gross thing!" the Ridgeback pointed with one long claw, shuddering. Her familiar, a Lightback Slink rather unoriginally named Lux, chattered worriedly and scrambled onto her shoulder.

Venus took a closer look, then paused. "You mean the mushroom?"

"Yes!" Saule cried.

Venus stared at her disbelievingly. "First of all, you live in a forest-"

"This one is different, though! It's-" her protest was cut off into a wordless shriek, and Venus was moving before she could tell her body otherwise. She launched herself at Saule, sending them both tumbling into the bushes off the path.

Venus jumped to her talons and stared at the mushroom, which wasn't moving. Immediately turning her attention on Saule, she scanned the Ridgeback for injuries or poison or disease.

"What is it?! What happened- are you hurt?"

"It blinked at me," Saule said. Venus couldn't tell if the horror in her voice was real or exaggerated.












It's entertaining to be one of the most terrifying dragons in the Clan, Venus thought as she watched Neamhai poke his head out of his tree-nest, see her, and vanish back inside it.

Of course, it came with some drawbacks- like

But she did have some friends- Persephone and Nemesis (the Fae twins that were always just a bit.. off), Vaxa (a surprisingly gentle Gaoler who loved the stars), and Saule (a.. surprisingly nice






bullet list from an article abt writing ptsd for future reference (may not be accurate!! note to self do more research this is just for now)

-know what triggers it, survival instincts (purely reactive; makes sense in trauma situation), aftermath
-people block out certain things; try focusing on most upsetting things; be visceral with sensory (sound and smell) details
-sometimes memory gaps, remember people are different etc, actual flashbacks are more or less reliving the trauma and super exhausting

DONT DO PARAGRAPHS OF FLASHBACKS also dont do lots of internal dialogue

"Be objective about whether the reader needs to know ALL of that info in one place. My personal rule for backstory is to answer one question for the reader and leave them with two more. To drip in the backstory a sentence, a phrase, at a time. If you’ve got a paragraph, two paragraphs, a whole chapter — that’s just a look at the past, for the sake of looking at the past, “kill your darlings.” "

irritability, hypervigilance, isolation/avoidance, self-destructive behavior, concentration issues, fear/severe anxiety/trust issues, im not sure if i should write abt flashbacks until ive done more research, insomnia, nightmares, detachment/disassociation, intrusive thoughts