Patron Saint of Bad Decisions

When power is given or earned, it should not be coveted, consolidated, glutted on for its own sake. That way lies the path of dragons, not dragonslayers.

Aries: You fell out of the back of a the box car and landed in a dying briar patch. They found nourishment in your skin, you cant feel the thorns anymore.

Taurus: Stolen by a rival monarch and raised as their own child. Not for any political reasons, the queen just wanted more babies.

Gemini: Traded to a band of romani for a sandwich. They realized whoever was trading you for a sandwich was probably an asshole and they should take better care of you.

Cancer: Raised by birds after your parents were eaten by said birds.

Leo: Lost in the mountains after a thunderstorm. Your eyes became accustomed to the dark, teeth honed for the warm things.

Virgo: You were lied to. You were told you were completely human.

Libra: A plot of jealousy lead to your poisoning, however it had no effect and actually made you a little stronger. Your parents just rolled with it.

Scorpio: One of those river babies. You know, like when you just find a kid in a river.

Ophiuchus: You just appeared in the hospital. Manifested out of thin hair.

Sagittarius: An experiment in testing the limits of long-distance ballistic insemination.

Capricorn: You are the true heir to the throne of Ghengis Kahn.

Aquarius: Raised by wolves. Eventually there was a custody battle so you spent winters with your human parents and summers with your wolf parents. 

Aries: You spent the night coughing up god. You woke up slumped over a railing, staring down at the mess in the shrubbery below.

Taurus: It rained last night. When you looked out the window the landscape seemed different somehow. Some things too close, some things too far away. It was too dark to tell and you had the distinct feeling you shouldn’t leave the house.

Gemini: The first nine pages of a book. You have page two. It details something you cant understand. The illustrations are the things of mathematics only found in dreams.

Cancer: The plague of dancing has returned and you are wearing your running shoes. Keep your electrolytes up and get down.

Leo: Tradition keeps the day to day stitched together. All of that unfurls during times of crisis. Be wary of those that fall back on the old ways. Those were darker times.

Virgo: The road flies beneath you, the radio plays a song youve never heard before. You feel something wet on your face. You wake up.

Libra: You planted stone seeds, you got a stone garden. The lesson to take from this is believe in yourself and read the labels. 

Scorpio: You can see the clock tower from anywhere in town. It is always facing you. It towers above every other building.

Ophiuchus: Gain favor with the things inside you. Gain favor with yourself. Sacrifice some tasty vegetables.

Sagittarius: The dragonflies are proud of you for getting out of bed today. Leave some sugar and water on the windowsill as thanks.

Capricorn: Victory never starts well. It wouldn’t be a victory if there wasn’t anything to fight, anything to lose to.

Aquarius: It will be a long time until you see land again. You know the stars. You are not lost, but it will be a while.

every slytherin ever 10/99 — arcturus black the first

@hynpos Myth event: Day 3

Color Palette Challenge #93 - Ares

Color Palette Challenge #92 - Odysseus x Penelope

Aries: Great salt wastes, the bedrock of the world. Vast coral reefs salted and preserved millennia after the ocean dried up.

Taurus: A thunderous rain-swept plain. The dead are placed in covered towers to keep the storms off. Thunder signals a soul crossing over.

Gemini: A window overlooking the ice flow. At night you can hear the colossal sheets of frozen ground grinding against each other. The wind howls.

Cancer: A tomb. Who knows to what or who. The ground around here is razed and black.

Leo: An island covered in plant life. The old-growth oak at the center. The mother raven that nests in its crook. The bodies hanging from the branches.

Virgo: The underground spring. Waters filtered through miles and miles of porous rock. The altar buried with an earthquake. The things that hang from the ceiling, feeding off the waters below.

Libra: The great cistern where now only mushrooms collect. The mass beats like a heart, slowly ever slowly.

Scorpio: A palace slowly being pried apart by trees.

Ophiuchus: A tangle of lanterns and branches, like a starlit sky seen through a bundle of yarn. They grew together.

Sagittarius: A place of great tragedy and power, now thawing slowly from its self-imposed prison.

Capricorn: A land stitched back together with roots. Even the animals here are patchworks of what they once were.

Aquarius: A field of warped and violet glass, it was never supposed to be this way. A constant reminder of failure, but also hope for the future.

Aries: A home inside out. A fire and a bed and endless endless green.

Taurus: Long hallways and warm sitting rooms. Chairs and railings devoid of dust. Theres a courtyard but youve never reached it. You miss the sky.

Gemini: A deep home. Empty elevator shafts stretching deeper than anyone remembers.

Cancer: The home of traitors, but a home nonetheless. At least things grow here.

Leo: A home patrolled by mechanical angels. You are so close to the sky. So close.

Virgo: Sprawling factory lines. Cold furnaces. Half-born war machines. Nothing was meant to live here but here you are. Here you are.

Libra: By all accounts a sewer. You are by all accounts comfortable. The fools above, if only they knew.

Scorpio: A little mountain cabin. The snow never stops. You can see the dead pixels on the horizon.

Ophiuchus: A prison. Nothing more, nothing less. You have made friends though.

Sagittarius: An emergency. A home made from need and fear. You and the other residents have adapted. None cross your borders now.

Capricorn. A temple to be sure. To what or who has been lost to time. Crumbling effigies adorn the walls. You are not the last.

Aquarius: A lavish and ostentatious estate. Empty and bare because the previous occupants couldn’t stomach a little plague. Wimps.

Aries: You will wake on a shore of glittering white sand. The sea is still and the fog covers your legs. You are sure you’ve been here before. Dead sure.

Taurus: The question is not what has science done, but what has science done without us watching? Answer: grow.

Gemini: They can do everything you can do, but to him every moment of it is torture. The constant sensation of bursting at the seams. Every motion burns. Would you take his place?

Cancer: An archive. Ancient knowledge and dust for miles and miles. If only you could read any of it. If only you had anything to eat.

Leo: Look who knew gods could leave ghosts. I dont think anyone could have seen that coming.

Virgo: As perfect as perfect allows can still be horrendously ugly. You will succeed where chaos and surgery have failed.

Libra: The face merchant is coming to town. Theres nothing wrong with what you have but everyone likes some variety.

Scorpio: Wind sweeps over an empty pasture. There are no goalposts here. Nothing to be finished but everything to be made.

Ophiuchus: Dont strain yourself. You are running on emergency power as it is. The light may die for now, but you will sleep waiting.

Sagittarius: It is rare wisdom that sometimes the most dangerous opponents are the ones that dont even know they are playing. 

Capricorn: It is time for a pyromancy wedding.

Aquarius: Strive for perfection and when you end up with mistakes, consume them to replenish the depleted proteins. The cycle shall continue.

Aries: Food used to grow on trees here, perfect and untended. Those that serve the old growth are rarely seen but can be identified by the antler-like growths in their temples.

Taurus: They say that heaven orbits above the glowing dust clouds. Tales of polybutane angels that patrol the skies. Seraphs that keep watch for trespassers.

Gemini: The dead shafts and abandoned tunnels are thought uninhabitable. there is little to salvage from a tomb but apparently life finds a way, and it only ever gets stranger.

Cancer: Fire is an ancient force of purity and renewal. Fear not those who wield it, but those who struggle against the ash, those who seek to grow when thrown on the pyre.

Leo: Those who venture into the white desert only do so out of desperation. Once in a blue moon a survivor will be found on the shores, claiming that some rusted colossus sheltered them where they fell, and brought them back.

Virgo: The whiplike things that run among the wastes. Every so often they can be seen scratching at the earth to reveal some small stone or shard of metal. Who knows what treasure it could be to them?

Libra: How could one who has never seen the sky ever be said to be happy? But deep in the ruins of some grand leaden sewer a father makes toys for the children. Beasts yes, but not monsters.

Scorpio: The forests that still stood are now cracked and dried. Over the years their biology has become warped and adaptable, integrating carbon and aluminum into their trunks. At night their acetylene exhaust glows a faint blue.

Ophiuchus: A trap? A cry for help? It makes no difference to the lost. When ones surroundings are a mystery, the greatest comfort is some familiarity, however brief it will last.

Sagittarius: What doesn’t kill you doesn’t make you stronger, every defeat is an opportunity for a more ghastly revenge. Failure to you is the weight of retribution to another.

Capricorn: The mining colony fell to plague nearly three decades past. The ore kept flowing. If anyone bothered to check all they would find is cold gutted furnaces and empty housing blocks. The ore keeps flowing.

Aquarius: She was built to save some ancient race long ago. Nowadays her memory is poor, and she figures she will get it right eventually. If only she could remember what they looked like.