Border of Sun and Shadow

All Strange Magic All the Time

[abutterflyobsession]

depression is a lingering curse. in the back of the closet I found a grocery bag filled with assorted trash including but not limited to an empty juice bottle and very expired snack pack of peanuts. carbon dating is inconclusive but it's presence there likely dates back years.

[abutterflyobsession]

the amount of laundry stashed away in this one room apartment is incredible. So much of it worn out, stained, uncomfortable to wear, or stuff I never wore. Multiple trash bags to toss, bags to donate, baskets full to wash. I live like this?

[abutterflyobsession]

side quest: collecting the seemingly endless amount of random coins that turn up in and under things? Every time I shift something it seems there's a penny, dime, or nickle (never quarters for some reason)

[abutterflyobsession]

two quarters behind the sculpey clay boxes! score!

thought about reorganizing my main bookshelf but the only thing that would solve the overcrowding issue is to obtain another bookshelf. I've already moved all my childhood/teenage books and comics to their own shelf but that didn't help much.

[abutterflyobsession]

shoveled some of the trash out of my car and found more loose change. Some sort of video game nonsense going on here . . .

[abutterflyobsession]

a dime and nickle in a plastic baggie on a shelf of sketchbooks . . .

the amount of mail I have ignored and stashed over the years is terrifying. Some of it was apparently carried over from my previous address and I just. kept? I have to check it all and I've got a mountain of stuff I can safely trash and a smaller mountain of stuff that's important and I need to sort. Past-me, you depressed slob, I just wanna talk

[abutterflyobsession]

depression is a lingering curse. in the back of the closet I found a grocery bag filled with assorted trash including but not limited to an empty juice bottle and very expired snack pack of peanuts. carbon dating is inconclusive but it's presence there likely dates back years.

[abutterflyobsession]

the amount of laundry stashed away in this one room apartment is incredible. So much of it worn out, stained, uncomfortable to wear, or stuff I never wore. Multiple trash bags to toss, bags to donate, baskets full to wash. I live like this?

[abutterflyobsession]

side quest: collecting the seemingly endless amount of random coins that turn up in and under things? Every time I shift something it seems there's a penny, dime, or nickle (never quarters for some reason)

[abutterflyobsession]

two quarters behind the sculpey clay boxes! score!

thought about reorganizing my main bookshelf but the only thing that would solve the overcrowding issue is to obtain another bookshelf. I've already moved all my childhood/teenage books and comics to their own shelf but that didn't help much.

[abutterflyobsession]

shoveled some of the trash out of my car and found more loose change. Some sort of video game nonsense going on here . . .

[kaijuno]

[byteofsoup]

Imagine you're so small and cold and scared but there's smaller ones that are smaller and colder and more scared. I'm going to cry

[the-final-sif]

'Most Responsible Kitten In The World' Found Watching Over Orphaned Litter

A fluffy black kitten named Binx was found attempting to care for three younger kittens "as best he could."

Binx did his job well and all 4 of them got fostered together!

[holespoles]

Timothy Adam Matthews (British, born 1981) "A Closer Look", 2020. Oil on Canvas

[zigzag-wanderer]

@serenitynerd I love it! Thank you ! 😊

[serenitynerd]

@zigzag-wanderer yay!

[modelsof-color]

Anok Yai by Rafael Pavarotti for Vogue UK June 2026

[disc80s]

pasta art

[mikkeneko]

That is. Not the caption I was expecting

[lasernahrwal]

PSA

This is not fabric

This is pasta

[not-so-innocent-bi-sander]

I was wondering why the fabric was in a pasta roller

I did not consider it was pasta

[adrenaline-revolver]

“Eridians dislike earth because they abandoned Grace.” *Incorrect Buzzer Sound* ya missed the point of the story buddy! It’s not about someone being ‘bad’ it’s about the incredible power of love and that love being worth dying for!

Gimmie Eridians who are absolutely heartbroken to hear that humans where so desperate and so scared that they where willing to part with not just one Grace, there were three of them! Gimmie Eridians touched to find that the humans planned a way for their sacrifices to be as comfortable as possible. Gimmie Eridians who send earth a message saying “We know it must have hurt to send your heroes to die, but one made it and he’s safe here. We lost 22 good Eridians on the journey we would have lost 23 if not for your Grace.”

Give me humans sitting on Earth slowly coming to the conclusion that when we look up not only are we not alone, someone out there is alive because of one of us. That no matter what we think of ourselves a whole species thinks highly of us because we helped save the galaxy. Give me humans who figure out how to send a probe to Erid filled to the brim with messages for Grace and footage of a monument being raised that reads his name, his crews names, and then “in memory of the 22 Eridians who lost their lives on the journey to save the stars.”

[abutterflyobsession]

depression is a lingering curse. in the back of the closet I found a grocery bag filled with assorted trash including but not limited to an empty juice bottle and very expired snack pack of peanuts. carbon dating is inconclusive but it's presence there likely dates back years.

[abutterflyobsession]

the amount of laundry stashed away in this one room apartment is incredible. So much of it worn out, stained, uncomfortable to wear, or stuff I never wore. Multiple trash bags to toss, bags to donate, baskets full to wash. I live like this?

[abutterflyobsession]

side quest: collecting the seemingly endless amount of random coins that turn up in and under things? Every time I shift something it seems there's a penny, dime, or nickle (never quarters for some reason)

[abutterflyobsession]

two quarters behind the sculpey clay boxes! score!

thought about reorganizing my main bookshelf but the only thing that would solve the overcrowding issue is to obtain another bookshelf. I've already moved all my childhood/teenage books and comics to their own shelf but that didn't help much.

[abutterflyobsession]

depression is a lingering curse. in the back of the closet I found a grocery bag filled with assorted trash including but not limited to an empty juice bottle and very expired snack pack of peanuts. carbon dating is inconclusive but it's presence there likely dates back years.

[abutterflyobsession]

the amount of laundry stashed away in this one room apartment is incredible. So much of it worn out, stained, uncomfortable to wear, or stuff I never wore. Multiple trash bags to toss, bags to donate, baskets full to wash. I live like this?

[abutterflyobsession]

side quest: collecting the seemingly endless amount of random coins that turn up in and under things? Every time I shift something it seems there's a penny, dime, or nickle (never quarters for some reason)

[abutterflyobsession]

depression is a lingering curse. in the back of the closet I found a grocery bag filled with assorted trash including but not limited to an empty juice bottle and very expired snack pack of peanuts. carbon dating is inconclusive but it's presence there likely dates back years.

[abutterflyobsession]

the amount of laundry stashed away in this one room apartment is incredible. So much of it worn out, stained, uncomfortable to wear, or stuff I never wore. Multiple trash bags to toss, bags to donate, baskets full to wash. I live like this?

[abutterflyobsession]

oh no the book I'm reading is part one of a trilogy and I don't have the other two. well shoot I guess I'll just have to read this other book by the same author . . .

The Ladies of Mandrigyn: a sorcerer has taken over a territory and enslaved all the men in the mines. The women try to hire a mercenary group to help reclaim their territory and free the men but the group declines. Too high risk, low reward. So the women do the next best thing: kidnap the leader of the mercenaries, put a curse on him, and say they'll only take it off if he trains all the women to fight so they can reclaim the territory themselves.

yeah, it sounds okay I guess

[abutterflyobsession]

The thing is, kidnapping the mercenary captain (Sun Wolf) was never the plan. They went there with every intention of hiring him and actually paying him an insane amount, three times what he just earned in his last campaign. But winter is setting in and only an idiot would go to war in winter. As well only an idiot would go against an immortal wizard. Sun Wolf is a pragmatist, not an idiot.

Then you get to see the change in plan begin almost in real time. The representative who came to make the offer, Sheera, is leaving the negotiation defeated when she runs into Sun Wolf's second in command, Starhawk, who is, in fact, a woman. And there's this long, thoughtful moment of staring before Sheera finally leaves.

Sun Wolf is a renown mercenary and one of the reasons is that he's known for actually training his men properly and even runs a school in the winter that will take anyone.

You can totally see how Sheera went, 1) it's possible for women to do the fighting themselves, 2) Sun Wolf teaches fighting and warfare = we're going to kidnap that man.

[abutterflyobsession]

So the mercenary turns you down. So what can you do but lure him to an isolated place and shoot him in the leg with an arrow coated with a sleeping drug? Then slowly stalk him as he tries to fight off the drug and run, closing in on him slowly from the shadows until he collapses? Then what else is there to do but shanghai him and not let him wake up again until you're well out to sea? And naturally while he was asleep you fed him a deadly poison that would kill him in a way so excruciating that even a tough guy like him would hesitate to face such an end. And of course you've got your magic-user to apply a spell that halts the poison but it must be reapplied every day so there's no way he can run away without facing certain, horrific death.

Is this not girl power?

[abutterflyobsession]

it should be noted that while the majority of able-bodied free men have been killed or enslaved in the mines and the wizard has placed his own men in positions of governorship the ladies are keeping that town running smooth. They're running the businesses, sailing the boats, keeping the smith running. There's problems with the workforce being so drastically reduced and they're in for difficulties in the long run but things are still steady for the moment. In addition to keeping the city running they've organized their underground revolutionary operation and raised a substantial amount of funding, all in secret.

Also interesting is that while it's high-ranking and wealthy women who are running the organization the whole thing began with the city's female prostitutes. One prostitute, Amber Eyes, went to ply her trade at the garrison guarding the mines so she could figure out how to pass messages back and forth to the miners and find out if her friend's husband was still alive. After communication was established the respectable high ranking women found out and provided funds and connections to turn it into a revolutionary organization. Now the prostitutes are an integral part of the organization as the women plan to attack the mine from the outside while the men are organizing on the inside.

side-note: there's a lot of snobbery from the respectable ladies about having to deal with prostitutes and even if there wasn't they can't openly contact each other when they have no business even being in the same parts of the city. So the keystone of communication between the two groups are the hairdressers. No matter their background or line of work all the ladies need to get their hair done nothing suspicious about that.

[abutterflyobsession]

Sun Wolf has been the POV character so far (just switched to Starhawk) and he's on a magical journey of learning about the lives and hardships of women. He's not there yet but he is traveling.

In the beginning of the book we are introduced to Fawn, his gentle, biddable concubine. Even though they're traveling mercenaries Sun Wolf's tent is extremely luxurious and Fawn is shown to have the best clothing, accessories, makeup, and everything she could want. He's noted to treat her with exceptional kindness and gentleness. It's also noted that she is the latest in a long line of similarly sweet and obedient concubines he's had over the years. He's protective of her and other young women who happen to be in his purview but, tellingly, since he was kidnapped he hasn't really thought about her at all. He was kind to Fawn but he never respected her as a person.

Then, his second in command, Starhawk, happens to be a woman. It's not really relevant to him, he sees her strictly as a fellow warrior and trusted subordinate. And at first glance it seems very open minded of him to see her based just on merit. However. Since he's been spending so much time training the women of Mandrigyn he's starting to get context for elements of Starhawk's personality that he thought were just her personal quirks while really it's from her experiences of being a woman in this harsh setting. He wasn't seeing her as a complete person because he was erasing her identity as a woman.

There's also a lot of little things. Like how he remembers stories the men around him would tell about the disrespectful or cruel ways they would treat woman and while he hadn't participated in the acts he had laughed along and normalized it.

Sun Wolf, laying in the dark staring at the ceiling: am I the problem?

[abutterflyobsession]

don't you hate it when you're in the middle of training a group of revolutionaries into a strike force when there's a

zombie attack

[abutterflyobsession]

now we've switched POV to Starhawk and she has understandably, but wrongly, deduced that Sun Wolf was kidnapped by the evil wizard. That's okay, she's traveling to the right place regardless. Fawn has come along too so it's the girls on their way to steal back their man. So what's happening with them--

Another

zombie attack

[abutterflyobsession]

kind of obsessed with Fawn as a character. She's introduced as super sweet and feminine and submissive and she adores Sun Wolf and when he disappears she immediately follows after Starhawk to find him.

but it becomes clear that she's been suppressing parts of herself in order to be an ideal concubine, catering to what Sun Wolf wants. She might actually love him but it's all rooted in gratitude and really not romantic, I don't think. She was kidnapped and enslaved at sixteen and watched her father murdered and got a front row seat to the worst things that could happen to an unprotected woman and was desperately afraid of what would happen to her. Then Sun Wolf bought her and he was kind and generous and protected her and she was just so grateful. Now he's disappeared and Fawn knows if he never returns she'll be given to another man like an abandoned toy and she doesn't want to roll the dice and hope this one is nice too. She goes after him because he's the only safety she can rely on.

After Fawn and Starhawk nearly die (in a Zombie Attack) they're taken in by a merchant family while they recover. Fawn was originally from a merchant family and loves to barter and talk trade and she loves the household and decides to marry one of the sons. She doesn't say she loves him, but that she wants this life. Family, security, running a business, having children with a husband who isn't risking his life in battle year after year. Because now Sun Wolf isn't her sole option, now she has a whole support system offered to her. She loves Sun Wolf, she's grateful, but they were never equal partners, never really knew each other.

In so many other stories Fawn and Sun Wolf would be the endgame couple but instead this story goes, what if Fawn had other options? What if she had choices? If Sun Wolf is not in a position of power what does he have to offer Fawn? And the answer is that he doesn't have anything to offer her and she has no reason to chase after him anymore.

[abutterflyobsession]

Sun Wolf seems to have an attitude of deliberately not caring for people or possessions deeply so that he won't care when he loses them.

Understandable for a mercenary that watches cities rise and fall, kings turned prisoner overnight, wealth and power changing hands with the seasons. When he's abducted and torn away from everything he has he doesn't really spend much time thinking about it, focused instead of getting out of the situation. So. When. He can't stop thinking about Starhawk, missing their bond of mutual trust, missing how they could talk about anything and everything together, he realizes. Oh. Shoot. I love her. In the middle of this whole situation he's gotta wrestle with his first romantic love while never knowing if he'd see her again, or if she'd every possibly return his feelings.

MEANWHILE

Starhawk, who set out to find Sun Wolf nearly the moment he goes missing, following an extremely thin lead, traveling over brutal terrain in deadly winter weather, thinking at the end of the trip she would have to find her way into the fortress of an immortal wizard who may or may not have kidnapped Sun Wolf, and that Sun Wolf may be already dead, realizes that yeah. she's in love with Sun Wolf.

Glorious mutual pining.

Love to see how both of them have to reevaluate what they think love is. Sun Wolf has never been romantically in love before, this is explicitly stated in the book. And obviously he's been thinking of romantic love as lust that people are too weak willed to control. He tells himself Starhawk isn't even pretty, she's nothing like the delicate, submissive women he finds attractive. She isn't like the women men are supposed to find attractive. He does end up accepting it pretty quickly, all told, but embarrassed. He's forty and he's got his first crush it's humiliating.

Starhawk meanwhile has had an unusual job history as before she was a mercenary she was a nun. (there are at least three religions mentioned, Starhawk is monotheistic, there's a 'Triple God', and Sun Wolf worships his ancestors). When you find out that Starhawk views marriage and intimate relationships with men as an inevitable subjugation of her own will it makes sense that she went to a convent to avoid it. After she was recruited by Sun Wolf she felt fulfilled by the freedom and glory of a warrior and mercenary's life. Her relationships with men ended up being short-lived because she would dump them the moment they tried to control her.

Admitting her feelings for Sun Wolf, she immediately thinks about how she is nothing like the women he loves. She can't be like that, she can't be like Fawn. She can't imagine being with Sun Wolf or being wanted by him because she can't and won't be anything but herself.

What they both want is a partnership of equals, which is something that's not really an option in the society they live in.

~glorious mutual pining~

[abutterflyobsession]

so much stuff with the ladies of the Ladies of Mandrigyn is great and I haven't really talked about it much because you should read it yourself.

I do want to mention how the ladies who are training to fight are of all different heights and builds and ages and from diverse backgrounds and differing motives. Some fine ladies, a blacksmith, prostitutes, a nun, a gladiator originally hired as a bodyguard. (a couple of confirmed lesbians too). And in the initial group of volunteers Sun Wolf weeded out the women that were too old, young, handicapped, or drunks or addicts, trouble-makers. Which really added some depth, letting the women be imperfect people who nevertheless wanted to fight for a cause, instead of like perfect paragons of Girl Power™

special mention to the two thirteen year old girls tearfully insisting they were older and that their mothers definitely knew where they were. I hope they find the young adult novel they're looking for.

[abutterflyobsession]

nearing the end of the book and the story is definitely not over yet but never fear! I do have the sequel to this one! Here it is, right here--

oh. it's. book three. and I don't have book two.

WHY YOU GOTTA DO ME LIKE THIS BARBARA HAMBLY

[abutterflyobsession]

I spoke too soon! The book does wrap up the main story while leaving it open for a sequel. It was just a lot of action jammed into the last section (in a good way). I'm sorry, Barbara Hambly, I wronged you.

I feel like my ramblings have been even more disorganized and incoherent lately. Anyway.

A bittersweet ending for a lot of reasons. They take back the city but many of the ladies die in the process. Now that the men are free they want everything to go back to how it was and there are obvious rifts forming in families and relationships because the women have been inevitably changed by their experiences and many can't or don't want to return to 'normal'.

The story also makes it clear that this is a complex issue. The men have been hanging onto the hope that they can go home again, go back to their jobs and their families, that hope is what kept them going. Only to return and find things changed almost beyond recognition. The women they were supposed to protect have been killed or forever scarred to protect the men. Not only were the men usurped but they failed in their duty to protect. Destabilizing for everyone involved.

The funny thing is that the city's reinstated government banishes Sun Wolf. He gets the official blame for 'degrading the women's morals' and such even though he was there entirely against his own will. It's a flailing against reality, as if only some wicked outside force could be to blame for the change.

The good news is that Sheera, the leader of the ladies, marries Tarrin, the new king, and they are equals in their relationship. Instead of being crowned king and afterwards taking Sheera as consort, the couple are married and then both crowned as co-rulers.

The ladies of Mandrigyn aren't done fighting yet.

However the sequel takes us on Sun Wolf and Starhawk's continuing adventures and I don't know if we'll get to see the Ladies of Mandrigyn again. (my order for the sequel just got cancelled and I had to reorder from somewhere else so who knows what happens next, certainly not me)

[the-big-mood]

These two giant turtles have been fighting each other for more than 120 years.

According to the zoo, one turtle stole the other’s food 120 years ago, and since that day they became enemies.

There hasn’t been a single day where they don’t fight for 2–3 minutes😂

[the-haiku-bot]

There hasn’t been a

single day where they don’t fight

for 2–3 minutes😂

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

[juggernottoday]

These are Sulcata tortoises who live 52-75 years in captivity. They were fighting over territory disputes due to the changing seasons (source, in the readers add context section)

Poor poor haiku bot, led astray and misinformed by a fake haiku😞

[nobrashfestivity]

Hajime Namiki

Tree Scene

[perfectnonfreedom]

Natalia Goncharova - Design for final backcloth.

[high6]

[transgp]

rocky as rocky project hail mary (2026)

[themakeupbrush]

Wang Xiaowei at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival