sooooo I had the idea of nightmare being a merchant and I have a lot to say about it hihi (see tags)

(comic under cut cuz it was getting too long)

Let's talk about the pregnancy trope in ACOSF. Keep in mind I haven't completed the book yet.

I personally don't mind pregnancy tropes. I think they're cute and fun, or at least can be. In this case, I think Feyre needed to be pregnant to push Nesta out of her own head. Nesta won't let Elain do anything, and Feyre can't put herself or the baby at risk. Yeah, it was so soon after Rhys mentioned the fae fertility issues, which lessened the credibility of his words to a degree... and the timing could've been better considering how Briallyn and the other human queens are still an issue even after defeating Hybern. But at the same time, the scene with the weaver/shopkeeper from ACOFAS? She mentioned regretting not having kids with her husband because she thought they'd have more time before he died from the war. I'm sure that left an impact on Feyre. She loves Rhys. She wants to experience everything with him. Part of that everything is having a family with him, having children.

I know SJM could have written an alternative to basically corner Nesta into finding the Dread Trove, but I don't know if the stakes would have been the same. Nesta needs to see the people around her, namely her sisters, are moving on, that she can't stay stuck on the past. Also, she's the main character, she needs to be the one doing shit and moving the story along.

Elain can't be the one who finds the Dread Trove because Nesta will do everything to keep her out of harm's way, to a fault. Perfect, we already have that obstacle to her main-charactering out of the way. But Feyre is a strong and capable High Lady who is easily able to use her magic, so Nesta obviously would see no issue with passing off the task to her youngest sister. Perhaps also out of habit from their time in the cabin. Feyre being pregnant makes her going to find it absolutely out of the question due to the difficulty of fae pregnancies. But also, this pregnancy is a reality check for Nesta whether she likes it or not.

Like I already said, she needs to see her sisters moving on. She needs it to see how stuck she is. Not left behind, though she may feel that way, but stuck. (She was never left behind since being made. They let her do as she pleased under their watch because the refused to leave her behind.) Feyre is forming a new family, already has a new family, and Elain is well-adjusted after the trauma they went through. Nesta is haunted by the past and lashes out as a result, but they are still there for her no matter how many times she hurts them. She is already seeing how far apart they stand in terms of healing (I'm on chapter 21... i have a LONG way to go).

Nesta will not break. She's just cracked all over, left sharp and jagged, but she will not break.

Okay bye, I'm sure someone somewhere has shared the same opinion as me already. i just wanted my thoughts put into words for me to look back on. I will likely come back and edit it this when I can find the words to my other thoughts on this subject. Thank you for reading!

Welcome to the Bone Shop, Valued Customer!

As our name implies, we sell here a wide variety of remains- but our stock is more diverse than that. Anything paid to us in trade is resold to other customers! As such, we carry a large collection of trinkets, cursed and enchanted objects, books, weapons, armor and tools.

We accept payment in nearly all forms of currency, as well as in trade. If you've nothing on you, but still want to make a purchase, stories and information are valuable here as well.

Just careful not to wander into the back, yes? And mind your manners- rude customers are not tolerated.

[Character info/rules under the cut]

(Icon by @the-art-of-dumbassery and header by @the-phobia-doctor - thanks to the both of you!)

Tagging System

RULES: PLEASE READ

Rp I will NOT DO, unless previously discussed and agreed to:

Heavy sexual content (jokes are fine, and you can flirt with the characters, but double check for explicit nsfw please)

Serious injury or death of my characters, unless discussed prior to thread

Heavy traumatic content with blogs I'm not familiar with- if you want to cover heavy topics such as self-harm at all, actually, please just send me a message to ask first.

Current locations available to visit and their characters include:

The Bone Shop

The Shopkeep

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Any pronouns. If you see a post referring to Alex or Alexandria, that's them as well- but they guard their name. They run the store, and they'll be the one you'd want to talk to in order to make a purchase.

Host

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Any pronouns, although generally it/its. Host is the sentient pocket dimension the store is based in. It doesn't usually show its physical form to customers, but if you ask to speak to it, you'll get your wish- although there's no guarantee it'll go well for you. Host can't leave the store as easily as the shopkeep does, but you'll see them out occasionally. Comparatively for their species, they're young. Information on its species here.

Seraphina

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She/her. Previously Vivus's vessel- she got immortality out of the deal, but with the goddess's death, she's as human as anyone else. Sera is the shopkeep's older sister, although they both got their immortality around the same time. She's currently staying in the store and helping out with the day-to,-day stuff.

Vivus's Temple

Vivus (NOTE: IN CANON, CHARACTER HAS DIED.)

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She/her. A local goddess of life and growth! She has some problems with the bone shop, mostly stemming from the danger of Host. She uses the shopkeep's sister, Seraphina, as a vessel. Most of her acolytes know her as Vi. She's generally very upbeat and welcoming- we don't want to frighten the poor, misguided mortals now, do we? But if she sees you as a threat, best to watch out.

Mod's House

Mod Bonesy (Me! Hi :D)

Mod talking: Text like this

Any pronouns. I'm the guy running this blog! There's only one mod at the moment, and I don't think I'll add more. You can talk to me if you want information given to you out-of-character, if you have something to say about the blog, if you have questions... I'm willing to chat about most things regarding the bone shop. Just clarify you'd like to speak to the mod, so I don't accidentally redirect you to Host or the shopkeep.

That's all for now- I'll add to this if necessary, but I needed a more in-depth pinned post. Happy browsing, Valued Customer- and mind your manners, yes?

What about a yandere that you own? Like sort of similar to the yandere servant energy, but more along the lines of a nonhuman that your family keeps as a "pet"/property/guard dog and that's decided you're too fragile and delicate and small to face the world? Bonus tbh for inheriting it after your family dies and being all alone with just it and the family's manor.

tw - unhealthy relationships, mentions of death/violence, possessive behavior, slight manipulation, and generalized monster-fucking.

i can see this as a sorta pet-monster scenario, if that makes sense. maybe you're an aristocrat, the child of a wealthy family who can afford to keep their exceptionally talented 'guard dog' fed, and maybe they're a timeless creature, something with fur and fangs and intelligence, enough so to willingly enter a contract with an ancestor or yours who was startling determined to ensure that no harm ever came to their blood. and, maybe you were a sickly child, too, prone to periods of fever and exhaustion, so you needed more of their protection than most - both from external threats, assassins and thieves and hired criminal, and for smaller affairs, more trivial matters, heatstroke when you fall asleep in the courtyard's gardens or hypothermia when the winter turns hostile and the fire in your bedroom burns too low to keep the warmth in you thin blood. when your family decides to take an ill-fated cruise and you're deemed unfit to travel, they're left behind as well to look after you.

when your family fails to return, you come into their care permanently, as the sole focus of their pact.

when you're younger, they're doting, careful, occasionally sweet, and as time passes, as you become less of a ward and more of an equal, their behavior changes, they grow more stoic, more cautious, more akin to the shape in the shadows they always told you they would be, if not for your particular misfortune. not to say they're ever cold to you; with your constantly revolving staff, your fair-weather friends and distant remaining family, they're the only one you can go to for advice, for comfort, for a shoulder to cry on when guilt keeps you awake into the small hours of the morning and you can't think of anyone else who'd let you spend the night in their arms. you don't need them to, anymore, but they still take care of you, bring you tea and sugar while you work, drape sheets and blankets over your body whenever you fall asleep at your desk or in the sprawling library. you've told them not to bother, that you're an adult and you can fend for yourself, but they brush you off, frown and ask what else they're supposed to do with their time, now that they have so little to safe-keep. they tell you that they're only doing their duty, and that you, especially, should be thankful for their diligence.

they vet anyone who comes into your life, no matter how small a role they might play. maids and butlers, chefs and shopkeepers, acquaintances and friends and lovers, for as rarely as you can afford to take one. they don't seem to trust other humans, not like they trust you, not like you assume they trusted your family. they're always so on-edge whenever you're in public, whenever they can't stand over your shoulder and snap at the throats of anyone who might stray too close, and they like to lecture you, too, to pull you aside and warn you away from those who they've decided not to trust. you know that you should draw the line, that you're still their master and, if you wanted to, you could tell them that they're overstepping their bounds, that they don't get to protect you from 'threats' who haven't done you any harm yet, but...

but, you have so little, aside from them. your family's gone, your few companions either maimed and torn apart or pushed to a distance, and if you lost them, if you did anything to break your contract, to send them away, you'd have nothing, no one. if you told them not to bare their teeth at anyone and everyone who steps into your mansion, not to bite the fingers off of any other servant who dares to lay a hand on you, not to slip into your bed at night, then they might take offense. they might think you're rejecting them, rejecting your protection. they might leave, and you might be left alone. terribly, painfully alone.

and you don't want to be alone, again.

What are the Fire Hazards withinside the Workplace?

A hearthplace withinside the administrative center affords large dangers to assets and the fitness of your personnel and the public. It can bodily harm or spoil buildings, contents and device.

It also can be liable for extreme accidents or even death. Common accidents encompass burns, respiration harm from smoke inhalation, oxygen depletion and trauma (which includes damaged bones) from break out attempts.

Common reassets of fires at work

Fires want 3 matters to start: a supply of ignition (heat), a supply of gas (some thing that burns) and oxygen.

Sources of ignition encompass warmers, lighting, bare flames, electric device, smokers’ substances (cigarettes, matches, etc.), and some thing else that could get very warm or motive sparks.

Sources of gas encompass wood, paper, plastic, rubber, foam, free packaging substances, waste and furniture.

Air is the number one supply of oxygen. Other reassets encompass chemical substances that include oxidizing agents, and oxygen substances from cylinder garage and piped systems.

Related..BEST FIVE FIRE SAFETY TIPS FOR YOUR HOME

How to Prevent Fires withinside the Workplace?

Employers (and constructing owners) have to perform a hearthplace protection chance evaluation and maintain it as much as date. This may be completed both as a part of an typical chance evaluation or as a separate exercise.

Based at the findings of the evaluation, employers have to ensure that ok and suitable hearthplace protection measures are in area to decrease the chance of damage or lack of existence withinside the occasion of a hearthplace.

To assist save you hearthplace withinside the administrative center, your chance evaluation have to become aware of what ought to motive a hearthplace to start—that is, reassets of ignition and materials that burn—and the folks who can be at chance. Your chance evaluation have to additionally become aware of risky materials that could bring about fires or explosions.

What to do to save you fires at work

Once you've got got recognized the dangers, you could take suitable motion to govern them. Consider whether or not you could keep away from them altogether or, if this isn't possible, how you could lessen the dangers and control them. Also remember how you'll defend human beings if there's a hearthplace.

Carry out a hearthplace protection chance evaluation.

Keep reassets of ignition and flammable materials apart.

Avoid unintentional fires. For example, ensure warmers can't be knocked over.

Ensure true home tasks in any respect times, which includes averting build-up of garbage that might burn.

Determine how you could stumble on fires and warn human beings quick in the event that they start, which includes through putting in smoke alarms and hearthplace alarms or bells.

Have the appropriate device for placing a hearthplace out quick.

Keep hearthplace exits and break out routes really marked and unobstructed in any respect times.

Ensure your people get hold of suitable education on strategies they want to follow, which include hearthplace drills.

Review and replace your chance evaluation often.

The Importance of Fire Safety Plans

Fires are a extreme chance for organizations of all sorts and might stem from such things as negligent cooking, improperly discarded smoking substances and defective electric device. One of the excellent approaches employers can defend their enterprise from steeply-priced and devastating fires is through setting up a hearthplace protection plan.

Related.. The Importance of Fire Extinguisher Training for Your Employees

A hearthplace protection plan is an in depth record that covers all factors of hearthplace protection for a particular constructing or assets. An powerful plan will encompass the following:

Specific protection and home tasks necessities used to save you fires

Methods for minimizing the harm resulting from fires once they occur

Details concerning emergency strategies, which include a way to sound the alarm, notify the hearthplace branch and evacuate all personnel

Specifics on how hearthplace drills are performed and the way often

Actions associated with hearthplace risk prevention and control

Information concerning worker education on hearthplace risks and prevention

Detailed protection strategies for hearthplace safety systems

Items to have a look at on this audit encompass web website online layout, factors of access and exit, roadways, use of the constructing, wherein and the way objects are stored, and alarm and sprinkler systems.

In addition to the use of a hearthplace protection plan, corporations can lessen their chance through highlighting hearthplace protection throughout protection conferences and making use of informational sources like a hearthplace prevention checklist.

Case Study: Fire Safety withinside the Workplace

A shopkeeper often placed packing waste through the again door of his save as he stocked the cabinets after a delivery. His people now and again opened the again door to have a cigarette wreck outside.

One week he left the pile of rubbish for numerous days, and a discarded cigarette butt induced it to capture hearthplace. By the time the hearthplace became noticed and placed out, it had induced giant harm to the shopkeeper’s again door and shelving units. There became a large value in broken inventory and repairs.

More… Fire Safety Training Abu Dhabi , Fire Safety Training uae , Fire and Safety Companies in Abu dhabi , fire and safety companies in Dubai , Safety consultants in Abu Dhabi

Superstition

People will believe in human beings, this is the eternal truth. Then superstition like irrationalness never seems to be good.

Anything that is not easily rescued, it should be understood by all of us. In order to be rescued, it is necessary to have knowledge about his various experiments. But if suddenly a stranger says, if you listen to everything I say, then you will be completely free from all diseases. Just have to believe. And two such strangers, Kalumama of our village believed.

Those two people came to our village from Bahrampur. Wearing a pale dhoti Punjabi, with a red tip on his forehead, a young man in his thirties. He has a small mirror in his hand, another one of that age who has a thick bamboo stick in his hand. The man is wearing a white fatwa on his dhoti and a red tip on his forehead.

Seeing the amazing power of the man wearing the dhoti Punjabi, we ten people, men and women, gathered around him. Some people from nearby houses started peeping. And Kalumama also came and appeared.

Then it will be eight in the morning of summer. At this point the man wearing the dhoti Punjabi, holding the small mirror in front of his eyes with his right hand, instructed his companion. Now find out. The companion then began to grope behind the man, in the bush, in the bush, in the forest full of banana, mango, and supuri trees, with a bamboo twig stick. As if looking for something. And Manasa is singing Mars songs in her mouth.

Where Palali snake kills Lakshindre, I will be punished, you will catch it right now. Meanwhile, the man wearing dhoti Punjabi, looking in the mirror, said to his companion, look carefully, look at the base of the banana tree. I can see in the mirror, running away. Hold on, hold on. Now hold on. Hurry up and run away. The man immediately put the stick under the snake's belly and hung the living snake like a rope.

I didn't think the snake was very fast. Is moving. Fana is also raising. Then the man grabbed the tail of the snake, put his head in a snake basket and pressed it with the lid of the basket, the snake went in, and pressed the lid well.

Thus in the whole village, ten snakes were caught in different places. How much more knowledge do we have? The whole thing surprised us. On top of that, Kalumama asked, "You can see everything in the mirror, we can't see anything." The man said to Kalumama, these sadhana babu. You will see what I see in this mirror, so where will your difference be with me. All is the grace of Kamakhya Devi.

That is our strength. As I look in the mirror, I will instruct my partner to catch the snake. And this is what you saw before your eyes. Kalumama asked again, "How long will you catch snakes?" The man said, "Every day we catch snakes, from eight to ten in the morning." No more snakes after ten. Because then the goddess Kamakhya is worshiped.

Kalumama was so surprised that he began to speak his mind. Ms. We also saw snakes, wearing lungi, wearing genji, tying towels on their heads, playing beans, making holes with shovels, pulling snakes out, putting them in baskets. But I have never seen anyone with such amazing powers. He says he can't see everything in the mirror. Then you also know Tantra mantra, you also keep medicine, you can also cure the disease! The man said yes I can. What is your problem, if all is said openly, I can cure the disease with a guarantee.

Kalumama was going to tell something to the man holding the mirror holding the dhoti Punjabi about his disease. Go to your house. Talk at home. Better a poor horse than no horse at all. Tanahle increases the danger.

Kalumama took the man, entered the tiled house with four walls made of clay and closed the door. And the second man sat on the hill near the door. Kalumama was so eager to say something to the man that no one around him, mother, father, uncle, sister, noticed what he saw.

About an hour later, the man and his companion left the house, saluting Kalumama. They never looked at the people of Kalumama's house in the vicinity. But at that moment, in Kalumama's eyes, a change was noticed. The sincerity that was there before is no more. Some thoughts seem to be in vivo. Her father asked, "When are you going to Kiri? It's time." Kalumama said softly, "Yes, yes, I will go out this time."

Accompanied by Kalumama's cousin Shankar, he has already reached the bus stand. At this bus stand, only one bus travels. Comes at nine in the morning, leaves at half past nine. They come again at three in the afternoon, leave at three and a half. That is why they did not get a bus in the morning as usual. So they were forced to go to the market where they would shop, and they reached in an hour by horse carriage. My cousin paid for the horse-drawn carriage. In fact, Kalumama's sister got married. So they are marketing a little earlier. He will wear whatever clothes he needs today, and he will keep the gold jewelry market.

At first they went to the gold shop. Buy clothes later. On the occasion of the wedding, he chose all the gold ornaments that he needed. Kalumama was shocked when he went to take money out of his pocket to pay the price to the shopkeeper. There is no money in the pocket. Kalumama sat at the shop with her head in her hands. He is a matter of a lot of money! The shopkeepers were also shocked, Shankar was also panicked.

After a while, Kalumama explained to the shopkeeper about the difficulty of money, took Shankar out and said, Shankar is defeated! Now the way! Let's go to the police station quickly I will go there and tell everything. Kalumama went to the police station and told the officer everything. The story of the two men catching snakes and what happened after they went home, when Kalumama told the snake wearing some dhoti Punjabi about some of his diseases, first of all, the man who was sitting outside the door, opened the door. With a snake, he closed the door again.

Kalumamato was about to jump first, then the snake said, Lafiona Babu, this is the blessing snake of Kamakhya Devi. You have nothing to fear. No harm done. Kalumama sat quietly, scared, with a snake in her throat. The snake was moving, so he felt very uncomfortable. And for the snake to get rid of the disease slowly, the roots should be soaked in water every night, drinking the water in the morning, the disease will be cured. And sprayed him with something like water. Then he fainted.

Kalumama could understand something in her sleep. He lowered the snake from his throat and said to him, "Babu, give me the right one." Kalumama put his hand in his pocket and handed the bundle tied to the handkerchief to the snake. The bundle was full of money to buy jewelry. He was in the house for a long time in that relaxed state. Then they did not know when they left. The OC of the police station, after receiving all the reports, just said, someone does such stupidity one day!

There are doctors, not snakes, to cure the disease. A little while ago, someone like you reported that the same thing had happened in this neighborhood. Let's see! They started walking with the OC. As soon as he went to the jail, Kalumama shouted to the OC, "Yes sir, that is the man wearing the dhoti Punjabi, and his companion." Kalumama regained her composure with her hands on her chest. He hopes the money will at least be available.

If you want to read this story in bengali then click this link.

https://shortestory.wordpress.com/

#35 - Unquiet Land, by Sharon Shinn

Beat the Backlist Bingo: Lost royalty

Rating: 2/5 stars

A lackluster end to a subpar series. I've been a fan of Shinn for just over two decades now, and for me Elemental Blessings can't stand up to either Samaria (my overall favorite) or The Twelve Houses (which contains my single favorite novel of hers but isn't quite as good throughout.) But I'm not reviewing the whole series here, just this last installment. And it's not even as good as the earlier novels, which I didn't think were particularly great. I basically finished this out of loyalty. So, first: I cannot recommend the audiobook, I strongly disliked the narrator. There's always a risk with fantasy or sci-fi that the speaker isn't going to pronounce the made-up names the way you/I think they should be pronounced, and this time around it was a constant irritation to me. ("Zoe," however, actually is a real name, and hearing it pronounced it "Zoh," one syllable, was like being flicked in the forehead every time, mildly painful and immensely annoying. There were others, but this was the worst.) Also, I found the insertion of accents that don't exist in the text, in order to differentiate characters from each other, to be actively harmful to the story, with a subtle air of racism to it. The "noble" or otherwise rich foreigners got highbrow, vaguely British accents; the Welchin guards and traders, ie, working-class folks, got vaguely Irish accents; the love interest, also a foreigner, got what I can only reasonably describe as an incredibly plodding, nearly monotone pan-African accent that I couldn't possibly assign to any one of the hundreds of languages it might have been supposed to emulate. I wouldn't have liked this book anyway--I'll get to the story issues in a moment--but the narration definitely made the book worse for me. Okay, second, the story. Also plodding, for most of its runtime, as there were very little stakes to anything for the first two acts, and a great deal of that time was spent on the minutiae of running a high-end imports shop. I think some of it was necessary, of course, but there was just too much of it, and rather than making me appreciate the hard work of being a shopkeeper (as this shop was backed by the royal coffers and didn't need to make a profit,) I simply feel like the author was indulging in a love of describing very pretty things for their own sake. I like pretty things myself, but this felt overly repetitious. (You know, I'm noticing that the worse I think a book is, the more adverbs I end up using in the review. I have to make sure everyone understands that the story wasn't just repetitive but "overly repetitious," etc. I'm not going to edit any of them out, but I bet if I go back and read a sampling of my other one- and two-star reviews, I'll find the same thing.) Even setting the pace aside, there are issues. The new culture/country/people that are introduced as the villains here aren't just different, aren't just bad in mundane ways, they are actively horrible and Evil with a Capital E, and in case you weren't sure that their "extreme" view on morality was the wrong one, oh wait, they're also vampires. Not in the magical creature sense, but it's a Rich Person Thing for them to drink human blood. There's simply no subtlety to it, and also I had put the clues together far earlier than the story finally revealed it, which made the slow grind toward the characters figuring it out boring. Our heroine Leah has her arc from "I abandoned my child because I wasn't ready to be a mother" to "everything's fine and I'm a mom now" basically handed to her on a silver platter, because Mally is an improbably perfect child who accepts her without the slightest hesitation, never displays any real trauma or lasting effects from her unusual upbringing, never throws a tantrum or misbehaves in any way, and is a preternaturally wise and powerful child. Leah herself doesn't really have to do much to make their new relationship work, because Mally is so perfect. Even her future non-romantic relationship to the child's father pretty much sorts itself out without a lot of input from her.

Shouldn't Leah have to do something? Anything at all? And the romance. Um, what romance? I've never felt less chemistry between the leads in any Sharon Shinn novel I've ever read. Yeah, some of their story is back in Jeweled Fire, which I did only read once, and several years ago, so I don't remember it perfectly. But here, in this book, the romance is "Hey, I really missed you." "Hey, I really missed you too, but I have this exceptionally dark past and I don't deserve love." "Hey, maybe let's talk about that?" "Okay, we talked, things are still weird but now let's bang." And then suddenly at the end of the story there are high stakes that come out of nearly nowhere and baffled me with how quickly they have to be set up, and then how painlessly it's all resolved. So disappointing. Should I stop reading new Sharon Shinn books and just revisit her earlier, stronger series when I need a comfort read? And now that I've spent all these hundreds of words exploring all my frustrations with this book, do I think it's bad enough that it's actually only worth one star? Hmm. No, I generally have to hate a book or not be able to finish it at all to give it one star, so I guess this can keep its two. But I'm giving Shinn's newest series the side-eye and thinking that maybe I should just not read it.