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by OlePatrick

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Indigo nights 🌌

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Forces of nature 🍃

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An artist’s reconstruction of the world’s oldest modern bird, Asteriornis maastrichtensis, in its original environment.

Asteriornis is one of the oldest-known birds irrefutably belonging to the group Neornithes, which encompasses all modern birds. It possesses characteristics of both galliformes (chicken-like birds) and anseriformes (duck-like birds), indicating its position as a close relative of the last common ancestor for both groups…

Illustration by Phillip Krzeminski

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An issue with a lot of whump and injury writing guides is that they also tend to assume that the characters are always able-bodied but like.

It's been proven over and over again that people with chronic pain have higher tolerances for everyday pain, including things that would leave other people crying or screaming. When you experience dizziness, body aches, chills, etc as just your baseline, those things aren't a good indicator that you're injured or bleeding. Even mild concussions are very hard to notice when you have chronic headaches/migraines (speaking from experience).

And those are just the experiences of general chronic pain, not even more severe and debilitating conditions that can completely warp someone's relationship to their body and their brain's way of processing pain.

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By LabradoriteKing on Pinterest

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More random tropes that I fucking love: Becoming the mask you wore.

Like oh shit, this character who was sent to spy somewhere under a false identity suddenly realises they've started to genuinely become the person they claimed to be? Someone who's been telling the same lies about who they are for so long that they're actually forgetting that the story isn't true? Finding themselves genuinely doing the things they pretend to do in front of people, when they're alone and nobody's watching? Answering to a name that wasn't supposed to be theirs without thinking?

Ooohh-hoh-hoh, you lost track of yourself in pretending to be someone else? You were only supposed to impersonate somebody, a plausible background and a name you came up with on the spot, and now that the people you were supposed to infiltrate have become your true companions? You lost yourself in the game you played, and no you no longer know who you truly are, and where your true loyalties lie? And both sides would mark you a traitor if you came out with the truth. On a scale of one to ten, how bad did you fuck up.

Fuck that is a good trope. Never seen it done badly. Pour that shit on a table and I'll chop it into lines and snort it.

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Another worldbuilding application of the "two layer rule": To create a culture while avoiding The Planet Of Hats (the thing where a people only have one thing going for them, like "everyone wears a silly hat"): You only need two hats.

Try picking two random flat culture ideas and combine them, see how they interact. Let's say taking the Proud Warrior Race - people who are all about glory in battle and feats of strength, whose songs and ballads are about heroes in battle and whose education consists of combat and military tactics. Throw in another element: Living in diaspora. Suddenly you've got a whole more interesting dynamic going on - how did a people like this end up cast out of their old native land? How do they feel about it? How do they make a living now - as guards, mercenaries? How do their non-combatants live? Were they always warrior people, or did they become fighters out of necessity to fend for themselves in the lands of strangers? How do the peoples of these lands regard them?

Like I'm not shitting, it's literally that easy. You can avoid writing an one-dimensional culture just by adding another equally flat element, and the third dimension appears on its own just like that. And while one of the features can be location/climate, you can also combine two of those with each other.

Let's take a pretty standard Fantasy Race Biome: The forest people. Their job is the forest. They live there, hunt there, forage there, they have an obnoxious amount of sayings that somehow refer to trees, woods, or forests. Very high chance of being elves. And then a second common stock Fantasy Biome People: The Grim Cold North. Everything is bleak and grim up there. People are hardy and harsh, "frostbite because the climate hates you" and "being stabbed because your neighbour hates you" are the most common causes of death. People are either completely humourless or have a horrifyingly dark, morbid sense of humour. They might find it funny that you genuinely can't tell which one.

Now combine them: Grim Cold Bleak Forest People. The summer lasts about 15 minutes and these people know every single type of berry, mushroom and herb that's edible in any fathomable way. You're not sure if they're joking about occasionally resorting to eating tree bark to survive the long dark winter. Not a warrior people, but very skilled in disappearing into the forest and picking off would-be invaders one by one. Once they fuck off into the woods you won't find them unless they want to be found.

You know, Finland.

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i saw this post by @automb and i couldn't agree more with that headcanon!!!

i couldn't help myself but to draw what i imagine would be Wilson's sour expression taking his first sip of coffee every morning hehehe

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Typesetting Tips 4.5: Graphics/Images

One common question I see popping up for people getting into making books/typesets is 'where do I find graphics/images to decorate my books with?' And of course, that's with the caveat of 'and they're free'.

Thus, this is a continuation of my old post on where to find graphics/images to use for typesetting/book design. Because it's been half a year since then, and while I am very much the same amateur typesetter I was then, I am now a slightly older amateur typesetter---who knows more websites!

(I'm including websites I've listed before so that all the links are in one post)

All these sites have free offerings to varying degrees. Personally, I haven't had to pay anything so far for that I've used. If you see something you like that's locked behind a paywall, try to reverse google search it to see if there's a free version out there! I've seen a lot of these sites upload the same images. Also, be careful of AI!

Graphic/Image Resources:

Archive.org - Internet Archive. Not as easy to download or use images from, but there are a lot of cool resources there if you have the time.

Canva - Easy to use for beginning design work. I recommend taking advantage of their month long free trial (I found it easy to cancel as well when it was over), but do not recommend subscribing.

Creative Fabrica - They send out a lot of free bundle promos in their email subscriptions. I mostly use them for fonts but they do have a lot of free resources for crafting.

Exotic Animal Photo Reference Repository - This is an animal photography database by @why-animals-do-the-thing! They have a lovely growing repository that's both education and free! Just be sure to ask permission and credit and link to them if you to use their work!

Freepik - More free stuff! I haven't used it a lot yet, but I've seen this site recced by others.

Heritage Library - Lot of neat pngs/vectors. Especially great if you're looking for vintage/nature images.

Pixabay - Royalty free and under the Content License

Rawpixel - Probably the site I use the most. I sort to exclude all the AI images and just use the free/public domain stuff.

Noun Project - Lots of icons available. Tend to be more minimalistic and simple. I know a lot of bookbinders use this site, though I haven't explored it much.

Smithsonian - The Smithsonian Open Access is free database from the Smithsonian with millions of images available.

Streamlinehq - Another site with a lot of free icons. Most of their really cool assets cost money, but you can sign up for free with an email address to download 10 free assets if you see something you really like.

Wikiart - Great place to look at public domain artwork.

Wikimedia Commons - (Wikimedia Commons, Wikisource, Wiki Books, etc.) Tons of stuff to sift through.

Last source: FONTS! You can go a long way with dingbat fonts for decorations! Frames, ornaments, etc. can be done with fonts. Check out dafont and other free font sites; fonts can sometimes be a lot easier to use in texts than images.

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Tumblrary Directory

Imprints: in_D Press (main)

This directory is ongoing and updated as needed. Everything listed as Free is indeed free to use (for personal use only), just please leave credit and consider liking/reblogging or following this blog. Any errors found, feel free to let me know. (づ◕⩌◕)づ For free access to my files/library, click the link and request access (and send a sworn oath written in blood to never violate the sanctity of the library).

Note: I do not use AI to make these. Just my own mediocrity ᕦ(◕⩌◕)ᕥ

Free Typesetting Resources

Font Book

Dingbat Book for Dinkuses

The Blue Fairy Book (Font Sampler Edition) edited by Andrew Lang

Typesetting Template (Affinity, Letter Folio): Notes for Typesetting Template and Tutorial for Typesetting Template

Font Recs

Typesetting Tips

Free Public Domain Typesets

[Books listed in order of upload date. Previews and details of each typeset can also be found in their original posts.]

Persuasion by Jane Austen (Letter Folio)

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (Letter Quarto)

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (Letter Folio)

The Merry Adventures of Robinhood by Howard Pyle (Illustrated) (Letter Folio)

Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie (Letter Folio)

Dracula by Bram Stoker (Letter Folio)

The Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft (Letter Quarto)

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (Letter Folio)

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (Illustrated) (Letter Folio)

The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells (Letter Folio)

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Letter Folio)

The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare (Letter Folio)

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (Letter Folio)

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (Illustrated) (Letter Folio)

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (Illustrated) (Letter Folio)

The Odyssey by Homer (Letter Folio)

Tales of Space and Time by H. G. Wells (Letter Folio)

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton (Letter Folio)

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (Illustrated) (Letter Folio)

The Book of Dragons by E. Nesbit (Illustrated) (Letter Folio)

Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare (Letter Folio)

Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne (Illustrated) (Letter Folio)

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Letter Folio)

Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne (Letter Folio)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (Illustrated) (Letter Folio)

Leave it to Psmith by P. G. Wodehouse (Letter Folio)

Lord Peter views the body by Dorothy L. Sayers (Letter Folio)

The Room in the Tower by E. F. Benson (Letter Folio)

Right Ho, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse (Letter Folio)

The Time Machine by H. G. Wells (Letter Folio)

Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (Letter Quarto)

Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie (Letter Folio)

Grimms' Fairy Tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (Letter Folio)

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux (Letter Folio)

Andersen's Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen (Letter Folio)

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving (Letter Quarto)

Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Shakespeare (Letter Folio)

The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe (Illustrated) (Letter Octavo)

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery (Letter Folio)

A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne (Letter Folio)

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (Letter Folio)

Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo (Letter Folio)

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (Letter Folio)

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (Letter Folio)

The Blue Fairy Book (Font Sampler Edition) edited by Andrew Lang (Letter Folio)

A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (Letter Folio)

Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott (Illustrated) (Letter Folio)

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (Letter Folio)

Emma by Jane Austen (Letter Folio)

Paradise Lost by John Milton (Letter Folio)

Moby Dick by Herman Melville (Letter Folio)

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell (Letter Folio)

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (Letter Folio)

Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (Letter Quarto)

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle (Letter Folio)

The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams (Letter Quarto) (Illustrated)

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (Letter Folio)

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Armin (Letter Folio)

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (Letter Folio)

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (Letter Folio)

A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle (Letter Folio)

A Modest Proposal by Dr. Jonathan Swift (Letter Octavo)

The Railway Children by E. Nesbit (Letter Folio)

The Sign of the Four by Arthur Conan Doyle (Letter Folio)

White Fang by Jack London (Letter Folio)

The Call of the Wild by Jack London (Letter Folio and Letter Quarto)

The Republic by Plato (Letter Folio)

Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Letter Folio)

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (Letter Folio)

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett (Letter Folio)

Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter (Letter Folio)

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, originally composed by Captain Grose (Letter Folio)

Utopia by Thomas More (Letter Folio)

A Room with a View by E. M. Forster (Letter Folio)

The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar by Maurice Leblanc (Letter Folio)

The Aeneid by Virgil (Letter Folio)

Don Juan by Lord Byron (Letter Folio)

Lamia by John Keats (Letter Quarto)

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran (Letter Quarto) (Illustrated)

The Trial by Franz Kafka (Letter Folio)

Gorgias by Plato (Letter Folio)

Phaedrus by Plato (Letter Folio)

The Innocence of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton (Letter Folio)

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (Letter Folio)

The Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie (Letter Folio)

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (Letter Folio)

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (Letter Folio)

Free Calendars/Planners

2025

Personal Typesets (My Fics)

The Flowers We Pick

Free Graphics

Dividers

Headers

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I was today years old when I learned that when you type "otp: true" in AO3 search results it filters out fics with additional ships, leaving only the fics where your otp is the main ship

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