Once upon another time

I am. Yet what I am no one knows or cares. And yet I do, and that made all the difference.

[navycat305]

The dynamic duo

[i-like-dropout]

fantasies about vampires coming to your town to fall in love with you and make hot vampire sex to you: old, outdated, boring

fantasies about vampires coming to your town to improve the public infrastructure, destroy the rich families milking you for money, and perhaps also making hot vampire sex to you (or helping you make hotter sex with your partner of many years): rejuvenating, what we need in this day and age, modern

[qqchurch]

[oneheadtoanother]

idk anything about this but I love it

[lynati]

If any competition needed to be on Tumblr, it's this one.

[scarlettohairdye]

Zelda puzzle training simulator

[felicitykings]

☕️ BATCATBATCATBATCAT

AHHHH THANK YOU!

this is going to be really long, i can feel it, so i’m putting it under the cut. 

Send me a ☕️ and a topic and I’ll talk about how I feel about it

okay, here goes: i loved the way that this show had these two entangled from the start. having selina as the sole witness to the wayne murder besides bruce was an interesting twist and it felt almost like fate. of all the alleys she could have ended up in she ended up here, and while she was witnessing the most horrific event of bruce’s life - as awful as that was -, their destinies were now entwined.

having them meet and develop a bond as children really added depth to the bond that they inevitably share. other than me being a sucker for the childhood freinds romance trope, it made their connection feel more emotional and mental rather than just physical. they just connected. like the reason they know and understand each other so well is because they’ve been there. they’ve seen every single shade of each other and stuck with each other through all of it. it’s safe to say that (with the exception of alfred on bruce’s side) they know each other better than anyone else. and it’s clear in the relationship that they share. frequently over the course of the show, they’re able to get through to each other in a way that no one else does. they call each other out on their shit and (i believe david and camren have said this as well) they each leave their arguments taking on board what the other has said. bruce realises he’s been an ass and strives to do better and apologise for it, and selina makes an effort to make more of herself (’i’m tired of just surviving, i want more’) and opens herself up a little more.

the parallels between to two of them were also really well done. you always got the sense that they were both walking the line, and while bruce always fell on the ‘right’ side of this line, selina could fall both sides. and this in itself gave them an interesting dynamic. that they could be so similar and yet so different. and this is just another reason that they worked as a pairing (in whatever form that took). selina could always pick up the tasks that bruce couldn’t (stealing things for him and using violence in a more extreme sense than bruce). and they both influenced each other - selina helped bruce see that things weren’t always quite so black and white sometimes and that some things are necessary for survival and bruce often pulled selina back towards a moral centre if she fell too much the other way.

and even with all of this they always remained individuals and they never lost sight of that individuality no matter how strong and deep that connection was. they didn’t sacrifice any part of themselves to be together and most of the time they respected each other’s differences. selina did her best frequently to ensure that bruce didn’t have to kill, because she knew that that wasn’t who he was and that he wouldn’t be able to deal with it (even if she herself would be able to) and while she encouraged some of his darker side, she made sure that he stayed the same pure hearted kid that she met (it’s good you’re changing just don’t change too much’). and while bruce struggles to accept some of selina’s darker acts in favour of insisting that they’re the same, he never tries to force her into being anything other than herself, even if it hurts him to watch her spiral. another thing i loved about them was that, while they were amazing together (a true power couple honestly), their stories never revolved around the other. they remind me lot of that post that compared soulmates to a pair of socks. they’re each a whole complete sock on their own and can manage perfectly well on their own, but they’re amazing when they come back together as a pair. they had their own storylines going on and yet that connection remained very strong regardless. no matter how far away from each other they drifted, they always came back together. their bond is inevitable. they could have not spoken for months or been so mad at the other but even they, they still protected each other. we saw this in season 3 with selina. she breaks away from bruce in the fallout of her mother’s return and hasn’t seen him for months and yet when five shows up and she realised bruce is missing, she stands up for bruce and decides to tell alfred so that he can find bruce. and selina at various points throughout the show saves bruce’s life. even if it almost breaks her rule of self-preservation. she often tells bruce that she’s unwilling to go somewhere that puts her life in danger (’i’m not going back’), but when bruce is the one in danger, more often than not, she does. she checks on him in 2x03, helps save him from galavan in 2x11, stays behind to get him, gordon and lucius out of arkham at the end of s2, comes to help him in 3x11 and proceeds to stand protectively in front of him and alfred when they’re threatened, she goes to the diner in 4x16 and saves him from the fear gas in 4x21. and bruce similarly puts his own life in danger to save her. and it never comes across like selina is a damsel for him to save. most of the time she saves herself. they’re true equals and i love that about them.

also this show gave them so many lighthearted moments as well which truly emphasised that love is at the basis of their connection. they truly care about each other and make each other happy. you see that the connection they share isn’t just based on destiny or their similarities, there’s a genuine emotional bond there which is truly what ties them to each other. they flirted/bantered, went on dates, comforted each other, and selina was the first person to get bruce to act like a kid and just have childlike joy in something since his parents died (despite alfred’s best efforts for the first part of s1). jim told bruce that there would be light and selina gave that to him. so much so that even alfred knew how connected they were regardless of his own feelings about selina, and he let her stay at the manor after all.

as you can probably tell by now, i have a lot of feelings about gotham’s batcat, they were really well written and brilliantly portrayed by david and camren. they worked really well together on screen and brought the writing to life. they made you believe that these two loved each other through everything they went through. the good, the bad, all of it. what they meant to each other was never in doubt. there’s a whole lot of a soulmate feel to them. the fact that they always come back to each other, the fact that selina could calm bruce even as he’s living his worst fear (4x21), how similar they are and the fact that even after a 10 year separation, they can sense each other’s presence still and their connection has not dimmed. and while it hurt a little to know that they weren’t together at the end of the show, their rooftop scene gave me a lot of hope. selina finally verbalised her feelings for bruce (to him)  - a rarity - and asks what will happen now. he tell her that he doesn’t know (it’s up to her) but that he’ll never leave gotham (her) again, before telling her to ‘return the diamond’. it sounds almost playful and their game has begun. he knows she won’t return the diamond and she knows he won’t force her to, and now she knows that he did see her steal it and didn’t do anything to stop her. (after all she’s got him wrapped around her pinky.

just some thoughts to finish off with. there are a few lines in this show that i feel really sum up their relationship. the first: ‘why can’t we just be us?’. selina doesn’t like the label of ‘girlfriend’ or ‘couple’ but on a deeper level the ‘us’ fits them a lot better. bruce and selina’s relationship transcends a lot of these labels. they’re more than just a couple and they are a lot of different things to each other. so many things that ‘girlfriend’ and ‘couple’ doesn’t seem to do their connection justice and feels like and oversimplification. secondly ‘i’ll be here whenever you need me’ and ‘whose side are you on, bruce?’/’yours. always.’. this is what their bond is. they’re almost on their own side. no matter what selina is always there when bruce needs her and vice versa. as i’ve said no matter how far they drift apart, it doesn’t matter because they are always there for each other.

[geopsych]

Three years ago today. I love this bit of video. Not sure why.

[dearydeerling-deactivated201904]

Because this looks like a Monet painting or an old watercolour anime background come to life?! I was in utter disbelief until it started moving.

[tieflingkisser]

[nattousan]

ok so, I approached my local library with a proposal to donate a mural as a way to A: build portfolio/gain practical experience and B: give back to a beloved public institution. The director was very enthusiastic about it and i've been working on it since the beginning of March. Come with me as I endeavor to paint what is in all honesty an excessive amount of birds

I wanted the birds to look like they were actually in the space so first thing after doing the draft was to do a lighting study

after that I covered the walls in letters in lieu of a projector/vr headset bc i have neither of those :) Then i take a picture of the section of wall and superimpose the lineart over top of it so I can pencil in the lines

et voila

and that was a whole week on it's own so next comes the paintin' >:)

[mikeyyysol]

Here’s a quick and comprehensive video of how I made paper 📝

[foxes-in-love]

[status-quo-hater]

I think one of the funniest abortion stances I've heard was from my parents neighbor. He's a like, hard-core libertarian viking larper guy who is very tall and very fat and very bald.

He believes a fetus is human with a soul, but also its "basically attacking the woman's body" so if she wants to get rid of it, that's "basically self-defense". He compared it to shooting a home invader. So he supports abortion not as healthcare, but as killing a baby in self-defense

[status-quo-hater]

Y'know I'm so glad someone reminded me of this. Because this was also discussed.

My stepmother did NOT like the way her Libertarian Viking Neighbor framed pregnancy as the fetus "attacking the woman". She incredulously told him this was extremely disrespectful to expectant mothers to portray pregnancy as so violent and negative.

Libertarian Viking Neighbor's response was that people consensually hurt each other all the time, and "there's like a whole community about that, with the acronym the one that starts with a B" And his reasoning was that if the mother was consenting to bring attacked by the baby, it in fact wasn't violent and negative because there was consent.

He brought up people consensually hurting each other, didn't go for one of the obvious answers like boxing or body mods or something, no he went STRAIGHT TO BDSM and he DIDN'T EVEN REMEMBER THE ACRONYM

[quasi-normalcy]

I've reached the point where cynicism is a major turn-off for me. You're not smarter than idealists, and you're not helping.

[quasi-normalcy]

Funny that the stereotypical cynic is an idealist who aged out of it. In my experience, the reverse is true. I was an extreme cynic as a teenager and then I noticed how profoundly limiting it was, and also that "cynics are cool and smart" was a message that was being constantly reinforced by corporate media for some reason.

[quasi-normalcy]

#yes! cynicism reads as very juvenile to me#and yes prev often stemming from teen pain

Yeah, like I see black-pilled people on here and my default reaction isn't "oh, these must be world-weary old warriors who've lost their faith in humanity", it's "these people are in their 20s and need a hobby"

[quasi-normalcy]

I also think that the present era has proven that authoritarian leaders don't actually want a population of wide-eyed idealists, they want a population of jaded assholes who are convinced that everyone is lying, any resistance is either a scam or doomed to failure, and nothing can ever get better.

[idiomagic]

Hope is punk. Despair is corporate.

[were--ralph]

they slayed

[crappycheese]

[positivelyqueer]

You've gotta have good biodiversity in your reasons for not killing yourself. Rotate them out like crops when the yield gets low and the soil poor. We're mixing our metaphors. Whatever helps it stick.

You like warm blankets. You like the sound of birdsong. You have a pet that needs taking care of. You have someone to outlive. You have a loved one. You think death would be boring. It's coming for you anyway. Death is patient. When was the last time you had cake? Your favourite musician is going on tour. Or maybe just a halfway decent band at your local bar. You've never seen an elephant. Isn't it amazing that the sky is blue? Aging is a gift not afforded to most. Don't let the bastard grind you down. You can't mend any suffering in the world with your death. You want to see if you can grow herbs on your windowsill. Killing yourself seems like so much effort. What does tiramisu taste like? You're trying to be curious. You're angry and spiteful. What you want more than to die is to rest. This sandwich is so good you don't want to die. Not so long as there are plums to eat and somebody, anybody who gives enough of a damn to haul them to you. A stranger on the internet is holding their hand out and asking.

[draconym]

You haven't finished that book. It's almost strawberry season. There's a chrysalis on the porch that should open soon. There are pastries you've never tried. It's going to be sunny tomorrow. You're going to look very distinguished with gray hair. You have to outlive him. There aren't any easy ways to die. Your package is supposed to arrive on Friday. There are people who will love you that you haven't met yet.

[wifegideonnav]

“bits to use in everyday conversations”

[homunculus-argument]

The Odyssey but retold as a low-stakes modern adventure of one guy out with his girlfriend leaving the bar with his buddies to do just one (1) simple thing real quick, it'll take like 15 minutes tops, he'll be right back, but then some bullshit happens and the trip keeps getting more complicated as more bullshit keeps happening while he just tries to get back to the bar because he promised his girlfriend that he'd get back and he knows that she's still there because she told him she'd wait there.

And by the time he finally gets back it's almost 3 am and the bar is about to close while she's sitting there stone cold sober, surrounded by 5 drunk guys unsuccessfully trying to convince her to give up on waiting for him and go home with one of them instead. And the guy shows up to proceed to beat the shit out of them before explaining himself to her like hey sorry bullshit kept happening, my phone fell into a storm drain and my wallet got stolen when I was trying to find someone who'd borrow me a phone so I could call and

[thekijs]

His girlfriend had been fending off the 5 drunk guys for most of the evening by explaining that even if she was going to ditch her boyfriend, she can't possibly leave without finishing her beer, which she is keeping perpetually full via careful sleight of hand where she's just pouring it back and forth into and out of the pitcher.

However the drunk guys are also drinking, and eventually she can't afford to buy another pitcher for the table so she can't keep up the ever-full beer glass trick. At this point she has to resort to setting up the pool trick shot that she's never seen anyone but her boyfriend pull off, and says she'll leave with whoever manages the shot first.

That buys her another hour or so and then, finally, her boyfriend makes it back. He looks like shit, hair down and just a mess, he's wearing an entirely different jacket that he got from an alley, and barely recognizable—especially to 5 guys who've been drunk for hours now. He lurks for a minute, finds out what's going on, and proceeds to pull off the trick shot first try. Throws the jacket off, fixes his hair with a hair tie his girlfriend lends him, finally looks like himself again, and THEN beats the shit out of them with the pool cue.

[writingwithcolor]

Our Favorite Books from Asian and Pacific Islander Authors Releases in 2026

Happy Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month from WWC!

To celebrate, we’re shining a spotlight on some of our personal picks for 2026 releases from Asian and Pacific Islander authors. 

The Poet Empress by Shen Tao | January 20, 2026 | Chinese | Historical Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Romance

Jess: This debut novel by Shen Tao about a village girl who offers herself as a concubine to a cruel, violent prince to save her village from starvation. The prose is lush and immersive, with a terrific use of the Rashomon effect as Wei unravels the mysteries surrounding her husband while navigating dangerous court intrigue. However, this book covers darker themes, including child sexual abuse, so reader discretion is advised. 

View on Author Shen Tao's website

The Obake Code by Makana Yamamoto | February 10, 2026 | Kānaka Maoli & Hapa Haole | Science Fiction, Queer, Lesbian, Cyberpunk

Mimi: A standalone sci-fi heist novel about a bored hacker who is forced by vicious gangsters to take down a crooked politician, only to find herself facing an unexpected enemy from her past. Written by a Pacific Islander author, this novel is part of an extended “lesbian space heist” universe set in a futuristic Hawai’i-like cityscape, with an all-sapphic and trans cast. I quite enjoyed how the story uses common sci-fi tropes like clones and AI systems gaining sentience to depict themes like labor exploitation, mass displacement, gentrification and surveillance.

View on Author Makana Yamamoto's website

If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light by Kim Choyeop (translated by Anton Hur) | April 28, 2026 | Korean | Short Stories, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction

Rina: An SF short story collection about the human yearning for connection—across alien cultural lines, across the border between life and death, across unfathomable spacetime. I was very taken with Kim Cho-yeop’s inquisitive approach to storytelling and her imaginative worlds, which gently ask us to consider the kinds of distances technology is unable to close. 

Read my full review here: 

Storygraph link

Goodreads link

The Girl With a Thousand Faces by Sunyi Dean | May 5, 2026 | Hong Konger | Fantasy, Horror, Historical Fiction, Gothic, Paranormal

Mimi: A historical gothic novel set in post-WWII Hong Kong, which blends folklore, commentary on war, and local legends to recount a tale of a ghost-talker woman, who confronts a powerful spirit in the Kowloon Walled City. I've not read this yet, but the premise sounds fantastic.

Behind Five Willows by June Hur | May 26, 2026 | Korean | Historical Romance, Historical Fiction, Young Adult

Rina: An homage to Pride and Prejudice set in Joseon Korea, during a time of government book banning. A girl from a lower-ranking family is a secret novel transcriber; a young lord, an author. This gem of a story was a stunning introduction to the work of June Hur, whose characters are as charming as her elegant, nature-imbued prose. 

Read my full review here: 

Storygraph link 

Goodreads link 

The Typing Lady: And Other Fictions by Ruth Ozeki | June 2, 2026 | Japanese | Short Stories, Literary Fiction, Paranormal

Rina: A collection of literary short stories about desire, ambition, and the ways storytelling shapes reality and memory. Across a variety of settings, Ruth Ozeki creates a full range of sympathetic and unsympathetic narrative voices, resulting in stories that are grounded yet a touch strange, gritty yet beautiful, dark yet hopeful. Ozeki knows how to craft discomfort and hope in equal measure.

Read my full review here: 

Storygraph link 

Goodreads link 

Let us know your most anticipated reads in the comments!

Update:

We have updated the language of this post to describe the featured authors more accurately. Thank you for your feedback and we apologize for the terminology mix-up!

We wish to be inclusive of the contributions of Asian and Pacific Islander creators to American media and culture regardless of where they come from, hence the non-American authors on this list. We hope you enjoy our book recs.

-WWC

Your recommendations

@gyroshrike recommends:

I would also like to suggest a book that just came out, The Killing Spell by Shay Kauwe, an author from Hawai‘i! It's an adult fantasy and from what I understand, the magic system and linguistics are pretty tied together. (I JUST got it, so haven't read much yet.)