Entries tagged with dreamcatcher

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Fandomtrees Reveals

I got three fantastic gifts under my tree! What a great season of

fandomtrees <3

Title: Breakage and Repair by

china_shop
Fandom: Guardian TV
Ship: Chu Shuzhi/Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan
Words: 5.2k
Tags: Post-Canon, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives (Eventually), Angst with a Happy Ending, Presumed Dead (actually dead but comes back to life), Forgive me I killed Da Qing (temporarily), Loyalty, Chu Shuzhi’s self-worth issues, Getting Together, sharing is caring, food as a love language
Summary: The Envoy is back, he’s alive! Everything is better—brighter—as it should be. Regrets on Chu Shuzhi’s part would be an utter betrayal, unworthy. Chu Shuzhi knows the score. He was only ever first aid for Zhao Yunlan. Only a prop to keep him going. They’d never talked about what they were doing, and Zhao Yunlan’s heart had always been faithful. He’s worn the Envoy’s pendant twenty-four/seven.

Title: Till You Make It by

trobadora
Fandom: Guardian TV
Ship: Shen Wei & Zhu Hong
Words: 3k
Tags: Handwavy Post-Canon Era, Everyone lives, Yashou Politics, Yashou High Chief Zhu Hong, Mentorship, Networking
Summary: Who else could she ask? Not Zhao Yunlan, who was part of the whole mess. Not the elders of any of the three tribes, when they were the ones who needed convincing the most. Not the Haixing minister, who had every interest in fostering good relations with the Yashou but no experience and no standing with them yet.

Title: fallen/saved by

MistressKat
Fandom: Deja Vu by Dreamcatcher (Music Video)
Ship: Jiu/Yoohyeon
Words: 300
Tags: Character Study, Introspection
Summary: The dream demands a price.

All of these are amazing, absolutely nailed both my prompts and my id, and then added so much more on top I wouldn't have dreamed of <3 I cannot recommend you check them out enough!

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Me & Media Update

Drama Watch

There's a lot of traitor style shows on TV recently, and I watched quite a few of them with my parents. The German version, Die Verräter, was pretty good! The Mole was also fun. I forget the name of the other one, but that one had less pizzaz... (also, watched stupid reality tv dating shows like Bachelor in Paradise while sick. Entertaining, in a horrifying way.)

Love Between Fairy And Devil

I started watching this while it aired last year, and then I had to move and start at my new job and didn't have time to keep up. So this summer I pushed myself to catch back up, but I kept dying of second hand embarassment during the episode 12 escapades ^^"

However, since I was chattering about this story so much, my parents got interested - and we watched the entire series together! It took me a bit to realize that Viki has German subs, at which point the watch was much easier for them (the plot is complicated enough, and while my brother and I are used watching subtitled media, our parents aren't.

It was great! I absolutely love all of the characters! The romance was amazing and oh my god the way it slowly grew stronger over the show, how they changed - especially the dilemma of "I love you, and I love that you want to do right by your people, but that means hurting my people, and I cannot condone that". That battlefield scene when Moontribe go to war against Fairy Immortals? Best climatic scene of the entire show (especially Xiao Lanhua's sacrifice! I cried! (and not just me, but pssst, you didn't hear that from me). The actual final climatic battle didn't land nearly as well, which was a shame. It just fell flat in comparison.

Honestly, I was a bit meh about those last episodes - they felt like they dragged too much (especially all that time spent on rehashing the early show moments during the "amnesia" arc) and then too rushed in others (DFQC's return felt kinda unearned, idk? Maybe I was just all emotionally burned out, we did binge the last 7 or so episodes in one evening.)

If anyone's got fic recs, I'm all ears! I'm in love with all the characters and would love explorations of any their dynamics, though shipwise, I would prefer XLH/DFQC end up/stay together (though, adding Changheng to the mix... well. I requested that for fandomtrees for a reason xD I LOVE their threeway dynamic!)

Dimension 20: A Burrow's End

I know, not technically a tv show, BUT. I didn't want to add an additional category xD

I'm caught up to episode 7 (I think) - the one with the battle against the first stoats? It's quite the rollercoaster and very tense! I love the family dynamics the most (and could really do with less horror/gore or a bit more of a warning; episode 2's bear caught me off-guard in a bad way I had to listen-but-not-watch for quite a bit there and would've prefered Aabria's content warning had been extended to viewers as well as cast members.

REALLY curious how Tula's secret came about! Gonna have to find some time to watch more episodes soon 👀

Mysterious Lotus Casebook

I've only managed to watch episode 3 with the group, I should catch up on it soon. I loved what I've seen so far! Fang Duobing is such a clever puppy, so earnest and determined! And Li Lianhua is a sly fox with the BEST expressions :D I'm really looking forward to meeting the third of the trio, too.

Music

Really, this section should just be titled "Dreamcatcher" because I'm still obsessed with their latest album. Brain empty, only "shut up, no more questions", "shall we start this game?"

warning, gifs ahead!

gif from tumblr user dreamcatcher-daily

I want to learn the OOTD choreo so bad! I can already do the part from "Shall we start this game?" to "cruising my rollie" (the "cash in the backseat" part refuses to stick lmao I freestyle it usually when the song comes on. And I really need to doublecheck my footwork, since I learned while sick so mostly upper body movements). Nevermind the Shatter choreo! Speaking of gorgeous, flawless:

But seriously, all of the songs have grown on me more and more, especially "Shatter" (which I was a little more meh about than the others - which really doesn't mean much since the other songs are BANGER). The fourth song is the one I listen the least to, "We Are Young", even though it's a decent bop too.

Podcasts

I've been listening to more and more podcasts this year, it's been fun! And makes chores easier to finish, too. I was already listening to Maintenance Phase with Aubrey Gordon and Michael Hobbes, so when Michael started his new podcast If Books Could Kill, I gave that a shot immediately too! I quite like it, the banter is nice and the topics are interesting (especially for books that I've vaguely heard of but never knew what they were). And because his co-host Peter Shamshiri seemed like a decent guy (and that other legal podcast, I'm blanking on the name, took a nosedive earlier this year) I started listening to his law podcast 5-4 as well. That one is more of a downer, all about stupid supreme court decisions and the bigotry/politics that motivated the justices to make them, but it's interesting all the same.

And then someone recced me Kill James Bond! by Alice Caldwell-Kelly, Abigail Thorn (AKA PhilosophyTube) and Devon, and I binged the entire first season of all the James Bond movies and why they're bad xD I learned so much about the Bondverse's continuity! Definitely a fun romp, would recommend.

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Catching Up

Hi! Haven't gotten around to updating this blog in a while :') time passes quickly when you're busy!

Life Update

I celebrated my birthday at the end of October, the first time I invited the entire (maternal side of the) family to my place since I moved in last November. It was fun, but quite a busy time, between baking cakes and cleaning everything up. I was glad I took a couple days off work before and after, or I would've been *really* stressed.

Among other things, I got the translated Guardian novel Vol. 1, a crotcheted lil dragon and new kitchen towels with a cute black kitten & pumpkin design :D!

(I invited some coworkers and friends for a second party, that's why the buttercream cake shows up twice!)

Work's been busy, too, with two co-workers calling in long-term sick. Hopefully one of them will make it back in December to ease the workload again, especially at this particularly busy time of year. Flu's going around as well - I caught the cold early on but managed to push on for a couple weeks, but finally caught the ear infection the kids are all trading between each other (that's what I get for helping out in the daycare section of the job RIP) so now I'm on sick leave. Fingers crossed I can go back to work on Wednesday, but right now it's not looking too great just yet.

The cases at least are interesting? One of mine is getting to the final stage, in a positive way, which is great to watch. Another of the new cases is a difficult nut to crack, but I'm hopeful to establish a good working relationship with them.

Dreamcatcher

They just put out a new short album! I'm very happy with all the songs on it, even if the fandom seems divided on the title track OOTD (it *is* a departure from their usual style, but in a very imo predictable way. They've been leaning into this style as far back as Odd Eye, with BEcause being the major exception. It's still very clearly uniquely Dreamcatcher in vibe and sound, with experimental mixing of genres into what otherwise might be Just Another Mainstream song. And the BSides have at least two very cool songs with more of a rock/metal vibe for any disappointed fans to make up for it imo.

I'm very interested in the whole... "fakeness" of the MV and concept. Like, they took a typical girl crush concept with a very retro vibe rather than high-glam-fashion and then the main dance outfits being those leather-jacket white top combos? It makes for an interesting visual, especially with all the car driving and motorcycle straddling. The "bts"/"editing" style of the MV also gives it a vibe of robotic/in progress - which really leads well into the surprise ending of the members going dead-eyed and killing the camerawoman. I'm excited to find out what the narrative idea of this Villains arc will be! But taken on its own, the message to me seems to read how fake the industry is, how robotic the girl groups, and Dreamcatcher ones more breaking out of expectations (as they have done since they rebranded Minx into Dreamcatcher).

Rising is absolutely my favourite of the songs tho, it's so catchy, and the whole "Ri-ri-ri-ri-ri-rising" is GREAT :D Shatter took me a bit to get used to - I immediately liked the melodic soft parts, but wasn't quite sure of the contrast to the "Bang It On Me" chorus. It's a very metal song in the same vibe of other woman-lead metal bands I love, while still uniquely Dreamcatcher. Definitely looking forward to learning the dance choreo to it and OOTD! (Though I'm still behind, I haven't even touched Bon Voyage and Demian yet *sobs* I need more time in the day!)

Exchanges

I signed up for

fandomtrees - here's my tree! I requested three Kpop MV canons (Dreamcatcher's Deja Vu & Vision, and Loona's love4eva), three cdramas (Guardian, GYADL, and Love Between Fairy And Devil), the short (not quite indie) game "Song of Nunu" (a League of Legends story) and the DnD tableplay "A Crown of Candy" from Dimension 20.

I finished my gifts (and now, edits) for the

ficinabox exchange, though I have some ideas of how to polish up one of them a bit more. I'm torn between picking up pinch hits, finishing any of the treats I started, or working on my other assignments.

Because I'm also signed up to

fffx and

yuletide_admin. For the first, I'm 2k into the story and have a strong idea of what I want to do with it; for the latter I just did a canon review to refresh my memories of the canon and am still brainstorming ideas. There's so many options, and I want to do all of them! :( why does the day only have 24hrs (and why do I have to spend so many of them at work, grumbles)

I've also been writing some more on my posted WIP In This, As In All Things, which I hadn't meant to put on pause for so long, but, well. Life happened *shrugs*. I'm gonna get the next three chapters done before posting (chapter 5 is close to done and I got a decent chunk of 6 going already), and then I need to figure out what I need to happen so I can wrap it up. It's always been one of the more vibes-focussed fics I've written, and the things I wanted out of it (confrontations of older!Weilan with Zhao Xinci) don't seem as plausible anymore now that I'm writing it. Or at least, the two different things I have in mind are vastly different in tone so I'll have to pick one over the other, le sigh.

Gonna try and post more again (and share my thoughts on Song of Nunu and Love Between Fairy And Devil, since I finished those two now) and soon!

Current Mood: excited
Current Music: Vision by Dreamcatcher

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dreamcatcher

Dreamcatcher's Vision

So Dreamcatcher just released their latest mini-album, Apocalypse: Follow Us, the sequel to their previous album Apocalypse: Save Us. The title track is Vision, and by God, I am OBSESSED *___* this song is like they tapped straight into my hindbrain and combined all the things I love about music and about Dreamcatcher's music in particular.

"Forward march!"

I love, love, love the music elements Dreamcatcher is leaning into with this song. It reminds me strongly of several of my favourite songs from Krypteria and Beyond the Black, with the techno-rock bits. And then you have the soft-voice bridges and third verse that are reminiscent of Within Temptation leading into the pre-chorus, giving the whole song that fantastic Dreamcatcher vibe.

They leaned a lot more into their metal-rock origins with Vision than the more pop-leaning (though still possessing metal elements, like the Latin chant at the end) Maison. Dami’s rap at the start of the second verse kills me every time (Turning over page, turning over page, turning over page, damn queen, go off! Jackie Chan, quickly, swiftly indeed.)

( Vision )

I’m looking forward to the third act in this trilogy! Very excited to see how the story ends :D

(and I’m sorely tempted to do something ficcy with all these vibes I’m getting while I’m obsessing over the song. But a part of me also wants to wait until the third part is out, so I’ll know more? Ahhhh, decisions, decisions!)

Current Mood: nerdy
Current Music: No Dot by SuA

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Dreamcatcher's latest album [Apocalypse: Save us]

Dreamcatcher is my fave k-pop band hands down and their new album rules.

I've been listening to the tracks up and down to the point where I've been so productive writing because I would rather listen to their songs than watch videos/streams or listen to podcasts. And obviously, I have opinions which I wished to share.

In no particular order or coherence:

1) I am so happy for the girls that they all got a solo track each on this album. It's great, and I'm going to learn all the dances. The songs are pretty solid too, although we'll come back to this in a hot sec.

(If you're not familiar with the kpop industry, it's pretty important for members of a group to establish themselves as solo artists while with the group for their future career, usually only the fan favourite or strongest singers get some. Dreamcatcher giving all of their members the chance is pretty rare, especially since they're 7 people. Some of them had solos before this, and almost all of them have done covers of various sorts, but this is a Big Deal.)

2) THEY WON THEIR FIRST MUSIC SHOWS!!! First and Second Win BABY!!! They placed first in MBC M’s "Show Champion" and in SBS MTV’s "The Show" with their title track Maison (a song about global warming). Their very first win in five years.
( Read more... )

10) The Maison dance looks less complex than some of their other choreographies, a trend that's been on-going for a while now (BEcause seems very easy too on first look... and really wasn't that hard to learn overall tbf), but holy shit is it FAST! I've been able to reliably dance along at 75% speed for a week now, having added it to my practice roster the moment their choreo video came out. But, fuck me, I tried it on full speed yesterday for the first time and it's ??? how do they MANAGE to SING at the SAME TIME what the fuck. They manage to pull this off with such precision and grace, and then it just feels like they fast-forwarded the whole dance once they got it down. I'm impressed.

10a) My favourite part hands down is Dami's rap showcase, like. Damn, girl. The move-set is really unique and fun, and perfectly on theme. Kudos to whoever choreographed this because I *love*. Dami's always been known for her variety in dance moves during her rap parts, but this? A+

10b) My other favourite sequence is Sua's alternate last chorus. It's energetic, fast, and breathtaking in the most literal sense, I have no idea how she pulls off singing at the same time, like. WITH WHAT AIR??? After already spending nearly 3 minutes on a fast af choreo! It just goes to show what an awesome dancer-singer she is, and I really can't wait for her solo track's choreo to come out so I can learn that, too.

Anyway, I'm excited :D and might end up titling some fic after the lyrics xD