#ddu

Word by word, it's It turns out it's Yibo's liked ''Boy". (原來 means "as it turns out" and the original translation left that out. Oddly I feel like an exclamation mark would be a suitable replacement?)

That isn't a way that people would order things in English. Chinese doesn't have the word "the", but it uses grammar like this to express distinction sometimes. Meanwhile, in natural English, the word "song" would be present: I think this would be phrased as It's that song "Boy" that Yibo likes! or something similar. I hesitated to add the word "song" to my final translation, but in the end I think it's a faithful way to recreate the stronger title separation of 《》 vs "".

When Viktor is injured by Jayce you’re there. The resounding blast injures you and your previous interactions with the arcane alter you. Before Ambessa and Singed come you're in his lap. Crying and sobbing so quietly. Begging for him to come back and read to you like he always did- pushing his soaked fabric back and forth into his skin. The resultant sounds echo into the space but you don’t hear it over the pounding of your heart and wet sobs.

When Ambessa and Singed do come- they look you over. Watching your distrust and overprotective prowess. The dirt on your cheeks and the dried tear streaks, the raggedness of your clothes and the obvious blight of the arcane on your skin. You crowd over Viktor and don’t allow them to get close to either of you until she instructs one of her soldiers to come and take you.

“If it wants to act wild, put it in a cage.” She says, staring down at you over the line of her nose before dismissing the soldier holding you by the scruff.

For days, it feels, you are held up in a cell. Watched by red and grey guards with sharp eyes and even sharper tempers. You feel lost and the constant buzzing under the blight of the arcane sometimes becomes unbearable. You scratch at it and roll in the dirt of the cell. All gnashing teeth and flying fists. Trying and failing to pull its roots from underneath your skin until Ambessa shows up at the iron bars of the cell you’ve been forgotten in.

She once again stares down at you from the line of her nose. Mouth fixed in a way that makes you feel like she doesn’t want to be here any more than you do. For a moment, the buzzing dies down- becomes bearable. Your breath is labored- anger confused with other swirls of emotions and thoughts that cloud your judgement. All you feel is that familiar buzzing outside of yourself now- in your fingertips up your arm. It by far, is not pleasant- like the very fabric of your arm is being torn at its seams. It only serves to further your anger and you charge at Ambessa who snatches you up just as fast.

“It seems you’ve inherited the same affliction as him..”

Your rage is lost in the ocean of your confusion. She dangles you by the arm, eyes scrutinizing the way your blight acts under her touch. Then she sets you down. A gentle lowering of your bare feet against the dirt before your crumbling into a heap on the floor. The metal bars which have crowded you in for what feels like an eternity disappear with a look. Her eyes are set on you, light brown that feels like hot fire when they take over your scuffed and dirty appearance. She’s turning her back before you can analyze her the way she did you, yet the metal bars remain just as open as they’d never been before.

“Come, child.”

You perk up at her beckoning and she side-eyes you, a look that demands you come, and then you’re scrambling to your feet and running to her side.

The walk is long and your feet begin to hurt from disuse. Ambessa’s own strides are long and purposeful while you shuffle against the pavement. Your arm buzzes in the silence and you’re sure she can hear it with the side glances she keeps shooting your way. It is that familiar discomfort again- you want to roll in the dirt again and scratch and groan- but you bite your lip for fear she’ll send you back to the cell. The proximity seems to only make the buzzing worse, her warmth like an attraction to your blight. As the walk continues you work up the will to reach out for her hand. Just two fingers between your palm that silence the discomfort to dull solitude.

At the point of contact, she doesn’t push you away or immediately make you do the long walk of shame back to your cage. All she does is glance at you for a long minute- eyes like fire boring into your own as you stare at her with almost the same intensity. You end up looking away first, but that doesn’t make her pull her fingers away- and for the rest of the walk your blight is a cool relief which you hadn’t been privy too until now.

However, the following actions are one of blurry and confusing compositions. She brings you into an unfamiliar room. People dressed in difficult to explain clothing crowding around you, their close contact enough to satisfy the discomfort without Ambessa nearby. Still, all these unfamiliars are disconcerting and overwhelming and you find your voice enough to call for her who begins to close the door and leave you behind.

Ambessa concedes to your call for a while. Watching you be immersed in hot water and cleansing scents you’d been otherwise unaware of until now. She laughs when they go to take care of your hair and body measurements. It’s all a very overtly uncomfortable ordeal that you come out of unscathed. Clothed with the same blood red and strips of black and gold as her. Hair in neat, identical plats on the side of your head. You reach for her hand again in the absence of any warmth but she dodges and places her fingers on the small of your back, guiding you out of the room and into a brighter, stark white one.

All at once your knowledge of where you are becomes clearer. There is a big purple ball in the center of it all and the familiar faces that take care of you are there- laying on the floor in odd positions. Still, you know they’re not dead- their surface blight glowing with the rapid beating of your heart. Your eyes are drawn to the orb though, an inexplicable feeling blooms in your chest. One that you can’t describe, that urges you to grab hold of your heart in whatever way you can. One of those faces looks up, recognition deep within his eyes. He goes for your hand after catching his balance, a soft smile on his face that falters when he sees the condition of your skin. You don’t see it, to wrapped up in your own emotions. Still, you know exactly who that is.

For those who are unaware, when X-NINE was introduced on DDU back in 2017, GG introduced himself as the energy generator of the group and did a cute winking gesture.

It is entirely possible that they are making a reference to that episode.

Here is that episode. The moment in question happens at 7:25 when GG is introducing himself. He refers to himself as the 'energy generator' of the group.

(This actually comes up again in connection with his appearance on the 11th anniversary episode with DD. They are being interviewed together backstage and they talk about the first time GG appeared on the show. DD asks him why he introduced himself that way and GG says that he was told to.)

Anyway, to get to your question, I would not put it past the DDU brothers to be referring to that, as they liked to tease him a lot about GG, but given the timing of all of this it's hard to say. They didn't start teasing him heavily about GG until after the taping of the 11th anniversary episode.

Taping of the 11th anniversary episode happened in mid July and the episode that you're asking about aired in the beginning of June.

We will probably never know for sure, so if you enjoy that CPN, you should continue to. It very well could be an inside joke about GG. His introduction did seem to make a big impression on all of them at the time of X-NINE's appearance.

Related posts:

I talked a bit about the 2017 X-NINE DDU appearance in my Devil's Timeline post