#watch out Julian

[the-iron-orchid]

🎁 ~ Lua and Aleis arrive with little flair, cheerfully offering their birthday wishes and producing a decently sized corked bottle, tied off with a sparkling ribbon, filled with a deeply colored liquid, simmering with a faint iridescence. Lua whispers something about it's use looking emphatically from Jinana to Julian at the bar - mentioning it's transformative abilities, tentacles, probably using it near a body of water, and that they and Aleis hope Jinana can put it to good use.

Jinana snickers, while Julian gives a mildly puzzled smile of innocent unknowing from his place behind the counter-turned-bar, deftly pouring from three bottles simultaneously to form a liquid the color of Vesuvian canal water. (This drink is apparently called a 'Vampire Eel Bite', and hits like one.)

"Oh, I'm certain this will find good use." Jinana gives each of the pair a friendly peck on the cheek, giggling. "It's just a matter of setting the scene..."

Asra manifests over Jinana's shoulder, with an arched brow and a sly smirk. "I do happen to know a place with a very private pool," he murmurs quietly, and s/he grins.

[youngpettyqueen]

I know the decision to have Julian's parents have him augmented was made on the fly but imo its pretty obvious from early on that Julian has Family Issues because he avoids talking about his family like the plague and I think they should've incorporated this into the Julian and Sisko dynamic right from early on because I think it would've made for some really compelling stories and moments and could've set up a REALLY interesting Julian and Jake dynamic which they kinda started to do but never fully went for

[not-equippedforthis]

shout out to the very distinct feeling of 'oh god i'm going to become at least mildly annoying about this aren't i'. binging ds9 season 1 and i outright giggled at a very small mannerism julian did. got hyped when o'brien showed up. grinned widely at kira just Being There. felt the urge to yell and cheer and scream at the slightest hint of whump. the character dynamics and friendships are beginning to interweave like strings in a tapestry and i almost detonated upon realising this. uh oh.

[hitrone]

i’m gonna be insane guys

[casualavocados]

so i've been going down several translation holes while giffing kiseki... finding different sources which have their own translations, etc. then trying to choose the words that fit the meaning of the scene im giffing best.

i just wanna talk about two lines in particular that have made me tilt my head and wonder about nuances, so here we go:

the first line/translation i want to mention is from ep9, and is to do with the meaning and intention of the characters/story. it's when chen yi is confronting ai di after he gets out of prison about the time ai di slept with him four years before. i found three different versions of what ai di cuts him off with:

these all contain insanely different meanings in english. i was losing my mind trying to figure out the subtleties of what ai di was saying here, so i reached out to a very helpful speaker of the language who has made kiseki translation posts before, @nikkotinamide , and they said this about it:

and i just got so excited about that...the nuance! the specifics! referring to it as "settling accounts" is likely where the first translation about "the past" comes from, but the other two are closer to the true meaning. however, if you simply went with the revenge line you would miss the complexities that are being suggested in ai di's character.

thinking of that night as a debt he owes to chen yi and has to pay back... as something to be settled - something he isn't even really asking about but more expects chen yi to follow through on... it makes this line so much more poignant to me because it describes his guilt and heartbreak about what happened between them - about what ai di chose to do - in a much more specific and cutting way. ai di expects anger, rejection, and retaliation from chen yi, and tries goading him into reacting in those ways bc he believes he has done something unforgivable (and also that chen yi doesn't (and will never) love him), so he would rather chen yi push him away than risk being that close again.

(un?)luckily for him chen yi is absolutely smitten with him and doesn't let him get away with it. ♥️

the second translation i want to focus on is in ep12 & has more to do with words that don't translate exactly into english, but i went on a similar bender trying to decipher it:

specifically the translation of the last two characters: "堂口 (táng kǒu)" - the word translated here as "office".

bc outside of youtube i found those characters also translated as "headquarters," "gang," and "hall", which are all, again, wildly different from each other. so my best guess was that it was actually a very specific word that highly depended on the context it was being used in, and that context was being translated generally so that non-speakers in the audience would understand. but i wanted to know what that specific word and context was!

so i reached out to a bestie who did some more digging and she found this:

which IMMEDIATELY made me batshit insane because of course that's what it means; of course it's that specific!!

"office" is too professional for where chen yi lives - it's a car garage; it's their front as an auto shop. but it's also not yiyun's "headquarters" because that's the building with the spa where chen dongyang and his husband operate out of: the true central point of the gang. but because of this other line in episode 3, we know chen yi (and ai di too through association; they're a pair, do not buy separately, etc.) leads a specific division of yiyun gang:

so when chen yi asks ai di in ep12 if he's going to the bar or to "堂口" he's asking if he's coming home to the auto shop: their specific division of the gang, (which we knew all along was what he was talking about in the first place).

(...and this is just me continuing with the meta side of it, not the translations, but i also think this connects to what xiao jie and ai di were both talking about when they brought up chen yi's succession as the leader of yiyun:

because chen yi is currently just a leader of one branch of the gang, and young (25 at the point where cdy retires), so to me it makes sense that older, senior members of the gang - possibly even leaders of other divisions - would want that spot. but chen yi is practically cdy's son so get wrecked guys the gang passes to him. 🥰

and that's also why cdy is urging ai di to just come back and be a member again. bc he raised both chen yi and ai di (they are a pair, do not buy seperately) and because chen yi is gonna need ai di to watch his back as he takes over full responsibility. ...im mad we didn't get to see more inter-gang dynamics. that could have been so COOL let me IN.)

anyway those are the two translation bits that have left the biggest impression on me while i've watched and giffed kiseki so far. i just think language is so fucking neat.

[ehiiehn]

//blink blink blush blush

[radio-4-is-static]

Audacious | Franz Ferdinand

So don't stop feeling audacious, there's no one to save us So just carry on And don't go blaming the neighbours, you know they're the same as us We should just get on Get on

[rekindlevn]

LIs favorite foods/snack?

Niko eats pretty healthy -- for a snack, he'd like some yogurt or fresh veggies! Jules is a big fan of dango, but he's not picky and will try anything. Markus has a massive sweet tooth, he'd eat cookies for dinner then complain about a tummy ache.

[inkyquince]

i WAS creating a sherrif/chief of police oc for DoL and then I listened to the second part of a creepcast video and im sitting here all bug eyed, like oh JESUS

[i-am-the-oyster]

John talking about Julian in 1975

So I call him and say, “Have you seen Sparks? Hitler on the piano?” and he says, “No. They are alright. But have you seen Queen?” and I say “What’s Queen?” and then he tells me. His age group is hipper to music … at 11 I was aware of music, but not too much.

Ron Mael (hitler on the piano) and Paul dressed as Ron Mael for the Coming Up video

[intersexfairy]

i am going to love myself i am going to live and keep trying to get a good life i am going to take care of myself i am going to do something that makes me happy i am going to keep fighting i am going to exist and there is nothing they can do about it

[natjennie]

if one of the ghosts was gonna call cap a faggot who would it be. really think about it.

[crushedbyatree]

This was so funny to me

[crime-scene-psychic]

Literally a crime Garak wasn't in Take Me Out to the Holosuite, he and Julian coulda made out in the dugout

[grinchwrapsupreme]

book runs based on tv shows are usually mediocre at best, like star trek, torchwood, doctor who, etc etc, but i would give anything to get a book run of the BBC Ghosts hotel i need to know what shenanigans those guys get up to in there

[casualavocados]

@grapejuicegay pointed out to me that chen yi, who hates sweets, always celebrated his and ai di's birthday with cake bc ai di would get them cake. even after chen yi broke their tradition for 4 years he still brought a cake to prison the next time for ai di. who. ftr would not have been able to eat it because of. you know the whole prison thing. & glass separating them.

also just the implications behind chen yi, who also hates spicy food, running a garage called "cayenne auto shop"? that's all chen yi's. ai di runs the bar not the shop. so now i cant stop thinking about that. insane behavior. especially for a 17 year old being handed over the controls to a division of a gang. chen yi loves ai di so much hes so cute im gonna-