#excerpt: the book of the damned
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shisasan · 2 months ago
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May 16, 1913 Letters to Felice by Franz Kafka First published : 1973
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orlando-in-love · 2 months ago
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"You'll understand why storms are named after people."
-F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and the Damned
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‘We cannot defeat the Imperium with lies, because they can lie better than we can.’
-Alpha legion guy.
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soldierandawar · 6 months ago
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"So don't feed the nightmares. Don't let yourself panic. Don't give the Capitol that. They've taken enough already."
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laurenfoxmakesthings · 2 years ago
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Folks, hear me out.
DAILY...Wind in the Willows.
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a-labyrinth-of-stories · 1 month ago
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The day my father died, a flock of red cardinals gathered in a tree outside my bedroom window. They chirped and shifted like fire. Mr. Charlie, Daddy’s best friend, called with the news, and I listened with my eyes closed, trying not to tremble. He extended condolences, and I thanked him graciously. The birds continued their performance, tweeting and leaping with excitement.
Isaac’s Song, Daniel Black
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daydreamerdrew · 4 months ago
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excerpt from Doing Battle: The Making of a Skeptic by Paul Fussell
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easternpine · 4 months ago
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Little, Big
But this now Sophie could see clearly: these were falling stars. She thought perhaps she could pick one out and watch and see it fall: a momentary bright exhalation, that made her draw breath, her heart filled with infinitude. Would that be a better fate? In the grass her hand found Smoky’s; the other already held her sister’s, who pressed it every time brightness fell from the air. Daily Alice couldn’t tell if she felt huge or small. She wondered whether her head were so big as to be able to contain all this starry universe, or whether the universe were so little that it would fit within the compass of her human head. She alternated between these feelings, expanding and diminishing. The stars wandered in and out of the vast portals of her eyes, under the immense empty dome of her brow; and then Smoky took her hand and she vanished to a speck, still holding the stars in a tiny jewel box within her. So they lay a long time, not caring to talk any more, each dwelling on that odd, physical sensation of ephemeral eternity—a paradox but undeniably felt; and if the stars had been as near and full of faces as they seemed, they would have looked down and seen those three as a single asterism, a linked wheel against the wheeling dark sky of the meadow.”
- John Crowley, Little, Big
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yudzukii · 2 years ago
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Withered Flowers on your grave
Maybe it's time for me
to go on and let you go.
Maybe I'm just to blind,
maybe I don't want to know.
In the depths of my heart,
the crypt of my soul,
I try to keep you alive
but you're dead like a zombie.
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shisasan · 2 days ago
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On the terrace outside the summer house. Lovely distant view of the countryside. Not so lovely looking back into the room. Nor into myself, there the screw keeps turning.
July 13, 1913 Letters to Felice by Franz Kafka First published : 1973
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lilibetbombshell · 2 years ago
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whencartoonsruletheworld · 9 months ago
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Hey so like many of you, I saw that article about how people are going into college having read no classic books. And believe it or not, I've been pissed about this for years. Like the article revealed, a good chunk of American Schools don't require students to actually read books, rather they just give them an excerpt and tell them how to feel about it. Which is bullshit.
So like. As a positivity post, let's use this time to recommend actually good classic books that you've actually enjoyed reading! I know that Dracula Daily and Epic the Musical have wonderfully tricked y'all into reading Dracula and The Odyssey, and I've seen a resurgence of Picture of Dorian Gray readership out of spite for N-tflix, so let's keep the ball rolling!
My absolute favorite books of all time are The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. Classic psychological horror books about unhinged women.
I adore The Bad Seed by William March. It's widely considered to be the first "creepy child" book in American literature, so reading it now you're like "wow that's kinda cliche- oh my god this is what started it. This was ground zero."
I remember the feelings of validation I got when people realized Dracula wasn't actually a love story. For further feelings of validation, please read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. There's a lot the more popular adaptations missed out on.
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier is an absolute gem of a book. It's a slow-build psychological study so it may not be for everyone, but damn do the plot twists hit. It's a really good book to go into blind, but I will say that its handling of abuse victims is actually insanely good for the time period it was written in.
Moving on from horror, you know people who say "I loved this book so much I couldn't put it down"? That was me as a kid reading A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Picked it up while bored at the library and was glued to it until I finished it.
Peter Pan and Wendy by JM Barrie was also a childhood favorite of mine. Next time someone bitches about Woke Casting, tell them that the original 1911 Peter Pan novel had canon nonbinary fairies.
Watership Down by Richard Adams is my sister Cori's favorite book period. If you were a Warrior Cats, Guardians of Ga'Hoole or Wings of Fire kid, you owe a metric fuckton to Watership Down and its "little animals on a big adventure" setup.
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry was a play and not a book first, but damn if it isn't a good fucking read. It was also named after a Langston Hughes poem, who's also an absolutely incredible author.
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a book I absolutely adore and will defend until the day I die. It's so friggin good, y'all, I love it more than anything. You like people breaking out of fascist brainwashing? You like reading and value knowledge? You wanna see a guy basically predict the future of television back in 1953? Read Fahrenheit.
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee are considered required reading for a reason: they're both really good books about young white children unlearning the racial biases of their time. Huck Finn specifically has the main character being told that he will go to hell if he frees a slave, and deciding eternal damnation would be worth it.
As a sidenote, another Mark Twain book I was obsessed with as a kid was A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Exactly what it says on the tin, incredibly insane read.
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin is a heartbreaking but powerful book and a look at the racism of the time while still centering the love the two black protagonists feel for each other. Giovanni's Room by the same author is one that focuses on a MLM man struggling with his sexuality, and it's really important to see from the perspective of a queer man living in the 50s– as well as Baldwin's autobiographical novel, Go Tell it on the Mountain.
Agatha Christie mysteries are all still absolutely iconic, but Murder on the Orient Express is such a good read whether or not you know the end twist.
Maybe-controversial-maybe-not take: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov is a good book if you have reading comprehension. No, you're not supposed to like the main character. He pretty much spells that out for you at the end ffs.
Animal Farm by George Orwell was another favorite of mine; it was written as an obvious metaphor for the rise of fascism in Russia at the time and boy does it hit even now.
And finally, please read Shakespeare plays. As soon as you get used to their way of talking, they're not as hard to understand as people will lead you to believe. My absolute favorite is Twelfth Night- crossdressing, bisexual love triangles, yellow stockings... it's all a joy.
and those are just the ones i thought of off the top of my head! What're your guys' favorite classic books? Let's make everyone a reading list!
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pilgrimagesource · 2 months ago
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🚨 E-BOOK "AUTHOR" IS PLAGIARIZING PILGRIMAGE FICS 🚨
Buckle up, folks, this is gonna be a long one.
Our prolific author, @relicshamecircle (aka EnduringParadox on ao3) has been made aware of an e-book "author" named Layla Moran who has been blatantly plagiarizing her Diarmute fanfics and just changing the names and a few words around. This is absolutely unacceptable. I always like to think of this fandom as a safe haven and an accepting, kind community. But this is disgusting.
These are the three specific works listed on Layla's account that have been plagiarized from EnduringParadox:
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This seems to be the work of someone within the fandom, because how else would she have found these fics and read them and decided to pass them as her own? So Layla Moran, if you follow me and you're reading this, you have made Pilgrimage fanfic authors, who are already so few and far between, feel unsafe to post without you getting your greedy hands on them and trying to take advantage of a small fandom for your own profit. Did you think you would never get caught? My advice to you would be to take down the works yourself before this has to get nasty.
To everyone else, I urge you to report and/or leave one-star reviews stating that they're plagiarized from fanfic. Links and proof below the cut:
The summary of The Beauty and His Beast:
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Which is CLEARLY An Invitation to Happiness:
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Ugh, Everild and Camdyn... what ugly names. But I digress. Here's the link to the GoodReads page if you feel so inclined to leave a one-star review and report.
An excerpt from An Invitation to Happiness, EnduringParadox:
"David hadn’t fought for glory or gold. At the time, he thought he’d stood for God—that the king’s cause, which he so readily made his own, was not only legitimate but justified both on earth and in the eyes of Heaven. More than five years later, carved into adulthood by the sword’s blade, his body a hardened knot of scarred skin, his throat ravaged by his own roars of rage and anguish, David knows better. That he had gone to war simply because he had been foolish. Because he’d been a young man but had still looked at war with a boy’s eyes—half a solemn duty, half a game. Something that would be done and done with satisfaction."
An excerpt from The Beauty and His Beast, Layla Moran:
"Everild Reed hadn't fought for glory or gold. At the time, he thought he'd stood for God--that the king's cause, which he eagerly made his own, was not only legitimate but justified both on earth and in the eyes of Heaven. More than five years later, carved into adulthood by the sword's blade and burdened with the weight of his choices, his body a hardened knot of muscle and scarred skin, Everild knows better now."
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The summary of The Rancher's Mail-Order Husband:
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Which, obviously, is Bluebells and Daylillies and Wild Roses Running Rampant:
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Come ON, even naming Diarmuid's character "Ciarán"???? (And misspelling it Ciarian in the summary??) Here's a link to the GoodReads page. You know what to do.
And THIS ONE she's making money off of. You can buy it for $2.99 on Amazon.
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Here's a link to the Amazon page, please report.
An excerpt from Bluebells and Daylillies and Wild Roses Running Rampant, EnduringParadox:
"David had almost joined their company. He’d gone nearly the entire war without being shot and damned if near the end of it all someone hadn’t gotten him right in the leg. The surgeon had told him they needed to take the entire limb. David had grabbed his collar, pulled him close until they were nose-to-nose, and gritted out that he’d break every one of his fingers if he tried it. He kept the leg, earned a limp, and found later, when he was beset by memories and the scent of blood and gunpowder, dizzy, pulse racing, that he’d gotten what they called the soldier’s heart, too."
An excerpt from The Rancher's Mail-Order Husband, Layla Moran:
"Graham had come close to joining the dead himself, narrowing surviving a gunshot wound to the leg near the warn's end. The surgeon wanted to amputate, and Graham, fueled by desperation, had snarled at him through gritted teeth, threatening to break his fingers if he so much as tried. He kept the leg but earn a limp that followed him everywhere, along with something the doctors called 'soldier's heart'--a condition that left him shaking, sleepless, and burdened with memories of blood and gunpowder."
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And, finally, a summary of The Warrior and The Monk:
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Which is just Temu how rich the earth, how bright the stars:
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Here's a link to the GoodReads. Rate, report.
An excerpt from how rich the earth, how bright the stars, EnduringParadox:
"One morning, strangers in longships stepped onto the shore. Their arrival was no surprise. Along the sea's coast they drifted, slow, languid, in their monstrously large and narrow vessels with their monstrously large, woven sails dyed in bright, garish colors, a beacon to all that saw them, telling them—as their longships loomed like a pack of wolves stalking their prey—that they were coming."
An excerpt from The Warrior and The Monk, Layla Moran:
"One early morning, strangers in longships silently stepped onto the shore, their presence casting a heavy weight upon the land. Their arrival had been anticipated for days, maybe longer, and was no surprise to those who dwelled in the monastery overlooking the coast. The ships had been visible for miles as they drifted slowly, languidly, along the sea's edge, cutting through the waves like beasts with a purpose. They moved in their long, narrow vessels, which seemed both too large and too lean, with sails woven from thick cloth and dyed in bright, garish colors that stood out against the pale sea and sky. The sails themselves were like beacons, drawing attention,"
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This is all so blatant and egregious. Shame on Layla. EnduringParadox is a kind and dedicated person writing all of these wonderful stories for our small fandom for FREE and Layla has taken advantage of that. We are small but we are mighty and protective of our own. Let's make Layla regret fucking with Pilgrimage.
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cryptotheism · 2 days ago
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"Alchemy is the pre-Enlightenment version of scientific inquiry, and it resembles science in many respects: an alchemist observes phenomena in the natural world, hypothesizes a causal relationship to explain them, and performs an experiment to test their hypothesis. But here is where the resemblance ends: where the scientist must publish their results for them to count as science, the alchemists kept their findings to themselves. This meant that alchemists were able to trick themselves into thinking they were right, including about things they were very wrong about, like whether drinking mercury was a good idea. The failure to publish meant that every alchemist had to discover, for themself, that mercury was a deadly poison. Alchemists never figured out how to transform lead into gold, but they did convert the base metal of superstition into the precious metal of science by putting it through the crucible of disclosure and peer-review."
-Cory Doctorow
The stuff about alchemy having a pre-enlightenment scientific process is correct.
The publishing thing is just wrong. Alchemists published their results and techniques all the time, and regularly collaborated with their peers. That's what half these damn historical documents are.
Also, the toxic effects of metal fumes were well known by the 9th century. Abu Bakr Al-Razi emphatically writes about the need for proper ventilation in alchemical laboratories in the Sirr al Asrar, and that book was used as a manual for alchemists well into the enlightenment. Additionally, Al-Razi was just the first guy to actually write that down. Distilled mercury and sulphur fumes smell awful, and are often *physically painful* to inhale. Alchemists knew they were dangerous. It was the nature of the danger, and the techniques for mitigation wasn't fully understood.
I know that might not seem like an important difference, but it is. The problem wasn't that alchemists were secretive and never shared their knowledge with their peers. (They did.) It was because aggregate, instrumental, knowledge about the dangers of heavy metal poisoning simply had not been gathered yet.
It wasn't because the alchemists didn't understand mercury, poisons were poorly understood! In fact, it was an alchemist --our boy paracelsus-- who invented the concept of "the dose makes the poison"! Did he "trick himself into thinking he was right" when he tested similar doses of deadly poisons on different animals to gauge how concentration effected a biology? No!
Like who was Paracelsus supposed to appeal to? What panel of his peers could've reviewed his work? Who knew more about mercury poisoning than he did? Everyone else at the University of Württemberg was still reading Galen! What could he have done to make his experiments "count"? He was roundly rejected by the medical authorities of his time!
You could make the argument that alchemists had no centralized scientific authority, but that's a conditional claim! The Baghdad House of Wisdom effectively acted as that centralized body for jabirian era alchemists. Many Islamicate alchemists abandoned with the effusive language and mystical secrecy, because they damn well needed to teach people. The Sirr al Asrar, the "Secret Book of Secrets" is straight up a textbook written in very plain language.
Like, I know Cory is being pithy, and he's probably making some larger point whose context I am not seeing through this excerpt, but I reject the idea that alchemists were supersitious and secretive idiots that could've been proper scientists if they just submitted to peer review.
It is hard to collect knowledge! The methods underlying science have been present for quite a while, but the damn printing press is recent! It is time consuming and expensive to collect and disseminate expert knowledge when you don't have modern communication infrastructure!
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mortisghost · 2 months ago
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Jurnal #64
Hi! Second issue of the Journal on Tumblr, and number 64 in fact, 64 like the Nintendo 64, a console I adored as a child and that I hate viscerally today, even more than the damned Wii. However, Ocarina of Time remains one of my all-time favorite games, and yes, I am a contradictory person, driven by unjust hatred. Don't send me a PM to talk about this; it'll make me seethe with rage!! (Really, don't do it). What interesting things did I do this week besides write a very long list of reasons to hate the N64 (which I won't share)? Well, like last week, mainly commissioned images that I'm unfortunately unable to reveal to you. But I also used my free time to advance two comic book projects I'm currently working on, and I can show that to you. First, with a few friends as geeky as I am, we have the ambition to create a small illegal fanzine with superhero stories. I've already written a short Silver Surfer episode for my friend Félix Laurent (which can be found here, but unfortunately only in French), and I'm now working on a little Superman adventure, which I'll draw myself. It'll be called "Superman Speaks," and I think it will be fun and touching. I love the Superman character, even though I find he's very rarely used. Here are some images!
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The other comic book project I'm spending some of my free time on is a much longer story. I already showed you excerpts from it last time, here are a few more. It's a tragic story with doctors, a homeless man, and a sick baby. It's inspired by Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment," a book I love and recommend if you like mentally tortured humans; it's truly amazing.
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Finally, I can't conclude this post without telling you that Fangamer released a demo of the new version of Off this month! It's called "Prologue," and it includes the entire first zone of the game. If you're interested, I highly recommend you try it out and send us and the development team your feedback so we can further improve everything we can before the release, which will take place later this year. OFF PROLOGUE ON STEAM
That's all for this Jurnal. My recommendations for the month are the film "Love Streams" by John Cassavetes, one of my all-time favorites, and also iced coffees when it's a little too hot outside. I love these things!!
Sending you kind thoughts, don't think about the N64 too much, see you next time!
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r--kt · 1 year ago
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Do you like Kakashi's dogs? Let's talk about why there are eight of them.
another example of naruto's ✨cultural code✨
contents | the eight dog warriors chronicles · legacy · eight confucian virtues. also look at the cuties love them sm
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Naruto Vol. 10 CH 90
[ one dog is wonderful, I'm saying as the owner of a sweet little york terrier. two dogs are good, they won't be bored together. three dogs? yeah, cool! how are you going to walk them though? four? yes... look, maybe we have to draw the line h- wha- EIGHT? Excuse Me!? ]
surely, it's worth starting with the fact that eight is a lucky number in Japanese culture — everybody watched Hachi. of course, this is not the only cultural detail where the eight is mentioned. I want to pay special attention to a thing that I didn't know about until I googled it, and this is clearly what Kishimoto was doing homage to with Kakashi's eight ninken.
The Eight Dog Warriors Chronicles
Better known as Nansō Satomi Hakkenden. and it's not just some kind of book, it's a novel, consisting of 106 booklets written by Kyokutei Bakin in XIX century. Hakkenden is considered the largest novel in the history of Japanese Literature. this is one of the main representatives of the gesaku genre, which includes works of a frivolous, joking, silly nature. further I will emphasize a few more times how damn popular this work is and how often it is reflected in culture.
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here are some illustrations for these books
now let's talk about the plot. It's weird, but it's weird at samurai-dogs-story level so stay here.
In brief, the story tells about the commander Satomi Yoshizane, whose native lands were attacked by the army of a man, whose forces surpassed those of Satomi, and the samurai in despair swore to a dog named Yatsufusa that the dog would get his beloved daughter Fuse as a wife if he chewed that man's throat. surprisingly, the dog not only understood the owner, but also fulfilled his wish! after that the commander refused to keep the promise. however, Fuse, true to her word of honor, went with Yatsufusa to the mountains and became his wife. upon learning that his daughter was pregnant, Satomi, in a rage, sent a samurai to kill Yatsufusa and bring Fuse home. she stood up for the dog anyways and died with him. at that moment, eight pearls with hieroglyphs that denoted the foundations of Confucian virtue burst out of her womb. (...cheers for mythology, I guess)
Soon, eight dog warriors who were Fuse's spiritual children were born in different parts of Awa province. after going through hardships, they got together and became vassals of the Satomi clan, then won the battle, and soon reached peace.
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some more illustrations made by Utagawa Kuniyoshi. from left to right: Inukawa Sōsuke (the dog warrior), Inumura Daikaku (the dog warrior), Princess Fuse (their mother).
the novel mainly tells about each individual warrior dog and his shenanigans in a funny adventurous way. huge fame has led to excerpts from Hakkenden being staged at the Kabuki Theater and mentioned in the anime and manga, such as Inuyasha, Dragon Ball, as it turned out, Naruto and so on. there's also a lot of films and video games.
The eight virtues
these are loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, love, honesty, justice, harmony, and peace.
they relate more to Chinese culture, but basically Hakkenden was inspired by it too. since I did not read the whole novel, I would still like to mention at least the values on which it is based, and which were embedded in the symbolism of this story. It's quite interesting to apply this to Kakashi's dogs. gives them more weight and depth.
It is also interesting to note that the reason why Fuse gave birth to dogs was also that her father was cursed earlier in the story in a way that his descendants would become depraved like dogs. in Japanese culture, dogs embody the duality of character: the same mentioned filth and depravity, and devotion and bravery. so as samurai. but this is a different conversation, more related to Kakashi and his dog poetry.
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Did you get here? Here's an additional discovery for you✨
Pakkun's name (パックン) is derived from the Japanese onomatopoeia “pakupaku” (パクパク) which reflects the sound of munching.
Kakashi, that's very sweet of you.
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thank you for reading this to the end ♡
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