Back in 2016 I came across an email address, "[email protected]".

I sent an email, and got a fresh email from a different email, always itrolledyousummore_#, with a random number at the end. The only thing this email contained was the word The, with (1235) at the bottom. I then sent this email a reply, causing yet another email address to send a message. This time, there was a second word; I did this cycle 1245 times. As far as I can tell, the story of Marvin the Marvellous Marmoset Magician and his lost top hat is not published anywhere online. The story is at the bottom of this article in full, along with the bit.ly link that leads to a Flickr page, which has been replaced with the actual link for future-proofing.

My comment from 9 years ago was the first interaction with the page as far as I can tell, and I assumed that was the end of the mystery. At least until 12-10-2025, when I found the old email I used to discover the story, I remember back in 2016 just assuming the profile picture was the "award", and that the seemingly broken images were something meaningless. But I got curious, downloading the original copies of each image and putting them into notepad, I then found something that, even in 2025, no one seems to have found except a random profile most likely from a feed.

There was binary in the images, translating to "smarter than you look" with another bit.ly link, this one leading to a rickroll. I almost gave up before noticing near the top of the image. It led to another flickr account, "Rate My Tates", https://www.flickr.com/photos/143840936@N05/, containing blurry and pixelated photos of potatoes, Looking through the files here resulted in a dead end, there were Flickr guest pass links inside, but they were all seemingly expired, up until right now, at 5:59AM on 12-10-2025 I believed this truly was the end, the only connection being that each image contained a small bit of a URL. This URL led to https://remote.ctr-ll.net/12.144.0.82. This was some sort of coding challenge back in 2016, which you can find more information here https://www.danielreeve.info/snacker-hacker. I didn't see the connection at all, and since the challenge was over a very long time ago, and the link just redirected to Daniel's website, I thought the mystery was gone.

I just checked the image files again, leading to another Flickr page, this one https://flickr.com/people/144016774@N04/. "Horsesn Eyes". This seems to be a dead end, there is no description set for the images, and the files seem to have nothing of note inside of them. I do think this is where the mystery ends. I mainly just wanted to share this as I can't find any sign of it anywhere online.

The ctr-ll mystery was just a coding challenge for the company Mattessons Fridge Raiders, I still don't know why there was this entire side quest that seemed disconnected to the coding challenge, but led to it.

A final interesting thing I noticed is that all the email addresses from the original Marvin story seem to end in lucky numbers, "3,7,9,13,15,21,25,31,33,37,43,49,51,63,67,69,73,75,79,87"

I'm guessing this was set to filter out people trying to get to the end without suffering through a thousand emails, but regardless I would like to update this post with any new observations.

Now, here is the story of Marvin the Marvellous Marmoset Magician and The Lost Top Hat.

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Our story begins in a land far, far, far, far away. Bedfordshire.

On a cool winter's day in 1989, Marvin the marvellous marmoset magician was performing his usual tricks on the streets to a small flock of local cockatoos.

Imagine that? Right, anyway… as he went to perform his signature trick of transforming water into a barbershop quartet something went awry.

A HUGE gust of wind took Marvin the marmoset by surprise, knocking him off his feet and sending his top hat sailing into the mystical sea.

Drat!

Fortunately, Marvin knew a guy, that knew a cheetah, that knew a hedgehog, that knew a lizard that knew this turtle called, Hank. Hank wasn't just any standard turtle though. No siree. He was a giant submarine turtle.

So Marvin bid adieu to the cockatoos and opened the door to Hank's on-body submarine. As Hank and Marvin plunged deep into the depths of the deepest part of the sea the water began to turn bright pink.

It was at that point that Hank realised they had rather unfortunately managed to find themselves caught inside a giant squid.

Out of nowhere a voice boomed out:

“Marvin, you may remember me from that time you turned me into a giant squid,” bellowed the mysterious voice.

“Oh, hi Kenneth,” replied Marvin. “How are you, how's the family?”

“I'm a giant squid, you little dillweed. I was once a majestic unicorn that pranced all over the land with my little unicorn family. Until I met you! You and your evil powers turned me into this eight-armed thing! Well now I've eaten you. You and your giant submarine turtle friend are now trapped inside me forever,” shrieked Kenneth.

But Marvin would never let Kenneth ruin his day and stop him from retrieving his lost top hat. So Marvin did what he does best. He plotted his escape.

Marvin put on his scuba suit, activated the ejection seat and left Hank to fend for himself – blasting right through one of Kenneth's tentacles.

As Marvin began to swim away, he decided to use his magical powers to restore Kenneth back into a unicorn. But as we all know, unicorns can't swim.

Marvin continued his quest for his missing top hat, swimming through the murky depths of this mysterious water. But he then encountered another issue. His stomach.

He hadn't eaten lunch and that was not ideal. His stomach began to grumble so loudly it caught the attention of a nearby pack of scuba lions. They too were on the lookout for food.

Drat!

The lions began to circle him. But again, luck was on Marvin's side. These weren't your typical scuba lions, these were pescetarian scuba lions. Once they realised Marvin wasn't a fish but a marmoset, the lions chilled out and started playing some jazz. Marvin regained his confidence and asked them why they were playing jazz.

The leader of the pack paddled forth and told Marvin that it was an ancient hunting technique passed on from generations of pescetarian scuba lions. It turns out plankton were unable to resist the smooth sounds of jazz. And sure enough, out they came. The lions carefully put down their instruments and scooped up the plankton.

Within seconds the lions were full to the brim. Marvin was jealous. He was really hungry, but he preferred his plankton cooked, preferably with a touch of smoked paprika and a wedge of lemon. One of the lions saw that Marvin looked hungry and offered him the last of the planton. He thanked the lion and asked if he had any smoked paprika and lemon. The lion laughed, and said, “of course!” He reached into his backpack and pulled out a miniature underwater oven and a stack of condiments. Minutes later, Marvin was tucking into some deliciously over-seasoned plankton. With a full belly, Marvin wished the lions well and continued on his journey for his lost top hat.

Further and further Marvin dived, searching and searching when all of a sudden a flash of light caught his eye. “MY TOP HAT” he yelled, excitedly. But all was not as it seemed. It was indeed a top hat, but it was being worn by the conductor of the underwater freight train. As Marvin went to board the train, it took off. Sensing he was running out of time, Marvin used his magical powers to turn his feet into flippers so he could sneak in the back carriage.

With his last ounce of energy, Marvin pulled open the train door and threw himself inside. Out of breath and magical power, he curled up on the floor and fell asleep.

Hours later he was awoken by a fellow prodding him with a stick. He opened his eyes and saw that the stick was being held by a platypus with a beautifully plaited long silver beard.

“I am Paul the powerful platypus of the lost kingdom of Plutonian, whom might you be?” Said the bearded stranger.

“You can call me, Marv. And WOW your beard is truly magnificent,” exclaimed Marvin.

Paul then stroked his beard and told Marvin that it had taken him 63 years to grow a beard of this magnitude. He asked Marvin why he was on this underwater train and not above land with the other marmoset folk. Marvin told him that he was on a quest to find his lost top hat. Paul explained to him that the conductor of the train had a new top hat, which could be the one he was looking for. He thanked Paul for the information and stood up to resume his mission. But as he did, he fell over. Flipper feet. Marvin muttered a few words and POOF his feet turned back to normal.

The search was on. Marvin charged forth zooming from carriage to carriage, until he came to a big red door with the word CONDUCTOR on it.

Marvin knocked on the door. Moments later it opened to reveal a tall, hooded creature…

Marvin introduced himself and said that he was on the hunt for his missing top hat. The conductor sat in silence, analysing Marvin. He then stood up and took off his giant black cloak to reveal his true identity. An ostrich. An ostrich with a top hat.

“If it's a top hat you seek, then this is not yours, I've had this on my head, since I bought it from a boar. Take a look at the lining, and double-check the colour, are you sure this is yours? Because I believe it's another.”

Marvin inspected the hat closely and sure enough the surprisingly poetic ostrich conductor was telling the truth. Disappointed by his failed mission, he swam off the train and rocketed back to land by conveniently hitching a ride with a leather-clad swordfish biker gang.

With his feet firmly back on dry ground, Marvin decided it was time to go and buy a new top hat. But on his way a very angry and very wet unicorn confronted him. A unicorn with a top hat.

Kenneth again! The unicorn launched himself at Marvin with full force. But Marvin wasn't worried. He dodged the first charge with ease. As Kenneth prepared his next charge, Marvin muttered a few words and POOF Kenneth was transformed into a tiny little sardine.

Marvin reached down and reclaimed his lost top hat, much to the dismay of a struggling Kenneth. He then picked up Kenneth by the tail and took him home for his aquarium.

After a long day of action-packed adventure, Marvin poured himself a hot tea, put his feet up and examined his top hat. But on closer inspection he realised it had a unicorn horn-sized hole in the top. DAMMIT KENNETH.

The end.

http://bit.ly/28Qsybq (https://www.flickr.com/people/142462099@N04/)

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