#free domain and hosting for 1 year

[reality-detective]

The Secret Vatican Gold Vault?

"The Vatican's treasure of solid gold has been estimated by the United Nations World Magazine to amount to several billion dollars. A large bulk of this is stored in gold ingots with the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, while banks in England and Switzerland hold the rest. "But this is just a small portion of the wealth of the Vatican, which in the U.S. alone, is greater than that of the five wealthiest giant." End quote.

This was reported by Henry Mackow. There were reportedly that an international military force that repatriated 650 plane loads of gold and cash from the Vatican to the US Treasury.

A tunnel between Vatican City and Jerusalem was discovered containing gold. The amount of gold found is “more gold than you can imagine” stacked 13 levels high for the first 150 miles (241 kilometers) of the tunnel and “650 planes used to transport the gold”.

The result of this operation was the closure of over 6,000 Vatican bank accounts used for illegal activities. I do not have any conclusive info on that but there was an interesting report that came out from the Vatican itself.

In a report from 👇

They published a Congressional inquiry into the auditing of the Fort Knox gold, and they were informed by the officials responsible for that gold, that the gold in Fort Knox and other depositries in the USA (261 million ounces) is now part of the gold reserve of the International Monetary Fund (the IMF).

We have been informed by one of the top lawyers employed by the IMF (eventually sacked because she intended to whistleblow on them), that the IMF was controlled by the Vatican and the Jesuits. Who is this person you may ask? Karen Hudes. Who has exposed over the years how the IMF worked.

Of course alot has changed since she came out publicly. K. Hudes has some stand out points she has made regarding info that you all have seen on this channel.

For instance: 👇

Hudes asserts that a clandestine version of the U.S. Constitution, enacted in 1871, handed over significant control to private bankers, significantly altering the original governance framework. Which is true.

Also according to her, individuals in court are seen as debtors rather than citizens, which of course is another term of enslavement which effectively dehumanizes us and classifies us as property of the Federal Government, so on and so forth. Something none of us should be surprised to hear.

There's a lot to look into regarding this subject. So take your time and understand that many things have changed that will come to fruition in full force over the coming months. We are no longer under the 1871 Corp Act. Which is why the Chevron Doctrine had to be overturned. 🤔

[genericpuff]

All the cool kids use ComicFury 😘

Hey y'all! If you love independent comic sites and have a few extra dollars in your pocket, please consider supporting ComicFury, the owner Kyo has been running it for nearly twenty years and it's one of the only comic hosting platforms left that's entirely independent and reminiscent of the 'old school' days that I know y'all feel nostalgic over.

(kyo's sense of humor is truly unmatched lmao)

Here are some of the other great features it offers:

Message board forums! It's a gift from the mid-2000's era gods!

Entirely free-to-use HTML and CSS editing! You can use the provided templates, or go wild and customize the site entirely to your liking! There's also a built-in site editor for people like me who want more control over their site design but don't have the patience to learn HTML/CSS ;0

In-depth site analytics that allow you to track and moderate comments, monitor your comic's performance per week, and let you see how many visitors you get. You can also set up Google Analytics on your site if you want that extra touch of data, without any bullshit from the platform. Shit, the site doesn't come with ads, but you can run ads on your site. The site owners don't ask questions, they don't take a cut. Pair your site with ComicAd and you'll be as cool as a crocodile alligator !

RSS feeds! They're like Youtube subscriptions for millennials and Gen X'ers!

NSFW comics are allowed, let the "female presenting nipples" run free! (just tag and content rate them properly!)

Tagging. Tagging. Remember that? The basic feature that every comic site has except for the alleged "#1 webcomic site"? The independent comic site that still looks the same as it did 10 years ago has that. Which you'd assume isn't that big a deal, but isn't it weird that Webtoons doesn't?

Blog posts. 'Nuff said.

AI-made comics are strictly prohibited. This also means you don't have to worry about the site owners sneaking in AI comics or installing AI scrapers (cough cough)

Did I mention that the hosting includes actual hosting? Meaning for only the cost of the domain you can change your URL to whatever site name you want. No extra cost for hosting because it's just a URL redirect. No stupid "pro plan" or "gold tier" subscription necessary, every feature of the site is free to use for all. If this were a sponsored Pornhub ad, this is the part where I'd say "no credit card, no bullshit".

Don't believe me? Alright, look at my creator backend (feat stats on my old ass 2014 comic, I ain't got anything to hide LOL)

TRANSCRIPTS! CHAPTER ORGANIZATION! MASS PAGE UPLOADING! MULTIPLE CREATOR SUPPORT! FULL HTML AND CSS SUPPORT! SIMPLIFIED EDITORS! ACTUAL STATISTICS THAT GIVE YOU WEEKLY BREAKDOWNS! THE POWER OF CHOICE!!

So yeah! You have zero reasons to not use and support ComicFury! It being "smaller" than Webtoons shouldn't stop you! Regain your independence, support smaller platforms, and maybe you'll even find that 'tight-knit community' that we all miss from the days of old! They're out there, you just gotta be willing to use them! ( ´ ∀ `)ノ～ ♡

[screentones-webcomicresources]

There are many web hosting companies to choose from if you're taking the plunge into making your own website with a comic content management system (CMS) like ComicControl or Grawlix, a Wordpress comic theme like Toocheke or ComicPress, or a HTML template to cut/paste code like Rarebit. While these solutions are generally free, finding a home for them is... generally not. It can be hard to choose what's best for your webcomic AND your budget!

We took a look at a few of the top hosting services used by webcomics creators using webcomic CMSes, and we put out a poll to ask your feedback about your hosts!

This post may be updated as time goes on as new services enter the hosting arena, or other important updates come to light.

Questions:

💻 I can get a free account with Wix/Squarespace/Carrd, could I just use those for my comic? - Web hosts like this may have gallery functions that could be adapted to display a series of pages, but they are very basic and not intended for webcomics.

📚 Wait, I host on Webtoon, Tapas, Comic Fury, or some other comic website, why are they not here? - Those are comic platforms! We'll get into those in a future post!

🕵️‍♀️Why does it say "shared hosting"? Who am I sharing with? - "Shared hosting" refers to sharing the server space with other customers. They will not have access to your files or anything, so it is perfectly fine to use for most comic CMSes. You may experience slowing if there is too much activity on a server, so if you're planning to host large files or more than 10 comics, you may want to upgrade to a more robust plan in the future.

Web Host List

Neocities

Basic plan pricing: Free or $5/month. Free plan has more restrictions (1 GB space, no custom domain, and slower bandwidth, among other things)

Notes: Neocities does not have database support for paid or free accounts, and most comic CMS solutions require this (ComicCtrl, Grawlix, Wordpress). You will need to work with HTML/CSS files directly to make a website and post each page.

Hostinger

Basic plan pricing: $11.99/month or $7.99/month with four year commitment (monthly, 1, 2, and 4 year plans available).

Notes: Free domain for the 1st year. Free SSL Certifications. Weekly backups.

KnownHost

Basic plan pricing: $8.95/month or $7.99/month with four year commitment (monthly, 1, 2, and 4 year plans available).

Notes: Free DDOS protection. Free SSL Certifications.

InMotion Hosting

Basic plan pricing: $12.99/month or $9.99/month with three year commitment (monthly, 1, and 3 year plans available).

Notes:  Free SSL Certifications, free domain names for 1 and 3 year plans. 24/7 live customer service and 90-day money-back guarantee. Inmotion also advertises eco-friendly policies: We are the first-ever Green Data Center in Los Angeles. We cut cooling costs by nearly 70 percent and reduce our carbon output by more than 2,000 tons per year.

Reviews:

👍“I can't remember it ever going down.”

👍“InMotion has a pretty extensive library full of various guides on setting up and managing websites, servers, domains, etc. Customer service is also fairly quick on responding to inquiries.” 👎“I wish it was a bit faster with loading pages.”

Ionos Hosting

Basic plan pricing: $8/month or $6/month with three year commitment (monthly, 1, 2 and 3 year plans available).

Notes: Free domain for the first year, free SSL Certification, Daily backup and recovery is included. Site Scan and Repair is free for the first 30 days and then is $6/month.

Reviews:

👍“Very fast and simple” 👎“Customer service is mediocre and I can't upload large files”

Bluehost

Basic plan pricing: $15.99/month or $4.95/month with three year commitment (monthly, 1, 3 year plans available).

Notes: Free domain and SSL certificates (for first year only). 24/7 Customer Service. Built to handle higher traffic websites. Although they specialize in Wordpress websites and provide updates automatically, that's almost a bad thing for webcomic plugins because they will often break your site. Their cloud hosting services are currently in early access with not much additional information available.

Reviews:

👎"The fees keep going up. Like I could drop $100 to cover a whole year, but now I'm paying nearly $100 for just three months. It's really upsetting."

👎"I have previously used Bluehost’s Wordpress hosting service and have had negative experiences with the service, so please consider with a grain of salt. I can confirm at least that their 24/7 customer service was great, although needed FAR too often."

Dreamhost

Basic plan pricing: $7.99/month or $5.99/month with three year commitment (monthly, 1, 3 year plans available).

Notes: Free SSL Certificates, 24/7 support with all plans, 97-day moneyback guarantee. Not recommended for ComicCtrl CMS

Reviews:

👍“They've automatically patched 2 security holes I created/allowed by mistake.” 👍“Prices are very reasonable” 👎 “back end kind of annoying to use” 👎 “wordpress has some issues” 👎 “it's not as customizable as some might want“

GoDaddy

Basic plan pricing: $11.99/month or $9.99/month with three year commitment (monthly, 1, 2, and 3 year plans available).

Notes: Free 24/7 Customer service with all plans, Free SSL Certificates for 1 year, free domain and site migration.

Reviews:

👍Reasonable intro prices for their Economy hosting, which has 25GB of storage 👍Migrated email hosting service from cPanel to Microsoft Office, which has greater support but may not be useful for most webcomic creators. 👎 Many site issues and then being upsold during customer service attempts. 👎 Server quality found lacking in reviews 👎 Marketing scandals in the past with a reputation for making ads in poor taste. Have been attempting to clean up that image in recent years. 👎 “GoDaddy is the McDonald's of web hosting. Maybe the Wal-Mart of hosting would be better. If your website was an object you would need a shelf to put it on. You go to Wal-Mart and buy a shelf. It's not great. It's not fancy. It can only hold that one thing. And if we're being honest - if the shelf broke and your website died it wouldn't be the end of the world.The issue comes when you don't realize GoDaddy is the Wal-Mart of hosting. You go and try to do things you could do with a quality shelf. Like, move it. Or add more things to it.” MyWorkAccountThisIs on Reddit*

Things to consider for any host:

💸 Introductory/promotional pricing - Many hosting companies offer free or inexpensive deals to get you in the door, and then raise the cost for these features after the first year or when you renew. The prices in this post are the base prices that you can expect to pay after the promotional prices end, but may get outdated, so you are encouraged to do your own research as well.

💻 Wordpress hosting - Many of the companies below will have a separate offering for Wordpress-optimized hosting that will keep you updated with the latest Wordpress releases. This is usually not necessary for webcomic creators, and can be the source of many site-breaking headaches when comic plugins have not caught up to the latest Wordpress releases.

Any basic hosting plan on this list will be fine with Wordpress, but expect to stop or revert Wordpress versions if you go with this as your CMS.

🤝 You don't have to go it alone - While free hosts may be more limited, paid hosting on a web server will generally allow you to create different subdomains, or attach additional purchased domains to any folders you make. If you have other comic-making friends you know and trust, you can share your server space and split the cost!

Want to share your experience?

Feel free to contribute your hosting pros, cons, and quirks on our survey! We will be updating our list periodically with your feedback!

[bl-bracket]

Build-a-BL: Off the Market

From Aof Noppharnach and Jojo Tichakorn, comes a new show.

Night (First Kanaphan) has been struggling financially for years now, having to pay off his late mother's debts. Until one day he hears about the opportunity of a lifetime. At the upcoming local night market, there is going to be a special exhibit, featuring many priceless artifacts for display. A new job opportunity puts Night right by the artifacts. If he can manage to just grab one of the items being displayed, selling it would give him more than money to pay off the remaining debt and set up a new and good life for himself. But stealing something with such tight security is not a task for one man.

Ace (Khaotung Thanawat) is a burnt out private eye who had long been disillusioned about what good he could do against all the corruption in the world. What's worse, his cases keep causing him to run into Mercy (Mix Sahaphap), a notorious jewel thief that gets in his way and under his skin. At first he wrote it off as an unlucky coincidence, but when Mercy kept showing up at all of his cases, even those that there was no real reason for Mercy to be involved, he had to concede that for some reason Mercy was pursuing him. Against his better judgment, Ace finds himself in bed with Mercy more than he'd care to admit.

When Ace hears about a night market hosting a series of valuable items for display, his private eye senses scream at him that there's something more to what's on display, which is how he meets Night. Inevitably Mercy also gets involved and soon the trio find themselves tangled together as they begin to unravel something far bigger and sinister than they imagine.

Meanwhile, Night's estranged step-sister Dawn (Milk Pansa) is a rookie detective. When she hears about suspicious activity surrounding a night market, she goes to investigate, but is surprised that none of her superiors seem to have any interest in the matter. Things get more complicated when she keeps hearing the name Viper (Bible Wichapas), a respected businessman that all her colleagues seem to respect, tied to what's happening at the night market. What's more, she recently met the mysterious Ruby (Silvy Pavida), who seems to know more than she lets on, but Dawn finds herself inexplicably drawn to her.

Things only escalate by the sudden involvement of Prince (Jeff Satur) a master thief and Mercy's long time rival. Except Prince doesn't seem to be at the night market to steal and his apparent connection with Viper causes more confusion.

Will Night, Ace, and Mercy be able to work together to accomplish their goals? Will the tangled web of corruption be revealed? What are they willing to sacrifice to create the future they want for themselves?

(Full list of details under cut. Also this is 100% a collaborative effort and is about as public domain as a concept for a fictional show can be. If there is anything you want to add or make, please do! Tag me too because I want to see lol)

Country of Origin: Thailand

Primary Genre: Heist

Secondary Genre: Detective

Primary Location: Night Market

Director: Aof Noppharnach (He's Coming to Me, Dark Blue Kiss, A Tale of Thousand Stars, Bad Buddy, Moonlight Chicken, Last Twilight)

Screenwriter: Jojo Tichakorn (3 Will Be Free, Only Friends)

Main Relationship: Throuple

Main Actor: First Kanaphan (The Shipper, Not Me, The Eclipse, Moonlight Chicken, Only Friends)

Love Interests: Khaotung Thanawat (2gether, A Tale of Thousand Stars, The Eclipse, Moonlight Chicken, Only Friends) and Mix Sahaphap (A Tale of a Thousand Stars, Cupid's Last Wish, Moonlight Chicken)

Heat Level: Maximum Heat (Love in the Air, Kinnporsche, Big Dragon)

Number of side couples: 1

Side Couple: Milk Pansa (Bad Buddy, Vice Versa, 23.5) & Silvy Pavida (The Warp Effect, Laws of Attraction)

Antagonists: Jeff Satur (Ingredients, Kinnporsche, Wuju Bakery) & Bible Wichapas (Kinnporsche)

Tropes: Enemies with Benefits & “I would burn the world for you” & Found Family & Anti-Establishment & Sponge Bath

Character Color Theme: Dark Blue (First Kanaphan), Purple (Khaotung Thanawat), Hot Pink (Mix Sahaphap)

Ending Type: Happy Ending

Show Title: Off the Market

Character names: First Kanaphan - Night, Khaotung Thanawat - Ace, Mix Sahaphap - Mercy, Milk Pansa - Dawn, Silvy Pavida - Ruby, Jeff Satur - Prince, Bible Wichapas - Viper

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[brf-rumortrackinganon]

The DM's Excerpts - Charles III: New King, New Court

Robert Hardman (who also wrote Queen of Our Times, published 2022) has written a new book about the British Royal Family. The Daily Mail is serializing parts of the book over four days, from 12 - 15 January 2024. Here are the links. If anyone has any others, feel free to share them in the comments.

If you don't want to give the DM clicks, I've included highlights below. (My browser doesn't recognize archive.vn or archive.ph as a valid domain so I can't create or access those links.)

TL;DR--

The day the Queen died, 12 Jan 2024

Secret summits over making Charles regent in Queen's last years, 13 Jan 2024

How the royals have dealt with a torrent of allegations from Harry and Meghan, 14 Jan 2024

Harmdan's intimate portrait of a woman who dances at Abba concerts, jabs the King with her handbag and 'knows when to wink at a bishop,' 15 Jan 2024

Excerpt #1, 12 Jan 2024

Highlights:

The last time most of her staff saw The Queen was at the pre-dinner cocktails the evening of September 6th. She was happy, chatty, and in a good mood. (September 6th was the Boris Johnson-Liz Truss transition.)

It was sheer luck that Anne and Peter were at Balmoral during this time. Anne was passing through for work, Peter was preparing for a shooting party he was going to host over the weekend (which ended up cancelled). Also Sarah Chatto was nearby.

On September 7th, The Queen planned to attend the Privy Council meeting as it involved new Cabinet officials being installed. She eventually cancelled on medical advice. This was the first signal to many that she wasn't doing well.

Charles and Camilla were on the western side of Scotland for a series of engagements September 7 - September 8. The morning of September 8, Anne called Charles to come to Balmoral at once. On the helicopter to Balmoral, everyone was reviewing the Operation London Bridge papers. They arrived at Birkhall around 10:30am and traveled to Balmoral in a borrowed car.

William was called around breakfast time and informed of the situation, including that was on his way to Balmoral. Charles himself called William (and Andrew, Edward, and Harry) that they should also come. After Charles's calls, Kensington Palace began coordinating with Royal Lodge (Andrew's office*) and Bagshot Park (Edward's office*) on travel to Scotland. William and KP did not reach out to the Sussexes because betrayal, and they felt the responsibility should have been on the Sussexes to make contact. (*Not really their offices, but it's the easiest way to keep them separate so you know who I'm talking about.)

Everyone was disturbed by Harry's inclusion of these events, especially the "Meghan's not coming/she's my wife/Kate's not coming either/that's all you had to say" bit, in his memoir. Harry's recollection of how he was notified of The Queen's death isn't true - he claims no one was talking to him but actually Charles and the palace had been trying to reach him repeatedly. The calls weren't going through because he was in the air. (Interesting that he'd check the BBC first as opposed to calling back after seeing a dozen of missed calls...or not springing for the wifi package...)

Liz Truss, the new PM, was in a G7 conference call on September 8th when she was notified of the situation in Scotland. She bowed out of the call early and quickly. The G7 leaders knew what was happening.

Charles was rather close to Balmoral when he received the call that The Queen had passed. William, Andrew, Edward, and Sophie were on the way to Balmoral from the Aberdeen airport. Charles called them himself to let them know.

The Archbishop of Canterbury was in France on a personal holiday. He and his wife began preparing to return home after seeing the palace's first statement about The Queen's health. They drove home overnight so Welby could make an address in the morning.

Excerpt #2, 13 Jan 2024

Highlights:

The Queen had been quite ill in her final year. She knew and was aware her time was ending that summer.

A regency would have been created had she lived as long as The Queen Mother because everyone was fearful of a health condition flaring up in public.

Planning for Charles's accession and coronation began in 2015. Sir Alderton, his private secretary, created a "training video" of the accession/transition then that Charles, Camilla, and William watched in the evening of September 8th during their private dinner at Birkhall, while Princess Anne hosted the rest of the family at Balmoral. If Harry wasn't such a dick (my word, not Hardman's), he'd have been part of the Birkhall dinner but he wasn't and there were very serious concerns he would write about it in Spare.

The announcement of The Queen's death was delayed because family members hadn't been informed yet. (I think it was Harry they were waiting on, per the events in the first article.)

The royals were very touched by the outpouring of public affection for The Queen, themselves, and their family. Camilla was struck by how supportive the crowd was of her. Anne was touched by the tractors, horses, and the crowds that lined the roads in Scotland. It was a six hour drive, and she and Tim had had snacks in their car but they both felt it would have been rude to everyone that came to see the procession and pay their respects to be seen eating.

Camilla sobbed through Charles's first speech.

The Privy Council were concerned that the political upheaval in the government would cause problems for the accession, transition, and royal mourning.

It was William's idea for him, Kate, and the Sussexes to do the Windsor walkabout together. He organized it in two hours. No one found it easy or enjoyable.

Excerpt #3, 14 Jan 2024

Highlights:

The Queen felt she had to say 'yes' when Harry contacted her about naming his daughter Lilibet and she was very angry with him for it. (Reading between the lines, it sounds like the decision was presented by the Sussexes as "fait accompli" and The Queen took offense.)

The Sussexes tried to force the palace to go along with their version (that they had asked The Queen for permission) but the palace refused to play. They also tried to intimidate the press with legal action if anyone didn't report "their" version of events, even going so far as threatening the BBC with a lawsuit.

Everyone at the palace rolled their eyes about the Sussexes getting the RFK "Ripple of Hope Award." They felt that the "legacy" the Sussexes were being rewarded for was laughable, especially when compared to Charles's work.

The Caribbean gets its news through the US media. (I believe this confirms the theory that Sussex PR influenced the Caribbean's coverage of the Royal Family)

William saw Harry's comments in the Netflix documentary that they're expected to marry someone who fits the mold as an attack on Kate and he's been furious since. He feels betrayed by Harry having discussed their relationship so freely, thinks it's an intrusion of privacy.

Neither William nor Kate have read Spare but they are aware of what's being said and their staffs have briefed them.

Harry's version of events when The Queen Mother died is totally made up. (In Spare, Harry says he was alone, it was springtime just before Easter, and he took the call himself, but actually he was in Switzerland skiing with Charles and William and all three were told together by an aide.)

It's very suspicious that Spare largely skips May 2018 - March 2020. The palace thinks it'll be covered in the second version or Meghan's memoir.

The door is open for Harry and Meghan to return but they'll have to make the first steps since Charles has given up.

Anne's seat the coronation in front of Harry was a last-minute change so she could leave more quickly after the service in the procssion. She was concerned about keeping her hat on since it was "decent-sized" but she was told to keep it on.

Excerpt #4, 15 Jan 2024 - TBD

Highlights

It's been a difficult transition to Queen for Camilla, but everyone believes she handled it well. Her family finds it surreal.

Camilla doesn't mind being second fiddle to Charles.

She still has her Wiltshire home, Ray Mill, which she bought after divorcing Andrew PB. She still visits and stays there to this day.

Everyone walks a bit on eggshells around Charles because he's a bit temperamental, but Camilla steadies him.

Camilla likes her rooms hot. Charles like his rooms cold and windows open.

Charles skips lunch. Camilla does not.

Camilla keeps Charles running on time when he gets chatty.

Camilla is hands-on with her charities and patronage.

I find her sister is overstaying her welcome. After her starring role in the coronation documentary and now her interviews with Hardman for the book, it's too much and feels like she's trying too hard.

Other stories by Hardman from his book:

Foreign Office officials 'ditched buses for dignitaries' at coronation after backlash at the Queen's funeral, 13 Jan 2024

Brigadier who helped carry Queen's coffin was at a wedding in Corfu, 13 Jan 2024

Queen's funeral rehearsal was a comedy of errors as even the band went AWOL, 13 Jan 2024

Prince Andrew could be 'far more damaging outside the loop,' 14 Jan 2024

The DM's other royal reporters - Martin Robinson, Rebecca English, Natasha Livingstone - are publishing "recaps" of Hardman's excerpts. Some of Rebecca English's stories are augmented by her own sources. Here are a few:

Insiders revewal how the Queen was so upset by Harry and Meghan's Lilibet decision that she told aides 'the only thing I own is my name. And now they've taken that': The royal row taht troubled Her Majesty in twilight of her reign, 15 Jan 2024

'For William, this was the lwoest of the low,' 15 Jan 2024

Camilla was given the affection nickname 'Lorraine' before seh became Queen, 14 Jan 2024

Harry and Meghan likely caused Queen 'distress' in her final years over naming of baby Lilibet, 15 Jan 2024

The Queen's final years were overshadowed by Harry and Meghan's hunger for publicity, 15 Jan 2024

Also, these are reminding me of some things Harry and Meghan (Harry mostly) have claimed and Hardman's articles are debunking them. I need to do a bit of research to check if the dates on what I'm remembering line up with the timeline Hardman is presenting. I'll do a separate post on that since this is already quite long.

[forgottenroisin]

OOC | House Malconaire

hiya! soooo i was watching [ a video on the folklore of the oak tree ] (as one does heehee) during dinner and it reminded me of some really cool things that'd be v fun to explore here!!!

in the volsungsaga, the volsung family were once great kings of the land, but another king has taken over their ~domain, including their home. this home was a magnificent hall dominated by the ancient family tree, an oak, which grew up through the center, reaching its branches throughout the hall and out the top of the ceiling, again.

(interrupting the story to say this could be a fun inspo for malconaire, too!)

one day the new king was hosting a wedding there in the hall, when an old man with a single eye and long grey hair all in his face staggered inside amongst the guests. there was something strange and mysterious abt the man, making some fear and some revere him and a hush fell over the hall as the man walked purposefully up to the old oak. as he approached, the guests saw that he was holding a sword and, as he held it aloft, they recognized it as the ancient sword of the volsungs, called wrath, the greatest of all swords, lost to the ages long ago. the one eyed man then plunged the sword into the tree and announced that only the greatest warrior would be able to prize the sword from the tree, and the sword would be his, and the kingdom his by rights.

with that, the mysterious one-eyed man vanished and the guests realized that it had been none other than the great god, odin, amongst them.

each man present tried his hand at pulling the sword from the tree, but in the end, only sigmund -- the last of the volsungs -- could pull wrath free, thus fulfilling prophecy and beginning a series of events that would lead to the famous story of sigmund's son, sigurd, and andvarinaut, the cursed ring of power that helped inspire the lord of the rings!

anyway, metal as this whole story is, if taken less literally, i feel like it 1) does apply to our treasure map for the stafford sword bit 2) could be cool if, like...maybe the family sword of malconaire, in times of peace, is kept sheathed within the great oak of the hall, and its said that only the true ruler of malconaire can pull it free, or smth?? and/or that maybe pulling it free is an ancient signal that malconaire is declaring war/calling her banners, about to pass judgment, etc. (ofc its a fake sword that's there rn iirc since cillian switched them after lord malconaire died iirc -- cue cillian like 'technically! malconaire has never yet called for peace these two years, since the sword was never replaced in the oakensheath!!!' ;DDD -- but anyway!!! laksjdfkljdsf)

there was lotsssss of info, including the fact that the tree is also a symbol of healing, and folk tales about oaks protecting those who look to them, ruling the forests, and avenging those (including other plants and animals) that're harmed within their boundaries, as well as disrespect, such as a tale of a wicked king who was pursuing a peasant maiden. she hurled herself upon the roots of an oak, begging for its protection, and the oak crushed the king and his barons and did not let a thing happen to the girl, as well as tales of oaks speaking warnings and prophecies as the wind goes through their leaves, of one that bled when it was cut or damanged, and of some cursing those who do them harm. and of oaks and esp of acorns protecting ppl from lightning and storms and thunder!

there's also ofc the folk tale of the oak king and the holly king, two brothers who duel throughout the year. at midsummer, the oak king comes to his full power and warmth and radiance wash over the land, but at the end of fall, the holly king slays the oak king, coming into his own in midwinter. in spring, the oak king is reborn and everything begins again. maybe this is a mythologized telling of an ancient war between the malconaire and the ppl of the north, or smth? or just a folk tale in malconaire? or even a prophecy, given that, well, winter is coming ;D

smth else that stood out was an ancient tradition of celebratory and victorious lords and generals wearing crowns of oak leaves and acorns, and of their ppl decorating their bridles and lintels w similar boughs etc in such occasions of celebration and/or victory, and i thought that maybe that might be an old malconaire tradition, as well?

there's also a sacred island in a loch which is itself located near a sacred mountain (lorcan lake?) that has a 'wishing tree' that is an oak on isle maree that sports a chapel, graveyard, holy well, a holly tree, and ofc the famous oak tree. its said that sailing around the isle a certain number of times will heal one, even of madness, but that nothing at all can be taken from the isle, not even the smallest pebble lest it unleash all the harm it is holding upon its shores. its a bit of a pandora's box that way/a place of both blessing and curse and sounds lowkey haunted by both good and evil spirits or smth, plus it was said in ancient times to be the isle of the moon so its def got some stafford, lorcan, AND malconaire vibes going too so there's def smth there we could work w if we wanted, too! (and ngl reading abt it im pr confident this was the inspo for the god's eye in asoiaf/got/hotd! and, in case, those're deF the vibes!! plus, meets like...arthurian avalon)

anyway there's lots more and def other things that caught my eye (or ear, in truth ;D) while listening to the vid but yeah!! idr atm...but i hope this is fun/inspiring to read! <3

[au-sonic-smackdown]

AU Sonic Smackdown - Round 1, Right Side

Click to see full size image

Reflection of You AU belongs to @jeysecretive

Mecha Troubles AU belongs to @wolfinitethewolf

Read more about them under the cut!

Reflection of You AU-

While doing an archaeological dig, Sonic found an old artifact that gave him a curse.

It was very strong, tormenting the hedgehog day by day, and no one knew how to help him.

…By coincidence, Sonic was taken to Mephiles, who lived on the edge of an unknown interdimensional wasteland. Demon said that the only way to break the curse was to kill everyone Sonic cared about. Guy was against it.

But still, pain tormented him and tore him apart from the inside out. Nothing worked for the hedgehog, so he made the decision to kill Eggman. And so he did.

But the act did not free the hedgehog from the Curse, which was making him worse and worse, making him beastly with pain.

The hedgehog decided to make a second visit to Mephiles.

But when he's arrived at the demon's domain, the demon was hosting an unusual guest. Sonic remembered the treacherous things that Mephiles did, and decided to overhear his conversation.

The demon was talking to a powerful dark demigod who had been Mephiles' buddy for years.

It turned out that Mephiles had purposely enchanted the artifact so that Sonic would obey him, getting into the taste and becoming a bloodthirsty monster.

As soon as the hedgehog heard this, he destroyed the demon on the spot in a rage.

But the Curse went nowhere. And Sonic was desperate!

It was a good thing he had met Shadow.

The black hedgehog began traveling the world with him to find a way to crack Sonic's curse, and soon they learned that the Seven Emeralds of Chaos and the Master Emerald would help him heal. But it's worth the rush! Sonic's time is running out, and the emeralds are hidden all over the planet.

The end of the story is still open, and the hedgehogs are searching for their emeralds. Hopefully, they will make it.

Mecha Troubles AU-

AU where in Scrapnik Island Mecha Sonic had successfully swapped minds with Sonic.

Mecha Sonic is able to do everything Sonic could (spindash, harness the Chaos Emeralds powers, etc). However, being a robot, is really great with tech, able to hack into anything, or reprogram anything. He is also able to send signals to things (since he IS still technically a robot).

He is not cocky or snarky like Sonic was, he usually never speaks unless he really needs too. He will plan ahead of things, being a thinker and not leaping into things first.

Unlike Sonic, who fights as if its a game and will go easy on them, Mecha does not, fighting fast, swiftly, and without stopping for anything else, viciously attacking if needed. Before making physical contact with anyone in a fight, he will instead use his speed to his advantage to sneak up upon an enemy, bouncing back and forth until successful. Usually shows no emotions.

His main goal is to end Dr. Eggman, and will eliminate anyone that gets in his way.

[subism]

Tumblr, AI, and The Impossible Year

I'm very disappointed by the news that Tumblr's content is going to be used to train AI. with a default Opt-In and questionable means of opting out. As an artist, this is something I cannot abide. From January 1, 2012 to January 1, 2014 I shot and posted a Polaroid photograph a day to this site, and when the pandemic hit in 2020 I resumed in April of that year and carried through (although less strictly) until May of 2021.

This was all posted to theimpossibleyear.tumblr.com / theimpossibleyear.com. It was a personal blog, and a deeply personal project. I showed what I was doing every day for multiple years.

There are literally hundreds of people featured throughout this project. Friends, family, colleagues, some of whom I had fallings out with, and some whom have since passed away.

These folks did not consent to have their likenesses used to train facial recognition algorithms or AI image generators. According to US copyright law, I am the owner to the photographs, and I can sublicense them however I want. I'm not keen on Tumblr doing the same. And while social media sites like Tumblr always had the rights to do things like this in their privacy policies, tools like Dall-E and Midjourney didn't exist at the time, and I never conceived of such a thing. My personal views on AI aside, I don't think allowing the likenesses of these folks to be bought and sold in such a way without their consent is ethical. Hypothetically I could reach out to every single one of them (or at least those still living) and ask for their consent, but aside from the tedium and awkwardness of having to repeatedly have that conversation, including with some folks I no longer associate with, I simply don't want to.

Additionally, I don't believe most folks really understand machine learning algorithms, large language models, and AI image generators, and I think honestly, it would be extremely hard to get informed consent for such a matter, and I sincerely believe most people would say 'No' if they understood it.

I believe artists should be compensated for their work, and I believe when that work is used for profit that the subjects of such work either need to have consented to that first. And, through that lens, the entitled beliefs of the people behind corporations like Open-AI and Midjourney, that they should be able to train off this work for free absolutely disgusts me. And I am disheartened to see Tumblr go the same route.

I do believe there are positive sides to AI, I do believe it is somewhat inevitable, but I do not believe the ends justify these means.

While I believe strongly in the public domain and creative commons, and I think US copyright law is deeply broken, I also know how hard it is to make a living as an artist. I will not I cannot sit by and just allow my own work, my own memories, my friends, family, and loved ones to be used as a tool to enrich billionaires at the expense of small creators.

I used to think that when I died I wanted all of my creative works to be willed into the public domain for the good of everyone. Now I'm not so sure. As such, I will be removing my content from Tumblr in the coming weeks. As I write this I'm importing the content of theimpossibleyear.tumblr.com to a self hosted server and theimpossibleyear.com is redirecting there. Once I am sure it's been successfully migrated I'll remove all of the content from Tumblr for good.

I know relocated content can still be scraped by AI bots against my will. But I'm considering ways of disabling crawlers, making it password protected and/or parsing all of the images through Nightshade or some other tool. At the very least I’ll have made my terms clear. I'm still figuring out what to do with this blog. It will eventually go away, but I have yet to decide what will happen with the content. Either way, this sucks. I am so tired.

[walks-the-ages]

[ID: A blue and white donation prompt banner that reads: "Can You Chip In? Dear Patron: Please don't scroll past this. The Internet Archive is growing rapidly, and we need your help. As an independent nonprofit, we build and maintain all our own systems, but we don’t charge for access, sell user information, or run ads. Instead, we're powered by online donations averaging about $17. We'd be deeply grateful if you'd join the one in a thousand users that support us financially.

We understand that not everyone can donate right now, but if you can afford to contribute, we promise it will be put to good use. Access to knowledge is more important than ever—so if you find all these bits and bytes useful, please pitch in." There is a box next to the banner with donation options ranging from $1, $17, and $100, with the last option being a custom amount, and two checkboxes below that say "I will generously add $0.67 to cover fees" and "Make this monthly". End ID]

Hey, Archive of Our Own fans!

Are you looking for more ways to help preserve media? Want to make sure reading is accessible to everyone without ads or restrictions?

Then please, please consider donating to the Internet Archive!

Each year, Archive of Our Own far surpasses their donation goal for their fanfiction hosting archive-- let's see if we can't meet or beat that for the original archive, that preserves media that would otherwise be lost, is an open free and accessible online library, and is an absolutely invaluable resource if you are a fan of literally any old media; so many books are completely out of print for scifi series such as Quantum Leap, Star Trek DS9, Babylon 5, etc, and physical copies are sold for hair-raising prices ($100-$500+), and digital copies available to purchase are extremely few and far between.

Some of the Star Trek books have been digitalized as ebooks by Amazon, but none of the Quantum Leap books exist anywhere online as purchasable ebooks, and the only place you can find them is on ebay (for various price points from reasonable to absolutely hilariously outrageous), but they are not available in any accessible format...

Until the Web Archive digitalized them for their Open Library!

Not all of them are available on the web archive yet-- physical copies are donated to the archive and have to be digitalized there, but many are already available that you would otherwise have to shell out $100 or more to scalpers and resellers on ebay, while the original creators never see a cent of the profit (the books originally sold for $6.99 when they were released)

Not only does the Internet Archive preserve books that are decades out of print, but also documentaries, ancient video games and software, live music, and what most people know: The Wayback Machine! The magical tool that preserves defunct or dead websites (or even just to show original posts or articles before they were edited or deleted) for future reference and preservation !

And the web archive is not just for fandom purposes-- live news broadcasts, radio plays, NASA images, public domain audio books for accessibility, movies, podcasts, traditional art backups, and more!~

Do you have old family videos and photos? You can upload them to the archive!

Do you have a family recipe book from your great grandmother? You can upload it to the archive!

Do you like to craft and make crochet or knitting tutorials or patterns? You can upload them to the archive!

So, if you love to read, and you love media preservation, please consider donating if you are able (This is not only available during a set time, they accept donations year round if you want to wait til payday!) and please reblog to signal boost this!

[mariacallous]

A technology company that has been essential in keeping far-right and extremist websites online was acquired last year by a firm that operates an empire of shell companies across the United States, according to people familiar with the deal.

Epik.com has been for years the go-to domain registrar for websites that other companies refuse to do business with. Sites dedicated to white nationalism, QAnon conspiracy theories, and harassing transgender people were all welcomed by Epik. Now, it appears that Epik’s new owner may abandon the extremist fringe and shift its customer base toward companies seeking to operate in the shadows.

Rob Monster, a born-again Christian who founded Epik in 2009, had been key in keeping many of the most extreme websites online. He often went to great lengths to personally defend the sites and extolled the virtues of free speech. Epik was sold to new ownership last year after the company unraveled amid allegations of gross financial mismanagement.

An accounting firm hired by Epik to conduct a forensic investigation alleged that Monster had misappropriated more than $3.5 million, according to an internal preliminary report obtained by WIRED. More than $1.5 million was attributed to Monster personally withdrawing funds from the company. Nearly $2 million of Epik funds was used in Kingdom Ventures, Monsters’ venture capital firm, according to the report.

Monster didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.

The buyer of Epik’s domain registrar business was a brand-new company that had been incorporated in Wyoming weeks before the sale was completed last summer: Epik LLC. The owner of Epik LLC, according to two people familiar with the deal, is Registered Agents Inc. The company confirmed its ownership in a press release late Friday night.

Registered Agents Inc. and its subsidiary companies claim to have offices in every state and Washington, DC. Its services allow companies to operate anonymously in a jurisdiction of its choosing. Registered Agents Inc. says it provides services to over 1 million companies.

The founder and owner of Registered Agents, according to two people familiar with the company, is a man named Dan Keen. In an email, a lawyer for Registered Agents Inc. says Keen is not the owner nor an employee of Registered Agents Inc. or Epik, and that he acted as a consultant in the acquisition.

Keen is intensely private, according to multiple people who have worked with him who requested anonymity to discuss details of the deal. “He has made it his mission in life to be invisible,” said one. “He’s someone who likes to operate in the shadows,” claims another. Keen is a serial entrepreneur who previously ran a lawn care and tree-trimming business, according to public records.

Keen has no website or social media pages. Emails sent by Keen don’t include a signature. Attempts to reach Keen for comment led to a reply from Bryce Myrvang, a lawyer for Registered Agents Inc.

Using a registered agent to incorporate a business allows the owner to shield who actually owns it. A registered agent will act as an official point of contact for a company, receiving legal notices and mail, and filing incorporation documents with the state. In Wyoming alone, Registered Agents Inc. represents around 50,000 companies, according to the Wyoming secretary of state.

For example, a company that uses Registered Agents Inc. to set up shop in Wyoming would have its address listed as 30 N. Gould Sreet, a squat one-story building in the town of Sheridan.

A local paper in Wyoming, The Sheridan Press, reported in August 2021 that scam business had been linked to the 30 N. Gould Street address, where more than 20 registered agent firms claim to have their offices. An editor's note added after publication stated, “It remains completely legal for registered agents to do what they’re doing under Wyoming Statute.”

A 2022 investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists found that “oligarchs, criminals and online scammers” have used registered agents to operate in the United States and shield their true identity.

Registered Agents Inc.’s acquisition of Epik allows the company to extend its offerings to the internet, providing its customers another layer of anonymity for their websites.

“This most recent acquisition provided an opportunity to expand our business offerings to include a business email address, a domain name, and open source website hosting at a reasonable cost,” Myrvang tells WIRED. “Registered Agents Inc. now has the capability to establish an entire business identity for its customers in less than 10 minutes.”

Clues about changes within Epik first emerged in January, when the company terminated its relationship with Kiwi Farms, a notorious trolling site whose users are dedicated to perpetuating never-ending drama and misery. In a series of bizarre and now deleted tweets, Epik claimed it suspended Kiwi Farms in response to a US court order and that the site hosted child sexual abuse material. In response, the Kiwi Farms administrator began crowdfunding money for a defamation lawsuit against Epik. “You specialize in defamation, revenge porn, harassment, and hate speech and you want to sue us? We will expose all your and your users dirty secrets and they will be permanent public records,” the EpikLLC X account replied. “The judgment we will win against you will follow you the rest of your life.”

It was as if a new set of trolls with an entirely different worldview had taken over Epik.

“Alright all Whiny, Beta Snowflakes. Our DEI hires of the month canceled #Kiwifarms,” another post from EpikLLC read. “We don't like hate speech, porn, or doxxing. #JoeBiden will fix it! 2024!”

Some of the tweets trolling Epik were later deleted. “If such comments and or interactions on X were found to be offensive, Epik LLC formally apologizes to those individuals and or company,” Myrvang, the company's lawyer, says. “Further, the appropriate action has been taken internally in relation to the comments made on X.” It’s unclear if Epik’s new owners singled out Kiwi Farms or if it has booted other sites from its service. “Epik.com’s Terms of Service has been updated to maintain compliance with all regulatory requirements,” Myrvang says. When asked if the company has stopped working with other customers, Myrvang says, “Epik LLC will suspend and or terminate relationships with any company and or individual who violates its Terms of Services.”

In late 2022, Epik customers began reporting that they were suddenly unable to withdraw money from Masterbucks, Epik’s payment platform, which facilitated buying and selling pricey domain names. One customer, Luigi Marruso, posted on the domain name forum NamePros claiming that Epik was holding onto $1.5 million of its money. In an email to WIRED, Marruso says he still hasn’t been paid back.

Another customer, Matthew Adkisson, sued Epik and Monster, claiming they had mismanaged or embezzled $327,000 from him as he sought to purchase nourish.com. Epik later settled with Adkisson.

Claims like Adkisson’s began to pile up on forums for professionals in the domain name business (known as “domainers”), and Epik was in serious financial jeopardy.

Epik’s customers, fearing the worst, rushed to get their money back from the company. Epik even had outstanding debts with ICANN, the nonprofit that serves as a global administrator for the internet, according to legal filings.

“They were using customer funds to fund its operations. People started asking for those customer funds back, and they couldn't pay them,” says Andrew Allemann, a journalist who covered the fiasco for Domain Name Wire. “There was a run on the bank, and the money wasn’t there.”

In September 2022, a new CEO was installed at Epik in an attempt to stem the bleeding and settle the company’s debts. Epik, once valued by an investor at around $150 million was sold for around $5 million dollars in June 2023, according to a purchase agreement released as an exhibit in the Adkisson lawsuit. Much of the $5 million purchase price was allocated to paying off some of Epik’s debts. It’s unclear if the terms of the final deal match the one released as part of the lawsuit, but a source familiar with the acquisition says it was generally similar.

The rest of the debt was left with Monster. Just how much Monster owes former customers and vendors is unknown. Two former Epik customers told WIRED they’re still waiting to be paid back $38,000 and $20,000, respectively.

[loosiusgoosius]

If I disappear from society, don't be surprised.

I am so so so tired of capitalism.

For Christmas I got a Raspberry Pi. The goal was to host my own website off it. This was entirely for fun.

Step one: set up raspberry Pi so I can host a site on it. Easy. Ubuntu is free (thank fuck), I know how to set it up, but hold on! According to xfinity, I cannot change dmz or dms rules on their router. I can't even REQUEST it. I can't even use a workaround because I'm not allowed to edit the port forward that was automatically added to my router. I dig through years old forums and find out that this is because I'm using the modem provided by xfinity. I now have to buy a new modem from xfinity's "approved list".

Step two: get a domain. I swim through 4 million outrageous prices that say shit like "pay $0.01 for the first year!" with the text below saying "with purchase of 3 year agreement". I finally get to godaddy and am able to convince the stupid checkout to give me 1 year of my domain (after, of course, it corrected my awful mistake to 3 years and, if I hadn't been hyper-vigilant, I wouldn't have noticed. I have to dig through 5 pages in settings to find a way to turn off auto pay because I know better by now. While I'm there I also turn off all email notifications, which were all automatically on. It also didn't tell me that I can't transfer my domain outside of godaddy for 60 days, so I just essentially paid for something I can't use for 2 months. Great. (out of curiosity, I dug through godaddy for some time. The 60 day thing appears nowhere except on the help center page when specifically searching for it.)

Step three: create a site. WordPress, once my most beloved website creation software, now slams subscription fees on me like cardi B audios on teenager girls's tiktoks. Unrelenting. Bloodthirsty. I power through to just get past "let AI design your site!" and "pick one of our patterns" so I can reach the point where I can edit the template. I already have a free template zip file. I drop it in the box. "wait!" says WordPress, in a screen-covering popup "upgrade to the creator plan to access the theme install features!" I click the only button on the screen. It takes me IMMEDIATELY to a filled out checkout page. WordPress Creator is $300 per year. Per. Year.

I read through the "features included with your purchase" to see things like "sftp/SSH certificates", "github deployments", "free staging site", and "install plugins and themes". All of these were free 5 years ago. "Save 20% by paying for two years!" No, I don't think I will.

Out of pure spite against the demon that is modern capitalism, I'm teaching myself html and css. I would kiss the creator of w3schools on the mouth, right after I kiss the creator of Ubuntu. I'm so angry. The internet is useless now.

[rachinrabindra]

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[fanwork-exchange-promos]

Public Domain Day Bingo Fest

Posted by: ysabetwordsmith Community Link: https://allbingo.dreamwidth.org Fest Link: A new post will appear in the community when the fest opens. [recurring theme, but all new prompts each year] Public Domain Day Bingo hosted by fuzzyred Many new works are entering the public domain. Use them with great enthusiasm! Posting will be January 1-31. Description: The idea here is pretty simple. Using the prompts, you can write/create anything -- e.g. if your card contains "sky" you can write a story about the air overhead, light blue, going skyclad, the metaphor of "the wild blue yonder," etc. All fandoms and original work, all sizes and formats are welcome. None of the prompts need to be taken literally. Prompt lists and public cards are posted in the community. Choose one of the public cards, or make your own using the Bingo Card Generator (sizes 1x1 to 7x7 available). Feel free to create things in any medium, any style. There is also a Bingo and Achievements page for your inspiration -- for drabbles, see the "Diamonds and Dynamite" entry. Dates: The main fest will run January 1-31. However, allbingo lets people play any card at any time. So if you don't finish yours inside of January, you can post fills later. allbingo hosts a new fest each month. See the 2024 Community Calendar for upcoming fests. If you would like to host a fest featuring your favorite fandom or other topic, leave a comment on that post. silvercat17 has written a post on "How to Host a Bingo Fest" along with a list of previous fests for examples. comments via The Fandom Calendar https://ift.tt/TmhoYf5

[peach-cant-sleep]

VERSES PAGE//FOR MOBILE USERS (Long Post)

Finally got my Verses/AU's Page done! Check it out on my blog or right here!

1. ) King ('the / Coronation Day)

The Lore of the Rom Hack is left Ambiguous, so the content found for King is created entirely by myself and my own interpretation of the material. This blog in its infancy isn't too much to look at, just a few secrets sprinkled throughout important pages and maybe a few posts to help create my own narrative for the game.

 Verse 1; Canon.

The Woods are His Home. His Domain. He doesn't care for trespassers, but ever since MX introduced him to the fun little things that roam the multiverse, it seems there are infiltrators here and there. And well, why shouldn't He do the same? He'll poke His head into other worlds to cause a bit of mischief, but MX has made his swear to do no harm unless provoked. Makes things more fun to have a limiter, as he put it. So He'll play nice for now, but He is still very EVIL. And His patience is very, very limited.

 Verse 2; Behaving.

While at Peach's castle, He takes on a form that is much less gruesome to behold for mortals. He stands tall over most everyone still, about 7 and a half feet. His form is still very much akin to the Peach he sacrificed to become a vessel, so He's taken the liberty of making it different to the classic Princess look so He is far more distinguishable. This does not make Him any less powerful, so don't go poking him...

2. ) LX (AU of Mario '85)

A roleswap of MX, taken on a little more life than it really should have.

 The being known as 'LX' took a Luigi as a host and now wears him as a skinsuit, inhabiting the land as his own. Unlike MX, he doesn't like to manifest himself in the level for a direct torment of his victim, Marcus. Instead, he sees the world as a toybox, which manifests as giant, misshapen arms reaching in from the sky to 'play with his toys'. He has no regard for life as nothing more than things for his amusement, and enjoys inflicting fear onto those around him. It's almost as if the beast feeds off of it. He might come off as just a mindless monster, but he is, in fact, a fully sentient being capable of speech and higher thought. He's just more primitive by choice, in a childish way. He doesn't break the 4th wall as much as his counterpart, but has knowledge of it. It's not as 'fun' to play with as his own little world where he controls every aspect to his designation. His strength is significantly weaker than his counterpart as well, but his speed makes up for that fact alone.

 Verse 1; Canon.

He's in his own little world. His Realm! One where there's a pesky little Mario running around with that ugly little thing called Free Will. It does have it's perks, evoking fear out of that old man he shoved in there makes him Feel Great. It's his fun little game he gets to play for all eternity. Just don't hope he gets bored...

 Verse 2; Behaving.

When his plaything escaped to this bright and colorful world, pissed was an understatement for how LX felt. That was HIS toy, he doesn't share. But then this big fuck off dude- MX? He hasn't seen this creature since all the eldritch beings were still clashing it out among the cosmos. But he put a STOP to his playtime with Marcus, saying he can either behave and forget he exists or MX would make sure he stayed in 'Time Out' for the rest of eternity. So now he's still pissed, but contained within a disturbing looking Luigi, akin to MX's 'False Hero' form. Don't let him fool you. He's looking for something new to entertain himself with...

3. ) Lucas (Mario '85)

He was only eight years old. Just a boy. A child. And now, for 30 years ongoing, he's been left to the vices of MX's fear feasting and horrible taste for gore and violence. His soul ripped from his violently mutilated body and shoved into the body of a Luigi to create the perfect little game for the entertainment of a being who was far beyond his comprehension. He misses his family. He misses going to school. He misses his body. However, due to the heavy trauma and time that has passed... He can't remember what any of that was like. He only remembers his name, and that's because MX's roaring voice calling it out every time a new chase begins.

 Verse 1; Canon.

Trapped inside of MX's realm, Lucas has no real chance of ever escaping. A constant struggle to save his life from meeting gruesome fates over and over again, he plays the game. He can't stop playing. If he doesn't play, MX makes it even worse for him. Give this kid a break...

 Verse 2; Rescued.

Somehow, there was a leak. Lucas was dropped into a world of vibrant color and lush fields, nothing like that of the bricks and dark sky he was accustomed to being trapped in MX's game. He fled immediately, running and running aimlessly until he caught glimpse of what most Mario players should see as salvation... The Castle. There, he met the Princess... And he was saved. He was Free. He'd never have to play that game again... But he couldn't stay there, for when MX came looking, he'd have no chance of escape. So now he lives a simpler life on Yoshi's island, living among the dinosaurs and enjoying life at this new chance to be happy and recover from what he's been through. ... He knows this existence won't last forever. But he wants to enjoy it for as long as he can. He also exists in a chosen form as a request granted by Peach's wish power.

4. ) Princess Peach

The monarch of the Mushroom Kingdom doesn't really fit into this picture, does she? But she's here, anyway. It's as if her home is a beacon for these horrid creatures and victims of them alike. The flock to her home, and in return for everyone behaving and sparing her universe from a fate akin to that of their own homes, she provides whatever it is they wish. She'll do anything to keep her Toads safe... Even if it means letting some vile creatures get too close to her for her own comfort.

5. ) Luigi, The Timid Plumber.

Hey, this guy is here too! He lives on the outskirts of Peach's kingdom, so he has to deal with all the spooks just like everyone else. He travels to his own home world occasionally after the collapse of the magic keeping them apart to make moving to and fro more freely. He lives in his home with his brother where they work together to make a living AND keep the princess safe. A coward outwardly, but he has a heart of gold and will do anything to keep those he loves safe.

[bigcloudy-hosting-blog]

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With our affordable introductory price, you can dip your toes into the world of blogging without straining your budget. Focus on crafting exceptional content while we handle the technical aspects seamlessly.

2. Effortless Integration with WordPress

Bid farewell to complex setups. BigCloudy offers a hassle-free one-click WordPress installation and automatic updates, allowing you to concentrate on what truly matters: writing and sharing your captivating stories.

3. Impeccable Security

We prioritize the safety of both you and your visitors. Enjoy peace of mind with free SSL certificates that encrypt your website, ensuring secure communication and fostering trust with your audience.

4. A Platform for Expanding Horizons

Whether you're a novice or already boast a devoted following, BigCloudy's WordPress hosting is tailored to grow alongside your blog. Our flexible plans and reliable resources are ready to accommodate your evolving needs.

5. Beyond Hosting

BigCloudy goes above and beyond by providing a comprehensive array of tools and resources to empower your success as a blogger. From informative tutorials and guides to round-the-clock support, we're here to support you at every step of your journey.

Here's what sets BigCloudy's WordPress hosting apart:

1 WordPress Site

Build a customized online presence with 1 WordPress Site, allowing you to showcase your content and engage your audience without any limitations.

Unlimited NVMe Storage

Bid farewell to storage limitations with Unlimited NVMe Storage, enabling you to store all your essential files, images, and data with complete peace of mind.

1 Email Address

Cultivate a professional image with 1 Email Address that is directly linked to your website domain.

1 MySQL Database

Efficiently and securely manage your website's information with 1 MySQL Database, ensuring smooth operations.

FREE SSL Certificate

Enhance website security and build trust with visitors by receiving a FREE SSL Certificate.

FREE WordPress Migrations

Seamlessly transfer your existing WordPress website to BigCloudy with our FREE WordPress Migrations service.

One-Click Staging

Test new features and updates safely and easily with our convenient One-Click Staging environment.

Daily Backups / Jetbackup

Protect your valuable data with automated Daily Backups / Jetbackup, allowing for instant restoration in case of any unexpected events.

99.9% Uptime Guarantee

Enjoy exceptional reliability and minimal downtime with our 99.9% Uptime Guarantee, ensuring your website is always accessible to your visitors.

30 Days Money-Back Guarantee

Experience the BigCloudy difference risk-free with our 30 Days Money-Back Guarantee.

BigCloudy's Secure and Optimized cPanel Hosting 

Are you a developer, designer, or someone who desires complete control over your online presence? Look no further than BigCloudy's robust cPanel hosting solutions! We provide you with the ability to create the website you envision, without any limitations.

Embark on your journey at a fraction of the usual cost! With prices starting at just $0.01 for the first month, BigCloudy offers professional website management that is more accessible than ever before. This limited-time offer is the perfect chance to seize control of your online space and unleash your creative potential.

Discover the exceptional benefits of BigCloudy's cPanel hosting:

1. Unmatched user-friendliness

Experience effortless navigation through cPanel, even if you have limited technical expertise. Simplify website management with just a few clicks, allowing you to focus on creating remarkable content and expanding your online presence.

2. Exceptional performance

Our servers are optimized for speed and reliability, ensuring fast-loading and flawless performance for visitors worldwide. Rest easy knowing that your website is always accessible and running smoothly.

3. Robust security

We prioritize your website's security and have implemented advanced measures to safeguard it from malware, hackers, and other online threats. Your data and your visitors' information are always protected with BigCloudy.

4. Scalability

As your online needs grow, our web hosting plans can adapt to meet your evolving requirements. Choose from a range of cPanel hosting options and seamlessly upgrade your plan as your website traffic and resource demands increase.

5. Unparalleled control

With cPanel, you have complete control over every aspect of your website. Manage files, configure settings, install applications, and much more, all through a user-friendly interface.

Here's what you'll receive with our incredible CPanel hosting offer:

1 Website

Create your unique online space and let your brand shine.

5 Subdomains

Expand your online presence with additional websites under your main domain.

50 GB Disk Storage

Store all your content, images, and data with ample space.

500 GB Bandwidth

Accommodate high traffic volumes and ensure a smooth online experience for your visitors.

1 MySQL Database

Manage your website's data efficiently with a dedicated database.

1 Email Address

Stay connected with a professional email address associated with your website.

1 Core CPU

Enjoy reliable performance and the ability to handle moderate website traffic.

1 GB RAM

Ensure smooth website functionality with ample system resources.

2,00,000 Inode Limit

Host and manage a large number of files and folders effortlessly.

Daily Backups / Jetbackup

Protect your valuable data with automated daily backups for added peace of mind.

Conclusion

BigCloudy's Year-End Deals present a unique opportunity to enhance your online visibility and propel your website to unprecedented heights. With unparalleled dependability, extraordinary functionalities, and unbelievably affordable prices that will bring tears of happiness (in terms of hosting), there is no more opportune moment to embark on your online venture or elevate your current website to new horizons.

So come aboard the BigCloudy and prepare yourself for an exceptional web hosting experience like no other! Explore our website now and seize your Year-End Deal before it slips away!