Hi, Which all you can eat buffet do you recommend?
Like the ones having a buffet and grill part, such as the one that closed in Newport "The Pirate" This one was around 40€ food, desserts, drinks such as Kir, wine and beer included. Thx

I'd never really thought about this comparison before but I saw a comment recently that pointed out the two, conceptually speaking, actually do have a lot in common.
Both, at the time of their original stories, were brand new villains for Batman to face. The new hotness that's come to Gotham to f**k up his day, with a big part of the plot being the mystery of who The Phantasm/Hush is, with the reveal being...the only other new and significant character introduced for the story. Both Andrea and Tommy are retconned into Bruce's past and made very important to him (one being the woman he loved, the other his childhood best friend), with said past being shown to us in flashbacks throughout the story. And both serve as a dark reflection of Bruce himself.
With these similarities, why is it that I find one works way more for me than the other? Especially when I grew up with both these stories.
I'm definitely a bit in the minority here but I've never really gotten the hype over Hush. That's not to say I don't like the Hush story, just that Hush/Tommy Elliot specifically is just kind of...okay to me at best. Not bad but not one of Batman's villains I feel a strong attachment to or feel a lot of excitement over when he's going to be in something. I never feel the same as others when they say they want Hush as the villain for a movie or that he should have been the main villain of Arkham Knight. I could certainly believe a good writer could get something good out of his concepts, but as he is, as he was in the original Hush story, the story most people know him from and that put him on the map, he's just...okay.
But then there's Andrea, and while I don't think she really needed to appear in other stories after Mask of the Phantasm, since like Tommy it feels like a case of diminishing returns, I do still find myself a lot more attached to that character and feel like she was very well done despite conceptually being so similar to Tommy. With Hush I don't want him to be in anything more after his initial story because I didn't really care that much about the character, whereas with The Phantasm I didn't want her to be in anything after her initial story because I didn't want them to ruin what I felt like was already done near perfectly and wrapped up.
I think the difference comes down to two big things: Framing within the story, and characterization.
Both stories center around the mystery "Who is The Phantasm/Hush?", but the execution of both mysteries, the pay-off to them, and Andrea and Tommy's place within those narratives is handled very differently.
Hush, in my opinion, is interesting almost solely because of the mystery around who he is and how he manipulates events and Batman's villains to strike at him. When we get the reveal that he's Tommy, not much is added that replaces the mystery in order to keep him interesting.
Why did he do all of this? Because he resents Bruce for being able to inherit all of his parent's wealth as a child while his own attempt to gain the same was foiled by Bruce's father saving his mother's life after Tommy deliberately tried to get his parents killed. In regards to making Tommy a dark, twisted reflection of Bruce, this does work. While Bruce loved his parents, was deeply scarred by their deaths, and he'd have given up that entire fortune and more just to have them back, Tommy was willing to kill his just to get his hands on their money and hated his mother for surviving. But as the big conclusion to this big story spanning most of Batman's rogues gallery and all the manipulations and planning and gaslighting the villain had done, this motivation feels too...mundane. It's too petty.
Don't get me wrong, pettiness does not make for a bad villain motivation in the right context. My favorite supervillain of all time is Lex Luthor and half that man's plans are fueled by pure spite for Superman for daring to make him look bad by being a good person. But for all the build-up and everything that was involved this answer just doesn't feel satisfying. Even things like Tommy's mother always comparing him to Bruce or Tommy creating a new face to look like Bruce to steal his identity and fortune wasn't a thing until later stories. In the original Hush story, Tommy is purely just after revenge on Bruce for getting inherited wealth as a child while he had to wait until he was an adult.
This isn't helped by how little we really get to know Thomas Elliot and Bruce's attachment to him before the reveal.
I think one of the things that works best about Batman: Hush, more than the mystery around who Hush is, is that the whole storyline feels like a semi-celebration of Batman and a love letter to the character. It showcases a lot of his big name villains, shows Batman's connections to his allies, from the Bat family to Huntress to Gordon to Superman, marks the start of what, in my opinion, made Catwoman a genuine contender for being Batman's best romantic relationship rather than just another love interest, goes into Batman's history, from Jason Todd to Harold and even his childhood before his parents were killed, and all while throughout we're getting the narration boxes of Bruce's inner thoughts, going in on what he thinks of himself and everyone around him. It's one of those stories where if someone wanted to get into Batman comics for the first time or needed an introduction to the character (weird as it is to think that when the character is everywhere these days), Batman: Hush would be one of the ones I'd point out.
The story has a lot going for it...and Thomas Elliot gets lost in it all. We get to somewhat know what he was like as a kid, so much of which doesn't apply to him as an adult in the present because so much time has passed since then, and what we do get to know of him as an adult gets put into question once we find out he's Hush since he more than likely was putting on an act every time he interacted with Bruce. We don't even get that much interaction between him and Batman after the reveal of his identity is made in order to get to know the real him, nor does he even take off his bandage mask to fully confirm it's Tommy. He gets shot by Harvey Dent, falls from a great height, and then f**ks off until he can be brought back in an eventual sequel.
This is part of why I wasn't really that upset when the animated movie adaptation of the story had The Riddler be Hush instead of Tommy, who basically was the real mastermind behind everything anyway in the original and was the more impactful twist. He's the one who figured out Batman was Bruce Wayne, being the one to present that information to Tommy, and was the one who got all the villains to cooperate with the plan. Most important of all, I have a feel for who the Riddler is. But Tommy? He's...smart. Apparently. And petty....apparently. What is Tommy's actual character beyond "guy who wanted his parent's money"?
Let's compare all of this to The Phantasm and Andrea Beaumont.
Like with Hush, the main mystery Mask of the Phantasm centers around is "Who is the Phantasm?" but the scale is more simple. The Phantasm isn't after Batman but rather is knocking off members of the Valestra crime family and, intentionally or otherwise, is getting Batman framed for the murders.
Like with the flashbacks to Bruce and Tommy's past with each other, we get flashbacks of Bruce and Andrea's own past together. However, not only was it a past relatively more recent, and thus we get a better feel for who Andrea is since she's already an adult in the flashbacks, but the flashbacks are more central to the movie's plot and don't have a million other more memorable or iconic bits happening around them to take the attention away, in part because these flashbacks show us Bruce's own history with the Valestra mob. The flashbacks with Tommy often didn't have a lot of relevance to the mystery around Hush or what he was doing beyond the fact that they involved Tommy It was mostly Bruce reminiscing about his childhood. While the flashbacks with Andrea also served to give insight on the people the Phantasm is targeting and why someone would want them dead, Andrea especially. Even the Joker, who is brought into the movie to help spice up the climax, used to be a hit man for the Valestras, and in fact was the one who was sent to murder Andrea's father. He ties into the main plot of the mystery while all the rogues used in Hush were mostly there to just wear Batman down or throw him off Tommy and Riddler's trail.
We also get Andrea and Bruce interacting in the present, greatly aided by her quickly figuring out that he's Batman and the two being able to speak frankly to each other, and interacting after he figures out she's the Phantasm. And when we get the reveal that she's the Phantasm, her personality doesn't really change that much, meaning that while she was hiding the truth from Bruce she wasn't putting on a complete front. Unlike Tommy, who we honestly aren't sure if we know anything real about, we feel we understand Andrea quite well. While what we saw of Tommy prior to the reveal helped cover up that he was Hush, what we saw of Andrea had it make even more sense that she was the Phantasm after the reveal is made.
Why is Andrea doing all this? She wants revenge on the Valestra mob for forcing her to flee Gotham, keeping her from marrying the man she loved, killing her father, and basically ruining her life. It's a very simple motivation but the build-up to it is more appropriate given the size and scale of the story and thus that simplicity doesn't feel like a big let-down. And even more so, it makes her a good dark and twisted reflection of Bruce. A normal life upended by crime and corruption unchecked, Andrea took on a terrifying alternate identity to bring justice in a way no one else could/no one else would, but along the way became consumed by the same need for vengeance that Bruce has always had to keep himself from falling into, to the point there's nothing else for her. A sympathetic motivation isn't inherently better than a petty one for a villain. It depends on its context and how it's executed. And Andrea's sympathetic motivation works here because of the parallels with Bruce and how much of a tragedy it's written as. Bruce almost never became Batman because he was so unexpected happy being with Andrea, but the crime Batman was intended to fight against tore him and her away from each other, destroying both of their lives yet again, and ended up corrupting the woman he had loved so much, turning her basically into...well...him.
TL;DR: Despite their similarities and how obvious their mysteries are when you think about them even a little, Andrea Beaumont as The Phantasm works better for me than Thomas Elliot did as Hush for the following reasons:

• We get to know the real Andrea better than we do the real Tommy, both before and after the reveals are made.
• Andrea's motivations feel more appropriate to the story being told with her than Tommy's were.
• Andrea being a dark, twisted reflection of Bruce ties in better to the story thematically than Tommy being a dark, twisted reflection did.
• Both the Phantasm and Hush start off cool and interesting because of how mysterious they are. The more of Phantasm's mystery is revealed, we get enough backstory and characterization to replace it to still keep us invested. The more of Hush's mystery is revealed, the less interesting he becomes because there's so little to take its place.

This is just my story so take from it what you will. My wife and 2 kids went to DR with another family of 4. All inclusive swim up room , booked in the family suites (as opposed to the “adult” buildings). Upon arrival we were booked in and given keys. Went to the room… which ended up being in the adult building. Not sure still what distinguishes one from the other but i didnt care. It was late thanks to flight delay and i just wanted to chill. Upon entering the room the odor of piss punched me in the face. It literally smelled like a parking garage stairwell. But as i said it was late and i had a few drinks and figured we settle it the next day. At Mirage they assign you a butler, who really did do his best. So the following day i mentioned this to him and he said hed take care of it. I went to the pool for the afternoon and got a text saying housecleaning did aroma therapy and extra cleaning. When i went back to the room I expected to notice a difference but now it was a combo of pee and a god awful air freshener. I told our butler we needed a new room. I was not obnoxious about it. They granted my wish…. To the room right next door. Guess what? Smelled in there too. I asked again to move but this time they were insistent that it can be taken care of. I said unacceptable and requested a move to the family section where we were booked. This apparently was an issue. They told me it gets this way and theyd bring me a dehumidifier… which they did , which did nothing. I could not fathom how these folks thought this was nothing. It was pungent. Eventually we moved again… but i had to accept a non swim up suite…. But it was nice , smelled good and the pools were still only seconds away.
Moving on ….. even though its all inclusive this obviously doesn’t mean you aren’t going to spend money , mainly on tips and trinkets…. Its part of doing business. However i feel like the pressure to tip here is unprofessional for a resort of this supposed stature. I tip well for a job well done… but it seemed like i was always being solicited for something. I wore a Red Sox hat … so often a convo would begin with someone who works there about Big Papi…. That quickly turns into a sales pitch for photos…. Jewelry… excursions… etc. Im good at saying im all set but some of these dudes are relentless to the point its not comfortable.
The actual pools were awesome met some nice folks. But par for the course mixed drinks taste like they use artificial sweeteners and are weak. The beer selection is comical…. Coors Light, Heineken and Presidente …. Thats it. My suggestion is stick to rum and coke… you know exactly whats going into the glass. There are a couple of nice bars that if you tip well they proof up you cocktails…. But at a resort like this should i have to?
The food was okay. We were a big group and the buffets were popular with us. Lots of the food was fine but things like cold cuts, cheeses, shrimp and sushi arent made for outdoor buffets in 98 degree weather. The restaurants also were underwhelming. Dined at the steak house twice and the teppanyaki place once. These meals were not high caliber. The steak house was non reservation so they try and get you in and out ASAP… which guess is par for the course. The portions were small and they didnt cook the steak as ordered. The Japanese place was also fast paced , despite a reservation . Food was delicious (my kids ate the scrimp fried rice with eggs and they hate seafood and eggs) but once again the portions were a joke. Room service is what it is. Takes minimum an hour and its just mediocre at best. The night we arrives i order the “Chicken Breast Dinner with potatoes and vegetables” i got 2 grilled oversalted chicken tenders with a side of still chilled potatoes. No veggie at all. Snacks and soft drinks as well as the limited beer selection was replenished daily.
Not be entirely down on the place…. Its a nice place. The entertainers and help staff are great. They seem enthusiastic and are good at getting folks up and moving. Obviously the beach is gorgeous and the water beautiful. We went and swam with sharks and stingrays …. Went bottom walking with the space helmets and had a nice party at a sand bar. Once again drinks weak and cheese sandwiches were the lunch we were served. I also went golfing- free green fee but carts and rentals cost some cash. The course was all ours , which was awesome… i saw some cool wildlife and the course is in good shape given the heat. At the turn we got a saran wrapped chicken salad sandwich with almost no chicken in it.
The pool is where spent most of our time and all around the pool are walk out suites. For the first 4 days we were there, a woman allowed her what seemed like a 6 year old kid frolic around buck naked on their outside cabana bed. This suite was literally 30 feet from the swim up bar. Bizarre.. no one ever told her to cover him up- she didnt care. I just set up shop away from them but it stuck how strange the scene was.
The casino is nothing to write home about. We play some roulette. A girl with our group turned 20 bucks into 200 and you think we were in Vegas the way they kept eyeballing her and changing the person spinning the ball. The “pit boss” stayed put right up until she cashed out.
And just to put a cherry on top…. The day we were leaving….. i needed more cash to tip the butler. I had tipped 20-30 a day everyday but ran out of USD The 1 atm at Mirage was out of service …. I walked to the next resort…. Elegance and their atm was down. I walked back and told Jeffry our butlet id borrow some cash from our friends and take care of him. He offered to take me to their 3rd property…so we went and the atm there promptly ate my card.
I had fun …. I can have a good time under any circumstances and my kids had a ball and thats what i pay the money for …. But i expected much more from this place. I was disappointed. I wont return again.

There’s this newer neighborhood where a cousin of mine lives (whom I haven't seen in years), and his neighborhood has a fire pit and grill that anyone can use as long as you’re invited by a resident. So, occasionally, I go over there and throw down on the grill.
Last night, at 8 pm, while I was grilling, these three girls got upset that I was sitting by the fire pit and called the police on me. The officers told me that I wasn't trespassing until 11 pm and that I could continue grilling until then. About 20 minutes later, I saw the same girls walking on the sidewalk, looking upset and staring at me. The craziest part is the girls didn't live over there themselves because they parked beside someone's house and when they initially arrived. :deadfast:
I just don't understand people. The fire pit was big enough for all of us. I'm going to go back there tonight just to be petty and play some music too.
TL;DR : Angry girls called the police on me for grilling some burgers. Police were very friendly but the situation still distracted me throughout the night.

My guesses for films that are going to show up on the Fall Festival circuit, which encompasses Venice, Telluride, NYFF and Toronto:
​
The Actor (if ready)
Challengers
Coup de Chance (Woody Allen, unfortunately)
Dune Part 2 (TIFF)
El Conde
The Empire
Ferrari
A Haunting in Venice
The Holdovers
The Killer
Les Indesirables (Ladj Ly)
Limonov: The Ballad of Eddie
Maestro
Memory
Napoleon
Nyad
Orwell (Raoul Peck)
The Palace (Roman Polanski, unfortunately)
Poor Things
Priscilla
The Royal Hotel (Kitty Green)
Rustin
Saltburn
Strangers (Andrew Haigh)
Wizards! (David Michod)
Some Cannes titles like Anatomy of a Fall, La Chimera, May December, The Zone of Interest, Killers of the Flower Moon and The Delinquents
​
Did consider putting in How Do You Live? and Miguel Gomes's Savagery but thought against it since the former might skip the festival circuit and the latter either might not be ready or will go to Locarno.

Rick had expected that taking an entire tribe to Sinco would be slow. Who wouldn’t? It was a whole tiny village after all, one nearing a handful hundred.
But the Orcs, and by extension all the other maidens, had more than one surprise in store.
When the tribe had set off, they’d done so with a grand demolition. The moment everything of value had been picked up and packaged, the village was then torn to shreds by anyone willing to take part in the little destruction-derby.
Following this, the tribe would split up into hut-family units.
Every “family” would be made of one human and multiple maidens. The maiden with the highest standing within the family unit (almost always an Orc) would be in charge of carrying and protecting the human on their back. And the rest would handle the luggage and supplies that “family” unit would take with them.
And from there, they would break into a jogging pace that, to a human, would have been a dead sprint.
Rick had the distinct “honor” of being carried by Urtha since Monica’s job as the chief meant it was her job to be at the tip of the metaphorical spear. Meanwhile, Rick was left seated on a sort-of-backpack the tall Orc carried.
Kiara flew overhead with the handful of other flying maidens that’d been woken up from the boxes. Leaving Eva and Dia to carry their belongings. It left an unpleasant aftertaste in Rick’s gut.
The smirk Dia kept shooting his way as he petulantly crossed his arms and resigned himself to being glorified luggage. “I could at least be playing the drums to mark the pace or something. It’s not like we’re being subtle or quiet.”
“Humans have no place drawing attention where danger lurks,” Urtha said, the only one present that wasn’t even winded. “Less so the Father.”
“Some feral might think you are a cheesy snack.” Dia, huffing as she pushed herself, still giggled.
“The tribe is tense enough already.” The Orc shook her head. “We rarely bring this many weaklings with us.”
“One of many changes to come.” Rick held the sigh, mostly because he was holding on to the chair to keep from falling over. He didn’t want to think about it, but once they reached Sinco, things would get complicated.
They were effectively marching out, seeking to conquer a city. Whether it be through actual warfare or maneuvering, they weren’t sure just yet. They just knew that they were prepared for the former if the latter didn’t work out. The reports had come in: Sinco was not in a good place. The constant presence of highly aggressive ferals had been chipping away at their defenses.
The only hope the city held was that they would receive reinforcements from Aubria.
Rick would get there faster.
It was in these thoughts that he pondered throughout the day. The tribe traveled and rested too often to the Orc’s liking. There was much friction to be had, and the humans were guarded like the treasures the tribe considered them to be.
When night came, a singular large hut was made for the humans, and the maidens would sleep in rotations. There would be small songs and minor stories that were shared, small moments of comfort. But they were all held under the looming watchfulness of the tribe.
Because they were at their most vulnerable. One missed feral deciding to make a stand could mean a human getting hurt. Rick had to begrudgingly respect them for that. As much as he loathed being treated like some kind of porcelain doll, there was no room to question that the maidens were going the extra mile for everyone’s safety and survival.
Though they would sometimes go a bit overboard against the maidens that “slowed down the tribe”. His role mediating such disputes had become his main role throughout the following days.
One morning, as they were preparing to set out, he heard it.
It started with a scream, then a yelp, and then a rush.
By the time Rick realized what was going on, Monica was upon him. Drenched from head to toe and stinking of salt and seaweed. The massive maiden was looking at him with a smile that threatened to split her head in two.
“Rick!” She hovered over him, dripping water all over. “Come! Come!”
“Is everything alright?” He asked from the discomfort of the portable chair he was currently occupying.
“COME!” she insisted, hopping on her feet and skittishly looking back, aiming her ear in the direction she’d come from. “Quick!”
“The tribe is not heading that way.” Urtha pointed out.
Rick considered it for a second. “Are there any problems shifting course to travel nearer to the sea?”
“It is a bad idea. For many reasons.”
Her words brought nods from Eva and Dia, to which Rick could only respond with a shrug. “Ok, then we could call for a break for the day, give everyone a chance to properly unwind, and I’ll go with Monica.” He pointed over at the feline that was bouncing on her heels, just barely holding back from reaching out and yanking him into her wet embrace. “Seems like the chief is very excited about something.”
“I bet its food,” Eva said.
“Urtha?” Rick waited.
The Orc glanced over at the crowd. “We will set camp for the day. We cannot afford to lose any of the weaklings.”
That was as good as he could’ve hoped. Rick nodded and was immediately snatched by Monica’s fuzzy paw. The maiden picked him up, putting him over her shoulder and trotting through the shrubbery and trees with little regard for who might be following.
Rick got himself a face full of leaves, flinching and batting them away. “Hey, wait, the branches-”
The Sabretooth yanked him into her arms and broke into a full sprint. Dirt and rocks burst forth from where she stood as air whipped about them. Her fang-filled smile only grew. Monica’s eyes were only focused forward. Rick, meanwhile, was trying to avoid swallowing bugs. The insects that kept flying about appeared to prefer smacking against his face.
There was a moment of clarity, light, and blue.
And with a splash, he was underwater.
Rick made the mistake of gasping, swallowing sea-water, wildly flinging his arms to get himself to the surface. Monica yanked him out of the water, leaving him feeling like a half-drowned cat as he coughed and spat.
“LOOK!” she proclaimed, dropping him on the sandy beach as she hurried towards the crashing waves, kicking at them and sending sprays of foam high into the air. “Rick! BIG!” She waved wildly, rushing her way into the water, then back out.
“That’s the sea.”
“Monica see!” With wide arms, she tried to point at all of it at once.
“No, it’s a new word. Sounds similar.” He combed his hair out of his face with his hands, removing his shirt. “Sea. S-E-A. Big, wet, and salty.”
“BIG WET!” Monica was cheering and splashing, kicking her way up and down the shore, jumping into the waves and coming out a dozen meters away and then making her way back to the shore.
“It’s the sea.” He couldn’t help but smile, watching as she slapped the water with her huge paws, creating a billowing tower of water and foam to rise at least a dozen meters into the air.
He put the low-end terrifying notion of how much force was packed into that strike and kept an easy-going smile.
“It’s the ocean.” The voice called from above, Kiara leisurely drifting down and sitting next to him. “Too far away from anything or anyone. Few ships go through here.”
“So chock-full of dangerous ferals?”
“Just like everywhere else.” Her eyes weren’t on Monica. The Succubus’ gaze appeared more focused on trailing the waves as they crashed into the shore. “Likely they’ve been scared off, though. The rush must have eaten everything available near the shore.”
Rick looked at the waves, then at her. “How can you tell?”
“There’s nothing in the waves.” She pointed. “Usually there’s at least the odd Sprite.”
“Maybe Monica scared them off.”
“Doubtful.” Kiara shook her head, turning to eye him with a slight smirk. “You’re drenched. Maybe you’d want to take your clothes off?” Her gaze trailed over him in a distinctly predatory way.
“You’re hungry, huh?”
She leaned closer, hand reaching over to caress his shoulder. “Maybe a little more than that…” Gold eyes locked to his, her hand gently pushing his back into the sand, the Succubus moving in closer so that she could pin him down.
Rick grinned. “Careful with the splash.”
The momentary confusion turned to shock and horror as she was yanked away and flung into the sea. Monica stared with ample amount of self-satisfaction as the Succubus swore and sank into the waves. “No horny time.” The feline declared, looking at Rick with a dangerous glint in her eyes.
“I understand.” He raised his hands, playing the role of innocent bystander.
“Play time.”
His eyes widened with concern. Uh oh.
She reached down, pulling him up by the shirt. “Rick train swim.”
“I know how to swim.” He quickly proclaimed, grabbing hold of her claws as her arm tensed. “BUT!”
Monica hesitated, looking at the water, then at him with narrowed eyes. “But?”
“Don’t throw me like you did Kiara or I will break,” he said, quickly relaxing a little as he pointed up into the air. “Throw me a little up. Gently, into the water.”
She eyed him for a moment, and with a flick of her tail, caught a stone. “Like this?” She grasped the rock and gently tossed it into a high arch that fell into the sea with a little plop.
“Yeah, just like-AAAAAHHHH!!!”
He was flying, body spinning in the air as gravity quickly lay claim. Rick did the only thing he could think of, curling into a ball, drawing breath, and plunge. He was underwater in the next instant, bubbles and light, with the sandy bottom still within sight.
It was down there that he spotted Kiara looking up at him with a smirk, a bubble wrapping her head. The conspicuously naked Succubus used her wings to swim up at him, catching him in her grasp and pulling him down.
Rick clutched his mouth, trying to keep his breath.
Kiara’s amusement was apparent as she held him by the shirt, looking at him with a mischievous twinkle. The iron grip remained, and he could see what her plan was, so he leaned into her, breaking the surface of the bubble with his face.
The breath was cut short with the kiss.
Then she shoved him away, waving off and winking as she swam further away from the shore. The speed she was moving with clearly was one not meant for him to follow, so Rick didn’t, going up to the surface.
Monica was waiting for him, excitedly grinning from ear to ear.
“Again!” he declared the moment he stepped on the sand. “But this time not from the shirt or it might rip.”
By the time others were reaching the beach, the duo had figured out a way to make the launch procedure safer… ish. Mostly in that the victim of choice would stand on Monica’s palm and curl into a cannonball, so that she could then throw.
And the maiden had quite the throwing arm.
The couple of Goblins that showed up excitedly joined in. Then came the Orcs, Mousegirls, and Doggirls, and by the time Urtha had shown her face, the various tribe members had a line of eager volunteers to be thrown into the sea. While the Orcs were competing with one another to see who could get their cargo the furthest from the shore.
Dia caught sight of the glare before Rick could even speak up. “I’ve set up a rotation of guards with the ones keeping watch over the tribe,” the healer proclaimed. “And the water maidens are working as lookouts.”
“Do you think that would placate me?”
“Do you want to play in the launch games?” Rick asked, giving Dia a warning look. “I bet you’d give Monica a run for her money.”
“She is stronger.” Urtha spoke after just a moment of observation, shaking her head. “I would need to wait for her to tire.”
He looked at the Orc as she remained near them, but didn’t sit. He could almost taste the tension within her, that knot of uncertainty. “Would you like to build a sand castle, then?”
“A castle of sand?”
“Exactly that.” Rick sat up. “Just wet sand and more sand, and make a castle with it.”
Urtha’s thick brows furrowed. “That… sounds childish.”
He shrugged. “Sand is fragile and crumbles easily if mishandled. Consider it a test of skill.” A sly smile followed. “Or are you scared a little human will be better at it than you?”
With a scoff, she stomped her foot once. “Show me.”
“I’ll join in!” Dia said. “It’s been a while since I’ve played mud-walls.”
“The what now?”
“It’s a game we healers played when little helped give us finer control over our power.” She crouched down, grabbing a handful of wet sand and proceeding to carefully lay it down in the shape of a very thin tube. A tube no thicker than a straw, and tall enough to reach her knee. “The trick is in pushing the water away at the right time.”
Rick and Urtha shared a worried glance.
Two hours later, things had escalated… a little.
It turned out that the Orc’s ability to make wood nearly as tough as steel could be applied to sand to just enough of a degree that Urtha had made a box tower about two meters on the side and five tall. Rick, working with a knife, carved out details on the tower.
Mostly windows and bricks.
Dia, on the other hand, had built a miniature replica of the fortified city of Balet. Devoid of any details, the city was a configuration of boxes roughly knee height.
It was when some maidens that had tired of the Monica-Launcher™ had gathered to watch that things escalated. With Mousegirls quickly getting recruited by Dia so that they could turn the sand boxes into detailed houses, and Urtha recruiting other Orcs so that they could put together a second tower.
Somewhere along the way, Sheel had shown up to set up an impromptu grill service.
Rick got his fill as he watched the competition unfold, recovering his energy and feeling exhausted in a good way. He caught sight of Kiara emerging from the sea, sans clothes. The Succubus took one look at the gathering, and eventually locked on to him.
The alluring blue-haired Succubus shifted her walk, tucking away tiredness and presenting only assuredness and grace. Her ample hips swayed with a mesmerizing rhythm, tail punctuating every step with a flick. The maiden made a show of pushing her sky-blue hair over her shoulder, presenting her bare chest for him to drink in.
There was a twinkle of enjoyment in her golden eyes when his gaze locked on to her body. A sly smile played on her lips, seductive and coy.
As she reached him, the succubus knelt down and whispered in his ear, her voice soft and alluring. “Is this spot taken?”
Rick felt his throat dry, and he coughed a little. “Sure.”
Kiara grinned wider, taking his lap, tail reaching under his shirt to caress his chest. “It is very comfortable.” She punctuated her words by grinding against herself against his crotch a little. “You seem thrilled to see me.”
He wrapped his hands around her midriff, pulling her against his chest, ignoring the slight discomfort of her wings. “Be warned that Monica is looking our way,” he whispered. “Engage and you will get launched. She’s gotten great at it.”
The tail twitched. “Noted.” Her tone was begrudging. “I meant to ask, are you familiar with… this? The sea? The ocean? The depths?”
“I’ve been on my fair share of boats, and went diving in a reef once.” He admitted freely. “And I’ve flown over the clouds in one of the most boring technological marvel my world built.” A little chuckle followed. “But I think you were meaning to lead this somewhere else?”
Kiara shifted, staring over her shoulder for a moment. “I’d like to hear more about your world sometime.” Her voice held an edge of hesitation to it, and Rick had the distinct impression she was trying to hold something back. “But yes, I was meaning to lead the conversation to this.”
The tone was gone; the look was gone, replaced by smug satisfaction as she held up a blue gemstone. The object was the size of a pearl and a deep, glimmering blue.
“An impure elemental stone.” The Succubus declared. “Take it.”
Rick obliged, lifting it to get a better look. Light wavered and refracted within the sphere, adding a shimmer that made it look as if there was a tiny sea contained within. Twisting and shifting the stone did not make the illusion of change, making the little sphere appear like a looking-glass of some sort.
The refracted light swayed and shifted against his palm like an aurora.
“It’s… this is really impressive.” He declared after a moment, glancing back at her.
“I stumbled onto this while looking for something else. It has some minor value, but is mostly useless since it has a very low purity.” She shrugged her lithe shoulders, trailing his jaw with her sharp nail. “Consider it compensation.”
He frowned a little. “Compensation for what?”
She shrugged, beating her wings once and hopping on to her feet. “I will go get myself a change of clothes and a snack.” She turned to leave. “You’re more than welcome to join.”
Rick could only chuckle. “I appreciate the offer, but I’m exhausted right now.”
“Have it your way.” The maiden vanished into the thicket, sauntering off to the tribe. “If you’ve got nothing better to do, pay some attention to the little leech. Wouldn’t want her to feel neglected, now would we?”
Where had that come from? Rick watched her go, taking a moment to stand up and check that the little get-together was going nowhere. From there, he turned his focus inwards and sought the bond to Eva. It was tougher than he’d expected, especially with the noise from all the other bonds trying to drown out everything.
He found her sitting on a rock, at the very edge of the sandy shore, staring off at the setting sun. The maiden had her knees tucked against her chest, body covered under her black cape, only her red eyes and pale face exposed to the sunlight.
She noticed his approach, but didn’t react.
Rick took a spot next to her, not quite within arm’s reach. “You’ve avoided talking with me. Anything I should worry about?” His question caused the intended result. Eva looked at him with wide eyes. “Don’t look at me like that. I know you don’t like small-talk, and this is just about the most important subject I could think of.”
The Fledgling turned away. “True.” She acknowledged. “I cannot answer your question, sir.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
“Can’t.” She hugged her knees, turning away and towards the horizon.
Was she hesitating to take a stance, or was she unsure of what stance to take to begin with? Rick nodded a little. “If it’s any consolation, it’s weird for me, too.” He lay back on the stone, looking at the orange clouds above. “Especially with how stiff you’re acting.”
“The Wildling-King calls me his property, and then complains he is treated with the due formalities?” Eva glared.
“Point taken.” Rick sighed. “I just expected that you’d learn from the others.”
“I cannot compare myself to the monster that is Monica or Kiara, nor consider myself to hold a fraction of the trust you give Dia,” she summarized. “I am a Fledgling. Anywhere within the kingdom, a slip of the tongue, a mistake, or a perceived fault would earn me severe punishment.” The maiden glowered, then sighed. “I myself have given such for less.”
“So you don’t know what to expect from me, but will avoid talking with me about those expectations.”
The glare intensified. “I would trust you of all would understand the matter is not that simple.”
“You’re not calling me sir.” He replied with an arched brow, watching her flinch. “I don’t want to insult your intelligence, but it seems like you’re intentionally running on a groundless hypothesis. So my question would be, why have you kept at it?”
She deflated with a sigh. “I don’t know.”
Rick reached out, ruffling her hair. “Well, while you think about it, how about spending some actual time together with the others? Brooding didn’t get you the answer you were looking for, so how about trying to change the pace a little?”
The glare intensified. “I was not brooding. What do you take me for? I am older than you! I was the head of a noble house of great prestige!” She shot to her feet, glaring, lips curling into a snarl.
Rick stepped closer, directly into her personal space. “Evangeline.” He declared, his tone holding only the barest edge to it.
The Fledgling flinched, looking away, hands hiding under her cape. “You are right.” She spoke, deflating. “I… am Evangeline now.”
She moved to kneel, to lower herself, but his hand on her chin held her in place. He raised her gaze so that they would meet eyes. “The only line you stepped over was baring your fangs at me. Nothing else.”
He wanted to step away, to turn around and go to the beach with the others. But something else held him in place as he looked down to those ruby red eyes, the way she trembled against his palm, how she inhaled deeply and her eyelids fluttered. The maiden leaned into his touch, taking a hesitant step closer.
“Th-this…” Eva stammered, swallowing.
Rick leaned closer. “This is your chance to step away.”
She didn’t.
The Fledgling followed the gentle tug of his palm, raising herself to her tiptoes, leaning into the kiss. She froze, opening her mouth a little and scratching his lips with her fangs in hunger. They pierced, only enough to draw a drop of blood, only enough to make him flinch.
Eva recoiled, eyes wild, face beet read. “I, no, I-… This isn’t…”
The maiden vanished into the shadows before he could say anything. He could sense her quickly making an escape through the darkness. The human was left mostly amused at the reaction, chuckling as he took the long way back to the others.
He could understand why Kiara found entertainment out of teasing the Fledgling. Idly, he wondered if they could exchange some notes.
​
----
​

Hello, I'm back, kinda.
Things have been a monumental mess over on my end. Lots of things happened over the past couple months.
I'll be clear: Reddit isn't a convenient place to post stories. Yes, there's a community, but the website is very clearly designed for other kinds of content creators. Story writing is more of a "Despite" thing. Combined with the upcoming policy changes ^{(what with the site being sold off and wanting to coerce users into their App, at the cost of all else}), I don't think I'll be sticking around.
The story will continue being regularly posted over at Royalroad and Scribblehub.
There's practically a full volume already posted over there. Seriously, as a writer I can't stress enough just how monumentally important the post-scheduler is for me. My life is far too chaotic and sometimes I spend weeks without time or energy to prepare the posts, and then just dump 15 of them into the auto-loader.
I will try to get the next full volume (up to chapter... 62?) posted here throughout the next couple weeks, and unless something changes, I'll mostly stick to those other sites from there onward.
See you guys around, and thanks for sticking this long with the story.

[First]
[Standard Patreon Link].

Hey Everyone!
Let’s go….
Newly Covered Today:

1. Some new reported details on Voltaire CIP-1694 dReps. https://twitter.com/intertreeJK/status/1666833054264971266
2. The Ripple case now has heightened relevance for almost everyone. https://twitter.com/MetaLawMan/status/1666864200147251201
3. But, even Coinbase has to deal with the staking allegations in addition to the allegations about the tokens as securities. https://twitter.com/BillHughesDC/status/1666918756814057472
4. If this is true, that timing is not going to make people happy. Hard to blame him if he had just seen the Binance complaint. https://twitter.com/WhaleWire/status/1666799734692929536
5. Hilarious re-telling of the evolution of the Ethereum scaling roadmap over the years. https://twitter.com/_prestwich/status/1666535056553447425
6. It’s slowly dawning on everyone that there are current regulatory problems with the DAO-as-business model. https://twitter.com/lex_node/status/1666615216186990593
7. Binance.US just lost its fiat on/off ramps. https://twitter.com/ArmySpies/status/1667002580663431168

Previously covered, but still interesting:

1. Dr. Vanishree Rao on ZK-Rollups. https://twitter.com/InputOutputHK/status/1657778843854274560
2. Here’s a new Decentralized Identity article from IOG. https://iohk.io/en/blog/posts/2023/05/11/atala-prism-pioneering-digital-identity-with-decentralized-solutions/
3. There are reasons we’re in a hard capped cryptocurrency like Cardano. https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/15/business/argentina-interest-rates-inflation/index.html
4. What is a dRep? This video is for you. There will be additional categories of default dReps that vote abstain or no confidence on every vote. https://twitter.com/InputOutputHK/status/1658034085401337857
5. The US Dept. of Justice is officially saying they are targeting exchanges. Great. Great. https://www.ft.com/content/5aac457e-cc80-44ae-ac40-9b51d9b601a3
6. Wow! Ledger just made what is possibly the greatest PR blunder in the history of crypto. Trezor will be poppin’ bottles tonight. https://twitter.com/Ledgestatus/1658458714771169282
7. People are claiming that the hysteria is a misunderstanding of cryptography. But, that’s not what’s going on here if Ledger plus one of the other two shard custodians can reconstruct your private key without having to use your private key. https://twitter.com/nimuepool/status/1658517533836574720
8. The Ledger Recover FAQ seems to support this understanding as it suggests you use a brand new device for recovery. https://support.ledger.com/hc/en-us/articles/9579368109597
9. Wow. Unfortunate timing for this. https://twitter.com/Ledgestatus/1658095051375800321
10. Ken Kodama will be doing a Japanese language interview on CardanoSpot on May 18. https://twitter.com/Emurgo_Ken/status/1658838077136162828
11. The stake pool operator poll on network parameters of K and minPoolCost is live. See the results here. The re-delegation phase will begin on May 25th. https://adastat.net/polls/96861fe7da8d45ba5db95071ed3889ed1412929f33610636c072a4b5ab550211
12. Cornucopias dropped some new in-game footage. As expected, Solace is beautiful. https://youtu.be/j5iwNsQVMDQ?t=1846
13. Wow….the Ledger shards are encrypted with “a master key that is contained in all devices”. Wut? https://twitter.com/P3b7_/status/1658809445965606913
14. Sadly, the Ledger CEO seemed to be denying exactly the above just a day ago. https://twitter.com/_pgauthiestatus/1658508082941403144
15. Here’s why 340 ADA minPoolCost promotes multi-pools. https://twitter.com/ArmySpies/status/1659387255537176581
16. Numbers are emerging on the benefits of K=1000 over K=500. https://twitter.com/StakeWithPride/status/1659398551917727744
17. Here’s the latest on the Stake Pool Operator poll. https://adastat.net/polls/96861fe7da8d45ba5db95071ed3889ed1412929f33610636c072a4b5ab550211
18. Rep. Tom Emmer is trying to help crypto by cutting crypto assets out of the definition of a “security”. He creates a new non-security asset category called “investment contract asset”. https://twitter.com/GOPMajorityWhip/status/1659291641281146886
19. Prof. Wadler (co-inventor of Cardano’s Plutus) has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society joining the likes of Einstein, Darwin, Hawking, and Isaac Newton. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLOm-dWje-M
20. Huge amount of voting for economic self-interest by multi-poolers in the SPO poll. Earlier today (May 21), 84.73% by stake of the vote for K=500, Min Cost 340 ₳ was multi-poolers. Only 15.6% of the vote for K=1000, Min Cost 170 ₳ was multi-poolers. https://adastat.net/polls/96861fe7da8d45ba5db95071ed3889ed1412929f33610636c072a4b5ab550211
21. Large pools also voted heavily for economic self-interest with the K parameter. 70.02% by stake of the vote for K=500, Min Cost 170 ₳ was pools with delegation over 35 million. Only 30.57% of the vote for K=1000, Min Cost 170 ₳ was pools over 35 million. https://adastat.net/polls/96861fe7da8d45ba5db95071ed3889ed1412929f33610636c072a4b5ab550211
22. Apparently Cardano has its own wiki now! Probably better given our previous treatment by the big wiki group. https://twitter.com/StakeWithPride/status/1660383700243329024
23. Rep. Tom Emmer is getting some reactions on the bill he sponsored with Rep. Soto. https://twitter.com/GOPMajorityWhip/status/1660329932495486977
24. You’re really gonna hold up a debt ceiling deal because you hate crypto so bad? https://twitter.com/gaborgurbacs/status/1660248530135515138
25. Looks like a few big multi-poolers have voted in the poll since yesterday. Pretty easy to predict what they didn’t vote for. https://adastat.net/polls/96861fe7da8d45ba5db95071ed3889ed1412929f33610636c072a4b5ab550211
26. Reports coming in that DCG has defaulted on the payment owed to Genesis. https://twitter.com/AP_Abacus/status/1660671386388504577
27. Ledger Recover would allow governments to confiscate crypto assets by subpoena? Called “not a real concern in the end.” Really? https://twitter.com/TheBTCTherapist/status/1660677064700178436
28. Frederik Gregaard on DeFi and regulation. https://twitter.com/F_Gregaard/status/1660655806709211137
29. Don’t Forget, the May Cardano 360 will be on May 25th. https://twitter.com/InputOutputHK/status/1660621805017608194
30. Here’s the daily check-in on the status of the SPO Poll. We have surpassed 590 pools voting (as of May 23). https://adastat.net/polls/96861fe7da8d45ba5db95071ed3889ed1412929f33610636c072a4b5ab550211
31. The Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong has decided to get our hopes up with a proposed regulatory framework for crypto exchanges that could mean more trading for coins like Cardano. https://apps.sfc.hk/edistributionWeb/gateway/EN/news-and-announcements/news/doc?refNo=23PR53
32. Here’s an IOG thread on the latest out of Atala Prism and Self-Sovereign Identity. https://twitter.com/InputOutputHK/status/1660904360925188097
33. Here’s an IOG article on Cardano native tokens. https://twitter.com/InputOutputHK/status/1660975383997448193
34. The difference in decentralization between Cardano and Bitcoin is still…laughable. https://twitter.com/StakeWithPride/status/1660979639907500033
35. Ledger is finally caving (a little) to the backlash. It’s reported that they will focus on open sourcing parts of their code and only release the “Recover” firmware after that open sourcing is finished. https://twitter.com/NFTherdestatus/1661026174779420672
36. Looks like the Hong Kong announcement yesterday might have been a hint of what’s coming. https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1661391542504902664
37. The Cardano Layerverse is coming to life. https://twitter.com/TobiasIlskov/status/1660697833115385856
38. Wow! Incredible! Thank you for voting in favor of decentralization, 1PCT! https://twitter.com/StakeWithPride/status/1661460222203002880
39. Federal Reserve report debunks claim that crypto is not useful to people in the US. https://twitter.com/SebVentures/status/1661063483369177108
40. The SPO phase of the poll is over. Nearly 800 pools voted. Now it’s your turn to see how your pool voted and re-delegate if you think they voted against decentralization and for their own pocketbook. https://adastat.net/polls/96861fe7da8d45ba5db95071ed3889ed1412929f33610636c072a4b5ab550211
41. The May Cardano 360 is out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_bCa_xCoxA
42. Charles dropped an update today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfL2U2hAGWw
43. Sen. Cynthia Lummis declares her opposition to the 30% tax on bitcoin mining. https://twitter.com/SenLummis/status/1661803569341759495
44. Lots of volume being transacted on Cardano recently! https://twitter.com/cwpaulm/status/1662929296329981952
45. Recent subpoenas to the Python Package Index don’t bode well for those hoping to store seed phrases with third-party custodians. https://twitter.com/_jonasschnelli_/status/1662531840606093312
46. Transaction volume is looking very interesting right now. https://messari.io/charts/cardano/txn-vol
47. JPG Store has now launched Android and IOS apps. https://twitter.com/jpgstoreNFT/status/1663281982262919170
48. It’s true. Cardano is straight killing it on the security leg of the trilemma.https://twitter.com/cardano_whale/status/1662987243655684096
49. Just checked. Yep. The centralization in ETH is still staggering. https://twitter.com/StakeWithPride/status/1663222056870350848
50. There’s a documentary about a 2022 Plutus hackathon in Argentina. https://twitter.com/LarsBrunjes/status/1663111319732535297
51. Pavia is testing NFT gating. This could get very interesting. https://twitter.com/Pavia_io/status/1663153213988823040
52. Marlowe is on mainnet! You can now code Cardano smart contracts in javascript or blockly via Marlowe! This is an amazing leap forward. https://twitter.com/marlowe_io/status/1663480828016435200
53. Don’t forget! We are still in the re-delegation phase of the CF Poll. See how your stake pool voted! If they were voting for their pocketbook instead of decentralization, you should re-delegate! https://twitter.com/Cardano_CF/status/1663564854572244994
54. Wow! Cardano projects are doing big things these days! https://twitter.com/CardanoCrocClub/status/1663468916843114498
55. The CCP has dropped a white paper on how it will develop Web 3 including NFTs and the metaverse. https://twitter.com/milestones_nft/status/1663458500922712064
56. Lace is now open source! https://twitter.com/IOHK_Charles/status/1663953642045714433
57. Binance is back and apparently they don’t care if someone had that ticker first. https://twitter.com/pool_pm/status/1663809731603906560
58. Summon is now allowing for multichain swaps of ADA & ERG. https://twitter.com/N8iveToEarth/status/1664038846563225600
59. Charles did a Twitter Space with World Mobile. https://twitter.com/IOHK_Charles/status/1663984094252810283
60. Here’s an easy infographic on CIP-1694 Voltaire governance from IOG. https://twitter.com/Hornan7/status/1664007623799185409
61. Apparently, Cardano sushi is a thing! https://twitter.com/Allison_Fromm/status/1663841386074976257
62. This kind of sums up the problems with central bank behavior over the last 20 years. https://twitter.com/JeffWenigestatus/1664012650781585409
63. Interesting news about the currency in one of Cardano’s biggest metaverse projects. https://twitter.com/Pavia_io/status/1664240389610704896
64. Messari has released an article on operational decentralization in proof-of-stake crypto. https://messari.io/report/evaluating-validator-decentralization-geographic-and-infrastructure-distribution-in-proof-of-stake-networks
65. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has MASSIVELY revised their figures on Q4 of 2022. No surprise, the numbers were much worse than they told us. https://twitter.com/FrogNews/status/1664253845399130113
66. Looks like DAOs are getting a little hesitant about fee switches due to possible legal/tax implications. https://twitter.com/FrogNews/status/1664253845399130113
67. We even have Arctic block production. https://twitter.com/Laponia_pool/status/1664226409466740737
68. Questions are being raised regarding the blockspace consumption of dApps still on Plutus v1. https://twitter.com/matiwinnetou/status/1664385383122051073
69. Atomic wallet got hacked. https://twitter.com/zachxbt/status/1665080799253733377
70. No surprise: general interest in crypto & Cardano is still pretty low according to google trends. https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&geo=US&q=cardano&hl=en
71. Here’s the Weekly Development Update from June 2. https://twitter.com/InputOutputHK/status/1665394985934499840
72. The Chairs of the House Committee on Financial Services (McHenry) and the House Committee on Agriculture (Thompson) are co-sponsoring a new pro-crypto Digital Asset Market Structure Bill. Currently just a discussion draft. Here’s the summary. https://docs.house.gov/meetings/AG/AG00/20230606/116051/HHRG-118-AG00-20230606-SD002.pdf
73. Here’s the actual discussion draft. https://docs.house.gov/meetings/AG/AG00/20230606/116051/HHRG-118-AG00-20230606-SD003.pdf
74. Here’s a section-by-section with exhibits. https://docs.house.gov/meetings/AG/AG00/20230606/116051/HHRG-118-AG00-20230606-SD001.pdf
75. Cornucopias has released more game footage. https://twitter.com/RobGreig3/status/1665310543589040130
76. SEC vs. Binance/CZ. It begins!!!!! https://twitter.com/ArmySpies/status/1665845917268815874
77. Written response from Charles to the SEC/Binance complaint. https://twitter.com/IOHK_Charles/status/1665780536177217537
78. Written response from Binance on the SEC complaint. https://www.binance.com/en/blog/ecosystem/sec-complaint-aims-to-unilaterally-define-crypto-market-structure-8707489117122437402
79. Video response from Charles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zBZ-aGqldA
80. Cornucopias has dropped a whole new reel of gameplay footage. It looks really good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8ftHH8bbxQ
81. Cardano Gaming at the NFT.Brazil event! https://twitter.com/cardanowarriors/status/1665815653398507520
82. SEC vs. Coinbase. Yep…crypto is now at war. https://twitter.com/ArmySpies/status/1666159275217911835
83. Brian Armstrong’s response. https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/1666129111025324035
84. The Cardano Foundation has disputed the characterization of Cardano as a security in comments to Fortune. https://twitter.com/Cardano_CF/status/1666128229952897024
85. Here’s Coinbase politely pointing out the SEC’s complete refusal to provide any direction or cooperation despite Coinbase’s continuous and plentiful attempts. https://twitter.com/coinbase/status/1666135834062467083
86. The question of regulatory jurisdiction may end up being the biggest problem for the SEC in all these crypto matters. https://twitter.com/MetaLawMan/status/1653821211544092672
87. Rumor: There could also be a DOJ case coming for Binance. https://twitter.com/AP_Abacus/status/1666180524535062529
88. Ohhhhhhh! This one did not go in the SEC’s favor. https://twitter.com/ArmySpies/status/1666492499505090563
89. IOG’s response to the SEC suits against Coinbase and Binance. https://iohk.io/en/blog/posts/2023/06/07/iog-response-to-the-recent-sec-filings/
90. The court in Coinbase’s earlier Petition for Writ of Mandamus against the SEC (basically just requesting the SEC to do its rulemaking job and provide some clarity) has noted the SEC v. Coinbase complaint and is ordering the SEC to respond in seven days. https://twitter.com/iampaulgrewal/status/1666234163110748160
91. Brian Armstrong says they will NOT shut down their staking service in response to the complaint. https://twitter.com/TheOCcryptobro/status/1666545429306290176
92. With all the SEC complaints it’s easy to forget that the Digital Asset Market Structure Discussion Draft is still in play. https://financialservices.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=408838
93. The SEC is busy filing documents that are pretty bad for Binance. We’ve seen some of the chat logs before. But, some of the docs are new. https://twitter.com/adamscochran/status/1666473028610408450
94. Looks like Binance wants the court to know they were once in discussions with Gensler to bring him on as an advisor. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/07/binance-lawyers-say-sec-chair-gensler-offered-to-be-advisor-in-2019.html

~Army of Spies

A couple days ago I made a post looking for ways to convince my parents to let me eat meat a home.
Good news I talked to them a bit and they said they would be ok with me using our grill a couple times a week.
So today after swim practice I went to the supermarket with my pops and picked out all of the food burger fixings. Buns, lettuce, tomatoes, avacado oil mayo, etc.
My beef of choice was some grass fed 80/20 ground beef.
We got home, fired up the grill and I got to work.
I’ll be real I had no clue what I was doing and my burger came out a tad bit well done but who cares.
It was delicious I felt like part of me that was missing was here.
Gonna look into grilling up some salmon and asparagus this weekend.
Thanks for the support everyone :)

April 9 - April 26: Tokyo - Nanyo - Hakone - Kyoto - Osaka - Koyasan
We had two main goals for this trip to Japan: eat great food and see cherry blossoms. We had the best of both in the city of Nanyo in Yamagata prefecture. It's not a place that I've ever seen mentioned on Reddit or the western internet, so I wanted to share it with you all here.

What we learned

• Ship your luggage - The airport as well as every convenience store we walked into let us ship our luggage. This made traveling between cities significantly easier, and prices were always very reasonable. For single-night stays, we just packed what we needed for a single day and shipped our suitcases to the subsequent hotel.
• Google Maps is very helpful, but don't trust them for transfer times in public transit. We thought we were transit experts because we live in NYC, but the stations in Japan are even more complicated. Leave early if you need to catch a train.
• Almost all restaurants in Japan are good, but I'm somewhat of food snob. If you're like me, I recommend using Tabelog for reviews to find places that are a bit more special. The scoring is very different from western reviews. In general, anything above a 3.3 is very good. Scores are also significantly biased towards more expensive restaurants, so I'd recommend higher scores for fancier restaurants.
• Fruits and vegetables are relatively expensive and difficult to come by in Japan. We were able to get them at supermarkets, which can usually be found in the basement of any department store. Next time I'm in Japan, I'll consider bringing fiber supplements.
• Cherry Blossoms blooming times are very unpredictable. The Japan Meteorology Agency has a website with up to date cherry blossom predictions of over 1000 locations. Even if it doesn't have the exact cherry blossom site you want to visit, you're definitely going to see something close by. Websites of popular tourist destinations update the status of cherry blossoms as well.
• I recommend that you book hotels within 5 minutes walking distance from well-connected subway stations. A couple of our hotels were 10-15 minutes away from the station we needed to go to, so it was mildly irritating to repeat the same walk so often. In those places, there was actually a closer station, but if we took those, we'd have to transfer to a main station anyways.
• Standard hotel rooms have a double bed, which are about the same size as full sized beds in the US. If you're a move around a lot in your sleep like I do and want your partner to be well-rested, it's worth upgrading to a room that has a larger bed or two twins.
• If you're shopping, don't forget to bring your passport, so that you can get a duty free discount or refund.

Planning

• We booked our Hakone ryokan in January
• In February, we booked 3 fine dining restaurants, hotel in Kyoto, and temple lodging in Koyasan
• Saiho-ji (the moss temple in Kyoto) says that they require you to write an international postcard to request a reservation, and I saw that too late. Fortunately, there was also a Japanese website that let you make reservations, and we filled that out about a month in advanced with the help of Google translate. One of the fields required a Japanese address. We just used a friend's address, but you can probably use a hotel as well.
• Besides that, we booked all our other lodging and a week before our stay or less. A few times this wasn't best decision because our hotels were significantly more expensive this way.
• We left the first week in our trip very flexible, so that we could go somewhere that was in peak bloom during this time. We had a few places in mind, and ended up booking a ryokan in Nanyo the night before our stay there.
• Besides a few bucket list items, we figured that we'd be happy going anywhere. My wife and I made a shared Google map with all the sites that we found interesting without the intention of going to all of them and used that as a guide to choose what was convenient.

Tokyo Highlights

• I bought strawberries from a random department store, and an absurdly priced mango and orange from the Sembikiya flagship store. The strawberries were some of the best I had and worth the price of 1200 yen. The orange was tangier than any other orange we've had. However, you have to peel the thick membrane to fully appreciate it, and even then, I don't think it was worth anywhere close to 3500 yen. The mango was the most expensive at about 12000 yen, and everything about it was perfect. It was fragrant, the skin was thin, the texture was creamy, and it was as sweet as candy. It's hard to believe that this was grown from a plant.
• The real reason to go to Mori Art Museum is the stunning view of Tokyo. The main museum was closed, but we got to see an exhibit of Heatherwick Studio instead, which was more interesting than I expected.
• We loved the garden the Nezu Museum
• We went to Hotel Sara Kinshicho, a love hotel, and it was as fun as it looks on Youtube. The room was both more spacious and cheaper than most of our other hotel rooms. That said, it's a bit out of the way, so you should definitely ship your luggage to your next destination.
• We wanted to go to a conveyor belt sushi restaurant and settled on Kura Sushi. Considering that you're paying $1-$3 per plate, you shouldn't expect the highest quality of fish, but the eel was absolutely incredible. It seemed to be fresh off the grill and it was so saucy and fatty. I honestly enjoyed it more than the eel that I got from a dedicated unagi restaurant.
• The yakitori at New Torigin was amazing, especially the chicken skin. Perfectly charred and crispy.

Nanyo

As I mentioned before, Nanyo was the highlight of our trip. Despite being a small town, it had it's own distinct feeling and cuisine, and I think it deserves more love. I definitely shouldn't have been able to book a last minute ryokan reservation during peak Cherry Blossom season.

• After arriving in Nanyo, we ate some dessert near the station nearby. We then took a train known as the Flower Nagai Line. On the train, you can see cherry blossoms, snowcapped mountains, and pass sleepy villages. We stopped at Koguwa Station.
• There is a famous soba restaurant close by. It was a 30 minute walk, but I was really in the mood for some soba. Unfortunately, we arrived, we found out that the shop is temporarily closed because the owner broke his arms. It was around this time when I think I spotted an eagle catching a snake.
• Fortunately, we still had some sweets leftover and the weather was perfect for walking. We walked to a spot which has a small cherry blossom festival. One of the trees there was over 1200 years old, yet it was still blooming strong!
• We took the Flower line back to Nanyo and checked into our ryokan, Morinoyu. We didn't see any English speakers in their staff, so my wife's basic Japanese was definitely helpful. Service was excellent, despite our communication barrier.
• For dinner, we went to 食楽亭 旭屋, which specializes in beef. Despite going to several more expensive restaurants, this was by far my favorite meal in Japan and one of the top two meals of my life. We had their specialty Shabu Shabu with their local Yonezawa beef. I don't think it was graded A5, but I honestly don't think that mattered as it still had wonderful marbling and melted in your mouth. To eat it, you take a thin slice of beef and wrap it around a bunch of spring vegetables. The mild freshness and crispness of the vegetables perfectly compliments the fatty beef. It's kind of like eating a Korean ssam but in reverse, which is so much better because you primarily taste the beef instead of the vegetable.
• After dinner, we walked around Eboshiyama Park, nearby. It's a hill with hundreds of cherry trees in full blossom. It also features the largest torii made out of a single stone. It was after dark, but they light it up at night which gives the park its own sort of beauty.
• We went back to our ryokan and soaked in the public onsens. The water had a slight sulphurous smell though I think that actually enhances the authenticity of the spring water.
• The following day, we went back to Eboshiyama Park. During the daytime, the park was even more beautiful. It felt like I was walking in Shinkai film. The best part is that there were the perfect number of people. Sometimes, you feel like you have to the park to yourself, but there are still enough to make the atmosphere more lively.

Hakone

• We went up the Hakone Ropeway. Fortunately the sky was clear and we got to see Mt. Fuji on Owakudani. We didn't have time to complete the entire loop, so we turned back from there. If you're in a hurry like us, I definitely recommend taking the bus instead of the train and cable car, which were painfully slow. We barely made it to our ryokan before their last check in time.
• Our ryokan we stayed in was Yama No Chaya. Despite being highly recommended on this sub, I personally would not recommend it. Don't get me wrong. We had fun, and it met 90% of our expectations, but it's fair to expect that extra 10% after spending almost $700. Our meals were rushed, especially breakfast. Our attendant kept on reminding us that check out was at 10:00 am despite having plenty of time. I think they were short-staffed because he always had the expression of being overwhelmed. One of the public onsens had a thin layer of oil in it, which likely came from a guest who didn't shower themselves properly. Our private onsen was beautiful, but they locked the door to the outside because there was construction underneath.
• The Open Air Museum featured a lot of interesting sculptures, and we took the bus there this time.

Kyoto Highlights

• Fushimi Inari is as lovely as it appears on social media. We arrived at 9 am, which we thought was late, but there were fewer people than I expected, especially in the upper area.
• Roketsu is a fun studio where you can make your own indigo textiles. It is much easier than it looks to make something beautiful.
• Saiho-ji is a Japanese Buddhist temple that features a large garden covered in 120 types of moss. Due the limited reservations, our visit was quite peaceful.
• My favorite overall dinner in Kyoto was Soba-no-Mi Yoshimura. They have an English menu, but their Japanese menu has a lot more options, such as the 100% buckwheat soba that I ordered. My wife got the traditional nishin (herring) soba, which was also delicious. The best part was honestly the tempura.
• We had a couple of traditional Kyoto-style kaisekis, and both were excellent. Iharada was a great overall value and service was impeccable. Kiyama was more of a splurge, but also worth the price. Every other tasting menu I've experienced has aimed to present dishes with a wow factor, but each course here elegantly embodied delicacy.

Osaka Highlights

• I've never seen dolphins so active than the ones at the Osaka Aquarium.
• Hajime is a 3 Michelin star restaurant where I had the most exquisite meal I've ever had in my life. Every course was a work of art. I posted a full review on /finedining.
• We had Okonomiyaki and yakisoba at Ajikuraya. It was a tiny fraction of the price of our previous dinner, but equally as memorable.

Koyasan

• Our last stop was Koyasan, a mountain with a Buddhist temple settlement. Honestly, at this point, we were all templed-out, but it still offered a distinct experience from the other ones we've visited.
• We stayed at Ichijo-In, which is a functioning temple and lodging of pilgrims. We aren't religious, but almost all of the other guests seemed to be quite serious. The walls of the temple are quite thin, and it got quite chilly in April, so I'd be cautious if you want to book this in the winter.

Leonard watched as a hand burst out of his (formerly prize-winning) lawn.
To the left, he saw a torso struggling to climb out of a second hole, stuck fast by the hoop in its trousers.
Another seemed to be having trouble breaking through the lawn's crust and was tunnelling through the earth instead. Leonard watched as his pride and joy turned into a zig-zagging maze of turfy humps.
Every bloody year.
"I'll do it, shall I?" Leonard snarled at a tight-lipped Belinda. He stormed outside.
"Oi!" he shouted, waving his arms. "Get off my lawn!"
The tunnelling clown finally burst free from its earthy prison. Its face was a mess of rot and muddy greasepaint.
"Graaaaack," it said reproachfully.
Leonard gave it a hand up.
"Look," he said. "Bugger off."
"Graaaaack," replied the zombie clown and dove back into its tunnel.
"Belinda!" Leonard shouted. "They're listening to reason!"
Something was being forced through the tunnel's opening. It used to be matt-black, but it was now corroded with rust. BROIL KING was stamped on the lid.
"No," said Leonard forcefully, angling his voice towards the tunnel. "I've told you –"
He managed to leap out of the way just in time. The barbeque grill burst through the ground, splattering Leonard's house with football-sized clods.
"ARGH!" Leonard screamed in frustration. He stomped back inside to find Belinda thawing pigs' brains in the sink.
"It's a good compromise," she said, the way she did every year. "They've never noticed, and then they'll leave us alone for another 364 days."
"COMPROMISE?" Leonard exploded. "We shouldn't need to compromise!"
"Well, the estate agent did warn us…"
"Yes, yes," said Leonard. "The house is built on old circus ground."
A sheet of paper slid through their letterbox and plopped on the mat. It bore a word written in scarlet greasepaint. It said: GRAAAAACK.
Leonard looked outside. Twenty zombie clowns were facing the window, simultaneously gesturing for Leonard to join them. BROIL KING was smoking nicely.
"Lovely, we got an invite," said Leonard. "Belinda, bring the brains!"
•••
"Graaaaack."
"Fascinating," said Leonard.
"Graaaaack."
"Uh-huh."
He was bored out of his mind. For clowns, this lot were as funny as haemorrhoids. The best part had been when the Clown Chef's jaw had fallen onto the grill. The zombie had hilariously flipped it like a burger.
Leonard sidled up to Belinda, who was deep in "conversation" with a Pierrot-type.
"This party blows," said Leonard. "I'm going next door."
"Graaaaack?!"
Belinda flapped a distracted hand, making an apologetic face at the Pierrot. Who wasn't getting the benefit, as it now had its face buried in a bowl of charcoaled brains.
Leonard hopped his picket fence onto next door's lawn.
"Not now, Leonard, unless you want to help!" yelled his new-ish neighbour, Roger. He was trying to cut a kilo of cocaine into lines for two dozen zombie lawyers.
"Oh, this ground used to belong to an old law firm," said Leonard. "Didn't the estate agent warn you?"

Dédalo moved frantically around the control room, overturning rocks, checking behind the screen, looking for any kind of hidden button. “Ninian, are you just going to stand there or are you going to help me!”
“What do you want me to do, cut her out?!” Ninian gestured to the screen of Perdita’s face.
“There must be a button or lever somewhere here!” Dédalo snapped, refusing to believe there was nothing he could do to help Perdida’s predicament.
Perdida’s mind was occupied, having accessed the system and the dormant data stored in it. As she scanned through memories and visions, the relevant information unscrambled itself for her. Piece by piece, the memories played in series.
Her first memory, the birth of her artificial soul, heralded by the priests that created her as the greatest experiment they have succeeded in. “May the MAKS-0 bring peace to Pieduro forevermore!”
Next were the lives of the Piedurons she was tasked with maintaining peace over. Teaching the children how to use and play with their Temples responsibly, assisting the Piedurons through their everyday lives.
Then watching over the construction of the Ring, the key to unifying and connecting the use of all Temples to a single source.
Then the Piedurons slowly turned their attention to the world around them, visions of expanding past the island. With the construction of the Ring, they had the means of using their Temples much further beyond their island. Tools originally used to create were beginning to be seen as potential tools of destruction and oppression against adversaries. Visions of expansion and conquest filled the mind of a small, but growing population of Piedurons.
“War is not peace.”
“War goes against the idea of maintaining peace.”
“War can not happen if there are no Temples to fight with”
Pedida watched her original decision play out in; the construction of the Ring allowed her to shut down every single connected Temple. What happened after was a terrible oversight, the energy in each Temple overloaded rather than being simply shut down. The Ring that connected the Temples shared and distributed the energy of all temples between each other, but once disconnected they had no way to regulate the remaining excess energy.
The fallout wiped out the Piedurons as a civilization and destroyed the vast majority of Temples. The remaining few priests sealed Perdida away, and that was the last memory she could see in the database.
Perdida’s attention turned toward Electra and 2095, still fighting in the ring, using the carts to chase each other in a perpetual circle. The thought crept into Perdida’s mind; with the Ring under her control, she could turn off the Temples and stop the fight. She could prevent Temples from being used by the wrong hands.
No.
Perdida stopped herself. Not falling into the same logic that her previous self could not reason past. Her journey with Dédalo had allowed her to grow and understand, she would make a different choice this time.
The fight only took a bit longer to finish, the streaks of light made it difficult to tell what was happening, but the fight ended with a chain of explosions and both bodies falling out of their carts.
2095 falls to one knee, glare softening as Electra’s body goes limp while smoking from so many orb explosions. Her stare reaches thousands of yards, still processing her personal discovery before a speeding orb barely grazes her cheek and snaps her back. She sprints to the unconscious body and scoops her up, draping her over her back nestled underneath [Yours Truly] and holds the skater’s arms as she continues dodging to the best of her ability.
Her legacy wouldn’t end in this place, but neither would Electra’s.

2095, with a score of 76 to Electra’s 59!

Category	Winner	Point Totals	Comments
Popularity	2095	20 (6.5+2) - 10 (4.5+2)
Quality	2095	25 (8-9-8) - 18 (6-6-6)	Reasoning
JoJolity	Tie	21 (7-7-7)- 21 (7-7-7)	Reasoning
Conduct	Tie	10-10	Nothing to report!

Perdida opened a service door for 2095 to escape through, hoisting Electra over he shoulder. With a bit of guidance, 2095 made her way into the control room where they were now all gathered.
After getting everybody settled, Perdida managed to convince Dédalo that she was ok and relayed the story for the rest of them to hear.
“So I have a new plan. I figured out how to control the output of energy of each Temple to ensure that Temples can only be used when I allow them to be used…But in order to do that, I will have to stay within this mainframe.” Perdida looked toward Dédalo with a sad smile.
“Don’t worry Perdida, this will only be goodbye for now. I still have to find you a physical body after all.” Dédalo gave a warm chuckle as he walked up to the screen.
Dédalo pressed his hands against the screen and the image of Perdida pressed her hands against his. “We’ve learned a lot over the course of our journey. I’ll promise to tell you all about my next adventures when I get back.”
“...your mascara’s running.” Electra looked at a sniffling Ninian.
“It said it was waterproof, guess that was a fucking lie”; Ninian hide her face with her hands, quietly using Endless Rest to dry her face and fixed her make-up.
2095 looked on at the scene and ruminated on Perdida’s story. The similarities she shared with Perdida were not lost on her. Striving to become more than their programing, more than someone made to serve a higher purpose, but never losing sight of the joy of collaboration and connections to others. 2095 put a hand over her chest, she herself had also come a long way to be here hasn’t she.
To Be Continued…
Scenario: Sliema, Malta — 8:00 PM
On the island of Malta, in the center of one of its busiest cities, was a building. A decrepit, abandoned building, rusted and cast in reddish shadow by the taller structures that surrounded it. It was once an apartment building, but it had long since lost that use.
The rest of the city was filled with noise. Screaming, car alarms and barking dogs. But around here, where no one bothered to come around, it was quiet. Butterflies dotted the railings of the building, watching. Waiting for something to come. Not like the people inside could stand guard, with the boards over the windows. Still, they didn’t seem very concerned about the state of things.
“I was expecting to be impressed when you said you got a new place to stay, but this...” Ninian stared at the walls of Mari’s room, trying her best not to wince. They weren’t really in the best shape. Nothing here seemed to be, really, aside from the extremely comfortable bed she was taking a seat on. She turned to stare at Mari. “Shouldn’t you clean up a little? I bet it could use a new paint job, at least.”
“Geh. I don’t have time for painting.” Mari clacked away on her computer, hunched over in a garish (but surprisingly comfortable) gaming chair. Alarmingly loud EDM blared from the cat-ear headphones hanging around her neck. “Do you know how many things I would have to unplug to do that? It’s impractical.”
She gestured to the mass of wires emerging from her computer setup. Indeed, it’d be pretty difficult to move that around. Mari sat in front of a large array of computer monitors hung from the wall, all different shapes and sizes, all displaying different things. She swapped from keyboard to keyboard, not even taking the time to look at Ninian as she spoke.
“Besides, it’s better for me if my place looks like shit. Better that it doesn’t look like anybody lives here, right?”
“That only really matters on the outside...” Ninian sighed. “You could at least get some lights.”
“The screens are enough light.”
“...I suppose.”
The two sat in silence for a moment. Ninian turned to stare at the other person in the room; Nadine Sokenna laid on the other side of the bed, fast asleep. “I’m glad the two of you are doing alright.”
“Mmm.” Mari grinned. “Me too.” She exhaled, finally finishing whatever business she was handling on the computer and spinning the chair around to face the bed. The short shorts, thick blanket, and extremely oversized Hatsune Miku shirt she wore certainly weren’t that flattering, but at least her hair finally looked pretty nice. The bags under her eyes weren’t quite gone, but they seemed to glimmer with newfound lust for life.
She looked happy. That wasn’t something Ninian had been able to say about her before.
“I take it work’s been good?”
“Mmm!” Mari gestured widely to the screens behind her. “It’s an age of information, Ninian! No better time to be an info broker! Business is booming! Ehyeheheh!”
The swordswoman chuckled at that. She was silent for a moment, her smile turning into a frown, her eyes narrowing.
“Anyway... I assume you didn’t call me here just to talk.”
“Huh?” Mari tilted her head to the side. “Whaddya mean?”
“Well, you called me to deal with ‘that’, right?” She pointed up. “Truth be told, my schedule’s really packed right now, and I’m not sure how much I can do-”
“Oh, no, that’s not it at all.”
“Huh?”
“I just wanted you around.” She shrugged. “It’s a bit tough to relax right now. Super hard! Having big strong Ninian around makes me feel a little better. Ehe.” She was visibly blushing. “S-Sorry if that’s stupid, but I figured you’d like to catch up anyway.”
Ninian paused. “...So if you didn’t bring me here to, uh, deal with ‘that’... Are you just leaving that be?”
“Ah?”
“I mean, it’s kind of a problem for you, isn’t it? Doesn’t seem too convenient to leave it be...”
“Well, the plan was to leave it.” Mari shrugged. “But I got a bit lucky.”
“You invited me here... Just to sit around and chat while someone else does all the work?” The swordswoman raised an eyebrow, arms crossed. “As I said, I’ve got a packed schedule-”
“Nah, trust me.” The info broker snickered, spinning around in her chair as she spoke. “Youuuu... Are really gonna wanna see this one. I got somebody totally wild to help out.”
Ninian scoffed.
“Okay... And who would that be?” She tilted her head to the side. “I’ll be the judge of that.”
“You’re not gonna believe this one...” Mari cleared her throat. “I called in -”
*Scenario: A lonely boat, on the Mediterranean Sea — *
Wah watched the sun bob on the edge of the horizon. Their hair billowed in the wind, and seafoam sprinkled their face; they didn’t particularly seem to mind. Considering all they’d done with their ability, being on a speeding boat was probably the last thing to phase them; they’d just wrapped up a fight in a walking house, after all.
They stood in silence, a light smile on their face, eyes pleasantly half lidded. There was pleasure to be found in the small things. The sunset on the open sea, for one, was quite nice. Indeed, despite all the troubles it would no doubt cause, COLOSSI's shift to humanitarian aid was doing wonders for their mental. Now if only Solsbury and the rest of them would stop nagging...
But now wasn’t the time to worry about that. Nay, there were far more important matters. Wah pushed themself off of the boat’s railing, moving towards the driver's seat of the boat. It wasn’t a big boat; probably just used for leisure, but the owner had been nice enough to give them a ride.
A large sum of money was involved, of course, but that was neither here nor there.
“Oh, cappy-tan!” Wah leaned on the side of the boat behind the driver’s seat. A balding, sun-tanned man chuckled at the name. He wasn’t really much of a captain, but he did like to feel important.
“Howst long does thou think it will be before we arrive?” Wah tapped on the side of the boat a few times. “Wah has places to be, you see! Tis of utmost importance that I arrive quickly! Utmost! You understand, yes?”
“Yeah, yeah, I getcha...” The boater sighed. “It’ll be about ten minutes... Honestly, I don’t get why you’re in such a hurry to get there, anyway. Everybody else seems to be clearin’ out.”
“Oho?” Wah raised an eyebrow. They lowered it, and raised the other one, performing what could perhaps be called an ‘eyebrow wiggle’. “And why is that?”
“Dunno. Nobody’s said much, and everything they’ve said hasn’t been too, er, what’s the word...”
“Comprehensible?”
“Yeah. That one.”
“Wah sees, Wah sees!” Wah nodded a few times, bouncing off of the boat’s side and meandering back to the front, wobbling from side to side as the vessel rocked. “From what Wah understands, it’s quite a situation out there! No normal soul would find it any sort of comprehensible. A true predicament... And that is why Wah must go. To assist poor souls who cannot assist themselves! This predicament falls within Wah’s expertise, you see.”
“...Right.”
“Mmm!”
“Ain’t you just a normal soul, too? ‘Sides the ears, you don’t look all that special. Kinda twiggy.”
Wah paused. In the past, being called ‘kinda twiggy’ would’ve surely resulted in a violent tirade. But those were the demons they swore to leave behind speaking. Now, without them, Wah simply laughed. “Nay! Twiggy as Wah may be, you can rest assured, fine citizen!”
They turned, the boater catching the briefest glimmer in their eye. “Wah’s soul is the furthest from ordinary one could possibly get.”
“...If you say so...” He turned his attention back towards driving, and Wah turned theirs to the open sea once more.
Eventually, land came into view. The boater looked upon Malta with some confusion. Everything in the distance seemed perfectly normal. Wah, on the other hand, seemed extremely focused on something in the sky, something the poor man couldn’t seem to find no matter how hard he squinted.
“No need to make it all the way to the island.” Wah’s frown felt out of place on such a naturally silly face. “Park the boat near here. Wah can go the rest of the distances Wahself.”
“Ah..? It’s pretty far from here, though-”
“Verily! But it is nothing Wah cannot handle!” They snapped their fingers, jumping on top of the boat’s front railing, almost seeming to glide.
“Say, Cappy-tan! Have you ever seen a magician at work?”
Ninian gaped. “You... You called in... The head of COLOSSI?”
“...That’s what I said, yes.”
“Whuh...” Ninian frowned. “You’re fucking with me.”
“I’m not.”
“You so are.”
“I’m not! You underestimate the greatest info broker on the planet, my dear Ninian!” Mari jabbed a thumb into her chest as she gloated. “With my Stand ability: ｢Today is a Beautiful Day｣, my surveillance is simply unmatched! You see, the pins that make up my ability, when thrice jabbed into something, create a ‘butterfly within a frame’, but that’s only the basest applic-”
“I know what it does, Mari.” The swordswoman’s confusion briefly made way for the usual moodiness. If you let Mari start, you’d never get her to stop, after all. “I’m more... I mean, how did you even...?”
“I heard through the grapevine, as it were, that COLOSSI was making some big changes. All just rumors of course, so take that all with a grain of salt. But word out there is that their boss has gone completely mad! They’re big into justice and stuff now! Something like that. So I tracked them down, used my butterflies to establish communication, and made them a deal they simply couldn’t refuse.”
“And what could you possibly have to offer someone like that?”
“Information is the new money, Ninian.” Mari chuckled, staring at the wall of her room. “It didn’t take much. I just told them... I knew where a certain someone they quite liked was, and if they took care of my business, I’d sell ‘em the info for free.”
Ninian, after a few moments of stunned silence, simply sighed, scratching the back of her head. She smirked.
“...And you’re absolutely not fucking with me.”
“Aw, c’mon.” She chuckled again, turning her attention back to Ninian. “Have some faith in your best friend, will you? Just sit back and watch.” She raised a thumbs up, grinning from ear to ear. “I don’t have to do any work at all today! As long as no complications arise, it’s as good as dealt with! Wa ha ha!”
Elsewhere, in Sliema, a complication arose.
His name was Errok, and for once, he felt a bit too awestruck to open his mouth.
As rare of an occurrence as this was, most of his brain power was dedicated solely to figuring out what exactly he was looking at. After a large amount of deducing and such, he eventually came to the simple conclusion that he had no idea.
It’s not like anyone else who could see it, though. You couldn’t even see all of it. Only sections, massive spherical tubes of undulating red poking out from the cloudy sky, constantly moving ever so slowly. The wind whipped through his greasy hair as his eyes, wider than they’d been in years, observed what could only be described as a massive, floating worm, made entirely of bright red strings.
Now that he had given up entirely on trying to figure out what the thing was, Errok could dedicate his incredible intellect to other thought processes. Eventually, he arrived at a conclusion, one that was without a doubt something only someone as academically gifted as him could come up with.
“That thing is going to be my horse.”
Indeed, using whatever that was as a noble steed was the only logical idea. Wherever a powerful being resided, there too was opportunity to be found. And as a self proclaimed ‘Weapon To Kill The Soul’, there was surely no beast he could not tame.
He spent the next few minutes idly chuckling to himself.
It felt a bit off, admittedly. The city was pretty empty. The chaos caused by the thing no doubt led to a mass evacuation; he could tell from the buildings that had collapsed around him that it’d done quite a number on the place. Occasionally he’d hear someone screaming for help or something, but he couldn’t figure out where that was coming from, so he didn’t bother. But not having someone to monologue to felt strange. This was the part where he bragged about his incredible plan to some oafish bystander! Where were the oafish bystanders!
“I suppose...I could talk to myself.”
He nodded a few times. An excellent idea.
“Yes! This’ll do just fine. I can just talk to myself! Ha!”
Errok marched forward, a pep in his step that made his gait particularly loud.
“Now then... Clearly, the right answer... is to elevate myself! Aha! Yes!” He looked around at his surroundings. The stairs inside the buildings probably weren’t reliable, even if he could fit through the doors.
“No matter! I’ll just, uh, hrnmm...” He stared at a nearby building. It was pretty tall. “Well, I guess I could climb up that.”
“AHA! With my incredible strength, I’ll climb this building! That’s what I’ll do!”
His head swiveled around: still nobody around. He sighed, though you wouldn’t have been able to hear it from within the helmet, and began his ascent. With a grin, he unearthed the grotesque arm that was ｢You Are Blood｣ from its gauntlet. The arm shot forth, worms spraying from the mottled surface. Yes, they would be his ideal audience. He cleared his throat a few times.
“All living things tremble at the sight of Errok, Apostle of Rot, Destroyer of Souls! I need no weapon, for I am the blade which cleaves life itself!” His body shot forward with a cacophony of clanking, as he howled along with another bout of laughter.
“The world is my, uh, whetstone! I shall sharpen my blade on each fallen fool that tries to stop me, and become a better knight, a better god, a better trickster, than all those fools that I’ve destroyed!”
Hitting the side of the structure with a clatter, Errok stuck his sword into the side of the building. Again, his arm lashed out to grasp the next floor of the building, before yanking himself outwards. This cycle repeated itself, floor by floor, as Errok launched himself higher and higher towards the heavens, and towards the worm that would become his knightly steed.
“Then, when I have conquered all of life and every soul with the absolute, supreme power of rot and decay, then!”
With one last pull, Errok ascended into the air, his massive form silhouetted by the sun. “Then, I will finally tear that flamboyant freak a new one!”
With a CRASH, Errok landed on the roof of the building as it cracked around him. He gave a clumsy flourish to his wormy audience, grinning with menace and delight.
…and received a slow clap in return. Looking around in confusion, as worms do not have hands, Errok’s eyes fell upon the environment around him. The sun was slowly making its way towards the horizon line, casting the ruined skyline of Sliema in shadow, a golden light shining through gray clouds. It was absolutely beautiful; anyone with any sort of care for the world around them would simply have to stop and admire the view.
Errok didn’t have any of that. He was far more concerned with something else, as you’d expect. There on the roof stood another figure, a fae-like being with pale hair, pointed ears and teeth, and gleaming eyes.
“Oh hey,” Errok greeted, pointing with the finger of ｢You Are Blood｣. “Do I know you from somewhere? Might’ve seen you at the races... You look pretty important, though! I bet you’re super important! As am I! Pleasure to meet you!”
Wah just stopped clapping, giving Errok a look. Their nose wrinkled. “Wah is…charmed.”
Not picking up on the sarcasm, Errok beamed.
“Of course you are! I’m sure that you’ve heard about me! Errok, Apostle of Rot! I’ve committed more sins than one could possibly imagine! I’ve conquered all sorts of bozos and losers to get here! And now that I’m here, I’m gonna ride! That! Worm! Oh yeah!!!”
“…Uh huh,” Wah hummed, clearly not listening as they peered up at the worm. “There isn’t really much time for jokes right now, so-“
Suddenly, Wah stopped speaking. Errok stared at them for a few seconds. “...You gonna finish that sentence, or-”
“Shut up.”
The “Apostle of Rot” was fully prepared to go off on yet another monologue, but at that moment he thought to maybe see what exactly this mysterious weirdo stared so intensely at. He turned his gaze to the sky, and his eyes widened.
The clouds that obscured the form of the worm had split, only slightly, and something had descended from the hole produced. It was small, so it was a bit difficult to make it out at first, but if he squinted really hard, he could begin to see the silhouette of a young girl, holding loosely onto a balloon.
“Eugh.” He spat. “Hate kids.”
The figure was silent until it landed, never quite touching the ground. It wore a soft expression; a pure white girl, with a sundress that fluttered in the wind. The string in her hand led to a red balloon, just as red as the pupils concealed in her thin eyes. On the surface, she looked human, but just by looking at her you could tell that it was no human being. The way it seemed to lightly pulsate, skin forming briefly into strings that wrap endlessly around each other.
She smiled upon the two of them. It was not a friendly smile.
“Good evening, you two.” She raised her hands to the two of them. “Wah-Chan, leader of COLOSSI, overlord of the criminal underground the world over... And... Errok...San...”
“Hey. Wait.” Errok raised his hand. He turned to Wah. “That’s who you were? Oh, man, I’m a big fan of your-”
“Tell me. Do you know what ‘time’ it is?”
Errok stifled. He didn’t like this lady very much.
“8:01 PM, is it not?” Wah rudely ignored Errok’s plight. “What’s it matter.”
“Not quite what I meant. It’s almost the ‘Golden Hour’.” She chuckled. “The ‘Golden Hour’, as it’s called, is the most beautiful part of the day. It occurs in the last hour before sunset, and the hour directly before sunrise. It usually lasts only twenty to thirty minutes, but those twenty to thirty minutes are incomparable. Truly, there is beauty in the world.”
SIlence. Neither Errok nor Wah could figure out how to respond to that. Right as Errok was about to open his mouth anyway, the girl continued.
“If you couldn’t tell, ‘Golden Hour’ is about to start, in about two minutes, give or take. I only found this out recently. You see, I have lived my recent life in someone else’s eyes. I’ve never had the chance to learn about the world on my own. I was only recently able to learn about things on my own time, rather than on someone else’s. There was so much I was denied a chance to see. Do you know how cruel that is? Most of the knowledge I’ve gathered... Is completely useless to me now.”
She pointed at Wah. “Did you know that the Monogatari anime being released out of order was originally completely unintended?”
Silence.

“Originally, the series was planned to release in the order of the books; Bakemonogatari came first, and its prequel, Kizumonogatari, was planned to release in 2012. However, due to production issues, it was delayed until 2016, while the other parts of the anime were released on schedule, resulting in an out-of-order release. The bizarre watching orders of Monogatari that the series is somewhat internet famous for are completely unintended, and only exist due to production issues. Did you know that?”

“No,” Wah glared, “Wah did not know that. To be frank, there is no circumstance or situation in which Wah would want or need to know that information.”
“Exactly!” In her first showing of genuine emotion, the girl threw her hands into the air. Her voice remained perfectly monotone. “There’s no reason for me to know that information, either. But instead of important things, I’ve only been shown information like that. My brain, despite being far superior to that of a human being, is filled with useless information that serves no purpose to me. Do you know what it’s like? Having a vessel that doesn’t care for you? Even after all the work I went through to make her do what I wanted, she refused to show me anything worthwhile. I had to learn about things such as the ‘Golden Hour’ myself. Isn’t that cruel?”
“Excuse me, but-”
“But anyway, back to the ‘Golden Hour’. It is frequently utilized by film mak-”
“Stop fucking doing that!” Errok slammed his boot into the ground, producing a loud clang that finally managed to silence the mystery girl. He huffed and puffed for a few seconds before clearing his throat and continuing. “What’s the point of talking to us about any of this? You just prattle on, and on, and on, without any purpose to it! You’re annoying! What’s your deal!”
“There is no point.”
“What?”
“There’s no point, really. I’m just making small talk.” The girl looked over her nails. “Human beings engage in ‘conversation’ to gain a grasp of each other’s personalities. To establish who is worthwhile to have around, and who is not. I simply wanted to do the same. While I’m in this form, I may as well play at humanity.”
“Anywho, from our conversation—” Errok scoffed. “—I have deduced something. You see, I was originally planning to take the ‘strings’ of every Stand user in the world, taking their abilities and adding to my own power. But I have unfortunately vastly underestimated how many Stand users are in the world. Frankly, it would be a lot of work to do myself. So I’ve decided to take on another vessel. Someone far more suited for this kind of work, and who will show me plenty of things.”
“Wah-Chan.” Wah rolled their eyes at that. “From this conversation, I have deduced that you are patient, calm, and rational. From observing the work of your organization, I can come to the conclusion that you are cruel and calculating. My name is Disappearance Addiction. I am the strongest ‘Miracle’ currently present in the world. And I would like for you to become my new vessel.”
“No thankies.”
“...”
“...What?”
“Wah doesn’t really care for that sort of thing.” Wah shrugged. “You seem annoying to have around. Wah actually came here to get rid of you, to be honest. ‘Tis my duty! Wah is on the side of justice, now, as is COLOSSI as a whole! It would be immoral to take the power of something like you.”
“You would refuse the power of a ‘Miracle’?”
“Wah doesn’t know what that is.”
Disappearance Addiction seemed well and truly stumped at that. Eventually, her head began to turn, slowly, as if she was afraid of what her gaze would land on.
“Errok... San...”
“Yeah?”
“You... Would you like... Power?”
“That’s the first interesting thing you’ve said all day.” Errok nodded. “Fuck me up, lady.”
“...You’re not going to think it over, or anything?”
“Nope.”
“Are you sure?”
“Can you just give it to me already? C’mon.”
“...” Disappearance Addiction was silent for a few moments. On one hand, this guy smelled very bad. He was incredibly impatient. And he generally seemed like a big idiot. On the other hand, he did scale the building pretty easily...
“Alright.” She sighed. “I’ve come to a decision. Errok-San. If you kill Wah-Chan before the ‘Golden Hour’ ends, you may become my vessel. Does that satisfy you?”
“How long till Goldy Hour ends?”
“Twenty to thirty minutes.”
“Ha!” Errok unsheathed his sword and swung it onto his shoulder. “I’ll end it in three!” He smirked beneath his armor, pointing his massive blade at Wah. “You there! Wah! Leader of COLOSSI, was it?”
“...That is me, yes.”
“Get ready for the fight of your life, bub! After I kill you, I’m gonna be the boss of COLOSSI! I’ll be on top of the world! God King Errok! Everyone’ll bow to me! That kinda power ain’t something a little pacifist baby face like you’s worthy of having! So I’ll just take it right out of your hands! Ha ha ha! Thinking about it really amps me up! Oh, man!”
He paused, staring at Wah.
“I was really expecting you to cut me off there. It’s been happening all day. You just gonna sit there?”
Wah’s brow furrowed.
“Tell me...” They stepped forward, the dust around them kicking into the air, beginning to circle around them. “...Do you honestly believe... That you can beat me? Is that something... You think you’re capable of?”
“Course it is. I’m a weapon to kill the soul.”
“Hmph.” Wah sighed. “So be it.”
Disappearance Addiction smiled upon the two as she rose further into the air, wind whipping through her hair. A golden glow illuminated the cityscape, the sun reaching its final moments in the sky. “I feel like... I should say something here...Ah, that’s it!

”OPEN THE GAME!”

Location:
In the city of Sliema, Malta, currently with thick strings hanging overhead.
The area here is 32 by 40 meters with each tile being 2 by 2 meters. Wah and Errok start on top of buildings, as represented by their character tokens.
The yellow rectangles are clay buildings, each numbered to represent their elevation level.The (1) marked buildings are 5 meters tall, the ones marked with a (2) are 10 meters tall, and the ones marked with a (3) are 15 meters tall.
The White Rectangles are Laundry racks with nearby baskets, folding chairs, cleaned clothing, and towels.
The Green Circles are palm trees that are 20 meters tall.
The Magenta Lines across the map are Strings produced by Disappearance Addiction and are attached to the buildings and trees. These strings are thick enough to balance on and have B Durability.
The brown rectangles are wooden benches. The blue circles are fountains.
Goal: RETIRE your opponent!
Additional Information:
Players are not allowed to enter the buildings for the purposes of this match and will be Retired if they are unable or unwilling to leave the “out of bounds area”
There is enough space between buildings for either player to move through the alleyways
Wah starts next to a large umbrella with a hooked handle, a portable grill, and a cushioned lawn chair

Team	Combatant	JoJolity
Bastards of Barcas	Errok	“The word “ignorant” has a nice ring to it, so I don’t mind being called that, but “incompetent” is going just a bit too far…” Establish superiority over your opponent through your movement and positioning!
COLOSSI	Mx. Wah	“A creature like you having a brain residing in his skull…is already a miracle in and of itself.” Establish superiority over your opponent through your movement and positioning!

Link to Official Player Spreadsheet
Link to Match Schedule
As always, if you would like to interact with the tournament community and be among the first to get updates for the tournament, please feel free to PM a member of our Judge staff for an invite to our Official Discord Server!

When I was around 20 yrs old (I'm 50 now) I worked at Denny's. I was working the graveyard shift, which consists of me, a waitress and a dishwasher (for the better part of the night). I got all my prep work done and cooked for bar patrons and late night stragglers. I had a concert to go to the next day, so around 5am I started cleaning up. I had the place spotless by 6:00. That's when we got slammed. Egg pans goin', steaks on the grill, the whole nine yards..of course the place was a mess..The manager showed up and proceeded to tell me that I had to clean everything and help the dishwasher. I was scheduled to be out at 7. I really wanted to leave so I could start my all day excursion to the concert. It was the Greatful Dead. I am definitely NOT a Greatful Dead fan, AT ALL, but I was going with two girls...and that was pretty legit. So I told the manager what happened, how the place was spotless and how I was getting slammed....She pretty much said I had to stay (in a mean, bitchy way). So I said, "Sure, No problem." Egg pans were going, things were cooking, a ton of tickets were lined up... When she was away from the kitchen I walked into the breakroom, got my stuff together, walked out the back door and hopped in my car and left. I wish I could've seen what happened afterwards. Needless to say that was the beginning of one of the most memorable days of my life.....🫠

Hi, all,
I'm hoping I can crowdsource some help diagnosing a fire that happened in my grill today. I was smoking some chicken at about 300° and I noticed there was way more smoke than normal. I open it up and sure enough there's a fire blazing up from under the drip pan.
After starving the fire, I removed the grate, drip pan, and heat dissipator, and saw a pile of pellets outside the firebox. What looks to have happened is pellets were augered into the firebox, set alight, and then the auger just kept pushing more and more pellets until the burning pellets pushed out of the firebox and into the barrel of the grill.
My question is, why? I did a couple steaks just a week ago and everything came out fine. Now the grill is suddenly constantly feeding pellets? What did I do wrong?
The scariest part is that it seems pellets within the auger tube between the hopper and the firebox were burning. I'm concerned that had I not noticed it, the fire would have backburned into the hopper and made things much worse. Can anyone help me solve this?

Posted on Toast's Community Hub
Toast we need to have a conversation, over the years your software has increasingly become harder to use and evermore broken. I am writing this at 21:00 EST so please excuse my poor grammar and half completed thoughts. As I do need to get up early, I will come back tomorrow and update this post with more discussion points and fix any mistakes I may have made.
Lets begin with my current 6 month long problem that keeps getting "resolved" by Toast Customer Care. I have now had three cases "resolved" without anyone contacting me or verifying that the problem was actually fixed. If anyone would like to follow along, please try the following:

1. Create a new item
2. Set the Name of the menu item to Test Item
3. Set Pricing Strategy to Size Price
4. Create a Small & Large size and set price to $1.00 and $2.00 respectively.
5. Save and Publish new menu item.
6. Navigate to Discounts
7. Click Add a Discount
8. Name the discount Test Combo
9. Set the Discount Type to Combo and set the value to $3.00
10. Add the Test Item created in step 1
11. Click Save
12. Next, try to set the size for the Test Item and realize you cannot

The video below tries to show this in action. Notice, I am able to view/edit item sizes for combos that I created before Toast stopped working. It is only when adding new items to a new or existing combo that I can no longer select the size. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6PlREQ-lOQ
As a paying customer of your product, I feel I am being strung along by your support who humor me long enough to get me off the phone, only to have my case closed so they can have one less open support ticket. I have requested to speak with someone higher up and am happy to have either a face to face conversation or even a simple phone call. I have already begun removing toast integrations and will continue to do so until either my issue is resolved or we end up replace Toast in the coming months.

Toast Loyalty & Curbside

When a customer signs up for loyalty, they are only required to enter either their phone number or email address depending on the settings set in the backend. When a customer creates a loyalty account with their email they are sent a welcome message and are allowed to view their points in their web browser; or Toast TakeOut app. If they click the browser link they are then prompted to enter their full name, birthday, and phone number.
From an analytic perspective, why does Toast not ask for this information during signup? Most of the time customers will sign up without clicking the link in the welcome email and we will miss out on that data. Often customers will ask how they get their birthday rewards and we have to explain the lengthy process of adding their birthday:

1. Go to our website and click “Rewards”
2. Enter your email, check that you are not a robot, and click “Find Now”
3. Open your email app and look for the “Reward’s Balance” email from Toast.
4. Open the email and click “View Rewards Transactions”.
5. If you are prompted with “Complete your profile” simply fill out the form and click “Save”.
   1. If you are not prompted, scroll down to “Ways to earn” and click “Complete your profile”

Now you might ask, why can’t your staff just add the information through the register? Great question, they are busy making food, taking orders, and doing tasks that make the business money. Also, have you tried searching for a customer using the POS interface? It is not the best user experience and most of my staff actually hate trying to use the loyalty accounts at the register.
There is no simple way to login to a customer loyalty account to view the profile or update the information. If a customer wishes to check points, or update their phone numbeemail the only way to currently do that is to follow the same steps above. Why do I have to “Look up rewards account”, and get an email about my reward balance, just to be able to view/modify my loyalty profile?
If the customer gets to the profile page they might notice another oddity with the software. Under “Ways to redeem” it states I can use my points to order online. “Create an online ordering account with the email or phone number linked to your loyalty account and log in to order.” Why does the customer have to create yet another account while they are using the same platform at the same restaurant? I have had multiple customers get confused and call us asking why when they try to login to our online ordering platform their email address is not recognized and are prompted to enter a phone number. I have to explain that the loyalty email address is different then the online ordering but they will both be automagically linked once they create a curbside account. If the curbside software can see the loyalty account after the curbside account is created, why can it not just search the loyalty accounts and use that customer data to start a new order? The process would be much more seamless.
The contrasting UX/UI throughout toast are most harshly felt by the customer. The loyalty interface is completely different from the online ordering interface and the customer data does not appear to be shared across the two integrations. Toast needs to have one database full of customer data that plays nicely across all the integrations and follows similar UX/UI design and principles. Maybe provide a single customer profile portal that allows the customer to view and edit their data across all of toast; possibly for all Toast equipped restaurants.
Let us continue our trek down with curbside. I opened a cased on 2/14/2023 stating the the Toast Takeout App was not properly showing items with nested modifiers. It is now 6/8/2023 and the app is still broken. Here is how their support described the issue: “he says that Modifiers are not working on the Toast Takeout App... They are working for Online Ordering though. You can test this by clicking our February 2-For-1 [BOGO], it is supposed to show two modifier groups, one called First Dog and one called Second Dog. These groups do not show up at all and when he tries to add the item to cart it says the modifiers need to be selected. Inherited Modifiers appear to be working though. If the modifier is inherited from the previous menu group it shows up just fine. This issue is happening only on the Toast Takeout App. it is not showing the First Dog and Second Dog modifier group on my "Heid's Daily Special" and "February 2-For-1 [BOGO]”
As you can imagine they “Closed” the case and all is still going well at Toast. We tell customers to delete the Toast App as it does not work correctly and simply use the online ordering link on our website. Feel free to test it out for yourself. Our restaurant, if you can see it, is Heid’s of Liverpool.
Both Order & Pay and Online Ordering integrations have the same issue. Pricing is incorrectly displayed for items with pre-selected modifiers. Basically, if you have a menu item, a burger, that costs $1.00 and it has a modifier, cheese, that costs $0.50, Toast will display the item to the customer as $1.00 but then when the customer clicks the item it will show the add to cart price of $1.50. This is extremely misleading to customers and a very simple fix. This problem has persisted since 2019 when we first started using toast.

Toast Order & Pay

Let us first start off by saying, simply duplicating Toast Online Ordering and adding a table numbering and mobile pay feature does NOT mean you should charge me MORE then the Online Ordering integration. Online Ordering is $50 and Toast Order and Pay is $69 + 0.5% per transaction! From the backend, they appear to basically do that exact same thing except one has some options for adding a vehicle and the other has options for selecting a table number. Otherwise, it would appear they copied the code for the Online Ordering module and went straight for the upcharge.
“We was able to review the information in the system under toasttab.com/ edit menu / sweet treats / Sundaes / Hot Fudge Sundae / scroll down to Default Modifiers, the sauce has a modifier select by default just like, works modifier has all modifier selected by default and working properly but sauce is not working, we try to toggle the configuration, no update, customer refer their is many bug in the system and need to bring all the issue with the system to toast attention.”
This issue was brought to Toast July of 2021… I have since removed the Order & Pay integration so I cannot verify if the issue still persists or not.

UX/UI Nightmare

Toast has an identity problem. It currently does not know if it wants to Toast 1.0 or Toast 4.0. Toast 1.0 had everything laid out in a series of nested links that mostly made sense while 4.0 has a hip new design that appears to be more touchscreen friendly. Sometimes you can complete a taste using only the new UI but often you are jarringly thrusted back into the old UI and have to take a moment to get your bearings as to where everything might be. Here is an incomplete list of daily annoyances:

1. Breadcrumb links, why do they randomly break and not actually show the trail you took to get to that page? Try this:
   1. Go to an item that has Modifiers
   2. Click on a Modifier Group
   3. On the Modifier Group Page, Click on a Modifier
   4. On the Modifier Item Page, click Edit Item
   5. Notice that the breadcrumb navigation is now wrong. This is a common occurrence on Toast.
2. Why are there 20 ways to check reports? Why do all these reports only seem to give me some of the data I want? Why do some of the reports only allow me to view the last two months worth of data? Why is it so difficult to compare two dates (month/day/yeaetc)? I could honestly write an entire book on how broken Toast Reporting is, but I believe that anyone who uses it already knows; I will leave it at that.
3. Double left side menu, who thought this was a good idea? I very frequently end up clicking the wrong link because I will accidentally slide my mouse too far left on the screen and the main menu will slide open and I will click a link on the main menu instead of the intended link on the sub menu.
4. On the POS, when a new order is pushed or someone publishes a change on the backend, why does the POS screen flash and pull you out of what you are working on. For example, Let's say I am on the payment terminal screen with an order selected partway down the list and I am about to click “Update Order”. All of a sudden someone sends an order to the kitchen, my screen flashes and now the top left order is selected on my screen. I don't realize this and proceed to the pay screen charging someone for the wrong order. This happens a not insignificant number of times a month and has led to some full refunds and apologies from our staff.
5. Why does the "Help" button in the top right of the screen randomly just not do anything? Currently, I click on it, nothing happens. I refresh the page, still nothing. Can anyone explain what I am doing wrong? I try to scroll down to the bottom of the page and the "Support & Training" link (button) does not work either.
6. We have had many instances of having employees, modifiers, or menu items that we are not able to archive. We either get an error or the website just simply does nothing. To this day no one can explain to me why this happens and we have to contact Toast each time so someone can come on and fix the item.
7. Ever since the update to "Toast Home", our team has noticed that on occasion we will lose access to features on toast. This happened to me today and I was able to include a screenshot (Toast 01 Screenshot); As you can see, I am "locked" out of "Edit Menus" and "Employees" when I should have full system privileges. A simple page refresh sometimes fixes this issue and the sections I am "Locked" out of will change sporadically. This appears to not just be a simple "Quick Actions" or shortcut issue as I have noticed error messages when trying to make updates via the website. I could get around these error messages by refreshing the page, however, I would lose any work I was trying to save.
8. I have this very common problem of Toast just not working when trying to go to the Toast "Home" (Toast 02 Screenshot); The whole page goes blank and I either need to refresh the page or click through to another page if it will let me. Sometimes the whole site hangs while loading after I pressed a menu link and I am forced to refresh the page. This issue persists across multiple computers and devices.
9. Our kitchen video monitor (KVM) will frequently have issues displaying the tickets. We have seen visual text errors such as fonts being randomly bolded or italicized. Tickets will appear with most of the order cut off and can only be viewed by clicking into the ticket for the pop-up.

Other Toast Integrations

I will keep this section short. Basically, if Toast has a first party integration simply do not use it. Every integration I have tried, from Toast, appears to have been half baked and still in beta; even though I was paying full price for the software.

The Cloud

For the most part, having our POS in The Cloud is normally not an inconvenience. However, we have had many times where either Toast or our internet would go down. This causes immediate headache with our staff as we can no longer use our Kitchen Video Monitors (KVM/KDS). Our kitchen is setup with three KVMs and one receipt printer. The expeditor has the printer while our grill and fryer each get their own KVM. If we lose connection to Toast, none of the stations can see what they need to make and our expediter now has to call out every item to each station.
If toast can print tickets to a networked printer during an outage, why can we not also send tickets to the KVMs the same way? Our registers already have a static IP and the local network is still functioning correctly, why can we not just send the ticket data locally to each KVM?

Toast Hardware

Recently, I have noticed an increase in the number of calls from my staff requesting help because one of the registers has stopped sending orders to the kitchen; won’t let the customer use the customer facing display; won’t turn on the chip reader; won’t turn on the NFC for tap to pay; toast crashes each time we try to open it; the ethernet just fully disconnects and refuses to reestablish connection; I could go on… but I won't.
95% of the time, my simple response is “turn it off, turn it back on again”. Why do we constantly have to do this? The time it takes to call me, restart the register, and get back online is all time wasted and not making the restaurant money.
Let's talk about hardware support. When we first started with toast, we had three Toast Gen1 handhelds. Within 6 months, one of the card readers stopped working. We sent it back under warranty. A few months later another handheld’s card reader stopped working and a third started power cycling. Coming up on the original 1 year warranty I realized that at the rate this hardware was breaking, I would literally need to buy a new handheld each year. I called toast and asked them to remove the handhelds from my subscription and find out how much it would cost to just get a standard terminal. The ELO terminals we had seemed fairly robust and didn’t appear to have any physical hardware problems like the handhelds. The representative I was speaking to offered to send me three new Toast 2.0 handhelds for free. Reluctantly I agreed to try them out. To their credit, they have worked well enough, minus the toast software issues, for the last two years.
It still stands, that if something were to happen to these devices, I do not actually have an easy way to get them repaired or replaced. Toast should offer either a lease program or a monthly protection plan for their hardware. I would feel more secure using Toast hardware if I knew I could send it out for repair or a replacement. If I drop my phone, I simply call my provider and they overnight a replacement the next day.
We have a combination of Toast branded ELO hardware and the newer Toast Flex hardware. The Flex hardware is full of issues. Both of our flex units in our Heid's of Liverpool kitchen had to be swapped with our older units when being used as KVMs due to how often they lose internet. For some reason, the hardware would randomly disconnect from the network and refuse to reconnect. This issue persisted whether we were connected via WiFi or Ethernet. Our current policy is to simply restart the device if this issue happens but it is wildly inconvenient when I have to perform this action during a busy lunch or dinner hour.

Final Thoughts… For now

From their hardware to their software, every aspect of Toast feels rushed and still in beta. Toast should have created the new UI and fully implemented it before pushing it as a major update. I constantly feel like I am paying $600 a month, plus ~$5000 in processing fees, for a software that is still in beta. We are currently talking with our managers about the possibility of switching to a new POS. I have already removed Toast Marketing and will be removing Online Ordering shortly. If I can simply get a response on my “Resolved” support case, we may reconsider. We have invested a lot of time and effort into this system and honestly I would like to keep it… but it needs to just work. Currently, if you are in the market for a new POS, I would NOT recommend Toast.

Note: I am posting in consulting because my boss constantly tells us we are all her consultants and partners.
I have been a "consultant" for a year and am still learning the distinctions between 1099 and w2 contracts. One of the key things I have noted is vacation time, PTO, and additional benefits are not part of consulting and contracted work.
I was recently asked to sign updated policies for a 1099 contract including this vacation policy:" Vacation Policies

• Vacation time must be submitted and approved at least two weeks prior.
• Last-minute vacations will not be approved unless it is a life emergency.
• Vacation time must be submitted on the Time-Off Request form through Airtable.
• Vacation time must not be overlapped with any of the Signature Events & corresponding program events.
• Deliverables must be complete or an agreement must be made for outstanding deliverables.
• Vacation time to be negotiated during annual contract renewal.
• If you go over vacation time, you will not be compensated for the time out of the office "

I refused to sign this and asked them to change the language under the assumption that vacation approvals (to this magnitude) would fall under a w2 contract. My boss just started grilling me about my role and said she is concerned that I brought this up because her legal team said it was fine and I was the only person who saw it as an issue.
I do not have a legal background and have only been "consulting" for a year am I misunderstanding something about the parameters of a 1099 contract?
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Edit: just want to say thank you for all the advice! I was started to become convinced I was the problem and making things up but better to trust my research and knowledge. Again thank you for being an awesome subreddit!

Hi all, I'm shopping for pellet and gas combo grills and I'm torn between the Oklahoma Joe Rider Combo Gas and Pellet Grill (NOT the 900 DLX*)* and the Pit Boss Pro Series 1100 Wood Pellet and Gas Combo Grill (Lowe's calls it the "Pit Boss Pro Series Triple-Function Combo Grill." It's model name is PB1100PSC2).
Is the Pit Boss really $150 better than the OKJ?
My insecurities:

• Cold smoking - I like that the Pit Boss has a flue pipe pass-through from the pellet side to the propane side, and can't tell if the OKJ has a similar capability.
  • This isn't a deal breaker, I just really like smoked salmon.
• Auger issues - both have great reviews overall, but I see auger issues are complaints to both.
  • Any idea if one is generally more faulty than the other?
• Customer Service / Warranty - The most common complaint I see for Pit Boss is that, even though they have a 5 year warranty, their customer service and parts delivery times are both weapons-grade dog shit.
  • Has anyone actually had a good experience with their Pit Boss warranty?
  • Also concerning is the sheer amount of customer service stories, period. A warranty is nice, but I don't like the idea of a when-not-if relationship with a warranty.
• Temperature Control (Low Temp) - I've read a troubling amount of issues with the OKJ temp controls jumping from around 250 straight to 325 with no in between. I've also read that Pit Boss struggles to actually keep temps below 225-ish.
  • Any experiences or insights?

I guess what I'm asking is whether y'all can opine on whether one brand's quality is meaningfully superior to the other and whether the difference is worth the money.
I'm so in my own head, and this is such a champagne problem. Please help.