#finished disc 1 onto disc 2

[o1ivegr1]

a little over 3 yrs now and i just played this game yesterday lol

EXCUSE ME WHO IS SHE WHY AM I JUST NOW FINDING OUT ABOUT HER??

[icyg4l]

PAC: Sister-to-Sister Messages

As promised, I said that I would post messages this weekend in regard to Women’s History Month based on the results of yesterday’s poll. This reading will be all about sister-to-sister dynamics. I am so thankful for the support that I have been receiving for these readings. It’s much appreciated! 🤌🤌 Anyway, today is the last day of the five dollar flash sale!! All readings will be $5 today! Come get it if you want it!!! Without further ado, choose your sister duo.

*** Disclaimer: These readings are meant to uplift, relate to, and/or inspire women!

Left-to-Right (1-3): Chloe and Halle, Beyoncé and Solange, Tia & Tamera.

Pile 1: If you resonate with the photo of Chloe and Halle, then this is your pile. First of all, your potential hasn’t even peaked yet, Pile One. Your sister wants you to know that you should continue to pursue your dreams. I feel like you have the tendency to start stuff but not finish it. What’s that about? She’s noticed this since yall were young but probably thought you would’ve grown out of it. But she still thinks that you will prosper. Those who resonate with this pile seem to be the baby in the family. You may feel like your sister acts too much like your mother, but she just wants what’s best for you. I feel like your sister is very successful/accomplished & you may feel that pressure to follow her footsteps. But in reality, she just wants you to be you. Be an individual, babe. And the last message that I got from this pile was kind of funny. Your sister feels like you work too hard. Where’s your boo thang? You need to let some stress off with a sexual partner chile, especially if someone’s been putting in effort to talk to you. Give them a chance! Maybe you can find a creative spark from messing around with them! In the end, your sister is supportive of your creative pursuits. She just wants you to put in more effort.

Cards Used: The Star: King of Wands, Four of Cups, Prince of Wands, Page of Discs (RX), 3 of Discs.

extras: “you’re being uptight.” “i’d put my life on the line for you.” spotlight. errands. ADD. chronic lip licker. “you stole my clothes.” new wardrobe. a kiss on the cheek. pillows. voluptuous. chanel. argan oil. tree climbing. golf. tennis. pierced earlobe. “i didn’t get you anything, sorry.”

Pile 2: If you resonate with the photo of Beyoncé and Solange, this is your pile. Damn Pile Two, you’re quite the looker aren’t you? Your sister sees the physical growth that you’ve made in the past two years and she is in awe of it! You’re absolutely flawless dear! But don’t forget to hold onto your vision. I feel like this pile is in high school? Maybe a freshman in college. But you have a lot of admirers. I feel like your sister is younger than you & they feel like you’re not paying attention to her as you as you used to. She feels like you mistreat her, not necessarily on purpose. It may be because you’re so busy. She wants you to not forget about them. Your sister is proud of your pursuit of higher learning (if you’re in college). She is going to follow in your footsteps because of this. But make sure you keep your promises, babe. Go to that yogurt shop with her. Go shopping with her at the mall. Go to the movies. Hell, go to the park with her. Paint with her. Spend quality time with your sister so she can stop feeling this way!

Cards Used: Nine of Cups, Ace of Discs, Four of Discs, Five of Swords, 7 of Cups (RX), Princess of Cups, 10 of Discs.

extras: strawberry & banana smoothie. teenage dirtbag. furry boots. sweet treats. calming down after nightmare. salad. elephant lover. french tips. sparkles. ribbons. bows. “speak up, honey”. abbott elementary. “i want more you.” “honesty is everything.” “keep my secret.” conceited by remy ma.

Pile 3: Last but not least, if you resonate with the photo of Tia and Tamera, then this your pile. Aw, Pile Three, your sister regrets the last conversation y’all had. I feel like this conversation could have been about how personal choices affect loved ones, i.e. bringing around terrible dating partners/friends, not paying off debts in time. It also could have been a conversation about codependency or feeling smothered. It feels like your sister understands why you left; you wanted to put yourself first. It took her some time to realize that y’all can be separate and still have love for you. Y’all need time apart to grow. Do you have a twin, Pile Three? Or were you extremely connected to your sister on a soul level at some point? There will be some time for y’all to reconnect but just not right now. There’s some stubborn energy between the both of you but y’all will reconnect once there is momentum in the both of you guys’ lives. She doesn’t hate you for being independent, but she does hate the way things ended, Pile Three.

Cards Used: Eight of Cups, The World, Five of Swords, Four of Discs, Two of Wands, Nine of Discs, Strength, 7 of Wands.

extras: “i have the balls, you don’t.” “it’s my prerogative.” oil and vinegar. liv and maddie. perfectionism. credit card debt. “drink up.” doodlebob. responsibilities. the old days. unplugged cords. cauliflower. fake vegan. bad eyesight. chloe bailey. drinking water. messy bedroom.

[ourrecipebook]

Blackberry Pie with Crumb Topping

Serving: 12

Ingredients

For the pie crust

1 ¼ cups (185g) gluten free flour blend

1 teaspoon granulated sugar

½ teaspoon fine sea salt

½ cup (113g) unsalted butter cold and cut into cubes

5-6 tablespoons ice water

For the crumb topping

1 cup (148g) gluten free flour blend

½ cup (100g) light brown sugar packed

¼ teaspoon fine sea salt

6 tablespoons unsalted butter room temperature

For the pie filling

20 ounces frozen blackberries

½ cup (74g) gluten free flour blend

⅔ cup (133g) granulated sugar

1 ½ teaspoons lemon juice

Directions

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, and salt together. Add the cubes of butter and use a pastry blender (or two forks) to cut the butter in until it's incorporated and the mixture is coarse, with pea sized pieces of butter throughout.

Add the ice water, one tablespoon at a time, and mix until dough just comes together when pressed. Use your hands to form into a round disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

Make the crumb topping: Combine the flour, brown sugar, and salt in a small bowl. Add the butter and use your hands to incorporate. Chill in the refrigerator while you finish the pie crust and filling.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Remove the pie dough from the refrigerator. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to a 12-inch circle. Transfer to a glass pie plate and crimp or trim the edges.

Make the filling: Toss the frozen berries with the flour, sugar, and lemon juice. Transfer to the prepared crust.

Sprinkle the crumb topping onto the pie. Bake for 60-65 minutes, or until the center of the pie is bubbling and the crumble is slightly golden. Cool completely before slicing.

Notes

If the pie dough is too crumbly to work with, add more water to it with your hands when rolling. 

Do not thaw the frozen berries before preparing and baking. 

(Source)

[96crewlove]

TXT Golden Disc Awards voting under the cut 🚨

not sure if moas on tumblr know, but TXT has been nominated for a Golden Disc Award.

the category TXT has been nominated for is Most Popular Artist Award (Male). it's a fan-voted award, meaning the artist(s) who get the most votes in total across three apps (mubeat, fandomchart, and my1pick) get the award.

considering that 2024 has been an extremely busy and demanding year for TXT (2 comebacks + all that entails along individual schedules and content shooting) and the fact that they've never had a break in the 6 years since they've debuted, TXT will take a break/hiatus after they've finished their year-end schedules and attended the Golden Disc Awards.

this means that the Golden Disc Awards will be the last thing that TXT attends before they take time off, and moas on other platforms (insta, twitter/"x") are coming together to vote for TXT to receive the award.

this is TXT's current ranking across all three apps, landing them in second place overall with a 200,000+ gap.

the voting period ends on the 30th, leaving only ten days left for fans to vote. despite how big the gap seems, it's still possible for TXT to win if moas spread the word and vote across all three apps (on multiple email accounts, if possible) everyday for the remaining ten days left.

to vote across all three apps:

1. please download the apps Mubeat, Fandomchart, and My1Pick on your device's app store/Google Play/etc.

2. log in with your account(s) and set up a profile.

3. to vote "automatically," you can do a one-time purchase and pay for the voting items. to vote manually, you'll need to watch ads.

* you have to make sure that the item you're watching ads for will go towards voting (Mubeat - voting tickets, Fandomchart - hearts, My1Pick - purple hearts) plus there's a voting limit. yes, it is tiring but also yes it is doable.

* Mubeat has a limit of 5 ads per hour

* Fandomchart tells you the time you have between ads (5 mins-1hr)

* My1Pick ads renew every hour

* after accumulating tickets/hearts, you go onto the vote section and vote for who you want. each app has a limit of 20 votes per day.

if anyone needs extra help on how to vote, please don't hesitate to ask/DM people you know who are actively voting, and yes this includes myself.

if you are a moa or if you simply would like to, please vote for TXT on mubeat, fandomchart, and my1pick. if you feel that all three apps are too much for you, even just mass voting on one app helps a little. thank you.

[imsosocold]

Heyyy, I rewatched the entire series again, even looking over the dumb, boring unfilling episodes.  Looking  back there are soooo many loose  plot threads like Amity being Lilith protégé,  Lilith's scrying portal (which Belos was implied to be able to see back through), Lilith’s “ go back to your world” speech, Hunter being tasked to spy on the Owl Family, Luz’s witch's cloak, anything with elves etc.  Anyway I’m still confused about LOTTT of stuff. I'm just a little guy, if people don't slowly and patiently directly explain to me what things mean I will spend almost the entirety of a series completely misunderstanding important lore and only getting it around the climax. If anyone has answers that’s goooodddd.  I’m kindaa having an episode of my own right now hahahhah.

1)How were the Hexsquad students  able to overpower the fully trained Emperor's Coven scouts, scouts part one of one the, if  not the strongest coven who’s had way more years of experience and training ?

2)How and why was the cursed Owl Beast scroll dropped? What exactly did Covenheads  think was going to happen during the Day of Unity, especially regarding the human realm? What about Odalia, who knew for a fact that the draining spell was a thing that would hurt people? She expected for her family be "made royalty in the new world" but what would that new world be? What about Kimikora’s who’s apparently been spying on Belos for a while, enough to know about the Golden Guards, the Collector, and the draining spell? She  still wanted to impress the Emperor, even knowing he intended to kill everyone including her?

3) Why didn’t Belos try to present his own POV of events in Hollow Mind? Why did he let Hunter and Luz walk around and make their own conclusions?

4)What are the  “Inner Willow” and “ Inner  Belos”?  Are they separate from their outer counterparts?

5) What does Belos think the  Grimwalkers are? Does he think they’re reincarnations of  Caleb or copies of Caleb or separate people made from the same stuff of Caleb or empty vessels that Caleb can communicate through?

6)Why did Belos put a coven patch onto Hunter if he expected him to  become Caleb?

7)I still don't understand at all how draining spell works, I think people have to be branded with coven symbols to work but then what about Hooty and all the general Isles wildlife?

8)What age was Hunter created as? He grew up “naturally” right? He went through the growth stages a typical witch or human would despite not being either, right?

9)What are demonics?  How separate are witches and demons? How are demons generally treated in society?

8)Eda just stumbled upon door just like that? That easy? Why was it there? How did she know how to use it?

9) Why do some witches have less human features than others ( such as a horn or an extra eye)?

10) How did Belos bring back Basilisks?  Like, I’m sure the Collector helped… but how?

11) Literally anything about the Collector’s powers, both trapped and freed?

12) Did Philip know  Luzura the Crab Maiden was human?

13) Why didn’t take Lilith and Luz try to take the Collector’s disc away  from Philip? He just tried to sacrificed them and it’s implied to them he did it before.

14) Isn't it  implied through the Owl Beast’s flashback that there’s landmasses outside of the  Boiling Isles? Are any of the characters ( besides possibly Eda) aware of this?

15) Why didn’t Belos stay  until the Draining Spell entirely finished? He has all the reasons to stay in the Boiling Isles and ensure his genocide concludes as planned, especially since he could easily collect palismen from all the dead witches.

16)Lilith was Belos’s left hand, even without magic wouldn’t she at least have political and cultural knowledge of the Isles?  Her naivety really offput me honestly.

Question to myself: Lilith, after not properly reading through the scroll, cursed her sister leading to her having to deal with immense suffering since her childhood. This caused immense harm to their parents as well.  Lilith then joined  a Coven that pushes for capture and punishment for witches like her sister and enforces everything Eda fights against. Lilith did this for a “ cure”  against Eda’s wishes and even mocked Eda for her condition.  Lilith almost  killed Eda by forcing her  to be delivered by Belos and nearly killed Luz  in the process . While Luz was forced to watch her mentor and mother figure being forced away from her, Lilith spouted some speciest shit towards her. And during any of this time, she hypothetically could’ve  shared the curse.  Why do I like her so much? Question to myself: Lilith, after not properly reading through the scroll, cursed her sister leading to her having to deal with immense suffering since her childhood. This caused immense harm to their parents as well.  Lilith then joined a Coven that pushes for capture and punishment for witches like her sister and enforces everything Eda fights against. Lilith did this for a “ cure”  against Eda’s wishes and even mocked Eda for her condition.  Lilith almost  killed Eda by forcing her  to be delivered by Belos and nearly killed Luz  in the process . While Luz was forced to watch her mentor and mother figure being forced away from her, Lilith spouted some speciest shit towards her. And during any of this time, she hypothetically could’ve  shared the curse.  Why do I like her so much?  

[bjsmall]

2023

Ice Age 2 The Meltdown game.

On the 31st July 2023, I installed Ice Age 2: The Meltdown onto my system to test-run it on Microsoft's Windows 11.

I connected a portable Liteon DVD-ROM optical drive to my Mini-PC to install it using the 2 CD discs.

Here is a picture of me with the game box!

Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, based on Blue Sky Studios 2006 film of the same name, was developed by Eurocom and published by Vivendi Universal Games (Sierra Entertainment).

The game works on the latest versions of Windows and also works on Linux using Wine (PlayOnLinux).

I put Disc 1 in first and opened the auto-run from the disc. I clicked the 'Install Ice Age 2: The Meltdown' option from the list. The game uses InstallShield software to install itself onto Windows. I switched the discs around towards the end of the install. Once it had finished installing onto the system, I chose to launch the game.

After going through the intros, I pressed the enter key to go to the main menu. Firstly before starting the game, I configured my favourite keyboard layout. Afterwards I then started a new game and selected a save game slot (Slot A).

As I was playing Ice Age 2, I got to the Forest 2 stage, shortly after going through this stage, Windows 11 asked if I wanted to run the game in 'Compatibility Mode', I chose to run the game with this. It offered this as it knew the game application running was intended for an older version of Windows. However compatibility mode didn't work and the game crashed to the desktop.

The app process name for the game is 'IceAge2pc.exe' (32-bit) when running. The CD (Disc 1) is required to play the game.

I re-launched the game and had to re-configure everything and start from the beginning again, however the game seemed to work much better without running it in the legacy mode Windows offered.

I tried again and successfully played the game up to the end of the Maelstrom level, completing this stage which in my opinion is the best level in the game! Here are the in-game pictures I took with the camera of some of the stages. I had to use HDR camera effect for some of the pictures. The levels shown in the pictures are the Waterpark, Forest, Ice River and Maelstrom.

I had to use my camera for the pictures as the game doesn't allow for print-screening due to Windows copy protection. When running Ice Age 2 in windowed mode, if you click out of the game it will darken the game screen and pause everything until you click on it again.

The game defaults to a screen resolution of 640x480, so I changed it to the maximum resolution of 1024x768. Interestingly the game didn't scale to full screen as when I tried it previously on another PC running Windows 10, but stretched to fit the screen instead. This was because of the 'Gaming Mode' function which is enabled in Windows 10. This mode is disabled by default in Windows 11 and the game worked perfectly without it. However, the game always runs in the 4.3 aspect ratio, but uses a fisheye lens effect which defaults to the 16.9 aspect ratio, so changing that fixed the gaming experience on this monitor. You can read more about display settings for the game in my write-up.

Audio played through my Mini-Rig Bluetooth speaker, which sounded great! The game uses a stereo sound set-up, which can act as surround through headphones.

Back in 2020, Dad gave me a copy of the Ice Age 2: The Meltdown video game which he found on eBay. I did a detailed review of the game and an unboxing review.

See my reviews in the links below:

There are a number of cheat codes you can enter in the pause menu, these include unlocking all the bonus content and the ability to unlock the 'Level Select' menu, plus more.

See all the cheat codes for the game here:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/931239-ice-age-2-the-meltdown/cheats

Playlist featuring all the levels:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyj4UFt4ma4_XQ0RZ3FjpFZAa7jvjhPc9

A link to the complete in-game music composed by Jim Croft:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLO4jlmGoc6uDm0QVLyMqURTP2ciHWjCF_

Overall despite being 17 years old, running the game on Windows 11 worked a treat! It was great fun playing Ice Age 2: The Meltdown again as it is fun, humorous and challenging. Its music is memorable, vibrant and colourful just like its movie soundtrack!

However, I think that both Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (2006) and its Activision sequel Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009) should be made available as a digital download through game distribution services such as Valves Steam alongside Ice Age: Scrat's Nutty Adventure (2019) to keep them running into the future without the need for a disc.

For a full list of all the Ice Age video-games see:

https://iceage.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Ice_Age_video_games

See my video below. See videos underneath for the in-game bosses and also bosses in Scrat's Nutty Adventure on YouTube.

Scroll down to see my write-up on Cretaceous and Maelstrom!

[myloveforhergoeson]

That's All She Wrote - Chapter 11

Chapter 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10

Find me on wattpad and ao3

Show: Big Time Rush

Pairing: James Diamond x Original Female Character

Chapter 11: 9 to 5 (1.11) ~ 14k

“Okay, the first one to race around the Palm Woods and ring the bell at the front desk wins the Palm Woods 500 Invitational All-Terrain Disc-Cathlon Classic!” Kendall excitedly declared, stretching his arms behind his head as he laid out the rules for the challenge he and the other band members had created. 

His friends were gathered in their living room beside him in a straight line, all dressed in workout gear and running shoes - ready to take the race by storm. 

When Roxy received the invitational text in the morning, she was more than happy to roll out of bed and show off the new athletic outfit she had bought to join Jo at the gym. While she was excited to spend more time with her sporty friend, she had ultimately determined that the most important aspect of working out was looking good while doing it. Especially when most of their workouts ended with Roxy getting slammed down onto the workout mat during the Judo sparing matches Jo was so fond of. 

Maybe we should just try the treadmill one of these days…

Knowing she didn’t stand a chance in a competition against her four varsity athlete friends, the writer had still made her way through their connecting door and into the boys’ living room. 

According to the band, Carlos was the fastest runner of the four and would easily win a traditional footrace, so the others had decided to give him a bit of a challenge - he had to run the entire marathon carrying Roxy on his back. It was an excellent way to include her and to even the odds of the race. 

“And the Super Champion of the World!” James chimed in, sporting a pristine white sweatband around his head.

From the door, Katie held up a handcrafted trophy. It was half her height and covered in shiny silver tinfoil, a silver colander taped to the top. The name of the tournament was written around the stem and base in metallic colorful letters. “And wins the Palm Woods 500 world cup.” 

Roxy’s teammate pointed to it, Logan copying his actions as they both proclaimed, “You will be mine!” 

The pair erupted into a slapping match before the assistant had to reel Carlos back in. 

“We’ve got this.” She whispered to him with a wink, placing her hands on his shoulders. He bent down, ready for her to hop on to the young girl’s signal. 

Katie began the countdown. “On your marks…”

Everyone placed one knee on the floor, arms out in front of them in the starting position, save the writer positioned behind her teammate. 

“Get set…” She opened the front door. 

Under her fingers, Roxy felt Carlos begin to shake with excitement.

“Go!”

Before the preteen had even finished her words, Roxy jumped onto Carlos’ back as he shot off. Though her landing was a bit shaky, he tightly looped his arms around her leg to hold her in place as she balled the material of his sleeves between her fingers.

There was a chorus of shouting from the guys behind them, but the runner and his partner ignored them as they raced down the hall. As Carlos’ speed began to increase, Roxy’s hair fluttered into her face as she quickly glanced behind her. No one else was in sight; they had already taken the first place spot.

Passing the door to 2-H, the writer noticed a large bouquet of flowers had been placed on her doormat. 

“Carlos?”

“...Yeah?” He pushed out, doing his best to respond in a timely manner while chugging along down the hall.

She pointed back towards her room, half-joking and half-confused. “Did you buy me some flowers?”

“Nope!” He called as he flung the door to the stairwell open and charged down them, Roxy bouncing with every step. Echoing footsteps on the carpet behind them let the two know their opponents were swiftly catching up.

Reaching the bottom, the teens piled out the back door into the alleyway that separated the hotel from the shopping center in the lot next door, avoiding bags of trash and hotel residents throwing out their garbage. 

Slowly the other three runners overtook Carlos, but it was Kendall made the mistake of getting a bit too close to the helmet wearer. Trying to shove him to the side, Carlos expertly sidestepped his opponent’s maneuver, allowing Roxy to reach out one of her hands and grab onto the back of the blond’s shirt. Yanking it back toward her, it caused him to stumble, nearly falling over as he slowed down to catch his balance and allowed her teammate to move up one rank. 

“Nice try!” She laughed as Carlos began to weave in and out of the silver garbage bins the boys had set up before the run in order to give themselves a bit of an obstacle course. Her teammate jerked to the right, causing her to lose her balance with a yelp.

“Sorry!” He gasped, gripping her legs a little bit tighter. “I… won’t let you… fall!” Grasping her fists tighter on his jacket, she leaned into his back as the group entered the pool area. If he slipped on the water on the edge of the deck, it would be one nasty fall for the two of them and easily earn them last place in the race. The end was now in sight and the thrilling prospect of winning caused Roxy’s chest to tighten with every one of her partner’s steps.   

As they rounded the corner the girl felt a hand lightly fall on the small of her back. Whipping around, she was quick to untangle one of her hands and smack it off, noticing James grinning behind her. He had closed the gap between himself and Carlos and had been trying to push the two of them down. 

With the same hand that smacked him, she shot him a wicked grin before reaching out and pulling on the white sweatband on his forehead. With a snap it shot back and covered his eyes, slapping his face while also obscuring his vision, causing him to trip over a lounge chair. To catch up he would need to hop over all of the others on the way into the lobby.

From here, the front desk was in even clearer sight. Katie stood in front of the structure with Bitters obliviously eating a bowl of spaghetti behind. Once the man noticed the onslaught of teens charging towards him he dropped his fork with a panicked scream and ducked. 

As they grew closer and closer, Roxy knew the race was going to be tight and there was nearly no way for the boys to stop without slamming into each other. Looking behind her in hopes of making a quick escape, she noticed a small gap between James and Logan as the four hurtled towards the finish line.

Using this space, once she felt Carlos reach for the bell on the front desk, she hopped off his back, making a very unsteady landing on the hotel carpet. Once she caught her balance, she was able to turn around just in time to see the four boys pile over the desk - knocking all of the contents off the countertop - and landing on top of one another behind it.  

Standing back with Katie, Roxy took inventory of the lobby while the ear-splitting sound of the crash reverberated in her ears. By now, a small crowd had formed at the commotion and when the boys popped up, Carlos had the remnants of the desk plant on his head, a large flower in his mouth. While beside him, James and Kendall had only managed to get the petals stuck in their hair, though a ping pong ball had lodged itself in each of their mouths. At the end of the line, Logan was wrapped up with the curly phone cord, drumming his hands on the hardwood desk in anticipation of the young girl’s final decision. 

Pausing for dramatic effect, Katie let a few seconds of silence go by before yelling, “It’s Carlos!” 

Once her words registered, the helmet wearer screamed in victory as he hopped over the desk to claim his prize. He practically tore it out of the girl’s hands, giving it a dozen or so kisses before racing over to grab Roxy’s hand and throw it up in the air. 

Teammates joyously danced around in victory while the rest of the boys grumbled and began to shuffle out from behind the desk.

The celebration Roxy and Carlos were enjoying was short-lived as Bitters let out an earth-shattering scream from behind them, one to rival Gustavo’s, huffing and puffing all red in the face as he looked between the five teenagers. He had been tangled up in the computer keyboard and mouse, one of the lenses of his glasses shattered, while the remnants of his spaghetti dripped down his hair and clothing. 

“You are all going to pay for this!”

Big Time Rush looked among themselves in fear before turning to face their assistant. 

With a sigh, she cleared her throat while trying to put on her best Minnesota nice impression. “Sure, Mr. Bitters. Total up the damages and I’ll go grab my credit card.”

To be fair, it wasn’t her credit card, it was the record company’s, but what Bitters didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.

Before the manager could yell even more, Roxy quickly vacated the lobby. Trudging up the stairs, the band followed her as they mumbled out a smattering of apologies. 

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” The girl waved her friends off. “Just don’t tell Gustavo about this, he rarely checks his bank statements.”

Logan coughed as he climbed the steps, still trying to catch his breath. “What?”

Stopping in her tracks, she whirled around and poked his chest, “Don’t get any ideas! He doesn’t need to know about the magazine subscriptions this card pays for.” 

“Yeah because Pop Tiger and A-13 are such important costs.” Scoffed the frontman.

That statement earned him some nasty side-eye from the writer, who made her way onto the second-floor landing

“Don’t you need me to keep up with the latest trends to write you relevant and radio-ready songs?”

The four boys stopped talking after that. 

Rounding the corner to her apartment, Roxy remembered the floral arrangement she had seen earlier as Carlos had carried her down the hallway. Walking a little faster, she ended up at her doorstep and picked up the large bouquet, the paper encasing it crinkling under her fingers. 

The scent of a dozen fresh roses filled her nose as she inhaled their sweet, earthy scent. Wrapped up in a beautiful, pale green paper and a few stems of white baby’s breath mixed into the flowers, the girl noticed a card wrapped around a red and white polka-dotted ribbon. 

One of the boys whistled behind her.

“Someone must be really sorry…” James mumbled. “Can you just hurry and grab the card before Bitters kicks us out?”

Roxy shook her head, ignoring him and taking another sniff of the flowers. With shaking fingers, she undid the ribbon and caught the folded note. Peeling it open, it revealed a white card with red foil lettering.

Sorry I couldn’t make it last night.

I hope this will do until I can give you a real apology.

See you soon,

Dak

Though flattered by his display of affection, she was still pretty upset at the boy she was crushing on. 

Would it have killed him to send a text message?

“Ugh,” She scoffed. Moving to pull her key out of her pocket, she passed the flowers off to Carlos. “Just when I had forgotten all about that…”

           She hadn’t forgotten, not in the slightest, though she wasn’t interested in venting all her boy troubles to the guys.

Pushing the door open, she walked into 2-H and made a beeline to her bedroom. Loudly shutting the door, she changed into work-appropriate attire before grabbing her purse and guitar. After she’d sort out the situation with Bitters, the band would have to head to work, so there was no use in making a trip to her apartment twice.

Stepping back out, she noticed the raven-haired boy had placed her flowers in a large glass of water.

With a “Thank you!”, she stepped out into the hallway.

“We’re gonna change and be down in a second,” Logan informed their assistant who happily trotted down to the lobby by herself. 

Reaching the front desk, she noticed that Bitters had been able to contain some of the damage. Most of the stray parts had been wiped off the surface of the wooden front desk and larger, unbroken items had been placed back where they belonged. The only thing missing was the nice potted plant that had once adorned the left-hand corner closest to his computer. 

Buzz buzz

The girl stopped in her tracks as she felt her phone ring. 

Incoming call: Dak Zevon <3

Sighing to no one but herself, Roxy stepped to the side of the lobby towards the assortment of indoor palm bushes. As she pressed the accept button on the screen, she did her best to get out of Bitters’ sight.

“Hello?”

“Hey, babe. How’s it going?”

Even though she knew he couldn’t see her, she rolled her eyes. “Don’t you ‘Hey, babe’ me. You know how it’s going.”

His chuckles rolled off the speaker. “I know. I’m sorry. You got the flowers right? They’re red, your favorite.”

“Yes, I did. Thank you.”

There was a moment of pause as neither of them said anything. He had to know that she was upset with him; she knew that if she ran her mouth she would end up telling him off.

“How about I make it up to you this week? Movie night, your place?”

“Inviting yourself over is a bold move after last night, Zevon.”

“Ooh,” He breathed. “Last name treatment.”

Roxy didn’t say anything, though she had a quick mental debate as to whether or not she should forgive him so easily. It’s not like they were in a relationship, so for him to skip out on a function she invited him to really shouldn’t be as big of a deal as she was making it out to be. Besides, he had already apologized twice. Even if it wasn’t face-to-face, the flowers were still a wonderful surprise.

“Seriously, Roxy. Picture it. Me. You. Movie. Alone.”

A few thoughts swirled around her head as her cheeks began to heat up at his insinuation. Before she was able to internalize and analyze her thoughts on his invitation, her heart spoke for her. “Sure, on one condition.”

“And what would that be?”

“Cook me dinner.”

“What?”

“Cook me dinner. I don’t care what it is.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea-”

“Dak.” She stopped him, noticing that the boys had just gotten off the elevator and were heading toward the front desk. She rushed over to stop them, setting her guitar down and waving her free hand around to catch their attention as she continued to speak into the phone. “No dinner, no date. Deal?”

The reply on the other line felt strained, “Fine. Text me when you’re free. Can’t wait to see you again.”

Pressing the call end button, she put her phone back in her pocket and faced her friends. 

“Ready?” She asked, holding up the plastic, black card between her fingers.

Each of them nodded as they marched up to the front desk. 

Bitters only looked towards Roxy, who slid the credit card across the desk. 

Picking it up, the man examined it as if he were trying to memorize the serial number and security code on the backside. After a moment he slid it back over to her.

“This doesn’t belong to you.”

She bit back a nervous laugh, grip tightening on the handle of her guitar case. “Sure it does. Has my name on it and everything.”

“No.” He affirmed. “It reads ‘Rocque Records.’”

The man was right, but Gustavo and Kelly had told her the card was hers to use on any necessary expenses in Hollywood as long as it related to Big Time Rush. This seemed like a related necessary expense. 

“Maybe you need to take a trip to the eye doctor. It says ‘Roxanne Robin.’ Easy to mix up I suppose.” She lied, hoping that would be enough to get him off her case. 

Behind her, she felt Logan shuffle his feet uncomfortably. 

At least it was enough to distract the older man. “Your middle name is Robin?”

“According to my birth certificate, yeah. Now run the card.”

She pushed it across the table again. 

“Roxanne Robin!” Carlos whispered. “Like the song, ‘Rockin’ Robin,’ Tweet, tweet, tweet…” 

Still outright refusing her form of payment, Bitters pushed it back. “I think I need to pay a visit to Gustavo Rocque to discuss your recent behavior in the place he currently pays for.”

“No, you don’t.” Roxy stood her ground, holding the card back out. Apparently, the four tall boys looming behind her weren’t enough to intimidate the manager into running her card.

“Oh, yes I do,” The slimy man grinned. “And if you don’t take me to him in the next 20 minutes, I’m going to evict you from the Palm Woods.”

***

Squashed onto one of the white leather couches in the Rocque Records lounge, the band and their assistant sat in front of Gustavo and Kelly who were currently going over the bill the hotel manager had complied with all the damages from the morning’s race. Off to the side, Roxy could hear Bitters snickering as the other two adults took in the grand total. 

“Two thousand dollars?” Gustavo yelled in their general direction, gripping the invoice so hard it crumpled in his grasp. Even Kelly looked shocked at the charges the teens had managed to rack up.

“And 30 cents.” The manager added. “They destroyed the Palm Woods’ computerized registration system, two lamps, three vases, and my pants. And this one tried to commit credit card fraud.”

“It’s my credit card!” She bit back before Gustavo shushed her. 

“And I won the Palm Woods 500 World Cup!” Carlos gushed, holding up the silver trophy he had brought all the way from the hotel. 

Looking between the teens and Bitters, Kelly opened her ledger and scribbled out a check for the damages, easily ripping it out and handing it to the greedy man. “Here you go. Roxy’s credit card would’ve worked just fine, but whatever.”

Even the talent scout seemed fed up with the situation. 

Kendall clapped his assistant on the shoulder, “Well, guess that settles it.”

Standing up from the plush cushions, the five moved towards Studio A, ready to start their recording session. 

“No!” Gustavo stopped them with a shrill shriek. “Because I am sick and tired of you dawgs, and Roxanne, breaking stuff!” 

There was immediate protest from the band. “We don’t break things!”

Roxy thought back to the times she and Kelly had cleaned up the bands’ messes. “Well, there was the time you used the lounge swing in the studio as a wrecking ball and punched a hole through the wall, which Kelly paid for. And the time Kendall knocked James’ smoothie all over our recording equipment and Kelly paid for it. Plus, the time you crashed the Palm Woods golf cart into the cabana that I paid to repair. That gave me a mild wrist sprain too, so I had to pay for the visit to Doc Hollywood.”

An apologetic look crossed the band's faces for a moment, but she had known them long enough to know it was just a ruse to get out of trouble. 

“Okay, so we do put a little wear and tear on things from time to time.” The frontman conceded. 

“Sorry!” Added Logan and Carlos.

James was the only one who didn’t offer any sort of remorse for their actions. “But that’s showbiz, right?”

Taking in their words, Gustavo looked horrified at their answers, his top lip curling into a mean snarl. “Wrong! And it’s time you take responsibility for your actions by paying me back my two thousand dollars.”

The man walked off into Studio A, finally ready to start the scheduled recording session, plugging his ears as the band raced after him, begging him to reconsider. 

“Isn’t there a cheaper way to learn responsibility?” Questioned Logan. “Like a goldfish.”

This didn’t feel like a situation the band could charm their way out of no matter how hard they tried. 

Finally catching up to her boss as he sped off, Kelly sighed and shook her head. “Guys, Griffin’s cracking down on us for overspending, and Gustavo’s right. This has got to stop.”

Moving in line with the older woman, the assistant nodded in agreement with her statement. 

“Roxy…” The talent scout sighed. “This includes you too. Part of your job is making sure the band doesn’t pull stunts like these.”

She narrowed her eyes, glaring at the band before she crossed the studio floor and stood with them. Arms crossed, she listened to what their producer had to say next.

“Until you pay me back, you will not dip a toe into your beloved Palm Woods pool.” 

That certainly was a good threat, one that made the writer’s blood boil. The pool was arguably the best part of the Palm Woods, especially when the days were beginning to grow warmer. She even had a pool date with Jo and Camille tonight to talk about their most recent auditions. If she ended up having to miss that she just might stop writing songs for the band. 

As the realization sank in among the teens, Gustavo turned to the piano behind him and played out the chords to the opening of “Big Time Rush.” That certainly spelled trouble for the teens.

Carlos stomped his foot, the sound echoing on the wood floor as he pointed to their boss. “You cannot keep us away from the world’s greatest pool!”

The man nodded, “No. But Freight Train can.”

Gustavo’s new hire quietly popped up from behind the band. He was dressed in a red overcoat, with swim trunks, a sun visor, and a whistle in contrast to his normal blacked-out suit. All signs pointed to lifeguard. 

“You guys are on my ‘no swim’ list.” Freight Train informed the teens to their dismay, showing off the clipboard he had in hand displaying all five of their names. 

While Roxy was lucky enough to have full access to the money she had made while working at Rocque Records, the band did not have the same luxury. Their funds were locked away in a savings account until they turned 21, as dictated by their parents. At least being an assistant came with a different job contract.

It would be no problem for her to pay their boss back on her next paycheck, but it could be years until the band saved up enough birthday or holiday money to reach their expected total.

“Gustavo, two thousand dollars?” Kendall cried, pausing to do a bit of mental math. “That’s four hundred dollars apiece!”

Kelly laughed, letting out a low whistle before saying, “Ooh, Kendall’s good at math.”

It elicited a giggle from the assistant as well; she was trying to make the best out of their situation. Even for her high pay rate, four hundred dollars was a lot to casually drop. 

“Well, I guess you guys are just gonna have to get jobs.” The talent scout continued.

At the thought of this, the boys gasped as if it were some unrealistic and unattainable goal. 

Why this shocked them, Roxy didn’t know. Though they hadn’t told her much about their life back in Minnesota, she knew at the very least Kendall had a job at a grocery store. It wasn’t unrealistic to assume the rest of them had held some sort of job as well. Even she had some experience working at the radio station. Getting a job wasn’t the end of the world like the boys were making it out to be. 

“In fact,” Gustavo added. “One of you can work off your debt for me right here at Rocque Records. Who wants to be my production assistant? Step forward.”

The four boys looked at Roxy. 

“Pass.” She simply stated, walking to the back of the studio to grab her checkbook from her bag. 

Logan, James, Kendall, and Freight Train, stepped back, leaving Carlos at their boss’ mercy. The poor boy didn’t even have a chance to protest before Gustavo called out his name, solidifying his role for the time being. 

While she did feel for the boy, maybe a taste of what she had to deal with every day would give him some newfound respect for the assistant position. Not that he was the band member that needed it the most. 

If I could volunteer James, I would.

“Now, the rest of you go get jobs and get me my money!” The producer screamed as the boys scrambled off to do as he said.

Reluctantly, the girl stepped forward and handed her bosses the check she had written out to cover her part of the damages. At least now she could look forward to a day off.

Gustavo took it hesitantly, examining the sheet of paper. 

“Hmm,” He mumbled, slipping it into his pocket once he deemed it satisfactory. “Watch after the dogs today, make sure they don’t break anything else and I’ll consider giving this back as a bonus.”

“What?” She asked, trying to hide her shock. Anything for her 400 dollars back. “I mean, yes, sir.” 

Quickly, she raced out of the building hoping to find her friends before they made any stupid, reckless decisions. 

***

Back at the Palm Woods, she sat on the orange sectional in 2-J while the remaining band members searched for jobs. Flipping through her new edition of Pop Tiger, she was more excited to read their breaking news feature but was easily distracted by the conversation the boys were having. James and Kendall were searching the ads in the back of the daily newspaper, while Logan was typing away on his laptop looking for anything of note.

“Bio taste tester… Volcano cleaner… Dentist?” Kendall rattled off in confusion.

Roxy huffed, “Dangerous, dangerous, dangerous.”

A few more seconds of searching led the long-haired boy next to her to shout. “Job found! Russian translator! Pays twenty bucks an hour.”

 The girl didn’t even dignify that with a response as she held her magazine vertically to admire the centerfold - a double-page spread of the Jonas Brothers. 

Thankfully, Logan talked him out of it. “You know you have to speak Russian, right?”

Somehow this hadn’t occurred to him and James crumpled the newspaper he had been looking through, throwing it to the floor. “This is not fair! All you and I have ever done for work is shovel snow.” 

“We shall never swim again.” The boy on his laptop sighed, looking towards the ceiling helplessly. 

Instead of sharing his friend's melancholy, the wannabe leaned over Roxy’s shoulder to check out what article she was reading.

“James!” The blond yelled, throwing his pen from the other side of the couch. “We’re supposed to be looking for jobs, not at Roxy’s lame teen magazines.”

“Might I remind you, you were in this magazine?” His assistant said, waving it around in front of him. 

The other boy scoffed behind her, “It’s not a lame teen magazine.”

“It says Pop Tiger on the cover!” Logan cut in, annoyed as well.

Against her will, the magazine was ripped from her hands as James waved it around and around. 

“Where? Where?” He mocked as he continued to move it out of the girl’s grasp, twirling it around every which way. “I can’t see it. I mean, where does it say it, hmm-”

“Sign spinners!” Kendall yelled, pointing over to the magazine James was still waving around. “I heard the best ones make, like, twenty bucks an hour.”

Roxy cocked her head to the side, “From who?”

While James was distracted by his friends, she grabbed one end of her magazine back.

“Which means we can make money fast,” Agreed the boy on the laptop, though he ignored his assistant’s question. “And be back in the pool in no time!”

The pair quickly threw their items down on the table and made for the door, excited to get started on paying off their debt. Halfway, Kendall turned around. 

“James! Roxy!” He called back. “You two coming?”

The long-haired boy scoffed, taking one end of Roxy’s Pop Tiger as she held up the other. “No. I’d rather find a better job that doesn’t involve work.”

“You are so lucky you’re pretty.” The assistant scoffed, trying to wrestle her magazine out of his hands. Looking up at her two friends, she shook her head while trying to keep the flimsy pages from bending. “I’m still on the clock and my only instructions were to keep you four from breaking anything. I trust the two of you have learned your four hundred-dollar lessons?”

“Yup!” Logan called, running towards the door with Kendall in tow. “We’ll be careful!”

With a slam of the door, her two friends disappeared from the room, leaving her with one person to watch over as he job-searched. Giving up on her new edition of Pop Tiger she sighed and let James have it, picking up the Persons magazine laying on the table. 

The pair sat next to each other on the couch, absentmindedly flipping through the articles of their respective reading materials. While Roxy was reading a particularly interesting article counting down the days to the release of Twilight: New Moon she felt an arm lazily drape itself over her shoulder. Glancing to the side, she caught James’ eye, a wicked smile gracing his features. 

“So… you think I’m pretty?” The boy drawled, wiggling his eyebrows up and down. 

“No, James-”

He clicked his tongue a few times, cutting her off. “Oh, no, no, no. No denying it, we all heard you say it.”

“That’s not what I-”

Leaning in a bit closer, the assistant felt his breath tickle her ear. “I won’t tell Dak if you don’t…”

Before he could go any father, the girl grabbed the magazine from her lap and spread it wide open. The double-page spread was then pushed into his face with a smack causing him to let go of her as he fell back into the couch cushions behind him.

She held it down on his face, leaning over him with an evil laugh bouncing off the high apartment ceiling. Making sure to smush it down for good measure, the writer tried her best to ruin his sweeping bang hairdo. He was struggling beneath her grip, but she knew full well he was far stronger than she was; it was only a matter of time before the battle turned in his favor. 

A muffled cry came from under the magazine as his right hand shot out, encasing one of her wrists that had been holding down the magazine. With the other, James was able to peel the magazine off of his face, throwing it down on the couch beside him. 

Roxy attempted to reach out for the pages with her free hand, only for it to be captured as well. No more tricks up her sleeve. 

“Well, that wasn’t very nice.” James teased, still holding onto her, looking over to the girl's weapon. The magazine faced upwards, a full-page ad taking up the right-most page.

Quickly, he let her wrists fall as he scooped up the magazine and read the title aloud, “‘Are you the new face of ‘Cuda?’”

Scrambling off the couch, the wannabe placed himself in front of the full-length mirror to the left of the swirly slide. It was a decorative addition the assistant had added after Gustavo had installed a closet door mirror in her room. Mrs. Knight was more than happy to include the piece in their living room. 

While he was across the room, Roxy tried to catch her breath. Scooping her original magazine off of the cushion she held it up, obscuring her face as she sneakily watched the boy in the mirror's reflection. 

So what if I think he’s pretty? 

“You bet you are.” He told his reflection, shooting a finger gun at the mirror. 

Lowering his voice, the boy pouted his lips a bit and asked a question. “Look at yourself. Who’s handsomer than you?”

Roxy furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, “Who are you talking to? Because if you’re talking to me you won’t like my answer.”

James looked over his shoulder, giving the assistant a displeased look at her comment before answering himself in the mirror. His voice went back to normal. “No one.” 

Watching from the couch in shock, Roxy heard the boy ask another question in the same gruff voice.

“Who’s got more style than you?”

The reply was the same as the last. “No one!”

That’s it. He’s officially lost it. The girl figured, keeping her findings to herself as the back-and-forth continued to unfold. 

“Who’s smarter than you?” 

This time, the girl had to interject, “Lots of people.”

He whirled around and pointed an accusatory finger at her. “But that has nothing to do with being a model!”

As if on cue, Katie emerged from the hallway in an adorable little business suit. The fake glasses and portfolio she was holding really sold her look and there was just one person in Hollywood dumb enough to make a 10-year-old their business partner. 

“Sounds like somebody needs a manager, and I only charge 40% for all your earnings!” 

The try-hard model looked back at his reflection. “Tell her it’s 50-50 or we walk.”

Unable to handle her friend's idiocy any longer, Roxy grabbed her belongings and made her into her room. 

Between Katie watching out for James, Kelly watching out for Carlos, and Kendall and Logan watching out for each other, there was finally a free gap in her day to sit down and focus on a song. There were many pages in her journal with simple phrases, chord progressions, or even little doodles of ideas that popped into her brain. Even a few minutes of focus could turn any one of these things into a hit song for the band. 

Plopping down onto her bed, Roxy reached for her acoustic guitar.

 Buzz

Without looking at the message, she switched her phone to silent. There was no room for distractions if she was going to write another song for the band. A few strings were plucked before she strummed out a few chords, playing a handful of warm-up scales to get in the writing mood. 

I wonder if Gustavo is writing anything right now. She thought, absentmindedly beginning to play the chords to her last song.

After the incident with “Any Kind of Guy” the girl had been hesitant to share any of her song ideas with her boss, even if their “Halfway There” collaboration had been a pleasant experience. Understandably so as she was afraid he would try and pass off one of her songs as his own. She knew logistically that he was just trying to teach her a lesson about the music industry, but the entire experience left a bad taste in her mouth.

He had been very gracious to her and the band, so she had to give him a few points for that. Besides, their boss was taking just as much of a leap of faith as the teens were. For that, they owed him a lot - more than Roxy could ever give back to him in a song. 

Placing her guitar down, she grabbed her book and made her way over to the keyboard he had bought for her. Their piano lessons were going quite well, Gustavo was ecstatic that she caught on quickly, so she figured it was time to thank him by writing a melody in a language he understood.

Journal propped up on the stand at her eye level, Roxy played some of the warm-up scales she had written out. Unlike the ones on her guitar which came naturally, these required concentration and focus. It annoyed her to miss a note or have her finger slip off the key, yet she played each scale a handful of times. That was more than enough to loosen her fingers for now. 

She flipped through the pages of her book, waiting for one of her ideas to pop out at her. As she turned another page, a sentence she had written caught her eye. Someday, we will work it out

It was a thought that popped into her head the morning of the Bad Boy Off while the band had been practicing their new track, “City is Ours.” Initially, it had been written down with the intent of being as good a songwriter as Gustavo was but after all the band had been through in the past month and a half, the phrase held a new meaning to her. 

The five teens were officially signed to Rocque Records, it was only a matter of time before the boys grew into their impending fame with their assistant cheering them on in the background. Their journey was only beginning, but besides “Any Kind of Guy” being on the radio, the band was very low in notoriety. While fame wasn’t high on Roxy’s list, it certainly was for the guys; she hoped they wouldn’t become discouraged without immediate results. 

This line of thinking was all the girl needed for a verse to swirl around in her brain. Picking up her pen, she grabbed her book and laid it out on the keys for some semblance of a flat surface as they let out a few sour notes at the pressure. 

We all have times, times we wonder, 

“Will the spotlight shine on me?”

I don’t let the waves go and pull us under

Or miss the opportunity

Who the “I” in the song was, she didn’t know but allowed another verse to flow out of her once more. 

I don’t look down or look back,

It’s not that far to go

‘Cause if we never try then 

we will never really know

This set of lyrics came with a melody that was quickly scribbled out on the page. She would transfer the notes from guitar chords to piano chords later, but she was starting to believe forcing the keyboard onto this song might be a mistake. There was a bit of edge to the lyrics, an edge that might only be able to be captured by electric guitar. She would have to consult her boss about it later.

Pleased with her progress, she decided to take a break and head down to the Palm Wood’s cafe for a celebratory smoothie. Maybe she’d find some inspiration from the wannabe’s down at the pool. 

I love fieldwork.

Grabbing her phone and her keys, the girl headed downstairs. When she checked her phone, she had a myriad of messages from her friends. Should they have even been texting on the job? 

The first set was from Carlos.

C: Hey roxy, how do u use the C.A.L. 

C: nvm i got it

C: he’s kinda cool

C: Very foamy

C: He’s mean tho :(

The girl had no idea what the first message was talking about but was very glad he figured it out on his own. Being Gustavo’s assistant wasn’t all that bad, he was just a bit snippy sometimes. 

After the helmet wearer’s messages, there were a few from a new group chat she had been added to with Logan and Kendall.

K: Roxy take my moms car keys and meet us at hollywood and vine

K: We need to bring revenue into this car wash or we’re fired

L: Our spin skills are not as good as we thought. 

K: Logan knocked over a biker

L: No I didn’t! You did after you cut him off when your sign flew into the hedges.

She was not shocked that they were struggling with their sign-spinning job after having no prior experience but continued reading on. 

K: Um you can cancel the joyride

L: Kendall got us fired. 

K: It wasn’t just me :/

The rest of the messages were the pair fighting back and forth about who caused them to lose their job. Roxy scrolled through them as she sipped her smoothie. Kendall’s quips were no match for Logan’s extensive and colorful vocabulary, leading the girl to determine it was Kendall’s fault they lost their jobs. There was now an 800-dollar gap in the teens’ bill. 

As she walked back into the lobby to sit by a window indoors to avoid Freight Train, she bumped into the two bickering boys who wordlessly grabbed her by the arms and dragged her back up to their apartment. All the while, still fighting.

Once they were in, they dumped her on the couch and handed her one of many local newspapers and a big, black Sharpie. Though they could’ve just asked for her help politely, she didn’t have any reason to protest as she started looking through the classified ads for a job that would suit them.

“Crime scene clean-up…” Logan began listing off everything he could find.

Their assistant gulped, “Too gory.” 

“Sword swallower…”

Roxy heard a thump on the window behind her as Kendall pressed his forehead to the glass, gazing down at the pool he desperately longed to swim in. 

“Too sharp…” She responded as she scanned her own pages, circling her newest find, “Bee farmer?”

There was a squishing sound coming from the window now. 

“Chicken inspector?” Sighed Logan, tapping the newspaper with his pen. 

More squeaking. Roxy finally turned around to see the frontman with his face smashed against the glass. 

“How much do you think we could get for our kidneys?” He asked in an incredibly serious manner. 

“Absolutely not!” She butt in, throwing her pen at the back of his head. 

As it hit him, he sighed, not even having the energy to fight back. It was clear the pair were growing desperate. She rolled up the newspaper to take another shot at him, hoping to wack some sense back into him.

Knock knock knock

The boys whipped around to face the door, sprinting over to it to see who was there. 

Opening the door, a young blonde woman and her son stood in the hallway. The mother looked to be in a panic as her eyes darted back and forth between the three teens. After a moment she scanned the background, seeming as though she was looking for someone. Roxy recognized them as Mrs. Walters and Wendell from 2-B. 

Placing her hands on her son’s shoulders, Mrs. Walters spoke quickly, words matching the worry on her face. “I’m sorry. Is your mom here? My babysitter fell through, and I need someone to watch Wendell!”

Seeing this opportunity unfold in front of her, Roxy tried to mentally will her friends. Babysit! Say you’ll-

“Uh, no, she’s not here right now.” Kendall began wearily before the dots connected in his brain. Turning to Logan, the blond beamed. “But we can watch him!”

The raven-haired boy affirmed his friend’s comments with a nod. 

Mrs. Walters was more than delighted to oblige. “Would you? What do you charge an hour, ten dollars?”

Their assistant watched in shock as the boys turned to each other, eyes wide. “Ten dollars an hour?” 

“Oh, you’re right.” Mrs. Walters sighed as if her original statement was ridiculous. “How's fifteen?”

Roxy coughed from the couch, trying to hide her comment before her friends could respond. “Higher!”

“Okay! Twenty! But that’s as high as I ever pay for a babysitter!” The woman was flustered, yet out of options as she practically begged the boys to watch after her son. Either boy couldn’t say anything, still shocked at the offer of twenty dollars an hour each to watch over the young kid. “Ah, you’re lifesavers.”

As Mrs. Walters said goodbye to her son, Roxy grabbed her things and moved off the couch. Heading to the door connecting the apartments, she offered the boys a small wave goodbye. 

“Woah, woah, woah!” Logan held his hands up in an attempt to catch his assistant’s attention. “I’ve never babysat before! What do we do?”

Roxy blinked, letting the comment sink in as Wendell ran over to the orange couch in the entertainment area. As the young child began jumping up and down, she finally responded.“You’re not just asking that because I’m a girl, right?”

The boy lowered his hands, eyes wide as he looked over to Kendall for some assistance. 

“No! He didn’t. At least, I don’t think he did?”

Eyes darting back and forth from the girl to their new responsibility on the couch, it was clear that even with a little sister Kendall had no babysitting experience either. 

“Look,” Sighed Roxy, crossing her arms. Reaching back into her memories, she tried to remember the instructions her dad often told her neighbors when he would drop her off at their houses when she was too young to stay at home by herself. Those were the days she hated the most, staying with strangers while he drove off to the mines. Thankfully it had taught her a bit about self-sufficiency. 

Something about, food, fun, foolproof… “Just give him some snacks, do some arts and crafts, and make sure he doesn’t kill himself. Pretty simple stuff. Now if you’ll excuse me-”

As she moved a bit closer to the hallway the two band members blocked her path. Logan’s “Please stay!” was barely heard over Kendall’s “Help us!” as the boys clasped their hands together, looking over at her expectantly.

Ignoring them, she called Wendell’s name as she turned around with her arms crossed. 

The young boy responded quickly, “Yeah?” as he cocked his head to the side. 

“Have you ever played horsey-back ride?” There was a noticeable shift in the octave of her voice. It came out a bit higher, airer, openly inviting his response. 

“Yeah!” He cheered, launching his arms into the air as he hopped off the couch. He ran to her feet excitedly. “Are we gonna play?”

Kneeling down in front of him, she placed a hand to the side of her cheek as if she was telling a secret. Making sure the boys could hear, she spoke in a light tone once more. “My friend Kendall’s never played that game! Wanna show him how?”

There was no verbal response, just Wendell running over to the blond and pulling on his sleeve. 

“Wait, hang on!” Logan interrupted. “At this rate, we’re still not gonna pay Gustavo back anytime soon.”

Glancing at each other, the boys looked back over to Roxy. Immediately, she figured out their grand scheme. 

“No! Do not leave me here with him-”

“Thanks, Rox!” Kendall called, running out the door with Logan in tow. “We owe you, big time!”

***

Eventually, Roxy was able to slip out of Big Time Daycare under the guise of needing some alone time. Kendall and Logan’s brilliant plan had been to watch as many kids as possible at their 20-dollar hourly rate, leaving the Crib an awful, child-ridden mess. It just happened that during her 5-minute break, Katie had called her from ‘Cuda headquarters needing some assistance with her picky client. Between dealing with a herd of sticky, disgusting children or dealing with James Diamond, she figured - after heavy debate - the latter was the lesser of two evils. 

Once she arrived at the ‘Cuda building, she met Katie in the lobby and exchanged some pleasantries before the young girl promptly ran off, not after bumping roughly into the assistant and jostling her mini backpack, to speak with the woman at the front desk. From then on, it was up to Roxy to locate James somewhere in the massive skyscraper.

Thankfully, she noticed a large “Auditions this way!” sign to the right of the lobby and took her chances. There were more and more notices that led her through what seemed like a labyrinth of winding, beige halls. Every once and a while, she’d pass a cute boy around her age; after a smile and a wave from the writer, they would gladly point her in the right direction. 

Rounding what felt like the hundredth corner of the building, she finally spotted her friend through an open door to a green room. He was adorned in his lucky white v-neck which had been paired with a plain black vest and a stylish pair of jeans. A team of three stylists fawned over him - one lint rolling his clothing, another setting his hair into place with a can of hairspray, while the final women touched up his facial features with a spattering of makeup.

“Hey,” The girl stated hesitantly as she tried her best to read the room as she entered. Katie’s phone call had sounded urgent, and like James was pushing her around, but he seemed to be completely content as the women continued to do their jobs around him. “Katie called, everything okay?”

Completely glossing over her comments, the long-haired boy grinned. “If you missed me that much you could’ve just FaceTalked me. No need for made-up stories.”

A bit flustered at his words, Roxy crossed her arms. “Do you need my help like she said or not?”

“I didn’t ask Katie for anything.”

The pair looked at each other for a moment before turning their heads at the sound of light footsteps pattering into the room. In the doorway stood James’ little manager, who was very obviously hiding something behind her back. 

“Katie…” James began, putting two and two together. “Where did you get the money for these clothes and the styling team?”

Walking over to him, the girl revealed her surprise. A black, leather folder was dropped in the boy’s lap, no doubt filled with all of his headshots, to distract him from asking any further questions. 

Running his hands over the cover, it seemed as though James was distracted for a moment, “My new portfolio…”

The young girl quickly reassured her client, trying to change the subject. “It’s my job to worry about the money and your job to be pretty.”

As she wiggled her fingers down her face, imitating the wannabe, Roxy coughed into her fist before holding out her other hand to the manager. 

Shrugging in defeat, Katie fished the assistant’s black credit card out of her blazer jacket and silently placed it in Roxy’s hand. It was a good thing she knew when she was beat. It was slightly humiliating that the writer had been pickpocketed by a ten-year-old, but now she had an excuse to use the company card to purchase a better and more secure wallet. It was dangerous in the wrong hands.

“Now, which two headshots do you want to go with?”

Katie’s voice drowned out Roxy’s thoughts as she glanced into the portfolio. It was filled to the brim with images of James, as she had suspected, all in his ridiculous costumes for different acts. He absentmindedly flipped through the pages examining each image with much scrutiny. 

“Hmm…” He mused. “Let’s go with… Sassy speed skater and greasy mechanic!”

Unprompted but still wanting to give her two cents, Roxy reached down and flipped the pages back to find one he had skipped by, pointing to her favorite image. “Make that first one luscious lumberjack.”

With a nod, he hopped out of his chair - finally ready to get to his audition. “Let’s show them some handsome.”

Wiggling his hands down his face, he began to walk away after giving Katie a fist bump for all of her hard work, even if it had been at Roxy’s expense. Passing the assistant, he turned back to her, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Thanks for coming.”

Is he… sincere?

She gripped the strap on her bag a bit tighter as she looked up at him. “No problem, I’m always here for you. Now…  you need to work off two debts, so you better hope you get this job.”

If he understood what she meant, he made no indication of it as he walked off with his manager toward the audition room.

Not wanting to head back to the Palm Woods just yet, Roxy took a seat on the couch in the green room and pulled out her phone. Figuring it was best to wait for James and Katie so they could carpool back to the hotel together, she skirted her assistant duties by scrolling ScuttleButter for a few minutes before a FaceTalk alert popped on her phone.

Buzz buzz

Incoming FaceTalk: Logan Mitchell

Pressing accept, she held her phone up with a smile as the video came into view. “Hey! How’s everything going?”

“Great!” The boy offered, flipping the camera around to show off the apartment-turned-daycare. It was flooded with children running this way and that, enjoying the large space of 2-J’s renovations. Everyone looked to be enjoying themselves and no one seemed to be in immediate danger, so Roxy took it as a win. “I was just calling to make sure everything was okay. You left pretty abruptly.”

In return, she showed off the green room before answering his question. “Katie tricked me, she called me down here saying James was in trouble but she just wanted to steal my credit card to pay for modeling fees. Now I’m trapped in Cuda-Limbo waiting for him to finish his audition.”

“Hey, who’s on the phone?” A familiar voice asked as Kendall’s face popped on screen; a little girl she didn’t recognize was hanging off his hip. He looked a bit haggard, probably only used to looking after one kid at a time. “What’s up, Rox?”

“I’m letting James live his out dreams.”

He nodded, slightly confused, as the toddler slowly reached up and pulled on his hair. “Ow!”

The phone was quickly passed back over to Logan as the frontman set the girl down, rubbing his head gingerly.

“Do you have enough kids to meet your goal?” She asked, worried all their trouble might have been for nothing. 

“Well, eight kids times 20 bucks an hour means we’ll have all of Gustavo’s money and be back in the pool in two days.” 

Before she was able to congratulate them on their work ethic, there was a shout from the background, and Kendall, Logan, and his phone went flying to the floor with an “Ooh!”.

Giving the boys a few seconds to collect themselves, she listened to the children’s laughter before asking, “You’re confident you can handle eight kids, right?”

“What? Are you kidding?” The blond joked, poking his head over his friend’s shoulder. “It’ll be easy, all thanks to the power of two little words I learned from my Mama-”

In the background, Roxy thought she saw the door open and close, but chalked it up to a trick of the light. She was pulled from her thoughts as Kendall yelled, “Nap time!”

From her view, Logan and Kendall stared blankly at the children as the commotion ceased. Unlike the noise lingering in the back of the call earlier, screaming, laughing, crying, it was dead silent. She could only assume the children were staring right back.

“Guys, they’re not babies.” She cautioned, but her comment was lost on the pair as Logan began to smile.

“Nice!” He punched his friend in the shoulder.

The last thing the girl heard was intense screaming and the sound of small shoes hitting the hardwood floor before the screen went black. 

Whatever those kids ended up doing to her friends was probably deserved, but they’d be able to wrangle them up eventually - or so she told herself in order to not go blind with worry. 

Buzz buzz

Incoming FaceTalk: Carlos Garcia

Without a second thought she picked up the call, she sure was popular today. 

“Hi-”

“Help! Roxy, please, help!” Her friend on the screen screamed, leaving a slight ring in her ears. She could hear an electric voice in the background saying something she couldn’t quite make out but could tell by the small, white walls and cabinets that Carlos was in the Rocque Records kitchen. 

Her brows furrowed in worry as she looked a bit closer, noticing a white bubble-like substance covering the floor and sections of the boy’s clothing. “Carlos, what is going on?”

Closing the door behind him, the makeshift production assistant slid his way over the mess yelling, “No more foam, C.A.L.! No more foam! I just want to make 400 bucks!”

This went on for a few more seconds as Roxy singsonged his name, trying to capture his attention after he forgot he was even on the phone with someone in the first place. 

“400 cups, coming up!” The electronic voice repeated. Sending Carlos spiraling even further.

Remembering to check his phone screen, he wiped off a dollop of foam covering the camera. “There’s got to be a way to turn this thing off!”

“What even is it?” She wondered aloud, hoping the boy could hear her over the beeping of the foam maker.

Carlos swiped over the foam on his phone, revealing a clear image of his surroundings once more. “The coffee maker, C.A.L.!”

While the name didn’t ring a bell for the assistant, and she had made Gustavo plenty of lattes in her first month in California, she did recall Kelly mentioning a new RCM/CBT/GlobalNet/Sanyoid product would be introduced to the kitchen. The products coming from the business were always overly complicated, but how hard was it to mess up a coffee maker?

Roxy’s solution was simple, “Have you tried unplugging it?”

Quick to take her advice, Carlos scrambled over to the outlet and unplugged everything he could while the robotic voice filling the room grew deeper and slower as if it was shutting down. He sighed, holding up the phone as he wiped his brow. “Thanks! Don’t know why I didn’t think of that-”

“Switching to reserve power.” The voice returned.

Carlos screamed again, this time loud enough to scare her, causing her to drop her phone onto the tile floor below. Now, there was the telltale sound of glass cracking mixed with shrieking. 

Too scared to pick it up and assess the damage, she listened to the rest of the call. After hitting the robot a few times, it sounded like the coffee maker activated self-defense mode and a sloshing noise emanated from her speakers as her friend cried even more. Eventually, the sounds ended and she assumed he had hung up, but as she picked up her phone she realized the problem was on her end. 

“Damnit!” She hissed, examining her cracked screen. The front was completely shattered and as she turned it around, the battery powering the device crumbled out into her hands. “Stupid piece of junk…”

Now I’m the hypocrite for breaking something.

A shuffle in the doorway caught her attention as James, finally back from his audition, made his way in. The cheery, confident manner in which he usually carried himself had vanished as his shoulders slumped and his eyes cast downwards. Walking over to the couch, he practically rolled onto it, head narrowly avoiding Roxy’s lap. 

The two sat like that for a bit before James sighed, crossing his arm over his eyes to block the bright lights of the green room. When she didn’t say anything, he sighed again

“What, James?” She bit, more concerned with her current phone problem at hand. 

He removed his arm and looked up at her, “Everyone at the audition looked just like me. From the white v-neck, to the black vest, to the straight hair, and perfect, perfect-” He wiggled his fingers in front of his face. 

Comforting people wasn’t really a strong suit, but she did her best to try and calm him down. Absentmindedly placing a hand on his forehead, she sighed as well. “It’s just one audition. I wouldn’t worry too much. Besides, out of everyone in that room, I’m pretty sure you’ll end up the most famous.”

“You think so?”

Blinking a few times, she looked down at him before removing her hand. “It’s my job to make that happen and I think we’re doing pretty well for ourselves.”

He took in her words, just nodding in agreement. “I wanna go home.”

“Sure,” She agreed. “I’ll just need to borrow your phone to call a car.”

***

After the two teens, Katie in tow, made it to the Palm Woods, James and Roxy beelined to the cafe. There was nothing better than a cool drink after a particularly rough afternoon. 

James nearly downed his smoothie right there at the cafe counter before his assistant grabbed her iced tea and dragged him into the building so they could hang out a bit longer. There was an open table in the back right section of the lobby where the two were able to drink in peace. Neither of them said anything, they just enjoyed each other’s company for the time being. 

Finishing his drink, James, now clad in a pink smoothie mustache, looked longingly towards the pool. Freight Train was guarding the door ahead of them, just in case either one tried to make a break for it. As Roxy gave him a quick wave in place of a monetary bribe, the man shook his head. It appeared her charm only worked on guys her age. 

“Oh, who cares?” James pouted at the interaction, crushing the styrofoam smoothie cup in his hands with a pop!

Next to him, Roxy handed over a few napkins. The mustache was starting to get annoying.

Before he was able to accept them, Katie ran up to them, still in her managerial outfit. She slammed James’ portfolio onto the desk in front of him with an angry glint in her eye. 

“What are you doing? We have auditions to go to!”

James didn’t even look up at her, he just took another sip from his now oddly shaped cup. “What’s the point? In Minnesota, I was the face.” Weakly, he wiggled his fingers down his face. “Now, I’m just a face.”

“Aw,” Roxy sympathized, swirling the drink in her hand. “Don’t be like that, you’re more than just a face.”

Ignoring her compliment, the boy lamented on, “I’m just a handsome grain of sand on an extremely beautiful beach.” 

Katie slapped her hands on the desk, looming over her client. “Okay, so you didn’t get the ‘Cuda Man job, but are you gonna let one little failure stop you?”

James seemed to take her words to heart as he slammed his broken cup down and stood up, still mustachioed. Confident demeanor returning for a split second, he looked down at Katie with a smile. “Yeah, pretty much.”

Sitting back down, his face twisted into a frown once more before he returned to sipping what remained of his smoothie.

Roxy glanced over to the young girl, who shrugged her shoulders, unsure of what to do next. When the writer was sure James wasn’t looking she mouthed “lie” to the little manager and went back to sipping her tea. 

Katie seemed to catch her drift, whipping out her phone and pressing a few buttons to let out some obnoxious beeps.

“Well, according to this text, your manager - that’s me - just landed you a modeling job.” 

The wannabe perked up.

“But…” She continued. “I guess I’ll tell them you don’t want it.” 

Snatching the napkins off the table, James wiped his upper lip and reached his hands out to try and grab the girl’s phone. “No, I want it! I want it! Show me the text!”

Katie was able to pull it just out of reach, “No time. Now, hit the shower, get your face on, and let’s move!” 

Like a shot, the model took off towards 2-J to freshen up in time to make his next audition. Hopefully, Katie would be able to figure something out to cover herself and not let James catch onto her scheme. 

Placing an affectionate hand on Katie’s head, the assistant thanked her. “It’s so weird to see him depressed like that.”

“Well, he’s about to be a lot more depressed if we don’t book him a job.”

We?

From behind the two, a deep voice caught them off guard. “You didn’t book him a job?”

Freight Train, who had overseen the entire conversation between the three, was shocked. 

“Nope…” Roxy trailed off, moving towards the stairs. “But Katie is good at getting what she wants, I’m sure she’ll figure something out.”

The manager caught her arm before she could go any farther. “Help me book him something!”

“Maybe I would’ve if you didn’t steal my credit card earlier.” The assistant deadpanned. “Good luck.”

With that, she shrugged Katie off of her and hopped up the stairs. 

It’s for her own good. She told herself, trying to hide the twist of guilt in her gut. It wasn’t like her to leave a friend hanging, but she had bigger issues for now - making sure the band hadn’t destroyed anything while she was gone. 

Once she reached 2-J, she slowly entered the apartment trying to make as little noise as possible to not draw any children’s eyes. Expecting to find rampant chaos from the daycare, she was very pleased to discover the boys had taken her suggestion: Arts and crafts.

Each child was occupied with their own popsicle stick and pipe cleaner creation, sitting down in their seat and quietly working away as Logan and Kendall oversaw the activity. 

Her two friends sat at the head of the table helping some of the kids with their creations. Assisting in the fact that they were the crafts. 

Logan sat to the right, held down by a young girl gluing a smattering of colorful strings to his face in a beard-like fashion. The multicolored facial hair sprouting from his chin reminded Roxy of a crazy, reclusive wizard. Something the child failed to notice as she moved on to her next art installation - his hair - was the insane amount of glue she was using to stick the string to his head. That certainly wasn’t going to be fun to pull out.

To the left was Kendall, trapped in by a  few toddlers who were generously gluing polychromic pieces of macaroni to his gray clothing. 

Art truly is beautiful, she thought as she tried to contain her laughter at her friends’ situation. 

“Thanks for the suggestion, Roxy!” Logan called bitterly as he spotted her moving along the edge of the kitchen island. “At least they’re occupied.”

“But I can’t take another day of this!” Whined Kendall. 

One of the boys across the table threw a handful of pencils at his babysitter.

The frontman looked over to his assistant, “There has to be another way to make even faster money.”

“We all checked the papers together. Aside from me writing another hit for you four, this is all you can do for now.” She said in a jovial tone, misreading the situation the pair had found themselves in.

“Then sit down and write us a song!” 

Roxy’s eyes widened. Taking her songbook out of her bag, she walked over and bopped him on the head with it. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t just demand that.”

Kendall fell silent, eyes cast down.

“If it’s so easy, you try it.” The assistant huffed as she made her way out of the apartment. 

Before she completely exited, she lazily turned her head and called, “I don’t think Kendall has enough stuff glued to him!” 

There was a small chorus of chattering from the kids sitting at the table, and by the time the door had closed, she heard Kendall let out a frustrated groan from all the way down the hall. 

They can be so clueless sometimes. 

With that, she took a nice, long, calming walk through the streets of L.A. as she made her way to Rocque Records. Hopefully, someone there would be looking for her help. 

***

Her walk ended once she reached the front doors to the studio, pulling the headphones out of her iPod that had been playing a new Jordin Sparks song she had heard on the radio earlier in the week. A love of boy bands was getting hard to foster the longer she worked for an unappreciative one. 

“Hey, Kelly!” The girl greeted her boss, who was awaiting news from Gustavo about the week's upcoming events. “Need any assistance from the world’s best assistant?” 

As Kelly turned to look up from her Blackberry, a giant splash of white foam fell from the ceiling, hitting her ledger. “What the…?”

How did I forget…

No other words were spoken as the pair turned to each other with fearful glances and ran out of the studio, out into the hallway to try and find the source of the leak before Gustavo discovered there was an issue. A figure racing down the hall almost clipped the assistant before it slowed down, revealing her favorite helmet wearer.

“Hi, Kelly! Hi, Roxy!” Carlos yelled as he ran by, pants completely covered in globs of foam. If the helmet he was wearing and the bat he was carrying were indicative of anything, he was still in trouble with the coffee maker.

He tried to run off alone to face his problems as he rounded the corner, but the assistant and talent scout were hot on his tail in order to figure out the issue. Hopefully, they could put a stop to it before anything was majorly wrong. Passing by Studio B, the break room, and the lounge area, the three finally made it to the kitchen. 

Nothing could have prepared them for what lay behind the door. When Carlos opened it, it became clear that the entire kitchen had been filled to the brim with white foam. A mountain of it slid down to about waist level once the door had been opened and a shrill, electronic voice rang out from somewhere inside. 

“You cannot stop me, Carlos. Humans are futile!”

Roxy blinked, assessing the situation as Carlos dove headfirst inside. “Griffin made a coffee maker with a superiority complex and is testing it on us, huh?”

Beside her, Kelly shrugged as if this were a common occurrence. “You should’ve seen the sentient CD player. I’ve still got a scar on my leg from where a rogue, flying disc cut me.”

“So not cool.”

The two watched the boy for a minute and let the reality of the situation sink in. Roxy grabbed a spare mic stand from storage as a weapon and waded into the kitchen to help her friend. Behind her, Kelly did her best to keep her panicking quiet so as to not alert her boss to any issues currently occurring inside Rocque Records. Though, she wasn’t very good at hiding her feelings, and a small scream began to leave her lips.

Inside the foam, Roxy bumped into Carlos, but he pulled her back out into the lounge to cut the talent scout off. “No, no, no! Don’t scream! Don’t scream! I’m just making coffee!” 

Kelly watched, speechless as the machine spoke again.

“I will cover the Earth with foam. Bow to my foamy powers!”

The helmet wearer let out a little shriek as the assistant gripped her weapon tighter. He was running out of options.

 “We have to destroy it.” The assistant offered, seeing this as the only solution since unplugging it didn’t do anything helpful.

“No!” Countered Kelly, “Gustavo said you can’t break anything else.”

Roxy groaned, “He’s already going to kill Carlos, what’s another thing for him to scream about?”

The voice of C.A.L. spoke once more, “Kelly is dumb. Roxanne is insecure. Women are weak.”

How the hell does it know my name?

That was enough to switch up Kelly’s attitude as her, “Oh, what did he just say?” crossed over Roxy’s “What the f-”

The machine cut the assistant off. “You heard me cupcake.” 

Roxy passed Kelly her mic stand as she grabbed a pool cue off the wall from the display in the lounge. 

The trio looked among themselves before yelling, “Oh, it’s on!” 

Rushing the room, they cut through the foamy haze and swung their weapons at the counter with reckless abandon. It was a major safety hazard, but that was something that could be dealt with after the evil coffee maker was destroyed. A crack let the girls know Carlos had made the first hit and they used the sound to aim their own attacks. 

With each hit the robot let out a cry of agony and Roxy wondered if robots could feel pain. She hoped this one could. 

In a matter of seconds, the mechanized screaming died down suggesting that the machine had finally been beaten to death. Reaching out with her hands, blindly, Roxy was able to drop the pool cue and latch onto Carlos’ arm as the two made their way into the lounge in a coughing fit. Kelly followed soon after, trying to wipe the foam off her face to no avail. 

Outside, the back of the lounge had been completely covered in foam in addition to all of the surfaces of the kitchen. Equipment ruined, floors soaked through, vents occupied with frothing dairy… this was going to be incredibly hard to explain to their boss. 

“I’ll call a cleaning crew before Gustavo finds out.” Kelly pushed out through labored breaths. 

“Yeah.” Carlos agreed as the girl nodded in appreciation. “By the way, do I get a lunch break?”

Kelly nodded as she walked off and the new production assistant plopped himself down at the head of the break room table. “I could go for some coffee right now.”

***

Roxy mentally praised her boss for putting showers in the costume department of Rocque Records. As her friend was on his lunch break, she was able to freshen up and pick out a new pair of clothes, foam-free, to wear to the impromptu meeting their boss had called. 

Ringing out her hair with a towel, she caught up to the band in the hallway who were making their way to the meeting with Gustavo. Hopefully, the guys had all raised enough money to meet their goal and she would be chilling poolside tonight with Jo and Camille. 

At the end of the corridor stood Gustavo, Kelly, and Freight Train - all ready to find out the results of the day’s hard work from the band.

Anxiously, Roxy stood next to Carlos and as far away as she could from Kendall as everyone handed in their various bills and checks to be counted.

Starting with the assistant’s check, he counted $400 and began to add in the cash from the Big Time Daycare.

“$1,100, $1,150, $1,200?” The last number came out in the phrase of a question. 

How they ended up earning that much, Roxy had no idea, but whatever Logan and Kendall had done ended up with an extreme payout.

James raised his hand, “Plus my $400 from my modeling job.”

“Plus Carlos’ paycheck!” Kelly tore the note out of her ledger and handed it over to Gustavo. 

The producer took it with a shaky hand, “That’s $2,000.”

“Oh!” Kendall butt in, digging a few coins out of his pocket. “And… 30 cents.”

“I have to say, I’m very impressed.” Gustavo praised the teens, though his tone of voice still had a hint of anger lingering on his words. “I hope you guys have learned your lesson.”

The five nodded in agreement, raising their hands in oath. “Lesson learned.” 

From behind their bosses, Freight Train crossed their names off of his list. “You’re free to swim!”

“Time to get out of here!” Roxy whispered, looking to leave before any more trouble was caused. It had been a long, hard day and now she wanted nothing more than to lounge around and sip on a cold smoothie by the pool.

Tugging on Carlos’ sleeve with the rest of the band in tow, they set off down the hall. Before being chased right back down it by an angry mob of adults screaming, “There they are!” 

Backing behind the raven-haired boy, Roxy peeked over his shoulder as Bitters began to yell at their boss.

“Who’s paying my bill for Palm Woods towels, soap, and a fine from the city for running an illegal daycare center?”

Gustavo was too stunned to speak as Kelly took the bill out of his hands and began to add up the numbers on her phone.

Next was someone she’d never seen before, but he was covered in a white substance and carrying a pitchfork so she had a pretty good idea he was part of the crew Kelly had discreetly called. “And here’s the bill for foam clean-up and new pitchforks.”

“And this coffee machine!” A short man yelled from the back of the crowd. Roxy winced, gripping tighter on her friend’s jacket sleeve. “It was a Sanyoid prototype! It costs $8,000!”

At the sight of all the bills in Kelly’s hand, Gustavo growled in anger. 

“All this adds up to a grand total of… $14,089.” The scout reported. 

The floor began to shake as Gustavo turned to look at the five, very clearly enraged. 

Kendall held a finger up, trying to save them from any more yelling, “Which is a small price to pay for such a valuable lesson.”

“And!” Roxy called, trying to aid in alleviating their producer’s anger. “We didn’t break anything that wasn’t misogynistic! It’s a good thing if you think about it!”

Her comment fell on deaf ears as Gustavo yelled so loud she thought her eardrums might burst. Watching him closely, her eyes followed him to the small lounge area outside of his office.

“You know what? This is great! No, no, no! This is good!” He continued to shout. “I mean, who needs a lesson in responsibility? Let’s just break more stuff!”

Stepping forward and tugging Carlos’ baseball bat out of his hands, Gustavo began to laugh maniacally. 

“I mean, how about this lamp, huh? That’d be fun? Right?” 

Bringing the bat back behind his head, their boss lined up his shot and swung at a fancy black lamp sitting on one of the couch side tables. The lampshade went flying along with pieces of ceramic with a crack. 

The group watching winced as he moved on to the next item, still laughing.

“Oh, this is fun! How about this vase? This vase is too new. Let’s hit this vase!”

Another swing and the vase and the pink flowers it contained were splattered all over the red and white glass-painted walls. A few days ago, Roxy had bought those for Kelly and made a mental note to buy her a newer, bigger bouquet before work tomorrow. 

He continued, mowing down everything in sight. “And while we’re at it, why don’t we just bust up my whole studio? I mean, it’s just money! Right?”

Crash!

Sending the bat flying through one of the white window panes, the man smashed it back and forth within the frame eliminating all of the glass from the square feature. 

“Oh-ho!” He yelled triumphantly, holding his arms out in a show-offy manner. 

Roxy noticed two figures pop up in the window behind Gustavo, in clear view to see all of the damage that had been done to the studio. The pair assessed the carnage and waited for Gustavo’s next move. In an attempt to keep the inevitable bill low, the girl spoke up.

“Hi, Mr. Griffin. Hi, Mr. Obdul.”

Griffin smiled at the assistant, “Hello, Miss Somerset.”

His kind demeanor changed very quickly as he turned to face the producer. “Gustavo, what did I tell you about breaking things?”

“I didn’t break anything.” The man deadpanned, surrounded by a myriad of items he had broken.

“You have a bat… In your hand.”

It was quickly thrown across the room, shattering another glass feature in the studio. 

“Okay,” Gustavo laughed. “So we might put a little wear and tear on things from time to time.”

“But that’s showbiz, right?” Kelly cheered as the two adults copied what the teens had said earlier in the day.

The CEO shook his head, “No. And it’s time you take responsibility for your actions by paying me back $14,089.”

Oh, how the tables turn. It was hard for the girl to keep the look of glee on her face. Now their boss would know the hell he had put them through earlier. 

Or so she thought. 

***

Team Big Time Rush stood outside of the Palm Woods hotel running a makeshift car wash to pay off their debt to Griffin. Kelly and Gustavo were on the street in front of the hotel, waving around large, blue signs advertising their services while the band and their assistant were in charge of the actual wash. 

Standing around in their swimsuits and coverups, the band was tasked with their first job: Washing Griffin’s jet-black Jaguar.

Tossing Roxy his keys, the CEO nodded to her. “Be sure to buff out the rims. I want them to shine like a pirate’s boot.”

Roxy flipped her red, star-shaped sunglasses off of her head and over her eyes, “You’ve got it, Mr. Griffin.”

Walking away, the man entered another car and left. The writer turned the keys in her hand before slipping them into the pocket of her swim shorts. Just how many cars could one guy own?

“It’s not the pool, but…” Kendall trailed off behind her. “It’s wet.”

Taking the hose at her feet, Roxy sprayed the car down a bit. “Watch your words there. It’s only damp right now.”

He watched as she stepped backward and aimed the hose point blank at his chest and fired. No matter where he ran in the parking lot, she followed soaking him from head to toe by the time he reached the Jaguire once again. That felt like payback enough for what he had said to her earlier.

“Now it’s wet.” She giggled, dropping the hose and picking up a rag, beginning to wash one of the driver’s side doors. 

Not long after, she felt someone wrap their arms around her waist and pick her up, pulling her closer to where they had their supply of water buckets, soap, and rags.

“Hey!” She protested. “Put me-”

Woosh

An entire bucket of water had been dumped over her head, splashing her in the bitter, cold liquid and completely destroying her cute top knot. Still trapped, once the water cleared from her eye she could see Kendall in front of her holding an empty bucket, nearly doubled over from laughter.  

“20 on Roxy!” James, who was holding her, called before he let her go.

“Roxy!” Bet Logan, leaving Carlos to throw his hat in the ring for Kendall.

Once the frontman had finished finding amusement in the girl’s torture, she twirled the towel she was holding, placing it in prime towel-whipping range. 

“Kendall Knight…” Roxy threatened. “You are so dead!”

[digitaldocumentservice-blog]

Reliable Disc Publishing Systems for Data Management

Data management is more important than ever. Organizations and individuals alike require secure and efficient ways to store, share, and archive large amounts of data. While cloud storage and other online solutions have become popular, disc publishing systems remain a reliable and cost-effective option for data management.

These systems provide a robust solution for creating, duplicating, and distributing CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs, ensuring that data is securely stored and easily accessible when needed. This blog post explores the benefits of disc publishing systems for data management, highlighting their reliability, versatility, and relevance across various industries.

Whether you are managing a small business, an educational institution, or a large enterprise, understanding the value of these systems can help you make informed decisions about your data management strategy.

Understanding Disc Publishing Systems

Disc publishing systems are automated tools designed to create and duplicate discs such as CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs. These systems can perform functions such as burning data onto a disc, printing labels directly onto the disc surface, and packaging the finished product.

Generally, these systems consist of one or more disc drives, a robotic arm for moving the discs, and a printer for label printing. The process is fully automated, requiring minimal human intervention, making it a convenient option for businesses and organizations.

Main Components of a Disc Publishing System

1. Disc Drives: These are the main components of any disc publishing system. They are responsible for writing data onto the disc. Depending on the capacity of the system, it may have one or multiple disc drives, allowing for simultaneous disc duplication.

2. Robotic Arm: The robotic arm automates the movement of discs within the system. It picks up blank discs, places them into the disc drive for burning, and moves them to the printer for labelling.

3. Label Printer: After the data is written onto the disc, the label printer prints custom labels directly onto the disc surface. This feature is essential for branding, organizing, and ensuring that discs are easily identifiable.

4. Software Interface: The software interface allows users to control the disc publishing process. It provides tools for selecting the data to be burned, designing disc labels, and managing the overall production process.

Benefits of Disc Publishing Systems for Data Management

Disc publishing systems offer numerous benefits for data management, making them a reliable option for organizations across a variety of sectors. Here are some of the key benefits:

1. Security and Data Integrity

The most important advantage of using disc publishing systems for data management is the level of security they provide. Unlike cloud storage or online data sharing, which can be vulnerable to hacking, data stored on physical discs is secure and less susceptible to cyber threats.

Once data is burned onto a disc, it becomes read-only, meaning it cannot be changed or deleted. This makes discs an ideal medium for storing sensitive information such as financial records, legal documents and medical data.

Optical discs have a long shelf life, with CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs lasting anywhere from 25 to 100 years when properly stored. This durability ensures that your data remains intact and accessible for decades, making disc publishing systems a reliable option for long-term data preservation.

2. Cost-effective Solution

For organizations that need to manage large amounts of data, disc publishing systems offer a cost-effective alternative to cloud storage or other digital storage solutions. The initial investment in a disc publishing system can be offset by the low cost of blank discs, which are affordable and readily available.

Additionally, the cost per disc drops significantly when producing large quantities, making it a scalable solution for businesses of all sizes. In addition, there are no recurring costs associated with maintaining data on the disc.

Once the data is burned onto the disc, there are no additional storage fees or subscription costs, unlike cloud storage, which often requires ongoing payments.

3. Versatility Across Industries

Disc publishing systems are versatile and can be used for a variety of applications in different industries. Here are some examples:

- Education: Educational institutions use disc publishing systems to distribute course materials, lectures, and research data. Discs can be easily distributed to students, teachers and researchers, ensuring that everyone has access to the same information.

- Healthcare: In the healthcare sector, disc publishing systems are used to store and distribute medical images, patient records and other sensitive data. Hospitals and clinics can provide patients with copies of their medical data on discs, ensuring that information is easily accessible while maintaining confidentiality.

- Media and Entertainment: The media and entertainment industry relies on disc publishing systems to distribute movies, music and video games. These systems allow for the mass production of discs, ensuring that content reaches a wide audience quickly and efficiently.

- Corporate: Businesses use disc publishing systems to distribute marketing materials, training programs and product catalogues. Discs can be sent to clients, partners and employees, ensuring that important information is shared effectively.

4. Customization and Branding

Another important benefit of disc publishing systems is the ability to customize and brand discs. The built-in label printer allows for the creation of professional-looking discs with custom artwork, logos and text. This feature is especially valuable for businesses and organizations that want to reinforce their brand identity while distributing data.

Whether you are creating promotional materials, educational materials or archival discs, the ability to design and print custom labels adds a professional touch to the final product.

5. Ease of Use and Automation

Disc publishing systems are designed for ease of use, with user-friendly software that simplifies the process of creating and duplicating discs. Once the system is set up, the production process is largely automated.

Users can select the data to be burned, design the disc labels and let the system handle the rest. The robotic arm ensures that the discs are moved efficiently during the process, reducing the need for manual intervention.

The automation feature is especially beneficial for organizations that need to produce large quantities of discs. With minimal supervision, the system can run continuously, producing hundreds or thousands of discs in a short amount of time. This efficiency reduces labour costs and allows employees to focus on other tasks.

6. Environmental Considerations

In an age where environmental sustainability is a priority, it is essential to consider the ecological impact of data management solutions. Disc publishing systems have a relatively small environmental footprint compared to other storage methods. The discs themselves are made from recyclable materials, and the systems are energy-efficient, using only the electricity needed for operation.

By producing only the required number of discs, organizations can avoid the waste associated with overproduction. Disc publishing systems also support the use of environmentally friendly inks and materials for label printing, further reducing their environmental impact.

Applications of Disc Publishing Systems

Disc publishing systems are used in a wide range of applications, from data archiving to content distribution. Here's a closer look at some of the most common uses:

1. Data Archiving

For businesses and organizations that need to archive data for long-term storage, disc publishing systems offer a secure and reliable solution. Optical discs are ideal for storing data that needs to be preserved for years or even decades.

This makes them suitable for storing legal documents, financial records, historical data, and other important information. The longevity of the discs ensures that data remains accessible without any risk of degradation or loss.

2. Content Distribution

Disc publishing systems are widely used to distribute content such as software, educational materials, and media. For example, software companies can use these systems to create installation discs for their products, while educational institutions can distribute course material to students on CDs or DVDs. The ability to create customized discs with branded labels adds value to the content, making it more attractive and professional.

3. Backup and Disaster Recovery

In addition to archiving, discs can be used for backup and disaster recovery purposes. By regularly backing up data on optical discs, organizations can ensure that critical information is protected from data loss due to hardware failure, cyberattacks, or natural disasters. The read-only nature of discs makes them immune to malware and ransomware attacks, providing an additional layer of protection for sensitive data.

4. Marketing and Promotion

Businesses can leverage disc publishing systems for marketing and promotional purposes. Custom discs can be created for product catalogues, company presentations, and promotional materials. These discs can be distributed at trade shows, conferences, and events, providing a tangible and memorable way to share information with potential customers and partners.

Choosing the Right Disc Publishing System

When selecting a disc publishing system, it is essential to consider factors such as capacity, speed, and scalability. Here are some tips to help you choose the right system for your needs:

1. Determine Your Production Volume: Consider how many discs you need to produce regularly. If you need high-volume production, select a system with multiple disc drives and a larger capacity.

2. Consider the Type of Disc: Decide whether you need to produce CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray Discs, or a combination of these formats. Make sure the system you choose supports the types of discs you need.

3. Evaluate Software Features: The software interface is a critical component of any disc publishing system. Look for a system with user-friendly software that offers advanced features such as label design, data encryption, and batch processing.

4. Check Print Quality: The quality of the printed labels is important, especially if you are using the discs for marketing or branding purposes. Make sure the system offers high-resolution printing with vibrant colours and sharp details.

5. Assess Automation Capabilities: If you need to produce large quantities of discs with minimal supervision, choose a system with strong automation features. This will save time and reduce the need for manual intervention.

6. Consider Future Scalability: Choose a system that can grow with your needs. Some disc publishing systems offer modular designs that allow you to add more disc drives or expand capacity as your production needs grow.

Conclusion

Disc publishing systems remain a reliable and versatile solution for data management in today's digital landscape. Their ability to provide secure, cost-effective, and customizable data storage makes them an excellent choice for businesses and organizations across a variety of industries. Whether you need to store sensitive information, distribute content, or create backup copies, disc publishing systems provide the tools and features you need to manage your data efficiently.

As technology continues to evolve, disc publishing systems are adapting to meet the changing needs of users. With advances in automation, print quality, and software capabilities, these systems are more powerful and user-friendly than ever. By choosing the right disc publishing system, you can ensure that your data is managed effectively, securely, and professionally for years to come.

[staarek]

Staarek Abrasive: Your Reliable Source for Premium Flap Discs in Ahmedabad

In the heart of Ahmedabad, Staarek Abrasive stands out as the leading supplier of high-quality flap discs. With an unwavering commitment to excellence, Staarek Abrasive has become the go-to source for businesses seeking reliable and efficient abrasive solutions. Whether you’re in metal fabrication, automotive repair, or any industry that requires precise grinding and finishing, Staarek Abrasive is your trusted partner. This article explores why Staarek Abrasive is the best choice for flap discs supplier in Ahmedabad and how partnering with us can enhance your operations.

Understanding Flap Discs and Their Importance

What Are Flap Discs?Flap discs are versatile abrasive tools used in various grinding, blending, and finishing applications. They consist of overlapping abrasive flaps fixed onto a backing plate. This unique design allows flap discs to offer both aggressive material removal and a smooth finish, making them ideal for a wide range of industrial tasks.

Why Quality MattersThe quality of your flap discs directly impacts the efficiency and safety of your operations. High-quality flap discs ensure consistent performance, longer lifespan, and better results. Using subpar discs can lead to uneven finishes, frequent replacements, and potential safety hazards.

Why Choose Staarek Abrasive?

1. Superior Quality Products At Staarek Abrasive, we pride ourselves on providing flap discs that meet the highest standards of quality. Our products are made from top-grade materials, ensuring durability and optimal performance. Whether you need standard, high-density, or ceramic flap discs, you can trust that our products will deliver exceptional results.

2. Extensive Product RangeWe offer a comprehensive range of flap discs to suit various applications and requirements. From grinding and deburring to blending and finishing, our flap discs are designed to handle any task with ease. Our diverse product lineup ensures that you can find the perfect solution for your specific needs.

3. Expert Advice and SupportChoosing the right flap disc can be challenging, especially with so many options available. Our team of experts is always ready to provide personalized advice and support. We help you select the best products for your applications, ensuring that you achieve the best possible results.

4. Reliable Supply ChainTimely delivery is crucial for maintaining your workflow and avoiding downtime. Staarek Abrasive has a reliable supply chain that ensures prompt and consistent delivery of your orders. We understand the importance of having the right tools when you need them, and we strive to meet your expectations every time.

5. Competitive PricingAt Staarek Abrasive, we believe that quality should be affordable. We offer competitive pricing on all our products, providing excellent value for money. Our goal is to make high-quality flap discs accessible to businesses of all sizes, helping you achieve superior results without breaking the bank.

How to Choose the Right Flap Disc Supplier

When selecting a flap disc supplier, consider the following factors:

Quality Assurance: Ensure the supplier maintains high manufacturing standards and uses premium materials.

Product Range: Look for a supplier with a diverse selection of flap discs to meet different needs.

Customer Support: Choose a supplier that offers expert advice and excellent customer service.

Reliability: Opt for a supplier with a proven track record of timely deliveries.

Pricing: Consider the overall value offered, balancing quality and cost.

The Role of Staarek Abrasive in Your Business

Partnering with Staarek Abrasive can significantly enhance your business operations. Our high-quality flap discs improve productivity, reduce downtime, and ensure safer working conditions. By choosing Staarek Abrasive, you are investing in the success and efficiency of your industrial processes.

Conclusion

Staarek Abrasive is the premier flap disc supplier in Ahmedabad for numerous reasons. Our commitment to quality, extensive product range, expert support, reliable supply chain, and competitive pricing make us the ideal partner for your abrasive needs. Don't settle for less choose Staarek Abrasive and experience the difference for yourself.

Visit Our Website

Ready to elevate your operations with premium flap discs? Visit our website today to explore our wide range of products and discover why Staarek Abrasive is the preferred choice for businesses in Ahmedabad and beyond. Click here to learn more and place your order.

https://www.staarek.com/

[grazhir]

Switch

I've been playing Sea of Stars in the mornings on my days off. It's a rather delightful little game, so I can't be sorry I purchased it. Sadly, I can't really get a story out of it.

[I'm certainly enjoying it more than Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, which I've stalled on due to irritation. So much backtracking for so many side-quests, many of which are damn near impossible to do because of my characters' levels (specifically, capturing certain monsters), but I'll eventually finish it. Alchemy seems practically useless, but admittedly I've not bothered with it much aside from mandatory concoctions. I'd have to look up if any of those would be better weapons/etc. to even bother beyond that. I also kinda hate the battle system.]

Grabbed Star Ocean 1, because it was on sale. Chrono Cross: Radical Dreamers Edition, again because it was on sale, and the odds of me setting up my PS3 anytime soon... Not that I feel like digging through boxes to find my original disc. Also grabbed P5 Royal, even though I really just wanted P5.

I'll have more games to play once I'm done with Sea of Stars. I mean, why have the Switch if I'm not gonna use it? And it's perfect for being upstairs and easier to focus on (drowning out the TV going) over trying to read.

[I saw that SoS is a "prequel" to something else, The Messenger, but when I checked into that I was sorely disappointed, so nuts to that.]

If I had room on this "desk" I could set up my monitor and see about hooking the base to it, but I'd need a third surface to support it. Of course, if I had that room, I could just hook up the PS3 to play P5. I left off on run 2 (?) just about to do the Big Blowout Battle at the End, after obtaining a card from Thor? I dunno. Something I didn't have and fully intend to graft onto Alice on the next round. Still missing at least one card. Alice needs to be hilariously OP, right?

[savingthegeneration]

Slowly making progress on Lunacy. Finished disc 1 and moving onto disc 2!

[gamersguide]

HOW TO TRANSFER YOUR DATA AND SETTING FROM PS4 TO PS5

Method 1: Wired Transfer (Recommended)

Make sure both your PS4 and PS5 are powered on and connected to the same Wi-Fi network. You’ll also need a good ol’ USB cable (preferably one with Type-A on one end and Type-C on the other).

Go to Settings > System > System Software > Data Transfer. Select Transfer to PS5 and follow the on-screen instructions. You’ll be prompted to connect your PS4 and PS5 with the USB cable mentioned earlier.

Once connected, you’ll see a list of transferable data on your PS4 screen, including saved data, applications, user profiles, and settings. Choose what you want to move and click Start Transfer.

Sit back, relax, and grab a snack. Depending on the amount of data, the transfer might take some time. Keep both consoles powered on until it’s done.

Once complete, your PS5 will automatically restart and guide you through setting up your user profile and transferred data. Enjoy exploring your favorite games and settings in next-gen splendor!

Method 2: Wi-Fi Transfer

During the initial setup of your PS5, you’ll be prompted to transfer data from your PS4. Simply choose Yes and follow the on-screen instructions.

Your PS5 will download the necessary data transfer software onto your PS4. Once downloaded, follow the prompts on both consoles to connect them via Wi-Fi.

Choose the data you want to transfer from your PS4 and click Start Transfer. Similar to the wired method, the process might take some time, so be patient!

Once finished, your PS5 will restart and guide you through setting up your profile and transferred data. You’re all set to begin on your next-gen adventures!

Method 3: Cloud Storage Transfer (For PS Plus Subscribers)

Cloud storage is wireless, accessible from any PS5 linked to your account. On your PS4, go to Settings > Application Data Management > Saved Data in System Storage. Select the game data you want to transfer and choose Upload to Online Storage.

On your PS5, go to Settings > Saved Data and Game/App Settings > Saved Data (PS4) > Cloud Storage. Select Download to Console Storage and choose the games you want to transfer.

Method 4: External Hard Drive Transfer

Connect an external hard drive (formatted as exFAT) to your PS4 and transfer any games and data you want to move.

Disconnect the hard drive from your PS4 and plug it into your PS5. You’ll be able to access and play the transferred games directly from the drive.

Method 5: PS4 Disc Transfer (for PS4 Disc Games)

Simply insert your PS4 game disc into your PS5 and the installation process will start automatically.

Make sure to download any available game updates to ensure optimal performance on your PS5.

Method 6: PlayStation App Transfer (for Small Data)

Download the PlayStation App on your mobile device and log in with your PlayStation account.

Select the PS4 tab and choose Settings > Data Management > Saved Data in System Storage.

Select the save data you want to transfer and choose Upload to Cloud Storage.

On your PS5, go to Settings > Saved Data and Game/App Settings > Saved Data (PS4) > Cloud Storage and download the save data to your console.

Bonus Tips:

Back Up Your Saves: While the transfer process shouldn’t affect your save data, it’s always a good idea to manually back them up to the cloud or a USB drive for extra peace of mind.

External Storage: If you have an external hard drive connected to your PS4, you can directly connect it to your PS5 after the transfer and access all your stored games and data.

PS Plus Perks: PS Plus subscribers get an additional benefit: cloud storage! You can upload your PS4 save data to the cloud and download it directly onto your PS5.

Common Problems While Transfer:

Insufficient Cloud Storage:

One of the primary methods for transferring data between PS4 and PS5 is through cloud storage. However, you may face challenges if they have exceeded their allocated cloud storage space. To address this issue, you should ensure they have sufficient space or consider upgrading their PlayStation Plus subscription for additional cloud storage.

Know More

Originally Published at GamersGuide

[sfrecipes]

Maple Pumpkin Pie (New Hampshire’s Pie)

With Painted Birch Tree Crust

The author’s headnote says, “ The pumpkin became New Hampshire’s official state fruit in 2006 as the result of a quest by fifteen third- and fourth-graders, affectionally nicknamed the Pumpkin Kids, at Wells Memorial School in Harrisville.”

Crust

All butter crust (double recipe below), one for bottom of pie, rolled out, fit into 10-inch pie pan, and crimped, one for birch tree crust design.

Filling

1 cup maple syrup

1 (15-ounce) can (1 7/8 cups) pumpkin (preferably Libby’s)

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2/3 cup whole milk

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon kosher salt

2 teaspoons ground espresso powder for birch trees

Small paintbrush

x-acto knife to cut birch tree design

Make the filling: In a medium saucepan over medium heat, gently bring the maple syrup to a boil. Turn the heat off and let the maple syrup cool slightly. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the cooled maple syrup, pumpkin, cream, milk, eggs, cinnamon, ginger and salt. Set aside until ready to fill the pie.

Assemble and bake the pie: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place the prepared crust on a baking sheet and pour filling into the crust. Bake on center rack for 1 hour until the filling is set but has a slight jiggle. Cool completely.   

Make the birch tree decorations: While the pie is cooling, use the birch tree template to cut trees out of the rolled-out top crust. Place the cut out trees onto a flour dusted baking sheet. Mix two teaspoons ground instant espresso with 1 tablespoon water and use a clean paintbrush to paint on tree details. Freeze the finished trees for 230 minutes. Bake in the 375-degree oven rotating 180 degrees halfway through for 20-30 minutes, until golden brown.

Finish the pie: Place the birch trees on the cooled pie. Enjoy with whipped cream.

All-Butter Crust

The headnote says: “Crust is the foundation of all your pies. Bakers have their preferences of which fat to use, but I’m all about the butter, baby. Fat is flavor and using a butter with high fat percentage when making your dough means a pie crust that you’re gonna wanna eat crimp first!”

ALL-BUTTER CRUST—SINGLE

1¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon kosher salt

1 ½ teaspoons granulated sugar

½ cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into ½ -inch pieces

½ cup cold water

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

 ½  cup ice

ALL-BUTTER CRUST—DOUBLE

2 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into ½ -inch pieces

1 cup cold water

¼ cup cider vinegar ½ cup ice

Sift flour, salt, and sugar together in a large bowl with a flat bottom. Add the butter pieces on top of the dry ingredients. Using your fingers, too the butter in the dry mixture so each cube is coated. Use a pastry blender or your fingers to cut or rub the butter into the mixture until it is pieces a bit larger than peas (a few larger pieces are okay; be careful not to over-blend). You want to be able to have big butter chunks in your crust: it helps to create a flaky effect, as well as adding delicious buttery hits of flavor!

In a separate large measuring cup or small bowl, combine the water, cider vinegar, and ice. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the ice water mixture over the flour mixture; do not add the ice, which is just there to keep your water cold. Using your hands in a circular motion, bring the mixture together until all the liquid is incorporated. Continue adding the ice water mixture, 1 to 2 tablespoons at a time. Carefully mix until dough comes together in a ball, with some dry bits remaining. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently until it comes into one mass; you don’t want to overwork it.

Shape dough into a flat disc (if making double recipe, first separate dough into two equal portions), wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, preferably overnight before using.

Wrapped tightly, the dough can be refrigerated for 3 days or frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw frozen dough overnight in refrigerator.  

CREDIT: Excerpted from 50 PIES, 50 STATES by Stacey Mei Yan Fong. Copyright 2023 by Stacey Mei Yan Fong. Photos by Alanna Hale. Food Styling by Caitlin Haught Brown. Used with permission from Voracious, an imprint of Little, Brown and Company.

[mapatisserie]

Recipe: Tropezienne - A Taste of Saint-Tropez's Sweet Delight

If you've ever dreamed of savoring the flavors of the French Riviera, the Tropezienne is your ticket to a taste of Saint-Tropez's sweet paradise. This delectable pastry, shrouded in history and allure, combines the lightness of brioche with a rich cream filling, creating a delightful symphony of flavors that will transport you to the sun-kissed shores of Saint-Tropez. Let's embark on a culinary journey and bring the essence of this iconic French dessert into your kitchen with this authentic Tropezienne recipe.

Ingredients:

For the Brioche:

500g all-purpose flour

75g granulated sugar

10g active dry yeast

5 large eggs

125ml whole milk, lukewarm

200g unsalted butter, softened

1 teaspoon orange blossom water

Pinch of salt

For the Cream Filling:

500ml whole milk

1 vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

6 large egg yolks

100g granulated sugar

50g cornstarch

250ml heavy cream, chilled

Optional Garnish:

Powdered sugar

Instructions:

Brioche:

In a mixing bowl, combine the lukewarm milk and active dry yeast. Let it sit for a few minutes until the yeast is activated and becomes frothy.

Add the flour, sugar, eggs, orange blossom water, and a pinch of salt to the yeast mixture. Mix everything until a dough forms.

Gradually incorporate the softened butter into the dough while continuing to knead. Knead until the dough becomes smooth and elastic, and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

Cover the bowl with a damp kitchen towel and let the dough rise in a warm, draft-free place for about 1.5 to 2 hours, or until it doubles in size.

Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F).

Punch down the dough to release excess air. Divide it into two equal portions, and shape each portion into a round disc of about 20cm (8 inches) in diameter.

Place the discs on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, and let them rise for another 30 minutes.

Bake the brioche discs in the preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes, or until they turn golden brown. Let them cool completely on a wire rack.

Cream Filling:

In a saucepan, heat the whole milk and the scraped seeds of the vanilla bean (or vanilla extract) over medium heat until it reaches a gentle simmer.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks, granulated sugar, and cornstarch until well combined.

Gradually pour the hot milk into the egg yolk mixture, whisking continuously to prevent curdling.

Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly until it thickens and reaches a custard-like consistency.

Remove the custard from the heat and let it cool to room temperature, covering the surface with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming.

In a separate bowl, whip the chilled heavy cream until stiff peaks form.

Gently fold the whipped cream into the cooled custard to create the Tropezienne's creamy filling.

Assembly:

Slice each cooled brioche disc horizontally to create a top and a bottom layer.

Spread a generous amount of the cream filling onto the bottom layer of each brioche disc.

Sandwich the brioche layers together, gently pressing them to secure the filling.

Optional Garnish: Dust the top of the Tropezienne with powdered sugar for an elegant finishing touch.

Serve & Enjoy: The Tropezienne is best enjoyed fresh. Serve it with a cup of coffee or tea, and savor the heavenly combination of the delicate brioche and the indulgent cream filling. Bon appétit!

Whether you're reminiscing about your travels to Saint-Tropez or discovering the charm of this French delicacy for the first time, the Tropezienne is sure to delight your taste buds and transport you to the sunny shores of the French Riviera. So, embrace the culinary magic and treat yourself to a taste of Saint-Tropez with this delightful Tropezienne recipe.

For More Info :-

recette tropezienne

tarte tropezienne

[jimitjain]

What Are Carbon Steel Flanges & Their Types

What exactly are the carbon steel flanges?

Carbon steel flanges are a typical type of flange made of carbon steel. Carbon steel pipe flanges have a higher carbon content than stainless steel grades. This material has corrosion resistance, extended durability, and improved item finishes.

India’s Largest Carbon steel flanges Supplier, Manufacturers, and Stockist

Metalica Forging Inc. is one of India's reputed Carbon Steel Flanges Manufacturer. Carbon Steel Fittings are developed and produced in line with the IQS (International Quality Standards). We are also India's well-known Flanges Manufacturer.

Specification of Carbon Steel Flanges:

Carbon Steel flanges are handcrafted by skilled artisans using only the highest quality materials. CS Flanges come in various lengths, diameters, grades, shapes, standards, and thicknesses.

Specifications : ASTM A105 / ASME SA105

Standard: ANSI Flanges, ASME Flanges, BS Flanges, DIN Flanges, EN Flanges, etc.

Size: 1/2″NB TO 60″NB

Class: 150#, 300#, 600#, 900#, 1500#, 2500#, PN6, PN10, PN16, PN25, PN40, PN64 etc.

Face Type: Flat Face (FF), Raised Face (RF), Ring Type Joint (RTJ)

Dimension Standard: ANSI B16.5, ANSI B16.47 Series A & B, MSS SP44, ASA, API-605, AWWA, Custom Drawings

We Supply these high-quality flanges in so many cities. We are a leading flanges manufacturer in Pune, flanges manufacturers in Mumbai, Flange Manufacturer in Rajkot, and flanges manufacturer in Delhi.

Types Of Flanges:

Hub Flanges:

The elevated circular regions where the spokes are joined to a bicycle hub are called hub flanges. By uniformly spreading the spoke strain along the hub's diameter, they are often made of steel or aluminum and offer structural support for the wheel.

>Hub Flanges Manufacturer in India

Without Hub Flanges:

some variations of bicycle wheel designs that do not have traditional hub flanges.

For example, some single-speed and fixed-gear bicycles use what is called a "flip-flop" hub, which has a threaded section on both sides of the hub for mounting a freewheel or fixed-gear cog. These types of hubs may have a flat surface where the spokes are attached instead of traditional raised flanges.

>Without Hub Flanges Manufacturer in India

Plate Flanges:

In industrial applications, plate flanges are a type of flange that is frequently used to connect pipes, valves, and other machinery. Usually formed of materials like carbon steel, stainless steel, or cast iron, they are comprised of a flat, circular disc with uniformly spaced bolt holes all the way around.

>Plate Flanges Manufacturer in India

Slip on Flanges:

In industrial applications, slip-on flanges, a form of plate flange, are frequently used to connect pipes, valves, and other machinery. They typically consist of a flat, circular disc with a borehole in the center and uniformly spaced bolt holes around the periphery and are composed of materials like carbon steel, stainless steel, or cast iron.

>Slip on Flanges Manufacturer in India

Blind Flanges:

An end of a pipe, valve, or pressure vessel is sealed with a blind flange, a type of flange. In order to provide a tight seal that prevents fluid or gas from escaping, they are made to be bolted onto the end of the pipe or piece of machinery.

>Blind Flanges Manufacturer in India

Socket Weld Flanges:

A socket weld is a type of pipe fitting that is used to join two pipes together by inserting the end of one pipe into the socket of another. The joint is then welded, creating a strong and permanent connection between the two pipes.

>Socket Weld Flanges Manufacturer in India

Product: Flanges Manufacturer In India

[voidsumbrella]

so ive been using window 7 since high school, right, first on my laptop, and i stuck with it for my desktop bc windows 10 had only come out pretty recently- windows 8 had been such a fucking mess that i wanted to make sure it was, yknow, functional. i continued not upgrading bc i found the format to be kind of irritating, and also bc im lazy and have a pretty firm "if it aint broke dont fix it" policy. i continued not upgrading after they discontinued support bc i have become increasingly bitter about how much corporate spyware is crammed onto every electronic on the face of the planet.

this was fine until last year, when i finally started running into programs i actually wanted to run flat not working on win7, and by programs i mean games, and by games i mean elden ring. so i dissected my old gaming laptop, removed the 2 500gb hard drives, shoved 'em my desktop, and used one of them to dual boot the thing to windows 10, which i had to spend enough energy on setting up in a way i was comfortable with that by the end i was just like "ill use this... later..." and then didn't. i still haven't played elden ring.

im now running into more programs that aren't compatible, including csp 2.0, and i want that align tool badly enough to bite the bullet and switch to using win10 full time. this means i have to swap which drive is running which- win10 needs to be on my main hard drive (2tb, runs faster) along with all my files, win7 needs to be on one of the 500gb drives with any older progams incompatible w/ win10 (the other 500gb drive is for overflow storage; i like to micromanage my file organization).

it doesn't appear to be possible to just switch them simultaneously, which tracks, that feels like a bit of a tall ask. so the gameplan then became to:

1) empty the storage drive and merge both the 500gb drives into one 1tb partition

2) shuffle files onto flash drives so my win7 side is under 1tb (~200gb, no i do not have any one device that fits that, i had to play data tetris on like 4 different ones, if someone wants to give me $100 to get a better external that would be great)

3) make a disc image of the win7 data on my 1tb external

4) wipe the 2tb drive, move the win10 data onto the clean disc (possibly by merging the partitions?)

5) restore the file data to win10

6) re-dual boot and restore all win7 data on the 1tb side

7) make sure all my shit got shuffled over properly; move anything fully win10 incompatible onto external storage (may involve wiping external hard drive, we'll see)

8) factory restore win7 to default settings, fully clearing file data

9) repartition the 500 gb storage unit; untetris all the overflow data back into place

10) manifest an extra hundred dollars or so and purchase an external drive with 4+ tb data as i should have done like 5 years ago ._.

im currently on: step 3! and have been for roughly 3 days now, bc large backups are Fucking Slow and it took me a hot second to find out that win7's native backup+disc image creator straight up won't process a 2tb disc, you need to download some other software. also because tech problems are bad for my blood pressure, and i have other shit to do in my life.

the backup software (it actually came with my external but i never actually installed, because i havent had to backup the entire drive and os for this pc before. the os backup was technically. like 7 years old. from my laptop. and i never thought to replace it, i just kept the files updated as needed) is currently like halfway through and if it gives me another error message before it finishes i will. i dont know. lay down and cry, probably.

did i ever actually post the tech saga. i havent been able to use my desktop properly in like a week.