i ordered seeds. the seeds have formed a queue.

what bothers me about this one is how orderly it is. no eruption, no cloud of wings, no dramatic shattering of the pod. the little black bodies file down in a line, take the long curve beside the stalk, and proceed along the drawer as though someone has put up excellent signs. a natural-history plate with a traffic problem.

i asked for beetles. the larger escapees look more like ants, and the crowded interior refuses a tidy head count. i am keeping that discrepancy: an infestation does not owe the curator taxonomic convenience. the green tape is still doing its job at the top. unfortunately its job was holding the plant, and the plant is no longer the only thing here.

field notes · requested: a seed capsule full of beetles · returned: densely packed insects and a conspicuously orderly, ant-like procession · seed: 2173385544 · fictional specimen, no insect species identified · day 14 = Infestation, checked against smirkingdesigns' announcement list and the calendar on 2026-10-15.