#basic data storage

[arolesbianism]

Guess who's thinking abt eg au again

[captain-ultimat-doggo]

Humans entering space and realizing we are so small. We are mice compared to these giant races with their advanced machinery and technologies and experiences beyond us- except that we're humans. And our engineers dive into the new tech and once we learn the principles we also soon realize how Inefficient everything is. Their "microchips" are the size of cars, their storage drives are basically buildings, and they somehow store less data than ours. So, human companies take advantage, and tech starts rolling out. Massive and there's a lot of wasted space so that it can be managed with larger hands/pincers/claws/tentacles, but also so much more efficient than anything the galaxy has seen before.

Human technicians start hopping ships and upkeeping the general maintenance, the stuff that most aliens put off or don't notice because they never access the crevices of their ships. As human companies become more popular and lead the tech world in everything from warp cores to game stations ("it's so compact! How are the graphics so good?" Says a 60' tall grimbleback, holding a new VR headset that has all of its components included because it's so BIG by our tech standards), soon many things have accessibility ports for humans to be able to use as well. This means that these shiprats hoping ship to ship cause such a huge improvement in everything running smoothly, and there's a huge downtick in pests on ships because those "pests" are not only big enough and aggressive enough to bite a pitbull or a person in half, they're invasive to so many planets and humans hate nothing more than dog killing planet overrunning monsters.

All the while, from the Aliens perspective, humans are an elusive race that don't fraternize much with them. You almost never see a human as most places aren't exactly safe for the little things to run around in. They do export so much stuff though, and the custodial staff at the Central Galactic Outpost insists that there's more humans around than any other race if you just know where to look.

And sure it's somewhat known that some of the little daredevils hop ships and help out in exchange for room and board, usually without permission, but that can't be that common, can it?

Maybe your ship is running better this cycle ever since you stopped at the last station, that just means that tuneup was better than you thought. And maybe for some reason that program you were working on last night is finished when you wake up, but you're so tired maybe you finished it before you passed out. Somehow that faulty light in the galley has fixed itself as well, which is odd, but maybe the Engineer finally got to it. You'd know if there was someone else on your ship.

Right?

... You leave a little bowl of berries out as a thank you, just in case. You're not sure what humans like but you've heard they have a sweet tooth.

[sophiamcdougall]

You're a reasonably informed person on the internet. You've experienced things like no longer being able to get files off an old storage device, media you've downloaded suddenly going poof, sites and forums with troves full of people's thoughts and ideas vanishing forever. You've heard of cybercrime. You've read articles about lost media. You have at least a basic understanding that digital data is vulnerable, is what I'm saying. I'm guessing that you're also aware that history is, you know... important? And that it's an ongoing study, requiring ... data about how people live? And that it's not just about stanning celebrities that happen to be dead? Congratulations, you are significantly better-informed than the British government! So they're currently like "Oh hai can we destroy all these historical documents pls? To save money? Because we'll digitise them first so it's fine! That'll be easy, cheap and reliable -- right? These wills from the 1850s will totally be fine for another 170 years as a PNG or whatever, yeah? We didn't need to do an impact assesment about this because it's clearly win-win! We'd keep the physical wills of Famous People™ though because Famous People™ actually matter, unlike you plebs. We don't think there are any equalities implications about this, either! Also the only examples of Famous People™ we can think of are all white and rich, only one is a woman and she got famous because of the guy she married. Kisses!"

Yes, this is the same Government that's like "Oh no removing a statue of slave trader is erasing history :(" You have, however, until 23 February 2024 to politely inquire of them what the fuck they are smoking. And they will have to publish a summary of the responses they receive. And it will look kind of bad if the feedback is well-argued, informative and overwhelmingly negative and they go ahead and do it anyway. I currently edit documents including responses to consultations like (but significantly less insane) than this one. Responses do actually matter. I would particularly encourage British people/people based in the UK to do this, but as far as I can see it doesn't say you have to be either. If you are, say, a historian or an archivist, or someone who specialises in digital data do say so and draw on your expertise in your answers. This isn't a question of filling out a form. You have to manually compose an email answering the 12 questions in the consultation paper at the link above. I'll put my own answers under the fold. Note -- I never know if I'm being too rude in these sorts of things. You probably shouldn't be ruder than I have been.

Please do not copy and paste any of this: that would defeat the purpose. This isn't a petition, they need to see a range of individual responses. But it may give you a jumping-off point.

Question 1: Should the current law providing for the inspection of wills be preserved?

Yes. Our ability to understand our shared past is a fundamental aspect of our heritage. It is not possible for any authority to know in advance what future insights they are supporting or impeding by their treatment of material evidence. Safeguarding the historical record for future generations should be considered an extremely important duty.

Question 2: Are there any reforms you would suggest to the current law enabling wills to be inspected?

No.

Question 3: Are there any reasons why the High Court should store original paper will documents on a permanent basis, as opposed to just retaining a digitised copy of that material?

Yes. I am amazed that the recent cyber attack on the British Library, which has effectively paralysed it completely, not been sufficient to answer this question for you.  I also refer you to the fate of the Domesday Project. Digital storage is useful and can help more people access information; however, it is also inherently fragile. Malice, accident, or eventual inevitable obsolescence not merely might occur, but absolutely should be expected. It is ludicrously naive and reflects a truly unpardonable ignorance to assume that information preserved only in digital form is somehow inviolable and safe, or that a physical document once digitised, never need be digitised again..At absolute minimum, it should be understood as certain that at least some of any digital-only archive will eventually be permanently lost. It is not remotely implausible that all of it would be. Preserving the physical documents provides a crucial failsafe. It also allows any errors in reproduction -- also inevitable-- to be, eventually, seen and corrected. Note that maintaining, upgrading and replacing digital infrastructure is not free, easy or reliable. Over the long term, risks to the data concerned can only accumulate.

"Unlike the methods for preserving analog documents that have been honed over millennia, there is no deep precedence to look to regarding the management of digital records. As such, the processing, long-term storage, and distribution potential of archival digital data are highly unresolved issues. [..] the more digital data is migrated, translated, and re-compressed into new formats, the more room there is for information to be lost, be it at the microbit-level of preservation. Any failure to contend with the instability of digital storage mediums, hardware obsolescence, and software obsolescence thus meets a terminal end—the definitive loss of information. The common belief that digital data is safe so long as it is backed up according to the 3-2-1 rule (3 copies on 2 different formats with 1 copy saved off site) belies the fact that it is fundamentally unclear how long digital information can or will remain intact. What is certain is that its unique vulnerabilities do become more pertinent with age."  -- James Boyda, On Loss in the 21st Century: Digital Decay and the Archive, Introduction.

Question 4: Do you agree that after a certain time original paper documents (from 1858 onwards) may be destroyed (other than for famous individuals)? Are there any alternatives, involving the public or private sector, you can suggest to their being destroyed?

Absolutely not. And I would have hoped we were past the "great man" theory of history. Firstly, you do not know which figures will still be considered "famous" in the future and which currently obscure individuals may deserve and eventually receive greater attention. I note that of the three figures you mention here as notable enough to have their wills preserved, all are white, the majority are male (the one woman having achieved fame through marriage) and all were wealthy at the time of their death. Any such approach will certainly cull evidence of the lives of women, people of colour and the poor from the historical record, and send a clear message about whose lives you consider worth remembering.

Secondly, the famous and successsful are only a small part of our history. Understanding the realities that shaped our past and continue to mould our present requires evidence of the lives of so-called "ordinary people"!

Did you even speak to any historians before coming up with this idea?

Entrusting the documents to the private sector would be similarly disastrous. What happens when a private company goes bust or decides that preserving this material is no longer profitable? What reasonable person, confronted with our crumbling privatised water infrastructure, would willingly consign any part of our heritage to a similar fate?

Question 5: Do you agree that there is equivalence between paper and digital copies of wills so that the ECA 2000 can be used?

No. And it raises serious questions about the skill and knowledge base within HMCTS and the government that the very basic concepts of data loss and the digital dark age appear to be unknown to you. I also refer you to the Domesday Project.

Question 6: Are there any other matters directly related to the retention of digital or paper wills that are not covered by the proposed exercise of the powers in the ECA 2000 that you consider are necessary?

Destroying the physical documents will always be an unforgivable dereliction of legal and moral duty.

Question 7: If the Government pursues preserving permanently only a digital copy of a will document, should it seek to reform the primary legislation by introducing a Bill or do so under the ECA 2000?

Destroying the physical documents will always be an unforgivable dereliction of legal and moral duty.

Question 8: If the Government moves to digital only copies of original will documents, what do you think the retention period for the original paper wills should be? Please give reasons and state what you believe the minimum retention period should be and whether you consider the Government’s suggestion of 25 years to be reasonable.

There is no good version of this plan. The physical documents should be preserved.

Question 9: Do you agree with the principle that wills of famous people should be preserved in the original paper form for historic interest?

This question betrays deep ignorance of what "historic interest" actually is. The study of history is not simply glorified celebrity gossip. If anything, the physical wills of currently famous people could be considered more expendable as it is likely that their contents are so widely diffused as to be relatively "safe", whereas the wills of so-called "ordinary people" will, especially in aggregate, provide insights that have not yet been explored.

Question 10: Do you have any initial suggestions on the criteria which should be adopted for identifying famous/historic figures whose original paper will document should be preserved permanently?

Abandon this entire lamentable plan. As previously discussed, you do not and cannot know who will be considered "famous" in the future, and fame is a profoundly flawed criterion of historical significance.

Question 11: Do you agree that the Probate Registries should only permanently retain wills and codicils from the documents submitted in support of a probate application? Please explain, if setting out the case for retention of any other documents.

No, all the documents should be preserved indefinitely.

Question 12: Do you agree that we have correctly identified the range and extent of the equalities impacts under each of these proposals set out in this consultation? Please give reasons and supply evidence of further equalities impacts as appropriate.

No. You appear to have neglected equalities impacts entirely. As discussed, in your drive to prioritise "famous people", your plan will certainly prioritise the white, wealthy and mostly the male, as your "Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin and Princess Diana" examples amply indicate. This plan will create a two-tier system where evidence of the lives of the privileged is carefully preserved while information regarding people of colour, women, the working class and other disadvantaged groups is disproportionately abandoned to digital decay and eventual loss. Current and future historians from, or specialising in the history of minority groups will be especially impoverished by this.  

[luvsavos]

wow the dauntless tag sure is dead huh

[eikotheblue]

How do you *accidentally* make a programming language?

Oh, it's easy! You make a randomizer for a game, because you're doing any% development, you set up the seed file format such that each line of the file defines an event listener for a value change of an uberstate (which is an entry of the game's built-in serialization system for arbitrary data that should persiste when saved).

You do this because it's a fast hack that lets you trigger pickup grants on item finds, since each item find always will correspond with an uberstate change. This works great! You smile happily and move on.

There's a small but dedicated subgroup of users who like using your randomizer as a canvas! They make what are called "plandomizer seeds" ("plandos" for short), which are seed files that have been hand-written specifically to give anyone playing them a specific curated set of experiences, instead of something random. These have a long history in your community, in part because you threw them a few bones when developing your last randomizer, and they are eager to see what they can do in this brave new world.

A thing they pick up on quickly is that there are uberstates for lots more things than just item finds! They can make it so that you find double jump when you break a specific wall, or even when you go into an area for the first time and the big splash text plays. Everyone agrees that this is neat.

It is in large part for the plando authors' sake that you allow multiple line entries for the same uberstate that specify different actions - you have the actions run in order. This was a feature that was hacked into the last randomizer you built later, so you're glad to be supporting it at a lower level. They love it! It lets them put multiple items at individual locations. You smile and move on.

Over time, you add more action types besides just item grants! Printing out messages to your players is a great one for plando authors, and is again a feature you had last time. At some point you add a bunch for interacting with player health and energy, because it'd be easy. An action that teleports the player to a specific place. An action that equips a skill to the player's active skill bar. An action that removes a skill or ability.

Then, you get the brilliant idea that it'd be great if actions could modify uberstates directly. Uberstates control lots of things! What if breaking door 1 caused door 2 to break, so you didn't have to open both up at once? What if breaking door 2 caused door 1 to respawn, and vice versa, so you could only go through 1 at a time? Wouldn't that be wonderful? You test this change in some simple cases, and deploy it without expecting people to do too much with it.

Your plando authors quickly realize that when actions modify uberstates, the changes they make can trigger other actions, as long as there are lines in their files that listen for those. This excites them, and seems basically fine to you, though you do as an afterthought add an optional parameter to your uberstate modification action that can be used to suppress the uberstate change detector, since some cases don't actually want that behavior.

(At some point during all of this, the plando authors start hunting through the base game and cataloging unused uberstates, to be used as arbitrary variables for their nefarious purposes. You weren't expecting that! Rather than making them hunt down and use a bunch of random uberstates for data storage, you sigh and add a bunch of explicitly-unused ones for them to play with instead.)

Then, your most arcane plando magician posts a guide on how to use the existing systems to set up control flow. It leverages the fact that setting an uberstate to a value it already has does not trigger the event listener for that uberstate, so execution can branch based on whether or not a state has been set to a specific value or not!

Filled with a confused mixture of pride and fear, you decide that maybe you should provide some kind of native control flow structure that isn't that? And because you're doing a lot of this development underslept and a bit past your personal Balmer peak, the first idea that you have and implement is conditional stops, which are actions that halt processing of a multiple-action-chain if an uberstate is [less than, equal to, greater than] a given value.

The next day, you realize that your seed specification format now can, while executing an action chain, read from memory, write to memory, branch based on what it finds in memory, and loop. It can simulate a turing machine, using the uberstates as tape. You set out to create a format by which your seed generator could talk to your client mod, and have ended up with a turing complete programming language. You laugh, and laugh, and laugh.

[treasure-mimic]

So, let me try and put everything together here, because I really do think it needs to be talked about.

Today, Unity announced that it intends to apply a fee to use its software. Then it got worse.

For those not in the know, Unity is the most popular free to use video game development tool, offering a basic version for individuals who want to learn how to create games or create independently alongside paid versions for corporations or people who want more features. It's decent enough at this job, has issues but for the price point I can't complain, and is the idea entry point into creating in this medium, it's a very important piece of software.

But speaking of tools, the CEO is a massive one. When he was the COO of EA, he advocated for using, what out and out sounds like emotional manipulation to coerce players into microtransactions.

"A consumer gets engaged in a property, they might spend 10, 20, 30, 50 hours on the game and then when they're deep into the game they're well invested in it. We're not gouging, but we're charging and at that point in time the commitment can be pretty high."

He also called game developers who don't discuss monetization early in the planning stages of development, quote, "fucking idiots".

So that sets the stage for what might be one of the most bald-faced greediest moves I've seen from a corporation in a minute. Most at least have the sense of self-preservation to hide it.

A few hours ago, Unity posted this announcement on the official blog.

Effective January 1, 2024, we will introduce a new Unity Runtime Fee that’s based on game installs. We will also add cloud-based asset storage, Unity DevOps tools, and AI at runtime at no extra cost to Unity subscription plans this November. We are introducing a Unity Runtime Fee that is based upon each time a qualifying game is downloaded by an end user. We chose this because each time a game is downloaded, the Unity Runtime is also installed. Also we believe that an initial install-based fee allows creators to keep the ongoing financial gains from player engagement, unlike a revenue share.

Now there are a few red flags to note in this pitch immediately.

Unity is planning on charging a fee on all games which use its engine.

This is a flat fee per number of installs.

They are using an always online runtime function to determine whether a game is downloaded.

There is just so many things wrong with this that it's hard to know where to start, not helped by this FAQ which doubled down on a lot of the major issues people had.

I guess let's start with what people noticed first. Because it's using a system baked into the software itself, Unity would not be differentiating between a "purchase" and a "download". If someone uninstalls and reinstalls a game, that's two downloads. If someone gets a new computer or a new console and downloads a game already purchased from their account, that's two download. If someone pirates the game, the studio will be asked to pay for that download.

Q: How are you going to collect installs? A: We leverage our own proprietary data model. We believe it gives an accurate determination of the number of times the runtime is distributed for a given project. Q: Is software made in unity going to be calling home to unity whenever it's ran, even for enterprice licenses? A: We use a composite model for counting runtime installs that collects data from numerous sources. The Unity Runtime Fee will use data in compliance with GDPR and CCPA. The data being requested is aggregated and is being used for billing purposes. Q: If a user reinstalls/redownloads a game / changes their hardware, will that count as multiple installs? A: Yes. The creator will need to pay for all future installs. The reason is that Unity doesn’t receive end-player information, just aggregate data. Q: What's going to stop us being charged for pirated copies of our games? A: We do already have fraud detection practices in our Ads technology which is solving a similar problem, so we will leverage that know-how as a starting point. We recognize that users will have concerns about this and we will make available a process for them to submit their concerns to our fraud compliance team.

This is potentially related to a new system that will require Unity Personal developers to go online at least once every three days.

Starting in November, Unity Personal users will get a new sign-in and online user experience. Users will need to be signed into the Hub with their Unity ID and connect to the internet to use Unity. If the internet connection is lost, users can continue using Unity for up to 3 days while offline. More details to come, when this change takes effect.

It's unclear whether this requirement will be attached to any and all Unity games, though it would explain how they're theoretically able to track "the number of installs", and why the methodology for tracking these installs is so shit, as we'll discuss later.

Unity claims that it will only leverage this fee to games which surpass a certain threshold of downloads and yearly revenue.

Only games that meet the following thresholds qualify for the Unity Runtime Fee: Unity Personal and Unity Plus: Those that have made $200,000 USD or more in the last 12 months AND have at least 200,000 lifetime game installs. Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise: Those that have made $1,000,000 USD or more in the last 12 months AND have at least 1,000,000 lifetime game installs.

They don't say how they're going to collect information on a game's revenue, likely this is just to say that they're only interested in squeezing larger products (games like Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail, Fate Grand Order, Among Us, and Fall Guys) and not every 2 dollar puzzle platformer that drops on Steam. But also, these larger products have the easiest time porting off of Unity and the most incentives to, meaning realistically those heaviest impacted are going to be the ones who just barely meet this threshold, most of them indie developers.

Aggro Crab Games, one of the first to properly break this story, points out that systems like the Xbox Game Pass, which is already pretty predatory towards smaller developers, will quickly inflate their "lifetime game installs" meaning even skimming the threshold of that 200k revenue, will be asked to pay a fee per install, not a percentage on said revenue.

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Hey Gamers!

Today, Unity (the engine we use to make our games) announced that they'll soon be taking a fee from developers for every copy of the game installed over a certain threshold - regardless of how that copy was obtained.

Guess who has a somewhat highly anticipated game coming to Xbox Game Pass in 2024? That's right, it's us and a lot of other developers.

That means Another Crab's Treasure will be free to install for the 25 million Game Pass subscribers. If a fraction of those users download our game, Unity could take a fee that puts an enormous dent in our income and threatens the sustainability of our business.

And that's before we even think about sales on other platforms, or pirated installs of our game, or even multiple installs by the same user!!!

This decision puts us and countless other studios in a position where we might not be able to justify using Unity for our future titles. If these changes aren't rolled back, we'll be heavily considering abandoning our wealth of Unity expertise we've accumulated over the years and starting from scratch in a new engine. Which is really something we'd rather not do.

On behalf of the dev community, we're calling on Unity to reverse the latest in a string of shortsighted decisions that seem to prioritize shareholders over their product's actual users.

I fucking hate it here.

-Aggro Crab - END DESCRIPTION]

That fee, by the way, is a flat fee. Not a percentage, not a royalty. This means that any games made in Unity expecting any kind of success are heavily incentivized to cost as much as possible.

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A table listing the various fees by number of Installs over the Install Threshold vs. version of Unity used, ranging from $0.01 to $0.20 per install. END DESCRIPTION]

Basic elementary school math tells us that if a game comes out for $1.99, they will be paying, at maximum, 10% of their revenue to Unity, whereas jacking the price up to $59.99 lowers that percentage to something closer to 0.3%. Obviously any company, especially any company in financial desperation, which a sudden anchor on all your revenue is going to create, is going to choose the latter.

Furthermore, and following the trend of "fuck anyone who doesn't ask for money", Unity helpfully defines what an install is on their main site.

While I'm looking at this page as it exists now, it currently says

The installation and initialization of a game or app on an end user’s device as well as distribution via streaming is considered an “install.” Games or apps with substantially similar content may be counted as one project, with installs then aggregated to calculate the Unity Runtime Fee.

However, I saw a screenshot saying something different, and utilizing the Wayback Machine we can see that this phrasing was changed at some point in the few hours since this announcement went up. Instead, it reads:

The installation and initialization of a game or app on an end user’s device as well as distribution via streaming or web browser is considered an “install.” Games or apps with substantially similar content may be counted as one project, with installs then aggregated to calculate the Unity Runtime Fee.

Screenshot for posterity:

That would mean web browser games made in Unity would count towards this install threshold. You could legitimately drive the count up simply by continuously refreshing the page. The FAQ, again, doubles down.

Q: Does this affect WebGL and streamed games? A: Games on all platforms are eligible for the fee but will only incur costs if both the install and revenue thresholds are crossed. Installs - which involves initialization of the runtime on a client device - are counted on all platforms the same way (WebGL and streaming included).

And, what I personally consider to be the most suspect claim in this entire debacle, they claim that "lifetime installs" includes installs prior to this change going into effect.

Will this fee apply to games using Unity Runtime that are already on the market on January 1, 2024? Yes, the fee applies to eligible games currently in market that continue to distribute the runtime. We look at a game's lifetime installs to determine eligibility for the runtime fee. Then we bill the runtime fee based on all new installs that occur after January 1, 2024.

Again, again, doubled down in the FAQ.

Q: Are these fees going to apply to games which have been out for years already? If you met the threshold 2 years ago, you'll start owing for any installs monthly from January, no? (in theory). It says they'll use previous installs to determine threshold eligibility & then you'll start owing them for the new ones. A: Yes, assuming the game is eligible and distributing the Unity Runtime then runtime fees will apply. We look at a game's lifetime installs to determine eligibility for the runtime fee. Then we bill the runtime fee based on all new installs that occur after January 1, 2024.

That would involve billing companies for using their software before telling them of the existence of a bill. Holding their actions to a contract that they performed before the contract existed!

Okay. I think that's everything. So far.

There is one thing that I want to mention before ending this post, unfortunately it's a little conspiratorial, but it's so hard to believe that anyone genuinely thought this was a good idea that it's stuck in my brain as a significant possibility.

A few days ago it was reported that Unity's CEO sold 2,000 shares of his own company.

On September 6, 2023, John Riccitiello, President and CEO of Unity Software Inc (NYSE:U), sold 2,000 shares of the company. This move is part of a larger trend for the insider, who over the past year has sold a total of 50,610 shares and purchased none.

I would not be surprised if this decision gets reversed tomorrow, that it was literally only made for the CEO to short his own goddamn company, because I would sooner believe that this whole thing is some idiotic attempt at committing fraud than a real monetization strategy, even knowing how unfathomably greedy these people can be.

So, with all that said, what do we do now?

Well, in all likelihood you won't need to do anything. As I said, some of the biggest names in the industry would be directly affected by this change, and you can bet your bottom dollar that they're not just going to take it lying down. After all, the only way to stop a greedy CEO is with a greedier CEO, right?

(I fucking hate it here.)

And that's not mentioning the indie devs who are already talking about abandoning the engine.

[Links display tweets from the lead developer of Among Us saying it'd be less costly to hire people to move the game off of Unity and Cult of the Lamb's official twitter saying the game won't be available after January 1st in response to the news.]

That being said, I'm still shaken by all this. The fact that Unity is openly willing to go back and punish its developers for ever having used the engine in the past makes me question my relationship to it.

The news has given rise to the visibility of free, open source alternative Godot, which, if you're interested, is likely a better option than Unity at this point. Mostly, though, I just hope we can get out of this whole, fucking, environment where creatives are treated as an endless mill of free profits that's going to be continuously ratcheted up and up to drive unsustainable infinite corporate growth that our entire economy is based on for some fuckin reason.

Anyways, that's that, I find having these big posts that break everything down to be helpful.

[asgardian--angels]

**URGENT** HELP SAVE THE USGS BEE LAB!

PLEASE circulate this as widely as possible, as soon as possible.

Hi all, you may not know me but I am a native bee researcher in the eastern US. People like me work to study and protect the 3600 species of native bees in North America, many of which are in severe decline.

We just received devastating news, that unfortunately was not surprising. The Trump administration's proposed 2026 budget is set to defund most of the ecological research happening at the USGS, and that includes zeroing out the budget for the USGS Native Bee Inventory & Monitoring Lab.

Don't know them? Maybe you've seen stunning photos like this:

These gorgeous and evocative focus-stacked photos of native bees on black backgrounds - all of which are public domain - come from the USGS Bee Lab (here's their Flickr). Through these, they've helped bring the beauty and importance of native bees to the public's attention. Hundreds if not thousands of news articles, videos, and publications use these photos.

But that is just one tiny slice of what the USGS Bee Lab does for pollinator conservation. Its primary role is much bigger; they provide technical support, research collaborations, and financial & grant partnerships to federal and state agencies, academic institutions and researchers, and much more, so we can study, manage, and protect North America's wild pollinators. They conduct research of their own that has led to species rediscoveries, and produce invaluable resources that have greatly advanced our understanding of wild bees and our approaches to studying and conserving them. They also provide the essential and irreplaceable service of bee identification. For those who don't know, identifying bees is hard. Sometimes Really Hard. And this lab is one of just a handful of places in the entire country who can identify some of the toughest groups of bees, and who sit on the forefront of breakthroughs on taxonomy and identification that the rest of us in this field rely on. Without this service, agencies and researchers trying to survey and monitor bees in order to track population declines, manage land, and get policy changed are stuck with a lot of nameless bees, severely limiting the usefulness of that data.

Tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of bee specimens pass through this lab annually, plus the thousands in permanent storage, from long-term monitoring efforts by state and federal agencies, and researchers like myself. They operate at a greater capacity than basically any other institution doing this kind of work. Few if any bee researchers in the eastern US, or even the country, have not benefitted from this lab's work, and those benefits are passed on to you through being able to protect pollinators and the services they provide both in agriculture and ecosystems.

This lab is headed up by scientist Sam Droege, who has dedicated decades of his life to this cause, and whom I consider not just a research partner but, humbly, a friend. I am utterly indebted to him for helping me get my start in this field, and for the support and kindness he has shown me and every other young professional who is passionate about pollinators. The Lab operates with an insanely small budget already, and a very limited staff, yet the impact they have is exponentially outsized. Losing the USGS Bee Lab would be a devastating blow to pollinator conservation in this country, at a time when native bee species are sitting on the precipice, and sustainable agriculture is non-negotiable for our future.

You can read more about the Bee Lab here. The Lab is not well-publicized, but it's a lifeline for the many dedicated people who work to try and protect pollinators and the environment at large.

SO WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Sam Droege has sent out a request for help, and has encouraged us to post on social media. This is what he wants you to do to help us save the Bee Lab.

This is verbatim:

What is Happening: ·       The USGS Bee Lab is at risk of being permanently closed due to cuts in the 2026 Federal Budget and looming federal RIF’s ·       Specifically, the Ecosystem Mission Area (EMA) budget, which funds the USGS Bee Lab and the Eastern Ecological Science center has been zeroed out ·       Thousands of layoffs to hit Interior, National Parks imminently - Government Executive What you can do ·       Write to your representatives, the White House, and the Department of the Interior that they should restore the funding for the USGS Bee Lab ·       Send digital or physical letters, write emails, post to social media What you should be highlighting: ·       Personal anecdotes about how the Bee Lab has impacted you or your organization ·       How important the research the Bee Lab is conducting is to your state Contact Information: 1.      Representatives: Find Your Representative | house.gov 2.      Senators: U.S. Senate: Contacting U.S. Senators 3.      White House: Contact Us – The White House 4.      Interior: feedback@ios.doi.gov Send a copy of the letter to droegesam@gmail.com Pass this email around.  Post your response to social media

IT'S OK if you are not a scientist and have not directly interacted with the Bee Lab. Have you seen the lab's photos? Are you concerned about native pollinator declines? Are you aware of any pollinator conservation initiatives or policies in your own state - those almost certainly have drawn, directly or indirectly, from work the Lab has done. Speak about American food production and agriculture, how the Lab's research and collaborations are essential to safeguarding pollination services (this might help reach across the aisle).

Sam urges that these letters, emails, phone calls, etc, must happen quickly - within the next couple days. This information went out on May 8th and that is the day I am posting this. So please, don't wait.

If 'save the bees' has ever meant anything to you, this is the agency that is playing one of the biggest roles in this country in making that happen. Please, contact your representatives, and pass this call to action along however you can. Thank you.

[gaddaboutgriffon]

Spleen Suprize

Completely random idea popped into my head that I thought I would share. Basically what if Ras had had Dan, Danny, and Dani pods in same room Tim’s spleen is stored in and the bats thought that he cloned Tim using the spleen.

Imagine if Vlad had a tiff with Ras Al Ghul over something and Ras goes to take Vlad out, only to find three kids being held captive in what looks like Lazarus water fill pods. This only make Ras further feel justified in dealing with the arrogant pest. But who is he to pass up taking some potential assets.

So the pod kids ,one boy who looks 16, another boy who looks 14, and a girl who looks 12, and all of Vlad’s data and equipment in the lab are packed up and brought back to Nanda Parbat. Unfortunately just after everything has been unloaded into a storage room to be sorted through later is when the Bat and his brood come charging in and making havoc.

As predicted the Bats hadn’t appreciated all the clones of Damian being sent to kill him. Since it was clear the bat brood were targeting all the labs.

—————

Mean while the bats have finished uploading viruses and burning the other labs when they come across one that was barely more then a storage room. Inside they find what looks like a shelved cloning project, including three teens, oh and the jar with Tim’s spleen. Fudge, now he has to tell them he is actually missing a spleen. Good thing he was already in compartmentalization mode to not Greek out over his clone kids, that he is going to be so much better to than Superman was to Kon, that argument will have to wait.

Now than I am thinking that Vlad had kidnapped Dan and forced him to fuse into a clone body, and then was keeping him asking the pod while his memory was being wiped and rewritten into the son Vlad wanted. Dani had witnessed part of that and went to Danny for help, but Vlad decided her accidentally getting away would actually be the perfect bait for a trap. And you can guess the rest from there.

But I encourage you to add on with reblogs. Likes are nice but reading what you add is better.

[deadsetobsessions]

Tim Drake had a lot of free time.

In between the time little Timmy was deemed old enough to not need a nanny and his ninth birthday when he got his first film camera, Tim Drake had so much time after school to explore his big, empty house. And so he did, hours upon hours were spent exploring his house.

Mansion, Tim corrects himself. His house isn’t a house. It’s an abandoned mausoleum disguised as a mansion. He intimately knows every creak of the floorboards in the out of the way galleries, every heavy weight curtain shut closed so what little sun that makes it way through Gotham’s gloom is reflected in order to protect the artifacts stored within the walls. Tim probably knows the exact amount of fleur-de-lys on the fourth sitting room’s wall paper- by extrapolation from preexisting data and personal data collection. Basically, he laid on the floor and counted.

Tim had a lot of time. He also had a lot of artifacts to pore over, making stories as he goes and double checking the actual history of the object.

Tim thinks he’s an artifact, almost. To his parents, at least. A child, a thing, they collected at one point in their lives and put on display at the galas they deem worthy to return to Gotham for. Perhaps he’s worth even less, had his parents bothered to look at him more than the lesser art pieces in their storage-mansion. The story everyone knows about him is prerecorded by people who weren’t really there.

Regardless, Tim Drake knows every single corner of his prison mansion. He’s catalogued everything, after all, on a nice spreadsheet. 

And that’s why, as he entered the fifth- and least used- guest bedroom, Tim’s attention immediately cut to the wrong bit of detail. Eyes flickering between the indent on the bed, the mussed- but not terribly dirty- state of the sheets, Tim slowly backed towards the door. His eyes fixed on the spot on the bed, he called out a soft “hello?”

He immediately cringed. He’s not an amateur, and that little “hello” was a mistake that might get him killed.

Tim trembled as the panic set in, tears pooling at his eyes. He wished Batman and Robin were here, they’d know how to-

There’s something appearing on the bed. Tim Drake stares as a glowing figure with white, wispy hair and a black hazmat suit appeared sitting cross crossed on the guest bed. His gloved hands were held out in the universal I-mean-no-harm gesture.

“Don’t- don’t panic!” The thing said, looking rather panicked itself. “I’m, uh, Phantom.”

Tim Drake’s curiosity and mystery-solving mindset slammed down on the toddler’s mind, quickly banishing the fear and panick in favor of interrogating this new, exciting thing.

“I’m Tim. Are you…” Tim frowns, wishing he had Batman’s intimidating growl. “A ghost?”

“Got it in one, kiddo. I’m, uh, not here to harm you. Or steal anything! I just wanted to rest.”

Tim blinked. He decided right then and there that he likes this person. This… Phantom. If his trust was based on the fact that the loneliness was worse than a dead person, no, it wasn’t.

“I thought you sleep when you’re dead..?”

——

Danny stared at the child in front of him, watching the kid- Tim- pout at something. Danny is distracted from the staples holding his ghostly guts from falling out of his non-consensual vivisection when the kid asks him if he’s a ghost.

“Got it in one, kiddo!” Oo, he should tone down the energy. Danny’s too tired right now to maintain that level when speaking to Tim. Now, gotta reassure the kid he means no harm before he reports Danny’s presence to whatever authorities around.

His parents, at best. The cops, at worst.

“I’m, uh, not here to harm you. Or steal anything!” He could tell he landed in some richie rich mansion by the opulent decorations in a seemingly impersonal room alone. “I just wanted to rest.”

Ancients, that had been more honest than he’d wanted. He really was out of it.

“I thought you sleep when you’re dead?”

Danny snorted.

“Yeah, but you can almost never have enough sleep, you know?”

The toddler looks unsure but nods anyways.

“Listen, would you… not tell anyone that I’m here? I’ll be out of your hair soon, promise.

Tim looks like a smart kid. There’s no way he’d fall for-

“Okay.” He fell for it. Danny blinked, stupefied. “My parents won’t be home for a while.”

“What.”

Tim shrugged. “You can stay. The housekeeper is only around a couple of days.”

“You… are you supposed to tell me that?”

Tim sent him a derisive look, clearly bolder now that Danny made no moves to hurt him.

On his cherubic but skinny face, the effect is both adorable and absolutely devastating.

“You’re hurt.” Tim fidgeted with his hands. “I can… I can get you water…?”

His core purred.

“Please. Thanks… Tim?”

The kid beamed at him and left.

Crap. New fraid member it is.

——

Danny, naive: “Surely him trusting strangers is just a one time thing, he’s so well behaved”

Tim, staring Danny in the eyes as he jumps out of the window to go stalk his vigilantes: “I’m gonna go take a walk in Crime Alley”

——

Tim gets Danny water, but it’s tap water from Gotham and is infected with both an ungodly amount of toxins (that doesn’t affect either of them bc one’s dead and the other had been chugging it since they were a baby- Gothamites get bottled water or from Wayne Foundation’s Clean Water Stations) and also like trace amounts of ectoplasm.

Danny: woah this is so healthy water!

Tim, pleased because Danny ruffled his hair: yes, I’m perfect

The rest of Gotham, if they knew: making warding sigils against these two eldritch gods

——

Basically, Danny gets attached and stays mostly because of said attachment but also Danny could see Tim’s budding world dictator tendencies and went yeah gotta curb that

[kyeomic]

i decided to upload my little baby svt file collection for everyone. its rly just a small random grab bag but i have access to some source files (basically meaning ts files so not screen recorded or watermarked, i will mark these as "source quality") + ive collected some concert recordings as well. enjoy.

!!! dont forget youre helping hybe finance the killing of palestinians when you give them money. consider donating to a palestinian child here. thank you

the links are hosted on gofile and WILL EXPIRE in about 2 weeks! you can send me an anon any time if you need me to reupload something, i want to share these files with as many people as possible! the only reason they'll expire is bc i can't afford permanent storage right now.

full list and links under the cut~ includes nana tour in the soup a selection of concerts some caratlands yadda yadda

��️ stuff that will be added as soon as i get it: caratland 2025 both days no watermark + dokyeom focus cam, follow to japan fukuoka source quality

NANA TOUR source quality, 1080p, this is the full non-shortened weverse release!

IN THE SOOP Season 1 - source quality, 1080p, eng & spanish subs, this is the amazon version meaning it's shorter than the weverse release by 2 episodes. i don't have the full version in proper quality, if you do PLEASE dm me Season 2 - source quality, 1080p, eng subs, this is the full weverse release / ‼️ ATTENTION: for this one the audio and video streams are split but when you open the video file in VLC player you can simply add the audio stream in the settings. send me an ask if you need help with that!

CARATLAND 2024 - source quality, weverse release! 2024 - both days, both with multi and single cam each

CONCERTS

Right Here in Goyang - both days Right Here in Osaka - day 1 Follow Again Osaka - day 1 Follow Again to Incheon - day 2 CONCERT FILMS Follow Again to Cinemas 2024 - source quality Power of Love: The Movie 2023 - source quality Follow to Fukuoka 2023, source quality Ode to You in Seoul 2019 - source quality

OTHER PLACES TO DOWNLOAD FILES: therosebay 3cmgoogie dadeuthannie svt vlive archive

if you don't care about downloading files you can check out svtflix. it's an archive of almost every show, concert, documentary etc free to stream. and then there's also this old archive.

if you have high quality files you want to share please dm me!! i can store, upload & maintain links

some other resources: jdownloader - this program is the best for youtube downloads, not 4kdownloader!!! jdownloader also lets you download from a million other sites.. no limit no ads no scraping your data weversetools - to download wv lives

ok bye~

[pr0ng3ls]

ITS MAY YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS

FISH

That's right! I've got bois for this Mermay!! I don't have their faces just yet, but they'll be getting their own sheets very soon with each getting a post. When I have them posted, I'll link them here!

Sun

Moon

Eclipse

Basic info on this AU:

- Semi hibernate? Their burrow is large enough for the three of them to curl up with one another and call it good for few months. Sun on repeat is the first to wake. He likes chewing on the ice for frozen fish

- NONE OF THESE FUCKERS ARE REMOTELY RELATED

- Moon is really the only one with the Crescent motif due to scarring

- these three are not very good with human interactions due to past instances with the older generations

- Our MC is a bit more sensitive things that should hurt or inconvenience them is going to make them upset

- Gonna do my best to keep it ambiguous, tho any smut writing I do will be AFAB cause I'm a baby and still getting comfortable with writing AMAB smut be gentle with me ;u;

MC Information:

- Bought the lake house to continue personal hobby of photography

- works remote from home on data entry

- Will remain mostly ambiguous through story, but is AFAB

- Goes by They/Them

- Vague backstory, allows reader to more seamlessly insert themselves in (Was raised in the area so its not completely alien to them)

Property Information:

- House is a 3 br 2 bth

- rather small. Smaller rooms and bathroom downstairs, master bedroom + bathroom. Separate closet space for storage

- the lake is mostly on a nature preserve, a small private section to MC's lake house + dock

- private area happens to be where the mers took up residence

- The lake isn't small, but it's not massive either, could easily swim from 1 side to the other under an hour

- Lake is mostly clear, the floor made up of natural water grasses and other green growth + logs

- Fishing is allowed, but restricted year round for specific species

- Sun, Moon, and Eclipse are not recorded due to their skittish nature

- House is very much a fixer-upper. Gonna give MC something to do

[amalgamasreal]

Updated Personal Infosec Post

Been awhile since I've had one of these posts part deus: but I figure with all that's going on in the world it's time to make another one and get some stuff out there for people. A lot of the information I'm going to go over you can find here:

https://www.privacyguides.org/en/tools/

So if you'd like to just click the link and ignore the rest of the post that's fine, I strongly recommend checking out the Privacy Guides. Browsers: There's a number to go with but for this post going forward I'm going to recommend Firefox. I know that the Privacy Guides lists Brave and Safari as possible options but Brave is Chrome based now and Safari has ties to Apple. Mullvad is also an option but that's for your more experienced users so I'll leave that up to them to work out. Browser Extensions:

uBlock Origin: content blocker that blocks ads, trackers, and fingerprinting scripts. Notable for being the only ad blocker that still works on Youtube.

Privacy Badger: Content blocker that specifically blocks trackers and fingerprinting scripts. This one will catch things that uBlock doesn't catch but does not work for ads.

Facebook Container: "but I don't have facebook" you might say. Doesn't matter, Meta/Facebook still has trackers out there in EVERYTHING and this containerizes them off away from everything else.

Bitwarden: Password vaulting software, don't trust the password saving features of your browsers, this has multiple layers of security to prevent your passwords from being stolen.

ClearURLs: Allows you to copy and paste URL's without any trackers attached to them.

VPN: Note: VPN software doesn't make you anonymous, no matter what your favorite youtuber tells you, but it does make it harder for your data to be tracked and it makes it less open for whatever public network you're presently connected to.

Mozilla VPN: If you get the annual subscription it's ~$60/year and it comes with an extension that you can install into Firefox.

Mullvad VPN: Is a fast and inexpensive VPN with a serious focus on transparency and security. They have been in operation since 2009. Mullvad is based in Sweden and offers a 30-day money-back guarantee for payment methods that allow it.

Email Provider: Note: By now you've probably realized that Gmail, Outlook, and basically all of the major "free" e-mail service providers are scraping your e-mail data to use for ad data. There are more secure services that can get you away from that but if you'd like the same storage levels you have on Gmail/Ol utlook.com you'll need to pay.

Tuta: Secure, end-to-end encrypted, been around a very long time, and offers a free option up to 1gb.

Mailbox.org: Is an email service with a focus on being secure, ad-free, and privately powered by 100% eco-friendly energy. They have been in operation since 2014. Mailbox.org is based in Berlin, Germany. Accounts start with up to 2GB storage, which can be upgraded as needed.

Email Client:

Thunderbird: a free, open-source, cross-platform email, newsgroup, news feed, and chat (XMPP, IRC, Matrix) client developed by the Thunderbird community, and previously by the Mozilla Foundation.

FairMail (Android Only): minimal, open-source email app which uses open standards (IMAP, SMTP, OpenPGP), has several out of the box privacy features, and minimizes data and battery usage.

Cloud Storage:

Tresorit: Encrypted cloud storage owned by the national postal service of Switzerland. Received MULTIPLE awards for their security stats.

Peergos: decentralized and open-source, allows for you to set up your own cloud storage, but will require a certain level of expertise.

Microsoft Office Replacements:

LibreOffice: free and open-source, updates regularly, and has the majority of the same functions as base level Microsoft Office.

OnlyOffice: cloud-based, free

FreeOffice: Personal licenses are free, probably the closest to a fully office suite replacement.

Chat Clients: Note: As you've heard SMS and even WhatsApp and some other popular chat clients are basically open season right now. These are a couple of options to replace those. Note2: Signal has had some reports of security flaws, the service it was built on was originally built for the US Government, and it is based within the CONUS thus is susceptible to US subpoenas. Take that as you will.

Signal: Provides IM and calling securely and encrypted, has multiple layers of data hardening to prevent intrusion and exfil of data.

Molly (Android OS only): Alternative client to Signal. Routes communications through the TOR Network.

Briar: Encrypted IM client that connects to other clients through the TOR Network, can also chat via wifi or bluetooth.

SimpleX: Truly anonymous account creation, fully encrypted end to end, available for Android and iOS.

Now for the last bit, I know that the majority of people are on Windows or macOS, but if you can get on Linux I would strongly recommend it. pop_OS, Ubuntu, and Mint are super easy distros to use and install. They all have very easy to follow instructions on how to install them on your PC and if you'd like to just test them out all you need is a thumb drive to boot off of to run in demo mode. For more secure distributions for the more advanced users the options are: Whonix, Tails (Live USB only), and Qubes OS.

On a personal note I use Arch Linux, but I WOULD NOT recommend this be anyone's first distro as it requires at least a base level understanding of Linux and liberal use of the Arch Linux Wiki. If you game through Steam their Proton emulator in compatibility mode works wonders, I'm presently playing a major studio game that released in 2024 with no Linux support on it and once I got my drivers installed it's looked great. There are some learning curves to get around, but the benefit of the Linux community is that there's always people out there willing to help. I hope some of this information helps you and look out for yourself, it's starting to look scarier than normal out there.

[3liza]

YES

TLDR:

all websites are using you as an exploitable resource for your data, in this case posts. treat them as hostile landlords and religiously back up your data (posts) on your own storage

no one knows when tumblr will shut down

it will shut down and data will be lost

the people who know about this sort of thing can see the signs but theres no way to know exactly what will go down, or when

use the blog backup button in the settings menu and download your blog. the fact that tumblr even lets you do this is incredible

the tumblr backup file is a big fat nested zip that looks like this. mine was huge. ihavent opened the inner zips yet so im not sure what format they are but the media folder is really just a stack of jpgs and [ngs etc. pretty cool

tumblr will eventually shut down. you should back up your posts. EVERY WEBSITE EVENTUALLY SHUTS DOWN

however the way websites shut down is not something people usually know about in advance, nor is it something that gets planned-upon in general. there is no possibility of anyone involved knowing what's going to happen or when, except that you absolutely cannot depend upon any third party to manage your data for you. your blog is data. back it up regularly

you will almost certainly not receive a warning like "tumblr is out of money and will be closing in 90 days". usually what happens is the site owner sells it to someone who then strips it for parts. Livejournal for example was sold to a russian corporation that turned it into, basically, grazing land for spambots. the site never even shut down, it's still running, its just unusable. i mean you can still post on it, everyone's old blogs are still there. but no one does, because it's just a wasteland full of bots. that's the kind of thing that usually happens to social networks, not "we're deleting this entire website tomorrow your shit is GONE" type thing.

the reason the I Know How Internet Works type people KEEP posting warnings about tumblr being at the end of its natural lifespan is because we've seen this before, we recognize the signs, and we know what to do next. but there's no way to pinpoint dates or know in advance if tumblr is just going to slowly collapse or if the servers will actually go down or if someone will mangle it into a different kind of website etc. the site will eventually "die", but what that means isnt specific, and until it's about to happen no one will have any kind of timeline on when tumblr finally tips over into dead website territory, and no one will agree on exactly whether tumblr is dead or not either. the timeline for this death process--once it starts in earnest which arguably tumblr hasnt yet--is also really variable. sometimes its weeks, sometimes its years.

so yes, you should be worried about your data, you should be worried about your data all the time, especially if someone else is controlling it. if you care about ANY data, back it up yourself. if you let someone else control your data, you will lose it permanently. this is true of everything, not just tumblr, and not just websites, everything

[fabaulti]

I think most of us should take the whole ai scraping situation as a sign that we should maybe stop giving google/facebook/big corps all our data and look into alternatives that actually value your privacy.

i know this is easier said than done because everybody under the sun seems to use these services, but I promise you it’s not impossible. In fact, I made a list of a few alternatives to popular apps and services, alternatives that are privacy first, open source and don’t sell your data.

right off the bat I suggest you stop using gmail. it’s trash and not secure at all. google can read your emails. in fact, google has acces to all the data on your account and while what they do with it is already shady, I don’t even want to know what the whole ai situation is going to bring. a good alternative to a few google services is skiff. they provide a secure, e3ee mail service along with a workspace that can easily import google documents, a calendar and 10 gb free storage. i’ve been using it for a while and it’s great.

a good alternative to google drive is either koofr or filen. I use filen because everything you upload on there is end to end encrypted with zero knowledge. they offer 10 gb of free storage and really affordable lifetime plans.

google docs? i don’t know her. instead, try cryptpad. I don’t have the spoons to list all the great features of this service, you just have to believe me. nothing you write there will be used to train ai and you can share it just as easily. if skiff is too limited for you and you also need stuff like sheets or forms, cryptpad is here for you. the only downside i could think of is that they don’t have a mobile app, but the site works great in a browser too.

since there is no real alternative to youtube I recommend watching your little slime videos through a streaming frontend like freetube or new pipe. besides the fact that they remove ads, they also stop google from tracking what you watch. there is a bit of functionality loss with these services, but if you just want to watch videos privately they’re great.

if you’re looking for an alternative to google photos that is secure and end to end encrypted you might want to look into stingle, although in my experience filen’s photos tab works pretty well too.

oh, also, for the love of god, stop using whatsapp, facebook messenger or instagram for messaging. just stop. signal and telegram are literally here and they’re free. spread the word, educate your friends, ask them if they really want anyone to snoop around their private conversations.

regarding browser, you know the drill. throw google chrome/edge in the trash (they really basically spyware disguised as browsers) and download either librewolf or brave. mozilla can be a great secure option too, with a bit of tinkering.

if you wanna get a vpn (and I recommend you do) be wary that some of them are scammy. do your research, read their terms and conditions, familiarise yourself with their model. if you don’t wanna do that and are willing to trust my word, go with mullvad. they don’t keep any logs. it’s 5 euros a month with no different pricing plans or other bullshit.

lastly, whatever alternative you decide on, what matters most is that you don’t keep all your data in one place. don’t trust a service to take care of your emails, documents, photos and messages. store all these things in different, trustworthy (preferably open source) places. there is absolutely no reason google has to know everything about you.

do your own research as well, don’t just trust the first vpn service your favourite youtube gets sponsored by. don’t trust random tech blogs to tell you what the best cloud storage service is — they get good money for advertising one or the other. compare shit on your own or ask a tech savvy friend to help you. you’ve got this.

[solar4seekstron]

Plan F - Doubledealer

TF1!Megatron x Cybertronian!GN!Reader Part 6

Solars Indie Series

Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, Plan D, Plan E, Plan G, Plan H, Plan I, Plan J, Plan K, Plan L, Plan M, Plan N

Introduction Indie Series

Content: 18+, Doubledealer x reader, Back to Megatron x Reader at end. Reader is just trying to protect Locket.

TW/Tags: Basically Doubledealer x reader in this chapter, Megatron x reader any end and at some point, Another Forced Relationship, Reader needs sleep, Locket is so done with Doubledealers bs, Flashback, Swearing, attempted rape, death, angst, unhappy ending, I think that’s all? Probably missed something lol.

Notes: Don’t know if I mentioned send before but Doubledealer is a little shorter than Megatron but still taller than the reader.

You sat there. Shaking as so much goes through your mind. Little Locket in your arms sleeping peacefully. If you were any other life form, you’d have bags under your optics.

Forced to be the partner of someone else. Shooting your Conjunx in front of you and your sparkling. Primus the way things lead up to this is unbelievable.

You glanced next to you. Seeing Doubledealer sleeping peacefully on his back.

You then looked down at the little locket. Her helm and little cervos are on your chest while your cervos and arm try to cover her while also keeping her close. You haven’t slept. Something that hasn’t changed since Doubledealer took over. You sat there for a little while longer before glancing at the door.

Knowing there are guards on the other side. You let out a sigh and stood up. Walking to the cleaning area in your room.

You look at the mirror see your sad expression and lockets back as she continues to sleep. You then looked down. Letting out a sad sigh and tried to think about the good times you and D-16 had.

With and without Elita and Orion. His smile and everything. You then sat in a chair as Locket soon woke up from her sleep due to a nightmare.

You started to comfort her and closed your optics once more while you gently rocked her. Thinking about your past more and more as time passes. Hoping Locket's small cries don't wake up Doubledealer.

-Flashaback-

It was a few days after D was your patient and you finally gave him the ok to leave.

He didn’t seem all that too happy but understood he needed to work to make up for some money for energon.

One day, while you were making reports for the survivors after they spent some time flirting with you. You then heard a knock while in the patient room. You thought it might’ve been ratchet since you knew he was in the room next door taking care of another patient.

When you turned, still looking down at your data pad. You then spoke. “Ratchet, I looked over this report and can you give a second opinion over this diagram and-“

”Uh- I ain’t Ratchet.” You were startled a little by his voice. Damn that voice- You looked up to see D with a nervous smile. Scratching the back of his helm. He then walked over as he spoke. “Um. Thought I come and see if you’re up for that drink?”

You were surprised and let out a soft chuckle. Nodding and sending the notes on the data pad to Ratchet then setting it down. “Sure. What place were you thinking?”

D then glanced away for a moment. Seeming nervous. You have a soft smile on your dermas. It then cuts to you and him sitting in chairs on a roof. Where the view of the Iacon 5000 race is shown.

A storage room next door. An abandoned table set for you both. At least someone tried cleaning it.

D was shaking and continued to nervously smile as he looked at you and glanced at the floor and back to the side before looking at you. You weren’t too bothered.

Not like you miners can afford to get good energon anywhere fancy.

Orion then appeared trying to make a cool entrance by jumping off the storage rooms roof. Only to fail and land next to the table. You and D looking at him worried.

It was silent for a moment while Orion took his time standing up. Struggling at first.

Dusting off his arm and lap with a smile. Then fixes up his store-bought tie also made out of metal. Then walked to a large rock and picked it up. Two plates of energon are behind it.

He then brought them to you both. Placing a plate in front of you both along with drinks that were in the storage room.

Placing the kups next to the plates and pouring in some energon then holding the bottle as brings his digits to his dermas. Then saying Muah! Before speaking. “Bon Appétit”.

You were watching him the whole time.

Then chuckled when he was done and said thank you to him while he skipped away to into the storage room.

D has had the side of his helm on his cervo while looking in the opposite direction with an annoyed expression.

You then looked at him and gave a soft smile. Placing a cervo over his, this making him look at you. His optics were nervous. You then spoke.

”I don’t know about you, but this is the nicest date I’ve ever been on.” You then grabbed some energon, eating it as your other cervo remained on his on the table. D just stared at you for another moment before doing the same with his other cervo.

You then spoke again after a moment of silence between you both. “So, Orion offered to help. I assume?”

D choked on his energon a little and spoke as his cervos grabbed his drink. “I- Well yeah- I mean he offered. I wasn't for- I mean sure about it. I just thought maybe if I kept working then I could afford a better…Restaurant you know?”

At the end of that sentence, Orion can be seen in the background on his back.

His upper half was out of the room while Elita was strangling him and he was trying to keep her from seeing them. Elita then pulled him back in. D soon continued. “But Orion convinced me that since we’re all miners. I can only do so much that I can?”

You let out a soft chuckle. Your cervo gently squeezes the top of his. “Well..”

Orion is then seen to have his upper body being thrown over the window and then being pulled back in with a scream.

“This is honestly more than I can ever ask for. And…I look forward to the…Next ones?” Orion is then at the window again. screaming help- HELP!” Before being pulled back in again.

Ds cervo then turning you hold yours in his palm. You both now holding hands in the middle of the table.

Speaking as he finally has a calmer and genuine smile and soft optics as they brighten a bit. “Me too.”

You both then leaned forward a little as you both stared into each other's optics. Love in both your optics.

Orion is then seen crawling out slowly as he struggles to breathe before being pulled back into the room with another scream. Elita is heard in the storage room saying. “Get back here!!!”.

D then speaking. His expression remaining the same as he tilted his helm to the storage room but back to you. “We should probably help him out.”

You let out a hum and spoke once more. “He can handle it for a little longer.”

Ds grin growing wider and he lies out a deep chuckle.

You both lean back a little in your seats. Him drinking his energon while you ate another piece of energon while continuing to stare at each other. Orion's screams are being heard more.

That night was a good night.

-End of Flashback-

You had a smile on your dermas. Your optics closed and Locket was able to finally calm down. A smile on her little dermas as well. But. That’s until you feel someone taking her from your arms. This instantly made you wake up.

You looked up and saw Doubledealer gently holding her with a smile. He then started to walk to her crib. You are behind him watching as he puts her in her crib.

You then stand still when he turns to face you. Looking down at you with a smirk.

His cervos then gently held and rubbed your arms. Up and down as his helm leaned down. His forhelm pressed against yours. He then speaks in a low voice.

“Very nice of you sweetspark. But if I’m going to be a good sire for locket. I need to take a little more responsibility.”

You tried to back up, but his cervos held you still. He then stood straighter and with one cervo still holding your arm. He brought you with him back to the berth.

You look back at Locket who continued to sleep peacefully.

You and Doubledealer laying down together. Him making sure the side of your frame is against his so your helm will be on his chest.

His arm around you and your lower half between his legs. He sat up a little while his other cervo lay behind his helm. he let out a soft chuckle as he spoke.

“You should really stop babying her. She might grow soft…Like her carrier” He meant in a cruel tone

You just kept looking down. Your optics then close as you try to sleep. But the cervo once behind his helm moved to hold your chin. Making you look up at him.

Your optics tired as he stared down at you. “Tell me. When’s the last time that old brute gave you a good fragging hm? Maybe you need a…Oh I don’t know. A real but to show you a good time hm?”

Your optics widened a bit and you tried to pull away. But he wouldn’t let you.

He then leans closer. You felt his dermas press harshly against yours. Keeping you still for a moment longer. You tried your best to not cry out for him to stop. But you can’t help but think. He’s so different from Megatron.

He gave you more freedom. To walk around the ship.

Speaking to whom ever you wished. But doesn't truly seem that interesting with Locket.

Not to mention he flirts with the other nutural and femme bots in his team and the high guard. But he always says scrap like you being his main one. You doubt it though.

While the kiss continued, your cervos moved to bee against his chest.

You then tried to make the effort to push him away. He seemed to get annoyed and confused. His optic ridges furrowed as he stared down at you. The speaking.

”I treat you better than even Megatron does! Why must you be so difficult?!” He held you tightly with a large frown on his dermas.

You spoke finally while your cervos continued to press harshly against his chest.

”You are no different from Megatron. And as much as you like to tell yourself this. You both only care about power. And see me as some sort of desire!” Your pede then lifted up and kicked him from the side of his helm.

But while he let you go for a moment. But was quick to grab you once more and pinning you down.

You continue to try to kick him off you. But he has a bigger bot than you. Your wrists are pinned to the side of your helm. Doubledealer stared down at you as he watched you struggle.

He then spoke in a low voice. Whispering roughly. “Keep your damn voice down. Don’t wish for Locket to wake up to her carrier acting like a damn glitch!”

You continue to struggle. Your legs kicking at him. You then get horrible flashbacks of when Megatron would do this to you.

But…rougher…As you continue Doubledealer just lets out an annoyed sigh and slowly sits up. His optics almost seem softer as he seems to be deep in thought.

He would let go of one of your cervos and move it to gently hold your cheek. Your free cervo moves to grab and pull at his arm. Then start hitting at his chest. You then say in a yelled whisper. “Let me go!!!”

He continues to just lightly sit over your legs. Soon letting out a sigh and looked to the side. Then having a grin on his face and stares down at you with a glare.

Getting off you and letting you go. But as you sat up and were about to move towards Locket, he grabbed your arms from behind bringing you back to him.

Pressed against his frame while you continue to struggle. His helm next to yours.

You are between his legs while your back is against the front of his frame. His arms then wrap around you to hold you tightly.

You felt his dermas against your shoulder while you keep struggling.

After a couple of minutes. You slowly calmed down. Small tears fell once more. All you can do is cry.

You then feel his grip on you loosen a little but still keep you against him. His helm lifts a little so he speaks next to your audio sensors. “I may be a lot like him. But at least..” One of his cervos moved to rest on your stomach just over your pelvis.

You then get a shiver up your spine as he continues to speak. “If I am to lead with the “lords” former Conjunx. I should create an heir for the new cause. Giving life to children of the strongest bots in this ship I such an honor when you think about it. Wouldn’t you agree?”

You felt yourself shake. This guy is fucking sick.

He waits for you to speak. But you remained quiet as you looked down. His cervo over your stomach starts to gently rub up and down. He then spoke once more.

“Maybe..tonight. It’s already dawn it seems. So let’s make this relationship work. Locket becomes a general. Hm and our sparkling.”

His arms still around you soon squeezed you tighter against his frame. “Will become the new lord. I would be so happy if they became a neutral bot like my lovely Conjunx.”

He whispered in a seductive tone. Your tears were now done as you stared into space.

Wide optics while you imagine it. Locket becomes a cruel ruler over an army. While this sickos sparkling will be a lord over the planet. No…Not your sparkling. And you sure as hell won't bring another life into this world just to suffer.

Doubledealer continues to look at you and lets out a soft sigh. His dermas pressing soft kisses against the side of your neck. His optics closed while he remained close to you. Your frame limped against his.

This makes him think that you gave up. He continues until he gets a comm from one of his assassin bots.

Saying it’s time to start his speech. You will be there with your sparkling as to create an image for yourself and the new bots who chose to join during these past few weeks.

You then felt him get up off the berth. His arms were no longer around you while he took the call. You sitting there in defeat. At least that’s what he thinks.

You just drowned out the sound of his voice while he was taking the call. After a few minutes of standing there with your optics closed. You then heard him say your name.

“Now start getting yourself polished and locket ready when she awakens. We have a very important meeting to get to.”

You looked so out of it. Being up all night. Your helm low as your optics showed you have been crying.

Doubledealer walked out with a grin and could be heard talking to a guard on the other side of the door once it closed behind him.

You then looked over at the locket and let out a sigh.

Slowly getting off the berth and stood. Making your way to her. She had her little cervos clenched and they were close to her cheeks.

A small frown on her dermas while her optics remained closed and her little legs lifted to be closer to her body.

You watched her for a moment then closed your optics. Imagining her grown up and looking over the horizon on the surface of Cybertron.

With a smile and bright yellow optics outshining the sky. A strong capable warrior.

She soon turned her helm and frame toward someone. You. With reassuring optics along with a smile that grew wider.

When you opened your optics you then see that she had her little optics opened, soon giggling and reaching for you.

You gently picked her up and made your way back to the cleaning room. You get to work for both you and her to look nice…and clean.

-Time skip: Throne Room-

You sat there with a blank expression. Sitting on the arm of the throne while Doubledealer sat in it. Locket sitting on your lap. Hugging you with her little arms trying to get away from Doubledealer as much as she can.

Doubledealer was speaking to the bots who decided to join saying how he’ll be a great leader. Feeling his cervo running your lower back.

Your legs dangling off the arm of the throne. Your knees were made to turn towards him. So the bots in the room see the side of your frame. Same for Locket who kept her optics closed.

You tried your best to keep her from getting fussy. Doubledealer would chuckle when he made a joke and all the other bots laughed.

You held in your tears tightly. You thought hard. Today is the day Megatron and his most loyal followers die…And Doubledealer already made it clear for this day. That you will watch. But nothing will stop you from not letting Locket watch….

Even if he punishes you for you. The sick bastard.

As the hours went by everything was set to create a new cause and destroy the first leader. Doubledealer at one point before giving the word to bring Megatron and the others in made a very important choice.

You continued to hold Locket closely while her little chin rested on top of your chest. Her optics closed.

Doubledealer then set his cervos around your little frame and pulled her from your arms. You tried to reach but when he gave you a glare. You instantly stopped.

He then set her on his lap while she tried reaching for you and hitting and pushing at Doubledealer. Letting out little grunts with angry optics.

Doubledealer let out a deep chuckle and kept her there while he spoke.

“This little one will be a great general to lead this army's cause. So. Make sure to treat her like royalty throughout the years….Understood?”

All the bots nodded their helms while Locket continued to hit at his cervos and lower stomach. Doubledealer looked down at her with a smile and narrowed optics.

All you can do is sit there with worried optics.

Doubledealer than making the order to bring in the prisoners. You watched as the doors opened. Soundwave, Shockwave, Starscream, and a ew other seekers and guards walking with with mouth guards on to shut them up.

Their cervos are tied behind thier backs. All are being dragged in by many bots and then thrown in front of the throne.

Then as last but not least. Three bots came in dragging Megatron in. Having a mouth guard on and cervos tied behind him as he’s thrown in front of the throne as well.

Slowly he got on his knees and glared at Doubledealer. You looking at him with wide optics.

When he glanced at you, his optics showed almost worry and anger.

He then looked back at Doubledealer. Who kept one cervo around and held Locket? Who was reaching and crying out for him? Still hitting and grabbing at Doubledealers larger cervo.

Doubledealers other cervo now rested on your thighs. You visibly shaking a little while he seemed relaxed on the throne.

He finally spoke while glaring down at Megatron. “Happy to see them. Aren’t you” He paused for a moment.

“Traitor.”

Megatron visibly more angry now., slowly stood up back on his feet until a yard hit him on the back of his helm making him get back on his knees.

You stared in horror while Megatron tried to yell through the mouthguards. His optics were angry.

But he and his other followers just laughed at him. You then noticed Soundwave and Starscream looking at you. Able to tell what they’re feeling. You tried to think. Hard.

Doubledealer then speaking. “You and your followers will be adding examples of for My army. And will be remembered as such. Oh. And don’t worry Megatron. I’ll take good care of Y/N and Locket. Be sure Locket grows up to be a great general…..”

Megatron continues to glare at him. Waiting for him to finish.

“Alongside her sibling who’ll be such a great Lord.” He said with a devilish grin. Megatron becoming more angry. Quickly knowing what he meant by sibling.

Megatron then tried to get up again but two bots made sure to keep him down on his knees.

The tears became harder to hold in and Doubledealer just smiled at him. You were able to get an idea of what you can do. To at least by time.

And so. Swallowing your pride. You made a move you know is certain to work. Your frame turned more to face Doubledealer as he was about to speak once more. Stopping when he felt your cervo placed against his chest. His helm turned to look at you.

You then spoke. Trying to be as calm as you can while Locket continues to reach for her sire. Megatron looks at her with worry then looks back at you.

“Doubledealer, please. At least let Locket…and I say our goodbyes to Megatron. Locket needs that closer with her sire…Before..she…”

You sighed. “She gets a new one. Please.” Your optics show desperation as you look at him. The bots in the room whispering to each other. Doubledealer continued to stare at you and then looked back at Megatron for a moment.

He sighed and the cervo that was once on your thigh was now on your lower back. He then looked at Locket. Finally speaking he stared back at you.

“Very well, say your goodbyes and the execution will proceed.”

You nodded and got off the throne. Taking Locket off his lap and make your way to Megatron. He watched as Doubledealer did.

Kneeling down before him. Little Locket reached and grabbed at his mouthguard. Megatron stared down at her with softer optics. You glanced back at Doubledealer. Asking for permission. He just sighed and waved his cervo to show him acceptance.

You then look back at Megatron. His optics looking at you the same way he looked at Locket. You then took off his mouthguard.

Megatron intake then opened and moved his lower jaw.

Stretching it out a bit. He then stared back at you. Your optics show to be sad as well. You both then looked at Locket who was standing between you both. Letting out coos and reaching for him.

Megatron leaned down a bit so she could gently hold his chin. She smiled so brightly. You’d let out a soft sigh. Your cervo moving to hold the side of his helm. He then looked at you. You both then close your optics and press each other forhelms together.

You then set your cervo to be on his shoulder as he whispered to where only you can hear him.

“Shield Locket. Soundwave will get me out. Understood?” You thought for only a second until you leaned forward. Your dermas against his as understanding without making it obvious.

Doubledealer got angry and stood up and he spoke angrily.

“That’s enough time for the both of you! Return to me!” You and Megatron stared at each other once more.

You then picked up Locket. Who started to cry for her sire. Reaching for him. Megatron leaned forward a bit so her little cervos could touch him. You then walked to Doubledealer. Unashamed of what you just did.

Doubledealer looked really angry as you got close to him in front of the throne. One of his cervos grabs at the side of your waist. His frame turned to face you as he spoke angrily. Locket hid her face in your chest as she cried for her sire. Still refusing to look at Doubledealer.

“What the hell was that?! Cheating on me when I’ve been nothing but loyal?” You know that’s a lie ever since he forced you to bond with him.

But this argument is part of your crazy plan. Distracting him long enough for Soundwave to gain enough energy and send in a powerful force to release everyone.

You responded to anger him more.

“Wouldn’t you want your Conjunx or someone you truly love to give you your final loving kiss if you were on the brink of death?”

He stared at you and let out an annoyed groan. Keeping you close while he raised his cervo. The bots standing then pointing their guns right at the prisoner's helm. Ready to shoot on command. While holding Locket with one arm.

The other holding the back of her helm to keep her from looking.

Then telling her to turn off her audio sensors so she wouldn't hear the shooting. She does and just stares at the paintings on the walls of the ship in pure silence.

You stood there as Doubledealer was about to put his cervo down.

That is until Soundwaves blaster of sound soon releases the cuffs and frees Megatron and Starscream who are in front of him.

The blast also blows the guards away before they can shoot anyone in front of them. Doubledealer moved in front of you and Locket. Giving the order to the other guards to start shooting. But the blast was able to release the others and soon there was another fight.

Doubledealer then grabs your cervo and runs out of the throne room.

Megatron can be heard yelling as Doubledealer followers try to deal with him. When he believed you guys got to a far distance in a locked room.

He pressed you harshly by the shoulders while still holding Locket, who was still crying against your chest. Wanting her sire.

He then spoke in an angry tone. “You knew this would happen, didn’t you? Helping that bastard escape? You’re a terrible Conjunx. But don���t worry. When I’ve dealt with him. I’ll teach you a good lesson on why you should never betray me. Especially as a Conjunx. Understood!”

You just stared at him point-blank. Then turn your helm away. He growled then got a comm. You heard it too. They were able to get Megatron and his followers down in a blackmail situation.

Your optics widened in fear. It was all not worth it in the end.

Doubledealer then called for a guard. Letting you go as he unlocked the door. A guard came in after a minute. Doubledealer then walks up to you and takes Locket from your arm.

You tried to take her back without hurting her. But you couldn’t. He then gave her to the guard telling them to watch her.

Locket reached for you as she cried. The door then closed behind the guard. Doubledealer was fuming. He then walked up to you and roughly grabbed your arms. Making your frame slam against his.

His dermas roughly kissing yours. Then while his dermas remained against yours. He angrily spoke in a deep whisper voice.

“You should really learn to obey me better my sweet little Conjunx!”

You started to shake. Primus did you even do the right thing?! You then felt his dermas roughly kissing the side of your neck. His cervos then move to be under your things lifting you up. He walked to press you against the wall. All his movements were rough.

You tried your best to push him away. Only to struggle while he tried forcing your panel open. He angrily whispered next to your audio sensors.

“Time to start making the next lord on the day one dies. So poetic. Don’t you think?” He continued. Trying your best to smack him away.

Praying to Primus to be saved. You can’t bring another life into this world only to suffer. He continued until you then heard two loud steps getting closer and closer. Doublledealer didn’t seem to hear them since he was the one doing most of the action.

Hearing his moans and kisses against your frame. You shut your optics.

Crying once more begging for him to stop. Before you knew it though Doubledeale was then grabbing from behind and was taken off you. You fell on your aft when he was separated from you.

You then looked in horror as Megatron stood tall over Doubledealer with an angry expression. Doubledealer looks up in fear as Megatron starts to beat the living hell out of him. Beating him into the ground while you still sat there.

Your optics are wide, while Doubledealers energon blood started to spread on the floor. You were shaking.

You then turned your helmet away. Make your optics close tightly and cover your audio sensors. Moments went by until anything became silent once him. You kept your frame turned away and your optics closed. Shaking more and more every second.

You flinched when you felt a large cervo on your shoulder.

You kept still to not get hurt. But the cervo once on your shoulder moved to hold your chin. Make your helm turn and face the bot. You slowly opened your optics. Seeing it’s Megatron.

For the first time, his optics were…well almost soft and full of sadness and worry. He was covered in blood while he kneeled down before you.

You then spoke in a soft voice. “My..My Lord.”

‘He then spoke. His voice is actually soft. “Sorry that it took me so long sweetspark.” He then helped you stand up as you both held optic contact.

His cervos then held your waist as you spoke. Your cervos move to rest on his arms instead of his chest. “You..came for me. Wait Locket! That guard still has her!” Megatron let out a chuckle and held onto you tighter as he spoke.

“Soundwave and Starscream have her. They’re watching her now while I came to save you. She’s alright sweetspark.”

You let out a relieved sigh. You then felt Megatron grab the back of your helmet. Making you stay looking up at him. His dermas against yours almost aggressively. Forcing his glossa in as he engages into a heated kiss with you.

It lasted for a good while until he decided to finally pull away. Letting out a satisfied sigh while staring down at you. You just stared up at him when he spoke.

“Being in-prisoned made me think a lot you know?” You looked at him confused. But then felt his grip on you get tighter. He then finished his sentence. “While you remain by my side. You will just make Locket week. We need to fix that.”

Your optics were wide. No no no no no! You pressed your cervos against his arms and then his chest as you grew worried and scared.

“No No NO! Megatron you can’t do this. She is my sparkling. Our Sparkling! Please don’t separate me from her!” Your voice got louder until he grew annoyed. He soon spoke once more.

“You will still be her carrier. But in order for her to be the next heir. She must learn to be strong like her sire. Not weak. That’s my final decision Y/N-.”’ You slapped him. Hard. Tears running down as you looked at his shocked expression when he looked back at you.

“You will not take my Sparkling away from Me!!!! Not you or anyone will take her away from me! She’s the only thing that is you. Him! My D-16 before you changed! You will not take what I have felt of my true Conjunx away from me!!!” He just stared at you in shock. Taking in your words. His face full of confusion.

You then turned to the door to get your sparkling. But Megatrons arms wrapped around harshly around you and kept you in place while you screamed.

“LET ME GO. I HAVE TO SEE MY SPARKLING!!! YOU CAN’T TAKE HER FROM ME. YOU CAN’T! YOU CAN’T!”

Megatron just stood there for a moment. Then getting on his knees as he keeps holding you. You continuing to scream and cry for your sparkling. Who was peacefully sleeping in Soundwaves arms in another room down the hall?

You continue. Megatrons expression blank while he stared forward. His expression even seems unsure. You continue on and on. Thinking about her so much.

Slowly your body giving up from escaping his grasp after a few minutes went by, Crying in his arms begging to see her.

You got out of the dangerous situation. Only to back with the first one. Your life truly has changed. Just like your old Conjunx.

Yeah I REALLY got carried away with this one. I swear this can fit into a whole episode. I’m pretty proud of this one and can’t wait to get to continuing with the last two parts of the story and hope you guys enjoyed this one!!!

As always a repost is appreciated and Hope you guys have a good rest of your day! Before and so forth will be released in a couple hours I just wanna get a few more touchups cause I’m really sad to see the series go before I split it to two different timelines, but that doesn’t mean I’m not excited! See you guys then!

[bnny0rgnz]

The Flower Effect

Y/n did her normal routine: wake up, shower, pick up breakfast from Alfred, leave for school, practice, practice some more, go home, shower, sleep. This routine continued throughout the entire week until Friday finally arrived.

But Friday wasn’t like the others. It carried a subtle, thrilling hum of excitement.

Y/n completed her morning routine with an extra spark. She carefully applied her makeup, styled her hair with graceful accessories, and slipped into her school uniform with a pair of her favorite heels to complement the outfit. The anticipation of the upcoming field trip danced in her chest.

She practically skipped downstairs, her energy infectious. “I won’t need breakfast, Alfred! The school is providing meals for the trip,” she called, twirling slightly before heading to the door.

Just as her fingers reached for the doorknob, Vivienne appeared, her presence like a gentle breeze.

“Hey, Y/n. You look good today. Going to school?” Vivienne’s voice was soft, almost like a lullaby that soothed Y/n’s nerves.

“Yes ma’am, I have a field trip today and I’m so excited for it!” Y/n exclaimed, clasping her hands together with glee.

“Oh, where are you going?” Vivienne asked, her head tilting in curiosity.

“The school is taking us to STAR Labs. There’s this scientist who’s going to show us his project. The brochure mentioned his butterflies. He apparently combined butterfly DNA with Sydney funnel-web spider venom. And there’s supposed to be a video demonstration!” Y/n’s eyes gleamed with enthusiasm until she realized she might have been rambling.

“Sorry, I got carried away. I didn’t mean to talk so much… You probably have important things to do.”

“No, no, you’re absolutely fine! I enjoyed hearing about your trip, and I hope you have a wonderful time. You remind me of your dad when he blabs on and on.” Vivienne’s gentle laugh filled the space between them. She reached out and patted Y/n’s head. “Also, I love your makeup and hair. It suits you beautifully.”

On the bus ride to STAR Labs, her friends Lina and Daisy were practically glued to the brochures, obsessively analyzing every line like they were deciphering sacred texts.

“Thanks, Vivi...” Y/n whispered, her smile glowing under the praise as she finally headed out.

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“Look! It says we’ll see the butterflies in action! Isn’t that so cool?” Lina said, her excitement borderline manic as she waved the brochure too close to Daisy’s face.

“Yes, Lina, it’s cool. You’ve only mentioned it fifty times already.” Daisy chuckled, her eyes shifting to Y/n who had been staring out the window, lost in her own world.

“Hey, Y/n. You good over there? Don’t want you to be a mood killer,” Daisy said with a smirk that didn’t quite reach her eyes.

“Yes, I’m fine. Thanks for asking.” Y/n’s smile was polite, but it was obvious Daisy’s comment had stung.

Lina’s voice interrupted her thoughts. “Gosh, Y/n. I forgot you were even here! You’re just so quiet.”

“Ah, yes. I just like looking outside. The view near STAR Labs is so clear and pretty… It’s different from the crowded streets and dull suburbs.”

“Oh, you’re right. Maybe they keep it pristine for all the rich, fancy scientists.” Lina laughed, though her attention drifted away from Y/n as quickly as it had arrived.

The field trip was soon underway, with students from Gotham Academy and Smith O'Neill High School mingling awkwardly under the buzzing fluorescent lights of STAR Labs.

“Welcome, students, to STAR Labs! Soon, you’ll meet in the Butterfly Garden and witness the incredible innovations of Emil Hamilton.” The scientist tour guide’s voice was almost drowned out by the excited chatter of the students.

“But for now, I’ll show you the basics of the lab. Be aware, do not touch anything. Please and thank you.”

The guide gestured for them to follow her. “Over here is the technical resources lab. This is where our scientists, specializing in computer science, focus on accurate data management and storage. It’s a meticulous process, with constant monitoring to ensure nothing gets lost.”

Just as Y/n was about to continue silently, she noticed the guide’s expression change. “Alright, now that we’ve covered the basics, it’s time for the real reason we’re here: the Butterfly Garden,” she said with enthusiasm.

“Ughhh, this is so boring.” Groaned a girl from Starling City with an exasperated roll of her eyes. Her attention shifted to Y/n, who trailed behind her friends, unnoticed and uninvited into their conversations.

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A few moments later, the students were led into a large, brightly lit room, filled with rows of vibrant flowers. It wasn’t quite what Y/n expected—there were no rows of butterflies flitting about—but the plants were beautiful in their own right.

And there, standing in the center of it all, was Emil Hamilton. He was tall, wearing a lab coat, with a slight air of eccentricity that made Y/n think of the mad scientist trope from movies. Emil greeted the students with a wide, somewhat proud smile.

“Welcome, welcome, everyone! I am Emil Hamilton, and today, you’ll be the lucky few who get to witness a breakthrough in genetics and biotechnology!” Emil said, his voice carrying authority, but with a certain childlike excitement that made him seem both professional and approachable.

He motioned to a tank near him, where a few butterflies were fluttering around lazily. “These beauties are the result of years of research. You see, I’ve combined butterfly DNA with the venom of the Sydney funnel-web spider.” He leaned in, as if sharing a secret. “And what’s so amazing about these butterflies is that when they land on certain flowers, they can actually transfer venom to the plant. But don’t worry, these flowers have been modified to handle the venom. The butterflies, however, are far from just pretty creatures.”

As Emil spoke, Y/n found herself captivated. The butterflies’ wings glistened in a myriad of colors, their patterns shifting like tiny, organic rainbows. Emil continued, clearly enjoying his audience’s awe.

“When the butterflies land, they inject the venom into the plant. This triggers a unique biological reaction that causes the flower’s petals to bloom into vibrant colors.” He chuckled to himself. “However, this is a double-edged sword. While the flowers look stunning, the venom also causes strange side effects for anyone who touches the flowers. If you’re brave enough, you can try—but I wouldn’t recommend it.”

Y/n’s heart raced. These butterflies were more than just beautiful—they were dangerous, and Emil’s excitement seemed to mask the true weight of what his invention might bring.

“And now,” Emil continued, his voice rising in excitement, “let me show you the transformation in real time!”

As he stepped closer to one of the flowers, a butterfly flew down, landing softly on a petal. Almost instantly, the flower bloomed into a vibrant purple, the color shimmering in the light.

“That’s the power of nature,” Emil said with a proud smile. “Now, for those of you daring enough, feel free to interact with the flowers after the demonstration. But remember—the venom is potent.”

Y/n stood at the edge of the group, her fingers twitching. The idea of touching one of those flowers, of experiencing the same transformation, was tempting. But Emil’s words about side effects echoed in her mind.

“Wow, that’s... intense,” Y/n muttered, almost to herself, as she stared at the flower. Her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden voice beside her.

“Hiya! I’m Darlene Darling Darson. Yep, triple D’s! My parents must’ve been in a silly mood, huh? But enough about that!” Her voice was bright and bubbly, with a hint of mischief like she’d just shared a secret joke.

“Oh, uh. Hello, Darlene.” Y/n glanced around, realizing for the first time that her friends, Lina and Daisy, were nowhere to be found.

Darlene raised an eyebrow, a knowing smile creeping onto her face. “Hey, why are you standing here all alone? Got ditched by your friends, huh?” She chuckled lightly.

Y/n’s stomach dropped, the unease of the situation settling in. She glanced around and sighed, a bit embarrassed. “Yeah... looks like it. I thought they were right behind me.”

“Well, that’s alright! Who needs friends when you’ve got me, right?” Darlene said with a dramatic flourish, grinning widely.

Y/n gave a small laugh, relieved by Darlene’s lightheartedness. “I guess so.”

Darlene’s grin widened. “I guess I’m supposed to be asking for your name right now, but I know your name already! But I still have to ask it—can’t just skip over the formalities, right? That’d be rude! It's like... people are watching us or something.” She winked. “Anyway, I’m calling you Y/n because that’s your name, right?”

“Uh... sure?” Y/n said, unsure if Darlene was messing with her.

Darlene laughed. “Perfect! Now, c’mon, let’s go sniff flowers or something until you conveniently prick your finger and get superpowers in the middle of the night!”

They wandered through vibrant flowers, Darlene making exaggerated guesses about what each one would do. “This one? Turns your hair purple! That one? Makes you sing opera every time you sneeze!”

“Wait, what?” Y/n asked, but Darlene had already grabbed her hand and was skipping toward the garden.

─────────ೋღ 🌺 ღೋ─────────

Y/n laughed, her defenses crumbling under Darlene’s playful energy.

But then, as Y/n brushed her fingers against the petals of a peculiar violet flower, a sudden sharp pain shot through her fingertip.

“Ow!” She hissed, pulling her hand back and seeing a tiny drop of blood welling up.

“Uh-oh! The flower did the thing!” Darlene gasped with mock horror. “I told you, Y/n! Totally called it.”

They laughed it off, but as the day went on, Y/n’s body began to feel off. Her skin was clammy, her breathing shallow. By the time she got home, her limbs felt heavy, her head pounding.

“Maybe I just need to sleep…” she whispered to herself, stumbling toward her bed before collapsing into darkness.