"I suspect that we'll get it wrong too..." Natanga replied.
"But I get the feeling that's not going to change regardless of when we choose to go. Now is fine by me." She left her seat and began to move towards the simulation chamber, determined not to let any of the other tables try to cut in now that they'd made their decision.
"Yes, I think that's the best choice." Krii agreed cheerfully, standing up to join the group. He was pleased that somebody was willing to make the difficult suggestion, and the curiosity to try his hand at the task was quite overwhelming.
The only one left was Vito. Truth be told he did not want to leave the table just yet, for he saw value in waiting longer. They could ask more students what happened, gather more data to get a better understanding of what was to be expected of them... But he couldn't do this alone. Working together was, supposedly, an important part of this class.
"Alright then, let's go." He said, standing up.
The group made their way over to the chamber, impressing some groups and making others feel relieved. Vito noted that the group with the insectoid student at it seemed to be amongst those breathing sighs of relief, and more interestingly, the multicultural table of females was the only group to be somewhat irritated by their decision, apparently having made the same choice just a minute too late. They entered the chamber amidst hushed whispers, and then silence descended as the door closed. The room was filled with darkness for a moment, and then it lit up suddenly. As it did, all of the students present would find their feet lifting off the ground as they floated in place - this was a simulation of an ocean, vast and teeming with life. Vito was quite surprised, for he'd thought that the simulator merely projected images, and it looked as though he wasn't the only one. Krii squawked with shock before remembering that this was just a simulation.
"Ah, how embarrassing..." He mumbled nervously.
"Sorry, I know it's not real, but as somebody who can't swim I still find this unsettling." "It's not scream-worthy, but it's certainly unpleasant... It even feels wet." Natanga noted, her face expressing her own dislike of the water.
Vito, unlike Krii and Natanga however, loved the water. The sensation of floating, of weightlessness, put his mind and ease. Waves of inexplicable nostalgia washed over him, reminding him of his home, even though his home was a perfectly dry and normal apartment.
"If you find the simulation to be too much you may leave." CHARWIN's computerized voice echoed through the ocean.
"However, should you choose to do so, you will fail instantly. The world of evolutionary biology takes us to many places that we do not want to go to, and forces us to observe many things that we do not wish to bear witness to. It is best to get used to it early." "Oh... Don't mind me then... I, I'll be fine." Krii did not sound very convincing, and he was already looking a little paler than before, but if he did not want to go then Vito saw no reason to force him into doing so. CHARWIN seemed like a strict and unforgiving teacher, so as it suggested Vito agreed that it would be best to get used to this kind of thing quickly. Natanga too seemed unlikely to help Krii, remaining her stoic and unfriendly self.
"The assignment is as I said it was before. I will present you with an environment and a scenario. Many of these will be straight from the pages of history books. You must then nominate which of the species that I present to you will survive, and rationalize your decision." CHARWIN stated, repeating it's earlier instructions.
"The species that I present to you are as follows:"
"SPECIMEN A is a carnivorous cetacean. They travel and hunt in small packs, focusing on taking down large prey for big meals, and they must travel up to the surface every few hours for air. In this era, they are towards the top of the food chain, though they are no match for larger predators."
"SPECIMEN B is a scavenger decapod crustacean. It feeds on dead matter that falls to the ocean floor, and uses it's pincers and exoskeleton to ward away predators. They are technically at the bottom of the food chain due to their diet."
"SPECIMEN C is a herbivorous cephalopod. It feeds on seaweed and various other forms of marine algae, and can camouflage when it is threatened. They are quite low down on the food chain."
Each of the species appeared suspended before the group, one after the other. Specimen A was quite a fierce-looking creature, looking halfway between a crocodile and a dolphin. They were a brilliant silver-blue in colour, almost beautiful until you looked up close at it and got a glimpse of it's vicious jaws. Specimen B was also quite impressive, like a walking fortress, massive in size, with two intimidating pincers and ten legs. It was a dull orange colour, but it had a beautiful variety of flowering seaplants growing on it's exoskeleton. Specimen C was quite pathetic by comparison to these two creatures, looking like a fat yellow octopus with six purple eyes. The bright colours were misleading however, for the simulation soon showed that it was quite capable of making itself nearly impossible to see.
"The scenario is that the world is changing; landmasses are forming and the oceans are receding. Two of these species will not survive this scenario, you must choose the one that will. You may each ask one question, then you must make your decision as a group. You have ten minutes to make your decision." CHARWIN explained. This was a new rule that it had not mentioned before, but it certainly made sense. Without more information, this was nothing more than a guessing game. CHARWIN was testing them, both individually and in groups, to see if they knew what kinds of questions to ask and to see if they could work towards a mutual goal.
Very clever, Vito thought to himself. Now they just needed to take the time to think carefully and decide exactly what they would ask so that they could all get a good ide-
"Could you list the specimens in order, from oldest to youngest?"
"Specimen B, Specimen C, Specimen A. B is the oldest, followed closely by C. A is very young by comparison."
"Natanga, what is wrong with you? We're supposed to be working together!" Vito snapped, turning to demand an answer from the Naga.
"Mine seemed like the obvious question to ask." She replied coldly, making no apologies.
"Besides, we need to ask our questions quickly. The simulator said that we only have ten minutes to make a decision, if we don't ask all of our questions in time we'll lose them.
Vito and Natanga went silent, both seeming to disagree with the other's approach. Krii was looking too queasy to approach them and play his role as peacekeeper once more unfortunately, so the uneasy tension remained unchallenged.
"9 minutes, 17 seconds remaining."
((I saw some people using colours for speech in an RP on Ctopia and thought that it was a pretty good way to keep track of who's saying what so I decided to colour the text differently depending on who is talking. Natanga gets
this pink/reddish colour, Krii gets
yellow, Vito gets
green and CHARWIN gets
grey. If it gets too annoying please let me know and I promise that I'll stop
))
