"That might work. And let's just try before we run out of time."

Back to catching pixilated holographic birds!

Cooperative bird catching! 

The group as a whole catches about as many birds this turn as they did last turn, between the increased difficulty of the task and the increased skill of the catchers. A larger percentage are faster ones than last time, though, now that some of the kids are focusing on them. 

When the round ends and all the birds return to their nests, Mika looks around for Tepam, Lakini and Tani and bounds over to tell them about their idea and invite them to help with the plan. 

Tepam giggles at this and is game. Tani reluctantly agrees once Lakini also decides to join.

Some other kids ask why they are doing this. Some try to follow suit, some don't.

They explain that if they keep catching the fast ones, eventually the birds will all be so slow that they can catch them all in one turn. 

Kasi, already having deduced this and having been working on it on his own, adds his agreement. Keolin is a harder sell, particularly since he lacks the patience to focus in on one really hard to catch bird when he could instead be catching a bunch of easier ones. He does try, though. 

(Sefoni has retreated to the edges of the room and hasn't been catching any birds, fast or otherwise.)

Some kids are not that good at catching the fast birds. Since, they are, fast.

Aden is a bit worried that they might get into trouble, but eventually relent and catches a particularly hard bird and it was only 40% an accident.

Well, it's not as though they're doing anything wrong. They're just trying to win the game. 

Also: what an impressive catch! She is impressed, and so are a few other kids who noticed. Some of the ones who aren't having much luck ask him for tips.

Timing? The birds' AI is just counting down between actions and the "evolution" is just speeding the count down. See how it twitches that way and then that way every time before eating the virtual food? It's faster in the birds that fly faster too.

Some of the kids understand what he's talking about and go back to trying with this new knowledge. Some of them don't quite understand but get enough of it to try paying attention to the patterns in the birds' movements. A couple of them complain about Green stuff and go back to trying their own way. 

Lesi's in the first group, "That's so cool! And it'll make this way easier." She watches a nearby bird cycle between looking around, eating, and hopping about for a little bit, darting forward to catch it right as it bends down to peck a 'mushroom'. It dissolves into pixels in her hands, caught, and she grins up at him, "Wanna try catching one of the fastest ones?"

"Sure, why not." They proceed to catch more birds.

The Green and other minders caught wind of what they are doing, but are not mad about it. He mentions that this is, in a sense, related to the concept of domestication, though he will give the full explanation by the end of the presentation.

Final round!

There's still some fast ones left, but most of them are pretty slow! With all the kids back to catching everything they can this turn, they manage to mostly clear the room by the time the deadline approaches. 

There's just two left, some kind of super fast mutants resulting from the few fast birds which survived the past few rounds. The half-horde of kids chasing them both is making catching them very difficult. 

And Seni can see exactly the problem here, too many people, the birds just have too many targets to potentially spot and then fly away.

That does seem to be the problem, yes, and not one anyone seems to be able to influence. A few do lag behind and eventually give up, and eventually there are few enough kids in the one group that they get organized enough to try to herd their bird into a trap, eventually sending it directly at Teo. 

The other one, however, gets lost in a pile up of kids trying to catch it while it's 'eating'. It glides over to the side of the room and lands. 

Sefoni, sitting curled up against the wall, only notices a bright flash of colour out of the corner of her eye. Her hand flashes out to touch it automatically - and she looks up just in time to watch it dissolve into fading pixels. She stares. 

And Teo catches the other bird!

The Green congratulates the kids and explains the effects of their hunt on the virtual critters evolution.

The presentation concludes and it's time for dinner at the museum's attached restaurant.

Teo gets a lot of cheers! There's lots of excited chatter about the game on the way to the restaurant. 

"Could we make a game like that at home?" Lesi wonders, "Maybe even better with ma-" she stops, "Um. With... that stuff. We have." 

Seni smiles, he is not good at faking smiles. "The word you're looking for is extraordinary resources." It's great that in their language magic and extraordinary start the same way. "You know, I bet we can rig something like that."

"Huh. We might even get the same program they do. Maybe we could even collaborate with the museum to improve the program or something."

People take seats and checking the menus.

"Riiight," she nods in a Very Convincing Manner.

"We can ask the teachers about it later," she suggests as they turn their attention to the menu. 

Sefoni, unlike everyone else, is Very Quiet throughout the explanation and the walk to the restaurant. Keolin scowls at any of the kids who try to complain at her or congratulate her for the catch. He herds her into the corner of a booth and sits next to her to prevent access, though there's still the seat on the other side of that table.  

There's a little water plant on the table in a clear rounded cup. She tugs it over and pokes at it morosely.

Karo tentatively approaches. "Hi, Sefoni? Is everything okay?"

(Keolin... doesn't scowl at him suspiciously. It's kind of hard to be suspicious of Karo. He moves on to reading the menu instead.)

Sefoni glances up at him, "...I caught the bird," she says, still looking very unhappy about this. 

"And that upset you? Why? Did someone make fun of you for it or something?"

Blink. Head shake, "No one was mean," she assures him. Or at least not that she noticed. "I just... I didn't want to hurt them." 

"The birds?"