[AMB] Nom Nom the Ambassador

Dr. Alvarez leaned forward and gazed through the glass of the tank. A strange creature undulated past the round viewing port, its half-blue-half-white body covered by interlocking chitinous plates. At the head it had a pair of dangerous looking, spiked, curved apendages and two large round compound eyes on stalks. It had no visible legs and the tailend was a flat, fan-like shape. It was, frankly, one of the weirdest creatures that Dr. Alvarez had ever seen in person.

"It's an anomalocaris," Dr. Kenzie Martin, the facility's lead marine biologist, answered his unspoken question.

"Why's it two colors like that?" Dr. Alvarez added, because this thing wasn't just weirdly shaped, it was weirdly colored too. It was a deep, marine blue on one side and pale, shimmering white on the other, split right down the center medial line.

"Well, honestly, we aren't exactly sure. This type of coloration is found in modern crustrations, rarely, but it happens. In lobsters, for example, blue is one in two million, leucism is one in fifty million, a split colored lobster is one in one million…add all that together and you get one rare critter," Dr. Martin explained, stepping back and walking towards the other porthole where the swimming anomalocaris glided by. "We call this one Nom Nom."

"And this is the one you want to make an ambassador?" Dr. Alvarez said, more of a statement than a question. He didn't really need to ask; it was fantastic to see and that was incredibly important when it came to guest interaction.

"Absolutely," Dr. Martin affirmed. She tucked her pen into her hair with a flourish. "Nom Nom isn't just a pretty face. Watch this."

Dr. Martin tapped lightly on the glass in a specific pattern and Dr. Alvarez didn't even bother to stop his jaw from dropping as he watched the creature in the tank turn around and drift back over to them. A shiver ran down his spine, he'd never been face to face with an alien before but he was pretty sure it would feel like this. Dr. Martin raised her left hand and made a spinning motion with one finger. The anomalocaris turned away and swam in a small loop-de-loop before swimming back to her. She grinned at Dr. Alvarez, who just stared at them in disbelief.

"Well?" Dr. Martin prodded.

"He's one hell of an ambassador," Dr. Alvarez said before bursting into laughter. "Does he get a shrimp now?"

"Of course!"