The Scorpion and the Frog

The Epicurean Dealmaker

The Scorpion and the Frog

Once upon a time, there was a frog which lived happily on the bank of a broad river. It was a good riverbank, with plenty of flies to eat and lots of nice, cool water in which to swim and dive. Life was good for the frog.

Then, one day, another frog which had heard of the nice river came and made his home just down the riverbank from the first frog. At first, the two frogs were cordial and polite. While they were not really friends, and they were natural competitors for the bugs and other food on the bank, there seemed to be plenty to go around, so they lived in peace with one another.

After a while, though, the riverbank began to change. The river itself became wilder, colder, and more dangerous. At the same time, the flies, which had been so plentiful, began to disappear. Soon, the two frogs began to fight over the few bugs and pockets of calm water that remained on the riverbank, and they became implacable enemies. They would fight and squabble every day, until they were gaunt and exhausted from stress and lack of food. There came a day when they could not even rouse themselves to fight over a stray dragonfly that was blown onto the riverbank by a passing storm.

The story starts off as a Biv environment with plenty of food, the frogs are Iv and compete but don't waste much energy on this when there is plenty of food. As the environment turns to Roy food becomes scarce, the Iv frogs turn to Oy and compete more as life and death in a negative sum game. The survivors tend to be those that don't waste resources rather than those that find the most food as this is unlikely to happen.