One of the games this hen plays at the coop

... is the Smiling Game.

It's simple. First you smile to a hen you pass by along the corridors of the coop. Then you glance a bit longer just to check if the hen smiles back.

If your smile is returned, the reward is: The pot of knowledge containing a potion called, "There you go, a friendly hen in the same coop!" With that you can cluck happily for the rest of your day - yep, that's what a friendly smile can do to a hen - make her happy all day long - cluck, cluck, cluck.

If your smile gets a blank respond, the reward is: The pot of knowledge containing a potion called, "There you go, a not-so-friendly hen in the same coop!" With that you as the hen who gave the smile first would likely tsk, tsk, tsk inwardly.

Now, how do we use this particular pot of knowledge? This potion is not meant to be used, actually.

You know how some people like to collect bottles and parfums? When you get the pot of knowledge containing a potion called, "There you go, a not-so-friendly hen in the same coop!" the potion and the pot is meant for storage.

Once in storage it becomes a "Reminder pot" that says, "Well, you've tried bridging friendship with that particular hen, but she's probably having a bad day. The important thing is, you've tried."

Reminder pots, ideally, should challenge you to try again - so if you are on your positive side, give that hen another smile, see if this next time would be worth clucking (note that as a hen in this coop, clucking means you're happy - among other things).

Also note that a Reminder pot can easily turned into "Revenge pot", especially if you are having a day full of negative vibes. Revenge pot will lure you into the darkside, willing your beak to turn downwards (can hens do this aa?) the next time you bump into that hen who won't smile back at you the other day.

In fact, Revenge pot becomes much more potent when that particular hen, at the next bumping, becomes a good hen that throws a smile at your direction first. In this scenario, levelling your beak to a solemn curve and turning to look elsewhere would become the best Revenge option.

As you can see the Smiling Game has its darkside, just like anything else created by humans... But I like this game - it is especially nice to play now that the Biggest Farmer of the Coop had announced that the relationship between senior and junior hens are no longer as mesra as before.

As far as I have played the Smiling Game, I kinda noticed that the most senior hens tend to be more friendly. In fact sometimes when playing the Smiling Game, they tend to become the initiator.

Meanwhile others, especially tudung mama hens aren't as friendly, nor are ones who are not as old as the most senior hens, but too old to be called junior hens. As for junior hens, most of them tend to play the Smiling Game moderately well, smiling back shyly everytime I give them a shot.

Yep, things do become pretty mysterious, yet exciting at this coop every now and then. Next time, I'll tell you about the Lift Game, the Telephone Game and the Let's Hide In The Lab Game...