SimCity

A response to Nathaniel Lee's "Development" in Mirror Shards.

Harold walked a loop between the pixeled tile of the farm fields and the silo that stood within the city. He deposited his load in a silo and watched the ticker register another five produce points. The screen blinked as a worker was created by the gamemaster dropping the produce points perilously close to starvation. Harold would have shook his hands at the sky if only the stored animations had given him that option. Couldn't the gamemaster see how inefficient this was.

Another rebar skeleton exuded itself out of one of the farm tiles as unmanned hammers and drills flickered around the rebar. Yet another tile that Harold would have to walk around as he harvested produce points. Hadn't the gamemaster ever heard of local produce?

The hand of the gamemaster descended from the sky, picked Harold up, and shook him until a little heart glowed over Harold's chest. "No, not that," yelled Harold at the cursor. Not another mating. This gamemaster was driven to end this game in starvation. Harold wiggled to no avail as the gamemaster's hand dropped him by Suzy again and she took his hand as they walked into the apartment building with red hearts flashing around them.