<randomrant> "Hello, this is Rampages-R-Us. I'm Bob, how can I help you?" "I'm not happy, Bob." "Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that. What's the problem?" "I scheduled a rampage for today." "Congratulations! We've only just restarted. What's your package number?" "7245-2352-11." "Thanks. I'm just looking that up." "Uh-huh." "Ah, you purchased our Deluxe Stompy Package." "Sure did. And then you canceled it." "But you were able to reschedule, right?" "Yes, I was. I got priority." "I see that you're at your city right now." "Yes, I am. And that's the problem." "Are the buildings not tall enough?" "No, they're fine." "Are there enough of them?" "Yes, that's not the problem." "Are there cars on the streets, trains on the tracks?" "Yes, and that's where the problem starts." "Why is that?" "None of them are moving." "Well, the ones with people in them are moving, right?" "And that's the nub of the problem." "You're not happy with the quality of the population?" "It's not a quality problem,

<randomrant> I'm in a weird mood, and I'm not sure why. Could be the exercise this morning from (mostly) finishing up the garden. Could be the fact that my build environment is giving me fits, so I need to work on it this weekend. But I think the trigger was the intense rain squalls and blew on through, leaving me gazing outside at the creeks running down the street. So, in no particular order here's a list of stuff we're running out of... groundwater - A good chunk of the population gets its fresh water from the ground, not just for human consumption, but for irrigation and livestock. Careful tracking of groundwater is relatively recent, and not universal. And even when that is done there are rarely laws in place to regulate use. When a well goes dry, they just dig deeper. That's a recipe for a 'whoopsie'. Especially since, depending on the locale, replenishment can take anything from decades to centuries to never. Tack onto that changing weather patterns, loss of snow

<randomrant> I feel like I'm harping on a theme here, but lately inspiration has been coming from the real world, and today it came in the form of pouncing me while I was frantically trying to plant a shipload of live plants that landed on my doorstep. So blame reality... She walk slowly towards the city, savoring her massive size, knowing that every person in that sprawling saw her approach, but felt it. Panic scented the air, sending a tingle through her. It was thrilling having so many tiny lives at the mercy of her whims. As she neared the last suburbs bordering the city she noticed a black cloud sweeping in from the ocean. That drew a frown. A bit of rain was okay, but this thing looked like the kind of storm that inspired ark building. She paused, standing on a village with her hands on her hips, watching as lightning kissed the gap between the swirling clouds and the white capped sea. It seemed to be holding, maybe she could get in a quick romp through those tempting