Title: Still Heartless: Immediate Transplant Recommended
Rating: K+
Disclaimer: Yeah, I own it. Just kidding.
Author's Note: On a Post-It somewhere.
Wither
He watched as each day passed her by and left her sitting in her chair by the computer. Long ago, he didn't count the days but he vaguely remembered that it was around the time she decided to get a Facebook account, her eyes became unfocused on the world around her. Her body had gained about thirty pounds, and her mind had drifted elsewhere, anywhere but here. Boq wasn't sure when he noticed, but even when she wasn't at the computer she would tap her finger on her armrest like she was clicking an invisible mouse. It was when she forgot what day of the week and started approving city documents with a stamp that read "LIKE" that he would let his eyes linger on her longer trying to find some memory of Nessa's old self.
He never found one, and every day her social skills shrunk before his eyes as her FarmVille score skyrocketed. He never intervened, but he stayed off to the side of the room, by the door, watching for some sign of the old Nessa, the one who played nice, harmless, non-committal games like Minesweeper instead. When he still never found one, he grew very cynical very quickly. Why should he aid such a hopeless Facebook game addict? This was not his Nessa; this was some socially deficient memory of the young, innocent girl he met at Shiz. A socially deficient memory who just wouldn't stop sending him requests to join Castle Age and FishVille, among other things. He should have listened to those sites that advised against friending your old schoolmates and boss on Facebook. This one was a double-whammy.
And each day her social skills continued to wither away. It was only four months later when Boq awoke to find Nessa feverishly punching the computer screen and screaming torrents of obscenities at it, that he regretted setting the clock on her computer forward enough to make her Farmville crops wither faster than usual.
He only regretted it because he'd realized she would reallocate the city's budget to pay for Farm Cash.