THE MOMENT
"Another continent? Can we do that?" Nancy asked. Her voice quavered with nervous awe. Despite the new things she'd seen and learned in the past week, Melanie's suggestion managed to surprise her. "That's pretty major," she added.
The pair of friends sat in Nancy's kitchen again on a sunny, snowless Wednesday morning; neither of them had to work.
"Helloooo?" Melanie said sarcastically and tapped her head in a 'think' gesture. Ms. Sharp erased three entire seasons from society, remember? And WE...," the fair-skinned brunette gestured at Nancy, then herself. "...brought back spring, summer, and fall. We can handle a few new continents and some new races. Well, us and the rest of the book club."
Melanie's book club was a small group of likeminded men and women that noticed the missing seasons. Instead of threatening them or worse, Ms. Sharp effectively gave them ownership of the Earth. They decided to divide the Earth between them to let each member rule over their own section. Part of the agreement also reflected their desire to make the world more interesting.
"Wait, new races too?" Melanie asked with genuine, but dull surprise. Although Nancy was a member of the book club too, she had a habit of missing meetings that turned out to be important. Melanie nodded.
"Well, yeah. It's a game, right? We need some Elves and Trolls to spice things up. The club decided to go full AlterNet; we're getting all 25 races and classes," Melanie looked at Nancy and narrowed her eyes. "You made your character already, right?"
"Yeah!" Nancy nodded. She procrastinated on the decision for several days, but she did finally create her character the night before.
"Good because today's the day." Nancy's eyes widened.
"Today?! Do I have to do anything?? What time today??" she fired off the questions rapidly. Nancy replied with a smile and a gentle shake of her head.
"Today. The only thing you need to get done is to make your character. As for time, well I'm the head of the book club; It starts when I want it to. I'm ready as soon as I'm sure you're ready." Nancy gave a firm nod.
"If that's all I need, then I'm ready," she said.
"Awesome," Melanie grinned and picked her node up off the table. She tapped and swiped a few times, then smiled at Nancy. "Here we go." Floating text appeared in Nancy's vision.
[Adjusting Earth template for AlterNet integration. Build time- 1 hour.]