THE MOMENT
"Excuse me...," Jenny tapped Aurelio on the shoulder to get his attention. "Do you work here?" She looked at the portly teenager up and down as she appraised him. He was the only person in the store wearing white. There were only a handful of patrons spread out in the spacious white shop. Each one browsed through stacks of glowing colored cubes at different tables. Aurelio was making a mental inventory when Jenny interrupted him.
"No one's working here right now," Aurelio shook his head. He made a gesture at the shop door to point out the sign to her. "Automated hours right now; if you need something ask the A.I.," he said. Jenny sighed. She made the trip to the store specifically to get the input of someone who knew what they were talking about, face to face.
"What about you?" she asked. "Sorry," she extended her hand. "My name's Jenny, I'm an Engineer; do you know anything about nano-programming?"
"Yeah," Aurelio chuckled. "Ms. Sharp hired me personally to be the Quartermaster of her new roller derby team; I know a little bit about it," he said. "Aurelio Luna," he finally introduced himself. "I'm a Card Mage."
"You've met Ms. Sharp? What's she like?" Jenny asked. In the short time since she's been aware of Ms. Dana Sharp, she's learned nothing but amazing things about the woman. She planned on meeting her someday and this boy had experience she could learn from, even if he did seem too anxious to drop her name.
"She's exactly what you expect," Aurelio nodded. "Smart, direct, professional... all that."
"Ohhh, okay...," Jenny nodded. He hadn't said anything helpful and she moved on to a new topic. "Who's on the roller derby team?" she asked. Aurelio shrugged.
"Ms. Sharp hasn't formed it yet. She hired me first because she wants my input on that too," he said. "We're holding tryouts this week," he said.
"Oh! Open tryouts!??" she asked.
"Invitation only," Aurelio shook his head. "But..., I can invite you. If you impress me," he chuckled. Jenny crossed her arms in front of herself and shifted her weight.
"Meaning what?" she asked.
"This is a special team and it's important to Ms. Sharp that we have real gamers playing. She wants to show off what can be done in derby...," he explained. "What's your rarest achievement in the AlterNet?" he asked.
"I only joined about a week ago!" Jenny replied.
"Then your quest log should be pretty easy to look through, right?" Aurelio chuckled at his own joke. But, Jenny had a realization.
"I completed a super rare quest!" she said. "The Day the Sun Fell!"
"I..," Aurelio began to make a comment; but, his mind stopped as soon as she named the quest. He shook his head. "No you didn't," he said.
"I did!" Jenny pulled her node from her pocket and searched through it with eager taps. Finally, she held it up in front of Aurelio so he could see the quest: [The Day the Sun Fell] labeled as 'Completed'.
"You met the demon queen...?" he asked. Jenny nodded. She hadn't meant to brag, but she did enjoy his apparent awe. This teen girl had met one of the most powerful and dangerous entities in the universe and she was standing in front of him after the fact.
"What's she like?" Aurelio asked.
"Nothing like what you'd expect," Jenny giggled. "Maybe it was because I was on the quest but she seemed almost nice. She told me all about the Void Court."
"Will you share some of that?" Aurelio asked. "Uh, You've got an invite to the try-outs of course; but, can you tell me more about the Void Court and the demon queen? The god made purely of the souls of the dead?" he added more of her titles to show his respect in case she might be listening.
"I can tell you that one's not her favorite title," Jenny giggled. "ALL gods are made from the souls of the dead. All people too, for that matter," she grinned. "Where else would the soul go? It's part of a cycle."