"Show me my town," I said, just barely above a whisper. The book produced a detailed local map followed by a brief history of the town and tables of demographic information. Bingo.
A pop-up ad filled my laptop screen with a picture of someone holding an outstretched measuring tape. "Three Secret Asian Techniques to Grow Your Penis FAST!" I snort-laughed. People hadn't changed all that much apparently.
The minority representation in my town was abysmal, I discovered, as I looked over demographics. I could change that directly; I already knew the book could control statistics, but could I change the history section? Could I redraw the town map? Nothing particularly interesting about the town's history other than some stuff about the college nearby. Maybe I could tuck some interesting sentences into the modern history section.
"After that, the region developed a reputation for being unusually welcoming to both ethnic and sexual minorities. Despite obstacles and prejudices, the town flourished, drawing eccentric and open-minded people from all over the country."
The light in my apartment seemed to get brighter as the hand-written words shifted to print; I noticed the demographics section blurring at the same time. I blinked and looked up. The ceiling was higher, and there was skylight now. There were houseplants everywhere. It was practically a jungle. There was a rainbow sticker on my laptop now, and a crumpled Gay-Straight Alliance flyer nearby. The Audrey Hepburn poster on one wall (which was frankly pretty gay to begin with) had been replaced with a K-pop poster featuring four swaggering, shirtless performers. One of them was grabbing at a bulge the size of grapefruit in his skinny jeans. The poster had been signed in the corner, including a little squiggly heart.
Okay. So changing the town's history directly worked. Could I change the map the same way? Cross out a building I disliked, and replace it?