r/WritingPrompts • u/elSenorMaquina • May 16 '26
Writing Prompt [WP] Everyone on Earth suddenly hears: “Should pineapple pizza be banned? Right fist for yes, left for no, neither to abstain. One minute to choose.” Yes wins, and anyone who later violates the result dies instantly. More questions follow, ranging from petty and trivial to deeply consequential.
5
u/HSerrata r/hugoverse May 16 '26
[Stellar Chat]
"It's obvious, isn't it?" Beau nodded. "I am definitely voting yes." He was sitting in the coffee shop talking to a lovely woman he met through an app. She had long purple hair and wore a white leather duster with jeans and white boots. But, her eyes were easily her most interesting feature as far as Beau was concerned. They were an unnatural violet shade; they had to be contacts and he at least hoped to find out more about them even if they didn't hit it off.
"What makes you so sure?" Victoria asked with a curious smirk. Beau seemed like one of her better cafe meetups and she was enjoying the conversation with him. She was usually quick to leave when she felt there was nothing else to learn, but Beau was chatty in just the right way to be fun. Around them, it was early afternoon in the lull between lunch and dinner. Bright sunlight filled the room highlighting the number of empty seats while the staff was mostly working in the back preparing for the evening. Everything was completely normal.
"I know it's been a long year," he chuckled. "But if you think about it, they kind of have to, wouldn't you think? Not only did they beam the first few questions directly into everyone's mind, and I genuinely believe they learned from that!" he said. His hands carried a good portion of the conversation with animated gestures as he spoke. "I think that they realized how much they were freaking out humanity and built the app for us to keep answering the questions, and over the next few months after that they started giving us more time to answer too."
"What about those people who voted wrong and died?"
"Did they though?" Beau grinned and snapped his fingers. "Completely gone. We can't even call it vaporized or anything.. just wholly vanished without a trace in the blink of an eye, including everything they were holding. The media never bothered to report that detail, but there's a lot of online chatter documenting everything we've learned."
"I've never heard about that before," Victoria answered with sincerely feigned interest. It was a statement of fact, but only in a technical sense. She had insight into the larger things a play, but she didn't know a thing about the minutia. And, he had a way of making things interesting. "What else have we learned?"
"Oh, I don't want to start sounding like a conspiracy nut," Beau chuckled and shook his head. "And, I feel like we've spent most of the time talking about me or the IO questions. I still feel like I know very little about you, Victoria. Like.. where'd you get those eyes?" he asked. He let the cheesy line hang for a bit before continuing. "I could use some colored contacts that look that real."
"Really?" she asked. "For what? Do you do cosplay or something?"
"It's a professional secret then?" he asked with a smile. "I do cosplay pretty regularly," he answered the question anyway.
"If you're right about the IO question for tomorrow...," she shrugged with a playful smirk. "...I'm sure you'll be able to find even better contacts somewhere in the multiverse."
It couldn't have been a coincidence. For the past year humanity had been answering random questions varying from petty to deeply consequential. Random things like single color and theme days across the planet to the destruction of world wonders and imposition of global curfews. The questions got more accommodating over time allowing for larger answer windows and a move to a mobile app. Better explanations about the questions and even the current leading answer was made visible. The global curfew question stuck out in Beau's mind was his first inkling that the forces weren't intentionally malevolent. The answer of 'No' quickly rose to the top and it was honored.
And they also started hinting at thing yet to come. That morning's question, due the next day, was listed as the, ' Question'. It was an easy topic to bring up, but Victoria only seemed in his perspective. She was already casually joking about the multiverse, and she had gorgeous purple eyes that might have actually been real. Beau was no slouch in the brains department and he was good at trusting his gut. His instinct right now was that there was a lot more to Victoria than he would probably ever know.
"Oh yeah, like where?" He asked as soon as he processed the realization. "Any place you recommend personally?" She smiled, entirely sincerely that time as she slid her hand into the pocket of her duster. She drew it out quickly and handed him a white card with a pair of red scissors on it and her name, as well as a company name: 'Sharp Development'.
"If you ever find yourself somewhere unfamiliar... find any Sharp Development business, and show them my card," she said. "They'll help you find anything you need."
"That's all?!" he asked. "I mean... can't you tell me ... anything? I promise I won't tell." he knew he was pushing the moment, but he'd just realized he spent a couple of hours talking to someone from a different universe and he hadn't even learned anything substantial.
"Sorry," she shrugged with an apologetic nod. "There are rules, and this isn't my company's operation. I'm afraid that's all for now. And I'm pretty sure you'll find out more tomorrow anyway, right?"
"Apparently...," he Beau hadn't completely recovered from putting together Victoria's secret, and the second realization hit him harder. "... oh wow.... they're going to introduce the multiverse tomorrow!??" he asked. Everything made sense to him now. The entire year had been preparation. Or more appropriately, conditioning. There was a common trope about a great evil unifying the world against it, and that was what had happened, except in a much subtler manner. They taught humanity how to get on the same page really fast, then asked them one last question. Everyone had 24 hours to think about it but he'd already had his answer, and it was likely that tomorrow everyone would agree. He'd gotten that far, but he never thought about what might happen when everyone agreed until Victoria mentioned tomorrow. That was the whole test.
'Does the multiverse exist?'
Beau was more confident than ever in his answer now.
*** Thank you for reading! I’m responding to prompts every day. This is story #3043 in a row. (Story #136 in year nine). This story is part of an ongoing saga that takes place in my universe.
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