Kind of like the universe where everyone has a duplicate that is exactly as
bad as they are good, or vice versa, Hypothetiverse eventually discovered
how their universe worked. One particular scientist didn’t understand why
there were alternate realities, even once she finally tapped into one of
them. She figured out that they were there, but not where they came from.
This had interesting consequences for all of reality, and marked the start
of a huge change. What I didn’t touch on before was that the would you
rather hypothetical questions were not the only way the primary reality had
an impact on its off-shoots. The alternate versions of people in the
off-shoots were dependent on their respective primaries in a multitude of
ways. Whether they answered any hypotheticals or not, their lives were bound
to each other. Some small decisions could be different, but the general idea
of what they were, and how they lived, would be the same across all
realities. Every version of this one woman, for instance, was a scientist.
There was none out there where she was a clown, or a professional golfer.
Her roommate, meanwhile, who was indeed a professional golfer, was always
that. None of his alternates was a veterinarian, or scuba instructor. They
will do different things on a daily basis, but if someone were to write up a
summary of each version’s life and personality, it would be pretty much the
same for all of them. Back to the scientist. When she invented the machine
that was able to break the veil between realities, her alternates were
trying to do the same thing. Not all of them had progressed to the same
point, but they got there eventually, and once they did, their perceptions
were shattered. They had hypothesized that their alternate selves existed,
but never dreamed that only one was primary, and the rest were only copies
of her. The experiment alone pulled the wool from their eyes, and it was
only a matter of time before the truth spread.
The experiments continued. Others were brought in to see their alternates,
and eventually communicate with them. This was when they started to learn
about the would you rather hypotheticals, and quantify the way their
universe worked. Surprisingly, they made no real attempt to keep this a
secret, from the government, or anyone else. They revealed what they knew to
the world, and while it didn’t cause chaos in the main reality, it caused so
many more problems for the alternates. Many primaries were horrified to find
out what they had done by answering the hypotheticals the way they had. They
tried to undo them by requesting people pose them new questions, like would
you rather have a million dollars, or two million dollars? That may sound
nice, but it had repercussions for the alternate economies. Plus, unless
they could specifically remember what past hypotheticals they had answered,
they could undo nothing. They were often just creating yet another reality,
so it didn’t contradict any of the preexisting ones. Others were less nice
about it. They started creating new reality after new reality, born out of
the most absurd questions they could think of. Fortunately, there appeared
to be some kind of restriction. You couldn’t create a world where an
alternate version of you was killed, or significantly hurt. This was more
evidence of some kind of higher power. In the end, the universe could not
handle the strain. All realities ultimately collapsed into one; for some
physically, and others mentally. Multiple versions of the same person were
all trying to live in one world, and nothing could stop it.
