Mark and Abby

Mark was at the store, getting some food for dinner, when his phone made a noise loud enough to make him jump. It was set to vibrate, but the sound it made was more like an earthquake. He glanced around, and saw that nobody else seemed to have noticed. He had probably just been too in his own world, so it had seemed louder than it was, he thought, and he almost believed it too. He pulled out his phone and clicked the notification. Instead of a text popping up, however, a new app opened, it was fairly plain looking, only containing a text prompt to "Write a new rule for reality." Obviously it wasn't real, he thought, but he looked at his shopping list and typed in "Groceries are very cheap as food is abundant." and hit enter. He looked back at the price tags, and was a little relieved, but more than a little disappointed to see that they had not changed, and put his phone back in his pocket.

The noise caused Abby to twitch, throwing off her aim, and she missed her target. The man swiveled, and she knew that it would be her last mistake, before hearing the loud noise she knew would come, as he fired. She swore, and took off her headphones. Her friend's hardcore server wouldn't let her back on until the game was over after she died, so she'd have to wait. She looked at her phone, and wondered which of her apps had been updated. She saw that it was a new one, called Rule2Rule. Stupid name, she thought, and looked it up on her laptop, to see if it was a virus. She didn't find anything about it, and decided that she had backups of her phone, and it didn't have anything secure on it, so she opened it. "Write a new rule for reality." Okay, she thought, and wondered if it was a text based game. She heard her mom's footsteps, and put in her wishful thinking. "It is considered perfectly acceptable for an adult to live with their parents." She hit enter, and a new box popped up in front of her.

New Rules:
Groceries are very cheap as food is abundant.
It is considered perfectly acceptable for an adult to live with their parents.
Accept Refuse

Oh, she realized, it's like that button game. Still, it didn't seem that good, this wasn't really a trade off. She hit accept.

Mark's phone made another buzz, not as loud as the first one, but very insistent, and he pulled it out again, annoyed, only to see a new prompt.

New Rules:
Groceries are very cheap as food is abundant.
It is considered perfectly acceptable for an adult to live with their parents.
Accept Refuse

What the fuck, he thought, and hit accept, wondering what the point of this stupid program was. He didn't really try to pay attention to the price tags, but he couldn't help but glance and be shocked to see that it now said that tomatoes were 24 cents per pound.

Abby's mom walked into her room. "I know, mom," she said, "You think it's time I tried to find a place of my own." She could repeat her mother's lecture from memory at this point.

"Oh, Abigail!" her mother said warmly. Too warmly, really. "Is that what you've been worried about? We don't want you to leave, we love you! Besides, the house would be so empty without you and your siblings, we'd be lonely!"

What? Her siblings had moved out years ago. She looked at her phone in shock, and then grabbed it, and rushed out of her room, past her mom. She checked the rooms, one by one. Only one of her siblings wasn't living with them now, her oldest sister. Her parents had had six children. Two girls, then twins, one boy and one girl, then her, and then her younger brother.

She darted into the bathroom to avoid her mom's questioning glance, and looked at the app again. It had more features, shockingly. A little chat button, and a list of changes, and a pop up tutorial.

Congratulations! As you have likely discovered, Rule2Rule gives you incredible power, but not unchecked power. The program is divided between a man and a woman. Each proposes a rule, and then they can each choose whether to accept both or refuse. If either of the pair refuses the first one, they lose their chance at using Rule2Rule forever, and there is a small penalty. If both accept, they get to see an explanation (this), and chat to each other. If 24 hours passes without them agreeing on a rule, they lose the app, and there is a medium penalty. If a user gives their phone to someone, the app transfers ownership to that person. If the woman user of Rule2Rule gives it to a man, the man turns into a woman, and both she and all those around her forget that she was ever a man. The opposite of course happens if the man user hands gives it to a woman. If it is taken or stolen from the original user, then the other user gets to decide whether the new person gets to be the owner or not, which they may do to protect their own ability to use Rule2Rule.

Abby read the rules carefully, and then opened the chat.