As Megan drops to nine, the bouncing dice stop on 9 as well. With a quiet apology to her brother, who is muttering angrily as he pulls his shirt out to look at the fur now covering his torso, the young girl moves her piece forward, and draws a Time card as directed.
"You've been doing well so far, but you'll find this card something of a setback. Choose between either moving back 3x the number of spaces you just moved, or regressing a number of years equal to your roll."
"But if I regress nine years I won't be any years!" Megan cries "What happens then?"
Stella picks up the rules and quickly flicks through them. "Players who change in age will lose or gain skills and knowledge as appropriate, unless a card effect overwrites this." She quotes.
"A player who learned to read at 3 who becomes 2 or less will no longer be able to read, but will regain the ability if their age increases back to 3 or higher, while a play with an active card effect making them illiterate will not be able to read regardless of their age. (See also note 4)
If a player would be reduced to less than 0 years of age, they are instead returned to the starting square and roll the dice, becoming the result +4 years of age, then draws one random card for each year younger than nought they would have been and skips their next turn."
"That's nasty." Alex comments "I mean, better than loosing or disappearing or something, but still not good."
"Makes the choice easy, though." Megan responds, having been counting back spaces "Going back to square 3 hurts, but it's better than ending up at the start, and missing a turn, which is what would most likely happen next turn."
"Aw, but you'd make such a cute baby, Megan." Cathy coos. Her fixed cheerfulness makes it hard to tell if this is genuine or teasing, and it draws odd looks from the siblings. Before they can say anything however, Stella interrupts.
"Guys, I've just read that note 4 it mentioned and it's not good. I mean, it says people can keep playing even something stops them from reading cards or rolling dice or whatever, as long as someone else does it for them, which is good. But it also says that if all players are incapable of taking their turn and there's no one to help, the game automatically ends in a draw, and all players are permanently left however they've been transformed. Permanently. Like, they'll never age and can't relearn how to read or whatever, ever, permanently."
Alex and Megan react to this news with the appropriate dismay, Alex in particular starting to complain angrily under his breath about how obviously rigged the game is. Mark and Cathy, however.... The others can see they're obviously upset for a heartbeat, but then the forced happiness takes over and they resume cuddling, apparently completely unconcerned.
Stella shudders at the sight and picks up the dice to roll...