Jay rubbed his dense 'stache. "The only question - do we undo this .... or do we do something else?"
Before any of the boys-turned-men could answer, there was another beep from the device.
"Uh, guys," Bryan rumbled, his deep voice resounded throughout the house. "It says 'Initiating Large-Scale ARF restructuring, please stand by.' What does that mean?"
Jay frowned, the expression enhanced by his voluptuous handlebar mustache. "Arf? Like a dog? That thing's not going to... turn us into dogs, is it?"
Simon was stroking his waist length beard, while twiddling his cigar with his other hand. "No, it stands for Altered Re-"
Before he could finish, Simon saw the world around him distort, with everything seeming to collapse into a single point, while simultaneously expanding in all directions. He could no longer make out any details of the kitchen he was standing in, or either of his friends. He could see himself, however, when he looked down. Most prominent was his very large gut and long red beard, which seemed to be unaffected by the bizarre fluctuation in perception that had engulfed the world around him.
Simon then felt a sudden sensation of falling, as if the unseen floor below him had given way. The sensation was immediately followed by one of the firm contact of a floor beneath his feet as the confusing distortion around him normalized back into a recognizable form.
The three of them were standing in the den of someone's house. Simon didn't recognize it as his house, where they had been just before. The furniture seemed fairly nice, and the room was rather large, with a very high ceiling and large windows that filled the room with sunlight.
Jay and Bryan must have felt the same sensations as Jay had, for the three of them each stumbled forward as the scene had normalized. Bryan almost tipped over, a little off balance with his massive size, but Jay was quick and managed to prop him back up, his hands gripping the softer parts of his mass. His grip held for a bit, even after Bryan had managed to regain his balance.
"Uh, Jay," Bryan rumbled. "I'm good. You can let go, now."
Jay's ears burned a bright red as he snatched his hands away. "Sorry! Sorry."
Now it was Bryan's turn for his face to redden. "No, no it's, uh, fine." He awkwardly readjusted his suspenders holding up his slightly-too-short kilt.
Simon cleared his throat and looked around the room. "So, uh, where are we, now?"
"Our house," Bryan said, matter-of-factly.
Then, Simon and Jay knew that Bryan was right. As the new reality settled into place, the three remembered that they had all moved out of their respective parents' houses when they turned 18, rooming together here. It had nice, high ceilings to give Bryan plenty of headroom, and plenty of extra space for Jay to have his own workout area. Simon had had to modify the doorways to compensate for Bryan's substantial girth and height, as well as his own, but now they had a place of their own.
"What was with that light show?" Jay asked. "How did we get here? When did we get our own house?"
"I was trying to tell you," Simon interjected before Jay could go on. "It was the ARF. The Altered Reality Field. When I turned it on, I placed the three of us and my dad in it. My guess is it's some sort of alternate reality that we have all the controls to. When we change anything, it changes the world around us to compensate for it."
Bryan nodded. "That makes sense. It would explain how our memories and clothes change with us. And this house."
Jay whistled, impressed, as he walked through the various adjoining rooms. "We didn't do too bad for ourselves, then, huh? Hey! You guys gotta see this kitchen, it's huge! There are three refrigerators! Three!" Simon recalled that each of them ate so much that they couldn't do with just one fridge, so they each had their own.
"How did we afford this place?" Bryan asked. "If my memories are correct, I'm a lab assistant at a college. Simon, you're..."
"Mechanic," Simon said proudly. "With my dad."
Bryan nodded. "Right. No offense, but this is a really nice place. Even with my income added on to yours, I don't imagine we could afford this together."
Jay reappeared at the doorway and cockily leaned against it. "That's right. You have me to thank for this place, and all the fridges you could eat. Because I'm currently the record holder for the youngest ever NFL player at 18." Jay laughed to himself. "I can't believe it, man! I'm in the NFL! In this... what, reality? In this reality I got a hefty signing bonus."
Bryan held up the device, marveling at it for a moment. "Wow. As long as we're in the ARF, this thing is super powerful."
Simon took the opportunity to look around the house a bit, noting just how sturdy and large all the furniture seemed. The better to fit his and Bryan's sizable frames, he recalled. Though, it was mostly for Bryan's frame, as he was practically a giant at this point.
Simon located his bedroom. It was a little bit of a mess, so that hadn't changed. His bed was nice and sturdy, and all the clothes in his closet were enormous. He ran a finger along a rather nice-looking cigar box that sat on his bedside table. It was then he noticed that the room had the strong scent of cigar smoke to it, something he'd failed to notice when he first entered. Perhaps he was simply used to it, being exposed to it as much as he was. He took a whiff of his sleeve, smelling the same, pungent odor. He liked it.
He caught sight of himself in a full length mirror he apparently kept in his room. It was the first time he'd laid eyes on himself since turning 18, but the reflection was already familiar to him. Over six and a half feet tall with a large gut that outsized even his father's substantial one. His long, red beard ran down to his waist, and drew attention to even the smallest of jaw movements he made. Of course, there was also his ever-present cigar, always either in his mouth or between his fingers. He practiced rolling it with his from one corner of his mouth to the other with just his tongue. He grinned broadly, clenching the cigar with his exposed teeth. He noticed just how round his face was, and that his enormous beard was probably hiding a substantial second chin from view.
Simon grabbed a couple cigars from the box and slipped them into his breast pocket for later, and made his way back to the den. There he found Bryan seated in the couch, taking up pretty much all of it to himself. He was tapping away at the mobile Chronivac, looking through the multitude of settings, the light reflecting off the lenses of his black-rimmed glasses. Jay was standing nearby, watching Bryan while he himself was alternately lifting a pair of large dumbbells, his already enormous muscles audibly straining against the material of his jersey.
"Whaddaya think, Simon?" Jay asked, grinning as he pumped the weights extra hard.
Bryan looked up at his two friends. "Oh, hey! I've been looking through this and I wanted to run something by you guys."
Simon and Jay glanced at each other. Simon then shrugged. "Sure. Shoot."
"Well," Bryan began. "I've been looking at all the sorts of things this Chronivac device can do, including stuff relating to the ARF field. Sorry, I mean, ARF. An ARF filed would be an Altered Reality Field field, and that would..." Bryan caught himself rambling and cleared his throat. "Sorry. What I'm trying to say is I've found some interesting way to alter the ARF."
Jay nodded, still pumping iron. "Interesting how?"
"Well, if I'm interpreting this correctly, I can speed up the flow of time. We would still see time pass normally, we wouldn't be doing everything in fast forward or anything, but we would notice things age and progress at an accelerated rate, including ourselves. Decisions that we make would have larger consequences, multiplied by however fast we speed up the flow of time. I know we all want to continue with this aging experiment we've been doing, seeing just how our changes affect us over time, but I think this would make for a nice alternative having it happen gradually instead of in big jumps every so often. You know, so it's like we're experiencing our lives like this instead of just skipping through it. What do you guys think? You want to try it?"
Simon chewed on the end of his cigar as he fiddled with the tip of his beard. "I'm game if you guys are. It would be more convenient that having to do it manually. Then we could focus on other stuff."
Jay stopped hefting the weights and frowned. "Just how 'gradual' are we talking, here?"
Bryan shrugged as he tapped at the Chronivac screen. "I was thinking a year per day."
Jay let out a sigh as he bent over to drop the weights on the floor.
"Hey! Careful! We just put that floor in," chastised Simon. Jay ignored him.
"Really?" said Jay. "A year per day? That's all? That'll take too long."
Bryan frowned. "That's already three hundred sixty-five and a quarter times faster than normal. I'd like to take time to enjoy it, you know?"
Jay flopped heavily into a nearby chair, sending a shudder through the room as his 300 lbs. of muscle made contact. "Yeah, but I want to see where my career goes, you know? And I'd rather see it sooner than later. I mean, we have a reality altering computer, now. Why wait for anything, anymore?"
Bryan tapped away at the screen, not looking up at Jay. "Here, wait. I think I've found something. I can set the accelerated flow of time differently for each of us. I can set you to go faster, Jay."
Jay smirked. "Yeah, I'd be fine with that. Sure, go ahead. We can always change our minds later, right?"
Bryan grinned at Jay. "Great! I'm going to set myself to one year per day." He tapped away at the screen. "How about you, Jay. How fast do you want to go?"
Jay looked up at the ceiling, mulling it over. "Well, not one, for sure. Five? Six? Yeah, six years per day should be good."
Bryan frowned. "Six? You sure?"
Jay rolled his eyes. "Hey, when I say six, I mean six. Set me up for six, Buck."
Bryan nodded. "Alright... Simon, what about you. You want to go for one?"
Simon settled into a second chair across from Jay. "I'll go three years per day. I kinda want to see what the road ahead has for me."
Bryan took a moment, making selections and accepting alterations. The Chronivac beeped and a ripple shot out from it, like a drop on the surface of a still pond, but in three dimensions, outward from the device, and through the walls of the house. The three of them felt brief tingles, similar to the ones they felt before the changes began.
They sat there for a moment, in silence.
"Well," Bryan said, breaking the silence. "It says it worked. I guess we'll see in a minute."
"Oh, it's working," Jay said with a grin.
Simon frowned. "How can you tell?"
Jay pointed at his own face. "I made the decision not to shave for a few days, see what it's like to have a bit of a beard for a bit. Nothing crazy like you, Simon. But, as you can see..." Jay rubbed his jawline. Where before, he had been clean shaven save for his impressive handlebar mustache, there was a dark shadow encompassing the lower half of his face. "Like you said, our decisions have consequences, enhanced by the accelerated time flow. I think this'll be fun."