Edwin straightened himself up as he received the loving offer from his husband, whom he'd been with for better or worse for the past two decades. It took a bit of doing, thanks to the weight up in front, and he felt his belly shift a bit against the confines of his ever-present suspenders. "Yes, I'd quite like that," he told Lars, hooking his arm under the much larger one, causing the bigger bear of a man to smile wider underneath his snowy beard, barely perceptible thanks to how much facial hair he had, but Edwin had enough practice to tell even the smallest of facial expressions underneath that mountain of whiskers.
Of course, the couple couldn't make it out of the doorway of the master bedroom without splitting up. Edwin himself nearly couldn't walk through the doorway normally and as he watched Lars manipulate himself through the entry point, he realized that the bigger man had to turn sideways a bit, being too big purely facing frontwards or to the side. After Lars squeezed through, Edwin did the same, taking Lars' arm again as they made their way to an aspect of his home that Edwin hadn't noticed before, or perhaps it had only come into being once there were two obese old men living under the same roof: an elevator. Edwin felt his body relax seeing it; he wouldn't have to go through the taxing ordeal of going up and down stairs anymore! The space inside the elevator was just enough for the two girthy men to fit inside of, with Lars' belly pushing into Edwin's. The bigger bear smiled down at his husband, winking behind his spectacles as the doors closed, bumping his tonnage against Edwin's to make their bodies both jiggle and quake. Edwin felt himself blush and chuckle at that bit of boyish playfulness. Clearly, this relationship he had with Lars wasn't in any danger of being dulled from years of being together.
After the short ride down to the first floor, the doors opened up and Edwin wedged his way out of it first. He suddenly remembered that he had promised to tell his son (formerly his father) that dinner was nearly ready and explained to Lars that he would meet him in the dining room, which his husband nodded agreeably to. Edwin padded over to the living room, getting more and more used to the curious sensation of all his adipose upfront weighing him down, changing how his gait worked, bouncing slightly with every footfall. He saw his son/father, Bob, sitting on the couch in front of the TV, watching a football game. Bob stood slightly taller than Edwin at 5'4", still not what anyone would call a tall man. Hell, even Bob's wife was taller than him at 5'5". Lars towered over everyone else in the family like a giant, Edwin realized. Bob's beginner belly pooched out of his abdomen as he sat there, sipping a beer and watching the game. Edwin's younger self didn't remember his dad being that out of shape, but Edwin the fat old man's son took somewhat after his father. In fact, it was starting to become a point of concern for Bob's wife, who had decided that the family was going to eat healthier once she saw Bob starting to pack on pounds that had formerly only belonged to Edwin and Lars. No wonder she was being so strict about cookies before dinner, Edwin thought to himself.
"Son, Janet told me to tell you it's almost time for dinner," Edwin said to his son, breaking the younger man out of his sports-induced reverie.
"Oh, all right, let me just turn this off and get up... Ooof! No wonder you and Lars don't like to move around! Getting older smarts!" Bob exclaimed after finding it a little more challenging to get up out of the couch than he thought it would be.
Edwin, for his part, recognized the slight rocking motion that fatter men had to do in order to heft themselves out of a comfortable seat and he smirked a little bit. "Age may have something to do with it, but not everything," he remarked cryptically as they made their way to the dining room, where Lars and Edwin's sister/granddaughter Dawn were already seated.
Janet came into the dining room and placed the plates of food on the table. It seemed that the menu for tonight was grilled chicken, brown rice, and fresh vegetables. Janet was clearly serious about her attempts to put this family into slimmer pants. Edwin and Lars shot each other a look across the table that spoke of concern and disappointment. Edwin glanced over at Bob and saw him looking likewise.
"Now isn't this nice; a healthy meal we can all enjoy!" Janet breezily remarked after grace was finished.
"I miss baked potatoes with butter and sour cream," Edwin sighed.
"And big steaks with plenty of fat on them," Lars reminisced.
"I miss buttery bread rolls," Bob moped as he dutifully ate what his wife had placed in front of him.
"There's still going to be dessert, right?" Dawn asked.
Janet looked annoyed. "Now, now. I took special care to season the chicken and rice to make them delicious, so everyone can just stop acting like they're being wounded or tortured," she told them, clearly upset at the pushback her healthier menu was getting.
"It tastes fine, honey. I think what my father was trying to get at was that this isn't going to fill him and Lars up. They're bigger men," Bob attempted to reason with her.
"No offense to either of you," Janet said, glancing at Edwin and Lars, right before launching into a comment that was sure to be offensive, "but I think you two have been filled up quite enough over your life. A few sensibly-proportioned meals won't kill you; in fact, it may even put a few more years on you."
Edwin began to open his bearded mouth as if to issue a retort, but a sharp glance from Lars warned him not to. Edwin sighed and relented. Getting into a fight with his daughter-in-law would only cause problems between her and his son... which were actually his parents. Things were definitely weird for Edwin, but the more time he spent in this body, enduring this change, the more he was deciding to just ride it out and accept things for what they were. Sure, half of him was a straight 16-year-old and not an old fat gay man, but he knew there was a time limit on all of this and it would go back to the way it was supposed to if he just waited and made the most of things. He decided to follow that motto and tuck into his dinner, of which when he asked if there were enough for seconds, Janet gave him a curt "no."
After the somewhat quiet and tense dinner, Janet and Dawn were clearing off the table and cleaning things up in the kitchen. The three men just looked dejectedly at each other in their seats, Edwin and Lars' hands disappointingly massaging the sides of their big bellies. There was a long silence between all of them, filled with the sound of clanking and running water coming from the kitchen.
Finally, Lars piped up, his voice as soft and deep as ever as he gently muttered, "It's just not enough." It seemed his gut agreed with him as merely saying those words produced a ravenous growl from his innards, making the refined obese academic blush. Almost as if that sound was a rallying cry, growls from Edwin's and Bob's stomachs joined in chorus, all three men left unsatiated by the disappointing meal.
"I'm sorry, Dad... Lars," Bob apologized, feeling somewhat responsible. "Janet made a comment about this belly I've been growing a couple weeks back and we... well, she... decided we needed to become a healthier family."
Lars' bushy eyebrows went up in surprise. "So... this wasn't your idea?"
"Oh hell no! I don't mind getting some extra chunk on me! I've lived with Dad my whole life, after all. Fat is just kinda a normal part of life, as far as I'm concerned," Bob replied, giving his paunch a pat.
"And it looks good on you! A shame that Janet's decided to turn this house into a diet camp," Edwin bemoaned, slumping his shoulders, before suddenly sitting upright, as if a bolt of inspiration had hit him. "Wait a minute... just because she made us one dinner doesn't mean we can't have another! If her dinner wasn't enough to fill us, we can just get some more! She certainly can't stop us! How do you two feel about a couple of pizzas?" he asked, already reaching into his pocket to fish out his smartphone.
"Ooh, a lovely idea! I could use a large meat lover's! What about you, Bob?" Lars asked, his spirits already feeling lifted.
"Sorry, fellas. Can't cross the picket line. If Janet sees me stuffing myself after the dinner she just made, I'll be sleeping on the couch for the foreseeable future," Bob groaned, clearly wanting to join in the feast.
"I see... Well, I can understand wanting to avoid marital tension," Lars replied, not wanting to rock the boat too much. Bob wasn't his son, after all, and although he'd been present in his life for decades he left it to Edwin to make any big moves.
"Do you want me to talk to her?" Edwin asked, looking up from the reading glasses that he had put on to properly read the pizza delivery app on his phone's screen. "This whole diet nonsense is unsustainable."
"No, no, that will just make things worse," Bob told his father, waving a hand dismissively. "I'll just have to live with being a little bit... less," he said, patting his paunch once more as if saying goodbye to a beloved friend before hefting himself up out of his chair with a grunt and returning to the living room.
"I'll be upstairs in our room doing some reading," Lars told Edwin, getting up out of his reinforced chair with a deeper grunt, standing like a towering obelisk of obesity. Edwin loved how he could barely see Lars' face when he stood like that. "Let me know when the pizzas are here," Lars added before sauntering out of the room, his big ball belly leading the way.
Lars made his way to the elevator and back up to the master bedroom. His intention was as he'd said, to settle into his favorite overstuffed chair and make progress on the novel he'd been reading, but as he glanced at Edwin's computer desk, he saw a curiously unfamiliar sight. "What's this?" he mused as he neared the glowing screen, examining it from behind his spectacles. He saw the main page of the Chronivac and it had piqued his curiosity. Was it a game? Doubtful, since Edwin didn't play electronic games, but that begged the question of what it actually was. He eased his bulk into the chair in front of it and began to daintily manipulate the mouse with his big bear paw as he attempted to get some answers.
His wandering clicks eventually got him to a listing of "nearby subjects" and was surprised to see Edwin's whole family listed, including himself! He decided to click on Bob's profile and was surprised again to see a lifelike model of Bob pop up on the screen, able to be rotated to examine any angle. Listed below that were Bob's pertinent physical statistics and characteristics. What was all this?! Lars wondered. Why did Edwin have this on his computer? He clicked on one of the sliders, which managed Bob's height, and chuckled as he saw the image on the computer scale up and down in height as he maneuvered it across the spectrum. Lars' hand began to idly rub the side of his fat gut after he heard it rumble rudely again. He really couldn't wait for that pizza to get here. Focusing back on Bob's height, Lars had to admit that he had a soft spot for shorter men. Well, obviously he did. He married a man that didn't even come up to his shoulders, after all. He decided to see what Bob looked like at the same height as his father's 5'2". He watched as the figure on the screen shrunk down, arms and legs adjusting proportionately as Bob mostly lost length in the legs. Lars decided to push things a little further, however, and shrunk Bob down to 5'0". Bob wouldn't even be able to clear my chest! Lars thought to himself with a smirk.
Lars remembered one of his younger colleagues at the university telling him about a computer simulation game they used to play called The Sims, full of imaginary people simulating everyday life. Lars assumed this must be a similar sort of simulation. You make characters based on people you know and see how they react to hypothetical circumstances. Lars could see the fun in it. Maybe he would turn into a gamer in his old age!
He moved on to the younger man's build and saw that it was on the slimmer side, with weight only coming with concentrated effort and a sedentary lifestyle. An idea formed in Lars' head and he chuckled impishly. He clicked around until he found the option to give Bob's avatar a slower metabolism, a heavier physique. He watched as Bob's slim arms and legs thickened a bit as more size was added, as well as that paunch spreading out a bit more. If Bob liked his fat and was sad to see it go, he would make sure that Bob's avatar would never have to worry about being skinny. He moved the slide for fatness up and his smile grew wider as he saw more weight pile onto Bob's huskier frame, his cheeks rounding out, his neck spreading, his chest spilling forward, his thighs plumping into tender drumsticks, that rump ballooning, and of course, that belly upfront. He made sure that the fat distribution was especially heavy there, making that ball of fat dominate Bob's diminutive physique, a ball of fat to rival his father's kingly endowment, and on a height two whole inches shorter, so it was sure to look even more disproportionate! Lars thought Bob was starting to look like quite a handsome man.
He scrolled down to hair options and weighed them carefully. Lars definitely had a thing for balding men. His preference was for men whom you could tell were balding naturally and not just shaving all their hair clean off. Bob still had a healthy head of hair, however, and Lars felt like taking some more liberties with reality. He introduced some male pattern baldness, Bob's hairline receding backward, leaving a small island of hair in the middle as his hair began to resemble his father's in the baldness surrounded by a fringe. Bob's was still more pepper than salt, however, since he was a good deal younger than Edwin. Lars had also felt sorry that Bob never seemed to inherit his father's propensity for body hair, claiming that he was smooth as a baby below his eyebrows. Lars felt body hair was a sign of masculinity and virility and he wanted Bob to share in what he and his father were able to experience. He raised the hirsute factor on his profile by several degrees, gifting Bob with a wonderful carpet of chest hair that would tuft out of the collars of shirts and fur that would show on his arms and legs when they were exposed in short sleeve shirts and shorts. He remembered Bob often teasing Edwin and him about their voluminous facial hair, saying that he didn't understand their "need to look like Santa Claus!" Well, that was about to change, Lars decided. He gave Bob the ability to grow incredibly dense and long facial hair and in the mental section of the profile, gave him a fondness and deep appreciation for facial hair. He watched as the face of the on-screen model erupted with whiskers, everything below Bob's nose hidden with the sudden and intense growth of hair follicles, which Bob had clearly nurtured and sculpted into the magnificently epic mustache that spanned his entire face, covering his mouth, and a beard that dropped well below his flabby moobs.
While browsing the mental options, Lars was impressed by the nuance of the settings available. One could change a person's talents, drives, skills, personality traits... virtually any aspect of a person's being was customizable. What a curious little game! Lars chortled to himself. He blushed a little when he saw an option for sexual orientation. Bob's setting was staunchly heterosexual and Lars felt guilty the longer he stared at it. Was it wrong to change that, if the real-life Bob was a straight man? He'd already changed so much else, after all, and it might be amusing to see what a gay Bob could do. After all, it would give him more in common with his father, so how could that be a bad thing? Lars switched Bob to exclusively homosexual, just for fun. He also blushed when it came to sexual options. Of course, if the game allowed you to change all the aspects of a person physically, that would include genitals. Lars wondered if the stats he was looking at were accurate. It seemed all the others had been before he altered them. If so, Bob had a healthy endowment, certainly nothing to be ashamed of, and even larger than Lars' own. Over the course of his life, Lars' partners had expected him to be a big man between the legs but his small endowment came as a surprise to most. He quite liked being the smaller in that aspect in his relationship with Edwin, however. Lars did think that large testes were a handsome quality on a man, and so he gave Bob some bigger testicles. Nice and bull-sized, he reasoned, to give the short fat man some confidence.
Finding nothing else he wanted to change on the avatar, Lars scrolled down and saw the option to "save changes." Wanting to come back later to see what this new Bob could do intrigued him, so he hardly waited for a second after seeing that button before clicking it. Unfortunately for him, if he'd been a little more patient, he would've seen that the reality-altering option was still turned on, and he hadn't excluded itself from its effects. He blinked a few times after his button press and wondered at how this program had so correctly guessed his fat, gay stepson's various attributes. Of course, he could only assume the field stating Bob's rather expansive testicular size was true. Even though he was also a lover of men, Bob was his stepson after all and he'd known him since he was a baby. He heard the doorbell ring from downstairs and realized that in being absorbed by this strange computer game, enough time had been spent that the pizza was now being delivered. Lars hefted himself out of the computer chair and hurried over to the second-floor elevator as quickly as he dared, given his tonnage and the scant amount of space the house gave him to maneuver in. He began to salivate as he looked forward to sharing the feast with Edwin, his stepson Bob, and Bob's husband!