Hank returned to find Ellis and Bob on their phones, while Paul was busy coddling his little baby brother. He rolled his eyes and took his seat again. Without looking up from his phone, Ellis asked "So where's the furball?"
"He's just in the bathroom, getting a better look at himself. I can't blame him, he's become quite the man... He shouldn't be long now that I told him it's his turn."
Ellis snorted. "He's jacking off, isn't he?"
"What!? No! Why would you-" Hank spluttered in surprise, Bob slapped a hand to his face in embarrassment, while Paul cocked his head to the side, confused. "He's not! He's cleaning up the aftermath... How do you even know what that means?"
"The internet, obvi," Ellis grinned. "Not even on purpose. I was looking for Fortnite cheats, and it led me to some weird places that even the content filters didn't block."
"Yeah, I've seen stuff I wish I could unsee," Bob added with a shiver.
"Damned internet..." Hank grumbled to himself. It was a wasteland when he was a kid the first time around, so he couldn't imagine what kind of impact it was having on the kids right now. Truly a blessing and a cruse. "You're all too young to be knowing that shit..."
Ellis chuckled at the grumpy comment, especially coming from a 9 year old. "I think you'll find we're all old enough to know," he joked with a deliberate stroke of his mustache. "You, however..."
"I don't know!" Paul finally piped up, stirring a sleepy John from his doze. "What are you guys talking about?"
"Ah ah, don't tell him. He's too young!"
"Nuh-uh! I'm a man now so I should be allowed to know man things!"
Hank pinched the bridge of his nose. "Yes, physically you are a man, but mentally you're still a child. And once the game is over, you'll be a child again. If you don't already know, I'm not telling you."
Before anyone could argue, the bedroom door creaked open and Jack shuffled his way inside. He was only wearing a pair of boxer shorts, his hefty bulge on full show. He blushed as the men watched him enter and back his seat, now far too small for his broad behind. "So where's the dice?"
"Forget the dice, where are your pants?"
"I kind of stained them in the bathroom when I... Uhm..." He caught the eye of his dad who, even as a little kid, could pull the scariest look when he was mad. Jack straightened his back, scratched his beard, and said, "When I was smoking. Who knew tobacco could stain, right?" He shrugged his shoulders with an unconvincing laugh, his pecs bobbing up and down.
"From smoking, huh?" Ellis jabbed Jack in one of those quivering pecs to get his attention, then whispered close to his ear, "because I think you had a little time to yourself. You know..." He jerked his hand up and down a few times before opening his palm wide in a mimicked explosion.
Hank and Bob were mortified as Ellis cackled, while Paul was still confused. Jack rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment, and grunted, "I don't wanna talk about it! Just give me the dice..."
He snatched them off of the table, and immediately threw them onto the table. "Three places, great," he grumbled to himself, moving forward onto another plus space. He looked into the circle, and his breath caught in his throat. "Eighteen..."
"How much!?" Ellis cried out, jumping from his seat, and leaning over the board, clearly agitated by the jump in age that he so desperately wanted.
"Eighteen!" He said with a forced laugh. "Wow, you wait to get older, and it all happens at once..."
"That's double my age... Can the game even do that!?" Hank exclaimed, joining the other men in glancing into the black dome. But there it was in its glowing lettering. +18.
Jack started to put on weight almost immediately, his waist slowly but surely getting wider. He stayed fairly muscular, but thicker. His beard began to get duller as white hairs mingled with the blond, while a white patch of fur began to spread out from the centre of his chest. His right arm itched as an abstract, geometric bear etched itself into his skin. Another tattoo appeared on his right pec, the outline of a paw print followed by bursts of brown, orange, and grey stripes on the inside. The sudden appearance of ink made Jack stand up in surprise, eager to get a better look in a mirror. Except, he froze in place, unsure whether he actually wanted to also watch himself grow older. The thought of seeing himself progress into middle age was a scary yet curious idea.
"This isn't fair," Paul grumbled, with his arms crossed, having added up exactly how old his furry friend was going to become. "Now I'm not gonna be the oldest one here..."
"I'd call that a blessing," Jack gruffly replied as he placed a broad hand against his stomach. He could feel it rumbling as it expanded outwards, his metabolism finally catching up with him. He'd reached the point where he would struggle to keep the weight off, but it appeared that he had embraced the weight gain. As his stomach grew ever rounder, his pecs were getting heftier, his shoulders and back getting ever broader. He was becoming the kind of man you'd hate to stand next to in a crowded train. By now, he had surpassed Paul's age, entering in his late forties and still getting older.
"You know what isn't fair? Grandpa over here getting to grow up while I'm struggling with lowball age boosts!" Ellis moaned. "Where was that plus eighteen when I needed it?"
"Believe me, if I could trade these years over to you, I would," Jack replied, having finally decided to walk up to the mirror in his room and examine the damage. His beard had maintained its bushy, chest-length wonder, its original dirty blonde now completely swamped by a sea of steel gray that extended to his entire chest hair, and his bushy pubes. He reached up to his chest, brushing his fingers across his bear paw tattoo, the vivid colors having already faded from age. It didn't help that his silvery chest hair completely swamped the image. At least the tattoo on his bicep was still visible, along with a new addition; a thick, black band that circled his bicep, connected by a rectangle of the same striped colors from the paw print. It looked like some sort of pride flag, albeit one he hadn't seen before. He made a mental note to look into it when he had the chance.
Meanwhile, his belly had swollen to almost beach ball proportions, extending far in front of him, enough to hide the view of his feet without leaning over the broad curve. It did, however, provide a handy resting spot for his meaty, round pecs that had swollen to cantaloupe proportions, enough to make his stomach look almost normal in comparison. Jack turned to the side, raising an eyebrow at the sheer breadth he now harbored; he could take up the space of two men. But all of this added bulk meant his back had started to ache, and his knees were creaking underneath. As things came to a close, he noticed that the hair around the side of his head had grown back, cropped short and mostly gray with the occasional dark blond. His severe male pattern baldness looked more natural on a man of 55, after all. Then, as if out of nowhere, a pair of glasses suddenly plopped onto his nose. He took them off, and the world grew blurry around him. With a sigh, Jack plopped them back on his nose, before sitting back down on his bed, knowing that he had significantly outgrown the chair he once comfortably sat in. His large gut piled up atop his thighs and almost swamping his lap with its bulk.
"Are you okay, son?" Hank asked, giving his arm a soft rub. He couldn't believe this hulking old man was actually his son.
Jack looked down on his miniscule father, and a smile briefly cracked through his white beard. "It's a bit of a shock, but I think I'm okay. I'm only in my fifties, that's not terrible. I'm still way off from Grandpa's age, and it's not like I'll be this old forever, right? And check it out!" He twisted sideways, and showed off his newly inked bicep. "I got tattoos! No idea what they mean though... I mean, I like bears and all, but they're no sharks, or tigers, or even capybaras. I guess it must have some significance to older me."
None of the men seemed to find anything noteworthy about them, except for Hank. He kept tight-lipped, giving the old man a tight squeeze of his palm with a smile. "Whatever it means, you must be proud enough to get it permanently inked onto your skin."
"Yeah, well, I better enjoy them while they stick around. I bet with the next round, I'll be young again."
"Or you'll become even more of a grandpa," Ellis snorted.
Jack ignored him, passing the dice onto his dad, who looked a little apprehensive. It's only a game, he reminded himself. He chucked the dice, and whistled as he gained ten spaces. That is, until he landed on a plus space himself. Cautiously, he leaned over the board, then exhaled dramatically. "Phew, plus four years!" He sighed in relief. "That'd make me, what, thirteen?"
Compared to Jack's dramatic transformation of a youngish man aging into his fifties, Hank's transformation was far more subdued. He gained a couple inches in height, yet his arms and legs got a little gangly compared to the rest of him. The hair on his arms darkened a little, as did his leg hair. His Adam's apple grew a little more apparent as his vocal chords developed. And without warning, an outbreak of acne swept across his cheeks and forehead. He shifted uncomfortably as he felt the bumps across his greasier skin "Oh man," he grumbled, his voice cracking. "I forgot how much being a teenager sucked..."
"It can't suck any more than being thoroughly in your fifties," Jack said with a slap of his dad's back, knocking the wind out of the gangly teen. "Then again, I think I like being a more mature man. I definitely like being a larger man, that's for sure!" He gave his big, hairy belly an affectionate rub, followed by a slap that rumbled the bulk like jelly. The others laughed at his antics, apart from Bob who was steadily getting ever more frustrated with the game. However, with how close he was to winning, it wouldn't be long before he could set everyone back to their normal selves and put this mess behind them.
Finally, at the end of round five, John had managed to stay 1 years old, but now both in body and mind. Paul had predictably gotten older, becoming 48 years old. Ellis finally broke into adulthood, albeit younger than he wanted to be at 24. Bob had happily regressed back down to 13, getting closer to his original age than ever. After an explosive adult incident, John had gotten even older, closing in on old age at 55 years old. And Hank entered his teenaged years again, much to his dismay, at a solid 13 years old.