The twenty-five year old Will was curious what would happen to his character if he altered its age. He at first thought about making it 20 or 18, but the difference wouldn't be all that noticeable in his character--and that's why Will clicked on 5--that for sure would change his character noticeably.
Will selected the age 5, and saw as a timer popped up. Uggh, he'd have to check back later is all. He could ready his work bag in the meanwhile, and so Will stood up and felt an odd tingle as he did which caused him to pause for a second.
"Weird," said Will before continuing to collect his laptop and stuff it into his bag for college. Wait? College? He'd graduated years ago. Will paused again and looked at his hand stuffing the laptop into the bag and noticed his fingers looked a little thinner than they had a moment ago. This was followed by an itching sensation that started on his chest and then spread down his abdomen before spreading to his face, arms, legs, and pits.
"Why ah--am I so itchy?" asked Will, caught off guard by the crack in his voice. He hadn't had a voice crack in almost a decade. As Will brought his hand up to his chest, he was surprised that his shirt felt loose and baggy--enough that he didn't have to open a button or two in order to see his chest. His chest hairs seemed to be sparser than he remembered. He looked down and was shocked to see them slowly pulling into his skin.
Concerned, Will padded his way to the bathroom only to be met by a sight in the full length mirror he hadn't seen in over a decade--his fifteen year old self in his adult clothes that were in danger of falling off his diminishing body. Gone was any hint of the blond stubble he'd shaved off this morning--his face was now baby skin smooth, and the rest of his body was going that way--especially as the itchiness now seemed to pool at his groin, which was accompanied by a sudden shrinkage which caused Will to fall over from losing his balance. He had to see what was happening. Will stood up and sloughed out of his growing clothes so he could see his penis lose his bush surrounding it and shrink itself--his balls pulling up tight against his body as the last vestiges of puberty went away, leaving a prepubescent naked blond boy who looked to be about 11 or maybe 10.
"The program is real... oh my god the program is real!" said Will, at first caught off guard by how different his voice sounded, before realizing it was only more proof that what he was seeing wasn't some wild hallucination. And it wasn't done. Already Will noticed he was starting to gain a bit of baby fat as he left the double digits and lost even more height. He watched amazed as his hands and feet shrank and grew chubby and stout, matching the young child that stood before the mirror until it stopped when he reached the age he had entered into the computer: 5 years old. Gosh, the kindergartner--not even a Kindergartner, given his birthday was in November--before him in the mirror looked so cute and sweet--a sight he wouldn't have been able to observe in himself when he was originally 5. Now he was only a few years older than his daughter. He was more a big brother than a father to Tracey now. It was then that Will's clothes on the ground shrank into something more age appropriate for a preschooler. His underwear transforming into underoos, his socks--which had stayed on his feet shrank to fit his new foot size, his dress shirt into a t-shirt, and his slacks into elastic-band pants he could easily pull up or down when he had to go poop. Will giggled at the thought of the word poop, before stopping himself, surprised that he'd giggled like an actual little boy about poop.
Hmm... even with being aware he was starting to feel weird as childish memories starting appearing in his mind along side his adult memories. Apparently he now was Tracey's big brother and Paula was now his Mommy.
"And what may I ask is so funny in here?" asked a voice from behind and above, and Will turned around to see Paula--Mommy standing in the door, looking down on him.
"I'm trying to dress myself Mommy! See, I got my socks on all by myself!" said Will proudly, hoping that that would explain why he was standing in the bathroom, naked.
"Oh, well, I'll let you get to it. Call me if you need any help," assured Mommy before shutting the door.
Will let a sigh of relief go that he hadn't known he'd been holding.
It was harder to dress oneself at age five than he'd remembered--but Will managed and soon left the bathroom to see a man his child brain was telling him was "Daddy" but his adult memories were recalling him as "Benny" and "little bro". Apparently the computer had made his former little brother Ben his new father. Ben was 23 and perpetually late for everything and anything--as his mad rush to button his dress shirt was proving right now.
"Don't be too loud, Ben, or you'll wake up Tracey and Janet too early, and then that'll knock them off their schedule for the whole day," chided Paula as she, now dressed, passed him to exit the master bedroom.
"Pop a bagel in the toaster for me, honey, I'm not gonna have time for much else--not with the traffic I'm going to hit."
"Will do!" called out Paula as she left the room.
Ben by this point had finished buttoning his dress shirt and was now tucking it in before walking over to grab a tie at random.
"Daddy... can I tie your tie?" asked Will, both to appease his child brain to get Daddy's attention, and his adult mind that remembered Ben never tied a tie well under pressure.
"Aww, Billy, now's not the time--" Ben even used the childhood nickname he'd called Will by when they had been kids.
"Please?" asked Will, conscious to give Ben puppy dog eyes as he asked.
It worked better than Will had thought it would.
"Oh... all right. Five minutes won't make much of a difference," humored Ben as he sat on the ground and hung the tie loosely about his neck. Will, carefully recalling his adult memories began to tie the tie.
"And where did we learn to tie a tie, Billy?" asked Ben good-naturedly.
"Mommy showed me... she said I'd need to know how to one day" said Will.
"Well, apparently she did a really good job, considering my ties aren't all in sailor's knots."
Not knowing how to answer that question like a five year old might, Will stayed focused on his task until Ben's tie was completely finished.
"Wow... you did an especially nice tie job, Billy," admired Ben as he stood and walked over to the entrance of the master suite bathroom to see the tie job in the mirror.
"I've been practicing."
Ben then turned and looked oddly at Will.
"My little guy's growing up so fast..."
Daddy then bent over and scooped Will up under his arm pits and raised him in the air and said, "You know what, screw work today, I want to hang out with my little guy today."
Will squealed with delight at being held up high in the air--it almost felt like he was soaring. And then it was finished with Daddy putting him down gently on the bed.
"Just have to shoot my boss an email saying I won't be in today," said Ben as he walked over to the desk with the computer. Will laid back and thought of how much fun he'd have with Daddy today. They'd built a pillow fort, watch TV, go to the Park, and play catch.
"What's this Sims game doing on my computer?" asked Ben, and suddenly Will's adult mind woke up.
"Wait, Daddy!" called out Will as Ben changed something on the screen and hit enter.