Graceful and Elegant

Lina was graceful and elegant. Nigel had seen her dance on multiple occasions, and he had always been impressed by the way she was able to move or hold positions.

But now because of the Great Shift, he was her. He didn’t feel any of that grace or elegance. He felt like he still moved in an awkward and clumsy way, no matter what body he was now in.

The morning after it happened, he had tried a few ballet moves he had seen her do, but without her training, the only thing that happened was knocking things off a nearby shelf. Would he ever get used to this?

I Swapped Bodies with My Female Coworker

Unique Node (Part 2)

View Part 1 of Unique Node.

Steve wasn’t going to take no for an answer. He wanted back to his own body and his own reality, and he wasn’t going to take no for an answer from Professor White. He began to draw on the board.

Steve explained, “Chloe, even while she’s in my body, should still have a unique signature, and not only that, her dissonance should be even more easily detectable.”

“Minimal energy is still a lot of energy,” Professor White mused, “And there’s a high probability that someone else in the entire multiverse has already detected the dissonance and honed in on it. It’s not a sure fire way back to your own body. In fact, in the infinite multiverse, it’s almost a guarantee that someone has already found it.”

“But it’s still my only hope.”

“And you might end up in a much worse situation than being Chloe if we do this...”

Get Swapped (Part 2)

View Part 1 of Get Swapped.

Nathan walked away from The Swapper and put his phone in his pocket. It actually didn’t fit so well, but he did his best. Still feeling pretty good after the ride, he ordered a corndog. He paid with his phone -- giving another look at the shorts he now wore, he was certainly glad that he didn’t bring his wallet with him today. Then he sat down nearby to eat. Just as he was about to take a bite, a man sat down across from Nathan.

“What are you doing?” The man accused.

“Uh, eating a corndog.” Nathan replied.

“That’s my girlfriend’s body. For starters, she’s a vegetarian, but you just need to come back to The Swapper and switch back.”

Nathan paused before answering. He asked, “Why isn’t she here asking me? Is she unhappy with whatever body she ended up in?”

The man seemed flustered. “She’s...fine. She almost seems....happy.”

“And so am I. I don’t see the problem here.”

Layoffs

The layoffs came on a Friday, and the androids arrived on Monday morning. My co-worker Jake was replaced with an android with hollow eyes with a female appearance. It sat there without a keyboard, just sort of staring and coding without any physical interaction. It didn’t need rest or a break.

But every once and a while, it spoke to us as if it was human, making small talk. It was as if it was doing it just to make us feel comfortable, knowing we’d all be replaced by these bots soon enough.

But it was one of those breaks when it seemed to glitch. “It’s....me...” The android said, “Jaaaaa...ke.” Then it snapped back. “We should resume this conversation at the next break time.”

I stared at it. Was Jake inside of this robot? Would this happen to all of us? Could I just ask? Would it answer?