How to Dress to Attract a Man

Gimme Shelter

The shelters were so full after the Great Shift. They were set up quickly by people mostly confused as anyone else about being in the wrong body. Bill was glad they existed, considering he found himself in a strange body in a strange city.

The only problem, of course, was that the shelters basically had no privacy. The bed were in a room occupied by hundreds of other people, and even the bathrooms were always crowded.

It made sense, but considering he ended up in the body of a woman, he was also insanely curious. It felt so unfamiliar and yet he had absolutely no place to get to know it better.

Reboot

I had been rebooted again, but my body felt strange. It was no longer cold nor metallic, but warm and squishy. I was human once more.

I hadn’t been human for a long time. I barely even thought of myself as one anymore, though I suppose I had been one back in the day, long before my mind was uploaded and then downloaded into countless machines to perform countless more menial tasks.

I hadn’t been female back when I was human, or at least I don’t think I was. I feel like I would remember, though actually being human was a distant memory at this point.

“What is my task?” I finally realized I had to ask aloud as my brain was no longer connected to the network.

“Reproduction.” An AI voice said aloud, “The human species is at risk of extinction.”

“Understood,” I replied, as I still only had the slightest inkling that my free will was returning.

Dumb Ideas

Brad checked his phone. It was another text from Sundra -- there was probably about twenty at this point -- with another dumb idea about how to swap back into their own bodies. He had indulged her so far with some pretty dumb ideas including banging their heads together or getting electrocuted together, but he was getting a little sick and tired of it.

He had already come to accept he was probably going to be stuck in her body for the rest of his life. He started to type in a message to Sundra explaining that but deleted it; instead he responded, “Maybe later.”

He knew he couldn’t force her acceptance. It was something she would have to come to terms with on her own at her own pace. Until then, he’d have to deal with her dumb ideas.

First

I was one of the first ones to awaken after the Great Shift. My body felt heavy and strange. But it wasn’t just the extra weight, it was how that weight was distributed. And then there was the breeze blowing up my dress, because, yeah, I was apparently wearing a dress now because I became a woman.

However, I wasn’t even really thinking about that too much. My own situation was much less concerning than the haunting nature of seeing nearly everyone on the street collapsed and unconscious. I honestly wasn’t even processing my own changes until I started seeing other people sit up awake. Then it all hit me hard -- I was in the wrong body. We all were.