Get Swapped (Part 1)

“The Swapper” didn’t seem like much of a ride. With the tagline “Get Swapped,” it appeared to be little more than a small booth in the amusement park. But people came out looking so refreshed that Nathan assumed the ride must just be underground or something, and that prospect seemed a little bit better than another long wait in the hot sun for a roller coaster right now.

As it turned out, there really wasn’t much more than the booth itself. Nathan entered and was squirted with some sort of weird goo. That part actually was refreshing. The goo was in sharp contrast to the summer temperature, and he felt goose bumps on his skin. But that feeling began spreading; soon his whole body was tingling. It wasn’t just tingling, it was changing.

And, sure enough, Nathan had left The Swapper as a completely different person from the one who entered. He could feel the weight of long hair on his head and a new weight on his chest. He pulled out his phone to look at himself, seeing a woman looking back. He should probably be freaking out, but all he could think was how fun the ride had been.

Unique Node (Part 1)

Chloe nervously walked to the front of the lecture hall after class. Professor White thought he had gone over the heads of everyone with his parallel realities theories, but he was glad at least one student was brave enough to ask a question.

“Do you think it’s possible to travel back to a previous reality?” Chloe asked nervously.

Professor White laughed, “The amount of energy to travel to a random universe in the first place would be near incalculable, and returning to an exact point would be like landing a rocket ship on the head of a pin.”

“What if you could reduce the entropy? By matching a deterministic state with a resonant quantum signature?”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying we figured it out. In my reality. You and I did. But I was the only one who could. Because Chloe lived my life. I was never born here. My parents adopted her. It was as close to being identical without being identical. And she was the only one. But my real name is Steve. Steve Johnson.”

“And so Chloe is a unique node for you?”

“Yeah.”

“But that means there are an infinite number of Steve Johnsons. And no way to know which one is you.”

BFFs | The Halloween Episode

View the Body Swap Episode of BFFs

Before/After

It was a challenge not to imagine what this woman’s life was like before the Great Shift, before I swapped into her body. I didn’t know why she was on our street at that time, and many people often didn’t believe who I really was.

My wife was actually the first person to believe me, which was a relief on a lot of levels. All of her clothes fit my new body -- though her love of floral patterns and pastels certainly contrasted with my new body.

I could accept the fact that I was a woman now, but the tattoos were harder. I wanted them removed as soon as possible; however, with the Shift closing down all non-essential business and the sheer number, it would be a long wait and a long process. Until then, I woke up each day looking at this woman, and I still couldn’t believe she was me.

Is It?

“She’s kinda fat,” Matt said while looking at his post-Great Shift reflection in the mirror, “I didn’t know Asian women got fat.”

“That sounds hella racist,” His roommate shouted back from the other room.

“Is it? I’m technically Asian now. Can’t I say things like that?”

“It still seems wrong when you were the most generic white guy on the planet two days ago.”

“Fair enough, but I don’t think anyone is going to say that about me now. I just had a mindset about Asian women, and this isn’t it.”

“Yeah, Dude, that’s racist...”