Common Technology

When his wife first bought the odd device, Thomas was a little nervous. A few weeks later when she actually wanted to use it, he was even more worried. He reluctantly agreed, put a part of the device on his head, and sat across the room for his wife, who put a similar part on her own head.

It took a few minutes before Thomas realized he was now, in fact, looking at the other side of the room and was staring into his own eyes. It had worked exactly as advertised, and now he and his wife were in each other’s bodies.

“How long do we have to stay like this?” Thomas groaned while trying to hide his displeasure with an awkward smile.

“Just a few days,” His wife replied, “I bought it so you could learn just how hard it is to be a woman.”

“Brain switchers are pretty common technology these days. I doubt the guys are the office are going to even flinch at the fact that I’m going to be a woman for a few days.”

“You might be surprised. Some guys just can’t help it.” “I’m already regretting this...”

Guard Duty

Adam had been assigned late night guard duty at the base all week. For the most part, it had been pretty calm. It wasn’t until his final night of duty that he saw something headed for the base. Before he could react in any way, there was a flash of light followed by darkness. A few moments later, he heard classical music. Then he opened his eyes to find himself at a fancy party. His jaw dropped when he looked down and saw a dress; he was a woman!

A woman in a green dress approached him quickly. “Calm down, Adam,” She whispered to him, “Allow me to explain. It’s me; it’s Chris. We were on guard together, and they attacked the base, but I saved us.”

“B-b-but, we’re women now! How?”

“I know a little magic. The attack was so fast; I didn’t have time to be picky. I just used a body swap spell to get us as far away from there as possible. I had no idea where we’d end up or who we’d end up being.”

“But the base -- ?”

“Everyone is dead. They got the drop on us. Everyone except for us...”

Group

James looked down, quite surprised to see a pair of breasts along with tight leather pants on his legs and high heels on his feet. He was quite shocked that he didn’t notice several other women surrounding him wearing the exact same thing.

“Okay, this is super weird, right?” Kevin, who was in the body of one of the other women, said.

“I can’t believe I’m a chick!” Victor exclaimed.

“You were both guys before?” Megan asked tilting her head over, “I can’t complain. This is like an upgrade for me.”

“I was a guy, too,” James finally piped in, “Does anyone know what happened?”

A Lot to Learn

Jason was a little nervous when he signed up for the experiment at the science institute. The marketing materials talked about living in another person’s shoes and offered a lot of cash, but when the scientist at the facility explained it was a brain transplant surgery Jason was shocked. When they refused to tell him what body he’d end up in, he thought about backing out. However, he really needed the cash, and ultimately went with it.

When he awoke from the experiment, he was shocked by his new slender, feminine body. They had put his brain in the body of a woman! Strangely, they were rushing him to put on the woman’s clothes and have just a few tests done before heading back to her house. He sort of expected a little more recovery time, but as he stood up and walked, it seemed that he didn’t need it. Everything seemed normal...almost too normal.

Jason learned about his new life. She had been a model, but she didn’t get enough work to pay the bills. The money from the experiment would be more than enough though. What still bothered him was how simple and easy the surgery had been. What the scientists never told him was that brain transplantation had been perfected long ago; where research was still lagging was about the psychological effects of a more extreme transplant. The variable in Jason’s case was gender, and they weren’t done studying him either. They had implanted a chip in his brain to monitor his location, his mood, and his reactions. There was a lot to learn.

Grand Scheme

Juan didn’t quite know how to react. He had a crush on Jessica for as long as he could remember. Finding out her boyfriend had just dumped her was a dream come true. Unfortunately, the only reason he knew this was because she was currently a crying mess on his shoulder. Well, it was actually even more complicated, since Juan had swapped bodies with Jessica’s best friend, Kiki about an hour ago. He tried to think of a plan to work this to his advantage.

Since Jessica thought he was Kiki, he knew he’d have to act sympathetic and help her get over it. At the same time, he couldn’t really empathize, because he had the goal of trying to now convince her to go into his arms. But if he pushed her to do that too much too soon, Kiki would still be the one in his body and she’d undoubtedly screw it up for him. Maybe for now he’d just enjoy being close to Jessica and figure out the grand scheme a little later...

Older (Part 3)

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Click here for Part 2.

Brandon felt a little embarrassed after hanging out with Tony, so he stopped wearing his sister’s old clothes and instead stuck with things borrowed from his mom. It certainly made him feel as old as Ms. Huang probably actually was.

When school finally started back up again, Brandon was among those with more dramatic changes called to the office to meet with the guidance counselor. He waited as the other students went in and out. One of his classmates was now a toddler and another an old man. As he sat and waited, the reality of it all was really beginning to set in. He was a middle aged woman sitting in a high school office. He felt more like a parent than a student at this point. He knew he wasn’t going to fit in with the kids in his class anymore, and he was just going to have to accept that.

Older (Part 2)

Click here for Part 1.

It wasn’t all that surprising that school was canceled for some time after the Great Shift. This was supposed to allow people to adjust to their new bodies. But it was hard for someone like Brandon, stuck in a dramatically different body. He found himself borrowing clothes from his mom or digging through things his sister left behind when she went away to college. Wearing his mom’s clothes made him feel old, so he often prefered to wear his sister’s stuff even if it was often way more feminine or more revealing than he liked.

By the third day, he was getting a little bit of cabin fever, so he emailed his friend Tony about hanging out. Tony, who had swapped into a blond cheerleader’s body, agreed, so Brandon threw on one of his sister’s outfits and drove over. Tony was floored.

“Dude, what are you wearing?” Tony asked.

“It belonged to my sister,” Brandon explained, “I guess it’s kind of supposed to be fun and flirty.”

“Yeah, maybe if my new body wore it, but on Ms. Huang’s body, it just seems weird and gross. She’s so old, dude.”

“Yeah, well, I am in her body, so I guess I’m the old one. It sucks! It’s bad enough being stuck in a woman’s body, but being older as well is even worse!”

Older (Part 1)

Brandon walked home from school just as he did every day. Except unlike every other day, today had been the day of the Great Shift. While most of the rest of his class swapped with other students in the school, Brandon ended up swapping with one of his teachers, Ms. Huang.

Ever since he turned 18 last month, he had wished his mom and dad would treat him like an adult instead of a kid. He sighed as he stood outside. He figured even now that he was inside of a woman’s body more than twice his age, they’d still treat him the same way.

And he could only imagine how bad the other kids were going to make fun of him once he went back to school. He heard a few of his classmates complain about swapping into the bodies of freshman, but he couldn’t imagine anything worse than swapping with a teacher!

Mine

“Oh, come on, Gwen,” Harold sighed as a grin spread across his face, “You were showing that medallion to just about anyone; you had to expect something like this to happen sooner or later. You were just so eager to try it out that you didn’t care who you swapped bodies with...even someone a little older, a little overweight like myself. And once we swapped, did you really expect me to give you back your body after twelve hours? I don’t think so. And unlike you, I’m not going to flaunt that medallion everywhere I go. It’s tucked away safely locked up...and I’m only keeping the key around my neck! So good luck with your new body, Gwen; I know I’m going to enjoy yours...or should I say mine?”

Uneventful (Part 4)

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Click here for Part 2.
Click here for Part 3.

And so, Ralph began to walk back to the post office. He tried to keep his back straight and march with a purpose, but the pinching of his high heeled shoes soon got the better of him. Just about every block or so, he needed to find somewhere to sit and take a break. He had walked quite a bit in these shoes today, and they seemed to be finally getting the better of him. They certainly weren’t made for this much walking, but he suspected he had been able to last this long thanks to this body’s muscles just being used to them! It was going to take a long time to get back to the post office!

Uneventful (Part 3)

Click here for Part 1.
Click here for Part 2.

For the next few hours, Ralph simply waited. He stood outside of his van hoping his own body would return here. It never did. Ultimately, Ralph knew he’d have to leave, but where would he go? He couldn’t go home; it would be locked and he didn’t have the keys. He had no idea where his current body lived. This only left one logical option in his mind; he’d return to the post office. He was sure it would still be open, and that someone would be there. After all, he wasn’t the only one dedicated to his job that worked there!

Uneventful (Part 2)

Click here for Part 1.

It took him about an hour, but Ralph was glad to make it back to his truck. It was a lot more difficult than he had anticipated to walk in heels, and his feet were killing him. On the way over, he talked with a lot of people who had also swapped bodies. Whatever happened, it seemed he wasn’t the only one experiencing this strange phenomenon.

He decided that given the circumstances, he could forgo the rest of his route today, and just take the truck back to the post office. However, whoever swapped into his body seemed to have locked it up tight and taken the keys! Unable to get into the driver’s seat, Ralph sat on the back bumper, not quite sure what his next steps would be. He certainly didn’t want to walk around more, and he didn’t want to abandon his truck either! For the time being, he just decided to wait, hoping the person who swapped into his body would return.

Uneventful

For the past thirty years, Ralph had what he would describe as a fairly uneventful life. He’d wake up, go to his job at the post office, deliver the mail, and then come home. It was a little repetitive, but he was happy. But one day on his route, something strange happened. As he drove his truck around town, a flash of light overcame him. He felt like he manged to pull over safely, but he soon realized he wasn’t even behind the wheel anymore..or, for that matter, even in his own body.

It was a bit of a shock to find himself in a young woman’s body wearing leather pants, high heels shoes, and a shirt that exposed a bare midriff. It was certainly the most exciting thing to ever happen to him in his entire life! But he didn’t care too much about excitement; he just wanted to get back to his truck to finish up his deliveries for the day so he could get home on time...

Impatient

Luke wasn’t sure how his sister Jennifer had even swapped their bodies in the first place, but he was growing impatient. After the initial swap, she refused to swap back with him unless he attended her final semester of classes for her. Then he had take her final college exams. Finally, she told him that she wouldn’t swap back until she got the grades back to ensure he did a good job. But now it was late June and he was still stuck in her body. Enough was enough!

He approached her with a look of frustration, folded his arms, and demanded to have her swap back now. Jennifer looked nervous for a moment before she finally confessed that she didn’t have a way to swap back, the spell was good for one use only. She hadn’t realized it at the time, but she messed up! They were stuck!

Luke was annoyed. He wanted to be angrier. All he had thought about as long as he was her was about getting back to his own body. However, now with that possibility gone, he began to reflect more on his time as her, and he realized that he actually enjoyed it! He may have been annoyed, but he couldn’t stay too mad!

Integral

John had no idea what to think when he looked down and saw his hand. Instead of the dark skin he usually saw, his hand was pale. And not only that, it was also thinner and much more...dainty? He quickly shoved his hands into his pockets as his mind raced to understand the situation. For some reason, he was now inside the body of a white woman! At first, he smiled. He thought about the various forms of systematic racism he had experienced in his life, and he couldn’t help but think that was all gone now. He thought about it a little more, and his smile began to fade. Then again, being a black man had been such an integral part of his identity, it was hard to imagine how he was going to adapt to this. And not only that, he knew women faced disadvantages of their own. He couldn’t wonder how those would affect him now. Of course, he still hadn’t even begun to think of how or why he was suddenly in a new body...

Frozen Treat

It was a fairly nice day, so Miles decided to go for a walk in the park. As the day went on it got hotter, so Miles stopped for an ice cream. The woman before him in line was taking forever to decide. He was even more annoyed when she simply ordered a vanilla cone. He quickly ordered his own ice cream and began to lick.

He hadn’t eaten too much of the frozen treat before he started to felt woozy. He thought he had collapsed, but he seemed to remain on his feet. That’s when he saw a familiar body on the ground. He had indeed collapsed, and there was his body. But he didn’t feel like a ghost. In fact, he still felt quite solid, and there was a taste in his mouth...vanilla? Even more shocking than seeing his own body collapsed was when Miles looked down at his own body. He had become the woman he had been standing behind in line! He was her with the same revealing top, jean shorts, and vanilla ice cream! It didn’t seem at all possible! What was in this ice cream that caused this!? And why was his own body still not waking up!?

What Might've Been

It had been a few weeks since the Great Shift, and things had gone back to being relatively normal. Despite swapping into new bodies, people continued on with their lives. But for someone like Nathan, there was always the lingering thought of what could have been. On his way to work, he sat down on the train. He looked to his right to see a woman in a school uniform sleeping next to him. He hadn’t minded swapping into the body of a woman, but he couldn’t help but feel a hint of jealousy, thinking it would’ve been nicer to have swapped with a body a little bit younger than his own instead of one that was a little bit older. As his jealousy grew, a snore caught his attention. To his left, another woman slept. This was one was significantly older. Suddenly his jealousy faded. He realized he could have swapped into a body that would’ve been quite a bit worse. He guessed he should be happy, but it was hard not to think about all that might’ve been..

Command (Part 2)

Click here for Part 1.

Kevin often grew weary of the things he was made to do. They often didn’t make much sense; he just did them because he had to. For about an hour each day, he was told to stand still and hold a paper between his knees. And each and every day he complied, just standing there unflinching for the hour.

But one day, he finally felt a muscle twitch and relax. The paper fell to the floor. He leaned over and picked it up. He paused briefly, realizing he hadn’t been told to pick it up. He did it on his own. He could wiggle his fingers; he could once again move in any way he wanted. He was still stuck in a woman’s body, but he was free! Fre from the control. He looked around him to see the lines of women, still holding the paper between their knees, still stuck in the same hell he had been in for months. He didn’t know how he was able to escape or where he was going to go, but he was just so thankful to finally be free!

Command

Kevin felt like a prisoner inside of his own head...except it wasn’t even his own head. He had woken up several months ago in a bed and he couldn’t move. He knew something was wrong and even as he lay motionless he could tell what it was -- he was now in a woman’s body! Things got even stranger when he heard an announcement to stand up, which his body immediately obeyed. In fact, except for things like breathing, his body couldn’t seem to do anything other than what was commanded of it. Kevin had no control; he could only feel the experiences.

Over the next few months, Kevin’s body was instructed about being female, how to sit up straight and cross his legs. He was told what to wear, how to do his hair and makeup, and he obeyed it all perfectly -- even when it hurt. Inside his head, he could only question why. Why would anyone do this to him? Why would anyone need to? Why did he have to be along for any of this? He wanted nothing more than to cry, but he couldn’t because his body could’ve only done so if it had been commanded to..

Wouldn't Believe It

“I can’t believe I’m wearing this thing,” Will muttered under his breath, “Maybe I should just tell Jade’s family about the body swap...that I’m not really Jade. Then again, who would even believe me if I said anything? A body swap? I mean, come on, if it didn’t happen to me, I wouldn’t believe it. But here I am...in Jade’s body putting on this outfit.”

Dropped (Part 2)

Click here for Part 1.

And then Esther opened the door. Greg gave a nervous smile as he finished picking up the contents and putting them back in his purse.

“Uh...why are you on the ground?” Esther asked.

“I..uh...I..I dropped my purse,” Greg stammered, “And I have some bad news.”

“Bad news?”

Greg took a deep breath. He was going to have to tell Esther about how he had lost the medallion and how she was going to be stuck in his body. He only hoped that she had actually enjoyed her time in his body and that she wouldn’t be too mad.

Dropped

Just as Greg walked up to the door of his own house, he dropped his purse on the ground, and the contents spilled all over. But as he put them back in, he was shocked as to what was missing: the medallion! He was sure he had put it in here; it had to be in here! If it wasn’t in here, then he wouldn’t be able to swap bodies back with Esther! He’d be stuck as her forever. He panicked as he began to dig through the contents. Sure, he had an interest in trying out being a woman for a bit, but the past twelve hours had been awful. Running around in heels was awful, the purse was annoying, and wearing a skirt around wasn’t fun either. And now he was going to stuck like this? He wanted to scream.

Happy

“Oh, Carl,” Mei gushed, “You look so beautiful.”

“No, Mei,” Carl corrected her, “YOU look beautiful. This is still your body. It’s just because of the Great Shift that I ended up in it.”

“Thank you for doing this for me, and thank you for asking me backstage with you.”

“I know it was your dream before the Shift to walk in a runway show. When that guy in the mall asked me if I was interested in doing just that, I had to say yes. I had to say yes for you. Honestly, the whole process has made me very uncomfortable -- the dress, the hair, the makeup -- I’m really not enjoying any of it except your smile.”

Carl looked over to his wife Mei. He was happy to see her smiling again. She had been pretty bummed out when the Great Shift swapped her into a body several decades older while Carl ended up swapping into her body. He was doing his best to try to make her happy -- to allow her to live vicariously through him. It wasn’t easy. He hated looking all girlie and fashion and whatnot, but he knew dolling himself up made Mei happy. He knew going through with modeling in this fashion show would also make her happy. So he did it; he did it all. Just to make her happy.

Permanent Vacation

When Mark first got the box in the mail that contained what claimed to be a body swapper, he didn’t know what to do with it -- or if even to believe it. But a few weeks later, he finally found a reason to test it out. He had a week long vacation at a resort, and when it was over he really didn’t want to leave. He realized he didn’t have to. On his last day, he waited for people to arrive at the front desk. He was particularly on the lookout for people traveling alone and listened for their name. Once they had gone upstairs, he entered their name into the body swapper and the next thing he knew it worked! This kept going on for several months.

He had just spent the week in the body of a business traveller. He had purposely skipped all the meetings. He had been by the front desk all day, but there had been very few guests and the ones who had checked in weren’t alone. Then he saw her. It would be his first time being a woman, but he was not sure he had much choice. He made note of her name and waited before using the body swapper.

She had apparently gone to the pool almost immediately. He found himself in her body splashing about. For about fifteen minutes, this continued until a tall figure leaned over the edge and demanded Mark get out. Mark recognized the body that had just been borrowing less than an hour ago. It looked mad. He just smiled an evil grin.

“I think you’re going to be late for your flight.” He said, “I think You’ve already checked out as well. You’re no longer a guest at this hotel. Don’t make me call security.”

“Give it back,” She demanded.

“I assure you I have no idea what you’re talking about, and if you try to tell anyone, I’m sure they’ll think your crazy. So good luck with your new life. I’ll certainly be enjoying yours for the next two weeks!”

Bad Feeling

Sheila groaned as she got out of the car and headed to her son’s school. It was still hard for her to believe she was going to have to spend the day there in his body as the result of that stupid medallion. Her only relief was that they’d be able to use it again the moment she got home in order to return to normal. As she headed toward the school, she turned back to the car to see her son Tom in her body. He stuck his tongue out at her before he peeled out and drove away. Sheila didn’t know what her son planned to do with her body today, but she had a bad feeling about it.

Skills

Chad wasn’t initially worried when his girlfriend Katie found a spell online to swap bodies. She asked to try it, and he laughed it off. He wasn’t laughing nearly as hard after it worked. Still, he tried not to let it get to him. He knew he had to train for the upcoming season of baseball, and he figured the fundamentals were the same regardless of what body he was in.

However, once he started to practice, he wondered if it wasn’t just bodies that he swapped with her but skills as well. He’d throw the ball into the air and then whiff. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t hit it. He had a certain sense that he was taking an incorrect stance or holding the bat wrong or just swinging poorly. However, as he tried to search his mind, he couldn’t quite remember the right way to do any of those things. In fact, part of him was feeling that baseball was just a little bit boring. Now he was starting to worry.

Don't Stare

It had been two days since the Great Shift, and Brett wasn’t exactly feeling great about his new body. He knew what he needed: a drink. After walking over to the liquor shelf, he turned sharply to his roommate to give him a sour stare.

“I know you’re enjoying this, Henry,” Brett said, “You always liked women with big breasts and big booties. Now that I happen to be one of those women, I know you’ve been staring at me!”

“Come on, Bro,” Henry replied, “Just admit you’re sexy as hell now. It’s not like I’m going to be doing anything about it. I swapped into a chick’s body as well.”

“Yeah, well, maybe I’m just not adapting to it as well as you are! I still bump things over with my butt because I’m not used to it yet! It’s weird, and I’m certainly NOT comfortable. It’d be help if you didn’t stare!”

Confirmed Misplacement

Evan waited patiently as he looked at his phone while waiting for a call or a text from Exchange Island’s main desk. Apparently, it was becoming increasingly common for a guest to not swap back to their own body by the end of their vacation. When he was boarding his flight off the island, he had been told not to worry as it was just as common for people to swap in transit as it was for them to swap right after checking out. His concern grew after he landed. He was now waiting for his connecting flight back home, and he was still stuck in the body of the woman he had been in for the past two weeks.

The resort’s customer service line was supposed to send him a message with a few details, such as where his body was, if it had been misplaced, and his ETA for returning to it. He honestly didn’t mind keeping this body a little longer. He had enjoyed his time in it while on the island, but he also had to go back to work on Monday. If he showed up like this, he wasn’t sure how he was going to explain it. Exchange Island was a pretty well kept secret, and even people who he had told didn’t believe him. For now he could only wait...

And that’s when he got the text: “Location of body: unknown. Confirmed misplacement. ETA for return: 3 months.” Evan sighed. Work was not going to be easy on Monday.