Reincarnation

Joe knew his wife had really gotten into yoga over the past few months, but when he got home from work and found her donning white robes on the back porch, it seemed like she was taking it to the next level.

“Give it a rest, Shiela,” Joe groaned.

“I’m afraid Sheila is no longer with us,” Sheila’s body told Joe.

“What the heck are you talking about?”

“My name is Ranesh. I was Sheila’s yogi. At 80 years old, my life was near its end. I needed a new body to continue my work, and Sheila so generously offered hers.”

“Wait...what? Don’t you believe in reincarnation or something like that?”

“And just how do you think that process works?”

Guilt

Eugene had made a huge mistake with his body swapping machine. It was supposed to be a quick test with Kaitlyn, and then they were supposed to swap back to their own bodies. The whole thing should’ve been done in an hour. However, due to a slight miscalculation, it seemed their brains wouldn’t be able to take the return swap without being fried. They were stuck. Kaitlyn was clearly upset and Eugene felt terrible.

By the end of the day, Eugene had a plan to fix his errors. He wasn’g going to be able to swap them back, but with a bit of bioengineering, he might be able to transform his own body to at least return Kaitlyn to normal. He quickly started doing measurements. He needed to make his adjustments perfectly. He didn’t want to screw anything up.

After getting every dimension of Kaitlyn’s body, he programmed the nanobots. They’d be able to transform his old body into a double of Kaitlyn’s down to every small detail. His body wouldn’t exist any more, but he could rid himself of this guilt.

Worth It

When the Great Shift struck, Jackson could certainly tell something was different right away. The long hair, the shiny leather pants, and shapely body were all dead giveaways. However, it was a few hours of walking in uncomfortable heels before he finally found a mirror and saw his reflection. He was shocked -- he was absolutely gorgeous! If this was the body he ended up getting when everyone in the world swapped bodies, it all seemed worth it!

Perfect Wedding

Chuck had heard of bridezilas, so he was pretty relieved when his wife-to-be Kate seemed pretty relaxed about the whole thing and suggested hiring a wedding planner, Anne. It wasn’t long before Anne was bossing both Chuck and Kate around in order to help them plan their wedding. They often thought of firing her, but everything they previewed with her was always perfect. Dealing with Anne just seemed like a mild inconvenience in exchange.

When Chuck arrived at the day of the wedding, Anne greeted him. She was going to make sure he stayed far away from Kate, but her pleasant smile turned into a frown when she looked him up and down. She started lecturing him about now being perfect, about his tie being crooked. She demanded he let her fix it all. When Chuck agreed, he was shocked that Anne had somehow swapped bodies with him. She told him it was the easiest way. She’d get his body ready for the next hour or so, and he could just look around and enjoy everything. Chuck shrugged. It was weird, but he figured it was easier not to worry about it. And sure enough, as he looked around, everything was beautiful and, well, perfect. He couldn’t help but smile even if was walking around uncomfortably in Anne’s satin pink dress.

However, as guests started to arrive, he got nervous. He couldn’t find Anne and his body. When he finally did with minutes to spare, he asked about swapping back.

Anne just smiled, “You didn’t figure it out, did you? You aren’t getting your body back. I was planning the perfect wedding...MY wedding. I’m taking your life and your wife, and it was my plan all along...”

Reopen

Robert couldn’t believe how difficult it was moving the equipment around his gym ever since the Great Shift. Luckily he had swapped into a body that was pretty strong, but her body was nowhere near as strong as he had been. However, he had been eager to reopen even without much of his staff ready to return; that meant he had to do much of the work himself. But as he saw customers stream in, ready to improve whatever new body they had found themselves in, he knew he had made the right choice.

Eyes (Part 3)

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Jason supposed the next logical step was to find his former body. He knew where he had been before this swap happened, and it wasn’t far away. Even if the person in his body had gone, they couldn’t have gone far. As he began to walk, he noted it was a little challenging to walk in heels but not quite as tough as he expected. He was sure he’d be there in no time, but he was pretty sure he couldn’t be getting many more answers for a while...

Eyes (Part 2)

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Jason tried to evaluate his new body. He seemed to be in fairly good shape, probably no more than 30 years old. He couldn’t see his own face, but his body certainly seemed tractive. Of course, this still didn’t answer how he ended up in this body or where his own body went. That’s when he overheard a conversation in the distance. There were two voices in quite a panic talking about how this body swap affected everyone in the entire world. It didn’t answer much, but it as good to know that he wasn’t alone.

Eyes (Part 1)

The light was blinding and Jason tried using his hand to shield his eyes, but there was nothing that could protect him from the Great Shift. His vision was briefly engulfed by the light until his sight slowly returned. The first thing he saw when it returned was his own hand, which was now seemed much more slender and encased in a dainty black glove. In the other hand, he could feel the weight of a purse. His legs were bare, and he could feel a col breeze blow on them. Then there was the bright pink coat and the long hair. It was hard to fathom, but it seemed he was now someone else...

Overwhelmed

Bill woke up in a strange house and in a strange body. He was trying his best to process the identity of this woman he now was and how he ended up in her body. He didn’t feel overwhelmed until he went into her walk in closet to get dressed. Looking at the wide array of clothes and shoes felt like just too much. To top it all off, everything seemed excessively feminine. All of the shoes were heels; all of the clothes were dresses or skirts. This wasn’t going to be easy...

Stopped (Part 3)

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It seemed as though while the stopped elevator was temporary but the body swap was not. As such, it seemed Alan was now stuck in Tiffany’s body and stuck living her life. With his own business in a bit of a lull, Tiffany shadowed Alan to give him good directions about how to do his hair and makeup, how to dress, and even how to run her business. She was actually still doing most of the work, and he was just the face. At some point, he knew he tables would have to turn, and instead of Alan learning about fashion, he would have to teach Tiffany about construction. They both hoped by the end of it they’d either swap back or at least have enough knowledge to get by.

Stopped (Part 2)

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As the minutes ticked away, Alan figured he wasn’t going to suddenly swap back to his own body any time soon nor was the elevator going to just start working, so he slipped off the heels from his feet and sat on the floor. Realizing he might be stuck in this body for a while, he decided to ask the woman about herself.

It turned out the woman’s body he was now in was named Tiffany. She had worked as a model and was starting her own fashion line now with a very successful initial season under her belt. Alan described his own life to her and how he worked in construction. Both hoped they would swap back to their own bodies before long...

Stopped

It wasn’t the first time Alan had been on an elevator that stopped. The sudden jolt between floors was unexpected but not unusual. It only became weird with what happened next. It was only about a minute later when Alan swapped bodies with the only other person in the elevator, a woman wearing a fur coat. He immediately looked down to inspect his new body, completely shocked.

“Please keep your hands off my body,” The woman now in his body sighed.

“I mean, they’re technically your hands,” Alan retorted, “But...sorry; I’ll stop. This is just so weird! I’m a woman! I’m you! How did this even happen?”

“It’s not like I know, and I’m certainly not happy about it. But there’s no way we’re going to figure it out while we’re stuck in this elevator.”

A Nice Day; A Nice Life

How long had it been since Calvin’s body was stolen and he was stuck driving the magic taxi? Two months? Three months? He wasn’t sure, but he told himself he wasn’t going to steal anyone else’s body. He was just content to drive and earn a decent living. That is, until Erica got in the back seat. She kept droning on and on about her great life, about how rich she was, and how she liked treating everyone poorer than her like dirt. Calvin finally decided he found someone to swap bodies with, so as she got out, he told her to “Have a nice day” and suddenly found himself in her body just as she was closing the door.

Now that Erica was inside the body of the cab driver, she looked at Calvin with an unexpected smile.

“Yes, Ma’am, I hope you have a very nice day” She repeated while adding, “And I hope you have a nice life as a trophy wife going home to your 80 year old husband who just won’t die and still insists getting busy every night.”

Calvin could only look back in shock, realizing what he had just done to himself.

More Closely

“Well, this is working faster than expected,” The doctor mused, “I haven’t even removed the needle yet and your transformation has already begun.”

“Transformation? What do you mean by--” Kyle paused, “What the hell is wrong with my voice? And why is my hair cascading down my shoulders? And my chest? What the hell is happening to me?”

“Relax, Mr. Swanson, you signed up to be a part of this experiment, and this is what it is. The serum I injected you with transformed you into a woman much faster than anticipated. In fact, based on the rate, you are likely to be hyper-feminized by the time the effects have worked their way through your body.”

“Becoming a woman? Hyper-feminized? Oh, hell no, this is not what I signed up for.”

“Maybe you should have read the release forms more closely...”

Cheating Death

Ed had spent a vast amount of his fortune in an attempt to cheat death. When he became ill at an advance age, he had his body frozen in the hopes of being revived later. When he awoke nearly a century later, he found his brain’s memories had been downloaded into a robotic body. The doctor explained that Ed’s brain was slowly decomposing. If they didn’t download it into a body, it would be lost.

“But why a female robot?” Ed asked.

The doctor shrugged, “There are only female robots. The gender gap still exists. These robots can only be bought by the richest of rich men. What do you think they USUALLY use them for?”

Ed shuddered. This wasn’t the future he expected.

Not a Test (Part 2)

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Brian listened to the reporter on the radio. She sounded genuinely rattled as she described reports coming in across the globe about people randomly swapping bodies with one another. It seemed those who weren’t affected were in a clear minority.

As Brian listened, he did his best to remain calm. He looked around and recognized the neighborhood as not far from where he lived. He put his hands back on the steering wheel and decided to drive over to his house. He knew he’d have to take it slow and carefully, but it would be good to speak with whoever was now in his body.

Not a Test

Brian was pulling out of his driveway when the Great Shift struck, swapping his body with a woman a few blocks away doing the same thing. He saw his hands on the steering wheel and immediately slammed on the breaks. He turned his hands around to look at the palms; these weren’t his hands. The car wasn’t his car. His body -- wasn’t his body! He slowly moved his now feminine hands to the radio to turn it on. The emergency alert was playing. This wasn’t a test; something was going on...

Back to Normal (Part 3)

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Her boyfriend didn’t say a word at first. He simply walked over and gave Gwen a kiss, then he finally spoke, “Gwen, my darling. I can never stop loving you no matter what body you’re in. And you are still just as beautiful as the day we met.”

Gwen couldn’t help but smile, but she had to add, “Even though were both technically guys now?”

“It doesn’t matter; I love you.”

Back to Normal (Part 2)

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“I look like a man in a dress and a wig,” Gwen sighed as she looked in the mirror.

She tried her best to adjust her makeup, hoping that she’d be able to pull off looking at least a little more feminine than she was feeling right now. This whole Great Shift thing was just a little too depressing.

“Chuck,” She called to her boyfriend standing beside her, “Do you still love me even though I’m like this now?”

Back to Normal (Part 1)

The Great Shift hadn’t been easy for Gwen. She had found herself in the body of a man and was having a hard time adjusting. For a few weeks, she had tried to embrace her newfound manhood, but it just didn’t feel right. Today would be the first day she’d return to wearing women’s clothes and doing makeup; she admired the blonde wig on her desk that had just arrived. She couldn’t wait to put it on.

Freeze (Part 2)

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At first, Jared thought he hadied and this was the afterlife. He couldn’t have claimed to be have been the best to women in his life, so being stuck as one as punishment seemed appropriate. However, as he overheard conversations around him about ‘swapping bodies,’ he began to put the idea of death behind him. He must’ve swapped bodies with this woman. He wasn’t exactly happy about that, but he supposed it was better than being shot dead in a alley.

But if his soul was in this body, he wondered what happened to the woman’s soul. That is until a gruff voice from being interupted him.

“Excuse me, Miss,” It asked, “But who are you?”

“I’m not exactly sure,” Jared replied nervously, “I just found myself in this body a few minutes ago.”

“I know that because that’s MY body, so who were you before all this?”

Freeze

Jared knew that robbing a convenience store was a bad idea, and he knew that running from the cops was an even dumber idea. It didn’t stop him from doing both. He ducked into an alleyway to avoid them, but it was a deadend. He heard “freeze” and he hesitated. He thought about running again, but then he swore he heard a shot and saw a bright light. Instinctively, he put his hands up, but instead of a dark alley, he was now in a bright room surrounded by people. And judging from the red leather dress he now wore, he was in a body that was not his own...

Crash

One minute Carl was driving down the highway when there was a flash of light and the scenery suddenly changed. He swerved as quickly as he could to prevent an accident, but he couldn’t react quickly enough. He supposed he was lucky to be alive. He didn’t seem to be hurt, but his whole body just felt...different. It wasn’t until he made his way out of the car that he realized he had swapped bodies with a woman. The car he crashed wasn’t his car. And it took him even longer to learn that he wasn’t the only one swapped; most of the world was in an event that would come to be known as The Great Shift....

Healthy (Part 5)

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Click here for Part 4.

And so, as hard as it was for James to believe, he was finally convinced that he was Jenny and that he always had been Jenny. He tried his best to embrace her life; he started to dress and try to act accordingly. It was often times difficult. For instance, he’d get a text from one of Jenny’s friends. For starters, he likely couldn’t even think of what the person texting him looked like. Then it was often about a subject that may have interested a college-aged woman, but James struggled to take it seriously. Shopping? Boys? He just wasn’t interested. Then there were Jenny’s classes; many he had to retake. He fumbled his way through some of them; whereas Jenny had often excelled. When people asked about it, he would explain it off as ‘amnesia,’ but it was really much more complicated. He missed his old life, but it had all just been in his head. Nothing about ‘James’ had been real. Jenny was his one and only reality. It was just so hard to fight the memories in his head.

Healthy (Part 4)

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As soon as James was well enough, he got out of bed and onto the computer. He searched for any evidence of the life he remembered. He looked for his family, but found no records. He looked at maps of places he had visited, but the layouts were all different. Even events from history that he recalled seemed non-existent. In fact, everything he seemingly remembered so clearly turned up nothing. The evidence was mounting that he really was Jenny and his recollection of being James was just something he had completely made up in his head. It was hard to believe, but it also seemed to be the truth.

Healthy (Part 3)

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After a few more days in the hospital, James was sent home with Jenny’s parents. For a time, he just learned as much as he could about being Jenny. She was a college student majoring in pre-med. She was walking on campus when got his by a car who drove off. Her parents had rushed to her side once they heard.

James, of course, didn’t remember any of this. To him, Jenny’s parents were strangers. He had the memories of a forty year old man with a wife and two children. He knew nothing about pre-med and worked in graphic design. How was he ever going to be able to just pick up Jenny’s life? None of this made any sense to him.

Healthy (Part 2)

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A short time later, a doctor entered and James was filled with questions.

“What happened to me?” James asked, “Why did you transplant my brain into this woman’s body?”

The doctor frowned, “We did no such thing. I’m afraid you’ve always been Jenny Park. You were in an accident where you hit your head. You were mostly fine, but you woke up a few minutes after the accident claiming your name was James.”

“But I am. I am James. I remember my wife, my family. I remember growing up, phone numbers of where I used to live.”

“I’m afraid your brain made all of that up, Jenny. You dreamt up the life you wanted, but it’s time to accept the reality of who you are; who you’ve always been...”

Healthy (Part 1)

James opened his eyes slowly to see the sterile fluorescent lights of a hospital shining in his face. He tried to remember the events that brought him here, but they were a bit of a blur. He took a deep breath in and noticed an odd feeling on his torso. At first he thought his body had been injured in some way, but upon further inspection he discovered he no longer had his own body. He was wearing women’s clothes, and he was unmistakably a woman. It didn’t seem possible. He tried to remember what would have caused such an injury that would require his brain to be transplanted into an entirely new body, but he still couldn’t think of anything. Before waking up here, he could only remember living a happy, healthy life.

Office Copier

Ronald wondered why no one ever said anything about the office copier. Then again, he never said anything about it either. It seemed that every time anyone used it, they’d turn into a copy of the person who used it before them, and the next person would turn into them. Each day, Ronald would find himself inhabiting the body of a different coworker, and yet everyone would treat him as himself instead of who he appeared to be. The same seemed to be true about everyone else too. It was all so weird, but also a lot of fun. Today he found himself inside the body of Natalie Wong, who worked in the purchasing department. He hoped he wouldn’t have to make another copy for a while, as he sure hoped to keep this body as long as possible.

Library

It had been five years since John graduated college and even longer since he had visited the town where he grew up. He only returned at the urging of his parents. With little to do, he eventually paid a visit to the local library. The librarian appeared to be a woman he had gone to high school with al those years ago. She asked about his life in the city, his job, and his success -- all of which John was happy to brag about. But then the librarian read from an old looking book, and suddenly John was looking across the table at himself.

“What the hell did you do?” He shouted as he stood up before leaning down, “Why did you do this?”

“You’re life just seemed so interesting. I found a spell in one of these books a long time ago to swap bodies. You seemed as likely a candidate as any.”

“But I don’t want to be you! I don’t want to be a boring librarian living in this boring town with a boring life! You can’t do this to me!”