Quick Turn Around

“Thanks for turning this around so fast,” Julie said as she picked up the bridesmaid dress from the dry cleaners, “I can’t believe I have to wear this ugly thing at a wedding this weekend. Oh, and thank your father too when you see him.”

“I will,” Michael said, knowing full well that Julie probably assumed that any young Asian woman working at his store was his daughter.

Michael didn’t actually have any employees or any immediate family. What he did have, however, was the Medallion of Zulu, which he kept behind the counter. He often used it to transform himself into his female customers. In fact, he had used it along with the bridesmaid dress he was returning to be Julie for twelve hours. He wished it wasn’t a one-day rush job, because he would’ve loved to stay in her body for longer. It would’ve obviously been weird if she had come into his store and saw her own body returning her dress. Instead, he dug into some clothes a young Asian woman had left behind many years ago and never picked up.

Crush

Ben was pretty enamored with Natalie but was always afraid to ask her out because he thought his feeling might be unrequited. He had often seen her writing in a diary on campus, and he was sure there’d be something in there if she liked him. But how to sneak into the Natalie’s room to read it? Heck, he wasn’t even sure if he could get in the door of the women’s dorm.

His roommate Ted eventually got tired of Ben’s whining, and pulled out a cheap looking trinket from his bottom drawer. Ted explained it was something called The Medallion of Zulu, and that it could transform one person into another by simply touching that other person’s clothing to the medallion while wearing it.

Ben didn’t quite understand how this would help until Ted pulled out another box. It was full of underwear that Ted had gotten at a panty raid at the school’s gym. He handed Ben a pair that he said was Natalie’s. Ben wanted to be angry at his roommate, but he also realized this could work. Of course, he needed to wear a little more than a pair of panties once he transformed.

After a quick trip to the mall, Ben had everything he needed. He fully expected this to be Ted puling a prank, so he was shocked when he put the medallion around his neck and touched Natalie’s panties to them; he actually began to transform into an exact copy of Natalie.

Quickly dressing in the clothes he had bought, he was able to get someone at the front desk who recognized her to let him into the dorm and unlock Natalie’s door. He found the diary and began to read. There was no great revelation about a secret crush, just a bunch of doodles and lame poems.

But as he read, Ben realized he had something better than dating Natalie. Right now, he WAS Natalie. It felt good; it felt right. He just needed to figure out a way to get her to put the medallion on and touch a piece of his own clothing to it. Then he could steal her life and force her into his. He couldn’t believe he never realized this was actually what he wanted before, but now it was all he could think about...

Once Bitten

Every now and again, the small bruise on Scott’s leg bothered him. It had been left behind after a bug had bitten him while visiting the rainforest, and it was fair to say that bug bite had changed his life. No one had ever captured the bug and no one could even tell what it looked like, but a few like Scott had certainly experienced the effect of its bite. It is theorized that the rare insect carried a small amount of DNA from a previously bitten person along with a very unique poison. Once bitten, the poison transmits the other person’s DNA throughout the latest victim’s body, eventually transforming it. Scott was bedridden for days as his body transformed into a woman’s. There was much pain as even things like body parts and bones reshaped themselves, and once it was finished, he still had to adjust to being a woman. When he finally returned from his rainforest vacation, he had the impossible task off proving his identity to credit card companies, the IRS, and his work. In fact, he was so glad the chaos was finally settling down that he was able to ride his bike for the first time in a while. That’s when the bruise started acting up again. The thing still hadn’t gone away after a year. The stinging sensation was just another painful reminder of all the headaches he had gone through since getting bitten and transforming into this woman. He just poured some cold water from his bottle on it and tried to forget about it.

Phonebooth

Jason was surprised by the flash of bright light after which he suddenly found himself in a phonebooth. When was the last time he even saw a phonebooth? Weirder still was that his body seem to be jammed in there in some impossible way, and (if he wasn’t mistaken) that body seemed to not be his own but a female’s. Getting out of the booth also seemed to involve moving his body in ways that he was sure a body wasn’t meant to move, yet he was somehow now able to. Whoever this body’s original owner was sure was flexible. Jason didn’t mind at all.

Glasses

Walter was quite excited when he landed on Exchange Island and found himself in the body of a beautiful woman. The only problem was his blurry vision. Knowing this problem well from his own body’s poor eyesight, he searched her suitcases for glasses to no avail. He fretted about this for the entire first day until he came upon his own body, which happened to not be wearing glasses.

It didn’t take long to figure out that despite his new body, he still needed his old glasses. Part of him was a little concerned. After all, if he had swapped bodies with someone, shouldn’t it have been a complete swap including the eyes? He tried to put it out of his head and enjoy himself. And while two weeks as a gorgeous woman was fun, he was looking forward to being himself again.

But when everyone else swapped back at the end of their vacation, Walter didn’t. It seemed that since he didn’t have his own eyes, the initial swap wasn’t considered complete. Had he spoken up to the front desk when he first noticed, the problem could’ve been fixed, but the two weeks had allowed the two not-quite-completely-swapped bodies to merge enough to prevent any further swapping. Walter was stuck like this for good!

Contract

“What do you mean I won’t be swapping back today?” Jeff stammered, “Emily and I had a contract. We were supposed to swap bodies for a week, and it’s up today.”

“Well, you see if you review that document in front of you,” The man at the body swap clinic explain, “Just before swapping, Miss Hanson signed an extension for ten years just before swapping bodies with you. And your signature was added to that document two days ago.”

“But that just means Emily signed it as her and then came in her and signed it again as me! How is this possibly valid.”

“I’m afraid it is valid. The laws haven’t quite caught up with body swapping yet. Any signature she signed while in your body is considered your signature. We can’t go around breaking the law by swapping you back. I’m afraid you are Miss Hanson for the next ten years...”

Parent-Teacher Conference

John clutched the lesson plan tightly in his hands as he entered the classroom. He felt so unprepared; after all, he had never taught a class before in his life. Of course, none of the students had any idea of this. When they looked up at him, they just saw their teacher, Miss Warren. John nervously looked over to his son, who was in Miss Warren’s class. He wanted to tell him about last night -- about he was attending a parent-teacher conference when he suddenly swapped bodies with Janice Warren and about how they agreed to keep the swap secret until they could figure out a way to swap back -- but he knew he shouldn’t. Janice had prepped John as much as he could, but he was having trouble enough dealing with all the feelings of being in a woman’s body that also having to deal with trying to obtain all the knowledge it took to educate a group of students wasn’t easy. He could only do his best and hope to swap back soon.

Long Night (Part 2)

Click here for Part 1.

Right before sending the text, Daniel stopped. What was he going to tell his wife about this? That her husband was now a woman? He couldn’t exactly use this body to say her husband was alright but merely ‘mysteriously disappeared;’ that wouldn’t bring her any comfort. And what if the person who now had his body had just gone home and pretended everything was fine? He shuddered to think what kind of jerk may be in his body now, possibly sleeping with his wife! Could he pretend to be one of his own co-workers? Or a concerned friend? What if his wife ended up thinking that Daniel was his own mistress or something? There were so many ways this could go wrong. He needed some time to think this over. Even if it meant never seeing his wife again, he needed to make sure she was alright, and he needed her to know that he was alright too.

Long Night

Daniel couldn’t believe the night he just had. After getting out late from work, he tried to take a cab home. However, the strangest thing happened when he swapped bodies with the cab driver. He wanted to get out and scream at his former body, but instead he felt compelled to just keep driving. He just kept picking up fares and dropping them off. At one point, he noticed a journal on the seat next to him. He tried reading while driving, which usually meant some slight skimming as passengers yelled at him. He managed to get the basic gist of the curse and how to break it -- the ride just had to be long enough and he’d have to say “Have a nice day” as a person left the cab. He started saying it to everyone to no effect; he could only figure the rides weren’t long enough. It wasn’t until the next morning when he said to a woman who took his cab on her way to work. He was glad to not be driving the cab anymore, but a little surprised that he ended up in her body and not back in his own. He figured he didn’t read the journal carefully enough or something. He tried to put these concerns out of his head as he reached for the woman’s cell phone. He began to text his wife; she was probably worried sick about him!

Meat

“Would you please stop staring at my ass?” Gavin grumbled.

“Technically, it’s my ass,” Jamie responded, “And I can’t believe how great it looks. But remember, you’re just borrowing it for a while until we can figure out how to reverse what happened to us.”

“Yeah, well you’re making me feel like a piece of meat. I know I agreed to help keep your body in shape for as long as we’re stuck like this, but I may just renege on that promise if you keep this up.”

“And now you know how most women feel. And, believe me, if you go out on the streets with my body then you’ll have a lot of guys making you feel like that.”

Principal's Office

Principal Harris was a little disappointed to see Jeff in the office again. With a stern look, Principal Harris lectured Jeff, “This is the third time you’ve been sent to my office since the break ended, young man. You used to be such a good student, whats’ gotten in to you?”

Jeff leaned over and paused before speaking up, “That’s the thing, isn’t it? I’m not exactly a ‘young man’ anymore, am I? The Great Shift swapped just about all my other classmates with other students, but I get stuck in Mrs. Bell’s body. I’m a forty year old woman now! I have to wear my mom’s clothes! Yet I still get treated like an eighteen year old kid. I had plans to go to college and med school, but by the time I would complete my residency, I’d be close to sixty. So what’s the point? Why am I bothering with any of this?”

After explaining, Jeff just sulked, not wanting to hear any sort of excuse of explanation Principal Harris could come back with..

Get out of Jail Free (Part 4)

Click here for Part 1.
Click here for Part 2.
Click here for Part 3.

Vinny sat on the bed and contemplated the idea of restarting his criminal enterprise. He wondered if anyone would actually take him seriously with Kayla’s petite, feminine body. He’d probably have to act twice as tough and twice as mean as he did before, and that’s when he started to have serious doubts. He could tell that there was something about being in this body that made him more passive. There didn’t seem to be much he could do about it either. It didn’t seem like restarting the old business was really much of an option...

Get out of Jail Free (Part 3)

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

Vinny placed Kayla’s purse down on the bed of his hideout, a remote location lavishly furnished. He was sure no one would ever find him here. He could live a quiet live as Kayla Lee, surviving off his stashed fortune. Or he could use a portion of those funds to reignite his criminal empire. He could locate a few of his old associates and start again. In fact, with his former empire in ruins, the power vacuum would almost demand that someone step in. There was no reason he couldn’t simply replace himself, but did he still have it in him?

Get out of Jail Free (Part 2)

Click here for Part 1.

When Vinny saw the firm’s head partner open the door, he stood up. Instead of instantly shouting as he usually would, he waited patiently for the client to leave.

Then he finally spoke, “What the hell, Antonio? This is who you sent to spring me?”

“The police have a solid case against you, Vinny. My office didn’t exactly have a lot of volunteers to take the fall and do your time for you.”

“I paid you good money to get me out.”

“And you’re out, aren’t you? Look, I know more than a few guys who’d love to swap into Miss Lee’s body there, but we only had the one body swapper. The feds have really been cracking down on those things over the years. Unless we can find another one, you’re going to be Kayla Lee for a long time; if not forever! But be grateful you aren’t in prison, Vinny.”

Vinny sighed. If he still had his own body, he’d probably be pounding on Antonio with his fists right now, but he doubted Kayla’s body would be nearly as effective with physical persuasion. A part of him just now seemed averse to violence, but he couldn’t place why. For the time being, he just decided to head to the hideout he had set up. It was untraceable to him and loaded with luxuries just for this sort of situation.

Get Out of Jail Free (Part 1)

After many successful years of organized crime, Vinny’s empire was on collapse. The near fatal blow was when Vinny himself got arrested. Fortunately, he long ago bought an insurance policy for this sort of thing. He had paid a hefty sum to his lawyer’s office to have an attorney slip in with a hidden body swapper.

He waited in his jail cell for a long time before an unimposing Asian woman finally arrived.

“Aw, hell no,” He said upon seeing her.

“If you’re being offered a deal, you’ve be wise to take it,” She replied without offering specifics, both of them knowing full well not to speak about the plan in the prison walls.

Vinny ultimately nodded, and the woman initiated the swap. Vinny soon found himself in her body. He awkwardly adjusted the blue skirt suit.

“I’ll talk with the DA about your case,” He said, finding an excuse to leave the cell.

And it was that easy for Vinny to escape from prison. But he had to do something about this body. He went to his lawyer’s office. He wanted to storm into the door, but instead felt compelled to wait politely in the reception area. He twirled his now long hair with his fingers as he waited. He certainly didn’t feel very powerful with this new body -- certainly not like the mob boss that he knew he was, and that’s what truly worried him.

Pooled

Martin smiled nervously as he stared at his own body. He was still processing what had happened. He had been swimming at the local pool when he banged heads with another swimmer. Luckily, neither were hurt or drowned, but after swimming back to the side, they were both shocked to find that they had swapped bodies. Oddly, while Martin hadn’t noticed a thing while swimming, he certainly had trouble with the balance of his new body on dry land -- suddenly having a woman’s body meant his weight was distributed differently -- and he used items around the pool to hold onto in order to get himself onto his feet. Neither he nor the woman he swapped with could explain how or why it happened, but now they both had to deal with it together...

Argument

After Angela begged Elliot to swap back bodies with her, a smug smile came across his face as his slid down into his chair at the cafe.

“So you expect me to return to the body swap clinic with you in order to return to our own bodies?” He laughed, “Forget about it! The whole argument about who had it harder, men or women? It was a ruse. I just needed to trick you into swapping bodies with me. Every since we swapped I have enjoyed each minute of being you, and I plan to keep enjoying it. I don’t have any plans to swap back with you...ever! This is my body now.”

Angela’s jaw dropped. She couldn’t believe Elliot would do this to her. He was her best friend. She had just had a simple argument where she claimed women had life so much harder than men, and when he disagreed, they had visited the body swap clinic for a quick swap. She never imagined how much she’d miss being a woman and decided to fold quickly. But now Elliot wasn’t going to swap back at all? She was on the verge of tears!

That's Rich

Evan shot a cold gaze across the room. He couldn’t believe he saw his old body standing there. It was seemingly impossible, but he obviously recognized it instantly. After he had used the Medallion of Zulu last year to steal Claire’s wealthy body, he had left her stuck in his poor, penniless body. There was no way she should be able to afford to be at this gala, yet there she was. He was nervous. He had long since ditched the Medallion, but the fact that she knew the truth meant she was still a threat. What if she had found a way to prove who she really was? Or worse, what if she had found the Medallion? The last thing Evan wanted was to go back to his old body, his old poverty-stricken life. He needed to figure out what she knew, but he had to do it at a safe distance...

Come Down

Adam answered the door and leaned against the frame. “Well, it’s about time. I expected you here an hour ago when I first swapped into your body,” He sighed, “What the heck have you been doing upstairs with my body?”

“I thought I was hallucinating or dreaming or something,” Beth explained to Adam, “I just didn’t believe I could suddenly be in someone else’s body, but it’s even weirder to see someone else in mine.”

“I wish I had known you were going to wait so long. I clearly got the better end of this deal, and I wouldn’t have minded a little alone time with this body.”

“Hey! Don’t forget that body is actually MINE! You better be careful with what you do with it.”

“You’ll need to trust me somewhat. You can’t watch me all the time...”

Shorted

For Jeff, being a woman wasn’t the weirdest thing about swapping bodies with Christine. Granted, being a woman was a very different and strange experience. He could probably write a book about how odd he thought Christine’s tight jeans were compared to his own or about getting long hair in his mouth when the wind blew.

But still the weirdest thing for him had to be how much shorter he was now. He had been over 6 feet tall before the Shift, and now he was almost a foot shorter. Things he was able to reach so easily before now he couldn’t even touch on his tiptoes. This just seemed bigger. All of Christine’s shoes had an extra inch of two of platform to boost her up, but even the shoes felt weird, and they didn’t even help that much!

Diet

Peter knew about Ashley’s diet; he just didn’t particuarly care. Yes, he had swapped bodies with Ashley, so this was her body. But he was the one controlling it, and he wasn’t about to spend a week eating salads and wheatgrass. Sure, he’d imagine she’d be pissed when they swapped back and she found out about the entire pizza he ate in one sitting or the triple bacon cheeseburger he had in another. The weird thing was he didn’t have any problem scarfing it all down either. He figured she’d have a smaller stomach that would just get full. But he also knew he had his own brain that was used to eating big meals. He guessed the psychology won out over the physical space in her stomach. Or maybe she had just starved herself so much that her body was just happy to accept the gluttony for a change. Much like her diet, he didn’t particularly care the reasoning, he was just glad that despite the fact that he had her body, he didn’t really have to change his lifestyle.

Grin and Bear It

Caleb felt weird coming back to school for the first time since The Great Shift. He arrived early and ended up being the first one there. Most students kept assuming he was their teacher. He supposed it did make sense. After all, the woman’s body he swapped into did teach at a nearby elementary school. He hadn’t had any time to go shopping and since he didn’t have any sisters, he had to borrow clothes from his mom. He probably looked and dressed like a teacher instead of the eighteen year old high school senior he was. When his classmates came in and asked about the lesson plan, he would just smile awkwardly and explain who he really was -- just about everyone had to explain who they really were anyway. The day hadn’t even started yet, and Caleb was already wishing it was over. Heck, he wished the final two weeks of school would be over already. Until then, he’d just have to grin and bear it.

Half of Infinity

“What the hell just happened?” Scot exclaimed, feeling very strange.

“Thanos,” Jean replied flatly, “He just snapped his fingers.”

“I thought that was going to obliterate half of all life in the universe.”

“I think something went wrong. Instead of eliminating half of the people; it seems to have just mixed up halves, including our own.”

“Tell me about it! I love you, Jean, but I don’t want your body from the neck down! I can’t explain how weird this feels.”

“That’s why we’re got to stop him!”

Not a Day Off

Bill had just returned to his apartment from his job at a brokerage while his housekeeper Lin was just finishing cleaning up for the day. As he reached into his wallet to pay her, a flash of light surrounded them and the pair passed out. They each awoke a short while later to discover themselves in each other’s bodies. Investigating further, they learned the cause was something called “The Great Shift.” Despite the chaos caused by the massive body swapping event, Bill knew it was unlikely his work would give him tomorrow off. He looked at himself in the mirror, seeing the reflection of Lin, a Chinese immigrant in cut off jean shorts and a dirty t-shirt. This look wasn’t going to cut it. He knew his own suits would not work either, so he called in a quick favor from another broker he used to date.

The next morning, Bill got ready for work. He admired how Lin’s body looked in a feminine pantsuit. It was honestly a bit of a surprise for him. He had only ever seen her wear dumpy clothes for cleaning his place -- she actually looked pretty stunning in business-wear. He’d have to lean on his female co-workers for tips on some other outfits to buy. After all, it didn’t seem like the Great Shift was going to be reversed any time soon...if ever!

Essence

Marcus was quite proud of his latest invention. With a simple flip of a switch, he transformed his entire essence into pure energy, which was subsequently absorbed into the body of his neighbor, Charlotte. This meant for all intents and purposes, he basically took over Charlotte’s body. What Marcus didn’t realize was that Charlotte was a single mom and her young son got caught up in the energy transfer as well. As a result, Marcus would be prone to some pretty strange behaviors from time to time. He would suck his thumb in public or have tendencies to throw tantrums in order to try to get his way. While most adults were quite shocked to see an adult woman behave in these ways, Marcus had a hard time even realizing anything was off. It would prove to complicate matters when he finally decided to extract his essence from Charlotte’s body.

Short Term

“Make up? Diets? You seriously expect me to care about any of that stuff?” Larry asked as he shoved some food into his mouth, “Why? Because we swapped bodies? If anything, that makes me care even less! I certainly didn’t take great care of my own body, as you probably can tell now that you are in it Sarah; so I’m probably going to be even more reckless with a body that I don’t feel much attachment to. I certainly have no idea how long this swap is going to last, but I’m still treating this as a short term thing for now...”

Pain at the Pump (Part 2)

Click here for Part 1.

Chad returned to the driver’s seat and got inside. He had left his keys and wallet inside, so he was finally ready to go. Still focused on just getting to work, he couldn’t quite figure out why he had to adjust his eat and mirrors. When he pulled out onto the street, he was astonished by the amount of accidents. Groaning, he knew this was only going to make him even later. The GPS wasn’t much help as it seemed every route was filled with traffic. Eventually, he switched from listening to music on his Bluetooth to the radio to try and figure out what was going on. Every station was reporting about some sort of massive body swapping. That’s when the realization finally came crashing down on him. He wasn’t sure how he even noticed. Maybe he finally noticed the feminine hands or his reflection in his rearview mirror, but Chad was having the horrific realization that many had already gone though some time earlier -- he had swapped bodies with someone. His masculine ego was taking a big hit that he was now a woman, but he tried to look on the bright side: at least no one would get on his case about being late for work today!

Pain at the Pump

Chad couldn’t believe he was running late for work again. To make matters worse, he was low on gas in his SUV and needed to fill up if he hoped to make it without running out completely. Even though he knew it would make him even later, he pulled into a station and began to fill up. As the gallons and dollars ticked up, he went inside to scarf down a breakfast sandwich from the minimart.

He was so focused on needing to get to work that he didn’t notice the screams or even the change to his own body. The Great Shift had happened without Chad giving it a single thought. He had been an athletic man in his early 30s wearing a three piece suit, but now was a stylish woman in her 20s -- yet he didn’t even notice. He chalked up any weirdness he was feeling to the fact that he ate breakfast at a gas station or that he was worried about being late. He was just thankful to be returning the nosil to the pump so he could be getting on his way.