Motivation

Ever since he turned forty, Mark’s wife had been urging him to workout more and to get in shape. Mark did try a few times, but it always seemed to go the same way. He’d go the gym for a day or two, then give up for months at a time. His wife would pester him again, then he’d give it another go. It was just so hard to stay motivated.

Then The Great Shift gave his workout routine a shot in the arm. Suddenly, he was swapped into a new body -- about twenty years younger than this own. It was a lot more fit and had a lot more energy; it also happened to be female. Suddenly, however, it seemed he now had the motivation to workout much more frequently. He went to the gym for an hour every day, and he often found himself workout out at home, finding his new body could stretch in such wondrous ways.

His wife looked on in jealousy. He found herself in a new body as well. While it was about the same age as her previous one, it was also significantly heavier by at least 100 pounds. She now understood why Mark was so unmotivated earlier. It was just so hard to start.

Not Dreaming

When Ronald first woke up on that March morning, he thought he was still dreaming. It was, after all, the most likely explanation. He was in a fancy hotel room he had never seen before, but the more obvious indication that he was dreaming was the fact that he now had the body of a woman.

It all felt so real -- probably more real than any dream he could recall. Maybe all dreams felt like this, and they didn’t feel like a dream until he woke up. Of course, that was his initial course of action, to try to wake up. Nothing seemed to work, so instead he grabbed a bottle from the room’s fridge and started drinking.

He honestly couldn’t remember feeling drunk in a dream before either, but it was happening this time. Speaking of which, shouldn’t something more be happening if this was a dream? Otherwise, it would seem to be a boring one. Then again, what if he wasn’t dreaming?

Win-Win

Evan approached the young woman in the bar, trying his best moves to get her into bed. She scoffed but made him an offer. If he could beat her in billiards, he could do whatever he wanted to her body. If she one, he had to leave and never see her again forever. Evan figured this was a pretty good bet, and began gloating as soon as he cleared the table.

Evan was smirking, but the woman’s smile seemed downright devilish. The next moment, Evan collapsed onto the pool table. He awoke feeling quite strange.

“Congratulations on winning the bet,” He heard a familiar voice say, “True to my word, you can now do whatever you want with my body.”

Evan soon realized the reason the voice was so familiar -- it was his! But how? Then Evan began to notice he had swapped bodies with the woman.

“Turn us back!” He shouted.

“No way. A deal’s a deal. Now that you are me, you can literally do anything you want with that body. A nice side effect is that I can do whatever I want to yours. As a bonus, I also get my prize as I make my exit and never have to see you again.”

2540

By the year 2540, technology had become mundane. There wasn’t anything you couldn’t do. For instance, Xavier would look in his mirror in each morning and completely transform his look -- and that really meant a complete transformation. While most people would use the technology to appear a little younger (but still mostly themselves), Xavier took it to an extreme. Today, he decided to be a brunette woman. He didn’t have to worry about makeup, the mirror did that for him. Even his entire body was transformed by the tech. He then got into his autodresser to have the machine select an outfit most flattering to his daily body before teleporting to work.

His co-workers were certainly used to seeing Xavier show up each day looking like a completely different person. In fact, no one was really sure what he actually looked like. The only way they could tell it was him was by his still manly voice. Sure, there was tech that could change that too, but Xavier kind of like the contrast on a day like this...

Men Were Men and Women Were Women

Jeb had been raised in a very conservative household, and even into his 40s he held onto the beliefs that “men were men and women were women.” He didn’t understand many around him who embraced what he considered to be sinful. Things got weird for him when The Great Shift hit, however.

Suddenly, he was now a woman. At first, he tried to embrace this. He figured since he was a woman, he should be as feminine as possible. He considered his new body a “looker” as well, so he thought it made sense to show off and whatnot. This didn’t bother him as much as he thought it would; in fact, he kind of liked it. But when things settled down and social lives kicked in, the idea of dating a fella still seemed weird to him. He knew he was a woman on the outside, but on the inside, he was still a guy. He finally began to consider his views, wondering if maybe some of his friends hadn’t been so crazy after all...

Sitting Down

Peter had been feeling pretty good about his life. He had just graduated college, and his dad had hooked him up with a prime interview with a financial firm. He was sure to get the job, and the interview seemed like a mere formality. He rolled out of bed that morning, put on his best suit, and picked up breakfast at the local diner. He skipped the waitress on the tip before hoping on the train. When he arrived, he asked the cute brunette receptionist if he could use the bathroom.

Walking in, the lights seemed to suddenly change. The sleek office seemed duller, and then he caught his reflection int he mirror. It wasn’t his own; it belonged to the waitress he had stiffed on the tip earlier. He began to get nervous, and it only made him more afraid to see the terrified face of the waitress looking back at him instead of his own. If this happened when he entered the bathroom, maybe all he needed to do was walk back out? But before he did that, he realized he still needed to pee really bad. But the thought of doing that as a woman -- it was too much to handle! On the other hand, if he didn’t swap back, he was going to have to get used to peeing sitting down...

The Apartment

Jason wasn’t sure what caused him to pass out, but he awoke in an unknown apartment. He explored around a little, noting that the single bedroom inside appeared to belong to a woman. It wasn’t until he was out on the balcony that he noticed the biggest change. In fact, as he looked down at the large orbs on his chest, he wondered why he hadn’t noticed it earlier.

It was clear that he had swapped into a woman’s body -- probably the person who lived in this apartment. But how?

He saw a phone stuffed into the sportsbra. Maybe the internet had some answers? He hoped her phone didn’t have a password! Luckily, it seemed to be set to recognize her fingerprints, and he began to read articles being written about something being called “The Great Shift.” It appears he wasn’t the only one to find himself in a new body today...

Hypnotized

Graham looked at the watch. He wondered if what everyone told him was actually possible. What if he hadn’t swapped bodies with Laura? What if he actually WAS Laura, and he had just hypnotized himself to believe that he was Graham? It didn’t make any sense! He had all his memories! He could recall his wedding day, how his first kiss made him feel...yet everyone was telling him he was really Laura -- even the person now in his body! Maybe even he wasn’t really Laura, he should try to hypnotize himself into thinking he really was. At this point, it seemed like the easier option...

The Virus: The Researchers (Part 3)

Click here for Patient Zero: Part 1.
Click here for Patient Zero: Part 2.
Click here for Patient Zero: Part 3.
Click here for The Researchers: Part 1.
Click here for The Researchers: Part 2.

Jim couldn’t wait to swap for the final time. He was in communication with the team of researchers every day, cheering on their progress. After two days, Yi Ji swapped for her final time, but Jim was still waiting. Finally, six weeks later it happened. He was most thankful to get his sight back, and the first thing he did was look down to see a shapely body in a little black dress and tall heeled boots. It didn’t matter. He just needed to call the lab to tell them he was going to start coming in again...but where was the phone? He couldn’t find one anywhere.

Then a burly man came in. Jim was relieved. He explained his job as a researcher studying the virus.

The man just scoffed, “You ain’t got no job as a researcher. You work for me. Now you better stop playin’, Honey, because you got a client.” Jim had a feeling he was in a bad situation and would not be able to convince this man to help him...

The Virus: The Researchers (Part 2)

Click here for Patient Zero: Part 1.
Click here for Patient Zero: Part 2.
Click here for Patient Zero: Part 3.
Click here for The Researchers: Part 1.

While in Yi Ji’s body, Jim worked long hours, continuing to make discoveries about the virus -- though they were still a long way from a cure of a vaccine. When he finally had his second swap a few days later, he was glad he did. The world went completely blurry. He could tell he was still a woman by the way his body felt, but he guessed he was just a little bit older than Yi Ji. The woman wore gloves and a mark -- though Jim knew those did little to prevent the virus, many in the public still wore them in an attempt to ward it off.

He knew hie eyes were open, but he couldn’t really make out anything. He could tell where lights were. He could maybe see a shadow of movement or perhaps the color of something if it put it a mere inch or so from his face. But he knew this condition, he was blind. He knew he wouldn’t be able to help in the lab like this. He was sure he could adapt, but it would take a while to learn. And before he could do all that, he was likely to swap again. He only hoped it would be into a body that would be able to continue the research without impediment.

The Virus: The Researchers (Part 1)

Click here for Patient Zero: Part 1.
Click here for Patient Zero: Part 2.
Click here for Patient Zero: Part 3.

Once people began to swap bodies, the public began to panic. Everyone wanted answers. Scientists brought answers as soon as they could. Jim worked as one such lab. He traced the swapping back to a virus. Others on his team started piecing together how it worked. The virus was highly airborne. It would infect a host, grabbing vital pieces of DNA from that host. Then that person would transfer it to a second host. That second host would have to reinfect the original host with their own DNA. The virus would then attack the brain, essentially swapping the two hosts brains. Only a few people showed symptoms besides swapping, and a person only seemed contagious well before swapping. No individual could seemingly swap more than three times, no one seemed to be immune, and nothing seemed to prevent the passing of the disease.

In fact, after about two weeks of working in the lab, even Jim fell victim when he swapped with his fellow researcher, Yi Ji. It aligned with their theory that the first swap was always someone in close physical proximity. Despite his now female body, Jim knew he had to focus to get as much work done as possible. There was no telling with who or when he’d swap next. He had to squeeze in as much work as possible before it happened.

The Virus: Patient Zero (Part 3)

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

Over the next few weeks, Nick started reading online and watching TV to find out that he wasn’t the only one who had been swapping bodies. Scientists had discovered a virus responsible for the strange phenomenon. As of right now, no one had swapped more than three times. Nick realized his next swap would probably be his last. And it happened soon enough.

He couldn’t have been more disappointed. Nick once again swapped with a woman. He didn’t know her well, but knew she worked in his office. He knew it was going to be difficult to adapt. She wasn’t the athletic type like he had been. She wasn’t older than his original body as well. She wasn’t as attractive as the previous two women he had been. It all felt like a big let down.

He went back online to search. Maybe somebody else had swapped a fourth time...or a fifth? So far, nothing. Then a year passed. The world was swapped all around, but still no more than three times per person. Nick knew he was stuck. It was time to learn to cope with it.

The Virus: Patient Zero (Part 2)

Click here for Part 1.

Nick didn’t spend much longer in the hospital. Figuring he wasn’t really equipped to help out as a nurse (despite looking the part) nor did he care much if he was fired (not his body, not his problem), leaving seemed to be the best option. He did check up on his former body before he left. The doctors seemed to be having quite a commotion about his body’s brain patterns; they seemed to be very different all of a sudden. Nick realized why, but he didn’t feel like speaking out.

He spent the next few days alone in the nurse’s apartment, trying to isolate himself, hoping whatever body swapping disease he seemed to have would just go away. It didn’t. Within a week he found himself in yet another different body, this time a blond woman. He didn’t get sick first this time -- so presumably this woman was fine enough in the nurse’s body. But how did he possibly infect her? Then he looked at his reflection; she seemed familiar. But he hadn’t run into her in the last few days or even at the hospital. It was earlier back when he was a guy, back when he felt perfectly fine. He had hit on her at the grocery store. It hadn’t been too long before he felt sick though...

The Virus: Patient Zero (Part 1)

Dedicated to those struggling and suffering in the world right now.

Nick was always an adventurer, traveling to distant places to hike, climb, and camp. On a recent trip, he explored the rainforest and was convinced he had seen things no human had before him. He was, in fact, right; however, in addition to the sights, he also contracted a virus never before known to humanity. For the first month of infection, it showed absolutely no symptoms; Nick was simply a carrier passing it on to others.

It wasn’t until he became violently ill from the virus that he became concerned. He called 911 and was rushed to his local hospital. The doctors and nurses couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him. Nick soon fell into a coma.

But a moment later, he was awake, but not in a way anyone could’ve ever predicted. The virus had infected a nurse, allowing the most truly dramatic advanced symptom to take hold, resulting in Nick swapping bodies with her. As he walked the halls, he wondered if he should tell the doctors. Would they even believe him? What sort of virus was this anyhow?

Make Up

“This sh*t isn’t hard at all,” Ted mumbled to himself, “Why does Amy complain all the time about putting on makeup? She looks so good like this. If I’m stuck in her body, I’m going to lather this sh*t on every time I go.”

As he said the words aloud, a slight fear settled in.

“God, I hope I’m not stuck in her body forever. Fun is fun, but come on? Forever? Naw, she’ll chill out and swap us back soon enough. I mean, she only found out about how I slept with her friend, she still has no idea about the time I slept with her sister. She’s forgiven me for worse infidelities.”

Gifted

Lawrence had known Kara ever since they were kids. She was always better than him in every way he could imagine. She was smarter, more talented, better looking by far...even when he tried really hard to excel at something new, she’d take a single try and blow him out of the water. The worst part? She was also much nicer and also more popular. Even when Lawrence became a loner nerd in high school; Kara was nice to him, stayed his friend, and defended him against the other popular kids. She stayed in touch through college, and he tried to stay polite. But, frankly, every time he talked to her he felt annoyed and jealous. She had to have some flaw, right? He wished he could be perfect like her!

Then one day he awoke in a large, unfamiliar room. The nails on his hand were painted. He rushed to a mirror to see Kara’s face looking back at him. He was Kara! He had her body! But he wondered as he looked over at the piano, did he also have her abilities? He sat and began to effortlessly play; it seemed he did! He thought about if Kara was now stuck in his body. For a second, he wanted to laugh; but it quickly faded into a feeling of concern. He also seemed to have Kara’s unbelievable niceness. He knew he had to call her to see if she was okay. But the person on the other end of the phone seemed to actually be Lawrence and not Kara stuck in his body. He stopped short of asking directly, lest being thought of as insane. As he hung up, he realized he now had the most amazing gift in the world.

Treat

Jeremy heard an annoyed grunt as he poured some soda into his cup.

“What’s the problem?” He turned around to ask his girlfriend.

“You’re going to make me fat! I’m going to have to buy an entirely new wardrobe!” She complained.

“Relax. It’s been a month since the Shift, I’ve been drinking soda everyday, and your pants haven’t gotten any more difficult to squeeze on each morning! Besides, on your insistence I got the salad instead of the burger. I really wanted that triple bacon cheeseburger, you know? I can at least treat myself with a soda!”

“Fine. Just don’t complain to me when my pants no longer fit and your first to wear one of my flowing dresses or a loose skirt.”

Disgust

The moment it happened, John felt a feeling of disgust. He had swapped bodies with some chick! The thought it was repulsive. That meant between his legs he had a -- he didn’t even want to say it! He could feel his body move in uncomfortable ways as he walked. He felt the strap of a bra digging into his shoulders and back. How did women deal with any of this!? He didn’t care that he was in public and making a scene! He didn’t care people were filming his freak out! He just wanted his own body back!

Other End (Part 2)

A few seconds later, Edward looked at his surroundings. He was certainly no longer at the beach, but inside a rather sterile office. He was feeling excited that the teleporter had actually worked and he celebrated until he remembered what the woman was saying right before this thing started to work. She mentioned swapping.

Then he looked down. He had become a woman!

“What the hell!?” He screamed.

“Were you not told about the swapping?” A man asked.

“I guess it was mentioned, but you made me a chick! I thought this was a teleporter!”

“You signed the release, Ma'am -- er, Sir. It clearly stated that it only teleports minds and not the physical body with no guarantee about the type of body you’ll end up with.”

“Well, I want to go back!”

“You’ll have to wait for the next participant.”

“She ran off with my body!?”

“It was all in the release, Sir.”

Other End

Edward couldn’t help but notice the odd device set up on the sidewalk not far from the beach.

“What the hell is this?” He asked the woman tending to it.

“It’s a teleporter,” She said.

“Seriously? Cool. Are you guys demonstrating? Can I use it?”

“Yes, you’l be teleported to our corporate office, but --”

“Naw, whatever it is, I’m in.”

“Okay, but you at least need to sign these consent forms.”

Edward quickly signed and then waited. Finally he asked what he hold up was.” “Any second now,” The woman explained, “We’re just waiting for someone to agree to swap with you on the other end.”

“Swap with -- ?” Edward was cut off as the teleporter began to activate.

Internship Program

No one at the company could understand why Jack Greyson was so interested in the intern program this year. As a CEO, Jack was well above micromanaging the selection process for interns, yet he had asked for names, pictures, and profiles for all candidates. He even personally selected six that he demanded be offered an internship. Many suspected with his advanced age that Jack was going crazy. On the interns first day, they received a tour, which Jack interrupted. Jack ended up showing the young college students around the offices, but in the middle of it, he dropped dead on the office floor. Doctors were rushed in, the interns were rushed out. But it was too late. Jack was dead. Or was he?

It would be a few days later when the will was discovered. It seemed Jack left his entire fortune to a young woman named Shannon Callaghan, one of the interns he had selected. Everyone was puzzled...except for Shannon, or perhaps she should be called Jack.

He had planed it all. He had discovered the secret of immortality; he had just needed to find a few host. The intern program was perfect for this. He made his choice and prepped his will. Then it was just a matter of having his soul leave his own body and take over Shannon’s. It all worked out perfectly, and he couldn’t be happier to be a pretty, young college junior with a multi-million fortune.

Fooling Around

Alex and Lei had been dating for months, but had never been able to fool around with each other without their parents around. They figured they were both eighteen -- legally adults -- and should be allowed to do whatever they wanted; their parents, of course, disagreed. It was Lei who suggested trying magic; Alex was skeptical. But she insisted they use a body swap spell she found to swap with her parents. The spell would leave her parents in their body unaware of the changes.

Alex reluctantly agreed to try, and Lei cast the spell. He was surprised that it worked, but something went wrong. Instead of swapping with Lei’s dad, he was now in the body of her mom. Meanwhile, Lei was her own father. She suggested they still try fooling around, but Alex wasn’t sure. It would’ve been weird to be Lei’s dad, but being her mom was a bridge too far. He suggested that he and Lei swap with each other, but they tried to spell again and it didn’t work! Alex was worried he was now trapped int he body of a 50-year-old woman!

Building Your Case

“If you must know, Mr. Conklin, they aren’t real,” Reid Watts explained, “I was visiting a gentlemen’s club when the Great Shift occurred, and I swapped with one of the dancers. Despite your drooling over my appearance, I am still one of the best lawyers you’ll be able to get for your case -- which brings us back to the topic at hand.”

Reid continued, “Obviously, many people have had trouble claiming their lives since the Great Shift. The person in your original body claims to be unshifted, and many others have claimed to be you. Undoubtedly, they are all after your vast fortune. Luckily, the law has established many protections to ensure proper possession of assets. I even had to prove my own case first before assisting hundreds of others.

“Now, the first question is going to be about why it took you so long to come forward. Finding yourself in a remote village of a third world country certainly begins to cover that, and it looks like -- Mr. Conklin, could you please not stare at my chest like that. My eyes are up here, thank you.”

No Promises

Lucas wanted to ignore the ringing sound coming from the purse now slung over his arm, but it kept buzzing and vibrating enough that he finally gave in.

“’Sup,” He snarled.

“Raquel, thank goodness. Are you okay?” The voice on the other end asked.

“So that’s this chick’s name? Yeah, I’m not her. I mean, I AM her, but I’m not her.”

“Oh, God, I had hoped she wasn’t affected by this weird body swapping thing. But I guess she was; I mean, I guess you were. I guess you both were. Please don’t do anything weird to my girlfriend’s body!”

“Honestly, Bro, with a hot bod like this, I can’t make any promises...”

Worst Day So Far

It had been two days after his eighteenth birthday when Jim’s dad showcased his new invention that resulted in Jim swapping bodies with his own mom. The week after that had been tough, but today was especially bad for Jim. He arrived at the football field a half hour before practice ended; it was early enough to see how things were going, but not so early as to seem like he was just there for pick up time. He was actually surprised to see how well his mom was doing out there. He had hopes in the back of his head that she’d be screwing it all up. It would’ve made the news he had to tell her that much easier. She was doing great in his body while he was doing terrible in hers. In fact, he had done so bad at her job today that he had gotten her fired. It wasn’t going to be easy to tell her. Of course, it got even worse when they both got home and their dad had even worse news. He wasn’t going to be able to fix the body swapping machine for at least several months. Jim and his mom would be stuck in each other’s bodies.

No Man Had Ever Returned

While most of the tallest mountains had long been scaled by great mountaineers in the past, several of the most dangerous peaks still remained to be conquered. Edgar Potts had traveled to a remote section of the Earth to climb a mountain where the locals told tales of how no man has ever returned from the summit. This was just the sort of challenge Edgar was looking for! He assembled a small team of locals and began to ascend. It took several weeks to get near the top -- much easier than Edgar actually expected -- but with literally steps to go, his team stopped in their tracks. They refused to go to the top with Edgar. He tried insisting, hoping they would share in his glory, but they all held back.

About an hour later, Edgar returned to his team. He sat down on a block of ice stunned. It was another hour before he spoke. He described stepping onto the summit, feeling the warmth of the sun shining on him, then he felt a burning and he realized his body was changing. There was nothing he could do as he transformed from male into female.

The rest of his team rolled their eyes. They had tried to warn him from the beginning. No man had, in fact, ever returned from the summit. The gods had transformed every single last one into women as soon as they dared get that close to the heavens. Edgar may have been an outsider, but he was no exception to the rule and the magic of the land.

The Truth

“I get that y’all think I’m Becca; that you don’t believe my story about swapping bodies with her,” Waylon explained, “But I challenge you to climb this fence and head over to that little shed in there. There’ll be some weird thing that’ll zap you, and you’ll end up back outside of the fence in the wrong body. So, seriously, if you doubt me, just go in and try it for yourself. You’ll see I ain’t lying.”

Waylon wasn’t surprised that his friends looked hesitant. They still didn’t believe that he wasn’t Becca, but none of them wanted to take the risk that he was telling the truth.

Waiting

When Greg found himself in a new body as a result of the Great Shift, he didn’t panic regardless of the chaos around him. He didn’t swap too far from his apartment, so he went to the door and rang the buzzer.

There was no answer.

So he waited. He figured the person in his body would return soon enough. Maybe they checked their own home as well. Greg began to consider his options and looked through the purse he had held at the time of the Shift. The address on the ID wasn’t far. Maybe he should check to see if the woman whose body he now had was waiting for him there with whatever body she had now? Or maybe he could just use the keys in this purse to enter so he could change out of these leather pants...

Enjoying a Vacation

Teleportation pods were installed in about half a dozen places at first, but within a short time period there were hundreds all over the globe (and a few on the moon and Mars as well). It was simple, you sat in an object that looked like a chair, type in your destination along with your departure and return time into the keypad on the armrest, then the pod would get to work. It would search for another pod at the location specified, once two people matched, it would transmit each person’s brain into the other’s body. This allowed for instant transit across many miles.

Of course, there was no guarantee about the body you’d end up in. Byron was using the teleportation pods for the first time and was a little surprised to find himself in a woman’s body. He was probably a foot shorter, over a hundred pounds thinner, and pasty white. He chuckled to himself imagining this woman now that she was an overweight, balding black man. He was enjoying this vacation already.

Report to HR

After a year of working with her boss’s sexist and racist comments, Jodi finally reported Tony to HR. The next day, she noticed he wasn’t in his office. Around lunchtime, Jodi felt a hand on her shoulder, and she heard a voice say, “I came here to apologize.”

Jodi swung around in her chair, expecting to see the woman from HR. Instead she saw a woman with a face that looked remarkably like her own.

“What the hell?” Jodi asked.

“Oh, sorry, you must be very confused.” The woman said, “It’s me; it’s Tony. HR told me about the report, and then they used the DNA of you they have on file to turn me into a copy of you. And I’ve got to say I’ve learned my lesson. The way some people treated you, myself included, was completely unacceptable.”

“They told you it was me who reported you?” Jodi asked before pausing to add, “Wait, they have my DNA on file?” Then adding an additional, “They can turn you into a copy of me?”

Tony nodded, “They have everyone’s DNA. They do it for temporary learning exercises like this. At least, I HOPE it’s temporary.”

Open

Mike was unbelievably thankful when stores began to open up again after The Great Shift. The body swapping even caused chaos and confusion throughout the world. Mike found himself in a hotel room thousands of miles away from home in a woman’s body. It also seemed her suitcase was filled with nothing but short skirts, revealing tops, and very high heels. None of it was comfortable. He wanted to go home, but transportation options were all shut down. Even buying things like sweatpants were out of the question, because stores were all shuttered. It took a few days for things to get back to normal with basic needs like grocery stores and restaurants opening first. The department stores soon followed, and Mike was so happy to buy even the most basic things to fit his new body while suiting his own personal tastes.