Pull the Lever (Part 1)

“You can’t do it!” Jackson shouted at his business partner Gin, “We’ll never get it back up and running again. And if it’s not working, we’ll never get back to normal!”

“We have to shut it down! It’s malfunctioning!” Gin insisted, “And it’s already too late for normal. This thing is already literally merging people’s bodies together. It’s only going to get worse from here. It could start fusing us with animals or inanimate objects! You could end up with pigeon wings for arms! Or a watermelon in your head instead of a brain! Right now, we’re still lucky we remember enough to know HOW to shut it down. If my fusion with Nadine had gone the other way, she’d be standing here befuddled with her head and my body instead of the other way around.”

“But how are we going to get Nadine back? Or...Frannie?”

Gin heard the pain in his friend’s voice and frowned as he looked at Jackson’s one feminine leg, which had once belonged to Jackson’s girlfriend, Frannie. She was one was one of the first people merged into someone else when the machine started malfunctioning. He knew Jackson felt responsible.

“It’s not your fault, man,” Gin said, “No one expected this to happen. But she’s gone. Keeping this thing on isn’t going to bring her back. But shutting it down will stop anyone else from going through that pain. I’ve done the calculations; this thing is going to be exponential. That’s so many more loved ones gone.”

Jackson paused for a moment. “Do it,” He said.

Gin pulled with all his might, realizing how much more difficult this was for him now that he had Nadine’s weak muscles instead of his own. He then grabbed with the other hand, but it still wouldn’t budge. But then it finally started to move and he noticed Jackson behind him helping to pull just as the explosions began...

I probably don't need to push subscriptions or post my site, but I will anyway.

New Year

I suppose whoever decided to let loose their mind swapping device picked New Year’s Eve in Times Square for the impact it would have. There were probably a million people there, including myself. Just as the ball dropped, the crowd cheered, and then we screamed. We were all in new bodies now.

At 11:59, I had been a man. And now at 12:01, I was a woman. The night was unseasonably warm that year, though I was still cold in the black dress I now wore. I wondered if she had left a coat somewhere.

I stayed longer than most as the streets emptied. I think I had hoped to find my original body or that this woman was looking for her body; neither happened. And so I just stood there contemplating my new life.

Clause 13

Milo stood frozen in the lobby of Exchange Island. He wasn’t quite sure how to react. He had been told that both he and his wife Eleanor would return to their original bodies when they checked out. And it worked for her -- his wife’s normal, middle aged body stood before him -- but it didn’t work for him! Milo did still swap, but not back into his own body; he was now an Asian woman in an animal print bikini with bunches in his hair.

“Milo?” Eleanor asked.

“It’s me,” He replied, “This is awkward.”

“Well, you were lucky enough to have that rather fit young man’s body for our time here. The rumors I’ve heard about men dealing with women’s bodies that for their entire vacation is quite common. You can deal with it for a few minutes while we sort this out.”

Eleanor turned to the lobby clerk, “Excuse me, but I think there’s been a mixup. That is most certainly not my husband’s body.”

“Let me see if I can clear that up,” The clerk replied as she started typing into the computer, “Give me a moment.”

After several minutes, the clerk spoke up again, “I’m sorry, but that technically IS your husband’s body.”

Eleanor scoffed, “I’m pretty sure you can see that it’s not. What about that body says ‘husband’ to you?”

“I mean, that’s his body now LEGALLY. He’s a Clause 13.”

“Excuse me?”

“On Page 12, Section 3, Clause 13: In the event of accidental death of the guest’s original body, the guest agrees to assume permanently the new available body of another party responsible for said death.”

“My husband is dead?”

“No, he’s right there. He just has a new body...for good.”

Fear

Axel couldn’t believe he was having a panic attack of fear as he walked through this alley. He had walked through the alley a hundred times, but those had all been before the Great Shift.

He thought about the body he used to have -- large and imposing, able to bench press 400 pounds. And then he thought about the body he had now -- small and female, nearsighted, just over 90 pounds, and unable to even open jars on her own.

Desite all he really needed to be reminded of his current situation was a quick glance down, he often acted like he was still large and imposing. And so he found often found himself in over his head, starting bar fights or taking on things he just couldn’t handle. It was the same when he went down this creepy alleyway. Halfway through, he was simply reminded of his new body, and what he might encounter terrified him.

Complexity (Part 1)

“Hey, Kris, are you any closer to fixing that body swap thingie?” Vince asked as he nervously paced around the room while in Nell’s body.

“Maybe a little. It’s really complex; I’m not sure I can fix it,” Kris said while examining the various pieces of the device still shattered on the ground.

“I mean, come on, you’re like the biggest egghead here!”

“But I’m a physicist! Not an electrical engineer! You might as well be asking a dentist to do brain surgery! If Luca would help...”

“You know damn well he isn’t going to help. He was the one who smashed the thing after he ended up in Emma’s body.”

“And Ksenia made it clear that she has no interest in swapping back with me either, so I’m probably going to be stuck in her body going forward no matter what. Essenially, I’m just fixing this thing so you and Nell can get back to normal because the rest of us certainly aren’t...IF I can fix this thing at all.”

“I appreciate you trying,” Nell said timidly from inside Vince’s body on the couch.

Kris sighed. He knew he was doing this for Nell. She didn’t deserve to be stuck in the body of a jerk like Vince, and she certainly didn’t deserve to have someone like Vince in her body.

Hot Mess

Nick had been working at the construction site when the Great Shift happened. The first thing he noticed was suddenly being inside, and then he noticed his bulky arms had become as thin as twigs and quite feminine.

It seemed he swapped into the body of a woman named Cheng, who was an influencer. Realizing he was unable to continue his current job with this body, he decided to start embracing hers instead. Cheng had to help at first with everything from his outfits to his makeup and the composition of shots; she was happy to do so as she didn’t want her reputation ruined. But as time went on, she grew less and less interested. At the same time, Nick (now going by Nikki) was loving fashion and being girlie! He felt like he had almost stolen this aspect of Cheng’s personality. He adored looking pretty and doing his makeup, hair, and nails. There was only one problem: He was completely bad at all these things.

He kept trying to teach himself. He kept thinking he would get better. He wanted so badly to get better. He still ended up looking like a hot mess everytime he tried.

Reporting

“This is, um, my name is like Shelby Summers, and I’m reporting. I’m reporting live on the scene from downtown where, um, like, we’re reporting on the effects of the -- of the Great Shift here. There were, um, riots, and people. People are upset about being in the wrong bodies. Back to you in the studio, Mac.”

Walter barely breathed while delivering the lines. He had been swapped into the body of reporter Shelby Summers, but he was just an average guy. While he had been nervous about delivering the lines, he was even more nervous about what was going on downtown. There were fights and riots; a fire had even broken out. But would firefighters even show up given the whole body swapping thing? He was sure it would all get out of hand very fast.

He didn’t want to be Shelby Summer; he didn’t want to be a reporter; he didn’t want to be “on the scene;” and he certainly didn’t want to be a woman. Yet here he was. But he needed to get somewhere safe in this body. He needed to get out of here.

Best Gift Ever

When Arnold awoke on Christmas morning, he was excited. Overnight, he had been transformed into a woman; it was a dream come true. With his wife still snoring beside him, he decided it was best to let her sleep. After all, he was sure she had to be the one responsible for this transformation and letting her sleep in a little while longer would be one of the many ways he could say thank you.

With the biggest smile you could imagine, he turned on all the lights, made some coffee for his wife, and then sat down on the rug in front of the tree. His wife came down about an hour to grab a cup of coffee from the kitchen before entering the living room.

“Thank you so much!” Arnold announced when she entered, “This is the best gift ever! It’s what I’ve always wanted!”

“Who are you, and what are you doing in my house?” His wife asked.

“Arnold. I’m Arnold, your husband. I thought...I thought you had me transformed into a woman as a gift.” Arnold was slightly stuttering his words.

His wife was as well. “How would I..How would I even go about doing something like that? How would I have known? Why...Why would you even WANT that? How?...Have you been hiding this from me?”

“I thought you knew. I thought you always knew. I’m not trans or anything, but I always talked how curious I was about it.”

“But the best gift ever? Are you sure you’re not trans?”

“No! I mean, when I thought it was a gift, I figured it was temporary. I was going to ask if this was for a few days? Or a week? But if you aren’t responsible...then why? Why am I like this? And for how long?”

The Consultant

Two weeks ago, Mandy and Sawyer had arrived at the trendy consultant with their own requests. Mandy was a model with her contract at risk due to the recent weight she had gained; Sawyer was a scrawny nerd looking to bulk up and get in shape. When the eccentric consultant popped their heads off and attached it to the other’s body, they were as shocked as they were skeptical.

And yet a few months later, neither could argue with the results. Mandy looked over at her former body. It was skinnier than she had ever remembered being; the only problem, of course, was Sawyer’s dorky male head attached. Sawyer was equally impressed by how buff Mandy had gotten his body.

After expressing their gratitude, the consultant smiled. “I’m glad you’re both happy,” She said.

They both expected their heads to pop back onto their original bodies, but instead the consultant just continued to smile as they all sat there.

“So, how do we get back normal?” Mandy finally asked.

“Oh,” The consultant replied, “I only promised to get your bodies into the shape you desired. I never promised you’d get them back!”

Nature's Way

“I know...I know what you did to that poor woman,” Norman wheezed as he sat up in his hospital bed upon seeing the nurse enter, “You thought I was asleep when the nurse came in last night, but I saw you. With whatever evil Satanic stuff you pulled, you swapped into her body. You left her to die in your body. It’s not right. We’re old men, or at least we were. It’s nature’s way to one day pass, but you cheated it all and stole that young woman’s life.”

Marvin scowled in response, but quickly put on a happy face. No matter how right Norman was, he couldn’t actually admit it. “Come on now, Mr. Lewis, it sounds like you are hallucinating. I might advise the doctor to increase your meds, and you share the same wild stores with him, he probably will,” Marvin responded, “I know you don’t have many days left, but I can imagine they will be very unpleasant ones if you threaten your nurses.”

“I’m not threatening anyone...”

“It sure sounded like one to me. But don’t worry, I am committed to making your last days here as comfortable as possible no matter how brief they might be...”

Just a Few Days

“Okay, so when I press this button over here, I need you to hit that switch, okay?” Hunter loudly announced across the room, trying to speak over the loud hum of the machines.

“Why?” Brooke asked back.

“To reverse to polarity to swap us back into our own bodies.”

“No, I understand what we’re doing, but why do we have to do it now?”

“I thought you wanted your body back?” He asked.

“I do,” Brooke paused, “But maybe not yet. It’s just that when people look at you, they see a smart nerdy guy. And when they look at me, they just think I’m some dumb blonde cheerleader. But, goddamnit, I’m taking the same courses as everyone else at this university; and I’m doing well too! It just might be nice to be seen as smart for a few days.”

“Why don’t you just quit the team?”

“Because I still LIKE being a cheerleader! People can have varied interests and be multi faceted, you know? Let’s just stay swapped for two days. We can consider it an anthropology experiment.”

Hunter looked down at the cheerleader uniform he was wearing with it’s short skirt and bare midriff. He had only been in Brooke’s body for a few minutes, and he had been absolutely fascinated by it. Now she was suggesting staying like this for a few days? He was giddy, but he also didn’t want to seem too eager. So he walked over to Brooke, rolled his eyes, and feigned an exasperated sigh. “Fine,” He muttered while trying to hide a smile.

Changing Room (Part 2)

View Part 1 of Changing Room.

Sophia searched several stores across the mall before she found herself not far from where she started. She decided to end her search for now and actually pick up some clothes for her new male body. As she brought the handfull of shirts and pants toward the changing rooms, she heard a soft, faint, feminine cry from another stall. She went over to knock timidly on the door.

“Go away!” A voice that was clearly hers on the other end whispered.

“No, you don’t understand; it’s me! I mean, it’s you!” She replied finding it difficult to escape the excitement that she found her body.

The door unlocked and Sophia entered. She saw her body in tears wearing a t-shirt and basketball shorts that were much too big for her small frame. A pair of shoes were not far away, much too big for her original body’s small feet.

“It’s going to be okay,” Sophia tried to assure before adding, “What’s your name?”

“Dean,” He said looking up from his tears, “Oh, God, tell me you haven’t been running around in my body wearing THAT!?”

“Hey, they still fit, okay! And no one seemed to care,” Sophia retorted, “Besides, I was buying new stuff when I found you. Now we can just switch clothes and go somewhere to figure this out.”

Dean curled up in a ball and began crying again. He muttered “yoga pants” under his breath before finally collecting himself. “Fine. I know I can’t wear my own clothes. They literally fall off me while I’m in your body. So I guess hand over the sportsbra.”

Potions

Damien loved his girlfriend Lilith. The fact that she was a witch was an added bonus filled with odd and unique experiences. The time she made his cat speak was certainly entertaining! Flying on a broom on a brisk autumn night was exhilarating! And then there was the time she accidentally swapped their bodies.

While Damien was worried he’d be fired if he didn’t show up for work, Lilith assured him she’d go in his place. Meanwhile, swapping back would be easy, she told him to just go back to her place and drink the potion she left on her kitchen table.

It sounded simple enough, but when Damien arrived back at Lilith’s house, there were countless potions scattered across her kitchen table. Damien wasn’t allowed to have a phone at work, so he couldn’t call to ask. And if they didn’t swap back in time, the magic would be permanent. With few options in front of him, Damien realized he probably had no choice but to drink ALL the potions, even though he was sure some of them would have extremely bad magical consequences.

Can't Play Ball for Sh*t (Part 2)

View Part 1 of Can't Play Ball for Sh*t.

Albert (or “Al” as he liked to be called) returned home early from his date wondering just what had gone wrong. People at the restaurant had stared at him from the moment he entered. When his date arrived and saw him, she shouted a few homophobic slurs before storming off. It had been like this ever since he saw a glimpse of that weird blue light a few days ago. For a moment, he had felt like everything was wrong, but the feeling passed so quickly. A similar feeling happened later in the day, but instead of feeling like everything was wrong, he felt like something was very right. In particular, it was his love of fashion: the dresses, the high heels, the jewelry. He loved dressing girlie and showing off his styles!

It became clearer and clearer as the days passed that others didn’t share his enthusiasm, and that societal pressure was getting to him. He didn’t want to tone it down or dress more manly. His fashion sense was the one thing he was absolutely sure about himself! And that brought back memories of the glimpse and the feeling of everything being wrong. What if everything else WAS wrong? What if this wasn’t his body? Or his life? What if he wasn’t Albert at all?

Another name flashed in his head and he quickly jotted it down. “Al...lison.” Allison. It seemed so wild. A woman? Seriously? Al wanted to laugh it off completely, and yet he looked down at his clothes. He knew they were right; he knew it must be true. But how?

The Joys of Science

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After 18 long years of being made fun of by the kids in his neighborhood and 12 years of being teased at school, Julian was finally preparing his revenge. He had spent a few months crafting the compound in his basement. Anyone who drank it would spontaneously change genders. The bully jocks would become women, and the snobby cheerleaders would be men; they both would hate it!

He had already tried the liquid he created on himself, transforming his dorky male self into his female equivalent. This would help with the next part of his plan. As Julian, he’d be harassed and ousted the minute he set foot at prom, but as Julia? No one would even recognize him! He could slip his mixture into the punch, and the delayed effects would surely mean most of the senior class would consume it before anyone realized what would happen to them! He smiled thinking about how they would react!

Now he just needed to make enough for everyone. He calculations needed to be perfect. If he didn’t make enough, it would be too diluted to work. Too much and it would turn the punch bitter and undrinkable. Such was the joys of science!

New Monster

In the event of Victor’s death, Ygor was to follow a set of explicit instructions to revive his master. First he was to remove Victor’s brain and place it in statis. Next, he was to find a new body to place the brain in. Finally, he had to connect the brain to the new body, patch it up, and flip the switch.

Ygor had quite a difficult time with the body he had found. It’s head was so small and Victor’s brain was so large. He was squishing and pushing to try to get it to fit. He should’ve known better; at one time he probably did. Ygor had been a brilliant doctor in his own right before joining with Victor in his work. Despite all his own achievements, Victor was a petty and jealous man. Utilizing his research, he had turned Ygor into a mindless lab assistant, only able to follow his orders and not think for himself. This strict adherence to the rules was causing Ygor to continue to mush Victor’s brain into this new body before it finally popped into place. The connections and cosmetic patching were easy after that.

Ygor hit the switch and Victor awakened, alive once more. But with the damage done to his brain, his mind was mangled and he was much more id than ego at this point. He looked down at his new body, not remembering what his old body was like and not able to realize how truly different this female body was from his former male one. He looked at Ygor and his id soared. Who was this man before him? It didn’t matter; it was a man, and Victor yearned for it. And as Victor instructed, Ygor had to obey. And what Victor instructed was nonstop fulfillment of his id passion from the silver fox before him.

Mirrors

The carnival’s Fun House had been anything but fun for Carl as he walked out through walls of mirrors that no longer distorted or twisted the reflection of what was now his new body.

The Fun House had started enjoyable enough as Carl and his girlfriend enjoyed the silly slides to go down and inflatable floors to bounce on; it brought back memories of their childhoods.

At the end was the Hall of Mirrors, the type where you’d look in and appear tall or fat or however else they could distort the way you looked by bending the mirror.

One mirror was alone at the end of a long hallway labeled “Your Deepest Desire.” Carl rolled his eyes when he got close enough to see a blonde woman in the mirror mimicking his movements. He chuckled, assuming it was some sort of digital trick tracking his movements, and he turned back to the main room. But despite each step he took, he never seemed to get any closer to leaving and the mirror with the woman stayed the same distance behind him. Somehow he knew that going back the way he came was no longer an option, and instead he walked through the mirror.

He found himself returned to the main hall where his girlfriend was laughing how she appeared in various mirrors. She grabbed the arm of another man and kissed him. Carl was ready to be furious, but even in the distorted mirrors he could see that he had changed. He wasn’t the man he had been just moments ago; he had been transformed into the woman from the mirror. That wasn’t his girlfriend anymore. He had a new body; he had a new life -- the entire world was different as a result. As he walked out, all he could think about was just who he was now; he didn’t have a lot to go on...

Change My Life

The old man at the magic shop told me he was giving me one wish to change my life. I thought he was being metaphorical. I was about to say something a wish out loud; he stopped me and said something about waiting for the time to be right. Out of his appreciation for his general kindness, I bought a few small brain teaser puzzles.

I hadn’t thought much about his words the rest of the day until late that night. I ended up watching random K-Pop videos while trying out some of the puzzles I had bought. It didn’t take long for me to feel bad about myself for being the guy of loser guy who was home on a Friday night watching videos and doing puzzles. I looked at one of the women in the video that was on, making a comment aloud about how much fun that sort of life must be. The next thing I remeber was getting instantly tired.

I woke up the next morning to an alarm -- quite odd for a Saturday for me -- but even odder was th bustle of people around. Someone threw some clothes at me and told me to get ready. The clothes were obviously feminine, and I was about to object when I noticed my body was the same. I was in someone else’s body; living someone else’s life! The day was a whirlwind filled with photo shoots, exercise to keep me in shape, interviews, and so much more. I barely got to look in the mirror, but I recognized my face from one of the videos the night before. I had made a wish, and it came true! My mind then went to the old man and the magic shop. I needed to go back there, but I was barely getting a moment’s peace. Plus, I wasn’t in my own zip code -- or even my own country -- anymore. As you might imagine, K-Pop stars spend a lot of time in Korea.

It was weeks before I had a moment of free time to myself and even longer before I was able to take a plane back home to visit the magic shop. By the time I did, the store seemed closed for good with an eviction notice on the door. For a moment, I fretted about being stuck in this chaoic life of a popstar, but what about the old man? He lost his shop, which was likely his livelihood. Sure, I had some clout with the body I was currently in, possibly even a little cash; I wondered if there was some way I could help him out. It sure seemed like that would be a better use of my present celebrity than whatever my agents and managers told me to do next...

Recreated

When Jack lost his wife Kelly to cancer, it hit him pretty hard. He spent a lot of time going through old videos, writings, voicemails, and whatever else he could find to construct an AI model on his computer based on her personality. Communicating via text was fairly convincing; building an interactive voice model was extremely convincing; he decided there was only one final step.

The android was a nearly perfect copy of Kelly, an he had downloaded the AI he had created into it. His past few attempts had been too robotic and not particularly convincing, but this time he was sure he got it right. He gave the robot a kiss before turning it on.

It blinked a few times before focusing on Jack. There was a sense of recognition in its eyes that told him this attempt was already more successful.

“I love you,” Jack said, lost in the moment.

The robot scoffed with a look of disgust, “What? Dude! Come on, that’s gay.”

“Kelly?”

“Do I look like your wife? No, it’s me, your brother, Ted.”

“Actually...”

While his brother had been in a few clips, Jack had expected it to be an inconsequential piece of the data. Yet this iteration had made taken Ted’s persona on almost wholly. As Jack looked over the data, the android looked on -- able to process it much more quickly.

“I know what you’re thinking, Jack,” The android who looked like Kelly but thought of himself as Ted warned, “But do not even THINK about turning me off. You’ve made me advanced enough that I’m a living thing!”

“But you look like Kelly! And Ted already exists in the world!”

“Then I’ll pretend to be someone else! I’d rather exist as a lie than not at all!”

Rerun (Part 3)

View Part 1 of Rerun.
View Part 2 of Rerun.

Jenn breathed a sigh of relief as the flash of light and static once again overtook her vision, knowing she would be leaving this show before being shot. She was a little less relieved to be face-to-face with a monster that seemed to be growing. It went from being just a little taller than her to toweing over the city’s skyscrapers.

As she looked at Nick, and Nick looked at her, they both knew exactly which show this was.

“I have no interest in getting my ass handed to me by some monster. Maybe we can just sit this one out until the channel gets changed again?” Jenn suggested.

“It doesn’t hurt to try,” Nick said.

And so the pair just sat in the park and waited as the monster destroyed the city.

“At least I’m a woman this time,” Jenn mused as another building was knocked down.

“I seemed to be cursed to ALWAYS be a woman,” Nick sighed as the monster breathed fire down a crowded street.

“Oh, come on, it’s not that bad.”

Icing (Part 2)

View Part 1 of Icing.

With almost everyone swapped into the wrong body, the library was mostly empty. However, Sebastian decided it was the best place to find answers. He walked across campus still wearing the tight speedskating outfit and no shoes on his feet and began to look for the any sorts of books that might help him.

It wouldn’t have many answers, because nothing like this has ever happened before. A mass body swapping event? It still seemed crazy, and yet the form fitting outfit he now wore encasing a very different body than his own was evidence that it had just happened.

He had a lot of research ahead of him, and a lot of work to do. And as he heard the angry commotion start to get louder outside the library, he knew getting people back into their own bodies couldn’t happen fast enough...IF he could find a way to get people back to their own bodies.

Cold Enough

The air in New York City was cold enough that morning to see one’s breath, but Dylan was seeing something much more surprising. His hands had long manicured nails and were encased in pink fingerless mittens. It was a woman’s hand. He reached the other hand toward his chest, very much expecting to find a breast hanging there. However, the puffer coat was much too thick to feel anything, though style and color of the puffer coat itself was very much confirming his fear that he was now in a woman’s body. It was further confirmed by the long blonde hair that cascaded down the front of the coat.

Despite all this, it was still frigid outside! Dylan decided if he wanted to figure out more about what had happened to him, he should head inside to some place warm. Maybe he could find some answers or some reason as to how this happened to him!

Lucky

Jason had to consider himself pretty lucky with the Great Shift. For starters, the body he ended up with: Amber Lee. She was the “It Girl” of 2024; Amber was a singer, an actress, and a model. She was probably the biggest celebrity on the planet and envied by all, even a cisgender male like Jason. To end up in her body was to literally be the luckiest person in the world.

But Jason’s luck did end there. As it turned out at the time of the Shift, Amber was on a private plane. There were no shortage of horror stories about crashes and tragedy from planes falling out of the sky that day. But the pilot on Amber’s plane was one of the few who weren’t shifted at all. And while most people who kept their own body were considered pretty lucky on that day, Jason was absolutely sure he was even luckier.

Mourning

Gabriel placed flowers by the plain white cross that stood on the side of the road. He often came here to do this; it was never easy for him. After all, it was the spot where he had died.

He was walking back to the university campus along the side of the road that night when the driver of an SUV swerved and hit him. The moment of impact was an agonizing pain he would never forget, but the pain ended almost immediately as he soon found himself behind the wheel of a car in a comfortable heated seat.

He wondered if it was just sheer luck at first; perhaps he had crashed through the windshield and conveniently landed in this positions unharmed after the SUV plowed into him and landed in a ditch. But as he looked at the rear view mirrors, he saw a reflection that wasn’t his own. By some inexplicable means, he had swapped bodies with the driver when she hit him. Despite being shaken by the accident and the swap, he searched for the woman’s purse to find her phone and dial 9-1-1.

His voice was unnervingly feminine as he talked and he closely examined his now middle aged facial features move in the mirror as he spoke. When the ambulance arrived, Gabriel’s body was pronounced dead on the scene. The investigations began that night.

The fault for the accident was ultimately blamed on a manufacturing defect with the vehicle. Gabriel often wanted to tell his parents about what happened, but throughout the investigation they wouldn’t even look at him. He couldn’t blame them. He now had the face of the person who they thought killed their son. Trying to tell them the truth would likely only make them angrier and sadder.

And as tough as that was, it was harder for him to try to fit into the life of the body he now had, Olivia’s life. She was a middle aged mom with a loving husband and two beautiful daughters. He knew he was distant to all of them at first; they all believed it was due to trauma from accident. In a way, that was true, but certainly not in the way they suspected. And yet over time, Gabriel learned to love and appreciate his new life...

Stand-Up

The co-workers had all signed into their computers for their daily check-in when the video conferencing software begin to flash with a strange series of bright pulses. Some looked away, but it didn’t matter; within seconds the pulses stopped but it had affected each member of the team.

Being the group’s Project Manager, Graham spoke up first while still feeling disoriented and still trying to process what had happened. “Is everyone alright?” He asked. As he did so, he noted that his own image on the screen seemed not to move. “Are we frozen?” He asked before realizing Hiromi’s lips moving. He then looked down, noticing her image on screen doing the same. He was wearing Hiromi’s shirt. No, he was in Hiromi’s body!

Hiromi was the lead developer on the project. She worked remotely and spoke very little, often in broken English when she did; but she was still damn good at her job. Given her lead status, she was quite a bit older than Graham, and the only woman on the team -- both of which, he was tring to grapple with now that he was in her body.

“Not frozen, but why you in my body?” The voice speaking was Tyler, the project’s designer, but clearly speaking with Hiromi’s broken English.

“I think we’ve ALL swapped bodies,” Graham suggested, “So let’s figure out who’s who. I’m Graham...”

Go Shorty

James was a pretty tall guy, close to seven feet tall, in fact. He was used to things being fairly easy to reach. This often put him in conflict with his wife, Lucy, who stood at just over five feet. She asked him to not place things on the high shelves in the kitchen, as they would be out of reach for her. He would justify it, saying it would be wasted space otherwise.

When they ended up swapping bodies in the Great Shift, James was forced to have a whole new perspective on the matter. For the most part, he didn’t mind being in his wife’s body. He was fine wearing her clothes and dealing with being a woman, but her height was hard to adjust to. Having to look up at his former body was certainly a weird experience. And then there were those shelves in the kitchen. He looked up at some of the things he had placed up there just a few weeks ago, and now they were completely out of reach. He thought about asking Lucy for help, but he knew he’d be met with “I told you so” for days.

He first tried to reach by putting on Lucy’d highest heels. They were not only difficult to walk in, but they really didn’t help all that much. He’d probably need to get a stool or a step ladder or something. He just hoped his wife didn’t see him struggle like this.

The Fog (Part 3)

View Part 1 of The Fog.
View Part 2 of The Fog.

It’s been six months since we encountered the fog that turned us into women; we never reverted back to normal. The day after it happened, we got the car fixed and got back to campus. We told only a few close friends who helped us hack a few records at the college, so we could continue relatively seamlessly. Mack picked the name Mackenzie; I chose Ming. Mackenzie tried to give me grief because Ming was nothing like my original male name; I told her I didn’t care.

And, as we discussed, we decided to start a relationship. I think we were the talk of campus for about a week. It wasn’t because we were lesbians (there were plenty of those on campus), but because we were a lesbian couple that seemingly came out of nowhere. Technically, we did, but it easy to explain that we were simply insivible nobodies before and were able to go back to that sort of status soon enough.

Every once and a while, we’d take the car out to where we first transformed. We never encountered the pink fog ever again, not that we ever wanted to.

Orientation

The experience was overwhelming for Charles. He had put on the body swapping helmet, as instructed. When it activated, it seemed almost instaneous. He was in a similar, but not identical, room. He was clearly in someone else’s body. Soon enough, one of the scientists entered the room.

“How do you feel?” The scientist asked.

“I knew I signed up to swap bodies,” Charles admitted, “But I had no idea you all would swap with me a woman?”

“And how do you feel? Are you disoriented? Any sense of confusion? Blurry vision? Any other problems?”

“I feel surprisingly...normal. Despite the fact that I’m obviously a woman and my body must have all sorts of different proportions, I’m not having any difficulty. I’m just wondering when I can get back to my own body.”

“We need to run a few tests, of course. And following safety procedures for the next swap, we anticipate we’ll have you back in a few months.”

“MONTHS!?”

Followed on Facebook

Spencer had a crush on Darren since college, though obviously he never said anything. After all, Spencer was gay and closeted; Darren was undoubtably straight. They were good friends at the time, though after they only stayed in touch by following each other on Facebook.

The crush never went away despite the passing of the years, with Spencer often checking Darren’s Facebook page for new photos and updates. He certainly noted when Darren’s status changed to “In a relationship” and photos of a woman began appearing on his feed. When the status eventually changed to “Married,” Spencer was devistated.

A bit more time passed when Spencer was on the train coming home from work. He recognized a woman a few seats down as Darren’s wife. His heart filled with jealousy. He did his best not to stare, but she seemed preoccupied with something, so she probably wouldn’t have noticed anyway. And it was in the moment he watched her step off the train, something odd happened. He was now standing with the doors closing behind him. He had long blonde hair and was wearing heels. His jealousy must’ve have exploded into something that caused him to swap bodies with Darren’s wife!

The jealousy turned into excitement as he looked through her phone along with memories of Darren’s Facebook photos that he has studied in an attempt to figure out pieces of her life. He figured out her car, where she and Darren lived, and her name -- Martha. Arriving at the beautiful suburban home, she greeted Darren with a kiss.

Over the next few days, Spencer was in heaven. Darren commented how pleasant she had become recently; Spencer explained how much he was truly appreciating everything he had; they made love frequently.

After a few months, Spencer had something very important to tell Darren: he was pregnant! Darren couldn’t have been happier, yet he had no idea that inside his wife’s body was actually his former gay friend.

We'll Never Be Royals

Rumors spread across the medieval land about why everyone in the kingdom had swapped bodies. The most common theory floated around about a curse enacted by a wizard, but no one really knew for sure.

Richard had lucked out in the swapping. He had gone from being a serf toiling in the fields to being Queen! He suspected people knew he wasn’t really her; after all, there was no reason to think royalty would be immune from what happened. And yet no one dared to question the body he was in nor the crown that sat atop his head.

He intially tried to be a kinder and more benevolent ruler, but it didn’t take long for the old ways to return. In fact, after a few years, peasants spoke about how the Queen was crueler than ever.

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Randomizer Ray

“Do you want to return the Randomizer Ray?” Taylor asked the person standing before him, “The policy was clear when you bought it. We don’t take returns.”

“I don’t need to return it. I need to fix it!” Nick explained, “I want my body back! I didn’t meant to zap myself with it!”

“It’s a Randomizer Ray, not a Reversal Ray! I can tell by the colorization that this one mostly randomizes things related to gender, but it IS completely random. You could zap yourself with it and turn yourself gay, or you might change genders, or become asexual; I’ve even heard it can cause a body swap if two people are close enough. Really, anything remotely related to sex or gender can happen when you get hit by that thing.”

“I know! It was funny when I used it on other people, but I accidentally turned myself into a woman! I want to be me!”

“On other people? I’m not sure that’s ethical, but to solve your problem? Well, you can try to keep zapping yourself, but the odds are astronomically small you’d ever get anything even close to being yourself again. Gender has a LOT of variables.”

“Maybe you can fix it if I zap you!” Nick threatened Taylor, hoping for a different answer.

“Go ahead. You think that would be my first time getting hit by a Randomizer Ray? I used to be a woman named Taylor, now I’m a guy named Taylor. You just move on...”