Closest Living Relative

“Could you run that all by me again?” Alvin asked with his head still foggy and being far too distracted by his new body.

“From your perspective,” The man said, “It’s the future, 500 or so years to be more specific. We found your mind uploaded on a computer, and we downloaded it into that body -- a clone of your closest living relative.”

“But I didn’t upload my brain onto a computer anywhere.”

“Well, someone did at some point.”

“And why am I a chick?”

“As I stated, that is a clone of your closest living relative. It reduces the chances of something going wrong. The gender of the body is seen as rather irrelevant these days.”

“Well, if it’s so irrelevant, could I be transferred into a male body.”

“Quite impossible at this stage. The request should have been made when you were first uploaded to ensure sure a thing.”

“Right, it should have been made at the time I didn’t know any of this would ever be happening. Sure...”

The Concert (Part 2)

View Part 1 of The Concert.

The group’s management team had a few people that weren’t swapped. They escorted the mom out front to help her find her daughter while sitting the other three of us down. It had only been minues since we all found ourselves in these new bodies, and it seems the management team were already discussing business plans. A lot of money was invested in these women. And with us being in the ones in our bodies, we had a lot of leverage if we wished to continue their careers.

The man who had seemingly only spoke Spanish agreed with a “SI” almost immediately. It seemed he understood quite a bit more Enlgih than he had initially let on.

The once overweight college student was also quick to be in agreement by timidly saying she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to be seen as beautiful by the world.

“I don’t even know who these women are,” I confessed, “I don’t know how to dance. I’m not really much of a singer. I don’t even know their songs.”

I could tell by the management team’s frowns that they wish I was more excited about this. But I was honestly nervous. Was a life of fame one I really wanted? They began talking numbers, and how we’d all be millionaires. They’d teach what we needed to know: the songs, the dancing, even acting lessons. I had to admit that it did sound tempting. It was ultimately a few whispers from the college student who explained it would fall apart without me (apparently, I was in the body of the “lead” woman), and how this was her dream. After a long, tense pause, I finally nodded my head once to indicate my agreement.

Complexity (Part 3)

View Part 1 of Complexity.
View Part 2 of Complexity.

“If you had told me a year ago that I’d say to this face that I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you -- and that I’d be doing it in a dress -- well, it would have been unimaginable. That’s for sure.” Kris said to Nell, “I like the beard though, by the way.”

“And I like the dress!” Nell replied.

“Do not get used to it! I’m not wearing one again!”

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

“Honestly, I don’t need your life stories.” The uninterested judge interupted, “I’ve already signed my part of the paperwork. Then you both need to do the same and submit the form with a $45 check to the clerk outside, and we’re done, okay?”

“Can I kiss the bride, at least?” Nell asked.

“Most people do.” The judge sighed.

And so Kris and Nell kissed.

“I now pronounce you Mr.and Mrs. Vince and Ksenia Connolly.” The judge yawned, “Now, move along, I got like twenty of these to do today.”

Arrivals and Departures (Part 3)

View Part 1 of Arrivals and Departures.
View Part 2 of Arrivals and Departures.

With his career in business, Frank had been used to rushing around, but the Great Shift was upending all of that. He didn’t have his own phone to check in to see if meetings were canceled; he couldn’t securely log in to Zoom. Heck, even the internet and phone service seemed to be down right now. He walked around aimlessly for a bit before finally thinking of checking the purse he held for an ID.

And so he slowly made his way over to an apartment in a trendy area of town where this woman apparently lived. He swiped another card and soon found his way inside.

He collapsed on the bed, happy to free of any worries of the office for the first time in as long as he could remember. He wondered how long it could last. Perhaps it didn’t have to end. No one knew who he really was now; he could be anyone. He could have any life he wanted. Sure, he could go back to the drudgery of his old life, or he could be a carefree young woman starting out again, couldn’t he?

Something

Eve was wondering why her fiancé Ken had been acting so strange. He fumbled through his vows even with cue cards even though she KNEW he memorized them and the kiss at the end of the ceremony felt distant. She told herself that he was just nervous and decided to hit the wine hard at their reception.

About halfway through, Eve was thoroughly drunk when Annie approached. Annie and Ken both sighed and told Eve they had something important they had to share.

Eve looked worried, maybe even like she was going throw up, “Oh, Gawd! You two slept together last night, didn’t you?”

“Oh, no! No, no, no! Nothing like that! But we did...swap bodies,” Ken confessed from inside Annie’s body.

Eve’s drunken mind was having trouble understanding, “So I married Annie?”

“No, legally, you still married me, Ken. I doubt any entity would be convinced otherwise...or that body swapping even exists. But the person standing next to you when it happened? Well, that was Annie in my body. And I’m...well...I’m in Annie’s body.”

“But how...?”

“We don’t know!” Annie inside Ken interjected, “We hoped it would all sort of resolve itself after a few hours. But we ultimately decided you had to know.”

“Yeah, well, I just married...I don’t even know who the hell I just married!”

“Just calm down,” Ken spoke again, “We’ll figure it out!”

“But it’s my WEDDING!” Eve began to whine.

“And mine, too! And I think the fact that I am standing here in a satin dress and heels showcases that I’ve got it a lot worse than you, but we WILL figure it out.”

No Going Back

It had been a year since Erwin had taken the pills to transform himself into a woman, and he truly loved his new life as Emma. But there was one thing that he knew was still holding him back.

He pushed a stool into the bathroom so he could reach above the vanity mirror. There he had stashed a bag filled with the pills that would undo his gender transformation. He knew as long as he kept them, he would still old onto a little piece of his male self. And if he kept holding on to that, could he truly move on?

He probably stood over the toilet for a good half hour before making the final decision to flush them down and say goodbye to Erwin forever. Yet he didn’t feel a moment of regret, nor would he ever. He knew he had made the right decision to embrace his life as Emma. There was no going back.

Retro Gamer (Part 4)

View Part 1 of Retro Gamer.
View Part 2 of Retro Gamer.
View Part 3 of Retro Gamer.

Now back in the real world, Alan needed to figure out how to get on with life. It’s not like anyone would believe what really happened -- that he had become a woman after getting sucked into a video game for several years. The gamer who set him free him was also surprisingly helpful. Alan was able to do research on his original self; he had apparently been announced missing and eventually presumed dead. There wasn’t even a life of his own to go back to.

Finding out who he was turned out to be even stranger. As it turned out, a 20 year old woman from Japan had gone missing 35 years earlier. She matched Alan’s description perfectly, even the DNA was a match. Though it didn’t make sense to anyone (other than Alan) why the woman wasn’t 55 years old. Some suspected Alan was actually the woman’s daughter, yet none of it was enough to keep Alan from inheriting her parents’ wealth. (And Alan made sure the reward for heling to find the missing person went to the gamer.)

There was one comfort through it all that felt strangely familiar. For the most part, there was always someone telling him what to do; a lawyer, or a police officer, or an accountant -- it all reminded him of being in the game. But when it was all over and settled, he felt a new, different sense of dread. Between being in the game and dealing with all the advisors, he got very used to not feeling like he had any control of his own actions. When he was finally free of it all, the realization he once again had free will felt almost horrific. He thought about trying to find a copy of the game; to get back inside. Given the inheritance, money was no object. Searching on the web pulled up several articles talking about the legend of the game, but no copies for sale anywhere.

Webcomic

Charles had intended to create Zoe as a side character for his webcomic. But as soon as she was introduced, the comments section clearly began to clamor for more. And so she gradually shifted from side character to main character, and then eventually the focus of the entire webcomic. He understood. He had drawn her with a cute charm, and guys gushed over her manic pixie dream girl personality.

When he created a few animated shorts on YouTube, he modulated his voice to emulate a voice for Zoe; people became convinced that the comic was autobiographical, and that he was a real life version of Zoe. He had never signed his real name. People had no way of knowing he was actually a guy behind all of it. And yet...one day...

There was no explanation to it, Charles just woke up and he was...Zoe -- or at least how he imagined a real life Zoe would look. Of course, that didn’t mean he acted in the quirky and funs ways that Zoe would. He was still a quiet artist who mostly like to stay at his home and draw. And he realized despite now having so much in common with his drawn character from an appearane standpoint, they couldn’t be further apart in terms of personality. He wasn’t going to fall into that stupid stereotype of being anyone’s manic pixie dream girl...

A Kind Man

Lewis was on a ski trip with his wife and children when he started tumbling down the mountain. He hit his head and briefly blacked out. He awoke a few moments later with a man standing next to him.

“Let me help you up,” The kind man said.

“Thanks, but I’m good.” Lewis said.

“Come on, Babe, you had quite a fall. We need to get you to the lodge to be checked out. Make sure you haven’t broken any bones.”

“Babe? Who are you calling ‘Babe’?”

The kind man suddenly frowned, “How hard did you hit your head? I’m your husband! Can you tell me your own name?”

Lewis was blank for an answer. This man thought they were married? It seemed absurd, but then he looked down at his own body, and even through the layers of winter clothing, it seemed unmistakable: he was now a woman! If he told the truth, everyone would think he was crazy. But feigning a lie? Well, that may be the best choice at this point. He sucked it up with a heavy sigh and said, “I don’t remember.”

“Okay, come on, let’s get you some help...”

Space Princess

The colonization of space brought about a new form of techno feudalism, where new kingdoms laid claim to planets or sometimes entire solar systems. These royal families were often targeted by assassins or kidnappers, and intergalatic knights were often dispatched to deal with these rogues.

Valdor had heard about a pretty good reward for returning the kidnapped Princess Otaza from the Nebulus System, so he set off to find her. Unfortunately, when he tracked down the criminals, it turned out they were actually assassins, and the princess had already been vaporized into a pile of ash by the time he arrived. However, he did find a few loose hairs, which would be enough...

A straight up reward was always the best, but any intergalatic knight was prepared for the alternate solution. Bringing back even the smallest amount of DNA was enough to reconstruct a royal body, but it took a great sacrifice from the knight. Valdor returned with the hair and entered the machine on a Nebulus moon. It was there where his body was transformed into an exact match for Princess Otaza. It didn’t matter that he didn’t have any of her memories; what matters was that he could still continue the bloodline. He’d spend the rest of his days in relative luxury with the sole task of producing heirs. It certainly wasn’t as much fun as running around killing assassins and kidnappers, but he knew he’d be treated well enough. Of course, there was a chance he could now be a target, but he was pretty sure he could still fight them off if they ever tried, despite his new body.

Bureaucracy (Part 1)

Navigating life after the Great Shift wasn’t easy for Ian. For starters, upon swapping he knew that adapting to becoming a woman would be difficult, but at least he was kinda cute. However, it seemed that everyone he knew ended up in the bodies with a level of hotness that rivaled supermodels. He never would have imagined this many hot people even existed around, and the statistical unlikelihood that everyone he knew but him would wind up in such a body was mind-blowing. He soon started feeling insecure and self-conscious about things like how flat his chest was.

And then there was the bureaucracy. As they sorted through claims, people basically had to stay in the residence of the body they were in. As it turned out, most of Ian’s friends not only ended up in hot bodies but rich ones as well. Meanwhile, Ian couldn’t find the identity of his current body or where she lived, so he was assigned temporary federal housing. It was a small building, but they had managed to cram a lot of apartments into it. There were multiple locks on the door, but only one of them worked. Until things could get sorted out, Ian had a feeling he’d be in a world of misery.

Undercover Assignment

“There are probably easier ways to go about these undercover assignments than having you use that Morphic Adaption Unit from the evidence locker that we seized. It’s still weird knowing it’s actually you inside there, Doug.” Det. Mack Carver said to his partner.

“What difference does it make?” Det. Doug Bruno replied, “We got the bastards, didn’t we? It’s not like we have any women on the force to go after these scumbags.”

“It just seems that maybe we should start a program to recruit some female officers.”

“There you go with that damned DEI stuff again.”

Mack sighed. As the only Black officer on the force, he knew this was an uphill battle with many of his colleagues. “Look, I’m just saying that it might be easier to actively seek out women for the force as opposed to you using that whack machine in the basement to turn yourself into a woman and then go running around town in a dress and high heels to catch the bad guys. But I ain’t gonna stop you, but I should tell you...”

“Tell me what?”

“There’s starting to have some trouble with that thing. They’re worried that it might not work again. What I’m saying is that you’ve been so reluctant to hire any women on the force that you may have inadvertantly BECOME the first woman on the force.”

Opportunity

It was a strange feeling for Jason to be walking through the park without anyone being able to tell he wasn’t an actual woman. Well, technically that was because he WAS an actual woman now after swapping bodies with Jennifer.

Of course, he still couldn’t imagine why she would ever want to swap bodies with him! Two days ago, he had been on the path too transitioning. He had been wearing women’s clothes out, and he had started taking hormones, but his shoulders were still broad, his build was still muscular, and his Adam’s apple was still prominent. People would point and stare; they’d openly mocked him. They were awful. He knew the process would be long and difficult. But Jennifer worked at the pharmacy where he picked up his hormones, and she offered a shortcut -- to swap bodies with her.

Jennifer was the peak of feminine perfection. She had beautiful long hair with a nice body. If she secretly wanted to be a man, there was nothing external that hinted at it. Still, there was no way Jason would have turned down that opportunity!

Super Kawaii Style!!!

It was about a week after the Great Shift and Naomi and Yumi had made contact with their original bodies and had made plans to meet up. Noami had gone on social media to research the two guys they had swapped with, Scott and Leo. Interestingly enough, they were friens, just like Naomi and Yumi were; they also both seemed like pretty big dorks, so they expected a low key meetup. However, when Scott and Leo arrived, Naomi and Yumi both felt their eyes were assaulted by the wild, colorful outfits the nerds had chosen.

“Oh-Em-Gee!” Scott said as he saw his and Leo’s original bodies, “When we saw that we both swapped with Asian women, we thought --”

Scott and Leo then spoke in unison, “Super Kawaii Style!!!”

“My girlfriend -- well, EX-girlfriend now -- had a lot of this type of clothes, but with the body she got after the Shift, they’d never fit her anymore. But they fit us perfectly!” Leo squealed the explanation in delight.

“Um, I used to typically wear jeans and a t-shirt,” Naomi replied.

“And I’m Korean,” Yumi added, “Kawaii is more of a Japanese thing.”

“And it’s not even really that Kawaii,” Naomi mused, “It’s more...just...slutty.”

Scott briefly pouted before perking right back up, “I still FEEL cute though!”

Naomi and Yumi were both annoyed. Scott and Leo’s profiles both made them seem like such nerds. Nerds they could’ve dealt with. Heck, both Naomi and Yumi saw themselves as slightly nerdy themselves. Instead, these two were acting like total ditzes.

Participants

Dante hadn’t been happy about participating in the experiment, but (to be honest) he was rarely happy about anything. However, he needed the boost to his GPA just to not be kicked out of college. And that meant he was going to be stuck in the plucky, cheerful body of Miho for a few hours -- the thought of it felt depressing.

He sat in the chair and felt himself fade away as his consciousness was moved into Miho’s body. When he re-awoke, the first thing he expected to notice was his now female body. Instead, he was bombarded with feelings of happiness. He couldn’t remembered the last time he smiled, but now he just couldn’t stop! Miho’s body was just filled with such joy, and that now all seemed to belong to him -- whether he wanted it or not!

At first, he wanted to fight it, but it was all just too strong. Meanwhile, Miho in Dante’s body was now struggling with his gloomy outlook.

It was a quirk that the researchers hadn’t anticipated. They spent the next few hours trying to delve into the phenomenon, and before long it was time to swap back. However, Dante didn’t want to go back to being sad and depressed; he liked feeling happy in Miho’s body. And Miho had embraced a bleak “why bother” attitude about the whole thing. The researchers questioned if they should force them to return, or even if they could!

Sundown

With the sun going down, Brock knew he’d only be a woman for a few more minutes. He thought about changing out of the clothes he was wearing, as he’d imagine they’d become quite painful when he began transforming back into his male self. But he wanted to keep them on as long as possible. Wearing women’s clothes had been one of the joys of his day in this body, and one of the things he wanted to hold onto as long as possible.

He turned away from the window, not wanting to look. He was only supposed to have this body for 24 hours and sundown was the deadline. He held his breath, sure it would happen any moment now.

And then it didn’t.

The sky was getting the dark. The sun had fallen, but he hadn’t transformed back into his own self. In some ways, he was ecstatic. This was his body now; this was his body FOREVER! And yet in other ways he was worried. He was only supposed to be like this for 24 hours. This woman had no job, no status, and no identity. It wasn’t a problem to be a person that didn’t exist on paper for a short time, but now he had to figure out the consequences of being stuck in such a body! But maybe he could worry about all that tomorrow!

Pressing Buttons

Garrett was trying to press buttons while Soo Jin was just freaking out. They were both sure that something about this elevator had caused them to swap bodies, but had absolutely no clue about how to reverse it. Perhaps the only fortunate break in all this was that the elevator seemed to be stalled; at least the only people they had to deal with while being like this were each other.

After about fifteen minutes of shouting and trying what they could to get some attention or reverse the swap, they both collapsed onto the floor. Soon Jin wanted to discuss what to do if they were stuck like this, but Garrett insisted that they must still have other options to try first. He really didn’t want to resign himself to being a woman, and he tried to suggest they kiss to switch back.

Soo Jin wasn’t exactly comfortable with this, but Garrett said it worked in a movie he saw once. She reluctantly gave in, rationalizing that it was okay to basically be kissing herself. As Garrett closed his eyes and puckered up, he felt like a sparkly prickle on his lips when they kissed. He hoped that was something, but when he opened his eyes, he realized it was only feeling the roughness of his unshaven face. But then they felt a much larger jolt. The kiss hadn’t technically done anything, but it seemed the elevator was moving once more; however, still being stuck in the wrong bodies, this wasn’t necessarily a welcome development.

Fake It Until You Make It

Duncan saw it on the bottom row. It was an exact match for the medallion. Reaching down there while wearing Ruby’s short skirt and platform boots proved to be a bit of a challenge, but he told himself these were the things he’d have to learn if he was going to steal her body for good.

Of course, using the real medallion to swap with her was the first step of that plan. He wasn’t even sure it would work up untl the moment he found himself in her body. The next step was finding a look-alike. He had been checking high end shops for weeks, but this part of the plan only came together today upon entering a mall store with a bunch of cheap stuff. And it came along with another part of his plan of learning to act like Ruby. It hadn’t been going well so far. He was sure that despite having her body and wearing her clothes that he was still moving and holding himself like a man. He was certainly getting better at acting “girlie,” but there was a long way to go.

But the next part of his plan would be key. He’d switch out this fake medallion for the real one. When the time came to swap back in a few hours, he’d pretend like it was broken; that they were stuck! Then he could be Ruby forever! He’d have all the time in the world to get it right.

Don't Do Anything Weird

“...And don’t do anything weird to my body!” Lexi warned from inside the body of a 70 year old woman.

“Weird to your body?” Hank didn’t even want to question what that meant. Thanks to the Great Shift, Hank had found himself stuck in Lexi’s body. She already had pink hair, tattoos covering her body, and piercings in places that he wasn’t sure could even have piercings. Could he really do anything weirder to her body that she hadn’t already done to herself?

“I mean it! Nothing weird!” Lexi again insisted, “Promise me!”

“Um, fine. I promise.”

“Okay, now I’m going to see if the tattoo parlor is still open.”

Hank watched Lexi shuffle away. For the old woman’s sake, he hoped the tattoo parlor was NOT open.

Check Under the Bed

“You’d better check under the bed for the medallion! If we don’t find it, we’ll never be able to swap back,” Jessica told Jason.

“How am I supposed to --” Jason caught himself mid-sentence, “--that’s right, beause I’m the small one now.”

He sighed as he got in his knees to go look under the bed. He had hated the past twelve hours in Jessica’s body. She was only an inch over five feet tall and always wore large heels to compensate for that. Even with them on, it was still a foot shorter than his own body. The only benefit was their time rolling around in the bed together. He liked how it felt to be picked up or practically tossed around in moments of passion. But still, it wasn’t something he would give up his original body for. And so the search for the medallion continued. The last thing he wanted was to be stuck in Jessica’s body forever!

Hot Day

Going down into the subway station on a hot day felt like walking into an oven. On an especially hot day like today, Anderson knew it would be particularly bad. He took a deep breath before descending the steps and began to feel woozy from the heat as he stepped down.

He guessed the heat must be really getting to his head, as he found himself standing at the platform without remembering walking over. When the train bellowed into the station, he expected it to blow refreshing air onto him, but instead he could feel sweaty clothes clinging to him that were blown by the air the subway pushed in.

Curiously, he was covered head-to-toe in a modest, conservative dress that seemed to be covering up a female body that was certainly not his own. He grabbed the dress, wanting to take at least something off, though he wasn’t exactly sure where to even start. He also thought about looking for his original body to try to figure out what happened. But when the train doors opened, he could feel the cool breeze from the air conditioned cars on his face. He knew the obvious choice was to step inside the train and enjoyed the cooled air within.

Liars

Many people will talk about their Great Shift experiences, and some people will tell you they didn’t know they were in the wrong body until they stood up. Others said it was when they first went to the bathroom.

I’m convinced these people are liars.

I could tell from the second I opened my eyes. Hell, I think I knew even before I opened my eyes. A woman’s body just FEELS different. I imagine being in just about any different body from your own feels different, but I had the experience of being a man before the Shift and being a woman after -- and that clearly just FEELS different. It wasn’t anything specific either, more like a general sense of ennui. You still have a body, but there’s nothing that feels right about it anymore. The Great Shift made things like my distant memory of the rapid changes of puberty seem downright sluggish in comparison.

So, yeah, you notice things are wrong. People that say otherwise are liars.

The Joys of Science (Part 3)

View Part 1 of The Joys of Science.
View Part 2 of The Joys of Science.

Ron’s girlfriend had gotten quite jealous after he had hit on Julia in front of her. The entire rest of the evening was filled with tension. Ron had made plans to take her back to a motel room at the end of the night, but he eventually found himself losing interest once the time rolled around. He thought back to his interaction with Julia, but his interest in her had waned as well. And so the night ended uneventfully, with Ron returning home and falling asleep in his own bed. The next morning would be quite the opposite.

As Ron slept, he had an odd dream of being in the locker room with the rest of the football team. It started off normally enough, but then Ron started making explicit offers to his teammates. Ron woke up in a cold sweat; he bolted upright in fear. Did he just dream he was gay? Did he have a secret inside of him that he was just realizing now? A macho football player like him? It seemed impossible in Ron’s mind, but upon catching a glimpse of himself in a mirror across the room, a brand new definition of “impossible” was starting to form.

In contrast to the photos on the wall of his former body in all it’s game playing glory, the reflection was that of a beautiful blonde woman. He tried telling himself that he was still dreaming. It had to be part of the dream, right? This had to be just a different manifestation of that same fear. The thought of his teammates was turning his new body on in ways he both recognized, but also completely unfamiliar with from a first person perspective.

He tried for quite a while to wake himself up, but he wasn’t asleep. He had truly transformed into a woman. He began to cry. He didn’t want to be a woman; he immediately wished he WAS simply gay. At least he could still play football is he was; he couldn’t play like this!

And, of course, he had no idea his change in gender was the result of Julian spiking the punch with his potion at last night’s prom.

Strike Twice

Elijah had been caught in the rainstorm and took cover under a bus shelter. It wasn’t doing much good as the shelter had three open sides and the wind was blowing hard. He pushed himself as far back as he could against the metallic wall of the shelter to try to stay dry.

He didn’t expect the lightning to be of any concern. But something strange happened when it hit the shelter. Elijah could feel the electricity pulse from the metal structure and into his body. But instead of being electrocuted, it felt like it was messing with the impulses in his brain.

A huge headache overcame him, and the next thing he knew, he was back out in the pouring rain. While his body was getting soaked, he couldn’t help but notice that it wasn’t his body. The lightning had somehow swapped him with another person -- a woman! Instead of running for cover this time, he quickly found the nearest metallic pole he could find and grabbed onto it. If the lightning was able to swap his body once, surely it could do it again!

Entspannen

Adam’s eyes briefly flickered open.

“What’s happening to me?” He asked in a weak voice as he caught a glimpse of a man with green skin wearing a lab coat poking at him with medical instruments, not realizing his own brain was presently exposed to open air while being injected with various fluids.

“Entspannen, mein Freund,” Doctor Gunther Bismark said in a calm, measured tone, “I apologize that none of this is ideal. But when I heard you had perished, I came as quick as I could.”

Adam couldn’t respond, but he did flinch when he heard the word “perish.” The reaction was not lost on Dr. Bismark.

“Yes, you were dead. It was only a minor inconvenience. Fortunately, the technology has progressed significantly since my own incident. They couldn’t stop the rot once my brain was placed in this new body all those years ago. I had to go into hiding. But you? Well, no one will notice anything once I am complete here. Your brain will be in this new body, and no one will notice anything is amiss. Well, YOU might notice something is off. How can I say this? You’re new body is quite different from your old one. I do apologize for that fact, but it is still quite good to see that I wasn’t too late to save you.”

Narcissistic

As Riley rushed to the other room, Alex was still picking himself up off the floor. She looked at him to confirm what should be impossible. He swallowed her spit and whispered, “We swapped bodies!?”

“Yeah, yeah, I guess,” Alex said while still on his knees before a smile started to creep onto his face.

“This is serious, Alex! What could you possibly be happy about right now.”

“Riley, you know I have had a crush on you since the day we met. You told me you were a lesbian, and I respected that. But now that I am feeling things from your perspective, there no way you’re a lesbian!”

“But look at my hair! The way I dress!”

“None of that has anything to do with being a lesbian! I can promise you that I feel physically attracted to my own body while I’m in yours!”

“Maybe your just a narcissist and attracted to yourself.”

“If so, I’m clearly not the only one. You’ve been a guy for two minute; you don’t know how to hide it yet.”

Riley blushed.

“Don’t worry.” Alex added, “We don’t have to do anything, but if you WANT to do something, I’d be up for it!”

Brilliant Plan

“This is a terrible plan, Sabrina,” Rufus tried to warn her.

“No, it’s a brilliant plan! I have a 10AM press conference with the CEO. You go down and steal to the research department and steal the prototype at 10:10. No matter what eyewitnesses say about me stealing it, there will be photographic evidence of me at the press conference; the CEO will remember me being there. It’s an airtight alibi. We stash it at your place for a bit, because there’s nothing connecting you or your body to any of this. Then we sell the thing to the competition for millions.”

“But what if people find out about the medallion?”

“Really? A medallion that transforms a person into someone else just by touching a piece of clothing to it while it’s around their neck? I saw it happen, yet I STILL don’t fully believe it. And let me tie up your hair. We need to look identical to seed as much doubt as possible. Also, use the medallion to transform back to your old self before you stash that thing, okay?”

“Okay. Fine. Fine. But I hope this works...”

The Jackalope (Part 4)

View Part 1 of The Jackalope.

View Part 2 of The Jackalope.

View Part 3 of The Jackalope.

Cody woke up in the morning and put on the flannel, sweater, and yoga pants Trey had left for him. They flannel and sweater were cozy, but the yoga pants felt a little tight. They were still way better than anything Angela had brought though. When he walked into the living room, Trey was waiting, sitting on the couch.

“Thanks for lending me some clothes,” Cody said.

“I mean, they’re technically Heather’s clothes,” Trey said.

“I guess I should thank her. Where is she?”

Trey took a deep breath. “I have some bad news. I stayed up all night, long after you went to bed. Heather and Angela never came back to the cabin.”

Cody fell on his knees and began to cry. It wasn’t just the realization that he wasn’t going to get his body back; that he was likely going to be stuck as Angela for the rest of his life. But there was also a good chance something bad had happened to Heather and Angela considering the amount of snow and temperatures.

“We need to get out of here.” Cody finally said, “We need to call the police. We need to organize a search party. What if they’re...what if they’re dead?”

“We don’t know that. Heather’s got survival skills, and Angela...well, Angela is stubborrn. She won’t go down easily. They might still be all right...”

Forest Elf

A couple guys and I had gone camping in the woods for the weekend. We weren’t exactly the best at being the rugged outdoors types. We couldn’t get a fire started, and we hopped into the car to drive to the closest McDonalds for dinner instead of cooking using the small propane grill we brought. We did all agree that it was an accomplishment that we got our tents set up, however!

Needing to use the bathroom in the middle of the night was an expected inconvenience, but the full moon lit my way from the tents to deeper in the woods. What I hadn’t expected was the ground to crumble beneath my feet due to a sinkhole, exposing an underground lake. Thanks to the light of the moon, I managed not to fall in myself, but I heard a faint “Hello?” from underground.

When I went down into the hole to investigate, I discovered the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. She looked slightly more like an elf than human with her pointy ears and pale skin along with her white hair and blue eyes. Without saying another word, she dove into the underground lake, and like an idiot I dove in after her. There was some sort of weird magic in there and when we were swimming it caused us to switch bodies.

“Oh, thank goodness!” She said with my voice, “I’ve been trapped down here forever. Now I can finally leave.”

“What do you mean?” I asked with the sweet pleasant tone of her voice.

“I am, or I was, a forest elf. My skin, that you now have by the way, can’t be exposed to sunlight. I will burn up. And so I lived under the forest eating earthworms and tree roots. I could only emerge at night when most of you humans are asleep. Most of my kind were murdered by humans long along, but the mutation of sun sensitive skin kept others like me out of reach, or a least out of sight. I’m sorry for the fate of my life that I have doomed you to, but I deserve a life on the surface.”

“And I don’t?” I tried to argue as she simply climbed back up and away.

My Roommate's Unique Ability

“What the hell?” Andre shouted when entering his dorm room to see an impossibly hot woman on his dorky roommate’s computer, “Who are you?”

“Hang on, guys!” The woman said to the computer, “I just gotta take care of something real quick!” Then she turned to Andre, “Sorry, I’m sure this is a shock for you. But it’s me. It’s Tony. I stream like this because it gets more views, which brings in more advertiser dollars. This college IS expensive, you know?”

“I get it, man. I get it. It’s why I’m glad to have my athletic scholarship. But, are you, like, a crossdresser or drag queen or something? Because, damn, I mean; it’s impressive. I never would’ve...is that really you under there?”

“No. This is...it’s all real woman. Technically.”

“Oh, sh*t, are you trans? Because that’s cool. I mean, I’m cool with that. It’s cool. I didn’t know! But, yeah, it’s cool. We’re cool.”

“Not exactly that either. But, I guess maybe sorta? I can literally change my gender at will.”

“Bullshi*t.”

“For real! Let me sign off the stream, because I can’t do it too many times in a row.”

And sure enough, after Tony signed off and changed into more comfortable clothes, Andre was astounded that the beautiful woman before him morphed back into his nerdy roommate...

Shoveled

Murray was sure he remembered shoveling was a lot easier last year. Of course, that’s because he knew shoveling WAS absolutely easier last year. It was before the Great Shift, back when he had his former male body. It was much stronger than the woman he had become.

It wasn’t like he enjoyed shoveling snow off the driveway before -- No, he absolutely hated it. However, it was now even more exhausting and easily taking twice as long.

He also remembered asking his ex-wife for help, and how she always refused. He was realizing exactly why she had done so. Although he didn’t want to be one of those guys to say that men and women were only good at certain types of tasks. In fact, he was sure there would be many strong woman who would have an easier time at this than even his old male body. It was just that his current female body, for all its positive traits, wasn’t exactly strong. Flexible? Sure! Cute? Absolutely. But strong? Nope.

Maybe it was time to invest in a snowblower.

Unplugged

Everyone thought the spooky mansion on the edge of town was abandoned. In high school, Zeke and his nerdy friends would sneak in here and play D&D. Now on break from college, he was scouting it out so he could shoot some scenes for the student film he was making.

But on this visit, he found the mansion certainly wasn’t abandoned, and things inside were way weirder than he ever expected. For starters, the lights were on. Not once in high school did he ever remember the lights being on. And a particularly bright light was coming from one room.

In that room sat Josie Phelps. Zeke had gone to high school with her, and she always acted too good to ever talk to anyone like Zeke. But right now, she seemed to be in trouble. She seemed frozen as she sat in a chair with a weird thing above it that seemed to be zapping her brain and leaving her traped in place.

Perhaps this was his chance to be a real life hero. He could free her, and she would surely be appreciative. Maybe she’d even kiss him or agree to a date. At the very least, he hoped she wouldn’t be a jerk to him. And so he sought to free her by reaching up and unplugging the odd device.

But as soon as he grabbed, his hand became frozen too. Soon enough his whole body was being zapped along with Josie. And a few moments later, the electricity just stopped. And Zeke now realized he was sitting in the chair. He was wearing a pink sweater; he had on a skirt; he was in Josie’s body!

“You idiot,” He heard a familiar voice -- his own -- say, “You shouldn’t have touched anything. You screwed it all up.”

He presumed that was Josie, now in his body. And yet she still talked down to him, despite being in his nerdy body. And even thought he was now in Josie’s body, he still wasn’t brave enough to stick up for himself.

Rerun (Part 5)

View Part 1 of Rerun.
View Part 2 of Rerun.
View Part 3 of Rerun.
View Part 4 of Rerun.

“Okay, so, I thought being a guy was bad,” Jenn sighed, “But this is worse. This is definately worse. What the hell am I?”

“You’re a wise-cracking alien who crashed into the roof of a garage,” Nick explained, “Haven’t you ever seen this show.”

“Not even once. But about that plan of yours? Yeah, we’re going to do that! I don’t want anymore of whatever this is!”

“I’m sure it’s not so bad.”

The doorbell rang.

“Okay, now we’ve got to hide you. Go jump in the laundry basket or something.”

“What? Why? Those clothes are dirty!”

“It’s half the plot of the show. The alien just needs to hide whenever there are visitors!”

“Okay, fine, but I seriously hope next time that whole changing channels thing happens, we end up on a local broadcast so we can finally end this!”

Arrivals and Departures (Part 2)

View Part 1 of Arrivals and Departures.

The few people remaining in the airport turned their heads as the news reported on air crashes resulting from the Shift, which were apparently numerous. Frank suddenly became quickly thankful his flight was so late. Had he been in the air, he might not have survived. And the flight coming in? Well -- had it been any later or the Shift a moment sooner -- it could have been a tragic landing instead of a bad one.

He started to feel grateful to be alive, even if he was in the wrong body. He also knew all the codes to his penthouse apartment, so he could get in easily. But he would still need clothes soon enough. He had no idea what luggage belonged to this body -- either in the overhead bin or in checked luggage (and they were shuffling people out of the plane and airport too quickly to collect either, anyway). So he began to wonder if she lived nearby or if she was a visitor to the area. If he couldn’t get any of her clothes, would stores re-open soon?

He told himself these were all small concerns. For today, he’d just be glad to be alive.

End the Cycle

Roland awoke in a strange, unfamiliar room. The most dramatic change was the fact that he was now in a woman’s body, but it soon became the least interesting thing about the whole experience. Among the dusty equipment was a pristine notebook, which outlined that all the electronic equipment was a tool for stealing someone else’s body. Presumably, this was why he was now this woman; though he questioned why anyone would steal his body of all people! The notebook further outlined how to use the mouse and keyboard as a click and point way to cycle through cameras and select a target to swap with -- which was an option now open to him. And that would explain why the keyboard, mouse, and main screen lacked the same dust as everything else. Of course, there was another option. He could simple leave. This woman’s body would then become his, and, sure, someone would likely find this room and start the cycle all over again, but it was still a very tempting option...

Ronnie 1/2

“Anna!” Ronnie shouted, “I need your help!”

Anna squealed when she saw him. It had been months since she had seen Ronnie in his Ronald form instead of her Rhonda form. “Did you get splashed with warm water?” She asked, knowing full well his condition.

“Yes! It wasn’t even that much! A caterer got some hot tea on me! Luckily, it didn’t get on my dress! You need to get some cold water from inside to splash on me so I can transform back to being Rhonda! I can’t go, because everyone is in there! Especially Marvin! Please, you’re the only one here who even knows my secret!”

“You haven’t told him!? You’re getting married to him in an hour! I think the fact that you change genders when different tempurate water splashes on you is an important thing to share with your future spouse!”

“But I hoped to never be Ronald again! I wanted to stay as Rhonda forever! The tea was an accident. Please just help me!”

“Of course I will, but you HAVE to tell him! I guess just wait out here, and I will go inside and see what I can do!”

“Thank you.”

Sparks

There wasn’t a loud in the sky; there was no rain the forecast. When the lightning bolt pierced the sky and struck the pool, Daniel and Skye were truly surprised. As the remnant electrical bolts simmered on the surfaced, they were both happy they were not hurt. However, they were less happy to realize the fact that jolt had somehow swapped their bodies.

They both screamed in fear as they figured it out. Daniel wanted to get out immediately to try to find a way back to his own body, but Skye questioned that. If a random lightning bolt had swapped them once here; maybe another would soon do so again. Daniel argued back that lighting is well known for never striking the same place twice; Skye responded that lightning isn’t known for swapping people’s bodies either.

The fight continued for several minutes before they both calmed down. The fight was a proxy; an excuse for the horrible situation that they were now in that they had to deal with...

Cramps

Up until this point, Martin’s participation in the experiment had gone swimmingly. Swapping bodies with Lexi had been practically a non-issue for him. He had grown up with two sisters, so putting on makeup or choosing a fashionable outfit were just things he knew how to do.

But then about three weeks in on his way to work, the cramps started. Nothing could have prepared him for period pains. They were like nothing he had ever felt before. For about ten minutes, he couldn’t even move. He had known they were coming eventually, but no amount of warning could have prepared him for this. Were Lexi’s particularly bad? Or was this just something all women felt?

His hope was that he’d just get used to them. After all, he still had six more months left in this experiment!

Honey

My body felt trapped and frozen while sitting in that chair. I couldn’t move or speak, but I could see. I could see the scientist fiddling with the knobs on the machine; I could see them poke at me with various medical instruments and feeding tubes. From time to time, I would black out -- I assumed those were night and my body was simply tired.

But things changed one day when a man came in. He also fiddled with the knobs and suddenly I could move again. He hugged me in a way that was oddly intimate that made me uncomfortable before speaking in a soothing tone in a language I couldn’t understand.

“Do you speak English?” I asked.

He seemed confused, but he began speaking with a heavy accent in broken English, “Honey, did machine...hurt you?”

“Honey? I’m --” I paused as I looked down at two thing, smooth legs. I reached up to feel my face. My beard was gone and it was even smoother. Even if I had been shaven when I first got in this chair, there should be substantial stubble by now. As the realization sunk in, I continued speaking, “I’m not your ‘Honey.’ I’m not your wife or girlfriend or whoever you think I am. This machine must be some sort of body swapping machine, which means my body has to be around here somewhere. I’m not sure if you know enough to use it to get her and I back to normal?”

The man looked confused. I had probably spoken too quickly in a language he just didn’t understand too well. But I needed to explain that I wasn’t who he thought I was!

Trans Rights Are Human Rights

An interviewer asked Arthur about his dress, and if an award’s ceremony was the correct place to make a ‘political’ statement.

Arthur took a deep breath before answering, “There’s nothing political about my dress. Trans people exist. The world needs to accept that. I thought things were getting better; I thought the world was getting better. But then we regressed so much, so rapidly. And, weirdly, I thought the Great Shift would’ve made people more understanding. Somehow it’s only made people more hateful.

“Yet I wonder how much people really know about their new bodies, or even how much they knew about their old ones. I was trans before the Shift, but I never could’ve afforded the surgery to make my body match who I was on the inside. And then Great Shift swapped me into a celebrity, the body of my dreams. For me, it worked out. But for so many people it didn’t. There are more people than ever who have a body that doesn’t match who they are on the inside; who should be allowed to change that. And yet there’s a movement that wants to force people to conform to the genders they got as a result of the Shift. Trans people were marginalized before the Shift, and are still marginalized now. Trans rights are human rights. That’s not a political statement; that’s just a basic fact of humanity. It was before the Great Shift, and it still is after the fact.”

Thank You

“I d-d-don’t know wh-why you’re gi-gi-giving me all this money, Ma’am,” The homeless man stuttered as he eyed the large amount of cash.

“I think you do. You asked for change yesterday. I didn’t have much, but I dropped what I could. And then that woman not only ignore you, she kicked you as she walked by. She pretended like it was an accident. You said some more confusing words about change; I didn’t think much about it at the time. But this morning, I definitely changed. I had woken up in her body. I can only presume she woke up in mine. I can’t imagine how upset she was to be poor, unattractive, and male. I know I am happy to be rich, beautiful, and female now,” The woman, who up until yesterday had been a man named Marco, said before finally pausing.

“Nope. D-don’t know you. Don’t re-re-remember you. Don’t re-recall getting k-k-k-kicked yesterday either.” The man was starting to twitch.

“Well, thank you,” Marco put the money in the man’s hands before standing up and smiling, “Please let me know if you ever need anything else...”

The man responded only with another twitch.

Chaos

The chaos lastest for about 30 minutes. A child was playing around with what looked like a plastic toy that had the very real ability to swap people’s bodies. Ian had walked through trying to ignore the gathered crowd. He had assumed the commotion was caused some sort of movie shoot or something. Usually pushing through to get where he needed to go was the best course of action. However, in this case that got him swapped with Sasha, an Indian woman wearing faux leather pants.

He thought about trying to snatch the toy from the kid, but the first person who tried that got their body swapped with a dog. The second person who did go their body swapped with a tree. Ian wasn’t going to be the third.

The child continued to swap people slowly but surely until finally someone took aggressive action. Instead of stealth to take the toy, they used speed to tackle the child. The person who did it likely had no idea quite how strong their current body was, as the kid felt to the ground and looked hurt. While a few people rushed over to make sure that the child would be okay, Ian’s eyes were on the toy. It had fallen out of the kid’s hands and shattered into a thousand pieces on the ground. The liklihood that he (or anyone else) would be getting their own bodies back seemed slim to none. The look on Ian’s face reflected this realization.

Up-and-Coming

A few years back, Rex was seen as an up-and-coming actor after appearing in a string of unexpected successful indie films. His star was on the rise, and he finally scored a multi-million dollar deal to lead in a major motion picture from a mainstream studio. But with only a few days left of filming, the production was struck by something that affected the entire world: The Great Shift.

Despite a long delay, production did pick back up in a few months. The on location sets were relaced with a green screen studio, and Rex was given a motion capture suit. He knew what it all meant. They’d CGI his original body in with advanced AI; they’d deep fake his original voice in as well. They’d get these last few scenes in come hell or high water, and then his career was done.

After all, he was now in the body of a graying 60 year old woman. There wasn’t exactly a huge demand for that type of actor in the big budget film world. He should’ve been an action star or an Oscar winner, but now he was probably either going to be stuck as a character actor or simply go into early retirement.

Tune Up

No one ever bothered to bring the magic taxi in for a tune up. What was the point? If the check engine or low oil lights came on, that would be a problem for the next person who swapped into the driver’s body. Despite the warning lights, the thing never seemed to break down either. That didn’t mean things didn’t go wrong. While Robin was in the body of the cab driver, a red light came on that showed two people standing side-by-side. She had never seen a warning light like that in any other car. She had no idea what it meant; she didn’t even care.

As it turned out, the taxi was leaking some of its body swapping magic. As such, the distance Robin would have to drive before swapping was extended, and people on the street might randomly fall victim to a swap as the cab passed. Sometimes the distance between the two people was short; other times they were separated by miles.

Rafael was minding his own businesss in Harlem when the magic taxi passed. It’s not like he noticed it; it looked like any other cab. But as the magic taxi drove through Times Square a half hour later, he was suddenly whisked into a completely different body. He gased as could feel the shapely new form, and confused as to how he suddenly got here. And of course, now that he was in Antria’s body, she would soon find herself in a completely new body as well. A continual chain reaction outside the taxi, similar to the one that took place amongst the drivers.

Maybe someday one of them will look into getting that fixed.

Smarts

Lin and Mark were both overachievers at their college. They were always trying to outdo each other and (as such) pushed their limits to study the furthest reaches of a wide variety of fields from nuclear fusion to gene splicing to quantum physics. When a teacher showed off the latest miniature particle accelerator, both Mark and Lin stayed after class to get a closer look.

But two began to butt heads in order to get a closer look, and it soon evolved into a fight over the object. But the device soon began to whirl with an unexpected sputter and then unleashed a flash of light.

The teacher and the other students could only look at what happened in shock, with Mark and Lin seemingly merged into a single person.

“I think I have a migraine,” Lin’s voice said as the side that looked like her lifted a hand to her head.

“What happened?” This time it was Mark’s voice that spoke out of the same mouth.

Then they somehow screamed in unison as they realized they were now sharing a single body. They each controlled their respective half, but could also feel everything of the other side as though it were their own. And despite the distinction and the initial panic, they found being connected allowed them to bounce ideas off each other inside their singular head. Whereas they had once been rivals, they were now able to be a single collaborator. And as time went on, their merged nature allowed them to be even smarter and more advanced, perhaps even the smartest person on the planet. And yet with each side controlling only half the body, doing something as simple as walking proved challenging.

No Tresspassing

“So, why exactly did you decide to come running on this beach?” Warren asked the female jogger he had just swapped bodies with, “I mean, there are signs warning people not to trespass; the cliffs are fairly steep to come down; and its really out of the way.”

“It’s secluded. I liked the idea of being at peace and alone when I jog,” Stephanie replied from inside Warren’s body, “And the idea of it being somehow ‘forbidden’ seemed alluring. I never expected it was somehow magic and could swap people’s bodies! But I guess I could ask you the same question. Why were you down here?”

“I come here every morning. I know exactly about the beach’s magical properties. I just had to wait for someone who was dumb enough to come down here. Gotta admit that becoming a woman is going to be an interesting adjustment.”

“No! We’ve got to swap back! How would we do that!?”

“Well, we’d have to both be back on the beach at the same time in the morning around when the sun comes up. But that would assume I’d agree to come back.”

“But you said --”

“I said it was an interesting adjustment, but not an unwelcome one! Sure, I’ve swapped with other people before, and swapped back with them all so far. But you? Maybe I will agree to it eventually, but don’t hold your breath for that being any time soon. But you’re free to come down here every morning to try to swap with someone else...”

Too Much Fun

“I think they’re having way too much fun,” Keiko mumbled to Mika.

“It’s totally sus,” Mike agreed, “I don’t even think they’re trying to use that book to reverse this body swap. They’re both just goofing around as they look at that thing.”

“I give ‘em two days tops.”

“Yeah, I’m sure it seems like fun at first, but wait until they see how no one listens to their ideas or how creepy guys can be!”

“I wasn’t even talking about all of that. My body is just scheduled to get my period in two days.”

Blind Date

Lance felt like his blind date wasn’t going all that well. Sure, Kelly was cute, but it felt like the two had nothing in common. He wondered why his friend Scott had ever set this date up in the first place. He got the feeling Kelly didn’t think it was going well either; she offered to go get drinks to help them both loosen up. She returned with two glasses of pink fizzy liquid.

“What the heck is that?” Lance asked.

“A magical drink,” She replied, “We both down these at the same time, and we’ll switch bodies.”

Lance looked at her like she was crazy. He was into a science, and Kelly was now talking about magical drinks that could swap people’s bodies? He was pretty sure this just went from ‘nothing in common’ to ‘no way in hell.’

She could tell he was skeptical. “If you don’t believe in magic,” She replied, “Then there’s no harm in having the drink, right?”

Lance was quite confident in his belief that magic was pure bullsh*t, so he downed one of the drinks while Kelly took a few sips. Everything went black.

---

“Hey, Dude, wake up,” Lance heard his own voice say.

Lance had briefly passed out at the bar after having the weird drink, and he was shocked to find out it actually worked! He was in Kelly’s body, and that meant she must be in his! Yet as he looked at his body and it’s mannerisms, something seemed off.

“Look, I know what you’re thinking, but I’m not actually Kelly.” It was weird for Lance to watch his own body talk, “A week ago, this b*tch tricked me into drinking these things and stole my body. She wouldn’t swap back, but she gave me the formula. So I emailed you to set you up on this blind date, so I could take your body. I’m so sorry, Dude! But she’s like two days from having her period.”

“Scott?” Lance asked, “YOU stole my body!? What the hell, man!?”