Manic Pixie Dream Alien

Flight

The fact that everyone on the plane was still alive was a miracle. It was purely by chance that the pilots were unswapped by the Shift -- unlike everyone else on the plane.

Neil has sudden found himself in the body of one of the overworked flight attendants, teetering on tight heels that were already on exhausted feet. Despite the initial demands of everyone on board, it wasn’t hard for him to explain he wasn’t actually who he appeared to be. After all, everyone else was in the wrong body as well.

He finally got to sit back in his seat, an everyone was surprisingly calm. Everyone was silent as they sat there in the wrong bodies, and Neil felt as wrong as anyone. And once they landed, they soon realized the people on the plane weren’t the only ones affected by a massive swap....

Allergy

I used to be allergic to flowers. Grass, too. And trees. Being outside was often just a nightmare for me. It wasn’t really a problem for me anymore; not since the incident that merged me and my girlfriend into a single person.

We weren’t the only ones affected. It happened to a lot of people in a lot of different ways. The exact nature of the split varied from each swapped pair. As far as other people were concerned, it was like I stopped existing. Except for my bad eyes needed glasses, the body was entirely hers. They didn’t look and see me; they only saw her.

From my perspective, it was an entirely different story. She was gone. Mostly. And I missed her dearly. I had always hoped she was just hiding away somewhere in my brain and that she would re-emerge to take control. It never happened. The only hints of her that remained were strange affinities, like my newfound love of flowers. I had avoided them for obvious reasons previously, but no longer...

Immersive Experience

Wayne had booked travel for an “immersive experience” in a Latin American country, and he was really looking forward to it. The plane arrived a little early, but he was allowed to check-in. However, it all seemed like just an ordinary hotel room in a rather unremarkable resort. He told himself he’d spend the night and then demand a refund the next morning, so he could get an AirBnB for a more authentic experience.

However, he didn’t wake up in the hotel; he didn’t even wake up in his own body -- the most obvious aspect of which was that he was now female. She didn’t seem to have a phone, and he had no idea how far away the resort was. He did find a note, which simply said: “Have fun spending the next two inside the body of a local! Enjoy your immersive experience!”

Just Keep Working

Curt thought that swapping bodies with his wife was probably one of the better results of the Great Shift. Sure, not swapping at all would have been the best, but at least swapping with a spouse meant most of the details about your life were pretty much the same, and any challenges you were going to face would easily be answered by someone you were close to.

Though his wife Li did have some complaints. She told him that he was ruining all of her outfits at his job. Curt explained that he had to wear something! And he was lucky to be working! Construction jobs had dried up a lot in the immediate aftermath yet he kept going with work as though nothing had happened. His boss didn’t care that he was in Li’s body, and it kept putting food on the table.

He also tried to explain that she wouldn’t be wearing any of these things anymore. When she said that wasn’t the point, he promised to replace anything he ruined once things got back to normal.