S41FT - "Paper Constellations"

Noodles

Watching the news reports about the Great Shift calmed me down. They didn’t exactly make me feel better about suddenly becoming a woman, but at least it was an explanation. I probably watched for six or seven hours before I got hungry and went to the fridge.

It was empty. Well, mostly. There were a few left over noodles and some sugar packets, but otherwise it was completely empty! The cabinets were only marginally better with some crackers and an unopened ketchup bottle. I pondered for a while how anyone could live like this with almost no food in the house.

I also realized probably nothing would be open and no one would be delivering on account of the Shift. I’d have to do my best. I ate the small number of noodles first; I was still hungry afterwards, but I told myself it was enough. The next morning would be a feast of ketchup on crackers, hoping that would be enough for at least a single store or restaurant to open the next day.

Spreadsheets and Documents

It wasn’t being stuck in Serena’s body that Dave took issue with. In fact, he found being stuck in the body of a woman to be quite pleasant. The skirts that hugged his body, the sweet perfume he applied in the morning -- it all just felt so wonderful.

But then there was her job. He didn’t understand any of it. The spreadsheets, the paperwork -- it was all so confusing. For the first few days, he just let it pile up on her desk. After all, he didn’t expect to be swapped with her for very long; she could just take care of it all when they switched back.

But then days grew into weeks. While Dave was having a blast on nights and weekends, he was worried he’d be fired if he couldn’t figure out Serena’s 9-5. And if he couldn’t do that, he wouldn’t get paid, and those nights and weekends would become far less fun. But no matter how much he tried, none of the documents made sense to him.

Another Spell

Ryan flipped through the pages of the old book. It wasn’t looking promising. Eveything in here talked about how magic spells were permanent. If so, that meant he’d be stuck swapped into Julia’s body forever.

But then again, this thing was older than dirt! Maybe there was a newer edition where the magic has been updated! It seemed like a long shot, but there were still so many books to go through, he had to keep his hopes up. After all, he didn’t want to be stuck as Julia!

And yet page after page revealed few results. Then he finally came across a spell, it wouldn’t reverse the swap, but it might still resolve his issues. It was a short spell that allowed the user to be comfortable in their own skin. It seemed innocent enough, but then again, messing with magic is what got him stuck in this body in the first place.

Synthetic Brain

“I don’t think I understand,” Jeff said looking at the jar, “If that’s my brain in there, then whose brain is inside this woman’s head? Controlling her body?”

The mad scientist was getting tired of explaining this. He had done so several times now. But he sighed as he tried again, “There is no brain inside that woman’s head right now.”

“Then how am I thinking? And moving her fingers and muscles?”

“It’s a synthetic substitute brain of my own design. It does link nicely with organic parts. The greatest revolution in transplants since the artificial heart.”

“But how did I end up in this body?”

“As I said, there is really no part of ‘Jeff’ in that body. The only part of ‘Jeff’ is that brain on the table.”

“Okay, then why are my thoughts in this body?”

“A better question! And a bit of a mixup I’m afraid. Everything that made Jeff who he was ended up in that body’s synethetic brain. Even though, as I said, no part of you is Jeff at all.”