Rumors

The rumors started literally days after the Great Shift; about how the government had some secret body swapping invention that they’d use to get everyone back to normal. The rumors slowly started to leak to more confirmed reports, though getting on the waitlist was nearly impossible.

My roommate hadn’t really paid much attention to the rumors. He really didn’t care; he had absolutely no desire to swap back to his original body. Anytime I watched him for any extended period, I could see why.

Yeah, sure he was a skinny, beautiful woman now -- which in itself probably didn’t hurt his motivations -- but it was his body’s ability to move in ways that didn’t even seem human that probably sealed his mind. We both assumed the body he got into was triple joined or some sort of contortionist. Even watching him stretch in the morning was fascinating; I imagine it was even more interesting for him.

Angel

Dr. Harry Phelps looked into her vacant eyes. He was set to retire tomorrow and had spent his last years in the lab creating her, despite the unethical implications of it. He knew he shouldn’t have done it, but losing his 22-year-old daughter Angel ten years ago had been hard. This brought her back, in a way...but he was regretting it.

In part was because this was just a clone of her body at the age she left this world. But there was no way to re-create her mind. And just as thought about ending it, her body twitched.“Please don’t,” She said.

Harry was taken aback as she said in shock, “How was this possible?”

The woman didn’t want to answer honestly. She was a collection of every member Harry had of his daughter from his perspective. She thought of herself as Harry for all intents and purposes, but she couldn’t tell him that, but she had no desire to be undone from existance either. So she simply smiled and said, “I’m Angel.”

Supermodel

Of all the bodies I could’ve ended up with after a month stuck as the driver of the magic taxi, I don’t think I ever would’ve expected “supermodel” to be the one. And yet here I was. A former chubby guy now forever inside the body of a tall, shinny Chinese fashion model.

I was honestly worried about it at first. I knew my love of food and my lack of self-control. I knew models had to watch their figured. I was more than relieved that Ai was the type of woman who could basically eat anything she wanted without gaining a pound! Grabbing a slice of pizza as I walked to a photoshoot felt absolutely heavenly, and my new life was like a dream come true!

Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis

100% Luke

As I reached for one of the brains on the shelf, the words of the scientist rang through my head. It wasn’t as simple as the fact that I thought of myself as Luke in Moon’s body. There were technically elements of both Luke and Moon inside of me. Where one of us stopped and the other one started wasn’t so clear cut.

But Luke’s brain sitting on the shelf -- my brain -- what did it think? Was it still 100% me? 100% Luke? If I could place it in another body or hook it up to a computer, could I talk to myself? But then again, it was the scientist who understood all this brain swapping stuff, and he was dead; he had a heart attack shortly after explaining how he transferred all of my thoughts into Moon’s head.

I had many more questions than answers, and as I looked around, it just made me more curious. But I had no idea what to do with any of this stuff.