Freedom

Using the body swapper to escape punishment for his crimes seemed like the perfect plan at first. But it didn’t take long for Don to regret his choices. For starters, his original body was still arrested, and all the money had stolen was taken into evidence. Most unfortunately, the body swapper was also seized by police, but he couldn’t imagine they’d ever figure out what it did or how to use it.

Then there was the issue of the body he had been swapped into. She was a housewife in suburbia. She was rich enough to be able to rely on her husband’s salary but not rich enough to have a maid or anything. He had to keep up appearances if he wanted to keep his cover -- especially with the woman locked up in his body squawking about who she really was. So he did his best to play the part of the good housewife by cooking, cleaning, and shopping.

On some days, Don thought it was worse than prison. And yet with her husband at work during the day, he still had a lot of freedom. And being able to have as many cigarettes as he wanted during the day was often motivation enough to keep up the lie and stay out of prison.

Ruined (Part 1)

Derek remembered not believing his friends when they told him about the ruins. It wasn’t just that they were a beautiful architectural artifact, but they were also literally magic. They had told him about swapping bodies with some hot chicks who were also there. Though the swapping wore off soon enough, they got him thinking about what it would be like to be a babe for a few hours. He was curious.

The hike to the ruins was well off the beaten path. It took several hours. The ruins themselves were exactly as beautiful as his friends described. But the only other person there was a short, dumpy Asian woman. There was nothing Derek could do as the magic started to take hold.

“Oh, what the hell?” He shouted from Lin’s short female body. “My friends said there were always hot chicks at this place to swap with.”

“I heard the same thing! I just wanted to be pretty!” Lin shouted from inside Derek’s body. “Instead I’m some gangly awkward dorky man. And why the hell would you want to be a woman anyway? You’re a guy!”

“Curiosity, I guess?” Derek paused before also adding, “I’m not dorky.”

Fail Safe

The semester had ended a few days ago, and Jacob had come to visit Mia. They didn’t look at each other. Mia had a hard time looking at what was technically her own face, and Jacob felt guilty, even though none of this was his fault.

“I’m still sorry about Swap Class,” He said staring at the window.

“It’s not your fault, you know?” Mia replied.

“It still feels like my fault. It was my body. I’m not even sure how Professor Chen ended up inside my body. We were paired up, and somehow the swapping machine just included her. There weren’t even an odd number of kids in class! We should’ve had them fix it right then and there.”

“I would’ve preferred to end up being stuck in your body instead of hers like I am now. At least no one’s forcing me to dress like a teacher anymore.”

“You wouldn’t have been stuck in anyone’s body. We would’ve swapped back like everyone else. It’s only because she did something stupid and fell off that cliff on the hike with my body. I did try to argue with the techs to swap us so you could at least return to your own body. But they said no.”

“It’s a fail safe. All swapping bodies need to be present to return to normal. They can’t override it. So I’m stuck as Professor Chen, and you’re stuck as me. They never did find your body though. Do you ever think she faked it to run away with your body?”

“I’ve considered it. But where would she go? What would she do?”

Smooth Like Butter

It was pure torture for Joon watching all the things Lucas was doing to her former body. She covered her eyes at he started to just eat a stick of butter. He was going to turn her body into a fat mess. Surely this wasn’t something he used to do in his own body, was it? Then she looked down at the large fingers and big belly she now had that used to belong to Lucas; maybe he did. But still, now that he was in her body, he shouldn’t do that!

But what could she really do to stop him? She was probably stronger than him with their bodies swapped, but she certainly didn’t want to risk hurting her original body. And she couldn’t watch him all the time; he’d probably just do these sorts of things when she was looking. But she still couldn’t understand why he was doing things like this? WHY!?

BBQ (Part 3)

View Part 1 of BBQ.
View Part 2 of BBQ.

Many cheers arose from the backyard, which Travis assumed meant many people were back in their original bodies. Of course, Travis knew he wasn’t so lucky, Mirah wasn’t either.

As he was still rubbing his head due to the pain of the swap, Alvin’s overweight body stumbled over. Somehow Travis just knew.

“I’m sorry, Mirah,” He said.

He could tell she was holding back the tears, “Who’s in there?”

“Travis.”

She seemed to cheer up a little. “Well, it’s better than Dennis! That was the worst! Do us both a favor and get yourself tested. It was Dennis, after all.”

He hadn’t considered all the thigns Dennis had probably done in Mirah’s body, but she was probably right. Dennis was just that type of person. And as he thought about all of this, he noticed his grandfather had approached.

“Give it back!” The elderly man said.

Travis somehow knew that this must have been Dennis. It seemed perfectly fitting, and the ultimate opportunity for revenge. He simply looked up and smiled before saying, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, GRANDPA!”

Out of Ideas

I counted up the number of captions I had written and posted so far today. There was one up for paid subscribers on DeviantArt along with a few archives on there. I didn’t forget to post one for the archive site either. And there were two for greatshiftcaptions.com, one in the morning and one scheduled for the afternoon.

But I hadn’t changed back into my male self; I was still Alicia. I needed to get to my actual job, and I absolutely couldn’t go like this. I scanned back over to make sure I had everything covered, soon realizing something happened to my scheduled post. I’d have to write something quick if I wanted to transform back in time.

Maybe I’d write something to encourage supporting me for $3 a month on DeviantArt. Or maybe I could write something about how I was cursed to transform into a woman each night until I wrote enough captions to transform back into a man. It felt too true to life at the moment, but I was all out of ideas.

I Sure Hope So

“Look, Babe, if you can handle my job, then I think I can handle stuff around the house for as long as we’re swapped. I mean, how hard is going to the grocery store and cleaning up? I got this,” Mike assured his wife Yuni.

“But maybe you should put on one my dresses or at least a blouse?” Yuni suggested, “For when you go out and someone might see you.”

“No one’s going to think anything of it. I get that a collared shirt and jeans isn’t your typical style, but it’s not usual for most women. I may be stuck in your body, but that doesn’t mean I have to be stuck in your clothes too. Oh, and you might want to stay quiet at work as your accent will definitely give away that we’re swapped. Don’t worry though. People don’t expect me to say anything; they just want to see the job done.”

“Okay,” Yuni sighed, “Do you still think the medallion just needs to recharge? And that we will be able to swap back when I get home.”

“I sure hope so, Babe. I sure hope so...”

Freaky-Friday-esque (Part 3)

View Part 1 of Freaky-Friday-esque.
View Part 2 of Freaky-Friday-esque.

Being bored in Candice’s classes, Matt’s mind drifted to Candice herself. She could cause so much trouble in their mom’s body. First, would she even safely make it to work without getting in an accident? And then how would she handle an actual job? Candice had gotten fired after two weeks working retail at the mall, and now she’s have to handle being in an office?

And then Matt thought back to his own self, now stuck in his 18-year-old sister’s body and repeating classes he took years ago. He was certain he’d ace any finals she had, but he wsn’t sure Candice deserved the good grades he’d get for her. Yet if was doomed to live her life, he’d want to set himself up for success as much as he could.

Would they all be doomed like that? Mom was certainly most upset about the whole thing, but this was going to a miserable future for him as well if he was stuck as Candice...

Willing to Bet?

My wife always complained about how no one on public transit ever stood up for pregnant women, and I tried to argue. I told her that couldn’t possibly be true, and that I stood up all the time for this very reason. She asked me how much I was willing to bet.

I had no clue what I was getting myself into.

And that’s how I ended up swapped into the eight-months-pregnant body of my wife’s friend, Maggie. The terms of the bet were simple. I’d take a bus from our home in Brooklyn to midtown. If anyone offered their seat for me, I’d get my body back and be able to tell my wife “I told you so.” If not? Well, I’d be spending the next month in Maggie’s body, and I’d be the one experiencing child birth for her.

There were simple rules, like they had to offer (I couldn’t ask). As we got past 14th Street, I was getting pretty scared that no one would stand. I started to stare people down or other use nonverbal communication. But no one was budging.

I was not looking forward to the next month.

Explain

Waking up in an unknown industrial facility was weird enough, the fact that Aaron also seemed to now have the body of a beatiful woman wearing a bikini was downright bizarre. He began to explore the place until he came across a pool with several woman swimming in it.

“Oh, hey, a newbie,” One of the women said as they noticed Aaron.

“What the hell is going on here?” Aaron asked.

“You used to be a guy, right?”

“Yeah.”

“We all did, but right now I’m the only one that actually remembers it. Of course, by the time the next woman arrives, that’ll be you. You’ll have to explain everything.”

“Explain what? I don’t know what's going on here!”

“There’s something about this place. It turns you, and then you just embrace it. You see Jackie and Maxine here? They don’t remember being Jack or Max at all. Hell, even I’m starting to enjoy being Samantha instead of Sam. Especially now that you’re here; I can finally let it go.”

“No. No! I don’t want be a woman!”

“I said the same thing when I arrived. At least, I think I did. Quite honestly, it’s all getting a little fuzzy now...”

On Fire

“Do you think you can fix it?” Melissa asked quietly from the other side of the room.

“Um...it’s on fire,” Marcus said as he looked down at the device. The thing had shown up on their doorstep in an unlabeled package. They weren’t sure who sent it or what it did when they opened it.

For a while, it just sort of sat around the house. It was only when they both touched it at the same time that it sparked to life. It made noises and lights flashed, and soon Melissa and Marcus had swapped bodies.

Unfortunately, the swapped also seemed to overload the thing and it began to spark, then it began to smoke. Marcus finally opened it up while Melissa kept a safe distance. The insides were simply burning up. Marcus didn’t think he and Melissa would be swapping back into their own bodies any time soon.

Venture Forth (Part 1)

There had been stories of heroes in the realms. Gideon had never imagined he would be one of them. As an only child, taking over his family’s farm seemed like the only option in life. It made no sense that they were targeted by the Mad Mage, but maybe that’s what made him mad -- just random killings and slaughter in his wake. It was also enough to turn a quiet man like Gideon into a fighter. His first encounters were awkward and mostly involved a hasty retreat.

Meeting Gwyn was a stroke of luck. She was a novice wizard with a grudge against the Mad Mage, but he supposed he was little better than a novice fighter himself. A partnership seemed like it could be the beginning of a decent party. And so they began travelling together.

The castle they found after a short time together looked abandoned, a reasonable place to gather a bit of lefr-behind goods or maybe a little loot. But then Gwyn spotted them.

“Goblins,” She said, “Up on the walls.”

“But goblins are, like, super easy to kill, right?” Gideon asked.

“Depends on how many there are. And where there’s one, there’s often more.”

“Damn right there is,” A voice said from behind them. It was a goblin. “Come quietly. The princess will want to see ya.”

Wearing THAT!?

“Did you seriously wear that while riding the subway on the way to work this morning?” Allen sighed.

“Yeah, so? What’s the big deal?” Sharon replied. “It’s better than what you’ve dressed my body in.”

“Well, I’m glad we both decided to show up early to work, because we’re going to have to switch clothes. The last thing I wanted to do was go through another day in a short skirt and a much too revealing top, but I can’t let my body be seen like THAT by our coworkers.”

“It’s not like I want my body to look like a slob all day either, you know? I just hope they’ll figure out a way to switch us back to our own bodies today, or at least let us tell some more people that we’re in each other’s bodies.”

“I’d personally prefer to keep it a secret.”

“Really? Why?”

“Dude, do you think Derek will ever let me live it down that I’ve been in a woman’s body for a day or two? The guy rags on everyone. He’s a total tool. I will NEVER hear the end of it.”

Species (Part 2)

View Part 1 of Species.

Jason wasn’t about to become the incubator for a batch of alien babies! He watched the aliens slow movements and devloped a plan of escape. It was a simple matter of running away at just the right time as they unstrapped him to move him from the transformation table to the mating machine. He felt like he may have been slowed down due to the alien DNA now in him, but he was still faster than the aliens.

But where was he going to run to? An escape pod? A transporter? Would he even know what those looked like?

As he dashed through the corridors, he could understand the propoganda being pumped in through sound. It was trying to play on sympathy. It explained the tragic history of the plague on the alien homeworld that wiped out viable females. The cross galaxy trek was an expedition to find compatable species to prevent extinction. Time was running out if they were to save themselves from extinction.

Jason didn’t care. After being turned into a half-alien female for mating and reproductive purposes by force, there were no amount of words that would invoke any sympathy from him...

Still Alive

After being hit by a meteor, the space station was on the brink of collapse. Most people had been able to leave in an escape pod. Lawrence had helped everyone else get out, but the final pod had gotten damaged with the station.

Still, as a resourceful man, he was determined to find a way out. As it turned out, there was just enough time to transmit his thoughts to a research vessel only a few light years away. His body would be gone, but he could easily transmit a message to implant his thoughts into a clone. After sending, he embraced the coming explosion, knowing he’d be reborn on the other ship.

Lawrence blinked his eyes as he awoke in the cloning pod on the research vessel. He could remember every moment up to the transmission. His new body felt strange with limbs feeling like the wrong length. It made sense, of course. They didn’t have his DNA to clone, so he must have a copy of a body aboard this current ship. His mind would take some time to adjust to it.

However, his new body was a much bigger change than he expected, as it turned out to be the body of a woman! As his mind was still trying to adjust to the new form, it was hard for him to even act with the appropriate level of surprise; instead, he just sort of flailed for a moment.

Another person finally walked into the cloning room. She explained that as the only researcher on this particular ship, he was now her clone. Still unable to fully control his new body yet, he simply nodded. At least he knew what he looked like now. She was pretty enough, which meant he was now pretty as well. But more importantly, he was alive.

Imagination

Lamar came into his apartment late that night. They discovered a vulnerability in one of the dependencies at work, and all the codes needed to work late to patch it as quickly as possible. He didn’t expect to see the ominous figure sitting on a chair in his living room when he turned on the light.

He certainly didn’t expect her strange appearance either. She wore all leather with a hood. When she lifted it slightly to see her face, he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to recognize her. However, the cold gray color of her skin was certainly unique. The woman seemed to sense his confusion.

“Do you not remember a thing from the Shadowfell?” The woman asked.

Lamar certainly recognized the reference, but he hadn’t played D∓D in years. Though he only knew one person who ever played as a Shadar-Kai...

“Daryl?” Lamar asked.

“I go by Nyx these days,” She responded.

“What the hell happened? How?”

“You’d be surprised by the magic that seeps into the real world through our dreams and imagination. You can join me once again if you wish.”

“I haven’t done any of that stuf in a while. And I’ve got bills to pay...and a girlfriend...and, I dunno...I’m sorry, Man. I just can’t.”

Losing It

“So, let me get this straight,” Eun Chae said addressing her older sister Eun Seo and her husband Ted, “You two swapped bodies with some sort of magic medallion two days ago...and you decided not to tell me?”

“I wanted to say something,” Ted added, “But she said we’d swap back in twelve hours.”

“We could’ve if this dumbass didn’t lose the medallion,” Eun Seo interjected.

“You didn’t tell me we needed it to swap back!”

“I don’t care.” Eun Chae said flatly, “But last night...when we were intimate...that was you, Unnie?”

“You were...intimate?” Ted asked, “No way. No f*cking way!”

“We agreed to not let her be suspicious!” Eun Seo tried to argue.

Eun Chae began to break down and cry with the realization of what happened. Ted immediately tried to comfort her, but the fact that he was doing it with Eun Seo’s body only made Eun Chae more uncomfortable. It wasn’t long before Eun Chae retreated into the bedroom with tears streaming down her face while Ted and Eun Seo continued to fight.

Pretty (Part 4)

View Part 1 of Pretty.
View Part 2 of Pretty.
View Part 3 of Pretty.

It didn’t take much longer for Jason to figure out what type of body he ended up in: He was an idol in a K-Pop act. It became a whirlwind of filming music videos, photoshoots, meet-and-greets, concerts, and so on. It was really non-stop. Jason’s one saving grace seemed to be that he wasn’t stumbling with the dance moves or screwing up the lyrics -- somehow he knew both.

His Korean was still terrible. His role was generally singing the English parts, but it often made communication with the other members difficult. He often felt alone.

He’d force a smile on stage, but it was hard. He hated this life. He hated prancing around on stage and wearing the skimpy outfits. He hated feeling like he always wanted out. Maybe that’s why this woman took his life. Maybe a body swap was the only way to escape, and she just picked his life out of some random, dumb luck...

In This Moment

Hao was doing his best to look his former body in the eye, but his gaze kept drifting down to the medallion. Of course Ling was keeping it close. She was trying to make all sorts of demands of him in order to get his body back.

But if he was quick, he could yank it right off her neck. In fact, even just touching or brushing up against it in the attempt should be enough to trigger the swap back to normal.

However, he knew he was still adjusting to being in Ling’s body. Would he be fast enough? Would he misjudge the length of his own arms? Maybe he should accept whatever sort of deal she was offering. But that too came with risks. Once she got what she want, she still might not swap them back. He knew he had to make a decision quickly as this opening wouldn’t last for much longer...

Reception

I had married Julia a little under an hour ago before complete chaos erupted during the reception. Everyone was in a state of panic when we all found ourselves in completely different bodies.

I ended up in the body of Julia’s sister, Nicole. Julia had wanted to kick her out when she showed up a dress she felt wasn’t appropriate for a wedding. I had to remind Julia that she was talking about her own sister. In hindsight, I wish I had let Julia kick Nikki out, then maybe I wouldn’t be stuck in her body right now.

As bad as I felt my situation was, Julia had it even worse. She was trapped in her dad’s body, which meant she was now thirty years older, male, and her own father.

And as bad as individual situations were, relations were even worse. For instance, even Julia and I, we were technically husband and wife now, but our bodies were biologically father and daughter. There was something so wrong about it all. I certainly knew we would never be intimate again; it was too gross to even think about.

Doors (Part 3)

View Part 1 of Doors.
View Part 2 of Doors.

Love.

After the countless hours that had spent in Sheyu’s body, the feeling of love was unfamiliar but welcome for Fred. In this room, there was someone who loved him. She hugged him tightly, and he hugged her back with his tentacles. He didn’t realize he had lost his humanity; he was too overwhelmed by the feelings of love.

In between hugs and games, Fred spent his time swimming in tanks. And yet, the curiosity of the door beckoned for him. When his love was asleep one day, he escaped from his tank. He attempted to turn the handle, but it wouldn’t budge. Yet it also filled him with the knowledge of how to leave if he wanted to. As the details filled his head, he wanted to cry -- and he probably would have if he was physically capable of doing so.

It was several days before he could bring himself to do it. As he love pulled him from the tank, she hugged him as usual. And as usual he hugged her back. But this time, he never let go. He kept hugging his love tighter and tighter. She began to turn blue. She didn’t fight it; she just kept showing love by hugging. And Fred kept hugging harder until she finally stopped breathing.

One she stopped breathing, Fred slid his tentacles into her nose, slowing approaching her brain. His love was no more, and he was taking over. Once he had control of her body, he was finally able to cry. It was hard to see through the tears as he made his way back to open the door and re-enter the hallway. He wiped his tears, but they kept coming; but he had given himself another chance to pick a door.

Gimcrack (Part 1)

Pheobe had dragged her friend Sandy into the abandoned mansion on the side of town. She said it would be the perfect place to snap a few pictures for her Instagram and needed Sandy’s help to take the pics.

It started out normal enough until Pheobe was surroounded by a strange haze. Of course, Sandy didn’t have much time to react, as a haze began to swirl around her as well.

“What’s the odd gimcrack?” Sandy’s voice asked as the spirit possessing her looked at the phone in her hand, “It’s like a mirror that reflects what it’s seeing.”

“Speaking of odd,” Pheobe’s voice moaned with a different spirit possessing her as well, “It’s been so long since we’ve been humans. It feels so odd.”

“That’s ‘cause you look to be a bit of a trollop.” Hester laughed from inside of Sandy’s body.

“Oh, damn,” Elias muttered realizing he was now inside of Phoebe.

A Mixup at the Hospital

“You did what?” Gabriel asked after waking up in the hospital and hearing about the mixup. “I came in here for a heart transplant, and you gave me a brain transplant instead?”

“Our deepest apologies,” The lead surgeon told him, “Though technically, the surgery is better described as a full body transplant. If it makes you feel any better, the heart inside that new chest of yours is perfectly healthy.”

“It doesn’t! It’s a woman’s chest! You swapped me into the body of a woman! How did this even happen?”

“Please understand that we see a lot of patients. You looked remarkably like the man who was slated to have his brain transplanted into this woman’s body.”

“Well, if you can swap my brain into this body, then you can swap it out again, right?”

“I’m afraid not. Your original body in particular is much too fragile right now. After all, the woman who swapped into your body still needed a heart transplant once she was in there. She’s also not eager to swap back either. She underwent the procedure because she always wanted to be a man. We can’t exactly force her back.”

“But that’s MY body! I want it back!”

Pop (Part 2)

View Part 1 of Pop.

Doug and Su Ji tried numerous times to use the machine to swap back on their own to no avail. Unless they could find the crazy mad scientist to swap their bodies back, they were stuck.

Doug continued to perform as Su Ji, modifying the concert format to fit with the fact that he knew the songs but couldn’t master the choreography, turning the concers into a more free-form dance party. Meanwhile, Su Ji would spend the days in Doug’s body trying to track down the mad scientist who swapped their bodies.

It wasn’t long before their attitudes about the swap had shifted. It was Doug who was no longer worried about being swapped, enjoying every minute of performing live. Meanwhile, Su Ji was just bored every day. Researching something that seemed to be nothing but dead-ends was just made for a tiring grind day after day.

Midnight

“She...she told me to leave the castle before midnight,” The young maiden stuttered after swapping into the body of the prince. “I thought I my elegant dress would revert to rags or my carriage would turn back into a pumpkin. I didn’t expect...this!”

“Who? Who told you?” The prince asked feeling very vulnerable inside the body of the maiden.

“My fairy godmother.”

“Your WHAT!? You literally trusted what was essentially a witch to transform you into...what? Exactly? A rich girl? A princess? And you didn’t expect there to be some sort of trick?”

“Well, it’s not all bad. She did foresee I would become royalty. I thought she meant you and I would get married. But I certainly don’t mind the status upgrade. And you may be in my body now, but it doesn’t seem to have reverted to my life of poverty.”

“But I’m still in your body! I’m still stuck as a woman! I’ve lost my royal heritage! That’s just not acceptable! And there’s a witch who’s probably looking for you right now coming to collect. Magic is never offered for free; there’s always an expectation!”

The Worst Parts

“What the hell did you do to me, Nanay!?” Aiden complained, realizing he was using the affectionate name for his mother-in-law that his wife Tala typically used.

“I never liked you. You weren’t good enough for my Tala,” His mother-in-law explained, “And then you get her pregnant before marrying her?”

“But we love each other! We didn’t need a ring or a ceremony to prove that!”

“Nonsense! I know your type. Well, rest assured, the curse will ensure you be the one to endure the worst parts of this pregnancy. How did you enjoy the morning sickness?”

Aiden didn’t want to describe how awful it was. “I’m going to tell Tala,” He said instead.

“You can try, but while she is in your body, she will think she is you. It would be like telling yourself. And just try to convince her you are anything but crazy in the times you’re in your own body; you’d have no evidence!”

“I don’t want to do this!”

“Oh, but it only gets worse. Just wait until you’re pushing that little bundle out of you...”

Invasion

Will found the device after a meteor crashed in his backyard. He reasoned that a meteor of that size should have caused much more damage, which could only mean it was a controlled landing. And so he explored to find the device.

Using the device proved surprisingly intuitive, but it was what the device did that was an absolute shock. It changed him. At first he had control over how his body changed, but as he used it more and more, the device had plans of its own.

It made him female. It made him more...alien. He could sense he was some sort of hybrid, and the device was planting more thoughts in his head. He had a mission: to reproduce. He retained enough humanity to mate with his felling beings on Earth, but he was also alien enough to pass on the DNA from the cosmos. His offspring would be far better than the average; in a few generations they would take over. This was the invasion. Not little green men running around, but a slower, far more subtle one. And it was in preparation for what was to come.

Man Hands (Part 2)

View Part 1 of Man Hands.

Of course, while all of that was going on with Evelyn, there was an equal and opposite reaction on the other side of town. Jose noticed the changes to his body far sooner than Evelyn did. His job involved a lot of heavy lifting, and it was becoming increasingly more difficult for him to do.

The pink nailpolish on his finger nails was also a dead giveaway that something was obviously wrong. His body was clearly becoming more feminine, starting from the tips of his fingers and toes before moving up his arms and legs.

He certainly considered the possibility that he wasn’t transforming into a woman -- that he was slowly but surely switching with someone else. But he had no way to know who Evelyn was, or if she existed, or that she was the one having nearly identical problems in reverse. And even if he did, it’s not like there was any way to turn back to normal.

Upgrade

Peter had spent the last several hours stuck as a woman thanks to this weird remote that his girlfriend Natalie had found. It was supposed to be a punishment because she thought he had cheated on her. He was angry about the untrue accusations and what she had done to him.

And when he finally managed to wrestle the remote away from her, his first thought wasn’t to change himself back to normal; he decided to turn Natalie into a man!

“How is this revenge?” Natalie asked, “I’ll get paid more for the work I do. People will actually listen to me. It’s an upgrade as far as I’m concerned...”

On the Outside

Alex banged on the door to his apartment. He had been inside just moments ago before the flash of light seemed to teleport him just outside into the pouring rain -- and into someone else’s body. He wasn’t even all that concerned about the fact that he was in the wrong body yet; it was hard to even focus on that in the torrential downpour. He just wanted back inside.

He buzzed at first, but there was no answer. If he swapped into this body, someone had to have swapped into his, right? And so he started pounding and screaming. He wasn’t sure it could even be heard over the sound of the rain. He buzzed again. There was still no response.

Maybe this body didn’t live far away. Maybe he could find where she lived. But t was an absolute mess out here, and hard to navigate, especially to an unfamiliar address. Why wouldn’t his body just open the door?

Wingman (Part 2)

View Part 1 of Wingman.

It didn’t take long for Evan and I to adapt to our new bodies, despite the women we swapped with having zero interest in helping us cope with being female. We still had friends we could ask, or the internet; and Evan and I leaned on each other as well. Having soft skin and gorgeous bodies was worth coping with cramps and periods, but having each other was like a dream come true.

We stopped going out on Friday nights. We no longer needed to. Both Evan and I had our perfect match right in front of us now. Maybe in some way we were always destined to be together, but when we were both male, there was no way it going to work. However, neither he nor I had any objection rocking a lesbian relationship.

After a year or so, we made it official and got married. And while you’d think the Great Shift would’ve made people more tolerant, it caused others to double down. We certainly received our share of hate; we just didn’t care. Evan and I loved each other, and we were going to be together forever.

Monkey Business (Part 2)

View Part 1 of Monkey Business.

I wasn’t quite sure what hit me. What I soon realized though was that I was the one now inside Minh’s body while my body was the one grunting and acting crazy. A few other people were murmuring about swapped bodies and animal rights activists; however, it was impossible to explain any of this to zoo staff. They came and put Minh (who was still inside the body of a monkey) into a cage.

No one ever came forward to claim responsibility for any of it. I was stuck in Minh’s body with no way to prove I was anyone else. My own body was put in a mental hospital. But I think Minh probably had it the toughest. She was stuck in the body of that monkey, being forced to live at the zoo. I came to visit her often. It was hard for me, but I’m sure it was worse for her. We’ve both committed to learning sign language so we could communicate, but it’s early yet...

Bumped

Noah had been minding his own business walking down the street when a woman passing by bumped right into him. He stumbled for a moment before trying to continue on his way. But the stumbling didn’t stop. He felt awkward on his feet and his whole body felt off.

A moment later, he looked down at his hands to see darker skin with painted nails. Those certainly weren’t his hands. He then looked down at his feet -- considering the heels, it made sense he was having trouble walking. Somehow he had swapped bodies with the woman he had bumped into. There was certainly no way he could run after her wearing these things on his feet.

He tried propping himself up on a wall for better balance and to examine the footwear. And as difficult as it was to walk in these shoes, it was equally confounding how to get them off. Was there some sort of buckle? Or latch? Could these string like things on them be untied? The only thing he was sure of at this point was that women’s shoes can be very confusing...

The Truth (Part 3)

View Part 1 of The Truth.
View Part 2 of The Truth.

At it turned out, Mrs. Wong wasn’t exactly eager to swap back into her own body. When Erika brought out the medallion, she told Kyle to take it from her, triggering a swap between them -- this put Erika into Mrs. Wong’s body while Kyle was now in Erika’s body. In the resulting panic, the medallion was dropped to the floor, which Mrs. Wong quickly snatched up and ran away with.

---

A few months later, Erika and Kyle had moved in together and were developing plans to find Mrs. Wong.

“It took me years to track her down last time,” Kyle explained, “But now I know her tricks.”

“She’ll probably change them.” Erika tried to reason.

“There’s only so much you can do to hide your tracks. Plus, there’s two of us this time. It’ll at least be twice as fast.”

“I hope so! I hate being menopausal.”

“I preferred it to periods...”

Perceived (Part 2)

View Part 1 of Perceived.

“Well, that explains a lot,” Grace said as she folded her arms after listening to hear about Adam’s day.

She continued, “No one was quite so explicit with me. I could tell people were staring at me in the store, but I just tried to ignore it. However, it does explain what Penelope said to me.”

“What did she say?” Adam asked.

“She was just like, ‘You’re wearing THAT!?’ But she always is like that.”

“I’m surprised more people didn’t lecture you about being a man in a dress.”

“Well, you know how people are around here. They try to be tolerant and everything.”

“I wish my workplace was more like that.”

“I’m sorry. Hopefully we’ll switch back to normal soon.”

“And if we don’t?”

The Purse (Part 2)

View Part 1 of The Purse.

Her driver’s license was at the very bottom of the purse. He almost missed it. She seemed so disorganized, and that wasn’t Peter’s style at all -- he had even neatly arranged the items he took out of her bag.

He looked for her age first; he actually had to find her birthday and do the math. She was 37; it was 12 years older than he was. It was tough to accept that, but it also realized he didn’t exactly have a choice in the matter. The “F” marked under gender was obvious. And then the name...

Karen.

For real? Karen? Somehow this was worse than finding out he was 37. He had become a literal Karen. He did his best to shrug it off before moving onto the address. Then he looked at the keys from the purse. Her car was almost certainly in the coffee shop’s parking lot. Perhaps he could find more answers about Karen at her home.

Inked

“What kind of tattoo are you getting today?” Seth asked the woman who had come into his shop.

“I don’t know,” The woman replied, “Just give me one. Anything. I don’t really want one.”

“Uh...well, I mean, people who come into tattoo parlors generally do so because they WANT tattoos. Besides, you already have some really nice ones there.”

“They aren’t mine.”

Seth could only respond by looking at the woman in complete confusion.

“This whole body isn’t mine,” The woman continued, “It belongs to my friend, Carla. They’re hers. I’m actually a pretty clean cut guy, but her body has what’s like this almost weird compulsion to get more. I guess I got it along with her body when we swapped. I’ve already gotten two, and they hurt SO MUCH. I can’t believe I want to keep getting more.”

Seth didn’t usually turn people down, but as this woman sat down in his chair and explained her story, he was sure she was just crazy, and he couldn’t ink her up in good conscience. Swapping bodies? Come on, no sane person believes that can happen in real life...

なにこれ?

“なにこれ?” Steven said as he tried to make sense of what was happening. But even the words coming out of mouth made him concerned. He was speaking in a language he didn’t understand with seemingly fluency. He was in a strange city and in a strange body -- a woman’s body.

And if all that wasn’t bad enough, the breeze kept blowing his dress up, and he kept having to hold it down. He thought the dress looked silly and juvenile, but he checked the ID in her purse. She was 32. Was she trying to look young? Or did she just have a kawaii style? Either way, he was the one dealing with it, and he felt like an idiot!

Didn’t he?

In much the way his mind had adapted to the language, his mind was slowly starting to change on everything. The dress wans’t so bad, was it? It was actually kind of cute. Kind of? No. It was exactly his style. Correction: HER style!

Meet Up

After the Great Shift, I was in much better shape than most. I was among those that hadn’t shifted into a different body, though my life was thrown into chaos for other reasons. (I did break up with my girlfriend, who ended up in the body of a 50 year old man.) But I thought it would still be helpful to help any of my friends who could use my support in this absolutely weird time.

After a few back and forth with some emails, we had all agreed to meet up at a cafe to talk. I was the second to arrive. A woman at one of the tables was waving at me; she must’ve been one of my friends. (It was also at this moment I realized I was going to the only person everyone recognized.)

At first, I thought this must’ve been Maggie. She was always wild and outgoing, but she never wore such eccentric clothes. I was shocked when she revealed herself as Jason.

Jason had always been so quiet and shy, completely unassuming. But in his new body, he was certainly wearing an outfit that screamed “pay attention to me,” and he seemed more comfortable conversing than I could ever remember. He explained that he had never felt comfortable in his own skin until the Great Shift placed him into the body of a woman. Suddenly, it all made sense for him. He didn’t feel like had to be so reserved anymore. He didn’t feel the constant need to hide, and he had loved exploring wild and fun fashion! It made me wonder how my other friends were adapting; I guess I would soon find out!

Not Wrong

‘Oh, she’s angry,’ Larry thought as he took a selfie of himself and noticed his former body in the background shaking a fist while wheezing and coughing. On the one hand, he was impressed. After stealing this young woman’s body, he had run around the block, and she had still managed to follow. His former body wasn’t in great shape, and he would’ve expected it to pass out from a heart attack or something. On the other hand, she was probably going to be an annoying pest, yelling about how he had stolen her body.

She wasn’t wrong, but what could she really do about it? She had no idea how he did it. There was no way for her to undo it. Anyone listening would think she was just a crazy old man harassing a poor, helpless young woman. It really wouldn’t matter in the long run, but it just would’ve been easier if she had accepted that her body was his. Now he had to do this the hard way and find a cop.

Physical Files

Despite the advanced technology developed by the company, almost all of the records were kept on physical files. There were rumors this was due to protect trade secrets, but it also provided Warren with an opportunity. On the fifth floor in the second storage room on the third shelf down, the records for the recent body swapping tests were kept.

As he sifted through the records, he thought about simply destroying the record that showed he swapped with Penny Haskins. However, enough people would likely remember and still force him to swap back. However, if he mixed up a whole bunch of records, resulting in people swapping back into the wrong bodies, it could create mass confusion. Further, he might be able to switch himself into a body even better than Penny’s.

He had loved being in her body -- being a woman -- for the entire duration of the test, and he was going to go to extreme lengths to be sure he could STAY in a woman’s body!

Circus

I have heard stories from other people who were in crowds during the Great Shift; how things devolved into loud arguing or an outright riot. The crowd at the circus was eerily quiet. They were all staring at me now, and I was staring right back.

I didn’t know what was more surreal in that moment: seeing my former body in the front row with his jaw dropped in shock or know that somehow I could look up and actually see the butt of my new body. I had swapped with one of the performers, a contortionist. Her body was able to move in ways it probably shouldn’t be possible for a human to be able to move in. And I swapped with her mid-performance. I was honestly afraid to move, thinking it might be easy to hurt myself if I moved it this body the wrong way.

It took a while for me to realize that was my old mindset, thinking about the ways my former male body moved -- or how it didn’t. My new body’s flexibility seemed to have no limits, and once I calmed down, it was quite easy to get back into a normal standing position -- or, for that matter, to twist myself back up again.

Junk

Frank was hired to clean up this old place. There were rumors it had belonged to some eccentric old inventor who had died. His next of kin didn’t know what to do with the place -- hence the hiring of Frank.

Most of the house hadn’t been that bad; he just tossed it all into a dumpster outside. But the basement was a whole other mess. He wasn’t sure how the equipment on the work table even powered on, as it seemed to be unplugged, but the sparks soon came flying at him.

He seemed unharmed at first, but he also felt strange and weak. He could only watch as the sparks slowly receded back into the device on the work table. And as he began to continue the clean up job, the effects of the device slowly occurred to him; he had been transformed into a woman -- and one that was rather scrawny and diminutive at that! He was pretty sure he wasn’t going to be able to haul the rest of this stuff out with a body like this, but he also thought it might be the basis of some sort of lawsuit against the estate.

Species (Part 1)

Jason was screaming. It wasn’t the transformation that hurt, it was just an overwhelming situation. He had woken up on an alient spaceship as he was being injected with a green substance. Changing into a woman was painless, but suddenly being able to understand the alien creatures was something else.

“Is this species compatable for mating?” He heard one of the aliens ask.

“Inconclusive. Though we should attempt.” Another said, “Though even mixed with our DNA, this one is quite ugly.”

“Ugly?” Jason shouted, “And what about consent!? You can’t just MATE with me!?”

The first alien seemed to perk up. “This species shows rudimentary intellect. That is quite promising for viable offspring.”

When the Mission Is Done

“What the hell are you doing here?” Agent X whispered as she pulled Diego aside.

“I want my body back. You said I’d have it back within a week. It’s been almost a month,” Diego whispered back.

“You’ll get your body back when the mission is done. And showing up here in my body may compromise the whole thing.”

“But I want it back NOW.”

“You won’t get anything back if we are both dead. Get back to the safehouse immediately and send me the code over the secure channel. Do it quick. If anyone catches wind that my body is close by, I promise you that they won’t let it stay alive for long. You’ll be lucky if they haven’t caught on already.”

“Fine, but you better wrap this up soon, so we can switch back ASAP.”

Freaky-Friday-esque (Part 2)

View Part 1 of Freaky-Friday-esque.

“I don’t think you thought this through,” Matt said about halfway through driving to Candice’s school.

Candice shrugged, “Mom’s office has a lax dress code. It’ll be fine.”

“No, I mean driving. I can’t drop you off first because your body only has a learner’s permit. But how are you going to get to the office once I get to school?”

“Mom’s office isn’t THAT far from the school. I’ll be fine. When I drive in her body, no one will know I don’t have an actual license, right?”

“You’re still a terrible driver.”

“Whatever. I drove to the mall to get these clothes without any issue.”

“What? The mall is like thirty minutes away in a busy part of town.”

“Maybe I’m just better at driving now that I’m in Mom’s body.”

“I just hope we swap back to our own bodies soon. I don’t want to in your body for any longer than I have to. No offense.”

“None taken. It’s fine. I understand.”

Promises

“Do you REALLY want to swap back into your own body?” Theodore asked with a sly smirk while wrapping his arms around Calvin, “Don’t you think your a better version of Susan could ever be?”

“It’s not about what I want or what I think,” Calvin responded, “It’s about what we promised. And we promised to give Susan and Kimmy back their bodies tonight.”

“And we don’t have to break our promise...not exactly anyway. But there was a million ways things could go wrong. The medallion could stop working or it could go missing...”

“I don’t want to lie to them.”

“And you won’t. Don’t worry about anything. In fact, forget I said anything...”

Pretty (Part 3)

View Part 1 of Pretty.
View Part 2 of Pretty.

Jason regretted opening the door almost immediately. A man just came in yelling. Most of it seemed to be in a language he didn’t understand. However, the man seemed to note Jason’s confusion and switched to English.

“You think you can zone me out when I speak Korean?” The man shouted, “I get that you’re our little English-speaking princess, but you know the language as well as the other girls. You also know that your ass needs to be ready to get out that door by 7am! You don’t even have your makeup on! We’ll just put a bag over your head until the shoot, I guess! Come on, everyone is waiting!”

Jason was genuinely terrified by this man, but he didn’t feel confident to object. Plus, he had no other leads to find out who he was now...

Brain Scan

“What is that?” Jenny asked Dr. Gomez as he placed an image of a brain scan up on a monitor.

“That’s a scan of your brain from last week before the Great Shift,” He paused before pressing a button to advance a slide, “And this a scan of my brain just now in your body.”

“Those are the same slide! I don’t see a difference!”

“And that’s the problem. They ARE exactly the same. In any sort of scientific sense, there is no reason I should think of myself as Dr. Ricardo Gomez. I not only have Jenny Harper’s body -- your body -- but I also technically still have her mind.”

“I’m pretty sure I’m Jenny Harper though.”

“But there’s no biological proof that any of us have swapped bodies at all. That’s perhaps the most fascinating thing about this so far. So, psychologists or anthropologists and many other fields can see an observable difference, neuroscientists and biologists are having a much more difficult time. We have theories of trying to switch people’s brains back, but it’s difficult to pinpoint what would happen. Many of us are concerned it would trigger a reversion to the brain’s norm with ultimately enough damage to prevent another swap. The solution might worse than what we’re all experiencing right now.”

Freaky-Friday-esque (Part 1)

“Are you really going out wearing that? Mom’s gonna be pissed if she finds out.” Matt told his sister Candice.

“Mom’s too busy crying her eyes out, because she got stuck with Dad’s body. Besides, it’s not like I’m forcing you to dress my body in any particular way.” Candice retorted.

Matt didn’t really want to press the issue. He was still groaning about this whole Freaky Friday-esque weirdness his family was experiencing. His sister was in his mom’s body. He was in his sister’s body. His mom was in their dad’s body. And their dad was back off at Matt’s college in his body. He often thought about how his dad was the only one sorta fine with this whole thing.

“That’s fair,” Matt finally replied to his sister, “But where’d you even get those clothes anyway. There’s no way Mom’s body could fit into anything in your closet.”

“Mom’s body means Mom’s credit card.”

“Oh, I take it back. Mom’s not gonna be pissed. She’s just gonna kill you.”

“Whatever. Just get in the car.” Candice said as she walked over to the passenger side.

“You expect me to drive? Your body technically doesn’t have a license. I still can’t believe you’ve been putting it off for what? Two years now?”

“It’ll be fine. I have a learner’s permit. That means I’m allowed as long as there’s a licensed driver next to me, which mom technically is.”