Vampire

Ken had known Bill for a number of years now. He thought they were friends. Bill was just biding his time. It was a typical night of drinking, and Ken had a bit too much. With the bathrooms crowded, Bill saw and opportunity when Ken said he was going to go outside to pee in the alleyway.

Bill joined him, and Ken never expected what happened next. Was Bill kissing his neck? Why did it hurt? Why did he feel so weak?

Ken didn’t even have the energy to stop his friend. He just sort of slurred, “I’m not homophobic, Dude, and I’m flattered that you’re into me, but I’m not gay. I’m just not.”

But Bill wasn’t gay. He was a unique type of vampire -- sucking out Ken’s masculinity and sexuality. After Ken had drained himself, Bill was draining him as well -- turning Ken into an asexual woman with Bill consuming Ken’s masculine, straight energy for himself. Ken would pass out in the alley, not realizing the change until morning.

Out of the Way

Roy was big enough and tall enough that he was used to most people getting out of his way. He expected the petite Asian woman walking in his path to do the same, but she didn’t. They ended up bumping straight into each other, and he was a little taken aback that he lost his balance and fell into the sand. After all, he was so much bigger than she was.

He turned to snap at her. He even said aloud, “Why don’t you watch where you’re going!” But she wasn’t there. He turned the other direction; she wasn’t there either.

But he had noticed something wrong with his voice. It wasn’t deep; it was almost squeaky. It might’ve explained why he fell; maybe she had hit him in in just the right place.

It took a few more minutes before he realized the reason for all of it: the body swap. And by the time he realized it, the petite Asian woman now in his body would be long gone.

Doing Okay (Part 4)

View Part 1 of Doing Okay.
View Part 2 of Doing Okay.
View Part 3 of Doing Okay.

She suggested instead of taking the bus that we walk across the park back to her apartment -- which is where I had been staying since the Shift, of course. (For safety, I made her recite the address by memory along with several other facts.)

She told me how impressed she was with me, how I seemed to be adapting much better to being a woman than most guys she knew in my situation. I looked down awkwardly at the plastic bag from the deli with the hygiene products. I wanted so bad to hide them as she showered me with these types of compliments.

Then I looked up at her. She considered me put together? Was she looking at herself? I felt like I wanted to return the praise, but it seemed like it would be hollow. If she thought I was “put together” as a woman, I don’t think I had words to describe how well she made my body look!

The Goblin Princess (Episode 3)

The Data

The social networking company had been stealing data from people for years, but they were finally ordered to give it back to any user that requested it after years of court battles. Few people understood exactly what the court order meant and fewer still took the company up on their offer of returned data. But still some people did and the company needed a method for doing so.

Jennifer Kim was among the first to request her data back. The company was ill-prepared. They had countless Jennifer Kims in their database; they just needed her to go away -- so they hooked her up to the machine that would return her data to her, and told her to sit still.

Instead of returning her data to her, they picked a carefully selected alternate user instead. Jennifer would obtain the memories, personality, full data file, and (most importantly) the lax attitude of data security of user “Steve Johnson.” Sure, it would be like creating a second Steve Johnson inside Jennifer Kim’s body, and that might be a problem. But, according to the data, the company suspected the new Steve probably wouldn’t care. The company was rarely wrong with the way they interpreted the data.

Only One

Nate had read a bunch of these stories online about a massive number of people swapping bodies all at once. However, when he found him swapped into the body of a woman -- he seemed to be the only one!

No one around him seemed to be in a panic. He checked his phone for news articles, but there was nothing. His own body was clear across town, and so far it hadn’t given him a call. If there was at least one other person involved in this body swap, it had to be the woman he swapped with, right? She had to be in his original body and at least somewhat concerned about it -- shouldn’t she?

Retro Hell

Rob had found the retro game console in the trash. These things often sold on eBay for a hundred bucks -- not bad for something pulled out of the trash -- and a few hundred more if they actually worked.

He was lucky there was a game inside and that he had the right cords to hook it up to his television. The thing actually turned on, though the loading screen seemed to take forever.

He didn’t expect the console to glow and suck him inside. Being trapped in the cheap looking world of polygons wasn’t even the worst part of this, it was the fact that he didn’t even get sucked into the body of the main character! Instead, he was inside the body of a female NPC. He wanted out of this retro hell ASAP.

Ruined Her Outfit

“Ugh! That stain will never come out! My outfit is ruined! What did you do?” The voice speaking above me sounded familiar -- my own, to be precise -- but the tone and intonation sounded so weird.

Looking up, I saw my own face, but looking down it was obvious that I had swapped into someone else’s body. And despite the clearly life-changing consequences of being stuck in the wrong body and dealing with being a different unfamiliar gender, this woman’s biggest concern was -- her outfit?

She complained how she had just bought it and went on about how cute she thought it was. I tried to bring the topic back to the fact that we were now in each other’s bodies, and yet she still kept going on about how the stained outfit was somehow my fault -- even though I had woke up in this body with it already like this!

Maybe this was her way of coping, but it was still so strange.

Parent-Teacher Conference

Was I Dreaming?

Was I dreaming?

I pinched myself. If I was dreaming, it didn’t wake me up. Somehow I had become a woman in an apartment that wasn’t my own.

And then I looked out the window. People were screaming at each other, shouting about being the wrong gender or whatever. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one in someone else’s body. Whatever caused this -- I apparently wasn’t alone.

I’d have to deal with being a woman, probably for the rest of my life.

Adaptation

When doctors explained what had happened, Miles didn’t believe it. The idea of a brain transplant was just something he couldn’t accept. He didn’t believe his own reflection and his body still felt numb from the surgery. It wasn’t until he saw his original body that it all set in.

Then it all hit him: his new smaller female body, his soft voice, all of it.

His old body still looked so healthy. It was weird to think it was so close to death. Then again, so was this woman’s brain that was now inside that body. Meanwhile, his own brain inside her body could live on -- but what kind of life would it be? How was he going to adapt to all of this?

Downward Mobility

Aaron had noticed Elin at one of his trips to Walmart. He felt a little bit weird about the fact that he had memorized her name, but he also couldn’t get her out of his head. He thought she was beautiful, and he had to accept that he might just be a little bit obsessed. Of course, he also tried to put that all out of his head, considering she was working at Walmart and he guessed she was in her early 20s; he was in his late 30s and was comfortably enjoying upward mobility at his office job.

But then he had to face his obsession head on when he woke up one day in Elin’s body.

Perhaps the most difficult thing for him to accept was how much of her beauty was because of her makeup routine, which he was not able to replicate. That meant as long as he was in her body, her tired eyes would be very clear; any flaws in her skin would be seen. When he arrived to her job at Walmart, he didn’t exactly feel beautiful. He didn’t even feel like Elin, no matter what the nametag said.

Split

“Well, this isn’t fair. I didn’t want to be a woman! How come I had to become the woman.”

“We’re both still me...or us? I think that machine just sort of split us into two people -- supposedly the two sides of us. Maybe you’re our feminine side?”

“I don’t feel feminine! I feel wrong! And that’s supposed to be art? I can’t wait until we re-merge at the end of this.”

The exhibit was certainly a unique one. Each person would go in as one person, come out as two -- their personality split down the middle in some meaningful way. Brian was certainly shocked to have one of his persons come out as female -- with the Brian in the female body particularly concerned about it...

Seahorses

My wife and I had both signed up for the human-animal hybrid experiments about a year ago. Some people got some pretty cool abilities from the program -- echolocation or amazing night vision and things like that. My wife and I didn’t notice any immediate changes, but our intimate time in the bedroom was more wild than I think either of us anticipated.

I also never anticipated that I would be the one to get pregnant from all those escapades -- but the growing belly was undeniable.

We ended up going back to the lab that conducted the experiments and found out our DNA had been fused with seahorse genes. As it turns out, they are the only species where the males actually get pregnant. So while other people got all these cool traits and abilities -- I got male pregnancy!

Like a Frankenstein

What To Do Next

Gary waited on the bench for an hour before Betsy finally arrived. The entire time he waited stuck in her body was uncomfortable, but he was so relieved when she finally showed up, he overlooked her tardiness.

“Thank God,” He said, “Now we can finally search for a way to swap our bodies back.”

“I don’t think so,” Betsy retorted, “I’m enjoying your body.”

“But people will get suspicious...my wife will figure it out in a second...and my job!”

“I told your wife. She doesn’t care that I’m the one in here now, and from what she tells me, your job isn’t that hard -- no matter how you try to make it sound like it is.”

And so Betsy left, leaving Gary sitting there alone once more. He had no idea what to do next.

Explore Together

Mark and Jan were the young couple who moved into the house next door in July, and my wife and became fast friends -- even though our kids had recently graduated and they were just looking to start a family. Jan and my wife started going to the same book club; Mark and I would watch the game together on Sunday.

When the Great Shift happened, I ended up in Jan’s body while Mark ended up in my wife’s. I wasn’t exactly comfortable being a woman, but there were worse swaps than ending up in the body of a good friend.

It only got weird several weeks later once the season restarted. Mark and I were hanging out when he made a suggestion to “explore together.” He told me it wouldn’t be cheating -- he’d be with his wife, and I would be with mine...technically. He had even told me he asked Jan, and she was okay with it.

She may have been...I was certainly not!

Turning My Dad into Me

Amalgamation

Ryan’s body had become an amalgamation of his various neighbors. He recognized the dress as one that Elle would wear heading down the elevator to a night at the club, the tattoos clearly belonged to Jorge, and the overall body was definitely Mrs. Shu’s.

The only thing left that Ryan could claim as his own was his mind. Though he could feel the other’s inside of him, begging for a moment of control. But what had caused him and several neighbors to merge into a single person? It didn’t make any sense; however, as he stepped out into the hallway of his apartment building, he soon discovered he wasn’t the only one in this strange situation.

Eggs

“What’s that awful smell?” My girlfriend asked as she walked into the kitchen shortly after waking up the morning after the Great Shift.

“I tried to cook us breakfast,” I explained. “I thought that since I was in a woman’s body that I’d know how to cook and stuff now.”

My girlfriend burst out laughing. “How can you possibly think there’s something inherent about someone’s gender that would make them good at cooking? I’m surprised you got dressed already. How did you manage to hook the bra?”

“What the bra?”

The way she looked at my chest sent a chill up my spine. I wasn’t sure if it was because she was looking at me and judging me the way a woman would judge another woman or if she was looking at me the way a man would look at a woman’s chest. Either way, the fact that she laughed again right after suddenly made me feel much more uncomfortable.

Could Be Pretty (Part 2)

View Part 1 of Could Be Pretty.

It didn’t take long for Josh to style Sabrina’s body in a way that he called “total upgrade.” By the very next day, he was wearing outfits that he was sure would make guys drool and other women jealous -- not to mention the leather shorts and white top were a far cry from Sabrina’s typical hoodie and baggy jeans. He had an order placed for some contact lenses too, but he told himself the glasses would be fine for now.

Of course, the first person he wanted to show this all to was Sabrina herself. After all, he did want to show her the potential of her own body if she just chose things like this...

A Few Days Off

“Well, this is turning out to be the worst vacation I could imagine,” Dave said looking down after the body swap.

“Actually, this might not be so bad.” Kali reasoned, “I could use a few days off. I’ve never been able to afford a vacation. It’d be weird to take one at the very resort I work for, but...”

Dave interrupted, “You can’t possibly expect me to live your life and do your job!”

“Do you really have a choice? Do you think anyone will believe what happened to us? Right now, the best we can do is stay close and hope to swap back. You’re going to hate living my life for a week, but it could be worse if you’re stuck like that for good. Trust me.”

Dave looked up at his own eyes. He hated tat Kali was right...

Don't Do What Doctor Don't Little Does

Roommate - Boyfriend

I was a little bit unsure of what to think at first when my boyfriend swapped bodies with my roommate. I had always found her a bit annoying, so not having to put up with her was the first plus. But I wasn’t immediately sure how I felt about my boyfriend being a woman.

It turned out not to be so bad -- at least at first. It was fun to see him develop an interest in fashion and makeup, and we began to share clothes and gossip. Plus, I was able to explore the other side of my bisexuality freely. It felt like our relationship was stronger than ever.

Then he dropped the bomb. He wanted to break up with me, because he wanted to explore a relationship with a guy. He said it like with the same ditzy blonde intonation my roommate used to use (one of the reasons I sort of hated her). I tried to hold strong. I grinned as he told me; I said I accepted it. Inside I was crying.

Magic Bowl

“Excuse me,” I shouted while looking amongst the items at the antique store, “I’m looking for an old bowl. It was here yesterday.”

“Well, if it was there yesterday and gone today, then we probably sold it,” The person behind the register shouted back.

“No, that’s impossible. The clerk yesterday told me she’d hold it. I mean, he told me he’d hold it.”

“Ma’am, I own this shop. I’m the only one who works here.”

The ‘Ma’am’ part hit me hard. The other clerk (who apparently wasn’t actually a person who worked at the store at all) had shown me the bowl yesterday and demonstrated its powers by using it to swap our genders and races. She (or I guess ‘he’ now considering he had my gender) had told me he’d hold onto it while I tried out being a woman. I had to admit I was curious, and it was a fun day, but I wanted to go back to being me. But without knowing where the clerk or the magical bowl went, I’d be stuck!

Lobby

Claire was worried, but as the elevator doors opened in the lobby, she saw that her own body was just started to open its eyes.

“Ugh...what happened?” She heard it groan.

Claire knew she’d have to act quickly. There were so many people waiting to get into the elevator, and the last thing she wanted to do was cause a scene. She spoke quickly and quietly, “Just don’t panic. We were stuck in the elevator, and it somehow swapped our bodies. So I’m in your body, and you’re in my body. I don’t know how to fix it, but just don’t freak out because there’s a bunch of people just staring at us right now.”

“So, I’m a chick now?” Her former body asked.

“Yes,” Claire whispered before helping her own body to its feet and addressing the people waiting, “She’ll be okay. She just passed out in the elevator, probably just needs some food or maybe a little coffee...”

The Client

Meteorite

The meteorite had crashed on the Cooper’s family farm and had an immediate impact on Harold -- his body became female! He didn’t want to assume correlation was causation, but the evidence was pretty clear. He had to wear his wife’s clothes to leave the house (as they now certainly fit better than his own) just to investigate the damn thing.

But as he approached, this got worse. It seems the closer he got to the meteorite, the stronger its effects of stereotypical womanhood became. His breasts grew larger, his butt swelled out, his hair turned blonde.

Once he was close enough, he was absolutely afraid to touch it. What would he possible become if he actually made contact with this thing? Then again, he couldn’t just leave it where it was either, as then he’d be stuck as a woman anytime he was at home...

Yoga Pants

Seth hadn’t remembered the last time the mall had been this busy. It had to have been at least twenty years ago.

But today was a grand re-opening of sorts. It had been shut down for a while due to the Great Shift. A lot of things had been. It made sense in the wake of the chaos caused by everyone swapping bodies, but the closures had also caused a lot of pent up frustration.

People were stuck in the wrong bodies, either wearing their own clothes that didn’t quite fit right or the style of the body they stuck in. Hence why everyone was eager to get to the mall.

Seth was more curious than anything. He had actually found a certain joy in his new female body and her vast selection of yoga pants...

Same Old Game

It didn’t take long for Malik to realize he had absolutely zero game after the body swap. One would think being in the body of a sixty year woman would kill the young man’s libido; it did not.

But after a few immediate rejections, he tried a different strategy. He began to play up being a helpless old woman, and it did open a few doors. Plenty of young women were willing to engage in conversation, but that was about it.

Asking for a phone number to set up a date got reactions that ranged from eyerolls to laugher to just plain confusion. He couldn’t wait to get his own body back!

Grace (Part 1)

The light hit the ring, catching Peter’s eye. Even the inscription -- despite being impossibly small -- was somehow crystal clear, even at a distance. It said, “Good for one wish.” He thought that was probably some sort of inside joke for whoever lost the ring, but he still thought about it right before he picked it up.

If he could wish for anything it would be to be irresistible to women and rich. Did that count as one wish? Or two? It’s not like it mattered. This thing couldn’t actually be magic, could it?

However, instantly reaching down to touch the ring proved it actually was magic, though his body didn’t seem to be changing in the way that would fit his wish. Of course, the ring granted a single wish, but not necessarily YOUR wish. A previous person in possession of the ring had asked to be an ideal form of feminine grace and beauty -- a perfect dancer’s body -- which is the wish Peter now had obtained.

AI Bros

Arrival

Chad walked off the plane, his first time standing on his new unfamiliar legs. He was sure everyone was staring at him as though they knew he wasn’t the woman he appeared to be.

But how could they?

As chaotic as the body swap incident on the plane had been, it had seemed to be limited to only the aircraft. There were theories about the plane being hit by lightning or an atmospheric anomaly or even just magic. But just about everyone on board was sure that if they started talking about body swapping upon landing, they would all be treated as insane -- so they all agreed to pretend to be who they now appeared to be. And so Chad was now Lucia. He wasn’t sure if he could pull it off. After all, what did he know about being a woman?

She assured him he’d able able to handle it in the short term, and they’d meet again within a day to discuss next steps...

Tall

For the most part, people cleared out of the room pretty quickly out of the Great Shift. It wasn’t orderly; it was complete chaos. A few stayed behind, mostly those who were unswapped, but Juan just sat on the runway without moving much from the moment he realized he had swapped bodies.

The dress was very restrictive. He didn’t know how he’d even stand in these heels. Taking off all the straps of the shoes didn’t seem easy either. It was a while before someone even noticed him, and helped him stand. He noted how he towered over them. His new body must have been at least six feet tall in heels, though he still had no idea how to walk in these things.

Legs

Erica was trying to fathom how this happened. These legs didn’t belong to her and yet they were attached to her, and she was the one controlling them. They felt clumsy and moved like tree trunks -- furry tree trunk at that, given the amount of hair they had.

Even more concerning was the strange feeling between her legs -- that was something that wasn’t hers either -- though she seemed to have much less control of whatever it was doing right now.

But the worst thought was that if she had legs and anatomy that belonged to some guy, was a guy running around with hers somewhere? She was worried what that guy might be doing, but first she needed to stand up on these really awkward legs.

Versa: Identity Theft Protection for Identity Theives

Knowledge Transfer

“I don’t like the way this feels,” Moon said nervously.

“You said you’d do anything not to fail out of college,” Marvin replied, “And now you should know everything you need from me to take the exam! 99% of my knowledge in this world has been transferred to you an visa versa -- I couldn’t let myself become a vegetable, you know!”

“But it’s too much! I know who I am, and who I’m supposed to be, but all your knowledge makes my own body feel weird and wrong. I’m not even sure I’d know how to use the bathroom in my own body right now. I have your knowledge of...your....uh...male plumbing.”

“Well, then just hurry up, go to class, take the exam, and come back! I’m kind of excited to not feel like a nerd for a few hours.”

“Well, I hope you don’t enjoy all my knowledge too much. I want it back as soon as possible. I’m just glad you also gave me all the know-how about undoing this -- for some reason, I don’t fully trust you right now...”

New Interests

Mike was starting to have a hard time ignoring the fact that the longer he seemed to spend in Ashley’s body, the more he seemed to become like Ashley.

The hardest part wasn’t the new interests he gained -- like scrolling through the feeds of fashion models to check out the latest looks -- but losing interest in things he once enjoyed. He noticed it first when his fingers fumbled with a video game controller; later he found himself so bored attending a football game.

He began to wonder if he would lose himself completely at some point. Would memories fade? Would he forget that he ever used to be Mike at all? It was worrisome, but there was also a cute dress he saw for sale online....

Kawaii Transformation Virus

I watched my roommate transform in front of me. The hair growth, the big eyes, and even his clothes changed. He had all these cutesy, feminine traits that fell into this weird uncanny valley -- except it was very real and standing right in front of me. He now spoke with a squeaky voice and was extremely needy. He grabbed me; I wished he hadn’t.

I’d come to learn that my roommate was the first to fall victim to the Kawaii Transformation Virus, which changed both his body and his mind. He became this weird kawaii female version of himself.

I knew my transformation would be next.

Break a Nail

All Glen could hear was Melinda’s voice behind him complaining about how he was going to break one of her nails. Quite honestly, he’d be happy if he didn’t blow both of them up as he tried to fix this strange, alien device.

The thing had literally swapped their bodies, and then powered down. The only thing he wanted to do was get the thing up and running again so he could return to his own body. He had managed to restore power, but so far he was still stuck in Melinda’s body.

And her griping continued. It wasn’t helping. He had half a mind to stop right here and leave her stuck in his body just to annoy her more -- if that wouldn’t be more punishment for him than it would be for her.

A Fly in the Ointment

Journal

No one could explain why or how reality shifted that day. Scientists began to study the whole thing extensively, but the changes left no physical trace behind. People started talking about how the trees and grass used to have a purple tint to them, and I couldn’t tell if they were bullshitting me or not -- because I couldn’t remember if they did; I thought they had always been green.

Then I started to realize how many memories of my old self were missing. I remembered being a male professor instead of a female college student, but I couldn’t even recall the subject I used to teach, so I decided to start writing down what I could remember of who I once was.

The more I wrote down, the more the holes in my memory became apparent. I’d even go back a few days earlier to re-read things, and the memory I had described in the passage seemed like it happened to another person. We were all adjusting to the new reality, and it was terrifying.

Not Without a Fight

Gregory collapsed to the ground at the supermarket. Abigail was trying to escape again, to regain control of her own body, but Gregory fought her off like he had so many times before.

But he could feel she was getting stronger. He had done so much to possess her body, take control, and turn her into the perfect tradwife. He thought that would weaken Abigail’s spirit, but it seemed to only make her want to fight back harder.

Gregory didn’t want to give up being Abigail. But he wasn’t sure how long it would be until she forced him out.

Doing Okay (Part 3)

View Part 1 of Doing Okay.
View Part 2 of Doing Okay.

I didn’t recognize my former body as it walked down the street. In fact, it wasn’t until she looking down at me when I realized that was my former body. She looked incredible. I was amazed my old body could look that well put together with nicely styled hair and a sharp blazer over a collared shirt.

Then I looked down at the tank top and jean shorts I was wearing. I became hyper aware of how messy my hair was and the Diet Coke in my hand. I tried to hide the boxes of tampons in the plastic bag next to me. I realized I was slouching, and I tried to sit up straighter.

“You look...good,” I said in a tone that was hard to hide my embarrassment.

“And you seem to be doing okay,” She responded, “I can’t imagine it’s easy for a guy becoming a woman.”

Even her words seemed to be picked better than mine. I could feel my nervousness grow.

How to Dress to Attract a Man

Gimme Shelter

The shelters were so full after the Great Shift. They were set up quickly by people mostly confused as anyone else about being in the wrong body. Bill was glad they existed, considering he found himself in a strange body in a strange city.

The only problem, of course, was that the shelters basically had no privacy. The bed were in a room occupied by hundreds of other people, and even the bathrooms were always crowded.

It made sense, but considering he ended up in the body of a woman, he was also insanely curious. It felt so unfamiliar and yet he had absolutely no place to get to know it better.

Reboot

I had been rebooted again, but my body felt strange. It was no longer cold nor metallic, but warm and squishy. I was human once more.

I hadn’t been human for a long time. I barely even thought of myself as one anymore, though I suppose I had been one back in the day, long before my mind was uploaded and then downloaded into countless machines to perform countless more menial tasks.

I hadn’t been female back when I was human, or at least I don’t think I was. I feel like I would remember, though actually being human was a distant memory at this point.

“What is my task?” I finally realized I had to ask aloud as my brain was no longer connected to the network.

“Reproduction.” An AI voice said aloud, “The human species is at risk of extinction.”

“Understood,” I replied, as I still only had the slightest inkling that my free will was returning.

Dumb Ideas

Brad checked his phone. It was another text from Sundra -- there was probably about twenty at this point -- with another dumb idea about how to swap back into their own bodies. He had indulged her so far with some pretty dumb ideas including banging their heads together or getting electrocuted together, but he was getting a little sick and tired of it.

He had already come to accept he was probably going to be stuck in her body for the rest of his life. He started to type in a message to Sundra explaining that but deleted it; instead he responded, “Maybe later.”

He knew he couldn’t force her acceptance. It was something she would have to come to terms with on her own at her own pace. Until then, he’d have to deal with her dumb ideas.

First

I was one of the first ones to awaken after the Great Shift. My body felt heavy and strange. But it wasn’t just the extra weight, it was how that weight was distributed. And then there was the breeze blowing up my dress, because, yeah, I was apparently wearing a dress now because I became a woman.

However, I wasn’t even really thinking about that too much. My own situation was much less concerning than the haunting nature of seeing nearly everyone on the street collapsed and unconscious. I honestly wasn’t even processing my own changes until I started seeing other people sit up awake. Then it all hit me hard -- I was in the wrong body. We all were.

The Merge

Complaining

Tyler didn’t know why he was suddenly in a huge house in an upscale neighborhood, but he wasn’t exactly complaining about it. Then again, it only took him a few more seconds to notice the pasty white skin on feminine hands showing the wrinkled signs of being aged -- these were all things he COULD absolutely complain about.

How the heck did he suddenly become a forty year old white woman in the suburbs? It didn’t make any sense; he needed answers. He began to search for her phone, but couldn’t seem to find where this woman left it in her huge house. And the TV was one of those stupid SmartTVs that required a password just to turn on, which he obviously didn’t know. There had to be answers to why this happened; he just wasn’t sure how he was going to find any of them.

If I Could

I had remembered my wife screaming about the pain. I remembered trying to comfort her, telling her if it was possible for me to be the one to give birth, I would. The next thing I could remember was a feeling that almost seemed like I was being ripped in half starting between the legs while pushing something out of me. I could hear crying, but I wasn’t done pushing. And then I passed out.

When I awoke some time later, my wife, who was now in my body, explained to me everything that had happened. They were calling it the Great Shift, and had ended up swapping into her body moments before giving birth. I had torn pretty severely in child birth and passed out from blood loss. I was fortunate enough that the doctor had swapped into the body of a nearby nurse, and I was able to be sewn back up pretty quickly, but...body swapping? Great Shift? Being in my wife’s body? It was a lot to take in.

Adopted

Neil looked up as his younger sister, Lea, with scorn. “What the hell did you do?” He asked in a voice that sounded far too cute to be saying ‘hell.’

“I swapped our bodies,” She replied.

“But why?! You never seemed upset by who you are or your body. Heck, you clearly like your gender with all the dresses and pink -- neither which am I too happy with right now, by the way.”

Lea sighed, “Because even after 25 years, I still feel like an outsider in this family. Being adopted sucks. I just want to go through one family holiday as you, okay? Just please go along with it, okay? Also, I kind of like being in your tall body. Towering almost seven feet is amazing! At least compared to my usual 5 foot 2.”

“Okay. Fine. But once the holiday is over, you are swapping us back, okay? Promise?”

Body Swap Chronicles: Strangers Edition

The Threat

I hadn’t had any time to process why I was lying on the street or even why I was outside before I felt someone violently grabbing my arm, trying to pull me to my feet.

“Give it back!” I heard a gruff voice shout at me. I looked up to see an obviously homeless man firmly holding my arm as he continued to shout, “Give me my body back now!”

I thought he was just crazy at first, but I looked at the arm he held in his hands. It was slender and feminine. It was attached to me, but it certainly wasn’t mine. The rants may have sounded crazy, but I was in the body of a woman -- and I could only guess she was in the body of the homeless man.

Of course, there was no way anyone watching would know this. They just saw what looked to be a young woman threatened by a homeless man. And I would’ve liked to have figured this out calmly, but I wasn’t exactly upset when a punch from a savior to the homeless person’s face freed me from his grasp.

Don't You Work in IT?

“Don’t you work in IT, Johnny? Can’t you fix this!?” Anna pleaded, who was somehow fused into one body with their co-worker, Hao.

Johnny tried to explain. “I work in software. I don’t know anything about biology or whatever happened here. I didn’t even know this lab existed off the server room until I heard your screams.”

Anna pouted. “But he used a computer to do this! And you know computers!”

“I understand you don’t know,” Hao reasoned, “But surely someone must know what was being done down here.”

“I mean, I don’t even know where the unused parts of your bodies are. I certainly wouldn’t know how to undo or re-attach anything. But I guess I can ask around...”

Office Environment

Roger had spent the last few days wondering about the new body he ended up in as a result of the Great Shift. He hadn’t been able to get in touch with her, so the only information about he knew were externally visible -- like the pink hair and tattoos all over her body. For a mild mannered, middle aged accountant like him, it felt a little much.

He had hoped going back to the office would give him a sense of normalcy, but it only proved to make him feel more awkward. Even wearing some of his wife’s work clothes, he felt like a fish out of water with this body in an office environment. She just didn’t seem like she belonged here, which made him feel like he didn’t belong here...but what choice did he have? He needed to get on with his life...

Dumbest

Verona was probably the dumbest woman Professor Barnes had ever had in his class. He knew he’d let her squeak by with a D even if she didn’t deserve it since because her father was one of the university’s biggest donors. It was easy to forget she was in the class at all, considering how often she skipped.

She was there for the final, and he could see her struggling as he clock ticked down. She was working until the final second, and in that final second, the truly unpredictable happened -- though it would be a global phenomenon that no one would soon forget -- The Great Shift.

Professor Barnes now found himself swapped into Verona’s body. It seemed so strange to be young again and even stranger to be female now. But he also knew this was going to be a real challenge. Verona’s father would likely be quite unpleased that someone else was now in his daughter’s body, but all his power and money didn’t immediately solve the problem nor reverse the body swap. But he was sure it could be enough to make his life in this body miserable if he didn’t tread carefully.

Document It

“Could you please turn that camera off!” Anthony sighed.

“Come on, Dude, we should document this,” Lewis pleaded, “I mean, you just experienced the first cross-gender body swap in history.”

“Not by choice,” Anthony interjected.

“But people are going to want to know what it’s like. Maybe it could helpful to trans people or something.”

“But I’m not trans. Or I wasn’t. I shouldn’t be a woman right now...I just am. If people want to know what it’s like to be a woman...maybe just ask one? Please just turn it off. Okay?”

Missed Connections

New Jersey (Part 2)

View Part 1 of New Jersey.

Darnell waited several hours for the train to arrive. It didn’t. It made sense. After all, if everyone had swapped bodies that included the conductors and ticket takers. It was probably chaos. Meanwhile, almost everyone who had been at the station when this whole body swapping thing happened had left.

As it seemed, it looked like he’d be spending the night in this body...and in New Jersey! He hoped this big purse had a set of car keys in it, and that this woman was parked in the commuter lot -- he imagined hailing a taxi right now would be even more annoying than waiting for this train. He hoped she had some sort of ID in the purse, too; hotels probably wouldn’t be an option either.<./p>

Could Be Pretty (Part 1)

Even though she was a bit of a nerd, Josh always though Sabrina was pretty -- or at least she could be conventionally pretty if she was always wearing such dumpy clothes. It was like she was hiding herself for whatever reason.

He tried to coax her into wearing something besides baggy jeans and hoodies, but she wasn’t having it. Out of frustration she shouted, “Maybe YOU should wear something more conventionally beautiful!”

He spat just as quickly, “If I had a body as nice as yours, maybe I would!”

And that’s how they came to the agreement to swap bodies for a month -- with an option for an extension. And why Josh was now the one sitting in Sabrina’s body, wondering just exactly what he was going to choose to wear...

Retro Junk

The retro video game consoles at the yard sale for practically nothing seemed like a really good deal. The only catch was that they were all wired togther in a really strange way, so I had to buy them all and bring them home to untangle them.

My girlfriend shouted as me for buying junk, and she wasn’t listening as I told her that I could sell even one of these online for way more than I bought it for. Then the strangest thing happened; the consoles all started humming and glowing. Then that glowing engulfed both my girlfriend and I, and it caused us to swap bodies.

In our new forms, we accidentally knocked a few of the consoles off the table, shattering their cases. My girlfriend shouted at me to fix it and then went to our room to go cry. But as far as fixing it? I had no clue how they had been connected before falling to the floor; I certainly had no idea how decades old video game technology could be turned into a body swapper. I looked things over, but as far as I could figure, we were going to be stuck like this.