Vacation

It was definitely a vacation George would never forget. Sure, he doubted anyone would forget where they were when the Great Shift occurred, but for him it was just such a highlight of so many opposites and extremes.

Of course, the location change alone was wild. One moment he was on the beach with his wife and the next he fell down in the snow. And then there was everything about the body he swapped into -- he went from male to female; from old to young; from unattractive to beautiful.

And yet thinking about it all, he was happy with the changes. Sure, he still had to track down where his wife ended up and claiming his original identity could prove to be difficult, but a new chance at life as a young, beautiful woman? It seemed like such a tremendous opportunity.

The Faintest Idea

Krish was about ready to call the hospital after Lakshmi had fainted suddenly. He considered the fact that it was lucky he was nearby to be able to catch her as she fell and guide her to a nearby couch. Fortunately, she began to reawaken just as he began to dial his phone.

“What the hell happened?” Lakshmi asked.

“You fainted, my love,” Krish responded.

“My love?” Lakshmi’s eyes went wide and a stream of profanities followed before he finally explained, “This isn’t my body! I’m not even supposed to be a woman; I’m certainly not your love. I just sort of...woke up like this!”

Krish was once again considering calling the hospital. Had his wife gone crazy? What was all this nonsense about not being a woman? Did she not know who she was? Of course, Krish had no idea the body swap that had jus befallen his wife.

Happy Wife, Happy Life

Noodles (Part 2)

View Part 1 of Noodles.

When you’re hungry, it’s your top concern. You aren’t really thinking about things like the fact that you might be wearing someone else’s clothes or showering with their shampoo. Any concerns I had about the Great Shift dumping me into the wrong body were pushed aside for the time being.

Crackers on ketchup were barely enough to fill even the smallest corner of my stomach, but they were enough to give me the motivation to venture out. I checked about five different grocery stores before I found one that was open.

It was mostly picked through with a lot of fresh food remaining being wilted or spoiled. The packaged food was practically cleared out. I still managed to collect a few things.

But when I went to check out, I realized no one was actually working. Someone had just pried the door open earlier, and everyone was going in and out. I felt bad about taking the food, but I wasn’t about to let myself starve either. I slipped some cash under the register before I left just so I didn’t feel too bad about it.

You Snooze, You Lose

It was a strange event where everyone within a ten mile radius had their souls temporarily sucked out of themselves. For a few brief seconds, everyone was like spirits circling about before they could return to their own bodies.

Of course, while most people found their way back to becoming themselves, Cheng tried doing so only to discover her own body was already occupied -- and instead she was tossed into a nearby one belonging to someone else.

She was now older, overweight, and weight. She stormed down to the street and up to the body that once was hers.

“I don’t want to be stuck in your body!” She shouted, “Give me my body back!”

“I don’t know whose body that is,” Her former self shrugged, “I was a middle aged guy before all this. But, I guess, you snooze, you lose. And you lost out big time by not finding your way back inside here quick enough.”

On the Job

Jay felt like his body was slammed against the cold ground. It was actually just the effects of the mind transference, which wasn’t meant to be used in such close succession; it was his third body in less than a week.

But this was the job he had signed up for, and this would fortunately be his last swap for a while.

He could actually take his time. In fact, he had to. Three swaps in a week were hard for anyone, but four would be deadly. If he completed what he had to do with this body too quickly, he’d be killing himself. So for the first time in a while, he could actually slow down and enjoy being in his current body. And that’s exactly what he planned to do.

Repopulate

Aaron had awoken in a lab in what was obviously not his own body. There had to be a reason for it. Preservation? Escape? He couldn’t seem to remember. He was a woman -- maybe that was a clue -- maybe who was as equally as important as why.

He began to look around. From what he could tell, there were no other humans. Not in the lab...not anywhere.

And then he found the instructions about what everything in the lab did, and why he found himself in the body he was in. He was the last person left on Earth, and inside a woman’s body, he was meant to repopulate it.

Body Swap ASMR Cranial Nerve Exam

Average.

Emily was in the parking lot outside her apartment when the woman approached her. Emily didn’t know her, but she seemed to know Emily.

She spoke, “You got to help me, Emily. It’s me; it’s Brian. I sighed up for this experiment to swap bodies with a random woman. I thought I’d get a hot body that I’d use to exploit any man I wanted. Instead I got...this!”

“This is why you broke up with me?” Emily asked. Extremely skeptical of Brian’s plan. she continued, “You planned to swap bodies with a random woman and were surprised when the woman you became was remarkably average?”

“Average? But she’s flabby, and these clothes don’t fit well, and I feel uncomfortable and bloated.”

“Yeah, like I said...average.”

Patched

After plugging the cord into his neck, Kyle’s eyes glazed over again as he once again went back into the game -- it was much too addictive to be logged out for any significant amount of time or to give any concern about the major bugs in the software and hardware. The most significant of these was that the servers had lost track of the players’ brain uploads, meaning one was likely to log off into a different body than one someone logged in with.

The fact that Kyle had become a woman this time? Well, he didn’t give it a second thought. His actual body was irrelevant inside the game, so what did it matter?

Unfortunately, the next patch didn’t quite work as planned. It shut down the servers, booting everyone out and forcing them into the body of their most recent upload until service could be fixed. And then suddenly Kyle was not only deal with a new body but extreme withdrawal from the game as well.

Magic Cookie

“I have one magical cookie left,” Armand said to Li as he held the item in his hand. “Once I bite into it, I will have my final wish.”

“Then do it and wish us back into our own bodies!” Li begged him.

“I could do that...or I could wish that you believe you have always been me with no memories of being yourself. I might also wish that you like being in my body so much that you begged me to keep us this way. Or maybe when I eat this, I will wish you thought the last cookie had already been consumed. I have quite a few options,” He said as he put the cookie into his mouth.

World War B(ody) SW(ap)

Disguise Self

Elowen had been skeptical in letting Trent join the party. Sure, his skills of lock picking and sleight of hand were useful, but having a trickster rogue around was becoming quite frustrating. Today, it seemed he used his limited magic to swap their bodies, and Elowen was furious.

“It’s not an actual swap,” Trent explained as he leaned up against a wall, “It’s more like we’re just disguised as each other for a bit -- just until a long rest.”

“Then let’s set up camp,” Elowen insisted.

“We just woke up! It’s in the middle of the day! Just relax and enjoy it.”

“It’s a waste of your limited magic that we could use in combat.”

“Then will stay close to the city today. What could possibly go wrong?”