Could Be Pretty (Part 3)

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Josh began thinking about all the things he was going to do for the next month while in Sabrina’s body. Then the pain hit.

Suddenly, he wasn’t interested in doing much of anything. He just wanted to put back on Sabrina’s sweatpants, curl up in a ball, and moan in anguish -- except he wasn’t even sure he could muster changing clothes at this point.

Why did it hurt so much!? This was inhumane!? Was he dying?

Of course, Josh had no way of knowing this was just Sabrina’s monthly visitor; he had obviously never felt one before. It would surely be a learning experience at the very least...

BFFs

Friend

Brittany and I had been friends since childhood, even as I became a jock and she became a dork. It didn’t even change in college -- where I got in through an athletic scholarship and she just had the grades.

I knew it was social suicide to hang out with her, but we did anyway. Though I really put my foot in my mouth when I told her that she might actually be hot if she actually tried.

Then the body swap happened.

I don’t know if it was some sort of cosmic revenge or maybe the gods heard what I said or maybe it was just bad timing. But I was Brittany now. And it turns out being hot wasn’t exactly as easy for women as I thought. Putting off the girlie stuff like makeup and dresses, I thought I could at least get Brittany’s body in better shape, but nothing I do seemed to improve her physique. I don’t know if her asthma was limiting me or her genetics, but I really felt like I was learning a lesson in the hardest possible way.

Annoying

Zain was furious. His sister Yuni had arrived at his apartment quite unexpectedly for a two week visit. That alone enraged him, resulting in an argument almost immediately -- which somehow triggered some sort of magical body swap between them.

It made sense to pretend to act like each other while they searched for a way to swap back, but in the chaos of the swap, Zain had forgotten the fact that his girlfriend was coming over.

Watching Yuni in his body make out with his girlfriend was infuriating! Sure, he would do that sort of thing all the time, but not while Yuni was in the room! He wasn’t quite sure how to break it up without explaining how mad he was getting. Then it hit him, he couldn’t get them to stop by explaining how he was really Zain, but he could get them to stop by acting like Yuni! He just had to figure out just the right annoying way to act...

Not the Same

Friends kept commenting that Jacquie and Chris hadn’t quite seemed the same as they used to be. It had been going on for months, and everyone was worried something might be wrong in the couple’s relationship. In a way, there was -- but it wasn’t going to break them up any time soon.

But neither Jacquie nor Chris wanted to explain how they had swapped bodies with each other. Technically, they were both acting mostly like themselves, just doing it from the wrong body threw everyone off.

And they continued to stay together as they hoped to find a way to switch back. Breaking up seemed like it would just complicate those efforts -- though they had both talked about it and seriously considered it. However, for the time being, they just tried their best to continue on as each other...

When

I had known every since I was a kid that I was trans -- that I wanted to be a woman -- but the prospect of going through the transition scared me. I never had the courage. But then when I hit my 20s, they developed body swapping tech. Switching bodies with a woman who wanted to be a man felt like cheating -- at least at first.

You don’t swap with the body of your dreams. It still took me a lot of work after the swap to change myself into the woman I wanted to be -- the kind that was a little eccentric and fun an quirky. But I eventually got there.

Today was the first day a guy came up to me to ask me out (while complmenting my hairstyle, I might add). I wanted to be bold and proud, but I just sort shyly nodded in acceptance as I put his number into my phone instead.

Then the thought still hit me hard. Was I obliged to tell him about the body swap? Who I had been before? Was it really any of his business? I mean, it wasn’t yet, right? But maybe at some point?

SW-074

Rumble

Henry had awoken to the sound of an above ground train rumbling by his window. It was a sound he wasn’t used to. He lived in a high rise in a part of town where the trains ran below ground. So what was up with the change of location?

It didn’t take him much longer to realize he hadn’t just woken up in the wrong apartment -- but also in the wrong body! Trying to wrap his head around the fact that he was now someone else was surreal; realizing that the “someone else” was a woman made it even harder to cope.

Her apartment was small but well decorated and maintained. There were a lot of feminine clothes, so finding something he actually felt comfortable wearing was a challenge -- eventually settling on a workout outfit. Then he got to the station so he could head downtown to try to figure out what happened! He was going to confront whoever was in his body, as they weren’t picking up his phone!

A Choice

“Amisha? Are you okay, Amisha?” I heard the soft voice flutter in my pounding head.

“Ugh. What the hell happened?” I asked, noting how strange my voice felt before adding, “And who’s Amisha?”

The soft voice continued, “There was like a flash of light and an earthquake. You fell down and hit your head. Do I need to call campus medical center?”

“Campus?”

As I started to look around, it was obvious I was in a dorm room. The soft voice came from a woman who seemed to be around twenty years old. And it also became very apparent I was in a body that was no longer my own. I realized I ha a decision to make. I could pretend to be “Amisha,” presumably this woman’s college roommate, or I could tell her the truth about being a 30 year old man who suddenly found himself in this body.

Lobster Fun!

This has nothing to do with body swapping. I just made a silly video that I wanted to share.

Wily (Part 1)

I could surmise pretty well what happened when I got home from teaching classes at the university to see my wife licking her hand to clean herself while the cat hissed at her.

They had somehow gotten down to my body swapper again.

I thought I had closed up the basement pretty well, but our cat is quite wily. It wouldn’t surprise me if it found a way in. Then again, it would surprise me if my wife had unlocked it for some reason as well. I usually kept it powered down as well, however, to prevent an accident like this. Though in their current forms, I couldn’t exactly ask either of them what had happened. I’d have to swap them back first.

When You Are Over 30 but Still Think You're 18

Wanted

Wanted in seven states and the law was closing in, I needed an out. That crazy old man promised that he could make it so no one would recognize me.

He was right.

I didn’t even recognize myself anymore. And I don’t think any sheriff would see the pretty little lady looking back at me from the mirror and think she was the brutish man responsible for dozens of robberies and several shoot-outs.

I was worried I might not be taken seriously in this new form. But money talks and thanks to all that I had done, I had plenty of it.

Grace (Part 2)

View Part 1 of Grace.

Peter thought he would hate being a woman. For the first few days, he considered the transformation to be an absolute nightmare. But there was another feeling inside, and it was a feeling he couldn’t ignore.

He wondered if it was part of the wish he had gotten, but he soon discovered the way this body could move felt like a work of art in itself. And it soon embraced it.

Peter’s form caught the attention of many in the dance world, catapulting into fame. This turned out to be a fortunate turn, as his transformation meant he was a woman with no history, no identity. A career in the public eye meant one was able to be created for him...

Refresh

Jeff refreshed again. The site still wasn’t loading.

“Maybe the hotel’s internet is down. Try a different website to see if it’s working.” His wife Lindsay directed.

“Are you seriously thinking I didn’t try that?” He paused before adding, “Wait, are you mansplaining to me?”

Lindsay just stared blankly. Her husband did work as a coder, and here she was trying to give him directions about a down website. She hadn’t felt the slightest guilt in doing so.

“Whatever. Stop over-reacting,” She said again, despite knowing she probably shouldn’t.

“I have a headache. Let’s just go to bed and try again in the morning, okay?” Jeff said with neither of them realizing the website had swapped more than just their bodies...

Legs (Part 2)

View Part 1 of Legs.

Even if he could stand in these heels, Rex was pretty sure these legs were not capable of supporting his upper body. He had tried standing up several times now, and each time he had tumbled back to the ground. Why he had a woman’s legs and skirt and everything else from the waist down -- he had no idea!

He could only hope that these legs belonged to someone and not that his legs had just become magically feminized. His other hope was that the person with his legs would walk by and find him, as the opposite didn’t seem like a possibility right now.

Of course, even if she did find him, it probably still wouldn’t be helpful. She’d likely have weak upper body strength, which wouldn’t be helpful to get him on his feet. Though maybe once they were both standing, they could help each other out?

Wormed!

Don't Leave Me

“No! You can’t leave me like this!” Nathan shouted as he reached his hand up towards his former body as it walked away. The number of things running through his head right now were too many to count.

The initial body swap was at the top of the list, for sure. He had become a woman, and that alone was cause for concern. But then there was also the fact that the woman now in his body seemed genuinely fine with it all; she had interest in looking for a way to swap back or even helping Nathan adjust to the situation.

And he certainly needed help adjusting! He couldn’t even walk on the heels he wore right now! There was no way he could run after his own body with them on, and he’d probably have just as much trouble running on these streets by taking them off and going barefoot.

Too Much

Mi Su didn’t imagine the Great Shift would be so sobering, both literally and figuratively. She had been an idol for a few years now, and the stress and anxiety had lead to drinking and drugs. After a seventh straight night of performances, she had hit the substances hard. Now she was looking down at her own body passed out on the couch. She checked the pulse to make sure her body was still alive, though she couldn’t get it wake up.

She considered her own situation now. She inside the body of one of the venue’s janitors -- male, late 30s or so, starting to bald with the start of slight gut. But her mind was clearer than it had been for longer than she could remember. She knew she couldn’t continue her idol career in a body like this, but she didn’t mind.

But she felt bad for whoever was inside her body now. They’d be pressured to continue her career, and all the stress that went along with it. They’d likely inherit all the problems with substances she had caused as well. It didn’t seem fair.

The Punk and the Librarian

Nancy had been nervous when she swapped bodies with Lars. She was a quiet librarian; he was a punk. Even agreeing to meet up the next day had her worried about what he would do to her body over the course of a few hours.

But when Nancy arrived at the library, she had to admit that she was surprised to find Lars with his nose already in a book -- even if he was dressed a little more provocatively than she ever would have.

But as they spoke, Nancy had to admit that despite his outwardly punk nature, Lars was kind and thoughtful and courteous. She was quite convinced that dressing out-of-character was probably the absolute worst thing he would do while in her body. She hated to admit that she had been the type of person to judge a book by its cover...

Extra Credit (Episode 3)

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Bossy

“It’s not easy, is it, Lewis?” Nancy said, not even looking the recent hire in the eye.

“I’m sorry, okay?” Lewis pleaded, “I thought the boss just a Boomer that sits in an office telling everyone else what to do! I had no idea your job was actually hard!”

“I’m actually an Elder Millennial.”

“Whatever! Just can we PLEASE swap back!? I don’t want to be the boss anymore! I certainly don’t want to be old! And being perimenopausal is no fun either! I’m sorry! What else do I have to say!?”

“I’m just thinking how long I’m going to keep us swapped for. A week? A month? It’s totally up to me...oh, and maybe think of this time as a lesson about what it really means to be in charge.”

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)

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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.