Short

Richard sighed as he picked up the shorts. They were entirely too short, and they were also probably going to very tight. But what choice did he have? It had been two days since the Great Shift placed him into the body of an unknown woman. He had been stuck in the same set of clothes for the past 48 hours. He knew he needed to find things to change into. The stores were al closed due to the chaos caused by a massive body swapping event. He didn’t have any female friends to contact, so he knew he’d have to depend on the odd sales he had been seeing on the side of the road. He guessed the sales were either people finding themselves in new bodies and figuring they didn’t need their old wardrobe anymore or someone who found themselves in a new body surrounded by more clothes than they knew what to do with. He reluctantly bought the shorts. He had found a shirt earlier, but he knew now that next he would have to go look for underwear, and that was something he was not looking forward to.

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Mathematics (Part 2)

Click here for Part 1.

Dave spent a few more hours at the chalkboard to no avail before he finally called Andrea over. In the short time since the two swapped, she had improved his appearance greatly. He had to admit that she made his normally nerdy body look quite cool. Maybe he’d ask for some tips once they returned to normal. He proceeded to show her his work.

She looked blankly at it for a moment before responding, “What do you want me to do about this?”

“Can you figure out the missing variables?” Dave asked.

“It’s beyond me. It’s just...beyond me.”

“Please try! The solution might not be in my head anymore! It might be in my brain’s chemistry, which you currently possess! Please think about it!”

Bicycle, Bicycle

Jason had to consider finding the bicycle a stroke of pure luck. After all, the streets were a mess thanks to the Great Shift. There were accidents everywhere due to the confusion caused by the mass body swapping. As he had been driving at the time of the event, Jason considered it a very good possibility that his own car had been totaled anyway. Of course, he still needed to get back home, which was miles away. Walking would take forever, so the bike seemed like a perfect plan. His new body seemed healthy enough for the trek. Yeah, it was all pretty lucky. The only thing he considered rather unfortunate was that he was now a woman.

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Perfect Match

Justin looked through the cases at the jewelry store. He had just a few more hours to find a perfect match. In one of the cases, he spotted something. He was certain that it could pass as the Medallion of Zulu. Now he’d just purchase it and use this instead of the real medallion at the time when he and Hannah were scheduled to switch back. He’d act like the body swapping medallion just wasn’t working for some reason. He’d insist on trying a few more time, pretending like he didn’t truly want to keep her body. She’d never suspect a thing, and she’d blame herself. After all, she was the one who suggested the swap in the first place. But she couldn’t have anticipated how much Justin would enjoy her body and the length he would go to in order to keep it for himself.

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The Return (Part 2)

Click here for Part 1.

After the nurse left, the doctor arrived a few minute later. He started on a few tests -- listening to breathing, checking his blood pressure, and so on -- before asking the question, “So, what seems to be the problem?”

Jack had been dreading the question. He took a deep breath in. “This morning, I woke up as a woman. Last night, I was a man!”

The doctor looked at Jack puzzled for a moment. He took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes. “Normally, I’d think you were crazy,” He told Jack, “I’d recommend getting your head examined by a psychiatrist. However, you are the fifth person to come into this clinic today with that exact same story. I can’t just assume that’s five patients with severely strange cases of gender dysphoria and delusion. I’m left with the inescapable conclusion that you might be telling the truth, as absurd as that sounds.”

Jack began to crack a smile. He had been so nervous, and if not for timing, the doctor might not have believed him. However, he lucked out; the doctor DID believe him.

“Don’t get so excited,” The doctor could tell Jack’s was quite happy, “Just because I believe you doesn’t mean I can do anything about this! I will, however, see if I can find anything in your blood work.”

Uncomfortably

Dan shifted uncomfortably on the bench. He crossed his legs and turned to his friend, Katie, and spoke, “I know we agreed to use that magical spell of yours to switch bodies for a day, but I’m not sure I can do this. Can we switch back now?”

“Now!? No way! It’s only been a few hours! I want the full experience of being a dude.”

“I thought I wanted this to try being a woman too, but I feel all bloated. I have this strange cramp in my stomach. I just don’t feel well.”

Katie laughed, “It looks like you’re going to get the full experience of being a woman! And I hate to tell you this, but we won’t be switching back now or for the next couple days. The magic doesn’t work when a woman is having her time of the month!”

Getting back

It had been almost two years since Janet swapped bodies with Dr. Benjamin Renolds. She had been a student assistant of his at the time, and neither of them had expected to come across the secret of body swapping that day. Unfortunately, at the time they couldn’t recreate their experiment. They were stuck as each other. But after a long drought of no progress, Dr. Renolds called her. She quickly rushed over to hear his solution. As he explained, she looked at her former body. When that body was hers, she was stunning. However, he hadn’t taken good care of it. He had cut her hair short. He wore dumpy, nerdy clothes. Would it kill him to put on a little more makeup? She sighed. At least he hadn’t gotten her body extremely fat or anything -- she suspected he may have put on about five pounds though.

Janet was getting bored as Benjamin rattled on and on. She began to daydream about getting her body back and thought about how much work she’d have to put in to get it back to it’s former glory. It wouldn’t be easy, but it would certainly be much better to be back in her own body than to be stuck in Benjamin’s body for another minute. Couldn’t he skip the lecture and move straight to the experiment to switch them back?

Catalyst

Dr. Bruce Goldberg rushed to the lab. He extracted a small amount of his own blood and examined it under a microscope. He let out a frustrated sigh. Trying to figure out whatever turned him into a woman was going to require more intense examination. After several hours of study, he was no closer to an answer. The only piece of information that he was able to determine was that the change had effected his entire DNA -- he now had XX chromosomes instead of XY -- and changing every single one of those would be a feat. And, of course, just a change in DNA wouldn’t be enough. There must have also been a catalyst to effect his body and have it become female. Still, he was nowhere near pinning down what that catalyst could be, but considering some of the crazy things in this lab where he worked, it could be anything.

Cheaters Never Win

George was absolutely convinced the young woman had cheated. After all, he hadn’t lost a game of cards in decades, particularly when the stakes were so high. He laid out the cards, running through the possibilities of how she had been able to beat him. It still didn’t seem possible.

He probably should’ve turned away the moment he met her, but he had to admit he was quite curious when she told him that she had the ability to switch two people’s bodies. And that’s where the betting came in. George was eager to see this woman’s power -- or, more likely, expose her for the fraud she was. But she wouldn’t do it for free. She wouldn’t even do it for money. She wanted to play a game. If George won, he’d swap bodies with her for a day; he’d get to do anything he wanted while in her body. If he lost, however, they’d still switch bodies, but it would be forever. She’d get his fortune, his body, his entire life.

Considering George still didn’t really believe body swapping was possible, it seemed like a win-win. And just to firm up his odds, he picked a game he was guaranteed to win. But it didn’t turn out in his favor, and the woman’s ability was all too real. Now he was her, and all he could do was run over exactly what went wrong.

Close Shave

When the Great Shift swapped Ben into the body of a woman, he rejoiced. It meant he no longer had to put up with shaving his face each and every morning. However, he soon discovered that as a woman there were plenty of other places that needed shaving -- though luckily not every day. Yet shaving his legs and armpits also took much more time. As he sat in the bathtub taking care of his beauty routine, he realized the trade off may not have been worth it. After all, now he not only had to put up with shaving, but he also had to contend with hair, makeup, and up-to-date fashions just to stay competitive and professional at work!

Mathematics

Dave examined the blackboard nervously. All the equations had made sense yesterday when he first used the calculations to switch bodies with Andrea. He wondered if it was an effect of the swap. Sure, Andrea was a smart woman, but she wasn’t anywhere near the level of genius he was. While he had his own thoughts and his own memories, he still had her body. That meant he had her brain chemistry and her neurological pathways. If they just weren’t firing at the levels he was used to, this sort of stuff might be well beyond his ability as long as he was in her body. Of course, he couldn’t get back to his own body unless he could make sense of these equations that switched them in the first place. His only hope was to enlist Andrea’s help to figure this all out. Surely if they worked together, they could decipher these complex mathematical formulas.

The Return (Part 1)

When Jack woke up, something was very wrong. Having no proof of health insurance, he rushed to the free clinic. After a very long wait, he was finally in to see a nurse. She took his weight and checked his blood pressure. She took a few notes before she finally asked Jack why he was at the clinic today.

Jack paused, not wanting to answer. He told the nurse that it was private, and he wished to speak with the doctor directly.

He honestly just didn’t know what to tell her. He didn’t really know what he was going to tell the doctor. In fact, even Jack couldn’t believe what had happened to him. He had gone to sleep as a man, but woke up as a woman. As the nurse left, he prepared himself. He knew the doctor would be in soon. At this point, he was just hoping the doctor took him seriously and didn’t get him locked up in the looney bin or a mental hospital.