Unknowing

“Let’s try this again. What’s your name?” Jackson asked.

“Akiko Takahashi,” The woman with a strange helmet on her head replied.

Jackson made a few adjustments to the wires attached to the helmet and asked again, “How about now?”

“Still Akiko. Have you considered the possibility that I really AM Akiko That your body swap device here is a failure? I think it’s pretty obvious I am who I say I am.”

“But she left here in your body saying she was Akiko.”

“Come on. Brian loves to mess with you. He was probably just pretending to be me.”

“Well, what do you remember?”

“I’m a Japanese student who came to this country to study at the university. You, I, and Brian have all been friends these past few years going to school together. I’m not sure what you want to know?”

“Do you remember being my girlfriend?”

“What? No! No way! Ew! Gross!”

“See. The real Akiko would remember. We’ve been keeping it a secret from Brian -- from you -- as to not hurt his feelings or make him feel like a third wheel.”

“Or maybe your device just fried that section of my brain! I mean, there’s no way it could’ve actually worked...and that I’m actually...”

Dumber

Ever since he swapped bodies with Misty, Dexter knew he was getting dumber. It had been two days since the swap, and the chalkboard that was once filled with equations that allowed his body swapping device to function was now showing a single, simple equation. As Dexter wrote an answer, he was not sure what was more frustrating: the fact that he got it wrong or the fact that he knew he got it wrong and just couldn’t seem to do anything about it.

He was also still smart enough to know that the only hope of swapping back was if Misty (in his body) was becoming just as smart as he was becoming dumb. So far, he wasn’t so sure. Of course, he also was quickly realizing he was no longer in a place to be able to judge her abilities. But even if she did become smart enough, did he really WANT to go back to his former body? He’d be giving up things like flirting with boys and cute clothes and watching Kardashian marathons on the television!

Dexter caught himself. He knew the longer he spent in Misty’s body, the more he’d think thoughts like that, and the more he’d want to not swap back. He just hoped Misty would figure out how to use the device before he would simply refuse to use it with her...

The Smart One

Julian had spent the last few hours trying to figure out this device. Lana had threatened to kill him if he didn’t figure it out. After all, the weird thing did swap their bodies, and it didn’t work when they tried to use it a second time.

He realized it was an idle threat; she certainly wouldn’t kill him as long as he was in her body. Plus, it’s not like any of this was his fault. The device was just sort of there; he wasn’t the one who touched it; he really couldn’t be held even the slightesy bit responsible. But he was the smart one. If anyone could figure it out, it would be him. And hence all the work and calculations, but none of was getting him any closer to actually making this thing work. It shouldn’t have been remotely possible for this thing to swap two people’s bodies, and yet here he was inside of Lana’s.

Waiting on the Porch

Rick rang the doorbell and waited, but Jia didn’t answer. He knocked and shouted her name, but she still didn’t come to the door. It didn’t make any sense! He had only taken a few hours to repair his machine that had earlier swapped his body into hers. It was a pure accident when he first activated the device. And it only happened due to an increased amount of power and the proximity of her condo to his. She had seemed very upset about the whole thing, so it made no sense for her to shut him out like this. Maybe she was just trying to make him worry, but he had been waiting a long time out here, quite ready to use the device again...

VC

“So, as you can see,” Nicholas explained, “The device can actually swap two people’s bodies, and it can even be triggered remotely with the phone app.”

Tiffany had to admit that she was impressed. She was, after all, now watching her own body present this weird new invention after Nicholas had swapped bodies with her. However, she did have plenty of worries regarding ethical and marketing concerns.

“It’s amazing,” She sighed, “But I’m afraid we have to pass on funding.”

“Well, here’s the thing,” Nicholas let out a devilish smile, “As long as we are swapped, I’m technically the one that controls that decision. And, in fact, I’ll think I’ll be making a recommendation to my VC firm to invest for several million dollars. Play your cards right, and I might not push you out; and if you’re good, you might even get your body back after all this is over.”

Leading Edge (Part 3)

View Part 1 of Leading Edge.
View Part 2 of Leading Edge.

The meeting was schedule the day after the festival was over. Heather offered to let David stay at her place and borrow clothes, but he felt more comfortable at his own place and borrowed some stuff from his sister.

When he finally arrived at the tech bro’s office, instead of having a way to switch back to normal, several legal documents were shoved in David’s face. It seemed that despite developing a way to switch bodies, the dude hadn’t yet figured out how to safely swap people back, and David and Heather were being offered huge cash settlements.

David was resigned to the fact that he was going to be stuck as Heather for a lot longer, but he could turn down millions of dollars. He did, however, pause at the non-disclosure clause, and explained that he had told his sister already. The lawyers scribbed and added some language and told David she would have to come down as soon as possible as well, but that it shouldn’t be a problem. And so David signed, prepared to be Heather for quite a while longer...

Leading Edge (Part 2)

View Part 1 of Leading Edge.

The tech bro seemed to waffle between being excited at the success of his invention and sorry for the fact that it caught fire. He gave David and the woman his company’s address and set up a meeting for after the festival to come up with some sort of “mutually beneficial arrangement.”

David knew he was going to be stuck in this woman’s body for the next few days, so he got some basic information from her. Her name was Heather; he found out where her tent was. Every piece of clothing she brought with her was seemingly as skimpy and eccentric as what she was wearing -- given the context of the festival, it made sense, but he was still not happy to be stuck wearing it for the next few days. He couldn’t wait until this was all over, they went to that meeting, this was all sorted out, and he was back to normal.

Leading Edge (Part 1)

David had always been a bit enamoured with the idea of a festival dedicated to self-expression, and even though he knew it had recently felt taken over by tech bros and Wall Street types, he had to believe the original spirit was still there.

And so he arrived at the desert with high hopes. It was wild, but even as he tried to lose himself to it all, he still felt like some of the magic was gone. It didn’t help when a woman approached him to tell him about some “weird shit” some tech bro was showing off, and how it was going to be “bigger than the iPhone.” He tried brushing her off, but she was persistent; he finally agreed to come along with her.

He didn’t get to hear what the thing did when the tech bro was already asking for volunteers. The woman grabbed David’s hand and raised it with hers. He walked over and aimed a small device at them both. It sparked; it flashed; it caught fire.

David was about to laugh, but as he put his hand on his hip, he noticed something felt strange. It seems that despite getting destroyed in the process, the device had worked as it was designed; and it swapped David’s body with the woman’s. He was now her, and (looking at the state of the device) it seemed like he would be for quite a while.

Twinsies

Luke hadn’t been expecting a package, but there was one waiting for him when he came home. It seemed to be the correct address, but there was no name and no return sender. Shrugging he opened it up.

Inside was a blue remote with a touch screen and a camera on the back. He thought it was some sort of smartphone, and the instructions were written in a language he did not understand. He tried to feed them into an online translator, but they didn’t make sense. They talked about taking a photo with the device and changing yourself into that person. He was sure it was a mistranslation.

Figuring it was just some sort of advanced camera, he just started taking some photos of some things. He didn’t see anything too special about the photos the device took. After a while, he made his way to the mall where he saw a pretty Asian woman in a blue dress. He snapped a photo and the device made a loud whirring noise, which drew the attention of the woman. He felt embarrassed and felt like a creep for taking a photo of someone without their permission. He started to apologize profusely as she walked over.

“No, no, I get it! We’re like twinsies! Right on down to the dress! We could be Parent Trap sisters! Let’s get a real selfie together for my Insta!” The woman said as she put her arm around Luke and lifted her phone. Luke was floored to see the pic. Two identical woman in identical clothing stood next to each other with one holding their arm around the other. The device had literally transformed into this woman’s exact double. It wasn’t a mistranslation at all!

The Prototype (Part 2)

Click here for Part 1.

“Why the hell would she do this to me? And to the company? She had so much to lose by stealing the prototype!” Max wondered allowed.

Harvey replied, “Maybe it wasn’t her. Maybe it was our competition.”

“Huh?”

“Think about it. If someone else if creating a mind swapper, they use it to steal Danielle’s body, then use her body to steal the device. Maybe you just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when she seized the opportunity.”

“But if they can already use it on humans, they’re months ahead of us...unless there’s some flaw? Gd, I hope my brain doesn’t melt into a mushy liquid in two days! ... Oh, and could one of you untie me?”

“We’re developers, Max...do you honestly think any of us excelled in Boy Scouts?”

“Fair enough, but maybe you can grab a knife from the supply closet to cut me loose?”

The Prototype

The hardware development team rolled in late Friday morning after a successful test the night before. They were surprised to see the VP of marketing, Danielle Takashi, tied up and gagged on the floor. One of the devs, Harvey, removed the gag and before he could ask, Danielle spoke.

“I know what this looks like, but I’m not Danielle. I’m Max! She used the prototype to swap our bodies and then overpowered me!” Max explained with Danielle’s sweet, soothing voice.

“We tested that on animals!” Harvey stated, “Human testing is months away.”

“Well, fortunately, it worked, and my brain isn’t fried! Danielle’s didn’t appear to be either as she ran off with my body AND our hard work. It took us ten years to build that brain swapper!”

“I have some backup copies of the plans. It would take a while to reconstruct, but we wouldn’t be started from scratch.” “I’d check it all. She went wild taking stuff while in my body, and she made me sit here and watch it all..”

Too Late

Simon intended for his invention to be a mind reading device. Instead when the tested the device with his friend, Jacqueline, he ended up in her body. His own body seemed lifeless, which caused him to suspect Jacqueline’s subconscious was still within the body they now shared. Within a day or two, Simon noticed he knew certain things he wouldn’t suspect, like how to put on makeup. A few more days passed, and Simon actively picked out a dress to wear and felt happy about it. Pieces of Jacqueline were beginning to come through. He didn’t realize how bad it was until he went shoe shopping for three hours, and he left feeling like he actually enjoyed it. He knew he was going to have to use his device again to extract himself from Jacqueline’s body, but he was beginning to worry their two personalities had already gotten too entwined. He couldn’t remember which aspects of his personality were his own and which were Jacqueline’s. He knew he was going to have to try to fix this before it was too late, though he really wondered if it already was...

Take a Vacation (Part 2)

Click here for Part 1.

It only took Evan about fifteen minutes to complete the calculations. He jumped up and started to head back to his own room when he saw the woman’s husband standing there. Before he could even say a word, the man planted a big kiss on Evan’s lips.

Evan felt his body tingle in ways he never could’ve anticipated. For the first time on this vacation, he suddenly felt unfocused on his work. He knew he should stop this kiss, get back to his wife and the device, and fix this mess. But he couldn’t ignore the curious differences this body was feeling. Was this something all women felt?

Evan felt trapped with these emotions for several more minutes before the woman’s husband finally stopped. He grabbed Evan by the hand and attempted to lead him to the bed. As much as Evan was getting curious about what that might feel like, his logical mind started to return to him. He started explaining everything a mile a minute, insisting he needed to get to the next room.

Take a Vacation (Part 1)

In hindsight, Evan really wished he had listened to his wife about not bringing work with him on their vacation. He just couldn’t help himself and kept tinkering with a small prototype in their resort room. He hadn’t planned on actually activating it, but a slip of his screwdriver did just that. The small device whirred into action, and the next thing he knew, Evan had swapped bodies with a woman in the neighboring room.

That wasn’t what the device was supposed to do at all!

He quickly got to work on more calculations in order to properly reverse this. After all, if he just blindly reactivated the device, he could’ve ended up swapping more people. So he went to work with pen and paper to try to eliminate any possibility for error. The fact that he was now a blond woman wearing a bikini didn’t even phase him; he needed to focus.

Meanwhile, the woman now in his body was with Evan’s wife doing her best not to freak out. She was pacing. Worrying about what she was going to tell her husband if Evan didn’t fix this as soon as possible.

Creative

Majoring in music immediately exposed Jason to all sorts of outgoing people. In fact, despite his shy nature, he met Amy his first week of college. Amy was eccentric, creative, and very prolific. She always seemed to have some sort of crazy project going on, and nothing she did ever surprised Jason.

Midway through their senior year, she approached him with excitement in her voice. She had borrowed an odd invention from someone she knew in the engineering school. It held limitless potential by allowing two people to transmit brainwaves to each other. It could literally double the ideas in people’s heads and make both twice as prolific. She showed it to Jason because he was the most creative person she knew. He was flattered and quickly agreed.

Only once they used the device, something seemed to go horribly wrong. After activation, Jason couldn’t seem to find Amy anywhere. It took a few minutes for him to figure out that the reason why was because he was now the one in her body. Amy, along with his own body, just seemed to disappear. This was worrisome, but then he sat down at the piano. Not only was he completely at a loss for ideas on new compositions, he couldn’t even think of how to form chords properly or how to play any songs he’d ever written or ever learned! Instead of enhancing his musical ability, that odd device had instead sucked him dry and left him stuck in Amy’s body...and seemed to make Amy and his own body zap out of existence!

In the Weeds

Jason wasn’t oblivious to the change he had undergone nor the source of the change. Moments ago, he observed a beam of light shoot out from the ground that transformed into a woman. He bent down to see a small device sitting in the weeds. Considering the thing had just gone off at random and modified his gender, he was a little wary of picking it up. He figured there was a pretty good chance of the strange item being set of again and turning him into someone or something else. Still, he figured his best hope of getting back to normal was taking this thing home and trying to understand how it worked. He considered himself pretty knowledgeable and this device was likely beyond anything he could comprehend, but he still had to try!

Investor

As Jason returned back home after his overseas business trip meeting with foreign investors, he had mixed thoughts about how it went. He was the technical lead on the prototype for the company’s device that could swap bodies, and the device did just that. On the other hand, it may have done it a little too well, swapping more people in the room than just the two intended targets. For instance, Jason himself ended up swapping with the college aged daughter of one of the investors, who was tagging along with her father for some reason.

They would’ve swapped back immediately, but the device was too fried. Jason was sent back home on the next flight in order to start repairs. There were lots of murmurs about the investors puling out, but Jason realized they’d probably be hesitant to do that right away. Besides the fact that they proved their prototype actually worked, Jason also realized he now had the ultimate leverage as long as he was in the body of the daughter of their biggest Asian investor.

Fix

“You can’t just leave me here stuck in your sister’s body!” Steve protested with his hands on his hips, “What if her husband comes home? Or her kids?”

“No one will be home for hours,” Alvin assured Steve, “We know the body swap device works; it just overheated. I am going to run back home to get the parts to fix it. I’ll have you back to normal before you know it. Oh, and you may not realize this, but I think being in Karen’s body is already having an effect on you. Your stance and movements are already much more like hers than your own.”

Steve couldn’t think of a good comeback, and the more he argued the longer it would be before he was able to swap back into his own body. He never appreciated being a test subject for Alvin’s weird inventions and this one had put him in a particularly odd situation...

Making a Plan to Cause Chaos

After receiving an odd package in the mail, Bret was certainly skeptical over the instructions inside that claimed the device within was a “body swapper.” He was pretty sure this had to be a prank, yet he was still curious. After a few days he finally brought the thing to a coffee shop where he aimed it at someone and hit the button. Sure enough, he was transformed into the barista behind the counter while she became him. He pressed several more times, swapping just about everyone in the place. When he finally stopped, he was in the body of an Asian woman who had been sitting just to the left of him. As he observed the scene he realized no one seemed to even notice. The barista with his body continued to serve coffee. The businessman with the barista’s body was screaming into his cell phone (although now with a much higher pitched voice) with no concern that he was wearing a uniform for a coffee shop instead of his suit. He wondered if he could make people realize the swaps, then he could really cause some chaos...

Let Down

As Thomas entered the room, William turned toward him with an expression that seemed prepared for a let down. William paused before he spoke, “You better have found a way to fix this whole body swap thing. Your machine caused me to start randomly switching with people a month ago. I was switching with people every few hours, and you and I seem to be the only ones who actually realize it. And then I got stuck in this woman’s body for days for some reason. And now she’s about to get married. I am NOT going to be this guy’s wife.”

Thomas paused, “I’m afraid I have some bad news then. I managed to use my machine to remotely stabilize your swapping, but that means the body you’re in now is yours. You’re going to be stuck like that.”

William went from let down to angry. He was about to unload but was interrupted to be called down to the ceremony.