Reassignment (Part 2)

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There was very little information given to the public about the Reassignment Center; there was very little knowledge about reassignment in general. What most people did know is that once each year, a few select people would wake up with the wrong body and by the end of the day things seemed to return to normal. None of the swapped people ever seemed to talk about (or even remember) what happened, Lewis was brought to a room in the center where he was sat down in a chair. Another man in a suit entered and sat behind a desk reading off some papers.

“Lewis Stevens,” He said, “You are now in the body of Frances McCarthy. She’s a housewife from Arizona. We will help you transition to this new role.”

“Transition to this new role?” Lewis asked, “Look, I don’t know anything about being a housewife or a woman. I don’t know if I want to know. Can’t you just swap me back and I can go home?”

“That’s not what we do here. We do not swap people back. We only help them adjust. This isn’t a request, Mr. Stevens. It’s an order.”

Community Meeting

At the time, it seemed inexplicable. The four neighbors had all gathered for a community meeting when the Great Shift swapped their bodies.

Cheryl, who had swapped with Angelica, pulled out a paper and started drawing, “Here’s where we each were standing when we swapped bodies. Maybe if we stand there again...”

John stood up in protest, “Do you realize how stupid that sounds?”

“John, please be calm!” His wife Angelica pleaded.

“It’s easy for you to be calm! You switched with Cheryl. She’s a beautiful woman; you’re a beautiful woman -- what really chances? But look at me! I switched with that old Asian woman from 21! I was a man; I was young!”

Angelica rolled her eyes, “We’ve all seen your bald spot, John. And Lina is only a few years older than you. Yes, you are coping with a strange situation, but breaking into hysterics isn’t going to help any of us!”

First Night Out (Part 3)

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Click here for Part 2.

It didn’t take long for Al to lose track of how many drinks he had downed. He was pretty confident that it wasn’t that many, and he was certainly sure it was less than he would usually have. He simply couldn’t figure out why he felt so drunk; he just hadn’t taken into account the fact that his borrowed body had a lower tolerance. The weirder thing was that he was starting to get very flirty. He would bat his eyelashes at various guys or giggle softly. As he stared across the room, his eyes met a man on the other side. They exchanged some glances before Al turned away when a sudden wave of shyness and panic set over him. Al realized he wasn’t acting like himself. This wasn’t the way he flirted, and it certainly wasn’t the types of people he flirted with -- he was supposed to flirt with women! He was a guy at heart. Still, speaking of guys, that one was kind of cute. He returned his gaze, noticing the man had moved closer. His heart pounded; he was feeling nervous as the man approached.

Claw Machine

It had been almost three years since Gavin and Tracy had swapped bodies using the Medallion of Zulu and almost just as long since they had lost the strange piece of jewelry. For the most part, Gavin had tried to put it out of his mind and accept his new life as Tracy. It was truly by chance that he saw the sparkle in the claw machine that he was able to immediately identify. It was the Medallion, the cheap necklace seemed to mock him from inside the machine. He plunked all his change down in an attempt to win the Medallion, but he came up unsurprisingly short. He cursed as he went to a cashier to turn a twenty into more quarters, but in the short time he was gone, the Medallion had disappeared. He was sure he had kept one eye over here, and he hadn’t seen anyone else play. Maybe it got lost in the pile of stuffed animals somehow? He had been so close to finding it again! How did he let it slip through his fingers like that! He could’ve finally gotten back to his own body after three long years!

Some rights reservedAttribution Photo by Jakob Montrasio

Some rights reservedAttribution Caption added by Great Shift Captions

The Business

Warren never explained to his clients how he could swap bodies with anyone; he merely offered his service to anybody that could afford it. Frequently, people would pay him in order to enact some sort of revenge on an ex. He had just completed a job for a man named Devin Lund. Devin had hired Warren to swap bodies with Nancy Lu. His instructions were to break up with Nancy’s current boyfriend in a humiliating manner. Warren had caused quite a scene at the restaurant, and he was sure Nancy’s boyfriend would never be calling her again. He was ready for the next job.

He looked down at his scheduling book to see the name of the client, Nancy Lu, and the subject of the swap, Devin Lund. He called his assistant to make sure there wasn’t a mistake. Sure enough, there wasn’t. Both Devin AND Nancy had hired him to enact revenge. And what did Nancy want Warren to do with Devin’s body? She wanted Devin’s body to go to work wearing a dress. Warren smiled; that certainly wasn’t a difficult humiliation. He began to prepare for the swap...