CTO

It was the first day of Travis’s internship when a pulse reverberated through the office, causing everyone inside the building to swap bodies. He barely knew anyone’s names and didn’t know who anyone was. All he knew was that he was now in the body of a middle aged woman wearing a nice pantsuit. It didn’t take long for someone to come along talking about how the swap was the result of the bug, and that they needed some help to fix it.

Travis quickly regretted offering up that fact that he was an intern, despite what his body may look like now -- which turns out, belonged to the CTO. He was sent to the basement to look for some files that could help.

The heels on his feet pinched and hurt as he stood looking through files. Bending over to pick up a box would cause a pain in his back. Even with this body’s glasses (which kept slipping off), the words still often looked blurry. He hated being in the body of an older person; he hated being in the body of a woman. He should’ve lied to the person who came by. He certainly shouldn’t have volunteered that he was an intern. They would have never known! And he wouldn’t have been stuck digging through old files in the basement!

Fast Learner

Cameron crossed his arms over his chest and stared at Emily with a look of impatience and frustration. “What do you mean by ‘You can’t undo this?’” He asked.

“Look around you.” She explained, “The power on every single computer is out. There was a surge or something. I think that’s why the program swapped our brains in the first place. But without a computer, I can’t fix this!”

“I was just here to print out my paper for English class, and now I’m stuck in your girlie computer nerd body! I have to go to football practice in an hour! They’ll crush me like this!”

“I’ll do your footballing for you, and then we’ll figure this out. I primise.”

“Footballing?” Cameron sighed, “They’re going to crush you too, even if you do have my body. You know nothing about the game!”

“But I AM a genius! And a fast learner! Seriously, tell me everything I need to know in the next hour, and I’m sure I’ll do okay.”

“Fine,” Cameron groaned, uncomfortably adjusting the dress he now wore as he sat down.

Goblin Princess (Part 1)

Ever since its release, Ryan had been playing a lot of the new RPG video game that the internet was buzzing about. It was immersive and a little addictive. He often found himself wishing he could live in such a magical land, and one night he made this wish while falling asleep as he played the game.

When he awoke, he was shocked to not be next to his computer. In fact, he seemed to be in a land with little to no modern technology at all. It looked strangely familiar -- exactly like the world within the game. It seemed like a dream come true, but he soon found it was more like a nightmare.

As he began to accept the fantasy world around him, he began to come to terms with his new body. It seems like he didn’t end up as the main adventurer; he didn’t even find himself in the body of one of the companions. He was an NPC, and he recognized her from his early play-throughs.

She was a villain from one of the first quests. Calling herself “Princess of the Goblins,” she was technically only half goblin (with many human features along with her goblin-like ears and teeth). She spoke with an obnoxious and shrill voice. On Ryan’s playthrough, he had killed her almost instantly after she opened her mouth. Ryan now was this character, and he paced around the castle waiting.

Sure enough, when Ryan saw an adventurer approach, he was urged to shout out the one line he had heard the NPC speak before he had killed her. He didn’t want to say it, but he couldn’t help himself.

“HELLO, FUTURE HUSBAND!” He screached at the stranger.

Ryan hoped this obnoxious behavior wouldn’t cause him to get a sword straight through the chest in the way he had done when he encountered this character.

Home Repairs

Zach had been doing repairs around the house and was getting quite tired of his wife nagging him about being careful. But as he fell off the ladder, he only had time to think about how he should have listened to her more carefully before crashing down to the ground.

He wasn’t sure how long he was knocked out, but his head was throbbing. Nothing felt broken, but nothing felt right either. The first thing he noticed was the man that now stood above him.

The man spoke, “I know you want to help, Ximora, but I’ve told you that you don’t need to. I’ve got this.”

Zach’s head pounded as he realized that Ximora was his name, and that this man standing here was his -- no wait, her -- her husband. She was struggling to remember the details of her life while also trying to forget that she had ever been Zach.

After a few moments, she finally spoke as she stood, “I’m...not...a...man.”

Her husband slapped her butt. “I should hope not. Do you feel okay?”

Part of Ximora wanted to be outraged by that slap but a larger part seemed to like it. She smiled, “I just...need some rest. I’ll be inside on the couch while I let my big, strong husband take care of things out here.”

Compatible Donor

Brad looked down at the person in the hospital bed with a sense of trepidation. He turned to the doctor and spoke, “She’s older than I would’ve expected. And I’m still not wild about the fact that it’s a woman.”

Doctor Schwartz looked Brad right in the eyes, “We don’t exactly have a wide variety of brain dead patients. There are even fewer who have relatives to sign off on experimental procedures. And she is literally the only one who is a compatible donor.”

“I understand. It’s just weird. To think that I’ll go into surgery as myself, and yet wake up...as her. I’m just not sure I’m ready.”

“You know if you pull out, you’ll likely be dead in a week. And even if you merely hesitate, there’s no guarantee her body will stay alive in the state it is in. We need to act now to save your life.”

“I know. I know. I thank you. I thank you for showing me. I needed to see beforehand. I needed to know. But I’m ready now. When I wake up. I will be her. I will be Maria Cuervas. That will be my body. It’s still weird, but I don’t have a choice.”