Back at the Lab

Ryan was running as fast as he could. He knew he was late, but he didn't want to think about what would happen if he was too late. He had a very small window in which to switch back to his own body, the technicians were very clear about that. If they did it too soon, it would fry both his and Elizabeth's brains. If they waited too long, their brains would nest in their new bodies, not allowing the machine to switch them back. They had been mostly forced to stay in the lab, but they were allowed to go out for short walks or lunch breaks. It had been one of those short walks that went on a little too long before Ryan got a desperate text saying the window was open and he needed to get back now. Ryan had wandered quite far, and now he was running to get back before that window closed.

Life's a Beach

Like most, Greg was initially surprised by the sudden body swapping resulting from the Great Shift. However, he was far from upset. When he realized he had swapped bodies with a woman he had been standing in the water next to on the beach, his shocked face quickly turned to a smile, then he swam away. He was pretty sure he was going to enjoy this new body of his.

Home

Gavin was actually quite happy to have swapped bodies with his wife. He wasn't sure how long it was going to last, but it was at least giving him a break from his stressful days at the office. In fact, while at home in his wife's body, he felt it a good idea to take care of some household chores. It turned out to not be such a good idea. He did a horrible job cleaning -- things somehow ended up messier than when he started. Cooking wasn't exactly easy either. He made dinner and promptly burnt it; tried remaking it and burnt it again. But it didn't matter to Gavin. He was still happy for some time off, and he was also strangely proud of the terrible job he did as well.

Testing

Achieving success with their body swapping machine was a breakthrough, but neither Dr. Julien Park nor Dr. Amanda Lee expected to be the ones swapped by their own invention. It was an accident while testing that caused it, an accident that also caused great damage to the machine. Both Julien and Amanda worked hard to fix it, but it was Amanda who had to deliver the bad news to Julien. She had made the final adjustments to fix the device. It would work again, but there was a problem. All of the animals she had tested on swapped fine, but the swap back kept killing them. She was afraid that a second swap was just too much for a brain to handle. Julien couldn't help himself as a tear streamed down his face as she told him the news. They'd be stuck in each other's bodies for the rest of their lives.

Consequences

Mark couldn't care less about anything anymore, not since he swapped bodies with Carol. He figured he had nothing to lose. He disassociated himself from the consequences of his actions; feeling Carol's body would be suffering any ill effects. He drank all the time, even when driving. He rode his motorcycle without a helmet. Nothing seemed to matter to him anymore... He thought to himself that maybe if he died, it would jolt his consciousness back to his own body. Or maybe he missed his own body so much that it just didn't matter if he died.

Quicker and Faster

Chris was absolutely miserable after swapping bodies with Mia. There was a lot he disliked about being a woman. Among them was how long it took to get ready in the morning. While Mia worked on fixing her invention that swapped their bodies, Chris looked for ways to make his life as a woman a little easier. For instance, Mia insisted he wear makeup every day. Chris hated it, but it only took him a few weeks to find a quicker and faster way of applying.

Zapped

Barry was a little more than surprised when in two roommates walked in from the garage with a weird-looking gun. It was huge and unwieldy, and they didn't explain too much about what it did before it started powering up. Barry saw the glow of the gun only briefly before it zapped him. He was thankful to be alive, but a little surprised at what the gun actually did. He was now a smoking hot blonde woman in a little red dress. He asked his roommates to zap him again to turn him back, but neither of them could seem to get the gun to reactivate. Until they could figure out how to fix this, Barry was stuck.

Upset

Jared wasn't that upset when the Great Shift happened. He figured he could cope pretty well with being a woman, but then his life started to fall apart. His boss felt he wasn't able to deal with the responsibilities of work with his new body. His girlfriend swapped into the body of another woman, and she wasn't sure she wanted a "lesbian-ish" relationship, so she dumped him. As he packed up his things, preparing to move back home with his parents for a bit, Jared broke down. He couldn't understand why. He had tried to hold it together, but it was just like he had a sudden flow of emotions that he could no longer control...

Best Two Out of Three

Eric didn't exactly know why he made the offer. He knew Miyung didn't know how to use his body swapping device; there was no way she'd be able to get her body back without his help. Still, he wanted to feel like he had taken her body fair and square. He told her if she could beat him in rock, paper, scissors, he'd switch back with her. And so it was a simple, "One, two, three, shoot;" Eric picked rock. A grin formed on his face when he saw that Miyung had picked scissors. She got a desperate look in her eye and asked, "Best two out of three?"

Youth

Ellen considered herself one of the lucky ones. When the Great Shift hit, she didn't find herself in a different body. She was fortunately still herself. Her husband, on the other hand, was now in the body of a young woman. He was pretty broken up about it. She did her best to cheer him up. She told him to embrace his reclaimed youth, to enjoy his new life and body, to hang out with other young people. After a few weeks, she started to wish she hadn't. He reluctantly began hanging out at the mall, going to clubs. But it wasn't long before he began to enjoy himself. He started to listen to youthful music and dress just like a young woman would. Ellen suspected he even had a boyfriend that he wasn't telling her about.

What's Happening?

Larry was pretty proud of himself. It took him only about two weeks to memorize the spell from the book before he promptly used it to steal Jacqueline's body. And becoming her felt like such a rush; it felt good. But it didn't take long before his emotions started to crash. He started to feel very different, very quickly. He couldn't believe his sudden change of mood and questioned it aloud once he felt a sharp cramp. Jacqueline's body was experiencing PMS, and Larry was completely shocked by the unfamiliar feelings.

In a Cage (Part 3)

Click here for Part 1.
Click here for Part 2.

Jason awoke in an unfamiliar bed to the sound of buzzing. He had almost forgotten about the past few days until he looked down to see his new body. The buzzing continued, and then turned to banging.

"Hurry up! You're late!" He heard a voice on the other side of a door say.

He opened up, and a man in a fancy suit rushed him out the door and into a black car. He was driven to a studio, where he was prompted stripped naked, pushed into a dress, and his hair and makeup were all done up. The next thing he knew, he was shoved in front of a camera. It was like he was on autopilot as he posed for the shots. He had no idea what he was doing, but the photographer seemed to love it.

If this was his life now, Jason realized that he really couldn't complain. It was different, but it beat the drudgery of his old desk job. A part of him felt a little guilty. He knew none of this was his fault. He hadn't asked to be in her body -- he hadn't been the one responsible for the failed experiment that destroyed her brain -- but he still felt bad about it. He couldn't help but wonder what would've happened if she had survived with his body instead of him with hers.

In a Cage (Part 2)

Click here for Part 1.

The man disappeared into the shadows, leaving Jason alone in the cage. He rubbed his shoulder uncomfortably. He wasn't sure he'd ever get used to this body, but it sounded like he would have to. Part of him couldn't believe his own body was actually gone along with this woman's brain. He hadn't even asked her name earlier. He was going to have to live her life, yet he really didn't know who she was. And hadn't the man said he was going to be released?

He waited for hours, just trying to adjust to this new body. No matter how much time passed, he still didn't feel comfortable. He didn't even notice when the gas filled the room once more...

In a Cage

Jason had a tough day at work. He decided to unwind with drinks at a bar with a few of his co-workers. He ended up staying later than he expected and had a few more than he anticipated. As he stumbled back home, a strange van pulled up beside him. The details were a little fuzzy, but he woke up the next morning in a cage. A eccentric old man in a white coat greeted him from just outside the cage, telling Jason that he lucky to be one of his test subjects. Jason was nervous, but the days passed in the cage without any cause for alarm. That is, until a few days later when he woke up and saw a woman in the cage next to him. She told him that she had been modeling in a fashion show when the lights went out; she woke up here. Jason told her about the weird old man that had greeted him when he first arrived. They didn't have much time to talk before a strange gas in the room knocked them both out.

Jason awoke again in the cage, feeling different. The cage beside him was empty once more, and the doctor was standing in the room once more.

"What did you do to her?" He asked, realizing his voice sounded funny. He looked down to see the fashionable clothes the woman from the other cage had been wearing. Except now, Jason was the one wearing them, and he not only had her clothes...he had her body, too!

The old man smiled, "I think you've figured it out, but let me fill you in on the details. You are the first lucky human to successfully undergo a body swapping procedure I invented. The young woman you switched with was not so fortunate, which means that there will be no reversing this procedure, I'm quite sorry to say. The good news is that as soon as you are well, I will release you. But I will also be keeping a close monitor on you..."

Elevator

Mark knew it was going to happen eventually; he knew it was only a matter of time before he ran into Elizabeth after the two had swapped bodies. And to make matter worse, he was going to be stuck in an elevator with her, for what he was sure was going to be a long and uncomfortable ride down from the thirtieth floor. Except she didn't yell at him or blame him like he expected. She just sort of stood there and smirked while looking at him, like she knew something he didn't. He wanted to ask if she knew more about the body swap, but he couldn't seem to bring himself to do so.

The Device

When Alexa was handed the small device in the mall, she was taken off guard. She saw the small thing in her hand before hearing a voice whisper, "You can use this to swap bodies with anyone." She looked around, but couldn't find who spoke the words and gave her this thing. It seemed sort of unbelievable. The small white device had a single button. Not taking this all too seriously, Alexa pressed it. Alexa was a little surprised to see that her hands holding the device had changed. They were larger and more masculine. She had, in fact, swapped bodies with someone. She looked up to see her own body right in front of her. The man now inside her body was understandably freaking out. She tried to approach him, to tell him that he could fix this. The man now in her body didn't want to hear any of it. He was terrified to be in someone else's body and was even more freaked out when he saw his own body approaching. Instead of listening, he just walked away, as fast as he could with Alexa's heeled boots now on his feet. Alexa didn't want to risk pressing the button again, potentially hitting someone else with this device, and screwing things up even more, so she went after her body. However, it wasn't long before she was lost in the crowd, leaving Alexa and the man she swapped with stuck.

Slap

Ben was sure he was dreaming/ He HAD to be dreaming. You don't just walk down the street and swap bodies with a woman walking the other way; that just doesn't happen. Yet everything seemed so real. The sights, the sounds, and even the smells all seemed so realistic. He kept telling himself he needed to wake up. With his girlfriend's house not far, he rushed over and explained the situation. He also made a simple request: slap him. She was hesitant at first. It felt weird hitting anyone. She reluctantly did so before pulling back a little embarrassed. Ben, on the other hand, was just upset that it didn't wake him from this nightmare; he was starting to think that he might not be dreaming.

Reversal Potion

Gustav smelled the potion and took a quick taste. It was awful. He held his nose as he downed the spoonful and then coughed. He hoped it would work, that he would be back in his own body. But Emily still stared at him using his own eyes.

"You have to drink the entire bottle for the reversal potion to work," She told him.

Gustav groaned. He couldn't imagine drinking another spoonful, let alone the entire rest of the bottle. But he guessed that was the price if he wanted to swap back bodies with Emily. Then again, maybe he could get used to being Emily. A lifetime in her body seemed better than drinking any more of that potion.

Stereotype

Despite swapping bodies in their university's Chemical Biology class last night, Ellen and Yan decided it was best to try to pretend to act like the other until they were able to swap back. They had met up in the morning, prepared to go to their first class, but Yan stopped Ellen.

"What are you wearing?" He asked her, "A collared shirt? Tucked in? You're making me look like such a dweeb! Why didn't you wear something like a t-shirt and jeans."

Ellen rolled her eyes, "I thought this looked good!"

"It does! That's not the problem. But if the other guys see me in that, they are going to see me as a nerdy Asian stereotype that I have fought for years to overcome."

"Whatever. We'll be switched back tonight. I'm sure I can't damage your reputation in one day..."

Take It

Jack hadn't initially minded swapping bodies with his secretary, Kristen. He actually found being a woman sort of thrilling and invigorating. Of course, it didn't seem to take too long for the power of being in his body to go to Kristen's head. She made him do all manner of humiliating tasks, then one day she decided to spank him. He threatened to sue, but then she told him she'd just swap back, leaving him to deal with the lawsuit. He threatened to quit, then she said he'd never, ever get his body back and be stuck penniless and without a job in her body. He felt stuck, so for the time being, he just decided to take it.