With eternity to explore, improve our bodies, and learn, we did everything. Hundreds of new games were invented and shared over the internet, using equipment that could be easily acquired.

CAUTION: This story is based on a COVID conspiracy theory. I do not personally believe in any such theories, but I’m sharing it anyway. The story was written in the early months of the COVID-19 quarantine, and this was the kind of dream I had some nights during that time.

We didn’t realize what the virus was really doing until it was too late.

In the morning, we stripped and showered. There was a private bathroom in our room. I went first. Sputty was standing there stark naked and not hiding her body from me in the least when I came out and she went in for her turn.

Mad scientist John Crevil and his wife swapped bodies with billionaire Jacob Astoria and his wife, but they got found out, and performed a second swap into the bodies of the Astoria’s chauffeur and maid in order to try to escape. How’s it all going to end?

Mad scientist John Crevil and his wife Betty have pulled off the perfect crime: They used gene-editing technology to make themselves perfect doubles of billionaire Jacob Astoria and his wife Margaret, used the same technology to make the Astorias look like themselves, and left the Astorias knocked out so they are unable to find the nutrition needed to survive the changes. Or have they? They were worried when an unknown extra person unexpectedly stepped into the fray.

It turned out that three of the remote, transformed family members had trans children who were bullied for their beliefs, and who volunteered to be the beginning of a new settlement.
I was designated the leader of this project, and got the three prospective settlers to join a Zoom call.

A couple months after the honeymoon, I was trying to track down a water leak that was dribbling water out into the restaurant’s dining room. They didn't have proper building plans, and they were only able to give me the same sort of map they might give guests. When I looked at the area of the leak, I noticed the map didn’t even match the building.

Though I was born Jacob Taylor, long ago I was certain that I wanted to become a girl. I’ve been going as Joanna for many years, but that transition took time. I always figured some day I would save up enough money to take a long leave from work and change the surgical way, but I knew it was a long-term dream. That all changed when I made a connection on that exotic dating site. Maria Lorenti was her name, and as male, he went by Marco.

The next weekend I was back there, and there were a bunch more new garments to sort out, and we did those first. Mom, Grandma, and I were doing it again, though we reversed the sequence so I was measuring Grandma. And it was just like before, we got a variety of different ages, sizes, and looks. A few more women than men. The weird thing was I was finding I enjoyed the times I was a woman more than when I was a man.

We ended up planning a combined graduation and wedding. I managed to find a wedding dress for three hundred dollars and spent another eighty getting it tailored down to fit me. One thing I didn’t tailor was the bust. It was designed for C or D cup boobs, and it was cheaper to buy C-cup breast forms to fill them than fix that part of the dress. And why not? It would help me look more womanly, and it was something I should have done years ago.

I was raised as a boy. The first time I figured out something was wrong with that was when I was 5.

I’d been in Trans-Sylvania for slightly less than a year when I got a private communication from the governors. At first, the governors had been only a vague concept to me. It wasn’t until I was working for Alyssa that I’d seen anything from the governors, and then it was second-hand stuff passed on from Alyssa. When I was an Enforcer, I’d seen group emails sent to everyone in Enforcement from the governors.

This time I was being called in for a private meeting with them, and I was told it wasn’t about my job, or at least, not my current one.

“I’m happy to do this double date if we can make the scheduling work, and if Pam agrees. I’m wondering if we should talk to Pam ourselves first, though, to help her get ready like you did with Phil.”

“Hmm, maybe. I agree that she might need help also, but I didn’t actually meet her yet.”

“Play it by ear, I guess. With sufficient notice I can do this anytime, even overnights, apart from my work hours, which you know now.”

I followed her down to a portal to the 18th level, where there was a theater. But not movies on a screen. We went past the main entrance to the theater, down a long corridor, and through one of several doors, onto an empty stage, behind closed curtains. From some sort of control panel Anna selected something. There was a mechanism that I could hear under the stage which moved some set pieces into place. The title “Romeo and Juliet” appeared facing us at the top of the curtain. She did a bit more, and the display changed to read “Rosalie and Juliet.”

“Do you want to be Rosalie or Juliet?”

I converted the rest of my wallet to more of a woman’s wallet, including the other cards inside at least converting to show my new name, not knowing whether they were going to be good for anything. Then I grabbed some bag from my pile of other possessions and turned it into a small purse also matching my current outfit. I put my license in the wallet, my wallet in the purse, and also put my lipstick and phone in.

I was a senior in high school when an underground gas leak led to a massive explosion in my neighborhood. The houses that weren’t immediately destroyed caught fire, and it was a while before they could put all the fire out. Everything for blocks was destroyed.

The houses were rebuilt, and I moved back into my family's house... alone.

I realized I didn’t want this. It wasn’t my house, my neighborhood, or my neighbors. They were all a bunch of imitations. The unique houses on my street had been replaced with a bunch of cookie-cutter copies sized like the originals, but not really like them otherwise. I was living in an imitation of the house I grew up in, without any of what made it special. I was alone, next to nobody I knew. The neighbors were strangers who bought the other rebuilt houses from the heirs of my former neighbors. It felt completely artificial, and I wanted to get away.

If you ever find a target on the planet referenced in Ethertravel Report #2 (report and transmission data attached), contact me. I am available 24/7 for this at attached number. Hold target for me. I will head to nearest station ASAP to ethertravel there.

- Gregorevich

Ethertravel report #2, received February 12, 2417.

I, Johnny Tavaros, am an ethertraveler. I went out in one of the early groups in 2416.

I arrived into the world in a confusion of darkness and pressure. Was I not born yet?

I wanted to be born, and then I was. I burst out of what I realized had been an egg. I looked at myself and was surprised to see that I was myself. That is, I was still the human Johnny Tavaros. I arrived in the world fully clothed, in clothes I had owned on Earth. How was this possible?

I was born a girl here. At least, that’s what my parents said. When I inspected myself, I found myself to have a penis, but they seemed sure I was a girl.

My earliest memory is discovering I was in an egg, and having to fight my way out of it. My giant mother breast-fed me. My father was larger than me, but only by the degree I would expect, or even less than that. He had a normal-sized house inside the huge house where my mother lived.

I left Earth in 2437, and it has been a long time, but I have no idea how long. Tens of thousands of the days here, but I don’t know how long the days are. However long ago that was, I arrived as a blob of slime.