Dan returned to his dorm room, puzzled and a little weirded out. He’d just helped an old lady who had fallen over in the street, gently lifting her back to her feet and making sure she wasn’t injured. As he was about to take his leave, she put a hand on his arm said that as a mark of her gratitude for his assistance, she was giving him the ability to swap whatever he desired with whomever he desired, whenever he desired.
Freaked out by this strange turn of events, he hurried away. Now he was back in his room though, he had a chance to think about what she had said. She must have been crazy, but it was strange how she had hit on his secret fantasy. Dan had always wanted to know how it felt to experience other people's bodies or body parts, he got a thrill at the thought of messing around with his housemates and fellow students.
What if the mad old bat was telling the truth and really had given him the ability to swap with other people? There was only one way to find out – he needed to test his hypothesis. Dan headed out to the university library to find some likely guinea pigs.
Once there, he wandered between the shelves looking for a possible target. Not knowing what – if anything – would happen, and how his test subjects would react, he didn’t want to do anything too drastic or noticeable. Finally, he found what he was looking for – a male student not particularly attractive but with short buzzed hair sitting at a desk with his back to a girl with silky smooth brunette locks.
Seeing that no one else was around and betting the change wouldn’t be too alarming, he thought about the swap he wanted to make. And just as he thought about it the guy had a head of lustrous brown hair, and the girl had a blond buzz cut, showing off every contour of her skull. Neither of them seemed to notice the change, the guy tucked his hair behind his ear to keep it out of the way of the textbook he was reading, while the girl did not seem remotely concerned that her head was suddenly considerably lighter than it was mere seconds ago. Amazed and excited, Dan decided to try swapping them back, to see if he could. The hair does returned to their rightful owners with no muss or fuss, giving Dan reassurance he could switch and switch back any time.
Convinced that the old woman had truly given him a gift, he moved on to find more opportunities to test his powers.