Our story takes place in a universe just next door, where the setting is culturally identical to the 1980s, with more progressive social structure on race and sexual orientation. Money is king, yuppies abound. Lots of comfortable middle class couple still raising kids, gay and straight. Punk rock is the scariest thing in the news.
And body swaps are real.
Eddie had never been more excited than the day his dad announced they were going to a body swap summer camp.
He had, of course, known kids who had done it. In fact, a lot of his friends were doing it, even if they didn't have fathers. The camps always provided grown men who were willing to be swap participants for a whole three months of fun, sun, and being a different age again.
The swaps were made possible by a technology that could capture the memory of an individual, store their entire consciousness on a small, thin implant that what looked like a marble attached to the spine and that relayed information via a shunt. No fuss no muss. One person goes into VR slumber for a few minutes, wakes up in a new body. Easy peasy.
At first this technology had been used for only important life-saving matters. Sometimes, early on, parents sacrificed their lives for their children, if the child's body was in danger of dying, or about to die. The parent would then be relayed to a virtual universe where they would stay until a body could be arranged for you. Society had evolved to the point where all prisoners were in virtual worlds and their bodies were being used by citizens.
The virtual prisons were sparing. You could do anything with a virtual world. If rich people went to jail, or had good lawyers, they could arrange for something really pleasant. As it stood, virtual worlds were often way better than reality, so the technology was illegal for most of the population to use.
Body swaps, however, were all the rage these days. Entire festivals celebrated racial swaps or age swaps, or body type swaps. Everyone had a different signature on their implant, which allowed them to avoid getting abducted for their body. You had to have specific codes to actually access the system in order to body swap and the body's owners were never given that information. It was kept track of meticulously well.
Eventually, a greater understanding developed in society. Tolerance became almost unanimous after people could view their lives through a different lens, or have the chance one day at a new body provided they could pay for it. Younger desperate people were giving up their young bodies for older ones for cash, based on the contract for permanent swaps. Such swaps were legal now. People could trade their bodies but they had to divulge complete medical histories and could not be sued later if a situation developed. At the least, people could wind up in virtual environments, which were becoming quite wonderful these days according to the dead participants. So many young people with problem families or lower income favelas found themselves faced with either dealing with unspeakable poverty, or letting an elderly person become young again after a significant amount of money was exchanged. Some middle aged people having midlife crises got younger teenage bodies the way people used to celebrate their middle years by buying a sports car or plastic surgery.
Willing swaps for fun were, comparatively, less common. The swap itself did cost money, so with enough resources someone could easily pay for a vacation where they got paired with a ten year old.
Fathers and sons could choose to swap with each other or with other boys and their dads. Everyone signed up for something different. The boys without dads had pre-arranged visits with the men they would be swapping with. Some of them had decided upon letting the camp pair them up with random swaps.
This is what Eddie Fletcher and his father Sully, (short for Sullivan) decided to sign up for.
"This is going to be awesome!"
"You might want to read the fine print. You might wind up in a fat older man or a stud like me."
"You're not a stud. That would be awesome if I wound up in a guy with big muscles!" Eddie made a pose with his pathetically small arms.
"Uh...my muscles are way bigger than...YOURS!" his father replied, getting down a little to show off his bicep. It wasn't bad, he had to admit.
13 inches is not bad given the fact that I work all the time, he thought, and I'm raising a kid with just my sister. Eddie's mother was in a virtual world since her accident. You can't visit people there, and she was in a long line for prisoner borrowed bodies. This was going to be the ultimate bonding experience with his son. He hoped giving Eddie for three months really built up his confidence in himself, and at the very least he could make both new kid and adult friends. Of course, everyone would be switched up, but he would be under the care of experienced swap counselors.
The swap counselors made sure that everything ran smoothly and none of the New Adults didn't go on any powertrips. Everyone had to take a counseling course with a therapist to meet the requirements, even for a willing swap like this one.
Eddie had laughed trying to flex his meager arms next to his father's. His father's body wasn't bad but his dad was kind of on the old side. Sully was getting gray at the age of 49, though he was devastatingly handsome. Sully would be favorably compared in our universe to an older version of Luke Perry, with crinkling around the skin of his eyes and mouth which wrinkled as he aged quite well in a very alluring way. But Eddie didn't want to switch with his father. Eddie wanted something different to look at in the mirror, Sully thought. He was going to make some kid pretty happy, though. What he may have lacked in height, he more than made up for down below, and had a whopping 9 inch cock. He kept that to himself, though. He didn't want Eddie to know until after the swap what he'd missed out on! A little dad humour in every situation goes a long way, he thought.
Sully had looked at himself in the mirror the night before, scratched his stubble, felt his receding hairline which crept up in a big round patch halfway up his head. Every year it crept a little bit longer, he thought. He had considered shaving it all off, but his vanity prevented it. He wanted to settle for distinguished looking, but he couldn't bring himself to shear off all his hair.
Now, driving up to Camp Tradeheart, Eddie felt so much excitement he could barely contain himself. A big banner saying CAMP TRADEHEART. Its name was practically chirpy, he thought. Eddie practically ran out of the car and all the way up to the registration booth before his dad called him to wait, because they had to bring some bags with them so they could save themselves more trips to the car.
"See, when you're the dad, this is the sort of thing you have to think about," he said handing his son a rolled up sleeping bag. "You have to think ahead because you'll be the adult. You understand?" Sully smiled and put a warm arm around his son. These camps were infamous for building up character and rapport.
"I hope I'm really tall!" Eddie told him and Sully laughed. "Yeah. What, I wasn't tall enough? What if you wind up with someone shorter than me, huh? I'm 5'9". I'm a good height."
"I wanna be really, really tall!" Eddie danced ahead, skipping around, jumping with both arms up in the air, carrying his bags. He tripped slightly and caught himself. Sully smiled. That mind was going to be in a grown man's body within a few hours, he thought wryly.
They registered, let their retinal prints be recorded, got their keys and headed towards the cabin.
"Orientation begins at 5 o' clock. Here's your Swap Partners information. You have been paired with Lewis and Russell Boswell. You guys will have a scheduled meeting at 6:30 PM, OK?" The booth attendant handed him the materials.
"Shouldn't I be the one to carry the keys? I am going to be the adult soon," Eddie said, persuading his dad to reluctantly hand over the keys. After they swapped bodies, they would still bunk together, looking like entirely different people.
A few hours later, after they'd settled in and found their bearings, our intrepid father and son duo commenced to Orientation. They sat on wooden benches made from logs, situated around a small stage. The counselors came out and introduced themselves, waved to the audience.
The main speaker was Sid Ward, a heavily stubbled bald man in his 50s with a deep tan, and a bit of a gut, but muscular elsewhere.
"Good evening, everyone," he welcomed them. "My name is Sid Ward and WELCOME to Camp Tradeheart. I am so proud to be a part of this experience with you. Now, there are nine counselors here, I'll go through all of them for you. Some of them will be swapping with boys without an escort. Others will not. Will the ones who will be swapping come forward please. Great. And the children swapping bodies with these counselors, could you please come on stage?"
A gaggle of pint sized little leaguer types bobbed up on stage, all grinning from either embarrassment or genuine excitement. One of them came up next to Sid and he smiled, shook the boy's hand
"Now we have four of you swapping. And I'm swapping. That means four of the adults in back behind me, they will remain adults, while the others will swap. That means when you see these four kids, after the assembly and your swaps tonight, you're going to look to these children for help. And this guy right here," he put a hand on the boy's shoulder "is going to swap with me." The boy grinned from ear to ear. He had smooth chestnut hair and noticeable freckles on his face. "So he'll be me, in charge of this whole place. And his name is Timothy. So this body you see after a few hours from now will be Timothy enjoying the quite muscular frame I've decided to donate to him. There was a last minute snafu with another counselor not being able to make it so I will be taking his place with this swap. I'm very experienced with this sort of thing.
So these children on stage. They are going to have the counselor's mind, experience, personality, everything. They will always be wearing their name badge necklaces and they will usually be wearing the badges on some of their clothes that has a muscle arm on it. That is for fitness in their old bodies, and symbolizes the work they put into their bodies, that identifies there's a big strong man in that little boy body. You should treat them with respect and listen to them. They are employees and they are trained to handle any situation that comes up. Now, we've had a few incidents lately," Sid got serious. "And I do need to discuss this, of kids in adult bodies acting in an inappropriate ways with adults while they are trapped in child bodies. We make this clear on our website, on our phone line, and in person. You cannot abuse your bodies, boys. You do not have the right to exact punishment like spankings and the like. Now we had a pair or brothers here in their adult bodies the other week, they got together and they spanked their father, out in a field where no one could see. And the problem with that was that the father of that little boy was in another body and he found out his son's body had been spanked. So he can sue now. So when it's randomized, this is the sort of thing that can happen. Now, with that having been said, I know that 99% of the time, everything goes smoothly and everyone is great. Most kids do not go onto power trips.
On that note, there are punishments for BOTH parties. Adult men in the room, listen up. When you swap with a child, you are going to be treated like a child for the entire time you're here. That means you make zero decisions unless we tell you otherwise. You are giving up control of the entire situation, to your life. This is part of the experience. We've had a few freakouts over the years of fathers who couldn't handle not being in control. If you always want to be in control, this situation is not for you. We are building up the next generation by getting them acclimated to not only being in a man's body, but thinking like men, behaving like men, being proud of their work like grown men. This is what we offer.
Now, to all you boys. You are about to get a responsibility boost. This camp gives you the chance to prove yourselves. Can you be the men your fathers are, or better? You want to prove something? Do it in activities. Push your physical limits. Be the best men you can be. Lead your new sons. Your fathers are going to let you be the man of the house, or the cabin as it were. So dads, you're going to give up all of your power to your sons. Sons, you're going to take it very seriously. Now, for the elephant in the room, the moment you've all been waiting for!
This camp does have a reputation. We allow the boys in their new bodies to explore them. We will be taking field trips to a few bars, to a few ranches out here with a lot of voluptuous women. For gay men, we set them up in advance with the knowledge there will be other gay men available so they aren't the only ones. And we have at least, how many is it? Yes. Seven. So we have seven gay fathers here today! So your son might wind up in a gay body. We asked all of you if that was a problem before. Anyone want to change their minds? Okay, good. Now, puberty. You boys listen up and listen up well.
Your bodies are about to be those of big, lumbering men. You're going to have cravings. Some of you might need nicotine. If you signed the waiver, that you didn't mind this, great. Otherwise we already paired you with someone that met your specifications. You had to approve it in advance or not care. We have all that info. So, you give permission for alcohol, tobacco, weed usage in your body. Now. Sex. You boys have for the most part not experienced male orgasms. So we're going to encourage you to watch the porn tapes in the video rec room so you can get a good idea of how your new equipment works. Fathers, you will not be allowed in this room ever because you will not be old enough to watch.
Apart from this, with all contracts already signed, you should all be ready for your new bodies. I now hand the stage over to my counselors, who are going to introduce themselves..."
Eddie and Sully both came out of the orientation meeting feeling really good but nervous.
'"Alright, son, are you ready?" Sully asked, as they were about to step into the Swap Cabin.
"I'm ready. And uh...call me DAD from now on."
"Okay. Dad," Sully tried the word out, seeing how it rolled off his tongue. "Dad. Dad. Daaaad. Daaad, I'm bored," he mock complained, making Eddie laugh.
They got to the Swap Cabin where several counselors met with them and their chosen partners. Sully and his son sat down across from another man and his son: Lewis and Russell Boswell