"Change us back," Jon told Samantha. The older woman shook her head. "Hey, now, let's not be hasty-"
"Hasty!?" Jon yelped, still thrown off by the unfamiliar voice. "You turned me into a girl, and you think wanting to be turned back is hasty?"
"Listen," Samantha said, "I understand you're a bit disoriented, but this isn't something you just do twice in the space of a couple minutes. It's designed with a minimum three-hour duration between swaps; I don't know what might or might not happen if we tried to switch you back early."
Jon huffed; it sounded more pouty than she had wanted, and that made her still more irritated. "Three hours? What are we supposed to do for three hours!?" She glanced at her own body, whose occupant was still staring at Samantha and reacting accordingly; evidently he had some ideas, but that didn't mean she wanted to just...to just...
She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. The older woman shrugged. "Well," she said, "that's the whole point of the mixer, to give people a chance to settle into their new bodies while their brains get the hang of things. Of course, it's your decision if you want to go mingle or not; there are any number of other ways to kill a few hours here." Jon could've sworn that she winked at her, but didn't catch it quite fast enough to know for sure.
"Anyway, that's what I'd suggest you do, while I look into why you weren't told about the nature of this event," she said. "Of course, if there's something else you want to do, feel free."
Hrt "partner's" focus was on her now. Jon frowned, trying to keep her focus on the issue at hand. Why did she feel...? "Did you...did you make us feel...?" She couldn't even finish the sentence, but she didn't really need to. Samantha shook her head. "Of course not. Any feelings you experience are the result of your own mind interacting with your new body. That is the point of the whole event, the perception gained by experiencing everything - the world, social interactions, physical sensations, even the perception of oneself - through the eyes of another. To meddle with that would invalidate the whole thing!" She stood and left the room in a bit of a huff.
Jon sighed. "Well," she said, "I guess we just kill some time now..."
The girl in her body wasn't paying too much attention. "H-have I...have I always been this cute?" he asked. Jon blushed a bit, then tried to clear her head. Time to change the subject. "Uh, my name's Jon," she said, looking at the nametag on her former body's chest...
