"So, before we begin, I'd just like to confirm a few things," Ms. Cane began briskly. As she spoke, Kenji fished out a little palm sized projector from his bag, and had Roger draw the front curtains closed to darken the room. The projector whirred to life and displayed in a column down the left side of the wall pictures of each of the family plus Karyn "the gathered contestants here today are Roger Wayne Gibson, age 45, accountant, Linda Madison Gibson, age 42, legal assistant, Jon Merlin Gibson, age 16, junior, Karyn Bethany Black, age 16, junior, Zoe Rachel Gibson, age 14, freshman, and Michael Hiram Gibson, age 10, middle school student, right?"
"That's correct," Roger said calmly. The family had gathered on one side of the room, Roger and Linda on the loveseat, Zoe in an armchair and Mikey, Karyn and Jon sitting on the sofa, all facing the wall with the projection on it.
"Excellent, a perfect little slice of ordinary America," Ms. Cane declared. Jon wasn't really sure how much of this was for them and how much was for the eventual audience who would be watching the footage that was supposedly being recorded by the microscopic floating cameras. "Well, what if I were to tell you that for the next six months, that's all going to change?"
Linda giggled behind her hand, "well we expected something like that when we agreed to do the show. Although, I guess we can't be going too far from home since you didn't have us put in for time off from work or tell the kid's schools they'd be traveling."
"Yeah, I was a bit disappointment by that," Roger agreed, "a free vacation would have made this even more fun."
Ms. Cane smirked, "Ah, well that's just the thing. As far as anyone knows the Gibson family won't be going anywhere, because for the next six months, an entirely different group of people will be the Gibsons!"
"Wait, so this is like an extreme version of like House Swap?" Karyn asked, leaning forward.
"Oh it's much more than that," the handsome man who seemed to be in charge cut in, "using cutting edge technology, each of you will be swapping lives with another contestant for the whole duration of the show. They'll be here, being the Gibsons, while you'll be them!"
Jon was starting to panic again, but before he could interject his mom asked, "ooh, so we'll be switching with another family then?"
Ms Cane gestured towards Kenji who began typing something on the tablet, before saying, "No, you won't be switching with just anyone, you'll be swapping places with some of the biggest names in entertainment, because this is STAR SWAP"
The projection had a motion graphic fly across it, showing the silhouettes of two people, one bright and shiny and the other a dark grey smash into each other before morphing and twisting into a weird sort of yin-yang symbol that then had the words Star Swap appear in front of it.
"We're going to be celebrities?" Linda asked with unconcealed excitement. For a woman who'd always felt pushed to the background, getting to pretend to be one of the jet set for a little while was sounding like a dream.
"Ugh, I don't wanna have to be some bubblegum phony," Zoe complained.
"Wait, you said we're going to switch places with them, but how is that going to work? I mean, you can let us live in their mansions or whatever, but it's going to be pretty obvious we're not these famous people the moment we go out in public," Karyn observed.
The handsome gentleman, who Jon was really wishing he knew the name of at this point, shook his head, "of course you're right. That would never work and it's why this show is only just now happening, now that some new breakthroughs in technology are going to make it possible. We'll be swapping your minds with your partners, so you'll be them from head to toe and visa versa. Our audience will get to see how all six of you react to suddenly having famous faces, while at the same time seeing if the six out of touch celebs can hack it as an ordinary family."
Jon wanted to protest that such technology was surely science fiction, but considering no one else was objecting, decided to remain silent. He knew now more than ever that this had to be the result of the stone, and also figured there was nothing he could do about it while everyone was all together and the production staff was here. He'd go find the stone later and try and find a way out of this.
"No way!" Mikey said excitedly, "I hope I get to be a cool action star or a martial arts guy!"
"Now, getting back on track, why don't we let our contestants know who they're about to become, Candi?" The leader asked.
"Of course, Mr. Stiltskin," the blonde replied. "I think some of you are about to be very excited."
