Out of Souls, Out of Time

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TSF Showcase 2024-46
Out of Body by Danni Iridescent

As a bootleg internet novelist, it feels weird to cover other people’s bootleg internet novels. But Natalie.TF reader GuyRandomz emailed me with a suggestion last month, recommending I check out some Literotica stories. A platform that I have never really dabbled in, and unfortunately would not be a great fit for what I do. I mean, unless you folks found Psycho Shatter 1988: Black Vice X Weiss Vice erotic. And if so… I’m impressed. (Who am I kidding, nobody read that!)

Split over three releases, the Out of Body series tells the story of Phoebe Canning, a poor English major based in Newcastle who volunteers to take part in a chemical telepathy study. The study seems unremarkable initially, but as she returns home, she gradually comes to learn that the cocktail of chemicals she drank granted her the powers to possess and swap bodies with others. Meaning that not only is this a female-to-male (FTM) and female-to-female (FTF) focused transsexual fantasy (TSF) story. But one featuring both body swapping and possession, not needing to deal with the restrictions or limitations of either.

Jumping ahead to my thoughts on the story as a whole, I liked it quite a bit. The gradual discovery of Phoebe’s abilities and voyeuristic usage makes her an appealing protagonist. The writer applies light touches of mental alterations to give the possessions and swaps more oomph. The writing frequently impressed me with its prose. Admittedly, there are more than a few typos and grammar errors I spotted while reading, and it bizarrely chooses to use single quotes for dialogue, not double quotes, which is just wrong. Like, it bothered me so much I had to make an ePub of the story and edit that. (Thanks FicLab and Calibre!) And the story has a nice sense of escalation, starting fairly mundanely while gradually reaching toward a satisfyingly wild conclusion.

Additionally, I think it peaks at the end of the first of its three parts, with the rest of the story feeling like an epilogue that lost the plot in a sea of kink and conflict. Still, considering its dual niches of being a flexible swap and possession story— swappossession if you will— and a TSF story with an AFAB protagonist, it definitely warrants a showcase. So with the stage set, let’s get started!

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TSF Showcase 2024-46.1
Out of Body, Out of Mind by Danni Iridescent

Things begin with Phoebe Canning— or just P. Canning for the first two chapters— as she is settling into a human trial of an experiment for a quick £1,000. After getting an injection and getting blindfolded, she finds her senses overburdened by an unfamiliar heat before finding herself elsewhere, her vision obscured and her body feeling foreign. Then, just as quickly as this experience lasts, it ends, and she finds herself light-headed and confused.

Only after this is she informed about the purpose of this experiment, a means to test psychic powers, telepathy, and she was the first participant. However, the experiment was seemingly not a success, as it was to see if someone could read Phoebe’s mind after being injected, and they could not. An unspecified scientist thought she was thinking of a line from The Terminator (1984). When in actuality she was thinking of the infamous “I’ll use my [trusty] frying pan as a drying pan!” line from the Pokémon TV special Mewtwo Returns (2000). However, the writer misattributed it to Mewtwo Strikes Back (1998). Which, while an easy mistake to make— just look at the titles— as someone who watched all the Pokémon movies last year, this stung a little bit.

After building up some semblance of mystery, Phoebe returns to her flat and introduces the reader to her neighbors. A beautiful, young, athletic couple, Alex and Zara, who have a very… sexual relationship. They frequently go at it at all hours of the night, the noise percolating past the thin, cheap walls. They are living it up, satisfied and in what appears to be a loving relationship, while Phoebe is slumming it, alone, with canned soup, old bread, and Diet Coke. As the contrast is established and the sounds of their banging becomes unignorable, Phoebe starts showing her true colors by masturbating. Getting into the throes while imagining what was going on past the wall… before finding herself in Zara’s body, getting fucked by Alex.

Phoebe, thoroughly confused, allows herself to get lost in what she assumes to be a vivid fantasy, eagerly calling Alex ‘Daddy’ while begging for him to give her more and more. It functions as the first brief sex scene in the story, and the sex scenes throughout Out of Body, Out of Mind are quite good. They each build up a particular fantasy, are laced with juicy details without going in too deep, favoring punchy, hot descriptors rather than vivid, lurid summaries, and are, generally speaking, pretty hot. 

Danni Iridescent understands what they are doing with them, and consistently fulfills what I call the golden rule of sex scenes. Characters and story comes first, sex comes second! Every sex scene must have some utility and variety, some weight or purpose to it, and add at least something to the characters or tone of the story. It can be minor, but to repeat the same darn sexual dynamic repeatedly, or delve into sex for the sake of sex, is both boring and unsatisfying. And here, in the first sex scene, the purpose is clear. It is meant as a way of showing Phoebe discovering her power, establishes her perverted side, and prime the audience for what to expect throughout the rest of the series.

After recalling that she should not be in Zara’s body during a moment of clarity, Phoebe finds herself back in her original body, but she is now in the outside hallway, rather than her couch. She does not question this though, and instead entertains the idea that she might have expressed psychic powers, that she possessed her neighbor. …Before asserting that this is reality. To calm her nerves, she then orders a pizza, since her tomato soup burned on the stove. Because apparently you can burn soup by having it go for an extra 10 minutes? It might spill over, but it won’t burn. 

The following day, Phoebe heads off to work at her dreary, depressing office job. Located so high up you need to take an elevator, coated with an overwhelming amount of gray, looking identical to a 90s office except for the computers. A positively nostalgic place that is predictably home to its own fat ugly bastard (fubby) of a boss, Neil. Middle-aged, chunky, and the sort of man who likes to leer at girls young enough to be his daughter. Still, he’s the boss, so Phoebe tries to stay on his good side by getting him a coffee. She sulks away afterwards, thinking about how much she wants to escape this place, how she has nowhere to go, only to find herself back in Neil’s office, in his body. Though, unlike with Zara, she feels a certain presence while in his body, as if she was a passenger in a body piloted by someone else.

This is where the possession angle of the story is introduced, and the exact rules of the possession are… interesting. Rather than just overpower someone while possessing them, when Phoebe is sharing a body with someone, she feels their desires, their thoughts, and can even communicate with them mentally. It is described as an intoxicating experience, as she is met with their most intense emotions, though she is not necessarily forced to feel them. She can overpower these desires, exert her own, and is even able to influence people by possessing them. Nudging their mood or introducing new thoughts into their minds.

Phoebe also has something of a sliding-scale of awareness she instills in those she possesses. She can silently ride in the background, just observing from a different perspective. She can dominate over them and suppress their ability to understand what she is doing with their body. She can leave them powerless, but aware as she dominates their bodies. She can offer them some control, making them into equals in the same form. And while the possessed can resist her actions, she is ultimately the one in control here.

Also, Phoebe basically has access to the full memories of whoever’s body she is in, whether it be via a body swap or possession. …Needless to say, her power set is so robust and detailed it’s almost broken. She has access to a dozen different flavors of possession and lacks even the threat of getting stuck or corrupted by another’s mind. It’s a gosh darn power fantasy in a way that I seldom ever see from female TF protagonists like her. She’s basically the super-powered transforming girlfriend archetype I’ve talked about in the past, but instead of being a vessel for the male protagonist to have TF fun, she is the protagonist! And a super fun one at that!

Normally, when a female character is thrown into the body of a fubby like Neil, they are filled with self-loathing over disgust and heinous male arousal. But when Phoebe lands in Neil’s skin, she’s filled with a burning desire to turn herself into the workplace slut, to shove her body underneath Neil’s desk so she/Neil can fuck her mouth while on a video call. She does not feel disgust at his form or for his desires. She is reveling in them, and in his fat cock, rubbing against the underside of the desk as he edges goons for hours upon hours a day. In fact, you could practically say Neil’s a pro gooner.

This section goes on for nearly a thousand words, and it was when I knew that this story has to get featured, as it does such a good job of selling the sexual fantasy of being a fat ugly bastard. The need to cum, the thrill of the release, and the satisfaction of possessing someone and fucking them with their own hand. It is some reference book worthy shit. 

And Phoebe’s reaction to all of this? She wants to get this shit on video, show that this is happening, and prove that this is real. But more than that, she has plans to satiate the desire that was wafting through Neil’s mind. So, she waits until after work, until everybody has left and she is all alone in Neil’s office, spinning a story about balancing her work and time at uni. 

She sets her phone to record the scene, leaves her body, possesses Neil, and begins to act things out. Taking his raging lust and shifting it in her direction, speaking with his voice for the camera as she locks the door and mentions drugging her own body. A lie, but anybody looking at the video, at her limp unconscious body, wouldn’t know the difference. It is another prolonged, deliberate section, selling its creepy fantasy, while establishing that Phoebe is both the victim and the rapist. She gets to both rejoice in Neil’s fantasy while framing him. It is deliciously cruel, and right after she relishes in the bliss of fucking her own mouth, she executes the rest of her plan.

Neil is left dazed by what happened here, baffled by ‘his’ own actions, unaware that he was under Phoebe’s control. So, she threatens him with the video, demanding a pay raise to… £15 an hour. …How the hell can she live on less than that while working part time? What was she making before? £10? Regardless, the blackmail works, and rather than hold this against Niel… she teases that they may be able to have some fun in the future. A bit of an odd way to handle the situation— I would demand £7,000 at a minimum in hush money, but Phoebe just experienced her second male orgasm. Her mind is full of wispy white clouds.

Phoebe then walks home with an aching pussy and a cum-flavored mouth, going about the usual government abduction type paranoia writers are legally required to throw in, before heading home. Once there, she almost gets pulled away by Zara, remembering the body swap from last night, only for Alex to pull her away. Now, Phoebe knows she should just wash up and get on with her night. …But Phoebe is also a kid with a new toy and desperate to try it out, this time trying to possess Zara as Alex pulls her body away and begins the festivities. Though, rather than settle for a repeat of the first sex scene, Phoebe tries something different. Moving from Zara’s body to Alex’s body and… it works.

This begins what has to be one of the more inventive possession scenes I have seen. Phoebe bounces between the bodies of Alex and Zara, relishing in the pleasures of both, in their orgasms, and the lust they feel for each other. As a scene, it has the risk of feeling disorientating, but the formatting choice, having her spend only seconds in each body, really builds a sense of frantic movement. Of immense highs, zero lull, of Phoebe eking out every bit of pleasure, going so quickly between bodies it becomes hard to track who she is in more ways than one. It’s a genuinely inspired choice. I tried something like that earlier this year with Verde’s Doohickey 2.0, and I am definitely going to steal this idea.

After Phoebe gets her fill and returns to her body, she hears back from the scientist who ran the experimental trial, Martin Finley. He is eager to talk to her after something happened with the trial, and insists they meet at a café within the hour. Phoebe rushes to get showered and get the taste of cum out of her mouth, arriving loosely on time for Martin to drop the news. That the second person in the trial died and the trials were shut down immediately. Martin is worried about his PhD and his career, but also worried about Phoebe and potential side effects.

As a side note, I think it would be cool if the second person didn’t actually die, but merely left their body and started flying around as a spirit. They could have strayed away too long after a sensitive period after the injection and caused their body to die within a few minutes, maybe an hour. Meaning there would be a lingering spirit going around. I’m a big fan of stories where multiple people have transformation powers— VD2.0 has like 20 body swappers in it. But alas, that is not the direction the story takes.

Instead, Phoebe just looks at Martin and finds him to be a cute guy, good looking, not “drop-dead fuck-me-now” handsome, but definitely fuckable. And Phoebe is horny, so she shows him her powers and invites him back to her flat to… have a little fun. 

Martin, as a man of science, is floored by the power Phoebe possesses, how she has “single handedly proven that consciousness is transferable. Psychic links exist, and they can be manipulated intentionally.” It is a level of gravitas that I appreciate, going on to explain how she could become the president if she so darn well chose to, how she could do anything with this obscene amount of power. 

However, as Martin’s musings continue, Phoebe goes into how she used her powers, coyly stepping around what she actually did and explaining how exactly her thought process works. How she is influenced by other people, how the person along the ride with her during her possessions enjoys her actions. Yet it does not take too long before she has no choice but to admit that she had sex with other people’s bodies and admit that she loved it. That it felt amazing. Martin is taken aback by this, pointing out how this is wrong (because it is), but horny Phoebe is not willing to take even the lightest form of guff, so she takes him for a ride!

Phoebe possesses Martin, enhances the excitement of all this dirty talk and toys with him, forcing him to look into her vulva as she strips her form. Together they eat Phoebe’s body’s “sopping pussy like a melting dessert” before returning to her own body as Martin continues on his own fruition, taking a few seconds to realize the shackles are gone. With him uncertain and conflicted, Phoebe gives him one more opportunity to fuck her like a real man. …But he hesitates, leading her to push him into her body, its hands bound before he gets inside it.

If Martin won’t  man up and show her a good time, Phoebe will do it herself, taking his “beautiful” cock and fucking him, even as he quivers in fear. It is a great way to turn the tables, to finally have Phoebe’s body get off after being a bushel of erotic nerves for so long, and show her dominance over another person. It’s a fitting climax to the story, and both a good example of TSF overall, given the contrast between the two’s sexual experiences. Martin has access to “shotgun orgasms” while Phoebe fucks herself like a “jack-hammer.” It’s a very well done sex scene written by someone who understands the appeal of body swapped sex and the allure of both orgasm variants from the perspective of a different sex.

However, there is an odd creative choice to refer to Martin inside Phoebe with she/her pronouns. I understand what the writer is going for, presenting how Phoebe sees her body as a woman and views the act of fucking herself as fucking a woman. In this moment, he is she and she is he. Though, I consider this to be something of a faux pas in the world of TSF.

The climax goes on for a while, and in the end, Phoebe has sunk her hooks into Martin, showing him the thrills that she and her body can offer him, leading the two to become far closer. Then, in the epilogue, Phoebe says that while she has no intention of changing the world, she does have one bit of unfinished business. Meeting with Niel to embark on a little fantasy with him. …Namely getting on her knees and sucking his dick while under his desk. Remarking how “it turns out that when you have all the power in the world, sometimes what you want is to be powerless.”

…Yeah, that is a questionable way to end the story. I understand Phoebe is saying she admires the allure of both ends of power play. How it feels good to be both a top and a bottom, and how with this power, she can flutter between both of these extremes. Though, I take umbrage with ending a transformation power fantasy story with someone who was, at the start, disgusted about being relegated to being an office slut… willingly becoming an office slut. Not even pulling him into her body as she forces him to suck his own dick. There is no transformation at all with this final scene, just regular old office sex. And that’s lame!

Despite this, I think this is a high-quality piece of TSF literature. It offers a good balance of introspection, discovery, and exploration. The characters have just enough personality to feel like characters and not like archetypical vessels. It successfully eroticizes the male experience from a female perspective. The sexual content, while plentiful, is relegated to only a few characters and every scene has a point leading up to the escalation of the final session. It is, by all accounts, a great story that I would fully recommend reading in full, rather than the abridged summary I provided.

As for the sequels… they’re not as good. But first, a brief tangent that I went on while reading this story.

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Tangent: Out of Bed, Out of Kinks

Before getting into why I think the follow-ups to the original part are less good, I want to discuss the art of the sex scene and the role of kink. Quite simply, a good sex scene should be like a good action scene. It should have passion and intensity behind it, be telling a story through the movements and actions of the characters involved, and should, in some way, progress the plot and/or the relationship between the two characters. It can be as simple as a means of exploring a character dynamic between two people, or just a thing for them to do while a story is progressing. But the most central thing is that they should have a point. Sex for the sake of sex is boring, and while you can have a lot of sex in a story, this golden rule must be adhered to. …Which I say as someone who wrote a 26,000 word chapter with a resounding eight sex scenes.

Then there is also the subject matter of kink. Kink, in this context, is when a sex scene feels the need to incorporate something more to make the sexual experience more engaging for the reader. Bondage, choking, roughness, duress, or just generally building sex scenes around one unique sexual fantasy. Naturally, any two-bit erotica writer is going to include more than missionary on a queen-sized bed, as variety should be used to make the sex more interesting. However, it is important that the kinks make sense, that they are consistent, and are appropriate in the context of the story.

For example, in body swap stories like this, roleplay is not only a kink that makes sense, but one that can enhance the experience of being someone else, being in another body. If you want to make a character a sexual ravager, then a fetish-of-the-week approach can make a lot of sense for the story. But if a character is meant to be average but kinky, like Phoebe is, it is important to give her a consistent sexual profile. It can be a vast profile, experimental, or exploratory. But she, and those around her, should not be kink machines. Sex in another body is already wild and sensual enough that you don’t need to pile things around it. You don’t need to put jam, cream cheese, cheddar cheese, almond butter, ham, bacon, and banana on an everything bagel.

This is something the first part understood, but the latter two? …Not so much.

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TSF Showcase 2024-46.2
Out of Options, Out of Line by Danni Iridescent

On that note, part two of Out of Body— Out of Options, Out of Line— opens on a sex scene with Phoebe cohabitating Zara before she begins summarizing the time skip between installments. Now six months later, things are going well for Phoebe. She is making strides with her uni work, while getting paid by Neil despite rarely showing up for work. Martin and her are now roommates and partners, leading a very sexual relationship. Phoebe has taken up the habit of “edging without edging” which I describe as being a coomer in the mind but a gooner in the body— this terminology is so stupid I cannot help but love it. While Martin has taken up a new job after committing manslaughter last time around. 

It’s a good life… but rather than keep coasting like this, she makes the bizarre choice to visit her boss, Neil, to quit her job and dismiss him from the story. While I understand the latter part of this choice— there is no need for mister fubby anymore— there really is no sense in Phoebe quitting her job and saying no more to the free money she is getting. Instead, this is just a way to reset the slate for two new characters for the next two installments. The first being a movie star, Sylvia Wellons, who is filming something in Newcastle this week and has the perfect body to snag to celebrate Martin’s thirtieth birthday. And Ava Harding, an intimidating 40-something businesswoman with “dark red hair, and a viper-like facial structure” who serves as Martin’s boss. Phoebe is introduced to Ava as she is walking into her apartment complex and, predictably, possesses to see what her deal is.

Phoebe is immediately met with the powerful bitch energy Ava exudes, passively observing as Ava walks to her flat and meets with Martin. There’s some great descriptors here, showing Phoebe viewing her boyfriend in a different light, feeling a billowing rage within her current body, and just stewing in a righteous confidence she normally lacks. However, the more important takeaway from this encounter is the revelation that Martin has resumed his research on the psychic drug after Ava bought his research. 

After this quick meeting, Phoebe confronts Martin over what she heard, and he explains that he has been working on a way to prevent this power from spreading, developing a blocker to stop any symptoms, and even a cure. A factoid that possession maniac and perpetually horny Phoebe is naturally pissed about. But her flames of frustration are extinguished as Martin explains that he did what he did out of love. Even dropping an ‘I love you’ bomb that just floors Phoebe. …Despite the fact that they made love dozens of times in the past six months and moved in together. At that point, wouldn’t love just be a given?

Similarly confusing is how Zara abruptly decides to confront Phoebe about the fact that she has been routinely possessing her throughout the past six months. Not because it isn’t obvious and Zara didn’t have suspicions in the first part— she did— but because she chose to confront her about it now of all times. Zara barks up a storm, threatening to expose Phoebe, only to have Phoebe steal her body and begin issuing threats for her to stand down. This leads into a section where Phoebe digs through Zara’s memories, learns of her ex-boyfriend, and propositions him for sex, despite Zara being in a committed, sexually fulfilling, albeit abusive, relationship with Alex. 

The prose and build up throughout this section are good, occasionally gripping, representing something of a dark shift from Phoebe as she becomes consumed by malice. …Then, right after arriving at her ex’s sex dungeon, Phoebe brings Zara’s body back home. If that sex dungeon bit sounds like it comes out of nowhere, it’s because it does. The story basically wants the reader to assume that the norm of this world is that everybody is kinky, horny, and into more hardcore sexual activity. Which, I get, as this is meant to be erotica, but I stand by my golden rule. Characters come first, sex comes second.

This experience is part of a larger ‘character arc’ for Phoebe that fills up much of the second part. I can see what the writer is doing here. To push the protagonist to her limits, have her engage in more intense actions as she seeks to preserve what she has, and question her own morality. However, the story does not quite have much of a reason to go in this direction, other than it is something for Phoebe to do as the core storyline, centering around Ava, builds up in the background. 

This is later seen with Phoebe acting paranoid around Martin’s involvement with Ava. Her failed attempt at getting a woman with a “sort-of sexually satisfied warmth” to have sex with a 70-year-old man by doing some possession magic. (There is no context justifying that.) And her decision to sexually punish Alex.

While watching a Sylvia Wellons movie for ‘research’ Zara approaches Phoebe about doing her a favor. Letting her feel what making love is like. Phoebe ultimately agrees, knowing it is best to stay on Zara’s good side, and agrees to spend the night in her hot little body and have sex with Alex, as she has many times before. The following sex scene is much like all the others, feeling almost obligatory before Alex casually remarks how “Zara doesn’t usually let me do this” and sticks his dick up her ass. 

One anal scene later, and Phoebe confronts Alex about his awareness of this, as Zara both confided in him and underwent perceptible personality shifts when Phoebe was in her head. Namely ‘Zara’s’ willingness to call him ‘Daddy.’ This, combined with Ava telling them to report any suspicious activity to her, leaves Alex feeling emboldened, like he can do whatever he wants with Phoebe. And he wants to fuck her, a lot. One fuck gives her one week, and when her time is spent, he will give Ava a call and get whatever reward is to come his way.

Phoebe does not take this well, and uses this as an opportunity to take Alex’s body for herself, possessing him and punishing him for thinking he could blackmail her. She relishes in the power she feels, in embodying this body builder and pushing him to the sidelines of his own mind. Sure, she had been in his body during sex before, but not quite like this. And to establish her dominance in their relationship, Phoebe chooses to… make him take a fat dildo up the ass. 

From a sheer prose and writing level, I think this scene has good tension, a nice undercurrent of malice, and just conceptually, is an interesting application of TSF. It’s a woman taking a phallus up a virgin, male, asshole with a pleasure center at the end (the prostate). It’s a woman doing the type of perverted fuck shit that is usually reserved for male characters in a TSF story. A woman doing something that most sexually active men would shy away from for being too radical… and also gay. 

So… the idea of punishing a straight man by making them do something gay against their will is homophobic. It is presenting a ‘gay’ recreational activity as being something undesirable, emasculating, and that makes a man less of a man. I love the idea of a female character doing something like this with a male body, but when it is framed as revenge, as something to scare someone, then it becomes a contentious inclusion. I am not saying this was intentional— I’m 90% sure it wasn’t— but when I actually stopped and thought about this scene, I couldn’t stop viewing it from this angle.

Also, as a side note, this is the only significant TSF scene in the entirety of Out of Options, Out of Line. No, really. This story somehow went from one of the best FTM stories I ever read into being something overwhelmingly interested in FTF. And I just find that to be upsetting. Partially because I prefer my transformation when a change of sex is involved, and partially because it feels like it misleads the readers in a bad way. Especially when good FTM stories are so darn rare.

Continuing with the criticism, the following scene has Phoebe slinking back to her body so she can have a threesome with Zara and Martin. Not with any swapping or the like, just three friends having sex in their own bodies. Which… I’m sorry, but no. I am going out and saying that if you are writing a body swap story, you are not supposed to have characters have any non-basic sexual activity without involving some form of body swapping. There are simply too many possibilities and potentials for that to be the best course of action unless the lack of transformation is the point. And it definitely isn’t here. 

Rather than show this scene however, the story instead jumps forward to the morning after, showing the throuple have a nice repertoire with each other. This is largely meant to convey their future relationship, how when allowed to be by herself, Zara is a cool and open person, eager to try new things sexually and fun to talk to. It’s expedient characterization— I would have rather they show this side of her more than waste time with the rape dungeon chapter— but it’s good enough.

Shortly after breakfast, Zara and Phoebe go to embark on Phoebe’s harebrained scheme to celebrate Martin’s birthday by seeking out Sylvia Wellons so she can possess her. The process goes as experimentally as it could, Phoebe’s a pro at digging through people’s brains, and reaches Sylvia  at the penthouse suite of a high-class hotel. 

Immediately, Phoebe feels a drastic personality shift when she enters Sylvia’s body. She feels like an empowered, confident, bold, high-class bitch, but before she can do anything, she’s taken aback by her situation. As Sylvia is the sort of woman who spends her off time lounging around in nothing but a black jumper, getting cunnilingus from her assistant, Marnie. An 18-year-old ‘ginger’ girl who insists on involving herself in all facets of Sylvia’s life, including helping her get off. …Okay, this is way worse than the homophobia.

Sylvia’s age is not outright stated from what I can recall, but I get the impression that she is supposed to be an experienced adult, so I am inclined to think she is in her thirties. Meaning she is a movie star who has a girl, possibly a decade younger than her, fresh out of high school, who has devoted herself to being her assistant, including licking her pussy on command. A girl who, almost certainly, idolizes Sylvia and has for years of her life, treating her master as if she were a higher being. The age gap is too immense. The relationship is so unbalanced that I doubt true consent could be given. And while I can see an intention to show movie stars as perverted freaks, all the story is really saying is that the writer thinks a master/servant lesbian power play relationship is hot.

There’s no real criticism or highlighting how ‘this is so fucked up, but tormenting little ginger girls makes me feel like a bad bitch with the world in my hands’. No doubt or commentary from Phoebe as the protagonist, either dismissing or endorsing this activity. Phoebe just rolls with her persona, and it is just bizarre. 

Marnie, somehow, allows Phoebe as Sylvia to go out of the hotel with no pants or underwear on, where she goes to meet Zara in her car… only to find out that she is gone. Zara, along with her ride back to Martin, is nowhere to be seen. However, Zara did leave behind Phoebe’s phone, and as she accesses it, she sees a series of texts, informing her that Alex threatened to kill Zara, forcing her to flee. Immediately, she tries leaving this body, switching back to herself, but it doesn’t work. She then calls Martin, only for Ava to answer, informing Phoebe that she knows about her powers, injected her body with the blocker Martin developed, and expects to see her in an hour, after the blocker leaves her system.

And there, the story ends. Phoebe is stranded in the body of a movie star. Her original body captured by someone with only the worst intentions for her. She is left with no way home, and must face off against these odds in the finale of this story. Part 3: Out of Tensions, Out of Binds.

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TSF Showcase 2024-46.3
Out of Tensions, Out of Binds by Danni Iridescent

…The first fifth of this extension is filler. Phoebe has an hour to burn, and spends it playing around in Sylvia and Marnie’s bodies, reaping both ends of their, as I described, problematic relationship. It’s disconnected from the rest of the story. The characters are both one dimensional. Phoebe is just along for the ride. And my eyes glazed over as I read it. On its own, it’s fine, but it is not the sort of thing I’d want from this story, or something that I can admire for its creativity or ambition. It’s just sex for the sake of sex.

Once this is over and the real story can begin, the reader is treated with an exciting little number where Phoebe hops from body to body. A display that shows her possession girl finesse as she adapts to the situation, doing little good deeds by helping those she’s in only to hop to another person. The formatting, brief descriptors, and pace of the scene do a lot to sell the experience of someone hopping from bodies after just long enough to learn their name and what they were doing. It plays into the fantasy of being able to rapidly possess people, all while progressing to the destination of Shemmtech HQ.

Once there, Phoebe is able to find and possess Martin, communicating with him mentally as she takes in the sights and peers into the current going-ons. Her body has been taken and bound up in a display room, a quadrant, as Ava and a legion of her lackeys wait for Phoebe to return to her body. They aimed to defend themselves using the aforementioned blockers Martin was developing, but Martin took one and Phoebe was able to possess him, meaning Martin’s sabotage worked! The blockers are useless!

However, Ava doesn’t know that. She doesn’t know that this whole arrangement, this attempt to siphon away or study Phoebe’s powers has a vital security flaw. …Also, I guess Phoebe’s ability to return to her body is limited by distance. Because otherwise, why wouldn’t she be able to hop back to her body earlier?

Point is, Ava was planning on doing anything to get Phoebe’s power for herself, to study it and use it for her own gain, but in her haste and desire, she put her faith in something that does not work. And Phoebe… is ready to get her revenge. For abducting and abusing her boyfriend’s work, for capturing him, as well as Zara, and trying to kill her.

Phoebe hops back into her body for just a moment, long enough for Ava to come closer… and for Phoebe to swap their bodies. She promptly injects her own body with a sleeping agent and Ava goes limp, unable to scream before passing out. With the deed done, a lab staff member brings in a series of tubes and pumps that Phoebe is able to recognize the purpose of. Ava was not just planning on imprisoning Phoebe. She was planning on extracting everything from her body. All the blood, fluids, and goop, “wring [her] out like a sponge.”

Bitter and filled with a righteous rage, Phoebe orders everybody to leave and, heeding the word of their boss, they comply, evacuating and heading home. All except for Martin, who stays and confronts Phoebe, working with her to hatch a plan for revenge. 

…And for the next 6,000 words, the story is all about that! Taking Ava’s body and just fucking ruining her!

Martin is given the opportunity to revenge-fuck his hot boss’s body, with Phoebe going so far as to swap back into her own body when Martin gets really rough. The two casually travel to the servers and delete all copies of all records related to the serum, because Phoebe knows all the passwords. And with Ava not shamed enough, they decide to trek her sweaty cum-stained body out to a random-ass conference room and have five guys run a train on her while another films it.

Now, this is all well-written for what it is, painting a fantasy of humiliation and destruction. Phoebe channels the repressed desires of Ava’s body and relishes in the freedom, the sensation, and the destruction she is enacting. However, rather than doing this as a means to vent their frustration, they expect this to stop Ava and that… that is just incorrect.

Even with her name ruined like this, there is nothing realistically stopping Ava from going after Phoebe after this. If anything, her choosing to cut her losses is less likely than her seeking bloody vengeance against Phoebe. Ava’s a devil in four-inch stiletto heels she’s used to crush family jewels, dreams, and testicles alike. She has money, she has power, she likely knows how to get a gun and how to break a shitty apartment lock, or hire a hitman to kill Phoebe in her sleep. She knows where Phoebe lives, knows her and Martin’s personal information, and could seek vengeance against them at any time. Dragging her through the mud, having a dozen or so dudes run a friend train on her and upload that shit to Spank Bank ain’t gonna change that.

The only way to actually stop someone like Ava is to kill her, to commit violence upon her, but most authors tend to shy away from rampant killing of people. Either thinking it is immoral or not wanting to be labeled as immoral by their community. Not me though! I firmly believe in either killing bad characters, rewriting their identity, or leaving them powerless. Because the most efficient and surefire way to deal with a problem is to kill it. That is a measurable fact. Dead people cannot do anything against you, because they are dead. Their families and friends can, but that is another matter altogether.

After successfully raping the shit out of Ava, our most moral of protagonists then has one final conflict to solve. They head back home to determine that everything is okay back at their flat, only to find it suspiciously empty. With Zara, who they sent back home, missing, and Alex nowhere to be seen. Phoebe eventually finds the two in Alex’s car, possesses him, and sees that Alex was moments away from blowing Zara’s brains out… with a gun! Remember, this is a story set in England, so guns aren’t as common as a box of Good & Plenty like they are in the (Former) United States. 

This is meant as one final push of escalation to cap off the series, by throwing in a gun and having Phoebe face the harshest resistance she ever felt while possessing Alex. However, she is ultimately able to pull Alex’s body outside, shoot a security camera, fire a few bullets into the air, and ride out a few minutes in Alex’s body as he gets apprehended. She then hops back to her body, lies to the cops— as one should— and the story wraps things up.

Phoebe and Martin have a quick stint of body swap sex, marking the only meaningful TSF instance in Out of Tensions, Out of Binds. They properly incorporate Zara into their relationship as the third wheel of their throuple with an offscreen body swap sex sequence. And then things end with an epilogue where Phoebe, Martin, and Zara are living together. Phoebe is routinely using her powers to help or adjust the lives of random people she sees passing by on the street and making money as a psychic who uses her possession powers for profit. Which… is just a very lame way of using her powers.

Yes, there is some good to be hard with using the power to read minds to help clear people’s consciences and help them determine the right path in life. Giving people good advice is a good deed and something some people need to hear. However, she has the power to do so much more. I know I said that she doesn’t want immense power, but is this really what someone like her would settle on?

Phoebe is not some virtuous protagonist who would just focus on such a simplistic and narrow existence. She is someone who likes thrills and is not above stealing money from people. She is presented as greedy, possessive, vengeful, selfish, and I do not say that to demean her. She is a regular person who was gifted with immense power, and I expect her to act like one. Yet, she ultimately doesn’t, and the ending feels more like a way to placate an audience with a moral existence. It feels cheap, under-developed, and does not wrap up the story on as satisfying a note as I would expect from her. Like… at least take a house from a landlord, woman!

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Overall… these three stories just decline in quality with each installment. I really do think Out of Body, Out of Mind is a remarkable possession and body swap story that, even without its novel FTM focus, is a great piece of TF fiction. Hell, I’d go so far as to say it’s my favorite piece of literature I’ve discussed in TSF Showcases. (Not that it has many competitors.)

However, the sequels stray further and further from the edge and balance achieved by the first one. The narrative is made more complicated without introducing enough creative or interesting uses of the protagonist’s abilities. The sense of escalation is gone. Many parts feel as if they were written without much beyond a vague idea of where the story would go. And while they are well written, I did not find them to be as engaging as the first part.

I have made enough mistakes in my own writing ventures to understand how things like this happen. How creators can lose sight of what they have as they try to take things in new directions. And how difficult it can be to build on a power fantasy without just being more of a power fantasy or following a new perspective. As a writer, I understand and feel more than a bit of pity for what I am seeing here. …Yet, as a critic, I say read the first part, because it is really good, but skip out on parts 2 and 3.