Students in a university class

"You offer is certainly... very appealing," Professor Beaumont declared, the wiry old man adjusting his glasses as he ogled the massive, ancient looking device further. "A grant at the size you'd proposed would certainly fund a slew of projects in the biology and behavioral sciences departments for years to come, we could do some truly groundbreaking research at Spiral City University."

You stared at the machine in awe as well, though for you it didn't represent a path to future research. No, as you looked around at the other students that stood next to you, mostly freshmen and sophomores from the Psychology 105 class, the only thought that circled through your mind was that this machine sounded like a path to total mayhem!

You, a dozen other students who shared class with you, and your professor had been summoned to Emilia King's mansion for this very strange experiment involving the machine. As per typical means to reduce variables, the students chosen for this presentation came from a diverse group, split evenly between men and women with different interests, majors, personalities, and social talents. Some of them seemed concerned by the words King used to describe paranormal behavior like ghosts and astral projection; others couldn't contain their excitement at what they might do with these sorts of powers if they had the opportunity to touch the sphere.

Emilia King stepped away from the railing, strolling slowly to put herself between the students and the machine. "Of course, you'll have the final say, professor, but I'll elaborate on the experiment first, and get some input from your students. For the top performers in this project, out of the sixty participants, I will be also offering a paid internship for any of the companies under the King Enterprises name."

Immediately, a student's hand shot up--Melanie, possibly your best friend on campus who shared a lot of courses with you, seemed very eager to participate in this project, but the confusion on her face was clear. "You said sixty students? But I thought this was the whole group?"

"A good question," King answered with a smile, as she grabbed a binder from a nearby table and opened it. "I had asked your professor to hand out a survey to the class some weeks ago, I'm sure you all recall it well: Belief in the Paranormal. Questions about haunted houses, the concept of a soul, what would you do if you had the power to read minds, or what if one of your friends could speak to the dead, and so on. Part of a subject on superstitions and how they manifest in the mind and such, I believe? Anyway."

Holding the binder to her, Emilia flipped through the pages to show the students that each page contained an image and brief profile of every student in the study. "My team used those survey results to narrow down a list of candidates, fortunately with such a large sample size in the intro classes it was easy to find the right people to match to various categories. Obviously, those of you in this room are Experiment Group 1: People who would readily use paranormal abilities in some way. The reason didn't matter much, some of you might be looking for deeper insight into other people while others would just want to take joyrides in different bodies. What's important is that if I offered to let you use the Ghost Machine, I find it unlikely that any of you would decline."

The students mumbled to one another for a bit, though you and Mel kept quiet, waiting anxiously for Emilia to continue her explanation. "That leaves forty-eight other participants," she continued. "That's four groups that, again, were chosen by the survey results and we've already talked to, and they've filled out consent forms. Experiment Group 2: these individuals were receptive to the idea of supernatural experiences, though not necessarily being the cause of them. If you were to gain powers to possess others, those in Group 2 have been chosen to essentially allow you in willingly. In fact, their internship criteria will be calculated based on the amount of time spent influenced by people in this group, as well as number of influencers they can attract to them. Some of these people in Group 2 might beg you to take control of them given these metrics. For this group, controlling someone from Group 2 adds the fewest points to your overall score for internship opportunities."

As Emilia flipped through the pages, you recognized a few students, but one of them--the glasses-wearing Ashleigh--stood out to you. She was constantly trying to get your attention and chat with you. She was pretty in a bookish, nerdy way, but you usually had your eyes on someone else... Mel nudged you as she saw Ash's photo. "Oh my gosh, she is going to never leave us alone now, huh?"

"Not unless we hide in someone else," you joked, and the two of you snickered quietly.

Emilia continued to the next group of pages. "Experiment Group 3: they believe themselves particularly resilient to fending off paranormal encounters. Their task in this project is the opposite of Group 2: all they have to do is somehow stop anyone in this group from taking them over and remaining in control. However, they don't get a chance at internships if you all simply ignore them, so if you don't go after this group on your own, expect them to invite a challenge. The more students from this group you successfully take over and control for at least one full day, the higher your chances to land that internship."

A few of the pages in that group stuck out to you: a quartet of friends, two guys and two girls, whom you'd known since high school. While not exactly bullies, you and Mel often felt a lot of friction and animosity from them, they were all kind of jerks in their own right. Taking some of them over for a day to make them do whatever you want might be a better opportunity than the internship prize!

"Group 4: these students will be made aware of your powers, but that's it. No suggestions to encourage or discourage your control over them. Their opportunity at the internship depends on their creativity: they'll be essentially designing their own experiments and encouraging you to participate. Help these students succeed with whatever they propose for using your new powers, and it'll boost your internship chances greatly. However, you'll also gain points for taking your own initiative to try things with them and see how they react. Some might be more willing than others, but they're aware that you could in theory take them over at any time." Most of the students in that group you'd recognized but didn't have as much familiarity with. Mel was friends with a few of them, namely Blake and Penny, two engineering students who always talked about the weirdest things. Would they try and recruit you and Mel to do something on their behalf?

Emilia turned to the last few pages. "And finally, Experiment Group 5. This is sort of the 'control' group, which I suppose is an ironic designation given the nature of this project. They are not going to be made aware of your powers, at least not by any of the other groups, including this one. All we have told them is they are participating in a study where they will observe their behaviors and note any unusual activity over the next few weeks in a journal. This group will score significant points if anyone in this group writes down activities and behaviors that can be uniquely traced back to an individual here--however, there is a catch. If they become too aware, and list anything that mentions they've been possessed by specific names of people in this room, then the listed name is disqualified from a shot at the internship. The goal is to stealthily take possession and modify their behaviors, so don't give yourself away."

You almost gasped as Emilia flipped to one page in particular--Nadia.

She'd been your crush for a while, you'd had multiple awkward conversations with her, but hadn't yet worked up the nerve to talk to her. And she was going to be part of this experiment? As someone who might end up possessed and not even knowing it?! This was either your greatest opportunity or your biggest nightmare, depending on who got to her first... oh no. The thought of someone else, moving her around and making her do what they wanted...

Mel saw your face and smirked, whispering excitedly. "I knew it..! I knew you had a thing for Nadia! Oh man, talk about a dilemma for you, huh?" While Mel joked, she seemed to pull back a little, as a thought crossed her mind that only made her smile wider. You wondered what she might be considering in that moment, before her hand shot up again. "Miss Emilia, excuse me, you said the 'next few weeks'? How long is this whole deal supposed to last?"

Emilia turned to look at Mel as she snapped the binder shut. "Four weeks in total, in which this group's goal will be to log as much time in other bodies as possible. For those in this group, the internship will only be considered for anyone who successfully takes over one body from every other group, one week per group seems reasonable."

"But don't we have Spring Break starting next week?"

Emilia's smile grew slightly wider at this information. "Well, then I suppose you might have some good opportunities to try new bodies in exotic locales, hmm?"

After some giggling and chatter, the professor quieted everyone down and looked at Emilia. "There are a host of ethical concerns even with all the consent forms everyone filled out, but..." Beaumont struggled for some time with the proposed experiment, as nothing eroded away ethical obstacles like a steady stream of dollar bills. "I suppose at this point, it's really up to the students here, yeah? What do you all think?"

The answer for all of you was easy. Minutes later, every student had touched the Ghost Machine, absorbing its power at one of its highest power levels. All of you retained a solid shape, but almost like a reflex, you could turn invisible and phase through other matter! Assigned a journal and a binder of students, the moment you stepped out of Emilia King's mansion, the month-long experiment began.