The Mod with the Migraine
What do they do about skills that require muscle memory? Things such as martial arts, cooking, some art forms - you get used to certain actions to the point your mind can do them on auto-pilot because of the specific way that body moves. Wouldn't swapping therefore cause problems for the person?
That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw
Elementalist
Well, I presume the knowledge remains but the muscle memory doesn't, which makes it so that the ones doing it basically are "a little rusty" as far as those things go. As far as stuff like cooking and martial arts go, anyway, since with those it's just a matter of either building up the muscles and getting some appropriate practice (martial arts), and simply getting used to the new body (cooking); with arts, on the other hand, it's highly dependent on the body itself so outside of those cases where someone had reached the level they are at via practice and practice only, it's probably not going to be the same as it was before the switch regardless of the effort spent on it (though, then again, if someone cares about their skill in something of this sort quite that much, I don't see them actually switching unless it's a necessity).
And how easy it actually is to switch their bodies depends on what exactly the ritual requires, which is something TheMuse hadn't mentioned (unless "holding hands" and intent are all there is to the ritual) as far as I remember.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
For skills that require a fair amount of muscle/muscle memory, people who do not surf are favored (in areas such as archery, dance, etc.) Sure surfers can be taught the same skills to some degree, but are usually taught technique so they have best utilize them no matter the physical shape the body is in.
But in those cases, almost always the people who are considered the "cream of the crop" of those areas are non-surfers.
And switching bodies is somewhat complicated ritual (like a beginner definitely couldn't pull it off) but as long as you have at least one person who knows how do it (who are fairly easy to find) it's relatively simple.
edited 27th Jul '15 10:44:17 PM by TheMuse
Ah, fair enough, on both counts.
Regarding couple body-swapping, given the described ease of swapping, I could easily see at least some couples doing it for a variety of reasons, including intimacy (it might be a little like sharing a house or flat/apartment), convenience (body A is sick, but its usual occupant has an important meeting), kinkiness, an so on.
My Games & Writing