[sticky entry] Sticky: Table of Contents

Aug. 13th, 2022 09:19 pm
lb_lee: Sneak (sneak)
[personal profile] lb_lee
Hi, and welcome to [community profile] pluralstories , a filterable, searchable catalog of stories involving bodysharing, spirit possession, and realms of fiction and the imagination! Right now, only [personal profile] lb_lee  can post here, but anyone can comment or join. (And if you are interested in joining the admin team, please let me know!) Quick links:

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[personal profile] lb_lee
Submitted by [personal profile] quailfence! Thank you, [personal profile] quailfence!

(no cool quote - this work is dialogue-less!)

Blurb: An old man plays chess with himself

Why is it worth your time?: It's a fun short film with some very good and expressive animation, especially for the time. The two Geris have very distinct personalities and expressions, and it's vaguely implied that the two don't share memories, so it's very easy to interpret as plural.

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse: not mentioned, type: switching

Content Warnings: contain spoilers, see comments

Accessibility Notes: Available for streaming on Disney+; Wikipedia says that it was released on DVD and VHS alongside A Bug's Life and I'm willing to bet that there's some compilation DVD of Pixar shorts that has it as well. Various bootleg copies on YouTube, here's the one I watched. Audio description might be available on the Disney+ version but I can't confirm atm
lb_lee: A happy little bandaged brain. (Default)
[personal profile] lb_lee
"Could it be... could it be that the stories about you witches raising black demons out of mirrors is true? Mages lie, but images..."

Blurb: Jenna and her dark sister Skada, drawn out of a mirror by a rite of women's magic, fight to bring down Kalas's corrupt regime and bring a new king to the throne.

Why is it worth your time?:It's your straightforward epic fantasy of kings and armies, with the twist of the Hames, women-only villages where the practice of drawing out the shadow sister exists. If that's your thing, give it a shot!

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse low-focus, copies (sort of), friendship, family, intimate, plural on purpose, setting-specific,

Content Warnings: Epic fantasy-level violence and war, including that against women and children.

Accessibility Notes: This is the sequel to Sister Light, Sister Dark and you REALLY want to read that first. Available on paper and ebook, and also in the omnibuses The Books of Great Alta and the Great Alta Saga.

Misc. Notes (if any): RIP Jane Yolen. Got nominated for a Nebula.
lb_lee: A happy little bandaged brain. (Default)
[personal profile] lb_lee
"To merely pierce the thin veil of sanity isn't enough. Transcendence is more than just disconnection. To seek answers I must crash through reality. Here I can confront the question of me."

Blurb: (from the back cover) "A warmly pornographic sci-fi fantasy about finding oneself, reconnecting, and healing." In other words, a post-apocalyptic runaway to Mongolia takes psychedelics and fucks her shadow self.

Why is it worth your time?: This pencil-drawn comic is beautifully trippy and unique, and it's free to read online. What have you to lose?

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse not mentioned, otherworld, realitymashing, intimate relationships, visions

Content Warnings: Porn and drugs. It's all there in the blurb.

Accessibility Notes: Free to read online, not screenreadable. Date is my best guess, because that's when my roommate got it and nothing seems dated.

Misc. Notes (if any): Was apparently available on paper via LunaBurn 2026, which is the only reason I know of its existence.
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[personal profile] lb_lee
submitted by [personal profile] quailfence. Thank you, [personal profile] quailfence!

"How many will be mourned? Which of those will they care for?"

Blurb: Over a hundred headmates nobody knows. Over a hundred ways they lived, smiled. Only one body to mourn. So many people no one may care for, only one of them will get the release of being mourned, only one chance to remain in their minds, and it will always - always - be a lie, crafted by them.  The mourned one, but an idea. Not even a tiny piece of the group under foot.

Why is it worth your time?: Very short (like, less than 5 minutes if that) but very emotional and compelling game about a system who about worries what will happen to them and how they will be remembered after they/their body dies

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse: not mentioned, closeting, creator speaks from experience, people: the dead (the various NPCs are ghosts and talking skulls)

Content Warnings: Misgendering, game takes place in a graveyard, I suppose existential dread?

Accessibility Notes: Available free online on itch.io Not screenreadable.
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[personal profile] lb_lee
Submitted by [personal profile] quailfence! Thank you, [personal profile] quailfence!

“What do you want me to do? Attempt to exorcise you out of this body?” Anna scoffed. “I know one God in three persons, I don’t think ‘two people in one body’ is outside of my comprehension.”

Blurb: Relationship triangles are already complicated. It just gets weirder when two of its points reside in the same body. A collection of scenes from a fictional Polish village.

Why is it worth your time?: It's a nice story about a plural system who have just come out to their friend, where everyone involves is uncertain and nervous but also genuinely trying to get to know and understand each other

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse: not mentioned, relationships: romantic, type: switching

Content Warnings: dissociation, depersonalisation, derealisation

Accessibility Notes:
Free, digital/online. IFDB entry. It think it's screenreader accessible but I'm not 100% sure (Note from Sneak: Yes, it seems to be!)

Misc. Notes (if any): Submitted to the 2026 International Fiction Competition; at time of writing voting is ongoing until October 19
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[personal profile] lb_lee

Submitted by [personal profile] quailfence! Thank you, [personal profile] quailfence!

"An instancing captures a static moment. A feeling in a specific time and place. The heart at the moment of stepping over a border. The mind when it knows it is leaving. A life is made of many static moments. What’s felt when walking up to the tarmac is a different thing from what is felt sitting in a park two weeks later. What’s felt when crossing a river with your belongings held above your head is a different thing from what is felt in the detention facility. What’s felt when your mother tells you that you’re leaving and puts you in your best coat is different from what you feel when you are twenty years older, sitting on the plane, returning. The only constant is that what people want will change, and the administrative state is there to log the outcomes."

Blurb: When you immigrate you leave a copy of yourself behind, an instance. One person enters their new country, the other stays trapped at home. Some instances keep in touch, call each other daily, keep heir minds and lives in sync in the hopes of reintegrating and resuming a life as one person. Others, like Soyoung Rose Kane, leave home at ten years old and never speak to their other selves again. Rose, in America, never imagined going back to Korea until her grandfather died and her Korean instance, Sououng, called her home for the funeral. She doesn’t know that Soyoung plans to steal her body and her life.

Why is it worth your time?: It’s a very interesting novel with excellent prose and worldbuilding. Instancing is used as a way to explore immigrant identity and experiences, and how immigration leads one to identify with multiple cultures/nations. The instances themselves have identities and personalities that are simultaneously overlapping yet distinct, and show how two people can diverge from even if they started as the same person. There’s also some interesting stuff about how technology has changed and is changing immigration, as well as how governments try to keep track of and control it.

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse:low-focus, fusion/integration, identityblending, memory work, otherworld (only at the end), people:copies, relationships:community, relationships:enmity, relationships: friendship, relationships:teamwork, type:on purpose, type:setting-specific

Content Warnings: Given by [personal profile] quailfence in the comments below, contain spoilers!

Accessibility Notes: Available in physical, digital, and audiobook formats; I was able to get a copy from my (US, suburban) library. Only available in English at the moment

Misc. Notes (if any): An expanded version of the author’s 2021 short story Homecoming is Just Another Word for the Sublimation of the Self

lb_lee: A happy little bandaged brain. (Default)
[personal profile] lb_lee
"It's because of the way anything feels possible. The soft tenacity of the narrator, the cozy familiarity. Like when the author told the story, she was telling it to me. Only me. It's like she wanted me to come to Eloraton, and she took me by the hand, and we went through story after story, and I didn't have to worry about if there would be a happy ending. I knew there would be.

"It was a love that I knew wouldn't fail me. It was safe. It was a comfort when I was heartbroken and yearning to feel something good, because I couldn't imagine it on my own. I think that's why I love these books so much. Because even when I felt broken, Rachel Flowers was always there to show me that there were still happy ending to be found... even if they weren't mine."
Blurb: Stagnating after a break-up, Elsy's car breaks down in a small town that is the setting of her favorite romance novel series. But the series was never finished, due to the untimely death of the author, leaving the town stuck in stasis too. And then there's the man in town who seems so familiar, but doesn't seem to be any character she can remember, and he wants everything to remain the same...

Why is it worth your time?: This romance novel kept us reading for its setting and its ideas. The heroine and hero are both bland, but the ending is solid, and anyone who has loved and wished they could retreat into a fictional world will find something to enjoy here!

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse not mentioned, otherworld (fictional), fictioneers, friendship

Content Warnings: If you would like to view a list of content warnings (with mild spoilers) for A Novel Love Story, please go here. (It's not a particularly upsetting book.)

Accessibility Notes: Available in ebook, audiobook, or print.

lb_lee: A happy little bandaged brain. (Default)
[personal profile] lb_lee
"Get rid of it? And put it where? You can't destroy a demon. You can't kill it. You can't even send it back to the fiery depths. All you can do is try to persuade it to go somewhere else. To someone else."

Blurb: In a world where Jungian archetypes started possessing people in the 1950s, a young man who has recovered from his childhood possession (or so he hopes) starts relapsing. Desperate for an answer, he finds himself embroiled in conspiracy, conferences, exorcists, and more possessed people than you can shake a stick at. And then there's the horrible noises he keeps hearing from his own head...

Why is it worth your time?: It's quite good! Solid, enjoyable twists and turns and ties to Carl Jung's the Red Book, and it even managed to surprise us twice! Definitely worth a read.

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse not mentioned, bodyhopping, closeting, children, fictioneers, enmity, possession, visions

Content Warnings: have spoilers; see comments.

Accessibility Notes: available on paper, ebook. Read the first chapter free!

Misc. Notes (if any): Winner of the 2009 Crawford Award, nominated for a bunch of others.
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[personal profile] lb_lee
submitted by [personal profile] quailfence! Thank you, [personal profile] quailfence!

But for me, in mid-2020, I found myself in a state that was not particularly healthy. Having Marcellus gently ruffle me from time to time, almost like a therapist, helped me realize how unlike my former self I’d become.

And, as I came to understand, his missives weren’t always condescending. He lifted me up, too.

Blurb: The author writes about how the octopus narrator of the novel she was working on during the COVID pandemic helped her out during it.

Why is it worth your time?: It's a nice short piece about a helpful voice in someone's head, with a bit of "humans through inhuman eyes" on the side.

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse:not mentioned, creator speaks from experience, people:fictioneers, people:nonhumans (octopus), relationships:teamwork, type:nonswitching

Content Warnings: Pandemic/lockdown related stress and mental health issues, described in a straightforward and matter-of-fact way.

Accessibility Notes: Online, screen-readable, free on LitHub: https://lithub.com/lessons-learned-from-a-year-listening-to-the-fictional-octopus-in-my-head/
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[personal profile] lb_lee
"So I was looking for something to watch the other day," Abram said, as he started opening a bottle of wine, "and I stopped at a channel where a writer, a rabbit I think, was talking about a legend that there were originally only 600,000 souls in the universe. At some point after the creation, each soul broke into many pieces. Which means we are all actually made up of a piece of a soul, and when all the pieces of that soul find each other, part of the universe is healed and made whole."

Blurb: A group of friends and family meet for seder after seder, over the course of seventy years, going by the joking name of Soul 2065--with the idea that they are all one soul.

Why is it worth your time?: A beautiful, bittersweet story about family, mortality, and the bonds we build together. It's also the first place I've seen the idea of singlets sharing a soul. Give it a shot!

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse not mentioned, community, family, nonswitching

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Accessibility Notes: Published in Krasnoff's collection The History of Soul 2065 (of which this story is the last chapter) and Clockwork Phoenix 4, which someone has kindly digitized and uploaded to archive.org.
lb_lee: A happy little bandaged brain. (Default)
[personal profile] lb_lee
"That evening, Marilyn sat on her front porch and stared out into the yard, where a few of the first fireflies of the season were trying out their neon. The sound of her very American daughter cursing out the police in Yiddish kept running through her brain."

Blurb: A Jewish woman realizes that her college-aged daughter is acting strangely like her deceased Communist grandmother... and her daughter is starting to get into trouble because of it.

Why is it worth your time?: It's really good! Krasnoff writes flawed, complicated Jewish families trying to find their way through the world with heart and challenge. Give it a shot! Besides, this is the first dybbuk on this here catalog!

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse not mentioned, bodyhopping, the dead, family, switching, possession

Content Warnings: Contain spoilers; see comments.

Accessibility Notes: Available in print and ebook in Krasnoff's collection, The History of Soul 2065 (which is very good) and also in the anthology Subversion: Science Fiction & Fantasy Tales of Challenging the Norm, which has been digitized on archive.org.
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[personal profile] lb_lee
Submitted by [personal profile] erinptah! Thank you, [personal profile] erinptah!

As he sips my untouched drink
I say "I can't be who I think"
He says, "You are, and you're not, and I am too"

Blurb: A young woman tries to cope with memories of living in a fictional world.

Why is it worth your time?: Look, I'm not saying this was intentionally written to be about an Alice (in Wonderland) fictive, but it's evocative enough that I spent a while poking around the band's website to see if they ever mentioned it being about an Alice fictive. (Also, it's a really lovely song.)

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse not mentioned, otherworld, people: fictioneers, type: nonswitching

Content Warnings: Drug use, references to unhelpful therapy

Accessibility Notes: Buy it on Bandcamp, listen for free on Youtube, lyrics available online. (There's also a range of cover versions; the one by Escape Key was my intro to the song.)

Misc. Notes (if any): Based on this short story, originally written for the singer in 1997.

lb_lee: A happy little bandaged brain. (Default)
[personal profile] lb_lee
Submitted by [personal profile] quailfence! Thank you, [personal profile] quailfence!
Graye: Sarah. Can a figment of someone's imagination think, and feel?
Sarah: ...No. But you can imagine them doing it. That's what all stores are.
Graye: But I'm not a story. Or if I am... I've been brought here for some reason.
Blurb: The newest chapter of Infinity Sailor, the year's hottest shonen manga, has caused a major uproar. Fan favorite deuteragonist Captain Jack Graye is secretly... a woman! Fans of the BL ship Sigraye are in shambles, and the discourse is impossible to escape. Longtime reader Sarah Wilson thought she was above it all-- until, inexplicably, she came home and found Graye alive and animated in her bedroom.

Bad enough to start hallucinating, but for such a stupid reason? Why is this happening? How can Sarah make this go away? And why does Graye keep looking at her like that?

MY CAPTAIN'S UNBINDING is a story about the reasons we have for shipping- both the ones we say we have and the ones we won't admit to ourselves. About how romantic imagination is less scary than owning up to real desire. About the things people do to find freedom, and to destroy it all the same.

Why is it worth your time?: It's a super compelling story about desire, repression, and (not) being yourself. Also, fandom drama. Sarah was very relatable to me as a college student who is very into online fandom but doesn't really have a social life in meatspace or know what they're going to do afterwards. I also really enjoyed the push and pull of Sarah and Graye's relationship, and how they tried to understand each other - sometimes succeeding, sometimes failing

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse:intermediate-focus, otherworld, people:fictioneers, relationships:enmity, relationships:romantic, type:nonswitching, visions

Content Warnings: Per the itch.io page: "Contains adult themes and imagery, imperfect gender discourse, explicit language, and violence. Adults only." Further warnings are spoilers; see comments.

Accessibility Notes: Available free in English on itch.io for PC, Mac, and Android. Made in Ren'py, which has built-in accessibility features like voicing, changing text font/size, and autoplay

Misc. Notes (if any): Made for the Toxi Yuri Game Jam 2026
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[personal profile] lb_lee
oh lady joan, of arc,
did you whimper when they burned you
or did you writhe in ecstasy?

did all those voices in your head,
leave you for dead,
or did they show you what a saint
you'd be?


Blurb: a multi-made poem about Joan of Arc

Why is it worth your time?: An old poem from an old multi site that doesn't exist anymore. It's short and free, what have you got to lose?

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, creator speaks from experience, nonhumans (the angel Michael), romantic (references to marrying God), nonswitching, spiritual, voices

Content Warnings: It's Joan of Arc. You know what happens to her.

Access Notes: Available freely online via the Wayback Machine, screenreadable.

Misc. Notes: Not to be confused with the OTHER Joan or Arc thing written by someone else named Lyn. Totally different people, totally different works.
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[personal profile] lb_lee
we are the ones we have been waiting for
souls and selves feel this down to the core

Blurb: A song by a multiple about everyone banding together to find goodness.

Why is it worth your time?: It's a free multi song online from a multiple who did a lot of neat stuff. Check it out!

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, creator speaks from experience, children, teamwork

Content Warnings: none

Access Notes: No lyrics I could find, but [personal profile] acorn_squash transcribed them in the comments below! Free to listen to or download online. Listen to it here: https://humboldtmusic.com/Music/CindeeGrace_WeAreTheOnesWe'veBeenWaitingFor.mp3 Check out the rest of her music here: https://humboldtmusic.com/webpage/index.cfm?id=1275&page=songs

Misc Notes: Cindee Grace also made and spread for free Holistic Self Care for PTSD and Dissociative Identity in 2008 and also ran a multi newsletter/org called MPDignity in 1989. Busy lady!
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[personal profile] lb_lee
"She reached for Zorar’s memories and reeled into loss and emptiness. The memories ended with Zorargul’s murder. Zorar, much older than Yalnis, had given her the gift of her own long life of journeys and observations. They brought her the birth of stars and worlds, the energy storm of a boomerang loop around a black hole, skirting the engulfing doom of its event horizon. They brought her the most dangerous adventure of all, a descent through the thick atmosphere of a planet to its living surface.

All Yalnis had left were her memories of the memories, dissolving shadows of the gift. All the memories left in Zorargul had been wiped out by death.

By murder."


Blurb: A symbiotic spacefaring race of women wish a new daughter person/ship well... and also deal with the murderer of one of the mother's companions.

Why is it worth your time?: McIntyre (RIP) was a biologist, and it shows; the people in "Little Faces" practice sexual parasitism like anglerfish, where males are non-sapient and become permanently attached to the women's bodies as companions soon after creation, unable to survive independently. The women themselves live symbiotically within their sapient (but very nonhuman) space ships. If you want a bodysharing story that's something different, give this a shot! It's good and free!

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse: high focus, bodyhopping (males are created by one female's body and then must immediately become permanently attached to another's), memory work (the males carry the memories of the females they come from, though it's not a major part of the story), nonhumans (...humanoid anglerfish aliens?), intimate and community relationships, plural on purpose, (VERY) setting-specific

Content Warnings: Contain spoilers; see comments.

Accessibility Notes: Screenreadable and free to read online! Back-up link here. Also got translated into Romanian!

Misc. Notes: Winner of the Tiptree Award, and apparently has a sequel, Little Sisters!
lb_lee: A happy little bandaged brain. (Default)
[personal profile] lb_lee
"My hallucinations get me stoned.”

”Lucky you. It costs everyone else money."


Blurb: A lesbian is visited by her dead, sexy, emotionally messy ex.

Why is it worth your time?: Do you have a hankering for messy dykes? Who fuck? Do I have a story for you!

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse not mentioned, the dead, romantic, visions, voices

Content Warnings: Contain spoilers; see comments.

Accessibility Notes: Collected in Allison's short story collection, Trash, which got reprinted so is available in paper, ebook, and audio, plus in Italian and French! The English version has also been made available for folks with print disabilities on archive.org!

Misc. Notes: RIP Dorothy Allison (2024).
lb_lee: A happy little bandaged brain. (Default)
[personal profile] lb_lee
"Hello, I'm Eyebeam's old hallucination and I'm going to be with you from now on... P.S. - there's nothing you can do about it."

Blurb: An old newspaper comic strip about law student Eyebeam, his slacker roommate, his practical girlfriend, and his hallucination, Hank.

Why is it worth your time?: Eyebeam is a weird little strip that never really made it big outside of Austin, Texas. It mocks the concept of continuity (objects are constantly changing form from panel to panel, Hank included), objective reality is squishy, and Hank becomes a longrunning, recurring character who at first is only seen by Eyebeam, but later visits other characters and becomes an acknowledged part of Eyebeam's everyday life. Did I mention Hank is the only fictional hallucination to have won public office in real life?

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse not mentioned, dreamfolk (Hank dream-hops to Sally at one point, and he states elsewhere that he appears in other people's nightmares), imaginary friends, nonhumans (uh... monster...?), realitymashing, friendship, visions

Content Warnings: include spoilers; see comments

Accessibility Notes: The "Hank Runs For Student Body President" arc is in the original vol. 2 of Eyebeam, which is long out of print, but Sam Hurt has uploaded the entire old run to Eyebeam.com! These are sadly not screenreadable. (There are still paper volumes of Eyebeam for sale by Sam Hurt himself, but I don't know that they're the same ones as we're referencing.)

For the reader's convenience, LB has taken the liberty of amassing a list of all the Hank strips through the "Hank for President" run, for those who JUST want the Hank parts:
Misc. Notes (if any): Hank the Hallucination ran for student body president of the University of Texas in 1982 and won, both in comic and in real life. It's a hilarious yarn, and knowing this context, in my opinion, improves the reading experience. (The comic itself never says that this was a thing that also happened in real life.) (Back-up link here.) Said campaign is also referenced in this Hank the Hallucination postcard (which I might buy).
lb_lee: A happy little bandaged brain. (Default)
[personal profile] lb_lee
"Windraven Hall, where my dreams began and seemingly must forever end in a dream..."

Blurb: a shockingly successful Gothic romance writer escapes her crummy marriage into a happy ending of her own creation.

Why is it worth your time?: It's short and free to read online. What have you to lose?

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse intermediate focus, other world, dreamfolk, fictioneers, romantic relationships

Content Warnings: Contain spoilers; see comments

Accessibility Notes: Widely reprinted, including in Italian, and in English it's still in print today. Its first appearance (with an illustration!) has been digitized on archive.org and it appears to be screenreadable.

Misc. Notes (if any): Tom Reamy was found dead of a heart attack, slumped over his typewriter while working on his latest writing project. Maybe he went to Windraven.
lb_lee: A happy little bandaged brain. (Default)
[personal profile] lb_lee
Submitted by [personal profile] quailfence, who saw it on the wishlist! Thank you, [personal profile] quailfence!

Now, I'm not the kind of guy who can just stand back and watch a poor woman get shot... But I have just one little problem... I'm already dead myself.
Blurb: BANG! A single bullet rings out in the dark city. But as one life ends, the story is just getting started... Sissel wakes up as a ghost and realises he has lost his memory along with his life. “Who am I? Who killed me? And why?” With only a few hours until sunrise — and oblivion — to uncover these answers, Sissel must solve the mystery of his own murder, starting with the detective who may have witnessed the crime... Using the powers of the dead, you can possess and manipulate objects and even rewind time as you work to solve brainteasing puzzles in a story chock-full of quirky humour and charming characters.

Why is it worth your time?: It's a very fun puzzle game with a charming cast of characters, stylish and expressive art/animation, and a twisty story that nothenless manages to wave everything nicely together at the end

Plural/1+ Tags: 1+: abuse:not mentioned, bodyhopping, otherworld, nonhumans (household objects, a dog), the dead, relationships:community, possession, setting-specific

Content Warnings: Contain spoilers; see comments.

Accessibility Notes: Available on Nintendo DS, iOS, Android, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows (via Steam) and Xbox One. No dub, but subs for English, Japanese, Spanish, German, French, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, and Korean are available. Let's Plays are available.

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