pluralstories | Jul. 26th, 2022

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Jul. 26th, 2022

Oh! Who are you?”

“ummm… I’m me.”

“Me too! I’m me, too!”

“So we are all ‘me’ then?”

“YES!”

“Obvi.”

Blurb: (from the creators) A comic about a plural system, discovering that they are many people and learning to cope with that fact and work together. It is ultimately a comic about dissociative identity disorder from the perspective of the system itself, not as that singular person the outside world sees, nor as the singular person that the system has been believing themselves to be, but as they actually are: a messy group of people sharing a body and trying to make it work.

Why is it worth your time? It's good, fairly short, and one of the calmer DID stories; bad things happen, but abuse so far (as of strip #31) is only abstractly alluded to, and the focus is on the system building their sense of teamwork and putting their life together. WARNING: ongoing and unfinished!

Plural Tags: switching, DID, headspace, inner children

Content Warnings: In comments below; contains spoilers.

Accessibility Notes: Textually transcribed, web-only. Free!

Read it here!

“This is the forum, the bar and grill of my mind. It's very popular with some of the people that live in my head, because it's close to my awareness. There's one right now. Everybody, this is Walter, professional stick-in-the-mud. I'm controlled through that TV set he's glaring at. Don't do anything I wouldn't do, Walter!”

Blurb: One of William Denn's headmates calls a full system meeting, which requires a full headspace manhunt, and Denn's headspace is not a place to wander unsupervised. Not all of the headmates are on the same team, either. Psychodrama ensues. The first arc was completed; the second is incomplete and you should skip it.

Why is it worth your time? Its depiction of an amorphous, surrealistic headspace is gorgeous, the art is beautiful, and all the headmates are interesting to get to know. The comic is unfinished, but Chapters 0-8 have a simple completed arc. Also, even though it's a comic about MPD, trauma doesn't come up at all, which is nice if you want a break from that.

Plural Tags: switching, MPD, so much headspace, no trauma discussion whatsoever, inner children

Content Warnings: In comments below; contains spoilers.

Accessibility Notes: Sorry, not transcribed. Web-only.

Miscellaneous Notes: Read the first arc, which goes through Chapter 8, and then quit there. It is very much a first act, but it has a decent stopping point; Chapter 9 involves none of the pre-existing characters or plot points, and Chapter 10 was never completed.

Read it here!

“God save us from an Earth in which all men are the same. God save us from a colony where that is the goal, or a culture which assumes that for its norm. Give me a thousand people speaking different tongues, worshiping different gods, and dreaming different dreams, and I will make of them a greater nation than you can make with ten thousand of your gengineered duplicates. For mine will have the spark of greatness in them, while yours will live for conformity, worship mediocrity, and take their carefully modulated delight in predigested dreams.”

Blurb: Multiple fleeing for her/their life in space amidst a space opera backdrop that includes a society built around being as disability- and weird-friendly as possible (while still being just as full of intrigue and bad behavior as anywhere else). Quoth Wiki: "An explosion in her habitat sends young Jamisia Shido scrambling through the corridors to an escape capsule. Intercepted by an interstellar passenger ship, she sets out for the stars pursued by [...] terran and galactic pursuers. Demons hide in the depths of jump-space as well, much as killer whales pursue seals diving from one ice-floe to the next."

Why is it worth your time? Honestly, I enjoyed the worldbuilding and cultures more than I did the multiple themself, but it is a good space opera, and the world is worth the price of admission all by itself. I would happily read more books taking place in this setting.

Plural Tags: sci-fi multiplicity, inner children (minor role), abuse low-focus

Content Warnings: In comments below; contains spoilers.

Accessibility Notes: This book is LONG (500 pages or so). Available as ebook, audiobook, and paper.

"What I do remember is... 'No one will ever love you!' My mother's words... those words made me believe no one would love me. So I created two new personalities who would love me, 'Kaname' and 'Ryo.'"

Blurb: A very VERY boys love manga about the sexual and romantic misadventures of a small system of three that start as boyfriends, then get their own corporeal boyfriends over time.

Why is it worth your time? I cannot say this book is good. It is the literary equivalent of squirting cheese whiz directly into your mouth from the can. Read this ONLY if you are here for all the goofy BL tropes and are aching for unrealistic cheesy absurdity. I enjoyed it far disproportionately to its quality.

Plural Tags: in-system relationships, MPD/DID, switching, plural community (i.e., there's more than one plural in this book), abuse low-focus

Content Warnings: Explicit sex. Other warnings contain spoilers and are in the comments below.

Accessibility Notes: Available in English paperback, though only secondhand. Apparently the Japanese version is available both in paper and in ebook form, under its original title, 脳内恋愛のススメ (Nōnai Renai no Susume).

"Implanting dreams into other people's heads is terrorism."

Blurb: Japanese animated movie about a group of therapists working on an experimental device that allows people to enter each other's dreams. When the device is stolen, reality starts unraveling like a cheap sock. The title character is a therapist's headmate who does the dreamwork, while the therapist handles the "real" world.

Why is it worth your time? It's really good. Kon was (RIP) a master of mashing reality with animation. The trippy imagery, thoughtful concept, and sheer density of visual imagery makes this movie better upon subsequent rewatches; we notice something new every time. The music is also great. Plus, you know, sometimes you want to watch a multi save reality with psychological agility.

Plural Tags: switching, no abuse discussion, a LOT of realitymashing/dreamworld stuff

Content Warnings: In comments below; contains spoilers.

Accessibility Notes: available in Japanese and English, subtitles and dubbed, on DVD and streaming. (For now, anyway. We aren't going to even ATTEMPT to keep track of streaming media.)

"Only two people knew that George was probably the funniest little man in the whole world and that he used foul language. Howard Carr knew, and so did Howard's older brother, Benjamin Dickinson Carr. Benjamin knew because the funniest little man in the whole world lived inside of him, and Howard knew because, except for Ben, he was the only other person that George had ever spoken out loud to."

Blurb: (from back cover) Only Howard Carr and his older brother, Ben, know about George. George is the funny little man who lives inside Ben, helping him (mostly) navigate life as a sixth grader who happens to be a scientific genius and who happens to be studying organic chemistry with students much older than he. One of those students is William Hazlitt, a senior who has been Ben's lab partner in previous years. William's interest in chemistry has taken a troubling trun, and Ben has a plan to come to his rescue. And that's when things get complicated--for Howard, for Ben, and for George.

Why is it worth your time? It's... okay? Don't care for the ending, but other people might, and I can safely say I've never seen anyone else use it. Konigsburg is good at gentle work, though I'd argue this isn't her best. And hey, Ben and George do indeed get to save the day!

Plural Tags: (mostly) nonswitching, not abuse-focused

Content Warnings: In comments below; contains spoilers.

Accessibility Notes: available on paper and ebook.

Miscellaneous Notes: This book is sometimes catalogued under the name (GEORGE), (George), or just plain George. It's had a few different editions over the years.

"You've gone quite mangy, cat, but your grin's a comfort..."

Blurb: After a house fire kills her family and gets her shipped to an asylum, the emotionally traumatized Alice makes a mental retreat to Wonderland, which has been disfigured by her injured psyche. She has to hack and slash her way back to reality.

Why is it worth your time? It's fun to play. If you're into the Hot Topic, Tim Burton aesthetic, and find smashing through a violent headspace cathartic, this game is for you, though the controls are a bit clunky by nowadays standards. (We admit, we have been unable to finish it.) Also the soundtrack is fantastic.

Plural Tags: non-switching, headspace galore

Content Warnings: In comments below; contains spoilers.

Accessibility Notes: game has both audio dialogue and subtitles, and a Let's Play is available. (Note: if I link a Let's Play, it's to a completionist version with an unobtrusive, leisurely player who focuses on the game.) Despite this game's age, you can still get it in a good few ways--used original copies for PC are still pretty easy to find, and the sequel comes with a copy and is available for PC, Playstation3, and... er, whichever Xbox was in use at that time. www.myabandonware.com also seems to have put the game up for free, though we cannot vouch for the quality of that, and the comments show that it has glitches and bugs.

"I want to forget! Who would choose to be alone, imprisoned by their own broken memories?"

Blurb: Alice's Wonderland is decaying and being tampered with by outside forces. Time to pick up the Vorpal blade and hack and slash through some more inner demons! (Or are they inner?)

Why is it worth your time? It's fun; people tend to prefer the first game, but we preferred this one. The controls are much more fluid, the combat and weapons system is much more streamlined, and we enjoyed how the game built on and expanded on the themes of the first. The soundtrack isn't amazing like the first game's, but is still good, and the visuals are gorgeous. (There are an annoying number of invisible walls, though.) This is also probably my favorite depiction of memory work in fiction.

Plural Tags: memory work, non-switching, headspace galore, abuse intermediate-focus

Content Warnings: In comments below; contains spoilers.

Accessibility Notes: game has both audio dialogue and subtitles, and a Let's Play is available. (Note: if I link a Let's Play, it's to a completionist version with an unobtrusive, leisurely player who focuses on the game.) Available for PC, Playstation3, and... er, whichever Xbox was in use in 2011.

Misc. Notes: There are two experimental short films made after this, called Alice: Otherlands, but in our opinion, they aren't worth your time. If you want to see a stop-motion animated Alice in short films, stick with the three stop-motion animated trailers for this game instead. They're quite striking!

"Isaac and his mother lived alone, on a house on a hill. Isaac kept to himself, playing with his toys while his mother watched Christian broadcasts on the television. Life was simple, and they were both happy--that is, until the day Isaac's mom heard a voice from above: 'Your son has become corrupted by sin. He needs to be saved...'"

Blurb: A computer game following an abused child and his possible-headmates fighting through randomly generated dungeons filled with poop, trauma, and abortions. Offense guaranteed. This game has very little narrative, but McMillen has stated that all the player characters are Isaac, so I don't think it's a stretch to see them as headmates, or to interpret the levels as a form of violent headspace. (Especially since there are items which, if possessed, allow you to die and come back as a new player character--i.e., switch.)

Why is it worth your time? The game is a blast to play, as long as you aren't bothered by the grotesque aesthetic. It has insane replay value, due to its randomness. It rewards experimentation, though it does rely on fine muscle control.

Plural Tags: nonhuman headmates, abuse high-focus, switching, otherworld, children, the dead

Content Warnings: In comments below; contains spoilers.

Accessibility Notes: No subtitles for spoken cutscenes, but there are only maybe two or three of those, all of which you can probably follow through visuals alone. There are a bazillion Let's Plays of this game, but I haven't watched many and the nature of the beast makes completionism kind of impossible, so I can't recommend any one in particular. Any one playthrough lasts maybe an hour tops, but getting everything can take hundreds of hours, making this impossible to length-tag appropriately.

Miscellaneous Notes: There are two main versions of the game, a bunch of expansion packs, and a card game now, the last of which I have not played.

"I've lived all my life in the same city, so I can't really get lost, but I have an absurdly bad sense of direction, so even my own block can seem alien to me. I'm aware enough of reality that I won't step in front of, say, an ambulance. I'm just far away enough from my fantasy world that I can feel its edges, but not its obligations. A pleasant fugue state sets in. I'm free."

Blurb: Magri White hosts a massive MMO game inside his head until one day, his mind rebels and his inner demon starts attacking players. Paracosm exploration and psychodrama ensues. Also headmate smooching.

Why is it worth your time? It's really good. McNeil is a master of comics craft. She uses beautiful imagery to mash the cybernetic/psychological reality and the corporeal one together, depicts dissociation with elegance, and it's just gorgeous.

Plural Tags: headspace/elsewhere TO THE MAX, in-system romance, low trauma focus, nonswitching, nonhuman headmates, media-influenced headmate (Magri's inner demon is based off a real person, whose image got ripped for films and pornos)

Content Warnings: In comments below; contains spoilers.

Accessibility Notes: Available in ebook and paper forms.

Miscellaneous Notes: The standalone volume of Dream Sequence is out-of-print, available only secondhand. In print is the omnibus it got packaged into, Finder Library, vol. 2, but Dream Sequence is the only plural portion, and it is absolutely standalone. (That said, Finder is a masterwork, so you might enjoy the rest anyway.)

“We know how to swim in the sea of whiteness.
We don't really want to.

We don't know how to climb.
How to reach a place of connection with blackness.
We haven't figured out if we want to.”

Blurb: A kinetic essay, a venting of complicated feelings about race springing from being both black and white.

Why is it worth your time? Packbat's essay is short, free, and a thoughtful discussion of a challenging topic. Some plurals are making really experimental work, both in genre and medium, and that has value, even if by nature it's hard to fit into the "rules" of how this comm is supposed to work. It may not have a "story," by traditional means, but I want to boost it.

Plural Tags: nonhuman headmates, abuse low-focus

Content Warnings: In comments below; contains spoilers.

Accessibility Notes: Short, free, available in text-only form.

Play it here!

"You can’t even count. It’s sad. Your dyscalculia of personhood assumes singularity of being from counting heads on torsos. Your condition, in a society of multiplicity, is a constant source of confusion. You constantly mistake strangers for friends, and are wary around friends, leaving them wondering if they’ve said something wrong or if you’re in a strange mood..."

Blurb: a personal experience zine of various members of the Desired Constellation grappling with ableism and stigma, and describing their coming to selves-awareness in 2008.

Why is it worth your time? It's a time capsule, raw and personal, about coming to selves awareness and dealing with that change. Also, it's free. Some plurals are making really experimental work, both in genre and medium, and that has value, even if by nature it's hard to fit into the "rules" of how this comm is supposed to work. It may not have a "story," by traditional means, but I want to boost it.

Plural Tags: switching, in-head romance, no abuse content

Content Warnings: In comments below; contains spoilers.

Accessibility Notes: available as a free ebook, fully alt-texted.

Read it here! (Back-up link)

“We have wanted to make a zine about our plurality for a long time. It seemed like it should be natural, easy, therapeutic. Fun..."

Blurb: A discussion of how the very nature of plurality can make selves-recognition and discussing that plurality is difficult.

Why is it worth your time? There can be pressure for plurals to know exactly who and what they are, right away, even though the nature of the beast makes that highly unlikely, if not impossible. This zine is about that experience. Some plurals are making really experimental work, both in genre and medium, and that has value, even if by nature it's hard to fit into the "rules" of how this comm is supposed to work. It may not have a "story," by traditional means, but I want to boost it. Also, the textual transcription is free.

Plural Tags: nonhuman [aliens, flaming eyeballs, rattlesnake], no abuse discussion

Content Warnings: None

Accessibility Notes: Available in text-only form (back-up link); to get the paper/illustrated version, you have to ask LB.

“Something else that puzzles me about other people is that a lot of them don’t know their purpose in life. This usually does bother them—more than not being able to remember being born, anyway—but I can’t even imagine it. Part of knowing who I am is knowing why I am, and I’ve always known who I am, from the first moment.”

Blurb: After the murder of their original in childhood, Andy deals with the outside world while more than a hundred other souls share an imaginary house inside his head, maintaining a somewhat-orderly coexistence. Andy's new coworker, Penny Driver, is also a multiple personality, a fact that Penny is only partially aware of. When several of Penny's other souls ask Andy for help, Andy reluctantly agrees, setting in motion a chain of events that threatens to destroy the stability of the house. Now Andy and Penny must work together to uncover a terrible secret that Andy has been keeping . . . from himself.

Why is it worth your time?: It's good. Also, hey wow, a story where there's more than one plural, and they make friends and have different ways of viewing their plurality! There are precious few stories about plurals relating to each other, and the challenges and rewards of that.

Plural Tags: fusion/integration, switching, MPD/DID, headspace, plural community, inner children, memory work, abuse high-focus

Content Warnings: In comments below; contains spoilers.

Accessibility Notes: Available in ebook and paper forms. Translated into German under the title Ich und die anderen.

“There were mirrors everywhere, making the place a crazyhouse of dizzying refraction: mirrors on the ceiling, mirrors on the walls, mirrors in the angles where the walls met the ceiling and the floor, even little eddies of mirror-dust periodically blown on gusts of air through the room, so that all the bizarre distortions, fracturings, and dislocations of image that were bouncing around the place would from time to time coalesce in a shimmering haze of chaos right before your eyes. Colored globes spun round and round overhead, creating patterns of ricocheting light. It was exactly the way Cleo had expected a multiples club to look.”

Blurb: A singlet who desperately wishes she were multiple goes trawling the multi bars in San Francisco, trying to pick one up. Short story.

Why is it worth your time?: This is a goofy weird one. It apparently won a bunch of sci-fi awards, but I don't know that I would call it good. Reading it feels like watching a movie from another country about what they THINK your society is like. But I mean, if you want to read about a subculture of multiples trance-ing out in bars to mirrors and disco, building their own cultural norms and liberation, this is the only story I've read about a multiple society.

Plural Tags: plural community, switching, fusion (though a very turned-on-its-head version), plurality on purpose, no abuse mentions

Content Warnings: In comments below; contains spoilers.

Accessibility Notes: Available in ebook and paper forms. Translated into Croatian, French, Serbian, and Romanian

Miscellaneous Notes: This short story has been published in various anthologies since 1983, but the easiest one to find is the compendium of Silverberg's short stories called Multiples: 1983-1987.

“that bit of blindness remained no matter how short my hair got. I couldn't see certain things about myself. I couldn't see myself as "smart" enough to enjoy working with technology. I couldn't see myself as talented enough to make art. I couldn't see how much I wanted to be a woman.
But most of all...
It made me think I was human...”

Blurb: a semi-autobiographical narrative about a freshly cracked trans woman struggling with multiple discoveries she makes about herself one right after another. Done in Twine as a sort of interactive fiction/video game.

Why is it worth your time?: It is adorable and cute and heartwarming about two dog headmates in queer love with each other. It is the most joyful depiction of coming to selves-awareness I have ever seen. It also shows them in a community, interacting with other plurals in joyful, heartwarming ways.

Plural Tags: nonhuman [dogs, dog people], in-head romance, plural community

Content Warnings: None.

Accessibility Notes: Free, short, and screen-readable.

Play it here!

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