Only Meteors are Impactful, by Plures House (satire audio theatre, 2023)

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Submitted by acorn_squash! Thank you, acorn_squash!

"Hi! I’m James, the Bored Work Alter! I come out to promote synergy and provide best-of-breed service to put alimentary products on our table unit to provide sustenance."

Blurb: The Shattered Souls System are the latest guests on Dysfunction Junction, where Hess and Zip support struggling systems in becoming more functional by connecting them with systems who have their sh*t together. Unfortunately, Ellen Barbara, this episode’s advice-giver, has her own ideas of what “functional” means—and the business-jargon-addicted James isn’t helping much, either. It’s a workplace satire! It mocks ableism and two-dimensional views of multiplicity! In short, it’s a Plures House production.

Why is it worth your time?: It’s funny and has some great voice acting!

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse: low-focus, cofronting, creator speaks from experience, relationships: teamwork, type: medical, type: switching

(Edit: Technically abuse isn't mentioned at all? Just unspecified trauma.)

Content Warnings: Mentions of alcohol, plus the topics in the blurb.

Accessibility Notes: Free online audio drama with a screenreadable transcript. Some dialogue is in all-caps. Backed up on the Wayback Machine.

quiet americans by magdaliny (superhero fanfiction, 2017–2018)

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Submitted by acorn_squash! Thank you, acorn_squash!

“Jay wants there to have been consequences, he thinks. It nags at him: the senselessness of it. That Poor Kid, he keeps thinking; he's thought it so often it needs capitals. A proper title. Twenty-something years and a grave so shallow he imagines Barnes can feel it when the wind comes through the cherry trees in Arlington. Or around that rock in the mountains, under that frozen river—or spread thinly between one and the other, a stretched-out restless haunting five thousand miles long. He doesn't know which is worse to contemplate. That Poor Kid. And then there's Jay, turning his back when it's convenient and plumbing memories when he feels like it, pawing over the corpse and checking its pockets for spare change. They'd wrestled, somehow, and he'd won.

“He knows it wasn't like that, not really. Wilson'd implied as much, when he'd suggested that Jay had been born from the remnants of Barnes's healing brain, like the muck in a chrysalis reforming into another creature. But one time Jakob told Jay the story of Ya'akov, his namesake, wrestling the angel in the desert and coming out with a different name, a different identity; as a people—and Jay hasn't been able to stop thinking of it as a battle ever since. Jay wonders what Ya'akov's family thought, when he came limping back and said: my name is Yisrael. Whether he'd felt new. Whether he'd felt that he'd left something, back there in the sands, in the place where his hip had been twisted.”

Blurb: A series of Captain America and the Winter Soldier fanfics exploring the Soldier’s time in HYDRA, his escape, and his recovery, as he slowly decides who he is and who he wants to be. Only the second CatWS fic ever to be nominated to this comm!

Why is it worth your time?: This is really, really good fanfiction. (I think the excerpt above speaks for itself.)

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse: high-focus, cofronting (very rarely), memory work, people: the dead, type: setting-specific, type: switching (exactly once and never again)

I chose the setting-specific tag because Jay was born (as far as we know) because of brain damage that was only survivable at all because of sci-fi tech.

Content Warnings: Extremely graphic torture and murder, including of children and animals. (You can safely assume that everything in these content warnings is extremely graphic, unless noted otherwise.) Auto-amputation. Abusive medical experimentation that borders on body horror. Suicide attempts and self-harm. Vomit. Starvation. Memory erasure. Drug addiction. Forced chemical castration (off-page, but it’s a plot point; Jay isn’t especially upset about it, but he didn’t choose it either). Mentions of death in childbirth. Mentions of rape, including rape of children.

There’s also consensual sex in some of the sequels. (You can skip them if that isn’t your thing.) “I know the afterglow” has rimming and penetrative anal sex. “open your houses and let in the night” has outdoor blowjobs and anal fingering.

Accessibility Notes: Free, online, screenreadable. The main fic has been translated into Russian; the sequels are only available in English. Whole thing has been backed up on Wayback Machine.

Petals of a Rose by Dylan Crumpler (slice-of-life short film, 2022)

[lb_lee]

Submitted by erinptah! Thank you, erinptah!

"Okay, everyone -- I'd like to have your attention, please. Tonight is a big night, and I want this to go well. Please remember, Jeremy is a great guy, and he loves me."

Blurb: A cute, sweet story about a system getting one of their members through her Valentine's Day date, and ultimately coming out as plural to a confused-but-supportive partner.

Why is it worth your time?: The director's mother has DID, and they co-wrote this short film to be a 101-level primer on "what that means for someone's day-to-day experience." So it's nothing too complicated -- but it's well-made! Works as a story, not just a day-in-the-life walkthrough.

Uses multiple actors and clever camera work to show different headmates switching and interacting. And it does a nice job of keeping things simple enough for an intro, without totally erasing the nuances. (I liked the way it only gives the viewer 4 headmates to keep track of, but refers to the system being much larger.)

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse intermediate-focus, creator speaks from experience, people: children, people: fictioneers, relationships: family, type: medical, type: switching

Content Warnings: From the site: "The full version contains a scene of intimacy and a flashback to childhood sexual abuse." A redacted version is available with that part cut.

Accessibility Notes: Available for free online. Includes a transcript, and subtitle options in English + multiple translations. Also backed up on YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wYhN39SiWuI&pp=ygUVcGV0YWxzIG9mIGEgcm9zZSBmaWxt