Add a Story to the list!

[lb_lee]

If you have a story you want to add to the list, leave it in the comments below! Anyone can do this; you don't need an account!

This catalog purposely takes a very broad, ambiguous view of what constitutes "plural." Make our day! Story types that have been accepted in the past include:
* Spirit possession
* Imaginary friends
* Spirit marriage
* Exploring geographies of the mind, imagination, and fiction
* Bodysharing symbiotes
* MPD/DID
* Plural stories
* Telepathic bodyhopping shenanigans

Rules for submission (changed 5/17/2024):

• Only submit stories. We're willing to play with what defines a story, especially for personal experience accounts and experimental work, but self-help, philosophy, 101 and such do not belong here.
• Don't submit your own work. Boost your fellows!
• Please do not submit more than four titles by the same creator/s. When this archive gets bigger, we'll expand how many entries one creator/s can have.
• The story must be made by an adult (or at least not easily identified as made by a minor). This is to prevent malicious submissions and harassment of kids.
• The story must be publicly available. No unrecorded LARPS, rare books, or stuff on account-locked websites.
• If incomplete, the story must at least have a decent stop point. No just-started webcomics, please! They may not endure!
• You must have taken in the whole story (or at least all that's available at the time of submission). This is for complete content warnings and stuff.
• Spirited/many-selvedness must be core to story or main character/s. If you can remove it from the work without the whole thing falling apart, then please do not recommend it. (If you're not sure, ask! Make our day!)
• You must say why it's worth plurals' time. It doesn't have to be good, exactly, but it's gotta be worth it. This is to avoid completionist spam.

Does the story qualify? Then submit it using the form below! (Feel free to use the tags page for pointers.)

[Title] by [Creator/s] ([genre] [medium], [year released])

"[insert a cool quote from the work here]"

Blurb:

Why is it worth your time?:

Plural/1+ Tags: Choose from the ones on the tag list, or add your own!

Content Warnings: please include spoilers! I have this comm set up so that individual posts have only plural tag spoilers (because that's what folks are here for!), while content warnings will be in the comments. That way, people who want to remain spoiler-free can read the post itself and be fine, and the people who want all the warnings can scroll down.

Accessibility Notes: See the tag list for examples. Also note how you can get it. Is it an easy library book? Has someone digitized it and put it elsewhere? Is it backed up anywhere? Is it available in other languages than English?

Misc. Notes (if any):

Is it long, medium, or short?: I wrote the standards here.

It is for kids, teens, adults, or everybody?

Comments

Moon Knight by Marvel Studios (superhero TV series, 2022)

[erinptah]

"You saved me. I survived because I knew I wasn't alone. You were always there, so alive, so full of hope...You are the only real superpower I ever had."

Blurb: Steven Grant is an ordinary London retail worker, with an interest in Egyptology and a problem with sleepwalking. Marc Spector is a mercenary-turned-superhero, fighting evil as the Avatar of the god Khonshu, on one last mission to stop a divine genocide. And they were headmates (oh my god, they were headmates).

Why is it worth your time?: Possibly the most mainstream DID rep to get a ton of positive reviews from IRL systems. The headmates start out disconnected, spend some time aggressively clashing over their different values/priorities (not to mention Steven's instant crush on Marc's wife Layla). Then they need to lean on each other's skills to survive a classic superhero world-saving quest, get dragged through some magical trauma-processing, and ultimately figure out how to understand and appreciate each other. Oscar Isaac plays both of them, and (with the help of an amazing crew + diligent FX team) has amazing chemistry with himself. Avoids the usual Marvel settings to bring us to London and Cairo; it's the rare Egypt-centric series driven by IRL Egyptian creatives, and it shows.

Plural Tags: abuse intermediate-focus, cofronting, dissociation, memory work, otherworld, people: imaginary friends, relationship: friendship, relationship: teamwork, type: medical, type: switching

Content Warnings (lots of spoilers): Genre-typical violence. First episode is all Steven's POV with uncontrolled switching and no co-con, so he keeps waking up in the middle/aftermath of superhero fights without knowing why. Genre-typical character death: temporary for Marc+Steven in episode 4, permanent for a range of henchpeople/monsters/bad-guy victims.

The villain is a cult leader, with all the manipulation that implies, and repeatedly discredits Marc by describing him as broken/insane/dangerous. Khonshu is an abusive boss; YMMV on how much of that is him being out-of-touch with mortal human needs, and how much he's just a dick. Marc lies to Layla and Steven a bunch (for what he thinks are good reasons). Layla, reasonably, starts off treating Steven as an exasperating act Marc is putting on (she catches up pretty fast).

Fantasy medical/psych ward abuse starting in episode 4; the afterlife reflects their past experiences, including bad mental-health treatment. Memory work in episode 5 that revisits a series of childhood traumas, including sibling death, emotional abuse (on-screen), and physical abuse (just off-screen). References to Marc being suicidal. Steven has an existential crisis when he realizes their system has an original, and it isn't him. The end of episode 5 has a cliffhanger over whether Steven's existence is an "imbalance" that Marc would be better off leaving behind (don't worry, Marc doesn't accept that).

Accessibility Notes: Streaming version has multiple translations, subtitles in multiple languages, and a couple of audio tracks with voiceover descriptions included. Also available on DVD.

Misc. Notes (if any): When the show's portrayal of DID gets criticized, it's mostly over aspects that have been simplified or dramatized to keep things clear for the audience. Example: at first, when we see Marc and Steven switch, it's physically exaggerated, like they're having a seizure...because new viewers need the visual cue that something disorienting and unusual is happening. The guys have more subtle and realistic switches later, when the audience has gotten the hang of how it works.

Meanwhile, the series takes care to get a lot of important dynamics right. Like "if one headmate is doing distressing things behind another headmate's back, it doesn't mean the first one's a horror-movie villain, it means they have different ideas about how to stay safe." And "friends/loved ones don't have to be perfect experts, or to disregard their own needs, to be a good supporter for a system." And "sometimes alters are based on fictional characters, it's fine." And "trauma holders deserve to be told the trauma wasn't their fault." And "healing with DID doesn't require keeping The Original and getting rid of everyone else, it's about everyone figuring out how to work together and support each other."

Is it long, medium, or short?: 150+ minutes, but at 6 hour-long episodes, it's short by TV-season standards

It is for kids, teens, adults, or everybody?: Teens/adults (TV-14)

Re: Moon Knight by Marvel Studios (superhero TV series, 2022)

[lb_lee]

Sneak: Added to the catalog! Thank you so much, we really didn't relish making ourselves watch this purely for catalog reasons!