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[personal profile] lb_lee
This is part of a series on Moon Knight submitted by [personal profile] erinptah! Thank you, [personal profile] erinptah! :D See her whole post with clips here!

We’re not crazy, Marc. Well, maybe Grant is. You seen how much he pays for a suit? No, ‘crazy’ is what stupid people call things they don’t take the time to understand. You, me, Grant…we’re a team. Or we should be.”

Blurb
: After dying and being resurrected (for the first time, but not the last) by the Egyptian god of the moon, mercenary Marc Spector sets out to atone for the harm he caused…by becoming a moon-themed superhero. That’s on top of being Steven Grant, rich CEO/investor in unspecified businesses. And being Jake Lockley, who ranges from “friendly, easygoing, regular guy” to “comedically murderous sociopath” depending on who’s writing this run. (The current series is striking a middle ground of “avuncular scoundrel with a heart of gold”.)

VOLUME 9 BLURB:

So, after the Bemis run ended, the main Avengers comic did this arc in which Khonshu orders Marc to attack a bunch of the Avengers. Which he does. (Everyone he’s managed to reconnect with decides this is a good reason to cut him off again.) The Avengers ultimately put Khonshu in super-god-prison, but let Marc go free…as long as he follows certain conditions.

This is the run that combines “Marc has a new set of Moon Knight adventures” with “Marc goes to court-ordered super-therapy.”

Steven and Jake don’t appear until the end of the end of the first story arc — but when they do, it’s to reveal they were giving Marc space on purpose, and to call out how much he’s struggling without them. After that, while they don’t get to be in every issue, they get regular appearances that showcase how Jake and Steven both have personal skills that Marc doesn’t, and how much better they work as a team.

Why is it worth your time?: Marvel Comics’ longest-running and most-successful attempt to portray a superhero with DID. (Some writers don’t actually attempt it — but we’re limiting this roundup to the runs where they remembered.)

“Most-successful” still means plenty of flaws, drawbacks, and general comic-book nonsense! But at its best, the writing is a heartfelt, complex, insightful, funny portrayal of A Troubled System Doing Their Best, which a lot of IRL plural readers have found relatable.

Plural tags:  abuse low-focus, memory work, otherworld, realitymashing, relationships: family, relationships: teamwork, type: medical, type: switching

Content warnings: violence (not as gratuitous as the last run), a recurring theme of mind-control/violation-of-autonomy from the villains, major character death

Access Notes: Most of these are available in print collections of some sort, as well as digitally through Marvel. Nothing audio or screenreadable as far as I know.

lb_lee: A happy little brain with a bandage on it, enclosed within a circle with the words LB Lee. (Default)
[personal profile] lb_lee
This is part of a series on Moon Knight submitted by [personal profile] erinptah! Thank you, [personal profile] erinptah! :D See her whole post with clips here!

The inside of Marc Spector’s head is a picturesque, violent landscape touched by Egyptian mythology, Judaic folklore and fragments of his past. But it ain’t always a pretty place.

Blurb
: After dying and being resurrected (for the first time, but not the last) by the Egyptian god of the moon, mercenary Marc Spector sets out to atone for the harm he caused…by becoming a moon-themed superhero. That’s on top of being Steven Grant, rich CEO/investor in unspecified businesses. And being Jake Lockley, who ranges from “friendly, easygoing, regular guy” to “comedically murderous sociopath” depending on who’s writing this run.

LEGACY BLURB:

The action returns to the real world, for some more typical short-form Marvel adventures…except that now Jake and Steven get to be consistently present! (Along with an unusually-helpful Khonshu. Who doesn’t do any of his usual god-level things, so, this might actually be a Khonshu introject?) Sometimes they’re co-conscious in the physical world, sometimes they’re all interacting in headspace, sometimes there’s a psychic realm where they can manifest separately.

The run I get the most mad about, because it has that great setup with so much potential, and then sours it with things like “Jake gets character-assassinated into a wacky sociopath with a secret-baby plot.” Pushes things to the weirdest and most dramatic places possible, which at best means “this is the funniest Moon Knight scene I’ve ever read,” and at worst, “this is the edgiest edgelord cringe.” Drops lines like “Don’t eat that rabies-ridden dolphin meat” in total earnest.

Another reader said “Damn it Bemis, I really need you to stop writing actually good character moments I enjoy and tricking me into thinking for a brief moment this could be a run I liked, rather than one that makes me want to tear my hair out,” which pretty much sums it up.

Why is it worth your time?: Marvel Comics’ longest-running and most-successful attempt to portray a superhero with DID. (Some writers don’t actually attempt it — but we’re limiting this roundup to the runs where they remembered.)

“Most-successful” still means plenty of flaws, drawbacks, and general comic-book nonsense! But at its best, the writing is a heartfelt, complex, insightful, funny portrayal of A Troubled System Doing Their Best, which a lot of IRL plural readers have found relatable.

Plural tags: abuse intermediate-focus, cofronting, otherworld, nonhumans [gods], realitymashing, family, teamwork, type: medical, type: spiritual, switching

Content warnings: Extra violence and some fairly gruesome injuries. The system gets some retconned explicit childhood trauma, in the form of “little Marc’s favorite rabbi was secretly a Nazi serial killer.” The main present-day child character isn’t harmed in any major way, but does get kidnapped and/or threatened a lot.

Access Notes: Most of these are available in print collections of some sort, as well as digitally through Marvel. Nothing audio or screenreadable as far as I know.

lb_lee: A happy little brain with a bandage on it, enclosed within a circle with the words LB Lee. (Default)
[personal profile] lb_lee
This is part of a series on Moon Knight submitted by [personal profile] erinptah! Thank you, [personal profile] erinptah! :D See her whole post with clips here!

I am Marc Spector. I am Steven Grant. I am Jake Lockley, and we are going to be okay. We are going to live with who we are. We are Moon Knight. And we never needed you.”

Blurb
: After dying and being resurrected (for the first time, but not the last) by the Egyptian god of the moon, mercenary Marc Spector sets out to atone for the harm he caused…by becoming a moon-themed superhero. That’s on top of being Steven Grant, rich CEO/investor in unspecified businesses. And being Jake Lockley, who ranges from “friendly, easygoing, regular guy” to “comedically murderous sociopath” depending on who’s writing this run.

VOLUME 8 BLURB:

Marc wakes up in the mental hospital where he’s been living, lost in delusional fantasies of being a caped vigilante. Or has he? No, the whole thing is a setup by the goddess Ammit, to keep Khonshu’s Avatar trapped and helpless while she takes over the world. Or is it?

The trippy, twisty, reality-bending, beautifully-drawn run that redefined Moon Knight — this time, in a way readers actually liked. Marc flounders around in a world with multiple levels of reality, regularly slipping into different scenes from his past, trying to rescue a handful of people who might be his old friends or just his memories…and finally getting a substantial team-up with Jake and Steven.

Reimagined and expanded flashbacks finally establish that Steven and Jake didn’t just appear when Marc was an adult; they’ve been a system since childhood. The headmates spend a few issues split across different reality-sequences, with stunningly different art styles; but the plots keep blurring together, until they find their way into the same scene again. Sometimes we get gritty montages from Marc’s mercenary past; sometimes we get a sci-fi dream about fighting werewolves on the moon.

This isn’t a good place to start reading Moon Knight, because it’s dense with references to feelings and relationships that won’t land if you don’t have the context. And it’s confusing enough even with context! At least read some of the ’80s run first. But then, yeah, read this one.

Why is it worth your time?: Marvel Comics’ longest-running and most-successful attempt to portray a superhero with DID. (Some writers don’t actually attempt it — but we’re limiting this roundup to the runs where they remembered.)

“Most-successful” still means plenty of flaws, drawbacks, and general comic-book nonsense! But at its best, the writing is a heartfelt, complex, insightful, funny portrayal of A Troubled System Doing Their Best, which a lot of IRL plural readers have found relatable.

Plural tags: abuse low-focus, cofronting, fusion/integration, memory work, otherworld, realitymashing, relationships: family, relationships: teamwork, type: medical, type: spiritual, type: switching

Content warnings: Medical abuse and general poor treatment in the hospital scenes (which might be due to them being run by evil gods, but then again, it might not). Abuse and manipulation from Khonshu. A potentially distressing “Marc gets rid of Jake and Steven” sequence partway through; it’s a fakeout, they’ll be back.

Access Notes: Most of these are available in print collections of some sort, as well as digitally through Marvel. Nothing audio or screenreadable as far as I know.




lb_lee: A happy little brain with a bandage on it, enclosed within a circle with the words LB Lee. (Default)
[personal profile] lb_lee
Also submitted by a mysterious anon! Thank you, anon!

"I am the darkness within! The caged beast at the heart of all humanity! The spirit of--"

"London at night! I know! Speaking of humbug, you do realize I can hear all of your little inner monologues, don't you?"


Blurb: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, only more queer and crossing over with other classic horror. Jekyll runs a society for mad scientists like himself who push the boundaries, hoping to become more accepted by wider society. Of course, considering it's the Victorian era, this is easier said than done. Especially when there's Hyde, who has his own agenda...

Why is it worth your time?: Takes the Jekyll and Hyde story and makes it more nuanced, not simply 'Hyde is pure evil'. The two don't necessarily get along, but their relationship has elements that some systems may find relatable. Though switching has to be physically induced via potion, the two still make plans at a couple points on when to switch so one member can go out and do something he wants to do, etc. Also does a good job tackling themes such as racism, queerphobia, and classism. The art is quite nice!

Plural Tags: on purpose, otherworld, enmity

Content Warnings: racism, homophobia and transphobia, the typical psychological effects that occur with Victorian repression, trauma, body horror, blood, some sexual situations (non-explicit), emotional manipulation, strained family dynamics. Others contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: The first volume is now in print with a second volume on the way, but it is free to read online with weekly page uploads. https://www.theglassscientists.com/about

Misc Notes: The primary author is nonbinary and a POC!
lb_lee: A happy little brain with a bandage on it, enclosed within a circle with the words LB Lee. (Default)
[personal profile] lb_lee
Submitted by a mysterious anon! Thank you, anon! :D

"As no one philosophy can fulfill all aspects of human life alone, your one self cannot go on unless you learn to work with the trio."

Blurb: A small crew of astronauts is on a mission to investigate Mars, where rumor has it a strange energy called 'Evil Mind' is stirring up delusions. One of these crew members is protagonist(s) Laika, a rookie radio engineer who is also plural. Like most instances of Mars in fiction, things quickly go south. Between solving mysteries, interacting with Mars' varied inhabitants, and hopefully putting a stop to the impending 'Judgement,' Laika and their bodymates - Ernest, Spacer, and Yolanda - confront their joint past and find who they all truly are. Also, everyone has a dog face, and yes, it is plot important.

Why is it worth your time?: The depiction of plurality is surprisingly sympathetic and dimensional for the time. If any bodymate dies in combat, it's a game over because the story considers all of them important. Most residents of Mars may be or are explicitly shown to be two-in-one; a few are three-in-one and Laika is five-in-one. Bodymates are usually treated like their own people, always called by their own name and pronouns by other characters. Though the writing at times can be questionable and other times very hard to follow, there are some legitimately interesting examinations of trauma, identity, and how the conservative Christian ideals of 'pure good' and 'sin' can be damaging. Like Xenogears, it's best to go in remembering when it was made, especially if you go looking at the original Japanese materials which...are more of their time than the English fan translation. (As an example of a strange writing choice, the bodymates are labeled as separate types of 'evil' but are not depicted as bad people in their actions.)

Plural Tags: fictioneers, fusion/integration, setting-specific, memory work, on purpose, otherworld, realitymashing, teamwork, community, enmity

Content Warnings: A TON. alcoholism, animal cruelty, assault, child abuse (physical, emotional, and sexual), death, dissociation, domestic violence, hospital surgery, integration (portrayed both negatively and positively)*, misogyny, murder, pedophiles, psychosis/delusions, religion, strong language, suicide and resulting survivor's guilt, trauma, very stereotypical depictions of Native Americans.
*Spoilers, one system of three integrates via killing a bodymate, but the one responsible turns into a boss battle so it seems more negative. In comparison, Laika& integrates by the end and the vibe seems to be positive.

Access Notes: Available for the PS1. The game is long out of print but has been uploaded on archive.org in Japanese, Spanish, and English. (No vouching for quality, caveat emptor.)

Let's Plays: For Japanese speakers, NicoNicoDouga has a couple of different playthroughs to check out, some which go into more detail than others. There's also one on YouTube with no commentary: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYnPhfZ3IEC0gVoIAvFp_S1veJosDqw1C

In 2022, an English fan translation was released. A full playthrough of that is also on YouTube with no commentary (except at the very end): https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLegyQtkE9qr02L83RyYu19HzKdrHecp2B

The translation tries to be sensitive while acknowledging the game's shortcomings. E.g., it treats obviously trans characters with more respect than the original script, but the term 'personalities' is still used to refer to bodymates, and it keeps the term 'psycho' which the game uses to refer to one of the three types of evil on Mars.
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[personal profile] lb_lee
"These stories were very old, as old as people, and they had survived because they were very powerful indeed. These were the tales that echoed in the head long after the books that contained them were cast aside. They were both an escape from reality and an alternative reality themselves. They were so old, and so strange, that they had found a kind of existence independent of the pages they occupied. The world of the old tales existed parallel to ours, as David's mother had once told him, but sometimes the wall separating the two became so thin and brittle that the two worlds started to blend into each other.

"That was when the trouble started."


Blurb: After the tragic death of his mother, his father's remarriage, and the birth of a baby brother, troubled boy David finds himself sucked into a fantasy world that seems cobbled together from the various books in his room. But those books and stories don't all belong to him, and some of them are very grim...

Why is it worth your time?: It's an enjoyable dark fantasy with truly frightening villains, tragic heroes, all overhung with a backdrop of World War II, which David is too young to fully understand the nature of. Give it a shot!

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, otherworld, fictioneers, the dead, visions, voices

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: This book is mainstream and well-liked and has gotten multiple printings, so it's easy to find in libraries. Available in ebook, audiobook, paperback, and hardback formats. Also got translated into French, where it won an award!
lb_lee: A happy little brain with a bandage on it, enclosed within a circle with the words LB Lee. (Default)
[personal profile] lb_lee
"I suggest you spin off a few more selves with slightly shited neurotypes and discuss the matter."

Blurb: After spending centuries dead, Markus awakens in a world that doesn't care to explain much, least of all itself. And he can spin off other selves to discuss the matter...

Why is it worth your time?: Trippy and thoughtful, a meditation on history and the self. Give it a shot; it's free to read online!

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, fusion/integration, otherworld, copies, the dead, community, plural on purpose, setting-specific

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: The creator has now textually transcribed the whole thing! :D Backed up by LB because I have LEARNED from previous archiverot!

Misc Notes: Read for free on https://solipschism.webcomic.ws or pay what you want for the PDF ebook on itch.io!
lb_lee: A happy little brain with a bandage on it, enclosed within a circle with the words LB Lee. (Default)
[personal profile] lb_lee
(Full title: Heaven's Bride: The Unprintable Life of Ida C. Craddock, American Mystic, Scholar, Sexologist, Martyr and Madwoman)

"Like her sister Nana, Ida too would have a spirit husband, but unlike Nana's posthumous nuptials, Ida would join her partner on this side of the grave."

Blurb: A biography of Ida C. Craddock, a sex educator who married a spirit in the 1890s and who was hounded to death by Anthony Comstock for it.

Why is it worth your time?: It's well-researched, and one of the only biographies of Craddock. Schmidt doesn't seem to know what to do with her spirit marriage, shoving it into two chapters ("Pastor of the Church of Yoga" and "One Religio-Sexual Maniac") and treating it with bemused incomprehension, but he does an excellent job explaining the cultural context around Craddock's work and harassment. The excerpts of her diary that he quotes regarding her relationship with her spirit husband Soph remain touching and relevant a century later. Recommended, despite its limitations!

Plural Tags: abuse low-focus, otherworld, the dead, family, and romantic relationships, spiritual, voices

Content Warnings: Kidnapping, institutionalization, imprisonment, era-expected ableism, misogyny, racism, and classism, plus religious oppression, parental violence, suicide. Despite this, the book isn't that rough a read; most of that happens in the chapter clearly labeled "Every Inch a Martyr."

Access Notes: Available in paper, audio, and ebook forms. Very easy to get ahold of.

Misc Notes: If you want to read Ida C. Craddock's writings, including Heavenly Bridegrooms and Psychic Wedlock, check out https://www.idacraddock.com/ There's also Sexual Outlaw, Erotic Mystic: the Essential Ida Craddock, but we haven't read it and can't say anything about it.
lb_lee: A happy little brain with a bandage on it, enclosed within a circle with the words LB Lee. (Default)
[personal profile] lb_lee
Submitted by my friend Chris!

"A mind in a city. A city in a mind."

Blurb: Murder mystery set in the mind of Elias Hodge, scientist.

Why is it worth your time?: The series is a fun combination of noir murder mystery and themes from Disney's Inside Out.

Plural Tags: otherworld, abuse intermediate focus, children, teamwork

Content Warnings: Specific content warnings are given in the episode blurb (such as misophonia: lip smacking). The series is set in a city in the mind going through Prohibition similar to the experience in the US (Al Capone era), so presume innuendo, violence, and alcohol.

Access Notes: Audio/dubbing, with subtitles and a transcript feature that's searchable (in the streaming service).

Misc Notes: Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9riE94Kkwq4
1st episode for free: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pT1OhH3F1Y
Fandom Wiki (may have spoilers): https://dimension20.fandom.com/wiki/Mentopolis
lb_lee: A happy little brain with a bandage on it, enclosed within a circle with the words LB Lee. (Default)
[personal profile] lb_lee
"It was time to return to the inner world I loved so much as a child. As I'd feared, a decade of abandonment had eroded it away..."

Blurb: A trans girl comes to talk to her headmate one last time... and it doesn't go the way she planned.

Why is it worth your time?: It's short, bitter-turned-sweet, and relatable.

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, fusion, identityblending, intimate relationships, otherworld, visions

Content Warnings: Dealing with self-hatred. More in the comments.

Accessibility Notes: Plain text, screenreadable, free. Read it here! (EDIT: Cohost is going down. Back-up link here.)
lb_lee: A happy little brain with a bandage on it, enclosed within a circle with the words LB Lee. (Default)
[personal profile] lb_lee
"I'm just trying to be alive..."

Blurb: A brief documentary by the Poppet Sisters about the birth and coming out of their headmate Evelyn.

Why is it worth your time?: It's a short, freely available documentary about a demon headmate trying to make her way in the world.

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, switching, nonhumans [demon], otherworld, friendship, plural creator

Content Warnings: Discussion of dissociative states.

Access Notes: Subtitles are auto-generated; no vouching for quality.

Watch it here! The Poppet Sisters have also backed up the video at Archive.org; thank you, guys! You can also buy the Art Pack here!
lb_lee: A happy little brain with a bandage on it, enclosed within a circle with the words LB Lee. (Default)
[personal profile] lb_lee
"We all need some place to go away to... some place we can be the people we should've been instead of the people we've become. Some safe place where we can escape reality."

Blurb: In our world, the Maxx is a homeless man who sleeps in a box with a hopelessly enmeshed relationship with his social worker, Julie, but in the primordial Outback, he's a superhero fighting for his Jungle Queen! But it turns out the Maxx, Julie, and the Outback are all hopelessly psychologically intertwined, and a killer named Mr. Gone seems to know way more about all of them than he should...

Why is it worth your time?: This is a very edgy '90s story that Sam Keith says tended to strike specific teenagers in just the right way at a specific time, and indeed, that's how we got into it. It is EXTREMELY uneven in quality, but Keith mashes Outback and "real world", realism and cartoonish exaggeration, together in a way that nobody else does, and it's still beautiful to watch. In an unusual twist for us, we will recommend the MTV Liquid Television cartoon over the comic; by virtue of its brevity, it forced the story to cut some of its worst excesses, and its ending is less unsatisfying and, in our opinion, much better placed.

Plural Tags: abuse intermediate focus, realitymashing, memory work, otherworld, children, nonhumans [spirit animals], visions

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: The cartoon has subtitles on Open Subtitles. It was released on VHS, DVD, and someone put it on archive.org. The comics version is available on paper and ebook, and someone may have textually transcribed them for readers with print disabilities on archive.org? That would be a pleasant surprise!

Misc Notes: The comics version of the Maxx came out in six trade paperbacks (and maybe one of side-stories), but vol. 4 starts with a big time-skip and loses William Messner-Loebs as writer, leaving Sam Keith pulling double duty, and it shows. The cartoon, by virtue of being made in 1995 (and thus before the comic ended) was stuck with the first three volumes, and thus it ends there. The cartoon was 13 episodes, each roughly 10 minutes long, so you can smash through the whole thing in less than three hours.
lb_lee: A happy little brain with a bandage on it, enclosed within a circle with the words LB Lee. (Default)
[personal profile] lb_lee
"My being part of a plural system doesn’t make me any less of a person."

Blurb: A plural trans MANifesto and personal zine. 3rd edition!

Why is it worth your time?: Prometheans have been making plural essays for a long time, but this is the first zine any of them have made! It's free and fun, a good starting point. Give it a shot!

Plural Tags: abuse low-focus, plural creator, otherworld,

Content Warnings: mentions of ableism.

Access Notes: Read it here! (PDF back-up link) Text-only transcription here! (Transcript back-up link)
lb_lee: A happy little brain with a bandage on it, enclosed within a circle with the words LB Lee. (Default)
[personal profile] lb_lee
"Let's face reality together, no matter how harsh it is."

Blurb: When despair overwhelms certain people in Tokyo, they find themselves whacked upside the head by a middle-school boy with a golden bat and rollerblades. Cops start investigating the case, only to discover that "Lil Slugger" isn't what he seems...

Why is it worth your time?: It's a good show with themes of dealing (or not dealing) with reality, and how things in our mind can grow bigger and bigger until they take on lives of their own (and possibly eat Tokyo.) If you enjoyed Paprika, you will likely enjoy this, especially since you can see Satoshi Kon growing as a filmmaker from Perfect Blue, to Paranoia Agent, to Paprika.

Plural Tags: abuse intermediate focus, otherworld, realitymashing, enmity, visions, voices

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments (VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED)

Access Notes: Available on DVD, with subtitles and dubbing both. There's also a more-literal bootleg fan translation floating around archive.org, which despite its clunkiness I found myself preferring. (What can I say, I like having all the weird puns and references explained to me.)

Misc Notes: The beginning credits and the third-to-last episode of this show will live forever in my memory. I sometimes watch that one episode, all on its own, to inspire myself.
lb_lee: A happy little brain with a bandage on it, enclosed within a circle with the words LB Lee. (Default)
[personal profile] lb_lee
"and so the heart leaves the body behind"

Blurb: "An experimental zine about Identity fracturing & Trauma."

Why is it worth your time?: This is a trippy, strange, upsetting zine about souls turned against themselves and with complicated inner relationships. Its experimentalism makes it unusual, and that makes it valuable. It should have a place here.

Plural Tags: abuse intermediate-focus, otherworld, nonhumans [unicorn person, oyster person, angel], children

Content Warnings: "Sexual trauma, body dysmorphia & nudity. Also an extra warning for mild flickering, I'm not used to screentones so I wasn't able to stop them flickering slightly during scrolling."

Access Notes: no alt-text.

Misc Notes: $3 AU on itch.io. Buy it here!
lb_lee: A happy little brain with a bandage on it, enclosed within a circle with the words LB Lee. (Default)
[personal profile] lb_lee
" Practice automatic writing, possessory trance, and other methods of channeling.
Journey to the underworld and find your way out."


Blurb: "A small, powerful set of mythopoetic instructions for working with the queer dead, composed after the overlapping underground worlds of the Bay Area lost thirty-six of their people in the Ghost Ship Fire."

Why is it worth your time?: This is an expression of ecstatic queer grief in the wake of preventable loss. It's short, free, and beautiful in its passion.

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, otherworld, the dead, community, spiritual, possession

Content Warnings: Death and religion.

Access Notes: The nice thing about anarchists is you can get their work all over the place. Read online or download for free in various accessible formats, or you might be able to find one of Contagion Press's paper copies around for $2. Back-up link here.

Misc Notes: Although the author is listed as "anonymous," there's enough overlap in writing style and content that I suspect the writer was also involved in the Mary Nardini Gang's Be Gay Do Crime--which was also first printed by Contagion Press in 2018, also concerned with queer magical anarchism, and also concerned with the loss of friends (specifically, Feral Pines) in the Ghost Ship Fire.
lb_lee: A happy little brain with a bandage on it, enclosed within a circle with the words LB Lee. (Default)
[personal profile] lb_lee
Submitted by [personal profile] starfallhaven! Thanks!

"this was your shell, but it was all filled up with me. God, the double entendres were hard to resist."

Blurb: the sequel to Gideon the Ninth, Harrow the Ninth follows Harrowhark Nonageismus, who has failed to become a true Lyctor--a necromancer who has absorbed the soul of her cavalier. She is being both haunted by both visions and ghosts as she attempts to survive her time aboard the Mithraeum as one of God's chosen saints.

Why is it worth your time?: this book is extraordinarily good if you know what's going on (that is, body and mind sharing). The entire premise of Lyctorhood, one of the novel's defining world building aspects, is based on the idea of a secondary soul residing in a single body. There's even possession.

Plural Tags: mindsharing, switching, visions, setting-specific, abuse not mentioned, fusion/integration, otherworld, enmity and romantic relationships, the dead

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Accessibility Notes: available in print, ebook, and audiobook.

Misc. Notes: This book is not going to make much sense if you haven't read Gideon the Ninth, and I can't recommend reading one without the other. Although I'm firmly of the opinion that knowing about the bodysharing aspect in advance will only make the reading experience more enjoyable, it is technically a spoiler to know about at least one of the bodysharing relationships in this book.
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[personal profile] lb_lee
"Romeo, it's okay to feel angry, but you can't just go off on people!!"

Blurb: a short comic about two multiples trying to process being unable to stop abuse at their respective workplaces.

Why is it worth your time?: I've read a lot of comics over the years, and I've never seen work like gray Folie's. Their work is beautiful, raw, and emotionally devastating, and I have to be in a specific mindframe to read it because man can it hurt. They pull no punches when showing the ugly, snotty, painful sides of trauma and mental illness. Also, they depict both an internal and external argument with crystal clarity, despite the multiple layers of reality they're simultaneously happening on, just by using colors and panel layouts, which is masterful.

Plural Tags: abuse high-focus, otherworld, friendship, nonhumans [cat person, snake person, doll, animal people]

Content Warnings: Child abuse. Others contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: Short, free to read online. Alas, this one doesn't seem to be screenreadable; other Folie works are. Back-up links:
Misc Notes: Felix, one of the main characters of this comic, has become the protagonist of a bigger (and screenreadable!) webcomic called Catharsis. It has only just started, though, so I'm going to hold off on adding it to this archive until I (or someone else) can give decent content warnings. You also might enjoy the art tags Folie has for them on tumblr; here's Felix's, and here's Izzi's.
lb_lee: A happy little brain with a bandage on it, enclosed within a circle with the words LB Lee. (Default)
[personal profile] lb_lee
"Make sure they know they're never gonna be far from your thoughts as long as you live...and maybe ask 'em while they're busy rewriting you to remember that you always tried to be kind to your characters."

Blurb: Spider Robinson, the writer, writes himself into a story where he interacts with his fictional characters, tells them about the Usenet fandom that has formed around them, and they celebrate... and then real-world-Robinson posts said story on real-world-Usenet.

Why is it worth your time?: This is an odd duck, and probably not of interest to most people, since it's a victory lap following Robinson's publishing of six(ish) Callahan books, but it's also a very soulbondy work where writer, fandom, and fictioneers are all involved. Usually it's only two of the three, from what I've seen. Also, an interesting time capsule into internet fandom back in the '90s!

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, nonswitching, fictioneers, otherworld, realitymashing, friendship, community

Content Warnings: None; alcohol and minor discussion of someone in the fandom dying?

Access Notes: Short, free to read online in plain text. (Back-up link) On paper, as far as I know, it only exists in The Callahan Chronicals, which is long out of print, but which is apparently available via bookshare and also on audiobook.

Misc Notes: Spider Robinson has telepathy, mindsharing, and identity blending as a major theme in multiple works of his (including the Stardance books and, in the Callahan series, "Two Heads are Better Than One" and "the Mick of Time") but none quite make the grade onto this archive. Even "Post Toast" feels like a weird edge case.
lb_lee: A happy little brain with a bandage on it, enclosed within a circle with the words LB Lee. (Default)
[personal profile] lb_lee
"No matter how lost you may be, you will always be found, again and again and again!"

Blurb: A comic about playing hide and seek with a younger headmate across inner worlds.

Why is it worth your time?: It's short, sweet, and does interesting things to artistically depict the layers of different realities atop each other. Plus it's free!

Plural Tags: median, abuse not mentioned, otherworld, children, realitymashing, friendship,

Content Warnings: None.

Access Notes: Not transcribed. Free to read.

Misc Notes: Can be read on the web here or downloaded as a PDF here. (Back-up link here)

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pluralstories: James of William Denn leafing through the DSM-III-R (Default)
Many-Selved Stories and Multi Media

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