Plural Stories

"dragons may be make believe -- that doesn't make them fake."

Blurb: A children's song about a young boy and his imaginary dragon friend.

Why is it worth your time?: I mean, if you want a sad song about the abandonment of childhood wonder and dreams, there's the original. If you want the happy ending, you can read Spider Robinson's 3rd verse addendum!

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, otherworld, imaginary friends, nonhumans [dragon], friendship

Content Warnings: loss of childhood innocence and wonder

Access Notes: This is a very well-known song and easy to find lyrics and recordings of. It's also on archive.org! Spider Robinson's verse is also freely available online, because the fanzine he put it in (Niekas #30, from 1981) got digitized a while ago. If you are TRULY deadset on owning Robinson's verse on paper with an illustration, it was also printed in Fifty Extremely SF* Stories, edited by Michael Bastraw.

Misc Notes: Since Robinson's verse is so short, I just copy-pasted it into the comments below, because it seems like the kind of ephemera that might disappear. I know he's performed it live, but I haven't found any recordings, sorry!

"The you that killed Viola Wright was mulched a month later. I found my outlying scrap of consciousness balled up in Gus's pocket, all unbeknownst to him, along with the rest of your magically compressed matter and a great charge of vibrating magic. It was an unsettling vantage, for where I curled infinitesimally in your remains I could hear what I might call my primary self screaming above Gus's head.'"

Blurb: Gus is a sorcerer so obsessed with Catherine that he murders her, and her ghost is stuck haunting him forevermore. Unable to accept that Catherine doesn't love him, Gus then becomes obsessed with finding other girls that remind him of Catherine and making THEM love him... only to kill them when the inevitably don't'. He creates magical duplicates of himself to do that dirty work, forever recycling them into new copies, using Catherine's ghost to follow them. But over the decades, that means a piece of Catherine is embedded in those pieces of Gus. And she still wants her revenge...

Why is it worth your time?: It's pretty good! This is a book covering 150+ years of time, with three major time periods and two (or three, depending how you count) different points of view, and a decently sizable cast, all organized well enough so as not to throw us. Gus is utterly convincing as that special brand of romantic obsessive who sees himself as the most loving person, all the while being an utter horrorshow, and Catherine's revenge is delicious.

Plural Tags: abuse (mostly of a ghost) high-focus, cofronting, copies, the dead, enmity, setting-specific, possession

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: Available in print, ebook, and audiobook

(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.

"This isn't really a story about voices. Or it is, but not in the way you think. It's really about what it's like to breathe life into a character, and whether that character can breathe life back into you."

Blurb: "Mel Blanc was known as 'the man of 1,000 voices,' but the actual number may have been closer to 1,500. Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Tweety, Barney Rubble -- all Mel. And in 1961, when a car crash left him in a coma, these characters may have saved him. Sean [the host], Noel [Blanc, Mel's son], Dr. Conway [Mel's neurosurgeon at the time] and NYU brain scientist Orrin Devinsky weigh over what it might mean to be rescued by a figment of your own imagination, and whether one self can win out over another in a moment of crisis."

Why is it worth your time?: It's good! An interesting exploration of the neurological nature of the characters Mel Blanc portrayed, and their beneficial effects while he was in a coma. It's about 20 minutes long, free to listen, and worth the time, I daresay.

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, fictioneers, voices (though not in the usual way this tag is meant!)

Content Warnings: calm, straightforward descriptions of a car accident and Mel Blanc's death.

Access Notes: Not textually transcribed. Free to listen online. Listen to it here!

"Whoa, we’re all out in the open! I communicate to
her, pressing the thoughts to her heart like wet hooves
stepping on dry ground. Rain dripping off, sending bits of
love into her soul as water coming into soil."

Blurb: "A short story about trans gender feels, spirituality, and a deer getting eaten alive."

Why is it worth your time?: This is a story about cosmic oneness and mindsharing across animal lives. Some plurals are making really experimental work, and that has value, even if by nature it's hard to fit into the "rules" of how this comm is supposed to work. If you're looking for something ecstatically transcendent and unusual, give this one a shot! It's free, what do you have to lose?

Plural Tags: plural creator, abuse not mentioned, nonhumans [deer], mindsharing, spiritual

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: Xenia Numinous have worked really hard to make this accessible! The ebook is plaintext and screenreadable, and it also comes in audio form.

Misc Notes: There's also bonus audio commentary and a print-format PDF, so you can print, fold, and staple it at home.

Read it here!

"To live in harmony with all intelligences, we must relinquish our ideas of personhood. Just as we abstracted this concept to include corporations and environmental bodies, so now we must include artificial intelligences. --the Machinehood Manifesto"

Blurb: (from back cover) It's 2095 and humanity is entirely dependent on pills that not only help them stay alive but allow them to compete with artificial intelligence in an increasingly competitive gig economy. All that changes when the Machinehood, a new and mysterious terrorist group whose operatives seem to be part human, part machine, simultaneously attacks several major pill funders. They issue an ultimatum: stop all pill production in one week. Global panic ensues, and Welga Ramirez, executive bodyguard and ex-special forces, is pulled back into intelligence work by the government that once betrayed her. But who are the Machinehood and what do they really want?

Why is it worth your time?: This book was nominated for both a Hugo and a Nebula, so it's pretty good! Divya has degrees in computational neuroscience and signal processing, so she knows her stuff, and her AIs act like AIs, not humans in tinfoil suits. This book is also the first time I've read about cybernetic headmates and group mind as neutral or positive things, rather than just the Borg. Throughout the entire book, Welga is accompanied by her body-implanted AI assistant, Por Que, who speaks and suggests and then becomes more self-directed and more present in the final quarter, and the thought-dialogue swaps between plural and singular pronouns. This is a rare case where I'm putting the "median" tag in without the author's statement. Also, this book is about older characters with established, loving relationships with each other, which is refreshing to read; the couples have been together for years, the families love each other, and the conflict follows suit. If you want a nice long sci-fi book with cyborg Buddhists, give this a shot!

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, cofronting, median, setting-specific, nonhumans [AI, robots]

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: Available as paper book, ebook, audiobook, and on CD.

Misc Notes: Nominated for a Hugo and a Nebula, won a couple reader's choice awards. You can read the first three chapters and the full Machinehood Manifesto for free on machinehood.com!

Submitted by 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.

"I'm part of your imagination too. I'm you too, Joel."

Blurb: After a painful breakup, Clementine undergoes a procedure to erase memories of her former boyfriend. When he finds out, he undergoes the same procedure and slowly begins to forget the woman that he loved, only to discover that this may not be a good idea. A flight through mindscape ensues, trying to dodge the memory-erasure.

Why is it worth your time?: It's really good! Nowhere else have I seen a story (asides from those about dementia) that is so about the preciousness and pricelessness of memories, even painful ones. The special effects are used subtly to show the differences between memory and reality, with surreal geography, blurred environments representing them not being fully committed to memory, and some looming psychological horror as memories warp before erasure. This is definitely hard on the ish part of pluralish, but seeing as Joel's introject of Clementine comes up with ideas that he himself seems unable to think of, one could argue that his memory of Clementine is somewhat freestanding and has taken on her own life within him. It's also the most relatable movie about amnesia we've ever seen.

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, memory work, otherworld, realitymashing, introjects, nonswitching, romantic relationships

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: Has subtitles in English, Spanish, and French, dubbing in French--my DVD version, anyway.

Misc Notes: Do not believe the box; this is NOT a romantic comedy, and if you go in expecting that, you will not have a good time.

Submitted by packbat!

“Not too busy after all, I see,” Esther says when she opens the door.

“No.”

Cat Eleanor stands up on her hind legs, balancing her front paws on his knees, and says hello in cat. Esther smiles.

“She wants you to pick her up.”

REFUSE

Higher likelihood of claw holes from picking up or not picking up.

DANGER

Eleanor makes holes in his kneecaps. He picks her up and drapes her on his shoulder, where she purrs into his neck and presses her cold, wet nose against his ear. Barnes learns that the area around his ear is extremely ticklish.

The mission imperative is a sound in the back of his mind a little like “eeeeeee.”

Blurb: Following on from the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), brainwashed assassin James Buchanan Barnes, his mission imperative, and his mission briefing try to protect Steve Rogers while dealing with assassins, criminals, trauma, memory issues, and becoming a part of a community again.

Why is it worth your time?: This is a story about small victories, supportive friends, and finding your own solutions to problems. Barnes' system configuration is repeatedly affirmed and celebrated as functional and good. It also has a lot of good humor, and the fight scenes are well-integrated into the arc of the plot.

Plural Tags: memory work, nonswitching, relationships: teamwork, voices. fusion/integration is discussed but does not occur.

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments!

Accessibility Notes: screenreadable, audio/dubbing (almost all the stories have at least one linked podfic). Every work in the series has been translated into Русский, although some of the translations are only available to logged-in AO3 users. (An account is free but it might take a day or two to get an invitation.) Some fics in the series have also been translated into Russian, Magyar, Français, 한국어, and/or 中文-普通话 國語. The translations are linked at the top of each fic. Also, at times the HTML is poor so might be a pain on screenreader.

Misc. Notes (if any): The author retcons a number of things over the course of the series and Barnes is an unreliable narrator due to memory issues, so the work is internally contradictory in a number of parts.

Also, URL = https://archiveofourown.org/series/195689 Back-up links:

• This, You Protect
• Team-Building Exercises
• The Long Road Begins at Home
• Truth, Justice, and the Cheating Cheater Way
• Upgrade: Advanced Happiness Skills
• A Chance to Try Bravery
• A minor misunderstanding, solidarity, and reunion

"At any given moment, she is four, they are forty, you are fourteen, it is ancient, we are here and now, he is more and more myself, and I am legion. In tandem, I endure excruciating chronic migraines that sometimes last for weeks, wreaking further havoc on my retention of objective reality. When my mental health isn't good, I become a bewildered, aimless swarm of self, wheeling loosely 'round to roost in a single body."

Blurb: A personal essay on trauma therapy, memory work, and grief as ritual, and on "the daily reality of living with complex post-traumatic stress disorder and as-of-yet indeterminate dissociative issues". The Harpy is "that ecstatically furious part of myself," one of those "beastly parts of me that exist solely to protect me at all costs, even if means tearing apart someone who inadvertently trips my reflexive internal alarm system."

Why is it worth your time?: This wasn't my thing, but it may be yours. Yayanos has her own way of describing her experience, separate and distinct from a lot of plural stuff I read. It's poetic, filled with black censor bars; she describes proxies and facets, glitter and rage. It's an intense read, but you might want that.

Plural Tags: creator speaks from personal experience; memory work, abuse intermediate-focus

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: The Harpy is from the anthology Becoming Dangerous: Witchy Femmes, Queer Conjurers, and Magical Rebels, but despite the title, it's more about ritual than anything, and none of the rest of the book qualifies for the catalog. Available as paperback, ebook, and audiobook.

Misc Notes: Yayanos is also apparently a musician; Harpy is listed as one of her musical aliases. The coffee, Blood of the Harpy, seems to have been named in her honor.