Plural Stories

"This isn't a story to me; this is my life!"

Blurb: IRS auditor Harold Crick starts hearing a woman's voice narrating his every action, discovers he's a fictional character being written to die tragically, and sets himself to trying to save himself.

Why is it worth your time?: It's pretty good! It takes the life of possibly the world's most boring fictional man and gives it moral weight, discussing the comparative merits of life versus art. Will Ferrel's understated performance stands out.

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, fictioneers, voices

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: Available on DVD and streaming, has subtitles in English and French.

Alim:
She still keeps plastic on the furniture.

Cary Grant:
It keeps the evil fresh.

Blurb: Alim seems to have it all: a great career, a handsome boyfriend, and a personal guide in the spirit of Cary Grant. And living thousands of miles away from his mother, Nuru, and his family in Toronto, he can keep his lifestyle hidden. But when his mom pays an impromptu visit, Alim needs to reconcile these different sides of himself.

Why is it worth your time?: It's good and bittersweet! This is a rare time I will put a story on this list where someone has to leave their headmate behind. Cary Grant and Nuru simultaneously represent parental figures and different sides of Alim-- Cary is racist but wants Alim to be happy, while Nuru is more abrasive on the surface but also more able to change. Alim's relationship with them both can be fraught. Nuru steals the show, if you ask me; she's sympathetically complicated.

Plural Tags: imaginary friends, nonswitching, other world

Content Warnings: homophobia and racism, both external and internalized, past parental death, strained familial relationships

Accessibility Notes: Available on DVD, probably streaming somewhere. Subtitles in Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Thai

"Get back to your room..."

Blurb: An abused young woman tries to escape through her imagination and fails.

Why is it worth your time?: It's free, short, and pretty good. I played it and enjoyed it, despite its depressing tone and disturbing imagery.

Plural Tags: nonswitching, otherworld, introjects, abuse high-focus

Content Warnings: Contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: Free to play, text dialogue. A completionist Let's Play with the dialogue read out loud is here, though it's not the best.

Misc Notes: This game is the first in a series, and I am not going to play the other two because the first is about as upsetting as I can take. It is an RPGmaker game inspired by cult hit Yume Nikki, which I'm also working on playing through.

Play it here! (Back-up link here.)

Recced by Janusz of talewisefellowship !

"Sai... I guess the one and only way to see you... is for me to play go. Sai, is it... is it all right for me to play?"

Blurb: When average 6th grader Shindō Hikaru finds an old Go board in his grandfather's warehouse, he is possessed by the spirit of Fujiwara no Sai, a master Go player who lived about a thousand years ago, and from that moment his life changed forever. Although Hikaru originally had no interest in the old board game, through spending time with Sai he gradually comes to appreciate the game and Sai becomes his guardian mentor and teaches the game to him. Thanks to Sai's actions, Hikaru manages to catch the attention of a young go prodigy his own age, Tōya Akira. The two develop a mutual interest in each other and Hikaru dedicates himself to studying the game so that he may become a player worthy of Akira.

Why is it worth your time?:
Because only Hikaru can see and hear Sai and they talk to each other in his head, the way the two live together is very similar to the experiences of many plural systems, especially the "host and soulbond" type. The story portrays their relationship and their struggles in a very human way that a lot of systems might find relatable. It was this story that first motivated me to get in touch with my system.

Also the gay subtext between Hikaru and Akira is so strong it might as well just be considered text. Since it's early 2000's Shōnen Jump there is no official confirmation of the nature of their feelings for each other, but I wouldn't consider it queerbaiting either; it is what it is.

Plural Tags: Spirit possession, the dead

Content Warnings: Contains spoilers, in comments below

Accessibility Notes: Available in English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and French, as comics and anime, digital and analog. Quoth Janusz, "Unfortunately the anime doesn't cover the entire manga and the english voice acting is not very good, so if you listen to the dub I recommend listening to the original Japanese voice acting to get a sense of how everyone actually sounds." Also, apparently it got remade into a Chinese live-action remake a while back! No clue if it's any good though.

"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.