Plural Stories

"Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,
The dear repose for limbs with travel tired;
But then begins a journey in my head,
To work my mind, when body's work's expired:"

Blurb: A poem about traveling to one's companion in dreams.

Why is it worth your time?: It's fucking Shakespeare, the most celebrated author in the English language.

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, dreamfolk, intimate and friendly relationships

Content Warnings: None whatsoever.

Access Notes: It's Shakespeare. You can find it EVERYWHERE. Here, here's a link with notes! It's so short, we will also post it in the comments below.

Submitted by acorn_squash!

“We tend gardens in our hearts for others, even if they might never see the flowers.”

Blurb: “A story about feelings, told in the language of dreams.”

Why is it worth your time?: It’s a comic about psychopomps and emotional gardens that’s full of love. (The creator’s talked more about their psychopomps here.)

Plural Tags: creator speaks from experience, abuse not mentioned, otherworld, dreamfolk, imaginary friends, nonhumans [psychopomps, vultureperson], friendship

Content Warnings: None

Access Notes: Not screenreadable, sorry!

Read for free here! (Back-up link here)

Submitted by erinptah!

“Just take a seat anywhere you like, there’s a dear. Oh! By chance, did you see someone leaving just now? We had another applicant here a moment ago, sweet girl. But she seems to have run off. Didn’t even wait for her tea, poor thing.”

“Um…” Elaine is clearly calculating the manifold reasons that might propel one into premature flight. But there is no whiff of gingerbread as of yet.

Blurb: What happens when you mix one drunk fairy godmother with a multitude of blue cocktails, add a stubborn barmaid with a unique taste in adventures, and filter it all through a sarcastic narrator who can't seem to keep themselves out of the story? Elaine is on a quest to rescue a dragon egg, through a world of "every fairy tale is real, but not quite the way you were told..."

Why is it worth your time?: Funny and charming. The character voices are well-rendered and entertaining. Some of the jokes will be predictable if you've read other fairy-tale parodies, but others are still refreshing. And "what if the Seven Dwarves were one dwarf system with seven alters?" is a really solid twist.

Plural Tags: creator: bodyshares, abuse: not mentioned, cofronting, people: children, relationships: family, relationships: teamwork

Content Warnings: as per the original fairy tale, the Seven Dwarves have Snow White in a glass coffin, and it's ambiguous whether she's dead or not

Accessibility Notes: Available online, plain text, screenreadable

Misc. Notes (if any): The Seven Dwarves only feature in chapters 6-7, but Elaine's quest is episodic enough that you can read that adventure as a standalone piece and enjoy it. Given the plural co-creator, I figured I'd err on the side of reccing it!

(The novel is a WIP, and the video says the dwarf system is slated to reappear eventually...but as of this writing, it hasn't updated in A While.)

Found this via a video on the Gianu System's channel, a chat with the other two (singlet) members of their writing collective, where the novel came up. (Link is to that specific section of the video.) The IRL system was very involved in working out how to write the fantasy system in a way that would make them happy to read, and sounds really proud of the result.

Read free online:

• Meanwhile at the Withershins Inn (novel)
• "6. A Multiplicity of Dwarves" (back-up link)
• and "7. People in Glass Coffins" (back-up link)

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

“There’s nothing wrong with a good old-fashioned team-up.”

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 6 BLURB:

Marc breaks out of his unhealthy cycles by doing something completely different with his life: moving to Hollywood and producing a TV series! Instead of pushing Duchamp and Marlene to un-cut him off yet again, he works on some new connections: an ex-SHIELD agent for a pilot/gadget guy, and fellow quasi-Avenger Echo for a co-vigilante/love interest.

He also meets new headmates — specifically, introjects of Spider-Man, Captain America, and Wolverine. (Marc used to do friendly team-ups with Spidey back when he lived in NYC, and was briefly recruited to the Secret Avengers under Cap. He, uh, has never met Wolverine? Just roll with it.)

Together they sort out a single over-arching plot in the LA underworld. Also, that TV show somehow gets made in the background, even though Marc basically never goes to work.

(…I’m calling this run “nonswitching” because I don’t think any of the introjects actually use the body, in spite of Marc trying to physically imitate their weapons and fighting styles. I think they just hang around, giving advice and being chatty.)

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 not mentioned, cofronting, identityblending, people: copies, type: nonswitching, voices

Content warnings: Character death, specifically that Echo gets fridged (future comics will completely ignore this), and Inner Wolverine gets turned into The Murderous Headmate at the end. Some general “it’s the ’10s, we should be better than this” sexism in how Echo gets written.

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.

"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!

"Living as a singular person never made our dissociation or amnesia stop. It always made it worse. I'd rather not do it to myself anymore for the sake of prioritizing the comfort of singlets."

Blurb: "A light introduction to plurality with some interviews with the author systems' members."

Why is it worth your time?: It's what it says on the tin. Not a story, but we try to include autobio experiences in this archive to boost artists!

Plural Tags: plural creator, abuse not mentioned, community and enmity relationships, medical

Content Warnings: None

Access Notes: Sadly not screenreadable.

Misc Notes: $5+ on Ko-fi. Buy it here!

"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!

Submitted by erinptah !

A cool quote from the work: "Why does everyone call you princess anyways?" [Don't say it.] [SAYING ITTTTT.] [Don't say it.] "We sold our real name to the fae." [Oh my god, GOBBO WHY?!]

Blurb: It's about a cyborg with DID, also cool armor and magic powers from a deal with the Fae that they warn everyone else not to imitate, trying to become queen of the pirates. First step: rescue a future-Twitch celebrity who just livestreamed herself fighting cops by turning into a dragon.

Why is it worth your time?: Absolutely wild genre-blend with fast-paced action and immediately-appealing characters. The main character is a system of (at least) three, with a fun, affectionate dynamic. (We get a lot of their internal conversation in color-coded dialogue boxes, and when someone talks out loud, their armor lights up in those colors to help you track who's fronting.) No idea if they'll ever reach their Pirate Queen goal, but I'm excited to see how many adventures they get up to in the process.

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, cofronting, teamwork, mindsharing, setting-specific, switching

Content Warnings: Sci-fi violence? So far that's it

Accessibility Notes: images, no transcript. Some fast-moving animations

Misc. Notes (if any): The main character has a fictional cybernetics-induced condition in-universe, but the creator just calls it DID in the author's notes, and says it's influenced by their own experience: "The ways the characters navigate their personas, the difficulties they face, and their coping mechanisms, reflect aspects of how people, like myself, grapple with DID." Comic is currently ongoing.

Start reading it here! (EDITOR'S NOTE 2023/11/28 Deleted? WBM back-up here, but the images aren't in order and I have no way to know how complete it is or isn't.) (EDIT 2023/12/14: the archive is incomplete and not backed up. RIP Princess & The System. T_T)

"Desynchronization Potential is the degree to which humans can safely dissociate their minds from their bodies in order to become more efficient components of an algal computer. [...] In the process of UI diving together, the borders of the individual minds soften and become porous, effectively allowing us to become each other. At my desync, I become them more completely than they become me."

Blurb: Jarek Łaniewski has an amazing desync potential and a real bad attitude. After a strange dive in an Algal computer leads to him getting his face pounded in by a coworker and then getting fired, he sets out to do a deep dive by himself... and gets more than he bargained for.

Why is it worth your time?: It's short, it's free, and Jon Cairns packs a lot of details to make his sci-fi world convincing despite the limited page count. It's also an interesting idea of a profession that involves group hiveminding to interact with a biological computer made of algae!

Plural Tags: identityblending, setting-specific, abuse not mentioned, realitymashing, teamwork, plural on purpose, visions

Content Warnings: Lots of nudity, some sex (though this is NOT a porn comic). Others contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: Not transcribed; available as an ebook or read on the web here. (Back-up link here.) Short portions of this comic are in Polish.

Misc Notes: The Untitled SF series have standalone chapters, so you don't need to read any of the others to follow this one.

"You're enjoying this too, aren't you?"

Blurb: A one-page furry transformation comic where two bodysharers decide to play!

Why is it worth your time?: It's cute, it's fun, it's short, it's free, and it's hot. Enjoy!

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, cofronting, nonhumans [dog person], friendship, switching

Content Warnings: It's porn! Explicit sex happens! More details in comments.

Access Notes: Sorry, not transcribed or screenreadable. Read it here! (EDIT: Cohost is going down. Back-up link here.)