Plural Stories

Submitted by erinptah! Thank you, erinptah!

"Eventually, we all have to accept reality. So, here it is. I am a person. You are not. I make the decisions. You do not. And if you ever do anything to my fingers, know that I will keep you alive long enough to horribly regret that. Your resignation request is denied."

Blurb: Employees at Lumon Industries have undergone "severance"—a medical procedure that splits their mind and consciousness between a work self and a home self. The switch is triggered by going in and out of their office floor, so the "outie" never has to experience the drudgery of being at work...and, you know, the "innie" will spend their entire existence never seeing sunlight, but if their outie keeps coming back, what can they do about it?

Why is it worth your time?: Strong acting, compelling plot, good characters. Even with all the creepy unreal sci-fi worldbuilding (the severance procedure itself is just the tip of the iceberg), the way the corporate evil actually plays out is upsettingly realistic. The writers are interested in exploring different versions of "why would someone volunteer for this procedure?" and "what kind of systemic indoctrination does it take to keep the innies going along with it?" The main four employees are complicated and messy and you can't imagine how they're going to get free...but you sure do hope.

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse high-focus, fusion/integration, relationships: family, relationships: romantic, relationships: enmity, relationships: teamwork, type: setting-specific, type: switching, type: on purpose

Content Warnings: General for the series: Worker exploitation, imprisonment, severe mental/emotional manipulation. Others involve spoilers; see comments.

Accessibility Notes: Apple TV+ offers closed captions and audio descriptions in English, dubs with the option for audio descriptions in multiple languages, and translated subtitles for even more languages

Misc. Notes: I tagged "abuse high-focus", but it's not for the kind of child abuse typical for real-world plural narratives, it's because the whole plot is about the setting-specific exploitation of the work selves

Submitted by erinptah! Thank you, erinptah!

-"Who'd want to put up with ten of us?" -"Well, if a guy didn't have many friends, it would make a great package deal."

Blurb: Adrian is a chirpy tech nerd on mental-health leave for his severe OCD. Grace is a shy street artist with PTSD and multiple personalities (we also meet G, Little, and Spike). After a meet-cute at their shared therapist's office, they strike up a friendship, which turns romantic as they work through some of their fears together.

Why is it worth your time?: A plural character gets to be the love interest in a sweet, funny romcom. Integration is mentioned but not pushed, and Adrian's care about "keeping track of which specific headmate he's talking to" is presented as one of the qualities that makes him Boyfriend Material. Does a nice job of balancing the dysfunction of the main characters: Adrian and Grace-and-company both have significant struggles, they both have moments of lashing out when their triggers get stepped on...then they apologize, and put in the care and effort to get closer anyway.

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse low-focus, people: children, relationships: teamwork, relationships: romance, type: medical, type: switching

Content Warnings: Reference to Grace's past CSA. Attempted assault towards the end from Grace's current boyfriend Sledge, triggering a brief non-graphic flashback. References to sex work (also non-graphic, and nothing bad happens to the sex-worker characters).

Accessibility Notes: Available on DVD, blu-ray, and streaming, including free with ads on Youtube. Closed captions included.

Misc. Notes (if any): The rare non-terrible fictional therapist! (She's mostly there so we can get exposition through the characters talking to her.)

Submitted by erinptah!

"Don't know how he possessed me, but I'm happy that he did
'Cause this song is feeling special, and is gonna make me rich"

Blurb: Our narrator finds herself body-sharing with Edgar Allen Poe, decides to let him write as much as he wants, while she and her friend/business partner handle the marketing.

Why is it worth your time?: Austria's entry to Eurovision 2023, which means it's catchy, unreservedly weird, a quick watch, and comes with a great performance. The narrator's relationship with Edgar is incredibly cute and positive, even though the people around her never quite get it (and even though his writing genius doesn't translate into the riches she was hoping for).

Plural Tags: abuse: not mentioned, people: introjects, people: the dead, relationships: teamwork, type: switching, possession

Content Warnings: One line about "Maybe I should call a doctor or an exorcist", but she only brings up the idea to reject it, and never goes back to it.

Access Notes: Audio, the music video has captions in English, lyrics written out and translated into multiple languages on EurovisionWorld

Misc. Notes (if any): I went with the "switching" tag even though it doesn't come up in the lyrics, because the music video gives the narrator a few masc-presenting scenes complete with fake mustache, which I'm gonna go ahead and interpret as "trying to make the body more comfortable for Edgar while he's fronting."