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(CATALOGER NOTE: BACK UP TRANSCRIPT LB!) Submitted by

quailfence! Thank you,

quailfence!

"I feel his presence there constantly. But it's like sitting in a room with somebody, and you're reading a book, and they're reading a book. And you don't always have to talk to each other. You just feel the other person's presence. And if it's somebody you really love, there's a comfort in that presence."

Blurb: Davy Rothbart's mother is funny, rational, and by most measures, pretty normal. Except that she spends every day in the company of an ancient Buddhist monk named Aaron, who no one else can see. Davy talks to his brothers, father, and eventually his mom, and asks the question they've somehow never managed to discuss: do any of them actually believe he's real?

Why is it worth your time?: It's an example of spirit channeling by someone in a Western society, which is pretty unusual and uncommon. I also like how the story goes out of its way to show that regardless of if he's "real" or not, Aaron has been a largely positive influence in the Rothbarts' lives

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse:intermediate-focus, people:the dead, relationships:friendship, relationships:teamwork, relationships:mentoring type:spiritual, type:possession, type:switching, may qualify for "creator speaks from experience" given that we hear from Davy's mother and Aaron a few times

Content Warnings: The story briefly discusses how Aaron helped Davy's brother process childhood sexual abuse. A decent amount of time is also spent on how Davy's mother suddenly becoming deaf negatively affected her relationship with his father, including his father saying/doing some ableist and victim-blamey things. As the blurb alludes to, a main focus of the story is Davy and his family trying to decide whether Aaron is real or if his mother is simply "crazy",

Accessibility Notes: Available free online in English. Transcript available. Link: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/212/the-other-man

Misc. Notes (if any): Produced as Act One of the This American Life episode "The Other Man".

"There will always be two voices; I didn't know that at first. I'm sorry. Your work will be to find the balance, to know when to follow which voice. One will be rash, angry, cold, dangerous; the other is sensitive, empathetic, innocent. Both are valid when in balance. But you cannot let go of one and follow only the other. You'll... you won't survive. You won't survivie unless you can carry all the realities!"

Blurb: After merging into one being at the end of Lynx and Strand, the new woman, Tryna, discovers that it's not as simple as just becoming a tabula rasa...

Why is it worth your time?: When we tripped over this sequel to Lynx and Strand in the sci-fi library, we couldn't read it fast enough! Fusion between singlets is an unusual enough twist on the "we fuse, the end" premise, for it to not BE the end, and for Tryna to struggle with being one person... this is a story that rarely gets told, and it's good! Give it a go!

Plural Tags: abuse low focus, fusion/integration, identityblending, setting-specific, voices

Content Warnings: none

Access Notes: Available as ebook, hardcover, and softcover. It's also available to borrow on archive.org!

Misc Notes: This is a sequel to Lynx and Strand, but there is absolutely NO WAY TO KNOW THIS if you hadn't read Lynx and Strand already; nobody mentions it ANYWHERE, far as I know.

"Jones had been reading up on Sufi esoteric practices. One in particular had interested him. It was called 'How the rainbow which circles the spray of the Fountain of Light (The Nor) may, by heart-contact, be thrown to link with another such rainbow. ' There followed quite unmistakable instruction as to how this rainbow interchange was to be effected."

Blurb: Two academics, an anthropologist and a psychologist, experimentally swap bodies for a time. But in their distraction and getting used to each other's bodies, one forgets to mention he's diabetic...

Why is it worth your time?: It's a neat little body-swap story that does a great job of expressing the weirdness and discomfort of getting used to someone else's body! Give it a shot.

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse not mentioned, bodyhopping, possession

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments.

Accessibility Notes: Widely anthologized, available on paper and on ebook, and archive.org has a copy of one of those anthologies, Bewitched Beings: Phantoms, Familiars and the Possessed in Stories from Two Centuries.

Misc. Notes (if any): Henry Fitzgerald "Gerald" Heard was an interesting guy, a gay mystic before that stuff was fashionable, and apparently a real bear to read the nonfiction of. "The Swap" is a straightforward read though!

"As I read about the adventures of Kirk Allen in these books the conviction began to grow on me that the stories were not only true to the very last detail but that they were not only true to the very last detail but that they were about me. In some weird and inexplicable way I knew that what I was reading was my biography. Nothing in these books was unfamiliar to me: I recognized everything--the scenes, the people, the furnishings of rooms, the events, even the words that were spoken--recognized all this with a sense of familiarity that one has when he sees a house in which he has lived or a friend from years gone by."

Blurb: Psychoanalyst Robert Lindner's account of a government worker who in childhood became convinced he was a popular sci-fi character and built a life in that story world, only to finally get thrown into his office.

Why is it worth your time?: Despite its age, this story will be immensely familiar (and interesting) to anyone who's felt they lived a life from media. Despite the nature of the story, we recommend it for anyone looking for older stuff!

Plural Tags: abuse intermediate-focus (MIND THE CONTENT WARNINGS IN COMMENTS), otherworld, fictioneers, medical

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: Came out in a few paper books, the most recent of which came out over fifty years ago. Mercifully, one of them has been put on archive.org. There's also a paywalled version in two installments on Harper's Magazine (part 1 and part 2)

Misc Notes: Nobody seems to know who "Kirk Allen" was in reality. It also got a TV version apparently, in 1957, though it doesn't sound like it was very good.

"Raj... I... have never fucked as Shivalree before. Like... I do it alone... jerk off with it turned on... but I have never done it with someone else."

Blurb: (from the ebook listing) A pair of rookie “Creative” Fighters–artists with the ability to physically manifest their varied creativity as superpowers–square off in a Creative Fighting Championship underbracket 2v2, wherein they develop a taste for one anothers’ abilities. In the locker room afterwards they explore other applications for what they can do.

Why is it worth your time?: This is a case where we are using "median" because upon multiple rereads, it is fascinating seeing the unspoken interplay between Randall and Shivalree; panel by panel, you can see which is speaking or emoting, and it's subtle and fascinating to watch, Randall's "eeee, I'm getting laid!" excitement contrasted against Shivalree's swagger. In a non-porn but related comic, Every Hole #1: Randall, you see Randall's friend Alix unable to unlock Squidlock (who not only has different body language, expressions, and possibly gender, but also a completely different monster body) and in deep depression due to it. It's unclear just how separate the fighting personas are from the performer, but clearly being able to access them is a big part of being happy and okay. Also, the way this comic uses color is gorgeous.

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse not mentioned, cofronting, identityblending, realitymashing, median

Content Warnings: It's porn!

Accessibility Notes: Available in ebook (though only with Paypal payment) and paper versions (at least for now; it's trans queer porno so who knows how long that'll last), and also via subscription at Filthy Figments (which accepts all kinds of methods of payment, not just Paypal). Not screenreadable.

My phantom lover comes to me from out the lonely night
My eyes trace, through their tears his misty shape within the gloom

Blurb: A poem about yearning for one's phantom lover, banished to another plane of existence.

Why is it worth your time?: It's a neat short little poem from eighty years ago, and it's free to read! What've you got to lose?

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, otherworld, romantic relationships, visions

Content Warnings: none

Access Notes: Originally (and only) printed in Mutant vol. 1 #1 in October 1946. Technically a very faded copy has been digitized thanks to FANAC, but some of the words are illegible. I've taken the liberty of reconstructing those words and posting the full poem in the comments.

Misc Notes: Tigrina, AKA Lisa Ben AKA Edythe Eyde, was a lesbian. She wrote this poem before coming out!

"We are two very different men, with different needs and desires. Yet we share the same cell and tonight we shall leave it together. Tonight we make the break for freedom."

Blurb: Two convicts plan a jailbreak. They don't like each other, but seeing as they share a body, they have to escape together...

Why is it worth your time?: This is an interesting story of two people who don't like each other, aren't kind to each other, and yet still plan and pull off a heist together. If that's of interest, give it a shot!

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse not mentioned, cofronting, fusion/integration, teamwork, visions

Content Warnings: Contain spoilers; see comments

Accessibility Notes: This short story has been collected in New Worlds 7, New Worlds #6, Jackbird: Tales of Illusion & Identity, and the New Bruce Boston Omnibus. All are/were paper only releases, and we haven't found any bootleg digital versions or audio versions; sorry!

Submitted by

acorn_squash! Thank you,

acorn_squash!

My parents always told me to never talk to strangers. But I have been living with one for most of my life.

Blurb: A transmasc cartoonist reflects on the way his relationship with the sometimes-cruel stranger in the mirror has changed over time.

Why is it worth your time? It’s a four-page comic with interesting panel composition, compelling use of colour, and a sweet, hopeful ending.

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse: intermediate focus (second page only), creator speaks from experience, relationships: enmity

Content Warnings: transphobia (second page only), dysphoria

Accessibility Notes: Included in the anthology The Out Side, which can be found in libraries, including as an ebook (through Hoopla). Not screenreadable, unfortunately.

“I am not dead,” said the voice that wasn’t his own. “You did not kill me. Even like this, you cannot tame me. Raise me, and I will live again.”

Blurb: The younger son of a family that has long captured and taken power from a demon, Liam discovers that maybe he and the demon want the same thing: OUT.

Why is it worth your time?: A short haunting story about getting possessed by a very nonhuman entity who isn't malicious, just very Other.

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, nonhumans (forest demon), plural on purpose, switching, voices

Content Warnings: gore (non-graphic descriptions), self-harm.

Access Notes: Available as a $2 ebook from the publisher, Duck Prints Press! (There are also paper zine copies, which is what I got, but you can only get those by being at a con Duck Prints Press is at.)

Misc Notes:

"It's not irretrievably lost, you know. You can have it back."
"But--but--the life I've had--the things I've done--you can't just wipe them out, like wiping a slate clean!"
"No. But they can be integrated. Right now they dominate you. They can become only memories, part of the suffering you've known, but suffering from which you've learned, from which you have been tempered--like fine steel. Emotional health doesn't mean reshuffling your memories or selective amnesia. It means integration--wholeness. It means strength. It means becoming your own person."

Blurb: Doc Phoenix, a superpsychologist dream-diver, dives into the headspace of a corrupt politician who wants to change his ways... and maybe assassinate the good doctor afterward.

Why is it worth your time?: This is self-declared pulp, and it embraces that genre. Deep art it is not, but it is entertaining. Weird Heroes was a series with the self-proclaimed central message of "Respect life and enjoy it," and the idea of a hero who works to rescue people's minds from the inside out is a pretty great premise! If you just want a fun, humble psychological adventure, this is worth a shot.

Plural Tags: abuse low-focus, bodyhopping, otherworld, dreamfolk, visions

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: This short story was in the anthology Weird Heroes, vol. 2, edited by Byron Preiss at Pyramid Books. Unlike the sequel, this book has been digitized on Anna's Archive! Uncertain whether it is screenreadable.

Misc Notes: Got a book-length sequel, called the Oz Encounter (or Weird Heroes Vol. 5: Doc Phoenix: the Oz Encounter), which is also worth reading, though apparently that one has never been digitized! Obviously I should fix that.

beepbird told us about this! Thanks,

"There is a man who loves me, as I am. MYSELF. Whether other people see me as I am or not. I am here."

Blurb: a bigender cartoonist talks about self/s-love.

Why is it worth your time?: It's short and sweet and awesome!

Plural Tags: abuse intermediate-focus (transphobia), closeting, creator speaks from experience

Content Warnings: transphobia, threats of lovelessness

Access Notes: This five-page comic appears in The Out Side: Trans & Nonbinary Comics, which is available in paperback and ebook.

Misc Notes: In the "about the author" blurb, he says, "Two souls accidentally got placed into my body. I'm bigender."

(words by Martha Bonds, music by Marcia McCombe)

Do I know you?
Are you dreaming of tomorrow?
If so, it seems you're a starchild, just like me.
The night's alive,
And we travel 'cross the light years,
TV screens and books of dreams can set us free.

Blurb: A fan (filk) song about how fans find meaning, joy, and other worlds through Star Trek.

Why is it worth your time?: It's an old fandom song about finding home and new worlds in the fictional. Definitely worth a listen to, for any fiction folk around!

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse not mentioned, creator speaks from experience, otherworld, fictioneers

Content Warnings: None

Accessibility Notes: I will post the lyrics in the comments! Otherwise, it is only available in The Complete Omicron Ceti III Lyric Book (not screenreadable) and the record album Only Stars Can Last.

(words by Martha Bonds, music by Kathy Burns)

I know a place so far away, a place I long to see,
There's no way to travel there, I must reach it in a dream,
The dreams they are so special, they take me there again,
A thousand conquered dangers, heroes, lovers, friends.

Blurb: A song about "Fans' feelings about [Star] Trek."

Why is it worth your time?: It's an old fandom song about finding home and new worlds in the fictional. Definitely worth a listen to, for any fiction folk around!

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse not mentioned, creator speaks from experience, otherworld, dreamfolk, fictioneers

Content Warnings: None

Accessibility Notes: I will post the lyrics in the comments; you can also stream it here or listen to it on YouTube! Otherwise, it is only available in The Complete Omicron Ceti III Lyric Book (not screenreadable) and on the album Only Stars Can Last.

(Learned of this poem thanks to

rybbot. Thanks,

rybbot!)

For it isn't your Father, or Mother, or Wife,
Who judgement upon you must pass.
The feller whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the guy staring back from the glass.

Blurb: A poem about the importance of honesty and being able to make peace with yourself.

Why is it worth your time?: It's a good poem! Probably not intended to be plural, but hey, if it's about making friends with yourself, who's to say it ain't? It's free, online, and almost a hundred years old, what more could one want out of life?

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, friendship

Content Warnings: None

Access Notes: Free, online, and screenreadable at https://www.theguyintheglass.com/gig.htm thanks to Wimbrow's children! Back-up link here: https://web.archive.org/web/19990428030413/https://www.theguyintheglass.com/gig.htm

Misc Notes: Wimbrow's kids list the context and copyright information of this poem here: https://web.archive.org/web/19991008172354/http://www.theguyintheglass.com/copyright.htm

Submitted by

quailfence! Thank you,

quailfence!

Something—not a thought, but almost—flickered across her gray matter. The Smoulder, walking; looking at the faded wallpaper; feeling the flexion in her feet. And then it was a thought:

[This again?]

(Wait, were costumes supposed to remember—)

Blurb: In the future, sex worker Evie uses a technological 'costume' to help her with her job, and in particular a client of hers known as 'the company man'. But the costume has been starting to act strange recently...

Why is it worth your time?: It's good! I like how sex work is presented as just A Job in the story - not something uniquely awful but not exactly Great either. I also found the high-tech costumes to be an interesting piece of tech, and the story uses them very well

Plural/1+ Tags: bodyhopping, type:setting-specific, type:switching. Not really sure how to rate the abuse in this one??

Content Warnings: include spoilers; see comments

Accessibility Notes: Online, free, screenreadable here: https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-girlfriend-experience/ Back-up link here: https://web.archive.org/web/20250922133223/https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-girlfriend-experience/

"You, too, are tainted with the Vampire strain
The same blood surges through us both, like wine.
No wonder that our thoughts and moods combine
And merge beyond the common, earthly plane."

Blurb: One vampire joins with another to walk together through ebon nights.

Why is it worth your time?: It's an old vampire poem from a prominent lesbian about embracing difference together. It's short and free; give it a shot! The lesbianism is all subtextual, due to the time period (and Tigrina herself was closeted at the time), but if you're looking for it, it's there!

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse not mentioned, identityblending, nonhumans (vampires), intimate relationships

Content Warnings: None.

Accessibility Notes: Unless you can track down an old copy of Acolyte #10, the only place to get this poem in print is in the anthology Sisters of Tomorrow: The First Women of Science Fiction, edited by Yaszek and Sharp and published by Wesleyan University Press. Some kindly soul has digitized it on archive.org, but the OCR is so poor that I'm just posting the poem in its entirety in the comments for accessibility's sake. Back-up link (with flawed but better OCR) at fanac.com.

Misc. Notes (if any): Tigrina was one of the pseudonyms of prominent lesbian Edythe Eyde, AKA Lisa Ben, who created Vice Versa, the first queer magazine (that we know of) in the USA in the '40s. If you want the outright lesbian stuff (though nothing relevant for this catalog), check Vice Versa out here!

“What are your pronouns?” I ask, after they introduce themselves, trying to be polite.

“We/us/our,” is the response.

Blurb: A drunken date, a sloppy makeout, a merging into a happy greater hivemind.

Why is it worth your time?: A fun realitybending story of mind joining. It's short, online, and free!

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, creator speaks from experience, identity blending, romantic relationships

Content Warnings: identity loss and alcohol

Access Notes: free, online, screenreadable

Misc Notes: Read it here! Back-up link here.

We dream of us. Complete and secure within ourself, requiring nothing, but desiring everything.

Blurb: A dream of merging into a greater hivemind.

Why is it worth your time?: It's short, beautiful, and surreal. Plus it's free!

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, dreamfolk, creator speaks from experience, identityblending, intimate relationships

Content Warnings: loss of identity

Access Notes: free to read, screenreadable, online

Misc Notes: Read online here! Back-up link here.

I come to myself and say:
I am here for you, little sister.

Blurb: A poem where a Buddhist nun reaches out to comfort her tormented younger self, embrace her pain, and transform it.

Why is it worth your time?: This poem is powerful, and one of the best, most succinct descriptions of what it feels like to descend into the abyss of youthful pain and transforming it in the present. Recommended!

Plural Tags: abuse high focus, creator speaks from experience, memory work, children

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: Available in the book, The River in Me: Collected Poems, available on paper and ebook. Sister Dang Nghiem has a lot of poems about dealing with pain in the past, embracing her past selves, and talking to them. The book itself is worth a read!

Here is a child trapped inside the body

Blurb: A child within a young woman's body fantasizes about escaping sex.

Why is it worth your time?: Short, painful, poignant.

Plural Tags: creator speaks from experience, children,

Content Warnings: possible sexual violence? The poem is ambiguous

Access Notes: Available in the collection The River in Me: Collected Poems. Sister Dang Nghiem has a lot of poems about dealing with pain in the past, embracing her past selves, and talking to them. The book itself is worth a read! Available in paperback and ebook. This poem is also short enough that I'll just post it in the comments as well.

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