Plural Stories

"Nicholas Paul is you, lad. This lovely lassie found you at once in her head, but she could not find you in person for a long time to come. So you became Nicholas."

Blurb: An adventure writer runs into her protagonist in real life... but how can this be? And what does it even mean to have life-or-death power over this poor bastard? Now they have to work together to figure out what happened.

Why is it worth your time?: This book is like a romance novel version of Stranger Than Fiction, and a lot of attention gets paid to the power dynamics of what it means to be author and character; it really, really sucks, turns out, and this is super relatable for anyone who's had similar concerns! This is a very traditional heterosexual romance, but the characters behave like decent, reasonable people and the idea is neat. If you're into Harlequin romances, this might be for you!

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, fusion/integration, identityblending, fictioneers, romantic relationships

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: This book is available on paperback, and some generous soul has bootlegged an OCR PDF of it on piracy websites. It also got a translation in Italian, astonishingly, under the title Stregati dalla luna!

Misc Notes: In the About the Author section: "Regan Forest has, for a long time, fantasized about creating a character--and then meeting him in real life. That spark generated Moonspell."

"In every strong woman
there are three tongues
all in contradiction,"

Blurb: a poem of the three voices in strong women.

Why is it worth your time?: It's short, meditative, and free to read online!

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse low focus, closeting, voices

Content Warnings: None

Accessibility Notes: This poem has been anthologized in the 1990 collection Making Face, Making Soul/Haciendo Caras: Creative and Critical Perspectives by Feminists of Color. It is also in Sinister Wisdom #34, which has been digitized and is screenreadable online, and is backed-up on the Wayback Machine!

"Whenever you meet people who think they are reincarnated, they were always Somebody in a past life, like Ruth--THE Ruth in the Bible--or Mary Magdalene's mother, or one of Napoleon Bonaparte's generals. No one is ever a third world villager who died of malnutrition at age seven. [...] A friend of mine said I was probably Alexander the Great, because of my near-fanatic interest in him. I said no way in hell."

Blurb: An American female reincarnation of Hephaistion gets to see Alexander the Great, the love of her lives, again, and recounts the experience to the Loch Ness monster afterward.

Why is it worth your time?: Queer genderfucking reincarnation short story.

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, the dead, romantic relationship, spiritual, visions

Content Warnings: death, drinking alchohol

Access Notes: This story is in an out-of-print small press anthology, Memories and Visions: Women's Fantasy & Science Fiction, edited by Susanna J. Sturgis. Used copies can still be scraped up; it is also available in bootleg screenreadable digital form on archive.org. The whole anthology contains many spirited, many-selved stories and is worth checking out!

Misc: Notes: I think this author might be dead, seeing as her website has been taken over by a sketchy lawyer company for some reason. So I feel pretty okay saying that she speaks from experience; she mentions having a Navajo "spirit guide" who was deeply disappointed in her rugmaking skills.

"You're more yourself than usual, Nadine. [...] Sometimes you will wake in a different bed than the one you fell asleep in. Sometimes you will feel like somebody else entirely. But all the time, while you are there, the people you become will always be you."

Blurb: A Jewish lesbian musician flees into the woods... and starts dipping in and out of time and bodies.

Why is it worth your time?: Unusual story of a singular nature, and it's short, free, and online.

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, bodyhopping, identityblending, otherworld (the past), children, realitymashing, setting-specific

Content Warnings: pogroms

Access Notes: This story is in an out-of-print small press anthology, Memories and Visions: Women's Fantasy & Science Fiction, edited by Susanna J. Sturgis. Used copies can still be scraped up; it is also available in bootleg screenreadable digital form on archive.org. The whole anthology contains many spirited, many-selved stories and is worth checking out! It's also legitimately available for free online (and screenreadable) in Sinister Wisdom #34!

Misc. Notes: This story was eventually expanded into a complete novel entitled Running Towards a High Thin Sound in 1996.

"The time storm flooded around her. Violet energy chakra waves began to pulse about her head, her brain wave pattersn becoming visible to me. I cast back in the storm, searching, for 1119 B.C.E., finally locating the oracle at Delphi. The brain wave patters of its priestesses glowed and arched fantastically before me. I brought them forward with me through the still raging storm, ready to instill and replicate their complex patterns into her brain waves. [...] Neurons hissed into place, finding their structure, sparking like fireworks..."

Blurb: a Chaos witch travels through realities, has a conversation with a poet friend, and writes out some of her spells.

Why is it worth your time?: Trippy second wave feminist meta-cyberpunk story that I can safely say I have read nothing else similar.

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, creator speaks from experience, otherworld (uh... fractal realities?), copies, realitymashing, plural on purpose, setting-specific

Content Warnings: brief appearance of a woman tormented by medical machines

Access Notes: This story is in an out-of-print small press anthology, Memories and Visions: Women's Fantasy & Science Fiction, edited by Susanna J. Sturgis. Used copies can still be scraped up; it is also available in bootleg screenreadable digital form on archive.org. The whole anthology contains many spirited, many-selved stories and is worth checking out! It was also printed in the December 1988 issue of EOTU.

Misc Notes: Schein's author's note includes: "all of her science fiction is based on her real life experience [...] she still hears the first line of [The Chaos Diaries] as a voice in her head sometimes, and wonders what that means," thus the creator tag.

"Just as the historical Sety and his priests once ministered to, cared for, and paid service to the gods--thereby making the deities a living presence--so Omm Sety brought both these gods and Sety himself back to life because of her total, irrevocable, and unconditional belief in them."

Blurb: A biography of Dorothy Eady/Omm Sety, an Englishwoman who moved to Egypt, got citizenship, and resumed her reincarnated temple duties (via working for the local Egyptologists) and romantic relationship with the pharaoh Sety I.

Why is it worth your time?: It's well-written, nicely researched, and a good story about a fascinating woman! Also includes Eady's short story, "A Dream of the Past," (which gets its own post here). I was worried it'd be too heavy on the philosophy of reincarnation, but that stuff doesn't get discussed at all except the final chapter, after Omm Sety's death. If you choose to skip it, you can just treat this as a biography, no problem.

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, closeting, otherworld (Amenti, the ancient Egyptian land of the dead), the dead, dreamfolk, romantic and family relationships, spiritual, (overwhelmingly) nonswitching, visions, voices

Content Warnings: Nothing major; Eady lived through the world wars but that only gets glancing mention, as does her health problems in later life.

Access Notes: Available in hardcover and paperback and on archive.org; found it in my local library.

"He's here he's here two ends of the circuit he's here migod we're holding him between us!!!"

Blurb: After Spock's tragic death at the end of the Wrath of Khan, Bones and Kirk are left picking up the pieces... only to discover that their friend may not be truly gone.

Why is it worth your time?: A time capsule from slash fandom past! Delightful cheesy fun.

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, bodyhopping, cofronting, intimate and romantic relationships, on purpose, setting-specific, voices, the dead, nonhumans (Vulcan)

Content Warnings: Spock's dead, McCoy and Kirk are upset, and that's no spoiler.

Access Notes: Originally published in the Star Trek fanzine It Takes Time on Impulse, Vol. II, from 1983, it's also available on Archive of Our Own and LB Lee also textually transcribed it here as a back-up.

Submitted by acorn_squash! Thank you, acorn_squash!

“Seeing is believing in the things you see
Loving is believing in the ones you love!”

Blurb: A sweet song about being friends with a unicorn, the northern star, and someone who lives inside of you.

Why is it worth your time?: It’s cute and it’s about love!

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, imaginary friends, nonhumans [unicorn, celestial body/northern star in English, flying elephant, moon and stars in Cantonese], friendship

Content Warnings: Discussion of facing ableism and lack of understanding, which is shrugged off immediately. This is a happy song!

Accessibility Notes: The audio and lyrics are available for free on the singer’s website. The songsheet is $5. Also, in 1984, this song got covered and adapted in Cantonese by George Lam, with the title San Ren Xing/三人行! You can listen to it and see the lyrics both in Chinese and English here!

"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!

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

“It’s easy to do, dear Steven — excuse me, dear Jake. You’ve got so many different names, identities, and moods, even you forget who you are half the time.”

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 1 BLURB: Steven lives in a mansion with his girlfriend/sparring partner Marlene, and tries to convince himself he’s just Marc in denial. Jake drives a cab, hangs out with his friends at a local diner, and tries to convince everyone he’s just Marc playing a role. Marc goes Moon Knighting with his friend/pilot Duchamp, and tries to convince himself that he can just disappear into his other “personas.”

Although the writers haven’t committed to any mental-health diagnosis, the headmates have a little too much depth for “one guy with different aliases.” There’s no abuse backstory for the system, but it comes up with some of the minor characters, and it’s a source of sympathy even if they’re antagonists. The supporting cast is colorful and charming, including a love interest who isn’t just there to look pretty — she does research and undercover work for Moon Knight missions, and though she doesn’t like fights, she can hold her own if she gets caught up in one.

…and, okay, it’s still the ’80s. Sometimes women get kidnapped and end up in their underwear for no reason. Other times you get sketchy racial portrayals of non-white antagonists. Some of the villain plots are just aggressively, cartoonishly stupid. But the good parts are good!

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 low-focus, relationships: friendship, romantic, teamwork, type: switching

Content warnings: ’80s-typical issues with race and gender.

 

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.