Plural Stories

"I’m him, too, but then I do what he would,
And when he touches his chest, I know I’m not him."

Blurb: A poem about the subjective sensation of soulbonding.

Why is it worth your time?: It's short and sweet, a time capsule to the soulbonding subculture of twenty years ago. Give it a shot!

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, cofronting, fictioneers, identityblending, intimate relationships, plural creator

Content Warnings: None

Access Notes: Read for free online here!

Misc Notes: Laura Gilkey identified herself as not multiple, but on the plural spectrum in her May 2002 blog entry ~Ramblings on Soulbonding~, thus the tag. Uncertain about the exact date; it could have been written in the late 90s, like the Trinity?

Laura Gilkey also made five comic strips about soulbonding, entitled 7 Wonders of My World, but it is sadly lost media.

"Let's face reality together, no matter how harsh it is."

Blurb: When despair overwhelms certain people in Tokyo, they find themselves whacked upside the head by a middle-school boy with a golden bat and rollerblades. Cops start investigating the case, only to discover that "Lil Slugger" isn't what he seems...

Why is it worth your time?: It's a good show with themes of dealing (or not dealing) with reality, and how things in our mind can grow bigger and bigger until they take on lives of their own (and possibly eat Tokyo.) If you enjoyed Paprika, you will likely enjoy this, especially since you can see Satoshi Kon growing as a filmmaker from Perfect Blue, to Paranoia Agent, to Paprika.

Plural Tags: abuse intermediate focus, otherworld, realitymashing, enmity, visions, voices

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments (VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED)

Access Notes: Available on DVD, with subtitles and dubbing both. There's also a more-literal bootleg fan translation floating around archive.org, which despite its clunkiness I found myself preferring. (What can I say, I like having all the weird puns and references explained to me.)

Misc Notes: The beginning credits and the third-to-last episode of this show will live forever in my memory. I sometimes watch that one episode, all on its own, to inspire myself.

"SoulBonding isn't a power; it's more—I won't say mundane—more domestic than that, more peaceable, more of a friendship. I picture myself; I retreat from the world, into my own mindscape, and I picture myself sitting in a plush recliner. There's a sofa opposite me, I imagine, and if I wait and listen for their voices, if I welcome them in, Seihara or Shining Star, or several others who I didn't tell the Mentors about, will sit down on the sofa and talk to me."

Blurb: Three teenaged soulbonders get snatched by a military program, intending to use their powers for evil, but the bonders don't play along...

Why is it worth your time?: It's a time capsule into the old soulbonding culture of the time; Laura Gilkey says she originally wrote the story for a college creative writing class, probably in 1998. Its earnest, idealistic support for soulbonding is touching to read, twenty years down the line, even though it falls into the mindframe of the mindscape being intrinsically better than the "real" world.

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, cofronting, otherworld, fictioneers, nonhumans [tree, werewolf], romantic relationships, community, friendship, teamwork

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: Free to read online. Read it here! (And in case of breakage, here's an alternate link.)

Misc Notes:

"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.

Submitted by expmachine !

Me:
Is this a dream or is it real?

Reason:
Sometimes the dream becomes reality

Me:
But I don't know what to feel

Reason:
Then I will guide you through this haze

Me:
But who are you, why are you here?

Reason:
I am you and you are all of us

Me:
I can't think, my mind ain't clear

Blurb: (taken from Arjen's website) A man lies comatose in hospital after a terrible car accident. The accident was bizarre: it happened in broad daylight with no other cars in sight. The man’s wife and his best friend are keeping a bedside vigil, trying to understand how the accident happened, and hoping for any sign of recovery. Unable to communicate with the outside world, the man finds himself trapped in a strange realm where his emotions — most of which he’s repressed for a long time — have come to life to confront him with all the choices he has made in his life — and their consequences.

Why is it worth your time?: The majority of the song's go revisit's the main character's memories with his personified emotions talking along the way. While emotions, they'll converse with each other and agree/disagree on what to do and give input on memories. The album is like a radio drama but with flute solos.

Plural Tags: nonswitching, abuse not mentioned, voices

Accessibility Notes: Lyrics can be found online. Available for 8 Euros on Bandcamp!

Jekyll: [while stumbling around dizzily and laughing, then writing in a notebook] No noticeable behavioral differences...

Blurb: David freakin' Hasslehoff plays the virtuous Dr. Jekyll and his murderous headmate Mr. Hyde. Watch him devour scenery, wear enormous fur coats, and have a full-on conniption on stage as the two headmates battle for dominance.

Why is it worth your time?: This musical is ridiculous. I cannot call it good, but I have watched it twice. You are either here to watch David Hasslehoff howling and clawing at his clothes, or you do not want to watch this. Even though Jekyll and Hyde is the millstone around many a multi neck, I can't deny, I enjoy how Hasslehoff portrays the switches and uses body posture, voice, and hair to show who's in charge at any given time.

Plural Tags: switching, abuse not mentioned

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: Available on DVD and VHS. The DVD, shockingly, has no subtitles.

“The barriers between reality and fiction are softer than we think; a bit like a frozen lake. Hundreds of people can walk across it, but then one evening a thin spot develops and someone falls through; the hole is frozen over by the following morning.”

Blurb: In an alternate-history England where the Crimean war has been going for 150 years and pet dodo birds are all the rage, Special Operative Thursday Next has to protect Jane Eyre from the kidnapping of its protagonist.

Why is it worth your time?: It's pretty good. Though there isn't much in the way of body or mindsharing (the closest is when Edward Rochester enters Thursday's dream to warn her of upcoming events), it is alllll about the lives of fictional characters interacting with "real" ones. It's an entertaining romp. Good vacation reading. Also, if you're the kind of bibliophile who's tickled by a society where Shakespeare plays are performed like Rocky Horror, hundreds of thousands of people turn up for a funeral of a minor Charles Dickens character, and people go around evangelizing about the true authorship of Shakespeare, then boy howdy, this book is for you.

Plural Tags: fictivity and otherworld TO THE MAX

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; in comments!

Accessibility Notes: Available in paper, audio, and ebook forms. You can find this book just about anywhere; it's a library easy-get. It's also been translated into Dutch, German, French, and Polish (and presumably Spanish, since the third book was translated and who translates only the third book of a series?).

Misc. Notes (if any): First book of a series. (Seven books, at present.)

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.

"I've lived all my life in the same city, so I can't really get lost, but I have an absurdly bad sense of direction, so even my own block can seem alien to me. I'm aware enough of reality that I won't step in front of, say, an ambulance. I'm just far away enough from my fantasy world that I can feel its edges, but not its obligations. A pleasant fugue state sets in. I'm free."

Blurb: Magri White hosts a massive MMO game inside his head until one day, his mind rebels and his inner demon starts attacking players. Paracosm exploration and psychodrama ensues. Also headmate smooching.

Why is it worth your time? It's really good. McNeil is a master of comics craft. She uses beautiful imagery to mash the cybernetic/psychological reality and the corporeal one together, depicts dissociation with elegance, and it's just gorgeous.

Plural Tags: headspace/elsewhere TO THE MAX, in-system romance, low trauma focus, nonswitching, nonhuman headmates, media-influenced headmate (Magri's inner demon is based off a real person, whose image got ripped for films and pornos)

Content Warnings: In comments below; contains spoilers.

Accessibility Notes: Available in ebook and paper forms.

Miscellaneous Notes: The standalone volume of Dream Sequence is out-of-print, available only secondhand. In print is the omnibus it got packaged into, Finder Library, vol. 2, but Dream Sequence is the only plural portion, and it is absolutely standalone. (That said, Finder is a masterwork, so you might enjoy the rest anyway.)

"Implanting dreams into other people's heads is terrorism."

Blurb: Japanese animated movie about a group of therapists working on an experimental device that allows people to enter each other's dreams. When the device is stolen, reality starts unraveling like a cheap sock. The title character is a therapist's headmate who does the dreamwork, while the therapist handles the "real" world.

Why is it worth your time? It's really good. Kon was (RIP) a master of mashing reality with animation. The trippy imagery, thoughtful concept, and sheer density of visual imagery makes this movie better upon subsequent rewatches; we notice something new every time. The music is also great. Plus, you know, sometimes you want to watch a multi save reality with psychological agility.

Plural Tags: switching, no abuse discussion, a LOT of realitymashing/dreamworld stuff

Content Warnings: In comments below; contains spoilers.

Accessibility Notes: available in Japanese and English, subtitles and dubbed, on DVD and streaming. (For now, anyway. We aren't going to even ATTEMPT to keep track of streaming media.)