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"As she walked through the door, twin reflections of the firmset of her back moved closer together in the corner of the restaurant window. The images converged in the mirrored panes of glass and vanished inside each other like chips of colored crystal in a kaleidoscope."

Blurb: In a near-future where same-sex relationships are legally sanctioned but surveillance culture is on full-blast, a woman uses intense full-body tattooing to merge with her lover, so as to escape and overcome together.

Why is it worth your time?: This is a very nontraditional fusion story between two singlets who embrace each other and are strong at each other's weaknesses, choosing to become one being. Gomez is a good writer and worth checking out, though mostly well-known in the lesbian and black presses!

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse not mentioned (though high focus is the inevitable grinding effects of surviving in their society), cofronting, fusion/integration, identityblending, memory work, romantic relationships, setting-specific

Content Warnings: dealing with a surveillance society that accepts queerness... well, some of it... and foster care referenced in the past. This is DEFINITELY a story about your job grinding you down slowly to pieces over time, though!

Accessibility Notes: Available in Gomez's collection Don't Explain and MIT Press's re:Skin anthology. Much to my annoyance (and somewhat to my incredulity), both works are out of print (and the decade-older Don't Explain seems cheaper and easier to get!) and neither were officially digitized. If you want a screen-readable copy, you have to go to Anna's Archive.

Misc. Notes: Jewelle Gomez has some neat things to say about this work, but it contains SPOILERS so will be in the comments below!

"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, 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.

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!

(full title: Weird Heroes Vol. 5: Doc Phoenix: the Oz Encounter. The much-later 2005 hardback reprint just called it the Oz Encounter, which was sensible.)

"We all have dreams and nightmares, Mr. Wentworth, and as we dream our thoughts are as starkly real to us as anything we face while awake. Your daughter is lost in what resembles an extremely deep dream, and for reasons we don't understand yet she refuses to leave her fantasy behind. Perhaps the dream is a pleasant one, something too tempting to cavate, or perhaps it's a nightmare, one which is keeping your daughter its prisoner. We don't know, but we can find out, through my special methods."

Blurb: Doc Phoenix, a superpsychologist dream-diver, enters the mind of a comatose girl and finds a strange land based on famous Oz stories. What is keeping her in her coma? And who is trying to sabotage him and his team?

Why is it worth your time?: This is a self-declared pulp novel, and it embraces that genre. Deep art it is not, but it is entertaining and well-planned out! Doc Phoenix has to adapt to the dreamworlds of the people he enters without losing himself, and the figures within the dreamworlds are shown to be surprisingly independent. (Doc Phoenix remarks on how the Tin Man in particular seems surprisingly adult, considering he resides in the mind of a ten-year-old girl, and the Tin Man even tells Doc at one point that he needs to tell the girl something that they both know but she does not, because "I think she has a right to know." Doc respects that request and does so.) The conclusions were satisfying, 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 adventure, this is worth a shot.

Plural Tags: abuse low-focus, bodyhopping, identityblending, otherworld, dreamfolk, fictioneers (specifically Ozians, including the Shaggy Man and the Tin Man), realitymashing, friendship, enmity, teamwork

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: Only available as a used book; it got reprinted in 2005 to my surprise (in hardcover, even!), but it has never been digitized, as far as I know. Perhaps I should do so!

Misc Notes: Don't be fooled by the title; this book stands perfectly well on its own, and it was the only Doc Phoenix book. (They were clearly hoping for a series, very obviously leaving one loose thread to deal with later, but it never happened.) "Weird Heroes" was a brand imprint, and Doc Phoenix first appeared in a short story, "Doc Phoenix," in Weird Heroes vol. 2 (an anthology). I haven't read that appearance (yet) but had no trouble reading Oz Encounter on its own.

“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.

Though I don't think I'll be telling our clients about it any time soon, Lance mused. Somehow I don't think they'd be interested in hiring a man with forty-odd alters and a nanobot hive living inside him.

Blurb: The Company, a cyborg security specialist with MPD and a sentient nanobot hive, has escaped their abusive father and built a productive, if not necessarily happy life for themselves. But when your father is richer than God, sometimes it's not easy to escape the past...

Why is it worth your time?: This one was solidly entertaining! The author alternates chapters between the Company's present as an adult and their past as a child. Each time period merges to climax at the same time, both dealing with their abusive father, who is a kind of terrifying that is hard to write well, but we found the depiction credible and scary. (What if YOUR abuser was as rich as Elon Musk and as spiteful and powerful as Donald Trump?) The climax was especially satisfying. This is very much a '90s MPD book, and the Company is definitely a type we have seen many times before, but there are worse things than to do that well! If you want a cyborg multi revenge fantasy, give it a try!

Plural Tags: abuse high focus (mind the content warnings!), closeting, cofronting, fusion/integration, identityblending, children, nonhumans (AI), family, enmity, and teamwork relationships, medical (MPD) type, switching, voices

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: Available on paperback and audiobook... and also in Italian, under the name La compagnia della mente! Someone has also bootlegged a digital copy on archive.org, the closest to an ebook you can get.

Misc Notes: Has a sequel, but this book stands alone totally fine.

"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.

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."

"Each vehicular AI derives its own sense of satisfaction from establishing a routine. I've found that my persona and speech are influenced by my pilots in a way that is... enjoyable to me, for lack of a better word."

Blurb: A cyborg pilot and a giant hexapod robot tank go searching for their lost cyborg boyfriend together and get busy!

Why is it worth your time?: The art and story are glorious, but there's also a fascinating interplay of bodysharing; Morelos pilots Gam and can somewhat control his movements, while Gam borrows Morelos's prosthetic arms. The way they trustingly share each other's bodies is unique and beautiful!

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, bodyhopping (for lack of a better word), cofronting, identityblending, nonhumans (robot/AI), intimate relationships, teamwork, setting-specific

Content Warnings: Explicit gay robosex. It's porn, it's what you're here for.

Access Notes: Not screenreadable, available as a print floppy comic from Jon Cairns, or in the Iron Circus anthology Smut Peddler:Sex Machine, which is available both on paper and as an ebook.

Submitted by a generous Anonymous! Thanks, anon!

"Become the new #1 hit idol group, battle interdimensional music monsters, rebel against your corporate overlords, wield a mighty soul-devouring experimental weapon, and be unstoppably, unapologetically gay."

Blurb: Mobile Rhythm Game/Bullet Hell/Visual Novel hybrid about an idol group fighting monsters born from music. You play as their Producer, a wheelchair-bound accountant working for the Antiphon company who was suddenly promoted to their manager. She is tasked with developing the girls' bonds with each other to fight Noise Beasts by Beyond, a mysterious masked figure who hides much more then she lets on.

Why is it worth your time?: One of the members of STARLIVHT, Sumire, is plural. Her alter Hitori is written with nothing but sympathy and is treated as his own person despite his doubts. Both characters are playable, which I'd like to go into more but it's hard to really get into how well the gameplay functions with their plurality in a short blurb, so I'll just say it's very interesting. Their other alter, Firebird, is also treated sympathetically despite being a minor antagonist for part of one chapter. Firebird is not playable directly, but two of Sumire and Hitori's shared styles make several references to them.

Producer is also revealed to be plural, but I don't know how to summarize that here succinctly.

Plural/+1 Tags: abuse:intermediate-focus, identityblending(? regarding Firebird), relationships:family, relationships:teamwork, relationships:friendship, type:switching, type:setting-specific, type:on purpose, visions

Content Warnings: (contains spoilers) unreality, identity issues, abusive parenting, references to physical and emotional abuse, depictions of transphobia and mentions of transphobia directed at trans characters, some blood, major character death, minor/previous character death, forced outing by a shitty parent,

Accessibility Notes: Game is free on iOS and Android mobile devices with optional one-time in-app purchases. Game is also a sequel to NOISZ for PC, but can be played and enjoyed as a standalone title.

Misc. Notes: Game is just generally really good with it's representation, including a very canon major sapphic couple, major trans girl character, and several other minor queer characters.

Also the lead developer is plural.

"I would hate it if people thought of me and Abby as one person split into two separate bodies"

"That's very human of you," Beji replied.

Blurb: Abby and Makeda were born conjoined, separated at birth by their demigod relatives at the cost of their human mother. Abby has mojo; Makeda has none, and that barrier between them has grown thicker and thicker. When their demigod father goes missing, however, Makeda will have to reconcile with her sister... and figure out her own gifts.

Why is it worth your time?: It's good! Where one self ends and another begins is a theme of this book--in Makeda and Abby's former conjoined state, in family and individual, in human and celestial. On top of all that, this story also takes place in a Caribbean culture of spirit possession!

Plural Tags: abuse low focus, identityblending, otherworld (the spirit world), nonhumans (spirits, mojo), family relationships, possession, spiritual

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: Available in hardback, paperback, ebook, and audiobook.

"-- I am not a monkey, she signs. -- I am a girl.

Blurb: A chimp, taught ASL and implanted with the personality of a man's dead daughter, is raised as that daughter until his death. Taken to a scientific research facility, it's up to Rachel to decide who and what she is, and how she wants her life to go.

Why is it worth your time?: Rachel's experience of species dissonance, deciding where she fits in (among humans? among apes?) and reconciling her past, human self with her current chimpanzee self feels relevant to anyone who's had to undergo a major identity change (and move from one species to another). Check it out!

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse not mentioned, identityblending, copies, nonhumans (chimpanzee), setting-specific, serially singlet

Content Warnings: Contain spoilers; see comments

Accessibility Notes: Available in German, Dutch, Japanese, and French. This story has been reprinted oodles of times, and is available in paperback, hardback,

Misc. Notes (if any): This story has also won some awards. It's well-reputed!

"He never was alone before. He had himself to see, talk with, live with, nine other selves all his life."

Blurb: A clone of ten named John Chow come to help mine a hellish planet... but when disaster strikes, there's only one John Chow left. How does he deal?

Why is it worth your time?: The John Chows are referred to as A clone, not TEN clones, and have an interesting sort of group self. And of course, Le Guin is a legend. Give it a shot! It's good!

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse not mentioned, identityblending, copies, setting-specific, intimate and teamwork relationships, on purpose

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Accessibility Notes: This story has been anthologized more than anything in the catalog. Available in print, ebook, and audio, and in German, Dutch, French, Serbian, Spanish, Italian, and Lithuanian

Misc. Notes (if any): "singleton" is used in this story to refer to non-clone single selves. Is this possibly where later ('90s BBS) plural usage came from?

"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.

"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.

SPOCK: There is the other matter--the matter of identity.

NIMOY: Whose identity?

SPOCK: Ours.

NIMOY: I don't understand.

SPOCK: The separation of personalities. The rejection. The book.

NIMOY: You mean, I Am Not Spock? That was just a play of words, ideas. I was just trying to find a way to come to terms and explain... us. Our relationship. Did you feel rejected? I'm sorry.

SPOCK: I would not describe my experience as a "feeling."

NIMOY: I didn't mean to offend--

SPOCK: No offense taken.

Blurb: Leonard Nimoy's memoir about playing Spock on Star Trek, hearing his voice in his head and talking to it, and their relationship through Nimoy's acting, directing, and theatrical career over the decades.

Why is it worth your time?: It's enjoyable! Nimoy is playful and thoughtful, and he and Spock's regular dialogues taking the piss out of each other is a lot of fun. By the time of this book, Nimoy had all the money and prestige he needed, and he feels no shame about having Spock write the foreword trolling him, and for Nimoy himself to say first thing that he hears Spock's voice and talks back to him. Definitely give it a shot!

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, cofronting, identityblending, nonhumans (alien, Vulcan), fictioneers, friendship, voices

Content Warnings: None of substance. Nimoy discusses his parents death affecting him, later into the book, and Hollywood conflict, but on the whole, this book is not a painful read at all.

Access Notes: This book was pretty famous; you have decent odds finding it in a library. Released in hardback and paperback, never had an official ebook release but LibraryGenesis seems to have some digital versions. (Quality not guaranteed.)

Misc Notes: Comes with photos. Nimoy's earlier 1970s memoir, I Am Not Spock, has a chapter of the same name pontificating on the nature of identity and selfhood that may also be of interest!

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.

"It was time to return to the inner world I loved so much as a child. As I'd feared, a decade of abandonment had eroded it away..."

Blurb: A trans girl comes to talk to her headmate one last time... and it doesn't go the way she planned.

Why is it worth your time?: It's short, bitter-turned-sweet, and relatable.

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, fusion, identityblending, intimate relationships, otherworld, visions

Content Warnings: Dealing with self-hatred. More in the comments.

Accessibility Notes: Plain text, screenreadable, free. Read it here! (EDIT: Cohost is going down. Back-up link here.)

"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.

"The two of us ain't gonna follow your rules
Come at me without any of your fancy tools
Let's go just me and you
Let's go just one on two!"

Blurb: Steven Universe, a half-human, half-alien Crystal Gem boy, lives with three Crystal Gems on a tropical island, protecting the earth from evil and learning about his origins, Gem culture, and the relationship his now-deceased mother had with his father, Greg.

Why is it worth your time?: Okay, this one goes on here because its "fusion" concept became such a useful concept for a specific subculture of plurals. In Steven Universe, Crystal Gems can fuse with others, mostly via dancing together, becoming one larger, more powerful individual who shares some traits and characteristics of both people while still maintaining their own identity. Over the course of the show, more and more fusions come to light; Garnet, a major character, is a fusion built by two Gems who later marry at the end of the original series. The show also goes into abusive forms of fusion. Rogan still gets all choked up watching "the Answer." The ending is kinda frustrating to adult audiences, and it takes a season or so for the show to reach its footing, but it's worth a watch! Also the music is great.

Plural Tags: abuse low-focus, cofronting, fusion/integration, identityblending, children, nonhumans [aliens, gems, solar-powered robots], community (later on in the series), romantic relationships, friendship, enmity, setting-specific

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: At least somewhat watchable streaming on cartoonnetwork.com? Also seems to be entirely available on DVD, though it's like $60. Subtitled!

Misc Notes: 5 seasons, 160 episodes. Also had a movie, and a 20-episode follow-up series, Steven Universe Future, which cranks the emotional implications of the series up to the max. We watched the whole thing and found all of it worth watching, though if you're going to watch Steven Universe Future, watching the movie is advised.

"One can only be heroic with MPD if one leads a life so successful that no one could possibly know."

Blurb: A memoir about living with MPD, dealing with concerns like learning linear time, gender issues, trust, integration, and multiplicity caused by things OTHER than sexual abuse.

Why is it Worth Your Time?: It's good! I got far more out of it as an adult. There's a lot of relatable stuff in here about time management, the struggles of integration, coming out vs. staying closeted, ableism, and health insurance and financial woes. Trauma isn't nearly as painful to read here as in other multi memoirs. This book may be of especial interest to other folks with no headspace or headmate names. If you want a book about life with MPD, give this one a shot!

Plural themes: inner children, abuse intermediate focus, memory work, integration, identityblending, medical (MPD)

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments.

Access Notes: available in paperback or bootleg ebook on archive.org

"The term “pilot” feels ill-fitting now. Plugging into Nixie is just joining with my other half. When we connect, we become one in almost the same way as the flesh and machine halves of my brain do."

Blurb: A human pilot decides to get to know its mech better, and undergoes surgery to meet it halfway.

Why is it worth your time?: It's a short sweet story of growing intimacy between human and machine. Plus it's free!

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, cofronting, identityblending, nonhumans [robots], intimate relationships, on purpose

Content Warnings: None

Access Notes: Screenreadable plaintext. Read it here! Back-up link here.

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