Plural Stories

"With a shock like ice water we were chained mind to mind. Another person shared my ship, shared the awareness of myself; I was the ship and no one could have it. [...] Through the chain I sensed all Writer: the pride, the remoteness, the arrogant imagination, the reach spanning praeterspace that sets a Writer above all other ultra-psis."

Blurb: A starship captain uses her mental bond to her ship and chains minds with a Writer to orgasm their way into praeterspace.

Why is it worth your time?: Lesbian erotic sci-fi writing about bonding minds with someone you really don't like (but is also hot)!

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, bodyhopping, enmity, intimate, nonhumans [a spaceship], on purpose, setting-specific, voices

Content Warnings: sex!

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!

"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.

"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.

Submitted by acorn_squash! Thank you, acron_squash! ^_^

“Vern reached out to squeeze Lucy’s hand. Lucy squeezed back. In her mind, Vern said the words, I love you, I miss you. Lucy put down the book, turned to Vern, and said, ‘I like living inside of you.’”

Blurb: Everybody in Cainland is used to hauntings - visions and night terrors supposedly caused by withdrawal from white people's toxins. But in Cainland, everything is connected and nothing is what it seems. After fleeing the Cainland cult compound pregnant with twins, an exoskeleton develops on Vern's disabled, teenage body, a passenger that saps her energy but connects her to something greater than herself. Meanwhile, she learns to communicate with her hauntings and develops loving relationships with some of them.

Why is it worth your time?: It’s a fast-paced thriller with some of the most unique and creative science fiction elements I’ve seen in a while (did I mention the exoskeleton?). Definitely read the content warnings first, though!

Plural Tags:abuse high-focus, the dead, children, setting-specific plurality, family, friendship, and intimate relationships, visions

Content Warnings: The author includes the following content warning: “I hope that even as Sorrowland delves into the pain these colonial states have wrought, one might see the joy, triumph, and humor of those who resist, resist, resist. That said, there is no mincing words about some of the darker themes in this book. Note discussion and instances of racism, misogyny, self-harm, suicidality, and homophobia, inclusion of animal death and explicit violence, and references to sexual violence that have taken place off the page.”

In addition to this, the book also includes the death and sexual abuse of children, the forced removal of children, poverty, homelessness, cults, medical experimentation, and drugs. Pregnancy, childbirth, and consensual sex also appear.

Accessibility Notes: Available in e-book, audiobook, and print.

"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.)

"we both dream of wholeness, of completion,
of the day that the journey ends
and we come home to ourselves."

Blurb: A series of prose poems on various aspects of the plural experience.

Why is it worth your time?: Short, sweet multimedia poems. Give 'em a shot!

Plural Tags: plural creator, intimate relationships, family relationships, enmity,

Content Warnings: see Misc. Notes section

Access Notes: Most of these poems are not screenreadable, sorry! Ghosts have said they hope to switch it over to Twine sometime in the future.

Misc Notes: There are seven poems in this series:

• Sleeping in Shadows: a quiet reflection on a moment with a loved headmate (link goes to plain-text transcription, others are not screenreadable) (EDIT: Cohost is going down; here is a subtitute link.)
• Insanity: a meditation on ableism and mental illness
• Out of One, Many: to broken branches who became trees, who became a forest all their own. (CW: brief abuse mention, discussion of ableism)
• Given Space: a kind of love poem on separation
• An Ode to a Beast: making friends with a scary, demonized headmate
• The Things You Must Remember: the rules of fairyland.
• Hello World: an introduction.

2024/10/9: Hungry Ghosts made a back-up of all the poems here! Transcription in progress.

“So many fragments of ourselves, scattered across time and space… but that’s okay. We can find them together. The ones we can’t, we can replace with something better.”

Blurb: A broken doll and a broken witch keep moving forward after trauma.

Why is it worth your time?: Short, bittersweet microstory about blending identities and coming through trauma together. Nobody does hiveminding like Arsenal System!

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, nonhumans [doll, robot, witch], identityblending, intimate relationships, setting-specific

Content Warnings: Trauma aftermath, objectification.

Access Notes: Plain text, screenreadable, free. Read it here! (EDITOR'S NOTE 2023/11/28: deleted? Back up link here.)

"If I had more strength, I could leave this place before it becomes my tomb as well as yours. If you had flesh, you could finish your quest. We could help each other..."

Blurb: A slime monster and the ghost of a cleric adventurer join forces (and body parts) to finish the cleric's quest and escape a dingy dungeon.

Why is it worth your time?: It's short, free, and enjoyable.

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, nonhumans [slime], teamwork, setting-specific plurality (the slime absorbs the skeleton of the cleric to give them a shared body, becoming vertebrate in the process), median, plural on purpose

Content Warnings: Death, mild body horror, ineffective injury, mentions of religion

Access Notes: Fully screenreadable, free to read online. Read it here! (EDIT: Cohost is going down. Replacement link here.)