Plural Stories

"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.

"'Have I the honour to address Ti?'

This answer did not seem to have quite the effect I hoped it would.

'You are addressing the Sole Companion of the King, the Overseer of All the Works of the King, the Overseer of the Scribes of the King's Book, the Director of the Palace, the Superintendent of the Canal-Banks, the Overseer of the Schools, the Director of the Court-Wigmakers, Overseer of the Pyramid of King Nefer-ir-ka-Ra, Overseer of the Pyramid of King Ni-user-Ra, the Honoured One Before His Lord, Ti.'

I stood corrected!"

Blurb: A green Egyptologist, upon falling asleep in Ti's tomb, gets taken on an educational journey of ancient Egyptian life, accompanied by (the somewhat pompous) Ti, along with illustrated carvings on the tomb depicting the events described.

Why is it worth your time?: It's a lighthearted, informative journey into ancient Egyptian life, made more meaningful by it representing in broad strokes Eady's own experiences of past-life memory. The illustrations are nice additions!

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, creator speaks from experience, the dead, visions, voices, nonswitching

Content Warnings: None.

Access Notes: Reprinted in its entirety in Jonathan Cott's The Search for Omm Sety, which is available in paperback, hardback, and online at archive.org

"The way I do things does not have to emulate your way of doing things. These are not mistakes but my own understanding and way of learning finally being seen."

Blurb: A short eight-page comic about two headmates cooking a meal together.

Why is it worth your time?: It's a short, poetic moment of learning and acceptance. Also, how Neon Crypt shows reality layers through color is pleasing.

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, cofronting, creator speaks from experience, nonhumans (toy tree snake thing?), teamwork switching

Content Warnings: None.

Access Notes: Free, nonscreenreadable. Read it here!

Submitted by acorn_squash! Thank you, acorn_squash!

"Hi! I’m James, the Bored Work Alter! I come out to promote synergy and provide best-of-breed service to put alimentary products on our table unit to provide sustenance."

Blurb: The Shattered Souls System are the latest guests on Dysfunction Junction, where Hess and Zip support struggling systems in becoming more functional by connecting them with systems who have their sh*t together. Unfortunately, Ellen Barbara, this episode’s advice-giver, has her own ideas of what “functional” means—and the business-jargon-addicted James isn’t helping much, either. It’s a workplace satire! It mocks ableism and two-dimensional views of multiplicity! In short, it’s a Plures House production.

Why is it worth your time?: It’s funny and has some great voice acting!

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse: low-focus, cofronting, creator speaks from experience, relationships: teamwork, type: medical, type: switching

(Edit: Technically abuse isn't mentioned at all? Just unspecified trauma.)

Content Warnings: Mentions of alcohol, plus the topics in the blurb.

Accessibility Notes: Free online audio drama with a screenreadable transcript. Some dialogue is in all-caps. Backed up on the Wayback Machine.

"We are Many - More than an Army. We count on it - Strength in Numbers."

Blurb: A stained glass work of the inner people of an MPD/DID multiple reaching towards the sun.

Why is it worth your time?: It's a beautiful, powerful piece, free to view.

I discovered Judy Castelli on page 44 of Eye to Eye: Portraits of Lesbians. Her photograph from 1978 (fifteen years before she finally got diagnosed) called her an "artist, singer and songwriter," quoted her as saying, "My official diagnosis is paranoid schizophrenia," and showed her image reflected in a mirror, surrounded by paintings of people with multiple faces. Naturally, I smelled multi, and I was right: once diagnosed, she went public, published a book based on these journals and a DID journaling kit (the password is "hope"), released a CD album (including her '70s single, "Crazy Lady"), sculpted in stone and stained glass, and became a lay founder of and board member of The NYSSMP&D (New York Society for the Study of Multiple Personality and Dissociation.) What an amazing life, and yet I had never heard of her until that photo book!

Plural Tags: plural creator, abuse not mentioned, children, teamwork, otherworld, medical

Content Warnings: None.

Access Notes: Archived online. Image is not screenreadable, so here is my description right here: a striving stained glass piece of many figures, big and small, in pink, gold, and green, joining together and carrying each other to form a single greater silhouette reaching joyously towards the sun, a vibrant magenta sky behind them.

Misc Notes: See it free here!

"We are our own mother.

We hold you and rock you, Children.  We speak softly~ words of love and comfort.

What you did not get, we will  try to give you now.

We will be for you what was never yours.  
If we do not have it,  we will find for you.
You will have what you need.~ 
needed then~need now.

We are willing.  You will not be deprived this time."

Blurb: Art and text taken from the journals of a multiple, right as she got diagnosed and decided that she would get to know herselves and love herselves unconditionally.

Why is it worth your time?: I discovered Judy Castelli on page 44 of Eye to Eye: Portraits of Lesbians. Her photograph from 1978 (fifteen years before she finally got diagnosed) called her an "artist, singer and songwriter," quoted her as saying, "My official diagnosis is paranoid schizophrenia," and showed her image reflected in a mirror, surrounded by paintings of people with multiple faces. Naturally, I smelled multi, and I was right: once diagnosed, she went public, published a book based on these journals and a DID journaling kit (the password is "hope"), released a CD album (including her '70s single, "Crazy Lady"), sculpted in stone and stained glass, and became a lay founder of and board member of The NYSSMP&D (New York Society for the Study of Multiple Personality and Dissociation.) What an amazing life, and yet I had never heard of her until that photo book!

But anyway, her journals are clear and simple, her art simple and clear, and it's free to read. What have you got to lose?

Plural Tags: abuse intermediate focus, memory work, children, nonhumans (the angel Gabriel), family and teamwork relationships, medical, voices

Content Warnings: Non-graphic discussion of child abuse, depression, self-harm and suicidal urges, all with content warning on "Born of Despair and Loneliness." I didn't find it a hard read. Also, this is from a medical MPD/DID perspective, so the terms "alters," "parts," and so on are used. There is also some Christianity.

Access Notes: Roughly twenty short installments, which far as I can tell can be read in any order. Not useable alt text, unfortunately, but miraculously, the whole thing with the sole exception of the image of Gabriel and Mashed Potato Mountain, has been saved by the Wayback Machine, which is the only way to view it online now. It also apparently inspired a book, Looking Inside: Life Lessons from a Multiple Personality in Pictures and Words, which is still available in ebook and print forms.

Start reading it here!

Misc Notes: Though all the installments were archived (even the images, except for the one on Gabriel's page and the one on Mashed Potato Mountain), there's just enough link rot to make going through a little tricky, so here are all the entries (in order of click-through):
1. I Am Lost
16. It is All There Is.
2. The Leap
3. In My Heart
14. Born of Despair and Loneliness
8. Spring
9. Long Way to Go
11. It Is a Sad Time
12. Silence No More
17. This child can never be held enough.
18. I am Gabriel
19. The Bigness of Knowing
20. A Simple Thing
21. Mashed Potato Mountain
22. End

There are also some installments that seem to not be on the click-through, which nonetheless exist, so here are those:
4. Out of Chaos
5. Family
6. From Hardship to the Stars
7. And a Little Child Shall Lead Them
10. Where am I going?
13. The Rhythm of My Life
15. I Will Not Survive the Night (a conversation inside)

See also: her art gallery (mostly stained glass), which is also very multi!

"If William is a character worthy of being written about, then he exists. He exists, inside my head to be sure, but in his own right, with his own vitality. All I have to do is look at him. I don't plan him, compose him of bits and pieces, inventory him. I find him."

Blurb: An essay by the late, great speculative fiction writer about her discovering of Earthsea over the course of a decade and its independent autonomy.

Why is it worth your time?: Le Guin has passed on, but her legacy is immortal. The essay is a beautiful explication of creative discovery and the realm of the imagination. Give it a shot!

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

Content Warnings: None.

Access Notes: This essay has been reprinted many times, including in ALGOL #21, Dreams Must Explain Themselves, The Language of the Night, Fantasists on Fantasy, and a similarly-titled by very different 2018 collection called Dreams Must Explain Themselves: The Selected Non-Fiction of Ursula K. Le Guin. Available in print and ebook forms.

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!

"Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,
The dear repose for limbs with travel tired;
But then begins a journey in my head,
To work my mind, when body's work's expired:"

Blurb: A poem about traveling to one's companion in dreams.

Why is it worth your time?: It's fucking Shakespeare, the most celebrated author in the English language.

Plural Tags: abuse not mentioned, dreamfolk, intimate and friendly relationships

Content Warnings: None whatsoever.

Access Notes: It's Shakespeare. You can find it EVERYWHERE. Here, here's a link with notes! It's so short, we will also post it in the comments below.

Submitted by acorn_squash!

“We tend gardens in our hearts for others, even if they might never see the flowers.”

Blurb: “A story about feelings, told in the language of dreams.”

Why is it worth your time?: It’s a comic about psychopomps and emotional gardens that’s full of love. (The creator’s talked more about their psychopomps here.)

Plural Tags: creator speaks from experience, abuse not mentioned, otherworld, dreamfolk, imaginary friends, nonhumans [psychopomps, vultureperson], friendship

Content Warnings: None

Access Notes: Not screenreadable, sorry!

Read for free here! (Back-up link here)