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Br'er Lion & Friends ([personal profile] liondrakes) wrote2025-08-21 09:51 am
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Update on an Update: Vaguesona?

Yesterday, I chatted a bit about being fictionvague towards Orfevre, Durandal, and Uma Musume as a whole. Afterwards, something passed my mind. A lot of folks make kinsonas or truesonas to express their appearance as their 'type. Although I'm still in the middle about everything, I think a persona that's either based off of or is a derivative of these characters might help with fleshing out my feelings. So, here goes nothing:

Name: Southern Sword
Basis: Durandal
Birthday: I'm an aries, unlike my basis. That's all you need to know.
Height: 171 CM
Weight: Solid form
Trainer Referral: My Lady, My Lord, Your Excellency
Strengths: Roleplaying, critical analysis of Romantic and Gothic literature
Weaknesses: Chocolate treats, lonely travels, "surrender"
Ears: Never lets a single compliment go unheard
Tail: Swishes as fast as his blade, feels as soft as a blanket
Family: He won the title of "Furniture Lifting Champion" over his father.
Secret(s):
  • He's a horrible sleeper, often waking up at random times in the middle of the night.
  • He has a soft spot for feminine, elegant Umas (ex: Gentildonna, Mejiro Ramonu).
  • Though he abhors her tyranny, he secretly admires Orfevre.
Biography: Romantic, refined yet steadfast, Southern Sword is the definition of a southern gentleman (or gentle-uma?). This aspiring swordsman carries the prestige of a knight errant, and exudes the grace of a debutante, but he is plagued by a heavy burden. Without a sovereign (trainer) of his own, Southern Sword wanders aimlessly on the track, lost in thought. He dreams of the day he can proudly offer his service to a worthy leader. Although he does his best to maintain a gallant demeanor, he can easily melt under pressure if caught off-guard.

Sounds fitting, so far. I look forward to working out the visual details of this 'sona, both in comparison and in contrast to canon Durandal.
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Br'er Lion & Friends ([personal profile] liondrakes) wrote2025-08-20 07:33 am
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Curious Cases in Equinehood: Linking/Questioning Uma Musume

Inspired by Shyvana’s journal on linking Bitter Glasse, I’ve decided to take my heart link with Uma Musume and reconstruct it. Although I’ve been trying to establish the group (Umas) as a hearttype and Cinderella Gray as a hearttale, I haven’t had much success in either venture. I’m very passionate about the characters of Uma Musume. Each of them have surprisingly rich stories, and I’ve come to enjoy the series as a fan who doesn’t play the game itself. Given my personal hang-ups with gacha games, I choose to stick with the manga and its anime adaptations. I figured this link would eventually be dropped, but reading Shyvana’s post was like a breath of fresh air. I hesitated to switch this linktype from a heartlink to a fictionlink, largely because I was adamant about not being an Uma Musume.

However, life is a funny, fickle thing. I’ve been having cameo shifts as an Uma. Initially, I thought nothing of it and assumed it to be partially equine shifts (kemonimimi shifts, in this case). I’d only experience phantom ears, a tail, and horseshoe-like protrusions underneath my feet. I didn’t feel distinctly like someone else until I’d experience cameo shifts as specific characters within Uma Musume. Among these cameo shifts, I experienced being: Symboli Kris S, Orfevre, Durandal, and Fenomeno. There’s only a couple of similarities from these characters: their maturity, their resolve, and their sense of duty. Besides that, they had both aesthetic and characteristic differences between them. Of the four Umas, I felt myself gravitating around Orfevre and Durandal the most. I’m no stranger to royal aesthetics. I have fictomeres where that went beyond aesthetics for me, and none of them turned out great. It doesn’t surprise me that it’s these two in particular who caught my attention, or at least my shapeshifting’s attention. Although I respect Orfevre’s commanding presence and confidence (traits I want as my own), I think I’m more like Durandal in terms of behavior. There’s also the fact that her hair (including the white patch) matches my coat as an American Quarter Horse. Learning that she excels in short distances threw me through a loop, too; AQHs are known for doing well in that field. Before doing anything else, I want to learn more about this world’s Durandal. We’ll likely have nothing in common, seeing that I feel represented by the fictionalized version of him. That said, I want to do this out of courtesy.

I want to link the traits of Uma Musume’s Durandal, but I think this situation is more of a questioning process than the building of a linktype. If so, my best guess is that this falls within the psychological department of experiences, but I’m not confirming anything without further introspection. Who knows, I might have to give Orfevre another shot if this doesn’t go anywhere. I’ve always had a weird relationship with my equinehood. I didn’t think it’d carry over to reincarnated horse girls, though. It’s strange since, as a horse, I’m not a racer. One of my breeds can qualify in races, but I regard myself as the type of AQH to either do ranch work or compete in cutting competitions. Otherwise, I take pride in being depended on for draught work. Perhaps, it’s our mutual interest in servitude that ties Durandal and I together. It’s not the same kind of servitude, but both involve putting our bodies— especially our physical strength— to the test for those we work with. Again, I’m not confirming anything yet. I still need to learn more about this world’s Durandal and Orfevre respectively. I plan on watching both characters’ in-game stories as well. This may give Orfevre a chance in this process. May the best horse girl (or version of me) win, I suppose.

Honestly, I should’ve seen this coming when those kemonomimi shifts started happening a lot more often. But, what can you do, y’know? Sometimes, you wind up questioning something you never thought you’d question. Then, as you go through that, it turns out a lot more pressing than you thought it’d be. Such is the case with alterhumanity.

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lb_lee ([personal profile] lb_lee) wrote in [community profile] pluralstories2025-08-19 03:38 pm

Love Triangulation, by Blue Delliquanti and Jon Cairns (porn sci-fi comic, 2018)

"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.
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lb_lee ([personal profile] lb_lee) wrote in [community profile] pluralstories2025-08-19 03:28 pm

Picture Perfect by Elaine Marie Alphin (mystery novel, 2003)

Submitted by a kindly anonymous! Thank you, Anon!
 

Why would Teddy put his camera in my backpack? And when? Did he put it there on his way to--what? Meeting someone? But if the meeting was important, he would have wanted to take a picture.

 

He's but the one who put it there, Luke says.

I almost jump. I told him to go away, but he's come back.
I left it for you.
No! It's one thing for Luke to talk to me, but he can't just take off and do things. The very idea is terrifying. That's impossible, I try to tell him.
I told you--what happened to Teddy has changed everything.

Blurb: A gap in his memory the afternoon that his best friend disappears in a redwood forest has fifteen-year-old amateur photographer Ian Slater wondering about his own role in the mystery, and who he can turn to for help. To make things worse, his childhood imaginary friend, Luke, is back and very insistent that Ian needs to do something about his friend's disappearance.

Why is it worth your time?
: This book is a young adult novel with a first-person perspective and plurality at its core. It's a relatively quick read and what caused us to realize that we are, in fact, a system. See content warning for more information.

Plural/1+ Tags
: abuse:intermediate-focus, cofronting, type: medical, type: switching

Content Warnings
: Ian as the POV character describes both past and present emotional abuse and physical neglect from his father, which he downplays for the first half of the book. His mother is both a fellow victim and an enabler. At the end, it's revealed Ian's father tried to kill his friend Teddy (and at the end tries to attack Luke when he fronts and reveals everything). A major aspect of the novel is Ian experiencing blackouts ("zoning out"), which might be disconcerting. Ian also thinks Luke is an imaginary friend, but over the course of the novel "he" realizes that "Ian" is a subsystem in a DID system, and that Luke is an independent headmate (though those exact terms aren't used. The text also implies but doesn't state that Luke is a Luke Skywalker fictive.) A teacher who helps Ian and Teddy is a former psychologist who was accused of abusing an 11-year-old client, but Ian believes him when he says that he's innocent and he does seem to have good intentions in the story.

Accessibility Notes
: Can be found in print at libraries. Multiple screenreadable versions are also available on archive.org.
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lb_lee ([personal profile] lb_lee) wrote in [community profile] pluralstories2025-08-19 03:19 pm

BanG Dream! Ave Mujica by Bushiroad (Drama, Anime, 2025)

Submitted by Sploosh! Thanks, Sploosh!

"Even if we lose our way, we keep moving."

Blurb: The sequel to BanG Dream! It's MYGO!!!!! following the titular band coming together and falling apart as each member is forced to confront their struggles, insecurities, and traumas.

Why is it worth your time?: Mutsumi Wakaba, the rhythm guitarist of Ave Mujica, has Dissociative Identity Disorder. Her alter Mortis first fronts in Episode 3, and is a recurring character throughout the series. While Mortis is somewhat of an antagonist to Mutsumi, she's given more nuance then most Jekyll and Hyde style systems are given in media, and she's shown to be genuinely well meaning and trying to protect Mutsumi. Their arc together ends with the rest of the system reawakening after several years of dormancy, able to work together and switch out depending on the situation.

The series does dramaticize its depiction of plurality, but the entire show is very, VERY dramatized, and while Mutsumi and Mortis are in conflict for a good portion of the series, they do eventually reconcile. This show isn't for everyone, but it's still worth watching if you can tolerate/enjoy Girls Being Bad With Each Other.

Plural/+1 Tags: abuse high-focus, closeting, enmity, teamwork, friendship, switching, visions

Content Warnings: parental abuse/neglect, hallucinations from character's pov, depictions of poverty, depictions of alchoholism, the bandmates all just generally having very toxic relationships with each other, character lying about their entire identity, same character being unhealthily obsessed with the protagonist,

Accessibility Notes: Show is available on Crunchyroll and Amazon Prime Video(?) officially.

Misc. Notes: Currently has a sequel movie in production as of the time of writing.
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lb_lee ([personal profile] lb_lee) wrote in [community profile] pluralstories2025-08-19 03:01 pm

A Gift of Love, by William T. Stillwell (romance/porno comic, 1971)

Ages later, I awoke in my own bed, in my own world... "What an odd dream," I thought. "It was so very... real!"


Blurb: After getting dumped by her sleazebag boyfriend, a hippie girl attempts suicide, only to enter a beautiful dream where a kind man loves her, frees her from sexual shame, and brings her to a new understanding of herself.

Why is it worth your time?: This is an old softcore romance porno comic, cheesy but charming. If you want a good old-fashioned dream lover story, consider trying it! It's only six pages, and the pencil (or charcoal) artwork is nice.

Plural Tags: abuse low-focus, dreamfolk, romantic relationship

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Access Notes: This was originally printed in a 1971 comic anthology magazine, Imagination no. 1, in 1971, but good luck finding THAT, so I scanned and uploaded it to archive.org. Someone else also scanned all of Imagination No. 1 and PDFed it here. Not screenreadable at this time, sorry.

Misc Notes: Apparently William Jabin, the guy who printed Imagination No. 1, did it when he was just 15-17 years old! He has an interview where he talks about it and William Stillwell here.
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Br'er Lion & Friends ([personal profile] liondrakes) wrote2025-08-18 10:54 am
Entry tags:

Omega-Level Mutants: Don’t Believe The Hype!

THE OMEGA PROTOCOL

While it is believed that a greater dynamo is possible through collective means, it is a current priority for the mutant nation of Krakoa to protect and nurture its greatest natural resource: Omega-level mutants. 

All efforts are to be expended in order to secure the future of the state.

"One people. One tribe. One family."

As I'm reconnecting with my history as an X-Man, another memory dawned upon me. It's not a memory of an event, but a feeling I had as Miracle. I loathed the status of "Omega-level". It's hard to ignore when the leaders of your people make a point of referencing mutants like you at any chance they get, even worse when non-mutant humans do the same thing except by treating you like a disaster waiting to happen. You're either an asset or a threat. There's no in-between. Either way, you are weaponized in some form. For a brief but important time, I hated my mentors for that exact reason. Many things drove a wedge between us students and veteran X-Men, but one thing that sticks out in my mind is the weaponization. Plenty of them were products of it too, but we realized that one way or another we'd wind up the same way. There's only been one time where I've felt truly seen in my source, albeit without me being present. My class decided enough was enough and shut down our mentors for trying to rope us into another plan as combatants. Pixie got us out of there both in my memories and in the comic itself. That still sticks with me. 

Around the time Krakoa was founded, I was hesitant to go. I got into a fight with my former counselor, Storm, about it. Part of why I was hesitant was the Omega Protocol. I am not a "natural resource". I am a person. I am to be treated like a person, not another addition to Charles Xavier's arsenal. Eventually,  I went and didn't regret it, but I kept my stance on Xavier and its approach to Omega-level mutants. I didn't care that he classified as one; his perspective of us was crystal clear. We're a resource, a crop to harvest and bear fruit at the expense of our humanity. I detested the label "Omega-level" then and still do today. I won't hide who I am, though.

OMEGA LEVEL MUTANT: A mutant whose dominant power is deemed to register or reach an undefinable upper limit of that power's specification classification.

NOTE: Omega level is a classification of a single mutant power. While it is quite common that mutants manifest multiple powers, only one is normally of Omega level
 
In layman's terms, to be Omega-level is to be very gifted at a specific power. The extent of your abilities are hard to clock, and oftentimes, you can do pretty incredible things with those abilities. Typically, one ability within your mutation(s) reaches Omega-level. Take my mentor Storm, for example. Storm is an omega-level mutant. Although Storm has a wide range of abilities, weather manipulation is an ability of hers that classifies as omega-level. She's among the best of the best in the demographic of weather-centric mutants. For muis, our first mutation is being a winged mutant (Cheyafarim). That mutation isn’t Omega-level, though. That would be our secondary mutation. Wei fall in the same omega-level class as Legion: Power Manifestation. How it works for us differs from Legion since wei don't have individual mutations amongst us. Rather, wei all have the ability to will something into existence as long as its change is physical or biological. This ability can trigger verbally and non-verbally. For example: wei cannot will victory into existence, because that is a change based on chance. However, wei can will resistance or invulnerability against psychic mutants into existence because that would involve directly changing muir neurology. Wei could make muirself entirely invincible to other mutant abilities if wei saw fit. Wei don't because wei are honorable to a fault. 

Furthermore, muir ability of manifestation can extend to others. Wei discovered this when Tariq, one of muir facets, fronted and went to attack a Purifier base. Wei still don't know why. Wei'll have to figure that out eventually, but wei do recall him setting off a gas leak and causing an explosion within the base. However, those within the base didn't die. Muir intent wasn't to kill, but to send a message to Stryker and his lot. After further investigation, it was discovered that the inhabitants of the base were temporarily altered to survive the explosion. Wei willed their survival into existence, briefly making their bodies invulnerable to flame and durable enough to take the impact. Their bodies returned to normal some time after. Wei probably would've learned wei're omega-level another way, but that's how it came to be as far as wei remember.

In retrospect, I don't mind having a parallel life where I have the ability to protect others to such a tremendous extent. I do mind being treated like a tool, though. I know things don't have to be that way for us, but it's exactly how mutants of this status wind up. I just want my community to live in peace, and I know Xavier wanted the same thing, but we are not "natural resources". We are people. 
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lb_lee ([personal profile] lb_lee) wrote in [community profile] pluralstories2025-08-17 07:41 pm

The Secret, by Stacie Kirk (fantasy short story, 2000)

"It's one thing to create living creatures by accident, but I have a feeling there'd be real trouble if I went around doing it on purpose. The fabric of reality can only take so much strain, after all."

Blurb: An artist learns the secret of bringing her paintings to life. But there are ethical considerations to keep in mind...

Why is it worth your time?: It's short and sweet and has dragons. Give it a try!

Plural/1+ Tags: abuse not mentioned, fictioneers, nonhumans (dragons)

Content Warnings: None. This story is pure fun.

Accessibility Notes: Only printed in Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy #48, but fortunately, it's been digitized on archive.org! Screenreadable in that format.

Misc. Notes (if any): Illustrated! Cute.
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Azure / Bede ★ ([personal profile] bedes) wrote in [community profile] otherkinnews2025-08-17 07:21 pm

Fictionkin Symbol Survey

I'm currently collecting data on a hopeful "universal fictionkin symbol" -- both the community's favorite already-coined symbol, and what the community would want to see in a symbol representing fictionkin. It is intended to be answered by fictionkin (defined as "identifying with fictionkinity") only, is entirely anonymous, and has a very short time demand (around 5-10 minutes). One answer per body, please!


SURVEY
TUMBLR POST (if you'd like to reblog!)


This survey will run for a decent bit of time to try and make sure that a good sample size is collected. It will close on November 20th, and the results will be summarized and shared once it has been completed.

I'd love to have as much input from fictionkin as possible! If you could share this survey to spaces you frequent which might have fictionkin, that would also be very helpful. Thank you!
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lb_lee ([personal profile] lb_lee) wrote in [community profile] pluralstories2025-08-13 07:32 pm

The Remembering Country, by Kevin Filan (horror short story, 1999)

"He was a strange old bird. Most shrinks want you to ignore the voices. Jancowski taught me how to talk to them."

Blurb: After his father's suicide, a young man who hears voices finally returns to the family home to deal with his past once and for all... only to discover a beast within him.

Why is it worth your time?: It's an unusual one that went in a direction I didn't expect! It's pretty good; if you can find it, give it a shot!

Plural/1+ Tags: Abuse low focus (and debatable; the protagonist's father tries to get him to stop listening to the voices), memory work, nonhumans (animals, angel), enmity, voices

Content Warnings: contain spoilers; see comments

Accessibility Notes: This work is printed in Grue Magazine #19 (where I found it), but far more recently in 2021 with the +Horror Library+ Volume 1. Seems to only be available on paper.

Misc. Notes: There are apparently a few people named Kevin Filan. Don't know if this is That One Guy who wrote that book on spirit possession.

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Br'er Lion & Friends ([personal profile] liondrakes) wrote2025-08-11 10:14 am
Entry tags:

Mutants in Grind Fiction: A Non-Canonical X-Man's Recreation of Academy X

Imagine that you're a student. You go to a nice school, but the school is known for its controversies. These controversies get a lot of people hurt, including the students. You've witnessed and dealt with things that a teenager normally shouldn't have. A classmate dies. Multiple classmates die. Your school is put on lockdown because it’s been targeted. You and your friends are supposed to carry on like none of it happened. You hardly have a moment to grieve before the cycle repeats, and it's taking a toll on you. You fall into the wrong (or right?) crowd. Your trust in the adults and authorities around you is reduced to zero. Most of all, you’ve grown rebellious. You're not a bad kid, you tell yourself. You say it not out of comfort but out of defiance. You know you don’t deserve what you’ve been given, but life seems to work against you at every chance it gets. The whole world feels out of your grasp, but you're not helpless. You refuse to be helpless. So what do you in a world that doesn't give a shit about you? You get up and do something about it.

Now, imagine you've made your mark. You gain a reputation among your peers. You're a menace to society in the best way. Maybe the worst way, too. But as the years go by, there's no trace of you. You're not shown in the yearbooks. You're not listed as an alumni. There's no reference of your existence whatsoever. It's like you weren't even there. 
 
That's what it's like for me, a non-canonical character from Marvel Comics. I'm not an original character (OC) nor am I a self-insert of sorts. I’m a member of Homo sapiens superior (mutants), but not in the general sense. I’m aware of this because of how different this fictotype feels compared to experiences where my fictionhood ends at the species. I‘m someone who was a consistent part of my source's narrative. I am an X-Man, and I come from a specific era of X-Men comics. My fictomere is New X-Men, specifically Vol. 2/Academy X. Published in the early 2000s, this series geared its focus around a young generation of mutants. My fictomere bounces off of the original New X-Men run, which focused on our teachers and mentors. You'll likely recognize them more than us. Cyclops, Wolverine, White Queen, Beast, etc.— you know ‘em! That said, they're not my class. I remember my class clear as day. Prodigy, Hellion, Surge, Dust, Wind Dancer, Icarus, Gentle, those goddamn Stepford Cuckoos— these kids were my friends. Well, some of them were my friends. My memories are foggy, to say the least. I remember my code name, my friendships, my plurality in that world, and my attendance at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. What I don't remember is the events that happened in the comics associated with my fictomere.