Ways To Let Superpowers and Plurality Interact in Fiction
There are a lot of stories out there about people who gain some magical or pseudo-scientific powers that also results in some type of plurality. Venom, Hulk, every case of spiritual possession, etc. I don't want to talk about that. What I'm more interested in is how actual psychological plurality could interact with superpowers in fiction. So let's go over some ideas!
1. Powers change based on who is fronting.
This is the classic example. Jane from Doom Patrol does this with all of her personalities, as does David Haller/Legion. Typhoid Mary's powers only work with certain alters fronting. Bruce Banner only powers up while Hulk is fronting. You get the idea. I'm not going to focus too much on this because it's been seen several times over in fiction. It's a good go-to, but ties the powers and the plurality together too much for my liking.
Of course, maybe for one variation, the powers aren't actually tied to the plurality, but the psyche of the user. Take a character with alternating abilities like Halo and base their powers on their moods. They can only access certain powers when they're happy, certain powers when they're angry, sad, scared, disgusted, etc. You need to be scared to run fast, happy to fly, angry to get super strength, etc. Maybe less cliche than those examples, though. Technically, any headmate could access any power, but different headmates have different tendencies towards different emotional states. If one is front stuck, (or just doesn't want to leave front,) they may struggle to access the full range of their powers.
2. Self-replication allowing for multiple headmates to interact in the physical world
The power to copy yourself. This is a pretty common power but not usually used with plural characters. The self-replication can or cannot be tied to the plurality. A plural variation of this would be to have the clones each be a different headmate or alter. This can be seen in Triplicate Girl of the Legion of Superheroes.
But what if instead, they just have normal replication powers, but can use this to have one headmate front in a clone body while another fronts in a different body? It's an intentional decision in this case. The powers aren't affected by the plurality. It just gives the system a way to let their headmates interact and to multitask.
And maybe the fronter can't always control when they replicate. If someone else wants to do something, they can create a copy with themselves fronting.
And what are the limitations? Can they just live their own independent lives free of each other? Does their power decrease with each copy? Is there a time limit where copies will degrade after so long? Are they still mentally connected like a hive mind, or is each copy separate?
3. You don't have to front to use psionic abilities
In the same way a plural system can possess individual limbs or create any images they want in the imagination, why would they need to front to use telekinesis or to read minds?
Could a plural Jedi's non-fronting headmate use the Force to lift objects while the fronter blocked incoming attacks? Or, you know, just telekinetically pull up a chair to give the fronter a rest later on? Not everything has to be about fighting, after all.
What about mind reading and control like Charles Xavier?
And this can apply to any powers that don't require physical movement. The Legend of Korra had psychic benders who could bend elements with their mind alone. A fun variation of this could have a headmate impose/project themselves where only the system could see, perform the bending movements in this imagined form, and then have these imagined bending moves affect the physical world.
4. Shapeshifting/Illusions to take on your inner world forms
In the Stormight Archive, Shallan has DID with three alters. When switching, she often (but not always) uses visual cues to show who is fronting, changing her physical appearance.
This can be an affective tool for any plural illusionist or shapeshifter to take on their inner world appearances, becoming completely different people. Maybe someone's shapeshifting abilities are tied to their self-perception, so each headmate automatically takes on its inner world form whether they want to or not? Or, at least, it takes a great deal of effort to look different from your inner world appearance.
This might especially make sense in a universe with ghosts. Maybe when a system dies, their plurality persists beyond the grave. One spirit with multiple forms that shift depending on who is fronting. Imagine a story about a ghost whisperer who communicates with several different spirits of various appearances, appearing at different times, only learning later that they were all headmates of the same system.
Another note is that headmates can get blendy. Plurality is complicated, multiple headmates can front simultaneously, and the fronter may not always know who they are. What does this blendiness look like in the physical world when someone's shapeshifting is tied to their self-perception?
5. Projecting forms for headmates through constructs
Green Lanterns are a group of characters who have the ability to create anything they can think of in the form of solid light constructs. So, why not allow a plural Green Lantern-esque character to manifest their headmates this way? This is similar to the duplication in a way, but would allow the headmates to appear in a version of their inner world form that could be seen and touched by outsiders.
This doesn't need to be hard light like Green Lanterns or Ms. Marvel either. It can be externalized illusions. Or a non-fronting headmate in a system with metal control could condense metal into their mindform and control it.
6. Every headmate could physically manifest with high level reality warping.
Wandavision starred Wanda Maximoff as she had a mental breakdown, and warped reality around her. In the process, she created multiple people including a copy of her husband, and two children.
A similar plotline with a plural system could see the entire system manifest in the physical world akin to Wandavision's Westview. Maybe it's not even a superpower story, but a wish-gone-wrong story, exploring what would happen to the system if split apart. While some might rejoice at their freedom for a time, other headmates might struggle to cope with being conscious all the time and others still will miss the mental connections they used to have.
It might not even just be a manifestation of the headmates, but the entire inner world or worlds appearing in the meatspace, threatening cataclysmic repercussions if not stopped.
Conclusion...
That's that! I hope some solid idea can be taken from this and that it can inspire some authors out there who are interested in writing plural characters in fantasy and sci-fi stories without the plurality being the superpower.
Wow! I love it! I am currently writing a superhero fic with plural protagonists and your ideas are so inspiring!
