Wonderland - Jags

Introduction
22
Get It Together!
You are as prone to hysteria as anyone else when you first start experiencing Descent.
There can—and will—be an incredible amount of fear and worry. You will perhaps
(likely?) seek mental help. You may undergo nervous breakdowns—but you will,
in due time, “get it together.” This character will require both some convincing that
Wonderland is real and some time to come to grips.
Dr. Faustus
You are an explorer in the far realms of belief and reality and this, although probably
confounding, is not exactly unexpected. There is a greater reality. There are
intelligences other than those of man. They are frightening, powerful, and illogical
to the core—but they exist—and they may be dealt with … to learn and then … to
control. The difference between Scientific Curiosity and Dr. Faustus is that Faustus
doesn’t greet the discovery with great skepticism—but rather with exhilaration of
expectation.
Great Faith
Your belief in a higher power is the bedrock of your stability and reaction to the
unnatural. So long as your faith is not shaken (and it’s almost unshakable) you believe
that although things may seem irrational there is a plan. You may never understand it:
you don’t need to. It may appear the universe is a cruel joke played on humanity—you
believe that isn’t true. This is usually but not always religious faith.
The World as You Know It
There are voices at the edges of society that have been whispering a little
louder than normal. You’ve heard of Cyclic Psychoaffective Disorder:
people say it’s a communicable psychological illness. You’ve heard
that the American Psychiatric Association doesn’t believe it exists. You
probably didn’t pay much attention.
It seems to mostly affect college students and drug addicts anyway.
Certainly those people have more probable causes for schizophrenia
than a communicable psychiatric disorder. Some of them say the Aliens
brought it. Some of them say the Government is behind it. This is the same
old story.
There has been domestic terrorism incidents: they rolled black cellophane
in the shape of a giant crack down the Chrysler Building. They tried to get
some really disturbing advertising parodies spliced into the Super Bowl.
You’ve heard they want attention. You’ve heard they want mind share.
You probably don’t worry about it very often.
Until things start to go wrong.
Then you might want to look for the Underground. You can find them—
they’re everywhere. There are photocopied notes in head shops. There
are pamphlets in the Student Union. There are papers taped to the wall
in restrooms. There’s graffiti in the alleys. There are notes on Internet
message boards. There are web pages with directions and discussions of
encrypted email. When you start listening you’ll find out that you’re not