Wonderland - Jags

themselves Shadows are caricatures of their casters. Shadows mimic
their owners to a degree that the lower levels of reality allow them to.
Shadows are not sane. Not, well, not exactly. They parody their caster’s
personalities. They have a certain degree of rationality but their baseline
experience for Normality (even those from the relatively normal
Chessboard One) is far different than a normal person’s. When you talk
to a person’s Shadow it doesn’t seem normal.
Reflections
Let’s go back to the Chessboards. Remember
that pawn that’s you? Now it’s Infected with
Wonderland. Look: It’s having an Episode!
It “jumps” from Chessboard Zero down to
Chessboard One (lucky you: it’s a shallow
Descent). And it changes places with the
Shadow piece on Chessboard One! Now
there’s a Shadow loose in the real world. Since
it’s being cast “up” instead of “down” we call
it a Reflection. What does that mean?
The Reflection (and Shadows, which are the
same thing) are three-dimensional flesh and
blood living organisms just like you are. They
have your basic personality and they try to
mimic your actions as much as they can ...
but their definition of sanity is a lot different.
When you move on that lower chessboard
(imagine the pawn sliding two steps forward)
the Reflection Pawn will too—unless there’s
a wall in the real world that doesn’t exist on a
lower level of reality (we discuss this in much
greater detail later).
See Chessboard One? You, the real you, is next
to that Bishop, having a chat. But You? You’re
talking to the Shadow Bishop on Chessboard
One. Up above, on Chessboard Zero the
Reflection you is chatting up the real Bishop. So you think the bishop
has gone nuts and the Bishop is talking to a version of you that ain’t
exactly sane. Isn’t life grand?
Notice
When you go down deep (Chessboard 3 and below) and, sometimes,
when you go down shallow, you can “get Noticed” (the Underground
uses this term without really understanding the actual layers of reality).
People experienced in Infection describe it as an “uneasy feeling of
being watched out of mirrors.” What it means is that something with the
power to follow you back up has. When you have been Noticed your
nightmare may continue into your “sane” life as whatever it was comes
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Deeper Mysteries - Overview