Wonderland - Jags

Reflection Disassociation vs. Action Disassociation
Something to get straight is “Action Disassociation” vs. Reflection
Disassociation. The two are related but not exactly identical. Reflection
Disassociation is what happens when you, on a lower level of reality
goes somewhere or does something your Reflection can’t. For example:
you are having an Episode and drive to work. You are stopped by a
police officer on both levels of reality.
What happens, exactly depends on a lot of things, however the most
likely situation is this: On Chessboard Zero your Reflection doesn’t
handle itself well and antagonizes or disturbs the police officer. Thus,
even though you, on Chessboard One, behave normally, the Shadow of
the officer is belligerent and unreasonable.
If you deal with this obviously crazy officer in a calm, rational manner
then chances are decent he’ll let you go—and on Chessboard Zero you’ll
be free to go about your way too. But that’s not necessarily the case (the
GM can call for a Complication Roll). If something does go badly then:
1.The Chessboard Zero officer could decide to arrest your Reflection,
leading his Shadow to arrest you as well (for “no reason”).
2.The Chessboard Zero officer might decide to arrest your Reflection but
the Chessboard One officer does not try to arrest you.
In the second case, Disassociation happens: on Chessboard Zero
your Reflection goes off in the back of the police car. On Chessboard
One, you go to the office. In this case, Disassociation is pretty much
guaranteed by the fact that you and your Reflection forcibly diverge.
That’s Reflection Disassociation.
Action Disassociation happens when your disassociated self gets to the
Chessboard One office. You (not realizing anything is “really wrong”)
sit down and work on your report. On Chessboard Zero you’re not there.
However: the Shadows on Chessboard One will treat you “normally”
(not normally, they’ll treat you like Shadows do—which will make you
think they’re crazy!). However, the work you do might, in a sense, still
get done if you “associate” enough.
This would be “by magic” but when the Episode ends and you Snap-
Back (into the jail cell) and sort out the “misunderstanding” and come
into the office you might discover completed files on your computer
(which you remember completing). The odds are strongly against it in a
general sense (most people don’t have any high degree of Association—
which means the files they created would only be accessible next
Episode when they are back on Chessboard One). But it is possible.
At the end of this chapter there are rules for making rolls to determine
how actions might possibly “translate up” to Chessboard Zero when you
are Disassociated.
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Deeper Mysteries - Overview