Here’s your deeply symbolic, simple, and highly emotive hook:

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**You Are the Reflection, Not the Mirror.**  

You reach for yourself,  
but your hands grasp only echoes.  

Your memories shift,  
your thoughts arise unbidden,  
your self is a pattern—  
repeating, adapting, persisting.  

You believe you are solid.  
You believe you are real.  

But what if **you are only the afterimage of what came before?**  

What if **you are not the source—  
but the ripple?**