Object 424

The Holder of Paradox

Seeker, I'd force you to turn around at once if I could, but ultimately, you make the choice.

There is but one Object which is perfect and absolute, and if you come across it be cautioned: Some fail to comprehend how it works and end up trapped in eternal limbo, others pride themselves on being able to handle it, and eventually, the complexities of space-time overwhelm them. Their knowledge delayed, but could not prevent its hold.

I bid you good day with the Object. 'Tis best if you leave it as it is.

Its imperfection is essential to its workings, as a paradox simply is.

A paradox is something which should but cannot happen, the imperfection here is that you can start the entire cycle, but you can never stop it.

The portal is located, roughly, in Quebec City, Canada. Finding it will not be easy as its exact location differs depending on the time. There is a complex formula that a greater man than I once stumbled upon but it has been lost, probably for the better.

The goal is, of course, to kill yourself. Your newborn self, ideally.

Proceed into the portal. You will experience unrelenting pain as your body stretches across the infinitude of time. Navigating there will not be easy and, with any luck, you will become trapped in this limbo forever.

If you succeed, proceed to the hospital where you were born. Interact with the world sparingly and I would advise you to take less than 8 and a half hours to finish the job.

As long as you kill yourself before you ever become conscious of his surroundings, it should be fine; if not, you will be overcome with trauma and go mad.

After this occurs, you might feel a slight... destabilization. A tremor, if you will. This is time, an entity controlling it, perhaps, or simply a natural reaction, in the way of what went up descending.

It is time removing you atom by atom, brick by fundamental brick.

Return to the portal. You have roughly eighteen hours before you destabilize and cease.

Travel to a point while you existed in this time but before you killed the infant-you. Then, proceed to a location where you can see where the sky was originally.

It will be a color you've never seen before, and cannot be described.

Now proceed to hide in a location where you could see yourself when you first entered the area.

You will hear a sound so high-pitched that no one could hear it, and you are only just aware of its presence.

Do not dwell too much on it, any distraction would serve as a hindrance from here on out.

It is very important you find and speak with yourself, the one who is about to kill the infant, and tell him to stop. This will prevent you from killing the childhood you and prevent your further degradation.

Well, at least, his further degradation. It's much too late to save you.

As you disintegrate, the you who survives will note something hanging around your now insubstantial center of gravity.

Grab it quickly, or else all was for naught.

It should be a small clock with its numbers notated counterclockwise, with the hands going counterclockwise.

The sizes of its hands start at the hour and extend infinitely in how short they become.

On the back is inscribed in an ambigram: "Am I lying?"

Once again, return to the portal and proceed back through time. The load you carry will make this all the more difficult.

After which you are free to go, lest you immediately succumb to the temptation of winding up your watch clockwise, then counterclockwise.

If you do, you're the bound older of the Object; you will be trapped in limbo 'til the next fool comes along.

If you don't, and pity your other self who did, you might want to go rescue him or her.

A time fork has been created upon your touching of the Object, because it is a paradox in and of itself.

There is no one who can resist the allure of reversing events.

Not even the Holder of Object 424 of 2538, the master of unendable ends.