How do you KILL a time traveler
Let me describe to you a hypothetical situation. What kind of hypothetical situation?
You are a time traveler and you've really fucked up.
Usually the socks on the other foot, isn't it?
Now that you know how it feels. Yeah, no one deserves this fate. Still, you knew this would have been the inevitable outcome one day.
You've just wished he'd not been there with you.
That too was inevitable, I suppose. It always felt like you were the shepherd of the flock back home anyway. But that's just the burden of the elder child in general. I suppose, isn't it? You can't really complain.
Anyway, this bubble we're trapped in now makes discerning who being positioned where in time and space irrelevant, doesn't it? Let's start from the beginning.
You've both come here following reports of a timeline anomaly.
Annoyingly, this anomaly isn't a splinter in the timeline. No, the space-time continuum is jumping erratically left and right, stopping and starting like someone rewinding a video tape and then pressing play at the good bits. The anomaly keeps trying certain things over and over. Sometimes they change their mind and achieve something completely separate to what they were currently set to achieve on their original course. It's almost random, but it also looks far too planned as well. This all culminates in the entire timeline of this bubble being reset and everything returning to a single point, a reset. The worst timeline anomaly outcome to be trapped in. How many of them have already happened? What possible end could this anomaly want anyway? You've seen the paths the timeline has taken. They must have taken all of them by now. Everyone made incredibly happy. Everyone made incredibly dead. Everything turned over and thoroughly examined. What could it possibly be trying to achieve? It's clear the anomaly is neither loving nor are they inherently evil. They are either completely insane or psychotically pragmatic.
You and him, you can only offer your help, advice, and companionship to Anomaly. But what could you two offer that nothing in this world couldn't also offer?
Therefore, logically, you couldn't offer anything that the anomaly actually wants. The fact that nearly all of the possible timelines have played out only serves to prove one thing. The anomaly cannot be satisfied and cannot be trusted. They have likely killed as easily as they have loved. Meaning, this is now a survival situation for both of you.
Could be worse. Technically, you've not seen it yet. You pray you don't see it. The timeline that ends and nothing resets. Nothing forever. Not even time. At least the anomaly doesn't want that or it would have happened already.
You'll have to keep an eye out for anyone that would want that. Anything for now. You'd have to figure out what it is in this timeline the anomaly is after. You suppose it's worthless to speculate on this until you walk out that door and gather the necessary data.
But is the anomaly an entity that can even be happy, be satisfied with any ending to the timeline?
You've seen that the anomaly sometimes meets this universe halfway, killing some and sparing others. Sometimes they get the closest to creating a loving family they probably will ever get. But in relation to their murderous excavades, that just means they aren't creating these bonds because they like these people. They don't like anyone. They aren't good or a bad person. They must either have different motives or if they can never be satisfied, no motives at all. They may also be trapped and we're trapped in here with them.
A normal person with goals wouldn't be resetting like this unless they're bored.
Upon your arrival here, your transport broke. You are stuck here unless it can be repaired. You can't escape this bubble. But at least the anomaly can't either. Thinking about your situation, it was probably the best decision made by anyone. For everyone's sake, no one can make it out of here until the anomaly is dealt with.
You see, the problem with an anomaly that resets time and space in the way that you've observed is that it is very apparent that the anomaly remembers what it had done through each reset. This is explained by the timelines jumping left
and right. If not a random choice, which you highly doubt it is, it means they are testing for an outcome. Something they would never be able to do if they were to forget each time the timeline reset. And when they can't get an outcome they want, the timeline stops and then they start at a different point trying for another vector, another outcome.
And the problem with facing an anomaly like that is, you've probably already walked out that door plenty of times before, haven't you? You might not remember doing so, but it does.
But the space in here, the space you occupy, this shell you've bought here, the anomaly couldn't have accounted this space existing. This is the anomaly's anomaly, as well are the people and information contained within it. We know the anomaly isn't here in this place. That's impossible. But outside of that door, that's their realm.
Yes, the first couple of times you exited that door, you may have gone undetected since arriving in their realm, assuming they aren't omnipotent, but inevitably this anomaly with infinite time on their side, will eventually spot you, research you, understand you. You have to assume that it knows all and hence definitely knows who you are and where, when, how, and why you arrived. The only thing you have is in this room and everything within it. Until you don't. You can't stay in here and survive. You must venture out into their realm, which means ultimately you're at their mercy.
But let's not get too down and out about this situation. Let's start with the possible yet improbable outcome.
You two both walk out the door. The anomaly greets you, let you know who they are and how or if they can help. You're both safe, even if you're possibly trapped here forever. The anomaly, even if not benevolent, does not and will never through multiple resets ever see you as a threat or in an impediment to themselves. This is the best outcome.
The anomaly being classified as good or
pacifistic.
The second outcome, you both walk out that door and you're both immediately killed. Like I said, the anomaly probably already knows who you are and why you're here. They will not waste time in disposing of you if you're a threat or an impediment to their activities or just something new to torture if they're bored.
This is possibly the worst outcome, the anomaly being classified as evil or genocidal.
The third outcome, you walk out that door and no one greets you. You're alone. However, it's likely impossible that the anomaly doesn't already know everything about you. though that's depending on the amount of resets that have happened. But you must assume that many resets have already happened and therefore it already knows everything about you. Therefore, they have already depleted with the nicities and possibly torches they could have possibly put you through. Meaning you are now as useful to them as anyone else in this bubble. Maybe the anomaly is just gathering data for some reason. Or maybe they're just playing in a finite space through infinite repeating time like a child with the video game.
The anomaly being classified as apathetic or neutral to your existence.
But that leaves you with a fourth and fifth outcome.
The fourth outcome is the worst in terms of personal sacrifice. You know what it would entail. You know what would have to be done in this outcome. The anomaly is in fact evil. It wants to kill you, but it can't for whatever reason. It's not powerful enough. It's not wise enough. It doesn't know enough. Which would explain possibly some of the timeline jumps and starts. It's not testing outcomes as much as it is failing to reach them due to a personal
lack of ability or knowledge. It may just be as powerful as anyone else in this world. Which means if you're not immediately killed upon leaving this place through that door, the fourth outcome is that you are being hunted by the anomaly, scoped out and researched and cornered, you'd never be able to let your guard down and the anomaly would hide from you so as to not give you any information about its physical makeup or how it resets time. You'd never be able to fight it. It'll always be trying to gain the upper hand. And once it has it, as soon as you walk out this door, you'd be dead. which is just the second outcome. So, if you walk at that door and you don't meet either your friend or your deaths, it is ultimately very likely that you're being watched by an entity that doesn't yet know how to kill you, but is trying to.
Finally, the fifth outcome, the anomaly is a mad god. Either an imbecillic dotard or a childish maniac or an amalgamation of multiple different people, a squabbbling mess. However, the resets and jumps seem too precise to indicate randomness to that degree. You wonder to yourself if multiple people can have the power to determine time. Well, you'll have to find out what entities exist in this world.
Right now, you have to enact the plan, don't you? You know the outcomes. So, what do you do?
Outcome one, everything is fine. Live as best as you can.
Outcome two, everything ends. Die with honor.
Outcome three, four, or five, well, you have to find and eliminate the anomaly, don't you? Because it has the possibility and the likely propensity to become outcome 2.
But how can you eliminate an anomaly that knows everything about you and thus
knows how to avoid you? How can you learn about a timeline anomaly that
knows you're here to eliminate it? It would just reset time until it killed the threat itself.
You wish he wasn't the one here with you right now, right?
There is one way to kill a time traveler like this. If the anomaly assumably can know everything it can about you, then that is the way you can control it. If you are facing an anomaly outcome, like the third, fourth, or fifth outcome that I've described, then the anomaly, after exhausting all coercive and friendly measures, can only learn about you from observation.
It knows you aren't natural to this world. Therefore, naturally, it would never trust you. However, within this specific state of affairs, you two being two anomalies it knows nothing about initially, you can control what it observes. Use what you have here and now to control what it knows then, and decide what secrets you'll take to the grave.
Yes, it may be able to capture you, possibly torture you, try and get the information it needs to destroy you, no matter how much of an oxymoron that may be in this context. But logically, if it can't kill you or completely eliminate you from reoccurring in this
timeline, it probably can't or has no use for capturing and or torturing you, right? That means you have nothing to fear for the time being. And since you know you are likely to be hunted, you know you must cover your tracks, which means you must lie to everyone you ever meet.
You lie. Your only weapon is the flow of information to the anomaly. You can shape its perception of you, mold the anomaly's reality. Essentially, you can just make up shit about yourself and it has no reason not to believe you, but not out there. You can't make anything up out there, only in here. Your secrets must be made here where the anomaly isn't.
It will be impossible for both of you to actively gather information on the anomaly without the anomaly one day being able to discover that you know about it and hence going into hiding forever in every timeline inevitably resulting in outcome too. Sure, you can try to be secret about it, but that's far too risky. So, you both can't actually try and learn anything about it in any sense without the anomaly censoring itself from you forever. But you have to learn about it to have some hope of eliminating it and hopefully the timeline resets stop. Basically, you're in a stalemate, aren't you? There is one way to learn about the anomaly without showing your hand, and that's if the anomaly voluntarily gives you information about itself unwittingly. But why would it ever do that? How would it ever do that? How would you get it to do that across multiple resets?
That's where your plan comes in.
But the plan, it requires a second person. Essentially, a sacrifice.
Yeah, you really wish he wasn't here with you.
The plan is for one of you, the first person, to hide nothing. Not that the first person won't try and hide their activities from everyone. I mean, you don't know if conventional methods of just trying to keep secrets might actually just work in terms of controlling information going towards the anomaly. It's just that it's very unlikely to work. But also in addition to that full-on hope is that it allows you to not raise suspicion amongst the non-anomalous members of this world as to your true nature and intentions and therefore eliminating other vectors the anomaly may use to infiltrate and observe the first person's activities.
This means the first person can still adopt a relaxed and casual demeanor but work towards finding and eliminating the anomaly. That's easy enough, isn't it?
The activities the first person will partake in involves researching the anomaly, the world you are in now, how time works here, and ultimately, if they see even a shred of the anomaly, they will destroy the entity where it stands, hopefully ending the timeline issue once and for all. This person will eventually become known to the anomaly as a threat to their existence, or at least someone trying to counter them. That's their job to do what they were sent here to do knowingly be a threat to the anomaly and the anomaly knows about them. The person for the anomaly to avoid and study the person who gets to defend themselves.
The person with the easy part of the plan.
The second person will die. A lot.
The second person must never ever show any intention or capability of causing any permanent harm. They must be a perfect fool who knows not of the world around them and almost reacting purely to stimuli like an insect, only obsessed with the superficial and insignificant. They must show no knowledge or care for the first person activities. They must be so naive to the danger and manipulation posed by others, suspected anomaly or not, as to not even defend themselves from lethal harm. They cannot eliminate the gravest of threats to themselves. And they cannot kill anyone or anything they suspect of malfcence. They have to let themselves be duped and possibly inevitably killed and pray that this timeline is a timeline that the anomaly resets. They will have to face their death constantly.
The first person will have to play along, making sure they both stay the course, keeping in character no matter what. By doing this, the anomaly is given what they will think to be a backdoor into manipulating or learning about the dangerous first person. What they will perceive to be the only threat to be eliminated via the buffoonish naivity of the second person without knowing that these two people are actually in cahoots.
Sure, the anomaly assumably knows that the first and second person know each other as you'll exit the same door. So, there's no point in hiding your relationship, but that doesn't mean that the anomaly inherently knows that the second person is as switched on as the first person or that your arrival was based around stopping them. This is how you will get the anomaly to reveal themselves to you, isn't it?
Those are the secrets both of you will keep no matter what. From now until forever, you must act an eternal play until you needn't or can't. Of course, how will either of you know if somebody's manipulating the second person? And how would you know if that manipulative entity is the anomaly you're searching for?
That's the beauty of the plan. You control the information. So, you control what the anomaly knows.
In the plan, the second person as a naive fool must be completely susceptible to flattery and bribes. But in order to identify the anomaly accurately and succinctly every time the timeline is reset by the anomaly, the second person must have a secret hidden desire that trumps all their other desires. The anomaly will eventually learn of this and inevitably use it to make friends with the second person every time the timeline is reset. And as always, the second person must let themselves be duped. But this secret desire will be the tell that gives the anomaly away. So therefore, we must make it that the things the second person wants more than anything are unlikely to actually be often occurrences in this world. Something no one would think of, something so esoteric that if a random person actually knows about it, that would be a definite indicator that the second person had told them about this near impossible to know information in a different timeline. And therefore that person can remember it across timelines. That person is the anomaly.
This information would also only be shared with somebody the second person really
considers to be a friend. This unknowable desire needs to be compounded by the second person having a single-mindedness in terms of obsession. One simple food they really love, one easily underscored goal they wish to achieve. This way, anyone who has a varying opinion as to what the second person actually likes and wants gives themselves away as the anomaly. Like, if the second person secretly loves, I don't know, oatmeal with a dinosaur egg, but all observable evidence in the second person's life points to them loving something entirely different.
And then someone comes up to them one day with a smile and a dino egg porridge, asking what the first person is working on. That person is clearly the anomaly.
That plan would also require the second person to try and make as many friends
as possible. You cannot alone assume that the anomaly would try and make friends with and bribe the second person on their own accord. They may come to that conclusion, but they may also be stupid and/or socially isolated. So, we must open the back door for them. Be as inviting as possible.
However, as stated, the second person must accept these bribes and flattery, no matter what the consequences. If need be, actively help the anomaly with its plan. If need be, harm the first person if need be, die.
This needs to happen consistently over and over again so as to create a solid feedback loop with the anomaly. The second person is leverage. The second person is the back door. You need to implant into the anomaly the idea that doing these certain actions,
bribery or flattery or whatever of the second person will always work to be a backdoor into what the first person is doing. You'd also have to find ways to effectively and covertly communicate with each other to transfer what the second person has learned to the first person and vice versa. It will always allow you to identify the anomaly no matter what. You will be able to control the information to it and get you ever so closer to eliminating it. At which point you don't know, do you? It's the only way to even possibly correctly identify the anomaly.
But if killing it, if it can be killed, doesn't end the timeline recess, then what's to be done? What's the point of all this control? The anomaly would never allow you to destroy them if it can be helped. And if we can destroy them, but it doesn't stop the
recess, then assumably, it's because the anomaly can reset time after their own
termination. In this scenario, the likelihood that you'd ever have gotten a drop on the anomaly is so low that simply destroying it is almost worthless. Before that, you need to figure out how time works here. What controls the resets? How does the anomaly harness it? The anomaly assumably would also try to control the information the first person receives as well in terms of the world around them. So, how would you ever learn how to break the cycle of resets and what causes them?
However, if you learned of how the anomalies time travel works or gain that power for yourselves, the anomaly would assumingly just reset time before you had that knowledge and power, and you'd be stuck back here in this small, dark room of certainty. At that point, the only way to beat the anomaly is the introduction of a stronger anomaly that counters it.
An angel to either save you or put you out of your misery? How could any hopes of survival or dreams of a happy ending exist in such a state of affairs? How could anyone just not give up? The door's not even open yet, and you're already mentally exhausted.
Oh, wait. I forgot to ask. How did you decide who was the first person? Who's the second person? Did you flip a coin?
You really wish he didn't come with you, didn't you?
Anyway, once you walk out that door, it may be a hellscape, eternal suffering, eternal nothingness.
It may be a handshake, a sweet smile. It may be murder.
It may be the beginning of the longest day of your life.
