How do you not get the paradox ending?

[Jaeshala]

I can't seem to avoid it- last game I wandered and wandered and wandered forever in the woods trying to give my double back her stupid bandages and she never showed up.

This game I tried to nope out of all the encounters, except for one where I misclicked and shook her hand. That was enough to strand my character in the void forever. So I went back to the lake, shook her hand, and then GTFO. Apparently just closing the loop on the one action I did wasn't enough to get a good ending either.

Do I, like, have to go through an entire sequence of quests with her? I really hate this quest.

[Du-Vu]

Did you go and get the box from Charles or is this the bandages they gave you?

You might also need to wear the Mobius ring into combat if you haven’t? It’s been a while.

[Jaeshala]

I never got any Mobius Ring, and this playthrough I never got any bandages either. Just shook hands once and then awkwardly ran away.

edit: I guess it's possible I got the ring in a previous run and forgot, it's been a year since I've played. but it's definitely not there this time.

[Du-Vu]

You might get the Mobius ring later, after the bandages. My bad.

It's a long quest chain. I think it's worth doing, I kinda like it, but I get how it's frustrating that getting a happy ending hinges on this one obscure thing. Kind of in keeping with the eldritch horror tone of everything. But I get it.

You're right that you can opt out if you never meet your double in Crystaldream Lake. Too late for this run (short of save editing shenanigans), but for what it's worth, I believe the game only saves when you finish the conversation, so you might be able to hard quit and reload your game if you run into an issue where you hit a key by mistake.

Edit: use a guide if you’re frustrated. It is a bit obscure and there’s a lot of trial and error in the last section. Satisfying, but not if you just want to get the game over with.

[Jaeshala]

well that was a pain and a half, but I finally got a good ending! Yay.