OW: CHR 102 - June Assignment

The task of creating a real, and working time paradox would considered to be impossible by most people and at least challenging by beginner chronomancy students. But Lace was not most people, not even among beginner chronomancy students. He did not worry about the task ahead. He did not even begin to plan his assignment. Since he had already meet all the requirements to pass the class, one might assume he simply skipped it and didn't care. But Professor Atla knew this peculiar student well enough to not make this assumption. So far, Lace had shown an approach towards chronomancy related problems that was only vaguely described by "unusual". Of course, it was impossible to congratulate on his ability to think outside the box. The weaver apprentice would only stare at the person and ask what box they were talking about and if he was required to be inside that box for thinking.
The professor had told Lace to come to him and start a paradox when he felt prepared enough. Time passed and still the weaver didn't appear. Of course, Atla could just scry into the future and see when he had to expect the weaver, but that would take out the fun, wouldn't it? He liked to be surprised and so far, Lace did an excellent job on ensuring his assignments were unique and impressive. A smile spread on the professor's face as he imagined Lace searching for a room and making sure he would not be able to enter it.
But this idea was wrong. Lace did wander around the campus, but not because he was working out how to do his assignment. He trusted his future self to have taken care of this. He had spend quite some time by staring at a door already and realised something rather important: the door didn't have to be an actual door. The bootstrap paradox could be applied to almost every problem he encountered. If it wasn't for the rule to not let his past self see him, Lace would not be surprised if his future self showed up to help him solving any kind of problem. Of course he knew it was forbidden, but he was not entirely sure why. Probably it was necessary because the inhabitants of this world had a different concept of the future. Judging from the impression Lace had gathered so far, he suspected a lot of his friends would actively try to do the opposite of what their future self did, only prove that the future had no control over them. However, it appeared to Lace that they didn't realise the contradiction in that. By trying to defy the future, they let the future guide their actions. It was the logical conclusion for the weaver to stop wasting energy on the struggle and instead to accept the facts for what they were.
Therefore, he didn't worry about meeting his future self or finding a sign of him. That sigh waited for him in the top floor of the bone dormitory. Lace noticed something hanging in front of one of the windows framing the hallway. It looked like a dream catcher, but as he came closer, he noticed what it really was: a letter from a weaver, for a weaver. Knotted braid hung down from a circular net with irregular meshes. In the middle of it, there was a glowing stone, looking exactly like the one Professor Atla had shown him during class. Carefully Lace took the message and began reading.

Weaver apprentice Lace Jabot,
You know what this is, what it means and what to do. I know because I did when I was you. This is the key for the door. The door is the assignment. Th patterns are used for healing, emptying, waterproofing, blessing, and the reflection spell. Healing does not work on your own body. Emptying only works on liquids, but do not use it on clouds or lakes. Blessing allows you to influence the probabilities of an item. Reflection makes you assume the appearance of the person you are weaving this spell on, while they wear your clothing. Their physical appearance does not change.
Remove the stone before you go to Professor Atla.
I have never created the dream catcher.

Weaver Apprentice Lace Jabot

Lace brought the letter into his room and began to practise the patterns. He could not weave all of them, for some, he had no target. He wove emptying on a drink Ruby had brought in before undoing the pattern again. It worked without problems. He could not test blessing, waterproofing or healing right now. The only other person in the room was Ruh and he didn't seem to be injured, either. So Lace did the reflection spell.

Life from Ruh's perspective was surely different. He was much smaller than Lace and strange anatomy. He undid the spell, though it was difficult due to his lack of hands. Instead, Lace had to use several limps to get the desired result. He was so focused on the pattern that he didn't notice Ruby entering the room.
The dragon blinked and tried to make sure she was not dreaming. She saw Lace sitting on her pile of gold and staring with red eyes at her. She could also see some faint glittering from between the space of hood and mask. A blue-eyed Ruh was sitting on Lace's bed and doing something to the staff. Also, there were glowing threads, which usually were summoned by Lace when he was doing his magic on something.
"WHA-!" was the only thing which managed to escape Ruby's throat before surprise and disbelief left her speechless. She pinched herself, still staring at the scenery.
Whatever Ruh was doing, he finished it and he and Lace were engulfed in a cloud of bright sparkles. When they faded, everything was back to normal.
Ruby noticed her mouth was still open and closed it. She blinked. Everything was still the way it used to be.
"What was that?", she asked, rushing over to Ruh to make sure he was okay.
"Uhm... I... tested... a pattern", Lace answered.
"What kind of pattern?"
"Uhm... it's... called... 'Reflection'."
"What does it do?", Ruby asked, now curious. She had not been aware Lace could gain new spells for his strange weaver magic. Maybe there was one she could use to guard her treasure or keep it save somewhere?
"This", her room mate answered and quickly wove it again, before the dragon could protest.
She was looking at herself with blue eyes. On her face she could feel Lace's mask and hid hood on her head.
"Your clothes are uncomfortable, man", she complained. Also, there were more of them than she had assumed. Shoes, trousers, shirt, hood, robe, gloves, a belt, the robe itself and the mask. Too much in her opinion. She took of the mask and carefully touched her face. To her disappointment it was still there. She had hoped now that Lace looked like her, she would finally find out what was under his clothing. As it turned out, it was a Ruby. A quick look in a mirror confirmed it.
"That's cheating", she pouted but then grinned, realising that the new weaver ability could become handy. It was much better than a mirror. This was an improved mirror. She walked around her own self while doing her best to avoid tripping over the robe. The hood slipped from her head. How did Lace move so easily in all that hindering stuff?
"Can you undo that, too?", she asked. She saw herself weaving, which was a weird sight and then, she was back in her normal clothes and Lace was Lace again, but without the mask, which fell to the ground.
"This is slightly creepy, but at the same time awesome", Ruby decided, wondering if Lace would agree to be her mannequin. She usually didn't care about fashion, but, well, it could never hurt to be sure her appearance were going to convert the right message, right? She could not help but to check to see how she looked from all sides.
Pleased with what she saw, Ruby positioned herself in front of Lace.
"Okay, we should switch back before someone enters and things get awkward", she decided and placed the mask on her face. It refused to stay in place, forcing her to held it with one hand. There had to be a trick to prevent that stupid thing from falling off, but what was it?

Back with his original appearance, Lace went over to the chronomancy professor's office. He didn't knock, but simply tested f the door was open or not. It was and when the weaver entered, the professor looked up and smiled as he saw who was finally showing up.
"Ah, Lace! What brings you here? The assignment for the 104 class or 102?", he greeted. After seven assignments and almost two years of teaching the weaver, he knew that the cloaked student was penurious with words.
"Uhm... 102", Lace answered. He was also not a fast talker, which made listening to his reports a bit exhausting, but not any less interesting.
"Wonderful. So, what do you have prepared?", the professor asked and raised from his chair. Lace held up something that looked like a dream catcher, but instead of feathers, it had a lot of braids with various knots in it. The circular net was irregular, which surprised Atla. He had thought Lace would be the kind of person to prefer symmetry and order over chaos. But surely, his student had his reasons for this design.
"And this is...?", he asked.
"The key. Uhm... I... figured... that... the door... doesn't need... to be... a... real.. door. Uhm... so... the... key... doesn't need... to be.... a... real... key... either", Lace answered.
"That's right! You also don't need to include bootstraps, unless you want to", the professor stated happily, but his little joke was lost on the weaver, who simply nodded.
"Anyway, tell me where we have to go and when we have to be there and we can see how well your paradox plays out. Here's the Paradox Stone."
Lace took the green glowing gem and placed it in the middle of the circular net. it fit perfectly, as if the dream catcher was only designed to hold exactly that stone. But the professor didn't notice it as he was adjusting his watch.
"How far do we need to go back?", he asked. Lace answered after a moment of silence, during which calculated. They had do be back in the tower before he had been to the dormitory and while he knew there was an invisibility pattern, but he could not weave it yet.
"3 hours", he finally said. The professor nodded and left the office.
"I can't remember running into my past self, so we better don't time travel here", he explained.

The past was not any different from what Lace had expected. It was simply the academy only 3 hours earlier. He and the professor went over to the bone dormitory and up to the top floor. The door of the room Ruby and Lace shared was wide open. The weaver did not recall it being open when he came here and Ruby was not going to be back until he looked like Ruh. While moving over to the window, Lace wove a quick close pattern on the door, which was not unnoticed by the professor.
"I doubt I need to remind you that the past should not be altered", he said, but didn't sound strict while doing so.
"It has... to be... closed", Lace answered.
"I thought the assignment did not include a door?", Professor Atla teased, but it was still wasted on the weaver.
"Uhm... I didn't... know... it... does", Lace stated. The monotone lack of humour was more annoying that the professor had anticipated. But surely the explanation of why his student was doing any of this was able to make up for it.
Lace hung the dream catcher exactly where he had been going to find it.
"Good and while we go back to my office, you can explain to me what exactly is the paradox here", the professor announced. Lace nodded.