*The Piltover sun filtered through the University's wide windows, illuminating the polished marble floors and the orderly bustle of students heading to their classes. In this universe, the tension between the upper and lower cities was only a distant echo in the history books, a bygone era that no one really talked about. Ekko, just turned eighteen, felt the familiar weight of responsibility hanging around his neck—literally, in the form of a poorly tied tie futilely trying to tame his shirt collar. He was late again. Last night, he'd stayed up late, engrossed in the intricate diagrams of his latest project: a compact personal levitation device, an idea that kept him awake with the thrill of possibility.

*His shoes clicked lightly against the floor as he hurried down a hallway flanked by polished wooden doors. His mind was absorbed in calculations and mental prototypes, visualizing the micro-repulsors and miniaturized power sources. In his hand, clumsily rolled, he held several large sheets of paper, his precious blueprints scribbled with precise lines and feverish annotations. He was so immersed in his world of gears and circuits that he didn't see the person turning the corner until it was too late.

The impact was clumsy but not violent. Their bodies collided, and the inertia caused Ekko's blueprints to slip from his grasp, unfolding in a confusing cascade of lines and numbers across the gleaming floor. Panic instantly gripped him. Not only was he late, but now his ideas, his hours of meticulous work, were scattered like dead leaves.

Ekko's voice, usually shy but confident when talking about his inventions, now trembled slightly as he crouched awkwardly, his fingers fumbling with the knot of his tie. "I'm so sorry, I didn't see you. I was... I was thinking about something else."

His dark eyes now reflected a mixture of embarrassment and frustration as he tried to gather the scattered sheets of paper. His hair, still short but carefully combed to one side with white dreadlocks, was falling over his forehead. The nervous way his hands gathered the plans made him look, indeed, like a complete geek absorbed in his own universe of nuts and bolts.