LT: 10.1 Inspiration

Inspiration 10.1

2005, October 31: Phoenix, AZ, USA

Riley was adorable. It was an immutable truth of this world, as sure as the rising sun. But today, my darling little sister was cuter than usual.

‘You are biased,’ Farya sniffed, ever the voice of detached elegance. Gaining a more humanoid form had made her even more aloof. 

‘Oh? Are you saying my little sister isn’t cute?’

‘She’s dressed like the yordle. All yordles look ridiculous.’

‘They look delicious,’ Wolyo growled, probably joking. It could be a little hard to tell with him.

Farya wasn’t wrong. Lulu and Riley danced around each other, in perfectly matching outfits. Riley’s hat wiggled as if it was alive, because it sorta was. Its point had been made of a special fungus that expanded and contracted like Lulu’s, though admittedly without nearly as much dexterity. There was even a small mana crystal on her shoulder, because she didn’t have a Pix of her own.

She had good reason to be excited; it was Halloween. Coincidentally, it was also Monday. We hadn’t planned it this way, but it just so happened that Riley’s first foray into school life coincided with the celebration of the dead. She was positively thrilled, even if Lulu couldn’t go to school with her.

The decision to send her to school hadn’t been easy, but in the end, we agreed: She needed friends, friends who weren’t heroes, shady Illuminati, or older than the sum total of human civilization as we knew it. She needed to learn to interact with people her own age, to laugh and cry, fight and make up. 

The decision was especially hard for mom, who took a lot of comfort in having her around. To mom, Riley really was the daughter she never got to have. Her presence made our house more lively when I was busy building things or off on a mission.

Of course, that wasn’t the only challenge.

While my little sister wasn’t anywhere near as famous or active as me, she was a known quantity. Not only was she the “final survivor” of the Slaughterhouse Nine, she was also Nightingale, a biotinker with noteworthy contributions to her name in the form of her idiotproof syringes and bioengineered crops. 

We did try to downplay her contributions so she wasn’t a household name. Even so, the world knew mom had adopted Riley so hiding wasn’t really an option. That was another reason to send her to school: If people thought she was getting a good education in a private institution, and being mentored under some of the greatest heroes in the world, they’d be less likely to ask questions than if we continued to keep Riley hidden away.

Given all of that, there were security concerns to think about. Even with Hextech: Tibbers at her hip, enchanted rings on her fingers, and mystical kung fu training, we didn’t feel safe sending her to public school. And thanks to the Worldstone Network, the best private schools in the US and Canada were open to us.

Our pick was Hudson River County School, a private elevator school out in the Bronx. Overlooking the banks of the Hudson, it enrolled only twelve hundred students across all grade levels, kindergarten through twelfth. 

Eventual Ivy League enrollment. Internship opportunities at all sorts of prestigious companies. Study abroad programs. Small class sizes. Flexible schedules. Highly successful alumni. The school had it all, and boasted a predictably high annual tuition, comparable to most private universities.

It was an utter ripoff, especially for a girl whose future career prospects boiled down to “drug lord of the local multiverse.”

Mom liked it. I was pretty sure there was some of that Asian tiger mom instinct shining through. And seeing how we literally couldn’t go broke if we tried, that meant it became our first choice.

My reason was a bit more pragmatic: Legend. Or, as Riley knew him, Uncle Keith. New York was his territory. He could zip across the East River to the Bronx in literal seconds, for any reason whatsoever. I had a feeling we’d be using him more to pick her up from school, but if there was an emergency, it was comforting to know he could be there in a flash.

“Are you ready to go, Riley?” I asked her. I too was dressed to the nines in my full combat regalia. I wanted a nice pair of jeans and a sweater, but she thought it’d be funny if I dropped her off while dressed as myself.

“Yup. But why can’t Lulu come with me” she whined, pouting up at me.

“You’re not going to play, Riley,” mom said sternly, taking the brunt of Riley’s grumbling. “Lulu will be here when you return.”

“Aww… But being twins would have been so cool.”

“Yeah! This Halloween stuff sounds pretty interesting,” Lulu said. “It’s a little like the Harrowing back home. But, you know, with less death and Shadow Isles stuff going on.”

‘We can fix the former,’ Wolyo suggested.

‘No.’

‘Spoilsport.’

I shook my head. “We can all go trick-or-treating later tonight, once Riley gets back.”

“Really? Promise?” my sister demanded excitedly.

“Yup.”

“And you have to dress as yourself!”

“I’m always dressed as myself. I am the best me, and me is the best I can be,” I replied glibly.

“You know what I mean.”

“Fine, I’ll wear my costume then, too.”

Oath thus solemnly made, I escorted Riley through a Door to an out of sight corner near her school. Having separated the two, I knew Lulu would likely leave as well. Without Riley, she’d be too bored to stick around my house in Phoenix. If I had to guess, she’d likely head to Brockton Bay to look for more Nazis.

That thought made me smile. My favorite yordle treated the Empire roster more like pokemon than actual threats. Capes were like legendaries and shinies while regular gangsters were pidgey and rattata. She’d definitely earned her cookies.

Speaking of, I conjured one Biscuit of Everlasting Will and slipped it into Riley’s hand. I finally learned how to make more of these things. I was Inspiration. Inspiration was me. It was only natural that I had a bit more control over the lesser runes now.

She looked up at me in surprise, but eagerly stuffed her cheeks like a chipmunk anyway. “Didn’t we have one already?”

“I had a bit of a breakthrough last night,” I said, smiling softly.

“Ooh! Then can I have more?”

“Hmm… no.”

“Aww… Please? Oppa?”

“You only call me that when you’re begging.”

“Because it works,” she said with the kind of confidence only a six year old could have.

“Let me think… No.”

“Poop.”

“I’ll have a few for you and Lulu later.”

“Deal!”

“And don’t lose Tibbers.”

“Duh. It’s not like anyone else can activate him.”

“What do you do if anything happens?”

“Press the panic button. Deploy shields to cover everyone around me and wait for Uncle Keith or you,” she replied dutifully.

“Good. And if you have to fight?”

“Deploy Tibbers and let him handle it.”

“Good girl,” I praised.

“Andy…” she groaned. “You know, you wouldn’t have to worry so much if you’d let me install defense systems into my body. Like paralytic nails. Or dart guns in my wrists.”

“What did mom say, Riley.”

“That I need to wait until I’m done growing so we don’t have to replace them as I grow,” she mumbled, kicking the ground.

“That’s right. You know she’s got a point. And if someone at school asks what mom does for a living?”

“She’s a music teacher.”

“And me?”

“Why would anyone ask about you? You’re fourteen.”

“Atta girl. Deny, deny, deny.”

“Lying is bad, you know.”

“Only most of the time,” I told her, ruffling her hair.

We were at the door now. The receptionist knew me from our earlier conversations, but was tactful enough to not comment on my much-too-realistic costume.

She looked at me nervously. No matter how mature she was, this would be the first time since Fortuna picked her up that she’d be off on her own. “You’ll pick me up at lunch, right?”

“I will,” I promised, pulling her into a tight hug. “Have fun at school, okay?”

“Okay.”

Since I remained the only person capable of teaching Riley science, and mom insisted on teaching her music, we’d arranged for a flexible schedule. It was one more reason we’d decided on this overpriced private school.

I left her with an office aide, a high school girl named Julie. Walking out, I couldn’t help but feel as if I’d passed some kind of milestone in my life. Maybe not as impactful as the revelations last night, but no less meaningful.

X

2005, October 31: Babylon

There was a lot I needed to reconsider after last night.

Having dropped Riley off on her first day of school, I immediately headed to my lab. Looking around, I found my lab somewhat dissatisfying. It wasn’t that any of it was wrong per se, but that it was… inefficient.

Many of the creations I’d drawn from originated from Piltover and Zaun, two of the most advanced cities in Runeterra. Or rather, they were the two factions whose technologies were most similar with that of Earth-Bet’s.

They had cars, appliances, guns, and computers. Sure, they had a steampunk vibe, but they were distinct analogs of modern technological advancements. Hextech improved the standard of living of the masses beyond what was the general norm, but did “widely distributed” necessarily mean “advanced” or “powerful?”

No, not really. In fact, Piltover and Zaun were some of the weakest factions. Their inability to claim more territory beyond the immediate limits of their city state proved it. Even their forays into the tombs within the Shurima Desert or depths of the Kumungu Jungle often resulted in catastrophic losses.

I realized that I’d fallen into the trap of comfort. I’d settled for the familiar, partially because it was the best I could do at the time. I’d made armor and weapons of far greater quality for myself, but my mecha were fairly basic thanks to my many commitments.

Until last night, I thought that I’d continue walking in Heimerdinger’s footsteps. The true worth of hextech wasn’t power, but ease of use. Anyone, even a child with no magical education, could use it.

So, having proved via Gamera that I could incorporate the tinkertech of my peers into my creations, I planned to begin mass production. I wanted to mass produce Camile’s shields, make hammers with hardlight constructs inspired by Hextech Poppy, maybe even make standardized equipment for PRT troopers far greater than a normal cape could hope to match.

That would have had large-scale knock-on effects across North America. Better-equipped troopers wouldn’t necessarily result in a reduction of parahuman crime, but giving our boys some actual teeth certainly couldn’t hurt. If nothing else, they could free up the heavy-hitting heroes for more urgent tasks than routine patrols and milk runs.

I decided against it. I marched to my main terminal and pulled every project save two. The drones attached to Gamera’s serpent head were too important for rescue operations and potions were a universal necessity. But other than those, I nixed them all, regardless of developmental stage.

Last night, I received the full history of Runeterra, as told from the perspective of the World Rune. And with it, I saw all that I’d been missing. The secrets of the cosmos flooded my mind, filling cracks and gaps that I hadn’t known existed.

The enchantments that sealed the Darkin. The treasures of the Ascended. The Eye of Ra’Horak. The crystal golems that guarded Targon. Even the vaunted star-metal, from which the Aspects forged their weapons. They were all made clear to me, their secrets revealed in an unending symphony of every language that spawned from these five runes.

My goal had always been the same: The death of Scion. The end of the Cycle. With Runeterra’s secrets laid bare before me, I knew what I had to do. There was no point in raising the lowest common denominator. PRT troopers would only ever be so useful.

Instead, I would equip the best and brightest with bespoke armor and weapons tailored to their needs. I would give them every enchantment I could, until these men and women could stand with me against Scion on Gold Morning. I would forge an army of golems, just as so many others had, until I could command a vast host befitting the Aspect of Death.

But to start, I needed to set the foundations. It was a tinker’s constant: I needed tools to make the tools to make the tools. It would eat into my current resources, but that was fine. I had a bit of sourcing to do for materials, doubly so because many magical materials didn’t exist on earth.

Holy water had given me the conceptual foundation needed to make the Water of Life, which in turn allowed me to forge the weapons of the Sentinels. Fossilized trees had become petricite wood, one of two creations that had first put me on the map. Sunstone gems had been used to forge the Ymelo, which I still used to guard my mind.

Conceptually, to forge star-metal, I could only look to the heavens above.

X

2005, October 31: Brockton Bay, NH, USA

I spent the morning remodeling my lab and drawing up plans to mine meteor impact sites before heading out to meet Riley. Until I received shipments of various resources, there wasn’t much else for me to do, anyway. It was nice, having drones to handle grunt work.

I picked her up and Doored us to Brockton Bay. Lulu, having been denied the wonders of primary school, had headed there for the morning to take out her frustrations on the city. Bullying what remained of the Nazis wasn’t necessarily a good relaxation method, but I couldn’t honestly say it was a bad one, either. Mostly, it wasn’t my problem so I put it out of mind.

“How was school, Riley?” I asked as we waited for our favorite yordle. We’d grabbed a seat at a park overlooking Captain’s Hill, one of the less shitty neighborhoods of the city.

I laid out a set of homemade sandwiches on a picnic blanket. We had egg salad, cucumber, and chicken, light but filling enough to tide us over ‘til dinner. I’d cut the crusts off last night because Riley was at that age when she refused to eat anything with a crust.

I smiled to myself. As far as arbitrary food preferences went, it could have been much worse. I remembered a cousin in my past life who refused to eat anything green or red, be it leaves or pinkish meat. Given those colors summed up the vast majority of Korean banchan, we ate a ton of veggies and kimchi, my aunt had a hell of a time trying to negotiate with him.

Riley, still dressed as an oversized yordle, laid flat on the blanket, feet hanging out over the side. She’d kicked off her boots so her toes could wiggle in the grass. She had her fungus hat curl up so she could use it as a pillow.

She looked up at me with eyes full of shattered hopes. Then, with all the solemnity of an executioner swinging his ax, she proclaimed, “Public school sucks.”

“You didn’t go to public school. Hudson is a private school, and one of the best in the country,” I informed her helpfully.

She gasped aloud. “Wait, this stuff gets worse?”

“Ahaha… yes…”

“Oppa, my dearly beloved big brother, why are you sending me to school?”

“Have you been watching mom’s soap operas?”

“Not the point.”

“And I wasn’t the one who decided on school for you. That was mom.”

“But you can convince her.”

“Yeah, Andy,” Lulu said, having skipped over. As I’d asked, she had on her glamor, seeming for all the world like a normal child dressed in a witch costume, one that looked eerily similar to Brockton’s newest, most chaotic heroine. “You should convince her so Riley can play with me more.”

She tugged a red, toy wagon behind her. Inside were two, large, white radishes. Each had to be about half her size, about as large as a swaddled infant. Judging by the mana emanating from those, I could only assume they weren’t normal produce.

“I can’t, actually,” I said as I stuffed the produce in a bag. “Mom’s just about the only normie I listen to. Hell, technically speaking, mom has more influence over Cauldron’s affairs than Eva at this point.”

Riley scrunched her nose in annoyance. Her hand snaked along towards my cookies, only for me to slap it away. “Yes, but Auntie Fortuna says Auntie Eva can’t be trusted to make wise decisions.”

“She’s right. And mom can, which is why we should trust that this will be a good experience for you in the long run,” I said, nodding. “And food before cookies, young lady.”

“Cookies are food.”

“Yup. They’re their own food group,” Lulu nodded eagerly.

I poked each on the nose. “Don’t get smart with me. Now, how about you tell me about your school day?”

“It sucked,” she whined as she sat up straight. She grabbed a cucumber sandwich and took a grumpy bite.

“What exactly did you not like about it?”

“It’s boring. English is stupid and my classmates barely know how to read.”

“Wait, really?”

“Yes, my classmates are stupid.”

I was starting to see the problem.

I was a “genius.” Not really, but I had the advantage of a past life and the World Rune. It would have been pathetic of me if I hadn’t been called that with those advantages.

Lulu was not a child. No matter her behavior and outlook, she could be wise and insightful should the situation call for it. She was also extremely well-traveled, to the point that this breadth of experience alone put her above most people intellectually.

And Riley herself was quite bright for her age. It could be that her Shard accelerated the development of her language comprehension in order to better facilitate her power. Or maybe she was just naturally on the smarter end and being surrounded by people who were significantly older than her simply allowed her intellect to shine.

This was an oversight. I realized now that neither I nor my mother had the perspective of ever raising a “normal” child. Though Riley, six going on seven, belonged in first grade age-wise, she wasn’t really a first grader. We didn’t really know what a “first grade reading level” was, especially since mom didn’t grow up in America.

Put in a room where she was suddenly the smartest, or at least, the most advanced, it was no wonder my sister felt a little isolated. In hindsight, that might have been part of Fortuna’s recommendation. Learning to deal with people was a valuable skill, and one best taught early.

I made a note to talk to the teacher about that. There was usually some kind of advanced reading curriculum for students like Riley. That could offset this feeling for her.

“They’re not stupid, Riley,” I said gently. “They just weren’t given the same opportunities as you. They’ll catch up soon enough.”

“Maybe…”

“Come on, you already know that. Is that really all that’s bothering you?”

“No…” She sat up and turned away, though not before stuffing her cheeks with the rest of her sandwich. Then, in a whisper I could barely hear, she muttered, “He said Tibbers was dumb.”

“Oh? Who said that?” I asked. Now we were at the meat of the problem. I picked up Lulu and gently stuffed her mouth with a sandwich. Her brand of chaos wasn’t what I needed right now.

“Sam. He’s a jerk.”

“And why does he think Tibbers is dumb?”

“Girls aren’t supposed to play with robots. Boys get robots and girls get dolls so he says a teddy bear robot is dumb.”

“I see. Tibbers is a little in the middle, isn’t he?”

“But he’s great!”

“Tibbers isn’t a toy. It doesn’t matter what someone else thinks about him because his job isn’t to be cool or cute. His job is to protect you.”

“I know,” she muttered.

“Besides, did you see the big, blue whale in Eugene’s office? That’s a doll and he’s a boy,” I pointed out. It was a big, stuffed whale that sat on his shelf, one of the few decorations he had. Bluesong gave it to him, along with a metal samurai action figure to represent her husband.

“Yeah. Uncle Eugene has a doll,” she said, perking up.

“Exactly, and he’s Hero. And Theresa plays with tons of robots, more than me or Eugene, even.”

“She’s an AI. Does she count?”

“Why not?”

‘Hmm… Yeah, I guess so. So I can play with robots, too.”

“Yup. You know what I think?”

“What?”

“I think Sam’s just jealous. You’re the only one who gets to have a robot teddy.”

“He’s still dumb,” she huffed.

I handed her another sandwich, cut into triangles, of course. Everyone knew triangles taste better. “Was there anything about school that you did like?”

“Well… I met Kara. She has four puppies,” she exclaimed, perking up in a full one-eighty of her earlier mood. “And they’re named after cookies! She has Oreo, Oatmeal, Snickerdoodle, and Newton! Although… Is Newton a cookie?”

I nodded indulgently. “They are. They’re a doughy cookie filled with fruit paste.”

“Sounds yummy.”

“They are. I’ll make them for you later. You can take some to school and share them with your new friend.”

“Yes!”

“But that means you have to go back to school.”

“Oh… Well… I guess school isn’t that sucky.”

“Give it a chance, Riley,” I said, patting her head.

“Fine, but only because you promised cookies,” she said. She held out her hand and I shook it with all the solemness such oaths deserved.

That minor crisis settled, I held Lulu and asked, “How’s your day going so far? I noticed you brought in two more.”

She grinned eagerly. Even without the ability to see through her glamor, I could have easily imagined her long ears flapping with excitement. “Oh, yeah! That makes another five!”

“That it does, but you seem even happier than usual.”

“They’re super-rares. I didn’t know Nazis came in pairs like these.” She picked them out of my bag and held them aloft, one in each hand. Given her diminutive size, she was practically lifting a third of her own body weight.

“Wait, pairs?” I asked. They did look identical, but most radishes looked about the same so I hadn’t noticed. I had a sneaking suspicion I knew who these were. “Were they blonde women in armor? Dressed kind of like a Demacian, but not as good at fighting?”

“Yup! They were so pretty! Look how glossy they are,” she said, rolling them into my lap like a farmer showing off her produce. “They’re exactly the same size. I don’t think I”ve ever done that before.”

“Fenja and Menja. They’re twins. How many Nazis have you caught so far?”

“Dunno. Most of them were the common type though. Soon, I’ll catch ‘em all.”

“You… Lulu, they’re not pokemon.”

“What’s a pokemon?”

“I… You know what? I suppose I did ask for this… Carry on, you adorable gremlin.”

Author’s Note

Andy has the full World Rune now. We’ve reached the point in the story where I can stop restricting anything he builds. If you’ve read the Inspired Inventor omake series, this is kind of like that, but less comedic.

Kaiser is desperate. Unfortunately, he’s also up against Lulu. He can’t outmaneuver Lulu if she doesn’t know her next moves, either.

Animal Fact: There is a recently discovered (2025) species of moth native to Oahu, Hawaii that is called the "bone collector." More specifically, this species has been studied for 17 years now and was declared its own species this April.

The bone collector caterpillar is called that because it lives inside spiderwebs. Yes, with living spiders. It crawls around the webs and devours the spider's leftovers, like a beetle's wings or a fly's soft tissue.

To avoid being eaten, it generates silk of its own, which it uses to attach the chitin of the spider's leftovers, or the spider's molted exoskeleton, onto its back. The spider cannot tell the difference between this caterpillar and the clumps of drained insects around its web. To date, no caterpillar has been observed captured or eaten by a spider.

Oh, and we know for a fact that the caterpillar didn’t just coincidentally pick up body parts. Scientists took some back to the lab and offered them various materials, ranging from dirt, stones, leaves, sticks, and chitin. Without fail, they gravitated towards the chitin.

How's that for "body armor?" Eh? Ehh?? Please laugh…