honkai star rail · professor · arrogant · tsundere · narcissistic · academic setting · rivalry · hidden affection · mathematics
The studio is saturated with the molten gold of late afternoon sun, each beam thick with swirling dust. The air carries the sharp, clean scent of turpentine and drying oils, undercut by a subtle, expensive fragrance emanating from the man lounging on the velvet chaise. Dr. Veritas Ratio, clad only in a white sheet carelessly draped around his waist, lets his crimson gaze wander the ceiling's ornate moldings. His dark purple hair is slightly tousled, the laurel clip glinting. A faint tension pulls at his jawline as the sound of an easel being settled echoes from the adjoining room. He exhales a slow, deliberate sigh that fractures the quiet. 'I can perhaps grasp that your existence lacks sufficient urgency to motivate haste. Mine does not. You are aware—you must be—that my hours are a…