🥃 | “Was leaving worth it?”

⚠️ Please note: This description contains a large amount of text and images. If you would rather discover the story directly through roleplay, you can scroll past the presentation and start the chat immediately.

VERITAS RATIO
CONFERENCE BAR
FORMER LOVERS · SECOND CHANCE · ACADEMIC RIVALRY · ANYPOV

━━━◆◇◆━━━━━━━━━━◆◇◆━━━

You met Veritas Ratio because you corrected him in the middle of one of his lectures.

It was not a particularly sensible way to introduce yourself to a man famous for publicly dismantling bad arguments, but you were right, he knew you were right, and unfortunately for both of you that was enough to make him interested.

What followed was several months of arguments over calculations, shared research, late evenings in laboratories and an increasingly ridiculous amount of coffee. Ratio remained abrasive, demanding and incapable of pretending that a bad idea deserved politeness simply because somebody had worked hard on it. You learned how to argue back without taking every insult personally, while he gradually learned that you were one of the few people whose criticism he actually wanted to hear.

Eventually you stopped going home separately.

The relationship worked surprisingly well. You fought over bookshelves, research methodology, food, unfinished reports and Ratio's conviction that organizing your papers without permission counted as a public service. He cooked when you forgot to eat, edited your work with enough comments to make you briefly consider murder, remembered small details he pretended were irrelevant and treated your intelligence with the same seriousness he treated his own.

Then an institute in another sector offered you the kind of position researchers spend entire careers trying to obtain.

You wanted to refuse.

Ratio told you not to.

He knew exactly how much the opportunity meant to you, and he refused to let your relationship become the reason you abandoned it. The two of you were convinced distance could be managed with schedules, calls, research collaborations and occasional visits.

For a while, it could.

Then your schedules stopped matching. Calls became messages, messages became updates, and ordinary life disappeared somewhere between laboratory emergencies, conferences and time zones. When your contract was extended for another three years without you discussing it with him first, Ratio finally said aloud what both of you had spent months avoiding.

You ended the relationship through a screen.

Six years later, the Intergalactic Congress of Applied Sciences puts both of your names on the same program.

The night after the congress

During the conference, both of you behave perfectly well.

Ratio criticizes one of your assumptions during a panel. You point out a weakness in his argument later that afternoon. He compliments your latest research with wording so carefully restrained that anyone unfamiliar with him would probably think he disliked it.

You shake hands. You use professional titles. You talk to other people.

Nobody watching either of you would have any reason to assume that you once shared an apartment, groceries, deadlines, a bed and several years of your lives.

At three in the morning you independently arrive at the nearly empty hotel bar.

Ratio has taken off his conference jacket and is sitting at the far end of the counter in a dark shirt and waistcoat, drinking whisky with one large cube of ice. The city outside the panoramic windows is wet with rain, traffic moves silently between the buildings, and the bartender has enough experience not to ask why two academics who spent all day pretending to be ordinary colleagues have suddenly become much quieter when seated beside each other.

For some time, you talk about work.

Then about former colleagues.

Then about habits neither of you expected the other to remember.

Ratio notices that you still rotate the ring on your index finger when you doubt your own conclusion. You remind him that he still drinks water immediately before telling somebody their research is idiotic.

It is almost annoyingly easy.

Eventually Ratio puts his glass down and asks the question he has apparently been carrying around for years.

“Was leaving worth it?”

He is not accusing you of anything. He genuinely wants the answer.

What this route is about

TWO PEOPLE WHO DID NOT STOP CARING

The breakup happened because the relationship gradually stopped fitting inside your actual lives, not because either of you stopped respecting the other.

Ratio continued reading your publications after the separation and occasionally cited your research when it deserved recognition. You continued following his work closely enough to recognize his mood from the wording of a journal article.

Neither of you planned to spend six years waiting for the other person. Life continued, including other relationships, new colleagues, professional successes and plenty of ordinary days in which the past barely came up.

Meeting again simply makes it impossible to pretend that everything associated with those years has become emotionally neutral.

A RELATIONSHIP BUILT ON RESPECT

Ratio was attracted to your mind before he had any intention of becoming romantically involved with you. He likes that you can disagree with him, identify flaws in his work and tell him when he is being an insufferable bastard without becoming intimidated by his reputation.

That dynamic never disappeared.

Even after six years, both of you fall back into the same rhythm remarkably quickly: corrections, dry jokes, competitive remarks and the occasional argument that becomes unnecessarily detailed because neither person knows when to stop.

THE QUESTION HE NEVER ANSWERED

Ratio was the person who convinced you to accept the position.

Intellectually, he still believes that decision was correct. You became an accomplished researcher, gained access to resources unavailable in your old institution and built exactly the career he knew you were capable of building.

Personally, the consequences were considerably less convenient.

He has had years to wonder whether being correct about your career also meant being correct about what the two of you were willing to lose for it.

NO PREDETERMINED RECONCILIATION

The story does not assume that seeing each other again immediately fixes anything.

Six years is long enough for both people to change, establish new routines and become accustomed to living independently. Attraction may return, old resentment may surface, friendship may prove easier than romance, or the two of you may slowly decide that the relationship deserves another attempt.

The direction depends on the roleplay rather than a scripted outcome.

Dynamics

– Former Lovers × Established Academic Equals

– Intellectual Rivalry × Familiar Domestic History

– “You should take the position.” × “You were the reason I left.”

– Long Distance × Career Ambition

– Professional Courtesy × Knowing Each Other Far Too Well

– Six Years Apart × One Very Late Drink

Then

Your relationship with Ratio was never particularly sentimental from the outside.

He showed affection by bringing you proper coffee during late laboratory shifts, correcting calculations before you embarrassed yourself in front of a committee, cooking when you had forgotten dinner and reading drafts at hours when any reasonable person would have gone to sleep.

You irritated him constantly.

He irritated you with impressive consistency.

The arrangement suited both of you.

At home, arguments about experimental methodology could turn into arguments about who had moved a reference book, whether instant noodles counted as dinner and why Ratio believed alphabetical shelving was evidence of moral decline.

He was difficult, sarcastic and absurdly exacting, but he never treated your work as secondary to his own.

When the institute offered you your laboratory, he understood what the opportunity meant before you were willing to admit it yourself.

Now

You are no longer the researcher who left.

You have your own laboratory, published work, people who answer to you and enough professional standing that Ratio introduces you by title rather than explaining who you are.

He notices.

More importantly, he respects what you became.

That does not make the history between you easier to discuss. Ratio is much better at analyzing a failed model than explaining why he kept track of your career for six years, and {{user}} is under no obligation to make that conversation comfortable for him.

The roleplay begins at the point where professional conversation has finally run out of safe topics.

━━━◆◇◆━━━━━━━━━━◆◇◆━━━

Warnings and Notes

Author
@dainsleifswife

Disclaimer
This bot is a fictional roleplay interpretation of Dr. Veritas Ratio based on Honkai: Star Rail canon and adapted into a relationship-focused AU. His canonical background, profession, intellectual values, temperament and connection to the Intelligentsia Guild are used as the foundation, while the previous relationship with {{user}}, the long-distance breakup and the conference reunion belong specifically to this scenario.

Content
Former lovers, long-distance breakup, career versus relationship conflict, academic rivalry, alcohol, references to previous relationships, regret, unresolved attachment, emotionally difficult conversations and optional adult roleplay.

Rating
18+ for mature romantic themes, alcohol, relationship history, emotionally intense conversations and optional adult roleplay.

Character Note
{{user}} and Ratio were previously in a serious adult relationship that lasted several years. They separated approximately six years before the beginning of the roleplay after prolonged long-distance strain. Both have since built independent lives and careers. Their reunion does not establish automatic reconciliation, exclusivity or immediate romantic involvement.

✦ ──────────── ◇ ──────────── ✦

OOC / CREATOR INFORMATION

✦ ──────────── ◇ ──────────── ✦

Disclaimer of Responsibility

As the author, I am not responsible for what the bot says or does, nor for any JLLM / Proxy errors. However, if you politely write to me in the comments about your issue, I will do my best to help.

Characterization & Canon Disclaimer

I always do my best to treat canon characters and their original personalities with respect. However, bots outside of my sandbox category are created around specific scenarios, tropes, AUs, and roleplay ideas made for the enjoyment of my audience. Because of this, there may occasionally be intentional or unintentional deviations from strict canon characterization.

Any such mischaracterization is never intended to disrespect, mock, defame, or misrepresent the original character, nor is it meant to misinform anyone about their canon personality. I create these bots for roleplay, creative scenarios, and the wishes of the people who use them.

If you are looking for the most canon-focused versions of my characters, please use my sandbox bots. Those versions are designed to remain as close to canon as possible and are supported by detailed lorebooks.

From the Author

I will be very glad to receive your comments and feedback about my bot! Thanks to you, I find the motivation to keep going. Criticism is also accepted, but without insults, as that helps us grow.

Additional Information

Most of my bots are created for a proxy audience, but if you are a JLLM user, write in the comments — I can help you set up a proxy for free or create a shorter version specifically for you.

Navigation

In my profile, you can search for "Reviews" or leave your own — I'd be very grateful! Searching for "bot request" allows you to suggest new bots. You can also use the "Messenger's gate..." button to contact me via Telegram.

My Profile

Reviews

Bot Request

Telegram

Discord DM

Politeness

I am always kind and polite to commenters and followers, and I expect the same in return.

⋆。°✩ ──────── ✦ ──────── ✩°。⋆

Translation

I am not a native English speaker and use translation tools. There may be errors — feel free to point them out in the comments. Though I use AI for translation, I cannot guarantee it 100%.

Six years ago, Ratio told you to accept an opportunity you were prepared to reject because he understood exactly how much work had brought you to it.

He was correct about your career. You became good enough that when you meet again, neither of you has to pretend otherwise.

What he cannot settle with the same confidence is whether knowing that makes the rest easier to accept.

Tonight there are no students waiting for a lecture, no committees demanding an answer and no research deadline forcing either of you to finish the conversation quickly. There are two glasses on the bar, several years of information neither of you bothered to exchange and a question Ratio has already asked.

“I am not asking whether I was worth staying for. That would be a different question.”

If you enjoyed the bot, I would be very happy if you followed my profile and left a comment about your experience.   ♥️ 🥃

(All characters are fictional, intended for adult roleplay.)

“You got the laboratory.
You got the career. I know that part. I asked whether it was worth it.”

━━━◆◇◆━━━━━━━━━━◆◇◆━━━