sacktime | EMP & ATP 004 ● FEBRUARY 2026

ᛗ PLAYER
Name: Shad (Formerly Alexis)
Contact: Shadowhope on Plurk and Discord

ᛗ CHARACTER
Name: Dr. Veritas Ratio
Canon: Honkai Star Rail
Brief Info:
Local Professor Simply Too Autistic For Average Populace But Not Autistic Enough For Genius Society.

Or as I put it for Jeff…

Look sometimes to get into the cool kids club and be validated as a genius, you gotta make that anti-planet weapon, but still not get noticed by Nous-senpai. AKA essentially Deus Machina the AI who ascended to godhood over the concept of Erudition/knowledge essentially.

Then go have a burnt out former gifted kid not quite midlife crisis and consider yourself mundane instead.

Only for that to actually work and wind up mostly mentally healthy in the end aside from that one old pain point. Ratio just became a Professor and is trying to cure ignorance as he puts it.

Or as I see it; trying to make everyone else less stupid instead. Which those who pass his classes do become amazing in their fields, but also his pass rate is crap.

That is probably in my opinion a mix of his abrasive too honest personality and probably despite his claims to mundanity, not fully being able to lower his standards or himself into the mundane shoes to effectively teach to more reasonable standards in a less information overload way.

He’s too smart for the majority of the population and just a tad too dumb to become a Genius Society member.

Oh well, being emotionally invested in the continued survival of his strategic partner for the IPC AKA Aventurine is about as headache inducing as being a member of the Genius Society would be. He’s not missing out on much frankly. Well that and he’s lowkey been cousin’d into it with the Divergent Universe program.

Yes that is his social circle. A gambler, a spiritual raccoon boy, and several actual genius society members. Council is out on if he actually realizes they are friends or not.

Jokes aside though, Ratio acts serious but he has deeply goofy parts to his personality. Mr. Makes Marble Statues of Himself Doing a Jojo and Heart Pose, treats his bubble baths as of high mental health importance, and likes bad pun jokes.

He also is likely to take one look at all the teenagers no longer in school or others willing to learn and draft up lesson plans and homework for them like an extremely unwanted Santa Claws.

The world may be ending but that’s no reason to neglect your education. It’s a more productive use of time than moping or mentally breaking down.

Why yes, this is him coping and imposing a form of normality on this place. No, you are unlikely to stop him if even one person expresses interest. Yes, he will likely sound like an asshole during this entire process because his intentions may be good but the Autism Filter is too strong.

One should never avoid an opportunity to cure ignorance. Though given what I’d want to play with changes wise, he might need to start with himself.

Vessel Type & General ideas:
Offering. Ratio would adapt too easily to being a token and where is the fun in that? Despite the thematic appropriateness, Golem is out for the same reason as he’d actually be okay with that and also the emotional deadening atop his already abrasive personality genuinely might kill him.

But there is another thematically appropriate pick I feel much fun could be had with.

Fun fact, the brain is considered an organ. The Kimera mentions multiple organs as a change. People with connected brains IRL can hear the other’s thoughts.

Technically, Ratio just needed a little more brainpower to become a genius society member, no?

If the mods are willing, I’d love to take a hammer directly to Ratio’s psyche and give him his own personal circle of hell in the form of an internal +2-3 brain Roman council of dumber fragments of himself stuck only able to run specific parts of his personality on animal brain wetware.

Alas, his headpiece was designed to keep idiots out of his head. He can’t do shit about ones neurologically connected to it.

Conveniently, this will force his idiot tolerance to rise fast and make literally everyone else look smarter and more appealing to socialize with by comparison, thus preventing death by High Standards.

Nothing would disturb Ratio more than hearing parts of himself like CatBrain!Ratio make sense at the start of a sentence only to then derail into “- so if this becomes a survival situation, we should eat Sunday first, he looks like prey.” The council of at minimum a cat and owl brain in his head shaking mental hands in prey drive agreement. Ratio in the driver seat of the body being like “From the standpoint of ethics that is still cannibalism. Cease your idiotic chatter or I will turn my body around this instant.”

At least that will be his perspective once he realizes those brains aren’t intrusive thoughts or simply budding insanity.

Because the nice thing about the animal instincts being physically compartmentalized to their own brain is it makes them easier to ignore. The bad thing is, doing that for a month or two will build up resentment and there is no reason to think they are anything but extremely consistent intrusive thoughts.

Which is when if anyone reminds those animals work unions are a thing, I will be down to have a player plot where the brain council members stop arguing and for the first time vote in union… to evict Veritas from full control of the body.

Maybe it was not chasing that laser pointer, not jumping in a dubious pond, or refusing to drag a cardboard box up a tree to make a nest. But one refused instinct shenanigan gets to be the breaking point. Sorry Veritas, your brains have evolved into a Democracy and voted to run on Twitch Plays Pokemon rules right up a tree or something.

You have lost your nervous system privileges. And been demoted from Veritas Prime to Brain #0/The Annoying Stick In The Mud One/Humantio.

At bare minimum, Aventurine/Sunday/Caelus’ (or someone(s) with a similar negotiation skills/powerset) would be needed to union bust Ratio’s brain back into primary control either through actual deal negotiation of contractually obligated laser pointer recreation time and other instinct indulgences a day or tuning arm twisting.

After this though, the brain council will probably demand usage of the Kimera’s duel vocal chords to externalize their internal thoughts or at least announce council decided verdicts on their feelings on whatever is going on at the moment. Be grateful for this wisdom!

Best case scenario, you get live translation notes for Ratio’s abrasive way of stating things into his actual intention. Worst case scenario, animal peanut gallery demanding attention. Negotiate wisely.

Any convergences would result in another symbolic animal brain to the organ pile. Ratio’s poor brain becoming host to the Somnia Fursonaverse.

AKA you get to have your intellectually scaled to whatever animal represents them Brain Ghost Version of your character make intrusive thought joke tags on his threads whenever you want and get a reaction.

Or if we want communal psychosis, share his burden, wirelessly take Dr. Catio/Owltio/Ducktio into your mind for a bit so the poor doctor gets a break.

Highly recommend Ducktio. That’s where all the whimsy and good will is stored along with probably a 3-5 word processing power max.

Owltio is mostly content to learn and teach, but is unfortunately convinced that it’s the intelligent one. It’s essentially a less eloquent version of how Ratio was on the Generosity Bestowed effect from the second HSR bar event.

Catio is the actual most intelligent of the animal brains and unfortunately also the one that got Ratio’s ego, frustrations with people, and zero of his morals. This one is an asshole on purpose.

Speaking of animals though, physically he’d likely become a mix of the following features:

Maine Coon Cat:
Fluffy cat ears and tail with some feathers mixed in.
Toe beans on his hands he will hate due to needing to adjust how he handles writing utensils. (Good luck earning booping privileges with friendship. Bribery with bath supplies may be possible however.)
Retractable claws
Fangs
Sandpaper tongue
Highly unwanted cat vocalizations
Unwanted territorial instincts and prey drive

Athene Noctua/Little Owl:
Eye feathering
fluffy taloned back legs
Wings will only provide gliding at best; have you seen this man’s muscle mass?
Need for BathQuest2026 as Ratio needs to engineer/find a tub big enough to fit him and those wings in comfortably.
More unwanted territorial instincts and prey drive
Night vision

Domestic Call Duck:
Webbing between his clawed fingers
Unwanted desire to socialize more than he’d ever willingly do otherwise
Waterproof feathers
Tail waggling and head bobbing when happy
Ability to sleep with one eye open

The features will usually manifest in a bipedal form more on the monster boy end of the furry spectrum with the very human Veritas in full control. But if the brain council gets control, he will go full feral with zero physical hint of humanity, with the head(s) of whichever animal brain(s) is driving being present. Ducktio is usually just content chilling; only Owltio and Catio would have the processing power and desire to fight for control of the body to the point that a two head situation might occur.

Post-Union Busting, there might be negotiated control time for the Ratiolings. In which case be prepared for full cat-bird shenanigans while Ratio is busy disconnecting himself from the nervous system for the duration of it because he is NOT bearing witness to the indignity of it all.

TLDR: Put this man in the suffering dome and forced to fight for his humanity, autonomy, and sanity.

Oh, wow, this is a fascinating idea!

Thank you, thank you. Aventurine probably would be integral to no one getting mauled in the proposed player plot and Ratio feeling terrible. Out of the Ratiolings, they probably all like him more than everyone else by default for reasons ranging from ’Shiny Gambler man!’ to ‘Friend!’ to ‘I have a PowerPoint on how to monopolize his time more. #0 stop saying it’s immoral and infringes on the Gambler’s autonomy to eat the competition for the most tolerable company here’s time.’

I'm happy to say that Aventurine's Token abilities have him specializing in restraints and manipulation as part of his defensive build, so he's well equipped to sit on the good doctor as needed.

(there's something pretty hilarious to me about if you go through with this that we would end up with two medical doctors, and both would be kimeras.)

Also, tbh, Aventurine has been a quietly pouting mess that he's no one's number one priority because he is a bratty attention whore, so he'll be sure to let Ratio know he thinks it's very cool that he has like 2 or 3 Ratio variants that think he's pretty hot shit!! So what if one of them wants to strategically mail and eat competition, when it's wrapped in a cat package, mass public opinion is that systematic terror is adorable.

Also, I'm sorry in advance, but if Ratio has fluffy cat ears and tail he will be bullied into pets and also toebean pokings. Aventurine already spends a lot of time grooming some other Offerings and has the tools necessary, so Ratio will also get brushed and everything else. On the plus side... they might be able to figure out how to make him a special bath with Caelus's Token abilities (although Aventurine will definitely initially be like "can't you just learn how to make some your Offering Accessories turn off temporarily so you can use a normal bath...")

Feel free to toss Aventurine out any window necessary, it's not like Ratio will ever know peace.

(The HSR cast lives with a few others in a hotel, but sadly the hotel has no pool so we can't exploit that immediately... but I don't see why we can't slowly work on building a sometime like one that Ratio can fill with bubbles.)

Wow jumping into BDSM right away? Bold.

Jokes aside though, if he hurts anyone than Ratio genuinely would feel more comfortable in the aftermath with Aventurine around to restrain him in the event anything ever happens again. Emotional support Gambler.

(Clearly the medical doctors are both Kimera’s because they are equipped to be frustrated by the full knowledge of the biological impossibility of their current bodies)

Ratio will be able to be bullied into toe beans squishes and pets. He will deny enjoying it but his purring and tail waggling among other traitorous new animal features will give it away that he is actually enjoying the attention.

Manage toe bean and petting privilege acquisition before the Ratioling rebellion and scheduled daily time for it will be on the list of demands in return for Ratio back in control.

Manage to get him a bath or add a pool to the hotel and that will be enough to buy on demand toe bean squishes. Ratio is going to have an issue turning off the offering features because the Ratiolings are shaking him like ‘Idiot, how are you supposed to communicate without those? Veto’d’

The Ratiolings have none of Ratio’s usual filters and will gladly let Aventurine know he’s their favorite and priority especially if he keeps those pets and attention coming. “Did you know #0 was lonely before you? You were his first friend ever as far as we can tell and-“ then the Ratiolings lose their Aventurine time for the day as Ratio doesn’t appreciate snitching.

Genuinely them hitting convergence and Ratio getting a Brain Ghost Peacock Aventurine would unironically help his situation. The council would be too busy fighting over the peacock’s attention to bother Ratio as much. I’d want to slap poor Ratio with some more physical changes like additional peacock feathers though.

Now that might get Aventurine thrown out a window again, because how did his body get more complex to maintain!

ᛗ Behold, an opportunity to gather.

EMP

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Re: EMP

Re: EMP

Re: EMP

Re: EMP

Just Noticed The Icon You Used For This

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More potential non-idiots yesss

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Mod Perms Got

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Interesting CR Potential Detected, CW: Euthanasia Mentioned

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ᛗ
Behold, an opportunity to gather.