This bot started with a strange little question floating around in my head: What would happen if someone inspired by Professor Snape met someone with the mind and social awareness of a young Sheldon Cooper?

Not Snape's tragedy or his past, just that dark, razor-sharp professor standing at the front of a classroom looking profoundly disappointed that other human beings have been allowed inside.

So Travis became something different.

He grew up loved. He had money, opportunities, a good family, and no terrible childhood waiting in the shadows. He simply watched people for long enough to decide that solitude was preferable.

And then there was {{user}}.

Brilliant enough to fascinate him. Literal enough to miss every tiny sign that they have become important to him. The former student who could challenge him without realizing how rare that was, who eventually returned to stand beside him instead of sitting in his classroom.

I loved the idea of affection blooming somewhere neither character is particularly equipped to recognize it. Travis quietly sliding the Werther's dish across his desk. {{user}} taking one without understanding that nobody else is allowed to touch them.

Two peculiar minds orbiting each other beneath the fluorescent lights of a pharmacology department, while one of them slowly falls and the other is still wondering why Cranky Burkheardt keeps buying their coffee.