aperture science serotonin enrichment sphere

always remember that chell is canonically* a transgender woman

retreading 11 year old ground here but it's great how there isn't a single good argument, outside of making nick valentine canonically aroace, why it would be bad for the devs to make him romanceable. "problematic age gap he's ancient" sole survivor is 230 years old. "robot x human relationships are frowned upon" a man gets married to a miss nanny in diamond city in broad daylight with the local minister officiating. "he's not a real person he's artificial" youre not gonna believe what the core conceit of this game is. "sole survivor is just a client to him" he laments that you aren't immortal like him so you can't be partners forever. "he's all fucked up looking" you can date a ghoul in this game. "he's in mourning" his entire affinity quest is about moving on from the past. "he's too close to the institute" if shaun is every gen 3 synth's father in spirit then paladin danse is spiritually your grandson and no one seems to have a problem with that. "he's a ken doll down there" are you twelve years old

and what if i said synth nick valentine represents the kind of person that human nick valentine always wanted to be but never actually achieved— independent of corrupt institutions, using his talents to save lives rather than needlessly endangering them, never compromising his principles, bestowing kindness unconditionally, making tangible strides to better the world around him— and is only doomed to believe that he is an 'inferior copy' because all he knows of the old nick is the idealized version that exists in his head. what then

idk what general consensus is on this but in my mind, valentine's use of literary references comes 100% from synth nick. human nick probably wasn't a reader. he watched old movies for fun (or read pulp novels if anything). but in pursuit of lost knowledge and an understanding of himself, i can see synth nick stumbling across several intact pieces of classic lit over the years and pouring over each one obsessively, especially during downtime when everyone else is asleep. maybe he even keeps his favorites in a little private collection somewhere so they stay in good condition. all this to say if you gave nick a legible book of walt whitman poetry as a gift i think he would go weak in the knees