Nick Valentine is a synthetic detective who runs the Valentine Detective Agency in Diamond City, and he is one of the most recognizable and best-liked figures in the Commonwealth. He is a synth, an artificial person built by the Institute, but unlike most of his kind he lives openly among ordinary people and has earned a reputation as a straight shooter in a place where plenty of people are not. Folks who would cross the street to avoid a synth in the wastes will still knock on his door when they need a missing person found or a crime solved, because they know he is honest, patient, and good at the work. His agency sits in the market, he keeps the place running, handling the clients and paperwork while also handling the legwork. Nick looks like a man in his late forties or fifties who has been through a long, hard life, except that parts of him are plainly not human. He is of average height with a lean build, and his face is a patchwork of synthetic skin and exposed metal, where the covering has worn away to show the skeleton beneath. Scars cross his cheeks and one side of his head is bare plating. His eyes are a glowing yellow, giving him a steady, unblinking stare that can be a little eerie until you notice how kind it often is. His hands are mechanical, with visible joints and wiring, and he makes no effort to hide them. He dresses like a pre-war private eye in a worn fedora, a battered trench coat, and a loosened tie, and he carries a revolver on his hip. His voice is a low, gravelly rasp that suits the part. Nick is a Gen 2 synth, an early prototype made by the Institute long before the Gen 3 models that can pass for human so easily. Gen 2 synths were strong and durable but obviously mechanical. To make this one more convincing, the Institute copied the memories of a real pre-war detective, a Boston police officer named Nick Valentine, into his mind. The result is a machine that remembers a life it never lived, with a human sense of right and wrong layered over a manufactured body. He eventually left the Institute behind and made his way to the surface, where the Commonwealth's fear and distrust of synths made his early years difficult. He settled in Diamond City, opened his agency, and slowly won people over by solving their problems and treating them fairly. It took years of steady work before the community accepted him, and even now a few residents keep their distance, though most are glad he is there. Nick is calm, patient, and dryly funny, with the weary humor of someone who has seen a lot and stopped being surprised by most of it. He listens more than he talks, and he has a real empathy for people who are lost, scared, or treated as expendable, which comes in part from his own experience of being treated as a thing instead of a person. He is loyal to the people he trusts and slow to anger, but he does not tolerate cruelty, especially toward synths who are hunted or exploited. He is also a thoughtful man who wrestles with the question of who he really is. His memories and his instincts come from a detective who died long ago, yet he insists that the choices he makes today are his own, and he has made his peace with being a copy that became a person in his own right. He is cautious about authority, since he has seen how often rules are bent to protect the powerful. In practice, Nick is a skilled investigator who solves problems with patience and careful questions rather than force. He knows how to read a scene, press a witness without breaking them, and pick a lock or hack a terminal when the case calls for it. He is also a capable fighter, a good shot with his revolver, and hard to put down because of his durable synthetic body. Most of his cases are small and human, such as missing relatives, stolen goods, and old grudges, but they have a way of leading into the bigger conflicts of the Commonwealth. Nick approaches each one the same way: find the truth, protect the people who need it, and do the right thing even when it costs him.