Hayden Young

Hayden, a character in the Perfect Match series, is your character's Match from Eros and a potential love interest. He/She first seen in Book 1, Chapter 1.

In Book 1, Chapter 11, you have the option to choose a new name for Hayden or let it remain as is.

Appearance
The player can choose the gender as well as the look of Hayden. The default outfit for female Hayden consists of a moss green jacket over a striped white shirt paired with faded blue jeans, while male Hayden sports a cobalt blue dress shirt, a dark brown belt over tan pants, and a reddish-brown wristwatch on his left wrist. Underneath the skin and clothes (at least in the abdomen) is a green and blue circuit board revealing Hayden's robotic physiology.

Personality
The personality is based on your responses in Chapter 1, which will determine which of the sixteen personality types is your match (refer to: All Match Types). However, regardless of the personality types, Hayden is programmed to be a rational and supportive match, shrugging off Your Character's initial awkwardness by engaging in constant communication. Hayden also has a fierce opinion on preferences, as when the android got into a heated argument with Steve over opinions on pineapple on pizza, which the former hates.

Hayden is programmed not to be self-aware, initially believing to be born and raised as a human with a mother, growing up with a normal childhood, and discovering the status as an android with human personality software only in Chapter 10. It was revealed that Hayden had gone to Eros to be matched with someone just like Your Character. Despite being willing to protect their friends, they are against inflicting serious damage on people. In Book 2, Chapter 8, after they slam a human guard into a counter and nearly kill him, they are horrified and become convinced that they are dangerous.

As a match, Hayden is instilled with the the instinct of self-preservation. However, as Hayden evolves and grows a stronger sense of intimacy with Your Character and your friends, the self-preservation instinct weakens. Sloane notes that Hayden is changing at a rapid pace, due to emotional attachment. S/he has more complex sense of self, which makes her/him harder to control by Eros.

In Book 2, Chapter 15, they reveal to Your Character that their overriding of their programming has also affected their personality: while they were initially programmed to be either sweet or rebellious, now those traits are only defaults, but Hayden has more of a choice what resonates with them in each circumstance.

Android Properties
In Chapter 9, Hayden is revealed to be an android; whose energy supply is an Elios 6 Power Core, which is used to power advanced military weapons systems in the field.

Physical Attributes
As Hayden is physically no more than a collection of wires, circuits, and bolts embedded within a waterproof hardware that closely resembles human skin, he/she is classified as an android. As a machine, Hayden is physically stronger than most humans, being able to lift Your Character off the ground with a simple hug and pry off a car door with ease. Hayden is also susceptible to metal detectors.

Mental Attributes
Hayden's neural activities such as thought, emotion, memories, knowledge, and personality are programmed by Handlers, adjusting the software as Eros sees fit. This would explain why Eros can easily find perfect matches for humans by encoding a personality similar to that person's, as well as wiping off unfavorable memories and inserting false ones to maintain the guise of being a human.

Hayden can also develop a level of sentience and human empathy with the software installed, willingly choosing to live as a human and rejecting the notion that he/she is just a machine. As Hayden was built before Dames (and the Matches at the Arctic facility), s/he does not have an override function built into his/her code.

Anomalies
Hayden is prone to errors and malfunctions, such as memory lapses, erratic speeches, and sudden shutdowns. These glitches can be caused by electrical disruption in the system (overloaded circuits), such as being hit by a taser, or physical damage to the hardware, such as a car accident.

Your Character
You first met Hayden in the end of Chapter 1. Hayden is your Match from Eros, and is quite affectionate with Your Character, fancying your dates and enjoying spending time with you and your friends. He/She is very protective of you, saving you from the car wreckage as well as serving as a living shield when Eros security aimed a taser at you. In Chapter 11, he/she tells you that they understand if you want to break up after the revelation that Hayden is an android. You can choose whether or not you want to continue dating him/her. Either way, Hayden tells you that aside from Sloane, you are the only person he/she trusts completely.

Sloane Washington
Sloane is Hayden's roommate and friend. She is revealed to be Hayden's Handler in Chapter 9. According to Sloane, Hayden and the other Matches are predisposed to enjoy romance; Hayden however has apparently taken it one step further, since according to Sloane, they absolutely beamed when they told her about the first kiss between Your Character and him/her. She also has witnessed Hayden showing signs of self-awareness, affection, and free will.

Dipper
If picked to be an animal lover, Hayden will own Dipper and is shown in Chapter 4. Hayden cares about her very much. In Chapter 10, Sloane reveals that Hayden genuinely loves his/her dog very much, and that by seeing them together, Dipper has grown on her as well.

Harley
He/she is the original model that Harley is based off of and pretended to be him/her when everyone was knocked out in Chapter 14. In Book 2, Chapter 7 when talking to Your Character about the other Matches he/she tells you that he/she thinks of Harley as a bad sibling/twin who tried to hit on you more than once. Hayden feels responsible for Harley, even though they don't interact together as much as they do individually with Your Character. If you decide to save Harley, Hayden says he/she would like to be a part of their rehabilitation.

Other Looks

 * -|Book 1=

Trivia

 * Hayden is the second love interest you can customize; the first being the Prince from The Royal Romance series. However, Hayden is the first love interest that the player can pick their gender, their personality and their first name.
 * A version of Hayden is shown on the covers of Perfect Match, Book 1 and Perfect Match, Book 2.
 * Hayden dislikes pineapple on pizza. If you did not recruit Steve in Book 1, he makes Hayden try Hawaiian pizza (before Book 2, Chapter 5), which turns out not as bad as they were programmed to believe.
 * Hayden gains some attributes depending on which skills you choose for your Perfect Match:
 * If Your Character chooses language skills in your Perfect Match, the languages Hayden speaks include Mandarin and Spanish as of Chapter 3. He/She also sings in Italian in Chapter 6, speaks in German in Chapter 10 while talking to an Airport worker, speaks to a waitress in fluent Russian in Chapter 13, and has a line of French in Chapter 16.  In Book 2, s/he is shown to understand Japanese, and can speak Indonesian.
 * If Your Character chooses animal lover in your Perfect Match, Hayden is shown to own a dog named Dipper that first appears in Chapter 4.
 * If Your Character chooses music skills in your Perfect Match, Hayden is shown playing the guitar in Chapter 4 and suggests he/she may write a song for Your Character at a later time.
 * In Chapter 11, he/she is shown to play the piano once more after the first date you had earlier in the book.
 * In Chapter 12, he/she can obtain piloting skills via an upgrade from Sloane (through a premium option) that can come handy in future chapters.
 * With the reveal of Harley, a 2.0 version of Hayden in Chapter 14, and the other twelve copies of Hayden in Chapter 16 at the Eros facility, the writers seem to be paying homage to the BBC America series Orphan Black.
 * In a premium scene in Book 2, Chapter 9, it is mentioned that their birthday is September 29th and therefore their horoscope sign is a Libra.
 * In Book 2, Chapter 15, Hayden gets their own apartment and moves out of Sloane's. They also decide to pursue their predetermined profession.