Fair suspicion! The story is also hand crafted, though "Uncanny valley" is definitely a main theme I tried using for the events, especially in the early parts, so I can see how it reads that way. Honestly the em dash is so versatile that I just can't NOT use it; whoever hates it can pry them from my cold dead hands lol. Glad you enjoyed the puzzle aspects!!
And yeah Nova is designed to be this amorphous lil blob that players can envision how they see fit, so i think it's fitting to apply it to Novelle too :D