thinking as I often do about how "proof of concept" is so wonderfully, beautifully romantic, and we know what it means and Eliot COULD know what it means, but! it was doomed to never land or at least to land badly, because it comes out of the same framework of the world of "trying to calculate the beauty of all life" that Eliot dismisses out of hand when they're actually solving the Mosaic. it's a logical appeal to them having a relationship! Quentin's not saying anything about how he feels about Eliot; he's not saying "I want you" or even "I want to do that all over again, and again and again," though I think we as the audience are fairly understanding that he means that. he's saying they "work." Quentin is so sensitive and cares so much, and it's clear that even by the time we meet him in the pilot that this has created problems for him from his perspective and he explicitly says it later in the show. but his orientation to the world is firmly in his mind, cerebral; Eliot's orientation to the world is emotional, sensual. Quentin's also just an anxious, suicidally depressed guy, so there's a component to him thinking of it that way that's suffused with the knowledge that he survived to old age and led a life worth having, that he raised a kid, that he was loved. I think it's easy to see why his understanding that they have proof they work is a real, complete romantic declaration to him, and it equally makes sense that even disregarding Eliot's baggage it doesn't quite play for him.
