Devon Ortega

**Main Page**
Gallery

* Arches
* Echo

**Devon Mateo Ortega** is one of the two protagonists of the visual novel Arches. He is Cameron's boyfriend, and leads the duo's paranormal investigation of Echo.

## Appearance

Devon is a large brown bear. He has a sturdy but average build, with his solid physique largely stemming from his species rather than lifestyle choices. He wears a backwards black baseball cap, a maroon Pueblo shirt, and blue jeans.

## Personality

In contrast to Cam, Dev is much more outgoing and risk-taking. He can be curt, and sometimes oblivious, but is kind and respectful, and shows great concern for Cam's safety. Dev has a strong interest in the paranormal and a curiosity about the afterlife, and enjoys going on amateur ghost hunting investigations.

## Story

### Early Life

Devon may have Sonoran heritage. He was born in October of 1995 and grew up in a state that was prone to tornadoes; even as an adult he vividly remembers the sounds of the warning sirens from his childhood. Devon's father owns a cabin and often took Dev there to go ice fishing while he was growing up.

When Dev was twelve, a close relative of his named Lupita drowned in a manner that Dev blames himself for, which deeply affected both Devon and his mother. At some point, seemingly because of Lupita's death, Dev became fixated on the paranormal, and when he learned about Echo's long history of strange events it became a dream of his to someday visit. According to Cam, he wants very badly for ghosts to be real.

Dev dated girls in high school so people wouldn't get 'suspicious,' and seems to have only come to terms with his sexuality in college.

### College and Later Years

Devon majored in mechanical engineering at the University of Pueblo, and before graduation he secured a six-figure job with Fort Allen Robotics, the most valuable industrial automation company in the country. During college, Dev's friend Arturo aided in setting him up with Cam, in order to help Dev get over being dumped by his first boyfriend, a fox named Jesús. During their first dates, Dev tried to impress Cam with his advanced coursework, which embarrasses him in hindsight, but the two appear to have hit it off quickly.

He and Cameron live in Fort Allen, but Devon is anticipating that his job will soon transfer him to Bonneville City. Dev initially planned to visit Echo in 2019 with a friend named Larry, but it fell through, which led to him proposing that Cam come instead to try and sense the town's ghosts.

In the days before leaving for Echo, Dev downplays his desire to look for supernatural phenomena in the town, and for Cam's sake he attempts to make their upcoming trip feel more like a fun vacation.

### Arches

#### Act 1

Devon heads to Echo eager to test his conviction that his boyfriend Cameron has psychic abilities, despite Cam's assurances that his 'visions' are simply hallucinations with a mundane, psychiatric explanation. Dev speeds into the town, trusting his Jeep to handle the rough road, and pulls over to see Lake Emma before proceeding. On the lakeshore, he apologizes anxiously to Cam for asking him to come along, but Cam asserts that he has accompanied Dev of his own volition and agrees to play along with his ideas about the supernatural, if only for the weekend. Dev is thrilled that Cam is taking his beliefs seriously.

Dev then comforts Cam, as Cam divulges new details about his mother's mental illness and death that Dev has never heard before. Dev is shaken by Cam's honesty and feels conflicted about continuing their trip, but Cam stands firm and refuses Dev's offer to back out. As he turns right onto the road that leads to Echo, Devon imagines a pink-clad figure floating in a pond, presumably Lupita, and the thought seemingly motivates him to press on.

At the motel, Dev offhandedly reveals he has forgotten to mention that there may still be residents of Echo living in the town, which distresses Cam badly, but Dev promises to protect him if anything happens. While Cam begins trying to channel spirits in a motel room where a man hung himself decades earlier, Dev feels guilty and worries that exposing Cam to a paranormal experience could trigger an episode of psychosis. He begins shivering, then feels intense fear and something around his neck. Cam makes a horrible sound, then jumps on Dev and explains in a panic that he saw a vision of him dying. Cam also shares that within his vision he heard something claiming to be Lupita screaming, and Dev is devastated.

The experience in the motel marks a reversal of Cam and Dev's respective outlooks on the trip to Echo: Dev is determined to get out of the town to protect Cam from further mental anguish, but Cam, while also shaken, is fascinated by the possibility of his psychic power and wants to stay and explore it. In his haste to escape his mounting dread that something will somehow stop them from leaving, Dev drives away from Echo with urgent caution and overrules Cam's desire to return.

Suddenly, Cam grabs the steering wheel, and Dev only has time to throw his arm across Cam to protect him as their Jeep crashes and ends up lodged in a ditch. Dev snaps at Cam but then suppresses his own terror once he sees his boyfriend's distress, and helps talk him down from a panic attack. Cam explains that he thought he saw a young otter in the road, and Dev reveals that a child fitting that description drowned in Lake Emma years before. Dev tries to dissuade Cam from returning Echo to look for cell signal so they can call for help, but Cam insists, and the two walk back into town while Dev wonders if Cam is more resilient that he has given him credit for.

In a stand of trees, Dev manages to get in touch with their friend Arturo, and arranges for him to come meet them. When he hears a far-off high-pitched laugh and someone, likely Brian, begins threatening them with a gun to get off his property, Dev grabs Cam and flees back to the Jeep. Cam then explains that he had a vision in the forest of a shadow person with a distorted, electronic voice. Dev is able to corroborate it with accounts from his extensive research into the town's paranormal history, much to Cam's delight. The two sleep in the Jeep and Dev ventures back to the motel in the morning to pack up the rest of their equipment.

Dev comes back to find Cam having a vision near Lake Emma and accidentally startles him out of it, sending him tumbling into the lake. Cameron gets Dev to tell him more about the girl whose death he saw, and is excited once he realizes he might be able to help her family find closure, but Dev is more focused on making sure Cam is okay. Dev admits he is terrified of Cam being hurt and doesn't want to repeat the mistakes he made that led to Lupita's death. Dev nearly cries, only for Artie to suddenly arrive at last.

Dev is upset to learn that Artie brought a small sedan instead of the truck he once drove, and even more upset when Artie asks to check out Echo before they leave and Cam agrees. Despite his fantasies about getting into the car with them and escaping, Dev chooses to respect Cam's wishes to stay. Dev covers for Cam when Artie asks how the car went off the road, and says it was his own fault.

Artie offers Dev and Cam some marijuana, but Dev refuses on behalf of the both of them. Cam scolds Dev for speaking for him and accepts the hit, despite never having smoked pot before during their relationship, which leaves Dev incredulous and apologetic. Artie sides with Cam, and Dev is frustrated that he is being made out to be a controlling partner. While Cam deals with his high, Dev tries to remain supportive, even after Cam confesses that he was never really mad about Dev's refusal and only agreed to smoke the weed in an attempt to boost his psychic awareness.

When Cam giddily shares the news of his apparently psychic abilities to Artie, Dev is disapproving but stays silent, resigning himself to let Cam do what he wants and respecting his decisions. The group begins walking towards Echo but Dev reminds them not to go further than the motel because of the local who threatened them from the forest. At one point. Cam brings up the negative effect that the explosion of the Challenger spacecraft had on his mother. In response, Dev tries to warn Cam and Artie to be careful by joking that the astronauts onboard died because they didn't listen to their engineers, which results mostly in the other two making fun of his profession.

At the motel, Dev sulks while Artie divulges details about Dev's previous college relationship that Dev wishes he had shared with Cam himself. Dev regrets not leaving Echo when he had the chance, and feels an ominous futility about trying to change course now. When Cam insists on delaying their departure because he senses something and wants a moment alone, Dev relents but seems like he is at his limit.

Dev waits up the street from the motel with Artie, then the two rush to confront an old weasel who they catch disabling Artie's car. After knocking Artie to the ground, the weasel punches Dev in the face and stomach, stunning him, then points a gun at them and escapes. Dev runs back to the motel and breaks through a boarded window to find that Cam is panicked and paranoid and has locked himself in a bathroom. Dev kicks open the door to get to Cam and holds him to try and calm him down, to no avail, and Cam ends up running off into the desert in his frantic state.

#### Act 2

Dev and Artie follow in the direction Cam ran. Artie brings up the antipsychotics that Cameron took in college, and Dev feels ashamed at how little he knew about Cam's medications, even while he was encouraging him to stop taking them. Dev becomes furious at Artie for giving Cam weed despite his history of psychosis, but is placated when Artie apologizes and promises to help search for Cam. Dev reconsiders his disdain for psychology, and concedes that something psychiatric may also be happening to Cam, even if he really is some degree of psychic.

Dev's bearhug when he eventually reunites with Cam sends them both to the ground, and they hold each other tightly. Dev then notices that Artie has disappeared into the nearby copse of trees that they were chased out of earlier by a territorial local, and he and Cam go to look for him. They find Artie, and Dev notices a nearby trailer that looks nearly hidden by the forest. Dev then sees a shadowy figure in the trees, just a second before it seemingly lunges into Cameron's body, causing him to pass out and stop breathing. Cam's breathing soon resumes, even though he remains unconscious, but Dev's relief is cut short by the appearance of Brian holding a shotgun. At Brian's insistence, Dev explains exactly what happened to Cam, and the older bear seems to suddenly become much more friendly. Desperate to get help for Cam, Dev and Artie accept when Brian offers them a ride to a spot nearby with cell phone signal.

Later, Dev recollects how Brian shot Artie, apparently fatally, with a second gun he had stashed in the van he brought them to, and then drugged Dev before chaining him up inside the van. Dev is brought back to consciousness by the pain in his bound arms, and is motivated to escape by the thought of Cam alone with Brian, especially after he thinks he hears his boyfriend's voice outside. The cuffs he is in hold fast despite his struggling, and Dev prays just in case something hears him.

Brian returns and punches Dev for begging to see Cameron, then drugs him again by forcing him to drink from a bottle of water laced with Rohypnol. As the sedative takes effect, Dev resumes straining fruitlessly against his restraints, then gnaws on his forearm to punish himself for getting his friends into such a dire situation, although he barely breaks the skin. Dev resolves to kill Brian the next time he is nearby, and reflects that if Cam doesn't survive he won't be able to live with himself. Dev then thinks of Lupita as his consciousness drifts.

A vision of Cam suddenly appears to Dev, within a void of swirling lines and patterns, and claims to be making a telepathic connection with him. Dev initially thinks he is experiencing a delusion created by his own conviction that Cam has psychic powers, but is overjoyed once he realizes Cam is likely real and relatively unscathed. Cam explains that he can read Brian's thoughts and knows where he is keeping the keys to Dev's cuffs, and promises to get him out somehow. Cam vanishes shortly after, and Dev tells himself to have faith that Cam can rescue him, even as he struggles to process whether the vision was real.

#### Act 3

Dev awakens from his drugged stupor to the sound of Cam's voice. He sees Brian through the open rear doors of the van, restraining Cam with one hand and holding a shotgun with the other. Brian looks at Cam with contempt and then punches him hard enough to dislodge a tooth, before throwing him into the van to land on top of Dev. Dev is enraged and swears aloud to kill Brian, but his fury is replaced with concern as Cam stirs and slowly wakes up. Cam explains that he is going to the mines but will come back, then kisses him, and Dev is shocked to feel the key to his restraints pushed into his mouth. Cam promises Dev that they will go home together, then leaves with Brian as Dev cries in confusion.

Dev is able to free himself with the key and finds a side entrance to the mines, both by relying on his prior research into Echo's layout and by following the scent of Cam's blood. He reflects on the powerlessness he felt when Lupita died and feels determined to fight back against losing Cam. He navigates the subterranean darkness by scent, and then just when he loses the trail he hears Cam singing in the distance. As Dev rushes towards the sound it suddenly stops and Cam screams, and Dev yells to both Brian and Cam that he is coming.

Dev enters a small cavern to see Cam trying to wrest a shotgun away from Brian. Furious, Dev charges the larger bear and bites deeply into his neck, although he can only leave a superficial wound. Brian rams the butt of the gun into Dev's gut to knock him away, but Dev manages to grab it by the stock and forces Brian to turn his full attention to getting the weapon back. Dev tells Cam to run but instead Cam kicks Brian in the balls, attracting his full wrath, and Brian begins mauling Cam brutally, shattering his arm. Dev gets ahold of the gun but realizes it has opened up during the struggle, and so he drops it in favor of tackling Brian off of Cam. While pinning him down, Dev knocks a few of Brian's teeth out with a vicious blow and then, in order to finish getting payback for the missing tooth and broken arm that Brian has inflicted on Cam, he locks Brian in an armbar hold and snaps his arm with a careful application of torque.

Brian recovers quickly, however, and grabs the discarded shotgun while Dev is distracted tending to Cam, then knocks Dev to his knees with it. Brian points the gun at Cam, and all Dev can do is cradle his boyfriend while angling his own body to try and block the shot. Just as Brian fires, however, Cam manages to redirect the barrel upward and the blast misses them both. The recoil causes the gun to strike Brian in the chest, with such force that he suffers a fatal heart attack. Brian's final convulsions smash the only lantern in the cave, and leave Dev and Cam holding each other in darkness.

Dev knows that Cam is critically injured, and carries him gently out of the tunnels, guided by a series of ethereal glowing arches that only Cam can see. After an hour, they reach the mouth of the cave and Dev winces as the daylight reveals the full scale of Cam's wounds. He apologizes, but Cam assures Dev that he does not blame him for anything. Dev hears a helicopter or megaphone outside and resolutely assures Cam that everything will be okay. Cam informs Dev that Artie survived the gunshot, and Dev cries tears of happiness and relief as the two step out into the light.

Dev and Cam survive, albeit not without lingering mental and physical wounds. Cam is able to retain some latent psychic ability to detect malevolent presences, and at one point while they are visiting Dev's family home after their ordeal he senses something under the back porch. Dev confirms that strange sightings have taken place there throughout his life, but also tells Cam to try and ignore it, and although he shows a glint of his old interest in the paranormal it is clear he wants the remnants of their time in Echo to go away like it never happened. Dev is wracked by nightmares of "guns, chains, and death" and frequently awakens panicked, and residual thoughts of Brian still make him angry.

Dev tries to dissuade Cam from resuming his old job remotely but Cam insists in order to restore some normality to his life, only to then have a breakdown after a demeaning interaction with a customer. Cam is diagnosed with schizophrenia, likely partly as a result of his trauma and drug use in Echo, and Dev helps him switch psychiatrists after his first round of antipsychotic treatment causes brutal side effects. Dev also supervises Cam while he takes his medication; they two agree that Dev should do it for at least a year but Cam seems to resent this, leading to an argument in October 2020. In a reversal of his former stance on psychology, Dev tries to remain optimistic and supportive about Cam's treatment, while acknowledging the potential for him to continue relapsing, but Cam snaps back with angry hopelessness. Their fight gradually deescalates from bitterness to sadness and Dev comforts Cam while steadfastly reassuring him, and they realize with wan humor that they both forgot Dev's birthday the previous week. Dev tells himself that the difficulty of Cam's situation more than justifies his lashing out, and he empathizes with Cam despite feeling like he is watching his life fall apart.

One day, while trying to write a letter to his employer to request a delay on his relocation, Dev suddenly finds himself about to pass out and short of breath. He considers alerting Cam but doesn't want to distress him, only for Cam to come in anyway and help Dev calm down from his likely panic attack. The incident inspires sympathy in Dev for Cam's panicked episodes and he considers therapy and medication, but finds he is scared to seek them out and tells himself the incident was not severe enough to justify such measures. Instead, he resolves to get himself and Cam gym memberships in the hopes that exercise will help.

In the summer of 2021, Dev and Cam visit Artie, and Dev explains that he is about a year into a Masters in Robotics at the University of Deseret. His long-held sense of imposter syndrome causes him some discomfort when Artie praises him for his effortless academic success, but he enjoys catching up with his old friend. He also tries to lighten the odd tension that seems to exist between Cam and Artie.

By March 2023, Dev and Cam are married. Many of Cam's symptoms have improved but both he and Dev are still afraid of his persistent anhedonia, and Dev is deeply saddened that Cam has abandoned his musical interests. With hindsight, Dev berates himself with the possibility that he could have stopped Cam's psychosis before it truly spiraled.

The two walk together through the snow one evening, bantering playfully, and Dev observes how odd it is that Cam is now usually the one cheering him up. Cam asks Dev if he ever found what he was looking for when they went to Echo; Dev replies that it doesn't matter, and that he needs to instead focus on what he has, and on Cam. He assures Cam that his waning cheerfulness is just a result of time passing and changing them, and although he bitterly regrets not making different choices in the past he promises that he will always be a home for Cameron.

Cam tries to offer Dev some hope by revealing that he senses a specific energy around places connected to spirituality, and Dev kisses him while feeling an overwhelming mix of grief and love. Dev resolves to start fresh and do things right, and whether there is something or nothing awaiting them, he feels content to wait with Cam until they find out.

#### Alternate Ending

Although Arches is a linear narrative and does not feature a branching storyline in the typical sense, near the end of the game Cam repeatedly dreams about the aftermath of an alternate reality in which he was killed in Echo by Brian's shotgun. In this timeline, Dev then killed Brian in revenge by tearing out his throat, and some version of Cam came to inhabit Dev's mind. Dev now lives alone in Bonneville City but frequently converses with the Cam in his head, whom he insists is not really dead. The two have taken it upon themselves to defeat the malevolent "echoes" that Cam can sense, in the hopes that they can kill off haunted places at their source. Dev works out often to prepare himself and aspires to start a movement of people fighting back against things like whatever it was that preyed on them in Echo, even though Cam reminds him that the forces they are up against are ancient and bigger than they are.

The version of Cam that Dev is hosting in this reality seems notably hostile to intrusions from the Cam who survived, and is shown quickly alerting Devon to his presence.

### Echo

Devon and Cameron appear briefly several times in Echo. In the epilogues of Leo's, TJ's, and Flynn's routes, the two arrive in the town to conduct an investigation much like the one that occurs in Arches. This version of Dev, however, is a vlogger conducting his paranormal investigations for an audience, and talks about impressing his subscribers with footage of Echo.

In a possible ending to Leo's route, Chase returns to Echo and passes a black bear and a canine, presumably a loose reference to Dev and Cam despite their differing species, who are pointing a video camera at the now abandoned motel. Notably, this epilogue is set in 2017, instead of in 2020 like Cam and Dev's visit during Arches.

After TJ's route, Dev insists on making Lake Emma his first stop with Cam, because of its history of deaths and hauntings. When Cam sees something ghostly in the water, Dev is thrilled and hopes the sighting will make Cam a believer.

In the epilogue of Flynn's route, set in 2020, Dev and Cam have a short interview with Chase, during which Dev mentions being a big fan of the report on Echo's mass hysteria event that Chase published years earlier. At the mine, Dev questions Chase about the specifics of Flynn's apparent death, which causes the otter to walk off without another word.

## Relationships

### Cameron

At the start of the story, Devon has been dating Cameron for over five years. Dev cares deeply for Cam and plans for them to spend the rest of their lives together. Cam is cagey about his past, and so Dev does not seem to grasp the full scope of his partner's history of neglect and addiction, but nonetheless takes pride in providing Cam a safe place to feel loved and remains resolutely committed to him.

Dev strives to look after Cam, sometimes to such a degree that instead of openly communicating with him, Dev overcorrects and ends up acting based on what he perceives Cam needs rather than simply listening to what he wants.

Devon is convinced that his boyfriend has a psychic sense that allows him to perceive the paranormal, even though Cam initially finds this belief exasperating. Dev appears not to think that Cam is mentally ill, and chooses instead to frame his boyfriend's hallucinations as something special. Once in Echo, Dev considers helping prove to Cam that he isn't 'psychotic' to be even more important than getting answers for himself about the afterlife.

Dev is deeply impressed by Cam's ability to understand and play music, and thinks of it like magic.

### Lupita

Lupita was Devon's close relative and possible sister, who died at a young age when Dev was twelve due to what he calls his 'stupid mistakes.' Dev was the one to find her body. Lupita's death left Dev with the lifelong sensation of an 'abyss' beneath his feet that opens up whenever he thinks about losing those close to him.

Losing Lupita also seems to have encouraged Dev to seek out answers about what happens after death, and he longs to gain proof that she is okay 'on the other side.'

### Arturo

Dev and Arturo are old friends from college, but things are tense between them once they reunite. Dev is quickly irritated when Arturo seems not to take their stranding in Echo seriously, and becomes even more frustrated when Arturo gets Cam high without fully considering his difficult history with drugs. Dev notably does not share Artie's enthusiasm for weed.

## Trivia

* Since the storytelling in Arches never uses the first-person perspective for Devon, he is currently the only Echo Project protagonist who never directly narrates a story from his own point of view. The short Halloween side-story uses the first-person, but it is strictly from Cameron's perspective.
* In the first year of their relationship, Dev asked Cam if he could enhance their intimacy by lightly biting Cam's neck and growling, but then quickly abandoned the idea after having a 'predatory nightmare' in which he tore out Cam's throat.
* Dev is slightly tone-deaf.
* In the short audio clip released to promote Build 7 of Arches, the voice of Devon is performed by Vivian Jade.