Donovan

Donovan is a main character in Project LOV. He appears after the player chooses for Liza to help him out in Chapter 1, or after her phone call if the player decides not to help him out.

## Background

Donovan is in his late twenties, making him the oldest main character the player encounters within the game. He studies political science at OCU.

While he doesn't talk about him much to his friends, Donovan occasionally asks for advice from his cousin. This happens the most when he wants dating advice. He misunderstands most of the advice he gets from others, which causes a lot of unexpected outcomes.

He roomed with TJ until he earned his bachelor's degree.

### Student Council

Donovan applied and joined the OCU Student Council as an disciplinary officer during his undergraduate studies. His role was to ensure the student body's safety and discipline alongside the teammates he was working with. Due to certain, unclear events in his history working this position, Donovan was penalized and stripped of his position. He doesn't mention this incident, even when asked. However, TJ knows about some of the details.

## Personality

Donovan is an easily discouraged and mopey individual. He manages to be both not very trusting *or* trustworthy when it comes to meeting and interacting with others, and is usually a hit-or-miss on first impressions.

Despite his awkward demeanor and negative personality, Donovan cherishes those he calls his friends a lot. He would go out of his way to do anything to help them out when in need, sometimes to a fault.

When it comes to asking his crushes out on a dare, Donovan finds it hard not to come off as intense. He thinks little of it and doesn't try to change himself. He views himself as a victim, and blames society and the media for his lackluster romantic life.

## Events

### Chapter #1

Donovan is first introduced meditating on a bench near Smoothie Baron. The player is then given the choice of having Liza worry enough to help him, or get a phone call before she could do so.

If the player chooses to help Donovan, Liza moves closer to him before he collapses from a panic attack. In this situation, she decides to carry him to the nurse's office. There, Donovan begins recovering in bed, and introduces himself to her. He explains to her that he had suffered a panic attack due to a breakup, and was trying to meditate to quell his emotions and anxiety.

Halfway through their conversation, she notices a missed call on her phone from TJ, and remembers an OCU open-mic event she was supposed to attend with him performing. Without mentioning TJ, Liza offers Donovan the chance to accompany him at the event later that night, to which he agrees. She leaves immediately before Donovan could ask her for her phone number.

If the player instead chooses to ignore Donovan, he collapses on his own, and some other passer-bys decide to help him to the infirmary instead.

In both routes, the player is led to the nurse's office, where Donovan wakes up after a long nap to find that he had been out for at least an hour. He begins to trace his steps back to when he was on the bench, and starts experiencing another panic attack remembering the truth behind his previous episode. Donovan did not in fact break up with anybody - instead, he experienced his emotional trauma simply due to a rejection he faced when asking out a friend of his.

He begins calming himself down by recalling his own identity and the time, and plans the rest of his day to try and be more productive. He recalls his friend performing at an OCU open-mic event, and hurries out of the infirmary to catch it.

## Endings

These endings are achieved by making the "correct" choices that can lead to a good ending or, if not enough "correct" choices are made throughout any route, a bad ending instead:

### Bad Ending

Donovan contemplates his own life and history after losing his friends and failing to connect with any of the other characters. He skips school and food during this time. He stands in front of a mirror and observes his out-of-shape body, reaching the conclusion that he has no further purpose in life other than to serve as a stepping stone for others.

He prepares a rigid noose out of a pin, a metallic wire he owned, and his necktie. He then uses it to hang himself from the top of his room's door after toppling the folding chair he was standing on. He doesn't leave behind a note.

A week later, his body is found when TJ and Axel kick open the door at Nia's request. She was still worried for his health as a close friend. Despite her rejection of his incessant advances and desire to avoid him soon after, she still feels the need to check on him after she turned him away, noticing his absence.

Axel is taken aback from the scent of decay, but Nia rushes past him to witness Donovan's parting face. She bursts into tears when she sees his face.

The game then notifies the player that they have failed to avoid a very negative and dystopian future for the world, and must try again if they wish to survive.

## Trivia

* Donovan is a huge conspiracy theorist, and feels little shame showing it - this becomes his bonding point with Axel later after their major fight.
* Several of Donovan's theories about government surveillance turn out to be partially correct.
* Donovan is a huge retro game fan, but also enjoys one of the same fighting game series as TJ. The two of them frequently bonded over this particular game.