TJ

TJ is a main character in Project LOV. He appears during the open mic event in Chapter 2, with a cameo in Chapter 1 as a silhouette.

Background
TJ was a philosophy major in his undergraduate years at OCU, and was one of the best students in his graduating class. He enjoyed his studies, especially when he got to focus on metaphysics and ontology. However, he wasn't really sure about what to do after he got his degree. Thus, he continued on to law school to study environmental law. He doesn't enjoy this as much as he enjoyed philosophy.

Personality
TJ has a very chill attitude and a lot of patience. He isn't materialistic or egocentric to any real extent—to the point where he has traits that indicate that he has gone through ego death in the past. He's more inclined to think about humanity as a whole rather than himself.

He's incredibly charismatic and can use this for real world purposes. Part of his charisma comes from being a good listener, while other parts of it come from being able to come up with out-of-the-box solutions and compromises to several problems. Unfortunately, he's not the best at being practical unless it's explicitly demanded from him. This can initially frustrate more pragmatic people like Nia, Adena, and Axel.

Appearance
TJ is a skinny guy with a bit of a tan, and dyed red hair that waves a bit. His natural hair color is black, as given away by his eyebrows. He has droopy brown eyes. He tends to lean backwards a bit, and his posture is loose.

He's perpetually casual and will rarely be found in anything formal. The majority of the time, he wears cargo shorts, t-shirts that are a tad bit too small and unbuttoned camp shirts with various patterns. While he does have other shoes, he almost always wears a pair of brown slide sandals.

Chapter #1
If Liza decides not to help Donovan in the first chapter, TJ appears as a blacked out silhouette to check and see if Liza is still going to the open mic event that takes place during Chapter 2. TJ abruptly hangs up with no explanation, which annoys Liza a little.

Chapter #2
TJ is slated to perform in the open mic night event, and he decides to focus on slam poetry. His slam poetry session is unorthodox in the sense that he doesn't tackle any social issues in so much that he starts talking about the Simulation Hypothesis. He then talks about how ridiculous he thinks nihilism is, and then gets into a conversation on absurdism and the joys of not caring.

If Liza hasn't helped Donovan in the first chapter, she will then see him perform on-stage after TJ, and will hang out with him instead. Otherwise, she'll choose to hang out with TJ.

Liza finds TJ to be very mystifying with his memories - despite being classmates and very brief friends back during the few undergrad courses they shared, TJ would always struggle to remember the time he knocked an eraser off his desk as an excuse to talk to her (according to Liza's testimony). She enjoys remembering the times they shared in those classes, always being the first two students to finish their work and race each other to Smoothie Baron.

After walking together, they part ways to head back to their respective dorm rooms.

Chapter #3
TJ notices Donovan's conversation with Nia, and decides not to interfere. He figures someone talking this long with Donovan might actually be enjoying his company, for once.

At the other end of the hallway was Axel and Adena. TJ always made it a point to avoid those two, and it wasn't just due to their threatening aura - Adena is the next heiress of the school's main sponsor. He's heard a lot about her influence and power.

An epiphany strikes TJ as he ponders his exit away from the couple: "Wait, why am I doing this? She might actually have answers to the questions I've collected about this place." Defying his own instinct, TJ stands his ground, obstructing Adena's path.

"Is there a problem?" Axel asks as he steps in, towering over TJ's relatively smaller figure.

"Yeah, I got a problem." TJ coughs, masking his fear with his characteristic raspy voice. "I wanna know what Miss CEO's schedule is. I need an appointment."

"What for?" She interrupts Axel before he can begin to talk.

"I'd like to know just how much Maddox is involved with the development of this city - including the threatened wildlife and forestry right outside this very school."

That wasn't TJ's real question, but he felt it was an appropriate start.

"I see." Axel looks back at Adena, who signals for him to let his guard down and rejoin her. "Interesting. You can contact Nia from BA for that schedule and appointment."

TJ turns as she and Axel pass him. She then adds, "I'm not really the CEO. Not yet anyway."

He could sense a hint of frustration in her last words.

Good Ending (Canon)
Fed up with TJ's lax attitude and obliviousness, Liza interrupts their walk to confess her feelings to him. Stuttering to find the right words, TJ tries to figure out why she's suddenly acting erratic. Mistaking her hesitation for actual existential concern over her own life, TJ turns and asks her if she's aware of any anomalies happening around her, which irritates Liza even further. Deciding she couldn't take any more of this, Liza angrily grabs TJ by his shirt collar and looks at him square in the eyes, and the player is then presented with an important LoveDetect event to provide an answer for.

If the player detects a true attraction between the two, Liza will pull TJ in for a deep kiss, and confess to him the feelings she's harbored for him since the day they met. Asking her if she's sure, she responds assuredly and calls him a dummy for ever doubting someone as determined as her. TJ hugs Liza for another kiss, and they share a long gaze together before the credits roll.

If the player does not detect a possible romance between the two, TJ will gently hold Liza's hands and lift them off his collar, before informing Liza that "he may not be what she needs right now". Shocked and puzzled by his rejection of her feelings, Liza feebly drops her hands and looks down with a depressed expression she refused to show. TJ apologizes, and turns to leave before the game resumes.

Bad Ending
TJ, having failed several attempts at connecting with others, begins to contemplate "how far down the rabbit hole" he needs to go to understand the suspicious reality he thinks he's in, and overcome his dissociating mindset. Neglecting his restraints, and suffering a rare form of depression he's never felt before, he overdoses on new drugs he was offered a while back by a classmate, and hallucinates multiple fleeting realities where he succeeded and failed with every person that took interest in him.

Drenched in sweat in his own bed, he sees himself drowning, and witnesses a hand trying to reach out to him to pull him out. He attempts to reach back, but fails to do so in time, and momentarily realizes he was being watched and mourned, before his own heart stops.

In his final seconds, a tear trickles down his cold cheek, mixing with the puddle of sweat and saliva beneath his head.

Trivia

 * TJ knows about a lot of independent coffee shops near OCU and will encourage people to go to them.
 * In spite of his generally pacifist nature, he likes fighting games the most. He and Donovan are fans of a specific fighting game series, which they both bonded over.
 * He has a bad habit of ordering a lot of pizza. It was so bad during his freshman undergraduate year that he bought a hot glue gun and paint to make miniature cardboard houses. He placed them in various places on OCU's campus. A few were noticed by OCU's art and design college, and he was offered a scholarship for architecture or interior design. He refused on the grounds that he only did it for fun.