may yr cigarettes taste like anthrax spores!!

Cobyn is the polar opposite of this. He says he feels ignored whenever he talks about gardening because people rarely listen, and he says no one cares about gardening these days or something along those lines while explaining how his shop wasn't doing well. He still dedicates himself to gardening. He doesn't need external validation to be motivated to do it, it's just something that makes him happy and that's that. Obviously it sucks he has no one to express his love of gardening to, and he needs business to come into his store so he could keep it open, but none of that manifests as insecurity(?) like it does with Vega. It moreso manifests as him being extra appreciative of people who do listen to and support him, but not really holding it against himself or anyone else if they don't.

And Cobyn doesn't even brag about any of it. They'll acknowledge it if it's relevant to the topic, but their lack of ego tripping makes it so much worse for Coworker. If Cobyn bragged about it that's at least proof they care as much as he does, but they don't! Cobyn's completely effortless in being more masculine than him. It's a one-sided competition and he's STILL losing.

Coworker would play it off as if he doesn't care, and Cobyn would believe him. He'd say something about how it's good it doesn't eat him up because it's hardly a measure of a person's worth, and that Coworker should just nurture his own strengths without worrying about how others might be better than him in some regards, and Coworker would want this guy even deader over it than he did before.

Cobyn would probably also ragebait Coworker somewhat, but mostly if he's contributing to someone else's ragebait. He'd do it on his own occasionally, but that's kind of what I think he does to Vega with Poppy a little bit, so uh. Same deal there. It's his love language.

Vega wants to be taken seriously because they have high beliefs in their ability to uncover truths most other people can't. She knows how to expose shady people and organizations to give the public the knowledge they deserve, but knowing how to do that won't get her very far if everyone keeps dismissing her as paranoid. He still relishes in the attention he got from being a crime's sole witness because it was most likely the only time he was ever listened to on such a massive scale, and it made him feel useful and fulfilled enough to believe it's his purpose despite his lack of success ever since. This also influences their strategy early on in the game. They automatically appoint themself as their group's leader because if they aren't either the center of attention or in control, they aren't going to be heard.

Protag wants to be taken seriously because he won't feel secure or accepted otherwise. He had an upbringing in which he wasn't allowed to be who he was without maltreatment from his parents being a direct consequence, but he attempted to overcome that by exploring his own interests anyway and even basing his career off them. He eventually cracked under the pressure of (perceived?) judgement though, and went back to a mindset of having to be and do certain things for the sake of being accepted, just like he had to back when he was living with his parents.

honestly just taking my 2 favorites from my top 2 sig games and making them kiss. I don't think they'd get along in the first place though. John Machoism is not going to appreciate Cobyn "Buddy, it's okay, you can open up" Jackpot Crash Course. Cobyn and Colleague is probably more likely but I'm not going to say anything logical or conclusive about Cobyn until I replay at least one of the routes 2 more times, or at least pick at what I've already seen for a little while longer. I also still DON'T KNOW HOW TO DEAL WITH COLLEAGUE IN TERMS OF CHARACTERIZATION.

finally got around to finishing the first chapter. what the FUCK 😭😭😭😭😭

Maybe it's because Coworker dying isn't considered a "real death," so whatever causes everything to reset wasn't triggered. He wasn't even alive to begin with, which means no one died, which means there's no reason for a do over. Protag has something that makes him a valid living thing that Coworker doesn't, or Coworker has something that makes him *not* a valid living thing that Protag doesn't. Or a mix of both.

At a certain point, Coworker is going to do this so often that he starts seeing Colleague as an extension of himself. He could bare the deepest parts of his soul to this guy and just get a thumbs up in return, or advice he likely would've come up with himself had he just thought on it a little longer. Colleague's responses being so relatable and accepting of Coworker's issues in a way he doesn't expect from anyone else makes all this feel like talking to himself with extra steps, so he starts treating it that way. He starts admiring and bragging about Colleague in the same way he admires and brags about himself. He's the sun praising the moon's shine simply because it's his own light being reflected i think

This comes with Coworker fussing over Colleague just as much as he fusses over himself though. He'll freak out if he sees anything wrong with Colleague's appearance, or if he does anything even slightly awkward, etc. He usually expresses that by encouraging Colleague or taking over certain tasks for him instead of being blatantly judgmental, but it's still selfish and overbearing at the end of the day. He'd rather die than let this man exist naturally, just like he'd rather die than let himself exist naturally.

The Company is like the SCP foundation in the sense that some employees just aren't allowed to leave. A lot of them do have access to the outside world, but all the others are just Doomed.

What category each employee falls under depends on how they do during the interview. If they do bad enough for Normal Guy to rip their face off, they aren't allowed to leave, they're company property now/don't even have the free will required to do anything other than work. If they do well enough to be handed a key without NG crashing out, they do reserve the right to leave the building, but they're most likely gonna be paid so little they'll be doing bucketloads of overtime anyway. Like Protag.

Coworker was created artificially without having a traditional interview, so he's kind of a weird case. He's basically been conditioned since day one into thinking the world outside isn't really worth it. They told him there's not much out there for him, that the company already supplies him with everything he could possibly need, it's a sign of disrespect, and a lot of other terrible things that'd demotivate his leaving. A lot of those terrible things also involve feeding and/or hurting his pride and phrasing this system like it's rewarding him.

There's technically no rule against leaving for him, though. He has no desire to leave because this is all he knows and all that is worth knowing as far as he's aware, but if that were to change at any point in time for any reason, the consequences wouldn't be all that dire. He'd get a slap on the wrist or something, but they'd ultimately move on quicker than if anyone else did it, because Coworker is still a slightly better tool than any other employee in The Company.