Character

Derek

Office rival. Copy room, smug face, opinions about your nails.

Quick facts

Role: Office coworker (rival)
Location: [[loc:office|Office]] copy room
Tracker: derek_relationship (0-5)
First scene: OfficeEvent_CopyRoom_Derek

TL;DR

Derek is the coworker who has comments. About your outfit. About your nails. About the fact that you got the promotion he wanted. The arc is small — recurring copy-room encounters where the dynamic can soften into respect or stay hostile.

How to meet him

OfficeEvent_CopyRoom_Derek fires at the office hub at office_stage = 1+. Recurring scene; the variant changes with derek_relationship.

The dynamic

Hostile (default)

He needles. You hold the door open for him and he uses it. “Subtle, the lipstick.” The line lands somewhere between observation and dig.

Neutral

After a few copy-room scenes where you handle him well (firm but not escalating), the tone shifts. He stops with the comments. You’re still not friends.

Grudging respect

The deepest the arc goes on the dismissive track. He starts acknowledging when you did the job well. Doesn’t apologise for the earlier comments — that’s not his shape.

Derek as your keyholder

On the feminine office route, once you’ve built a rapport with Derek (derek_relationship >= 1, raised by standing up to him in the copy room), you can hand him your spare cage key. When you’re locked and looking for a keyholder, one of the options is to drop the key on Derek’s desk on your way out. No note. He works out what it is before you reach the door, and your phone buzzes once with “Good call. We’ll get along fine.”

From then on he holds the key. After about four days of being locked, you text him and the unlock plays out after hours in the office records room. He makes you ask for it out loud, then forks:

Beg only. You say it, he turns the key, and he narrates while you finish against the shelving without touching you, then locks you back up and pockets the key.
Go further. Gated behind enough Submissiveness. You give him what he came down for, and he only turns the key once he’s done.

Either way the cage goes back on and Derek keeps the key. Free for everyone as of v0.2.9.

See Chastity First Lock for how you end up caged in the first place.

Derek after hours

On the feminine office route, once derek_relationship reaches 3 (built through the supply-closet beat and standing up to him in the copy room), the rivalry curdles into open want. While you’re working a shift in EquippedFeminine office wear, OfficeEvent_DerekOffice_Invite can intercept: the break room is empty and his office door, the one sitting right next to it exactly where he told you it would, is propped open.

Step into his office. Gated at derek_relationship == 3 behind enough Submissiveness. The supply-closet payoff finishes here, his hands and then his mouth, and it pushes the relationship to 4.
Close the blinds behind you. Gated at derek_relationship >= 4 behind more Submissiveness. The full hookup across his desk, which pushes the relationship to 5, the top of the track.

Declining (“Not here. Not him.”) backs you out with no penalty. Free for everyone as of v0.2.9.

Tips

The office-politics arc is the lighter track

On the dismissive track Derek stays an office-politics character. The “rival” dynamic (Hostile, Neutral, Grudging respect) is one way to play him. The deeper content (keyholder, after-hours office hookup) is free for everyone as of v0.2.9 and only opens on the feminine office route once you’ve built a rapport with him.

You can shut him down quickly

Picking firm-but-not-escalating responses moves him to Neutral fast. If you want him out of your way as a recurring nuisance, that’s the play.

Rachel — the friendly coworker (opposite tone).
Hartwell — the boss arc above both of them.
Office — the hub.