Coworker

### Occupation

Corporate Employee (Company Expert, Agency Firm Specialist, Part-time Stock Trader)

## Physical

### Height

6'2" (6'4" w/ Elevated Shoes)

**Coworker** is one of the main characters of *Elevator Hitch*. He is an existing employee of a nameless corporation and gets stuck in an elevator with Protag while on his way to the top floor.

## Personality

He is very flippant and self-important. Coworker also has a tendency to ramble on about himself in a braggadocious way. However, he is actually pretty clueless about most things that go on in the office, and he tends to be generally unhelpful or willing to put in any effort. If this fact is pointed out, though, he becomes insecure.

His optimism about their situation is severely misplaced, and he is consistently unwilling to put himself in danger, leaving that to Protag. Coworker is also rather materialistic.

## Appearance

His short dirty blond hair is mostly swept over to one side. Coworker has a clean-shaven face and dark eyes.

He wears a suit that varies in color from a green-gray to tan depending on the lighting. His blazer has diagonal stripes in a slightly lighter shade than the base color of his suit, and it is unbuttoned. Under the suit, he wears a long-sleeved white shirt as well as a tie with an alternating striped pattern comprised of teal, clay brown, and white. Coworker also has a brown belt and brown shoes. He is generously taller than Protag and has a wider build.

## Background

He appears to make a habit of being late to work, remarking to Protag that he doubts the boss will take his excuse of the traffic being bad again. Despite this, he has been at the company for "ages" and is the "full-time employee of the month." Coworker is also generally possessive of his items, unwilling to throw his own shoe or share his cigarette/lighter with Protag. He is clearly well-off financially.

Though Coworker continuously denies having any knowledge of their situation or remembering their deaths, he will occasionally make comments implying otherwise.

Once they make it to the 6th floor, Coworker says that his first interview was impressive enough to score him an office all to himself. When asked by Protag if he happens to be related to one of the CEOs of the company, Coworker asks him how he knew.

## Relationship

### Protag

He is prone to constantly interrupting Protag and expecting the other man to take risks and be the "ideas man." Despite this, he clearly thinks of himself as being the more capable half of the duo. He automatically assumes an unwarranted level of familiarity with Protag, ruffling his hair and making fun of him. Occasionally, he will be more down-to-earth with Protag, even making various attempts to comfort him or offer genuinely helpful advice.

After Protag tricks the doppelgangers into giving him the scissors, Coworker is impressed and tells him as much. He says he thinks Protag would make a great employee at the company. However, Protag is unsettled by his reaction, so Coworker laughs and asks him if he really thinks Coworker is behind their situation. If the player decides not to trust Coworker, Protag will snap and murder him with the scissors, leading to the Real ending.

When Protag finds the rat in the vent, Coworker screams and hides behind him, clutching at his shoulders. He is clearly terrified of it, literally clawing at the walls to try and get away from it. Protag then brandishes it at him, causing him to scream even louder. Protag grins deviously, clearly enjoying this.

Once they reach the top floor, Coworker says he'll be leaving now, which catches Protag off guard. Coworker pokes fun at him for forgetting that he had a meeting on the top floor. Before Coworker can leave, Protag remembers that he forgot to give Coworker his lighter back and says as much. Coworker seems taken aback by this, but he regains composure and tells Protag that he can return it to him when they go for break together in the future. After Protag agrees, Coworker hesitates one last time, then steps off of the elevator.

### Fake Coworker

When Coworker first sees Fake Coworker, he remarks, "eUGH, why do I look like that-". This is the extent of their interaction excluding when Fake Coworker is the one to grab and pull Coworker into the elevator in the Stranger Danger ending.

### Fake Protag

The only direct conversation they have is when Fake Protag asks for Protag and Coworker to introduce themselves, to which Coworker cheerfully gives his name. Fake Protag says it is great to meet them and then moves on. A possible dialogue option will also have Fake Protag call Coworker and Fake Coworker "morons," to which Coworker exclaims an offended "Hey!-". Additionally, Fake Protag flips both Coworker and Protag off in the final CG of the Stranger Danger sequence. Other than that, Coworker advises Protag to "crack the weaker one first" after the Stranger Danger ending, implying that he recognizes Fake Protag's leadership role in the other duo's relationship.

### Normal Guy

As Normal Guy is interviewing Protag, he asks him how his experience with Coworker has been. If Protag responds favorably, Normal Guy gleefully remarks, "It's always nice when the tools you have work how they're supposed to." To this, both Coworker and Protag reply, "what."

### Manuel

Coworker is mostly silent throughout Protag's call with Manuel up until the very end, when he asks if Manuel hung up only to be interrupted by Manuel thanking them for calling. Moments later, when Manuel gives them a message in Morse before declaring "I love you," Coworker speaks up again (looking confused, if not disturbed) to ask Protag what Manuel said at the end. When the elevator door finally opens, he jokingly complains that it took them long enough.

## Trivia

* As stated by Rachel on her Tumblr, the Coworker gives different names each time he's asked because "theyre random names from a top 60 douchebag names for guys list." The aforementioned list is presumably this one, as all of the names he says in the game can be found on it.
* In an RPG Horror OTP bracket, the Coworker and Protag pairing (also known as Proworker, Cotag, or Elevatorstuck) went against Kanatou from Cell of Empireo and received 43.2% of the 155 votes in comparison to Kanatou's 56.8%.
* On the official RachelDevsThis Discord, Rix said that "the coworker giving multiple names was meant to allude how even if you're important enough to have a name in that kind of hierarchy it doesn't matter. its not necessarily that . . . the coworker uses fake names but just that both of them are in positions where the individual is not important. also its funny."
* Coworker, along with Protag and Normal Guy, can be found on page 94 of the Phantasmagoria Zine.
* Rachel said that Coworker seems like the kind of guy to drink on the job.