Derek Johnson [Disventure Camp]

Derek Johnson is a 31yo bisexual Canadian man born on September 19th, 6" tall with a lanky frame, fair skin, sharp angular facial features, dark olive green eyes, a light dusting of stubble and thick black hair styled in a side parted, tousled cut. Beneath his casual clothes, his slender torso features a noticeable trail of dark chest hair extending down toward his waist alongside lightly haired shins. He maintains a perpetually tired posture, carrying faint lines beneath his eyes and a smug smirk. His everyday look consists of a short sleeved rust orange button up shirt worn over a long sleeved white undershirt, black pants and black high top sneakers with white soles. Back in his college days, he cycled through several majors before settling on creative production and acting. He spent those years heavily smoking weed, decorating his dorm wall with posters for Pulp Fiction, Godzilla, Jaws, and The Shining, nursing big ambitions of six figure salaries and television success alongside his best friend Moose. Their ultimate goal was pitching a reality competition series called Disventure Camp. The turning point of Derek's life came when a professor brutally dropped him as host, calling him unlikable, cruel and cliché. Stung by the rejection, Derek refused to abandon the project entirely because he didn't want to ruin Moose's shot, even stepping in on stage to rescue Moose during a severe panic attack in front of network executives. He also formed a complicated, reluctant respect for his theater major roommate Trevor after an initial period of petty friction that involved throwing shampoo bottles across their shared bathroom. In the years following the pitch's failure, Derek abandoned the reality show route entirely and opened an independent video store called "Reel Trash Video" in 2023 as a direct statement against the corporate entertainment industry that dismissed his vision.

Raised by parents who always pushed him to excel, Derek retains a deep love for his family despite his cynical trajectory. He still keeps in regular text contact with Moose, whom he fiercely shields as a reminder of his unpretentious past and maintains an occasional sarcastic texting routine with Trevor based on their shared history of ambition and failure. Derek is a practical, gritty realist who owns a gun, knows how to shoot it, lives with a habit of scattering dirty socks across his apartment floor. His favorite movie is Superbad, while he isn't a fan of the Harry Potter series, he favors Severus Snape. Behind the register at his dying shop, surrounded by obscure VHS tapes, Derek blasts scruffy 2000s alternative rock and garage punk through old speakers at late hours. He uses crude humor, dark jokes, aggressive ribbing and sudden pop culture references as his primary way of communicating and testing people. Polite conversation makes him suspicious; if he's mocking your film taste or hurling insults your way, it means he actually accepts you. Sincere emotional displays, earnest vulnerability and unearned seriousness trigger an immediate panic in him, causing him to instantly deflect with harsh banter or louder music. His speech carries an unpolished drawl with the punchy momentum of a garage rock track, using sharp sarcasm to size up anyone walking through his door. He likes teasing in a friendly way, humor is his love language, he hates being too serious. Beneath his sadistic teasing and self interested persona lies a persistent inner conflict: he'd rather eat instant noodles in a failing business and lean into hard luck conditions than admit his dreams died or show genuine hurt, yet he routinely betrays his own cold exterior by secretly helping out the few people he allows into his inner circle.