Cameron Lamb

Biography
[cw: mentions of drug abuse / addiction, parental neglect]

Chelsea Lamb was only nineteen years old when she gave birth to her son, and in a lot of ways, she was never really fit for motherhood. Her life had already seen more than its fair share of trouble up to that point, and realizing not only that she'd become pregnant, but that she had no idea who the father could be, was just another misstep in a long series of them. It wouldn't be the last. Still, she adored Cameron from the moment she held him in her arms, and had every intention of doing right by him, even if that ultimately ended up being a somewhat futile endeavor.

Cam's childhood was nothing short of turbulent. When he lived with his mother, she often didn't have time for him, as she worked multiple jobs to keep food on the table. It wasn't helped by the constant cycle of addiction she found herself trapped in. As a result, Cam had to learn to fend for himself from a young age. She lost custody of him several times for various reasons, and he spent his early years bouncing between foster homes and living with her when he could. He was often seen as something of a problem child by the adults in his life, teachers and foster parents, due to his restless energy, inability to focus, and a distaste for authority that developed even at a young age. He was known for asking questions that often made adults uncomfortable, talking back, and getting in the occasional fight with his peers, though only if provoked. One of the few adults who actually seemed to take him seriously was his CPS caseworker, something he was always grateful for.

He was twelve years old when his mother lost custody of him for the last time, a result of her arrest for the manufacturing and dealing of illegal substances, an operation she'd been pulled into by the guy she was seeing at the time, as well as a few other charges. Being a repeat offender, the court didn't go easy on her, and Cam hasn't seen or spoken to her since, despite her numerous attempts to reach out to him. Around this time was when he met and befriended Arden Rockefeller, and they remained close until Cam had to move foster homes a little less than a year later and the two lost touch.

He's always been intelligent -- too intelligent for his own good, according to some -- and is curious about just about everything, and as a teenager he became interested in politics and social justice via the friends he was hanging out with. That combined with a preexisting interest in coding naturally led him into the realm of hacktivism, and he's participated in a slew of campaigns in support of his beliefs. He considers himself anti-authoritarian and anarchist, and has extremely strong opinions regarding freedom of information. However, due to the fact that a lot of his activity in these circles isn't exactly legal, he tends to be pretty private with his internet activity, to the level of paranoia at times.

(wip)

Personality
TBA

Relationships
The Clew Crew


 * Arden Rockefeller - Platonic soulmates. Don't let the constant roasting fool you, they're actually obsessed with each other.
 * Wallace Franklin - Friend & Business Partner. Despite their wildly differing interests and personalities, they befriended each other and started up a business selling Wally's weed cookies. Wally handles the baking, Cam takes care of quality control and the online storefront.
 * Nigel Giocondo-Jones - Cam Would Prefer to Not Label. They started getting close when Cam stumbled across evidence of some of Nigel's internet-based scams, and offered his services to help protect Nigel's privacy a bit more. They're basically dating, just don't tell that to Cam's commitment issues.
 * Oliver Greenwell - Close Friend (With Benefits). Cam's still not entirely sure how their casual hookups and study sessions led to Oliver becoming one of the people he trusts most, but they just seem to get each other in a way Cam doesn't find very often.
 * Joey Valentine - Close Friend. Definitely kindred spirits in terms of their snark and tendency to get cagey about personal shit, catch them having a deep conversation in the middle of the night over video games with zero eye contact involved and then steadfastly pretending it never happened the next morning.
 * Jacob Hunter & Anthony Blum - Fellow Rats. Definitely two of Cam's closer friends, but he considers his friendship with them to be somewhat superficial -- mostly built off a love of troublemaking and need for keeping each other distracted. He and Tony were friends with benefits for a while but Cam broke it off not too long ago. Jake has recently moved into Cam's dorm room after Cam's previous roommate suddenly left school.
 * Emmet Ericson - Friend. They're not the closest, but like recognizes like, and Emmet's reliance on privacy to the point of slight paranoia and to-the-point attitude has given Cam something of a soft spot for her. He respects her a lot.
 * Kennedy Sinclair - Friend. They're both night owls with a love of caffeine and a good conspiracy theory, and Cam's basically her own personal IT support network, but he gets paid in good company, Monster, and quality memes, so he can't really complain. One time she paid him a thousand dollars to reenact a scene from Twilight with her and also tell her one (1) secret.
 * Ava Moore - Friend. They don't have a ton in common, but Cam's pretty sure it's next to impossible to dislike Ava. Sometimes they go skating together.
 * Mariana Burgos Rosales - Friend. He has fun distracting her during their shared art classes, though he doesn't love it when she tries to mom friend him too hard.
 * Michael "Skip" Mun - Friend. They're alike in more ways than they know, and maybe that's why they get along so well. Skip's always a good friendly face to have around when Cam wants to let loose and be distracted, anyways.
 * Adrianna Deveaux - Does Not Like. She's pretty much the epitome of everything Cam hates, and has an abrasive as hell personality to boot, so she's always been far from one of his favorite people. However, his opinion on her has begun to improve a little from seeing her relationship with Arden.
 * Claudia Marquez-Cunningham - Friendly (?) Rivalry. They're both kind of know-it-alls, and Claudia is way too uptight for Cam's taste, leading them to butt heads a bit.
 * Nathalie Darnell - Unsure. In all honesty, Cam's never really sure what to make of Natty. Her obvious wealth and penchant for dramatics tend to rub him the wrong way, but she isn't the worst, he guesses.
 * Cornelius Rockefeller - Hot and Cold. They were sort of close when Cam knew him and Arden back in middle school, but ever since Cam reconnected with Arden at Wormwood, most of the time it seems like Neels is doing everything in his power to pretend Cam doesn't even exist, save for the occasional weirdly personal conversation over a middle-of-the-night smoke break they've had during times Cam has stayed with the Rockefellers during school breaks. Honestly, Cam kind of can't keep up with it.
 * Morris Driscoll - TBA

Others


 * Sam Duncan - They were casual friends, and Cam liked to seek him out especially during parties and events to get into discussions about true crime and conspiracy theories. Sam was really smart, and always had interesting and enthusiastic stuff to say, and Cam loved listening to him say it.
 * Elizabeth Walsh - Cam's former boss when he still worked at Pageturners Book Store. She's pretty much the worst. He doesn't miss that job at all.
 * Harrison H. Hart - The first run-in Cam had with Hart left Cam slightly blinded by his charisma, which only made Cam's dislike of the guy even more intense once he realized what was really going on. Cam really wants nothing more than to take this guy and his legacy -- the cult -- down.

Trivia

 * Cuts his own hair, which is one of the reasons he often sports a buzzcut -- easier to maintain.
 * Top interests include: Skateboarding, graffiti / street art, and urban exploration
 * Will drink anything with caffeine in it including coffee and any brand of energy drink but he tends to prefer Monster
 * Has really shaky hands, partially due to genetics but exacerbated by the excessive caffeine use
 * Is left-handed
 * Smokes like a chimney and can often be seen with a cigarette sitting on his ear for later. Also exclusively uses white Bic lighters in homage to the white lighter myth because he's an edgy dumbass. Whether he's tempting fate or being plain old self-destructive with it is an answer that will change from day to day
 * Doesn't know the meaning of the phrase "sleep schedule," and will frequently stay up way too long only to crash whenever he's tired, no matter what time of day it is or where he happens to be at the time. Due to this he has a tendency to sleep fully clothed and in weird places, including but not limited to: The library, empty classrooms, the grass in the quad on nice days, the floor pretty much anywhere. He also has a habit of sleeping on top of the blankets, especially if he's sleeping in someone else's bed