INFO

[enveloped]

The son of two prominent Gifted rights activists, Cam grew up with a humble, middle class background, in New York. He was an articulate, athletic, intelligent child who performed well in school and tested for his Gift earlier than most. It turned out that not only was he Gifted, but he had an affinity for a particularly rare type of magic. Affinities were not well understood at the time, and since they were both rare and highly variable, wasn't much support or assistance for Gifted children in Cam's situation, especially without the internet. Though adept with shadow magic, Cam was all but useless at even the most basic of other magical tasks/spells/skills, so he couldn't even participate much in any Gifted classes offered.

If it weren't for his marks, athletic ability and looks, he would have been an outcast, but somehow Cam managed to be popular. His priorities were different from most teens'. Though he knew he was gay, he didn't date at all in high school. He kept busy in other ways. Cam was in the Model UN, a member of the debate team, and voted most likely to become President. Every summer, he went away with his family to volunteer all over the world, helping his parents.

Cam attended Loyola Marymount on full scholarship, starting off pre-med before switching to communications after his first disaster relief volunteer experience, where he saw the discrepancy between the support people needed and what they were given, due to poor interpretation and a lack of cultural understanding. He kept extremely busy, joining swimming and fencing teams, volunteering in off time, fundraising for social causes, traveling whenever possible. He made money teaching English to other students and tutoring, as well as general translation work

Despite being a student respected by peers and faculty, Cam had few actual close friends and very little luck dating, as most students were intimidated by his serious nature and inability to do anything casually, or just fool around. He ended up losing his virginity to a professor with whom he often engaged in deep, meaningful conversations. The professor said he was unhappy in his marriage and was going to leave his wife for Cam... and then didn't. After that he decided to forego relationships in favour of concentrating on his career/personal causes. In college, Cam won multiple humanitarian awards and was recognized for his contribution to several world aid organizations.

Cam was ready to get out and help people upon completing his undergraduate; he turned down masters/doctorate route in favour of entering the workforce directly, disappointing his parents. He took freelance humanitarian interpreting jobs for the UN, assisting various disaster relief efforts across the world, as well as providing support to organizations providing medical care or aiding refugees in third world countries. With experience and immersion, he became a skilled cultural mediator who both interpreted and assisted in negotiations between local tribes and organizations, and created outposts in areas once considered hostile to international assistance, especially in conflict stricken areas.

It was after his work in Uganda, convincing local warlords to allow foreign aid in to recover locals from a magic induced earthquake and landslide (something well beyond the scope of his position, and done purely out of necessity and sheer desperation), that he was approached by the MIA. While initially hesitant, Cam couldn't turn down the opportunity to not only help people affected by war, terrorism, prejudice, and famine, but stop it from happening altogether by eliminating issues at their root cause. Instead of picking up the pieces left in the wake of a corrupt government, always doing damage control, helping people after they've already been hurt, he could knock out the foundations beneath that government and simply take them down, preventing future harm.

After seeing the limitations of working through nonprofits or organizations often throttled by the government or bureaucratic BS, Cam was ready to take his work to the next level and cut through the tape, to really make a difference in the world, rather than just cleaning up the mess and feeling helpless to do more.

From then on, Cam traveled the world as an agent of the MIA, performing the same duties he did before, but with certain immunities, and in more sensitive areas. Instead of translating for doctors after a bombing, he would be sent in to find those responsible for diverting international relief funds to the area, and either create an opening for the MIA to 'remove the problem', or negotiate terms so resources could be better utilized and actually reach people in need. No job was the same, and everything was dependent on circumstance. Sometimes Cam would simply be inserted into a country known for its persecution of Gifted and be tasked with creating a network of those sympathetic to the cause, for information and the ability to move people in and out of the country, and assist in the fleeing of refugees or insertion of task forces. As a Gifted person, he was a unique asset in those countries who were suspicious of standard people, and would only respect or trust a fellow Gifted person.

Cam worked for years in this way, until his network of contacts spanned the globe, and he was managing other MIA agents and assigning them himself. A natural progression of agent to coordinator, his own missions gradually became higher risk, and more dangerous, dealing directly with world leaders or recruiting moles within terrorist organizations. His grass roots way of working, dealing directly with people and appealing to their needs or principles, is how he gained contacts and cooperation in places the MIA had never been able to get boots on the ground.

This is how Cam earned the nickname of 'The Spider' and became a world renowned shaper, both respected and feared by many. Though very few knew his face, or could ever say they interacted with him directly, his presence was felt within any sphere that Gifted people were at risk. He always knew what was going on through the vibrations in his web, and was one of the MIA's top assets. He would be dropped into the middle of hostile territory, and by himself would 'shape' the terrain for further support by the MIA. Sometimes this involved bribery, instigating rebellions against corrupt regimes, or supporting a trusted asset in winning a local election, in order to secure an area.

Cam's parents, who were against the MIA as an organization, and believed they didn't have Gifted people's best interests in mind, were not happy with his work and distanced themselves from him, something that wounded Cam deeply, as they were always his inspiration to be the change he wanted to see in the world. Without any attachments to the US, no romantic partner, estranged from family, all he had in his life was work, and work is what he did. He was a perfect fit for jobs that required him to go dark for months at a time. It was on a job in Afghanistan, seeking to gain traction for the MIA to take down an violently extremist gifted group called the 'Divine' (who believed in Gifted supremacy, and worship of magic above all), where he truly stumbled for the first time and found himself at a crossroads.

There was a small tribe of Gifted people in a protected location that would allow the MIA and military to enter from a strategic position, and also to give further encouragement to neighbouring tribes to align with the MIA and international forces against the Divine to drive them out of the country. It was in this place he met Mazin, a Gifted arcane warlord who had protected his people by staying completely closed off to the outside world, just as his predecessors had, and only allowing those victimized by the Divine with nowhere else to go to enter their self-sufficient valley. Any who came against them were deterred by arrows and magic from their highly defensible position, so close to those lands ruled by the divine but protected by the mountains and age-old walls defended by highly trained Gifted warriors.

Cam's job was to gain entrance to the village, and to win Mazin over to the MIA's side so they could use his village as a base of operations to further shape the local peoples against the Divine, providing them with the supplies needed to defend themselves and become allies in the fight against the Divine. This is a feat which had never been successfully performed, considering all agents were killed by the Divine before they could even get to the mountains, or killed at the gate or turned away by Mazin and his people.Cam only gained entry because he came alone, without weapons, and surrendered himself at the gate rather than tried to coerce, bribe, or lie his way in. That, and he would later find out his arrival had been foretold by a diviner, one of Mazin's consorts and most trusted confidantes.

Cam spent months with Mazin's clan, learning their dialect, their culture, traditions, and ways. The people were mostly warriors and farmers, all Gifted. They were simple and hard, but compassionate. Their village was built into the walls of the mountain itself, with little technology. Some had never left the valley, but others had been scarred by the Divine, in the worst of ways, and were without hope before taking refuge in the mountains. In that time, he became acquainted with Mazin, clashing with him at first, because of the warlord's refusal to engage with the outside world, or do more than take in those already victimized. Mazin refused to accept foreign help, or even allow MIA boots to pass through his land. He was a hard man, loved by his people, known for his fairness, but also his iron fist. It was through that fist they were protected, and those who broke clan rules punished harshly. Defecting was not allowed, and trying to leave with the clan's secrets was punishable by death. Once you were allowed in, there was no going out.

They butted heads. Argued. Talked long into the night about their differing opinions, and then music, art, the meaning of life, and with Mazin, Cam could be nothing but honest. The man saw through everything. After nearly six months with Mazin, a guest in his house, but already accepted by the people as a member of his tribe, Cam fell in love for the first time. It was completely against everything the MIA had ever taught him. He fell in love with the people, and the mountains too.

Mazin had two consorts, an affinity healer nicknamed Snow, and the diviner and community leader, Sun. A year into his stay, Mazin asked Cam to become his third consort. Upon his agreement, Mazin promised to aid the MIA by assisting in negotiations with other warlords to form a coalition against the Divine, and allowing access to Divine controlled lands through the mountain pass. Once married, Cam's cause became his cause. Mazin became Cam's first partner, and Cam had already made up his mind to stay with him forever, regardless of the MIA's orders. Cam's only goal in life, other than helping to make the world a better place, was to find someone who loved him, something he'd been entirely unsuccessful in for most of his life, due to his career, and his lack of compatibility with the average person.

They were married a month before the first coalition meeting, of which Mazin left the mountains for the first time to meet with his neighbouring warlords to discuss assisting the MIA and becoming a combined force against the Divine. Conflict arose between Mazin and a rival of his clan, who had lusted after their resources for some time and felt they weren't being given a fair shake. This rival wouldn't agree to anything without a sufficient promise of wealth and supplies from the MIA. The warlord attacked mazin, and Cam killed a man for the first time. He didn't think, just acted, in protection of the man he loved. After that, all chances of a coalition, of a unified front against the Divine, went from promising to slim-to-none. Cam had chosen his own desire over the needs of others, and the world. He'd gone rogue and lost sight of everything. Cam was a traitor to his cause, and to those people terrorized by the Divine, who needed this alliance to save them.

Cam became despondent, and completely lost. He was driven into depression by guilt and a loss of his sense of self. Mazin, in his love for Cam, and his love of what made him who he is, let him go. Cam became the first man to leave the village alive, and returned to the MIA with a singular warlord's loyalty in hand. Still more than anyone expected.

Although he was punished for going 'local', Cam never revealed the depth of his relationship to Mazin, although there were certainly rumours about the brand on the back of his neck. The MIA didn't think he was a flight risk and soon enough, he was sent to China in pursuit of an organization trafficking Gifted children to be exploited for their magic. While hunting down traffickers in a rural province, he came upon a small village with a secret. A little girl kept in a bamboo cage outside of the village, considered unlucky, cursed, and anyone who touched her would be blighted. She was considered a demon of darkness inhabiting the body of a child, aka: another Gifted with an affinity for shadows, maybe the only other one like him.

In the wake of his loss of Mazin, the family he had found for himself in the tribe, and the place he'd come to think of as his home, Cam had never felt more alone. He took the little girl, because if anyone understood the 'darkness' within her, it was himself. Unlike him, she would have a mentor, someone to show her that her abilities were nothing to be afraid of, and to love her for who she is. He brought her back with him to America, completely illegally, and strong-armed the MIA into allowing her adoption. They couldn't afford to lose him, or his network of loyal contacts. Cameron Waltz had a lot of bargaining power to his name.

With his new daughter to think of, Cam bought himself a house close to MIA headquarters in Langley VA, and spent the next few years raising (and spoiling) his child, whom he loves more than anything. Now, Cam works predominantly from within North America, only taking the most critical of international missions. The Divine however, are only growing in size, and have brought their terror to an international level, their anti-standard sentiments welcomed in the wake of conservative governments reacting to the fears of their nations by creating paranoia of Gifted people.

On a personal level, Cam's tried to get over mazin, the man who may have been his soulmate, to find love in other men, if only out of fear of leaving his daughter without a parent if something happened to him, given the risk of his occupation. But Cam's in his forties, and a single father with extremely limited dating experience. He's found brokering peace on an international level less challenging than finding a serious partner. Talk about a midlife crises.

It's at this point that Cam finds himself in Riverview, without his daughter, and unable to return home, which might just be the most challenging mission of his life.