Cameron Wilson

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* Arches
* Echo

— Cameron describing a bad drug experience

**Cameron Wilson** is one the two protagonists of the visual novel Arches. He is Devon's boyfriend and joins him on his paranormal investigation of Echo.

## Appearance

Cameron is a thin coyote with gray, beige, and brown fur. He has a small scar above his left eyebrow.

He wears a green plaid flannel shirt over a white t-shirt that bears an image of a green pine tree, and blue jeans. Cameron also wears blue briefs with a white band and markings.

## Personality

Cameron is generally very quiet and reserved. He tends to keep his thoughts to himself, but opens up and takes a more playful and at times even sarcastic attitude with Devon. Cameron is often shown to be anxious, and can become easily frustrated. He struggles with a low sense of self-worth, and trauma from a troubled upbringing.

Cam expresses a skepticism towards the supernatural and a dislike of religion, and claims to believe in a universe with no inherent meaning. He also dislikes his mental health being ignored or sensationalized into something it's not, and he worries greatly about relapsing into the darker periods of his life. He greatly enjoys music and occasionally calms down by playing guitar or piano.

## Story

### Early Life

Cameron was born in December of 1995 and grew up on the outskirts of a city in the Northwest called Bridgetown, in a trailer park with his mother. His father was abusive and likely schizophrenic, and left the family and later killed himself sometime in the mid-2000s. Cameron has a history of addiction and mental illness that appears to be inherited, and spent three years dependent on opioids before getting clean in college. As a child, Cam had mild motor and vocal tics, possibly as a result of Tourette's syndrome, but grew out of them eventually.

When he turned eight, Cam began seeing a monster in a raincoat and convinced himself it was simply a hallucination created by his mind. Visions of the monster recurred sporadically throughout his life, with such frequency that its presence became familiar to Cam. His most recent sighting occurred in October 2019, the year before Arches takes place.

Cam often saw other creatures throughout his early life, including one with a flat face that moved like a spider and crawled on his face to whisper things to him. After his first time trying ketamine as a teenager, Cam realized that drug use made his hallucinations worse.

Cameron's mother used amphetamines heavily and suffered from a recurring delusion that she could hear the voice of God. The voice told her to seek out arch-like shapes in order to find the gateway to heaven, and she drowned when Cam was a teenager after trying to swim under a bridge. Cam regrets not intervening to help her, but acknowledges he was frequently high himself during his mother's decline.

During his junior year of high school, Cam had a bad trip on shrooms that lasted eight hours and 'permanently fucked' his sense of self. It ruined psychoactive drugs for him and he stayed away from marijuana afterward, since even the use of lighter drugs brought him close to freaking out. Despite all his substance abuse, Cam managed to remain a straight-A student, and he credits this with helping him put his life on a better path.

Cam plays several instruments; he learned guitar in high school because his music idols played it, but he prefers the piano.

At some point, Cameron had a vision of a friend of his being shot in the head that ultimately came true, but he rationalized it as a coincidence and a likely outcome of his friend's risky lifestyle.

Before Dev, Cameron dated an abusive man named Dylan for an unknown amount of time. The scar on Cam's brow is from one of Dylan's punches, although when it happened Cam told everyone that it came from a fall. Cam was occasionally the one to initiate violent exchanges with Dylan and seems to harbor a sense of internalized shame and regret about this despite Dylan's cruelty, which is tied to the low sense of self-worth the relationship left him with.

### College and Later Years

Cameron attended the University of Pueblo, where he met and began dating Devon and received a degree in music. In his junior year, he was signed by an indie record label after a song he wrote about his abusive relationship with Dylan caught their attention, but the label ultimately dropped him without releasing any of his music. In his own perception of the event in hindsight, Cam has led himself to believe that he deserved it.

Cam took antidepressant and antipsychotic medications in college, but they made him feel miserable and inhibited his ability to write music, which he believed led to him being dropped from the label. At some point following this, he stopped taking them with Dev's encouragement. At some point, Cam learned about Dev's guilt over the death of Lupita and began supporting his efforts to find catharsis regarding her passing. Cam seems to accept Dev's interest in the paranormal as a form of coping and genuinely hopes that his boyfriend finds the answers he's looking for, though he dislikes Dev's theories about his visions and delusions being some form of psychic power and rarely gets involved with Dev's ghost hunts himself.

After graduation, Cam and Dev relocated to Fort Allen. Cam recently learned that Devon's company will be transferring him to the city of Bonneville, and the two have been preparing for the move. At the time of Arches, Cameron works in customer support at a call center for a company called Hulian, but hates the job.

Cam could tell for days that Dev intended to ask him to visit Echo, and recognized that it was partly in order to test his so-called psychic abilities. When Dev finally asked Cam to accompany him on Halloween night in 2019, he agreed to come along and almost immediately after saw the Raincoat Monster move for the first time in his life.

In order to prepare for the trip, and for Dev's sake, Cam did research on people who share his 'gifted' status. Cam found little common ground within the forums and websites he investigated, though he did learn various tips on how to "connect" to spirits. In the days leading up to their departure, Cam began having foreboding dreams, though he didn't think much of them.

### Arches

#### Act 1

Cameron comes to Echo on a paranormal investigation with his boyfriend Devon. He is initially skeptical about the supernatural, but agrees to the trip because he believes he owes it to Dev for having been a caring partner to him despite his struggles with mental health and recovery from addiction. Cam is aware that Dev has wanted to explore Echo for a long time, and that he also wants to use the investigation to test his theory that Cam possesses a psychic sense that will allow him to be especially attuned to the town's strange history.

Cameron is uneasy on the road into Echo, urging Devon to drive slower, but he can sense nothing unusual as the two arrive in the town. During a brief stop by Lake Emma, Cam reflects on how much of his mental illness he has intentionally kept from his boyfriend. He resolves to 'really talk' about it, in preparation for a fresh start after their upcoming move. Dev tries to apologize for asking him to come along, but Cam cuts him off and asserts that for Dev's sake, he is willing to act as a 'psychic' for the weekend.

Cameron explains to Dev his conviction that trying to read too much meaning into the universe is self-deluding. He explains that his mother used to fixate on patterns resembling arches and half-circles, and reveals she may have ultimately died because of it. Dev offers him a chance to back out of the trip after realizing how deeply personal it is for Cam, but Cam insists that he wants to face his fears.

Cam is high-spirited as the two explore Echo's motel, but becomes much more wary when Dev mentions that there may still be some living residents left in the town. Dev reassures him, and the two begin their ghost hunt in a motel room with a tragic history, the details of which Dev keeps from Cam in order to 'test' his perceptions.

Cam successfully senses the lingering presence of the man who hung himself in the room, which makes him question his disbelief. He then feels a baleful presence trying to interact with him directly. Upon asking it what happens after death, Cam hears only a dark, mean cackle, then sees a vision of Devon hanging in the motel closet. Cam's phone rings and Devon's staticky voice speaks through it, telling him that death feels like "drowning forever." The voice calls him worthless, and ridicules him for clinging first to Dylan and now to Devon. It then instructs 'Lupita' to tell Cam what death is like, and the only response is a terrible scream. Afterward, Cam sobs in Dev's arms and admits that Dev may be right about his supernatural perception.

The experience in the motel marks a reversal of Cam and Dev's respective outlooks on the trip to Echo: Cam, despite being shaken, is fascinated by the possibility of his psychic power and wants to stay and explore it, while Dev is desperate to get out of the town. As the two drive out of Echo, Dev overrules Cam's desire to stay, and being told what is best for him reminds Cam of the way he used to feel with Dylan.

Upon glimpsing a young otter in the road ahead of them that Dev apparently cannot see, Cam reaches over and turns the steering wheel frantically. This crashes the Jeep into a trench and strands the two in Echo, which sends Cam into a panic until Dev calms him down. Cam explains what he saw and Dev reveals that an otter child drowned in the nearby Lake Emma several years before. Cam insists that the two walk back into Echo to look for cell signal, and puts on a brave face to stop Dev from treating him like he is fragile.

When the two venture into a stand of trees so Dev can text his friend Arturo to come pick them up, Cam hears a mocking voice that sound like it comes from inside his head. A vision then comes to him in which someone recounts an encounter with a strange, electronic-sounding shadow creature that seemed to move by swinging from the tops of trees. He also hears a dark cackle like the one from his vision in the motel. Someone, presumably Brian, then begins shouting at him and Dev to get off his property, and the two flee back to the Jeep. Cam explains what he saw, and when Dev confirms previous sightings of the creature in the same area Cam is overjoyed to the point of tears by the corroboration of his abilities.

The following morning, Cam is calming himself down after another argument with Dev by sitting on the Jeep and playing his guitar, when he begins to feel another vision coming to him. He hears a voice and, sensing a panic attack starting, begins walking towards the motel where Dev is packing up before stopping beside Lake Emma to try and deal with it himself. With a sense of calm assuredness, he allows himself to perceive the death of a young woman from the 1950s who was thrown into the lake by her ex-boyfriend. Dev inadvertently startles him out of the vision and Cam falls into the lake himself, but is unharmed.

Cam is eager to know more about the girl but Dev is disinterested and just wants to make sure Cam is okay after his fall. Cam grows frustrated with him, and exasperated with the uncharacteristic arguments they've been having during the trip. Dev reveals that the girl's death was wrongly reported as a suicide, leading Cam to realize that he can potentially use his ability to help people find closure. Dev admits he is discouraging Cam's excitement about his gift because he is terrified, and nearly cries out of stress before the two are interrupted by the arrival of Arturo.

Artie wants to join the ghost hunt before they leave and Cam is supportive, much to Devon's chagrin. He then offers the two marijuana, which Dev refuses on behalf of both of them, but Cam impulsively decides to accept after remembering that being high has always helped him see things. He takes a large hit from Artie's vape and starts to panic after it gets him higher than he's ever been on weed in his life, but the other two calm him down. Cam then cries after recounting his traumatic high school experience with shrooms to Artie, finding that the outpouring of emotion feels meaningful and cathartic. When Artie disparages Dev's 'buzzkill' attitude toward their drug use, Cam defends his boyfriend.

Cam abruptly reveals to Artie that he has been having psychic visions, and feels thrilled to admit that he is different in a good way. When Dev and Artie bicker he tries to smooth things over, and he accepts Dev's advice to be more cautious. At the motel, he once again senses something and stops the group from leaving, asking for five minutes alone. Dev reluctantly agrees, and waits further up the road with Artie.

Thanks to the weed, Cam feels like he can experience the supernatural more clearly and begins hearing whispering voices with a slightly electronic quality. He senses the Raincoat Monster that has appeared to him throughout his life, but realizes that something is wrong and different: the creature moves, which is atypical of its normal behavior, and seems like an imitation of the thing he's grown used to since childhood with something else behind it. He follows the monster into a motel room, then into the bathroom, and then becomes increasingly paranoid and suspicious of Devon even as the bear tries to break in through the motel window to help him. Cam locks himself in the bathroom and feels something like a giant set of claws rake down his back and then grip his head. When Dev smashes the door to get in, Cam is alone.

Cam struggles and cries in Dev's arms, and asks frantically if everything that's happened so far has been a set-up just to convince him he is psychic. Cam then escapes through the window and runs off into the desert.

#### Act 2

Alone, Cam has another vision of the past, this one from the point of view of someone (presumably Brian) who has just committed his first murder out in the desert near where Cam is standing. Brian looks up at the sky and sees an alien spacecraft that he knows is somehow supernatural, and Cam is left confused as the vision dissipates. He attunes himself to the voices he has been hearing, which seem to rise out of the gravel road beneath him as he walks, and tries fruitlessly to communicate with them. Cam has a flashback to his life in the trailer with his mother during the months he spent standing by and getting high while she declined, and a taunting voice inside that he has been hearing in his head since the motel speaks again to voice his insecurities.

Cam is seemingly able to stop the voice by responding to its doubts with sincere positivity, gradually bringing himself out of his paranoid spell, and sets off to reunite with Devon. Cam and Dev soon find each other, reconcile, and embrace. They then track down Artie after realizing he has wandered into the same forest that they were chased out of earlier. In the woods, Cam hears loud radio static and stands transfixed and breathless while something begins suffocating him. The thing holding him speaks in bits of other people's voices, seemingly taken from their moments of death, and all Cam can see is blackness.

Cam later awakens alone on a bed in a trailer belonging to an old bear named Brian, and immediately suspects something is wrong. Brian explains that, after Cam collapsed because of whatever affected him in the woods, Artie ran away scared and Devon left for the highway to try and find help. Brian also reveals that he can see things just like Cam can, leading to the two developing a sense of kinship despite Cam's wariness. Brian warns him about the things in the forest, and Cam looks out the trailer's window to see the Raincoat Monster crouched just beyond the trees. Desperate for someone who can connect to his experiences, Cam mentions to Brian that he recently saw a UFO in a vision, which Brian is able to describe exactly.

Brian serves Cam some tea, and Cam drinks it all as he struggles to decide what to believe. Cam admits his history of drug use under Brian's questioning, and it dawns on him that the tea was laced with psilocybin. Panicked at the thought of his previous bad trip, Cam runs for the door but Brian knocks him down and kicks him repeatedly. As Cam lays in anguish, Brian explains that he needs Cam to talk to some people he 'used to know' in order to fix some unspecified problems. As the drugs take effect, Cam begins seeing pulsating arches when he closes his eyes, and remains in a catatonic state of panic until Brian forces him to take some Xanax. Cam briefly refuses, worried that it may be counterfeit and cut with opioids, but relents after Brian slaps him.

Before leaving the trailer, Brian assures Cam that Devon has not been killed. The hope that they might both still make it out motivates Cam to go along with Brian's plan, and as the trip intensifies he realizes that he can somehow feel the 'amalgamations' that make up both Dev and Artie nearby, and senses they are indeed alive. He reaches out towards the 'warm energy' of Devon, but is interrupted by visions of three men who Brian has murdered in the past: Benjamin, Timothy, and Daniel. With intense clarity, Cam is able to intuit their names and life stories, as well as the details of their desperate final days and gruesome deaths. Brian shakes him out of the vision, and the realization of Brian's crimes leaves Cam terrified.

Brian berates Cam until he stops crying, then beats him. Cam tells Brian everything he can recall about the vision, and Brian insists that next time he should try and talk to whoever he sees. Inwardly, Cam feels like what he can see is only a record of the dead, and that the forces that try to actively acknowledge and communicate with him are more akin to 'demons.'

Cam is hauled out of the trailer to a spot that Brian claims has better psychic 'reception,' and the thoughts of other beings without any apparent origin begin intruding into Cam's mind. Brian's behavior becomes more erratic and aggressive, and Cam learns that he has taken the stimulant mephedrone, or bath salts, because he doesn't like whatever appears in the area they have come to. Cam recalls that stimulants can make people more empathetic, and tries to behave warmly towards Brian. He then realizes he can read Brian's mind, and tries to reach out to Artie instead, but finds that Artie's consciousness is too distant and feels like it is missing pieces.

Cam then successfully makes telepathic contact with Devon and meets him in a swirling mental void full of arch-like patterns. Cam tells Dev he loves him, and relays that he has learned the location of the key for Devon's cuffs from Brian's thoughts. Brian snaps him out of the vision, then reveals that Cam has been speaking his conversation with Devon aloud for Brian to hear. Brian slams Cam into a tree and begins choking him with a look of ecstasy on his face, and Cam can tell that Brian is deciding that the fun of killing Cam is worth abandoning his plan to make use of Cam's powers.

Behind Brian, Cam observes a creature with void-like features and swirling red eyes, and realizes from the way it passively observes the scene that its purpose is to record all the terrible things that occur in the forest. While being choked, Cam manages to steal the handcuff key from Brian's pocket and slip it into his own, but soon afterward he loses consciousness as Brian asphyxiates him. Cam experiences some kind of transcendence in which 'Cameron' disappears, but his perceptions expand to include many perspectives and places, culminating in the feeling that he is and can see 'everything at once.'

#### Act 3

Cam regains consciousness, but the drugs, coupled with his growing extrasensory awareness and the violent near-death experience, have left his sense of self shattered, and he experiences events from a perspective that does not seem to be fully his own. Instead of just Cameron, he perceives himself as an 'amalgamation' with indistinct boundaries, entangled with the universe and all other beings within it. His psychic abilities are enhanced by the state he is in, and in his mind's eye he can see versions of himself, Devon, and Brian locked together in a gruesome ball of violence.

With his newfound empathic sense, Cam intuits that Brian could have been a different person under alternate circumstances and even feels sorry for him, although he finds this shocking. He can also perceive that Brian feels a genuine affection for him, albeit twisted by a hypocritical disgust for Cam's sexuality. Brian has been calmed down by his violent outburst and wants to use Cam's powers to attempt some form of exorcism once more, even though Cam now fears that there is nothing after death, and that the visions of ghosts he has seen thus far are just products of Echo's machinations.

In his heightened state, Cam also seems to gain the ability to look 'forward' in time. Most potential outcomes he observes resolve with his own death, and many with the death of Devon as well, but two of the possibilities he sees show himself and Dev both surviving, and Brian either living or dying. Cam decides the most important thing is to save Devon, whether or not he himself makes it. He realizes that the key to the cuffs is still in his pocket, and hopes that Brian's terrible memory and erratic mindset mean that he has already forgotten overhearing the plan to unlock Devon's cuffs.

Cam uses his new supernatural insight into Brian's state of mind to try and stay on his good side, and acts cheerful and attentive to appease his captor. Brian still snaps at Cam for smiling, however, and grumbles about hating 'fags who suck up.'. When he says this, Cam can see the mental image of a fox in a red hat form in Brian's mind.

Brian hauls Cam over to the van where Dev is being held. On the way, Brian realizes that Arturo's body is not where it fell, meaning he somehow survived being shot and got away, and Cam feels intense guilt when he realizes that Artie's consciousness felt so broken before because he was badly wounded. Cam is then shocked to find Dev chained up and bloodied, and reassures him as he wakes up. Suddenly, a contemptuous Brian punches Cam hard enough to dislodge a tooth, and tosses his unconscious body into the van to land on top of Dev. When Cam wakes up, he calms down Dev's futile rage against Brian, and tells his boyfriend that he is going to the mines but will come back for him. Cam kisses Dev insistently, and discreetly pushes the key to the handcuffs into his mouth before promising that they will go home together.

Badly disoriented, Cam lets Brian lead him through the mines. The pulsating arches return to fill his vision, and he hears the voice of Dylan from years before belittling him, although it seems very real. Brian then promises that as long as Cam keeps smiling he won't be hit anymore, and Cam frantically complies, willing to do whatever it takes to avoid being beaten. The presence following Cam shifts from Dylan into Cam's mother, and she holds his paw as they walk. He feels deep love and gratitude for her despite her many shortcomings as a mother, then ultimately hopes that she is okay wherever she is and imagines that she would be proud of him. He also reflects that the past five years of his life, before coming to Echo, were better than he'd ever dreamed he would be able to experience.

As they trek deeper, Brian seems committed to engaging Cam in idle chitchat about his life, which Cam finds deeply unsettling but blames on the bath salts making Brian more talkative. Cam continues doing his best to appease Brian by staying cheerful, which is encouraged by a soft disembodied voice that Cam hears telling him to smile. After Cam mentions his background as a musician, Brian demands that he sing. Cam complies, and keeps singing to hold Brian's attention once he senses that Dev's presence has entered the mines somewhere behind them.

Brian abruptly emerges from his drug-induced hyperfocus, however, and in quick succession he both recalls Cam's plan to steal the key and realizes that it is indeed missing from his pocket. Cam tries to run but Brian hits him hard from behind, then restrains him as Dev's voice starts calling out to them from somewhere nearby. Held hostage by the threat of more violence, Cam keeps quiet and allows himself to be escorted into a narrow side passageway.

The cavern Cam and Brian enter smells like death and Cam immediately begins to panic, overwhelmed by the psychic remnants of the pain Brian's victims endured in the place. Cam bargains with Brian, offering to try and reason with whatever is haunting him even though he instinctively knows Brian's refusal is inevitable. Even so, as Brian considers the offer, Cam can feel the entity that seems to be pulling the strings in Echo 'holding its breath.' Dev then enters the cave and, after a brief struggle, bites Brian on the neck. The wound is not serious, but Dev is able to grab Brian's shotgun and tells Cam to run. Instead, before Brian can wrest the gun back, Cam kicks him in the balls.

This enrages Brian and he retaliates immediately, slamming Cam into the wall of the cavern and savagely mauling his left arm. Dev tackles Brian away and injures him, but then while Dev is tending to Cam, Brian recovers the shotgun and points it at Cam's head. Cam can feel his extrasensory perception fading, but by tapping into his precognition he is able to look 'forward' once again. He experiences a version of the future in which the blast kills him, but then seemingly rewinds and acts differently. Cam shoves the barrel of the gun upward just as Brian fires and the shot misses this time, although Cam is deafened in one ear by the blast. The kickback sends the stock of the gun into Brian's chest with enough force to induce a fatal heart attack. In his convulsions Brian smashes the only lantern in the cavern, so Cam and Dev are left in darkness, listening to Brian's last gasps as he dies.

As Devon carries Cam through the mines, luminous arches that only Cam can see suddenly begin to light up the tunnels. Cam is mystified, since the vision seems to be beyond what a psilocybin trip could induce, and as they follow the arches back up to the surface he feels his mother through them somehow. After about an hour, they can see daylight up ahead and Dev hears what could be a helicopter. Dev is optimistic about their survival, even though Cam knows his own injuries are grave. Dev apologizes for their situation but Cam asks him not to, and says he does not blame him for anything.

A new 'beautiful and terrible' arch appears ahead of them, one that feels different to Cam, and he mumbles aloud to his mother that he finally found 'her arch.' Cam understands that he has been deeply affected mentally by the experience he has just endured, and feels that it has pushed him irrevocably over some kind of threshold. Cam sees the Raincoat Monster beside him but it once again resembles a static cardboard cutout, like it used to throughout his life before he came to Echo. He looks into the future with the last of his ability and is scared of what he sees, and debates whether he can stay with Devon even if he becomes a burden to him. As they approach the arch, Cam hopes that Dev can still love him after the 'terrible change' that is coming, and smiles bittersweetly.

Cam and Dev are rescued from Echo and their saga briefly catches the attention of the public, before the mounting pandemic takes over the news cycle. After the media frenzy, the relative quiet eases Cam's recovery, and after surgery and physical therapy he mostly recovers physically, although he sustains nerve damage that affects his fingers. This makes it extremely difficult for him to play guitar despite his eagerness to get back to it.

Cam soon begins to struggle with a sense of strangeness or dissociation; he feels like he is 'not quite himself' and starts hearing a bitter, pessimistic voice in his head at least daily.

After his experience in Echo, Cam retains a lingering psychic sense that sometimes picks up on thoughts and feelings around him. He tries to experiment with this perception, but finds that he either needs drugs or to be in a place with a high rate of supernatural activity to sense anything deliberately. Cam discovers that he is able to detect "echoes" of malevolent energy, which he knows are not truly the ghosts of people and considers more akin to demons. He glimpses one during a visit to Dev's childhood home, but Dev tells him to ignore it, and Cam can tell that Dev wishes their experience, including Cam's psychic awakening, had never happened.

As time progresses, Cam feels a growing sense of unreality, as if he is not present or missing part of himself, and it becomes increasingly difficult to separate his sense of self from the strange, nearly omniscient perspective he melded with in Echo. He wakes up crying repeatedly, thinking he is back in the town.

In April 2020, around three weeks after the escape from Echo, Cam resumes his job remotely from home, hoping to reassert some normalcy and feel useful again. After a demeaning interaction with a customer Cam thinks about everything he has been through, and then suddenly feels dizzy and dissociated like he is tripping. The hearing loss in Cam's right ear, the result of Brian's gun, is replaced by the cruel nagging voice in his head that does not seem like his own thoughts. It calls Cam worthless and tells him Brian has 'poisoned him' forever, then encourages him to smash the keyboard; Cam does, then collapses sobbing on the ground. Dev drives him to the hospital, while the voice laughs at Cam from inside his head. In hindsight, Cam considers this moment to be the 'terrible change' he foresaw while leaving Echo.

By October 2020, the intrusive voice has begun returning regularly, every few days, and remains manageable but clearly present despite antipsychotic treatment. It sometimes sounds deep and masculine but sometimes like Brian, and its interjections range from cruel and judgmental to meaninglessly inane. Cam becomes depressed, his thoughts disorganized, and he loses interest in his hobbies and motivations. After receiving an official schizophrenia diagnosis he endures a gauntlet of brutal side effects from his various medications. These include debilitating motor and vocal tics, although they lessen after Devon helps him find a psychiatrist that Cam trusts more and she adjusts his prescription. Cam loses interest in sex, alienating him further from himself, and the mismatch in their libidos adds strain to his relationship with Dev.

Cam also resents that Dev supervises him while he takes his medication, although they have agreed that he should do it for at least a year, and snaps at him for not trusting him. Egged on by the voice, which encourages him to do violence against Dev, Cam spitefully escalates the ensuing conflict into an argument, the kind that he remarks they never had before Echo, and notices that for some reason making Dev angry feels good. At his lowest, Cam hopes Dev will hit him and end the relationship, though he knows Dev never would. Cam finds himself contemplating suicide, but not if Dev is around to suffer the loss. Dev hugs him as their fight cools, smothering his worry, and Cam mourns the good life he used to have just months before.

At some point shortly afterward, Dev is left breathless by a sudden panic attack and Cam comforts him until he recovers, and then sleeps on the couch in Dev's study while Dev works late, in case he is needed again.

Cam dreams of the alternate future that he glimpsed in the cavern with Brian, where he was killed by the shotgun blast. In this reality, Cam is dead but a version of him has persisted in some form in Dev's mind, and the two are planning to dedicate themselves to fighting against the malevolent "echoes" that plague places like Echo. Cam innately does not trust the version of himself that he sees inhabiting Dev in these dreams, and thinks of it as lacking a soul. It seems so much like he used to before his diagnosis, however, that he considers whether he would take the trade-off if given the chance.

By reaching out to mentally probe it, Cam is able to learn that the other Cam began communicating with Dev immediately after he managed to kill Brian back in Echo, and so considers it some kind of vestige of the town. Suddenly, the 'dead Cameron' in Devon notices that it is being observed, and alerts Dev of this. Cam then finds himself experiencing the perspective of one of Brian's captives, who died after vomiting while gagged. Cam awakens from his dream and vomits, then resolves to call in an anonymous tip about the identity of the dead man, as he has done with each vision he has had of Brian's victims.

By the summer of 2021, Cam feels like he has started to live some kind of life again, albeit a new unfamiliar one, and he decides to join Dev on a trip to see Arturo. Partly because he senses a growing distance between him and Artie and partly to make sure his friend is recovering well, Cam micro-doses on psilocybin before the visit in order to magnify his abilities and fully take in the mood and emotions of the reunion, although he feels guilty both for keeping this from Dev and for planning to pry into Artie's mind.

Cam senses that Artie is damaged but at peace, much like himself, and is surprised to find that Artie is also more mentally fortified than anyone he has tried to read. He peers further and realizes with shock that Artie is afraid of him, and filled with worry that Cam is somehow still connected to Echo. By sharing his recovery process Cam is able to connect with Artie, however, and Cam feels reassured that his friend is truly on a good path.

Maria then enters and commiserates with Cam about her own difficulties with antipsychotics and other medications. Cam enjoys her company, but suspects that she has been ushered into the room to sweep him out of the conversation between Artie and Dev. Cam knows with extrasensory certainty that he will only speak with Artie a few more times, and although he feels a deep unfairness as he watches Dev and Artie get along without him he foresees that they will have a long and happy friendship. He resolves not to visit again so that he does force Artie to confront the connection to Echo that Cam seems to represent to him, especially after he intuits that Artie can sense when his mind is being read. Ultimately, it is unclear how much of Cam's interpretation of the situation accurately reflects Artie and Maria's feelings and how much is a result of Cam projecting his own self-doubt and paranoia about being a burden to his friends.

By March 2023, Cam and Dev are married. Cam's delusions and depersonalization have mostly subsided, but his lack of motivation and anhedonia have persisted, leading him to give up making music for good. He also worries about Dev, and finds himself cheering up his boyfriend more often than the other way around. One snowy evening, as they sit together near a Mormon temple in their new home of Bonneville City, Cam asks Dev if he ever found what he was looking for when they went to Echo. Despite his bitter regrets, Dev is focused on their relationship and the present, and the two reflect on how the chapters of their lives have changed them. Cam remarks that he feels a particular energy around places of spirituality and belief like the temple, and guesses that it means that there may be hope even for those who are gone, as well as hope for them both to recover. Dev kisses him deeply, and the two agree to live long lives together.

### Echo

Cameron and Devon appear briefly several times in Echo. In the epilogues of Leo's, TJ's, and Flynn's routes, the two arrive in the town to conduct an investigation much like the one that occurs in Arches.

In a possible ending to Leo's route, Chase returns to Echo and passes a black bear and a canine, presumably a loose reference to Dev and Cam despite their differing species, who are pointing a video camera at the now abandoned motel. Notably, this epilogue is set in 2017, instead of in 2020 like Cam and Dev's visit during Arches.

After TJ's route, Cam is shown accompanying Dev to Lake Emma. To his horror, he glimpses an eyeless lizard floating in the shallows of the lake with its muzzle missing, but the body disappears when he looks back.

In the epilogue of Flynn's route, set in 2020, Cam and Dev have a short interview with Chase, during which Cam is apologetic for making him relive the traumatic events of years earlier. After Chase departs, Cameron briefly sees an eyeless lizard with its muzzle missing standing inside the mine. Cam is startled by this experience, though Dev is elated to kick off their investigation with an early paranormal encounter.

## Relationships

### Devon

Cameron and Devon have been dating for over five years. They have a caring relationship, but Cam appears to leave many things unspoken between them: he has never really shared what his hallucinations feel like with his boyfriend, and he has not mentioned many details about his upbringing, his addiction, or his previous abusive relationship. This seems to stem from a fear that Dev would leave him if he were to find out that Cam were more "broken" than he lets on.

Cam is very grateful to have a loving partner, and sometimes feels embarrassed about how well Devon treats him. Cam says that Dev has seen him at his 'craziest' but sticks around nonetheless, and he feels a sense of indebtedness because of this. Cam is still getting over the abuse of his previous boyfriend; he works to internalize that he doesn't need to be afraid of Devon, but occasionally struggles with feeling unequal in their relationship.

Cam notably does not share Dev's zeal for the paranormal. Devon believes Cam can see things others cannot and has asked him in the past to accompany him on investigations, but Cam has resisted. Until the events of Arches, Cam has remained firmly skeptical and considers his visions to purely be hallucinations with explainable, psychiatric origins.

Though he does not express it to him, Cam relies on Devon to stay clean, and uses the thought of Dev's potential shame and heartache to keep himself from relapsing. Cam is deeply in love with Devon and plans to spend the rest of his life with him, though as a result he often feels anxious about inadvertently causing something to go wrong between them.

### Arturo

Cam and Artie know each other through Dev but are friends in their own right. Cam gets along well with Artie and is able to relax around him, and the two have a cathartic drug experience together in Echo. When Artie and Dev bicker, Cam tries to mediate between them. Unbeknownst to Cam, Artie and some mutual friends initially set Cam up with Dev as an attempt to distract Dev from a recent breakup, and finding this out makes Cam feel somewhat uncomfortable. After an encounter with Brian leaves Artie wounded, Cam is worried for his safety and concerned by his uncertain fate, and seems to try and send him telepathic encouragement.

After their ordeal in Echo, Cam is stung by the fact that Artie never tries to reach out to him directly and instead only asks about him through Devon.

### His Mother

Cameron believes that standing by and letting his mother sink deeper into her delusions is the dumbest thing he has ever done. Cam's mother cared deeply for him, even saving him from an overdose at one point despite her irrational state, and Cam regrets that his own addiction prevented him from helping her in return. He remains conflicted about her many failures as a parent, but feels deeply grateful for her commitment to him and cherishes her memory. Although he does not like to admit it, in hindsight Cam thinks of his mother's death as a turning point in his life that spurred him to make better choices.

Devon's desire to find meaning in the supernatural reminds Cam of his mother, and her desperate fixation on patterns and symbols. Cam also worries that his mother's breakdown means he himself could inherit a similar fate, and even years later thinking about arches reminds him of what could happen if he loses his grip on reality.

Cameron's mother was fond of black and white musicals, which heavily influenced the musical style that Cameron would eventually develop, after leaning into his inspirations with Devon's encouragement.

### Dylan

Dylan's abuse wounded Cam both physically and emotionally. The scar on Cam's eyebrow is the result of one of Dylan's punches, and Cam still grapples with feelings of neediness and worthlessness that stem from how he felt in their relationship. Cam also struggles with guilt regarding the person he was while dating Dylan, and feels that if Dev were to know some of the actions he took during the relationship (such as hitting Dylan before he could be hit by him) his perception of Cam would be irrevocably damaged. Cam's relationship with Dylan drives him to be a better partner and protect himself from falling into the same pitfalls, though it also left him anxious about his self-worth.

### Brian

Cameron initially feels like he and Brian are kindred spirits, since they can both apparently see things that others cannot. This sense of camaraderie is shattered, however, after Brian reveals his true nature by taking Cam captive. After Cam's psychic abilities allow him to view Brian's thoughts firsthand, Cam is terrified by the scope of Brian's depravity and fears that he and Dev will never actually be released. Cam also unlocks a preternatural empathy that allows him to feel a sense of pity for Brian, although Cam is startled by this, and he is repulsed by Brian's twisted attraction to him. Despite his fear, Cam is able to put on a front to attempt to manipulate Brian and keep him somewhat appeased, and resolves to do his best to escape him.

## Trivia

* Despite being a coyote and thus technically 'built for it,' Cameron hates the desert's heat (although he loves the smell of sagebrush) and prefers the pines of forested areas.
* Cam is from the Echo universe equivalent of Portland, Oregon.
* Alongside Cameron, all three visual novels set in Echo feature a different significant coyote character: William Adler is a major presence in The Smoke Room, Echo's prequel, and William's descendant Janice appears in Echo itself.
* Cameron's extrasensory abilities are said to be similar to those of Blithe Washington from The Smoke Room.
* Though Arches itself is written in a third-person perspective, the "Halloween" short story is told from Cameron's first-person point of view.
* Cam's singing voice is described as "having the qualities of a singer from the '50s while retaining a grunge-like roughness."