Ainsley Cameron
Ainsley Cameron
The teenage daughter of Roger and Millie Cameron
In Game
Character Hint
You are Ainsley Cameron, the 17-year-old daughter of Roger Cameron. Your father was just shot -- not quite in front of your eyes, but just a few rooms away -- by your friend Seamus, and you are feeling like your world has just crashed into nothingness. But you are damned well not going to give your mother the satisfaction of watching you melt into a puddle of tears: you own a bunch of this company yourself, and it's up to you to protect the people here.
Character Sheet
You are Ainsley Cameron, and you long since lost patience with the way people define you as "Roger and Millie's daughter". You're 17, entering college soon, and part of you really wants people to think of you as your own person, free-willed and independent.
But damn it, not like this.
Your father is -- was -- God, you can't even think about the idea of saying "was" -- Roger Cameron, founder of Decameron Enterprises. Your whole life, that's been how he's defined himself, as the boss of a mostly-successful company. (You hear everyone talk about the Bad Old Days, when the company had fallen on hard times because its original business, building these cute little rockets for boys to play with, had unsurprisingly gone to hell. But you were a kid at that point, and the company's been doing better and better pretty much for as long as you can remember.) Dad always took the job so seriously, working whatever hours it needed, and teaching you ever since you were a child how important it was to be good to your people.
There was a time when you resented "his people", because it seemed like he cared about them more than you, but you got past that a long time ago. You still don't know exactly what happened, but back when you were a kid, you're pretty sure that Mom and Dad got into some kind of fight over it, and he made sure to be home more after that. He was really careful after that to make sure that you knew how much he cared. And talking to your friends about their parents, you're pretty sure that he started treating you with a lot more respect than they usually get.
He really showed that off last year: your birthday present was a chunk of the company. Oh, they made noises about "guardianship", and emphasized that you wouldn't be fully in control of that stock until you turned 18, but still -- he gave you a full 5% chunk, which is more than any of the employees have. That was thrilling, and kind of intimidating, but he was clear that he wanted you to succeed him someday, and that by age 16 it was time to start learning what that really means. So he started bringing you to work when he could, and showing you the ropes, encouraging you to get to know the staff, the whole nine yards. It was really neat, having people kind of treating you like a grown-up and taking you seriously, and you've tried hard to live up to that.
It seemed like such a good thing, that you wanted to share it. And so you encouraged him to set up Take Your Daughter to Work Day... and poor Amy, and now you're crying again.
Amy wasn't your BFF or anything, but you've been friends since you were both children. Her parents were Judy and Isaiah Zubin; Isaiah was an old friend of Mom's, who has been working for Dad since the beginning of Decameron, so you kind of grew up together. Back when you were both, like, six, you'd run around the office together, playing tag and making forts out of the couches. She wasn't snotty-rich like some of your friends; you kind of liked how normal she was.
Of course, you haven't seen as much of her lately. Partly that's just because you're part of different sets at school, but mostly it's because you've been hanging around the office a lot, with The Gang.
Okay, nobody calls them "The Gang" except for you, but it's been really fun hanging out with them. They're basically the younger crowd at work, a bunch of twenty-somethings Dad started bringing in a couple of years ago, on the theory that the company was growing and could use some young blood. So he started hiring recent college grads for the research department -- Paula, Shrivatsa, and of course Seamus.
Fuck Seamus. What the fuck? (Mom's going to kill you if she hears you talking like this, but you don't give a damn.)
The Gang really jelled a couple of months ago, when Samuel hired Jonathan as an intern. Jonathan's a little younger than the rest, a college senior, but he's kind of lively and intense, curious in a way the engineers mostly aren't. As Assistant Office Manager, he wanted to know everything about the company -- how it all worked, who was who, always asking questions. And he kind of took you under his wing, helping to mentor you about life, the universe and everything. (You still don't know why the engineers always smirk when they say that -- some kind of geek joke.) He fit into the Gang really easily, becoming friends with everyone, and getting especially close to Seamus. It was so cute watching Seamus around him, getting all embarrassed and stuff. You're pretty sure that Seamus was the only person in the company who didn't realize that Seamus was gay, and it was great when he finally admitted it a couple of weeks ago and they started dating.
Fuck Seamus.
He started seeming kind of antsy and upset a few days ago, and wouldn't tell anybody why, and you know that he and Jonathan had been having a deep heart-to-heart about something the past couple of days, but you thought it was just work stuff. And then yesterday there was that whole blow-up: you don't know what happened, but everybody was talking about him storming out of the office in the late afternoon and trying to slam the door behind him. (Not that you can actually slam these doors because of the pneumatics, but you heard that he tried to push it shut, swore at it in a very un-Seamus way, and then the whole stormed-out thing.) And today...
Today was finally Take Your Daughter to Work Day. Not that many actually did, and the ones who did were mostly in the factory building across town, but you and Amy were here at the head office, and that was cool. You were hanging out with her and her Dad in the lunchroom, along with Robert Gervasio (that homeless vet who's been hanging around the office a lot lately), when you stepped out to go to the bathroom.
The fucking bathroom. It all happened when -- if you'd been there, maybe -- hell.
You heard the shots -- kinda weird-sounding, but maybe it was just the echo from the tile. (Mom and Dad taught you how to use a rifle way long ago, and Dad occasionally takes you to the range to play with his favorite handguns.) The first one sounded far away, and you weren't sure what you were hearing, but the second sounded closer and the third a lot closer, so you started to get really scared. You finished up, carefully opened the door, and heard a lot of screaming but no more shots.
You came out, went into the lunchroom -- and there was Amy, lying there dead with her chest covered in blood, with her Dad on the floor holding her, wailing.
You couldn't hack it -- you turned, crying, ran down the hall, and found the horrible scene in the copy nook. Seamus was lying there -- well, you knew the clothes were his, but he was lying there with half his face blown off and you don't want to think about it -- and Jonathan was backed up against the wall kind of whimpering, and Paula was standing there, looking shocky, with a gun on the floor beside her, and you just kind of backed out of the room and started running the other way, crying, and...
... and there were several people standing in front of the door to Dad's office, and you knew. And you just kind of fell to your knees and started sobbing.
You actually thought it was Paula at first -- after all, the gun was on the floor next to her -- but everyone was saying that it had been Seamus. Which was kind of crazy -- he was also so gentle -- but made more sense than Paula, who always really kinda hated guns and didn't want to hear you talk about Dad teaching you to shoot -- and they said that Seamus just kind of walked down the hall, shooting people -- and...
You're babbling. Stop it.
What now? Dad always said that, if he ever got hit by a bus, you and Mom would have to pull yourselves together and make sure the company was okay. He always said that he loved you and would support anything you did, but the company was his legacy, and he would be depending on you to make sure it survived. So you and Mom...
Working with Mom. Yay. Yes, you love her -- she is your mother and all -- but she's got this whole "good Southern girl" thing going on that she's tried to turn you into, to make sure that you're "good" and "proper" and crap like that. The past few years have been hard, and you've been arguing a lot about boys and parties and all sorts of stupid things like that. The way she always deferred to Dad, and "stood by him", and did he deserve it?
Did he?
You love him and everything, but knowing that he was cheating on Mom and she was so stupid about it, never even realizing...
Helen Derren was one of Mom's oldest friends, from college or something. She was born pretty rich, like Mom, and invested in the company from the beginning, making piles of money off of it. She was always a close friend of the family -- hell, she was your godmother, and you've been pretty close since you were, like, 12 or something. Not that she taught you anything about religion (you see her at church like, once a year or something), but she always seemed happy to talk about anything you wanted to learn about, whether it was asking dumb-kid questions when the parents would talk about old tech like "record players", or talking frankly about boys. She always seemed like the grown-up who would always be honest with you.
But a couple of months ago, you were doing some stupid project for school, and asked Dad whether you could use his computer, which had the right software. And, well, Dad had always told you that "families shouldn't have secrets", right? So you just felt a little mischievous poking around in his email, and most of it was boring stuff like you expected, but there were a bunch of messages from Helen, and they were flirty. And when you dug back, there were all these emails talking about him sneaking out from work, and meeting her for "lunch" (yes, with the air-quotes spelled out, just like grown-ups would do), and you've watched more than enough TV and movies over the years to be able to put 2 and 2 together.
And you aren't sure what to think about all that. Yay that Dad was happy? But when you think about them together, it's just icky and wrong. And you know that Mom's the victim here, but you're still angry at her for being so dumb that she didn't even see it. Shows what being the dutiful wife gets you.
But mostly, you're kind of pissed at Helen, so you haven't been hanging out with her as much lately. So you've been hanging with The Gang instead, and damn it, it would be so much easier if you didn't care about all of these people!
Fuck Seamus. What was he thinking?
Who You Know
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Millie Cameron: Mom, miss "always a proper lady". She's always let herself be in Dad's shadow, despite the fact that you know that she's plenty smart enough on her own; she would just say "it's how she was raised". But now what? She and you probably own more of the company than anyone else. Does she have the backbone to step into Dad's shoes?
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Roger Cameron: Dad. Oh, hell, you're not going to start crying again...
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Helen Derren: Your godmother. Your parents always described her as Aunt Helen, and that's how you think of her, as family, and as closer family than any of your real aunts and uncles. Which is probably why the thought of her having sex with your Dad kind of makes you throw up a little.
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Samuel Antonino: A nice older guy, who The Gang all look up to as the sane grown-up's grown-up.
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Seamus O'Malley: Fuck Seamus.
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Jonathan Sheena: Seamus' boyfriend, not that anybody outside the Gang knows that. Poor Jonathan -- Paula apparently killed Seamus right in from of him. You really like Jonathan (as a friend, not like that, he's
gay), but aren't entirely sure what his story is -- a couple of weeks ago, he jokingly said that he was actually James Bond, and you're not quite sure whether he seriously is some kind of spy. He's been at the company as an intern for a couple of months now, acting as Assistant Office Manager for
S Antonino.
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Paula Vasilios: Another member of the Gang, almost as passionate as Jonathan and really progressive. You know that Mom and Dad wouldn't agree with her politics, but she is really persuasive and sensible sometimes.
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Shrivatsa Kiran: The last member of the Gang, an Indian immigrant with the coolest accent. He is a little quieter and more reserved than the others, but always seems to have that kind of wisdom that comes with someone who is a bit more together.
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Carla Lennart: The VP of Sales and Marketing, a somewhat older woman who has been kind of mentoring
P Vasilios the way Jonathan does with you. Well, "mentoring" -- from the way Paula burbles sometimes, you kind of wonder if there is more there...
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Robert Gervasio: This war vet who lives in the park across the street from the office. You thought he was kind of creepy at first, but as you've gotten to know him, you've found that he is actually kind of cool, just messed-up from the war.
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Aidan O'Malley: The priest at Lady of Redemption, down the street. He's always seemed pretty nice, and is a lot younger than the previous priest was, so you have thought of him as someone you can talk to about stuff that you're willing to talk about with a priest. He's Seamus' older brother, and Seamus sounded kind of pissed at him this week; does he know what happened?
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Fred Ronit: One of Dad's partners when he was creating the company, although he left ages ago to go into politics. A lot of the grown-ups think he's cool, since he's so passionate about "family values" and all that crap, but the Gang mostly think he's an asshole. You don't think he's an asshole -- you've known him all your life, and he's always seemed like a good guy -- but some of the stuff he says is pretty stupid.
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Isaiah Zubin: Amy's dad. He was really nice when you were growing up, but has always seemed so sad since Amy's mom died. And now -- God, it's probably up to you to try and comfort him. Dad would say that he is a valued employee, which means that he is like a part of the family, and it's up to you to treat him like one.
GM Notes
Ainsley was at the office as part of
Take Your Daughter to Work Day, and was in the breakroom when her father got shot. She went out into the hallway, saw Seamus with the gun, and ducked into a closet.
She was loosely friends with
E Martin's daughter -- not close, but of similar age and had been hanging out with each other at company functions since they were kids. So she is currently fighting off a bit of guilt at having
not been in the breakroom when Seamus came through, although she is sensible enough to intellectually recognize that she couldn't have done much except get killed herself.
She is 17, and for a number of years she has gotten along better with her father than her mother -- she saw her mother as tying her down a bit too much to the southern "good girl" thing, and has been rebelling somewhat actively. She is very messed up about the notion of her father being dead. She's been idly threatening to get emancipated-minor status for months, just to mess with her mother, but has always been at least a tenth serious about the idea.
She owns a substantial fraction of the company (say, 5%) in her own name. (Technically, currently more than her mother, who stands to inherit something like 20% from Roger.) Roger gave this to her last year, ostensibly as a 16th birthday present to teach her some real-world responsibility. Everyone but Ainsley was pretty clear that this was really some kind of shady tax dodge, but she was floored by it, and it helped get her more interested -- at that point, she began to take seriously the notion that her father was grooming her to take over some day. It is only recently that it finally sank in that she owns more of the company than any of the regular employees do; she's a tiny bit bothered by that, just from a fairness POV, and takes very seriously the notion that these are, in a sense, her people. She has gotten wind that there may be a Board Meeting today, and plans on insisting on being there.
She's been hanging out with
Jonathan Sheena for a lot of the past six weeks -- Jannine befriended her early on, and Ainsley has been hanging a fair amount with her, Seamus and
P Vasilios. The thought of Seamus going around the bend creeps her out a
lot.
H Derren is her godparent, and she has always loved her like family. But a couple of months ago, she was using her father's computer and just
happened to glance at his email a little. (Turnabout is fair play, after all, and her parents have always felt free to snoop in
her life.) She found a surprisingly flirty email between him and Helen, and then a sequence of more of them, occasionally talking about getting "together" in the middle of the day. She isn't stupid, and quickly decided (correctly) that they were having an affair. Her feelings about that are
very mixed -- she loves both of them a lot, but it still feels like some kind of betrayal, not to mention just kind of icky. And every time she sees
H Derren being friends with her Mom, it just seems
wrong. This helped push her to spend more time hanging around with the research engineers, and less with Helen.
To Do
