Cambium

Cambium is a student at the Nedo Institute. He struggles with transformative plant-based powers, which seem to control him as often as he controls them.

Who were you before?
Reid Kennedy was a pretty ordinary high school kid, nearing graduation, and somewhat struggling with school. He had an interest in botany, and enjoyed drama, but found other subjects tough, and let things slide off his back rather than put in enough effort, so his grades were dropping. A big-framed kid, he engaged in bullying as an outlet for his frustrations with himself. Gardening at home was his secret passion and most reliable stress reliever.

When did you change? What caused it?
Reid often stole seeds and plant cuttings from the school greenhouse to add to his collection. One day he noticed the gardening shed door, usually locked, was slightly open and unattended, so he peeked in and discovered a strange thorny flowering plant of some kind he’d never seen. He went to take a cutting but heard someone coming, accidentally cut himself on a thorn, and some kind of spores were released from the flowers. Reid ran away before he could get caught. The cut quickly became infected and wouldn’t heal, and over a period of weeks, from his wound spread a hard, tough, greenish woody covering over his skin, quickly becoming something he couldn’t hide as thorns and protrusions sprouted all over his body and he began to hear the voices of plants in his mind. A strange, semi-sentient flora of some kind had infected his body through those spores. Reid never saw that old gardener or that plant at school again.

Who, outside of the team, is helping you understand your new body?
Right now Dave the Duck and the Evergeen are Reid’s most important sources of advice and answers. As well, the spores inhabiting his body are themselves almost a consciousness. It’s hard to understand, but Reid can sort of pick ideas and feelings up from it. It seems to have some motivations or even agenda of its own, but that knowledge is shrouded from him.

Why don't you just try to hide yourself away?
Part of it is that Reid simply doesn’t know what to do with his life, even less so now, if he doesn’t use his newfound abilities in the only way he can think of. In a way, he’s putting off deciding anything about his future, because he doesn’t want to confront the idea that his prospects may have disappeared.

Why do you care about the team?
Without something to focus on, Reid’s anxieties and gloom weigh him down. The team gives him something to do, and be responsible for. Staying busy keeps him out of his own head. Plus, they’re all freaks, so they’re the most likely to accept him for what he’s become.

At NEDO...
Reid originally lived in Murder house with the rest of the original five (Séance, Champion Super-Robot, The Hawk, and Sadatoni), but after prom he moved dorms to distance himself of his mutual dislike with The Murder. He now shares Dave the Duck's dorm along with Daydreamer, Carina (formerly Eta Carinae), Wyvern, and Chainmail.

When he first came to Nedo Institute, he was a 7-foot-tall, green hulking figure covered in spikes, making him practically untouchable. He struggles with self-image and takes regular therapy sessions with Dave the Duck, who offered him an experimental process to reverse his transformation. It seemed to work, but the transformation was not quite complete -- it ended up provoking a mutation that caused him to transform more radically and unpredictably, though with effort, he seems to be able to control it and change between forms.

On his first mission after being pulled into the Inbetween, Reid encountered an alternate universe version of himself called The Evergreen, a hyper-powerful being who had become physically more plant than human and was using his powers to create a sort of peaceful utopia. The Evergreen offered for Reid to take a piece of his consciousness with him, so Reid now has that resource to call on when he needs help or information.

At first believing that he would never find love or feel attractive, Reid has since had a few romantic entanglements. He attended prom with John, but didn't realise it was a date at first, and self-consciously rejected John's advances. He began a friends-with-benefits relationship with Wesley, which ended when Wesley started dating Babs. Reid is currently dating Jeanette, while each of them pine after someone else, to varying degrees of self-awareness.

Relationships

 * Toni comforted me when I was at my lowest. I miss hanging out with her more.
 * I thought I had feelings for John, but I think I was just guilty over how I used to bully him.
 * Dave the Duck is the biggest help and comfort I have when things go wrong. I'm totally indebted to them.
 * Wesley is my best friend in the world and I'm conflicted about wanting more.
 * Jeanette has done so much to make me feel like a person worthy of affection, and I'm scared of hurting her.

Trivia

 * The only clothing Reid currently owns is his superhero costume and the suit he wore to prom (which was not made to fit his human body).
 * Reid grows plants of all descriptions in his dorm room, including marijuana, which is hidden in his closet.
 * "Cambium" is a botanical word for a tissue layer in some plants responsible for secondary growth and thickening of the skin.