On first impression, Samson--or Sam, as he prefers--comes across as a hyper-achieving middle class business owner. He's very serious about his company and takes no nonsense that could jeopardize its integrity or success. This perfectionism carries over into the area of food in general, where he can be nitpicky and unyielding in regards to quality, taste, and creativity. Food is his world and he maintains it almost religiously.

His friends, however, quickly come to realize that this strict attitude extends no further than the borders of these specific interests. Outside the areas of food and the ice cream shop, Sam is a very laid-back, even goofy individual. He's a king of dad jokes and lame puns, sports bad fashion (either because he doesn't realize it's bad or because he's fully aware it is; nobody's sure), and couldn't be serious to save his life. He's always ready with a wise-crack. In fact, when it comes to genuine emotional subjects, Sam tends to flounder.

He likes to keep things light and casual, where he's most comfortable. He only likes to do or say things he's marginally sure about, and because he's never sure about emotions (others or his own), he tends to avoid them like life is a game of dodgeball. Not because he doesn't care, but because he does and yet he has no idea how to handle things delicately. By nature, he is a reasonable, blunt person and deep emotion, especially sadness, are anything but reasonable or straightforward. Dissecting them takes tools he feels he's not equipped with. So he makes sure with his zany behavior that his friends know not to come to him for mature, emotional support.

History

When Sam was an infant, he was found on the doorstep of a church. He had no name, no notes or hints toward his parentage or why they had abandoned him there. He couldn't have been older than four weeks. After being cared for by a woman from the parish, it was arranged that he go up for adoption. As fate would have it, he didn't have to wait more than two weeks before a man by the name of Andrew Hambleton came looking for a baby to take in.

Andy was an accountant who'd recently been through a divorce with his now ex-wife Persephone, over the matter of her giving up her legal career in order to care for their young son, Alex, while Andy worked. Andy held very traditional views, and considered it "reasonable" that she as the mother stepped up to that role while he provided for them via his job. She disagreed, and no compromise could be made. In addition, it came to light that Persephone had come to realize she hadn't wanted children to begin with. She even encouraged the court to give Andy primary custody of Alex, due to her workload and schedule.

In the wake of this divorce, which broke Andy's heart, he decided to adopt a second child. He met and eventually chose a little blond baby who he called Samson because of its meaning: "sun child." Sam Hambleton joined the family at two months old, and it's the only family he's ever known.

At first, his new brother Alex, who was six years old at the time, didn't entirely appreciate the new addition to the family so soon after his mother's departure. Alex remained aloof and indifferent toward the baby for months. But soon, Andy began recruiting Alex to help in caring for little Sam, as he began feeling the strain of being a single parent with one source of income instead of two. Alex wasn't old enough to watch a toddler unsupervised, but he was old enough to entertain the boy while Andy cooked dinner for them every evening.

By the time Sam started grade school, Alex had relaxed ever so slightly. He was not welcoming by any means, but he had adjusted to Sam's presence in the household. And by the time Alex started high school, he and Sam had become something like confidants. Alex discovered that Sam was an inquisitive but low-maintenance child who asked deep questions despite his age. He demonstrated a level of intellect that Alex could appreciate, and over time, they bonded over intellectual and philosophical debate. Alex would share his perspective--one in which the world was a kingdom waiting to be tamed by only those smart enough to handle it with care--and Sam would share his--a quiet fascination with the mechanics of why people did the things they did, why they had favorite colors, or why they believed certain things.

When he was in fifth grade, he met a boy on the playground after the classmates he was following around happened to trample the boy's "battlefield" which composed of dead leaves and twigs shoved upright into the dirt. While his classmates dismissed the underclassman (the boy was in third grade, two years beneath them), Sam stopped to apologize and help rebuild the battle lines. While they set up the opposing sides, Sam was enraptured by the story this third grader wove about his battlefield--one side, where humans and vampires worked together toward the glory of peace, and the other side full of wicked wizards and dark creatures set on dragging all of existence into the Underworld, imprisoning The Light, as the boy called it, forever.

This boy introduced himself as Dori, because he said his real name was too hard and weird to say. The two of them became recess buddies, escaping to imaginary realms of knights and quests while everybody else played four square or red rover. Sam discovered that Dori, too, found the world a wondrous, complicated place. Dori, too, asked the kinds of questions that adults never seemed to know how to answer. Dori, too, wondered why his favorite color was pink, and why the teachers seemed to believe all children didn't know how to think.

Too soon, their fun came to an end when not only did Sam have to move up to middle school, but the Hambleton family was moving to Honeyvale, a subdivision in another school district, so Sam could attend a fancy school just for boys with high marks in their classes. Dori showed up outside their house on his skateboard the day of the move, and waved goodbye from the curb as they drove away.

The two wouldn't talk again for six years.

Over the course of middle and high school at the Pepperlow Boys' Academy, Sam coasted through his school experience without trouble. He was quiet and easygoing, could get along with almost anybody, and never made waves. He excelled in almost every course he took, with Phys.Ed. being the biggest exception. As soon as it was available, he joined Home Ec. and the school choir.

It was during these long years that he began learning about cooking, helping his dad with family meals, and spending more time with Andy's ex-wife's parents, Jackson and Birdie, both of whom worked at a locale bakery. Birdie was a master baker, and Jackson a master decorator, and Sam grew to love learning their tricks and watching them work. For Sam's fourteenth Christmas, they gave him his own set of baking pans and cake decorating tools, so he could begin experimenting on his own. Which he did, right away. He made his first cake design for that same New Years' Eve.

It was also during his first year in high school that he realized he didn't like girls. Girls seemed to be all his classmates could talk about, many laments made over being stuck attending a school just for boys, but Sam couldn't relate. His eye was caught by their class president, a tall, dark, responsible boy with bright blue eyes, an enviable sense of organization and focus, a knack for leadership, and good sense that practically oozed from his pores. But Sam never told anyone about it, not his crush or his newfound preference for boys. He remained silent, focused on his cooking and baking skills, and continued to coast, convincing himself that he had more important things to pay attention to over romance--like his future career.

The only person to ever find out was Alex. One night when his brother was visiting after classes (since by then, Alex had begun his pursuit of a law degree), Sam got to talking about the class president and eventually brought himself to tell Alex that he was fairly certain he was gay. Alex seemed surprised, but not disapproving, and took it in stride. He approved of Sam's internal reflection and supported whatever conclusions he came to, expressing for the first time blatant trust of Sam's judgment. He knew, Alex said, that Sam could and would decide what made him happy, set his mind to it and go for it, no matter what. For this, Alex admired him.

When he was seventeen, Birdie passed away in her sleep. The family mourned, and it was especially hard for Jackson, and his health deteriorated quickly after that. During the early months of Sam's senior year at the academy, Jackson passed as well. The community came together to express its grief and condolences, since both of them had been well-loved in Honeyvale.

After the funeral and a brief period of mourning, the will was reviewed. Amidst the many inheritances, the biggest was discovered to be what Jackson and Birdie left for Sam--several thousand dollars, all of their professional baking and cooking wares, and an old building on the edge of town near a little strip mall. According to records, Jackson and Birdie had attempted to run a small diner for a year a decade previous, only to find the workload too much for them. They had held on to the building since, unsure of what to do with it, until Sam began expressing interest in the culinary arts and even creating his own brand.

The will left all of this and every piece of equipment they owned to Sam, and they told him to follow his dream. Around the same time, shortly after he graduated from high school, Sam was contacted by the last person he expected to hear from again--Dori, who by chance had managed to find him through social media. For a year, they rekindled their friendship, and when Dori began confiding in Sam regarding how unsure he was about what to do after he left high school, Sam was struck by an idea.

What if they started a business together? He told Dori about the building his grandparents had left him, and they brainstormed what sort of business they would create if they could. They both agreed that they would want a place that was both fun and cozy, safe and exciting at the same time. A place people could go to after a long day, to find a smile. Sam, understandably, wanted dessert to be involved. Dori said his favorite dessert was ice cream.

So the idea for the Hambleton's Ice Creamery was slowly born and, by the time Dori graduated from his high school, Sam had the paperwork ready to make the business official. The two would still need to renovate the building to get it in service condition after a decade of no use; they discovered that the second floor was an old apartment, which made the prospects even better, since both had an itch to get out of their parents' houses as soon as possible.

When the building was ready to move into, Dori asked Sam if a friend of his could join them and split the costs of living three ways. Sam, trusting Dori's judgment, agreed, and so Ji Newtcast joined them on moving day (or, night, since they couldn't help Ji move out during the day).

The three of them worked hard in those early days to get the shop as ready for business as possible, and once it opened, they did their very best to keep things afloat. They mostly caught business from others who worked at or visited the plaza for other reasons, including a young street dancer who often performed on the corner under the theater marquee. The first day they put the Help Wanted sign up in their window, that dancer came in to apply. And their origin story truly began.

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