Sydney O. Sargent

## Sydney October Sargent

Sydney's official concept art by Mayfield & Belov.

Sydney October Sargent is the head camp nurse, mealtime announcer, and one of two main characters in Camp Here & There.

## Physical Appearance

Mayfield and Belov describe him physically as:

* "[A] small, delicate fellow with soft features; he is pale from illness and malnutrition. His dark, unruly hair falls to his waist and curls at the ends; and he's got long, spindly limbs on a compact, pudgy body, like a spider. His face is deeply lined by dark eye bags."
* He is described as wearing "large clunky boots, heavy jewelry, fluffy dresses, kneesocks, scarves, and usually many layers at once; all in dark tones. He also likes to decorate his hair with natural items, such as mushrooms and moths."

Other misc. notes about his physical makeup:

* Sydney can see shrimp colors.
* Sydney has been cursed by a witch, and, as a result, can only eat bread and butter (in any form). He cannot eat margarine, but he can swallow pills and consume non-food items, such as dirt.
* Sydney has undergone top surgery (subcutaneous mastectomy) but is not undergoing hormone replacement therapy.

## Personality

Mayfield and Belov describe his personality as:

* "Sanguine, mischievous, and slowly dying of a plethora of chronic diseases, Sydney Sargent is the nurse at Camp Here & There. His open-book policy regarding the operations of the camp staff makes him unpopular with his coworkers, though the kids in camp adore him. He's rambly, moody, strange, and blunt, but he cares immensely about the campers, and you won't find a more spirited mealtime announcer."
* "Sydney is a pessimist by nature, and tends to assume anything that moves can and will hurt him. Rather than being paranoid or grim, though, he’s a master of the fifth stage of grief, and is usually able to find silly and outlandish ways to look at the horrors of daily life."

Other misc. notes about his personality:

* Sydney is autistic.
* Sydney sees mushrooms as equal or superior to humans.
* Sydney struggles with psychosis. He does his best to curb it in his own ways, and while he thinks it has diminished for unrelated reasons, its relative absence is stated to be due to Jedidiah's actions. Mayfield and Belov did not specify further what that means exactly, but they did specify that Jedidiah is not drugging Sydney.
* Sydney is silly.

## Relationships

#### Jedidiah

Sydney has a long and complex relationship with Jedidiah A. A. Martin. According to Mayfield and Belov, "[Jedidiah] and [Sydney] seem to have an extensive history together, but nobody can quite figure out the status of their relationship. All we know is that if anyone can get Jedidiah to stick his head out of his office every once in a while, it's Sydney." They have known each since before they were teenagers, before Sydney came out as transgender. In Season 1 Episode 34, Sydney and Jedidiah officially start dating.

#### Lucille

Sydney's boss is Lucille. Sydney claims several times that she loves him, but the limited interactions so far make Lucille's attitude towards Sydney appear somewhat indifferent. Conversely, Lucille claims that she does love Sydney, and he clearly values this love and is very hurt when she does things that imply differently. They have known each other since Sydney's childhood, when he often went to her house when he didn't want to be around his mother. He can't remember if he slept there. He moved in with her and Jedidiah when he left his mother's house just before his seventeenth birthday, and now he lives at camp with her year-round. When he is too far from her, he becomes "too sick to walk," though it has not been revealed why this is the case. During the camp's off-season, Sydney and Lucille are the only people there, and he is responsible for all of the upkeep and chores.

### The Elephant Man

Sydney is the person that The Elephant Man seems to have the most interest in. They first meet when he shows up in Sydney's office and eats all of his pet worms. After this incident, Sydney begins to see The Elephant Man in many places around camp. When he catches The Elephant Man stealing Marisol's tea set, The Elephant Man looks at him and moves his mask aside. Sydney collapses to the ground, under some kind of psychic influence as a result of seeing his face. This occurs in File 22 as well. The Elephant Man often comes to Sydney's window in the Nurse's Cabin and stares at him. He is revealed to be deeply in love with Sydney and revere him as divine in FILE 22, the reason for his stalker-ish behaviors.

#### Other

* Sydney has a strong dislike for Joshua, going as far as describing him as, "wrong in the head." They shared a dorm room in college.
* Sydney has stated he would "trust Matthew with his life," but it is unknown if Matthew returns the sentiment.
* Sydney is not well-liked by his co-counselors at Camp Here & There. Salem states that he "tends to get very… swept up in what he’s feeling."
* Sydney cares very much about all the campers. He goes out of his way to make sure they all have a good time, even if it breaks the rules sometimes.
* When watching The Gravediggress attempt to lure Soren into The Death Fields, he states that she reminds him of his mother.

## Character History

### Season One

FILE 1. The Beginning of the End

Sydney finds a mysterious warning about a man in a pink elephant mask handwritten into his morning announcements. This includes a story about Marisol's run in with this man, in which she experienced "a blurring at the edges of her vision, as if the sheer verve, rattling around in her heart with nowhere to escape, was fit to blind her." Initially, Jedidiah tells Sydney that it must be a prank of Joshua's that Marisol must be in on, but The Elephant Man himself shows up in Sydney's office later that night. He eats all of Sydney's beloved pet worms while he is rendered unresponsive by the sight of his maskless face.

FILE 2. The End of the Squall

Sydney is kidnapped by macaroni penguins, and works out a deal where the camp will bring them salmon every week in exchange for them leaving the camp alone. Throughout the day, he is unable to find Jedidiah, which worries him, but it turns out that Jedidiah was just asleep after staying up too late working on a secret project.

FILE 3. The Squall of Prophecy

He spends most of the day helping console Rowan after he experiences a disturbing apocalyptic vision. He administers anti-auguric medication to suppress future visions, and allows Rowan to cry on his shoulder. Some of his items go missing, including his hairbrush and the pen he likes to chew on, and he blames Joshua for this. He also continues to see The Elephant Man everywhere, and worries that this could be a sign that his past hallucinations are coming back. However, he dismisses this, as his hallucinations were "...colder [and] fuzzier than [The Elephant Man]."

FILE 4. The Prophecy of Reversal

Sydney goes with Lucille to The Death Fields to retrieve Soren. He helps get Soren back to camp, and stays with him while he is unable or unwilling to talk. During his nightly injury report, Sydney notes that things are still going missing from his office, including a rabbit stuffed animal that was important to him. He hangs up a wreath of spears that the campers gave him in an attempt to scare off future thieves. He then tells Jedidiah about his trip to The Death Fields, which leads to Jedidiah becoming concerned and asking him to not leave camp without telling him again.

FILE 5. The Reversal of Norms

Sydney does *not* have Jedidiah do the morning and afternoon announcements in celebration of government-mandated Opposite Day. This does *not* lead to an argument when Jedidiah drops the act to instruct the campers not to kill  Juniper. During the evening announcements, he does *not* inform the camp that they will be cancelling the remainder of Opposite Day, regardless of the consequences. He does *not* report in his nightly injury report that there have been many injuries among the campers, and he is *not* disturbed by thinking about this. He does *not* express some joy over the amount of affection and care that Jedidiah showed him while they were taking care of the injured campers. He also does *not* report more stolen items, both from him and from other people around the camp, and he does *not* blame Joshua for these thefts once again, *nor* does he threaten him with opioid withdrawal or dumping leeches in his pants.

FILE 6. The Norms of the World

He realizes that his activity list for the day was stolen, and informs the campers of the full list of things that have been stolen. He later amends this announcement to tell everyone that the thief is The Elephant Man, and recounts the run-in that he and Marisol had with The Elephant Man. This encounter occurred while he was picking flowers by Cabin Grasshopper, and he spotted The Elephant Man. The Elephant Man then overwhelmed him with his drug-like effect, and tilted his mask upward to show his mouth, getting closer to Sydney and kneeling in front of him (as by this point Sydney had collapsed). Marisol then charged in and tackled The Elephant Man, causing him to run away. Sydney seems very shaken by this experience. During the night's injury report, Sydney talks to Jedidiah about the encounter, and Jedidiah shakes off his concerns, telling him that there are many more dangerous threats around the camp, and he is overreacting. Sydney then asks Jedidiah to play a game of chess with him, since they haven't done so in years, but Jedidiah declines, saying that he needs to do some work on his secret project.

FILE 7. The World of Goo

Sydney spends the majority of the episode suffering from an allergic reaction to goo, which seemingly fell from the sky onto the bonfire. Since the bonfire was extinguished by the goo, Sydney also struggles to know things, such as the day and time, as these facts are usually provided by the bonfire smoke. During lunchtime announcements, he tells a story from his childhood, in which he saw a frightening blob of goo on television that left him permanently perturbed by it (it is unclear if this also caused his allergy). He also notes that the goo is growing larger, and has become autonomous, rolling around the camp. A few minutes after the lunchtime announcements, he delivers another announcement, alerting the campers to the discovery that the goo's growth is fueled by love, and thus it must be destroyed with insults and cruelty. The campers then insult the goo until it shrinks to nothing. During the night's injury report, Sydney jokes around with Jedidiah, lightheartedly defending his choice to wear a mushroom in his hair, and threatening to put stickers on his lab coat. After Jedidiah goes to bed, he begins to ruminate on a centipede that lingers in his study, when he is interrupted by Rowan requesting some more anti-visions medication. He gives him some mild, over-the-counter pills, and warns him not to take them too often because this could cause them to lose effectiveness.

FILE 8. The Goo of Friendship

The Tonies arrive during morning announcements with a package for Jedidiah. Since Jedidiah isn't there, Sydney tries to take it for him, but The Tonies refuse to hand it over until he convinces them that he is married to Jedidiah. Since, once Jedidiah does arrive, they don't believe that Jedidiah is actually Jedidiah, they end up giving him the package anyway. Sydney then keeps the package from Jedidiah, since Jedidiah will not tell him what's in it and The Tonies said it was illegal contraband. He finally hands it over during evening announcements, when Jedidiah says that Lucille told him that Sydney has to give him back the package. Then, later in the evening, Jedidiah invites Sydney into his office for the first time in over a year to explain to him that he did not go to Lucille with the intention of getting her to order him to turn over the package, he was just venting and that is how she reacted. This whole argument and exchange is extremely upsetting for Sydney, who is torn between feeling like his anger is justified, since the package is clearly contraband, which he knows because he recognizes the symbol for the fairy market (a "government network for heavily regulated substances, magical reagents, and machinery"), but also feeling like he lashed out and behaved immaturely by keeping it from Jedidiah for so long. He also feels like he only apologized for the sake of fixing things, even if he didn't feel like his feelings weren't justified, or that Jedidiah really deserved his apology. He also realizes that his diary tapes from the past week have been stolen, and suspects either The Elephant Man, Joshua, or the deer with no face of being the culprit.

FILE 10. The Enemies of Labor

Sydney has to deal with an influx of injured campers due to the rebellion of Cabin Dung Beetle. Sydney is very stressed out by this conflict, and repeatedly urges the campers to stop, even offering to do all of their chores for them. During the evening announcements, Jedidiah returns from the mediation session he was leading with a treaty, which Sydney lets him read to the camp. Sydney is shocked to hear that Lucille had already agreed to and signed this treaty, especially since he had suggested similar measures to her earlier and been rejected. During the night's injury report, he expresses discontent about this, but reassures himself that Lucille loves him. He also talks about The Elephant Man in the injury report, as he has continued to see him all over the camp out of the corner of his eye. He notes that the thefts around camp have begun to be more arbitrary, including things like snacks, games, notebooks, and clothing, but posits that this could be because campers are stealing each others' things and blaming The Elephant Man. This leads him to express some frustration over the fact that the campers don't seem to take him seriously or care what he has to say, even when he is telling them off.

FILE 11. The Labors of Love

Sydney collaborates with Warren Earthman to put together a tower-building competition in order to manage some of the campers' aggression and convinces Jedidiah to get Lucille to make it mandatory. When some of the counselors begin attempting to cheat, he tells them off over the announcements. He mentions he has been building his own small tower out of q-tips and uncooked Mung beans, since Jedidiah was not joining him as he was supposed to. When the winning tower disappears, he theorizes it was taken by The Elephant Man, and once again tells off the counselors for behaving so immaturely. That night, Sydney breaks down in tears as he admits to his tape recorder that he is unsure whether Jedidiah cares about him at all anymore and somewhat wishes he would just admit it. He mentions he has still felt afraid of The Elephant Man and expresses frustration in how he seems to be alone in this impression. Finally, he once again mentions the centipede described in FILE 7. The World of Goo, although his original friendly acceptance of the bug is replaced with a dark narration of his own fear of it, before he abruptly shuts off the recorder.

FILE 12. The Love of Mother

He runs a Counselor Olympics to create more team spirit among the counselors that fought during the previous week's team-building contest. This goes awry when Lucille asks him to rig the games against Jedidiah. As he watches Jedidiah struggle with the rigged games, he feels guilty and confesses, but Jedidiah just asks him to make them even more difficult as a way of seemingly self-flagellating. The games fall apart after this, with everyone just watching Jedidiah struggle until he falls to the ground and leaves with Lucille whispering to him. During the night's injury report, Sydney confronts Lucille about the way she seems to be respecting and valuing Jedidiah more than him, but she brushes off his concerns, telling him she loves him and will do something about The Elephant Man in time. Sydney leaves the encounter confused, but possibly glad. He ends the announcement by recounting what Marisol told him about a clearing she found in the woods during the scavenger hunt that day. This clearing was surrounded by huge vertical stones, full of animal bones, and had a statue of a robed woman offering up a white rabbit's corpse in the center of it. He decides that this is nothing to worry about, and goes to sleep.

FILE 13. The Mother of Stones

Sydney's morning announcements are interrupted by Soren inviting the campers to take part in a resurrection ritual in the woods after lunch. Sydney takes back control of the microphone and tells the campers not to attend this, and informs them that it is Normal Day, a government-mandated day during which only normal things may happen. His afternoon announcements are interrupted by Jedidiah asking to talk to him in private, but before that can happen, Lucille asks Jedidiah to speak to her in private. Lucille informs Jedidiah that there is a camp inspector coming, and he and Sydney need to get rid of the rabbit that Soren reanimated. Jedidiah then engineers a trap for Soren, and when that does not cut off the rabbit's animation, he tears the zombie rabbit apart piece by piece. During this trap-building and rabbit-catching time, Sydney tells Jedidiah about his recent realization about why The Elephant Man makes him so uncomfortable. He explains that he has very little control over his own life due to the way that his disability requires him to rely so heavily on Lucille's care, and while this is difficult, he always has control within his own mind, which gives him a kind of sanctuary. However, The Elephant Man's psychic thrall violates this sense of safety, and that is profoundly upsetting and terrifying for him. Unfortunately, Jedidiah just tries to comfort and reassure Sydney after he explains this rather than actually doing something to try to stop The Elephant Man. This is frustrating for Sydney, because he wants Jedidiah to actually show that he cares about him. He finishes the injury report by mentioning his desire to have more conversations in his dreams with a red-suited man, and goes to bed.

FILE 14. The Stones in Toilets

Sydney's morning announcements are interrupted by  Juniper, who informs the campers that Rowan found the bathroom that some mysterious beast is living in to be covered in mountains of green goo. He instructs Cabin Dungbeetle to clean this, since it is their turn on bathroom-cleaning duty, and they try, but run out almost immediately, saying they encountered The Elephant Man. Sydney fully believes them, but after searching the bathrooms, Salem finds no evidence that The Elephant Man was ever there. Sydney begins to sing The Camp Cooperation Song to try to calm this tension between counselors and campers, but is interrupted partway through by Salem calling a mandatory staff meeting. The meeting ends up being about his tendency to over-share his personal concerns and fears over the announcements, and leads to him being punished by being required to clean the goo-covered bathroom. This is a harsh punishment for him (much harsher than he believes Salem intended), because he is allergic to goo, and such an intensive cleaning task is likely to cause a pain flare-up for him. Marisol is also required to help clean, since she participated in announcement oversharing as well, but when the two arrive at the bathroom they find that it is already completely cleaned, with a tall, red candle burning on the floor and emanating the smell of mischief. When Sydney returns to his office after this, he finds Jedidiah fiddling with the inner workings of a clock on his desk. He then spends the rest of the evening hanging out with Marisol by the bonfire, since they no longer have cleaning that they have to do.

FILE 16. The Reality of Hallucination

Sydney spends most of the morning sleeping, as time has slowed down and placed the camp under a feeling of intense lethargy. Over the announcements, he describes two dreams, the first includes a man in a red paisley suit who bites into an apple and then eats his own flesh, and then gives Sydney a bite of the apple, which turns into a centipede in his mouth. The second dream is Sydney as a child finding a centipede, and falling backwards into an anthill. The ants cover his whole body until he can't breathe, and he ends up in the hospital. He insists that this second dream, as much as it seems like it could be a repressed memory, did not really happen, and is just a strange delusion his mind concocted. Later that day, after Jedidiah fixes the stopped clock that was stopping time, Sydney sees The Elephant Man outside his window, but then the power goes out in the Nurse's Cabin, causing The Elephant Man to have a breakdown and run away screaming.

FILE 17. The Hallucination of the Hive

Sydney is very excited for Lake Day, even though he personally hates the experience of being in water. This is because Jedidiah likes to swim, and so he expects that he will be able to spend the day with him, like the two of them do every year, and did as children at the community pool. Unfortunately, Jedidiah opts to stay in his office and skip Lake Day this year, very much disappointing Sydney. That afternoon,  Mila and  Juno are treated by Sydney for caustic bee stings after napping on the far side of the lake. Later, Mila reports to Sydney that she witnessed The Elephant Man shaking a beehive, and shushing her and pointing the hive at the camp when he saw her there. Shortly after this, the camp was attacked by a giant swarm of bees. Sydney then spends the evening treating the numerous campers that were stung. Later, as he records his injury report, he is expressing his frustration with the amount that Jedidiah and Lucille seem not to care about him when he is interrupted by Jedidiah, who wants to talk privately. Although he asks Sydney to turn off the recorder, implying that someone other than Lucille listens to the tapes on it, Sydney leaves the recorder on, picking up the conversation between the two of them. Jedidiah apologizes to Sydney, explaining that he now believes that The Elephant Man is a real threat after witnessing him rifling through the drawers in his office, about to steal his journals. He tells Sydney that he will tell Lucille to increase security, and swears that he will keep him safe.

FILE 18. The Hive of Anxiety

Sydney tells a story about him and Jedidiah playing House as children. Sydney would be the mother, Jedidiah would be the father, and they would use various animals and objects as children. One time, the child was a fruit fly, and Jedidiah then kept it as a pet, but never realized he needed to feed it, leading it to die and him to be devastated. This confused Sydney, because it seemed to him that if Jedidiah truly cared about the fly he would have fed it. Another time, the child was a pile of acorns in a paper bag that he drew faces on with Sharpie. At the end of the day, he moved the acorns to a bowl, and maggots that had burrowed into them broke out and infested his bedroom. His mother made him flush them all down the toilet, and Jedidiah was once again emotionally devastated. This also confused Sydney, since Jedidiah had seemed disgusted by the maggots, and he didn't understand why he would be so devastated over something he seemed to hate. Later on, when Sydney proposed that they play House one last time, Jedidiah argued that there was no reason to have a last time. They tried to play anyway, but at the end of the day Sydney tossed their rock child in a lake instead of having one of them take it home, upsetting Jedidiah since it felt like that was bad motherhood. At this point, Sydney realized that Jedidiah was projecting morals about parenting onto their games, and promises himself that he will never neglect the children under his care and will always give them love and care. Back in real time, Sydney witnesses the children begin to be hypnotized by the beehive that Timothy of Cabin Silkworm discovered, and he observes various counselors trying to stop the beehive and failing. He expresses that he believes that the campers should be allowed to keep the hive, as they seem to have softness in their eyes when they're near it. The counselors then have a camp-wide meeting, since they do not all agree about this. When the meeting falls apart, Jedidiah keeps Sydney from following the other counselors out towards the hypnotic hive. On the evening announcements, Rowan joins Sydney to describe what he found when he left the meeting, and the events leading up to him throwing the beehive into the bonfire. This causes Sydney to experience a buzzing at the front of his skull due to the more active bonfire flames that night.

FILE 19. The Anxiety of the Trees

Sydney goes into the woods with Joshua and nine campers to disassemble Soren's shrine, since reanimated creatures are continuing to show up at camp. They get trapped in the woods by the trees about halfway through the process, and begin to try to reassemble the shrine in case that is what has upset the trees, but then Sydney realizes that the branches of the trees trapping them are all pointed at camper Natsume Shiota. He then asks everyone to turn out their pockets, revealing that Natsume has attempted to steal an acorn, and this is what has angered the trees. He returns the acorn, and the trees allow the group to return to camp. That night, during his injury report, Jedidiah interrupts him to check if he's doing alright, and Sydney snaps at him for pretending to care, at which point Jedidiah apologizes, but still says no when Sydney asks him if he would like to play chess with him that night. Later, Jedidiah records a tape to give to Sydney to apologize and explain himself, but Sydney is nowhere to be found in the cabin or anywhere Jedidiah looks.

FILE 21. The Boys of Secrets

Sydney is still missing from camp. It is revealed via recordings he is continuing to make in the woods that he wandered away from camp based on an invitation from The Elephant Man. He decides to go, since he feels like even if The Elephant Man hurts him, at least people will start to believe him and take him seriously. However, as he is walking to the altar to meet The Elephant Man, he becomes lost (for the first time ever in these woods), exhausted and in a lot of pain. He wants to sleep, but is worried that if he does he'll never wake up. He decides to tell a story to the recorder instead, and tells the story of how five days before his seventeenth birthday, he left his mother's house and showed up on Jedidiah and Lucille's doorstep. They took him in, and he mentions that they were both kind then. He then justifies his choice to meet with The Elephant Man based on the fact that even though he might be a creep, he seems to want to be around Sydney, which is more than Jedidiah is giving him. The episode ends with Sydney seeing an exhausted blue jay in a tree with an insect crawling up its body and eventually knocking it down and eating its throat and heart. He repeats the phrase "I'm in hell" as the wind gets louder before giving way to a prolonged silence.

FILE 22. The Secrets of the Woods

Sydney wakes up in a pile of stuffed animals. It turns out that The Elephant Man found and brought him to the tower that he stole from camp to have tea. All of the stolen things from camp are there. He gives him tea and butter cookies, and tells him how he loves him and has been watching him. He seems to strongly dislike Jedidiah, feeling that he doesn't show his love to Sydney nearly enough. The Elephant Man also expresses that he worships Sydney, and sees him as a holy figure, and he tells Sydney that he needs him to steal Jedidiah's journals in order to find secrets of how he has become this holy and divine. Sydney becomes overwhelmed, and so The Elephant Man takes off his mask, causing Sydney to immediately fall asleep. He then picks up Sydney's body and begins to dance with it, telling a part of his life story, including his real name, Elijah Volkov. He also refers to himself as the Prophet. Sydney then agrees to get the journals for him, and, with Elijah's permission, takes several of the stolen objects back to camp. When he arrives back at camp, Yvonne and Joshua are in the middle of trying to do the afternoon announcements. He tells them that he was put into a trance by a mysterious flower, and then proceeds to do the announcements. During the evening announcements, he apologizes to the campers for his absence, and thanks Yvonne for stepping in as substitute nurse. During the injury report, Jedidiah interrupts him, and tells him that he does care about him and doesn't want to lose him. He asks for more details about the flower that supposedly entranced Sydney, and it becomes clear that Sydney is not being entirely honest with him. He warns Sydney that The Elephant Man is dangerous, and Sydney becomes angry because he feels like Jedidiah is just trying to control him. He denies meeting with The Elephant Man, and Jedidiah leaves. The episode ends with him realizing that he didn't grab his stuffed rabbit from The Elephant Man's stash.

FILE 23. The Wood of the Caskets

Sydney reports that many of the things stolen by The Elephant Man have been returned during the night, and questions if The Elephant Man is really a threat at all. Also, Sydney and Jedidiah examine and treat the campers affected by the Mold. Soren hijacks Sydney's microphone at the beginning of the afternoon announcements, but Sydney has Rowan and Joshua drag him away. Later, Jedidiah insists on going to investigate the mold himself, and comes back to Sydney with the conclusion that it is spreading Death Fields magic across camp. This leads The Gravediggress to come to camp and help Sydney make a remedy, but she has to leave after she tries to lure children to terrible fates. During the injury report, Sydney is heard listening back to his conversation with The Elephant Man, and he reflects on the effects that The Elephant Man had on his psyche and whether or not he was being manipulated during his interactions with him.

FILE 24. The Casket of Hatred

Sydney takes part in a mediation session with Salem where she is expressing concern about the things he says in on the announcements and the example he is setting for campers. He seems to be on the offensive from the start, and becomes more and more upset as the conversation goes on, repeatedly asserting that he feels all the counselors hate him and don't want him at camp, and eventually he just shuts down completely. After the session ends, Jedidiah apologizes to him, but he replies with short responses and then leaves the room.

FILE 25. The Hatred of the Hunt

Sydney hears that The Hunt is coming to the camp and decides to invite the silver fox that is being hunted into his office to rest. He does so, but finds that he is unable to figure out what she eats. He becomes very emotional about her, as he feels that she is being used as a tool by The Hunt with no say in her own destiny. He states that "Everything in her life is just overwhelmed by pain, and fear, and the never ending struggle to avoid it." Later in the day, once The Hunt arrives at the camp, he opens a window and realizes that the fox wants to return to The Hunt. She feeds off of its energy and the desire of the hunterst to catch her. He learns the lesson that it is not his responsibility to impose his will on her, and him doing so did not give her a say in her destiny, and was really no better than the behavior of those who cursed her in the first place. During the night's injury report, Sydney listens to a recording from February, 2015 of him and Jedidiah talking about a video game. Jedidiah is very passionate about it, but then notices Sydney is recording. Sydney says that he is recording because he wants to hear Jedidiah's voice when he's not around, and Jedidiah says that most people would find this annoying or strange, but he finds it endearing. The two banter and laugh a bit more, and then the recording cuts off.

FILE 26. The Hunt of the Clock

Sydney wakes up before sunrise to prepare for the delivery of the three climbing walls to camp, and is surprised to find Joshua already awake and watching the delivery take place. He asks Joshua if he got any sleep, but shows no concern when he continues to act cryptically. When Joshua's behavior becomes increasingly strange and irritating, Sydney invites him into the nurse's office to explain what is troubling him. When Joshua explains that he has been stuck in a time loop, Sydney believes him but is unimpressed with his response to the problem, stating he should have immediately told others rather than trying to fix it on his own. He then enlists Rowan to "run around ranting about the coming disaster in Joshua’s stead" and opens a campwide time loop deconstruction brainstorming forum in the Camp Agora. When Jedidiah manages to fix the time loop on his own, Sydney expresses discontent with his methods, wishing Jedidiah would have at least shared with others what he was doing. Before dinner, he alerts the campers that the Nurse's Cabin is closed for the night due to maintenance. That night, Sydney waits until 2 in the morning for Jedidiah to finally leave the building to use the bathroom, and proceeds to sneak into his office in search of his Journals. He quickly finds the safe Jedidiah had installed behind his framed portrait of Jerry Lawson and manages to guess the passcode with only two tries. Just as he is about to take the journals with him, Jedidiah catches him, and they argue about whether Sydney's safety is more important than his desire to understand what is happening before Jedidiah takes the journals back.

FILE 27. The Clock of Meantime

Sydney speaks poetically to his ghost recorder about his own anxiety before explaining that he can't stop thinking about Jedidiah's Clock of Meantime. He recalls a night one year prior where Jedidiah told him the story of how he'd acquired the clock as they were sitting together in Jedidiah's office. He says he can recall the story word for word and proceeds to repeat it to the recorder. Around 3 in the morning, he goes to meet Elijah and tells him about his failed attempt to steal Jedidiah's journals. He originally believes all hope is lost, but Elijah convinces him to continue trying.

FILE 28. The Meantime with Eggs

As Matthew is absent from camp for the day, Sydney takes it upon himself to prepare the day's meals for the campers. The menu he prepares sounds delicious, but he repeatedly stresses how sorry he is for his "lackluster" cooking and reassures the campers that Matthew will be back soon. Before lunch, he talks to his ghost recorder uncharacteristically early. He explains that he has been in worse pain than usual, as he has been attempting to sleep on one of the cots in the nurse's office in order to avoid sleeping in the same room as Jedidiah. As his mattress in their room is specialized to help his back, this choice is particularly painful for Sydney. He then describes a dream he had the previous night, where he found himself face-to-face with the man in the red paisley suit once again. In the dream, the man asks Sydney what is troubling him, and he explains how he thinks he'll be unable to find Jedidiah's journals again and conditions will never improve for him. The man cuts his cheek to fill the room with his own blood in order to see the journals' location and provides Sydney with a cryptic description which may presumably guide him towards them. At the last minute, Sydney asks the man his name, to which he simply responds "Up and Adam". Later, when the campers undergo their mandatory astral projection training, Sydney attempts to join in. He only manages to lose himself in the visions, but he is unbothered by this, stating that the visions produced by nightmare powder never manage to scare him thanks to how much he has already actually been through. After evening announcements, he climbs through his office vent into the Catacombs. Upon reaching the tunnels, he quickly becomes delirious from lack of oxygen as he searches for the journals. He eventually stumbles upon a large, diseased looking plant containing the journals in its vines. He gets the journals down from the vines, but a strange feeling overcomes him and he quickly becomes panicked and searches for a way out.

FILE 29. The Eggs of a Basket Case

Sydney files for a day's leave with Lucille, which he uses to meet with the Elephant Man. He hands over Jedidiah's journals and in return, Elijah proceeds to explain his anger with Jedidiah. During the story, Sydney falls asleep due to Elijah's powers and is startled when he proceeds to wake him up with aggression. When Elijah reveals his plans for a ritual where Sydney will be loved the way he deserves to be, Sydney panics and runs away, although Elijah promises that he will find him wherever he goes. He returns to the Nurse's Building as Jedidiah is in the middle of evening announcements and takes over for him, although he is still clearly rattled by his encounter. He later turns on the ghost recorder again, stating only that he has decided to sleep in his room with Jedidiah again.

FILE 31. The Nurse is Building a Pyre

Sydney begins his morning announcements by apologizing to the campers for his absence and general failure to show how much he cares for them. He retracts his previous statements in which he'd insinuated that the Elephant Man may not be a threat, although he takes care to hide what brought him to this conclusion, crediting it to his bonfire visions instead. After Elijah comes to the camp and rallies the campers in chanting praise for their "Muse", he urges the campers to cling to any feelings of discomfort it may have instilled in them and try to maintain their autonomy, while reassuring them that the manipulation they were victims of was not their fault. That night, he reflects on the way he was bullied as a child because his peers did not understand that although he had food to eat, he was still badly malnourished. He expresses feeling the same way in the present with love, noting how being worshipped is not the same as being cared for as a person. He is interrupted by Jedidiah, who proceeds to ask what actually happened when he met with Elijah. Sydney describes the way he put his better judgment aside out of desperation once Elijah showed actual interest in him and expresses his need for Jedidiah to finally treat him as an equal who he actually wants to spent time with without simply abandoning him as he habitually does.

FILE 32. The Pyre of the Muse

Sydney and Jedidiah put the nurse's office on semi-lockdown to protect Sydney from potential kidnapping by Elijah and no campers are permitted inside unless escorted by Jedidiah. The two are on better terms with each other, seemingly having had a constructive conversation on how to fix the state of their relationship after the events of the previous episode. During afternoon announcements, Sydney is alarmed to see Elijah maskless staring at him through his office window. He desperately clings to consciousness as he asks any counselors to help him. Just as he begins to believe nobody will help him, Jedidiah bursts in and scares Elijah away with a gun he stole from Lucille. As he recovers, Sydney asks Jedidiah for a hug to comfort him and makes fun of his hugging skills. During evening announcements, he witnesses the campers of Cabin Dung Beetle as they prepare to pour a jar of nightmare into the Bonfire. He runs from his office to stop them, but he is too late. In the midst of the commotion, he is subdued by Elijah, who proceeds to carry him into the woods to proceed with the ritual.

FILE 33. The Muse of the Elephant

Sydney is unconscious atop the pyre as it is lit and Elijah begins the ritual. In the parts of Jedidiah's journal that are read for the ritual, various details about Sydney's life before camp are revealed. In the first entry (dated August 24, 2019), Jedidiah describes his various visits to Sydney while he was in a coma at a hospital. In the second entry (dated August 9, 2018), Jedidiah describes the notes left in a journal of Sydney's which he found upon breaking into his dorm. The notes describe ways of affecting the world indirectly using thoughts and feelings, although Jedidiah would "barely consider it magic" and doesn't believe it is sufficient to match the level of magic he knew Sydney was capable of. When Elijah's powers are weakened by the effects of reading the journals, Sydney takes advantage of the opportunity and pushes him off the pyre. He responds to Elijah's complaints of offense by yelling, finally expressing his hatred towards him. He wakes up in the Nurse's Building, and Jedidiah explains how Elijah went insane and escaped, although the journals seem to have been destroyed. Sydney finally receives confirmation from Jedidiah that he died in October of 2018. Sydney is unhappy when Jedidiah refuses to provide any information aside from the fact that he both caused and reversed Sydney's death. However, he becomes more sympathetic when Jedidiah reveals that understanding exactly what he did seems to kill anyone else, as he'd witnessed firsthand with his own father's death. When Jedidiah mentions having tested all the information he'd just given on Elijah first to ensure it wouldn't kill Sydney, Sydney is disturbed by how willing he seems to kill him. Jedidiah is concerned himself about how willing Sydney is to defend a man who tried to kill him, although Sydney argues that both men had intended to kill him with the end goal of extending his life. The conversation shifts, and Jedidiah admits to wanting to be in a relationship with Sydney but not feeling as though he deserves it. When Sydney argues that it might as well happen because they both want it, Jedidiah formally asks him out, and he says yes. Sydney then asks him to play chess, but they settle on cards instead.

FILE 34. The Elephant in the Room

Sydney gives the day's announcements for the last time of the Summer. He apologizes to the campers for the ways they were made involved with the Elephant Man's plot against their will and promises that he is gone for good. He personally wishes each of the counselors (even Joshua) goodbye before saying a final goodbye to the campers.

## Trivia

* Sydney's initials are S.O.S., a reference to the common distress code of the same initials.
* There was one year in middle school where he only listened to Limp Bizkit’s “Break Stuff” on repeat, traumatizing Jedidiah and destroying his thoughts on Sydney's music taste.
* Sydney names his worms Warrior Cat names such as Firestar and Silverwolf. He regularly sets up little scenes and plays "Warrior Worms" with them.
* If Sydney was a Dungeons & Dragons character, he would be a druid moon priest and his stats would be: 2 strength, 7 dexterity, -4 constitution, 11 intelligence, 19 wisdom, and 10 charisma.
* The summer of 2021 is Sydney's third summer working at Camp Here & There.
* Sydney writes poetry.
* Sydney likes to sew.
* Sydney did not graduate medical school.
* In high school, Sydney was voted "Most Likely To Get Killed As Consequence Of Reckless Thirst For Forbidden Knowledge," a title he takes pride in to this day.
	+ This likely came true; Sydney's death and subsequent resurrection in late 2018 are hinted to be a result of Jedidiah's project, which Sydney may have learned too much about and died as a result.
* Sydney grows his own herbs, some of which are poisonous.
* Sydney is allergic to goo.
* Sydney cannot read analog clocks.
* Sydney was written with characteristics of Borderline Personality Disorder in mind; he is meant to have BPD.

## Official Art Gallery

By Blue MayfieldUploaded to instragram (@mayfieldandbelov) and twitter (@mayfieldnbelov) on August 11, 2021

By Blue MayfieldUploaded to instragram (@mayfieldandbelov) and twitter (@mayfieldnbelov) on August 11, 2021

Lineart by Blue Mayfield, Colors by EmeraldwhaleUploaded to instragram (@mayfieldnbelov) and twitter (@mayfieldnbelov) on August 11, 2021

By Blue MayfieldUploaded to instragram (@mayfieldandbelov) and twitter (@mayfieldnbelov) on August 11, 2021

By Blue MayfieldUploaded to instragram (@mayfieldandbelov) and twitter (@mayfieldnbelov) on August 11, 2021

By Blue MayfieldUploaded to instragram (@mayfieldandbelov) and twitter (@mayfieldnbelov) on August 11, 2021

By Blue Mayfield as part of the MAP casting call for Your Body, My Temple.
## Sources

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Mayfield and Belov. Camp Here And There Discord. April 22, 2021.
2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 Mayfield and Belov. Twitch Livestream. June 10, 2021. https://www.twitch.tv/mayfieldandbelov
3. ↑ Mayfield and Belov. Youtube Livestream. July 30, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCtaUnWhViY
4. ↑ Season 1 Episode 18: The Hive of Anxiety
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Season 1 Episode 12: The Love of Mother
6. ↑ Season 1 Episode 21: The Boys of Secrets
7. ↑ Season 1 Episode 13: The Mother of Stones
8. ↑ Season 1 Episode 14: The Stones in Toilets
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Season 1 Episode 1: The Beginning of the End
10. ↑ Season 1 Episode 6: The Norms of the World
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Season 1 Episode 22: The Secrets of the Woods
12. ↑ Season 1 Episode 16: The Reality of Hallucination
13. ↑ [1]
14. ↑ Season 1 Episode 15: The Toilet of Reality
15. ↑ Season 1 Episode 4: The Prophecy of Reversal
16. ↑ Season 1 Episode 3: The Squall of Prophecy
17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Season 1 Episode 7: The World of Goo
18. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x\_dTE7ApI6Q&ab\_channel=Mayfield%26Belov