The Elephant Man

ENTITY 9 (formerly)
Pink Elephant Guy (FILE 22)

The Elephant Man is a cryptid-like figure and the main antagonist of season one of Camp Here & There.

## Physical Appearance

Mayfield & Belov describe him physically as:

* "The tall, gangly weirdo in the bloodstained scrubs and the pink elephant mask."
* "Very tall and rather thin, he usually covers his entire face with a pink, cartoon elephant mask — underneath it he’s got wide, brown eyes; a truly dazzling smile; and a mop of unkempt, chin-length blond hair, all full of twigs and leaves and cave dirt."
* He is described as exclusively wearing, "A pair of old, dirty nursing scrubs underneath a cheap, purple "wizard cloak" from what appears to be a costume store. And a plastic, pink mask of a cartoon elephant."
* "The Elephant Man['s ass] is moderately fat."
* His skin is described to be covered in tiny scars and scrapes from running into thorny bushes

## Personality

Mayfield & Belov describe his personality as:

* "Who is this dude?"
* "He mostly skulks around the forested outskirts of the campgrounds, but from time to time someone will claim they saw him peering in through a cabin window or sneaking out the back of the cafeteria. Not to mention the reports of personal effects going missing — could it all be connected? Until we figure out what this guy's deal is, be careful about wandering around the campgrounds."
* "The Elephant Man lives in the forest, where he presumably spends his time performing his wicked rituals and hatching his wicked schemes."
* "Oh, and don't mind the blood - it's not his!"

## Chthonic Aptitude

The Elephant Man is described as having "chthonic aptitude." Chthonic means: concerning, belonging to, or inhabiting the underworld. However, Mayfield and Belov have stated that the meaning of this word within the podcast is slightly different. When asked what the Elephant Man did that displayed chthonic aptitude, they stated it was based on the effects he had on Sydney O. Sargent and Marisol Yuchengco. Aptitude is defined as the natural ability to do something.

## Relationships

### Sydney

Sydney O. Sargent 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. Their next run-in occurs when he catches The Elephant Man stealing Marisol's tea set, and when The Elephant Man looks at him and moves his mask aside, Sydney collapses to the ground, under some kind of psychic influence. It is implied that The Elephant Man often comes to Sydney's window in the nurse's cabin, but on one occasion the power in the cabin goes out, causing The Elephant Man to have a breakdown and run away screaming. While Sydney is trapped outside of camp in the woods, The Elephant Man finds him and invites him for tea. When Sydney does have tea with The Elephant Man, he reveals that he views Sydney as God, and has been worshiping him as such. During this conversation, he also says that he is in love with Sydney, and finally requests that Sydney steal Jedidiah's journals for him, saying that he will show him a love he has never known.

### Marisol

Marisol Yuchengco has a couple run-ins with The Elephant Man and seems to have been the first person at Camp Here and There to meet him. When this happened, she experienced an intense and nearly blinding fervor. She later tackles him to the ground while he is approaching Sydney with extended arms, causing him to run away. During a mediation session with  Salem, she expresses fear of The Elephant Man, saying that she believes that he is a potential threat to the camp.

### Other

* Jedidiah A.A. Martin: The Elephant Man is shown to have a very negative opinion of Jedidiah. It goes to the point where The Elephant Man tries to manipulate Sydney against Jedidiah.
* Lucille Bertuccelli: Lucille has been asked multiple times by both Sydney and Jedidiah to do something about The Elephant Man, however she is reluctant to do anything about him and ignores the problem for a while. Lucille only does something a while after Jedidiah demands she takes action.

## Character History

### Season One

In The Beginning of the End, Sydney delivers a morning announcement warning campers about the "...man in the pink elephant mask lurking in the forest." This describes the Elephant Man as "...not too short and not too old, but definitely extremely zealous." It also details Marisol's experience with The Elephant Man, during which she experienced an intense and nearly blinding fervor. It is unknown where this announcement came from. That same day, The Elephant Man goes into Sydney's office, bypassing locked doors, and menacingly eats all of Sydney's worms. During this, Sydney experiences a sense of deep complacency, seemingly due to The Elephant Man's presence.

In The Squall of Prophecy, Sydney states that he has been seeing The Elephant Man everywhere and believes this may be a sign that he is experiencing hallucinations again (although he quickly dismisses this, as The Elephant Man seems different from his past hallucinations).

In The Norms of the World, Sydney reports his encounter with The Elephant Man in the evening announcement. He explains that while he was picking flowers outside Cabin Grasshopper, he saw The Elephant Man steal Marisol's tea set. Sydney felt sluggish, and subsequently collapsed after The Elephant Man revealed part of his face from under the mask. The Elephant Man stared at Sydney for a long time, then slowly lowered himself and extended his arms towards him. Soon after, Marisol tackled him to the ground, and The Elephant Man ran away.

In The Goo of Friendship, The Elephant Man is Sydney's first suspect for who might have stolen his diary tapes for the week.

In The Enemies of Labor, Sydney says in his nightly injury report that he still sees The Elephant Man all the time in his peripheral vision. Despite the fact that so far, The Elephant Man has proven harmless, he still is very upset and uncomfortable every time he sees him. He also hypothesizes that some more recent stealing around the camp may not be The Elephant Man, but rather campers using the increased thievery to get away with taking things from each other. This is due to the most recent items going missing being much more arbitrary, including things like snacks, games, notebooks, and clothing.

In The Labors of Love, Sydney accuses the campers of using The Elephant Man's rash of thefts to steal each other's things and shift the blame. He asks them to please stop doing this so that he can better keep track of what The Elephant Man is actually stealing. When Cabin Dungbeetle's seemingly indestructible tower disappears after the tower-building contest, Sydney's theory is that it was picked up and stolen by The Elephant Man during the chaos of the counselor fight.

In The Love of Mother, Lucille promises Sydney that, if given time, she will do something about The Elephant Man.

In The Mother of Stones, The Elephant Man finds the rabbit that Soren reanimated, picks it up, and tries to enthrall it like he usually does people and animals, but it doesn't work. This freaks The Elephant Man out, leading him to retreat and spy on the rabbit from a distance.

In The Stones in Toilets, when the children of Cabin Dungbeetle attempt to go clean the goo-covered bathroom, they run back out immediately, saying that they encountered The Elephant Man inside and refusing to re-enter. However, once this occurs, Salem volunteers to go in and search for him, but after spending a few hours in the maze-like tunnels of the bathroom, she concludes that The Elephant Man was never there at all, and perhaps the children lied about seeing him to shirk their responsibilities. Sydney believes the children, since The Elephant Man must be using some bathroom somewhere, but Salem refuses to budge on her stance. This sows discord among the campers and counselors, leading Sydney to sing The Camp Cooperation Song.

In The Reality of Hallucination, Sydney initially suspects that The Elephant Man could be behind the campwide exhaustion that everyone is experiencing but is proven wrong when someone spots The Elephant Man stumbling into camp and collapsing into a face-first nap on the ground. As soon as time is moving normally again, The Elephant Man jolts up and runs away into the woods again, stealing nothing. Later that evening, he approaches Sydney's window, and suddenly the power goes out in the nurse's cabin. When this happens, The Elephant Man starts yelling and clutching his head, and runs back into the woods, screaming.

In The Hallucination of the Hive, several campers and counselors witness The Elephant Man lurking in the underbrush throughout Lake Day. Later, while patrolling the far shore of the lake, Mila witnesses him shaking a beehive, and when he sees her, he makes a shushing motion and gestures with the hive back towards the camp. Shortly after, a storm of very excited bees flies into the camp, stinging many campers. Later that day, Jedidiah tells Sydney that the bees were just a distraction, and while everyone was distracted, The Elephant Man snuck into the nurse's cabin and rifled through his drawers, seemingly trying to steal one of his journals. This prompts Jedidiah to start to see The Elephant Man as a real threat.

In The Hive of Anxiety, Marisol, Salem, and Jedidiah try to bring up The Elephant Man as potentially having something to do with the hypnotic hive during the camp-wide staff meeting but are shot down quickly by Lucille. Later, Lucille admits to Jedidiah that she has been aware of The Elephant Man since he appeared at camp, but she doesn't seem to see him as a real threat. Despite this, she promises Jedidiah try to get rid of him.

In The Boys of Secrets, The Elephant Man asks Sydney to come to the altar and have tea with him so that he can explain himself, and Sydney decides to take him up on the offer. However, on his way through the woods, he gets lost, and then falls asleep, so he doesn't actually meet The Elephant Man.

In The Secrets of the Woods, The Elephant Man finds Sydney and brings him to the tower that he stole to have tea. All of the stolen things 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.

In The Wood of the Caskets, many of the things that The Elephant Man previously stole are returned to the campers by being left on their doorsteps in the middle of the night. Lucille also begins to have her Friends-of-the-Oak patrol the outskirts of camp as a precaution against The Elephant Man. During his injury report, Sydney listens back to the conversation he had with The Elephant Man and reflects on the feelings he had during it and whether or not he's being manipulated or having his control taken from him.

In The Clock of Meantime, The Elephant Man and Sydney meet in the middle of the night at the outskirts of the forest. The Elephant Man once again encourages him to steal Jedidiah's journals, and when Sydney expresses that he cannot do this because he no longer knows where they are, The Elephant Man reassures him that he knows he will find away, and he just has to have more faith in himself. He then leaves, although Sydney seems to have more to say to him.

In The Meantime with Eggs, part of the reason that Lucille mandates camp-wide astral projection training is because it is believed that The Elephant Man's abilities rely on sight, so if campers see him, they should be able to leave their bodies and be immune to his psychic influence.

In The Eggs of a Basket Case, The Elephant Man and Sydney meet again, and Sydney gives him Jedidiah's journals. Elijah invites him to sit down for a meal and eats raw meat that he implies he has killed himself. He takes off his mask, rendering Sydney drowsy, and tells him that he is going to tell him the truth. This is a story about "The Architect," a scientific man that fell in love with another man and used his knowledge of bodies and machines to cheat his love's death. It becomes clear that the resurrected man that Elijah is talking about is Sydney, as he refers to him as "you." Sydney begins to drift off to sleep, and Elijah becomes angry and slams the table, waking him back up and resuming the story. He tells Sydney that his job is to immortalize Sydney's beauty as The Prophet. He begins talking about making Sydney an eternal, perfect Muse, and organizing followers like cattle to worship him, and Sydney becomes uncomfortable and leaves. Elijah says, "see you at the ceremony!" as he leaves.

In The Basket Case of the Nurse's Building, Jedidiah leaves the mediation session he was leading to see Elijah standing on a rooftop, proselytizing to seemingly hypnotized campers about the power and importance and blessing of someone who he refers to as "Our Muse." All the viewers chant "Our Muse! Our Muse!" and he invites them to a ceremony the next day to venerate this Muse.

In The Nurse is Building a Pyre, Sydney describes what happened to lead to the Elephant Man's sermon from the previous episode. He explains that The Elephant Man snuck into camp and climbed onto the roof of Cabin Dung Beetle, and everyone gathered into a crowd around him. He whipped them all into a frenzy praising the muse he spoke of, and for hours there was revelry and worship of this idol. Later in the day, Sydney tells Jedidiah about his meetings with the Elephant Man, explaining that he showed him love and care that he hadn't felt in years when they had meals and tea together, which is what made him keep going back and believing in his love even though he knew it was wrong and dangerous.

In The Pyre of the Muse, Elijah is seen repeatedly by campers throughout the day, not acting skittish as usual but rather simply staring at passersby and giving off small amounts of the energy he elicits. In the middle of afternoon announcements, he begins staring maskless at Sydney through his office window. Sydney is on the verge of falling asleep when Jedidiah appears and scares Elijah off with a gun. When the campers of Cabin Dung Beetle later pour nightmare powder into the Bonfire, Elijah takes advantage of the fear the entire camp is experiencing to rally them to his cause. His powers effectively cancel out the horrible visions caused by the bonfire, which he uses to gain their trust. He then carries Sydney into the forest while guiding the rest of the camp behind him in order to begin the ritual. However, his powers seem to have no effect on Jedidiah, and he is left behind from the congregation.

In The Muse of the Elephant, Elijah finally attempts his ritual. He preaches to the congregation about the need to worship Sydney, but he is interrupted by Jedidiah. Elijah removes his mask and the two argue over whether either truly cares about Sydney until Elijah shows he has Jedidiah's journal. Jedidiah pleads for him not to read the journal for the sake of the children's safety, but he is interrupted when Elijah has some of his brainwashed congregants drag him away. The pyre is lit, and he proceeds to read various entries from Jedidiah's journals. One of the entries describes Sydney's time in a coma in 2019, and it is revealed that Elijah was a nurse who cared for him. Jedidiah notes that Elijah is the only nurse he ever saw caring for Sydney, and he consistently showed possessive behavior towards Sydney every time Jedidiah went to visit him. The content of the journals gradually weakens him, loosening his control of the camp. Sydney takes advantage of this weakness and pushes Elijah off the pyre, which he takes great offense to. As he is caught off guard, Jedidiah holds a mirror in front of his face. The sight of his own reflection leads him to lose all control of himself and he begins to scream with panic, his Russian accent on full display. As Jedidiah tells Sydney later, Elijah's effect was fully broken once he saw his reflection. He was intended to be detained at camp by Lucille, but he managed to escape. Prior to his escape, Jedidiah sits Elijah down and tells him various details of his life over the past three years in order to ensure it would not kill Sydney to hear them, and the information seems to offend him.

In The Elephant in the Room, Lucille tells Jedidiah about what is supposedly the first time she encountered Elijah. She describes how she was working in her office one Winter years before the nurses began working at the camp when Elijah walked in with a knife and demanded to know where Sydney was. Lucille had no idea where he was and told Elijah as much, but he continued to beg and threaten her until she promised that she would tell him if she ever saw Sydney again. She claims she never did tell Elijah where to find Sydney, as he was bound to find him eventually with his level of determination.

## Trivia

* Diversity win! The Elephant Man is gay! #pride
* The Elephant Man has a canonical religion, after Episode 22 it has been confirmed that The Elephant Man has a religion centering Sydney Sargent, who he calls "his muse".
* The Elephant Man graduated medical school. He currently does not have a license to practice. However, he did not get his medical license revoked; he lost it in the woods.
* Two of the themes that are set to revolves around The Elephant Man are unreality and being drunk.
* The Elephant Man writes poetry.
* If The Elephant Man was a dungeons and dragons character, he'd be a warlock with 15 strength, 16 dexterity, 10 constitution, 15 intelligence, 8 wisdom, and 18 charisma with a permanent advantage on charisma checks.
* "The first Elephant Man enemies to lovers story will be released in June, and it will be called Camp Here & There" -Belov
* The Elephant Man's laugh sounds like a Disney Prince.
* If The Elephant Man were to play Among Us, he would be the type to leave the match if he didn't get impostor. Yes, that's literally something they said.
* The Elephant Man bathes in the river.

## Gallery

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 1.5 1.6 Mayfield and Belov. Camp Here And There Discord. July 17, 2021.
2. ↑ Mayfield and Belov. Twitch Livestream. June 10, 2021. https://www.twitch.tv/mayfieldandbelov
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Season 1 Episode 1: The Beginning of the End
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Season 1 Episode 6: The Norms of the World
5. ↑ Season 1 Episode 16: The Reality of Hallucination
6. ↑ Season 1, Episode 21: The Boys of Secrets
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Season 1, Episode 22: The Secrets of the Woods
8. ↑ Season 1 Episode 15: The Toilet of Reality
9. ↑ Season 1 Episode 22: The Secrets of the Woods
10. ↑ Season 1 Episode 12: The Love of Mother
11. ↑ Season 1 Episode 23: The Wood of the Caskets
12. ↑ Mayfield and Belov Youtube Q&A. July 30, 2021.

(Art by @Infini on tumblr)