he would totally have instagram or something and have one singular post containing various fish photos

he also wears socks and flip flops. This is also fact and 100% canon

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Camp Here & There (Podcast)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Relationships: Rowan Chow/Juniper Sloan, Rowan Chow & Juniper Sloan

Characters: Rowan Chow, Juniper Sloan

Summary:

With Camp Here & There closed at the end of the summer, only Rowan is left to bring the last salmon delivery down to the penguins living beneath the campgrounds - and he's determined not to do it alone, this time.

~

i did it! i fuckin WROTE FANFICTION and POSTED IT on the FANFICTION WEBBED SITE

When Sydney asks Rowan why he chose Juniper of all people. Rowan’s immediate response is that he makes him laugh, and he goes on to explain how Juniper is nice to him but doesn’t treat him like “that” which is in italics in the transcript but I can’t figure out how to replicate that on tumblr. Regardless, his emphasis on the word “that” implies a deeper meaning that he cannot sum up into words properly, so he just leaves it as “that.” He even says that Sydney was treating him like “that” just now. He describes the way that Juniper interacts with him as Juniper not making a big deal out of his episodes and just giving him what he needs and making jokes until he laughs to make it easier. The whole time he’s talking, there’s an unspoken word underlying what he’s saying: normal.

That’s the vibe I got from that sequence anyway, Rowan likes Juniper because Juniper doesn’t baby him or coddle him or treat him like a nuisance like many of the other staff members do. He treats him like he would treat anyone else and accepts Rowan’s episodes as a part of daily life that they can find ways to deal with. When you have some kind of chronic condition, at least for me, you start getting used to it after a while and it sucks but other people pitying you or feeling bad about it just feels really weird. (That’s my perspective on it anyway from someone with Tourettes). I doubt that Rowan wants people to see him as the guy who has panic attacks about the sky all of the time.

Which, actually is really interesting from a narrative perspective because his first major role in the plot is introduced to us via him having prophecies of doom about the sky. The first thing that we as the listeners learn about this character is what essentially is his disability. And we’re encouraged to find it funny as well considering the way it’s described to us, with Sydney giving us dramatic details about his dramatic gazing into the sky and subsequent running around camp and screaming about the oncoming apocalypse. Especially since we as the listeners know that obviously the world wasn’t going to end that early in the series, we had more episodes to listen to after all. But after Rowan gets his own speaking roles in the series where he gets to use his voice for himself, we see that he’s more than just the skittish prophetic weatherman. In fact, when he isn’t in the midst of a vision, he’s one of the more chill and down to earth characters. Which is a wild statement but I mean, look at the other people around him. Next to someone like Juniper he looks downright normal.

And once again we return to Juniper and thus Rowaniper, and thus its comparison to Sydney and Jedidiah’s relationship. While Rowan is happy to be treated normally by Juniper, Sydney gets anything but that from Jedidiah. Jedidiah is constantly worried about Sydney and freaks out about his well being all of the time. He makes big deals out of every little thing that Sydney does in fear that something will happen to him.

On top of that, Jedidiah is both his caretaker and his partner. While in some situations I’m sure that people have found ways to make that sort of situation work, it’s very difficult, and Sydney and Jedidiah are a bit of a mess for it. Jedidiah treats Sydney exactly the way that Rowan means by “that.” It seems like Sydney feels pitied in his relationship, and Jedidiah is constantly sacrificing everything for his wellbeing as well as being consumed by guilt because Sydney’s condition is in part his fault. But Sydney doesn’t want to be treated like “that.” Sydney wants a partner on his own level. He wants Jedidiah to see him as a person and not a broken doll to be fixed.

I firmly believe that disabled and mentally ill people can be loved and have fulfilling relationships, and especially since while conditions can improve, they often won’t ever be fully healed and go away completely. So people shouldn’t feel like they have to live their lives without romantic love if they don’t want to while they wait for some perfect cure that will never come. However, someone’s romantic relationship also can’t be their entire support system and it seems that’s what Jedidiah views himself as in relation to Sydney. He’s said that he’s all that Sydney has. And while Sydney seems to often feel this way as well, it’s not true. As Rowan said in this episode, he, and many of the other people at camp will be there to support him. Sydney is not alone. And if Sydney and Jedidiah could work on creating a more stable power balance in their relationship that isn’t exploited, maybe the two of them could work out.