HISTORY | HEADCANONS | CONNECTIONS | SOUNDTRACK
* . °•★|•°∵ ∵°•|☆•° . ** . °•★|•°∵ ∵°•|☆•° . ** . °•★|•°∵ ∵°•|☆•° .
✧ basics;
Full Name: Sydney Dawn James
Nickname/Preferred Name: Sydney, Syd, Jamie
Age: thirty-three
Birthday: May 27, 1990
Zodiac: Gemini sun, Cancer moon, Gemini rising
Sexual Orientation: Pansexual
Relationship Status: Divorced/Single
Children: Sawyer James Beckett (b. 2015)
Religion: Spiritual but not religious
Neighborhood: Pillar Point Harbor
Occupation: sommelier & event planner
✧ background;
Place of Birth: Fairfield, CA
Hometown: Fairfield, CA
Education: Rodriguez HS (20xx)
✧ physical;
Faceclaim: Meghann Fahy
Eye Color: Blue
Hair Color: Blonde
Height: 1.62m (5'4")
Weight: 57kg (125 lbs)
Tattoos, Birthmarks, Scars, etc: tbd
✧ relatives;
Father: Clifford Lee James (b. 1945, m. 1971, d. 2008)
Father’s Status: Deceased
Father’s Occupation: English professor (Colorado Comm. College)
Mother: Bonnie Joyce 'Echo' Keller (b. 1946, m. 1971, d. 2011)
Mother’s Status: Deceased
Mother’s Occupation: Landscape painter
Siblings: Adrienne Joyce (b. 1979), Lance Lee (b. 1981)
✧ connections;
full listing
RJ Beckett, ex-husband (m. 2013-2018) ; @rjbeckett
Jackson Darby, younger piece of ass; @jackson-darby
✧ personality;
Positive Traits: curious, affectionate, outgoing
Negative Traits: restless, hypersensitive, dramatic
✧ personality assessments;
Zodiac: Gemini☀ | Aries ☾ | Gemini ↑
MBTI: ESFP-T (The Entertainer)
Enneagram: xxx
Love Language: xxxx
Harry Potter house: xxxx
✧ Timelines;
History/Biographical
Dash Chronology
✧ Headcanons;
Full page here
has an ongoing playlist of songs she dirty dances to at home
raised by members of the free-love generation and may not believe in lifelong monogamy as a sustainable concept
has developed a certain amount of cooking skill from being so adjacent to it with her job
✧ Biography | tw: toxic relationship, parent death, divorce
Sydney was born in Fairfield, California as the youngest ‘bonus baby’ of an English professor father and a painter mother. She has two older siblings, the closest in age being 9 years older than her.
In spite of his roots in academia, her father was the most supportive of Sydney’s wish to defer college and travel. He didn’t even get mad when she parlayed a waitressing gig into a more permanent job and worked her way up in the industry instead of going to college. That was probably because she was his favorite daughter, a fact which he never verbally confirmed, but was still pretty well-known.
While she loved having older parents, who had the time and desire for shared hobbies moreso than they’d had with their older children, it came at the emotional price of losing both her parents while she was still establishing herself. They died in quick succession when she was 18 and 21 years old, respectively, and it was very difficult, keeping her traveling as much as possible as a way to avoid her feelings. But that obviously couldn't last forever because there were practical matters to handle in Fairfield, and Sydney was the only James kid without a family of her own to manage. A lot of the final details selling on her parents' art and literature collections, and their home, fell to her as the one they'd chosen to be their executor for some reason.
Of all the relationships she’s had, a turbulent relationship with a much older guy in Spain prompted her return to the United States without a desire to get married or have children in a whole new ground zero. She’d been firmly on the fence before him and was a little more firmly ‘no’ after him.
During this stretch, she relied pretty exclusively on RJ Beckett, a slightly older son of her parents' closest friends. The relationship turned romantic pretty quickly for a lot of reasons and they got married within a couple of years when Sydney was just twenty-three, in spite of the hard heart she'd had when she returned home.
Their son, Sawyer James Beckett, was born two years later.
RJ's school and residency schedule was difficult to compete with; he was too busy competing with himself while Sydney was toiling in a career as a restaurant manager, feeling like she was raising their son almost alone. She started traveling in an effort to compensate and build her career at the same time. Though it worked professionally, she and RJ grew apart.
The final straw for Sydney was when one of her colleagues made a pass at her while she was in Italy; she didn't act on it, but she wanted to because the attention was such a rush. She returned home from the work trip and asked for a divorce.
She kept Becks with her while she worked her way up and built a reputation as a sommelier, falling in love with that aspect of restaurants and menus the most. While she'd never thought she wanted kids, he was honestly her favorite little buddy and she didn't mind homeschooling him at all when she could develop a world-based curriculum. Her job kind of allowed them to go all sorts of places in the world and she's almost envious of how worldly he is.
Co-parenting is never easy, but eventually she and RJ got into a rhythm of sorts. Depending on who could travel, they would meet up so RJ could spend one-on-one time with Sawyer as often as possible. Sydney kept a careful distance, though, still working through the mixed feelings of their split.
Once RJ was settled in his career and not moving around so much, he asked Syd to consider settling in San Francisco or somewhere close by so he can spend as much time as possible with Sawyer. She recognizes she's part of this equation, too, and that there are unresolved feelings. She's still not quite ready to jump back in with him, remembering a time in the not-so-distant past when she didn't think marriage was for her. In short, it's complicated, but she's here.
