Writing

In his free time that isn’t already monopolised by pushing himself to learn more or fussing over his pets, Tyson likes to write stories.

When he was younger, Tyson used to create stories around the things he needed to memorise for various lessons to help himself visualise them, when the information wasn’t easily transformable into a map format.

He used to create stories around the people he watched with Sebastian whilst doing recon on an area to help him memories everything that happened, and now Tyson applies the same technique to stakeouts for the web. He makes sure to exaggerate to an extreme degree, so that he doesn’t mistake the story for what actually happened.

Tyson also composes stories for his nephew’s entertainment. Theoretically, they are not at all related to the things Jethro doesn’t want his son to know about, but Tyson sprinkles in the hints James is looking for. He knows how dangerous curiosity can be and Tyson knows how to reveal just enough to abate that curiosity.

Other times Tyson will set a randomised world in the Sims to play and construct a story for James around the things that happened.

Reading People

Tyson isn’t good at reading people.

However, he isn’t as bad at reading people as he seemed to be.

When Tyson is acting on his gut instincts to make it out of a situation safely, Tyson will make the right call over ninety percent of the time, but he can never ever explain why or how it was the right decision.

When his back isn’t to the wall, Tyson overthinks and second-guess himself too much; musing on every possible contingency until its too late and he panics out whatever thought was the last one rattling around his head; sometimes he gets it right and sometimes it blows up in his face.

Though Tyson grew up with an isolating childhood that meant he missed several key socialisation skills as a child, he also survived an abusive childhood and, relatively, safely navigates his way through a criminal empire.

The social intricacies don’t go over his head completely, but Tyson ends up feeling as though he’s projecting rather than reading the situation - further compounded by the ways his thoughts and feelings are literally projected onto people by his Synesthesia - and then he talks himself out of the right answer.

He has built up hundreds of phrases to fall back on, so Tyson can usually navigate his way through a conversation with those.

Complicated situations with many factors pouring together with multiple people are actually easier for him, because he can trust his reading of the dynamic and tone much better than his reading on an individual. Tyson survives. That is what he does. He knows how to carve out a niche for himself and thrive there. To do that Tyson has to know where niches exist.

Crying

Tyson doesn’t cry that often.

He’s good at holding that back and stopping at his eyes watering, but once his control breaks and he starts (truly) crying Tyson can’t stop until he’s empty. Even as a child, Tyson had far too much control when it came to keeping himself silent and presentable.

When crying is a result of intense physical pain or sensory overload, Tyson will ‘pretty cry’. Tears will run down his face, but Tyson will grit his teeth and seem otherwise fine. He knows how to push through physical pain and lock down that emotion. Even after getting shot, Tyson won’t cry.

The type of pain that causes Tyson to cry is the overwhelming type where he can’t survive off of Adrenalin. This mostly applies to the hypersensitive dent in his torso, when he isn’t running off the adrenaline from other wounds or fighting Sebastian, when he’s already under Sebastian’s thumb.

When it comes to sensory overload or a panic attack, Tyson doesn’t know why he ends up with tears on his face, but he knows that he doesn’t sob during them. It’s rare he could draw enough breathe for that during those moments.

When dealing with emotional pain, Tyson ugly cries. He has absolutely no poker face for what he’s feeling, but Tyson is good at controlling his emotions. Once that control breaks, Tyson shatters. He will cry until he has no more tears to give and then he’ll be dry sobbing for a while after that.