Pet Blindspot

One of the hardest - and yet easiest - ways to get past Tyson’s defences is by winning over his pets.

He puts a lot of faith into their judgement of a person when he’s doubting himself and noticing Lily or Bobby consistently getting between him and another person is a guaranteed way to make him turn tail.

The bond he shares with his animals is invaluable and he knows that it has saved his life multiple times, but Tyson is also aware that it leaves a blind spot in his guard. It’s one that he’s aware of and watching for, but also one that Tyson can easily stumble into.

Simply having his pets around lowers Tyson’s guard and makes him more malleable.

Tyson is Icarus

Tyger Tyger, burning bright, 
 In the forests of the night; 
   What immortal hand or eye, 
     Could frame thy fearful symmetry? 

In what distant deeps or skies. 
 Burnt the fire of thine eyes? 
   On what wings dare he aspire? 
     What the hand, dare seize the fire? 

Tyson is Icarus; and the Moriarty Mirrors, Moran, and Kim all work as his Apollo.

Our little Icarus would rather rip his own wings off, if it prevented them from getting clipped again or if he thought the cage door was closing. […] Tyson would rather fly free, and have the trust from someone else that he will always come back. That so long as the door remains open, Tyson will tumble in through the window instead.

He may, in fact, be completely incapable of stopping himself from showing off for a pretty face. […] If it will get him a second of the sun’s attention, our little Icarus will hurl himself off of cliffs - or, more accurately, rooftops - over and over again.

Our little Icarus knows that he’s going to burn himself up, and does it gladly, because - to him - it is entirely worth whatever pain may come to bask in the sun; whether that is The Colonel or the Moriarty Mirrors, Tyson will gladly take that leap of faith every time.

Tyson always knew that Kim would never be his to keep. […] It was fun. It was all just a game, and Tyson knew it would hurt like hell when it ended, but he treasures every precious moment with Kim. And he would do it all again.

The risk of burning up to bask in the warmth of the Moriarty Mirrors or The Colonel is a risk that Tyson will take every time without failure. Even in Tyson’s mind, it’s not a risk of burning up. He knows he will burn to make them happy, and Tyson is fine with that. He welcomes it with open arms. Our dear Icarus will not flinch from his fate.

…has a confusingly big heart and a kind disposition that cannot be changed so easily. […] He’d been burned again and again. And yet, Tyson still offered out his heart and compassion - his body and soul, for friendship and love, and even that old lady down the road with a barbed tongue and far too many shopping bags - not without caution, but a boneheaded determination to give until his confusingly big heart had nothing left to offer.

His instinct to survive is (almost) as strong Sebastian Moran’s to kill, and yet Tyson is thelimping walking embodiment of Icarus; a role he openly embraces with ‘calculates risks’ that avoid ever taking unnecessary risks.

He is just too stubborn to die and though he struggles to motivate himself, Tyson simply doesn’t stop once he starts. He keeps going until he has nothing left to give. […] His talent for picking himself up, though admirable, would be entirely unnecessary if Tyson didn’t keep putting himself in situations that knock him to the floor.

…somewhere in his heart, he’d accepted that the odds were stacked against him; that this would be his undoing. […] but Tyson never stopped trying. He refused to stop pushing himself to make that next step, to live for another day. It doesn’t matter if Tyson thinks he can’t, he will. He will survive and fight to his last. […] Brave, stupid, Tyson. Too damn stubborn to die, marching forward and refusing to fail. After all, he has to live to see that new day. Tyson can’t throw his life away for someone else tomorrow if he lets himself die today.

“Icarus didn’t b-believe he’d fall. I knew I would, and did it a-anyway.” […] “That doesn’t sound wise to me, Sir,” Tyson countered, that devil-may-care smile unwavering. […] Despite his genuine pyrophobia, Tyson was but a moth to flame, and couldn’t that sum up his entire life? Tyson knew it was dangerous, knew it would hurt, and chased it anyway.

For all of Tyson’s humility and self-doubt in his own abilities, there is a level of hubris - of sheer, barefaced arrogance - in the way he plants his feet and say ‘I will burn to make this happen. Then I will do it again, and again, and again; until I have nothing left, and no one can stop me.’

Tyson took that leap of faith and survived it. He survived The Colonel. He licked his wounds. The story should have ended there. A lesson in hubris was learnt. Tyson’s heart, body, and mind were broken, but he lived to learn his own lesson rather than to be a cautionary tale.

Tyson took a different lesson from that. Not the usual, don’t fly too close to the sun, but rather: if you fly too close to the sun, you will be burn. You will hurt, and keep hurting forever, but you will survive and you caught the sun’s attention. For a brief moment, you shone together and made the sun happy, so go try again.

The arrogance to come limping back home, tail between his legs, and then to stare the sun in the face, haul his broken body up onto the roof, and jump again is intrinsically Tyson. He survived this once, he can survive it again. He survived The Colonel, he can survive the Moriarty Mirrors; probably.

And if he survives that attempt? Tyson will do it again.

But what if you die?

Then I die.

Tyson works himself to the bone. He is burning the candle at both ends, whilst trying to find a way to ignite the middle too; all whilst chastising himself for being too lazy, for not pushing himself harder.

All to prevent the Moriarty Mirrors from burning themselves out too soon by burning too brightly, Tyson throws himself wholeheartedly into trying to sustain them for a long as possible; no matter the emotional or physical toll on him. He taunts and stokes the fire of Moran’s anger to make sure Sebastian never loses that burning passion, because he would rather burn himself than watch Sebastian flicker away.

To Tyson, any sacrifice that he must make is worth it. He is confident in his ability to survive, to adapt and dust himself off afterwards, and he isn’t throwing his life away pointlessly. However, the knowledge that - eventually - it will kill him does not deter Tyson.

If it’s the next leap of faith or the leap two hundred attempts from now that will kill him, it does not matter. So long as Tyson knows that he gave it his all. That he never stopped trying to seize that fire, to cradle it to his chest and protect it, no matter how much it hurt to do so.

And the part that proves without a shadow of a doubt that Tyson is Icarus? He knows that he is. Tyson will gladly admit that. Not somberly resigned to an inescapable fate. No. He does not flinch from duty.

Tyson says ‘I am Icarus. I will gladly burn myself up to bask in the sun’ with a cavalier - devil-may-care - smile. Cocksure and arrogant. Proud in his inevitable demise. He welcomes this fate, openly embraces it. He is galvanised by it.

He leaps, and dares the world to do its worst. He is not afraid. He’s ready.

Prickly

Tyson has a poor habit - that he would argue is a survival tactic - of pushing people away, to make himself as prickly as possible if he thinks they’re getting too close, to prevent himself from getting hurt and to avoid others getting hurt by associating with him.

All too often, Tyson can be accused of lashing out in fear, but more often than that, he puts a hard wall between other people and himself by being standoff-ish. He is rarely outright mean, but Tyson will be more dismissive and keen to pick a fight if he fears someone is getting too close; someone that he can’t immediately run from, for whatever reason.

As often is the case with almost everything Tyson does, he ends up hurting himself most of all with that behaviour, but that has never been a mark against a plan in Tyson’s skewed perception.

Fighting Style

Though Tyson can appreciate the discipline of martial arts and has dabbled in a few different fighting techniques, he generally favours guerrilla street fighting.

Generally speaking, Tyson focuses on strikes against nerve/vital points, but even then, he doesn’t stick to a singular style of fighting. Even when he’s trying to improve on a particular area, Tyson is more instinctive in a fight and will end up jumping between styles regardless.

Something his drill Sargent in the army never stopped scolding him for. That adaptability and flexible is useful, but it also hamstrings Tyson’s ability to improve as a fighter. He has a niche that works for him; until it doesn’t, and that can be an Achilles heel.

That said, there are areas that can be pointed to as Tyson’s fighting style, without being a specific technique as they apply to the ways he will use multiple techniques to better suit his preferred flow of battle.

He favours fighting with his arms and blocking with his legs, and is more willing to risk damage to his legs. 

He likes to turn the odds in his favour and to use his environment to his advantage, such as his use of staircases.

He wants to wait for or create a golden opportunity, but failing that, Tyson is willing to wear down his opponent however he needs to.

He is more comfortable planting his feet in one place between bursts of movement. Stop and start fighting, rather than flowing from one movement to the next. 

Tyson wants to be darting in-and-out of the mid-to-close range. Defending until an opportunity opens, then doing as much damage as possible before waiting again. He’s an opportunity fighter. 

Knowledge. Emotion. Willpower.

Knowledge. Emotion. Willpower.

Oh where, oh where - does Tyson belong?

For all that Tyson has great control over his emotions, far too many of his decisions are led by his emotions. He doesn’t allow himself to be overwhelmed by his emotions easily, but he gives them far - far - too much weight in his decision-making process; especially his feelings around The Colonel and the Moriarty Mirrors.

Tyson has incredible willpower when it comes to survival, in being too stubborn to die and refusing to back down. However, Tyson does not have the willpower to make the decisions he knows are the right ones: to walk away from the web, from the Moriarty Mirrors and from The Colonel. His willpower is incredibly specifically focused.

But - in his heart of hearts - Tyson will always be a scholar. Endlessly curious.

He values knowledge above all else. He wants to learn, to discover new things and understand how they work. He wants to share knowledge, to see other people take previous knowledge and build upon it, or even tears its foundations down and build something better.

Awareness

For someone who is so crippling aware of himself at all times, Tyson has shockingly little self-awareness about the ways he undermines his own efforts.

Tyson is overly aware of himself and the things that he does, as well as everyone and everything happening around him, but he often seems completely oblivious to the motivations behind the things that he does.

Certain areas, such as anything around The Colonel or the Moriarty Mirrors, Tyson has a strong grasp on his own motivations. For almost anything else, Tyson lacks the self-awareness to understand why he does or does not care about something or someone.

He cannot see the wood for the trees.

Medication

No matter how much pain he is in at the time, Tyson is always reluctant to take painkillers; or medication in general.

His propensity to fight doctor’s orders aside, Tyson hates anything that takes control away from him and loathes the idea of becoming depending on anything else.

Tyson would rather grit his teeth through pain that threatens to make him black out than take painkillers. Unless he is in a dangerous situation where he needsto take painkillers to make it out alive, Tyson has to be strong-armed into taking his medicine.

Being the general hypocrite that he is, Tyson will never fail to remind Dick to take his anti-depressants or for Jethro to take his medication to recover from chemotherapy.

Assumptions

Given how much effort Tyson puts into making sure that others gain a false implication about who he is, Tyson is surprisingly quick to latch onto preconceived assumptions about people based on the words of other people.

Tyson trusts his gut to make a call about that person if the situation arises and Tyson is willing to change his view when necessary, but Tyson hasn’t survived so long by ignoring the information handed to him.

He tends to put more faith in an assertion of strength than weakness. Tyson knows from experience that its easier to appear weaker and less intelligent than one than to achieve the reverse.

If web contacts tell Tyson that someone isn’t dangerous, Tyson’s hackles immediately raise, but Tyson will generally accept the assessment of someone being dangerous.

Loyalty

Loyalty is Tyson’s greatest strength and his greatest weakness.

He is, quite literally, loyal to a fault. It will be his downfall.

Though he will continue to give until his confusingly big heart has nothing left to give, Tyson does not trust easily. He expects to get hurt and gives anyway. That in and of itself makes him vulnerable to manipulation.

What makes him more vulnerable is that once his trust is gained, it is near impossible to break his loyalty. His trust may be broken, but Tyson will still come when called and follow that person’s moral code as though it were his own. He will go to any length for those that he is loyal to.

The worst part is that Tyson knows this. Our little Icarus knows that he’s going to burn himself up, and does it gladly, because - to him - it is entirely worth whatever pain may come to bask in the sun; whether that is The Colonel or the Moriarty Mirrors, Tyson will gladly take that leap of faith every time.

Tyson would never believe for even a second that his loyalty isn’t a strength. He is glad that he cares, glad to plant his feet and hold fast in his ideals, but that doesn’t mean that Tyson is naïve about the way it causes him to expose his throat.

His loyalty is a strength. It makes his dependable. A good friend. Valuable to keep around. No matter how far he wanders, Tyson will always come home; just as loyal and dedicated as when he left. This earns his more freedom, in his utter obedience; if one chooses to ignore all the ways that he is disobedient.

The Moriarty Mirrors can tell Tyson with complete sincerity that ‘he is free to leave at any time’, because he never will. And they all know it. There is no danger in allowing Tyson to remove his leash. He will always come back. He will not betray them.

If Sebastian had shown that trust, things would have ended up differently.

That knowledge means that Tyson can be trusted to do as he likes. He isn’t chomping at the bit to rebel or waiting for an opportunity to run. He doesn’t need to be reminded of his place. Tyson knows it. He chose to be there. He is content there.

One day, his loyalty to dangerous, amoral people will get him killed.

It will be his downfall and Tyson is okay with that. Genuinely. He welcomes it.

Risk Verses Reward

Though Tyson weighs every risk against its reward, never taking an unnecessary risk and having a backup plan for every backup plan, Tyson’s interpretation of which risks are worthwhile is a little …off and his confusingly big heart betrays him every time.

The risk of fugu verses its deliciousness would not be worth it to Tyson as he generally dislikes having to eat anyway. In that case, the risk exists for the sake of a risk rather than any tangible reward for Tyson.

The risk of burning up to bask in the warmth of the Moriarty Mirrors or The Colonel is a risk that Tyson will take every time without failure. Even in Tyson’s mind, it’s not a risk of burning up. He knows he will burn to make them happy, and Tyson is fine with that. He welcomes it with open arms.

Our dear Icarus will not flinch from his fate.

He trusts in mathematics completely, he trusts his ability as a mathematician to weigh the odds in his favour, and minimise the risks. To mitigate them. He plays it safe. However, Tyson knows that his emotions will always override that reasoning. He will do everything he can to reduce the level of risk, to ensure he can survive the repercussions, but Tyson is compelled to make those risks if it will benefit another. Those risks become worthwhile.

Tyson would claim that the biggest risks he has ever taken were joining the army to spite his father and trusting The Colonel. Those were risks he took blindly - without thinking through the consequences and without accepting the cost before he paid it, as he accepted them when he chose to join the Moriarty Mirrors - but Tyson will never regret taking those chances.

For all his incredible talent to survive, Tyson sees any damage to himself as far less important as the risk that someone else might be briefly inconvenienced by him not endangering himself; an exaggeration of the situation, perhaps, but truer than Tyson would ever care to admit.

He won’t risk a hand in a game of cards, because Tyson can card count flawlessly and has removed practically all risk. He knows the outcome already, and any loss of money is meaningless to him regardless.

It is unnecessary for him to risk getting hurt by someone he suspects could be untrustworthy, especially after everything The Colonel put him through. However, Tyson will view it as entirely necessary to throw himself in the line of fire to protect a complete stranger from harm or slander.

It’s not that Tyson never takes a risk.

Tyson has an incredibly risky job and shockingly little self-preservation, self-worth. Tyson will never take an unnecessary risk, because Tyson has the skills to justify why every risk that must be taken and to make those risks near inconsequential; by going out of his way to ensure their success and his survival.

He takes calculated risks. The risks where Tyson deems the reward worth the danger it presents. Risks where Tyson is either completely confident in his ability to succeed or where Tyson has accepted the price that must be paid and deemed it worthy, whether he succeeds or fails.

Laughter

When Tyson laughs, it comes as a soft amused huff or a bark of laughter: shocking and brief, escaping before being clamped down again.

He dislikes how vulnerable laughing makes him. He’ll hide his laughter by smothering himself with his bicep.

His father used to snap at students for laughing during his lessons and at his heirs for disturbing him when he was marking papers or doing research, so Tyson got into the habit of keeping his laughter as quiet as possible and avoiding laughing openly.

Options

Tyson tends to get overwhelmed by having too many options, that aren’t related to a mission he needs to accomplish, and tends to prefer letting others make the choice instead.

Given a thousand options and variables to complete a mission for the web, Tyson will patiently work through them all until he finds the best one; or the one that would please the Moriarty Mirrors the most, whichever the case may be. The same could be said for his days in the army as a strategist.

In those cases, Tyson finds it much easier to make a decision, because it affects more than just himself. He has a responsibility to fulfil, rather than his own needs which Tyson will gladly leave to rot. He’ll make a decision if pressed, if Tyson has to make a choice, but he finds it uncomfortable.

His entire childhood Tyson was groomed to be a perfect heir to the Delaney family legacy. He was expected to follow his father’s footsteps and obey without argument. Then in his one spark of rebellion, Tyson ran away to join the conformity and obedience of the army.

Then Tyson found himself securely under Sebastian’s thumb, before becoming the loyal pet of the Moriarty Mirrors. Independent decisions, not hinging on what someone else wants or needs, are uncomfortable for Tyson to make. He never really learnt how to.

With food, this applies thrice over. He has an appalling low appetite anyway, so when Tyson is presented with too much food, he gets overwhelmed and loses all desire to eat. Especially if it’s a lot of foods with strong smells, then Tyson can end up with sensory overload all too easily.

Confusingly Big Heart

For all of his bountiful trust issues, Tyson is far too forgiving.

It’s summed up perfectly in this thread with flight-of-the-thieving-magpie:

What Jim finds more shocking than any of the rest of it - even the dent - is that having been bitten so badly so many times by dogs, Tyson is still so fond of them. Jim would not be nearly so tolerant. It says a lot about Tyson’s character, that he is willing to look past so much, to press on with his life and to continue facing things that by all rights should scare him or at least make him horridly uncomfortable. To have fondness for something, or someone, who has hurt him so badly is a clear sign to Jim that this man is either extremely stupid or has a confusingly big heart and a kind disposition that cannot be changed so easily. Already, Jim knows that he is not stupid.

It’s no wonder he’s been taken advantage of so easily.

And here with blackvclvct:

He’d been burned again and again. And yet, Tyson still offered out his heart and compassion - his body and soul, for friendship and love, and even that old lady down the road with a barbed tongue and far too many shopping bags - not without caution, but aboneheaded determination to give until his confusingly big heart had nothing left to offer. 

No matter what harm The Colonel does to him, Tyson will still come when he calls and will always love Sebastian Moran. No matter how much he despises the work he does for the Moriarty Mirrors, Tyson will jump through a thousand immoral hoops to please them. He is loyal to a fault.

Tyson isn’t dumb. He had always has an escape plan and a backup plan for every backup plan. He weights every risk against the reward, but Tyson has an odd reasoning for which risks are worthwhile and even if he’s bitten every time, Tyson will continue to offer his hand if there is even the slimmest chance of him helping someone else.

Once bitten, twice shy - yes, that is a core component of Tyson’s character. But Tyson still has to try. It’s compulsive. He can’t leave a friend behind. He can’t leave a good deed undone. With more caution, bandages and an escape route on hand, but Tyson will still put his hand out.

Happiness

At best, Tyson is - usually - content with his place in the world.

He hates himself, he hates the work that he does and knows that he isn’t getting a happy ending in this lifetime, but he is content to shoulder that burden, because Tyson loves the Moriarty Mirrors and he will sacrifice everything for those he loves. Especially himself.

Tyson doesn’t know what to do with happiness. Not truly. There are times when he is happy, naturally, but once he realises that he’s happy, Tyson will go out of his way to distance himself from it. To run away from it. Unless he’s already in too deep to avoid further damage. He has to be eased into happiness, like a turtle in a cooking pot.

A stupid, stupid turtle in a pot that could never hurt him. The idiot.

He thinks that he doesn’t deserve happiness. Afraid that he’ll break it, that it will shatter under his fingertips and hurt those he cares about. Tyson simply does not get nice things; not unless they were going to be ripped away from him. He would rather hurt himself now, to avoid later pain.

Tyson would rather distance himself - shove people away, snarl words that he doesn’t mean with a vitriol only ever meant for himself - than risk hurting someone else by being their bad luck charm. Happiness is overwhelming for Tyson and he doesn’t know to how to accept it without fear, without guilt.

This is most commonly overruled by Tyson’s loyalty. He is loyal to a fault. No matter how much it hurts him, he won’t abandon those he cares about. Once Tyson cares, no matter how afraid he is, he can’t abandon someone; even if he tries to distance himself, Tyson can’t stay away completely.

To Tyson, that is a sign of weakness. That he is being selfish and even more ‘proof’ that he doesn’t deserve that happiness in the first place, because Tyson isn’t a good person, he’s dangerous and being around people puts them at risk. He doesn’t want to put innocent people in the crosshairs.

Staying is a sign of weakness and proves he doesn’t deserve that happiness, whereas running shows that he’s too weak to have earnt that happiness; too weak to deserve it. It’s a no-win scenario. Whatever action Tyson takes, he will convince himself that he’s being a coward.