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.

Tennis

Though he was a member of the tennis club at his secondary school, Tyson hated playing tennis. He only played because it made his brother happy to see Tyson playing the sport that their mother used to play.

His distaste for the sport didn’t stem from the association with his mother or loathing his trainer, as was the case with other sports that were forced on Tyson at a young age. Instead, Tyson simply found tennis boring to play. He still does. He can’t explain why, but it just never clicked with him like rugby and cricket did.

He was aware of the pressure in being the only player on his side, instead of part of a team, but that had never stood in the way of his enjoyment of fencing.

Tennis is simply one of those annoyance that Tyson cannot explain. It makes him bristle with unanswerable resentment. Not towards his mother or brother for asking him to play, but simply towards the monotony of the sport itself.

Friend of my friend

The idea of family is rather flexible for Tyson, but how far does he extend the idea of ‘friend of my friend is my friend’?

He doesn’t extend his trust easily, but Tyson cares deeply about his friends and - though he may not get along with friends of his friends and may not even remotely trust them - he will do anything for them; even if it means throwing his life on the line for their friends.

If any of his friends request that Tyson watches over or protects someone, he will do so in a heartbeat. He’ll push for answers about why and who they are, always a scholar in his heart of hearts and endlessly curious, but even if he was refuses answers, Tyson would still be willing to risk personal harm to protect his charges.

Army!Verse and Veteran AU

In army!verse, Tyson was never filled with guilt over the death of Captain Samson, because he lived through his wounds, so Tyson never became too close to Sebastian which means he is still serving in the army, when you meet him it will be during brief periods of time when he is deployed back home, or when he’s in active service in compounds or training service dogs in Turkmenistan.

Without the damage he suffered with The Colonel Tyson was never damaged in the way he is in his normal!verse which means that The Soldier doesn’t exist in this verse. This makes Tyson much more confident than he normally is in his main!verse. He isn’t cocky and is rather insecure about his scars, but he’s more accepting to interactions with other characters and rarely stutters.

In this verse Tyson doesn’t have Lily or Bobby but he does have a Welsh Boarder Collie called Meg that he got from a rescue shelter and Jack. In this verse Tyson still has the dent and all his other wounds but they happened for different reasons, most of which were in a landmine explosion. In this verse he doesn’t work for Jim nor does he run the pet store.

In this verse he gets around on his motorbike.

In this verse he switches between living in the family manor, thought obviously everything is much more up to date and in use since Tyson actually lives there now, and a house he owns a thirty minute drive outside of London, views of the house under the tag army home.

In this verse, the roles of the people Tyson served with also changed accordingly.

• Tyson never shot Melissa, but Emma still died in Moran’s escape.
• Michael was never killed by Sebastian and eventually retired.
• Samson continues to be Tyson’s direct superior within the First Bangalore Pioneers.
• Since John’s injury made him retire, Tyson does his best to keep in contact with Watson.
• Hannah’s retirement was the spark that ignited The Colonel’s escape.

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Sub-verse of army!verse
Involves: former military characters, Open to all,
↳ Veteran AU

In this sub!verse, after the landmine explosion that caused most of his scars/dents, Tyson recovered very slowly rather than bouncing back. He was deemed unfit for service and given a honourable discharge.

Tyson is on prescription medication to cope with the pain of the dent, but is slowly recovering. After months of flashbacks, during which Tyson refused to see anyone about them, Jethro forced his brother to see a specialist and the former Lieutenant was diagnosed with PTSD.

He spends most of his weekends looking after his nephew, James.

He lives in the army!verse house and has Meg & Jack in this verse too.

Within Veteran AU, Tyson has taken to rollerskating […] as a form of physical therapy in his recovery. He sometimes finds long walks difficult and rollerskating is an easier way for him to move around, Meg and Jack love to run after him like that.

In this verses, Tyson spends a lot of time at The Biscuit Tin and that is where he met Billy, who unofficially hired him to help out with her investigations. Largely Tyson is paid in cold brew coffee, confectionery, and whichever pretty boy Billy sends his way that month.

Less rather than more

Tyson frequently acts like something he isn’t to make people underestimate him, despite refusing to admit that he’s an underdog, and prefers to be seen briefly rather than completely invisible; leaving a false impression, rather than none.

It is incredibly rare that Tyson will pretend to have an ability or be something that he isn’t, that implies more knowledge than he has. Tyson is completely comfortable convincing people that he isn’t as smart as he actually is or that he isn’t as physically capable as he actually is.

However, Tyson hates the risk of giving the impression that he’s more talented. That impression can bite him in the arse much easier, especially if the wrong person is given that impression and needs to rely on him to provide something that Tyson isn’t capable of giving.

Uniform

Tyson always buys multiple versions of any clothes he purchases so that he can wear the same thing every day, like a uniform; like armour.

His tendency to pressure stim plays a role in this, but another part is that Tyson has spent years of his life wearing a uniform and separating different parts of his life by the clothes he was wearing.

What he chose to wear around the family manor during Sabbath wasn’t the same clothes that the Delaney family heir would be permitted to wear whilst his tutors were at the manor or whilst representing the family, at home or outside of the manor grounds. One of his few acts of rebellion was wearing his brother’s leather jacket.

Even when Tyson is dressing casually, he will choose specific shirts on days when he’s visiting the Moriarty Mirrors as opposed to sprawling across his settee with Bobby on his chest, both of which are entirely different to the casual clothes he’d pick for days when he intends to run a bunch of errands around London.

Taeko Dōjima

Dōjima ‘Tae’ Taeko (堂島 妙子)
↳ Local coffee-shop entrepreneur, amateur lion tamer.

The face claim for Tae is Naoko Mori.

Within walking distance of Tyson’s apartment is his favourite café in all of London: The Biscuit Tin, est. 1997. The Biscuit Tin was opened by 堂島 妙子 when she was only 28, and has been owned & operated by her ever since. Tae enjoys making tea and coffee, pastries, and cakes, but she loves making people happy with her tea and coffee, pastries, and cakes.

Originally Tyson was drawn to the shop because it was so close to his home and accepted dogs inside. He kept returning when he discovered that 妙 served Turkish brew coffee and his two favourite type of tea, Jasmine & Pomegranate and Peppermint & Nettle. Since then, Tyson and Tae have become good friends.

Technically Tae doesn’t make takeaway drinks, however, she always lets Tyson - and anyone else who provides their own flask - take a flask of coffee away; officially for himself, but truly for the Moriarty Mirrors. Tyson and James, his nephew, will always say that Jasmine makes their favourite treats, but James asks to visit The Biscuit Tin for Zebra Shortbread every time Tyson babysits him.

She has a Leonberger called Simba who joins her for her morning jogs every morning. Though their schedules don’t always align, Tyson (with Lily & Bobby) join them. Afterwards, after briefly parting for showers, Tyson will join Tae at The Biscuit Tin before her employees arrive and help her set up the store whilst chatting.

When Tae takes her yearly trip to Japan to visit the rest of the Dōjima family, Tyson looks after her house: watering the plants, cleaning, feeding the tropical fish, and taking care of Simba from her home. He’s a sweet dog who gets on with both Lily and Bobby, but he is also a very large dog and Tyson’s apartment is already crowded.

Tae doesn’t know the truth of Tyson’s work, only his usual cover story, but she’ll always let him duck into her kitchen when he needs to escape The Colonel. He told her that Sebastian is an ex-boyfriend that it didn’t end well with, which technically isn’t false. As far as she knows, Tyson is a very popular, social person. The truth is that Tyson uses her café as a safe place to meet with the employees and pets of the web.

When neither have much on their plate, Tae can convince Tyson to join her for a hike out with the dogs. Far less frequently, Tae can talk Tyson into joining her for kickboxing. Even when he agrees to go without having his arm twisted, Tyson feels tricked into the situation, and bruised. Very bruised. Both in body and ego.

The most important fact to remember about Taeko is that she is fire. Through and through. She is burning at 100%, 100% of the time.

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Dōjima ‘Tae’ Taeko

UNIVERAL TRUTHS

• Blood Type: A Negative
• Date of Birth: May 23rd 1969 - Gemini - Rooster (Earth)
• DnD Alignment: Lawful Good
• Dominant Hand: Left
• Ethnicity: Japanese
• Myers Briggs Type: ESFJ-T | The Consul
• Orientation: Heterosexual
• Religion: Shinto
• Signature:

FAVOURITE

• Favourite Animal: Lion
• Favourite Author: Kendra Elliot
• Favourite Colour: Baby blue
• Favourite Film: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
• Favourite Food: Peach Flan
• Favourite Plant: Sundew
• Favourite Poem: I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud (Daffodils) - William Wordsworth

VERSE DEPENDANT

• Avatar Element: Fire
• His Dark Material’s Dæmon: Red Eyed Tree Frog
• Hogwarts House: Gryffindor
• Hybrid!Verse Pairing: Horse
• Mass Effect Species: Batarian
• Pokémon Team: (Alolan) Exeggutor, Rotom (Heat), Tepig, Panpour, Pyroar, & Hawlucha

Colour Tyson’s Synesthesia Projects Onto Them:

Seasons

Spring

By the time Spring rolls around, Tyson has usually stopped bristling every time someone mentions Christmas and is slowly dragging himself back into healthy vitamin D levels as he’s sent back out into the daylight occasionally.

Spring is a time of recovery for Tyson, for the aching of the dent in his torso and the dog bite scar on his shoulder to slowly fade away, and for him to begin seeing daylight again; no longer taking advantage of excessive darkness for his work within the web.

Summer

Given how many layers of clothing Tyson tends to wear - to provide a layer of protection, for himself mentally and for the dent in his torso - it’s not all that surprising that he tends to overheat in the summer.

Not that this fact actually encourages Tyson to remove layers. All this actually achieves is Tyson berating himself harder when a panic attack hits as he begins to hyperventilate. He knows its stupid, but when his mental state is so much worse in high temperatures, Tyson has to take the risk of having those extra layers.

His anxiety and OCD are relatively consistent the whole year around, but Tyson’s PTSD is always worst in hot weather. The most traumatic years of his life were spent running for his life across Afghanistan, Pakistan, & India. When he thinks of hot, he thinks of being afraid and helpless.

The heat brings those memories to the front of his mind much easier. Especially when it’s too hot to sleep, his restless mind thrashing for anything to hold onto. When a heat wave hits London, Tyson will go days without sleeping to avoid nightmares.

Summer will mostly find Tyson laying on the cool tiles of his bathroom, resigned to his fate. Defeated.

Autumn

Autumn is Tyson’s absolute favourite season.

Cooler weather, pretty colours everywhere, and the return to school. That last part was especially important to Tyson as a child, he has always loved education and going out to school was one of the few times that he could escape the family manor and his father’s clutches for a few hours during the day.

Winter

Though he’s whine about feeling cold until all city boys are safely tucked away inside where they belong, Tyson actually prefers winter over summer. He finds it much easier to warm up than cool down, though the hypersensitive dent in his torso and dog bite scar on his left shoulder tend to ache when the weather turns.

He likes the way London looks when its covered in snow, the way the number of hot drinks vendors seem to double, and he especially likes the excuse to stay in his jacket all day; using it for warmth as much as a layer of protection for the dent in his torso as much as a pressure stim that soothes his anxiety.

He loves getting to throw snowballs around for his dogs to catch, especially Jack, and the feeling of brushing snowflakes out of their coats with his frozen finger tips. Tyson always uses winter as an excuse to have handmade hot chocolate and warm soup with fresh bread.

All in all, winter suits Tyson better than he thinks it does.

Ice-Cream

Tyson’s favourite type of ice-cream is raspberry ripple, with sea salt ice-cream coming a close second.

Usually, however, Tyson eats Häagen-Dazs Vanilla ice-cream cups or White chocolate Magnums, because ‘consistency and avoiding overwhelming his easily shattered appetite’ is the name of the game.

There is usually some kind of dog-safe ice-cream in his freezer and a tub of Ben & Jerry’s Caramel Chew Chew Ice Cream stashed in there for the days when Tyson babysits James.

Ice-cream is one of the things outside of ‘needs heat’ cooking that Tyson can actually make delicious versions of.

Voice

Tyson comes from a family of late bloomers, especially when it comes to male voices dropping.

For Jethro, his voice began breaking when he was fourteen and lasted for almost an entire year before it settled. John’s voice began breaking when he was sixteen and took five months, where Richard’s began at fifteen and took almost seven months.

Tyson’s voice didn’t begin breaking until he was fifteen and took roughly eight months to finish*; which meant that Jethro didn’t hear his baby brother’s ‘adult voice’ until he was nineteen and used his break in army training to visit his older brother.

James’ voice won’t begin breaking until he is sixteen (20th March 2022) and will take around seven months to properly settle.

* This means that in Teen!Verse and Hogwarts AU/Honey Badger SU Tyson’s voice is still breaking: teen!verse is beginning to break, and Hogwarts AU/Honey Badger SU is towards the end of his voice breaking.