Tyson sees many colours when looking at people. Some will have a dozen different colours and shades, where others will have a few very specific colours. This post is to show the main colours Tyson sees on certain characters, when applicable I’ll mention where Tyson sees those colours and if any others appear.
One point to make clear is that - though he views most people in basic greens, yellows, pinks, and blacks - having those colours doesn’t make the person any less important to Tyson. In all likelihood, they’ll have a specific shade unique to them, rather than the same, general tones as everyone else.
Another thing to bear in mind is that Tyson’s Synesthesia is based on his thoughts and feelings, so - as his thoughts about a person change - the colours of his Synesthesia may change too. All that stays consistent is what he sees on people. Also, any meanings the actual colour has are irrelevant here. The emotions, thoughts, and sensations Tyson projects to that colour for that person are what matter.
If your character or your version of a character isn’t on here, it doesn’t mean that they don’t matter to Tyson or that they won’t ever have their own palette. It will simply mean that either they are still viewed in only the basic colours & shades, or that their colours are still changing too much to be locked down definitively.
Here are all 49 current Synesthesia Colour Palettes:
Anne Samantha Williams { Tyson’s mother
Tyson views Anne in bright, primary childlike colours; shades one would associate with bottles of paint in a classroom. He views his mother with the idealistically simple eyes of a child. He doesn’t have many firsthand memories of her and those that he does have are incredibly hazy.
Billy Ramsey { Tyson’s reporter frienemy
Tyson views Billy largely in subtle nude tones that weave together. Her veins are the same blue colour that Billy uses when making her notes, and thus the same blue ink colour that it always smudged over her hands. Her bones are a rich caramel, outlined by bubblegum pink.
Billy’s colours are very contextual and based on the things that Tyson associates with her: subtle makeup, messy ink, sugary treats, and bubblegum. She’s someone who wears her personality on her sleeves, her appearance matters and reflects who she is.
Bobby { Tyson’s pet Dalmatian
Bobby’s colours, much like the puppy himself, are bold and bright. Grey acts like an outline to the otherwise playful colours that cover Bobby. For Tyson, yellow covers the young Dalmatian’s black spots: including his ears, which are completely black. Primarily Bobby is seen in two distinct shades blue, but his nose, claws, teeth, and the outline of his bones are a plum purple.
His scars are seen in an irksomely bright highlighter green; due to Tyson’s annoyance and his worry that the dog has been hurt. Long since covered by his coat, there are several small scars on the dog’s legs from an impromptu escape through a window on a job for Moriarty. There is also the faint surgical scars from when he was neutered.
Captain Andrew Samson { The catalyst of everything
Amid wave after wave of greens and yellows in the army, Captain Samson stood out to Tyson as someone unique. He wasn’t the bold colours of Sebastian or drenched in the pain of others, he was made of subtler colours. Gentle, nurturing. Too kind to die in Tyson’s arms, bleeding out whilst Tyson was helpless to save him. Even the greys that Tyson came to associate with the army brass were softer on Samson. Silver rather than steel.
Charlie Hotchner { James’ babysitter
Bright and bubbly. Deceptively approachable. Outlined by grey, all of her other colours pop.
Though Charlie’s side of the job - when she was working full-time for the Moriarty Mirrors - required far less physical confrontation than Tyson, Charlie got into a fair few scraps. All of her little scars from those days, and a handful of bar brawls, are seen in a softer bluer. Proof that as masterfully as she navigated the web, Charlie is still human and fallible.
Cinnamon { Pet Pyjak in MassEffect!Verse
The Pyjak was running around on the ship long before he became Tyson’s pet. He was causing trouble, until Tyson took it upon himself to train the Pyjak; rather than listening to the various employees’ desire to airlock the vermin.
He had been around for long enough for Tyson to develop a sense of Synesthesia for the troublemaker, and was named after the colours Tyson saw on him. After he discovered the Cinnamon liked to float around in Tyson’s biotic fields, one of his browns shifted into the colour of Tyson’s biotics.
Dick Gannon { Tyson’s US contact
Tyson’s salty old dog is practically viewed in monochrome. He drips misery from his every pore. As much as Tyson tries to see the best in everyone, it’s impossible to avoid looking at Dick without thinking sadness. Dick is largely viewed in dark blue, dark blue/grey, and purpley-grey.
However, there are days when his bright blue spread a little further - like the tidy washing over his body with off-white ripples of surf, usually faded, now fully apparent over his scars and around his hangdog eyes. His colours don’t actively move when Tyson is looking at them, but wax and wane with Dick’s general outlook at the time.
Draco { Pet miniature dragon
Draco actually has a similar colour palette to Tyson’s mother. Simple colours, but less clean; darker and messier. Where Tyson’s mother’s simpleness comes from a very narrow simplistic viewpoint of faded memories from a child under five years old, Draco’s colours come from the fact that the dragon changes colour based on the species he’s around.
With his real colours moving around so much, Tyson’s Synesthesia spent a long time twisting around itself and - honestly - giving Tyson a headache to look at Draco, until he finally settled into a palette that suited him regardless of his current scale colour.
Efraim { Tawny owl in Hogwarts AU and Honey Badger SU
Efraim’s body is viewed in black and his bones a deep purple, but his feathers are viewed in a mix of green, yellow, and red. Is anyone else saw the way Tyson saw Efraim’s feathers, the automatic assumption would be that Efraim was a parrot. His colours are (relatively) simple, but within Hogwarts AU, Tyson is still a teenager and developing his worldview.
Ellen Delaney { Tyson’s Grandmother
Tyson’s grandmother died when Tyson was young, but he was old enough to remember her properly and to have good memories of baking with her, of her teaching him how to play the piano.
She was largely viewed in bright colours that Tyson associates with home and family, a lot of shades of orange. However, there was always something darker about her. A sadness, a hurt, that Tyson was too young to fully understand at the time. The way the second world war had hurt his family, his grandmother.
Felix { Pet Ragdoll cat in Redemption!Verse & Cat!Verse
Felix isn’t seen in happy colours. He’s bright and bold, but not happy as such. In both verses, Felix is something good, something that helps, that only comes into Tyson’s life from tragedy and his colours are tainted by that.
The black parts of Felix’s coat are seen in the brighter orange/red, the brown parts are in a different shade of brown, and the white areas of his coat are seen in the lighter purple. His nose is actually the only area that the brighter purple is seen.
General William Clarkson { The reason Tyson left the army
Stern and steel. Army greens, yet somehow natural; born to be seen in camo. The blue only came in the interactions since he awoke from his coma and proved Tyson’s innocence in his shooting, before that Tyson has no real reason to see that lining of hope in the man that caused so many problems with Sebastian.
George Cartwright { Tyson’s landlord
George is bright and colourful, always a laugh and someone anyone would be glad to know. Tyson associates him with his home, but not as being part of it. Separated. His greens aren’t unique to him. Those remain basic shades as Tyson honestly doesn’t know George that well. There is an intentional distance between them as George wasn’t to remain as far away from the web as he can.
Hal Malone { Tyson’s army friend
Hal was a rubber ducky that wished and wished until one day he wished hard enough to become a real boy. His lower half was viewed in blues and his upper half was viewed in reds, with cheerful yellow spread across his entire body. The deeper inside Hal, the darker the colour Tyson’s Synesthesia projected, so his extremities were viewed in the brighter colours.
Jack { Tyson’s pet Doberman
Jack has darker, distinctive tones. Most who meet the Doberman would call him cold, but Jack is a one-man dog: Tyson’s dog. With Tyson and Lily, he is loyal and friendly. He is slightly more reserved with Jasmine - who he is in the care of, most of the time - and Bobby, but still loyal and protective of both. Jack, like Lily, doesn’t seek affection and is more comfortable with having company to lay next to. This shows in his colours, Jack is understated and calm.
Green takes the place of the brown patches of the Doberman’s coat. Jack’s tail and ears are un-docked and un-cropped, outlined with light grey to Tyson. Light grey also shows his smaller details, such as that one chipped tooth behind his upper right canine. Jack’s colour changes based on how ‘deep’ inside the things Tyson sees about the dog are: dark blue closest to the skin, teal is largely for his muscles, and deep bones are purple.
James Delaney { Tyson’s nephew
James is a sensitive, creative boy who adores his uncle Ty, collects stuffed toys, makes LEGO models, and is fascinated by pirates, ships, and the stars. Already one of James’ colours is bright, a bold red, but his other colours are softer. Whilst others are still emerging as James grows and develops as a person, some will always be as soft and caring as the boy himself; such as the baby-blue, the far right colour, that outlines the freckles on his cheekbones and his natural black hair (closure to chestnut in its actual colour).
Jasmine Dartmore { Maid at the family manor, surrogate mother.
Jasmine is defined by comforting colours. She is family to Tyson, he looks up to her as a mother in the absence of his own. A delicate blue and pink weave together around grounding, comforting browns. Tyson can’t explain why those browns soothe him to look at, but they simply feel right: somehow homely. Her hands and feet are covered by blue that wines up her forearms and calves like ivy.
Jeremy Thornton { Tyson’s butcher
Old and tired, and nowhere near as much of a threat as he pretends to be. Tyson isn’t naïve. He knows that Jeremy is an awful person who will try to take advantage of him. However, Tyson also knows that he survived Sebastian Moran and that Jeremy is harmless in comparison. His colours are murky, but in a faded way. He might have been a threat, once upon a time, but now he’s just an old relic.
Jethro Andrew Delaney { Tyson’s brother
Jethro is colourful, but not overwhelming to look at. Each colour has a counter, an opposite next to it that keeps Jethro looking balanced. He is safety and protection to Tyson, and has been ever since they were young and Jethro took the brunt of their father’s ‘discipline’. Jethro is covered by a plethora of oranges, blues, and turquoise. Turquoise, in particular, covers Jethro’s hands.
He always looks familiar to Tyson, like coming home, no matter how much his shades have shifted. Though the shade of Jethro’s colours are slightly different every time Tyson sees him, they stay within the deeper colour pool.
Jim Moriarty: Hermes { @blackvclvct
Jim is beautiful, pretty and colourful without standing out too much; a non-hiding that Tyson has always wanted. Rather than having a solid division between colours, as most do, Jim fades easily from one to the next. His maps are easy to look at. There’s a natural flow to the details Tyson sees on Jim. Some people have hard lines or seem faint, but the maps Tyson sees on Jim look soft and touchable. Peaceful.
Though there is a clear transition between colours on Jim, the position of his colours stays the same. His chest down to the end of his ribs, shoulders, and arms are red with the darker blue outlining and showing finer details. That blue trails down his spine until his tailbone. Jim’s softer blue and purples map out the rest of him, with light purple taking the majority of his veins and the pinker purple his ligaments.
His lips and cheekbones are in that one particular red, stark against the softer blue that maps most of his face. He is so tempting, but so very soft. As though he’d break if Tyson so much as touched him. He doesn’t see Jim as weak, not even slightly, but rather like the spun glass that Tyson’s heart pines from. Something to be admired from afar, less is shatter.
Jim Moriarty { @flight-of-the-thieving-magpie
In places, Jim is so bright that it hurts. A staggeringly vibrant pink and blue that aren’t lessened by the dark grey that details most of Jim’s veins and tendons, like corrupted spiderwebs. His other colours are like smoke masking the fire behind, hiding away both his brightness and the darkness. Tyson knows that those colours are there, they are so tangible to him, but suffocated by the haze of his other colours.
When that bright pink and equally intense blue peek out from behind the smoke, Tyson is fascinated by it and sometimes, when it leaks out and lingers… Tyson is forced to look away, eyes blinking against flicking flames. Jim’s darkness worries him, palpable in its corrosion, but he can’t help being drawn in by those glimpses he has seen. His colours are always moving, like the top of a deep river: a constant slow movement from one area to the next. It isn’t enough to actively draw his attention, but - should he wish to - Tyson could track the way Jim’s colours shift over him.
Jim is hypnotic. Tyson cannot look away nor can his gaze linger, both - and all - options as dangerous as each other. Lilac lingers longer in one place than all other colours, most often remaining over his veins or bones, near his extremities. Occasionally pooling over the muscles of his neck and face, scattered by the serpentine oscillation of his head.
Jim Moriarty: Darling - Mischief { consultingcocktease / consultingcrown
Jim is dangerous. He has an enrapturing beauty to Tyson, with or without his Synesthesia. The majority of Jim is black as night, but other colours frame the black and make it seem darker, deeper. Or show smaller details. Blue and red are balanced across his body, with the maps on his upper body having more red and those on his lower body having more blue.
He has a vibrant green, like a frog signalling its poison and no less alluring for it. His green is the one exception to the rules his other colours follow. Green shows Jim’s major muscles, such as his pectoralis major & deltoid, with the details on those muscles and connecting to them shown as black. Purple and black are distributed more or less evenly over Jim’s other muscles.
All of Jim’s colours signal to back off, to run and never glance back. Even his blue isn’t to be trusted, murky in its not quiet lightness, not quiet darkness. Yet Tyson comes to him time and time again, never truly leaving his precious Darling any more than he would the other Moriarty Mirror. Endlessly trusting and loyal to the poison he willing dips his hands into.
Jim Moriarty: Darling - Sunshine { @sunshineandsemtex
Darling is dark and dangerous, but undeniably brilliant. A pure white outlines his brilliant blue, caging and controlling his genius, whilst the darkness roams free and wild over Jim’s body. The pairing of white and blue never touches his extremities. The white acts as a barrier, never letting the other colours touch the blue.
For the most part, Jim’s veins are shown by the darker blue with his bones primarily appearing in deep purple. Red is the defining factor of Jim’s hands. Moriarty’s darker colours gradually advance against each other, but over the course of weeks and months. Whenever Jim touches a part of his body, red will linger where he touched for a few minutes before fading. This effect is also shown when Jim touches someone else, including Tyson, but those fade within the minute.
Jim draw Tyson in, tugging at his curiosity like the leash he never truly needed to attach to gain his loyalty. This half of the Moriarty Mirrors danger is not advertised as boldly, gaze drawn away to a disarmingly comforting blue and its safe border of white. There is a safety to Jim’s darkness. Shadows to hide in and a brilliance to bask in, where Tyson’s own shadows are hidden - lesser in against the majesty of dark - and his own mind has something to reflect to share with.
John Watson { @militarytrash
John is a mix of bold and soft colours. Captain John Watson, his brother in arms and all; his best friend and beyond. They are simpatico. John will always be the calm in the storm for Tyson, the clarity. One of the few simple things in his life.
His dark blue is primarily at his core, with purple primarily over his limbs, and the brighter blue spread evenly over his body. His major scars are shown by grey, with slivers of silver for the minor scars; those are the only places those colours appear.
He is simplicity, when Tyson’s life so often has none. A familiar comfort to settle down beside and ignore the world outside. Space where his own demons are kept at bay, yet enough to keep John’s away. Clean, clear, uncluttered. Equilibrium locked in time where no outside forces can touch.
John Delaney { Tyson’s father
Homely and polarising. His father is family, to some a tyrant of a professor/father and to others an incredible mathematics professor who could coax the best from his students. Tyson got to see the in-between, a bitter man who cared deeply. Too deeply. Enough to twist his intentions and actions, into a murky grey-blue.
Largely he was seen in orange, with only his hands and face being seen in the grey-blue. His bones were cream and his tendons were marked out by black.
Kimiko Mai Bùi { Tyson’s first love
Kim was seen in browns and golds.
A glimmering firefly, dancing in the night. The glow from a sparkler, and far too much honey poured over her toast. Deep brown like the tools she used in her carpentry, and coconut like the scent of her shampoo.
The little scars that covered her hands from working with wood were seen in the darker brown, and the coconut colour covered the rest of her. Yellow, orange, and gold were spread equally over Kim, but when Tyson remembers her, the blush of gold over her cheekbones always stands out.
Lex { Tyson’s wildcard
Bright as a poisonous frog. He’s absolutely dangerous, but Tyson is aware of that and thus Lex isn’t a danger to Tyson. His colours become fun. Bright green bones and red hands. Yellow, orange, into dark orange goes down Lex’s body from top to bottom (in that order). He’s an explosion of colour. A kaleidoscope. Fun and - relatively speaking - harmless.
Levi McCullum { Mute pilot with a heart of (stolen) gold
Largely seen in light pink and bright blue, Lexi is rather calming to look at for Tyson. His colours are static and soft. The darker blue covers his skull, runs down his spine, and across his ribs; and for reasons that Tyson can’t quite understand, show the bones of his right hand as well. Whenever Tyson feels like he’s pinned down a reason, the thought flutters from his grasp.
Green highlights Levi’s plentiful scars, largely caused by carelessness around sharp objects, and doors, and a general lack of situational awareness outside of the pilot’s seat. Largely small cuts that end up giving Levi a speckled appearance. Soft red covers Levi’s throat and mouth; Tyson still feels guilty about that projection, though it has slowly softened from its original scarlet.
Liam Baker { @smokingoursmiles / @smokingoursmiles-archive
Tyson would describe Liam as endlessly confounding, and yet somehow endearing. Wicked smiles and jokes. A proud, strong and shameless wolf with darkness beneath him. Or, at least, Tyson sees it as being beneath him, but he has a tendency to look for the best in his friends. Even those as likely to cause a smile as a headache, but Tyson doesn’t regret either when it came with Liam’s companionship and friendship.
Despite the black that details all of Liam’s body and the majority of his bones, what most stands out is the delicate wash of yellow, pink, and blue. Soft blue shows Liam’s jawline and spine. Tangled around those other colours is a messy brown, most noticeably around his hands. His injuries begin as pink, before eventually fading away to yellow even once the scar tissue is gone. Yellow most often appears as an outline around the blue and pink.
When in his wolf form, Liam’s colours are slightly different, but similar. Blue still marks his spine and jaw, but his black disappears almost entirely, replaced by brown and with small details showing in yellow. Pink appears on his claws, ears, and tail.
Areas that Tyson has seen Liam be injured when in this form appear as a blueberry blue. Rather than the sadness most people’s injuries and scars show, often reflected in their colours, Tyson only sees Liam’s pride; this confounding man who would live up to any boasting and, despite all odds, will survive. Tyson refuses to think of a day when Liam wouldn’t survive. Though they are few and far between for what Tyson sees with his Synesthesia, those blueberry wounds are the essence of Liam’s friendship with him: sweet and tart; and best enjoyed in small, regular handfuls.
Lily { Tyson’s pet Dalmatian-Dhole
Unlike her vibrant puppy, Lily is mostly decorated in soft delicate colours. Her black spots are a mixture of a faint grey, pink, and blue. Those three colours cover her entirely in a series of intricate, delicately interwoven details. The only space where that deep maroon-purple appears is her teeth, a stark reminder of where they sank into Tyson’s shoulder.
Her coat is speckled by light brown, like the sand of the desert they met in, as though grains still clung to her. In a way, they do. No matter how calm and patient she is now, Lily was originally a stray, wild thing. Her claws are also shown in this light brown.
Mandy { Pet tabby cat in Kitten!Verse & Cat!Verse
Chat noir, anyone?
Mandy is this one little bright pink spot in the misery that is Tyson’s life in Kitten!Verse. The darker grey markings of her tabby coat are seen in pink, whilst the rest of Mandy is in a sliding grey-scale with the darker colours appearing deeper in her body.
Not happy, but a bittersweet silver-lining; exactly how Tyson likes his noire.
Meg { Pet welsh border collie dog in Army!Verse & Veteran SU
Meg is messy, muddy dog who loved the outdoors. Sometimes the projections of Tyson’s Synesthesia are as simple as that. The black parts of her coat are seen in the darker green, whilst the white parts of her coat are in the sandy brown. The damp pad of her nose and the pads of her paws are seen in blue.
Molly Hooper { @jollyhooper
Molly is covered in very familiar colours for Tyson, she is like coming home. She is found family, his sister. Her colours are rich, with lighter tones skating around them. Molly is very balanced with no one colour taking precedence. Her colours don’t mix or blend together, but their borders aren’t sharp and definitive either.
The positions of where one colour is compared to another stays consistent, but where each colour is changes over time. Her colours change positions, not all at once, but gradually over weeks and months. If her arms were pink and hands purple in June, then by August her legs would be pink and feet purple.
Though her colours are relatively neutral, Molly stands out like a beacon against the wash of yellows and greens most people appear as. Peacefully approachable, welcoming and warm. Someone whom he can just as easily wrap his arms around as fall into hers.
Morgan Kilgore { @moriartystailor
The colours Tyson’s Synesthesia projects onto Morgan are murky. Not as with others due to distrust of Morgan, but as though Tyson is seeing them in deep underwater. Discoloured by distance and shifting water. As though they could be beautiful if seen in a different light.
Morgan’s colours remain in same places, but ripple slightly as though disrupted by his movements; yet too deep to be affected much. The gentlest of shifts that Tyson has to be looking at to actively notice.
His muscles are made from dozens of different shades of brown through to gold, like flaky brown Jewish pastries, treats, and Latkes. His veins run through with silver, whilst the rest of his body alternated between dark green and a brighter green.
Nate Morrison { Tyson’s business associate
Nate is gemstone hoard. Rich deep colours that immediately catch the eye. His bones are seen in bright pink and his veins are seen in bright blue. The rest of his colours alternate throughout Nate’s muscles so that red does not touch red, and so on. Tyson is mildly convinced that he could spot Nate glimmering from a mile high.
Percival { Pet blue and gold macaw in UA India
Though on their own Percival’s colours don’t appear that way, Percival’s colours pop when layered over bright blue feathers; with the obvious exception of the blue outline of his bones that Tyson can barely ‘see’, even though he knows intrinsically that they are there. Purple and maroon cover his feathers, grey details Percival’s bodies, and pink colours his beak and talons.
His life took a darker route through UA India, but one that Tyson is happy with. It’s blood-soaked and dark, but it is his choice and Percival exemplifies this. A decision he made in this little place in the world that Sebastian and Tyson have caved for themselves, or rather carved through as mercenaries.
Professor Isaac Alinson { Economics professor
Professor Alinson’s colours are largely subdued and dull, like the man himself. Tyson really enjoys that about Isaac. He is low energy and comfortable living a ‘live and let live’ life. Blue runs through his rib cage and spine, with the rest of his bones being a greeny-grey. The scars around his amputated left hand are seen in green, with purple and grey covering the rest of Isaac’s body.
Professor Reginald Arlington { Mathematics professor
Simple pastel colours spread evenly over a relic from his childhood.
If he didn’t have photos to look back at the Professor who took pity on the young Delaney heir during his father’s various garden parties, Tyson would be convinced that the man hadn’t aged a day; simply existed eternity to impart mathematics knowledge and cheer up sad children. Though his colours come from Tyson’s childhood view, they continued to suit the gentle man.
Richard Delaney { Tyson’s uncle
Glacial, is how Tyson could describe Richard Delaney. Cold and distant. Uncaring. His bones are deep blue and the only distinct part of Richard, all of his other colours trade-off frequently; flowing easily into each other, like a river that had been frozen in place. So much potential for kindness, stopped in its tracks.
Rosie Delaney { Tyson’s sister-in-law
Rosie is somewhere between bold-striking tones, and messy dirty ones: rather like Rosie herself. More often than not, she is wearing bright patterned clothes that are covered in mud or sweat, from working out or dirt-boarding.
Where Rosie has stretch marks from carrying James and the tiger stripe tattoos around them, Tyson sees orange. The blues of her eyes map out her strong muscles, wrapping around the grey of her bones.
Sebastian Moran: My Pretty Boy { @gamblingtigersniper
The majority of Sebastian’s body is covered by the above colours. He doesn’t stray into other types of colours, but he has dozens of different shades of those colours. Maroon and scarlet stand stark against the majority of his knife scars, with the deeper crimson denoting his bullet wound scars, and carmine appearing on the scar over Sebastian’s right eye and the cigarette burns on his right arm. Silver marks the tiger claw scars on Sebastian’s chest and any damage to the bones that Tyson’s aware of, whilst various shades of light grey snare around most tendons and ligaments.
There is no one colour for Sebastian’s bones. A rich Prussian blue dominates his hips and legs intersected by delicate baby blue. Delicate violet and a deep indigo alternating through his rib cage, with the latter also appearing over Sebastian’s collarbones. Vibrant red in his cheekbones and along his jaw. His muscles are mapped by almost a dozen different shades of violet, some soft and others bright.
Once Sebastian’s palms were sky blue. Back then his spine was white, the only part of him to ever have that colour. After The Colonels assault, his palms were stained red with sky blue peeking out from the grooves and his spine became a dull grey. Thought the grooves remain sky blue, now only the pads of his fingers and knuckles are Crimson, with the majority of his palm becoming baby blue. His spine changed before that, back in Italy when Sebastian chose not to be a coward, he became a softer lighter grey; like the smoke of his cigarettes.
His colours don’t blend together, even when violets are tangled around one another. There is a grounding clarity to Sebastian’s colours: clear, sharp lines. Darker shades, bold and solid, but also soft and pretty colours weaved through. An almost clear baby blue maps out the majority of Sebastian’s veins, like spun glass. As though if he focused hard enough, Tyson could see the life pumping through those tubes.
Of the compass tattoo on Sebastian’s wrist, the actually compass points and the letters are maroon. The backing details of the two rings become a delicate baby blue with Tyson’s eyes. Though the bones of his shoulders, upper arm, and hands are Prussian blue and Navy blue, his forearms and wrists are indigo.
Sebastian is a cornucopia of colours. It would be so easily to fall, to get lose between the shades of light and dark. Trapped between memories and pain, and the sweet joy of the here and now with the other man. Before he can sink too deep, before the cord can tighten, Sebastian’s truest colours are there clear and consistence from their days in the army to waking in his arms that morning. Open and inviting, letting Tyson swim back to him at his own pace, rather than plunging down to drag him back.
Sebastian Moran { @moriartyproperty
Sebastian is rock slashed with gold. Harsh cold greys cut by almost glimmering gold. Molten rivers that flow around him slowly, enough to notice the shift within an hour but not enough that the former Lieutenant is consciously aware of the movement. Tyson has always liked silver more than gold, but Sebastian was always the golden boy: the one the army wanted to be their golden boy, though nowhere near well behaved enough, and now Moriarty’s right-hand man.
The brighter shades of gold flow freely over his veins, like Kintsugi: metal repairs in grey pottery. A slightly yellower gold maps out his tendons and ligaments. His bones are cast in the duller shades of gold, like bars of gold. This gold still flows, but only around that particular bone, rather than travelling the length of Moran’s body. Where Tyson knows the bone has been damaged, it borders on looking like bronze instead. The one exception is the bones around Sebastian’s eyes, where that piercing blue of his eyes - those eyes that have his resolve tumbling over and over again - take over instead, almost reflected in the underlying gold.
The Colonel’s muscles are hard lines, solid colours slammed against each other, as chunks of slate or basalt. Hard, jagged, and coarse; yet all too easy to crack and crumble if chipped in the right place, if one knows where to hit as Tyson does. His greys are all cold, and most have a tint of blue to them, but none are especially dark or black. His palms of his hands and the pads of his feet are white, and leave a ghost of his contact like chalk wherever he touches. It fades in seconds, almost immediately chased away by an invisible breeze. Small changeable details - such as, non scaring injuries: split lips, bruises, scuffed skin, et cetera - are also viewed in that white.
His scars are pale pink, like ripped petals. Delicate chinks in the armour. Though Tyson isn’t present for every scars appearance, he has seen enough injuries to guess the age and has been around Sebastian long enough to see the changes in some of his scars. Newer scars are a brighter pink, whereas those oldest scars - from before Tyson served with Sebastian in the army - are almost indistinguishable from his skin. Tyson still know where they are though, those near invisible lines that were only ever seen by his eyes. In those cases, the actual scars themselves have more colour to them than the colours Tyson’s Synesthesia projects onto them.
Sebastian Moran { @murderasscience / @torturedtiger
Sebastian is comforting blues, as full of possibilities and enticing as the sky was above them back in the army and the Middle East; London tends to be more grey, and damp, colours washed down the great cities drains. Wrapped around the blues - that convince Tyson he could leap and always be caught, swept up in warm waiting arms - are bright and colourful ribbons. Nothing too dark, nor too light. Just right. His assault, The Colonel’s assault, was following orders: painful, but not personal; no emotions to get tangled into Sebastian himself.
Looking at Basher is like floating on crystal clear water, cool blue rippling around, lapping against his side, as warm sunlight trickles down from above. Clean air in his lungs, so tangible that he could dive down to pluck out glistening emeralds, glinting treasures of private moments, stolen. Sebastian is a carefree hope. Not playfulness tempered by careful planning or impulse spurred by old companionship or desperation, but pure freedom to throw caution to the wind and trust in another.
The majority of Sebastian’s scars and any fresh injuries are orange, bold and bright in stark contrast against the blues of his body. The four scars on his right thigh from the tiger and the long, deep scar beginning at his left shoulder, however, are both a deep, plum purple. His tattoos also show some of this purple, but the majority of the ink is shown in aquamarine; shifting with the current colour in his eyes. Over his scars and tattoos the colours are messy, not smooth or clean, like paint still smudged against his skin from time at the easel.
His bones are deep green, solid cuts of colour. Any fractures or breaks in the bone that Tyson knows of are light brown, like splinters of bark. A slightly brighter green wraps around his ligaments like ivy. His veins, also green, lack a uniform colour. The greens are each slightly different, yet cohesive, like individual blades of soft grass coming together to make a lush field.
At the surface, the light and bright blues that bathe Sebastian’s body don’t move, but still waters run deep. If Tyson were to put his head to Sebastian’s chest, he would almost swear that he could hear the waves in Sebastian’s heartbeat; the siren’s call to leap from the cliff edge into promising sky and trust the waves to catch him safely.
Sebastian Moran: The Colonel { propatrimoriest
Were most to imagine how Tyson’s Synesthesia coloured Sebastian, the savage brute that abused then abandoned him, they would get as far as blood red and dark grey, or - mistakenly - black. Few would imagine the (almost) white that caresses Sebastian’s scars tenderly, shifting slowly like ghosts of memories. Nor would they picture the royal purple that defines his muscles and covers the majority of his body. A light and darker grey trade off on mapping Sebastian’s veins with his tendons appearing in that red.
Oh, Tyson would love to live up to expectations; for the first time in his life. He would love to hate Sebastian, but he can’t. Tyson loves him. No matter what The Colonel did to him or does to him now in his hunt to reclaim his Kitten from being their Pup, Tyson will always be loyal to Sebastian. He will always be seen in that proud, royal purple. No matter how much his own red stains Sebastian’s palms.
Grey from chains so broken that Tyson wouldn’t need to blink to shake them free. Instead, he clutches them. Wraps himself up in their pain and longing Sebastian to let go, to be free, because he can’t be. Not anymore. Not when the hollow ache in his chest, drowning in the weight of regret and mistakes, hurts so much more than continuing to run. To keep the chase going, fighting with tooth and claw and steel to spare them both the deeper cuts.
Since their days in the army, since Sebastian became The Colonel and Tyson ripped apart his own heart trying to hate the man, his once beautiful blues have all but disappeared into greys. A few areas of blue remain, a soft sky blue in areas of bone where Tyson knows Sebastian had broken or fractures them: a few ripples over once cracked ribs, a line through his right middle finger - just under the second knuckle - where it fractured, and two hard cracks through his left Ulna where his arm broke, to name but a few.
Sienna McCullum { Thief of gold and hearts alike
If Tyson were asked to describe how he sees Sienna, he would say that she was largely blue with the exception of her veins which were purple. However, if Tyson were actually looking at her, he’d remember how thin lines of brown, grey, and dark blue cover her entire body, so thin that they become swallowed up by the contrasting brightness of her blue.
Steve Rogers: Illusion { @captainspangly
Steve is like sunshine: light, warm, and happy. Yet still strong and bold. His blindingly bright yellow entirely eclipses his subtler orange. Darker tones form shadows, outshined by then masking Steve’s sunshine, where he can’t hold onto that sunshine, that good, that perfect illusion. As Tyson’s hopes blossom then wilter for the other man, his yellow (with its orange tag-along) and his purple/blue-grey battle for dominance.
Whether Tyson’s stubborn denials of Illusion is winning out or whether Steve’s sunshine is shining through, a delicate and calming blue and grey remain. Grey takes finer details within the yellow and darker colours, where the blue covers more solid areas. Though the position of his colours change, they don’t shift when Tyson’s looking at Steve. They are still and easy to look at, even if the shadows - shadows Tyson knows he is responsible for marring Steve with - make his heart feel heavy, guilty.
Injuries don’t last long on the super soldier, but even once they’ve healed, Tyson would see them as purple for - at least - a week or two before they faded entirely. His freckles, on the other hand, are yellow like brilliant little stars. As a child, Tyson looked up at the stars saw all these wonderful maps. And not just maps that were special to him, but shiny maps that other people thought were important too: maps with stories, science, mathematics, and legends too. Something other people thought were pretty. Stars, and constellation especially, were special maps that he could share with people and revel in their brilliance together.
Tyson sees those freckles and imagines the stories he’d craft around them. The constellations his Synesthesia would subconsciously connect to Steve. Something bright and beautiful that his doubts couldn’t taint, but instead would link to something good. Memories with Steve. A little cluster like a piece of popped popcorn, a fable that stops before the Illusion ruins it: before Tyson ruins it. All those hopes and wants he knows he can’t have, but that Tyson would cover Steve in, because he wants this wonderful kind man to shine with only happy things.
One of them should.
Taeko Dōjima { Owner of The Biscuit Tin
Tae is fire. Through and through Tae is a firecracker. Tyson would say to her bones, but that it actually the one part of her that Tyson sees in purple. Tyson sees blues on her scars and freckles, the rest of Taeko is bright red fire with the occasional flick of orange.
Tyson Delaney { Tyson’s… Tyson
Though Tyson has an actively distasteful opinion of himself, he’s aware of his strengths. Having spent so long fighting to survive, Tyson had to be. His colours aren’t crisp or sharp, but they aren’t murky either.
That green that seems the most obvious colour for Tyson to have is actually ‘Cambridge Blue’. Tyson is Cambridge through and through. It’s his family’s legacy and reflects his love of mathematics. In his blood. As might be expected that means his veins are seen in that green/blue/whatever colour names are terribly none reflective of the actual colours.
No matter how far he tries to run from it, Tyson is scholar in his heart of hearts. His father’s son through and through. And no matter how far he tries to run from his upper-class upbringing, Tyson knows it will always be part of him. A deep royal purple over his bones. Similar shades of purple, things equally important, also appears on the more important aspects of Tyson’s army life. That same deep history and legacy.
The majority of his scars are seen in blue (actual blue), but there are a few exceptions; when the scar is caused by someone who matters to Tyson. The dog bite scar on his shoulder is seen in the same maroon that appears on Lily, whilst the scar on his right wrist is seen in the same ruby that Tyson saw on Razor; and several of the service dogs he trained.
The dent in his torso, and the various knife wounds from Moran, changed to one of Sebastian’s colours: varying depending on the Moran, and simply blue in the verses where the dent was caused by other means. In username order: 003153, CC9900, F87217, & 6F004D.
Everything else is a mix of grey and pink. The grey isn’t overly dark nor overly light, but he’s trying to be brighter. Trying to be better. The pink on the other hand is there because, although Tyson doesn’t think he’s good, he wants to be. It It’s a kind, gentle colour. A projection of his aspirations/disappointment, something he thinks he should be, that he’s failing to be.
Yenta { Tyson’s dæmon in HDM AU
The black of Yenta’s coat is seen in orange, whilst the brown/red parts are seen in the deep blue. Her claws and teeth are seen in deep green, whilst the rest of her bones are seen in dark purple. The rest of her is largely seen in the lighter green.
There is an occasional burst of colour to be seen on Yenta, but largely she’s seen in dark colours that fade into each other. Yenta and Tyson are always covering each other’s flanks. She’s his shadow as much as he is hers.