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 finger frozen 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.

Letters

Letters

Tyson keeps all of the letters he gets, other than bills and junk/advertising mail. Tyson has mail from him army days, from his owners, from his brother, and from his friends.

Tyson thinks that letters are special, that it matters that someone took the time to write or type it out. He keeps the letters in a box under his bed, where he keeps most of the things in his apartment.

Tyson takes his time writing letters, making sure that it is neater than his usual slanted, scruffy writing and often using specific stationary for specific people. He takes his time with letters.

There are dozens of letters kept in that shoe box, but to cherry-pick some notable ones:

Tyson has dozens of letters from his brother Jethro that were sent during his army days, but another notable one is the copy of a doctors letter that Jethro forwarded to him in his monthly care packages that confirmed Jethro had been completely cleared of cancer.

From those care packages, Tyson also has a few letters that his nephew slipped inside before it was sealed up. Some of those were pictures he wanted his uncle to see and others were copies of book reports that he was proud of.

He has a well-thumbed letter penned by a blindingly drunk Sebastian, and presumably posted in the same state else it would never have reached him, begging Tyson to come back. Tyson knows that every promise he makes on that page it empty, that Sebastian will never change, but equally Tyson can never stop loving him regardless.

He has a letter from General Clarkson that came with a Glock 17 9mm pistol to offer Tyson protection from Sebastian, as a form of apology from General Clarkson for the years Tyson was presumed guilty. That apology did nothing to improve Tyson’s own guilt about what happened.

Tyson has a copy of the letter his father wrote in Tyson’s defence when he was presumed guilty for the shooting of General Clarkson, during the period of time when General Clarkson was in a coma and unable to disprove this. Tyson’s copy remains completely sealed. He kept the letter, but he has never felt brave enough to read it.

There are many letters that his father wrote to him but never sent in his office in the family manor, but Tyson can’t bring himself to enter that office now that his father passed away. Jasmine - with Tyson’s permission - has read through most of them. She thinks it would help him to read what his father though but never said, but understands that he needs to be ready first.

Tyson has a handful of letters from the Moriarty Mirrors, usually containing challenges for him to complete and sealed with wax. Other letters contain contingency plans, what to do if they have to disappear suddenly and stay off the radar for a while, and ways to keep the web running until they can return.

He has various recommendation letters from various professors at Cambridge and from his commanding officers in the army. Tyson hardly needs those and he’s reluctant to use them for web purposes, but he likes to keep them around in case of an emergency. If he never has to uproot and start from near scratch.

And here are two letters that people wanted to send to him, but that Tyson will never ever receive, because they were destroyed after being written. *

* Mildly incorrect sentences/grammar are on purpose for Kim’s letter, she could speak English fluently, but would occasional use both options were only one need apply (how to get / find you) and at the time when she would have been writing this letter as a way to vent what she couldn’t say to Tyson, it would have been years since she was using English even semi-regularly.

Soup, Volume 2

To no one’s great surprise when The Colonel gets sick, he’s an awful patient to deal with and to even less surprise, Tyson will always sit by his side regardless with the patience of a saint; a stupid, stupid saint who never learns his lesson.

During one of the times that Tyson came across a sick Sebastian trying to attack him and, rather than doing the sensible thing and simply running for the hills, decided to stay and nurse him back to health, Tyson ended up making his brother’s chicken soup for him.

Chicken noodle soup with matzo balls, a staple of any Jewish families recipe book. Jethro’s version isn’t anything especially unique, but it’s the only version Tyson would ever make. With ginger, chives, celery, and honey; and more red onion and leek than strictly necessary.

Tyson was honestly expecting Sebastian to throw the soup at him or immediately attack him after he was finished with it, but instead, Sebastian took the soup, sighed, and told Tyson to go. Naturally, he couldn’t resist making a threat about reclaiming him later, but he let Tyson go regardless.

Social Media

Overall, Tyson isn’t a big social media kind of guy.

He would have absolutely no interest in Twitter or Facebook. However, he does sporadically use Instagram, Pintrest, Tumblr, Twitch, & YouTube: sites that are less about writing about oneself/talking with people, and more watching videos or looking at pictures.

Tyson’s username would most commonly be some variation of Pup_Delaney.

Instagram is the one that Tyson uses the most, as it’s the easiest one to use as proof for cover stories for his activities in the web. His posts can be separated into six different categories, from left to right and top to bottom:

1. Covering for injuries
2. Lying about his current location/the location of others
3. Posts directed specifically at his brother, Jethro (Yithrô)
4. Posts made by other memories of his family/friends
5. Posts to prove that he’s in a specific location at a certain time
6. Pictures that Tyson actually wants to post

• Covering for injuries

Most of the time, Tyson can hide away to lick his wounds in peace. However, sometimes it can be beneficial to throw off the trail before it reaches him.

This usually applies to any cuts and bruises easily visible on his face. He already has police suspicion for a variety of reasons, and only sporting a wound without a readily provable excuse simply makes life harder for himself.

Whenever he’s in New York, Dick Gannon is his go-to excuse as the other man being too drunk to remember the indecent is very believable and Dick is quick on the uptake; the moment he has Tyson’s name, he’ll go along with the lie.

• Lying about his current location/the location of others

For that particular series of photos, Tyson was sprawled across the lap of a hired mercenary who was definitely busy hanging out with Tyson and friends (all members of the web) for brunch, and definitely not assassinating her target; whilst Tyson ran security camera surveillance/wiping them afterwards for her whilst coordinating the photo posts from seven phones.

• Posts directed specifically at his brother, Jethro (Yithrô)

Sometimes those posts will be letting him know what James (his son and Tyson’s nephew) is up to whilst in Tyson’s care, sometimes it will be letting him know that his monthly care package has arrived (because he does not trust his little brother to look after himself), and sometimes it will be Tyson poking Jethro about constantly running late.

Even when his younger brother, as a technically wanted man and semi-known criminal, is waiting for him at his office in a police station. Thank you so much, Yithrô!

• Posts made by other members of his family/friends

Most commonly this could be Jasmine, Charlie, Rosie, or Jethro when they’re dragging Tyson out for his birthday or when taking him on a family outing. He tends to wipe his phone of anything incriminating when they’re around, so it’s safe to hand over.

At other times, Tyson will hand his (carefully cleared) phone over to Billy because the reporter misplaced her own phone, but it’s critically important that pigeon with a heart pattern on its feathers gets photoed. Or this could be Tyson letting Lex have his phone to keep the other man quite for a while, this is where the handful of shirtless pictures of Tyson come from.

• Posts to prove that he’s in a specific location at a certain time

These are largely to the theme of selfies of Tyson or pictures of his dogs with easily recognisable landmarks or clearly readable street/shop signs in the background.

Those ones always make Tyson uncomfortable as it makes it easier for The Colonel to track him. However, it’s occasionally necessary to make sure his alibis hold. ‘Nothing suspicious here officer, I’m staying in London rather than fleeing, look elsewhere for your theif/killer/et cetera.’

• Pictures that Tyson actually wants to post

Tyson doesn’t enjoy taking photographs, but he has to keep himself in the habit of taking pictures to make sure he grabs the right shot when Tyson needs it for work.

When he actually likes one of the pictures he taken, rare though it may be, and after he’s checked it meticulously for anything incriminating in the background, Tyson will post it.

This is usually a picture of his dogs or family, but an occasional picture of Dick playing guitar, a pretty shot of London, or a stolen shot of John passing on the street will get posted.

Laziness

Though Tyson is hard on himself for his supposed ‘laziness’, Tyson is very lenient with others going at whatever pace they feel most comfortable with. Rome wasn’t built in a day and pushing too hard can cause everything to come crashing down.

Even as he chastises himself for being lazy, for not giving it his all at every moment in every aspect of his life, Tyson is very aware that he’s pushing himself too hard. He knows that he’s burning the candle at both ends, and trying to ignite the middle too, but he simply can’t help himself. Tyson was brought up to think he was worthless if he didn’t give everything he had.

The way his father treated him, and his own experiences with training - nurturing - service dogs, is why Tyson wants people to go at their own sustainable pace: to not burn so brightly, so beautifully, but ultimately get snuffed out. After all, our dear Icarus can’t sacrifice himself to a fallen sun now, can he?

Tyson knows that forcing a matter doesn’t always produce good work, that not everyone works best with their backs against a wall. He understands needing to take a break, to do better work on another day. He understands simply not having the mental energy for a task, and Tyson definitely understands wanting to do something but having a mental disability prevent it.

When it becomes to anyone other than himself, Tyson will never accuse someone of being lazy; outside of good-natured teasing with his friends, or animals. A lazy mutt is universally a lazy mutt, and adorable.

Horses

He was never a child that went through a period of obsession with horses, but Tyson’s always thought that horses were generally neat and appreciated when they appeared in stories.

Having spent so many years training service dogs for the army, Tyson has great respect for those who rear horses: in whatever branch of care or sport they may handle that animal in. Horses are incredibly versatile and Tyson appreciates the effort that goes into making it seem so effortless.

Coming from an incredibly rich old-fashioned upper-class family, Tyson - naturally - knows how to ride horses. It was one of the many unnecessary holdovers in his educations like fencing, ballroom dancing, Latin, and countless others. Though he was too afraid to do jumps, Tyson would comfortably ride at full pace.

Rocks

As mentioned in this headcanon, Tyson has a rock collection.

Here are some notable rocks from that collection:

• Purple Tanzanite - Top Left

Tyson purchased this at a large craft and collectables fair that Jethro & Rosie dragged him to during their wedding prep. What they were looking for, Tyson honestly can’t remember. Largely they left with food, so it couldn’t have been too important overall.

There was no reason for Tyson to buy the stone other than the fact that it was pretty, but now he associates it with his brother and his sister-in-law. A simpler time before the stress of Jethro’s cancer and when Tyson was an honest, hardworking soldier.

• Verdite - Top Middle

Tyson got this piece of Verdite by chance from an old crank machine the day he began working for the Moriarty Mirrors, for both of them rather than only Sunshine. It was one of those (capsule) vending machines filled with tumbled stones and a sticker explaining each spiritual purpose each type of stone had.

Verdite is apparently used to access wisdom and information, from past lives. As with most thing of that nature, Tyson finds that interesting, but he doesn’t believe it. He didn’t really care what he got back from his pound coin, Tyson only wanted a stone to mark the occasion.

• Ammonite Fossil in Slate - Top Left

Tyson acquired this one on a trip to a beach with his Uncle Richard as a child. It’s the oldest stone in Tyson’s collection, in so far as when Tyson acquired it.

They were visiting Monmouth Beach in Lyme Regis, otherwise known as the Ammonite Graveyard. You can’t take a single step without finding an ammonite there, especially by the cliff of loose breakable rock where shards can easily be knocked out.

Tyson decided to keep that one as it was the most complete ammonite he had managed to find, that wasn’t merely an imprint or outline in the rock.

• Sandstone - Middle Left

Tyson picked up this piece of sandstone in Turkmenistan, during his last day there spent training service dogs. He was doing a patrol of the far compound in the morning, standard safety procedure that gave the dogs a walk before training began.

He was pausing for one of the dogs to relieve themselves when the stone caught his eye on the path. It was utterly unremarkable from any other stone around them and that was how Tyson felt in that moment. It was a big day, his last day as a soldier before he went to the front lines, before he would be told to kill, but it felt… like any other moment.

• Slate - Middle Center

Tyson found this oddly round, golf ball sized stone during a stupidly long wait with Moran. The worst part about being a sniper’s spotter, aside from entering an abusive relationship with one, was having to sit through the long stakeouts before they could take the perfect shot.

The Colonel was scuffing at the ground with his boots, trying to keep feeling in his feet after being laid on the ground for so long, and he kicked up the little rock. Tyson caught it mid-roll and began rubbing off the dirt, because he has nothing better to do, and once clean he decided to keep it.

• Limestone - Middle Right

Tyson grabbed this stone on the border or Afghanistan after abandoning the army at knifepoint with The Colonel. His Synesthesia allowed him to know that they were about to leave Afghanistan and it felt important to Tyson to have something, this was the point of no return. That had actually been a while back with the shooting of General Clarkson, but it felt important.

When Sebastian asked what the hell he was doing, Tyson told him that the rock had a pretty sharp edge; it could be used to cut through thinner branches for firewood and kindling without needing to blunt their knives, before they could buy something to sharpen them. Sebastian seemed to accept this excuse and the rock made itself useful.

• Rough Red Jasper - Bottom Left

Tyson joined Jethro, Rosie, and James for a family trip up to Scotland. Whilst there they visited a pebble beach with a lot of agate and jasper.

James decided to start collecting any interesting stones and shells in a bucket, before getting bored and going to explore some tide pools with his father. From those collected rocks, Tyson decided to keep four pieces of Jasper: one to symbolise each of them.

• Wulfenite - Bottom Middle

This one only exists within the universe of threads with gamblingtigersniper.

This is the crystal he found on the pavement, when out with the dogs, on the day he first heard Sebastian say that he loved him and got to return the words, in his pet store.

He took the light scuffed stone as a keepsake, not only for the memories of that day but for his relationship with Sebastian in general: a sign that he finally had what he had thought to be unobtainable for so long; Sebastian.

Side note for all universes: Tyson has found a fair few stones that way, simple picking them up of the pavement. When people are using stones as for stimming, fidgeting, or stress relief, that also means that people then tend to drop and lose them.

• Geode - Bottom Right

Tyson picked this up at a little corner charity shop when in Cambridge for his father’s funeral, after receiving news of Jethro’s cancer. It felt like an ending and a beginning, of a lot of hardship and stress for his brother. It was something Tyson wanted to mark, but not with something overly pretty.

Now that ugly palm-sized brown geode is proof that Jethro beat cancer and thrived, and Tyson couldn’t possibly be prouder of his big brother.

Jellyfish

For a while, between the ages of seven and nine, Tyson’s nephew James was obsessed with jellyfish. It started with a Spongebob Squarepants episode that mentioned there being many types of jellyfish and James wanted to know if there were different types of real jellyfish.

His interest in jellyfish has waned since, but James can still reliably identify a jellyfish at the aquarium without needing to glance at the sign and the jellyfish exhibit was the one he lingered in the most. With the exception of the gift shop and all the stuffed toys within.

James’ interest in jellyfish is why Tyson has so many sketches of them in his notebooks. Tyson’s a decent sketcher and he makes sure to learn how to draw anything his nephew take an interest in, so this also means that he was dozens of sketches of stuffed toys.

Jellyfish are one of the few animals that James went through an obsession with that he doesn’t also have a stuffed toy to go with. Not a common plush design it would seem. He did end up with several jellyfish themed shirts that he has now outgrown though.

Running

Tyson is a good runner. He’s surprisingly fast when he wants to be and, once he gets tunnel vision, Tyson will run for miles upon miles without pause; until finally collapsing when it occurs to him to question how far he’s travelled, and then gets driven home - tail between his legs - and too tired to fully register that he’s afraid of vehicles.

He’s best over very short distances, say twenty-one feet, or over very long distances. Over the standard 100 meters, Tyson is more likely to lose to someone of equivalent physical fitness. He’ll take an early lead, but by the ⅔ mark, others will have drawn level with Tyson and start to overtake him.

At longer distances, however, Tyson is endurance incarnate. Tyson will run until his legs physically cannot hold him any longer. He will regret doing so every time, but he will still do it. He had to do that to survive. This is why Tyson tends to escape when chased, his Synesthesia gives him the terrain advantage and he can - typically - run for long enough that his pursuers tire and concede.

He frequently goes for jogs in the mornings with his dogs, an old habit from the army that he never truly managed to shake off. Normally he does this in the very early morning, before most people are on the streets to appease his anxiety and to enjoy the brief quiet, to enjoy lovely Lady London.

Though he’ll change up his wardrobe occasional, Tyson typically wears a rotation of these shirts when he goes for his morning jogs. They’re all older shirts that Tyson doesn’t mind getting sweaty. He usually won’t wear them when working out, unless he ran to the gym. He has a different group of shirts for that.

Fitness

Though Tyson would call himself lazy for only maintaining rather than pushing himself to his limits, Tyson gets far more exercise than the average person and keeps himself to the same standards that he saw in the army. He is fit for purpose, nothing more.

He regularly goes on runs with his dogs and works out in his apartment. On top of that, his work for the web and escaping The Colonel are great practical forms of exercise. The amount of good that does is somewhat undermined by constantly under-eating and his erratic sleep cycle, and as such Tyson is always a little underweight; especially given how hard he works his body.

On the rare occasions when he wants to do more exercise he prefers to do so indoors at a private gym, away from the general public less his anxiety flare up too much. He can still get a little stressed on the running machine or in the sauna, but going into the swimming pool to do laps or into one of the one person meditation booths always calms him down.

This usually happens when Tyson has been too busy to complete his normal workout schedule. He needs to maintain his body to be useful to the web in an ‘in the field’ capacity long term, but actually completing his tasks for the web takes president over maintenance.

When he’s not working out, Tyson tends to move minimally, to conserve the maximum amount of energy that he can: slowly stretching one limb at a time and lounging on the settee with his dogs for hours at a time. To do otherwise leaves Tyson feeling constantly tired.

Though he considers it to be his own laziness, always the first to criticise himself, it is actually a mild form of chronic fatigue from how overtaxed his body constantly is; in addition to the fatigue imposed by a combination of his anxiety, OCD, PTSD, & borderline split personality disorder.

Focus and Control

With the notable exception of his interactions with Moran, Tyson has near infinite patience and self-control.

Because of his interactions with Moran, Tyson has near infinite patience and self-control.

Tyson is so used to have control stripped away from him that he jumps through a thousand hoops to make sure that control is where he wants it to be, given to the Moriarty Mirrors rather than taken from him by force with The Colonel; and any slack in the leash, is firmly within his own grip. He, largely with the occasional indulgence, quit smoking because it took control away from him.

The former Lieutenant is constantly holding himself back and keeping himself in line with strict routines, such as introducing himself with ‘Lieutenant Tyson Delaney, at your service.’ to minimise his stutter. He forces himself to take whatever shape he needs to take, because it is what Tyson has to do to survive.

He has always been a patient person, but having to handle The Colonel’s explosive temper and the Moriarty Mirrors’ eccentricities have honed that talent to patented perfection. There are naturally breaks in the facade, something that will get under his skin, but Tyson can wait patiently for hours or days at a time without upset.

Without the routines and discipline that Tyson imposed upon himself daily, it would be all too easy for him to get swept away and swallowed up, completely overwhelmed without a focus point. Left listless Tyson would wallow until his psychosis’ consumed him, every mental disorder building upon the last to drag him over the edge. 

Tyson is kept taut and stretched thin at the same time. When he breaks, Tyson completely shatters, but he’s an old hand at taking all of his broken little pieces and patching them back together: with control, discipline, routine, and endless self-control. Self-sacrifice. Stripping away whatever isn’t necessary to survive.

Polyamorous

Tyson doesn’t get jealous when it comes to relationships. Even more than admitting that he’s bi-romantic and homosexual, it is like pulling blood from a stone to make Tyson admit that he’s polyamorous.

He will freely admit that he loves the Moriarty Mirrors, that he still loves Sebastian Moran despite everything the other man has done to him, and that he has continued to be in love with Kim despite it being years since he last saw her. Tyson loves hard and forever.

In many aspects of his life, Tyson is ‘once bitten, twice shy’, but his incurable curiosity and his heart are steadfast. In his heart of hearts, Tyson is a scholar and he falls in love just a little bit with someone new every day. Which is perhaps foolish, given that those two have always been the leading causes for getting him into trouble and making Tyson as cautious as he now is in most aspects of his life.

Tyson wears his confusingly big heart like a crown. He denies his homosexuality frequently, but Tyson is never ashamed of his lover. He wants to share his love, and his lover, with the world: to show how amazing they are, how much he loves them, and to let others love them too.

In a way, Tyson is a bit of a tomcat. In a harmless way, like a stray. Yeah, he goes to other people for attention too, but that doesn’t mean that he loves you any less and you’re just as likely to open your window when he appears on the fire escape. …That last part is more literal than it has any right to be.

Service Dogs

Tyson trained service dogs for the army in Turkmenistan.

These are some of the dogs that Tyson trained:

• Ace

Tyson has only ever served on the front lines with one of the dogs he trained*, and that was with Ace. He was a German Shepherd with a plush tan & black coat. By the time that Tyson joined the front lines, Ace was already an old boy: reaching towards retirement but not quite there yet.

He only saw Ace for a handful of weeks, during a brief joint stationing before the old team were given leave and the First Bangalore Pioneers were given control of the compound. Ace served primarily as a patrol and attack dog. When he was off duty, Ace loved getting to play with a yellow squeaky chicken plush.

On September 2010, Ace was retired. He joined the program of former military service dogs to be re-homed to veterans, who could handle the requirements of a military dog and the PTSD that they can exhibit. In April 2011, Ace found his new home.

• Boots

Last dog Tyson trained with Hal Malone was a female Springer Spaniel called Boots. She was trained to track scents and primarily she was used as a bomb sniffer dog. Hal was the best man to call on for helping a dog take to water. The problem with Boots was convincing her to get back out of the water.

Boots took to the job like a duck to water, or an overly eager dog after a duck minding its own business in the water. She had a keen scent of smell, as expected of her breed, and had a good attention span for following a single scent for an extended period of time.

She was killed in action in 2013 by enemy fire during a sweep to clear bombs off of a transport route.

• Dodger

Dodger was a female German Shepherd with a solid black short coat.

Her time in the army was short lived. She passed all the temperament tests and responded well to training, but she was injured when following Tyson through an assault course. She missed the post she was supposed to stand on and tumbled down, breaking a bone in her front right leg.

Dodger eventually recovered enough to run a slow trot, but not to the speed required of an attack dog. She was early enough into her training, not even having begun bite training, to be sent to a standard shelter for adoption and found a new home as a family pet.

• Jack 

Jack was originally a dog that Tyson trained for the army, but when he refused to take orders from anyone other than Tyson he was deemed unfit for service. Tyson agreed to take him in without hesitation and now he guards the family manor under Jasmine’s care.

Most who meet the black 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. 

Tyson has a tracker on Jack’s purple collar. It’s not that he distrusts Jasmine or her ability to care for his dog, but it soothes Tyson’s anxiety to be able to check in on Jack from time to time.

• Nuke

Nuke was the last dog that Tyson trained before going to the front lines. She was a German Shepherd with a red sable, short coat.

There was nothing particularly special about Nuke, just one of many attack dogs that Tyson was tasked with training, but she was the last dog who’s training Tyson got to complete during his time in Turkmenistan.

As with all the dogs that Tyson trained, her photo is kept under his bed in the box with everything else from his days in the army: including a stolen file, his uniform, and a lot of photos with Colonel Moran, the other members of the First Bangalore Pioneers, and Captain Watson.

• Razor

On the 17th of May 2001, Razor caused the jagged scar on Tyson’s right wrist during bite training by biting into the arm without a protector on it. He was a German Shepherd from the first class of dogs that Tyson taught with a gold/tan sable, plush coat.

Tyson’s scars are largely smooth, but the dog bite on his right wrist is rough since it didn’t heal properly and Razor didn’t release as soon as he bit down. There wasn’t a doctor on base when Tyson was bitten and they had to wait for her to return from a supply run before it could be seen to properly.

It was difficult not being able to use his dominant hand while his wrist healed, as this was long before Tyson became near ambidextrous due to needing to cover the dent in his torso. He was very lucky that Razor didn’t do more permanent damage, given how the dog jerked Tyson’s arm around before finally relinquishing his hold.

Razor had gotten agitated from heatstroke and lashed out at Tyson, which is the same reason Tyson got the scar on his left shoulder from Lily too. Tyson blamed himself for not noticing that Razor was feeling off and, once Tyson recovered, the German Shepherd completed his training.

• Skipper

Skipper was the male Doberman with a red coat that Tyson was training whilst he was with Kim; trading in-compound chores with other soldiers to take their out-of-compound chores so that he would have an excuse to go and see Kimiko.

As such, Skipper is the dog that Tyson trained the least of all the dogs that were put under his care. Though Tyson traded chores, not training time, he often took the dog around with him when the chores would allow it. That way he could reinforce good behaviours and discourage bad behaviours outside of training time, without overtaxing the dog.

From what he remembers, Skipper was a good dog who struggled at heights, but would still listen to commands. Honestly though, Tyson’s memories of those months largely come down to: Kim! Kim is so pretty, and clever, and witty. I love Kim.

* Tyson has served with plenty of service dogs and handled their care as one of the service dog handlers on the front lines, but those were dogs that had been given their training by other people.