Hacking

Tyson’s current pet project of things he’s learning and perfecting for the web, and for the amusement of the Moriarty Mirrors, is hacking.

His code is still relatively simple and he hasn’t fully settled into his own ‘style’ yet, but Tyson is getting better steadily. He always was a quick learner and anything mathematical is comfortable for him to embrace.

Largely Tyson is required to hack into security systems, whilst providing surveillance for employees of the web, to guide them through to the end and then wipe any evidence of their appearance afterwards. However, he knows that Moriarty will keep making the tasks more and more complicated for him.

Though Tyson hasn’t completely found his own style yet, there are a couple of tells already developing in his formatting. Rather than giving names like ‘Block’ or ‘Option 1′, Tyson goes by a naming format for code that makes more sense in his mind, for example, BA2O1I3 for Block, Action 2, Option 1, If 3.

The downside of using that format is that Tyson uses it for everything in a different way. So, if he goes back to code he’s written previously, Tyson needs to read through the enter thing to remember what each letter and number referred to in that specific piece of code rather than being able to jump in and edit freely.

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.

Disguising

‘Some preferred not to be seen at all, to cloak themselves in shadow and darkness. I realized that it is not such a bad thing to be seen, as long as you do not stand out and are quickly forgotten. I specialized in blending in, not drawing attention and looking like I had every right to be there. It is invisibility, but of another kind.’ - Leliana, Dragon Age: Origins.

That is Tyson’s preferred way to hide and disguise himself. As mentioned when talking about how he uses social media, Tyson will go out of his way to make sure that he’s seen in the most non-suspicious way possible rather than dropping off the map entirely.

At times that means dropping into a confident soldier’s gait and using that to bypass anymore who might call him out, or it can mean purposefully calling attention to himself in an ordinary way: dying his hair bright colours with an easy to wash out vegetable dye, that way people assume the only thing that makes him stand out is that blue hair and otherwise dismiss him.

In more general terms, he’s often disguising himself by making people underestimate him. Tyson has absolutely no poker face at all, but he is good at hiding his actions with slight of hand tricks and making sure his nervous ticks are concealed from direct view.

Tyson is pretty good at applying make-up, but - with the exceptions of corruption!verse, redemption!verse and mythical!verse where he needs to conceal his tattoos on missions - he prefers not to apply it to himself more than necessary, due to having sensitive skin that dries up rather easily; and a shaky sense of his own masculinity, and self-worth therein.

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.

Adaption

Tyson adapts to change very well, except that he doesn’t. Not truly. He does not like his routine being changed, but Tyson will adapt when necessary and only to the extent that is required.

Tyson is flexible in that he will change and adapt to whatever he needs to be to survive, but at the end of that day, Tyson will take those twisted pieces of himself and bend them back into his previous state. He never truly gives himself over to the change. It’s mimicry, rather than change.

He’ll kill for the web and throw people out for the dogs, but once he’s out on his days off or between jobs, Tyson will still pause to help an old lady with her shopping bags. He accepts the role, rather than becomes it. It’s a shirt that Tyson can shrug on and off as necessary, but underneath Tyson remains the same.

Tyson is elastic, rather than truly malleable. At his core, Tyson will always be Tyson. He stays true to his original thoughts and values, no matter what he needed to do adapt to in that given situation.

Jethro Andrew Delaney

UNIVERAL TRUTHS

• Blood Type: O Positive
• Birthname: Yithrô Andrew Delaney (יתרו דילייני)
• Date of Birth: July 11th 1977 - Cancer - Snake (Fire)
• DnD Alignment: Chaotic Good
• Dominant Hand: Left
• Ethnicity: Jew, Ashkenazi / White, British
• Myers Briggs Type: ENFJ-A | The Protagonist
• Orientation: Bisexual
• Religion: Non-Observant Jewish
• Signature:

FAVOURITE

• Favourite Animal: Mallard
• Favourite Author: Douglas Adams
• Favourite Colour: Turquoise
• Favourite Film: True Grit (2010)
• Favourite Food: Doner Kebab
• Favourite Plant: Tulip
• Favourite Poem: We Wear The Mask - Paul Laurence Dunbar

VERSE DEPENDANT

• Avatar Element: Fire
• His Dark Material’s Dæmon: Eurasian Brown Bear
• Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw
• Hybrid!Verse Pairing: Eurasian Brown Bear
• Mass Effect Species: Human
• Pokémon Team: Golduck, Ursaring, Magby, Zweilous, Meowstic, & Noivern

Colour Tyson’s Synesthesia Projects Onto Them:

Stubborn

Where Jethro is very headstrong and charges into things without thinking, Tyson has always been very patient and measured. He learned from his brother’s mistakes.

Jethro is very much an in the moment, all in kind of person. That often led to him butting heads with their father, unable to bite his tongue and express his anger elsewhere at a later point. He has a short temper that was only further provoked by his father’s matching one.

Exactly like his younger brother, Jethro can give someone emotional whiplash by how quickly he’ll jump back and forth between emotions. He has more of a poker face than Tyson’s absolute zero, but generally, anything that Jethro is feeling will show on his face for all to see.

He cares about people deeply and he’ll gladly die to protect those he loves, but he has a tendency to think that his way is best. He’ll keep headbutting a wall until he finds a way to make it work. He’s impossibly determined. Jethro doesn’t wait around to test a theory. 

Jethro sees an action to take and takes it. He doesn’t like waiting around to see what happens or to see if a better option appears. He’s a smart guy - another mathematical prodigy and heir of the Delaney legacy - and his gut instinct is usually right, Jethro simply lacks tack in his execution and delivery.

Yithrô can wait when he needs to, but it is a conscious effort and decision every time. It’s not simply the way he is, as is the case with his younger brother. He is always looking for a fight and he will choose to accept every single fight before it even reaches the plate.

Crickets

Though Sebastian found the sound grating and would reach for the bottle sooner on nights with cricket song, Tyson found it soothing. A reassuring sign that they weren’t completely alone, but weren’t being threatened either.

Though there were a handful of moments in Afghanistan and Pakistan where they could hear crickets, that largely came towards the end of their shared journey, as they crossed over into India.

Maybe Tyson should have seen that as an omen of things to come, that everything was going to chance.

Before they were forced back out of India by increasingly close army patrols, things actually seemed to be better. Though Sebastian was annoyed by the crickets, he was generally happier than he had been in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

There were moments of incredible violence, such as his attack during the monsoon that saw them to the monastery, but overall, Sebastian was more inclined to pull Tyson into his lap to make love rather than assault him.

So now, Tyson finds the sound of crickets to be bittersweet. It was an awful time of his life, but… Tyson can’t help but treasure those days in India with Sebastian, grumbling about damn crickets whilst dragging Tyson in against his side.

Triggers

Though all of the triggers listed in Tyson’s masterlist are indeed triggers, they trigger Tyson’s anxiety/OCD/PTSD to varying degrees: depending on the moment and his mental state at the time.

• Being called Poppet

It’s not a very common pet name and one that Sebastian used a lot when talking to women, so Tyson tends to find this one very jarring.

It will always trigger his anxiety, often to the point where he’ll end up fighting a panic attack later in the day, but when he’s in a rocky mental place it can trigger his PTSD as well.

• Being called Kitten

Sebastian called Tyson his ‘kitten’. This one will always trigger his anxiety, often to the point where he’ll end up fighting a panic attack later in the day.

However, as he’s become desensitises to it as a mocking name from employees of the web, this one doesn’t hit as hard and rarely directly triggers his PTSD.

• Being called Kiddo

This is in a similar place to Kitten, though coming from Sebastian and from Tyson’s father. This one will trigger his anxiety, but never his PTSD.

Occasionally, this one will set off his OCD and have him performing some of the rare ticks associated with his OCD. This stems from watching to tidy up and look perfect to appease his father’s impossible standards.

• Being around alcohol

This one is from The Colonel’s alcohol fuel abuse and he was Tyson’s father used to drink, especially before disciplining Tyson with his belt.

By and large, Tyson has this one under control, but being around it will always affect him to some extent and tasting it by surprise can instantly trigger a panic attack on the wrong day.

• People touching the dent in his torso.

It’s a hole in his torso caused by years of abuse that triggers instant pain when struck.

Tyson can cope with people touching it - very gently - when he trusts them and when they telegraph every motion to him, but even when his own hands brush it by mistake, he can end up fighting the gut reaction to vomit.

Actually striking the dent can cause anything from panic attacks to flashbacks.

• Barns

This one is only when Tyson comes across a barn by surprise whilst out on a walk, once he knows its there or was expecting it, Tyson is fine. When he can’t brace for it ahead of time, Tyson goes into a terrible mental place around barns.

When The Colonel abandoned Tyson to die/for the army to find, they had been sheltering in a barn and in a desperate attempt to escape the army - who he assumed would shoot him and leave him for dead - Tyson attempted to hang himself, before the rope snapped.

• Raised, angry voices

When Tyson is in a bad mental place, this is the usual trigger. The straw that breaks the camels back and leads to him having a flashback or panic attack.

• Hands being raised quickly, close to him

This only applies when it’s within his personal space and coming unexpectedly, not during a mission for the web, for example, when Tyson is always braced for attack.

Usually, this one would lead to a panic attack. One he can contain, suppress and keep his cool until he’s behind closed doors, but he’ll eventually break.

• Men with grey hair

This one usually sets off his anxiety.

He’ll be walking through London completely fine, a good mental space day where his social anxiety and general anxiety are tucked away for the time being, then he’ll catch a head of grey hair in the corner of his eye and every fragment of fear he’s ignored will wash of him like a bucket of ice.

• Men with similar voices to Sebastian

When he’s in a bad mental place, this is usually what leads to fragments of memories with Tyson’s PTSD rather than a full flashback. A sentence that he once heard from Sebastian coming from somewhere he can’t see, his familiar footsteps behind Tyson, a glimpse of his face in a crowd, things like that.

• Thunder and Lightening

This one is variable. Maybe they set off his anxiety or maybe they trigger a full flashback. His reaction is visceral.

As mentioned in this headcanon:

It’s not simply that Tyson tenses up around thunder and lightning. His entire body locks upand he will stay frozen for several seconds that feel like hours, heart hammering, before coming back to himself. 

• Cold water on his head

This doesn’t apply to rain, but rather a sudden wave of water getting dumped over Tyson’s head. This will be a panic attack. He will hyperventilate. His hands will be shaking for almost an hour afterwards.

This comes from an incident in Afghanistan that led to Tyson always wearing loose collars. During that time, along with having his air restricted by things around his throat, Tyson was waterboarded several times.

Army Buds

Naturally, Tyson served with many people during his army days. Here are the touch notes on notable people from those days in increasing rank order and faces approximated in Fallout 4′s character creation, because screw finding FCs.

Corporal Melissa Gordon

• She was the chef at the base Ty & Seb last served in before deserting.
• She was always telling jokes whilst hanging out food, the life of the party.
• She had a two-year-old son, Simon, back at home with her husband, Olan.
• During his escape with Sebastian, Tyson clipped her arm with a bullet. Purely by accident, he had been trying to avoid hitting anyone directly.
• Mel loved to dance, dragging anyone looking glum upon onto their feet.

Staff Sergeant Emma Porter

• She signed on as a field reporter and stayed out of a sense of duty.
• She loved pasta and garlic bread, even in operational ration pack forms.
• Emma always got a new book with her mail & was constantly sunburnt.
• She was kinda quiet in compound, just watching everyone around her.
• Emma was the only person killed in their escape. Unlike Tyson, Sebastian hadn’t been pulling his shots.

Second Lieutenant Harold ‘Hal’ Malone

• He served in Turkmenistan with Tyson, training military service dogs.
• He was hard working, usually the first up, but also the first to take a break.
• Hal was excellent at getting dogs through the water training sections.
• He loved rhubarb and custard sweets, and never judged Tyson’s relationship with Kimiko.
• Hal was killed on active service in Iraq by friendly fire: 7th of April 2009

Lieutenant Michael Griffiths

• He panicked and shot Tyson in the chest into his bulletproof vest during a training drill in full view of Moran. He died a few weeks later from friendly fire, that no one could prove came from Sebastian.
• He signed up to pay for his university tuition and intended to retire as soon as possible.
• He served as a mechanic, working to repair the various army vehicles.
• Michael was constantly taking pictures of everything around him.
• He was blatantly afraid of the attack dogs when they were working.

Captain Andrew Samson

• Tyson latched onto him like a baby duckling once he went to the front lines.
• He had several shrapnel scars on his face and his arms were covered in tattoos.
• He died in Tyson’s arms from enemy fire, a shot through his throat. Tyson unfairly took the blame for his death from a grieving compound, which pushed him into Moran’s waiting arms.
• Andrew loved history. He would talk about Rome and the French Revolution with Tyson over dinner.
• He was big on pull-ups and sit-ups as punishments.

Captain John Watson

• John served with Tyson and Sebastian during a joint stationing between Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers and the First Bangalore Pioneers.
• He was the only one to believe Tyson’s innocence in the shooting of General Clarkson.
• He and Tyson are brothers-by-all-but-blood, though for the sake of appearances often pretend to be mere passing acquaintances.
• Tyson rarely lies to John outright, but John was kept in the dark about the extent of Moran’s abuses during their service together.
• Tyson still blames John’s two left feet for breaking his nose in compound.

Major Hannah Smith

• Hannah was Sebastian’s spotter before Tyson went to the front lines and was around to show him the ropes.
• She was incredibly fight-y. Like fight you, her own shadow, and her own reflection at the same time fight-y.
• She hated the taste of coffee, but she was absolutely useless without caffeine in her system.
• She retired to become a mother at the end of her deployment.
• Hannah chain smoked every day, but insisted she’d quit once she became pregnant.

Colonel Sebastian Moran

• Sebastian didn’t enter a relationship with Tyson to abuse him. Sebastian wanted to be with him, he loves Tyson, but Sebastian is simply an abusive person.
• He is an alcoholic and, whilst aware of this, Sebastian has no intentions of stopping.
• Moran’s decision to shoot General Clarkson was not tactical. It was an inevitable temper tantrum as the tension between them grew to a head.
• Unlike Tyson, Sebastian was officially given a dishonourable discharge and continues to be a wanted man.
• To this day, Tyson has no idea how Hannah & Sebastian’s tempers didn’t lead to them killing each other long before he arrived.

Brigadier Abigail Bennett

• Tyson never met her in person, but she was the one in charge of the hunt for Sebastian & Tyson when they abandoned the army.
• She had a ruthless, cut-throat, no-nonsense reputation as a leader.
• When Tyson was proven innocent, she stepped down as head of that assignment and let someone else take over the hunt from Moran.
• Legends say that she got the scar above her eye in a knife fight, and that she won without a knife.
• The truth is that she was drunk during leave and headbutted a lamppost with a rusty edge.

General William Clarkson

• He was a good commanding officer, if very by the books.
• It was that by the books nature that put him at odds with Moran and caused countless arguments between the two men.
• Sebastian shot him twice. Once in the chest and once through the stomach.
• Though he survived Sebastian’s shots, he ended up in a coma for three years, from early 2009 until August 2012.
• Once he was awake, he confirmed Tyson’s innocence and sent him an apology letter, alongside a gun to protect him from Moran.