For reasons that no one can explain, least of all Tyson himself, he is utterly enamoured by donkeys.
Presenting Tyson with the opportunity to pet a donkey provokes the same response that most would give to the opportunity to pet a rabbit or box of kittens.
In XPirate!Verse, Tyson has two donkeys one grey, Lola, and one brown, Brian.
Across all of his verses, Tyson has an army of pets, but there are three that are his pets across most universes and regardless of whether the magical/advantaged technology level of Tyson’s main universe is active, and those are Lily, Bobby, & Jack.
Lily
The Dalmatian/Dhole hybrid has been with Tyson since Pakistan, where she began tailing him for food and eventually led him to water. At this point in time, she is nine years old.
Lily’s spots are black and her coat white, though most the time it looks more grey from rolling around outside. On her left thigh, there are only three spots that make a triangle like a bowling ball’s holes. She is normally wearing a brown leather collar and her leash is a black rope. Her dangling ID tag looks like this, the bell jingles as she walks and the information is inside.
She loathes water with a passion. When they first met, Lily was terrified of water; including the river she led him to for water. Since those days, Tyson has helped her calm down and taught her to swim, but she still hates taking a bath and she never wants to stay out in the rain. More often than not, Tyson will wash her in the en-suite’s walk-in shower instead.
Lily is one of two dogs to give Tyson serious scars. She is very protective of Tyson and will actively stand between him and anyone she doesn’t like. Lily is well-trained and will immediately fall back when given the command, but generally, Tyson trusts Lily’s judgement.
Lily loves playing with bubbles. Tyson can keep her entertained for hours by blowing bubbles for her to snap at and chase around. Whenever she actually manages to catch one, she spends a solid minute making a fuss, rubbing her tongue on the ground to remove the taste, before chasing them again.
Most often, Lily can be found perched on top of the armchair in Tyson’s living room, looking out the window onto London’s streets. At night, she does tend to join Tyson (and Bobby) in his bed, but usually, she prefers to curl up at the end of the bed to save a little space to herself whilst still being near.
Bobby
He is a Dalmatian/Dhole/Beagle. At this point in time, he is five years old.
Bobby has black spots. His floppy ears are completely black, which is the only distinctive part of his coat, as the rest of his spots are just spread about randomly. He was the runt of the litter, Lily’s litter, she gave birth thanks to a Magic!Anon. Bobby’s collar is a red fabric collar and his leash is a red rope. His dangling ID tag looks like this.
He hates having his belly rubbed. Bobby is perfectly fine with his chest being touched and the inside of his back legs, but he gets upset whenever his stomach is touched. Tyson has to be extra careful when drying him off. He isn’t aggressive when touched there, yet clearly distressed and wants to get away.
When Bobby was a puppy, he loved water just as much as he does now. He once ended up falling asleep in the bath whilst settled on Tyson’s chest. This left Tyson unable to move as the water cooled and Lily outside of the bath licking her puppy clean of soap, whilst being completely unwilling to get touched by the water herself.
Bobby can see ghosts and is able to seek them out. He will go out of his way to find ghosts, even taking Tyson miles off course. Though Tyson has his dogs trained to an incredible level, the former Lieutenant largely allows his dogs to do as they wish unless given a direct instruction. That training means he can trust them enough to allow such a loose metaphorical leash.
Unless Tyson is trying to get somewhere specific, when Bobby starts leading him and Lily off to the left on their morning walk, Tyson shrugs and follows the course Bobby would like the walk. He doesn’t understand what exactly is catching his Dalmatian’s interest, but he enjoys the opportunity to take a new route and see different areas of London when it happens.
Bobby loves people, but he tends to be unsure when initially meeting other dogs. After a minute and no negative reaction, Bobby will gladly play with other dogs, but he does need a moment to make sure everything is fine. No amount of time will ever convince Bobby that cats are anything other than malevolent.
Jack
Jack is a Doberman. At this point in time, he is eleven years old.
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. Jack is one of the few constants from the time before he was forced to abandon the army.
Jack is largely impartial about water. Whilst he won’t care about walking out in the rain, he also won’t jump into the water; unless it’s a very hot day or ordered in by Tyson. Bath time has always been easy with Jack.
Jack’s favourite toy seems to be washed up seaweed. It’s like a tug-toy that he can destroy and rip up in minutes, and always have more to play with.
Whenever Tyson visits Cambridge, he makes sure to visit the manor and spent some time playing with Jack. If spare weren’t already at a premium in his apartment, Tyson would love to have Jack with him, but he knows the Doberman is better off with the space and grass of the manor.
Tyson has more scars than purely those pictures below, however, those are a combination of the most severe and the ones that Tyson cares about: ones that came from mistakes, unavoidably his fault and his fault alone, or caused by The Colonel.
He is littered with small scars from a hard-fought life, working in dangerous places in the web/the army and from surviving everything The Colonel/being abandoned in the desert threw at him. These scars are largely small things attained over the years/changeable depending on the thread and Tyson’s experiences within them. Nicks from working with knives in the kitchen and in the web, grazing wounds from shrapnel in the army, et cetera.
Those scars matter more to Tyson than any of his other for a variety of reasons.
The hockey injury stands out in Tyson’s mind because it was the only time he was hurt as a child, outside of by his father’s own hand, that his father completely dismissed Tyson’s pain. When his ankle broke, his father fusses.When Tyson wouldn’t put weight on his left leg, his father shouted.
Though Tyson can understand why pigeons annoy some people, he genuinely loves the sight of pigeons wandering around on the street and around the benches of cities.
It’s a comforting universal, that no matter where he goes there are always happy grey blobs bobbing along around his ankles. He doesn’t think that he’s properly visited a city until he’s found a pigeon in the way of his path.
He is always happy to indulge Moriarty’s fondness for pigeons. He is far less inclined to indulge Lily’s desire to eat the pigeons or Bobby’s attempts to play with them.
He spent years training service dogs for the army, and continued as a service dog handler once on active service. He is the Moriarty Mirrors’ loyal Pup and shares his apartment with a pair of mother and pup Dalmatians. His Doberman, Jack, guards the Delaney family manor in the care of Jasmine.
Tyson adores his dogs. He fusses over them all the time and they are nearly always by his side. They are his constant companions. Tyson keeps their leashes wrapped through his belt loops like a second and third belt.
Dogs within Tyson’s universe(s):
Bobby - Dalmatian-mix - Tyson Delaney
Cait - English Bulldog - Jeremy Thornton
Jack - Doberman - Tyson Delaney
Lily - Dalmatian/Dhole - Tyson Delaney
Meg - Welsh Boarder Collie - Tyson Delaney { Army!Verse & Veteran AU
His father had intended for Tyson to - predictably - intern somewhere more academic, but Tyson had remembered the age Jethro had been when their father pushed him into an internship at the college and instead took the initiate to get his own internship first.
Tyson was banking on two favours: it would look bad if Tyson bowed out of the first internship and his father would not want that, and it would show that he was ‘trying to better himself without prompting’ and give his father ammunition to boast with at his dinner parties.
Both of those points paid off and Tyson was free to internship at a local vet’s clinic. Mostly Tyson was just at the register, but it gave him enough ‘proof of experience handling animals’ to get into the service dog program almost immediately, which is what Tyson had intended.
Across all of his verses, Tyson has an army of pets.
He cares deeply for all of his animals and the animals of his friends as well. Tyson has helped many people train their animals or helped find them a pet in the first place.
Amanda Snowshoe cat owned by Molly Hooper.
Brian Brown donkey in Tyson’s XPirate!Verse.
Bobby Tyson’s pet Dalmatian-mix, puppy of Lily through a magic anon.
Cait English Bulldog owned by Jeremy Thornton.
Cinnamon Tyson’s pet Pyjak in his MassEffect!Verse.
Draco Tyson’s pet miniature, colour-changing dragon from a magic anon; naturally.
Egg Old horse in Tyson’s XPirate!Verse.
Felix Ragdoll cat in Tyson’s Redemption!Verse & Cat!Verse.
Flynn Grey Maine Coon owned by Nate Morrison.
Guinevere Brown horse in Tyson’s XPirate!Verse.
Jack Tyson’s pet doberman that he original trained for the army.
Joe Stray Tortoiseshell at Dick Gannon’s apartment, that is more or less Dick’s.
Lily Tyson’s pet Dalmatian-Dhole that he met in Pakistan whilst escaping the army.
Lola Grey donkey in Tyson’s XPirate!Verse.
Mandy Tyson’s grey tabby in Kitten!Verse & Cat!Verse.
Meg Tyson’s Welsh Boarder Collie in Army!Verse & Veteran AU.
Odin Black horse in Tyson’s XPirate!Verse.
Percival Tyson (and Sebastian)’s Blue and Gold Macaw in UA India.
Quip Billy Ramsey’s three-legged and partially deaf Abyssinian Cat
Riker Professor Alinson’s brown poodle
Rincewind Tyson’s fancy mouse, now passed away
Simba Tae Dōjima’s Leonberger
Sofie Brown horse in Tyson’s XPirate!Verse
Toby (the Cat) Brown tabby cat owned by Molly Hooper.
Though Tyson loves cats, they don’t tend to like him as much.
This is almost entirely due to Tyson smelling of his dogs. When he’s had a few days away from his dogs, or when Tyson is meeting a cat that is more comfortable with dogs, he is good at reading cats behaviours and getting them to trust him.
The exception to this is one of the once a blue moon days when Tyson actually opens his pet store. Then, carrying the faint smell of catnip on him, he tends to make quick friends of the stray cats he comes across.
Cats within Tyson’s universe(s):
Amanda - Snowshoe - Molly Hooper
Felix - Ragdoll - Tyson’s in Redemption!Verse & Cat!Verse
Flynn - Maine Coon - Nate Morrison
Joe - Tortoiseshell - Stray at Dick Gannon’s apartment
If it wasn’t a necessity to keep himself fed without carrying extra weight in rations, Tyson wouldn’t ever bother fishing.
He enjoys the opportunity to meditate that it provides and - depending on the water source - water can help relax him, but Tyson would prefer to simply meditate than fish to meditate; he does understand the appeal though.
Tyson hates to waste time whilst working, so fishing allows him to take a moment for himself - to clear his mind and think over the job - whilst doing something productive.
The other side of this is that Tyson doesn’t care about eating, viewing it as a chore rather than pleasure, so he doesn’t even find it rewarding to provide his own food to cook. It’s a necessity. A need rather than a want.
He likes the idea of fishing in a romanticised way, conceptually, rather than actually wanting to go out and do it.
Give that the former was received whilst Tyson was in a well-stocked army compound and the latter whilst travelling on his own through the desert as a wanted man, most would expect the scar from Lily to appear worse and hurt more. Whilst the scar on his shoulder is hypersensitive, the scar from Razor is far messier.
Tyson was able to give the bite from Lily his immediate attention and the wound was a clean bite. She released him almost immediately after her teeth bit into Tyson. Nerve damage caused the wound to become hypersensitive, but the actual bite mark healed smoothly.
Razor did not release Tyson quickly. He jerked Tyson arm around roughly - as he was supposted to. They were working on bite training at the time, but Razor grabbed the wrong (unpadded) arm - and it was a miracle that the German Shepherd didn’t inflict more damage before finally releasing him, then Tyson was forced to wait around for the doctor to return before his wound could get proper attention.
Tyson had basic first aid knowledge, but not enough experience to handle such a bad wound properly. He was also disadvantaged by having his dominant hand attacked, as it wasn’t until after Razor lashed out that Tyson started along the path towards becoming (near) ambidextrous.
In neither of those instances does Tyson blame the dogs, he made a mistake - the same mistake both times, failing to notice the signs of heatstroke - and then the dogs lashed out. It was his mistake, not the dogs’ fault. A good dog trainer can go their entire carrier without ever getting bitten.
[Hybrid!Verse] is centered around the idea of everyone being animal-human hybrids; i.e. a human with cat ear/tail. Everything else in this verse remains the same as the normal verse outside of everyone being a hybrid.
In this universe, Tyson is a Stag-Human Hybrid, specially a Roe Deer.Though Tyson is very dog-like, he’s also very deer-like. Tyson’s personality fits both, but he’d be a deer-hybrid because (unlike a dog) Tyson’s more likely to bolt than try to befriend a stranger.
In this UA his nickname is still ‘Pup’, but here it’s more teasing; because people who know him are surprised that he’s not a dog-hybrid, even though a deer is very suiting to him.
Tyson’s antlers shed yearly; he’s okay with them being touched, aside from when they’re newly regrowing and more sensitive. However, throwing hoops onto his antlers to score points will result in being maimed with those antlers.He’s not fussed about his ears being touched, but he doesn’t like his tail being touched; ever. Everything else about Tyson is human.
Animal Pairings within Hybrid!Verse:
I should preface this by saying that a person’s view of different animals doesn’t change the type of hybrid they are - i.e.: if someone dislikes cats, they can still be a cat!hybrid if they are catlike themselves -, that though coming from a family of dog!hybrids makes one more likely to be a dog!hybrid it doesn’t guarantee it, & that different people have different levels of physical traits from their animal-hybrid: Hybrid!Tyson, for example, has the tail, antlers, and ears of a Roe Deer, but not the eyes or colouration. [x]
