Hair

Since he was twenty-three-years-old, Tyson has been cutting his own hair.

He began cutting his own hair during his relationship with Kim. Tyson mentioned to her that he always felt stressed whenever scissors or clippers were taken to his head, always fearing an attack, and Kimiko asked why he didn’t just cut it himself.

That question dumbstruck Tyson. He had never really considered it an option before. It took him a while to get used to doing it right, but these days, though he largely uses a mixture of scissors, thinning scissors, and clippers, Tyson can even cut his hair properly using only the straight razor he uses to shave.

At this point, it’s largely muscle memory as Tyson always cuts his hair at roughly the same time; before it’s noticeably any different from its usual puffy nature. As such, he isn’t great at having to cut anyone else’s hair, but he can do a decent job.

Masculinity verses Femininity

Though self-conscious about his appearance in not looking masculine enough, Tyson isn’t concerned about being too feminine. Tyson is often more concerned with what he should be, rather than what he shouldn’t be.

The idea that he shouldn’t be gay doesn’t get under Tyson’s skin and cause him guilt as much as the idea that he should be straight, and isn’t. He doesn’t care that he shouldn’t side with criminals, but Tyson does care that he should be a better role model for his nephew and - eventually - for his godson.

Tyson can barely tolerate shorts so the idea of getting him into a dress is a fool’s errand, but he has no problem with the idea of wearing women’s clothes. He is proud of how good he is at applying make-up and nail polish. He hates knitting, but that’s an objection to the clacking sound of the needles rather than crafts being too feminine, and he’s decent sewer.

His issues with his masculinity are more around his appearance rather than his hobbies. Tyson’s self-esteem issues around his appearance, his scars and looking like a carbon copy of his father, are complicated and difficult to separate into individual issues, but being smooth chested and not overly muscled has been a part of them since Tyson was a teenager.

Tattoos

Though Tyson appreciates tattoos, the dent in his torso has instilled a fear of permanent markings in main!verse Tyson that is not easily shaken off.

Within Mythical!Verse, Corruption!Verse, & Redemption!Verse, Tyson has enchanted tattoos. In those verses, Tyson had years to get used to the non-permanent versions of the tattoos, before agreeing to have them tattooed.

The sigils that were often painted onto Tyson using blood and magic - The sigils - that coated his chest and back, trickled down his arms onto his hands, and looped around his neck up onto his head; matting his hair were the blood was painted against his skull - were a claim on Tyson. A semi-permeant sign that Tyson was not to be harmed or attempted to be claimed, that he was theirs and no one else’s. - are no longer temporary, but instead a series of tattoos made from enchanted ink. The enchanting makes the tattoos change colours depending on the light - from blood red, to dark blue, to dark green to black - but Tyson dismisses it as ‘iridescent ink’.

As they are usually only visible where they inch down onto the back of his hands and where they loop up the back of his neck, Tyson isn’t too recognisable by his tattoos, but he still makes sure to conceal them - with magic or make-up, verse depending - when on jobs for the Moriarty Mirrors.

The tattoos follow the curve of Tyson’s ribs around then down to the top of his hips as their lowest point before going around onto Tyson’s back, leaving more of his stomach unmarked, and an empty diamond on the small of his back for temporary, situational markings to be applied.

In his RWBY AU, Tyson has his emblem tattooed between his shoulder blades. He had it done - alongside his teammates having their own tattooed - when he was in a team with Captain Samson, Hal Malone, & Bùi Kimiko; before meeting The Colonel and before the dent in his torso was formed.

Scars

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 dent in his torso for obvious reasons, his two dog bite scars because they were entirely avoidable, and the scar on his foot because it was the stupidest reason for getting a scar; the barbed wire scars hold similar contempt. The knife scars matter to Tyson because those were some of the rare instances with Sebastian used a weapon against him, rather than his fists.

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.

Style

Generally, it can be assumed that Tyson either be dressed to the nines, or like a perpetual college student after a Saturday lecture. There is honestly no alternative.

However, the specific niche of college student does vary across Tyson’s verses.

In verses where Tyson is more confident, he’s more willing to wear fewer layers and less long sleeves; though generally avoiding shorts remains. The exception is corruption!verse, where Tyson is the most confident, as he tries to avoid letting his tattoos becoming too recognisable.

Unlike the normal teenage!Tyson, who dressed as a punk, Orphan AU 3 - Teen!Verse Tyson is more of a middle ground between a pastel punk and a hipster. Teen!Verse Tyson is very comfortable in short sleeves and likes his scarves, though retrains Tyson’s aversion to hats outside of beanies.

Different Paths

If Tyson didn’t have the father he had and if he can’t crossed paths with The Colonel, Tyson would look fundamentally different.

Beyond being a carbon-copy of his father, that is.

Tyson prefers the way he looks with facial hair, yet because his father had a beard, the former Lieutenant almost always keeps himself smooth shaven.

He genuinely loves tattoos and if Sebastian hadn’t instilled such a deep fear of permanent markings into Tyson, he would be covered in tattoos by this point in his life.

Outside of corruption!verse and the sigil designs from the Moriarty Mirrors, Tyson would be unlikely to have tattoos on his hands, but his neck and the rest of his body would have been fair game.

In most universes and threads, it doesn’t matter how many changes Tyson goes through, he remains recognisable at a single glance. A Tyson untouched by his father and The Colonel is unrecognisable, a grown-up Tyson from any of his Orphan AUs would be completely unrecognisable in appearance.

His personality at its core would still be Tyson, the same self-sacrificing idiot of a mathematical prodigy, but his appearance, his presence in a room would be fundamentally different.

Comfortable in his own skin in a way that ‘normal’ Tyson never can be.

The Dent

The dent in his torso is roughly an inch deep, five inches long, and an inch and a half in height. It is positioned where his lowest left rip is, it stops that area his torso being a smooth curve like the rest of his torso and turns it into the top of an ‘m’ shape.

The dent is hypersensitive - to pain and temperature - and hitting it can trigger full blow hallucinations of PTSD. The dent was caused by repeated punching from Colonel Sebastian Moran, the bone was never given a chance to heal properly before it was re-broken, over and over again until when it finally healed, without being set in place, it became the dent.

The dent is clearly visible through the fabric of his shirt even with the t-shirt he wears underneath it to try and make it less visible. Though the dent is visible should one pay attention to that side of Tyson’s torso, most people could go months without noticing it as a hollow in someone’s torso isn’t something people typically keep their eyes out for.

To the average passerby, it simply looks like an odd dip in the fold of his shirt. Sometimes clothes fold in weird ways. No big deal. Tyson’s habit of keeping his right hand over the dent in his torso, to shield it from accidentally getting struck, also shields it from view most of the time.

The dent in Tyson’s torso is an incredibly obvious weak spot that most people would never even notice. People see what they want to see, what they expect to see. In many ways, Tyson is more protective of the dent than he truly needs to be, but he cannot take the risk of leaving it exposed around people he doesn’t trust.

The reason the dent hasn’t been re-set and corrected is that the lower half of Tyson’s lower sternum was weakened by those attacks. To properly fix the dent in Tyson’s torso, it would require a lot of metal reinforcement and the possible complete replacement of a large portion - if not all - of Tyson’s rib cage.

To Tyson, it isn’t worth losing the flexibility and manoeuvrability for an operation that might not even solve the pain the dent in his torso causes.

Dog bite scars

Tyson has two serious scars from dogs: one on his right wrist from Razor, one of the service dogs that he trained for the army, and one on his left shoulder from Lily, his pet Dalmatian-Dhole.

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.

Sunlight

Though Tyson has rather sensitive skin when it comes to chemicals, he doesn’t get sunburn easily nor does he tan. His eye colour is affected by light exposure, but Tyson’s skin is always pale from a lack of sun, and far too long spent working by night.

Tyson’s freckles come and go but on his left shoulder, there are always a cluster of five soft brown freckles on his pale skin. It takes a lot of sun for freckles to appear on Tyson’s face, but he can end up with a few across the bridge of his nose. It’s most noticeable in the photos from his days serving in Afghanistan.

In bright sunlight, Tyson needs his sunglasses far less then he acts as though he does. He picked up the habit of always wearing his sunglasses during his army days and it never really left. He can’t afford to miss a threat because he’s squinting against the sun. Plus, it gives him an excuse to conceal his eyes from view; to avoid direct eye-contact and flit his gaze around for threats.

He tends to wear sunglasses with straight arms, because he hates the feeling of anything behind his wear.

Like Father, Like Son

Tyson and his father can, and have, been compared in a myriad of ways. They are more alike than just looks.

It had always rubbed Tyson the wrong way that, minus thirty years, he is the spitting-image of his father. After his scars and not being ‘manly’ [largely lacking body hair and not being overly muscled], looking like his father is one of Tyson’s main issues with his body. It was why Tyson was ‘afraid of’ the idea of needing glasses and, despite liking himself far more with stubble or a small beard, Tyson kept his face clean shaven.

He knows he’d a, relatively, handsome man. Adorably handsome. However, he can’t admit that and has convinced himself he isn’t, because admitting that would be admitting his father was. Tyson wants to demonise his father. The late John Delaney caused Tyson hell growing up and Tyson refuses to attach a positive word to the man, at the cost of his own self-image.

Tyson knows he had his father’s stubbornness and determination, mathematical gifts, quick wit, mild sentimentally, unorthodox moral compass, and love of strong, rich coffee; but he is terrified of becoming more like him.

Tyson doesn’t want to be as sadistic or ruthless as his father, he doesn’t want to become as short tempered as the deceased professor, he doesn’t want to be as cold or dismissive as his father, nor does he want to be as lonely as his father.

That said he wouldn’t mind inheriting his father’s charm, social graces, neat handwriting, and confidence.

As a boy, Tyson idolised his father. He thought the man could do no wrong, even as he took his belt to the back of Tyson and his brother. He learnt differently. Trust and love slowly chipped away, but never truly leaving. As he’s grown older, those thoughts have become more complicated.

If Tyson could ever take thirty seconds to stop blaming himself for all the universes problems, he might realise how his father’s influence led him to Sebastian and then later to the Moriarty Mirrors. That is a very unlikely possibility however.

So much of Tyson’s life has been about living up to or trying to spite his father. He’s shaped so much of his life around that it may, in fact, be impossible for him to move forward without leaning into one or the other.

Before leaving it pinned on the noticeboard in his bedroom, and before he wore it on his right middle finger, Tyson used to wear a ring bearing the Delaney family crest around a chain on his neck. At times it felt like an impossibly heavy noose. Locking him to his father’s expectations.

It’s a similar feeling to what Tyson feels when he thinks of his father.

Both of them regret how things went down between them.

Tyson was, without a doubt in anyone’s mind, John’s second favourite son, but in his way, he did love his son. He was willing to forgive - keyword forgive, not accept - his son for being gay, but John could never forgive Tyson for signing up to die in the army. For throwing away his life to a pointless war.

If he had known about Tyson’s involvement in the web, John could have forgiven that. He could have accepted his son’s - stupid, pointless, misguided - attempts to do right by minimising the bad and keeping another from being in his position when it comes to a criminal empire, but not the armed forces.

Much of John’s sentiments about war come from his own father, Lucas Delaney, who lived through WW1 and WW2 as the head of an incredibly prominent Jewish family. He lost his twin brother, Bruce, to the Blitz and his innocence to the wars; and along with any belief that his family would ever have to stop fighting for a place to be Jewish without fear.

His anti-war sentiment came from enlistment and knowing that, no matter what they may claim, his country hadn’t gone to war to protect his people. Even after the war ended and his two sons were born - with given boastfully, proud Jewish names: Reuben Boaz Delaney (רְאוּבֵן בֹּעַז דילייני) & Yonatan David Delaney (יוֹנָתָן דָּוִד דילייני) - Lucas never stopped campaigning against war and passed those thoughts on to his sons.

John’s mother and Tyson’s grandmother, Ellen Delaney, shared that sentiment, but she was far less outspoken about it. Almost fearfully silent, having immigrated to Britain to escape the war with her parents. John picked that up too and it’s what spurred him to be so vocal about it, to not let her pain be lost; unheard.

John and Tyson were both forged from fear and spite, and a stubborn determination to never buckle; to fight for what they believed in until their last breaths. They were both incredibly proud and protective of the family legacy.

Tyson and his father are more alike than just looks.

It had always rubbed Tyson the wrong way that, minus thirty years, he is the spitting-image of his father. After his scars and not being 'manly' [largely lacking body hair and not being overly muscled], looking like his father is one of Tyson's main issues with his body. It was why Tyson was ‘afraid of’ the idea of needing glasses and, despite liking himself far more with stubble or a small beard, Tyson kept his face clean shaven.

He knows he'd a, relatively, handsome man. Adorably handsome. However, he can't admit that and has convinced himself he isn't, because admitting that would be admitting his father was. Tyson wants to demonise his father. The late John Delaney caused Tyson hell growing up and Tyson refuses to attach a positive word to the man, at the cost of his own self-image.

Tyson knows he had his father's stubbornness and determination, mathematical gifts, quick wit, mild sentimentally, unorthodox moral compass, and love of strong, rich coffee; but he is terrified of becoming more like him.

Tyson doesn't want to be as sadistic or ruthless as his father, he doesn't want to become as short tempered as the deceased professor, he doesn't want to be as cold or dismissive as his father, nor does he want to be as lonely as his father.

That said he wouldn't mind inheriting his father's charm, social graces, neat handwriting, and confidence.

Hair dye.

Whilst running away from the army and police across Europe, Tyson took the precaution of dying his hair to mask his appearance a little.

Tyson has rather sensitive skin so he took the safer route of using a natural, semi-permanent hair dye that washed out and needed refreshing after five days.

Originally he was only going to spend the time in Europe dying his hair a medium blond, which ended up being two months, but when he got back to Britain he continued doing it for another month; to be on the safe side.

Tyson has also repeatedly dyed his hair as a disguise on missions for Moriarty. To the current date, his hair has been dyed: 

• Light Brown - on three different occasions
• Light Brown, hints of Ginger - once
• Medium Blond - on seven different occasions
• Pastel Blue - on two different occasions
• 'Honey' Blond - on two different occasions
• Dark/Dirty Blond - on four different occasions
• Black - on three different occasions
• Light Ginger - on two different occasions

As soon as though missions were over Tyson washed out all of the hair dye to return his hair to it's natural colour. 

Though having his hair dyed helps Tyson looks less like his father, of whom he is the spitting image, Tyson prefers his hair to be his natural medium-dark brown [depending on how much light he'd exposed to].

The scar on Tyson's foot

Scar: Scar on the base of his right foot.
Date:: Thursday 9th February 2012.

Whilst in Edinburgh Tyson had a brush with the police on George Street.

At this time the police were after Tyson because General Clarkson was yet to clear Tyson of criminal charges, though the police do still keep an eye on Tyson and bring him in for frequent questionings.

When he came out of a shop, at the time a small coffee shop which made surprisingly nice flapjack, Tyson walked almost directly into two police officers. They recognised him immediately. Obviously, Tyson ran.

As he rounded the corner onto Hanover Street his shoe came off. His shoelace had come loose and caught on drainage grate. Wisely Tyson didn’t pause to pick up his shoe as the police were right on his tail.

He kept running - ducking and diving between pedestrians - until he lost the police, just as he passed by Chambers Street. He kept running though, to be on the safe side.

In doing so his foot went over a rock, a rock which was presumably there because of the repairs being made to the road.

He sliced open his foot which left a long scar along the base of his foot.

This is one of the few scars Tyson doesn’t mind being touched, rather than hurting its very ticklish. Though he isn’t particularly fond of his feet being touched in general, because they are very ticklish.

Glasses

Tyson’s father used to wear glasses almost all of the time, and his uncle Richard wears reading glasses.

Tyson knows that Jethro’s eye sight is fine and that his own is okay, but he’s ‘afraid’ that he’ll end up needing glasses too.

Tyson isn’t against glasses per-say - when they’re on other men he actually find them quite cute - but he’s self-conscious about how he looks and he doesn’t want to be reliant on glasses to do his job.

Or look more like his father because of them.

Face Claims for Jethro and Jasmine.

Jethro (Tyson's brother) -Michael Weatherly :

Jasmine (the maid at the family manor) - Sally Bretton :

Where to touch Tyson to panic/calm him

The age difference between Tyson and his face claim Damien Molony.

Tyson is, at the point in time this was written, thirty one. Damien Molony is only twenty eight.

This, admittedly slight, age gap is to make Tyson seem younger. To show how he has suppressed information. His brain has created a state of denial to protect him from the trauma he has endured which makes him seem younger, more innocent and naïve.

The age gap is three years, for a good reason: Tyson was with Sebastian for three years which means he had suppressed, almost, all of those three years making him seem three years younger than he actually is. 

Tyson's eyes

Tyson’s eyes are brown (Hazel). In this particular picture of Damien Molony his eyes are green but if you look at others his eyes are clearly brown. This is very common for people with hazel eyes, so I will always say that Tyson’s eyes are brown but on occasion they may have a green hue to them.


Tyson’s brother’s, Jethro Andrew Delaney, eyes are usually green but occasionally become green, like their mother’s, Anne. Whereas Tyson takes after their father, John, and his eyes are usually brown and only occasionally green. Due to the resemblance to his father’s Tyson has never liked his eyes, except for when they become green; which happens more in the summer when the brighter light brings out the green pigment better than it does during the other seasons.

When Tyson served in Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, 2001-2006 and 2006-2008, the brighter light in the Middle East meant that Tyson’s eyes were green more often than they are now that he is in Britain. This also applies to the time Tyson spent running away from the army both with and without Sebastian, 2008-2011.

This topic on the Damien Molony forum: link.

Map of Tyson's scars.

Tyson has more scars than purely those pictures bellow, 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 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.

Face Claim - Young Tyson.

Zachary Gordon.