The usual suspects

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.

Bobby loves water, and swimming, and rain, and jumping in puddles, and… anything wet. When he was a smaller dog, Bobby used to swim laps in the bathtub. Whenever Tyson goes to take a shower, Bobby insists on jumping in to join him.

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.

Patrolling

Tyson will end up walking the same route, over and over.

In part, this is familiarity, taking the direct path to the nearest supermarket to buy extra milk is the simplest course of action. However, when Tyson is on edge, it reaches a point where his behaviour couldn’t be called anything other than patrolling.

He’ll take Lily and Bobby with him, and fastidiously adhere to one route around an imaginary perimeter around his apartment: one that stretches far enough to include The Biscuit Tin and the nearest Underground entrance. Tyson will walk that path over and over again, until he’s too exhausted to continue or other responsibilities call him away.

There is never a point in that patrolling where Tyson goes ‘oh, okay then. There is nothing to be worried about nearby’. He falls into a trap of tunnel vision and paranoia that would have him marching for hours on end.

Miscellaneous fluff headcanons

• Tyson is pretty good at tying shoes for other people. He first learnt how to tie shows by sitting under his father’s desk whilst he worked and pulling on the laces of his father’s shoes until he knew how to do it properly.
    
• 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.
   
• Harmonica lessons with Sebastian were more or less always an excuse to kiss, but one of the few times they were walked in on, harmonica lessons were a good enough excuse for why they were kissing. That it was John who walked in and he was 90% asleep at time is probably the only reason that excuse passed without follow up questions. Watson was too tired to deal with their nonsense.
    
• Since their father was too busy at the university, Tyson had to be the one to give Jethro a pep-talk before his first proper date at fifteen. This went about as well as a conversation between an eleven-year-old and a fifteen-year-old about going on a date could be expected to.
    
• One time after sharing a plate of pot brownies with Dick, Tyson ended up answering a call from a telemarketer whilst tangled up on the kitchen floor with Dick; after the pair had tripped over each other in the livingroom, and been too content to bother walking to move. He ended up rambling about the pretty stars for the better part of half an hour on the phone. The stars in that instance meaning the series of LED lights in the kitchen ceiling.
    
• 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. 

Pigeons

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.

Pup's Pet Store

Though he rarely bothers to open the shop, Tyson does own Pup’s Pet Store; named by his nephew. It’s largely a cover story to convince his brother that Tyson does have a normal life and it can help cover his activities within the web if he gains too much police attention.

His sister-in-law, Rosie, designed the business cards for the store, so that receipts or any other papers from the shop could be slotted inside. She was also the one to create the forms for Tyson’s shop and maps. Rosie has since made an updated and larger range for him, so that Tyson can make his business look legitimate under scrutiny.

As well as selling pet supplies, Tyson offers a service where he helps people track down their ideal pet from the various shelters and breeders around London, and he will occasionally offer training if he likes the person enough.

He has a …deal of sorts with Jeremy, the owner of the butcher’s shop two doors down from Tyson’s pet shop. Tyson buys his meat there and recommends it to other people, and in turn Jeremy offers him a safe place to hide whilst making unsubtle comments about favours that Tyson might owe him.

The top floor of Tyson’s pet store is largely used as a place for Tyson to make his maps, as Tyson’s apartment lacks floor space to work on them and he keeps most of his supplies at the store. That isn’t to say that Tyson has a lot of space at his store either.

As the majority of the upper floor is often covered in drying maps, Tyson has a pair of long wooden planks and four rubber bricks to walk around the room without disrupting anything; and, naturally, has trained his dogs to walk over them too. Lily and Bobby will sometimes hop onto the planks even when nothing else is on the floor.

Tyson can pivot around the maps and sometimes when he’s working on too many at once, he will move the planks out of the way to free up more floor space, but he honestly finds it fun to balance on the blanks and it helps prevent any accidents from happening.

Crab Fishing

When Tyson takes his nephew to the beach, they make the time to go crab fishing.

Though Tyson is rather lukewarm on the topic of fishing, preferring to meditate to clear his mind, James enjoys catching crabs and Tyson enjoys getting to sit quietly on the pier with Lily; whilst Bobby paddles around in the water, theoretically chasing crabs towards James.

It began as a way to keep James occupied and under the dog’s watchful eyes, whilst Tyson ‘discouraged’ some unwanted attention from enemies of the web.

Tyson can’t even remember what excuse he gave when he returned with busted knuckles, only that James didn’t believe it and decided to accept that answer anyway.

Deceiving an eight-year-old shouldn’t make fish and chips taste better.

Meditation

Tyson’s thought process in meditation has been explained before in Tyson’s connection to earth. It is also common knowledge that he began learning how to focus his thoughts that way through Jasmine, he learnt breathing techniques that helped with the dent in his torso whilst stopping at a monastery on the run with Sebastian, and Tyson tends to listen to classical music whilst meditating.

Less commonly known is that Bobby will slump along his flank to guard him whilst his eyes are closed. Whenever James joins Tyson’s meditation, Lily suddenly loves close contact and attaches herself to James’ hip.

As stressful as Tyson finds wasting time and allowing himself to breathe for even a second, Tyson loves meditating and allowing his thoughts to release; to process them subconsciously and relax for a few minutes. It goes against his philosophy for everything else, but it works for him.

Misuse of Furniture

Tyson is oddly endeared by the mistreatment of furniture. 

Most things in Tyson’s life either come from rebelling against his father or as a way to survive, this is definitely the former. Growing up a lot of the furniture was antique or set pieces to impress fellow professors or donors. It was more about being seen than used.

That was also the cause of Tyson frequently choosing to sit on the floor when a perfectly good chair is next to him.

He likes the way Lily perches on top of the armchair and Bobby hops onto the coffee table. Tyson could easily train them not to, but he enjoys that behaviour and knows that they will listen when he orders them off, for whatever reason; usually to prevent a glass from getting knocked over or allow his maps room to dry.

Tyson can frequently be found perched on countertops or standing on his bed: which he uses as a seat, desk space, dog space, and exercises space far more than sleeping on it. Around family or the people he treats as family, Tyson will frequently be found sat cross-legged on a table or squatting on a bar stool.

He has several treasured photos of The Colonel sprawled upside-down in chairs or with his legs hanging over the edge of the armrest. Tyson also has a photo of the Moriarty Mirrors, one sat with his legs danging off the table whilst the other sits sprawled across three chairs.

Choosing the right pet

Though Tyson rarely opens Pup’s Pet Store for the public, one of the services he offers when the store is actually open is to help people find the right pet for them; and more importantly in his eyes, the right person for that animal.

Tyson struggles to read and understand people, but Tyson knows animals and he’s good at reading how they’re feeling.

Within his main!verse, he found homes for all of Lily’s puppies: with the exception of Bobby, the runt of the little whom he always intended to keep. He was also the who found Toby (the Beagle) for John Watson to adopt and helped train him in the year that Sherlock was pretending to be dead, and he took Billy to adopt her cat, Quip.

He has a good memory for the general behavioural quirks for the majority of cat and dog breeds, though Tyson will admit that he can give far more detailed answers when it comes to how a dog can be expected to respond.

Having spent so much of his life handling service dogs for the army, Tyson has a good understanding of what an animal will need in those first few weeks and what they will need once they’re acclimatised. He knows how to train them and how much energy/time is needed to achieve certain things.

Tyson is an incredibly patient person, but he still understands the frustration of not feeling as though progress is being made with an animal. He is in a good position to help break through that communication wall and encourage a person to keep trying, to offer alternative solutions and provide that training himself if needs be.

Stress Relief

When it comes to stress relief, we already know that meditation works well for Tyson and that he tends to avoid sex or masturbation, but how does Tyson handle other traditional ways of relieving stress?

Tyson has the same problem with distrusting strangers and not wanting to be touched by anyone he doesn’t know with massages as he does with sex. That said, Tyson enjoys giving massages and finds the repetitive actions calming.

He has never tried acupuncture, but Tyson doesn’t trust strangers to be near him with sharp objects enough to let them cut his hair. He cuts his own hair for that very reason. On the other hand, fear of needles isn’t a problem.

The dent in his torso stops Tyson from doing yoga, but he isn’t against the idea and if it weren’t for the pain from that hypersensitive wound, Tyson would probably get the same amount of stress relief from yoga as he would his meditation.

He tends to get good results from anything that requires heat, however. Hot springs and saunas are great for getting Tyson to relax and, even though trusting a stranger is still a problem, hot rocks do help Tyson unwind his stress.

Mud baths go into the category of acceptable dirt with Tyson’s OCD, but he doesn’t enjoy them that much. He dislikes being stuck in a bath anyway, vulnerable on his back like a turtle and forced to stay in one position, and adding a thicker liquid that restricts his movements more simply makes it worse.

But for Tyson, the best stress relief of all is laying on the settee with something warm and fuzzy snuggled on top of him. Even if Bobby wiggles too much.

Beaches

Though the beach isn’t to Tyson’s personal tastes, strongly disliking sand for its effects on his OCD and preferring to swim in fresh water, he will often end up visiting a beach during holidays; usually for the benefit of his nephew James, but also to give his dogs a change of scenery.

Bobby is overjoyed at the chance to swim in the sea and to dig up the sand, from a reasonable distance from Tyson to avoid getting into trouble.

Lily doesn’t like getting wet, but she adores the opportunity to run on the sand once more; having joined Tyson whilst crossing the desert in Pakistan.

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.

Meg is in the ocean before Tyson can even register releasing her leash, swallowing salt water despite Tyson’s best efforts to discourage her.

Tyson has good memories of being at the beach with his family, having BBQ with Jethro, Rosie, James, & Charlie. Most of those good memories are during late evening or night, once most people have cleared away and Tyson can relax more. The beach always reminds him of blackcurrant drinks.

He remembers day trips to Blackpool the most. Starting the morning at Sandcastle Waterpark, then running around on the beach with James before a picnic lunch and taking a midday nap, grabbing fish & chips for dinner before going into Blackpool Pleasure Beach (theme park). Then, when the Blackpool Lights get turned on, driving back through that way until James falls asleep on the way home.

Ghosts

As mentioned here, Tyson doesn’t believe that ghosts exist, but he believes that they could exist and doesn’t discredit the idea. Sometimes fortunately and sometimes very unfortunately for him, his main!universe isn’t quite the real world: with the Moriarty Mirrors, Draco, advanced nanobots, and more existing.

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.

Water

This is a headcanon that has been told several times:

Tyson loves water.

Tyson was taught to swim by his brother, Jethro Andrew Delaney, who used to take him to a small creak near the family manor, and sometimes to the river in the family manor’s ground when it was summer and there had been a heavy rainfall making it deep enough to go in.

Though he’ll whine about being wet when he gets out of the water Tyson does love being in it, except when it comes to baths. He hates taking baths, even after a long run when he feels like he never want to stand again he’ll take a shower rather than getting into the bath, because he didn’t like just sitting in a pool of water. It’s the same reasoning he gives when his nephew wants him to join him in the sea or in a swimming pool. However, when presented with an open lagoon Tyson would gladly sit in the water for hours on end.

He likes being in fresh water with lots of room the best though, especially those near waterfalls. Tyson adores waterfalls, almost to the same level as he does mathematics, maps, and dogs. They are a source of wondrous beauty for Tyson that the man-made world cannot corrupt.

Swimming gives him a freedom. It takes him away from the world. He can’t fully meditate when floating because he has buoyancy issues. He can flow perfectly, but only face down which causes an issue if he wants to breath. If he tries to float on his back then his head would sink under water - unless he keeps pushing it up - until he rotates around to floating on his stomach.

Rain holds less affection in Tyson’s heart. The constant, dismal onslaught of rain from the British weather takes away a lot of the joy rainfall can bring, but even so he appreciates the mathematical challenge that rain can give. He knows the formulae for predicting where each rain drop will fall. His view on rain does improve once he’s inside, however.

There is a divide amongst Tyson’s pets when it comes to water.

Lily [Dalmatian/Dhole] hates water. 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.

Bobby [Dalmatian/Dhole/Beagle] - on the other hand - loves water, and swimming, and rain, and jumping in puddles, and… anything wet. When he was a smaller dog, Bobby used to swim laps in the bathtub. Whenever Tyson goes to take a shower, Bobby insists on jumping in to join him.

Jack [Doberman] 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.

Meg [Welsh Border Collie] also loves water, natural water anyway. Unlike Bobby, Meg would take some coaxing to get into a chlorinated pool. As soon you’ve spotted a pond, lake, or river, Meg is already in it. And pulling out the biggest stick she can find to play fetch with.

Mandy [Tabby] is continually curious about water, especially running water. However, that thought is abandoned the moment her body gets wet. Tyson can clean her legs, tail, and ears without her raising a fuss. She’s easy to calm and, unless she falls in the water, doesn’t start scratching, but she’s clearly distressed.

Felix [Ragdoll] hasn’t shown a great interest in water, but he’s largely apathetic about being wet. He won’t even bother to dry himself. He just lays his soaking wet body down on the bed for someone else to deal with later.

Draco [Dragon] responds like a tiny bird to water. 

Skate/dirt boarding

One of Tyson's less known leisure actives, because he never talks about it to anyone other than Jethro and Rosie, is skateboarding. Tyson started skateboarding in his teens, as a quicker - lazier - way of getting around the family manor.

When a skate park was made near-ish to the manor, on the outside of the city, Tyson used to sneak out late at night - to avoid other people - to practise tricks. He never tried anything too brave, he was always afraid of getting hurt, but he still knows a fair few. When learning the tricks Tyson would write out the equations for the forces involved in the trick to understand what he needed to do not to get hurt when trying to do it.

Though Tyson primarily gets around on his bicycle and motorbike Tyson will occasionally go out on his skateboard when he doesn't want to walk, or run. Bobby will chase Tyson whilst Lily jogs behind obediently.

Rosie got Tyson into dirtboarding, sometimes they'll go out together to dirtboard.

Bobby can see ghosts

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.

Tyson's apartment incredibly difficult to navigate - an explanation of why.

Here is a picture of Tyson's apartment:



The living room especially is cramped with lots of potential to trip over, even though Tyson keeps the rooms tidy and floor as clear as possible, part of his low level OCD. The small corridor that leads from the front door into the living room is made more difficult to move through because that is where Tyson stores his bike, meaning that should one wish to enter the living room they'd have to sidestep a mountain bike. This isn't just because I failed to scale my sketch correctly. It is done because of how Tyson moves.

Tyson, when at home, moves around on his tiptoes. In the words of Sebastian Moran (or Jethro, depending on the verse / if he's interacting with a different Sebastian), "the kid prances around like a pixie." He is trained in classical dance and ballroom dancing. When he moves around the room he really does move like a pixie. It's as though his feet never touch the floor. He goes up on the pads of his feet and, essentially dances around the room, through a series of pivots, though always accommodating for where his dogs are in the room. He only ever does this in company if he is comfortable with the other person, otherwise he'll walk with his feet flat - as he does when in public. It is one of the many ways Tyson tried to control his life, to make it more organised. When his is comfortable he is up which means he has to concentrate to walk as most people would, it helps him stay focused and give him a sense of control in the scenerio.

He knows the layout of his apartment like the back of his hand so can navigate it easily despite having to side step around most of the apartment; and normally having awful balance. For anyone else though it is a death trap made four times as hard by having two Dalmatians wondering around it. Lily and Bobby also find getting relatively easy, because they are dogs.

Towels

Tyson has three types of towels in his airing cupboard: red, blue, and purple. The blue are for Lily, her white coat means she needs to be cleaned often to keep it white, which is the same reason why Bobby has his own towels, the red ones. The towels Tyson uses to dry himself are the purple towels because he is, on occasion, pedantic and would rather not get covered in dog hair straight out of the shower.

why does Tyson act to needy when confronted with affection?

Good question, no one. Let’s start with Tyson’s childhood. His father never gave him any affection which meant any he got came from his brother and mother. His mother and brother abandoned him when he was young meaning for a long time of his life, a time when affection and support is incredibly important, he got none.

Then he joined the army and (almost) the only affection that he got came from Sebastian, hard to believe but on occasion Sebastian was nice to Tyson. By now you should notice the theme, Sebastian also abandoned him (after months of abuse.)

This means Tyson is both deprived of affection and afraid of it. He desperately wants it because he’s been starved of it, but at the same time he’s afraid to have it because he’s afraid that it’ll disappear if he has it. He clings to the affection so much because he’s afraid that if he doesn’t hold onto it tightly it will disappear and leave him like everything else, it’s why he doesn’t let Lily and Bobby out of his sight.