Shadow

When Tyson was a child, his imaginary friend was his shadow.

He would sit on the patio, next to one of the larger slate slabs, when the sun was shining where he could see the shadow most clearly. He would talk to his shadow. He never imagined it talking back, instead he thought it was listening to him and being able to talk to something was comforting.

He knew he could talk to his brother but there were times when he needed to talk and couldn’t find Jethro, because he was with friends or in private lessons with their father.

When Tyson would address his shadow, it came across more as one dictating a journal entry rather than talking with someone else. It was a way for Tyson to get his thoughts out into the world, without feeling as though he were directing them at the void pointless, by directing his words to a more literal and seemingly sympathetic void.

Before his energy was redirected into fencing, Tyson would shadow box with his shadow and he would practise his coordination by relying purely on the image of his shadow to catch a ball. He constructed a lot of complex games that relied on using his shadow.

As such, Tyson has developed a habit of smiling when he catches sight of his shadow that he’s never truly shaken. On days when he couldn’t see his shadow, Tyson wouldn’t play and that mindset has somehow stuck.

Antiques

The Delaney family manor is filled with valuable antiques.

…and that’s about as much as Tyson knows about it or them.

Though they had many similar lessons and were tutored on countless matters about being heirs to the Delaney family legacy, Jethro - the intended and blatantly favoured heir - learnt far more about the manor itself than Tyson got to.

He used to be jealous of the time Jethro got to spent with their father, learning more about their history. Now, Tyson simply wishes the manor came with more plaques to explain what he was looking at.

Grandmother

Tyson’s grandmother - Ellen Delaney - passed away when Tyson was nine.

This affected Tyson much more than his mother’s decision to leave had. He was only four when Anne divorced his father and Tyson can barely remember her.

His grandmother, on the other hand, was someone that Tyson adored. She taught him how to play piano and most of the limited Yiddish that he knows. She used to bake apple pies with him and gave Tyson his love of Jasmine tea.

Ellen’s funeral is one of the few times that Tyson got to see a chink in his father’s armour and one of the only times that Tyson can say John had an appropriate, and proportional, reaction to the things going on around him.

Whilst Jethro mourned Ellen, he was never as close to his grandmother as he had been to his grandfather, who passed away when Jethro was six. Lucus’ passing caused Jethro to distance himself from his grandmother subconsciously and they never managed to close that distance before she passed away.

Copying his father

As much as he tries to distance himself from John now, Tyson spent his childhood desperately trying to be his father.

Tyson idolised his father. He wanted to spend as much time around him as possible. He would - subconsciously - start mimicking the way John gestured when teaching and, purposefully, try to match the way John spoke as well.

By age ten, Tyson had his father’s posture and gait perfected. He then spent the next decade of his life trying to distance himself from that, eventually finding his own footing in a soldier’s gait and the way he walks on the balls of his feet at home.

Dance

Amongst many other lessons, Tyson and Jethro were both tutored in ballroom, ballet, classical, tap, and contemporary dance.

Primarily they were taught ballroom and classical, with ballet only appearing as punishment when they needed to work on posture or balance. Jethro excelled with tap, whilst Tyson still holds great contempt for the sound the shoes made when talking around.

He enjoyed the technique of tap, however, which might be why shuffle dance was on of the few modern dances Tyson is actually good at. Jethro is passable with most dances that were around from his teens until late twenties, with an unforgivable - and completely unironic - love of the macarena. 

Predictably, Tyson favoured the slower partnered dances where Jethro preferred faster pace and was fine with dancing on his own.

Archery

Though archery was also one of the many lessons that Tyson and Jethro were given as heirs to the Delaney family legacy, the brothers are far more likely to remember playing with Nerf-dart bows than the actual archery lessons.

Archery was one of the few activities where their father would actually watch them whilst they practiced. Perhaps simply as those lessons lined up with warmer, fairer weather that coaxed the Professor outside, but it meant that they looked forward to them; and practiced with the toy bows to impress him.

Norse Mythology

Though both brothers always enjoyed talking about mythology together, Norse mythology always caught Jethro’s imagination far more than Tyson; who found that the Greek tales resonated more with him, but that the Norse ones had more pathos to them than the Roman ones.

As part of an art project at secondary school, Tyson made a clay statue of Sleipnir for his brother. The face was somewhat questionable and part of the tail chipped off before Tyson got it home, but that statue still remains on the shelf of Jethro’s bedroom.

Blood Sugar

Though he has never had a particularly sweet tooth, Tyson has struggled with low blood sugar ever since he was a child.

Every day after school, ever since he was old enough to attend nursery, one of the maids at the family manor would give Tyson a teaspoon of honey. If he didn’t eat that, Tyson would collapse or have wild mood swings for several hours; which is saying something as, on any given day, Tyson can give a man emotional whiplash.

Jasmine caught onto that quickly once she joined the manor’s staff, as well as the fact that Tyson snuck down into the kitchens after his father went to bed, and started leaving out sweets for Tyson to take up into the attic with him; Edinburgh rock or sherbet lemons usually.

Fencing

Tyson was a good fencer in his teens.

A damn good fencer. Tyson’s brother and P.E. teacher can be quoted as repeatedly saying that Tyson “improved with the weather” when it came to sport, which was true. Tyson likes to relax and ‘conserve energy’, but he has shown himself to be talented in dancing [ballroom, classical, tap, and contemporary], cricket, tennis, rugby, and fencing.

Whilst Tyson was willing to go out and play cricket where people could see him, he kept fencing - like dancing - between himself, his tutor, his brother, and his father. When playing cricket a lot of the focus was on other players, were as in dance and in fencing more of the attention was on Tyson. This made him nervous and, therefore, unwilling to ‘perform’ outside of the classroom.

Tyson’s fencing tutor - who was also his Latin and Geography tutor - said that Tyson could have made a living out of fencing had he gotten over his nerves, Tyson never believed that.

Tyson would leap at the chance to fence again. His social anxieties mean that he’d never join a club to take up fencing, but if he got the chance to fence with some one he knew and trusted Tyson wouldn’t turn down the opportunity.

His talent with swords - mostly fencing swords, but he has dabbled with a fair amount of success with other swords - played a large role in him favouring knives over guns; after hand to hand combat (focusing on nerve, pressure, and vital points), obviously.

Of all the sports Tyson took part in as a teenager, fencing was the one he was best at. Though Tyson never believed his tutors when he said this, Tyson could genuinely have made a living out of fencing professionally if he wanted to. He favours Saber then Épée, and then Foil.

In most verses, Tyson has left swords behind, but his skills are much sharper in Pirate!Verse, XPirate!Verse, and RWBY AU. Within his Orphan AUs, in Teen!Verse Tyson is an active fencer and in Teen!VerseLDN Tyson only recently left fencing behind to take up boxing.

Nostalgia

Even though Tyson can clearly remember his childhood with great clarity, it is very difficult to trigger nostalgia for his childhood.

A lot of that time, though clearly remembered, is suppressed on an emotional level for Tyson; similar to some of the time he spent on the run with The Colonel. It’s as though he spent those years watching his own life through a window; aware, yet notably separated.

Pangs of nostalgia for his years in the army are incredibly easy to summon - antiseptic and memories of John’s laughter, overripe fruit with Captain Samson’s voice, old PS3 era games with free time between rounds in the compound - but anything before that time is near inaccessible.

Chess

Shockingly, the mathematical prodigy and strategist adores chess.

Some of his favourite childhood memories of playing chess against his father, and the first time he actually defeated his father was one of the proudest moments of his young life.

When that then ‘evolved’ into having to play chess on a mental board and keep all the pieces straight, Tyson - for once - had the advantage over his father due to his form of Synesthesia. Which only meant that his father pushed Tyson to get better and better.

In many ways, Tyson feels like he owes his strategic ability to those games with his father. Chess and game theory were not exactly the same as the war games Tyson could later end up in, but they gave him the groundwork and understanding that he needed to walk the path he ended up on.

He finds playing chess, even against himself, to be incredibly therapeutic and it helps him think, to organise his thoughts with an idle task that - whilst it can be challenging - it often as easy as breathing for him.

Childhood Friends

Tyson’s father purposefully forced Tyson into having an isolated childhood, an attempt to make for his ‘failings’ with Jethro and further groom Tyson into being - what he saw as - the ideal heir to the Delaney family; which became something of an obsession after Anne left.

As such, Tyson didn’t have many friends. It took him a long time to properly build up his social skills and he was incredibly isolated from those he tried to make friends with. His life was completely different from those at his school and he was an easy target for bullying; especially as the rich kid that no one needed to feel bad about pushing around.

Leaving secondary school at fifteen to attend Cambridge University officially certainly didn’t help Tyson find a place amongst his peers. The two most notable ‘friends’ of Tyson’s childhood were Peter Campbell & Alistair Mandelson, who only appeared once Tyson was a teenager and were paid to be his friend by his father.

Candles

Given his pyrophobia, it’s not all that surprising the candles are one of the few - and, from his point of view, agonisingly important - parts of Jewish tradition that Tyson tries to distance himself from as much as possible.

Some of his earlier memories are being afraid of the Shabbat candles lit by Ms Appleby, and - even though Tyson knows that it’s an entirely irrational fear that isn’t his fault - there is an inescapable feeling of guilt in Tyson about that.

His Jewishness is one of the most important things about Tyson, to Tyson; even though he’s rather non-observant in his faith. When he does or does not go to Synagogue, that’s an active choice that Tyson can make, but flinching away from Shabbat candles isn’t. It’s reflexive and it hurts him every time it happens.

Tennis

Though he was a member of the tennis club at his secondary school, Tyson hated playing tennis. He only played because it made his brother happy to see Tyson playing the sport that their mother used to play.

His distaste for the sport didn’t stem from the association with his mother or loathing his trainer, as was the case with other sports that were forced on Tyson at a young age. Instead, Tyson simply found tennis boring to play. He still does. He can’t explain why, but it just never clicked with him like rugby and cricket did.

He was aware of the pressure in being the only player on his side, instead of part of a team, but that had never stood in the way of his enjoyment of fencing.

Tennis is simply one of those annoyance that Tyson cannot explain. It makes him bristle with unanswerable resentment. Not towards his mother or brother for asking him to play, but simply towards the monotony of the sport itself.

Voice

Tyson comes from a family of late bloomers, especially when it comes to male voices dropping.

For Jethro, his voice began breaking when he was fourteen and lasted for almost an entire year before it settled. John’s voice began breaking when he was sixteen and took five months, where Richard’s began at fifteen and took almost seven months.

Tyson’s voice didn’t begin breaking until he was fifteen and took roughly eight months to finish*; which meant that Jethro didn’t hear his baby brother’s ‘adult voice’ until he was nineteen and used his break in army training to visit his older brother.

James’ voice won’t begin breaking until he is sixteen (20th March 2022) and will take around seven months to properly settle.

* This means that in Teen!Verse and Hogwarts AU/Honey Badger SU Tyson’s voice is still breaking: teen!verse is beginning to break, and Hogwarts AU/Honey Badger SU is towards the end of his voice breaking.

Spring Masquerade Ball

Having taught at Cambridge University almost since the university was founded, it was inevitable that the Delaney family would be involved in some of the school’s traditions beyond teaching mathematics.

One of those traditions is the bi-annual spring masquerade ball at the Delaney family manor grand hall. Every two years, an event for the top students from all across the university to mingle with those in the top of those fields: doctors, lawyers, business entrepreneurs, et cetera.

This event serves two purposes: it gives the best students an opportunity to mingle and make connections to set up opportunities for when they graduate, whilst also being an opportunity to bring in sponsors and donators for the university by showing how ‘supporting the future can benefit you’.

Though he hated having to play ‘perfect Delaney heir’ at those events as a child, Tyson continues to allow the university to use the manor for those events. Primarily, Jasmine is the one who takes care of the ‘Delaney estate’ side of the event, but Tyson makes sure to show up every time.

He knows that his family name carries weight and that he can use that to bring more funding to the university, and to encourage more people to attend and extend opportunities to the students. It’s exactly the kind of upper-class posturing that Tyson loathes, but he’s willing to swallow his pride for their sake.

School Rivalry

Though Tyson is aware that it’s utterly hypocritical given his upper-class upbringing, in attending Cambridge International School and Cambridge University, his hatred of Etonians and Oxford University remains.

It’s an old resentment ingrained into his being for the family legacy at Cambridge and a learnt distaste for the upper class. However, where his distaste for Oxford goes into a ‘school rivalry’ category, Tyson actively resents Eton and on principle distrusts anyone who attended there.

That Sebastian Moran attended has been a point of contention between the pair, whereas Cambridge versus Oxford was a source of teasing between them.

Upperclass

Though he tries to distance himself from it as much as possible, Tyson had an upper-class - highly privileged - upbringing that he can never truly get away from.

It’s always evident in the precise received pronunciation of his usual broad, yet posh, Cambridge accent; even more prominent as his stutter stretched out the vowels, further broadening his accent, and drawing attention to the sharp clipped edges of his consonants.

He may only believe etiquette and manners necessary to a point, but his upbringing is clear in the ways Tyson holds his cutlery, in the aborted movement of his arm to draw out the chair for his dining partner, and - if he always follows through on that reflex - in the manner in which he does so.

Tyson makes his distaste for the upper-class elite very clear, but he cannot escape the way he was shaped by his upbringing; endless tutors and schooling to groom him into the perfect heir for the Delaney family legacy.

He knows how fortunate he was, excluding the abuse from his father, but that doesn’t make Tyson resent that privilege any less. He hates the entire culture of it, the way he was an extension of his father rather than his own person, and he hates the feeling that none of his accomplishments will ever be his own; that he will always owe it to his upbringing amongst the elite.

Teenage Tyson vs Teen!Verse Tyson

As mentioned in this post, where normal Tyson as a teenager was a punk, Teen!Verse Tyson leans more towards being a pastel punk/hipster.

As a teenager in Orphan AU, away from his father’s abuses, Tyson has much more confidence in expressing his own style; rather than the more subdued, secretive choices of the teenage Tyson from his main!universe. 

This general premise invokes the main difference between teenage Tyson & teen!verse Tyson. Teen!verse Tyson still fences, plays cricket, and skateboards, but unlike teenager Tyson, he does so with confidence rather than second-guessing his every action. He has anxiety, but it isn’t the same noose.

Where regular Tyson had an incredibly isolated childhood that meant he missed out on learning a lot of key social skills, ones that took him years to scrounge together as an adult and that he continues to struggle with due to a lack of confidence in himself, teenage Tyson grew up surrounded by people.

He finds that smothering and frequently goes off to find some peace and quiet on his own, but that meant that Tyson learnt those social skills at the appropriate age. He is in a much better place mentally, even if his abandonment issues sprung up much sooner after getting abandoned by his mother and father in quick succession.

Where teenage Tyson had a slight DC bias, teen!verse Tyson has a slight Marvel bias due to the comics they grew up/are growing up with. Their interests are more or less the same, but teen!verse Tyson is more willing to show his interests rather than hiding them.

Internship

As a teenager, Tyson interned as a vet.

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.