A brother's concerns

Tyson wasn’t the only one terrified that youngest Delaney heir would end up a perfect copy of his father.

When Jethro ran away from home, he knew he wasn’t old enough to look after his brother. Jethro never wanted to leave Tyson alone with their father, but he had to leave and he knew that Tyson would be safer at the manor than with him on the streets.

Even knowing that he made the correct decision, Jethro was terrified that once he reunited with his brother, Tyson would be nothing more than a pawn in their father’s image. He was relieved when that worry proved false, but looking back at things now, Jethro worried he may have had the wrong priorities.

Maybe Tyson becoming another John wouldn’t have been such a bad thing. He would have stayed safe in Cambridge, away from The Colonel and the Moriarty Mirrors. Maybe that would have been better after all.

Taking Personal Belongings

By nature, Tyson isn’t particularly territorial. He will allow people into his spaces without much fuss, because Tyson is confident that he can defend his home and the people that he cares about.

He remains cautious and watchful for any danger once people get close, and understandable paranoia causes regular patrols to ensure his safety, but that simply means that Tyson remains on guard - just in case - rather than trying to keep people out of his spaces or away from his things.

However, Tyson can easily be unnerved by taking away the things that are his.

It will set him on edge for hours, even the slightest action. Taking his established seat in a room will have him on the back foot immediately. Taking away Tyson’s rucksack will instantaneously activate his fight or flight instinct, and calling it yours will have his teeth bared for a fight.

This doesn’t apply to people that he’s already accepted, for the most part. He won’t bat an eye if his brother or family, in general, taking things, even straight from his hands, nor will Tyson care about the Moriarty Mirrors playing with his things. Sebastian will provoke a stronger reaction from Tyson, especially if its related to the web, but he is still oddly okay with Moran taking his things.

Temporary Blindness

During his time with the First Bangalore Pioneers, a chemical attack left Tyson temporarily blind.

Despite its illegality, mustard gas continues to be used and it is one of the tools that the web provides that Tyson is least likely to use. He spent three weeks without sight due to mustard gas and when his PTSD is getting affected, Tyson can still feel his eyes burning.

Though ‘mildly afraid’ - read: utterly terrified - that the blindness might be permanent, whilst feeling like a sitting duck in the compound and useless in his inability to help out during that time, Tyson now looks back on that time as one of the better moments in his relationship with The Colonel.

Captain Samson’s death had already thrown Tyson into Sebastian’s arms, but Moran’s abuses hadn’t started yet. He was rough in his manhandling of Tyson during his blindness, but Tyson honestly appreciated that: not getting treated like glass and in feeling solid where Sebastian’s grip bruised his arms.

As they were already paired as sniper and spotter, Sebastian was largely benched whilst Tyson recovered, outside of a few group patrols. He spent most of his time sitting with Tyson, reading aloud for him, and using the excuse of guiding him around to get away with touching him.

It was …nice. Overwhelming, hallowing, yet - somehow - nice. It felt good to know that Sebastian had his back, that when he was hurting Sebastian would be there to help him, that Sebastian cared about him. He felt completely exposed, but safe so long as Sebastian was by his side.

Cold Water

One of the worst triggers for Tyson’s PTSD is cold water over his head.

Cold water is never fun for him, given the hypersensitive nature of the dog bite scar on his shoulder and the dent in his torso, but cold water pouring over his head is especially triggering for the former Lieutenant.

It’s a mix of his most traumatic memories of Sebastian’s attacks during the monsoon in India and memories of being waterboarded, during his time spent captive in Afghanistan and by his former brothers-in-arms once captured after Moran abandoned Tyson to save his own skin.

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.

Prickly

Tyson has a poor habit - that he would argue is a survival tactic - of pushing people away, to make himself as prickly as possible if he thinks they’re getting too close, to prevent himself from getting hurt and to avoid others getting hurt by associating with him.

All too often, Tyson can be accused of lashing out in fear, but more often than that, he puts a hard wall between other people and himself by being standoff-ish. He is rarely outright mean, but Tyson will be more dismissive and keen to pick a fight if he fears someone is getting too close; someone that he can’t immediately run from, for whatever reason.

As often is the case with almost everything Tyson does, he ends up hurting himself most of all with that behaviour, but that has never been a mark against a plan in Tyson’s skewed perception.

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.

OCD Fears

Tyson has low-level OCD and though most of his ticks come and go, there are a few that always persist. OCD impulses aren’t random, there is a reason behind the need to perform those actions, even if it isn’t always consciously understood.

• He has to put items back in his bag in the reverse of the order he took them out.

This one is relatively simple to understand. If they go back in exactly as they came out, everything is where it belongs and Tyson knows that whatever emergency he finds himself in, he can quickly retrieve the things he needs.

• He has to have the handle of his mug facing left when he isn’t holding it but others mugs can face any direction.

The exact fear here is hard to pin down, but the reasoning is that he’s less likely to spill things that ways. If things spill, a mess is made and Tyson will get in trouble; a fear from his childhood that becomes exasperated by years of abuse and his OCD latched onto it.

• He has to tie his left shoelaces first, even if it means untying his right.

This one began in his army training years. There was a specific order to do thing. Things had to be done in that order. It just became compounded in his mind to do his left laces first or something bad would happen to those around him; if everyone’s uniforms weren’t perfectly in order, the entire unit would be forced into suicide drills around the training yard.

• He has to use particular towels.

His need for specific towels for each member of the household isn’t as easy to pin down into something tangible, but the general worry is one of unnoticed wounds and blood, the risk of cross-infection, and a need for an explicit system to avoid taking unnecessary risks.

• When being handed a food and drink, Tyson will always take the cup in his right hand and the food in his left hand.

Once again, this comes down to avoid making a mess and which hand Tyson trusts to avoid spilling things. Tyson is vaguely aware of this one, but in a non-specific way. He knows he doesn’t want to get in trouble, but can’t place why or what from.

• When stepping off or out of a vehicle Tyson will always put his left leg out first, despite being right dominant for both hands and feet.

This stems from his fear of vehicles and the control they take away from him, and the time he broke his right ankle as a child.

• When eating from a bowl he stirs clockwise twice, then takes a bite, then stirs anti-clockwise twice, then takes another bite.

Given all of Tyson’s struggles to eat enough food and a lack of appetite, it’s not at all surprising that his most persistent OCD impulses are around food, but there isn’t a direct fear here, other than needing to keep control for intangible reasons.

• He always picked up the phone on an even number of rings.

It can’t be bad news if he picks up on an even number of rings. Tyson doesn’t believe that this works, yet he cannot shake the fear that if he picks up on an odd number of rings the news is guaranteed to be bad.

• He always buttoned the second lowest button of his shirt, then the bottom button, before going up his shirt and buttoning up the rest, usually ignore in the very top - collar - button.

This is his oldest OCD impulse, a young childhood Tyson worried about failing the family legacy as he dressed himself for school. A way of making sure he looked the part, as though the order he buttoned his shirt would be at all visible.

• He always taps the spine of a book twice before he opened it.

This comes from handling rare, often delicate books in the library at the family manor. A way of showing that he wasn’t mishandling the books, that he was giving them the respect due, that evolved over time into an impulse to avoid punishment.

• When getting into a car he’ll buckle his seatbelt, unbuckle it, then buckle it again.

Compelled by his OCD, he buckled, unbuckled, then re-buckled his seat belt in rapid succession. Tyson wasn’t aware of that tick’s origin point, only that he felt safer knowing the belt wouldn’t stick; memories of a jammed harness locking him in place whilst under fire in the army were too hazy to remember now. [x]

The Afghanistan Incident

From August 12th 2007 until August 22nd, Tyson was held prisoner.

After an incident in Afghanistan, a mission gone wrong, Tyson doesn’t wear anything with too tight of a collar. He was held prisoner for several days during which his air was restricted for most of the time and he passed out because of it more than five times. Sebastian was also part of this mission and suffered similar treatment.

The clothes that he wears are either very loose and bellow his collar bones [t-shirts and polos] or stop on the collar bone and are tight enough that they can’t slip any higher [basically anything else other than dress shirts and formal dress shirts*].

When he wears a dress shirt he doesn’t do up the top button and lets the tie or bow tie [or any other type of fabric worn around the neck] keep the collar closed. When he wears a formal dress shirt he’ll close the top button but keep the neck wear loose to avoid triggering any flash backs.

*Having come from an upper class family Tyson considers anything worn on the torso that isn’t a vest or item of clothing worn over a shirt [blazer, jacket, coat, et cetera] to be a dress shirt. What most people would normally call a dress shirt Tyson calls a formal dress shirt.

This also leads to him having a twitch trigger attack instinct whenever someone touches his throat.

Touching and holding the back of Tyson’s neck is a good way of reassuring Tyson and keeping him calm, like holding a puppy or kitten by their scruff, but any fingers straying past his jugular will lead to an instantaneous attack. Even hands straying too far up his collarbones from touching his shoulder can put Tyson on the defensive.

Hot Airballoon

Whilst Tyson generally favours air travel as being safer, he is vehemently against hot air balloons.

No, Sebastian, it is not romantic.

It’s a terrifyingly easy to rock basket, far too high off the ground with minimal control.

Please, please, please just put us back on the ground before panick attack round two happens.

We’re too high up to hyperventilate safely.

Tyson’s anti-hot air balloon campaign is long fought by this point and one that he stands by regardless of verse, context, or intent.

Hot air balloons are evil, and that’s an end of discussion.

Keeping himself small

Almost all of Tyson’s nervous ticks and twitches are small actions and his OCD compulsions are relatively small actions to take too. When he’s asleep, Tyson tries to make himself as small as possible and even when he’s having nightmares, Tyson’s body usually only allows him to make small motions.

As a child, Tyson was taught to be conscious of his every action and the appearance it gave. He had to stand a particular way, the proper way for an heir to the Delaney legacy. He had to gesture in particular ways, only when necessary and only in a controlled, calm manner.

He has been taught his entire life to avoid drawing unnecessary attention to himself. Tyson has been beaten and broken for accidentally getting noticed at the wrong moment. It’s ingrained into Tyson to keep himself inconspicuous.

Even when Tyson is purposefully trying to draw attention to himself, his motions will remain close to his body or small. A single wave before his arm withdraws, or his body will remain stiff as a board, tightly controlled and every motion purposeful.

He isn’t good at lowering his guard and relaxing, allowing his motions to be big and carefree. Tyson understands how to. He simply can’t make himself do it without tremendous effort and feeling wrong in his own skin for doing so.

Redundancy

Ageing out of usefulness isn’t the only way that Tyson could find himself becoming redundant within the web. Injury is a much more likely cause in fact.

A physical ailment could sufficiently reduce his usefulness, but Tyson knows that there are ways to work around almost any physical disability if he had to and - as mentioned in the other headcanon - Tyson’s usefulness to the web isn’t dependant on his physicality.

An injury to Tyson’s mind or memory would be a death sentence. Tyson is useful because he is a strategist and a mathematical prodigy. He is a genius. It’s easy to forget that with the number of stupid decisions he makes, but Tyson has a genius level intellect. He had three Ph.Ds under his belt by age seventeen.

He can follow the Moriarty Mirrors logic and - almost always - match them blow for blow. There are times when they get ahead of him and times when Tyson has to break down their chain of logic much slower than they would wish, but Tyson is kept around because he can follow along if given time and can provide actual input and challenges to those ideas.

If Tyson lost his ability to learn as quickly as he does, if he lost his ability to debate - mathematics, physics, grand plans for the criminal empire - with the Moriarty Mirrors, Pup would be gone. He would still be loyal and a great guard dog, but Tyson would become any other hound at their heel.

Not their Pup. Bright, argumentative, and loyal to a fault.

Tyson would survive losing a limb. He would find a way to be useful and adapt the ways he worked if he lost the use of one of his senses. Losing his mind would break him. Not only would Tyson lose one of his few reasons for self-worth, Tyson would lose his place at the Moriarty Mirrors side. Not immediately, perhaps.

He would still have use as an attack dog and a trophy to hold over The Colonel, that no matter what Moran doesn’t get to take what is theirs. And for a time there would be a hope of Tyson recovering his memories and his mental capacities, the Moriarty Mirrors would be willing to invest in getting their Pup back, but eventually, he would be put down.

A loyal hound that had given all he had to give and deserved a painless death. Poison in one of his cups of coffee, no longer having an immunity built up and antidotes prepared from his game of trading poisoning attempts with Sunshine.

Unown

Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought him back.

Tyson will always be endlessly curious and the unknown is simply a new puzzle for him to play with.

Finding something that he doesn’t understand and getting to poke at it until he does understand it is one of Tyson’s favourite parts of science and mathematics, and his work with the Moriarty Mirrors.

He has an ingrained fear from childhood about being reprimanded for not knowing everything - to admitting that he doesn’t know something that he feels as though he should, which is everything - but that doesn’t dim the spark of wonder in Tyson’s eyes when he finds something new.

He is a scholar in his heart of hearts. Any new knowledge to discover is a gift.

Lights

Though he is most definitely a night owl when sleeping on a more regular schedule, Tyson takes great comforting in having light around him.

When trying to avoid the Colonel or escaping the police, Tyson keeps to the shadows to avoid detection, but even having a street light in his peripheral vision is incredibly soothing for Tyson. He doesn’t even need it to illuminate his area, just for it to be nearby.

He finds it much easier to sleep when there is a light on and he’s less likely to devolve into a panic attack if he wakes from a nightmare with some light around. Usually, this means that Tyson will put his phone on charge, on one of the shelves above his bed, and keep it locked open and bright.

He keeps a blue lamp in the bedroom cupboard of his apartment.

The walk in cupboard has several shelves and two racks to put clothes on. There is always a spare shelf encase anyone stays over. The clothes, shoes, bags, and accessories that Tyson keeps in his cupboard are here. Tyson uses the cupboard as a ‘den’ to hide himself away in when he has PTSD episodes. Tyson’s den was a place for him to retreat when he had episodes of PTSD or was just generally distressed. The floor is covered in pillows, quilts, and blankets and any other items in the cupboard are hidden behind large sheets that hang down from hooks in the ceiling. This is so that when he goes in there with an episode nothing he sees can trigger him because all he’ll be able to see was a white sheet. The only items in the cupboard that he doesn’t hide behind the sheets are a teddy-bear that used to belong to his mother, now deceased, and a lamp that emits soft blue light. The sliding door has a bolt lock on the inside.

For all his fear of fire, when he was on the run with Sebastian through Afghanistan, into Pakistan and then India, Tyson appreciated the light the fire provided much more than its heat. The light giving them away was always a risk, but with a Dakota Fire Pit, the flames were out of sight whilst providing a reassuring pool of light for Tyson to watch.

Dentist

He has never been worried about going to the dentist’s office. Tyson’s brother, on the other hand, is deeply afraid of dentists.

In all other moments, it was Jethro comforting his twitchy, anxiety-ridden baby brother or providing a distraction to let him hide. In the dentists’ room, however, it was Tyson holding his big brother’s hand and whispering reassurances in Hebrew whilst the dentist gave Jethro his check-ups.

This usually meant that Tyson ended up getting an extra sticker from the assistant for being so helpful and then an extra treat stolen from the kitchens from Jethro.

Mom Friend

Though Tyson tends to lash out in fear, he definitely has a ‘mom friend’ override with his fears.

Any amount of social anxiety about being in a restaurant and ordering food is thrown out of the window the moment someone else is nervous about doing something: making an order, fetching more ketchup, et cetera.

It doesn’t matter how afraid he is of The Colonel, Tyson will calmly distract him to make sure that no one else gets caught in the crossfire or patiently talk a stranger through their escape route to get them to safety. 

Once Tyson is given a task, he has laser focus. It’s the same reaction that allows Tyson to go unflinchingly through London’s streets when he’s on a mission for the web. He has a task that is bigger than himself to focus on. More important than his zero percent self-worth.

Thunder and Lightning

Tyson has a phobia of thunder and lightning.

This is his only phobia to have a specific nervous tick related to it, beyond his default nervous tick: a slight twitch in the first two fingers of his left hand.

Taking a sharp breath and tensing. – There is thunder.

For the sake of that masterlist, I wasn’t as specific there as I could - and, perhaps, should - have been. 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.

His phobia wasn’t created until his time in India with The Colonel. There were several instances of thunder and lightning happening, sometimes in alarmingly close proximity for how exposed their current position was, however there was one moment that Tyson can say cemented it; as, for how awful that moment was, the one thing he can get clear memory of is the sound of thunder and flashes of lightning.

Tyson had gotten caught out in a monsoon with Sebastian, a drunk and - as often followed - very angry Moran. He had taken a harsh beating that night, but Tyson honestly can’t remember the specifics. He can’t remember the wind whipping around them or the rain pelting down. Just the roar drowning out Sebastian and flashes of his face in darkness.

He has a stronger reaction to hearing thunder than seeing lightning. Which is likely why he is comfortable with Tesla Coils. Whilst its natural form is wild, electricity can be controlled. Tyson actually has a Tesla Coil and Faraday Cage set up in his warehouse near Bath.

Fire

Though Tyson is also afraid of alcohol and thunder/lightening, his strongest - and oldest - fear is his pyrophobia. However, it is also the one he finds easiest to deal with.

He doesn’t have a specific nervous tick or one particular method that will keep him calm around it. Instead, fire always puts Tyson on edge - even a simple candle flame - but beyond refusing to allow the flame out of his sight for more than a few seconds, Tyson will be fine; no matter how long he has to stay in the fire’s presence.

When a mission requires surviving in the wilderness, Tyson can create bonfires and fire pits, but he’ll sleep almost too far away to feel its warmth and - frequently - let his food get burnt, hesitating too long to retrieve something from the spit. Generally, he favours making a Dakota Fire Pit, as removing the flames from sight makes things easier for him and it’s also a better way of staying undetected.

Unlike his phobia of thunder, lightning, and alcohol, which can all be linked to specific events or memories, Tyson doesn’t know what - if anything - caused his phobia of fire. It had been that way ever since he was a young child, some of his earlier memories are being afraid of the Shabbat candles lit by Ms Appleby.

Whilst Jethro would watch the flames in the fireplace and be transfixed by how they moved, and want to burn various items to see how it would look, Tyson would stare at the flame to make sure they weren’t touching anything flammable. As if looking away from the flames would mean that the house would suddenly turn to ash as the fire burned it down.

With all that said, Tyson understands why fire appeals to people aesthetically; and he absolutely understands being attracted to things you knew were dangerous.

Comfort and sexuality

Tyson's orientation is romantically bi, but sexually gay. Tyson is completely comfortable with his romantic orientation and feels no guilt in seeking relationships with males and females. However, despite accepting that it is his sexuality, he isn't comfortable being gay.

If he could stop being gay, then Tyson would. He's not proud of being gay. He's not completely ashamed of being gay. However, the need for the word 'completely' should be enough to show that Tyson's definitely not happy about being gay.

Currently Tyson's approach to dealing with his sexuality is to ignore it and to suppress his urges. He ignores any sexual urges until he gets to a point where he can't get to sleep without dealing with them. At which point he takes himself to the shower, then he begins suppressing them again.

When in a relationship with another man, Tyson's more accepting of his sexuality because he convinces himself that it's okay because he's only interesting in the person he's in a relationship with. This isn't true, but if there's one person Tyson can lie to, it's himself.

When in a relationship with a women, Tyson hated his sexuality more than ever. Tyson feels like he's letting his partner down by not being sexually attracted to them. Even when he doesn't allow his mind to wonder, Tyson feels like he's cheating on them simply on principle.

Let me put it this way, if Sebastian hadn't instilled a fear of alcohol and intimacy in Tyson, then his way of dealing with any sexual urges would be either of the following:

• Ignoring them, denying that they existed, denying that he could ever be a 'queer'. Then - when he gets too sexually frustrated, when that energy builds up too much - going to the nearest pub or bar he can find, getting drunk, and bedding whichever man would take him. Tyson would be aiming to be too drunk to remember it the following day. Whether he succeeded in that or not, Tyson would resume ignoring his urges.
• Again, ignoring his urges until he simply couldn't any more. Then getting drunk at home to avoid indulging in those urges. When that obviously failed [even with himself, Tyson is an affectionate and truthful drunk] he'd then start masturbating whilst thinking about men. During and after which, Tyson will refused to admit that he's a 'fruit' and continue drinking.

And, yes, those are the ways he deals with his sexuality in army!verse. Which he chooses alternates.