He copes incredibly well, but Tyson doesn’t internalise death in a healthy way.
He wears it like a second skin. He doesn’t let go of the deaths he’s caused. Tyson makes sure that they stick. That his blame lingers like the smell of smoke. Even deaths that aren’t his fault, like Captain Samson, Tyson shoulders - and internalises - the blame almost immediately.
Before they received news that General Clarkson survived Sebastian’s attack, Tyson had internalised the blame for that as well.
Tyson has spent so long doing that, taking that weight, that he’s almost numb to deaths that aren’t his fault; that even Tyson can’t blame himself for. He actually feels better when the guilt of thoughts like ‘why didn’t I prevent this from happening?’ come around.
Naturally, Tyson served with many people during his army days. Here are the touch notes on notable people from those days in increasing rank order and faces approximated in Fallout 4′s character creation, because screw finding FCs.
He panicked and shot Tyson in the chest into his bulletproof vest during a training drill in full view of Moran. He died a few weeks later from friendly fire, that no one could prove came from Sebastian.
He signed up to pay for his university tuition and intended to retire as soon as possible.
He served as a mechanic, working to repair the various army vehicles.
Michael was constantly taking pictures of everything around him.
He was blatantly afraid of the attack dogs when they were working.
Tyson latched onto him like a baby duckling once he went to the front lines.
He had several shrapnel scars on his face and his arms were covered in tattoos.
He died in Tyson’s arms from enemy fire, a shot through his throat. Tyson unfairly took the blame for his death from a grieving compound, which pushed him into Moran’s waiting arms.
Andrew loved history. He would talk about Rome and the French Revolution with Tyson over dinner.
He was big on pull-ups and sit-ups as punishments.
Captain John Watson
John served with Tyson and Sebastian during a joint stationing between Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers and the First Bangalore Pioneers.
He was the only one to believe Tyson’s innocence in the shooting of General Clarkson.
He and Tyson are brothers-by-all-but-blood, though for the sake of appearances often pretend to be mere passing acquaintances.
Tyson rarely lies to John outright, but John was kept in the dark about the extent of Moran’s abuses during their service together.
Tyson still blames John’s two left feet for breaking his nose in compound.
Hannah was Sebastian’s spotter before Tyson went to the front lines and was around to show him the ropes.
She was incredibly fight-y. Like fight you, her own shadow, and her own reflection at the same time fight-y.
She hated the taste of coffee, but she was absolutely useless without caffeine in her system.
She retired to become a mother at the end of her deployment.
Hannah chain smoked every day, but insisted she’d quit once she became pregnant.
Colonel Sebastian Moran
Sebastian didn’t enter a relationship with Tyson to abuse him. Sebastian wanted to be with him, he loves Tyson, but Sebastian is simply an abusive person.
He is an alcoholic and, whilst aware of this, Sebastian has no intentions of stopping.
Moran’s decision to shoot General Clarkson was not tactical. It was an inevitable temper tantrum as the tension between them grew to a head.
Unlike Tyson, Sebastian was officially given a dishonourable discharge and continues to be a wanted man.
To this day, Tyson has no idea how Hannah & Sebastian’s tempers didn’t lead to them killing each other long before he arrived.
Tyson keeps all of the letters he gets, other than bills and junk/advertising mail. Tyson has mail from him army days, from his owners, from his brother, and from his friends.
Tyson thinks that letters are special, that it matters that someone took the time to write or type it out. He keeps the letters in a box under his bed, where he keeps most of the things in his apartment.
Tyson takes his time writing letters, making sure that it is neater than his usual slanted, scruffy writing and often using specific stationary for specific people. He takes his time with letters.
There are dozens of letters kept in that shoe box, but to cherry-pick some notable ones:
Tyson has dozens of letters from his brother Jethro that were sent during his army days, but another notable one is the copy of a doctors letter that Jethro forwarded to him in his monthly care packages that confirmed Jethro had been completely cleared of cancer.
From those care packages, Tyson also has a few letters that his nephew slipped inside before it was sealed up. Some of those were pictures he wanted his uncle to see and others were copies of book reports that he was proud of.
He has a well-thumbed letter penned by a blindingly drunk Sebastian, and presumably posted in the same state else it would never have reached him, begging Tyson to come back. Tyson knows that every promise he makes on that page it empty, that Sebastian will never change, but equally Tyson can never stop loving him regardless.
He has a letter from General Clarkson that came with a Glock 17 9mm pistol to offer Tyson protection from Sebastian, as a form of apology from General Clarkson for the years Tyson was presumed guilty. That apology did nothing to improve Tyson’s own guilt about what happened.
Tyson has a copy of the letter his father wrote in Tyson’s defence when he was presumed guilty for the shooting of General Clarkson, during the period of time when General Clarkson was in a coma and unable to disprove this. Tyson’s copy remains completely sealed. He kept the letter, but he has never felt brave enough to read it.
There are many letters that his father wrote to him but never sent in his office in the family manor, but Tyson can’t bring himself to enter that office now that his father passed away. Jasmine - with Tyson’s permission - has read through most of them. She thinks it would help him to read what his father though but never said, but understands that he needs to be ready first.
Tyson has a handful of letters from the Moriarty Mirrors, usually containing challenges for him to complete and sealed with wax. Other letters contain contingency plans, what to do if they have to disappear suddenly and stay off the radar for a while, and ways to keep the web running until they can return.
He has various recommendation letters from various professors at Cambridge and from his commanding officers in the army. Tyson hardly needs those and he’s reluctant to use them for web purposes, but he likes to keep them around in case of an emergency. If he never has to uproot and start from near scratch.
And here are two letters that people wanted to send to him, but that Tyson will never ever receive, because they were destroyed after being written. *
* Mildly incorrect sentences/grammar are on purpose for Kim’s letter, she could speak English fluently, but would occasional use both options were only one need apply (how to get / find you) and at the time when she would have been writing this letter as a way to vent what she couldn’t say to Tyson, it would have been years since she was using English even semi-regularly.
