One of the hardest - and yet easiest - ways to get past Tyson’s defences is by winning over his pets.
He puts a lot of faith into their judgement of a person when he’s doubting himself and noticing Lily or Bobby consistently getting between him and another person is a guaranteed way to make him turn tail.
The bond he shares with his animals is invaluable and he knows that it has saved his life multiple times, but Tyson is also aware that it leaves a blind spot in his guard. It’s one that he’s aware of and watching for, but also one that Tyson can easily stumble into.
Simply having his pets around lowers Tyson’s guard and makes him more malleable.
Tyson received Draco from a magic anon. He has mixed feelings about the Common Welsh Green. Whilst he is fond of watching the miniature dragon circle above his head before he goes to sleep he tires of putting out fires caused by the dragon, usually the bottom of the curtains. Tyson is terrified of fire which means the fire gets a little out of hand before Tyson finally snaps out of his trance long enough to put it out.
Draco usually keeps himself hidden. The only evidence that he lives in the apartment is the small nest on one of the shelves in Tyson’s bedroom. Draco has the ability to sense the presence of supernatural beings and can tell if Tyson is speaking to a shape-shifter or demon or anything not human.
Usually Draco is green but his scales change colour if he is around supernatural beings: It’s this ability that has lead to Tyson always keeping Draco with him, in his jeans pocket usually.
Draco’s ‘nest’ is made out of a gemstone-shaped trinket, that’s lined with a red handkerchief. There are also several coins in the nest that Draco has hoarded, though the total value of the coinage is only £2.35, and one bottle cap.
The simplest way to think of Draco is as a tiny bird, whose call sounds like a little music box. He may be an actual dragon with a musical call that was shrunk, or a toy dragon with a music box inside that was animated by magic or technology. Tyson has never found a definitive answer as to what his little friend is exactly.
Whatever gave life to the little dragon, Tyson isn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth. Especially when that mouth breathes fire. However, Draco has proven very useful to Tyson in identifying whatever is thrown his way by association with the Moriarty Mirrors.
The colours that Draco has been shown to turn are:
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.
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.
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.
Tuesday, 19 March 2013
Tyson has a candy jar on the coffee table that is filled with dog treats.
Though Tyson often finds himself feeling lonely when only with his dogs, he finds it easier to be with them than with other humans.
Dogs are easier for him because he doesn't have to talk. Rather than stuttering or stumbling over his words he can just click his fingers. He has trained his dogs to respond to visual cues rather than vocal cues because it is easier for him that way.
He only uses vocal cues when teaching a new trick to the dogs.
He's one of Tyson's dogs. He is a guard dog entrusted with guarding the family manor.
Tyson would have preferred to talk Jack to London with him, but Jack is his best guard dog so he left him in Jasmine's care. Jack is six years old, two years older than Lily (four) who, in turn, is three and a half years older than Bobby (at this point in time.)
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.
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.
Lily is part Dhole, a wild dog found in Pakistan, despite her coat being from a Dalmatian mother. Dhole was chosen because it is a wild dog that can breed with domesticated dogs and has been reported in Pakistan.
He travelled by day once he was with Lily because he knew the army would expect him to go by night so during the day he could build up a good distance.
Tyson met Lily when she was one she is now three years old. She was one when they met which means that she was young enough to train easily as she had developed few bad habits and her breed meant she picked up the training with relative ease.
Friday, 20 July 2012
The dots show what happened to Tyson or what Tyson did on his journey.
The arrows going right to left are where Tyson met Lily, when Tyson was nearly apprehended by the military, where Tyson broke his wrist climbing over a wall, and where he stayed several night because it seemed safe.
