Would Tyson rather create or destroy?

At the face value, it’s a rather simple question. Tyson isn’t a destructive person and he wants to improve the world, to add things to it rather than taking things out of the world.

However, if presented with a much simpler example, Tyson would almost always be more likely to choose to dismantle an object than to build one. He enjoys creating things, but Tyson is much more naturally inclined to take them apart to understand them.

Another factor is that Tyson is perfectly happy to sit back and leave the creation to someone else. He enjoys helping the Moriarty Mirrors in their projects and to create his own, but Tyson prefers to take the back seat and simply help the project; taking things apart and breaking them down into components, literally for the Moriarty Mirrors to use or as part of the planning process.

In his work for the web, Tyson is much more proud of tearing down other criminal empires than he is at the process made by the web.

Splatfest

Here is where Tyson would fall on all of the various (Europe) Splatfest questions:

Splatoon

• Rock vs Pop
• Eating vs Sleeping
• North Pole vs South Pole
• Singing vs Dancing
• Messy vs Tidy
• Cats vs Dogs
• Zombies vs Ghosts
• Pro-pineapple vs Anti-pineapple (on pizza)
• Fit vs Rich
• Barbarian vs Ninja
• Pokémon Red vs Pokémon Blue
• Hoverboard vs Jet Pack
• SpongeBob vs Patrick
• Black Tie Event vs Fancy Dress Party
• World Tour vs Space Adventure
• Callie vs Marie

Splatoon 2

• Cake vs Ice Cream
• Mayo vs Ketchup
• Flight vs Invisibility
• Front Roll vs Back Roll
• Warm Breakfast vs Cold Breakfast
• Film vs Book
• Action vs Comedy
• Gherk-OUT vs Gherk-IN
• Chicken vs Egg
• Salty vs Sweet
• Raph vs Leo
• Mikey vs Donnie
• Raph vs Donnie
• Pulp vs No-Pulp
• Squid vs Octopus
• Adventure vs Relax
• Retro vs Modern
• Trick vs Treat
• Eat It vs Save It
• Hero vs Villain

Portrait verses Landscape

Though Tyson’s art is clearly influenced by how much time he spent in his mother’s art room whilst growing up, there is a distinct line to be drawn between them: landscape verses portraits.

With the notable exception of the painting Tyson has in his apartment, most of his mother’s paintings were portraits, or - at the very least - orientated that way. Where the things Tyson doodlesare more often than not grey-scale realistic sketches, Anne favoured oil paints and watercolours, and impressionism.

On the other hand, Tyson’s photography is primarily (for work) done in portrait and Anne’s photos were landscape shots. She tended to take photos of the little things in life: for example, not taking a shot of Jethro and Tyson playing on the beach, but of the sandcastle they made instead.

Time Travel

Given the choice, would Tyson prefer to travel to the past or to the future?

It would depend on several factors for Tyson: how far in either direction that he could travel, how long he would be away for (in terms of staying in his destination and how much of an absence there would be from his leave), and whether or not he could return.

If Tyson would not be returned to his original point in the timeline, he would choose to go back in time by a handful of years. Far enough back that he can help smooth the passage of events whilst being near enough to have a clear memory of where help might be needed and that he can return to his own time without being too noticeably older.

If he would only be gone for a small amount of time, Tyson would favour the past where he at least has a vague knowledge to guide him, rather than trying to figure out an unknown future in a limited time frame.

However, if time spent away was as long as Tyson needed it to be and he knew that he could return back home afterwards, Tyson would choose to go to the future. Without a doubt.

Gaming

Though something of a completion-ist for open world games, Tyson rarely has the time to actually complete games, so his pile of ‘in progress games’ is more or less equal to the number of games that he actually owns.

• Tyson tends to write stories around the Sims for his nephew.
• Nate will defeat Tyson in almost any competitive video game.
• The current Mario Party line up goes: Tyson - Dry Bones, Jethro - Daisy, Rosie - Goomba, James - Yoshi, Charlie - Wario, & Jasmine - Shy Guy.
• Here is the Dragon Age Keep link for Tyson’s main Dragon Age universe. He tends to play RPGs ‘in character’. Whatever he feels the personality of that character is or the choices that seem consistent for the character’s previous choices are what Tyson will run with and he’ll see where that takes him without meta-gaming it.
• The exception to that is when Tyson is trying to Platinum a game. He doesn’t have much time to complete games, especially when he keeps going back and replaying games that he’s already perfected, but he does like to get as many trophies as he can.
• Tyson & James are trying to Platinum every LEGO game together.
• When playing Darkest Dungeon, Tyson tends to run Jester - Occultist - Hellion - Highwayman.
• Tyson is oddly fond of games like Dream Daddy & Monster Prom.
• He has pretty good aim with a controller for most games, but Tyson will always be terrible at twin-stick shooters and racing games. The latter is simply a complete lack of interest in learning.
• No matter what Tyson hates using shotguns in games. He doesn’t know if that’s a holdover from his distaste for actual shotguns, but unless trophy completion demands that Tyson uses a shotgun, he will go out of his way to avoid using one in a game.

Generally speaking, Tyson is a flexible player, but there are always a few mains that he’ll come back to in regularly played games and characters he’ll almost always have on his team when replaying games:

• Blazblue: Cross Tag Battle: Akihiko & Chie/Jubei & Yang
• Dragon Age: Main Team
  | Origins: Morrigan, Shale, & Zevran  
  | 2: Fenris, Merill, & Varric
  | Inquisition: Cassandra, Solas, & Varric
• Mass Effect: Main Team
  | 1: Garrus & Kaidan 
  | 2: Garrus & Zaeed 
  | 3: Garrus & Kaidan
  | A: Jaal & Vetra
• Overwatch: Brigitte - D.Va - Lucio - Moira - Tracer - Zarya
• Persona: Main Team
  | 3: Akihiko, Ken, & Yukari
  | 4: Kanji, Naoto, & Yukiko
  | 5: Ryuji, Makoto, & Morgana
• PVZ GW2: *
  | Plants: BBQ Corn - Count Chompula - Future Cactus - Law Pea - Stuffy Flower
  | Zombies: Arctic Trooper - Captain Sharkbite - Golf Star - Painter - Paleontologist
• Smite: Artemis -  Ganesha - Jing Wei - Ratatoskr - Sol
• Team Fortress 2: Medic - Scout

* Tyson is actually very fond of Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2. It’s one of the few shooters he can play regardless of his mental state that will not remind Tyson of his time as a soldier or his work for the web. Plus, it’s a game that James and Jethro enjoy too.

Weapons

Though he is an excellent marksman, Tyson has an obvious bias towards knives rather than guns when he needs a weapon. For a multitude of reasons: wanting to remain as quiet as possible, utilising the twenty-one feet rule, and needing to make sure the death sticks to him.

When he needs to use a gun, Tyson favours using handguns: his normal Glock or a Browning ideally. He genuinely hates when a situation calls for a shotgun, but Tyson knows how to use any gun with a reliable aim. He’s nowhere near the kind of shot Sebastian is, but if the Colonel had fallen, it would have been his job as his spotter to take the shot instead.

When it comes to knives, Tyson usually relies on his hunting/combat knives or the various switchblades that he has hidden around his apartment: and London as a whole. Given a choice, Tyson tends to favour a clip point, but he also keeps a few drop and tanto points around.

Camping

Despite being a city boy through and through, and needing to physically drag Tyson out of his urban safety net in the first place, Tyson actually rather enjoys camping.

His hatred of being trapped in a metal box makes caravans and trailers unbearable to him, but Tyson finds setting up under the stars or inside a tent to be very relaxing. He misses the city with every fibre of his being, yet it can also be a nice break to take with his dogs and with his family.

He always prefers to travel with the bare minimum supplies, to have exactly as much as is necessary without weight himself down, but Tyson is also content to work around whatever creature comforts those travelling with him need.

Motorbikes verses Cars

The way Tyson favours motorbikes over cars is also evident in the way he handles those he owns.

Beyond checking the engine to put a balm on his anxiety before driving, Tyson pays very little attention to any car that he owns. Even in Teacher!Verse or Redemption!Verse, where Tyson’s car is his primary mode of transport, the only care that Tyson shows towards his cars are making sure that they remain clean as an allowance towards his OCD.

To Tyson, cars are nothing more than a loathed - yet useful - tool.

Though Tyson still distrusts motorbikes, he takes good care of those that he owns. He loves tinkering on them. He doesn’t spend time taking them apart and putting them back together due to safety concerned, but for a genuine love of engineering and feeling relaxed with the familiar task.

Films

Tyson honestly doesn’t watch that many films.

If you ask him, have you seen [blank], the answer is probably, no. He almost only ever ends up watching films with other people rather than an independent choice to, but he has a soft spot for old Hammer Horror films and anything Noire; the spy/detective genres as a whole, but especially Noire.

When he does decide to watch a film on his own, Tyson tends to find himself watching something independent and in a foreign language. Partly because this decreases the chance of the dialogue triggering a bad memory for him, but also because Tyson likes hearing other languages and trying to understand what is being said. He always leaps at an opportunity to learn.

Seasons

Spring

By the time Spring rolls around, Tyson has usually stopped bristling every time someone mentions Christmas and is slowly dragging himself back into healthy vitamin D levels as he’s sent back out into the daylight occasionally.

Spring is a time of recovery for Tyson, for the aching of the dent in his torso and the dog bite scar on his shoulder to slowly fade away, and for him to begin seeing daylight again; no longer taking advantage of excessive darkness for his work within the web.

Summer

Given how many layers of clothing Tyson tends to wear - to provide a layer of protection, for himself mentally and for the dent in his torso - it’s not all that surprising that he tends to overheat in the summer.

Not that this fact actually encourages Tyson to remove layers. All this actually achieves is Tyson berating himself harder when a panic attack hits as he begins to hyperventilate. He knows its stupid, but when his mental state is so much worse in high temperatures, Tyson has to take the risk of having those extra layers.

His anxiety and OCD are relatively consistent the whole year around, but Tyson’s PTSD is always worst in hot weather. The most traumatic years of his life were spent running for his life across Afghanistan, Pakistan, & India. When he thinks of hot, he thinks of being afraid and helpless.

The heat brings those memories to the front of his mind much easier. Especially when it’s too hot to sleep, his restless mind thrashing for anything to hold onto. When a heat wave hits London, Tyson will go days without sleeping to avoid nightmares.

Summer will mostly find Tyson laying on the cool tiles of his bathroom, resigned to his fate. Defeated.

Autumn

Autumn is Tyson’s absolute favourite season.

Cooler weather, pretty colours everywhere, and the return to school. That last part was especially important to Tyson as a child, he has always loved education and going out to school was one of the few times that he could escape the family manor and his father’s clutches for a few hours during the day.

Winter

Though he’s whine about feeling cold until all city boys are safely tucked away inside where they belong, Tyson actually prefers winter over summer. He finds it much easier to warm up than cool down, though the hypersensitive dent in his torso and dog bite scar on his left shoulder tend to ache when the weather turns.

He likes the way London looks when its covered in snow, the way the number of hot drinks vendors seem to double, and he especially likes the excuse to stay in his jacket all day; using it for warmth as much as a layer of protection for the dent in his torso as much as a pressure stim that soothes his anxiety.

He loves getting to throw snowballs around for his dogs to catch, especially Jack, and the feeling of brushing snowflakes out of their coats with his frozen finger tips. Tyson always uses winter as an excuse to have handmade hot chocolate and warm soup with fresh bread.

All in all, winter suits Tyson better than he thinks it does.

Golems

Golems make for happy Tyson.

Very happy Tyson.

Tyson adores mythology in general and he is very protective of anything Jewish, but golems? Golems fascinate Tyson. They fill him to the brim with childlike wonder instantly.

If you want background chatter to fall asleep to that is guaranteed to still be going by the time you wake up, regardless of how long you slept for, telling Tyson to talk about Golems is a great way of ensuring that happens.

Carnivorous Plants

Though not as interested in them as he is cacti, Tyson is mildly fascinated by carnivorous plants.

Like a magpie spotting a long forgotten shiny object, a carnivorous plant in a room will immediately attract Tyson’s undivided attention, but it doesn’t hold his focus for long before he goes to investigate something else.

“Ooh, neat!” Pretty much sums up Tyson’s thoughts on carnivorous plants.

Bird or the cage?

Elizabeth: Mr. DeWitt–here!
A Gentleman: Bird?
A Lady: Or the cage?
A Gentleman: Or perhaps the bird?
A Lady: Nothing beats the cage.
Booker: These two again? How do– …Never mind.
Elizabeth: Look at these, they’re amazing! Which one do you like more? This one…or this? The bird is beautiful, and… the cage is somber, but there’s really something special about it. I just can’t decide.
- Bioshock Infinite

Does it even need to be said?

Our little Icarus would rather rip his own wings off, if it prevented them from getting clipped again or if he thought the cage door was closing.

He will not be caged. Even the illusion to putting him in a cage, literal or metaphorical, will make sure that Tyson never returns.

Tyson would rather fly free, and have the trust from someone else that he will always come back. That so long as the door remains open, Tyson will tumble in through the window instead.

He assumes that it’s part of being a soldier: the romance of being on the road, always having someone waiting back home, et cetera. That’s more of a commitment to him, than being tied down: having to trust that whilst the other is away, they’re happy and that they’ll be coming back home eventually.

Tyson isn’t someone who will move in with you, but he will climb through your fourth-floor apartment window with a cavalier - devil may care - smile and stay for as long as he can, then leave the way he came with a promise to come back soon.

Which is why his arrangement with the Moriarty Mirrors works.

Employment to the web is for life. You cannot leave.

And yet, The Moriarty Mirrors can tell Tyson with complete sincerity that ‘he is free to leave at any time’, because he never will. And they all know it. There is no danger in allowing Tyson to remove his leash. He will always come back. He will not betray them.

Tyson knows that it’s a far bigger trap than an actual cage. That his loyalty will be his undoing. Yet so long as he has the choice to leave, Tyson will always remain as their loyal Pup instead.

Books

Tyson tends to cycle through the books that he keeps in his apartment. When he’s finished with a book, Tyson will either leave it at his pet shop or add it to the library at the Delaney family manor.

Amongst the books that are guaranteed to remain in his personal collection are the series of books that The Colonel published about his adventures under the false name Zachary M. Cohen, and the book on the beauty of everyday mathematics that his father published.

There is usually at least one Discworld book somewhere in Tyson’s apartment and a very dog-eared copy of The Brothers Karamazov. The latest Jack Reacher novel is usually on the coffee table and whichever book Jethro sent along with that month’s care package.

When he has a long journey ahead of him or a stakeout ahead that doesn’t depend on needing to listen out for anything, so much as watching a target, Tyson will listen to audiobooks.

Those audiobooks will usually be some type of novel from whatever video game series he’s been most interested in lately, or else tailored to whatever Tyson thinks will appease his stakeout partner the most.

Weather

Tyson’s favourite type of weather is coincidentally one of his favourite phrases in Hebrew: שמש חולה (Shemesh Khola : sick sun), or שמש שקרנית (Shemesh Shakranit : lying sun), the weather when the sun is out, yet the atmosphere is cold.

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 raindrop will fall. His view on rain does improve once he’s inside, however.

He hates bright sunlight, though he doesn’t need his sunglasses anywhere near as much as he pretends to. He is generally happier after he has been exposed to bright sunlight and his eyes shift to green, however. Or, rather, Tyson is happier when he actually gets any degree of sunlight instead of hiding inside.

His phobia of thunder and lightning is well-documented at this point. The hypersensitive dent in his torso and the dog bite scar on his shoulder react badly to the cold, but Tyson honestly loves how London looks covered in snow. He likes winter more than he’s willing to admit, though Autumn will always be his favourite.

Hot weather is his bane. He has too many bad memories surround hot places to tolerate it. Though thunder and lightning will get to him, Tyson’s memories of Sebastian’s assault in the monsoon don’t pass onto storms quite as strongly. Storms - and strong winds in general - put Tyson on edge, but they don’t provoke such a visceral reaction.

After so long serving in the army and surviving on his own, Tyson is good at guessing the weather. He can certainly always feel cold weather coming in the left side of his torso.