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.

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.

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.

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.

Miscellaneous fluff headcanons

• Tyson is pretty good at tying shoes for other people. He first learnt how to tie shows by sitting under his father’s desk whilst he worked and pulling on the laces of his father’s shoes until he knew how to do it properly.
    
• 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.
   
• Harmonica lessons with Sebastian were more or less always an excuse to kiss, but one of the few times they were walked in on, harmonica lessons were a good enough excuse for why they were kissing. That it was John who walked in and he was 90% asleep at time is probably the only reason that excuse passed without follow up questions. Watson was too tired to deal with their nonsense.
    
• Since their father was too busy at the university, Tyson had to be the one to give Jethro a pep-talk before his first proper date at fifteen. This went about as well as a conversation between an eleven-year-old and a fifteen-year-old about going on a date could be expected to.
    
• One time after sharing a plate of pot brownies with Dick, Tyson ended up answering a call from a telemarketer whilst tangled up on the kitchen floor with Dick; after the pair had tripped over each other in the livingroom, and been too content to bother walking to move. He ended up rambling about the pretty stars for the better part of half an hour on the phone. The stars in that instance meaning the series of LED lights in the kitchen ceiling.
    
• 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. 

Important Songs

Everyone has songs that hold a special place in their heart.

For Tyson, some of those songs are:

• Bat out of Hell - Meat Loaf
  Whenever Tyson found Kim doing her carpentry, she was almost guaranteed to be listening to that song if not something from the same album.
• Big Iron on his Hip - Marty Robbins
  The first song Tyson got Dick to play on guitar, after a long period of harsh depression.
• Chocolate - The 1975
  A song shared between Tyson and his nephew James.
• I Won’t Send Roses - Mack & Mabel
  Sebastian used to sing this to Tyson.
• Life less ordinary - Carbon Leaf
  Reminds Tyson of the Moriarty Mirrors + Old Playlist for Tyson
• Oh, Danny boy
  Jethro used to sing this to Tyson, and Tyson sung it to comfort himself after some of Sebastian’s worst beatings.
• Pumped up Kicks - Foster the People
  Tyson’s default ringtone, when he doesn’t have it on vibrate.
• The Sound of Silence - Simon & Garfunkel
  Tyson’s father used to play this a lot.

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.

Different Paths

If Tyson didn’t have the father he had and if he can’t crossed paths with The Colonel, Tyson would look fundamentally different.

Beyond being a carbon-copy of his father, that is.

Tyson prefers the way he looks with facial hair, yet because his father had a beard, the former Lieutenant almost always keeps himself smooth shaven.

He genuinely loves tattoos and if Sebastian hadn’t instilled such a deep fear of permanent markings into Tyson, he would be covered in tattoos by this point in his life.

Outside of corruption!verse and the sigil designs from the Moriarty Mirrors, Tyson would be unlikely to have tattoos on his hands, but his neck and the rest of his body would have been fair game.

In most universes and threads, it doesn’t matter how many changes Tyson goes through, he remains recognisable at a single glance. A Tyson untouched by his father and The Colonel is unrecognisable, a grown-up Tyson from any of his Orphan AUs would be completely unrecognisable in appearance.

His personality at its core would still be Tyson, the same self-sacrificing idiot of a mathematical prodigy, but his appearance, his presence in a room would be fundamentally different.

Comfortable in his own skin in a way that ‘normal’ Tyson never can be.

Childhood Toys

As a child Tyson had a Grumpy Bear stuffed toy, until Tyson’s father forced him to give it away - along with other toys - when he was twelve. Tyson’s Kipper the Dog stuffed toy was also taken and the Superman action figure that Jethro had gotten Tyson for his tenth birthday.

It was one of the few times that his father decided to jointly punish them for something one had done. Jethro had lashed out publicly at one of the Professors attending a dinner party hosted at the family manor, condemning Christianity for its treatment of the Jewish people in a less than delicate way.

Even as a child Tyson understood why his father had reacted so strongly, but he also knew that it didn’t justify this father’s decision. Tyson keenly understood the kind of danger that could put their family in. It wasn’t the right choice, not even close, but he understands that John acted out of fear.

Predictably, Tyson was allowed to keep his chess, draughts, and backgammon sets. He was also permitted to keep two sets of playing cards and the Rubik’s Cube, but all other games were taken away. The broken slinky and a rather dented hula hoop weren’t exactly losses.

Given how many times Jethro had almost broken something with them, Tyson was honestly surprised that it had taken so long for the Devil’s Sticks to get confiscated. The Diabolo that had come with the same set was saved by virtue of being in their attic hiding place when the purge occurred.

Tyson managed to make a good argument for various balls as practising hand-eye coordination for his various lessons, but that still reduced them down to only one ball of each type; which somewhat defeated the point of the juggling balls. His fencing equipment was left untouched, but various toy swords were taken away.

He honestly can’t remember what argument that made that caused him to keep his skateboard, but he knows that the bike was kept as a way of letting Tyson get to and from school. The scooter was rarely used and had become too small anyway, but Tyson was sad to see the roller-blades go.

It was that moment that caused Tyson and Jethro to move their more valued personal items up into the attic permanently, just in case one of them managed to anger their father that much again.

Misuse of Furniture

Tyson is oddly endeared by the mistreatment of furniture. 

Most things in Tyson’s life either come from rebelling against his father or as a way to survive, this is definitely the former. Growing up a lot of the furniture was antique or set pieces to impress fellow professors or donors. It was more about being seen than used.

That was also the cause of Tyson frequently choosing to sit on the floor when a perfectly good chair is next to him.

He likes the way Lily perches on top of the armchair and Bobby hops onto the coffee table. Tyson could easily train them not to, but he enjoys that behaviour and knows that they will listen when he orders them off, for whatever reason; usually to prevent a glass from getting knocked over or allow his maps room to dry.

Tyson can frequently be found perched on countertops or standing on his bed: which he uses as a seat, desk space, dog space, and exercises space far more than sleeping on it. Around family or the people he treats as family, Tyson will frequently be found sat cross-legged on a table or squatting on a bar stool.

He has several treasured photos of The Colonel sprawled upside-down in chairs or with his legs hanging over the edge of the armrest. Tyson also has a photo of the Moriarty Mirrors, one sat with his legs danging off the table whilst the other sits sprawled across three chairs.

Ankles

As a child, a calcium deficiency let to Tyson having fragile ankles and his first broken bone was his right ankle.

It would surprise no one to discover that it was the fault of Tyson’s father that the seven-year-old was injured, but he didn’t intentionally hurt him. Most of his abuses were directed at Jethro until the elder heir ran away from home at eighteen, leaving a fourteen-year-old Tyson to shoulder the weight of the family legacy.

Tyson had run away from yet another tutor, taking refuge in the attic with his textbook. He always completed the assigned work, but Tyson kept running away and hiding from the tutors that he didn’t like. He didn’t mean to exactly, but his anxiety would build and build until he jackrabbited away.

He always kept a copy of the key on his person, with Jethro having the only other key into the attic, so Tyson knew his father couldn’t get to him up there, but John knew that his children hid up there from time to time. He never realised how frequently they escaped into the attic.

John called Tyson down to join him for dinner to discuss finding a new tutor for his English lessons. As Tyson paused to discreetly lock up the attic access, John got impatient and assumed that Tyson wasn’t going to come down. He banged on the ladder to get his son’s attention, and Tyson came tumbling down.

That was one of the few times that Tyson could say his father was earnestly apologetic and concerned about his son as he was taken to the ER. Tyson had tears in his eyes from the moment he hit the ground, but he barely let out a whimper. Even as the doctor was poking at his ankle.

He was too afraid of disappointing his father. Of angering him further. Even with Jethro sat next to him on the hospital bed asking if he was okay, Tyson was silent. He just shook his head. Tyson got a button for being so brave.

Once his father finally left him alone that night, having given him more attention and love than Tyson had received in months, Tyson broke down into tears. He barely even realised when Jethro snuck into his room to comfort him. He knew it was an accident, but he was so afraid of upsetting his father again.

Laughter

When Tyson laughs, it comes as a soft amused huff or a bark of laughter: shocking and brief, escaping before being clamped down again.

He dislikes how vulnerable laughing makes him. He’ll hide his laughter by smothering himself with his bicep.

His father used to snap at students for laughing during his lessons and at his heirs for disturbing him when he was marking papers or doing research, so Tyson got into the habit of keeping his laughter as quiet as possible and avoiding laughing openly.

Plays and Opera

As a child, Tyson was dragged to dozens of plays and operas whilst his father entertained his fellow professors or schmoozed with potential donors to the manor.

He definitely prefers watching plays rather than performing them, but being in a theatre isn’t something Tyson would choose to do on his own. Even if one of the opera top boxes, Tyson’s anxiety is set off by the sheer number of people below.

Pagliacci was a favourite of Tyson’s father and the young heir was dragged to several performances. He’s convinced that he’ll never get the words out of his head now, but Tyson never grew bored of hearing it as he did some of the other performances he was taken to.

Tyson saw Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead with Sebastian whilst they were between deployments. It was one of the few moments that they stole together between times in uniforms that could be called a date; not their first, but close to it and certainly more memorable than the café that took that honour.

The Pirates of Penzance was one of Jethro’s favourite performances. He’ll squirm in his seat and deny it now, but Jethro adored that performance when he was eleven. That Jethro was firmly in his pirate phase at the time probably helped.

Despite Jethro’s concerns that it might be a little too mature for him, James shared his mother’s love of The Who’s Tommy. Though that might in part be due to Rosie always playing The Who’s music and James already knowing the songs from her.

John Delaney

UNIVERAL TRUTHS

• Birthname: Yonathan David Delaney (יוֹנָתָן דָּוִד דילייני)
• Blood Type: B Positive
• Date of Birth: February 26th 1951 - Pisces - Rabbit (Metal/Gold)
• DnD Alignment: Lawful Neutral
• Dominant Hand: Right
• Ethnicity: Jew, Ashkenazi / White, British
• Myers Briggs Type: ESTJ-A | The Executive
• Orientation: Hetrosexual
• Religion: Jewish
• Signature:

FAVOURITE

• Favourite Animal: Sparrowhawk
• Favourite Author: Mary Shelley
• Favourite Colour: Green
• Favourite Film: The Princess Bride
• Favourite Food: Crab rangoon
• Favourite Plant: Venus Fly Trap
• Favourite Poem: Dulce Et Decorum Est – Wilfred Owen

VERSE DEPENDANT

• Avatar Element: Earth
• His Dark Material’s Dæmon: Thomson’s Gazelle
• Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw (Muggle within Hogwarts AU)
• Hybrid!Verse Pairing: Gemsbok
• Mass Effect Species: Human
• Pokémon Team: Alolan Ninetails, Rapidash, Noctowl, Xatu, Claydol, & Bisharp.

Colour Tyson’s Synesthesia Projects Onto Them:

Like Father, Like Son

Tyson and his father can, and have, been compared in a myriad of ways. They are more alike than just looks.

It had always rubbed Tyson the wrong way that, minus thirty years, he is the spitting-image of his father. After his scars and not being ‘manly’ [largely lacking body hair and not being overly muscled], looking like his father is one of Tyson’s main issues with his body. It was why Tyson was ‘afraid of’ the idea of needing glasses and, despite liking himself far more with stubble or a small beard, Tyson kept his face clean shaven.

He knows he’d a, relatively, handsome man. Adorably handsome. However, he can’t admit that and has convinced himself he isn’t, because admitting that would be admitting his father was. Tyson wants to demonise his father. The late John Delaney caused Tyson hell growing up and Tyson refuses to attach a positive word to the man, at the cost of his own self-image.

Tyson knows he had his father’s stubbornness and determination, mathematical gifts, quick wit, mild sentimentally, unorthodox moral compass, and love of strong, rich coffee; but he is terrified of becoming more like him.

Tyson doesn’t want to be as sadistic or ruthless as his father, he doesn’t want to become as short tempered as the deceased professor, he doesn’t want to be as cold or dismissive as his father, nor does he want to be as lonely as his father.

That said he wouldn’t mind inheriting his father’s charm, social graces, neat handwriting, and confidence.

As a boy, Tyson idolised his father. He thought the man could do no wrong, even as he took his belt to the back of Tyson and his brother. He learnt differently. Trust and love slowly chipped away, but never truly leaving. As he’s grown older, those thoughts have become more complicated.

If Tyson could ever take thirty seconds to stop blaming himself for all the universes problems, he might realise how his father’s influence led him to Sebastian and then later to the Moriarty Mirrors. That is a very unlikely possibility however.

So much of Tyson’s life has been about living up to or trying to spite his father. He’s shaped so much of his life around that it may, in fact, be impossible for him to move forward without leaning into one or the other.

Before leaving it pinned on the noticeboard in his bedroom, and before he wore it on his right middle finger, Tyson used to wear a ring bearing the Delaney family crest around a chain on his neck. At times it felt like an impossibly heavy noose. Locking him to his father’s expectations.

It’s a similar feeling to what Tyson feels when he thinks of his father.

Both of them regret how things went down between them.

Tyson was, without a doubt in anyone’s mind, John’s second favourite son, but in his way, he did love his son. He was willing to forgive - keyword forgive, not accept - his son for being gay, but John could never forgive Tyson for signing up to die in the army. For throwing away his life to a pointless war.

If he had known about Tyson’s involvement in the web, John could have forgiven that. He could have accepted his son’s - stupid, pointless, misguided - attempts to do right by minimising the bad and keeping another from being in his position when it comes to a criminal empire, but not the armed forces.

Much of John’s sentiments about war come from his own father, Lucas Delaney, who lived through WW1 and WW2 as the head of an incredibly prominent Jewish family. He lost his twin brother, Bruce, to the Blitz and his innocence to the wars; and along with any belief that his family would ever have to stop fighting for a place to be Jewish without fear.

His anti-war sentiment came from enlistment and knowing that, no matter what they may claim, his country hadn’t gone to war to protect his people. Even after the war ended and his two sons were born - with given boastfully, proud Jewish names: Reuben Boaz Delaney (רְאוּבֵן בֹּעַז דילייני) & Yonatan David Delaney (יוֹנָתָן דָּוִד דילייני) - Lucas never stopped campaigning against war and passed those thoughts on to his sons.

John’s mother and Tyson’s grandmother, Ellen Delaney, shared that sentiment, but she was far less outspoken about it. Almost fearfully silent, having immigrated to Britain to escape the war with her parents. John picked that up too and it’s what spurred him to be so vocal about it, to not let her pain be lost; unheard.

John and Tyson were both forged from fear and spite, and a stubborn determination to never buckle; to fight for what they believed in until their last breaths. They were both incredibly proud and protective of the family legacy.