When Tyson takes his nephew to the beach, they make the time to go crab fishing.
Though Tyson is rather lukewarm on the topic of fishing, preferring to meditate to clear his mind, James enjoys catching crabs and Tyson enjoys getting to sit quietly on the pier with Lily; whilst Bobby paddles around in the water, theoretically chasing crabs towards James.
It began as a way to keep James occupied and under the dog’s watchful eyes, whilst Tyson ‘discouraged’ some unwanted attention from enemies of the web.
Tyson can’t even remember what excuse he gave when he returned with busted knuckles, only that James didn’t believe it and decided to accept that answer anyway.
Deceiving an eight-year-old shouldn’t make fish and chips taste better.
Tyson is a non-observant Jew religiously and ethnically Jewish too, specifically Ashkenazi.
Though he is largely non-observant in his religious practices, his Jewishness is incredibly important to Tyson. He will defend it no matter what. Tyson is proud to be Jewish. He is proud of the Jewish people. His people.
It cannot be overstated how much the Delaney family legacy matters to Tyson. That as a prominently, proudly Jewish family, the Delaney family managed to forge a legacy of their own around and alongside Cambridge almost since the university was founded.
It also cannot be overstated how guilty Tyson feels for having abandoned that legacy. He would never force his nephew to walk their ‘intended’ path, but it warms his heart that James is so interested in their family history and wants to carry it on. To earn his place in Cambridge and continued their legacy.
The sharper, clipped edges of the consonants in his usual broad, yet posh, Cambridge accent is led by considering Hebrew to be his first language. He could speak in Hebrew long before English. Tyson does wish he knew more Yiddish, however.
Though Tyson isn’t secretive about his Judaism, he can be somewhat protective about sharing it with other people. Defensive. Tyson would typically call non-Jewish people ‘gentiles’, but if he even perseveres someone to be attacking Judaism, they become ‘goyim’ and nothing else.
It is one of the few areas that Tyson has a hard unyielding line about defending.
Tyson’s belief in Judaism and Adonai wavers, but his belief in the Jewish people never wavers. That kinship, that family, is far more important to him than anything else. That isn’t to say the other parts do not matter, simply that he places more importance on the enduring future of his people, on their continued questioning and celebration.
He struggles to define exactly what he believes, as it ebbs and flows as time goes on. Tyson cannot say that he believes in Adonai; he wants to believe in Adonai, but he isn’t sure that it is the same thing. It’s a similar place to his thoughts on superstition: belief in it has power, even if the thing itself does not exist.
Mathematics, the hidden language wrapped loving through all of reality, actually helps Tyson’s belief. ‘Numbers are as close as we get to the handwriting of God.’ He doesn’t think that it’s proof of Adonai, per say, but it brings him comfort in a way that he cannot untangle from his Jewishness.
Tyson does not know if prayer achieves anything, but he would never dismiss someone’s prayers or blessings; regardless of religion. He will always offer prayers of his own if he thinks it would comfort another. Sometimes it feels like lip service to Tyson, a duty to fulfil, and at other times, Tyson genuinely feels better if he prays.
Tyson has a large collection of kippahs with holes in them, where Tyson has been fiddling with them after removing them following attending Synagogue. He makes sure to attend some kind of service at least once a month, but Tyson does feel guilty about not attending more often.
With the exception of the times he decides to celebrate the high holidays, Tyson doesn’t bother keeping kosher outside of Sabbath; outside of Saturday more accurately. He struggles to eat properly enough without adding restrictions. However, sharing bread is incredibly important to Tyson.
Though he regularly falls back on parade rest from his army days, Tyson learnt to hold himself correctly from a much younger age.
Posture was a large part about having to present himself as a proper heir to the Delaney family legacy, and is the leading cause for Jethro regularly hunching over as an ingrained defiance; a bad habit that James ends up mimicking.
Following on from Tyson’s struggles to release his control enough to properly balance, Tyson struggles with slumping. Kinda. He can curl and nestle back into anything regardless of the angle it puts him in, Tyson will pretzel himself without even noticing, but he can’t comfortably hunch over without something to lean against/into.
It feels unnatural and stiff, despite his usual rigid posture.
Though Tyson’s sleep schedule is seven kinds of broken, he is absolutely a night owl by preference.
He loves seeing cities illuminated by artificial lights. He loves looking up in the countryside and seeing stars glittering above him. He likes the cooler temperature, the peace and quiet. He loves getting to see bats flitting about. Tyson lives for late night stake-outs and watching the colour leave - and return to - the sky.
A good to way to visualise how Tyson handles rivalry is the dual-meanings of the slang, “Come on, snake. Let’s rattle!”
He is competitive with Sebastian in a rival like way, during the times when he isn’t cowering from The Colonel. He pushes Sebastian to be the best possible version of himself; Tyson will drag Moran, kicking and screaming, if he has to.
The difference between working together and against each other is the difference between a single step in the dance, and back again.
Rivalry to Tyson takes the form of a rival from the Pokémon series. Not an adversary or antagonist, but a challenger; someone competing with another to push them to try harder and be better - competing with, rather than against - towards a common goal.
This is most obvious with his Love/Hate relationship with Sebastian Moran, but also applies to his relationship with the Moriarty Mirrors. It’s give and take. Maybe that means dancing over rooftops with Sebastian to bamboozle the police, or matching him blow for blow in an alleyway brawl.
Maybe that means joining the Moriarty Mirrors in whatever convoluted tango they have gotten caught up in, or maybe it means fighting tooth and claw to make them understand - and accept - a different solution when their gaze is already set on a shiny prize.
He doesn’t want to cage Sebastian or deny the Moriarty Mirrors their prize, but Tyson will never allow any of them to rest on their laurels or stray too far from the path. When he agrees with the goal, Tyson will match them step for step. When he disagrees, Tyson won’t dig his heels in and refuse to help. He will fight for a better solution, or for a justification for their decision, that satisfies everyone.
Tyson caught The Colonel’s interest and keeps the Moriarty Mirrors’ interests as their loyal Pup - not by being a ‘yes man’, but - by challenging them. He doesn’t disagree for the sake of disagreeing, of being disobedient and stomping his feet to maintain independence. Tyson fights to make sure everyone stays sharp and becomes the best version of themselves.
He doesn’t wait for an opening, a ‘does anyone disagree?’ or ‘are there any objections?’ Tyson will speak up whenever he needs to. He will bring the challenge to table himself: Come on, snake. Let’s rattle!
In this verse Tyson is “taking a break” for a year. He’s still working for his owners - who are also taking a year away from London on business - but, for once, Tyson’s taking care of his mental health too. He’s taking his medication regularly and, reluctantly, speaking with a therapist who Jethro recommended to him.
He lives in the suburbs of Chicago; in a house that conveniently has the same layout as his army!verse home. The only pets Tyson has brought over from London are Jack and Draco, the other pets are staying at the family manor.
This extended stay in Chicago is being treated as a training retreat in Tyson’s mind. Tyson has enjoyed his time in Chicago, but he is counting down the days until he and the Moriarty Mirrors can return back home.
Whilst taking care of his mental health, Tyson is also learning new skills for the web and trying to further develop the skills that he was already working on in London. To that end, Tyson is attending the University of Chicago to further his knowledge for his involvement in the American side of the web.
He is majoring in Law to help him understand how to get a better understanding of how the US legal system works, and minoring in Physics and Engineering; because he finds physics fascinating and he thinks it might help him follow along with the Moriarty Mirrors thought process when they get ahead of him.
Though he hasn’t changed his exercise route at all, Tyson is getting in better physical shape as his mental state improves. Actually eating regular meals and sleeping on a normal schedule to attend his classes has also helped improve Tyson’s health.
In this verse Tyson is living with his owners in Dublin. When the Moriarty Mirrors decided to take a break away from London, the Dublin ‘summer home’ was the obvious choice. Tyson came along at his owners’ request to keep them entertained and to keep Tyson safe from Moran.
Since they’re relocation is only intended to be temporary, Tyson doesn’t have his own apartment. Instead he’s staying in one of the spare bedrooms of his owners’ home. Whilst here Tyson doesn’t have any of his pets, they are all staying at the family manor for the time being.
Though Tyson will make use of the ground floor side entrance, he does not go up the staircase to the hallway the connects the Moriarty Mirrors’ rooms.
Between the three of them, time is relative. There is no such thing as a regular schedule and the kitchen has become a place to drop off take-out rather than a place where food is prepared.
This house is running on organised chaos, but everyone is largely happy. Business for the web is booming and having a slight distance from London is giving them a better view for untangling a few problems with restructuring their criminal empire for further expansion.
In this verse Tyson is station in Istanbul as part of a team over seeing the development of the Moriarty Mirrors’ web there. Tyson is temporarily there. The plan is that he’s only meant to be there until the web is set up there, then he’ll return to London with the other employees when a permanent team takes over.
Though Tyson isn’t in Istanbul permanently, it’s still a long term stationing. Whilst here he has all of his usual pets and is staying in a house that conveniently looks the same asearth!verse’s Appalachian Mountain’s home.
His owners appear every now and again to check on events, but mostly stay in London. This means that Tyson is generally sadder in this verse. He enjoys communicating to the Moriarty Mirrors through texts, but it’s not the same as being able to see them face to face on a regular basis.
Istanbul has always been an important trade city for its location and Tyson’s purpose there is to establish a network for the smuggling side of the criminal empire.
There are a few criminal contacts to make, but this side of the web can largely be trusted to run itself once the infrastructure is established. However, it is important to have a trusted pet - their Pup - out there to make sure that it’s a watertight system before then.
Though Tyson isn’t best pleased about the location change, he is glad that Lily and Bobby seems to have taken well to the additional heat. Lily especially. A few months in the sun is good for them; Tyson too, but he refuses to acknowledge that.
In this verse Tyson is stationed in New York rather than London. His owners are trying to branch their operation out more and wanted another pet working in New York. He does the same work he normally does, just out of his New York apartment; which conveniently has the same layout of his usual home. Tyson has all his usual pets in this verse.
His owners appear every now and again to check on events, but mostly stay in London. This means that Tyson is generally sadder in this verse. He enjoys communicating to the Moriarty Mirrors through texts, but it’s not the same as being able to see them face to face on a regular basis.
Within this verses, Tyson is working closely with his primary US contact: Dick Gannon. He isn’t certain if he’s a good influence on Dick or if Dick is a bad influence on him, but overall Tyson thinks that they work well together and have managed to find a good balance in getting the job done.
Tyson honestly really likes New York. Not as much as he does London, but it does feel like a home to him. He doesn’t want to leave London behind completely, but Tyson could be content setting down roots in New York.
Whether Tyson remains in New York permanently is still in the air. It isn’t exactly necessary for him to remain in New York, per say, but it’s not necessary for him to return to London either. For the time being, Tyson is most useful in New York.
With that in mind, Tyson has started to lay out storage boxes and safe houses around New York, like he has set up around London. Some of those are for employees of the web, and some are personal supply stashes. Starting from scratch has been an interesting learning experience for Tyson.
Though Cosmos atrosanguineus (Chocolate Cosmos) is Tyson’s favourite flower, he honestly adores cacti.
There is a tiny cactus in his apartment living room, which despite his only green-ish thumb Tyson has managed to keep alive, and the wrap-around patio of his army home in all applicable verses is completely covered in various types of cacti.
From a mathematical standpoint cactus plants are rather interesting showcasing many different forms of geometry, and he finds that aesthetically pleasing in general.
More accurately, Tyson just likes prickly things. He had a bad habit of collecting things with sharp edges, metaphorical or physical, and then taking care of them regardless of consequences. Cacti, at least, are content to be spiky without hurting him.
Given Tyson’s extreme attention to detail, his mathematical mind and especially his love for geometrical mathematics, his OCD, his hyper-awareness of his surroundings and army training to fully catalogue those surroundings, his strict conformation to routine to keep control over his life, and a dozen other idiosyncrasies it should not be surprising that Tyson is good at pattern recognition.
A deviation from a pattern, however, is far more likely to catch Tyson’s attention. He will subconsciously take note of pattern wherever he is and file it away for future reference, but they are rarely worth actively acknowledging even within his own mind. He needs to actively be looking for a pattern to consciously call it out.
However, the very second that something even minutely deviates from an established pattern, alarm bells blare in Tyson’s mind. He doesn’t like change at the best of times, and Tyson has been trained by experience to know how frequently a deviation means danger. He’d been the cause for that deviation plenty of times too.
Though the six months that Tyson spent travelling through the Middle East and Europe on his own, the time between being abandoned by The Colonel and escaping the army & returning to Britain, are largely dismissed - even by Tyson himself - as simply being a time of travel, of transit, those months were truly a different type of transition.
For the most part, it is true that Tyson was running on adrenaline and instinct to survive. And little else. The major touchstones of that point in his life [2011] from his timeline are that Tyson met Lily, he learnt how to fish properly, Lily caused the dog bite scar on his shoulder, and Tyson realised that he’d survived in Germany.
What happened internally for Tyson was piecing back together a sense of self, a sense of being and finding a purpose in living for himself; without Sebastian, without the army. It was during this time that The Soldier began to manifest as a way to protect the freshly former Lieutenant, in a way that could actually be noticed as a change in his behaviour.
It was a time when Tyson was pushed to his limits and survived on his own. He saved himself. One man and his dog; and a broken heart, body, and mind slowly healing. Not back to where they had been before, but into the Tyson we know today.
Broken, yet never beaten.
In many ways, it was the most formative six months of Tyson’s life. There were bigger moments and more important changes, but those changes happened over a longer time period as he stubbornly clung to who he was. This change was putting Tyson in the oven for six minutes at 1000°C, rather than an hour at 100°C.
He was still cooling down when he met the Moriarty Mirrors. His flight or fight instinct was still a twitch trigger. When he met Sunshine, The Soldier was often at the helm. A less in control version of The Soldier, with a sudden temper and - even for Tyson’s standards - whiplash-inducing emotional leaps.
By the time Tyson - officially - met Mischief, then CCT(V), he had settled into Tyson. He had less experience within the web, his skills weren’t as refined, and he hadn’t properly settled into his environment yet - hadn’t found his specific niche - but Tyson was recognisable as the loyal Pup he is today.
And on the timeline of his life? That only brings us to June 2012. It was a whirlwind year for Tyson. His entire way of life was shattered and reforged anew within the span of a year, following on from a year on the run with The Colonel that had already uprooted the equilibrium he had fought so hard to establish.
Tyson has appallingly bad balance for how agile he is in other matters.
Especially when he so easily pivots around on the balls of his feet within his apartment and parkours around London as though he were born to run over those roofs. He’s a natural at ice-skating, already accustomed to using his hands to keep balance and direct his motion.
The issue is comfort. Whilst keeping the core muscles tight is important to maintaining balance, being too rigid throws off balance. Tyson is comfortable in London. He is comfortable in his home.
When Tyson isn’t comfortable, when he is trying to balance in a place he isn’t familiar with, Tyson cannot relax his muscles enough to maintain proper balance. It isn’t in his nature to be loose with his actions.
In terms of keeping his balance, being familiar with the place completely overrules feeling uncomfortable around other people. Being in that situation may make him uncomfortable emotionally, but Tyson can typically keep his muscle memory for balance.
Though Greek, Roman, and Persian histories - and the ways in which they intertwine - are fascinating to Tyson, the industrial revolution is of particular interest to him for the ways in which it advanced engineering; and the cost at which it came.
He loves engineering. It’s mathematics given physical form. Tyson finds it much easier to convey his love of mathematics, in a way that others can comprehend and actually share in, through engineering. Through physical, rather than theoretical.
There are other periods of history where great innovation and change were achieved, but none of those draws Tyson’s attention so keenly as the industrial revolution. Perhaps its a lingering sense of patriotism coming from Tyson or his adoration of London bleeding through, but the industrial revolution is almost magical to Tyson.
And yet, he doesn’t view it through the same rose-tinted, romanticised lenses as he does ancient history. He can acknowledge the errors and cost of Roman (et cetera) histories, but Tyson isn’t as caught up on the cost that the innovations of those eras cost as he is the price that was paid for the industrial revolution.
Perhaps, it simply comes from a place of believing that they are still paying the cost for the innovations of the industrial revolution. That sharp knowledge that the technology and engineering - the mathematics - he loves so much, came about through blood and suffering.
