RWBY AU

Tyson attended Atlas Academy, and later chose to remain with the army, to spite his father: the late John Delaney. He trained as a fighter at a smaller hunter school before joining the army, to spite his father: the late John Delaney. He made it to the rank of Lieutenant, before Sebastian forced his hand into abandoning. Now, he uses his skills in his work for the Moriarty Mirrors.

In this AU, Tyson is a faunus; specially, a (Roe) deer faunus, not that most people could tell. He shaves down his antlers regularly and hides the slight stumps under a beanie. Though he misses his antlers and shaving them down can hurt if he’s not careful, Tyson thinks that it’s worth while to keep his identity hidden. Even in the criminal world, faunus aren’t always welcome.

Tyson’s weapon is a shield that transforms into a combination [fencing] sabre/estoc. When out of combat, it’s usual resting position is a circular shield that straps onto Tyson’s back, typically over his rucksack. His shield is silver with purple details, while the estoc has a silver and purple striped blade and a silver hilt/handle with purple accents. His weapon’s tertiary form is a glock-style handgun, primarily silver with purple accents; and uses the same hilt/handle of the sword form. He uses a variety of magazines each with a different type of Dust.

He uses Dust explosions to hide his strikes, thrown from vials kept on his belt. Tyson, also, uses rocks and earth for cover in fights; such as hitting up dust* with the sabre to blind opponents. Though being part of the web means that Tyson has access to any type of Dust he desires, Tyson tends to only keep three types on his person at any one time; liking the ability to adapt on the fly, without being weighted down by too many vials or magazines: that could be struck and explode accidentally. Largely he uses earth, ice, & gravity with water, steam, & lightening substituting where necessary. 
*real dust, fine dirt.

Tyson rarely uses his semblance. To effectively access it, Tyson needs complete concentration and to stay perfectly stationary; rarely possible mid-combat. His semblance is a shockwave that pulses out of his aura in all directions. Primarily it exerts forces against anything it contacts, but - providing that Tyson is aware of his surroundings - he can make it pass through/over something without damaging it; such as a team mate. It will sustain for as long as Tyson can keep still and focused, and has aura remaining; more powerful shockwaves will shake him too and break his concentration.

In his RWBY AU, Tyson has his emblem tattooed between his shoulder blades. He had it done - alongside his teammates having their own tattooed - when he was in a team with Captain Samson, Hal Malone, & Bùi Kimiko; before meeting The Colonel and before the dent in his torso was formed.

Tyson’s original team was ATHK (Artichoke), led by Andrew Samson. Now, Tyson is the leader of TCLD (Stormcloud) with Charlie Hotchner, Lex, & Dick Gannon. Though he and Sebastian were partners in the Atlesian army, they were never on an official huntsman team together. 

Tyson’s emblem represents a (digital) map pointer, a compass needle, & a compass rose. A compass pointer/rose rotates, as his weapon does, and resembles a shining sun; with one falling silhouette, who flew too close.

A motif continued in some of the other emblems. His mentor, Andrew Samson, has burning wings, or Roman-esque laurels, too close to the flames. Hal and Lex - who Tyson could have been, and who could have been Tyson in another life - have wings: Hal, as doomed to fall in glory as Tyson, and Lex with his false Caduceus; harming, rather than healing.

Kim, golden and glowing, has her arrows; fallen feathers, ready to shoot Tyson - and anyone else - completely out of the sky. Charlie’s favourite flower is Foxgloves, and here she is a fox who fights with her fists. And lastly, Dick: simple and to the point, he’s a salty old guard dog who has a trident and a shield. Simple.

Team ATHK - Artichoke

• Andrew Samson - Atlas - Flint & Steel || Tattoo on the centre of his chest
  Weapon: Fire-Dust infused parrying dagger & scimitar/SMG & Hunting Rifle
  Semblance: Practically immune to fire damage, redirects fire into his weapon.
• Hal Malone - Atlas - Aether & Fortuna || Tattoo on his left upper arm
  Weapon: Javelin/Spear/Wind and Fire Wheels & Off-hand Revolver
  Semblance: Never discovered before death.
• Bùi Kimiko - Mistral - Neith || Tattoo on the back of her neck
  Weapon: Recurve Bow/Twin Dao/Double-Barrel Automatic Shotgun
  Semblance: Quickly travel/teleport as a burst of gold-aura that leaves a trail of smoke.

• Sebastian Moran - Vale - Vae Victis - Tiger Faunus (Tail) 
  Weapon: High-Caliber Sniper Rifle/Zweihänder with removable Rapier core
  Semblance: Can activate his aura to boost his strength to tiger levels.

Team TCLD - Stormcloud

• Charlie Hotchner - Vale - Glamour & Valour - Fox Faunus (Ears) 
  Weapon: Dust-infused knuckledusters & Bladed-Tonfas/Kusarigama/Shotguns
  Semblance: Can manipulate her aura to appear invisible.
• Lex - Vacuo - Midas
  Weapon: Revolver Dust-infused Bo-Staff/Escrima Sticks/Nunchaku/Blow Dart
  Semblance: When touching another’s aura, ‘saps’ its energy to enhance his own aura.
• Dick Gannon - Mistral - Bulwark & Corvus
  Weapon: Expanding Scutum Shield & Trident/High-Caliber Sniper Rifle
  Semblance: Can repel liquids, from redirecting rain off his aura to ‘walking on’ water.

Originally from Atlas, Tyson works in Mistral & Vacuo within the web.

In this verse, the Delaney family is notable for making a place for themselves as a faunus family within the Atlas elite; a place they fought tooth and claw to secure, and continued to ruffle metaphorical feathers by primarily hiring other faunus.

• Anne Samantha Williams - Marsh Harrier (Wings)
• James Delaney - Rabbit (Ears)
• Jasmine Dartmoor - Persian (Ears)
• Jethro Andrew Delaney - Brown bear (Ears)
• John Delaney - Gemsbock (Antlers)
• Richard Delaney - Wolf (Ears)
• Rosie Delaney - Mountain Lion (Tail)

His aura is maroon and his semblance manifested at a family ball, when a drunk patron began tugging on Tyson’s antlers and threatening to snap them off. When using his semblance or activating his aura, the remaining stumps of his antlers glow like beacons under his beanie, alongside any red in his clothes; like the red in his gloves and the red stripe of his beanie. 

Alongside his actual weapon, Tyson keeps a secondary/back up weapon on hand: a store-bought dust-powered pistol/dagger - Pale Sigil that doesn’t require him to carry additional ammo. His weapon is called Triumph, because it uses three separate forms:

Throughout all three stages of Triumph, the handle/hilt with its dual-triggers (and open end for ammo magazines/dust vials) remains the same. To change between the three forms, Tyson rotates the handle in a particular direction. From the sword, rotating clockwise changes the weapon into a pistol and counter-clockwise goes to the targe-style shield.

As a pistol (Tres), Triumph has three modes of fire further augmented by the type of ammo that Tyson is using: single shot, three round burst, and fully automatic. The scope uses a red circle-dot sight and he can turn the guidance laser on/off as desired. Largely Tres is used as a mid- to long-range distance closer.

As a light-weight finesse sword (Trois), Tyson can load in a vial of dust to affect the strikes: typically with ice to freeze opponents once a strike lands. The tapering blade is shaped like an estoc, but has slightly less length; the length of a fencing saber. Tyson generally uses Trois as one would a fencing sword or rapier to fight in his preferred close- to mid-range.

As a targe-style shield (Drei), Triumph’s handle becomes the front grip for his hand and a second securing strap appears behind it for use on either arm. Typically Drei is only used to defend against a particularly strong attack, but he will use it with his backup weapon and vials of dust when he knows he’s in a tricky position.

The purple pattern on Drei is the central part of Tyson’s emblem, based on a compass rose and the sun. Having partially based each form of Triumph off of weapons his family used in the Faunus Rights Revolution & Great War, Tyson decided to keep the traditional family purple rather than matching his own maroon aura.

To keep the element of surprise, Tyson can spin Triumph through several forms before pausing on the desired mode. When not in use, Triumph stays as Drei and attaches to the metal plate on the back of his rucksack. It can stay in any form, but Tyson finds a shield safer to carry around than a gun or a sword.

Tattoos

Though Tyson appreciates tattoos, the dent in his torso has instilled a fear of permanent markings in main!verse Tyson that is not easily shaken off.

Within Mythical!Verse, Corruption!Verse, & Redemption!Verse, Tyson has enchanted tattoos. In those verses, Tyson had years to get used to the non-permanent versions of the tattoos, before agreeing to have them tattooed.

The sigils that were often painted onto Tyson using blood and magic - The sigils - that coated his chest and back, trickled down his arms onto his hands, and looped around his neck up onto his head; matting his hair were the blood was painted against his skull - were a claim on Tyson. A semi-permeant sign that Tyson was not to be harmed or attempted to be claimed, that he was theirs and no one else’s. - are no longer temporary, but instead a series of tattoos made from enchanted ink. The enchanting makes the tattoos change colours depending on the light - from blood red, to dark blue, to dark green to black - but Tyson dismisses it as ‘iridescent ink’.

As they are usually only visible where they inch down onto the back of his hands and where they loop up the back of his neck, Tyson isn’t too recognisable by his tattoos, but he still makes sure to conceal them - with magic or make-up, verse depending - when on jobs for the Moriarty Mirrors.

The tattoos follow the curve of Tyson’s ribs around then down to the top of his hips as their lowest point before going around onto Tyson’s back, leaving more of his stomach unmarked, and an empty diamond on the small of his back for temporary, situational markings to be applied.

In his RWBY AU, Tyson has his emblem tattooed between his shoulder blades. He had it done - alongside his teammates having their own tattooed - when he was in a team with Captain Samson, Hal Malone, & Bùi Kimiko; before meeting The Colonel and before the dent in his torso was formed.

School Rivalry

Though Tyson is aware that it’s utterly hypocritical given his upper-class upbringing, in attending Cambridge International School and Cambridge University, his hatred of Etonians and Oxford University remains.

It’s an old resentment ingrained into his being for the family legacy at Cambridge and a learnt distaste for the upper class. However, where his distaste for Oxford goes into a ‘school rivalry’ category, Tyson actively resents Eton and on principle distrusts anyone who attended there.

That Sebastian Moran attended has been a point of contention between the pair, whereas Cambridge versus Oxford was a source of teasing between them.

Engagement

Though Tyson would happily be engaged, he doesn’t want to get married:

“Hmm, that depends, would y-you expect us to get married if I proposed, Sebastian? Or would you be content to be officially tied down, whilst continuing to be out of wedlock s-sinners as fiancés?” Tyson teased back, though curious. He would proudly be engaged to Sebastian. To show the world their love and commitment to one another.

Tyson wasn’t going to marry, however. ‘Study until perfection, then try harder. Be better than you are. Take your rightful place at the university. Marry the girl; love be damned, find someone ‘acceptable’ amongst the social elite and have an heir children. Uphold the family legacy, no matter the personal cost.’

Somewhere along the line, Tyson’s view of the actual marriage part had been soured by expectations that he’d spent a lifetime running from; though he’d usually pretend that he simply didn’t see the need in a modern society.

He likes the idea of an ‘official’ relationship status beyond dating, a way of showing long-term commitment, but years of expectations from his family and its legacy has caused Tyson to resent the idea of marriage.

Another factor in this is that Tyson is polyamorous, and there is no law against being engaged to multiple people whereas there is one against being married to multiple people. Even though he doesn’t think that all of his relationships should be treated the same way, Tyson wouldn’t want a show of commitment that he couldn’t also offer in other relationships.

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. 

Collectable

Though Tyson has a collection of rocks, coins, and comic books, he only actively goes out of his way to collect rocks.

Over the years he has amassed an array of figurine collectables that are scattered around his various personal spaces. Most of them he has received as gifts - or pawned off on him after covering conventions by Billy, which is like an aggressive gift - or else Tyson has stolen it to improve his thieving skills.

The collectable figures/replicas that Tyson has of note/that he actually cares about are:

• Hellblazer Statue by DC Collectible
  Gift left at one of apartments Sebastian abandoned after Tyson helped him return there when the man was injured, now kept on the lowest shelf in his bedroom.
• K.K. Slider Amiibo Figure
  Prize that travels between Nate & Tyson, depending on who won their latest video game challenge/competition with each other. When in Tyson’s possession, kept on the coffee table of his living room.
• Kotobukiya Artfx+ Magneto Statue (Black)
  Swiped reflexively whilst in New York with Dick, kept at Tyson’s warehouse.
• Noble Collection Magical Creatures - Basilisk
  33rd birthday gift from James, kept on the top shelf in his livingroom.
• Normandy SR-1 Model
  31st birthday gift from Jethro, kept at Tyson’s warehouse.
• Pinky and the Brain Q-Fig
  A ‘gift’ from Billy, kept at the family manor in Tyson’s childhood bedroom.

Sewing

Tyson is pretty decent at sewing.

He learnt how to do the basics at school, but he never got much practice until his army days where he began stitching repairs into his clothes and earning rations from other soldiers by doing little patch jobs on their clothes that didn’t need full replacements.

Afterwards, Tyson was the one repairing his and Sebastian’s clothes whilst they were on the run. He also learnt a lot more about stitching skin back together during those days as well.

Now, Tyson largely only spends his time sewing together cosplay for his nephew’s amusement, repairing his dog’s stuffed toys, and - much more commonly - doing medical stitches.

Fighting Style

Though Tyson can appreciate the discipline of martial arts and has dabbled in a few different fighting techniques, he generally favours guerrilla street fighting.

Generally speaking, Tyson focuses on strikes against nerve/vital points, but even then, he doesn’t stick to a singular style of fighting. Even when he’s trying to improve on a particular area, Tyson is more instinctive in a fight and will end up jumping between styles regardless.

Something his drill Sargent in the army never stopped scolding him for. That adaptability and flexible is useful, but it also hamstrings Tyson’s ability to improve as a fighter. He has a niche that works for him; until it doesn’t, and that can be an Achilles heel.

That said, there are areas that can be pointed to as Tyson’s fighting style, without being a specific technique as they apply to the ways he will use multiple techniques to better suit his preferred flow of battle.

He favours fighting with his arms and blocking with his legs, and is more willing to risk damage to his legs. 

He likes to turn the odds in his favour and to use his environment to his advantage, such as his use of staircases.

He wants to wait for or create a golden opportunity, but failing that, Tyson is willing to wear down his opponent however he needs to.

He is more comfortable planting his feet in one place between bursts of movement. Stop and start fighting, rather than flowing from one movement to the next. 

Tyson wants to be darting in-and-out of the mid-to-close range. Defending until an opportunity opens, then doing as much damage as possible before waiting again. He’s an opportunity fighter. 

Accent

Tyson speaks with a broad, yet posh, Cambridge accent usually.

Without his stutter hindering him, his vowels weren’t as stretched - reducing how broad, and deep, his voice sounded overall - and drawing attention away from the sharper, clipped edges of his consonants; a slight inflexion led by considering Hebrew to be his first language.

Whenever Tyson is becoming sick or already running a fever, he tends to stutter more on the letter P; due to the way the internal temperature increase messes with his tongue.

When drunk, the letter R becomes nigh impossible for Tyson to form properly, it becomes a W instead. A stark contrast to the rolled R that had been drilled into his usually precise received pronunciation by countless tutors, but that’s rather the point: it was drilled into Tyson to rolled his Rs, leading off of Hebrew, Tyson doesn’t naturally enunciate his Rs.

There are three accents that Tyson can reliably imitate: New York (Brooklyn/Queens), Cockney/Essex, & Dublin.

His New York accent definitely leans stronger towards Brooklyn where, once again, Tyson is guided by his Jewish roots, but when Tyson ends up having to maintain his New York accent, he inevitably gets lazy about his pronunciation and strays into Queens a little, particularly on longer words.

Similarly, his Essex accent is spot on, to begin with, but when he’s speaking for an extended period of time, it will end up straying into a more generalised Cockney. The only accent that Tyson can reliably and consistently produce outside of his own without it straying is a Dublin accent. He has that one down to a tee.

DIY

Though Tyson is pretty handy, it’s rare that he’s ever building something for himself.

Usually, if Tyson has a construction or DIY project, it is something Tyson is making for someone else; like setting up a digital mirror for Jethro’s home, or working on a project for or with the Moriarty Mirrors.

The exception would be when Tyson goes out to his warehouse and gets some time to work on personal projects, though even then he usually ends up tinkering with something for the Moriarty Mirrors regardless.

Tyson is happy to help out with any project that put in front of him, but he does prefer intricate work that will keep his mind occupied whilst he’s working.

Hospitals

Over the years Tyson has sustained many injuries, and he is likely to receive many more before his time in the web comes to a close.

He has gone through broken bones, dozens of concussions, bullet wounds, a chemical attack in the army that left him temporarily blind, nails being ripped out in interrogation, a punctured lung, and far more in his time. Through all of that, he has never gotten any better at listening to doctor’s orders.

In any official records, most of his injuries are unaccounted for. That is one of the downsides of having the Moriarty Mirrors’ doctors taking care of his wounds. Whenever he’s in deep enough trouble to end up in an official hospital, Tyson ends up in hot water over where the unaccounted wounds came from.

Heartbreak

Tyson’s most obvious heartbreaks are from Kim and Sebastian.

However, they are far from the only ones to break his heart. For all his plethora of trust issues, Tyson hands over his heart far too easily.

There was also Peter Campbell, one of the people Tyson’s father paid to pretend to be Tyson’s friend; Lee, the French student in Tyson’s military history class who still makes his heart flutter to think of; Geoffrey, one of his fellow strategists in the army who got engaged in the time it took him to find his confidence; and too many others to count.

Tyson doesn’t so much offer his heart out, as throw it as hard as he can at an impassible wall, then somehow seems surprised when he gets hurt.

That said, Tyson handles heartbreak far too well. He is content to pine - to hurt and hurt - so long as the other person is happy, wherever they are.