Though he doesn’t give them more credence than he does ghosts, Tyson finds the idea of Yōkai utterly fascinating.
If asked, he couldn’t specify what it is about Yōkai that he enjoys so much, but Tyson is always delighted whenever he hears about a new Yōkai or a new variant of their story.
The first Yōkai that Tyson heard about is one that a lot of people know about, the Kappa, from his brother Jethro during one of their many trips down to the river in the family manor’s ground to go swimming.
Though Tyson prefers not to leave clutter around, he has a tendency to keep hold of old keys.
When he knows a lock has been changed since, Tyson will throw away a key, but until that fact is proven, he will keep that key. Just in case.
No matter how unlikely it is that Tyson will ever return to that place, or that he would have that particular key on his person at the time, Tyson will keep that key as an emergency back up in a little metal tin under his bed.
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:
Though the web is based and largely operates in London, its influence reaches far and wide. As such it became necessary to have employees in various places around the world. By no means the only or most important employee in the Big Apple, but Dick is Tyson’s main contact in New York; and America in general.
As a crack shot and decent brawler with no great talent for words, most would assume Dick was hired muscle, if anything. In truth, the former marine has dozens of informants due to the web and overhears many things himself as he gives off the impression of not caring enough to sell your secrets, whilst also having an excellent memory for anything he does hear.
Generally apathy takes no acting to achieve for Gannon. Dick fades easily into the background, just a friend-of-a-friend. Don’t mind him, won’t even notice he’s there. A gambler, a smoker, and a drinker; Dick can camouflage himself in any situation. At times, he almost looking presentable if one doesn’t look close. Tucked away in the shadows, the cuts on his hands, the bags under his eyes, and razor burn on his neck are easily overlooked.
Tyson has always had a soft spot for strays. This old dog is no different, though not as old as he pretends to be. When he’s not pretending to be furniture, Dick is a prickly man, but then so is Tyson. When the salty dog grumbles that he “Don’t need no minder, kid,” Tyson know he meant ‘thank you’ and continues tidying up the beer bottles from Dick’s apartment.
When he visits New York, for leisure or business, Tyson rarely bothers finding a hotel. He simply shows up at the web provided penthouse with Dick’s favourite takeout - Pad Kee Mao - and a case of expensive cigars, knowing that the other man would let him inside even without the gifts. He’s paid generously by the web, but Dick rarely bothers to buy himself anything more than the bare necessities; feeling he doesn’t deserve it or not having the energy to fetch them, depending on the day.
More often than not, Tyson could have emailed and gotten the information from Dick, but Tyson will take any excuse to check on his stray mutt. His depression isn’t difficult for anyone to see. G.S. Gannon had a rough life. His days as a marine ended not during service, but during shore-leave when a car skidded across the ice, pining him against a wall by his right leg.
Ultimately, despite initially looking as though he may recover, Dick’s leg was amputated bellow the knee. His honourable discharge had one silver living, Dick could now propose to First Sergeant Val Harding who he had been unofficially dating during their shared service. She accepted before he was halfway through a bumbling lead up speech.
He began drinking far more to cope with his leg, but largely Dick was happy and - needing a hobby to keep him busy - learned how to play guitar. Until one day news came in that Val was missing at sea, and nothing else ever followed. By the time the web found him, Dick had to be hauled out of a Mariana Trench of debt. Tyson makes it his mission to try and cheer Dick up every time he visits.
He lets Dick lead them around New York, despite his Synesthesia and the fact that Dick always gets lost. He claims that he’s a New Jersey boy, ain’t his fault. But as Tyson points out, he has lived in New York for far longer than he ever did New Jersey. Dick waves this off with a whatever, but he’s smiling and that’s what matters to Tyson as he redirects them to their actual location.
On a good visit, he can cheer Dick up enough that he’ll play a few songs on his guitar and buy himself some rainy day treats. One a bad visit, where Dick is too deep in his own head, Tyson makes sure to clean up his apartment, restock the food, and has someone check on him every day to make sure he hasn’t done anything drastic.
Rather than ever talking directly about how they are feeling, Tyson and Dick will rank how they are coping mentally and physically with each other by using the phonetic alphabet: with ‘alpha’ being an amazing day and ‘zulu’ being awful.
Gunnery Sergeant Richard ‘Dick’ Gannon
UNIVERAL TRUTHS
Blood Type: B Negative
Date of Birth: December 2nd 1972 – Sagittarius – Rat (Water)
DnD Alignment: True Neutral
Dominant Hand: Left
Ethnicity: White, American
Myers Briggs Type: ISTJ-T | The Logistician
Orientation: Demi-romantic, Pansexual
Religion: Christian, Protestant
Signature:
FAVOURITE
Favourite Animal: Orangutan
Favourite Author: Joseph Delaney
Favourite Colour: Blue
Favourite Film: Ponyo
Favourite Food: Pad Kee Mao
Favourite Plant: Lotus
Favourite Poem: Invictus - William Ernest Henley
VERSE DEPENDANT
Avatar Element: Water
His Dark Material’s Dæmon: Raccoon
Hogwarts House: Gryffindoor || In universe, Ilvermorny: Thunderbird
Hybrid!Verse Pairing: Water Buffalo
Mass Effect Species: Turian Biotic
Pokémon Team: Nidoran♂, Dudrio, Cloyster, Sharpedo, Maractus, & Minior
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.
Whilst Tyson has never been given an official discharge from the army, in a weird nebulous place where it cannot be decided if he should be given an honourable or dishonourable discharge and thus trapped in legislation purgatory, Veteran AU Tyson has been given an honourable discharge.
Where Veteran AU Tyson is on prescription pain medication and - reluctantly - seeing a professional for his mental health, the main universe Tyson takes a variety of medication of varying legality far less frequently than he’s supposed to and avoids mental health professional’s like the plague.
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.
He dislikes photos in general, especially those that have himself in frame, but when he has to take photographs they will be like the one above: indirect and portrait.
He doesn’t like to have the focus of the image focused on the camera, not to make the image more natural or ‘real’ but instead, because he feels that when an image included the subject looking at the camera it makes part of the photo about the camera rather than just being about the subject.
Tyson prefers to take photos in a portrait orientation rather than landscape, because it means that there is less background to take away from the subject.
Tyson prefers this way because most of the photographs he takes are for work and he needs to make sure the focus is on the target - be it someone that needs taking out or someone that needs protecting - but he also uses this ‘style’ when taking photographs of friends and family, usually his brother and nephew.
Tyson doesn’t like taking photographs, but his dislike of photography isn’t linked to having liked taking photos of Sebastian.
He wasn’t particularly fond of photographing Sebastian, but it had played to the other man’s ego and Tyson had wanted to please the other man in any way that he could.
Tyson has destroyed most of the photographs now, not wanting any reminders of The Colonel, but there are a few still laying around as Tyson clings to the ‘good’ memories he had with Sebastian.
The most notable photos Tyson has taken of Sebastian is a tale from India.
