Tyson’s dæmon is a female Belgian Malinois called Yenta (יֶענטֶע), a female Yiddish name meaning ‘Aristocratic or Noble’. Tyson is in perfect harmony with יֶענטֶע.
In this verse, Tyson’s timeline is the same. Yenta is simply involved in the events that transpired. Her influence is felt in how the events played out, but the normal events still appear in the same order.
Their time is split between the army!verse house and his normal apartment. Though Tyson is more comfortable in the safe house provided by the Moriarty Mirrors’, his normal apartment, Yenta needs more room to move around comfortably.
As he doesn’t always live in the middle of the city, Tyson has room for all of his dogs: Lily, Bobby, and Jack. Tyson still uses his apartment, when he needs to be somewhere smaller to feel safe or for work, but he also has the option to sleep at Pup’s Pet Store too; Yenta insists they open the store as much as possible. With his father’s passing, Tyson has inherited the family manor.
Where Tyson is generally a man of few words, Yenta is always talking, just not vocally. She is constantly communicating to Tyson thought her body language and subtle gestures only they understand, but she rarely speaks. When she does, her voice is soft with the same precise pronunciation that had been drilled into Tyson by countless tutors.
Though Yenta feels Tyson’s emotions, they do not share a mind. Yenta is unaffected by Tyson’s mental conditions. This means that Tyson’s OCD, anxiety, PTSD, Borderline Split Personality Disorder, and Synesthesia are his own. That said, Yenta does experience her own trauma as a form of PTSD.
They don’t always agree on everything, but usually Ty and Yenta can understand the other. Tyson was three when his Synesthesia became apparent. He was too young for it to become a huge revelation that his dæmon saw the world differently. As he became older and learnt to understand - then later control and suppress - his Synesthesia, Yenta felt lost at her inability to help him. And her inability to convince him not to suppress it.
Yenta took many forms before settling, but she unwavering favoured feline forms. A gentle tabby purring in Tyson’s lap, a slinking lynx on nighttime escapades, and a fearsome panther to keep dangers away.
Tyson thought those forms suited her personality, but a dæmon ultimately settles to match their human’s personality. To no one’s great surprise, Yenta ended up settling as a dog. Yenta eventually settled as a Belgian Malinois, with a red-mahogany coat. Her muzzle black and the edges of her ears too.
It’s somewhat unnerving, how alike Yenta and Tyson look. On first glance few would see the similarities: her coat lighter than Tyson’s hair, her eyes always dark brown rather than the changing brown and green of Tyson’s hazel. It’s the look those eyes give, however. The same bright-eyed understanding, gears turning, as their heads cock to the side in curiosity. Not malicious, not cold - just focused, controlled, calculated.
Their weight resting on their toes, muscles taut and coiled - ready for action at a moment’s notice, fight or flight; whatever is needed. The poise of their stance. A light stealthy step, unnoticed. Seamlessly synchronised. The way tension never truly leaves their bodies, even when relaxing: always an eye or an ear on the door. Naturally slotting together to cover each other’s flanks.
In pure looks, to judge them based on a photo, it would have to be a photo taken in just the right moment - an inquisitive look, the softening of seeing a friend or family - for them to appear alike. To see them together, to see them in motion, you would say they were identical.
Yenta settled once Jethro - and his dæmon, a Eurasian Brown Bear - ran away from home at eighteen, when Tyson was fourteen. The brothers had always been close, near inseparable. Losing them hurt, and suddenly Tyson had the full focus of his father’s anger. With the responsibility forced onto his shoulders, Tyson had already been mature beyond his age.
With Yithrô and Tikvah (תִּקְוָה) gone, neither Tyson nor Yenta had a shield anymore. They had to grow up quickly. Life wasn’t going to become any easier for the pair.
Growing up in the Delaney family manor, Tyson and his older brother, Yithrô, were expected to uphold the family legacy. They were expected to be perfect heirs. Constant lessons, tutors for every subject, and perfect grades. It was never enough. They could never reach their father’s impossible standards.
There was never an active decision to touch each others’ dæmon, but Tyson and Jethro always physically comforted each other after their father’s ‘discipline’. Their dæmons also needed that comfort. With Tikvah being such a large creature, and always favouring large forms before settling, it was somewhat inevitable that they would end up touching from time to time. The decision to never tell their father was very conscious.
When Tyson decided the abandon the family legacy and join the army instead, it wasn’t his decision. It was Yenta’s. Where Tyson bottled up his emotions and puts his faith in logic to assure the best course of action, his dæmon trusts her emotions to guide her actions. Hearts and minds combined. He felt what she felt, as she felt what he felt.
It was Yenta’s encouragement to follow his heart that finally led to Tyson signing up. He took well to having the structure and order of the military, and יֶענטֶע was certainly happy about the number of other dog dæmons; and dogs in general. As Tyson trained various breeds of service dogs, she was always with him. For better and for worse. Much, much worse.
She was as smitten by Kim’s dæmon, a common squirrel monkey, as Tyson was by Kim. Everyone hurt when their relationship ended. Yenta was there for The Colonel too. Yenta was more sceptical of Sebastian than Tyson was, but Tyson’s heart bled for Sebastian and Yenta always followed her heart, she wouldn’t - couldn’t - stop Tyson from following his.
Just as she can’t stop Tyson from coming to his aid, to being at his beck and call now. He didn’t let Yenta into the room when he was with Sebastian, but Tyson couldn’t have hidden the abuse from her; she felt his pain as surely as she did his love for the man.
Yenta wasn’t as close to Sebastian’s dæmon as she had been Kims, but she still enjoyed the tigress’ company and they worked well together. As Tyson slept, Yenta pleaded with Sebastian’s dæmon to reason with the man, to stop hurting Tyson. All she earnt was a warning as sharp claws swiped at her. She hadn’t expected much else; few dæmon’s would have agreed to work against their human.
If Tyson fought back, Yenta would have been harmed. If Yenta intervened, things would have gotten worse for Ty. Yet having the other there gave them more motivation to fight, to protect the other. It certainly helped them survive in the desert. Tyson had to keep going, or Yenta would die and turn to dust. Yenta had to keep marching onward, or Tyson might not pick himself up again.
When Lily led them to water, there was no conversation about adopting this dog. They both knew, they would be indebted to this Dalmatian-Dhole cross forever. Equally, there hadn’t been a conversation about keeping Jack when he wouldn’t accept another trainer. Jack was a one human, one dæmon dog.
Both entered the web with hackles raised and teeth bared. The Soldier in full show with The Colonel’s abuse still fresh; it wasn’t her human, but it wasn’t wrong either. The Moriarty Mirrors’ were a means to an end, until they weren’t. Until their little pack were all obediently following Jim, both Jims.
Yenta disapproves of their work. After everything that happened, however, she has a much harder time convincing Tyson to trust his heart over logic; and, as Tyson freely admits that he loves Moriarty, her argument doesn’t get much traction. Knowing that Tyson hates the work his Darling owners ask of him, that gives Yenta some leverage to convince Tyson to do more good. To do more to atone for the work they do.
Between looking after their dogs, juggling the constant workflow for the web, catering to Jims’ whims, making maps, avoiding The Colonel, running the pet store whenever possible, and trying to counterbalance all of that by going out of their way to do good and charitable things, Tyson and Yenta are stretching themselves dangerously thin.
