In Hogwarts AU,
Tyson has a male Tawny Owl affectionately named Efraim [אֶפְרָיִם],
which means fruitful in Hebrew. Tyson named him this because he has a
habit of stealing fruit from Tyson, usually small pieces of apple,
making him ‘full of fruit’. He’s a pretty affectionate bird and a
reliable message deliverer for the young Hufflepuff. With Tyson’s
Synesthesia, Efraim’s body is viewed in black and his bones a deep
purple, but his feathers are viewed in a mix of green, yellow, and red. Jethro
took Tyson into Diagon Alley to get his owl when they were buying
school supplies, with an escort from the Jewish wizarding community in
Cambridge. Tyson had known the type of owl he wanted before going in,
but he was open to anything so long as he liked the bird and it liked
him back. Now that Jethro has graduated, Tyson feels like he never
gets any time to see Efraim, as the tawny owl is constantly off
delivering or returning with letters between the two brothers or
ferrying muggle books, essays, and homework between Tyson and his
father.
Tyson finds the uses of owls in folklore interesting, but mostly he just thinks that owls are neat. There
isn’t much beyond that. They’re interesting creatures and he remembers
seeing a few during some of the hunts his uncle dragged Tyson and Jethro
on.
When Tyson served with the First Bangalore Pioneers, he did so as a strategist and service dog handler, before being the spotter to Sebastian Moran was added to his duties.
It would have been difficult for them not to bond honestly, with how closely they were working together; often off on their own missions away from the rest of the squadron to avoid having their position given away. There were plenty of times when it was only the two of them together, sent off under cover of darkness.
Though there was a lot of watching silently as still as stone to avoid detection, there were also moments when Sebastian and Tyson could trade quips and stories as they waited or marched to, or back from, their destination. Kisses stolen in secret, always a risk of getting caught even where they were hidden.
There was a lot of Tyson trying not to giggle at how silly it looked, carefully dribbling water down to Sebastian through a straw; because it was the middle of the day, in the middle of a hot summer, but Sebastian couldn’t risk messing up the shot he needed to take at any second.
Even in those quiet moments, hyper-aware and fearful of an enemy stumbling across their hiding spot, Tyson found solace in Sebastian’s company; and the great view of his arse that it provided when he sprawled out to take his shot. Running his hands over Sebastian’s broad shoulders to ‘soothe out of ache of the recoil’.
Less enjoyable was having to stare down a detached scope or binoculars to confirm each kill. Tyson admired the skill it took to shoot so accurately. He had to. It was that or acknowledge the guilt in his chest as his sights locked in on freshly spilt blood, and knowing how much was on Sebastian’s hands that reached out to caress his jaw for a victory kiss.
He has never been worried about going to the dentist’s office. Tyson’s brother, on the other hand, is deeply afraid of dentists.
In all other moments, it was Jethro comforting his twitchy, anxiety-ridden baby brother or providing a distraction to let him hide. In the dentists’ room, however, it was Tyson holding his big brother’s hand and whispering reassurances in Hebrew whilst the dentist gave Jethro his check-ups.
This usually meant that Tyson ended up getting an extra sticker from the assistant for being so helpful and then an extra treat stolen from the kitchens from Jethro.
As Tyson is a stupidly loyal thing with floppy brown hair and bright eyes, it’s not all that surprising that Tyson has a talent for talking down other dogs who lash out in fear.
He’s always had a talent for handling dogs, but his experiences since his army days have given Tyson a new understanding of why the lashing out happens and how to better avoid that reaction, to talk a dog down from that fear.
His two most notible failures in that regard, Razor biting his right wrist and Lily biting his left shoulder, came from dogs lashing outde to heatstroke rather than fear.
Any amount of social anxiety about being in a restaurant and ordering food is thrown out of the window the moment someone else is nervous about doing something: making an order, fetching more ketchup, et cetera.
It doesn’t matter how afraid he is of The Colonel, Tyson will calmly distract him to make sure that no one else gets caught in the crossfire or patiently talk a stranger through their escape route to get them to safety.
Once Tyson is given a task, he has laser focus. It’s the same reaction that allows Tyson to go unflinchingly through London’s streets when he’s on a mission for the web. He has a task that is bigger than himself to focus on. More important than his zero percent self-worth.
Though it’s ultimately academic as Tyson exists in a world with (limited) magical influence and duplicate Moriartys, within the timeline of BBC Sherlock canon, Tyson technically becomes an AU after Series 2.
That said, elements of Series 3 and Series 4 exist within Tyson’s world.
On the rooftop of St Bartholomew’s Hospital, Mischief earnt that nickname from his previous CCT. He faked his death with hyper-realistic blood packs and nanobots to ensure his vital signs were absent for any checks, should his clean-up team be delayed or his body intercepted before they could arrive.
Meanwhile, Sunshine was the one pulling the strings of the web to make sure Sherlock had to follow through with his half of the ‘deal’. Theoretically, Tyson was doing his part to make sure everything went to plan, but in truth, he was having his heart ripped out listening to John’s anguish.
Sherlock then went on to dismantle parts of the web, that is true. However, the Moriarty Mirrors viewed this more as a spring cleaning. They laid low for a while, protected what was essential, and allowed Holmes to tidy up anything that wasn’t clever enough to survive without linking back to them.
For now, with Sherlock’s return to London and notoriety, the Moriarty Mirrors are content to leave him alone to his own devices. If Sherlock is aware of their continued existences, he has also left them alone. Tyson doesn’t expect that peace to last indefinitely nor for the next round to end so bloodlessly.
Though John didn’t know that Sherlock lived before he returned, he knew that Moriarty was still around. Simply due to the fact that Tyson hadn’t fled London or committed suicide to escape The Colonel once more. Now that Sherlock is back, they’ve returned to pretend not to know who the other is talking about in relation to a maddening flatmate and an insufferable Irish boss.
Charles Augustus Magnussen is alive and occasionally has dealings with the Moriarty Mirrors, but the events of Series 3 around Sherlock have not happened yet in Tyson’s timeline; and aren’t ever likely to. The Moriarty Mirrors would not take kindly to him poking their consulting curiosity.
Though Mary Morstan exists, in Tyson’s main universe Mary is not currently married to John Watson; who moved back into 221B Baker Street a few months after Sherlock’s return to London. Tyson won’t even pretend to know the current dynamic of their on and off again relationship, but he can say with certainty that John doesn’t have a child with Mary.
However, John does have a beagle called Toby, previously called Gladstone at the shelter. He was adopted as a way to help John grieve after Sherlock ‘died’ and has since started working with Sherlock during his detective cases; having already received some training from Tyson during that year where Tyson could pretend that he and John weren’t still on opposite sides and could see his former brother in arms a little more frequently.
If she exists, Tyson has never heard of Eurus Holmes and the Moriarty Mirrors have never mentioned her either. It wouldn’t have been the first time they had kept secrets from him, especially concerned their obsession with Holmes, but to date, there is no reason for Tyson to know of Eurus.
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.
Though Tyson doesn’t care about his birthday or his current age, he is aware that with every year that passes, Tyson inches closer to redundancy within the web; and looking even more like his father. Minus thirty years or so, Tyson is already the spitting images of his father and those thirty years are gradually trickling down.
Tyson knows how to make himself useful and his role in the web isn’t dependant on his physicality, but the less able he becomes, the less Tyson can do for the Moriarty Mirrors. The less useful he becomes to them and the more likely that he becomes boring.
Tyson would walk himself out back to be put down before he allowed himself to become a liability to the Moriarty Mirrors safety, or to the safety of anyone else he cared about. He can’t reliably judge how interesting he might be to his Darling owner’s, however.
Before Tyson needed to worry about that, his age was a non-issue to Tyson. He didn’t care about his birthday, but Tyson didn’t spare any thought to how old he might become. He expected to die in service to the army long before he reached retirement age.
