Richard Delaney

UNIVERAL TRUTHS

• Birthname: Reuben Boaz Delaney (רְאוּבֵן בֹּעַז דילייני)
• Blood Type: A Negative
• Date of Birth: May 1st 1949 - Taurus - Ox (Earth)
• DnD Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
• Dominant Hand: Left
• Ethnicity: Jew, Ashkenazi / White, British
• Myers Briggs Type: ESTP-T | The Entrepreneur
• Orientation: Heterosexual
• Religion: Jewish
• Signature:

FAVOURITE

• Favourite Animal: Octopus
• Favourite Author: Edgar Allen Poe
• Favourite Colour: Black
• Favourite Film: Thunderball
• Favourite Food: Game Pie
• Favourite Plant: Bluebells
• Favourite Poem: On The Ning Nang Nong - Spike Milligan

VERSE DEPENDANT

• Avatar Element: Water
• His Dark Material’s Dæmon: Foxhound
• Hogwarts House: Slytherin (Muggle within Hogwarts AU)
• Hybrid!Verse Pairing: European Red Deer
• Mass Effect Species: Human
• Pokémon Team: Slowking, Togetic, Ninjask, Dusknoir, Mandibuzz, & Mimiku

Colour Tyson’s Synesthesia Projects Onto Them:

Uncle

In Redemption!Verse, Tyson has gone from a legal guardian of James to his primary caregiver. He adores his nephew and would do absolutely anything to make that boy smile.

Tyson has seen poor father figures, both in his own father’s abuses and in his own uncle’s dismissive nature, and he refuses to subject James to either of those.

Richard Delaney could be just as cold as John Delaney. The difference was that when Tyson and Jethro were around their father, they had to live up to impossible standards or be punished, but they received attention. There was a goal. Something to hope for.

Richard did not care about either of them. They were the heirs to John’s legacy, Richard walked away from the family to forge his own legacy. The boys were pawned off on him every summer holiday and were nothing but a burden to him. Occasionally useful to carry things when he went hunting, but otherwise useless.

He would never have hurt Tyson or Jethro physically, but it was obvious that they weren’t wanted there. The best that they could hope for was to stay out of the way; out of sight, out of mind.

Going to Uncle Richard’s home every summer was a reminder that their father didn’t want them around as he went off on his own holiday, nor were they welcome at their uncle’s home. There was never a space for Tyson or Jethro, and even the Delaney heirs were simply tolerated.

They were to make themselves useful or disappear. 

Fighting Style

When it comes to his Pokémon AU, Tyson’s physical and verbal fighting style is the same as in any other universe, and - frankly - his Pokémon battling style is exactly what you would expect to come from Tyson.

No matter which universe he’s in, whether it’s magic duels in his Mythical!Verse/Hogwarts AU or fighting alongside his dæmon in HDM AU, Tyson has a style that he tends to lean towards. He has a lot of experience under his belt and Tyson tends to lean towards fighting in the middle to close range.

He favours knives over guns: to make it personal rather than something he can brush off, because there is more versatility in battle and outside of it, and because it’s quieter and more subtle with a surprising amount of speed behind it. Those choices carry over into the decisions he makes across all arenas of battle.

There are Pokémon that Tyson will have battle from long range, but for the most part, Tyson will focus on having his Pokémon in the middle ground, charging in for a point-blank attack, then darting away to relative safety; close enough to retreat or follow up with another attack.

Tyson likes to turn the odds in his favour and to use his environment to his advantage, such as Tyson’s use of staircases in his main!universe. To this end, Tyson has a lot of his Pokémon using weather moves and largely accurate moves. He makes sure the battlefield is on their side, or can easily be turned to disadvantage their opponent.

Though Status conditions may seem to play to Tyson’s general style, he doesn’t like to rely on something that may not take. He’s taken advantage of moves that have a chance to inflict conditions, but for the most part his team’s status moves are focused on weather or healing.

Tyson always like to have numbers on his side. He has a large pool of Pokémon to draw from and he’s trained them all to fight together. He’ll single battle if he must, but Tyson definitely favours having his team compliment each other in double or even triple battles.

Even in single battles, Tyson isn’t the type of trainer to have one Pokémon battle until they are spent. He likes to swap out his Pokémon constantly, to keep his opponent on their toes, and to take advantage of things set up by the last Pokémon. No matter the universe, Tyson likes to be flexible and adapt to the situation rather than try and force a solution to work.

He tends to favour two types of Pokémon overall: bulky, slower powerhouse Pokémon that can hold the line forever and take down an opponent with two or three powerful moves, & the other type is lightning-fast Pokémon who can finish the fight before its begun or simply keeping moving and never get hit.

Both styles play to a war of attrition, waiting for an opening to strike and making sure that when a move lands, maximum damage is achieved. That is exactly how Tyson likes to fight in person as well. 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.

Irene, Mary, & Molly

Though Tyson’s relationship with the male parts of the Sherlock canon are more dynamic and disparate in the range they cover, Tyson has better relationships overall with the female characters.

Irene Adler

Irene Adler
↳ Known trouble, respected company.

"When [Moriarty] speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her photograph, it is always as ‘that bitch’."
- Colonel Sebastian 'Basher' Moran;
'The Hound of the D'Urbervilles' by Kim Newman.

Though Tyson isn’t as… blunt as his owners in expressing his dislike of Irene, Tyson doesn’t trust her. From personal experiences with The Women, Tyson can attest to how underhand her techniques can be when she’s after a quick escape.

Tyson respects her and her techniques immensely and - if needs be - he can enjoy her company. He enjoys Irene’s sharp sense of humour and, if she asked him to, would come assist her. However, he knows that she is an incredibly smart woman who could, and would, blindside him at any minute if she needed to; and therefore mustn’t be trusted.

Whether she is getting her kicks as a dominatrix, gentlewoman thief, or as an adventure, Tyson has a lot of respect for Irene. He’ll gripe about her latest trick or whichever employees she pulled a fast one against, but - outside of the Moriarty Mirrors - Tyson won’t hear a bad word against said against her.

What she does is damned impressive and he would much rather her attention stayed on Holmes than on the web. In many ways, Tyson views her in the same light as Lex: a wildcard to mix up the deck. The difference being that where Tyson has Lex firmly in hand to use as he sees fit, Irene is shuffled in at random and can strike at any moment.

He can never decide if Irene likes her version of the game with Holmes or if her actions are the equivalent of moving an insect out of the way with a piece of paper and a glass. Actually, he isn’t even sure which way she viewed the Moriarty Mirrors or himself, but he can’t imagine that it’s in a positive way.

Mary Morstan

Though he’s certain it must have happened, Tyson cannot remember a moment when he’s been able to have a full conversation with Mary. By no specific effort on either of their behalf, Tyson and Mary usually only cross paths to say goodbye. 

Either Tyson shows up to visit John just as Mary is setting off to go meet a friend for drinks or Mary is coming through the front door just as Tyson sets off to deal with an urgent call from the Moriarty Mirrors.

In those brief snippets of time where Tyson and Mary have gotten the opportunity to talk to one another, Tyson has enjoyed Mary’s company. She’s funny and kind, and even if their relationship is in a constant flux of on and off again, Tyson can see how much she cared about John.

He wouldn’t expect her to call him about anything, but equally Tyson wouldn’t be surprised if she happened to have his number when she wanted to call someone over to babysit Toby and the cooking turkey for an hour when she needed to run out for something on Christmas day.

That basically sums up how things work between Tyson and Mary. There are no exceptions, but when something happened neither are surprised in any way.

Molly Hooper

Molly Hooper
↳ Fellow pet, dear friend and acquired sister.

The best description for Molly and Tyson’s relationship comes from this post:

Molly and Tyson are not star-crossed lovers, not romantic companions, they are not waiting for their happy ending— with each other. They are the closest thing to brother and sister, and they like that. They like being able to talk to freely to each other and not feel the sudden tinge of infatuation. They like being able to touch and it doesn’t feel like there should be something more. They don’t want the ‘something more’. They want to stay like this forever, this way.

Of all of the Moriarty Mirrors’ pets, Molly is the one Tyson feels most comfortable with. Unlike with other pets of Jim, Tyson doesn’t need to hide their friendship. Usually work gets in the way of the two interacting, but they make sure to make some time for each other. They relax in each other’s apartments and eat take-out together, more often than not with Tyson’s head resting in Molly’s lap or Molly using Tyson’s lap as a seat. Sometimes they make an afternoon out of it, going shopping then sharing lunch.

When Molly’s upset, Tyson does everything in his power to make her laugh; usually this means holding up one of her cats and pretending the cats talking. Tyson’s there for Molly for when she needs a shoulder to cry on, when she needs someone to try out a new recipe with, & when she needs a workout buddy at the gym who does no actual working-out himself but instead sits there encouraging her.

Molly’s there for Tyson for when he’s having a wave of anxiety and needs a calm voice, when he wants to vent about ‘pain in the neck Irishmen’ summoning him a four in the morning to test a new theory, & when he admits he’s never seen the Lord of the Rings trilogy she’s there to correct this oversight. Molly is the playful, protective, ingenious little sister he never knew he wanted.

It’s very rare that they end up working the same job, but when they do the time flies.

Milkshakes

For not being all that fond of milkshakes, Tyson ends up drinking a lot of milkshakes. It’s one of the few guarantees in his fridge.

He is sick to death of artificial banana, chocolate, and strawberry, but Tyson has an ingrained compulsion to make sure he’s always getting some form of calcium; from a childhood calcium deficiency that led to weak ankles.

He’s managed to shake the tick now, but one of his OCD twitches was having to tap the top and bottom of a milk cartoon three times before pouring himself any milk for the better part of his teens and twenties.

Another factor is that Tyson knows that milkshakes tend to have a high amount of calories for how easy they are for him to consume. It means that, even on days where Tyson fails to eat more than a slice of toast, he’s not burning more calories than he intakes by drinking them instead.

That is the same reason you won’t find ‘low calorie’ versions of food in Tyson’s home at all.

Art

Though Tyson’s mother was the designated artist of the family, Tyson has a good hand for sketches.

He has a steady hand and a good eye for detail, helped along by a great memory. When Tyson doodles things, he tends to focus on a single subject with an occasional landscape that are usually done in monochrome with pencil or pen, but occasionally he’ll push into light watercolours if he likes the image enough.

When it comes to looking at art, Tyson enjoys almost all of it, but he cares about so little. It’s a passive appreciation for most pieces rather than actually enjoying them. He can appreciate the effort that has gone into them and occasionally summon the emotion its supposed to invoke, but they don’t typically leave an impression.

That said, Tyson has a real soft spot for pointillism pieces; especially the work of Théo van Rysselberghe, though he enjoys all of Rysselberghe’s work regardless of style. His favourite pieces of Rysselberghe’s is Sailboats on the River Scheldt.

He honestly loves concept art, for games he’s enjoyed playing or even seeing the original character concepts for films.

Hybrid Verse

[Hybrid!Verse] is centered around the idea of everyone being animal-human hybrids; i.e. a human with cat ear/tail. Everything else in this verse remains the same as the normal verse outside of everyone being a hybrid.

In this universe, Tyson is a Stag-Human Hybrid, specially a Roe Deer.Though Tyson is very dog-like, he’s also very deer-like. Tyson’s personality fits both, but he’d be a deer-hybrid because (unlike a dog) Tyson’s more likely to bolt than try to befriend a stranger.

In this UA his nickname is still ‘Pup’, but here it’s more teasing; because people who know him are surprised that he’s not a dog-hybrid, even though a deer is very suiting to him.

Tyson’s antlers shed yearly; he’s okay with them being touched, aside from when they’re newly regrowing and more sensitive. However, throwing hoops onto his antlers to score points will result in being maimed with those antlers.He’s not fussed about his ears being touched, but he doesn’t like his tail being touched; ever. Everything else about Tyson is human.

Animal Pairings within Hybrid!Verse:

I should preface this by saying that a person’s view of different animals doesn’t change the type of hybrid they are - i.e.: if someone dislikes cats, they can still be a cat!hybrid if they are catlike themselves -, that though coming from a family of dog!hybrids makes one more likely to be a dog!hybrid it doesn’t guarantee it, & that different people have different levels of physical traits from their animal-hybrid: Hybrid!Tyson, for example, has the tail, antlers, and ears of a Roe Deer, but not the eyes or colouration. [x]

• Anne Samantha Williams - Marsh Harrier
• Billy Ramsey - Mouflon
• Bùi Kimiko - Mugger Crocodile
• Charlie Hotchner - Macaw
• Dick Gannon - Water Buffalo
• Dōjima Taeko - Horse
• George Cartwright - Fox Squirrel 
• Hal Malone - Beagle
• Isaac Alinson - Castlemilk Moorit
• James Delaney - Bunny
• Jasmine Dartmoor - Persian Cat
• Jeremy Thornton - Meerkat
• Jethro Andrew Delaney - Eurasian Brown Bear
• John Delaney - Gemsbok
• Levi McCullum - Sparrow
• Lex - Leopard Gecko
• Nate Morrison - Fox
• Reginald Arlington - Jaguar
• Richard Delaney - European Red Deer
• Rosie Delaney - Timber Wolf
• Sebastian Moran/The Colonel - Siberian Tiger
• Sienna McCullum - Siamese Cat
• Tyson Delaney - Roe Deer 

Beyblades

Though Tyson doesn’t much care for holidays, he will occasionally join his family for Chanukah.

With both Jethro and Tyson being largely non-observant in their Judaism, it was hardly ever going to be an orthodox celebration. The most noticeable change is that Beyblades are sharing a space with the dreidel.

Though James is interested in his Jewishness and their traditions, it was obvious to every adult in the room that he had no interest in playing with the dreidel. Knowing that his nephew watched and enjoyed the anime, Tyson excused himself to go walk the dogs and returned with a group of Beyblades from the local newsagents.

A spinning top is a spinning top, at the end of the day. The game is different and the overtly Jewish symbolism is gone, but that didn’t matter to Tyson’s family. It was a game they could play that kept the spirit of the holiday.

Their menorah is always traditionally Jewish as is their food and the trip to Synagogue. The dreidel stays beside the menorah and the Beyblades are brought out of their box to play with, a little tradition just for them. Something to bring them together.

When Tyson went out during Chanukah 2012, he originally came back with four Beyblades from the (at the time) current series/toy line, Metal Fury: Cosmic Pegasus F:D for James, Fang Leone 130W2D for himself, Blitz Striker 100SF for Rosie, & Meteo L-Drago LW105LF for Yithrô.

Since then, one Beyblade is added to the box every year: Bandit Genbu F230TB is never used and is committed to the memory of John Delaney, Rock Orso D125B became Jasmine’s, Cyber Aquario 105RF became Charlie’s, Twisted Tempo 145WD, & Driger MS was the latest to be added in 2017.

Unit

Tyson works better as part of a team, rather than as part of a group.

He doesn’t have the same level of focus on a patrol with another soldier, both with the task of completing that patrol whilst watching for enemies, compared to going off as a team with Sebastian Moran, as sniper and spotter both with separate but complementary roles.

That doesn’t mean that Tyson can’t be very effective when taking part in combined, singular efforts, but he does much better when each person is a cog in a bigger mechanism.

It helps him focus on his own task without worrying about carrying the weight of someone else and gives him better perspective on the strengths of the employees he’s working with. It’s easier to spot the weak link and fix the issue before it becomes a problem when there is a link to point at, rather than one action spread across several people.

When people are given an individual goal as part of a team effort, Tyson finds it much easier to support another employee/pet to overcome their difficulties and understand where attention needs to be given. He knows that people are disposable within the web, but Tyson wants to give people the best possible chance of remaining useless; remaining alive.

The Soldier

Tyson has the beginnings of stress-induced split-personality disorder. *

The Soldier is a shield for Tyson, it protects his mental state.

As mentioned in his description:

Tyson can avoid stuttering completely and be completely in front of his actions, but only in short stints. After his time with The Colonel Tyson had been damaged physiologically, mentally, as well as physically. He was still the solider he once had been, but only in times of need. In the heat of battle or when medical care was needed The Solider comes out, as strong as he’d been in Afghanistan, but as soon as that need was taken care of he slips away, using the thousands of broken shards of submissiveness Tyson has become as a shield to hide behind.

Tyson has been too messed up to maintain that nature indefinitely. When there was need he could be in control, but afterwards he hid away again. It exhausted Tyson to take on this soldier like nature, but when in need his instincts took over and dropped his shield. That strength was always there and occasionally bleed across when Tyson felt strong enough about a topic, but otherwise it hid behind Tyson’s submissiveness for when it was needed.

Tyson isn’t that aware of this, nor does he know that it is the beginnings of stress-induced split-personality disorder. He knows that when threatened he would be stronger, more like he had been in the army, and that it felt like it wasn’t him doing the actions he had, but he doesn’t know that isn’t just his imagination.

The Soldier is purely instinctual survival, a defence Tyson’s brain has created to protect him from the trauma of his past.

A fragile shield that Tyson can’t choose to wield or lower; often only broken by direct pain that wasn’t accompanied by adrenaline, or after the adrenaline - or conflict - had long since faded. Tyson isn’t even aware of The Soldier, beyond a sudden surge of inner strength and acting on instinct. He has no choice, it’s an instinctual reaction. 

The Soldier is aware of a strong desire to protect Tyson, but doesn’t recognise himself as being separate from Tyson. Though Tyson could defend himself the majority of the time, situations that evoked an unnervingly deep emotional response are more likely to trigger his stress-induced split-personality-disorder than purely physical threats that Tyson has endless plans to survive.

As such, they are rare and The Soldier hadn’t devolved his own full personality separate from Tyson, he was only a piece from Tyson. He existed to protect. The Soldier is very mission orientated, needing a focal point even more than Tyson goes to even exist.

The Soldier doesn’t stutter and he doesn’t bother suppressing Tyson’s Synesthesia. He isn’t bound as tightly to Tyson’s OCD ticks, and none of his nervous twitches appear, but some of his older most ingrained OCD habits happen as simple muscle memory from endless repetition.

* Stress-induced split-personality disorder isn’t an exact medical term, but extracting The Soldier from Tyson’s Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, (Generalised & Social) Anxiety, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and other potentially un-diagnosed conditions (insomnia, depression, and eating disorders that may simply be symptoms from other conditions) to understand whether he has Dissociative Identity Disorder or Borderline Personality Disorder is tricky when Tyson refuses to even get treatment for the mental disabilities he’s confirmed to have.

The exceptions would be Chicago!Verse, Cat!Verse, and Veteran AU where Tyson is seeing a therapist with varying frequency and willingness. Chicago!Verse is a resigned allowance, Cat!Verse it’s slowly being broached by Jasmine who is qualified as a therapist to see if he could handle therapy yet, and Veteran AU where Tyson’s counting the days until his obligation to see the army’s veteran therapist ends.

For most circumstances, The Soldier comes from the beginnings of stress-induced split-personality disorder. However, to provide a distinction to those verses where Tyson is willing or unwilling seeing a therapist, The Soldier instead comes from Borderline Split Personality Disorder.

The verses where The Soldier plays a stronger role/has a slightly different stresser are Bioshock AU, MassEffect!Verse, and Earth!Verse; respectively, a side-effect of the Blind-Faith plasmid, potentially caused by the surgery on Tyson’s L2 implant, and the side of Tyson with complete control over his mutation.

The Soldier does not exist in the following verses: Army!Verse, Hogwarts AU, and all three Orphan AUs: Child!Verse, Child!Verse2, & Teen!Verse.