Motivation

When Tyson is working, he tends to overwork himself constantly.

He’s good at keeping himself motivated and pushing through a task until the end. Burning the candle at both ends constantly, and then trying to light the middle too. However, once Tyson runs out of stream and putters to a stop, he has no idea to get his wheels turning again.

He just… stumbles upon motivation again.

Part of Tyson’s issue is that once he reaches the point where he’s out of motivation, he begins to panic about not getting anything done and his anxiety makes it impossible for him to get anything done.

Then, after spending three days slumped over the coffee table without achieving anything, Tyson will blink and be halfway through the twelve completed task without really internalising having done anything.

Quotes and Poetry

Tyson has a plethora of phrases to fall back on to make it easier for him to communicate, but he also has an endless well of quotes and poems that he can draw from if need be.

Many of those quotes were drilled into Tyson at a young age, and he certainly doesn’t believe in letting skills go to waste. Tyson and Jethro would be sent to bed without dinner if they couldn’t correctly recite the phrases randomly slipped into their lessons by their tutors.

His taste in poetry comes from a much younger Tyson. Where most of Tyson’s other media tastes are generally happy, to drown out the bad, his taste in poetry is much more bitter. Those tend to be easier to express. A mask made from his younger self.

Writing

In his free time that isn’t already monopolised by pushing himself to learn more or fussing over his pets, Tyson likes to write stories.

When he was younger, Tyson used to create stories around the things he needed to memorise for various lessons to help himself visualise them, when the information wasn’t easily transformable into a map format.

He used to create stories around the people he watched with Sebastian whilst doing recon on an area to help him memories everything that happened, and now Tyson applies the same technique to stakeouts for the web. He makes sure to exaggerate to an extreme degree, so that he doesn’t mistake the story for what actually happened.

Tyson also composes stories for his nephew’s entertainment. Theoretically, they are not at all related to the things Jethro doesn’t want his son to know about, but Tyson sprinkles in the hints James is looking for. He knows how dangerous curiosity can be and Tyson knows how to reveal just enough to abate that curiosity.

Other times Tyson will set a randomised world in the Sims to play and construct a story for James around the things that happened.

Reading People

Tyson isn’t good at reading people.

However, he isn’t as bad at reading people as he seemed to be.

When Tyson is acting on his gut instincts to make it out of a situation safely, Tyson will make the right call over ninety percent of the time, but he can never ever explain why or how it was the right decision.

When his back isn’t to the wall, Tyson overthinks and second-guess himself too much; musing on every possible contingency until its too late and he panics out whatever thought was the last one rattling around his head; sometimes he gets it right and sometimes it blows up in his face.

Though Tyson grew up with an isolating childhood that meant he missed several key socialisation skills as a child, he also survived an abusive childhood and, relatively, safely navigates his way through a criminal empire.

The social intricacies don’t go over his head completely, but Tyson ends up feeling as though he’s projecting rather than reading the situation - further compounded by the ways his thoughts and feelings are literally projected onto people by his Synesthesia - and then he talks himself out of the right answer.

He has built up hundreds of phrases to fall back on, so Tyson can usually navigate his way through a conversation with those.

Complicated situations with many factors pouring together with multiple people are actually easier for him, because he can trust his reading of the dynamic and tone much better than his reading on an individual. Tyson survives. That is what he does. He knows how to carve out a niche for himself and thrive there. To do that Tyson has to know where niches exist.

Crying

Tyson doesn’t cry that often.

He’s good at holding that back and stopping at his eyes watering, but once his control breaks and he starts (truly) crying Tyson can’t stop until he’s empty. Even as a child, Tyson had far too much control when it came to keeping himself silent and presentable.

When crying is a result of intense physical pain or sensory overload, Tyson will ‘pretty cry’. Tears will run down his face, but Tyson will grit his teeth and seem otherwise fine. He knows how to push through physical pain and lock down that emotion. Even after getting shot, Tyson won’t cry.

The type of pain that causes Tyson to cry is the overwhelming type where he can’t survive off of Adrenalin. This mostly applies to the hypersensitive dent in his torso, when he isn’t running off the adrenaline from other wounds or fighting Sebastian, when he’s already under Sebastian’s thumb.

When it comes to sensory overload or a panic attack, Tyson doesn’t know why he ends up with tears on his face, but he knows that he doesn’t sob during them. It’s rare he could draw enough breathe for that during those moments.

When dealing with emotional pain, Tyson ugly cries. He has absolutely no poker face for what he’s feeling, but Tyson is good at controlling his emotions. Once that control breaks, Tyson shatters. He will cry until he has no more tears to give and then he’ll be dry sobbing for a while after that.

Misuse of Furniture

Tyson is oddly endeared by the mistreatment of furniture. 

Most things in Tyson’s life either come from rebelling against his father or as a way to survive, this is definitely the former. Growing up a lot of the furniture was antique or set pieces to impress fellow professors or donors. It was more about being seen than used.

That was also the cause of Tyson frequently choosing to sit on the floor when a perfectly good chair is next to him.

He likes the way Lily perches on top of the armchair and Bobby hops onto the coffee table. Tyson could easily train them not to, but he enjoys that behaviour and knows that they will listen when he orders them off, for whatever reason; usually to prevent a glass from getting knocked over or allow his maps room to dry.

Tyson can frequently be found perched on countertops or standing on his bed: which he uses as a seat, desk space, dog space, and exercises space far more than sleeping on it. Around family or the people he treats as family, Tyson will frequently be found sat cross-legged on a table or squatting on a bar stool.

He has several treasured photos of The Colonel sprawled upside-down in chairs or with his legs hanging over the edge of the armrest. Tyson also has a photo of the Moriarty Mirrors, one sat with his legs danging off the table whilst the other sits sprawled across three chairs.

Shopping

Given his anxiety, it’s not all that surprising that Tyson prefers to do his shopping online and have his groceries delivered as much as possible.

There are obvious exceptions such as collecting his meat from Jeremy’s butcher shop and collecting other pet supplies from his own pet store.

When he needs to enter an actual store, Tyson cannot simply browse without having to excuse himself to hyperventilate outback. He needs to give himself a clear mission to keep himself focused. This also leads to him not going shopping in person until it is absolutely essential to reinforce that sense of urgency to get the job done.

Generally, Tyson will create a map rather than a list of what he needs to buy. Technically there is a mental list of the items Tyson needs to get from each area, but when his anxiety is bad, Tyson can focus on the concept of a map better than recalling a simple list through his panic.

Retrieving things for his pets is always easier for Tyson to do than shopping for himself, then it matters more than himself; who ranks at negative twelve on Tyson’s priority order. This also applies to verses where Tyson is shopping for Sebastian or James as well as himself.

He can walk through a store without batting an eye externally when babysitting his nephew. His anxiety remains, clawing in the back of his mind, but when Tyson has to focus on his nephew’s needs, his own become irrelevant. More irrelevant than usual.

Fishing

If it wasn’t a necessity to keep himself fed without carrying extra weight in rations, Tyson wouldn’t ever bother fishing.

He enjoys the opportunity to meditate that it provides and - depending on the water source - water can help relax him, but Tyson would prefer to simply meditate than fish to meditate; he does understand the appeal though.

Tyson hates to waste time whilst working, so fishing allows him to take a moment for himself - to clear his mind and think over the job - whilst doing something productive.

The other side of this is that Tyson doesn’t care about eating, viewing it as a chore rather than pleasure, so he doesn’t even find it rewarding to provide his own food to cook. It’s a necessity. A need rather than a want.

He likes the idea of fishing in a romanticised way, conceptually, rather than actually wanting to go out and do it.

Messy

In spite of his OCD, and possibly because of his Synesthesia, Tyson likes seeing people looking messy.

With Tyson’s OCD, and general dislike of ripped clothes on other people, this seems rather odd. However, with Tyson’s OCD, there is such a thing as good dirt.

He can’t explain why, and paint/glitter/dust/et cetera on his own skin would drive Tyson up the wall, but he adores seeing other people that way. He thinks it makes other people look incredibly pretty.

The moment when Tyson realised he loved Kimiko was seeing her covered in sawdust, and he realised that he loved Sebastian when he was covered in dust from patrolling and gun oil coated his hands.

Finding

His dissatisfaction with radar aside, Tyson is great at finding things.

He has a good head for organisation and pattern recognition, even when working with someone else’s system, making him the ideal person to throw into an achieve to track down a file; this earnt him a fair few favours with the law students at his university and with lawyers working for the web.

Tyson honestly enjoys the organised chaos of an archive room. It’s one of the few parts of being undercover in Scotland Yard that Tyson enjoys: rummaging through old cardboard boxes and leaving them tidier than he found them, the scent and feel of old paper.

When he’s sick of being the ‘second-hand pet’, yet needs to stay on site to complete his work, Tyson will retreat into the archives and bury himself in a quiet corner. This also gives him an opportunity to hear things that wouldn’t ordinarily be said around him, as archives primary purpose the world around is a discreet meeting place.

Dog bite scars

Tyson has two serious scars from dogs: one on his right wrist from Razor, one of the service dogs that he trained for the army, and one on his left shoulder from Lily, his pet Dalmatian-Dhole.

Give that the former was received whilst Tyson was in a well-stocked army compound and the latter whilst travelling on his own through the desert as a wanted man, most would expect the scar from Lily to appear worse and hurt more. Whilst the scar on his shoulder is hypersensitive, the scar from Razor is far messier.

Tyson was able to give the bite from Lily his immediate attention and the wound was a clean bite. She released him almost immediately after her teeth bit into Tyson. Nerve damage caused the wound to become hypersensitive, but the actual bite mark healed smoothly.

Razor did not release Tyson quickly. He jerked Tyson arm around roughly - as he was supposted to. They were working on bite training at the time, but Razor grabbed the wrong (unpadded) arm - and it was a miracle that the German Shepherd didn’t inflict more damage before finally releasing him, then Tyson was forced to wait around for the doctor to return before his wound could get proper attention.

Tyson had basic first aid knowledge, but not enough experience to handle such a bad wound properly. He was also disadvantaged by having his dominant hand attacked, as it wasn’t until after Razor lashed out that Tyson started along the path towards becoming (near) ambidextrous.

In neither of those instances does Tyson blame the dogs, he made a mistake - the same mistake both times, failing to notice the signs of heatstroke - and then the dogs lashed out. It was his mistake, not the dogs’ fault. A good dog trainer can go their entire carrier without ever getting bitten.

Radar

Though Tyson is incredibly talented with maps, one of his least favourite assignments was having to coordinate with the radar to track enemy movements whilst in flight.

It was rare that Tyson was taken on those missions, and it was easier than trying to coordinate from second-hand information from someone else reading the radar, but that did nothing to diminish Tyson’s hatred of those assignments.

He can’t explain how difficult it was to combine the way radar displays area information with the way traditional maps displays area information. The latter is the structure of Tyson’s entire life, the way he literally viewed the world through his Synesthesia and has shaped his entire thought process.

The former is an entirely different being. He can work out how to transfer that information if given time, but it’s apples to oranges. As though suddenly working with an entirely new language. He feels lost and off-kilter.

For Tyson, the worst part if that he can’t explain why it’s so difficult to understand or what makes it so different from his usual type of mapping.

Ankles

As a child, a calcium deficiency let to Tyson having fragile ankles and his first broken bone was his right ankle.

It would surprise no one to discover that it was the fault of Tyson’s father that the seven-year-old was injured, but he didn’t intentionally hurt him. Most of his abuses were directed at Jethro until the elder heir ran away from home at eighteen, leaving a fourteen-year-old Tyson to shoulder the weight of the family legacy.

Tyson had run away from yet another tutor, taking refuge in the attic with his textbook. He always completed the assigned work, but Tyson kept running away and hiding from the tutors that he didn’t like. He didn’t mean to exactly, but his anxiety would build and build until he jackrabbited away.

He always kept a copy of the key on his person, with Jethro having the only other key into the attic, so Tyson knew his father couldn’t get to him up there, but John knew that his children hid up there from time to time. He never realised how frequently they escaped into the attic.

John called Tyson down to join him for dinner to discuss finding a new tutor for his English lessons. As Tyson paused to discreetly lock up the attic access, John got impatient and assumed that Tyson wasn’t going to come down. He banged on the ladder to get his son’s attention, and Tyson came tumbling down.

That was one of the few times that Tyson could say his father was earnestly apologetic and concerned about his son as he was taken to the ER. Tyson had tears in his eyes from the moment he hit the ground, but he barely let out a whimper. Even as the doctor was poking at his ankle.

He was too afraid of disappointing his father. Of angering him further. Even with Jethro sat next to him on the hospital bed asking if he was okay, Tyson was silent. He just shook his head. Tyson got a button for being so brave.

Once his father finally left him alone that night, having given him more attention and love than Tyson had received in months, Tyson broke down into tears. He barely even realised when Jethro snuck into his room to comfort him. He knew it was an accident, but he was so afraid of upsetting his father again.

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.