Tyson does magic through gestures and/or incantations, depending on the particular piece of magic. When performing a tricky spell, Tyson will sometimes choose to use both - even when it isn’t needed - just to be sure it will go correctly. This is especially true when using spells in combat, for attack and defence.
He’s more adept with brewing potions, mixing science and magic, in his work with the Moriarty Mirrors than he is at spell casting, but Tyson is no-lightweight in that department. He can hold his own and has a wealth of knowledge from his time in the army, with Sebastian, and with the Moriarty Mirrors, yet a skilled caster could easily exploit the ways Tyson uses his magic.
The advantage Tyson typically has is falling back on Hebrew and Yiddish incantations. Older, deeper magic that most Goyim wouldn’t have experience in fighting against, mixed with darker magic from the Moriarty Mirrors; enhanced through their connection to his magical tattoos.
The dent in Tyson’s torso was caused jointly by Sebastian’s fists and his magic. As they keep clashing, Sebastian has left more and more traces of his magic on Tyson, and - despite his best efforts to avoid hurting the other man - runes from Tyson’s magic are burnt into Sebastian’s forearms like chains.
He doesn’t use tarot cards as callously within Mythical!Verse, but Tyson is still easily identified as the Hanged Man. He can summon Jack to his side at a moment’s notice, intrinsically tied to his true familiar, and Draco is almost always curled up in one of Tyson’s pockets.
Within this verse, Tyson has further control over his wildcard Lex in being a reliable source of blood for the vampire, Rosie and Tae have bonded in this verse over shared Lycanthropy, and George (Tyson’s landlord) is a shockingly cheerful ghoul.
Tyson has low-level OCD and though most of his ticks come and go, there are a few that always persist. OCD impulses aren’t random, there is a reason behind the need to perform those actions, even if it isn’t always consciously understood.
He has to put items back in his bag in the reverse of the order he took them out.
This one is relatively simple to understand. If they go back in exactly as they came out, everything is where it belongs and Tyson knows that whatever emergency he finds himself in, he can quickly retrieve the things he needs.
He has to have the handle of his mug facing left when he isn’t holding it but others mugs can face any direction.
The exact fear here is hard to pin down, but the reasoning is that he’s less likely to spill things that ways. If things spill, a mess is made and Tyson will get in trouble; a fear from his childhood that becomes exasperated by years of abuse and his OCD latched onto it.
He has to tie his left shoelaces first, even if it means untying his right.
This one began in his army training years. There was a specific order to do thing. Things had to be done in that order. It just became compounded in his mind to do his left laces first or something bad would happen to those around him; if everyone’s uniforms weren’t perfectly in order, the entire unit would be forced into suicide drills around the training yard.
His need for specific towels for each member of the household isn’t as easy to pin down into something tangible, but the general worry is one of unnoticed wounds and blood, the risk of cross-infection, and a need for an explicit system to avoid taking unnecessary risks.
When being handed a food and drink, Tyson will always take the cup in his right hand and the food in his left hand.
Once again, this comes down to avoid making a mess and which hand Tyson trusts to avoid spilling things. Tyson is vaguely aware of this one, but in a non-specific way. He knows he doesn’t want to get in trouble, but can’t place why or what from.
When stepping off or out of a vehicle Tyson will always put his left leg out first, despite being right dominant for both hands and feet.
When eating from a bowl he stirs clockwise twice, then takes a bite, then stirs anti-clockwise twice, then takes another bite.
Given all of Tyson’s struggles to eat enough food and a lack of appetite, it’s not at all surprising that his most persistent OCD impulses are around food, but there isn’t a direct fear here, other than needing to keep control for intangible reasons.
He always picked up the phone on an even number of rings.
It can’t be bad news if he picks up on an even number of rings. Tyson doesn’t believe that this works, yet he cannot shake the fear that if he picks up on an odd number of rings the news is guaranteed to be bad.
He always buttoned the second lowest button of his shirt, then the bottom button, before going up his shirt and buttoning up the rest, usually ignore in the very top - collar - button.
This is his oldest OCD impulse, a young childhood Tyson worried about failing the family legacy as he dressed himself for school. A way of making sure he looked the part, as though the order he buttoned his shirt would be at all visible.
He always taps the spine of a book twice before he opened it.
This comes from handling rare, often delicate books in the library at the family manor. A way of showing that he wasn’t mishandling the books, that he was giving them the respect due, that evolved over time into an impulse to avoid punishment.
When getting into a car he’ll buckle his seatbelt, unbuckle it, then buckle it again.
Compelled by his OCD, he buckled, unbuckled, then re-buckled his seat belt in rapid succession. Tyson wasn’t aware of that tick’s origin point, only that he felt safer knowing the belt wouldn’t stick; memories of a jammed harness locking him in place whilst under fire in the army were too hazy to remember now. [x]
Tyson adores mythology in general and he is very protective of anything Jewish, but golems? Golems fascinate Tyson. They fill him to the brim with childlike wonder instantly.
If you want background chatter to fall asleep to that is guaranteed to still be going by the time you wake up, regardless of how long you slept for, telling Tyson to talk about Golems is a great way of ensuring that happens.
Tyson tries his best to avoid celebrating his birthday, but there are forces working against him.
Jethro.
Jethro is actively working against him and frequently ambushes Tyson on his birthday to force his younger brother to have fun for once. Something that Tyson isn’t as grateful to him for as Jethro thinks he should be, in that Tyson is not at all grateful.
One of Jethro’s more successful attempts at forcing Tyson to enjoy his birthday was making his babysit for James on a day that happened to be his birthday, and if he happened to do nice things for his brother it was ‘definitely absolutely as thanks for babysitting and absolutely no other reason’.
Before that, the best birthday Tyson can remember is back in his army days with Sebastian. His birthday happened to co-inside with the time between deployments, and Tyson found himself tangled in hotel room sheets with Sebastian, lazily working their way through room service strawberry cake and overly sweetened hot chocolate whilst watching re-runs of Blue Planet.
When Tyson is coming down from an anxiety attack or a PTSD episode, he struggles the most with his sense of space rather than missing time.
With his form of Synesthesia, Tyson is used to knowing exactly where he is. That moment where he’s coming back to himself and he has absolutely no idea where he is, is the most terrifying moment for Tyson.
Even before he realises precisely what is wrong, he feels completely off balance when he doesn’t know where he is.
Lost time doesn’t worry Tyson anywhere near as much as it should. He almost shrugs it off. He knows that he gets tunnel vision, so when Tyson doesn’t know what he was doing for an hour or even an entire day, he doesn’t worry. Two days or longer, Tyson will care, but otherwise, he dismisses it too easily.
For all that Tyson has great control over his emotions, far too many of his decisions are led by his emotions. He doesn’t allow himself to be overwhelmed by his emotions easily, but he gives them far - far - too much weight in his decision-making process; especially his feelings around The Colonel and the Moriarty Mirrors.
Tyson has incredible willpower when it comes to survival, in being too stubborn to die and refusing to back down. However, Tyson does not have the willpower to make the decisions he knows are the right ones: to walk away from the web, from the Moriarty Mirrors and from The Colonel. His willpower is incredibly specifically focused.
But - in his heart of hearts - Tyson will always be a scholar. Endlessly curious.
He values knowledge above all else. He wants to learn, to discover new things and understand how they work. He wants to share knowledge, to see other people take previous knowledge and build upon it, or even tears its foundations down and build something better.
He loves engineering, taking things apart and seeing how they work, making new things. Seeing new things and advancements that others have made.
Talking to Mischief about his nanobots is one of Tyson’s favourite things in the universe. He is always in awe of how Moriarty’s mind works, but there is a special joy in getting to see how the nanobots have changed and evolved in the time that Tyson has known Jim.
One of the few indulgences Tyson allows himself with his money and the web’s resources to get his hands on the newest technology, to see how it works and what he can do with it. Most of this ends up in his warehouse, to tinker with, but little pieces end up scattered around Tyson’s apartment; inevitably.
Within Teacher!Verse, Tyson has returned to the family legacy of teaching mathematics at Cambridge University; and struggling not to see that as a failure.
If Tyson died mid-semester and anyone had to look through his files to take over his lessons, they would be doomed. Tyson doesn’t keep anything related to the web at the university, but his very organised system is …intangible for anyone else.
It begins easily, sorted by class and then descends into a complex colour coding based on the colours Tyson sees with his Synesthesia. He simply finds it easier to link the work to the student than trying to remember purely by name. However, that means no one else can follow along.
A blue folder may mean one thing for one student, yet mean something else with a yellow dot sticker on the outside, and something different if that yellow dot has a blue, black, or red 2 written in the middle.
It makes perfect sense to Tyson and so long as Tyson doesn’t get killed in his work for the Moriarty Mirrors, no members of the mathematics department will be reduced into tears having to sort through his system.
Rather than only allowing his best students into the Delaney family manor as his father did, Tyson has opened it up for as many students as he can. He doesn’t want people to have free access to his home, but he wants the resources to be used and to help as many students as he can, not only those in his classes.
He continues to guest lecture elsewhere whenever he can, but Tyson will always prioritise his own students. He’s already dividing his attention between the university and the needs of the Moriarty Mirrors, he doesn’t want to take more away from them. He owes his students, and the university, to give as much as he can.
For someone who is so crippling aware of himself at all times, Tyson has shockingly little self-awareness about the ways he undermines his own efforts.
Tyson is overly aware of himself and the things that he does, as well as everyone and everything happening around him, but he often seems completely oblivious to the motivations behind the things that he does.
Certain areas, such as anything around The Colonel or the Moriarty Mirrors, Tyson has a strong grasp on his own motivations. For almost anything else, Tyson lacks the self-awareness to understand why he does or does not care about something or someone.
Tyson’s stutter comes from his anxiety rather than a speech impediment and it almost entirely social.
He is comfortable around the Moriarty Mirrors and The Colonel, even though he shouldn’t be for a variety of reasons, and due to this Tyson doesn’t stutter around them. Tyson doesn’t stutter when addressing his brother or his dogs; or animals in general, actually.
The more comfortable Tyson becomes around a person, the less he stutters around them, and the more confident his speech; as he drifts away from clunky, stilted sentences to the words he actually wants to say yet avoids to lessen the severity of his stutter.
Tyson has dozens of prepared phrases in his back-pocket and part of that is about avoiding his stutter. When saying a line he’s rehearsed for hours, Tyson is incredibly unlikely to stutter. That is why he typically introduces himself with the familiar, “Lieutenant Tyson Delaney, at your service.”
In many ways, those phrases are a crutch. If he uses them too much, Tyson doesn’t truly get comfortable around the person and - as such - his stutter doesn’t reduce.
His stutter changes based on who he is addressing. For example: when talking to Jim with a stranger in the room, Tyson will not stutter when addressing Moriarty and the room at large, but he will stutter when directly addressing the stranger.
Being surrounded by crowds on the street will also cause him to stutter around someone he otherwise wouldn’t, as his anxiety overrides his comfort zone and calm.
Though not as interested in them as he is cacti, Tyson is mildly fascinated by carnivorous plants.
Like a magpie spotting a long forgotten shiny object, a carnivorous plant in a room will immediately attract Tyson’s undivided attention, but it doesn’t hold his focus for long before he goes to investigate something else.
“Ooh, neat!” Pretty much sums up Tyson’s thoughts on carnivorous plants.
Though he generally prefers to offer a clean and quick death, Tyson isn’t completely comfortable with his use of poisons. It feels too poetic, too easy to detach from it and shake away the guilt of each kill. That doesn’t feel right to Tyson.
He keeps a lot of poisons and antidotes in his medicine cabinet, some that he’s acquired in his time in the web and some that Tyson has made himself. His medicine cabinet has three shelves: the top is the poisons, the middle is the antidotes, and the third in items you’d usually find in a medicine cabinet.
The vials are kept in coloured bottles with strings and labels attached which list the plants used in that poison or antidote written on so Tyson knows what they are, the colour of the card changes depending on if it is an antidote, green, or poison, red. The poisons are held in the racks test tubes are held in when in science classrooms.
He uses the poisons against enemies of the web, and also on Moriarty. It’s an old game between them at this point, poison in coffee to keep their immunity up and keep them on their toes.
As mentioned here, Tyson’s ideal Pokémon team is as follows.
Within his Pokémon AU, Tyson has, used to have, or someone he cares about deeply/could have been in another lifetime has one of these Pokémon.
His Pokémon AU isn’t about Tyson having his ideal Pokémon. It’s Tyson working with a squadron of many Pokémon as his needs change, often working with Pokémon he isn’t as close to in order to achieve a specific thing or training Pokémon for other people.
He has many Pokémon on his team that don’t particularly suit him, but Tyson came across them injured and couldn’t bear to leave them. Unlikely friendships made along the way. It’s a more ‘realistic’ ensemble and, as such, some of the Pokémon that would be perfect for Tyson are not on his team.
Tyson used to have his perfect match Pokémon, Raichu, until it was gifted to his nephew James; now nicknamed Rai.
If Tyson could only have one Pokémon, it would be Raichu. Raichu is Tyson’s perfect match, which is why Tyson needed to give away his own Raichu to his nephew James.
Beyond wanting to avoid too closely paralleling Ash and his Pikachu, it made more sense with Tyson’s sense of rivalry/competitiveness to have Lucario as his partner than the too complimentary Raichu.
A buddy-cop system, rather than two identical idiots running around together.
Raichu was the perfect Pokémon for Tyson to have previously. To be a lingering sense of nostalgia for him, even as he proudly watches Rai grow with his nephew James.
A sense of what could have been, had he walked a different path, away from The Colonel and the Moriarty Mirrors.
Raichu represents something of a core-tenant about Tyson’s personality.
Regardless of verse or thread, Tyson is loyal, he is a mathematical prodigy, he is an anxious ball of stress held together by a stubborn refusal to die, despite that our little Icarus is completely self-sacrificing, despite that he refuses to take ‘unnecessary’ risks, and Raichu is Tyson’s perfect partner Pokémon.
Tyson’s view of Sebastian’s Gyarados are rather similar to his view of the man himself; simultaneously adoring and in awe, and utterly, bone-deep terrified of her.
Tyson has always adored Gyarados as a Pokémon. Racing between islands on Leviathan’s back, his arms wrapped around Sebastian from behind, Tyson felt as though anything was possible. The same feeling he feels with his Steelix. Untouchable.
The only reason Tyson doesn’t have a Gyarados is that it suits The Colonel better. It’s that simple. Even with their similarities, there are enough differences between them that Tyson could reasonably have both a Gyarados and a Steelix.
If only one could be chosen, then Tyson’s strength as a Ground and Steel trainer would give Steelix a heavy bias, but on his ideal team, Tyson’s Ground-type bias is already heavily covered by Pokémon that suit him more than Steelix. That raw strength that Gyarados invokes, it resonates with Tyson.
Gyarados pairs fantastically with Tyson’s favouritism towards large Pokémon and his love of the water. On his ideal Pokémon team, Gyarados was an obvious choice. Whilst argument could be made for other Pokémon, there was no other choice that could have taken Gyarados’s place.
In many ways, Gyarados is perfect for Tyson. However, at the end of the day, it made more sense for The Colonel to have a Gyarados and Tyson to be in awe of them both. That will always be his lot in life.
The reasons for excluding Aipom from Tyson’s Pokémon AU are much simpler: Ambipom does not suit Tyson as much as an Aipom.
His verses are not completely static. Like his main!verse, things can change and develop. His team’s move set can change, their level can change, and they can evolve. Locking only one of his Pokémon into never evolving wouldn’t make sense.
When it came to making Kimiko’s team, Aipom was an obvious choice. It matches her to a T. They share that untameable free-spirit that Tyson was so enamoured by. There is an energy to Aipom that perfectly matches up with Kim.
Those qualities were what made Aipom an obvious choice for Tyson’s ideal team, an embodiment of the things Tyson cares about and his refusal to be caged, and what made it so difficult to exclude an Aipom on the bases of a less ideal evolution.
Though he no longer has it, Lex used to have a Torterra. Tyson could never have been Lex, but Lex could have been Tyson.
Torterra was excluded from Tyson’s team for the same reasons that Raichu and Gyarados were: they were too perfect a match for Tyson to have.
Ground Pokémon are ideal for him. He favours large bulky Pokémon (or small very fast Pokémon, see Aipom, Lycanroc, & Raichu). He favours kind and gentle Pokémon that can still pack a punch. He adores Discworld and the concept of world turtles as a whole.
He already has two of the starter Pokémon, two grass starter Pokémon even, and thematically those made more sense for Tyson to have in his Pokémon AU where things aren’t ideal. Snivy as an Unova starter, with his father trying to force Tyson into the upper-class family legacy, was a necessity.
Where Torterra matches Tyson’s personality and the things he cares about better, Chespin made more sense for him to have as a way of reflecting how sweet precious Tyson built up armour and defences over time. Tanking every hit that’s thrown at him and remaining standing.
In so far as Torterra being Lex’s Pokémon, in another life, Lex could easily have ended up where Tyson is today. Tyson could never have strayed onto Lex’s path, but the reverse would have been all too easy. Lex isn’t the opposite to Tyson, but an alternative. A slightly twisted, carnival mirror reflection of Tyson.
The man who Lex is today would not suit a Torterra, but before then, when he was younger and stumbling to find his footing, Torterra matched that Lex. The less jaded one, not hiding behind bravado and endless lies because it was easier than hurting, but the one that would plant his feet and tried his best.
Hippowdon
Hal had a Hippowdon called Cain. If chance had worked out differently, Tyson could have been Hal.
Hippowdon makes Tyson’s ideal Pokémon team for almost all the same reasons that Torterra does.
It just makes perfect sense for Hippowdon to be on Tyson’s team. Too much sense.
If Tyson has a Hippowdon, it wouldn’t have worked for Tyson to have a Steelix or a Donphan: being a comfortable middle ground between both for Tyson. However, the point of Tyson’s Pokémon AU is that he uses not perfect Pokémon and a wider array of Pokémon to suit specific needs.
There is more variety for him, more versatility, by having Donphan and Steelix than merely Hippowdon. Hippowdon may be a 10/10 match for Tyson, but two 9/10s is better for him in the end.
Hal and Tyson are - purposefully - very similar. In another life, that could have been Tyson. The tragic soldier who died doing his duty, no matter what, rather than dragged off by Sebastian Moran and tangled up in the Moriarty Mirrors’ web.
The Pokémon chosen for NPCs within Tyson’s world are their ideal teams. Tyson cannot have his ideal team, but Hal can and Hal suits a Hippowdon perfectly.
Lycanroc
And Tyson currently has a (Midday form) Lycanroc, called Remus.
Tyson and dogs go hand-in-hand.
Lycanroc (and Ruffrock before it) are rock puppies.
Of course, Tyson was going to have a Lycanroc.
The very second Lycanroc was revealed in generation seven, the first thought was: that Pokémon belongs to Tyson.
For every other Pokémon from Tyson’s ideal team, with the exception of Raichu, a clear argument could be made for why it would be better utilised on another character’s team instead. In the case of Raichu, the perfect match was 10000% too perfect to use.
In the case of Lycanroc, it wasn’t better suited to anyone else and Lycanroc wasn’t too perfect for the Pokémon AU either. Make no mistake, Lycanroc (regardless of form, but especially Midday form) is perfect for Tyson.
However, Lycanroc comfortably fits into a niche in Tyson’s team in a way that means, when appropriate, he can be substituted for other Pokémon on Tyson’s team rather than being an unmoving always; which wouldn’t suit his constantly rotating team of Pokémon.
Donphan provides things that Lycanroc cannot, yet the reverse is also true. Steelix and Lucario provide things that Lycanroc cannot, and yet the reverse is also true. Lycanroc comfortably fits around Tyson’s 9/10 matches in a way that doesn’t feel forced as making space for Raichu would.
Though Tyson doesn’t personally believe in aura, he is amused by the comparison to his Synesthesia.
Rather than showing the nature of a person, Tyson’s Synesthesia is more reflective of his view of that person, but he understands where the comparison comes from.
More generally, Tyson appreciates the idea of aura and - though always respectful of other’s beliefs - aura is something that Tyson finds easier to understand why other people believe in it.
