Victorian AU stuff
AU History
Lyle and his twin brother Neil were born on March 3, 1842, to Owen and Lindsay Dylandy in Belfast, Ireland. In 1845 the Great Famine struck, decimating Irish potato crops and, consequently, the primary food staple of the country. While Owen was a shipbuilder, not a farmer, and still capable of continuing his trade it became clear he would still not be able to sustain his family when the food supply was dwindling and people were starving all around. The Dylandys waited until their youngest, Amy, was born and old enough to survive the trip before boarding a ship to America in the hopes of starting a new life.
They settled in South Boston among the throngs of other Irish immigrants also fleeing the famine. Owen soon found work in one of Boston's many shipyards. While the lifestyle of the family was often quite tough, the fact that Owen was a man with a viable skill among the many unskilled immigrant workers hunting any job available helped the family carve out a place for themselves.
While the pay for even the most menial jobs in Boston was exponentially better than most in Ireland, the new home had its fair share of problems. Disease was widespread among the crowded immigrant enclaves and hostile sentiments began to rise in the native Boston working class against the influx of a work force that could be bought more cheaply. There were also religious tensions since the largely Protestant population of Boston resented the Catholic influence flooding the city. The culmination of all these factors often resulted in brawls in the streets, even riots and mobs. Still, the relocation to Boston had one very obvious benefit in that the Massachusetts educational system was becoming more progressive and the Dylandy children lived in a time where attendance to public school became compulsory. While some where up in arms at the idea of their children being 'kidnapped' by a public school system, Lindsay was grateful for the opportunity to keep her young ones from wandering wild in the streets like so many were in the Irish quarter. (She also lacked the fear some had that the system was trying to train the Catholicism out of her kids since the Dylandys were Protestant, as so many others from Belfast were.)
In 1858 the Dylandys found out they had some family immigrating to New York. Having some money saved up, they boarded a train to meet their relatives. The 16-year-old twins had never been on a train before, and tried to con their way into getting up to the front so they could see the engine. While they were caught in an altercation with a conductor, the unthinkable happened--a bridge the train was going over gave out and the back cars, the ones in which their parents and younger sister Amy were in, crashed to the creek below. They did not survive. *
While there were some savings for the boys to return to, it became clear that they would have to strike it out on their own to survive. It wasn't uncommon to see "No Irish Need Apply" notifications in regards to many of the jobs available at the time, but the supervisor at the shipyard remembered that Owen had been a hard worker and a good man. Making clear to the boys he expected the same of them, the supervisor offered them a job after the wake.
Some of the bite was eventually taken out of the immigrant conflicts by a more explosive issue: slavery, and the Civil War that was to come of it. The flames of this fire were fanned when the first U.S. federal mandated drafts were instituted in 1863, to the point that there were draft riots in New York. The surviving Dylandys were among the young men recruited in from Boston during the first wave of the draft.
Lyle may not have minded fighting as much had he decided to join the war of his own volition. As it was, he resented being made to fight, especially since so many of the higher class buggers could simply buy their way out of the draft for $300. How was that fair? It left a bitter taste in his mouth.
Lyle had close friend in his regiment, Eddie, who kept talking about the revolution in Ireland and being involved with the Fenians. After learning about warfare in the Union army Eddie had plans to defect and meet a friend in the Irish Republican Brotherhood that could get him on a boat and over to Ireland.
A week before Eddie was to meet his contact, he was killed by a canon ball to the head during the Battle of the Wilderness. Lyle was stunned by the death, and his feelings of ill will and resentment about the war hit a breaking point. Rather than rejoin the group after the fighting was done he took off through a nearby clump of woods with the hope that the regiment would assume he was one of the casualties. After wandering for a day, trying his best not to be caught, he remembered his friend's stories and the fact that his contact would still be waiting for him.
It was a way out of the country, away from the consequences of deserting, and away from the war. He decided to meet the contact himself, told him of his friend's fate, and offered to take his place on the boat in exchange for seeing what this revolution is about. The contact agreed. Before leaving, Lyle sent a letter out to his brother, letting him know where he was headed and heavily hinting that Neil should also try to get out in one piece, if at all possible.
To his surprise, Lyle found himself getting invested in this cause. The Civil War seemed to be made up more of other people's issues that he was roped into, unwillingly. While he had been 'American' most of his life there was always a separateness to being Irish. Here there was more of a sense of belonging to more of the population around him--a majority under the thumb of an "other" power that in the country was a minority, not just one of the British, but of the upper class in general. He was still somewhat reluctant about getting directly involved, not least of all because it seemed his Fenian friends were less than organized.
Still, the injustice of it all became glaring. The Fenian's newspaper was shut down in 1865 and the year after, habeas corpus suspended when hundreds of activists were arrested. It felt like a breaking point, and a call to action. This call to action came in the form of Kelly's iterations of the Fenian Risings in 1867, what was supposed to be a nation-wide insurrection, though it was poorly planned and executed. Lyle was caught up in the attempt to take Dublin's military barracks, but the rising as a whole simply did not take.
It wasn't just poor planning and lack of arms that caused the downfall of these efforts. There was also infiltration of their efforts by informers who were telling the British authorities of the Fenian's movements, resulting in a chunk of leadership being arrested before the rebellion. It seemed like it would be useful to turn the tables, to at least get some information on their side. Now no stranger to uprooting himself and adapting to a new setting, Lyle elected to relocate to London and try to insinuate himself so that he could play the informant game for the Irish side.
During the course of revolutionary dealings, a very familiar name popped up among the donators for the Irish Republican Brotherhood: a former U.S. Major by the name of Neil Dylandy. After a comrade pointed out the name and asked if there was a relation, Lyle attempted to strike up a correspondence with Neil, who hopped the pond to in an effort to track down his errant twin brother not long after.
It was a tense reunion. Neil was down one eye and Lyle's disappearing act was an elephant in the room. After years apart they had both seen much and changed a lot. However, they were still brothers, now bolstered by a shared cause, and this was one thing that would not change. When Lyle volunteered to move to London to play spy games, Neil insisted that he wouldn't be going alone this time.
Despite Lyle's mild grumbling about his own personal independence, it worked out for the better. Once Neil obtained a glass eye, all he had to do was let his hair hang a certain way over his scar and they now had a very convincing alibi system that became invaluable during their less-than-legal activities.
Age: During Season 1 of Gundam 00 he's 24-25 and in Season 2 he is 29. For the sake of this AU he will be 28.
Appearance: Lyle stands at 6'1", lean and wiry due to years of whatever manual work one can find where it can be gotten while living off of what staples can be afforded. He's as pale as any Irishman you would find with a shoulder-length mop of unruly brown hair and blue-green eyes that tend to spend equal parts looking playfully teasing and defiant.