Name: San
Age: 23
Journal: ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fanfictionmingContact: fanfictionming@Plurk
Other Characters Played: Raphael Maigret
aire_enigmatiqueCanon: Team Fortress 2
Character: Miss Pauling
Type of AU: Game Import-AU
Age: No canon age, head canon age is 25
Timeline: Canon time line is before the October 2011
update. Game Import time-line is shortly after the 3Step 2012 Halloween event.
Background: Wiki link here to explain her canon background.
Game HistoryMiss Pauling's first foray into the mad realm of
Dreamwidth RP different worlds and universes started when she was sent to Mayfield. Seemingly an idyllic 1950s town, Mayfield was actually a prison used to hold and torture people that been kidnapped from different worlds and dimensions. Escape was impossible and every month or so the trapped people within would be subject to cruel games by their captors, designed to slowly break them down. A RED Sniper, Spy, Pyro, as well as a BLU Spy, Pyro, Scout and Medic had already been trapped in Mayfield when she arrived, and she took it upon herself to ensure the well-being and safety of the mercenaries. The town threw many cruel challenges and tricks towards its kidnapped inhabitants, ranging from zombie attacks to a literal nuclear apocalypse but through resourcefulness and some quick thinking, she managed to avoid a too high kill count (she died only once during the nuclear apocalypse to unavoidable radiation poisoning) while doing her best to keep the REDs and BLUs alive.
During her time in Mayfield she made a few good acquaintances with the other prisoners from different worlds. It was also her first time getting to actually spend time with the RED and BLU mercs; prior to the town, her interactions with the mercenaries had been very limited and restricted to simple orders passed down from the Administrator. But in Mayfield she had time to talk with the RED Pyro about possible dreams of the future, she teamed up with the RED Sniper to clear out a hospital of zombies, struck a deal with both Spies, and had chatted with the BLU Scout at a party
without him flirting at her. Mayfield was a terrible place, but it was in this terrible prison that she slowly started to grow out of the shell she had slipped into when working under the Administrator. She started skating again, she went for cooking classes, she adopted a puppy, and just generally became a bit more open and friendly with others.
This was especially noticeable with her interactions with the BLU Sniper. Having both arrived around the same time, she and BLU both started learning the ropes around Mayfield together and she spent more time together with BLU than the other mercenaries, especially once the Pyros and the RED Spy left. The other mercenaries came and went: some left for good, some returned, some familiar faces turned up and left or stayed, but BLU was a constant in her plans. He was always there and she slowly came to rely on and trust him more than the others. What started out as a professional relationship slowly warmed into a friendship over the course of time. They shared a dance, she bought him a puppy, and they went star-gazing. He witnessed fragments of her past that had been dragged up due to Mayfield's machinations, and yet he never judged her for them. They talked about the past, the present and the future, about dreams and failures, and it was only to him that she started to open her heart up to.
So when Miss Pauling was pulled out of Mayfield to enter the world of 3Step, it had been a disappointment that BLU did not remember their time spent together. More than a disappointment: she had actually felt
hurt. Alarmed that she had let herself grow so fond of BLU, she decided against re-establishing their friendship and opted for a more professional, but colder one.
The mercenaries in 3Step were different from the ones in Mayfield. She found them harder to manage. And while 3Step was definitely a much safer environment than her previous prison, she still viewed it as no less a cage. Mayfield had instilled a sense of paranoia in her, an apprehension at the start of every month on what the gods had planned for them. Would they be kind and play innocent tricks? Or would a malevolent god decide to be cruel and torture them all in some sick game? She didn't want to wait to find out, and she decided that it was important for her to find a way out for all of them before it was too late.
Ignoring the kinder nature of Paradise and choosing to focus on harsh what-ifs led to conflict between her and the other mercenaries. Her relationship with the RED Pyro turned dangerous when she tried to convince the Pyro to not go after the BLU Sniper. Her interactions with the RED Sniper swung from polite to outright temper outbursts as she felt her authority slipping away from her the longer they stayed in Paradise. Unlike the others she couldn't see any possible good ending in Paradise and that in turn spurned her to work even harder at finding a way home for all of them, even if some of them didn't want to go home. Because she knew better; or so she tried to convince herself.
Her stubborn nature cost her the RED Sniper and RED Pyro's friendship, and eventually her life. A god had tried to take over the city and while trying to find the BLU Scout who had taken off following the RED and BLU blow-up of the century, Miss Pauling had been caught, tortured and killed as an example of what would happen if anyone tried to fight against Set. Paradise took her arm as a price, but it still couldn't break her fighting nature. Not till she fell a second time during a Halloween event gone terribly wrong and lost all her memories.
A dream event where the BLU Sniper saw her memories of Mayfield stirred his own memories of that place, but their previous friendship was still missing as she did her best to bury the past and move onwards. Friends or not though, BLU was still the most reliable of the group and the one least likely to give her a headache. There really wasn't much choice among the mercs and she found herself working closely together with him once again through the events that transpired in the city. And just like in Mayfield she and the BLU Sniper entered into the same old song and dance, with both unwilling to admit that they were anything less than the professionals they painted themselves as. But she could not deny that she enjoyed the Sniper's presence and that still trusted him more than anyone else in the city. Even without her memories she still found some solace with the BLU Sniper's presence for a reason she couldn't explain, and it was him who managed to calm her down and help her start over again. It's around this time that she went back home, and it's from this point that she'll be returning to Paradise.
Personality: Miss Pauling prides herself on being a professional, and her very demeanour exudes a pursuit of high standards and strict adherence to protocol. She's efficient, she's polite, and she always has a plan to make sure the Administrator's orders are carried out, no ifs or buts. Although she has her own opinions and thoughts that might not always fall in line with her employer, they fall secondary to her job and loyalty to the Administrator. She's not too happy with splitting up the RED Demoman and the BLU Soldier, but she's a professional and she'll get the job done even if she doesn't quite agree. Her loyalty is unflinching and unwavering towards the Administrator and there's no question that if the Administrator asked her to kill she really and truly would, as the Director found out from first-hand. She's also quite casual with murder; she doesn't feel guilty at all for her hand in the Director's death. It was nothing personal, really. He just happened to be a liability to the Director and one that had to be taken care off. She might have pitied him a bit but you can bet that she didn't even flinch when she put a bullet through his brain. It's all just part of the job.
As the assistant to a very terrifying woman, Miss Pauling has to keep a steady head and mind at all times. While she didn't quite start out as such, displaying uneasiness and a little fear when reporting to the Administrator in early comic strips, later comics show that she's grown into the role and had developed a cool and calm confidence, even when addressing the Administrator. And not to forget that she was the in-between for the Administrator and a group of dangerous and/or insane mercenaries, each of them capable of hurting her if she had news for them that they wouldn't like. In the face of danger and a robot attack she proved her quiet bravery, determination and resourcefulness alongside the mercenaries, slowly earning their trust and respect as the unspoken leader of the group in the absence of their employer.
And she is resourceful. As Grey Mann rightly put it, "How is one mousy little girl and a group of morons constantly one step ahead of us?" With nothing but her wits and quick thinking, she's managed to undermine Grey Mann's efforts while slowly re-assembling the team. Her time under the Administrator has helped her develop the gumption and the capabilities to embark on a dangerous mission which she and the rest of the mercenaries may not come back from alive.
But for the distant and efficient front she puts up, she's definitely got a heart inside that's yet to be stamped out by the Administrator's cold touch. She genuinely likes the mercenaries, even giving them a
Stocking Stuffer Key for Australian Christmas. And while she's workaholic who places a lot of importance on her job and doing it well, she's also single, available, and actually looking for someone special to spend time with. She likes skating, reading gun catalogues, and even just simply talking with friends is an activity she'd like to partake in.
Overall, Miss Pauling started off as the slightly timid, unsure assistant to a boss she was terrified off, and whose orders she followed exactly to the T. But as the comics and years rolled by, she matured into her role and became the mature, confident young lady managing a group of trigger/stab happy mercenaries that the fandom has come to know and love.
With her amnesia though she's somewhat retreated back to the young lady who had started out at TF Industries. She's a lot less confident and sure of herself, and she is a lot more dependant on others to help her out. Still there's some good among the bad; as she no longer remembers the Administrator or the stringent work rules the Administrator enforced at TF Industries (including the no-friends allowed policy) she's a lot more friendly with people, and it's easier for her to relax and not be so uptight about possibly breaking rules and standards. The professional mask she used to wear has been peeled off to reveal someone who is very different from the person she portrays herself as; much more warmer and open, rather than distant and cold. However, her hard-working nature, her loyalty to those who have earned it, and her resourcefulness has not gone anywhere, and she remains as efficient as she was before she lost her arm and her memories.
Abilities/Additional Notes:Slightly better than average marksmanship. She's not as good as the mercenaries in the Team Fortress 2 universe but she can take out the average thug or criminal with a few well-placed shots. She's also not that weak either. Physically, she's slightly stronger and fitter than most of her peers, as evidenced when she could lift the Eyelander without falling over. She's also very organized and she thinks fast on her feet.
Otherwise she's a perfectly normal human being. She'll still lose on one-on-one matches with the rest of the mercenaries from Team Fortress 2, but she's capable enough to hold out on her own for a while if needed.
She can also skate pretty well.
Sample Network Post:Umm, hi everyone.
[
She looks at the 3Step, slightly uncertain of how to address the network.]
I think...it looks like I've been gone a long time. I'm sorry if I worried anyone. I might have gone back home. So if you were worried then...I'm sorry. I really am. I'll try not to be a bother again.
So...how's everyone been doing? I hope you've all been doing well. Paradise doesn't look like it's changed much since I've been gone. That's a good thing, right?
Filtered to the BLU SniperAre you still here Mr Sniper? If it's alright with you, would you mind coming over? If it's not too much trouble, that is. I mean, if it is, we can always just talk over the phone. I just...umm, never mind. How are you doing?
Sample RP: The revolver she's carrying feels heavy in her grip as she raises it slowly to eye level. She should have known that it would've come to this eventually, that she'd be torn between duty and friendship. On the outside she appears cool and collected but inside she's fighting with herself. She doesn't want to hurt someone she's grown so close to, it's sick and it's wrong. But she doesn't have a choice, does she? Who knows what the gods might do to the both of them if she didn't comply with their wishes. And she's so close to recovering her memories; to knowing what happened, why it happened, and what she could do to make sure it'd never happen again. There was something important she needed to do, a job, but the details were always a haze in her mind, blurred lines obscured by a fog that stubbornly refused to move from her mind. It was important for her to accomplish the mission but what was the mission in the first place, and why was is it so important that it'd drive her to this point where she was willing to kill for it? She'd try to ignore it, focus on living in the now than the past but always, always there was a voice at the back of her head, simultaneously whispering and screaming that this wasn't who she was, that she needed to go back and finish what she started because she needed to follow orders. Whose orders? She'd scream back silently, but in the silence she felt the disapproving glare, the taste of smoke lingering in the air and stinging her eyes. Then the fear would come, and sometimes in her dreams she'd see all of them lined up facing the wall, blind folded, and then the turrets would start and oh god she's failed, she's failed to follow her orders, failed to protect them, who are they anyway why doesn't she remember why can't she remember why why why why
why?
And it was always going to be BLU who'd fall the last. The ever dependable, reliable BLU Sniper.
The grip on the pistol loosens slightly, but her expression remains neutral as she addresses her shocked, former friend. It had taken so much planning, so much false promises and sweet lies to get here. But she's done as the god had asked and all that remains is the final step of the plan. She'll do it, if it'll save BLU. If it'll save the people she's supposed to protect. If it'll complete the mission. She'll do it.
"I'm sorry, but there is no other way. I have to, no, I need to know."
Without flinching (keep your eyes open,
force your eyes open, damn it you owe at least that much), she pulls the trigger and tries to block out the sound of the bullet ripping the life out of her ex-companion. She feels both nothing and something, both horror and apathy, as the memories from a lifetime away start to flow and the curtain of amnesia is drawn away. And horror quickly drains away, refilled with a sense of purpose.
She's going to need to brief the teams. Without a single look back she walks away, flipping her 3Step open and issuing a call to the mercenaries' numbers.
"Pauling here. I'm back."
