Originally introduced in the Team Fortress 2 comic "War!", Miss Pauling is the right-hand woman of The Administrator, as well as the manager of both the RED and BLU mercenaries. It often falls upon Pauling to clean up damages, hide bodies, and coordinate the mercs, alongside incentivizing them with new weapons, spying on them, and pitting them against one another when The Administrator needs it done. Notably, both Pauling and The Administrator wear purple, indicating their involvement with both RED team and BLU team.
After her introduction in the comics, Pauling has appeared in-game on a few occasions. Notably, she gave every player a free Stocking Stuffer Key for Smissmas 2010, and delivered new tasks to players during the Gun Mettle and Tough Break updates, featuring voice lines performed by Ashly Burch. As well, Burch would continue to voice Pauling in the Expiration Date animated short.
She has a strong affinity for guns, likely tied to her employment. When asked what friends do together, she responds, "Go skating... look at gun catalogs..." As well, in voice lines added in the Tough Break update, she talks about visiting a gun show with Heavy, and attending a pottery class wherein she tried (and failed) to make a porcelain gun.
She is frequently hit on by Scout, advances she repeatedly refuses. Relatedly, Valve writer Jay Pinkerton confirmed, in a 2015 Twitter post, that Miss Pauling is a lesbian, although they were still unsure of exactly how to introduce it in the comics. Although the original tweet was deleted some time in 2020 due to Pinkerton's account being taken over, this is also implied at points in the official TF2 comics, such as by Pauling being disgusted by Soldier stripping naked and covering himself in honey, but sticking around to watch when Zhanna joins him.
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