Devil With A Blue Dress by TF2Chan user Amp acts as a prequel to Team Fortress 2, in which a number of the team members are recruited by a mysterious woman in blue. In the process, we get an in-depth look in the featured team members, including the recruitor. While there is an overarching plot, the chapters are basically standalone stories that can be read in any order.
Enjoy the fic here
.
The fanfic contains the following tropes:
- Abusive Parents:
- Pyro's father was molesting her, and when she tried to tell others, no one believed her, not even her mother. Developing a fascination with fire as a control mechanism, Pyro eventually burned the house down with her parents in it, jamming all the doors, windows, and other entrances to ensure they wouldn't be able to escape.
- From the looks of things, Soldier's dad, who gave him a hell of a shiner upon finding out he was dating a Japanese girl.
- Agent Mulder: Tavish DeGroot, with the recruitor having to play Agent Scully in his chapter.
- All Myths Are True: In this TF2 universe, kelpies seem to at least be real.
- Ambiguously Brown: Pyro is described as looking vaguely Asian or Native American, with coppery skin. Her being called a "shifty, tricky little chinknote girl" in her backstory and her house having a koi pond implies the former.
- Big Damn Heroes: Tavish saves the recruitor from being drowned by a kelpie.
- Break the Cutie: The Soldier, or more specifically the young Jane Doe, surprisingly enough.
- Breaking Speech: The recruitor delivers a masterful one to recruit the Medic.
- Breather Episode: The Demoman's chapter is far more lighthearted than the previous four. His past isn't particularly traumatic nor does he consider it to be so; his problem is that he isn't making enough money to relocate his mother to a climate that will be better for her health. Something the recruiter is keen to solve...
- Cant Get Away With Nothing: The Soldier couldn't get into the military because of his flat feet.
- Child Soldiers: Pyro was in mental institution ward for ten- to seventeen-year-olds, meaning that she's even younger than the Scout.
- Cool Car: The recruitor drives a silver Bel Air.
- Covered with Scars: Pyro's arms are covered in burn scars from the fire she set to kill her parents.
- Crapsaccharine World: Australia; every single resident is a rowdy mustached badass living in a rather comfortable and high-tech environment; but outside, there is the dangerous outback with loose government mutants, not to mention achieving citizenship can be summed up as a year-long Hunger Game.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Everyone to certain extents.
- Pyro: Molested by her (yes, her) father and called a liar by everyone, including her mother. Developed a fascination with fire that resulted in her burning her house down with both parents inside. Her baby sister was inside too, but she considered it a Mercy Kill, saving her from the hell that their parents or a foster home would put her through.
- Engineer: Despite his brilliance, his passion for his work caused every relationship he had to fail.
- Soldier: Rejected from the military and separated from his high school sweetheart when she and her family were sent to a Japanese internment camp. She eventually found her way back to Japan, married someone else and had two children.
- Heavy: Part of the Soviet army during the rule of Stalin, he was forced to take part in Order 227 and gun down any of his own comrades who tried to flee.
- Sniper: Wasn't considered a natural-born citizen of Australia due to his mother being British, and was put through hell because of it. Voluntarily put himself through the grueling citizenship trial at sixteen, surviving a year alone in the unforgiving outback. At some points, he killed or was forced to kill in self-defense the other three applicants, one of whom was going to be a father.
- Medic: Was sent to a concentration camp when he was young and came out so traumatized that he turned to drug abuse in an attempt to numb his pain.
- Epigraph: Each chapter ends with a quote from a book, movie, or a famous figure fitting to each character backstory. This even includes the extended version of the Sun Tzu quote from the "Meet the Soldier" video.
- Devoted to You: Why Spy willingly attends the ball, knowing full well it's a trap set for him to get him to join RED/BLU.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: The Demoman is very considerate of his blind mother, and the Scout seems to be rather fond of his mom; inverted in the case of the recruitor, who's really just doing everything to ensure the Scout's safety.
- The Fair Folk: Tavish strongly believes they exist, as one of his first friends claimed to be a faerie.
- Flashback: All chapters end with one.
- Foregone Conclusion: One way or another, the recruitor's son will become the BLU Scout.
- Gentle Giant- Heavy. He is a genuinely kind person who is still dealing with feelings of guilt for what he had to do during the war.
- Head-Turning Beauty: The recruitor, a given if you've seen the "Meet the Spy" video.
- I Have Many Names: The recruitor always uses a pseudonym whenever in a new location, all of which we can assume to be fake.
- Intelligence Equals Isolation: Dell Conagher is a brilliant thinker and technician, but has a string of failed relationships due to his passion for his work inevitably alienating his lover.
- I Will Wait for You: Unfortunately, Soldier's high school sweetheart didn't, and now she's living in Japan with a husband and two children. Of course, the recruiter could be lying about that, but either way it's tragic.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Demoman and Heavy.
- Love Makes You Evil: Or manipulative and morally ambiguous. After all, she's doing this for Scout...
- Manipulative Bitch: A more sympathetic example, but the title should have clued you in.
- Mama Bear: It doesn't matter if she has to endure mad scientists, freezing weather, and a dangerous Australian outback; Scout's mom is not going to let her son down.
- Mercy Kill: Pyro strongly believed she was doing this to her baby sister, to save her from the horrific childhood she herself experienced at the hands of their parents.
- Morality Pet: Considering Heavy's usual behavior, it's easy to see that the recruitor is one for him.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Sniper's 'weapon' in the Arena is a pair of sunglasses. The others are given a kukri, a submachine gun, and a sniper rifle—his base weapons in the game, implying that Sniper subdued them all and stole their weapons.
- Nazi Germany: Medic is a Holocaust survivor who routinely abuses drugs to deal with the trauma and PTSD he suffers because of it.
- Samus Is a Girl: Pyro is in truth a very troubled teenage girl.
- Self-Made Orphan: Pyro burned down her — yes, her — house with her parents sill inside.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: The Heavy, as a result of being made to participate in Order 227.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Jane Doe and his high school sweetheart Yurie, a Japanese-American in a rather sour time to be one. Also Scout's mom (the recruiter) and Spy.
- There Are No Therapists: Surprisingly, averted. The recruiter finds Pyro in a mental health facility that appears to be fairly clean and well-maintained, and by all appearances looks like a pretty good place to be staying. But even if it is, the recruiter has no intention of letting her remain there.
- War Is Hell: As a member of the Soviet army, Heavy was forced to gun down his own comrades as part of Order 227.
- You Are Number 6: The Sniper is literally #6 in the survival race to qualify for Australian citizenship.
- The case name for the Pyro is 451. As in Fahrenheit 451.
