Something New
is a Team Fortress 2 fanfic by Measured and Voltalia. The plot is as follows: Scout and Miss Pauling have found themselves thrust into the world of parenthood.
The story was first published in 2014 and was most recently updated in 2022.
This fanfic uses the tropes:
- Adaptational Sexuality: Sophia (Miss Pauling) is bisexual in this fanfic.
- Alice Allusion: Colleen names Alice after the main character of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland because it was one of Liam's favorite books as a child. She even brings up how Liam used to love the white rabbit.
- Beta Couple: Colleen and Spy are this to Liam and Sophia’s alpha couple. The former have more experience in romance than the latter.
- Birth-Death Juxtaposition: Liam was born on the same day as his grandfather's funeral.
- Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting:
- Growing up with emotionally distant and abusive parents (as well as an unhappy childhood) has traumatized Sophia to the point where she's uncertain she'll be a good mother to her own children. It doesn't stop her from trying to be a good parent, however.
- Liam himself vows to be a better father due to his own dad never being around.
- Child Naming Request: Liam asks his mother Colleen to name his daughter for him after he and Sophia struggle all through the pregnancy to figure out what would be a good name for her. Colleen comes up with the name Alice.
- Dead Guy Junior: Colleen casually reveals that Liam was named after his grandfather who had recently passed away.
- Doesn't Know Their Own Child: Sophia's parents pay so little attention to her that they don't even realize she's obviously pregnant until she tells them while they're having dinner. Even Liam calls them out on this.
- Epigraph: The fanfic starts with one.
- Fan-Created Offspring: Liam and Sophia have a daughter together named Alice.
- Kid Fic: The basic premise revolves around the couple, Liam and Sophia, raising a child.
- Lamaze Class: Sophia has an anxiety attack while she and Liam are attending one of these. Needless to say, they don't come back.
- Last-Minute Baby Naming: The central parents struggle all through the pregnancy to figure out what would be a good name for their daughter. When the baby is finally born, Liam asks his mother for help, and she comes up with the name Alice.
- Lighter and Softer: Considerably so compared to the source material, although there are serious moments here and there. Still, there's no denying it will get WAFFy.
- Morning Sickness: Sophia's morning sickness lasts for the entirety of her pregnancy rather than just the first trimester.
- Named by the Adaptation: Given that this fanfic is supposed to take place after the events of the game, the characters naturally get names:
- Scout's real name is given as Liam.
- Miss Pauling's real name is given as Sophia.
- Scout's Ma is given the first name Colleen.
- Medic's name is given as Erich.
- Averted with Heavy, who's already named Mikhail in canon.
- Averted for the Demoman, who's already named Tavish, and the Sniper, who's named Mick in supplementary materials.
- While Spy's name is never actually given in the story itself (especially since people just call him Spy anyway), it's revealed in a prequel to be Henri.
- Heavy's mother is given the first name Dagmar.
- Demoman's mother is given the first name Sorcha.
- "Near and Dear" Baby Naming: Alice's middle name comes from her paternal grandmother Colleen, who is very much alive.
- New Baby Episode: Alice is born near the end of the fanfic.
- Obnoxious In-Laws:
- Sophia's adoptive parents absolutely cannot stand Liam due to him being a "thug from Southie." The way they treat their daughter, however, isn't that much better.
- On the flip side, Sophia gets along relatively well with Colleen.
- Official Couple: Liam and Sophia.
- Orwellian Retcon: Years after it was first published, it's still being updated with new scenes and some rewrites.
- Practically Different Generations: Implied with Sophia's adoptive siblings, since she says they have children who are either around the same age she is or are only slightly younger than her.
- Pregnancy Test Plot: The fanfic starts with Sophia taking a pregnancy test. It naturally turns out to be positive.
- Random Events Plot: With the fanfic being Slice of Life, the plot isn't so much a plot as it is just the central parents going through the motions of daily life.
- Series Fic: "Something New" is the first of many fics in a series.
- The '70s: The beginning of the fanfic takes place during the late '70s (1977-1979).
- Sick Episode: At one point in 1977, Sophia comes down with the common cold while pregnant. Her pregnancy leaves her unable to take most medicine.
- Significant Birth Date: Alice's birthday is December 17th, a week before Christmas (Smissmas). She was also conceived on her dad's birthday, which happens to be March 17th (St. Patrick's Day).
- Slice of Life: Par for the course for this fanfic.
- Wanted a Son Instead: After Alice is born, Colleen reveals that she and her mother were both devastated when Liam turned out to be another boy instead of a girl like they'd been expecting. It didn't help that Liam had also been born the day of his namesake grandfather's funeral.
- Wham Line: Sophia brings up a major revelation of hers on September 5th, 1977 after she and Liam have had a disastrous outing with her parents.Liam: You got any siblings? I don’t think you ever mentioned them before.
Sophia: Oh, they were born long before I was. We're not close at all. They were just these older strangers I’d see at family gatherings sometimes; over the years, they had children of their own who are barely younger than I am and they’d bring them along. By the way, I should’ve mentioned this after we got engaged, but I'm adopted. - Virtual Soundtrack: One of the co-writers, Measured, made a playlist specifically for this fanfic.
