#Mostly because I like to headcanon that out of all the Mercs Spy has spoken to and knows Helen the most.

[funsize-cenobites]

Is it really writing a Sniperspy fic if Sniper doesn't actually show up until maybe the end and its really just an excuse to analyze and write Spy's character and also explore the Sudo-friendship/semi-grudging mutual respect/Mentor/Student-esqe relationship between Spy and Miss Pauling?

It is if I fucking say so.

[dopscratch]

introducing: the Scoutbros

i'm feeling creative, so i'm gonna introduce you all to my headcanons for scout's family, including the basically-ocs that i've designated as his brothers! you're welcome to use them anywhere if you happen to actually like them, with a couple rules

credit me please this is the one scrap of originality i have

if you make any tweaks, headcanons or changes, please do not parade them as fact!

SHOW ME, LINK IT TO ME, GIVE ME WHATEVER CONTENT YOU MAY MAKE WITH THEM I LOVE THE SCOUTBROS

obviously these rules only apply to the oc-ones and not the canon characters (except rule 3, give me your tf2 content...)

all images are from that one scene in my Runs in the Family animatic you know the one- and represent fairly young versions of all of them! i think i designed scout to be like 10 there.

anyway, without further ado, my headcanons/ocs:

Starting with Scout's mother, I've headcanoned she really likes J names. Her name is Jolene and Spy's name, whatever it is, probably starts with a J too. Most of her kids come from different fathers, hence their varied appearances. Also her last name is Fitzgerald for the memes. That's pretty much all I have here

Scout himself also remains pretty much unchanged. His childhood nickname was Germ because Jeremy and also he's a little pathogen the kid is obnoxious :)

Josh is 1 year older than Scout and is the resident daredevil. He’s a thrill seeker and holds the record for the most broken bones in the family, both at once and total. Scout may have broken this record during his time as a merc, but since he’s not really supposed to talk about it (and it’d be nearly impossible to keep track of on the battlefield with Medic healing) Josh remains on top. He has darker/deeper brown eyes and hair.

Jay is 2 years older than Scout and a hyper tech nerd who finds it difficult to focus on most things for more than one minute. He loves pranks, often pulling them on his brothers and anyone unlucky enough to be close by. He’s 100% a memelord (Saxton invented the internet early it could happen!!). He’s a blue-eyed redhead.

Jason is 5 years older than Scout. He’s twins with Jake (coming next!). He’s also a criminal. To be fair, he’s not really more of a criminal than his other brothers, he just continued being a bit of a menace into adulthood and is terrible at covering his tracks, resulting in him landing in jail more often than not. If someone in the family is going to get caught for a crime, it’ll most likely be him. He also occasionally takes the fall for his other brothers, be it voluntarily or not. He’s absolutely awful at planning but can often think on his feet well enough in a crisis. He has paler brown eyes and black hair.

Jake is Jason’s twin (so also 5 years older than Scout). He’s a nicer guy, polite, but an adept fighter. He tends to keep a cool head and can get out of a lot of bad situations, the opposite of his twin (he is the younger twin which he used to be a little self-conscious about). He’s also Bidwell. He legally changed his name because the scoutfam is a little notorious what with the many many troublemakers that come from it. I think this is the perfect origin story for him because there’s no way Saxton Hale would hire an assistant without assessing their combat ability.

Jessie is Jack’s (coming next!) right-hand man, 7 years older than Scout. Scoutmom Jolene forgot the masculine way to spell it was ‘Jesse’ so now this tall, buff, intimidating man has to live with a name that many would point and laugh and call a girl’s name (not that ‘Jesse’ would be any better in the spoken word). Though it was a bit of an embarrassment in early childhood, mostly going by his initials, he’s moved past it, growing confident and comfortable with his name. He’s generally stoic and hard to rattle, though he has a more chaotic side and likes helping out with Jay’s pranks. Though he’s slower to anger, he holds a long, lifetime grudge. He has darker brown eyes and black hair.

Jack is 9 years older than Scout and the ruthless leader type. He specializes in organized crime, but in a kind of wholesome way. He’s very protective of anything he’s deemed his territory and will keep his little circle safe. Family comes before anything for him (absent fathers don’t count in his books). He targets overeager gangs, corrupt officials, big businesses challenging smaller local ones, and other threats to his community in various less-than-legal ways. He has blue eyes and black hair.

James is the oldest son, 12 years older than Scout. He filled in as a sort of father figure to the family as it grew and was the leader of the scoutbros’ chaotic outings until adulthood, when he eventually decided to pursue a stable, normal job. Still, he sticks around and occasionally accompanies the group for old time’s sake. He’s generally the most responsible, followed by Jake and Jessie. He has brown eyes and a light brownish hair, a similar shade to Scout’s.

and that’s all of em! hope you enjoyed this wild ride through my brain. i think the tag is free so #scoutbros will from now on be referring to my particular band of silly dudes unless anyone has any objections!

also, feel free to ask me any questions!

[lime-gutz]

Mmm so maybe could you do headcanons about the mercs helping out an autistic reader with sebsory overloads? If not that’s totally cool too

AS SOMEONE WHO CAN RELATE TO SENSORY OVERLOADS OFC I'M OKAY WITH WRITING THIS!!!

There wasn't a specification for romantic implications with the mercs so you get some general hcs!!

Engineer:

Engineer is a kind and all around easy to get along with friendly man. He's pretty sociable but often times desires to do some work and experiments of his own so sometimes he'll just speed walk straight on pass you, blueprints in hand, reading them quickly without so much as a glance or smile in your direction, not because he's wanting to be rude but because he's someone who has places to be and he'll talk later when he's done.

Engineer also has to deal with some pretty rambunctious teammates, Soldier, Scout, and Pyro come to mind and as shown before, he's also a super patient man, opting to not be super confrontational in a situation that seems to be tense or aggressive, example being how he had saved Scout from getting his face beaten in by Soldier by being calm and still carrying his friendliness to ease the situation at hand. Or Pyro!! As he's the only one at the base who even understands anything of what Pyro says because he was patient enough to learn.

So with all of that being said, I see him as someone who is very very well equipped to helping you out when you're getting intensely overwhelmed and your senses are overloading. If you're around people and are on the cusp of just crying or about to go into a panic of some sort, Engineer would be the one who would gently place a hand onto your shoulder, masking what's going on with his friendly demeanor and an excuse to have you removed from the situation to calm yourself. He does it in a way as to not draw attention to you or make you feel ashamed or embarrassed. He understands, it happens, he's had to help Pyro with the same situation you were in!

He's sure to be much more soft spoken than usual, asking if you want some water, to be left alone, or if you need some comfort and he will do whatever it is you ask of him to do if it means you can calm yourself.

Pyro:

Pyro is probably not going to catch on as quickly, their mind is constantly thinking about. Everything at once and often tuning in and out of conversations everyone has in general so it's very likely that they will be slow to notice if you're getting wildly overwhelmed.

However! If they were to eventually realize if no one else has before them, how utterly uncomfortable and teary eyed you are Pyro will "scold" his teammates, wagging a finger in there faces and tapping their foot..I put that in quotations because it's not like anyone (other than Engie) can understand them anyways). It's sort of childish, but it could maybe bring you some comfort in a small sense as they lead you away with a huff directed towards their rude teammates.

Scout:

Same deal as Pyro, he's also slow to realize something is amiss with you, his mind also wandering to the many other things he thinks or dreams about.

And like Engineer if he did snap out of his thoughts long enough to notice that you're beginning to look shaky and panicked he attempts to try and steer you away from everyone...although with a lot less grace than Engie, attempting to make whatever is going on isn't a big deal but he keeps running his mouth long enough that eyebrows are raised. But he succeeds anyways and is able to get you somewhere so you could calm yourself down away from it all.

His voice is a little softer when he tries to comfort you in some way. Maybe trying to crack jokes to make the air light instead of filled with dread. His angle is just to try and cheer you up more so!

Soldier:

Oh man. Okay Soldier uh. Let's be frank, he's most definitely not going to ever notice unless someone tells him directly. Soldier has a pretty strong character, a strong and very loud voice, very boisterous. He most likely will not notice that him being so loud combined with maybe some other factors might be too much for you to handle.

So, best course of action is to be very direct with him but explain it in a way he could understand you. If your point gets across, he can better recognize if you're getting uncomfortable!

His form of trying to comfort you is patting your shoulders or back (a little bit too hard but you appreciate his attempt none the less) while he tries to say some encouraging words to you.

Spy:

Spy is actually one of the first mercs to notice even just the slightest sign you're starting to grow uncomfortable. He's meant to be very observant man and he's someone who is very capable of reading body language and is very good at it.

So he's one to be quick to helping you out of a situation before you get to the point of getting extremely overwhelmed. He's quiet, quick, and smooth about it, most likely awaiting an opportunity where no one would notice that he gently grasped your shoulder, nodding his head in a direction that signifies you should follow him, and then the both of you slip away from a potentionally mentally draining situation.

He doesn't offer too much physical comfort, best he'll do is pat your shoulder a few times. But he does offer a listening ear or offers to leave you be, whichever makes you feel more comfortable.

Medic:

Right next to Spy, is also one to quickly notice that you're slowly growing distressed. He is-! Er. Was, a doctor and is still practicing medicine to this very day! He does surgeries on a weekly basis, he just knows a distressed or uncomfortable face when he sees one!

Takes the kind of mix between an Engineer and Spy route of things to help you. He's quickly able to steer the attention or conversation towards himself, in such a way that he gave you an out to hurry to flee and get away to save yourself from literally breaking down from how overwhelmed you are in front of your entire team. You see him give you a very quick wink if you're able to catch his gaze before you leave.

He does check on you later once everything is settled, glass of cold water in hand to hopefully improve your mood some more and offering it to you and if he's free, offers to be your listening ear.

Demoman:

This mostly depends on how drunk he is for him to be considered helpful I suppose you could say.

But! When he isn't just shitfaced drunk, he's quite unsurprisingly helpful as he's also someone who's generally very jovial and friendly. He's also noted to be generally as helpful as he possibly can. So when he sees you getting all shaky, uncomfortable, and panicky due to your sensory overload he's quick to act in a way where nothing is wrong, very nonchalant and keeps the mood light as he slowly pulls you away more and more from the situation until the both of you are good distance away where you could just slip by without a question.

He offers some encouraging words to you, patting your shoulder and ruffling your hair comfortingly and offers you a beer. He just feels like it's it's for you to calm yourself and cheer up.

Sniper:

Sniper can definitely relate to what you're experiencing. He's one of the mercs that's easily able to just immediately tell if you're experiencing sensory overload, your pained expression gives a pang to his heart as he feels immense empathy for you.

He's been in your place time and time again and..so it's time for him to do the thing no one besides his parents had ever done for him when he was on the brink of breaking down. He wordlessly grasps onto your arm, gently in his hold as to not seem harsh to startle you, and then when questions are asked they are plainly ignored as he takes you away from the situation.

He coaches you to take breaths, patting your back and being otherwise silent as he patienly waits for you to gather yourself before the both of you start talking quietly to one another if need be.

Heavy:

Heavy also understands what you're a feeling, although, he has worked passed this long ago that doesn't mean he can't help but feel some empathy undertones for you as you look so distressed.

Heavy is very very quiet when going to remove you from the situation you're in, his big heavy hand grasping your shoulders as gently as he can possibly muster as he knows how utterly easy it is just to hurt you accidentally, and he does not want that. He whispers for you to please come with him, not wanting any unwanted attention to be thrown towards you as he knows you definitely don't want that. Once you comply he's leads you away.

Heavy very gently pats your shoulder and back, talking to you quietly as to bring you some comfort as you cry and try to regain your composure. If you are crying, he doesn't try and make you stifle it in anyway, encouraging you to instead let it all out.

Once you're all cried out or feeling a little better, Heavy offers to get you some water or tea, and then offers if you would like to stay and either read with him, or have him read to you out loud to further bring more comfort if you're someone who appreciates just being read to as comfort.