supplementary extras and bonuses and reblogs (and crossposting)

Peregrine ‘Perry’ Wallace: Born 1947. The Former Red Dandelion Scout. The youngest of four siblings (brothers, two sisters, himself), Perry grew up knowing the best way to get your opponent off guard is to throw dirt or sand in their face when least expected. A talkative young man who is self-train in dancing, especially ballet. He is quite small, but that means he can hide in places no one else can. While he prefers to not fight anymore, Perry picked up his nail bat again when learning his friends are threatened.

Catalina ‘Cat’ Ortiz-Palomo: Born 1944. The Former Blu Dandelion Spy. Cat is the youngest of three siblings (brother, sister, herself). Cat discovered her voice mimicry skills young with the help of her childhood friend. Her attempts to be serious and distant as a Spy fails at time due to her goofy, temperamental, but good-hearted nature. Is left-handed, and people forget that. Hired under the male disguise of Sarape due to her failed TF Trial for the position of BLU Citadel Scout. Cat in 1970 revealed her identity, risking her job and life, which she luckily gets to keep.

Marcus ‘Marc’ Hisakawa-Gottlieb: Born 1942. The Former Blu Dandelion (Combat) Medic. Marc favors the Super Nailgun, and isn’t above poisoning enemies with his trick Medkits. While always volunteering to help a person in need, Marc knows he can’t save everyone. Always polite, even when he’s teasing. He can communicate with the dead via a jade coma shape jewel he wears, and can also summon spirits from metal vials he keeps on hand. In 1980, he wears the metal vials in a blue bandolier-like strap. Has eyebrows [eerily] identical to the Fortress Medics.

Hilal Polat: Born 1943. The Former Red Dandelion Soldier. A woman of Turkish descent, Hilal while liking her rocket launcher, likes her yatagan (varsak) sword more, it being a family heirloom. Is in a relationship with the [eventual] former Blu Dandelion Demolition Expert Sybil Chiba. Quiet and observing, Hilal could easily blackmail her colleagues if she wanted too. While happily living with Sybil by 1980, Hilal picks up her sword once again to fight the current danger threatening her and her friends’ peaceful life.

Tuesday Yeung: Born 1943. The Former Blu Dandelion Pyro. Chinese-American, Tuesday is a magician and balloon artist, even making it his career post TF Industries. Loyalty to his friends has him going back into battle. A close friend to Ned, Tuesday once he and the other learn how Ned got blackmail into working for Quake, wished Ned came to him for help. As such, Tuesday takes joy when they successfully convince Ned to rejoin them.

[Tumblr Exclusive Note: Those blackmailed by Humboldt all leave Quake and rejoin their friends + Team Fortress, for the two teams made an alliance to work together. Ned is the first to do so via the collective force of Tuesday, Marc, Cat, and the Fortress Soldiers.]

Decease Dandelion Mercenaries

Arugula Van Rossum: Born 1937. Dies 1972. Team Dandelion’s Blu Engineer. The older sister of Cory, being on opposite teams didn’t destroy their bond. Lived by the philosophy, “There’s always something,” Arugula could make anything from discarded materials. Died from Claus’ backstab after exposure to his hallucination grenade. Arugula’s last invention, the Carousel, is a small music box carousel that can transform into a giant teleporter, sending people and objects anywhere, if the location is known.

[Appearance is the Female Engineer with the braid (?) and bandana from the concept arts of Fem!Mercs. I assume braid, but please correct me if I’m wrong.]

Charles Stickers Lane-Fox: Born 1940. Dies 1972. Team Dandelion’s Blu Scout turn Sniper, replacing Atropa. The oldest of fraternal twin boys to New Zealand parents (they moved to Los Angeles before the sinking), Lane-Fox writes to them weekly. While talking little, Lane-Fox’s actions showed he’s kind. In his spare time Lane-Fox enjoyed baking, especially sponge cakes, upside down cakes, and meringue cakes. Died to Fred’s turrets in an inescapable room, holding hands with the Blu Scout.

Dorothea ‘Dotty’ Mallory: Born 1945. Dies 1972. Team Dandelion’s Blu Scout, replacing Lane-Fox. Hailing from Brooklyn, Dotty was a fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers, partially because of their Brooklyn roots. A fashion lover, Dotty had her hair in a Vidal Sassoon bobcut, and kept notes of her favorite looks in her diary. In battle, Dotty wears a modified 1940’s woman baseball uniform with longer shorts. Talkative, but in a friendly way. Died alongside Lane-Fox to Fred’s turrets, holding hands with one another.

Ophelia Quigley: Born 1940. Dies 1972. Team Dandelion’s Blu Demolition Expert. The opposite gender tube clone of Malcolm Quigley (GRN Demo). Ophelia saw herself as a separate person from Malcolm and viewed Laertes (Ajax's Demolition Expert) as her brother. She even wrote letters to him reflecting this. Ophelia liked reading Jane Austen books in her spare time. Ophelia was kidnapped and tortured by Beatrice, and tried to escape from a window, but ended up drowning. Laertes kept her letters all this time, and regrets not writing back.

Ulrich ‘Ueli’ Krieger: 1933. Dies 1972. Team Dandelion’s Red (Combat) Medic. Born and raise in Bern, Switzerland, Ueli spoke three of the four national languages, plus English. Easy to annoy from making messes to stealing his double barrel shotgun to cutting him off in line or when talking. But he was still very cordial with his teammates, and with the Blus. Ueli saved a heavily injured Mors from Virgil, sending him to safety before he [Ueli] got shot in the legs by Virgil and endured a slow, painful death.

Pom-Pom: Born 1948. Dies 1972.  Team Dandelion’s Red Spy. The lab-created child of Shroud (GRN Spy) and Matilda B. (BLU!Classic Pyro, the dead identical twin to Beatrice) as a Spy/Pyro fusion. Male, his face is covered by their black mask (eyes covered by yellow sunglasses). Pom-Pom lifted his mask to eat and to speak clearer if needed. A soft-spoken profession who liked fire and collected tangled yarn and later, Weepuls, which he sent to Red Fortress Pyro before his death. Died in an explosion created by Greg alongside others; only his yellow sunglasses remained.

Terrell Pace: Born 1939. Dies 1972. Team Dandelion’s Red Heavy. African-American. Terrell grew up in Annapolis, Maryland with loving parents and two sisters he got along well with. Treating everyone with respect, he easily joined the Dandelion antics in televised battles after his hiring. A major damage dealer, his fight with Chevy ended in a technical drawn, for Gray Mann ordered the Classics to draw back due to recent developments (the Classic ‘won’ in a sense they had no casualties). Terrell was heavily injured, and while it seems he was recovering from surgery, he died from a stroke from blood clots in his brain.

‘Rosencrantz’, ‘Rosen’: Born 1937. Dies 1972. Team Dandelion’s Red Demolition Expert. Real name unknown, Rosen left his home of Denmark after his friend tried to kill him. An outgoing man who had the hobby of fishing and making butter and bread open sandwiches, especially roast beef and gravlax. Rosen was close friends with their Pyro, and would let the Pyro sleep in his room when asked. Died in an explosion created by Greg alongside others; his body was mostly intact, minus his right leg and arm.

Alexander ‘Sandy’ Lynn: Born 1940. Dies 1972. Team Dandelion’s Red Pyro. Sandy was once a circus aerial acrobat, his specialty being the slack wire. After getting fed up with the ringmaster’s abuse, he set the place on fire. Having a scar that goes over his left eye, Sandy doesn’t like to talk about it. Friendly, but his smile was so uncanny it had others to beg him to not smile. Died in an explosion created by Greg alongside others; his body was in pieces and had to be reassemble for his burial.

Former Dandelion Mercenaries and Related

Sybil Chiba: Born 1943. The Blu Dandelion Demolition Expert contracted from 1965 to 1970. Sybil loves growing sunflowers, and enjoy making box lunches for her teammates. Her on crush Hilal came to be during a ceasefire. They got together in 1969, after some pushing by friends. When the Administrator found out, Sybil already left. Sybil wasn’t faze getting back into the fight in 1980 the moment she learned her friends got threaten.

Vikram Nadella: Born 1939. The Red Dandelion Heavy contracted from 1965 to 1970. Vikram calls his parents in their home in Queens once a week, and enjoys word searches. Vikram tends to talk and help the Blus off the clock, fraternizing be damn. Leaving TF Industries has Vikram now being proper friends with the Blus. Unexpectedly attacked by Quake, he was hospitalized and wheelchair bounded. That didn’t stop him from finding his friends a pilot to fly them to New Mexico.

Daniyal (Daniel) ‘Dan’ Abel: Born 1940. From 1961 to 1964, Dan was the RED Fortress Scout. From 1965 to 1970, he was the Red Dandelion Spy. The oldest of seven children (himself, five brothers, one sister), Dan learned to cook and mediate fights as a result. On Dandelion, he became the designated chef and mediator of his new team. As such, Dan is seen as a square, but with good intentions. He got along well with Blu Dandelion, even pre-ceasefire. Retired and now married in 1980, Dan didn’t hesitate to help his friends with their Quake problem.

[During his time in Team Fortress, Dan got along well with his coworkers, and liked them well enough. But such likeness was enough to be just that. Coworkers. They aren’t friends, just people he can trust completely. Everyone on Fortress sans one shares the same sentiments.]

Sellary ‘Ella’ Van Rossum: Born 1949. The [half] sister to Arugula and Cory Van Rossum, Ella is a mechanic and kinetic artist. She likes to repair things and making her visions from scrap materials. While working in the Engineering Department, Ella was assigned to be Hewlett Conagher (Dell and RED Engineer Mac's triplet brother)'s assistant, a role she liked due to the freedom he gave her. Ella joined the former Dandelion members to find Cory, whose goodbye letter to her was frightening. And Ella is a decent fighter, preferring melee weapons over guns.

[Appearance is the bob-cut/chin length dark hair Female Engineer with goggles from the Fem!Merc concept arts. My favorite of the Female Engineer designs.]

Dandelion Televise Battles

Team Dandelion’s televised battles are live, always on Thursday at 8AM. The battle typically last between an hour to four hours; eight hours is the max hours a battle can be. Two minutes advertisements play every twenty minutes. After the initial live airing, TF Industries broadcasts a rerun. If the battle is one or two hours, the rerun plays twice; once at 3PM, and again at 9PM. If the battle is three or four hours, the rerun plays once at 8PM.

At 12PM, if the battle shows no signs of ending, the Head of Engineering interrupts and apologizes that due to needing to play regular programing, the live broadcast has to end. The complete battle footage is sent to the Engineering Department. A small team is task to edit down the footage down into an hour or two hours episode, compose of the best moments and the final round of the battle. The episode then plays at 10PM. At the end of each episode, whoever is considered the MVP has a two-minute (pre-filmed) interview describing their class/role, intersplice with them on the battlefield, before comically fast credits play.

There are no advertisements in these edited episodes. Instead, half hour informercials of a RED or BLU product and/or business are aired, alternating between each company until 6AM.

Every incarnation of Team Dandelion since 1931, due to a major ceasefire of grand technical errors that need to be solve, will become friends. The Team Dandelion of 1965 to 1971 went through their major ceasefire in 1967; the new hires that joined in 1970 quickly accepted the way things are and joined in the antics. Antics Team Dandelion does (did):

Attack inanimate objects

Laugh at inanimate objects

Hide-and-Seek

“Disguise Monty Hall” which is two Spies and another mercenary join together to confuse the others and the others have to kill the real merc

Activate the self-kill button at random moments

Duels that end with both parties activating the self-kill button

Rock-Paper-Scissors, but only in the last minute of the battle to determine the winner

[This is not a complete list of antics.]

Both Team Fortress saw an edited episode (or two). Mick is the only Fortress mercenary to have seen every corresponding Dandelion interviews. Mick had to watch Lane-Fox’s interviews twice; the first interview back as a Scout, and the second interview after a class change to Sniper.

[Tumblr Exclusive Note: I made minor adjustments to the watching headcanon. Nick, BLU Sniper, saw three edited episodes, and has the luck of watching the first half or second half of a rerun.]

Noteworthy Thoughts/Comments from Team Fortress Regarding Team Dandelion:

Spy wonders if anyone on Dandelion is a clone of a decease mercenary

Herbert is adamant he and the BLU Medic don’t have identical eyebrows

Mick and Nick don’t want RED Sniper’s bloody sanitary napkins thrown on them

Dell and Mac (RED Engineer) enjoys whenever the Van Rossum sisters create problems

Misha finds the game of ‘Disguise Monty Hall’ fun

Tavish is unsettled by the BLU Heavy’s glaive, Saturn, knowing its true power

Both Pyros want to see the Dandelion Pyros do their tricks/acts in person

Both Soldiers are glad the Dandelion Soldiers are AMERICAN

excellent chef; could have made a career out of it in another life. rarely cooks for others: red spy

great chef; makes meals for others occasionally: blu spy

good chef; usually assisting someone else cooking: red engi, blu engi

decent chef; cooks for self but will cook for others if ask politely: red medic, red demo, blu demo, blu medic

decent chef; cooks only for self, rarely for others: red sniper, blu sniper

loves to cook but can't really cook; needs help with cooking: red pyro, blu pyro

basic meals for self; improves skills greatly in future: red scout, blu scout, red heavy, blu heavy

Alternate version of doodle where I attempted to color Franz and Fritz.