Miss Pauling

**Miss Pauling** is the playable character and main protagonist of *Overtime*. After Miss Pauling falls into the Badlands, she embarks on a journey to kill the Mann brothers. She is given a codename at the start of the game.

## Profile

### Appearance

Miss Pauling is a woman who wears a purple shirt, skirt, and purple shoes, as well as glasses that cover her eyes. Though she does not usually show much expression in the overworld, NPCs often describe her expressions. In Employer's Route, Miss Pauling smiles at the player, breaking the fourth wall.

Miss Pauling's sprites are edits of Frisk's sprites.

### Abilities

Miss Pauling's thoughts of her termination grants her the power to SAVE at Teleporters. The SAVE file can be reloaded to repeat events that occur after it, but NPCs' memories are not completely erased unless a True Reset occurs.

## Main Story

### Trespasser Route

Ballooney attempts to kill Miss Pauling after offering her a drink. Sani revives her, and serves as a guide to the Old Hospital. At the end of the room with the yellow line, Sani asks Miss Pauling to wait for him to return and states that he has errands to do.

Miss Pauling travels through the remaining puzzles in the Old Hospital and eventually arrives at Sani's Home. She asks Sani how to exit the Old Hospital, which prompts Sani to battle Miss Pauling because he wants her to prove that she can survive outside of the Old Hospital.

Then, Miss Pauling meets Dell and Jane on Thunder Mountain. Jane sets up traps and barricades in an attempt to kill Miss Pauling. After passing through Teufort, Jane battles Miss Pauling.

Tavish, a bounty hunter, pursues Miss Pauling throughout the Mines. After a chase scene, Tavish blows up a bridge that Miss Pauling is standing on, and Miss Pauling falls into Zepheniah's House. Before she get up, she recalls a memory from Pyro. At the end of the Mines, Tavish battles Miss Pauling after he gives an abridged monologue atop a crag.

After entering Dustbowl, Miss Pauling enters a hospital and meets Eli and the Dispense-O-Matic. Eli tells Miss Pauling that he would like to test the machine in front of him on her, but the Dispense-O-Matic interrupts them, confessing to Miss Pauling that he has a crush on her. Eli asks Miss Pauling to give him her phone number after the Dispense-O-Matic leaves and says he will test the machine later. Before his battle at the end of the Mann Co. Factory, the Dispense-O-Matic reveals that Eli is trying to overwrite all of his memories and make him fight Miss Pauling. He then transforms into Scott and battles Miss Pauling.

While passing through the Mann Co. Tower, the capital of the Badlands, Miss Pauling learns the story of Sani, Eli and Pyro from an unknown voice. Then, Dell confronts Miss Pauling in the final corridor and explains the meaning of DMG. He also emphasizes Miss Pauling's importance in the fate of the Badlands.

#### Killing the Mann brothers

Miss Pauling enters a room next to a sign and finds Misha, who tries to make small talk, only to realize their fated confrontation. The two walk to a room which contains doors to the meeting rooms of the Mann brothers and Misha gives Miss Pauling one last opportunity to leave before fighting.

Right before the fight starts, Misha destroys the MERCY button, making it impossible to hire or flee. However, at the fight's conclusion, Miss Pauling can explicitly choose whether to hire or kill Misha. If he is hired, Ballooney appears and kills Misha. The game then abruptly closes.

After reopening the game, Miss Pauling finds that Ballooney has interfered with her save file. Loading the game, Miss Pauling confronts a powered up Pyro and proceeds to enter an initially hopeless battle with him, using his power and the balloonicorns, which he has control over, to attack.

After Miss Pauling calls for help several times, the balloonicorns begin to revolt: first, they heal Miss Pauling, and then they make a gun appear, which shots at Pyro automatically. After reducing his HP to 0, the ballonicorns remove Pyro's power and make him a child again. Ballooney then proceeds to explain to Miss Pauling what Pyro has done. Miss Pauling then leaves the afterlife, which Ballooney renames to Pyroland, and kills the Mann brothers.

After leaving the Badlands, Miss Pauling receives a call from Dell, who leaves a message about what happened to the Badlands after Misha and the Mann brothers died. This varies based on what characters were killed.

### Employer's Route

To complete the Employer's Route, Miss Pauling must have first completed the Trespasser Route.

If Miss Pauling has completed the Trespasser Route without gaining any EXP or LV (i.e. without killing anyone), it is possible to achieve the Employer's ending.

If Miss Pauling acquires any EXP or LV, she has to reset the game to reach the Employer's Ending.

#### Friendships

While Miss Pauling befriends many of the mercenaries in the Badlands, none of them have befriending sequences, unlike in Undertale.

Miss Pauling gains Sani's friendship by hiring him, but he does not make another appearance until the end of the route.

Miss Pauling wins Dell's friendship by hiring Jane.

Miss Pauling gains Jane's friendship by completing his fight.

Zepheniah can be befriended by not attacking him.

If Miss Pauling chooses to give Tavish some beer after being pursued, Tavish will be befriended. Otherwise, a reset is needed to achieve Tavish's trust and friendship.

Scott can be befriended by hiring him, which can be done by completing his battle at the end of the Mann Co. Factory.

After heading towards the Mann Co. Factory, Eli calls Miss Pauling and tells her to not go to his hospital. In the hospital, there is a letter on the floor that, when picked up, reads a note about Eli cleaning broom closet and not wanting to have any disturbance. Walking through the broom closet door reveals an elevator which goes down to the Secret Hospital after having its power turned off.

Miss Pauling proceeds to explore the Secret Hospital and along the way learns about the Experiments . After exploring the Secret Hospital and talking to Eli, he reveals that he lured Miss Pauling into the Secret Hospital to test whether the experiments could be beaten peacefully. While attempting to leave, Miss Pauling receives a phone call in the elevator from Ballooney, who says that this was all he could do and proceeds to say goodbye to Miss Pauling. The elevator then brings Miss Pauling to Mann Co. Tower.

### Witnessless Route

At the end of the Witnessless Route, Miss Pauling confronts the player and tells them that she is against the genocide the player made them do, revealing that she was controlled by the player the whole time and that she is the narrator of the game. She then proceeds to shoot her SOUL, deleting the save files and reverting the game to pre-gameplay state. And then, no music will be played anywhere until successfully making the Sani/Medic battle.

## Trivia

* When you miss or simply can't shoot at the enemy instead of the "MISS" message, it appears with "MISS, PAULING". When first checking the Universal file from the AppData files of Overtime, the default name is Miss P with a space, where it actually can't be taken in-game, only when editing the Universal file after doing the first steps, it will be applied in-game.
* Like in Team Fortress 2, Scott has taken a romantic interest in Miss Pauling, which she tries to completely ignore. However she does say yes to a date with him.
* Other than Ballooney, where they did nothing wrong in the reunion scene, Jane Doe & Eli were the ones to find it in the protagonist, told by the look.

## Gallery

Miss Pauling smiles at the playerMiss Pauling When She Has The Codename 'Batter'Miss Pauling when she is given the Codename 'Jacket'