Fanfic / Patterns of the Past

Patterns of the Past is an Odd Squad fanfiction written by lilac-kat in cooperation with Shenokzo.

It follows Oprah as she meets up with Olesya, her old boss, as the two catch up following the latter's retirement. The main focus of their reunion, however, is Olesya's story of how she managed to hobble together a rescue team to save her boss, Old Missie, from the clutches of the Patternista.

Serves as the sequel to All Mixed Up!, although the author has stated that it's not a strict sequel and this story can be read without viewing the other one.

Connected to the Ships Ahoy! 'verse.

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This fanfic contains examples of:

• Adaptational Explanation: While Oprah's boss's name was never stated in canon, as she was only referred to as "80's Ms. O", this story gives her the name Olesya, which matches her badge number, 77.
  • Likewise, Olesya's boss is also given a name of Old Missie, although she never appeared in any official material.
  • Olesya's backstory, which was never touched upon in the show, is given an explanation in this story.
• Attack the Mouth: A lighthearted example occurs when Olesya throws a feather duster she's holding right at Ogden's mouth. He ends up getting the feather end inside his mouth, dust and all.
• Badass in Distress: Old Missie ends up being kidnapped by the Patternista, leading ten of her agents, including Olesya and Ogden, to try and rescue her.
• Batman Gambit: The Patternista holds Old Missie hostage at the White Dress Hop, a speakeasy in town, knowing that Odd Squad agents don't go to speakeasies despite being government employees. It's later revealed that she planted listening devices around Old Missie's office so she could eavesdrop on the rescue team's plan.
• Bound and Gagged: Old Missie is kidnapped by the Patternista and ends up tied to a chair while gagged.
• Chairman of the Brawl: Once she's free from her confines, Old Missie takes the chair she had been bound to and hurls it at the Patternista, who manages to duck out of the way just in time.
• Character Development: Ogden goes from stern and uptight to loose and silly by the end of the story, with some of his Hidden Depths also being shown.
• The Confidant: Olesya and Obed promise to not expose the White Dress Hop speakeasy's existence to the police, because to them, speakeasies — adult-oriented places that kids like them should not be at — don't exist.
• Curse Cut Short: As Ogden quits Odd Squad and walks away, the rest of the agents on the rescue team are in shocked silence. Olesya, on the other hand, grows frustrated and screams at him from the second floor, almost beginning to swear (in a manner appropriate for the time period, of course) before Ocelot stops her.
  Olesya: Why that lazy old lollygagger! YOU HEAR THAT?! YOU'RE NOTHING BUT AN UPSTAGED PIKER, YOU SCREWY HARD-BOILED-
• Curb Stomp Cushion: The Patternista notes that Old Missie put up quite a fight, and her office is revealed to be a very messy state when agents come across it, but it wasn't enough to save her from being kidnapped.
• Deadpan Snarker: Ogden, up the wazoo.
• Deceased Parents Are the Best: Olesya's parents ended up dying when she was nine, her mother from the flu and her father from a horrific mining accident during the California Gold Rush. However, Olesya didn't know them very well, so she isn't too troubled over their deaths.
• Defiant Captive: Quite fitting for her status as Precinct 13579's glorious leader, Old Missie puts up quite a fight directly before she's kidnapped, and although she fails and gets kidnapped regardless, she certainly doesn't take it lightly and manages to hijack the Patternista's message to deliver one of her own. Even when she's Bound and Gagged and sees most of her rescue team trapped, she still has defiance blazing in her eyes.
• Deus ex Machina: By some miracle, Ogden, who had temporarily quit Odd Squad, comes into the Patternista's lair from a side window and manages to save everyone, including Old Missie, as well as stop the Patternista.
• Don't Call Me "Sir": Oprah still refers to Olesya as her boss, only to be told to refer to her by her real name.
  Oprah: Welcome back to Odd Squad, boss.
  Olesya: [laughing] Don't be ridiculous, Oprah. You're Ms. O now, and you've been so for thirty-two years. Please, call me by my real name.
  Oprah: Olesya?
  Olesya: That's the one!
• First-Person Perspective: A majority of the story, save for Chapter 1 and cuts to the present day, is told entirely from Olesya's point of view.
• Forty-Niner: Both of Olesya's parents took part in the California Gold Rush.
• Fostering for Profit: Odd Squad as an organization often scours through orphanages looking for potential new employees who have O names, since the issue of parents is completely out of the picture. This is how Olesya — renamed from her original name, which was of Chinese origin — got hired onto the force.
• Functional Addict: Oprah and Olesya are both these, the former with juice boxes and the latter with jellybeans. Olesya says that even after she retired she could never kick the habit, and the same goes for Oprah despite having not retired yet.
• Heroic BSoD: Olesya enters a very brief one when she learns that Old Missie has been kidnapped.
• Heroic Willpower: Old Missie expresses surprise that Olesya was able to tap into "the mathness" while still keeping her sanity in check and not going into Sanity Slippage. Presumably, having strong will for both the rescue team and for Ogden stealthily making his way towards them is what kept her sane.
• Hidden Depths: Olesya speaks the trope name verbatim when she states that there are still things that she doesn't know about Ogden despite having worked with him for over 50 years.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In Chapter 6, the "Mathness" is explained by Old Missie to Olesya. An agent can tap into the hidden world of math using just their brain without needing to go to the Mathroom, but it comes at a cost of potentially being consumed by it to the point where they suffer from Sanity Slippage. The Season 2 episode "Olympia's Day" would later introduce the concept into canon, but as "slipping into mathness", a medical condition that involves someone undergoing Sanity Slippage and being all-consumed by mathematics to the point where they lose consciousness and black out. However, unlike in the episode, where it didn't take too much relative effort to make Olympia come to, this story has Old Missie explain that if an agent descends into mathness, it can take Odd Squad Doctors an incredibly long time to pull them back out and fix their sanity, and it only takes the tiniest exposure before they can start to lose it.
• History Repeats: Chapter 2 has Olesya and Ogden, her partner, solve a case involving a woman having an absurd amount of the same kind of hat on her head no matter how many times she removes it, and when they go to solve it, Olesya remarks on how nice the hat looks on the woman, causing her to keep it. The flashback in "Totally Odd Squad" would have a similar conversation take place with Oprah and O'Donahue, as well as a man who can't take off his shirt without the same shirt appearing under it.
  • The case of Olesya and Ogden going to catch the Patternista plays out quite similarly to Oprah and O'Donahue's case involving the same villainess. The only major differences are that the Patternista that Olesya and Ogden deal with is the real deal and not Old Missie in disguise, and Old Missie herself is actually kidnapped, leading everyone to devise a plan to rescue her. It's revealed in Chapter 6 that the idea to challenge Oprah with the same case as a Secret Test of Character came from Ogden, Olesya's partner, based on his own experience as well as the experience of Olesya and the rescue team.
• Hollywood Costuming: Averted. Olesya is an agent who is always seen in period-appropriate wear, and since this fanfic takes place in the modern day, she is shown with a complete overhaul of her past outfit from the 80s. She dons a sweater dress, silver flats, purple leggings, and a silver-purple infinity scarf, with her hair also going from a perm to being in a side braid.
• Hostage Situation: Old Missie is kidnapped and taken hostage by the Patternista in exchange for ransom. If Precinct 13579 is unable to give her enough money for the ransom, then she might die by the Patternista's hands and by the Patternista's choice. The ten agents who form a rescue team to get their boss back all collectively agree to not pay the ransom and decide to retrieve her regardless.
• An Immigrant's Tale: Olesya's parents emigrated from China to California for the California Gold Rush and gave birth to her nine years later. However, a couple years after the birth, both of her parents died.
• Inescapable Net: Almost everyone from the rescue team ends up captured in one of these before they even have a chance to charge into the room, rescue Old Missie, and leave. The only one who isn't trapped is Olesya.
• Interesting Situation Duel: Olesya challenges the Patternista to a duel, but it's not a duel of physical combat — it's one with patterns, with each combatant giving the other a math problem and the answer being a number with a repeating pattern, with each combatant having to tell the other what the pattern is. Of course, the Patternista ends up losing.
• Ironic Echo: A variant. In this story, Oprah and Olesya go through an Entertainingly Wrong schtick involving the latter's past, where Oprah confidently guesses what happened based on her own experiences. The canon episode "Fistful of Fruit Juice" has a similar schtick, although it's not exactly replicated.
  Oprah: Lemme guess, there was a villain called the Patternista involved.
  Olesya: [giggling] Yep.
  Oprah: And you discovered it was really Old Missie in disguise, testing you to see if you were good enough to be Ms. O.
  Olesya: Nope.
  Oprah: No?!
  Olesya: [rolling her eyes] Are we gonna continue this back-and-forth thing, or are you gonna let me tell the story?
  Oprah: Do I have to tell you my answer?
  Olesya: Nope, because the answer is always both. Good job on remembering.
• It's Quiet… Too Quiet: Olesya sees the room that Patternista has marked with "Patternista's Evil Lair - DO NOT DISTURB" on the door, and mentally remarks that it was easy...almost too easy. Sure enough, when she and the other agents charge into the room, most all of them trapped by a net save for Olesya and Obed.
• Leeroy Jenkins: Subverted. O'Sullivan asks the group if they should sneak into the Patternista's lair to save Old Missie or charge in. Most everyone agrees that charging in is the best solution, but before they can do so, the Patternista opens the door, causing everyone but Olesya to became ensnared in a net trap.
• Meaningful Rename: Olesya originally had a Chinese name that the head of the orphanage she stayed at didn't like. Although the orphanage head renamed her Olga, the other kids referred to her as Olesya, a nickname in Russian, and the name stuck, especially since when she was hired onto Odd Squad.
• Medals for Everyone: Old Missie awards the rescue team, as well as Ogden, Director's Medals of Honor for their bravery and courage in rescuing her.
• Oh, Crap!: Olesya has this reaction when she finds the Patternista has essentially put every one of her co-workers out of commission, or at least enough so she could get to Old Missie easier.
• Oh, My Gods!: A round of "oh my odd" finds its way into the closing segment of Chapter 6.
• Older Is Better: Old-Fashioned Ms. O, or Old Missie for short, got her nickname due to her refusal to adapt to changing times and preferring to be old-fashioned. Even her clothing is still stuck in the 1890s.
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot: The Patternista taunts the rescue team by telling them that they have no way to contact any other Toronto Odd Squad agents. Orscheln tells her that Dr. Ozzington, Precinct 13579's Lab Director, built a portable Telephone-inator, which earns her a couple gasps as she simply gives an "oopsies" when she realizes what she's done.
• Portmanteau: In Chapter 3, Orscheln gives a "posilutely" when she finds a record plastered to Old Missie's chair.
• The Power of Friendship: Olesya explains that while she and Ogden were good at solving cases together, they had poor partner chemistry and didn't mesh well with each other. Despite this, however, it's implied that he began developing romantic feelings for her after she was promoted to the Management department and became Precinct 13579's new Director, but if he did, she was unaware of it. They eventually become friendlier with each other by the end of the story.
• Proportional Aging: Olesya still looks nine years old despite having been in retirement for over 30 years, although it's implied that she ages very slowly (or doesn't age at all) due to still wearing the badge.
• Situational Sociability: When out in the field, Ogden is shy and generally no-nonsense when on cases. Put him in Headquarters with other agents and he becomes an agent with sharp wit who's known for sarcastic quips.
  O'Donahue: What's eating him?
  Olesya: Oh, you know Ogden. A shy baby grand out in the field, and a surly killjoy in the privacy of HQ.
  Oprah: A real Dapper Dan, isn't he?
  Olesya: [chuckling] You get used to him.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Ten agents who know about Old Missie's kidnapping are forced to become an impromptu rescue team:
  • Olesya, a smart Investigation agent and The Leader of the group.
  • Ogden, Olesya's partner with Situational Sociability who ends up leaving the group as he believes that Old Missie cannot be saved.
  • O'Sullivan, a Maintenance agent working on the renovations to Headquarters.
  • Obfusco, an agent who speaks in painfully slow Word Salad Philosophy.
  • Olmstead, the head of the Security department.
  • Orscheln, a quirky Scientist.
  • Osage, Obed's partner and one of Old Missie's best Investigation agents who is nearly promoted to the Management department instead of Olesya (that is, if she wasn't planning on retiring a couple years later).
  • Oxley, Ocelot's partner and The Baby of the Bunch at just five years old.
  • Ocelot, Oxley's partner who has unique albino red eyes.
  • Obed, Osage's partner who appears to have a dislike of Ogden.
• Rebuilt Set: After returning from a case, Olesya and Ogden walk in on Headquarters being remodeled in the same way that it's modeled in the present day, with an entire laboratory being created, Old Missie having her own private office, and the Medical Department upgrading the equipment in the medical bay to the latest technology, among many other changes.
• Spy Cam: Listen-inators serve as these. Somehow, the Patternista managed to get ahold of all the Listen-inators that Dr. Ozzington had invented and planted them around Old Missie's office before kidnapping her, which is how she got wind of the rescue team's plan and was able to stop them in a Near-Villain Victory.
• Stop, or I Will Shoot!: In response to seeing O'Sullivan trying to dig through his Hammerspace spine for an offensive gadget to attack with, the Patternista tells the rescue team that if they'll shoot at her, she'll shoot at Old Missie with her pistol.
  The Patternista: Of course, you and your goofy little gillgadgets. [points at O'Sullivan] Don't think I don't know what you on the bottom are trying to reach for. You try and throw lead from any of those, I throw my own lead at her. [aims her pistol at Old Missie]
• Tempting Fate: The classic "I hope X won't call us on a case" sentence is uttered by Olesya when Ogden complains about the noise from the construction in the bullpen interrupting their work, and as usual, Old Missie responds aptly by ordering the partner pair to come up to her office.
• They're Called "Personal Issues" for a Reason: Due to Odd Squad having a "don't ask, don't tell" policy about agents' home lives (where agents can't tell anyone about their home lives nor can they ask about anyone else's, due to equality issues), Oprah isn't used to Olesya talking freely about her life before she joined Odd Squad and is horrified when she learns that Olesya's parents died shortly before she joined the organization.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Olesya has changed from the 32 years she's been in retirement, going from being a Tiny Tyrannical Girl who always appeared annoyed and had a bad temper to a Nice Girl who is quick to smile, relaxed, and benevolent.
• Totally Radical: Averted. In the flashback, Olesya and Ogden both speak in phrases and terms that are appropriate for the Roaring Twenties.
• Tube Travel: Back in the 1920s, Odd Squad's tube system was just getting started, with cubes instead of spheres, other precincts planning on putting in their own tube systems, and Big Red working as the sole tube operator of Precinct 13579 in particular (although he poses the idea of hiring more tube operators).
• The Un-Reveal: It's never revealed what Olesya's life is like now that she's not working for Odd Squad — it's only mentioned in passing as part of the lengthy conversation she and Oprah have.
• You Are in Command Now: Olesya, the leader of the rescue team, puts Obfusco and Osage, two of Old Missie's best agents, in charge of her office as temporary co-Directors for the time being.
• You Have No Idea Who You're Dealing With: Olesya says a variant of this when she challenges the Patternista to a duel in Chapter 5.
  Olesya: [thinking] You have no idea what I have in store for you.

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