Fanfic / Ships Ahoy!

Ships Ahoy! is an Odd Squad Fan Fic written by lilac-kat. It features a vast range of different pairings and relationships between the agents of Odd Squad and details the many trials and tribulations going on between them. The fanfiction also serves as a fanmade retelling of Odd Squad's history and takes a couple liberties with how certain episodes' events and how certain characters are presented.

It is the main installment in an Expanded Universe and has quite a few spinoffs and sequels, with some of the author's other works also tying into it. These include:

• Olive's Last Partner, serving as the prequel and sequel to this story. Notable for being the first Odd Squad fanfiction created.
• A contest based on the story. The winners each received a fanfic written by the author based on the winners' ideas and input, neither of which tie into the main story:
  • The Quarantined, The Wallflower, and the Party
  • O is for One of a Kind
  • The Gadgetmaker and the Elf, Serv'd Up
• Opalescent, an official sequel that focuses on the budding romance between Otto and Dr. O.
• Full Circle, an unofficial sequel originally written by Agent0002 and republished by lilac-kat that takes place after Odd Squad: The Movie and focuses on the efforts of the Season 1 and Season 2 cast in getting Olive and Oscar back together again after they break up. Hilarity Ensues.
• All Mixed Up!, written before Ships Ahoy!. It is connected to this story, but is not connected to Olive's Last Partner before it.
• Patterns of the Past, which takes place after All Mixed Up! but is not necessarily a sequel according to the author.

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This fanfic contains examples of:

Tropes about the story as a whole

• Absurd Brand Name: When Yucks Shmumbers and Oprah manage to invent the juice box, Yucks expresses her plans to put them on the market under the name "Yucks Boxes". Oprah makes a mental note to inform her that she should use her last name instead.
• Alternate Universe Fic: The fanfic serves as a What If? scenario, showing what life in Odd Squad would be like if Olive were partners with Oscar instead of Otto and expanding on various episodes' endings.
  • The beginning of the story takes place at the end of "No Ifs, Ands or Robots", while Olive, Oscar and Otto are waiting for Odenbacker to make new badges for them following their old ones being destroyed by Oscarbot 10.
• Arc Number: The story has 43 chapters, which was the badge number of the Big Bad of Season 1, Odd Todd.
• Darker and Edgier: To an extent. It's not incredibly violent or gory, but it does rely heavily on romance, which was barely present in the original series outside of a few Ship Tease moments, and features characters going one step beyond Ship Tease into forming full-fledged relationships with other characters. It also has themes of mental illness, trauma and some violence prevalent throughout.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Oprah's shaking and trembling as she remembers her time with O'Donahue, seen in the first two parts, as well as the relapses she has whenever she thinks of him, is all but stated to be signs of her suffering from some kind of mental illness. What mental illness she has, though, is never explained, but her relapses and breakdowns go away completely by the end of Chapter 36.
• Fix Fic: The fanfiction could be considered this to an extent, as continuity issues that are present in the original series are smoothed out and some plots of episodes are altered completely. In the case of the latter, the author notes that they actively avoid altering episode plots unless it's a needed move for the story to work.
• Framing Device: Olive and Oscar's relationship, and Otto finding out about the relationship, kickstarts the story, but the bulk of it is comprised of different stories about numerous ships between Odd Squad agents.
• Holding in Laughter: Olive has to fight off a bout of laughter that comes from Oscar's many mess-ups during his interview, much to the chagrin of the cameraman who keeps shooting her dirty looks. She's barely holding on by the time the cameraman calls "cut", whereupon she and Otto let out their laughter. It's all but stated that Olive attempting to hold in her laughter, and subsequently failing to, ruined the initial take of the interview, as the cameraman remarks that he doesn't have time to film another one.
• Oh, My Gods!: Although "God" and "Lord" are used in the story, phrases like "what in jackalope's name" and "for odd's sake" are also seen.
• Time Skip: The beginning of the story takes place one year after Olive and Oscar got stuck in the Boiler Room in Olive's Last Partner.
• Unknowingly in Love:
  • Oprah initially feels herself falling in love with O'Donahue, but brushes off the feelings because she's unfamiliar with the concept of love. O'Donahue feels the same way, but unlike Oprah, he knows about love.
  • When Oscar mentions that his Truth-Sniffer-inator gadget is his favorite one, Olive gets butterflies in her stomach. However, instead of realizing what the feeling means, she brushes it off as nervousness and reassures herself that she has nothing to hide from him. The pair eventually end up in a relationship.
  • Opal begins to realize that she has a crush on Otto from the very moment she comes to the realization that he is endearing to her, but tries to deny her feelings by bringing up excuses that range from "Otto likes another girl" to "I'm only eleven and shouldn't have a crush on anyone at this age". Of course, she and Otto do eventually enter a steady relationship with each other.
  • After Precinct 13579 wins their first Jackie Award, Octavia finds that she feels flustered when talking to Oren and has no idea why. Likewise, Oren is also struggling with his own feelings for Octavia.
• The 'Verse: This fanfic kicks off an Expanded Universe that involves numerous spinoffs, sequels, and even has some of the author's other works tie into it at some points.
• What Could Have Been: There was set to be another chapter in the story near the end (between "The Barista" and "The Shrew and the Tamer") called "The Counterparts" that would explore Olive and Otto in a sibling-like relationship and why them being a couple didn't work out, but as it would ruin the story's canon, they opted to leave it out.

Prologue and Part One (One Ship)

• A Child Shall Lead Them: Invoked. During her time in Portugal, Oprah is roped into a gambit by the reigning king and queen of Portugal, where the queen, Pia, will fake her death and express her desires to have Oprah named the new queen in her place as stated in her will in order to make the ruler of another country, Senhor Saldanha, cooperate with her on political matters. The gambit works, and Queen Oprah I of Portugal is crowned as the new ruler. As queen, she does such things as play with the former queen's two sons and goes horseback riding, enjoying her time as a ruler if only temporarily, and at a Parliament session, she manages to toy with Saldanha by reciting things about country borders in African colonies -- the topic of discussion among Parliament -- that she doesn't care about nor understand, which causes Saldanha to tell the king that he won't stand for a ruler who is nothing more than a child who doesn't know what she's talking about. Eventually he decides to work with Pia upon realizing that she isn't really dead, and Oprah transfers her power as queen back to her.
• Achilles' Heel: A Child Prodigy she may be, but spelling is definitely not Oprah's forte. Similarly, she's also weak in history, though her World Tour through Europe helps her learn about various different countries and how politics unfolds in some of them.
• Adaptational Explanation: According to the author, backstories were added for some characters not because it's their own interpretation as to the characters' pasts, but rather, because the story doesn't work unless backstories are given. As such, there is some explanation given as to the lives of characters prior to joining Odd Squad.
  • Oprah's backstory is perhaps the most expansive. She is depicted as having a Dark and Troubled Past, being a runaway slave and an orphan found by a family comprised of an aunt and uncle as well as two cousins who would serve as her respective mother, father, and sibling surrogates. However, her family rarely gave her any affection, leading her to tough it out on her own and act on her dream of running a successful fruit and juice business.
  • Carol, better known by the name "Mathroom", and her backstory, was introduced in "Fistful of Fruit Juice", but this story expands more on how she came to be by having her explain that multiple visits from Odd Squad agents over time caused her to develop a conscience, and her paper fortune-teller form is one that she took on herself versus being a disembodied voice.
• Affectionate Nickname: After Character Development kicks in, O'Donahue refers to Oprah as "baby doll" and "doll", even before the two become boyfriend and girlfriend.
• Alpha Bitch: Make no mistake — Olga is just as bratty and rude in this fanfic as she is in the show, and wastes no time in belittling Oprah for failing her entrance exam. However, O'Donahue, her partner, doesn't call her out on her behavior because of her seniority over him, and stays silent up until she's exposed as a thief. There's a reason she's referred to as "the epitome of stuck-up, high-and-mighty Odd Squad agents."
• Anger Born of Worry: Oprah becomes angry at O'Donahue for him not telling her about what Olga did to him and for him becoming drunk on unicorn tears and getting into a car accident. Notably, the latter time is one of the very few times she's been known to cry, and it's nothing more than a Single Tear.
• Badass Bureaucrat: Oprah becomes one of the top agents at Precinct 13579 following her joining the organization, the fourth behind Olesya (who would eventually become the new head of the precinct), Obfusco, and Osage.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: Downplayed. Oprah despised Odd Squad agents due to them taking the easy way through life and never experiencing the trials and tribulations of hard work, believing that they were smug and stuck-up. However, as time goes on and O'Donahue helps her in finding and catching a thief who stole her fruit, Oprah starts to realize that what agents do for a living is actually fun and she eventually joins Odd Squad, although she learns that not every agent is incredibly egotistical and she doesn't develop a giant ego herself.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Although it's hinted that O'Donahue was falling in love with Oprah when he was still working with Olga, Oprah exposing Olga as a thief has him thanking her for saving his career, and he offers her to join Odd Squad one final time. Oprah accepts, but goes on a long journey before officially joining, and the two eventually become partners with strong chemistry.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Olga appears to be a sweet girl on the outside who's in love with O'Donahue. Risk invoking her wrath, however, and her more nasty side comes out — up to and including her committing acts of burglary.
• Busman's Holiday: Defied by the agents of the Copenhagen Odd Squad precinct, who bar Oprah from getting another job because a vacation to a place like Europe is meant to be for relaxing, not working. When Oprah tells the Director of the precinct what her intentions are for traveling to Europe, he simply brushes it off by saying that there's no competition between her fruit stand and Odd Squad.
  • The agents of the Munich Odd Squad precinct also prevent Oprah from working while traveling, and she responds by shelving books at a local bookstore for free.
• Character Development: O'Donahue is presented as being submissive and shy, especially around Olga, and only shows his true personality — a witty, upbeat agent embracing modernity — around Oprah every once in a while when she becomes an agent. Once he rants to Oprah about how terrible Olga was, he decides to embrace his true personality and stop being shy, turning into more of a Chick Magnet than he was previously.
• Child Prodigy: When Oprah began running her fruit stand with Yucks, the former was eight years old, while the latter was only four. Both girls are highly intelligent, but Yucks perhaps takes the cake out of the duo — according to Oprah, she ordered her to organize the fruit, left, and came back some time later to find all of the fruit in alphabetical order, priced by the kilogram, and sorted by color, size and amount. O'Donahue, hearing this story, expresses awe and even thinks of Yucks as a potential new Odd Squad recruit.
• Cosplay: Oprah and O'Donahue go to see The Empire Strikes Back at the movie theater dressed as Princess Leia and Han Solo.
• Dancing Royalty: While O'Donahue is terrible at square dancing and doing the waltz, he can dance incredibly well to rock n' roll music.
  Oprah: Since when did you learn all those moves?
  O'Donahue: I dunno! It just sort of happened! Unreal, right?
• Dark and Troubled Past: While Odd Squad never expands on Oprah's home life (for intentional reasons), this story decides to give her more of a backstory that involves her Uncle Chester, as well as her cousins Lunette and Molly, consistently neglecting her, with her aunt, Auntie May, frowning upon her starting up a fruit stand and wanting her to join Odd Squad instead due to her high intelligence.
• Declaration of Protection: Oprah reminds O'Donahue that she started taking karate classes weekly, which is why she can't go with him to Club 24. When he becomes hospitalized from drinking unicorn tears, it's revealed that she started taking classes to protect him from harm.
  Oprah: I started taking karate for protection. To defend myself while fighting off any odd villains. But why can't I use it to protect my own partner?
• Despair Event Horizon: Oprah has been suffering from O'Donahue's breakup with her for 31 years, ever since she was promoted to the Management position and became the Director of Precinct 13579 in 1983. In front of others, however, she hides her true feelings and puts on a facade of her usual personality — being a strong, badass leader for her agents — presumably so no one would think of her as less strong than she really is, so she hasn't completely crossed the horizon into complete despair. Oprah isn't portrayed as being completely devoid of hope, either, in spite of her trauma, and is actually shown attempting to call O'Donahue up to try and make amends with him before she suffers a mental breakdown. By the end of the story, she is successful and manages to push past the breakup to talk with her former partner again.
• Dogged Nice Guy: O'Donahue starts out as this, repeatedly asking Oprah to join Odd Squad and getting shot down every time, but eventually gets into a romantic relationship with her and the two begin dating.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": Carol refuses to let anyone call her by just that, except for her brother Carlos, the being that runs the Word Room. Instead, agents refer to her as the "Math Room".
• Dope Slap: Oprah gives O'Donahue a couple of these when she confronts him about failing to recognize the signs of "DUIOUT" ^note Driving Under the Influence of Unicorn Tears, and how him getting in a van with a Drunk Driver and getting into a nasty car wreck had left him hospitalized.
• Drunk Driver: In spite of Olesya's warning, O'Donahue ends up hanging with a crowd of people and gets drunk, being transported by a person who is drunk behind the wheel. Everyone gets into a car accident, and while some have received critical injuries, O'Donahue survived with relatively minor injuries and was taken to the hospital along with the others.
• Everybody Knew Already: Otto angrily asks Olive and Oscar if everyone else knows that they're in a relationship (since things like Olive resting her head in the crook of Oscar's arm are obvious signs). Oscar tries to explain that not everyone knows, but Otto interrupts him mid-sentence and starts his rant up again.
  • Shortly after that, Oprah reveals that she knows about Olive and Oscar's relationship because there are security cameras placed all over Precinct 13579 that she monitors regularly.
• Faking the Dead: Queen Maria Pia of Savoy (yes, that's her actual name), the ruler of Portugal, decides to fake her own death in a gambit to get Senhor Saldanha, the ruler of another unnamed country, to cooperate with her and the king. She ends up naming Oprah as the new queen of Portugal in her place.
• Functional Addict: Just like in canon, Oprah has an addiction to juice boxes, while Olesya has an addiction to jellybeans. Both addictions are likened to substance abuse by Olesya herself, although it doesn't appear to be at the point of concern, and both Oprah and Olesya practice moderation when taking their "drugs". O'Donahue, on the other hand...
• Hard Work Hardly Works: Averted. Oprah looked down upon Odd Squad and its agents because she felt that all they did was brag about the perks they get as government employees and talk endlessly about the bravery they felt when fighting oddness, whereas Oprah believes in working hard from the bottom to achieve her goals.
• Harmful to Minors: A young child is exposed to Candle Cove for the first time, and is horrified by what he sees. Although his mom can't see it, she hugs her crying son as she receives contact info for two organizations that deal with supernatural things. Similarly, Oprah and O'Donahue — who are children themselves — are also exposed to the Creepypasta for the first time, and become so traumatized by it that they are unable to watch any sort of television without being unnerved for nearly a year.
• Heartbroken Badass: Oprah developed feelings for O'Donahue, her work partner, while the two were Investigation agents. and the two began going out as boyfriend and girlfriend. However, upon Oprah's promotion to the Management department, the pair began to drift apart due to Oprah being consistently busy with work commitments, and O'Donahue, serving as her advisor, eventually ends up quitting due to Oprah's decisions regarding the case seen in "The One That Got Away", in addition to the double whammy of breaking up with Oprah. It's stated that the breakup caused Oprah to become the Tiny Tyrannical Girl with a hot temper that she is in the present day, and the breakup has taken a mental toll on her as well — when Otto asks her if there are any other agents over the course of Odd Squad's history that have been in romantic relationships with each other, she becomes on the verge of a breakdown and has to retreat somewhere private so he, Olive and Oscar won't see her.
• High-Five Left Hanging: O'Donahue offers to give Oprah a high-five to stop her from giving up and abandoning Precinct 13579's Headquarters. All he gets is a stare from her in response as he's left hanging, something she cites as being due to the fact that the Headquarters set to be destroyed isn't a normal run-of-the-mill case — it's her failing at her job as an Odd Squad leader only a single year in.
• The High Queen: Queen Maria Pia of Savoy, referred to as "Pia", who is the co-ruler of Portugal alongside an unnamed king. She is very benevolent and kind, and prefers to trust children over adults.
• invoked Hilarious in Hindsight: In-universe — Oprah remarks about how she and Yucks created something that serves as a database connecting everyone and everything worldwide that's also exclusive to Odd Squad, and it's noted that a century later is when the Internet would be created, which serves the same function but is open to everyone and isn't restricted to one business.
• I Can't Dance: When the alarm for Square Dance Night goes off, O'Donahue admits to Oprah that he forgot it was tonight and that he doesn't know how to do the square dance. Oprah assures him that he'll be fine, and that there are agents who are probably worse than him at dancing...but what follows is an Epic Fail montage that describes him missing cues, running into everyone else, and being so bad at calling out the moves involved with square dancing that he develops stage fright and immediately runs off when Old Missie permits him to step down. When the dance changes into a waltz, O'Donahue doesn't fare much better, and gets embarrassed enough to hide in a corner for the rest of the dance.
• Inherently Funny Words: During her trip to Italy, Oprah learns about gondolas and gondoliers and finds that "gondolier" is a funny word to say.
• Innocently Insensitive: In Chapter 8, Oprah has a talk with O'Donahue about why he is still insecure even after the two became partners 76 years ago. She confronts him about his past with Olga and what she did to him, and when he's hesitant to answer, she keeps pressing. Eventually he cracks and tells her that the Great Depression and World War II has caused him to become jaded.
• Jaw Drop: Otto's reaction to Olive laying her head on Oscar — he's so shocked that he immediately stops mid-song, and tries for a few seconds to form coherent words.
• Keeping Secrets Sucks: Otto is unaware of Olive and Oscar's feelings for each other. Likewise, Olive and Oscar have kept their relationship and feelings secret from him. However, he does eventually manage to find out and becomes enraged as he confronts them about it.
  Otto: Who- where- what are you- when did this- how did I not- why didn't you tell me about this?!
  Olive: Otto, listen, I can explain-
  Otto: It's true, then, isn't it? You two are- oh my God, and to think I didn't see it before! I'll bet everyone else at Odd Squad knows about this, don't they?!
  Oscar: Well, not exactly everyone, but-
  Otto: And to think I thought that...you guys realize we're kids, right? You know what, no, you probably don't care! It's gotta be against the rules to be- be- [gagging] Together!
  • Directly after that, Olive also manages to find out about Otto's relationship with Dr. O and calls him out on his hypocrisy, citing the fact that she knows he's unable to keep a secret well.
  • In Chapter 11, Olesya finds out about O'Donahue being in love with Oprah and explains that he should tell Oprah about the discovery if she inquires about his meeting with the Director. O'Donahue begins to ask her how she knows about it, but she brushes it off and tells him to get back to work.
• Limited Wardrobe: Averted. Oprah and O'Donahue go through different Investigation department uniforms that are period-fitting.
• Living Legend: Oprah's World Tour around Europe, as well as her exposing Olga as a thief, skyrocketed her to fame as a legend among Odd Squad. Although she's unaware of this until O'Donahue tells her, it just makes it all the more easier for her to graduate from the Academy and become the new partner of O'Donahue.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: O'Donahue decides to grow his hair long at one point, and it's made perfectly clear that Oprah doesn't like the change, as whenever she tells him to cut it, he just tells her to "get with the Times, New Roman" and walks away.
  "It looks so fruit with our new suit-and-tie uniforms!"
  "Get real, what boy would wear long hair with a suit?"
  "We're government agents, not countercultural hippies!"
• Love Makes You Dumb: O'Donahue is so much of a Chick Magnet that three Odd Squad clients, Madi, Nina and Bridget, fell in love with him when he saved their pets from their gelatinous states, and when they come across him at Club 24, they begin flirting with him without realizing that Oprah is right there next to him.
• Meaningful Name: The original name of Old Missie, Oprah's first boss, is Obedience — which makes sense considering she's in the Management department and serves as the leader of Precinct 13579 and its agents.
• Mole Men: The Mole People assist Precinct 13579 in restoring their Headquarters after it succumbs to a flood of plastic balls.
• Not Good with Rejection: To say that Oprah doesn't take O'Donahue's simultaneous resignation and breakup very well is an understatement — she's left as a brief Empty Shell that only remembers collapsing on the sand, finding herself in the Math Room with Yucks offering her a juicebox, going back to her office, and examining the spot where a Single Tear rolled down her face upon returning home. O'Donahue, meanwhile, doesn't go through the same strife his now-ex-girlfriend did, but does end up crying as he walks away from her.
  The next morning Oprah woke up angry, and stayed that way ever since.
• Number Two: Olesya creates an advisor role for O'Donahue to fill after Oprah is promoted to the Management department. Although it's not an official job within Odd Squad, O'Donahue accepts regardless and serves as Oprah's right-hand agent for a while before the two have a falling-out and eventually break up.
• Oblivious to Love: Oprah feels herself falling in love with O'Donahue, and seeing as how she can't comprehend it, she initially tries brushing it off. O'Donahue, meanwhile, has the same feelings, but the two of them force themselves to see each other as work partners rather than anything more. In Chapter 10, when O'Donahue lands in the hospital after an overdose on unicorn tears, the truth comes out and they concede, beginning to develop a romantic relationship between them.
• Oh, My Gods!: Although "God" is used in the story, Oprah's introduction involves her giving a "What in Jackalope's name is going on here?!"
  • In Chapter 10, she scolds O'Donahue by asking him "what in odd's name were you thinking?!"
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: O'Donahue realizes the full extent of what he's done when he sees Oprah crying and hugging him for the first time in all the time they've worked together, over a century.
• Parental Neglect: Auntie May and Uncle Chester, Oprah's adoptive parents, are stated to have never given Oprah any real affection as she grew up (and in Chester's case, he never gave Oprah much of anything at all). Luckily, Oprah had the wits and intelligence to make it by on her own.
• Recovered Addict: In Chapter 10, Olesya warns O'Donahue about the dangers of substance abuse and advises him to be more careful about whom he hangs out with after work. O'Donahue tells her that he's only drinking casually and brushes it off, but a week later, Oprah learns that he has been hospitalized after a car accident where most everyone was drunk on unicorn tears, and he ended up being one of the lucky ones who survived with minor injuries. Luckily, O'Donahue doesn't become too much of an addict and decides to never hang with the wrong people again (and by extension, never drink unicorn tears again) following the accident.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: In regards to their personalities as well as their tempers, Oprah is a pure Red Oni with a Hot-Blooded temper and a headstrong personality, while O'Donahue is a Blue Oni with a more cool temper and a levelheaded personality.
• Rule of Three: In her letter to Yucks dated June 21, 1870, Oprah manages to misspell Munich as "Munik" three times.
• The Runaway: According to Auntie May, Oprah was found by her and her husband, Chester, at two years old, as a runaway from the American South (presumably as a runaway slave) and with no memory of anything besides her name. Whether this story is true or is just a lie made up by Auntie May, however, is left ambiguous, but it's the origin story that she recites to Oprah regularly.
• Secret Test: Olesya has Oprah handle work at Odd Squad solo following O'Donahue's hospitalization and him being sent home to rest up for a week before returning. She gives the agent mundane tasks like showing agents-in-training around Headquarters and answering the phone for her while she's away on a business trip, but in reality, she's testing her to see if she's fit to be a Director. Eventually she lets O'Donahue in on the news that she plans on retiring soon and wants to name Oprah her successor, and the two work together to give Oprah the test seen in "Totally Odd Squad".
• Shipper on Deck: Yucks apparently views Oprah and O'Donahue as her One True Pairing.
• Shout-Out: The names of the four parts of the fanfic are a collective reference to One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.
  • In Chapter 7, Oprah and O'Donahue come across two girls named Anne and Diane, the former of whom gets the latter drunk on (presumably) raspberry cordial. Also doubles as a sort of Actor Allusion, since Dalila Bela, who plays Olive on Odd Squad, also plays Diana in Anne with an E.
  • The beginning of Chapter 10 has Oprah and O'Donahue go to solve a case that involves a child watching Candle Cove. When Oprah and O'Donahue see the show, they describe it as "satanic", turn the television off immediately, and give the woman who called them contact information for both the Witches' Council and the Winchester Hunters to deal with the situation, since it's outside of Odd Squad's realm of expertise.
• Smug Super: Oprah used to view the agents of Odd Squad as this, and interacting with Olga repeatedly certainly hasn't changed her viewpoint, nor has it changed her stance on joining the organization.
  Oprah: I just don't want to join.
  O'Donahue: But why not?
  Oprah: Because of kids like [Olga]. All you agents think you're so much better than everyone else! You don't know anything about honest hard work. Yucks and I, we do. I spent over a year organizing my business with her help, and next we plan to revolutionize the juice industry. We're making an honest living, and we don't need your Odd Squad to do it!
• Springtime for Hitler: Of the Gone Horribly Wrong variant. Oprah intentionally fails her Odd Squad Academy entrance exam because she doesn't want to attend the Academy despite her Auntie May pressuring her to go, and when she confronts her about the failure, the two get into a brief spat as Oprah tells her she wants to be an entrepreneur. Auntie May brushes this off as ridiculous, stating that "gifted girls" like Oprah should be working for Odd Squad and not "out on the streets soliciting rubbish", before declaring her plans to schedule her for the next entrance exam and punishing her for disobedience by sending her up to her room without dinner.
• Suddenly Bilingual: Averted. Oprah only knows English and primarily speaks that language, but during her trip around Europe, she learns to speak French, although she's not good at it.
• That Reminds Me of a Song: While waiting for a new badge to be created for him, Otto bursts out into a song which is a parody of the Soundcheck song "The Force of Gravity". Olive, being the one who doesn't like Soundcheck, is initially annoyed, but she eventually smiles at his song.
  Even if the tenth Oscarbot
  Destroyed our ba-a-adges
  We still got Odenba-a-acker
  Who really likes fla-a-adges
  Are you ready for-
• This Cannot Be!: Oprah's reaction when her path to the Ball Pit Control Room is blocked by a mountain of balls that nearly swallows her before O'Donahue pulls her out of harm's way.
  Oprah: That's not possible! The Control Room is just ahead!
• Totally Radical: Both Oprah and O'Donahue speak this way when the '70s, '80s and '90s roll around, using period-appropriate slang.
• Translator Buddy: Some Odd Squad agents serve as translators for Oprah as she travels from country to country, since she only knows English.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Ever so narrowly averted. Old Missie decides to retire in the year 1925 and promote Olesya to be the new Odd Squad Director of Precinct 13579 in her place. However, she's briefly conflicted on whether Olesya is the right agent to serve as leader, and cycles through a couple more options — Obfusco, whose Word Salad Philosophy makes him too hard to understand well enough for him to be an effective leader, and Osage, who was looking at retirement by the end of the decade after many years working for the organization — before bringing Oprah into consideration. Old Missie admits that Oprah has the passion and loyalty to be a good Director in spite of her relative newbie status, but decides not to promote her because she and O'Donahue work so well together. A couple decades later, Olesya eventually decides to promote Oprah as Director in her place, and things begin snowballing from there.
• We Used to Be Friends: Upon Oprah being promoted to the head of Precinct 13579, O'Donahue finds that, unlike what Olesya promised him, he and Oprah are drifting apart from each other as both friends and lovers, with Oprah initially relying on him for help before manning things on her own and sending him for menial errands and tasks as she grows into the role. Although O'Donahue held out hope that things would settle down enough for him and Oprah to spend more time with each other again, it becomes crushed when Headquarters floods with plastic balls and it eventually leads to him breaking up with Oprah and quitting Odd Squad. Likewise, Oprah also realizes that she's drifting away from O'Donahue and attempts to spend some time with him fingerpainting, but it does little to help the relationship.
• Wham Line: At the climax of Chapter 5, there's this gem that serves as much of a whammy in the fanfic just as it does in the original series.
  O'Donahue: Can we at least tell Olga?
  Oprah: Sure. She's right there.
  • In Chapter 12, there's this from O'Donahue.
  O'Donahue: I quit.
  • And further along in the same chapter...
  Oprah: But I only just started-
  O'Donahue: I'm not finished.
  Oprah: Neither am I!
  O'Donahue: But we are.
  Oprah: ...Excuse me?
  O'Donahue: I know you heard me, Oprah. We're finished. Through.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Oprah has no idea what love or flirting is, and when she and O'Donahue head to Club 24 to dance and hang out, she wonders if it's "what grownups called 'flirting'". Shortly after, when three teenagers greet O'Donahue and thank him for saving their pets from oddness while also flirting with him, Oprah gets a funny feeling in her stomach and grows angry that her partner is dancing with other girls — the feeling of jealousy.
• Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Oprah has no problem with her assistant having the name "Yucks Shmumbers". Put the first name on a product that will sell massive inventory, however, and it's a different story.
  Yucks: And just wait until you see Yucks' Boxes go on the market. It'll take our business to the next level!
  Oprah: [thinking] If our customers can get past the brand name, that is. I should probably tell her to use her last name instead.
• Workaholic: Oprah is very committed to her work, both before and after joining Odd Squad. This ends up being a Fatal Flaw for her when her duties as Odd Squad Director of Precinct 13579 leave her very little room for her to relax and spend time with O'Donahue.
• World Tour: Before officially joining Odd Squad, Oprah decided to go on a trip to various countries in Europe that lasted two months in order to discover if being an agent was the right choice for her. On her trip, she visited Norway, Denmark, Munich, Istanbul, Italy, France, and Spain, as well as many cities within those countries.
• Yandere: Olga. By holy hell, Olga. She is manipulative, often switching between enraged and innocently sweet on a dime, her rage comes out if she sees O'Donahue presumably flirting with another girl, and she believes that O'Donahue is in love with her despite all evidence pointing to the contrary. It doesn't help that she is a privileged child with famous lineage — that, combined with her personality, wards agents away from speaking up against her.
  • Chapter 8 has O'Donahue explaining to Oprah exactly how abusive and how destructive Olga really was, and how much it hurt him as her partner. According to him, he felt that he was less Olga's partner and more her possession, and it showed in the way she scolded him for talking to Olesya.
  O'Donahue: Olga...had to be in control. If she wasn't in control, she wasn't stable. I don't know why. But if she wasn't stable, she was vicious. It was scary to see her like that. So I...well, I guess I tried to keep her happy. Keep her feeling like she was in control, you know? She distanced me from most of the other agents, didn't want me talking to them, watching them, nothing. And she demanded constant praise from me, or she'd get upset and say I didn't know anything. Back then I thought it was all part of being a rookie agent. If I paid attention only to my partner and did whatever she said, I'd gain her trust and she'd relax her grip. [...] But seriously, you don't understand. I could avoid her all day and she'd still find me and attack me for being the worst agent in the world, then turn around and go on and on about how I'd "promised myself" to her. And I couldn't talk to anyone! Olga could get mad and go crazy, Old Missie wouldn't hear any complaints about her top agent, you weren't on the Squad and didn't want to understand, and thanks to Olga's controlling, I didn't know any other agents well enough. Even today I still don't. For all I know everyone still thinks I'm nothing but a stupid pale fream!

Part Two (Two Ships)

• Abnormal Allergy: One client that Opal and Oscar help upon becoming partners is allergic to kids, which makes her job as an elementary school teacher all the more harder.
• Adaptational Explanation: Following up on how Oscar became the Lab Director of Precinct 13579 in "Oscar of All Trades", this fanfiction goes back further and explains Oscar's origins prior to him trying to find his place in Odd Squad.
  • How Odd Squad agents age is given an explanation as well. Agents have three options to choose from in regards to aging while employed with the organization — they can age normally and leave when they are thirteen, they can stay the same age they are currently and remain that age until they quit, or they can age at a slow pace and put off their final choice until they near the age of thirteen. Whatever option an agent chooses will go into the configuration of their badges, as the fanfiction runs with the "badges keep kids young" theory that is prevalent and commonly accepted in fanon.
  • Oscar's reasoning for stopping the Hydraclops is explained as him learning about the creature while looking in a book titled Odd Squad: A History in Gadgetry (Toronto, ON, Canada), as stopping it is listed as the final case to be solved without the use of modern gadgetry, and deciding to do more research until he came up with a plan to stop it. Going by the events of "Rise of the Hydraclops", his plan was very successful.
  • In Chapter 15, the disease that Oprah had in "The Odd Antidote" is given a fanon name of "Opuntia Braccaeviridis poisoning". According to Opal, it interferes with the growth hormone by increasing its production and injecting the hormones of numerous other species into the body.
  • Oren's origins, and how he and Olaf became partners, is explained in Chapter 22.
• Adaptational Sexuality: Olaf is written to be gay in this fanfiction, confessing to Oren that he likes boys and Oren being hesitant to answer his confession. Oren then spends over a year struggling with his own sexuality, wondering if he's gay or not, but comes to realize that he's straight and has to turn Olaf down.
  • Odie is also hinted at being gay despite canon leaving it intentionally ambiguous. In Chapter 23, after tackling Odie out of the way of a rogue beam from the Couch-inator gadget and winding up on top of him, Odie confides in Oscar about being unsure if he's gay or not and asks Oscar if he's gay, to which he replies that he doesn't think that's his sexuality at all. He says that he'll continue being Odie's friend regardless, but he starts to wonder if Olive is a lesbian and that's why she doesn't (seemingly) like him back, and she thinks the same way about Oscar, believing that he's gay.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Subverted. Olive finds out that she's in love with Oscar and believes that he feels the same way towards her, but Oscar believes that Olive doesn't love him romantically despite him being in love with her. Eventually they confide in each other and they realize each other's true intentions, and they begin getting into a relationship.
• Animal Lover: Inverted. Olive states that she's never liked cats when she tosses Nemo, a kitten received from a Crazy Cat Lady, into the Pet Room.
• Asleep for Days: Following the completion of his preparations for stopping the Hydraclops that is set to rise in fifteen years, Oscar, having pulled an all-nighter and suffering from Sleep Deprivation, rides home with Norman, falls asleep, and doesn't wake up for over a day — 26 hours, to be precise.
• Bait-and-Switch: Oscar gets his hair cut into an afro, and when Olive walks into the Lab to return her Toothbrush-inator, she notices something else that's different about him instead.
  Oscar: Olive! Um, uh, I was j-just fixing my Shrink-inator, c-'cause there were no other Scientists available...
  Olive: No, it's not that! It's your...
  Oscar: My what? Oh! Yeah, my hair! I finally got it cut the other day. Thought it was time for a change, heh.
  Olive: No, I meant your braces! You got them off!
  Oscar: Oh. Right, the orthodontist put me on a retainer now. I almost forgot after my new haircut, heh!
• Big Blackout: Downplayed. Oscar tries fixing a Blue-Room-inator that O'Connor gives him, and upon realizing that the gadget isn't plugged in, he goes to plug it into a nearby outlet...then the lab lights go out.
• Blatant Lies: In Chapter 24, Oscar lies to Oprah and says that he's told Olive about his promotion to Lab Director, even though he hasn't told her yet. The only reason Oprah doesn't catch on and call him out on it is because she's preoccupied with something else.
• Boss's Unfavorite Employee: Inverted and subverted. Olive believes that Oprah is playing favorites and likes Oscar because she's in love with him, but it turns out that she has very few feelings for Oscar, and in turn, he doesn't love her the same way.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Oscar is unable to tell Olive about him planning on being a Lab Director and how he wants to remain an Investigation agent to help her achieve her full potential despite Oprah's repeated requests for him to tell her, and it causes major strife in how they see each other. When Olive does manage to find out that Oscar is becoming a Lab Director, it's from his cousin Polly Graph, and the realization hits her like a truck.
  Olive: [thinking] It's probably just a hobby for him. Maybe he likes spending a little time in other departments here and there. Besides, if there was really something wrong with that, he'd have told me.
  Ah, Olive. If only you could know how your partner was kicking himself for not doing that very thing. How he believed you were just saying you needed his help in order to make him feel better. For within the year you will come to realize that his spending time in the Lab is more than just a hobby.
  • Similarly, Oprah never tells Olive what Oscar is doing when she assigns her solo cases, keeping up the ruse for Oscar. Quite ironic considering her own relationship with O'Donahue became problematic when he was sent on solo cases and errands by her.
• Child Prodigy: Both Opal and Oscar are both qualified to fill "Head of Department" roles due to their smarts. Oscar in particular was enrolled in, and graduated from, the Academy for only six months, whereas Opal graduated from the Academy in four years' time due to the Head of Department position in the Medical department requiring four more years of working in Precinct 13579 before she can get the job instead of spending eight years at the Academy. Opal also manages to pass all three exams in the Odd-ology Finals with flying colors.
• Chirping Crickets: Nearly invoked by Oscar when Olaf speaks more eloquently as he explains how no one has been able to understand him in the near-decade he's worked for Odd Squad until Oren came along. In response to it, Oscar pulls a Cricket-Chirp-inator from his Hammerspace spine, but Octavia speaks to fill the awkward silence and he puts the gadget away.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: At the beginning of Chapter 23, Otto notes how Olive and Oscar's communication skills are weak and how all of the strife could have been avoided if they just talked with each other better. Olive and Oscar laugh at this.
  Oscar: It's so true, though. Looking back, it was kind of dumb how we didn't just suck it up and talk to each other about the whole thing, heh. In fact, if I'd been reading some weird online story about this, I would've said the author had written herself into some huge plot hole.
• Crazy Cat Lady: Olive and Oscar are sent to a home with an elderly lady and a ton of cats. Funny enough, three of those cats are Sagwa, Dongwa and Sheegwa from Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat, and the odd problem Olive and Oscar have to solve is that they are writing Chinese calligraphy.
• Cute Kitten: Oscar and Olive end up in the care of one named Nemo for a brief while before they decide to let him live in Precinct 13579's Pet Room.
• Delayed Reaction: When Oscar decides to see Opal about the injuries to his hands from Nemo, this exchange ensues.
  Oscar: You're right, we should go to Dr. O. After all, I'll need both hands to sew if I'm going to patch up my jacket, heh!
  Olive: [thinking] Why did he change his mind so suddenly? And why was he acting so weird when I was looking at his hand? [normal] Wait! You can sew?
• Didn't Think This Through: Oprah decides to give Oscar a final job in Odd Squad of creating booby traps for Headquarters, and while explaining his task to him, she grabs a map of Headquarters and circles the spots where the traps need to be laid. Oscar takes the map with him, and it's then that Oprah realizes she gave away the last copy she had of the map, kicking herself in the butt for it.
  Oprah: [thinking] Wonderful. Now I have to get a new one drafted. With only five months to the new millennium, surely someone will invent an easier way to hand out documents in the future. Maybe if all my agents had some sort of tablet that could receive electronic copies...eh. That'll never work.
• Ear Ache: Pie ends up getting into Olive's ears following the pienado attack. She tries to clean it out with her finger, but it's already affected her hearing for the worse.
• Endearingly Dorky: Inverted. It's implied that Olive comes from a Friendless Background as a result of being a Bookworm and a "sports nerd" (as she so calls herself), and so she views Odd Squad as being a place where she can reinvent herself.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Olive goes through quite a lot of betrayal from both Oscar and Todd. There is a difference between the two, however.
  Her two friends had betrayed her today. One had forever. The other had tried to fix it. Only time would tell how long that would last.
  • Perhaps the biggest example of betrayal from the former is when he gets promoted to Lab Director and all Olive can do is stand and watch helplessly.
  "So this is how liberty dies...with thunderous applause..."
• Excellent Judge of Character: In Chapter 18, Olive asks Oscar why he doesn't like Todd, and he responds by telling her that he just doesn't — something is off about him and Oscar doesn't like the way he rudely talks to Olive. He could not be more right. Olive, on the other hand, practices the trope's polar opposite, stating how the nickname Todd gives her, "Scribbles", is cute and that she likes how he pays attention to her for doing her job and how he's nice to her.
• Fell Asleep Crying: Olive manages to fall asleep while crying over Oscar's betrayal in the ball pit, and by the time she wakes up, everyone is gone except for her.
• Food Pills: Oscar invents these based on the chewing gum that Willy Wonka has in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
• Food Slap: As Olive is arguing with Todd about how much better Oscar is than him, she takes the Oreo creme pie that Todd is attempting to offer her and sends it straight into Todd's face. The impact is so strong that it manages to make him fall backwards and smack his head on the concrete floor, leaving him stunned for a few moments before he pulls himself to his feet and declares his revenge.
• Heroic BSoD: Olive completely breaks down upon being told that Oscar wanted to be a Lab Director by Polly Graph. She sees him being promoted by Oprah, and after that, she takes off running towards the Ball Pit, where she dives in and starts crying.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Just like in canon, Oscar puts himself in the line of fire for Olive, being hit with pies so she can get a clear shot with the Triangu-lator and seal the pienado for good. However, with the added tidbit of the pies being contaminated that isn't present in canon, the sacrifice becomes more lethal in nature.
• Gag Haircut: Oscar decides to get an afro at one point, and it's made pretty clear from Olive's reaction that it's not the best hairstyle he's had to date. When he asks her if she likes it, she turns the question on him and asks if he likes it, and although he says he does, one look in the mirror has him immediately changing his mind.
  Oscar: Okay, maybe it won't be the most permanent haircut.
• Gilligan Cut: Opal encourages Oscar to go visit O'Quinncy, the Lab Director of Montreal, so he can teach him "a few" more things about being a Lab Director. The scene then cuts to O'Quinncy droning on and on about meeting someone who invites him to their place to have tea, with Oscar about ready to fall asleep.
  • In Chapter 23, Oscar watches Oren and Olaf reviewing a case file together and having lunch, thinking that they're great partners and nothing could go wrong between them. Transition to the next scene, where "everything between Oren and Olaf was indeed about to go very, very wrong."
• Hilarious in Hindsight: "Head of Department" ranks are shown to be a thing in Odd Squad for qualifying agents. Five years after the story's publication, an episode of the series, "O for a Day", would introduce Head of Department agents (although not referred to by that name).

• Informed Judaism: Todd is stated to be Jewish in this fanfiction, which is a fact that he tells Olive. However, whether he's actually Jewish or not (canon intentionally never reveals it) is ambiguous, as the story never expands on it.
• Ironic Echo Cut: In Chapter 19, Oprah thinks on the idea of naming Oscar her advisor, realizing that she should wait to offer him the promotion to the position until he's had a chance to talk to Olive, or "things could get real messy." Cut to the next scene, where "things got real messy."
  • Further along in the chapter, Olive tells Oprah about Oscar presumably avoiding solving cases with her, and the Director tells her she'll given him a talking-to. When Olive leaves, however...
  Olive: [thinking] Good thing she believed my story.
  Oprah: [thinking] Good thing Agent Olive believed my story.
• Ironic Nursery Tune: As Olive is cleaning pie from Oscar's glasses after the pienado is sealed, a tune comes to mind — the "Clean Up" song from Barney & Friends, as a matter of fact. Considering how Olive is (almost) the Sole Survivor of the pienado, it carries some rather ominous and saddening implications.
• I've Never Seen Anything Like This Before: Upon Oscar explaining that a Crazy Cat Lady client gave him and Olive a cat as a reward for helping her solve her odd problem, Oprah opens her mouth, closes it, and then mutters to herself, "That's a new one."
• Jerkass Has a Point: For Todd's rude behavior, he's right in that Oscar is too busy to spend time with Olive anymore and that the rumor of Oprah assigning him a long-term case for him to solve is true — as much as Olive hates to admit it.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: In regards to the pienado attack, Olive can only vaguely recall memories of what happened when she realized who released the pienado to begin with, and when she told the story of the attack to Otto, Oscar helped her fill in the gaps in her memory. The only memories she can make out clearly are:
  • "Bluenosed Todd materializing from haze"
  • "Terrified Ms. O jumping between them searching for strength"
  • "Cackling and begging and cackling"
  • "Hair blowing in her face struggling to brush out of mouth and eyes"
  • "The hurt in eyes of ice well hidden behind crazed gleam of revenge"
  • "Two pies"
  • "Kneeling between two victims screaming her boss's name"
  • The entirety of Olive's battle with the pie as well as Oprah giving her words of advice before getting knocked unconscious by a pie, seen in "Training Day".
• Leader Wannabe: Just as in the series, Olive wishes to become an Odd Squad Director and run her own precinct. When she tells Todd about this, however, he laughs off the prospect and tells her that she's not good enough to be a Director.
  • Also like in the series, Oren wants to be an Odd Squad Director in the Management department, but unlike Olive, he realizes that he needs to climb the ranks in Odd Squad's hierarchy first in order to be a Director (whereas Olive was promoted to the Management department right away).
• Like Brother and Sister: At one point, it's explained that Oscar views Opal as an older sister of sorts, while he is the little brother, although it's unknown if Opal feels the same way.
  • Chapter 26 explains that although Olive is Otto's partner, he has also come to see her as an older sister.
• Love at First Sight: When Oscar sees Olive for the first time, he's quick to take in how beautiful her brown eyes and brunette hair are, and all he can do as she hastily apologizes for bumping into him is to look at her with a stupid expression on his face. It's the first sign of him falling in love with her, although it also comes with guilt due to Opal, his original partner, going into the Medical department.
• Love Triangle: One occurs between Olive, Oscar and Todd beginning in Chapter 20. Olive is in love with Oscar while he is hesitant about her actually loving him, and believes that she loves Todd instead. Todd also loves Olive and capitalizes on Oscar being away from her to get closer to her, although he ends up getting a very harsh rejection that facilitates his Face–Heel Turn, making it clear that the love is one-sided on his end.
• Madness Mantra: Olive's brain becomes an endless cycle of two thoughts upon being told that Oscar is becoming a Lab Director by Polly Graph.
  Olive: [thinking] Lab Director...Head Scientist...Lab Director...Head Scientist...Lab Director...Head Scientist...

  Olive: [thinking] He never cared. He never CARED. He never cared, he never cared, he never cared, he never cared, he never cared, he never cared-
• My God, What Have I Done?: Olive's reaction after rejecting Todd's advances towards her, as she realizes he's going to enact hell on her, her coworkers, and her workplace.
  • Oscar also has this reaction when he realizes that Olive actually did love him, and that his actions managed to push her away completely.
• Named by the Adaptation: This story gives the name "Opal" to Dr. O, whose name was never revealed in the show proper.
• No-Sell: Olive takes a direct hit to the back from a pie during the pienado attack, but she's still alive and kicking as though shrugging off the effects.
• No Social Skills: It's justified due to her being six years old, but Opal's social skills are lacking quite a bit when interacting with Oscar for the first time.
• Not Good with Rejection: Todd's reaction to Olive's rejection of him could stand toe-to-toe with Oprah's reaction following O'Donahue breaking up with her — he doesn't take it in stride; he becomes completely evil and pulls a Face–Heel Turn, threatening her by saying that he gave her a chance and that he'll make sure the entirety of Precinct 13579 knows how much she's hurt him.
  Odd Squad had begun to bore him a long, long time ago. There was only one reason he had stayed on so long. And now she was gone too. Nothing was left for him here. Not anymore.
• Number Two: Oscar ends up becoming Oprah's second advisor similar to how O'Donahue was Oprah's first one, only they don't have any romantic feelings for each other. This doesn't please Olive, however, who begins to grow bitter and jealous that Oscar is spending more time with another girl than he is with her.
• Oblivious to Love: When Oscar mentions that the Truth-Sniffer-inator is his favorite gadget at the moment, Olive gets butterflies in her stomach, but brushes it off as nervousness and states that she has nothing to hide from him. Lo and behold, it turns out to be the start of what would become a very rocky relationship.
• Oh, Crap!: Olive has this reaction when she sees Dr. O fall unconscious from a rogue pie in the pienado that Todd released and realizes that the pies are contaminated.
• Only Friend: Despite his Jerkass behavior, Olive admits that Todd was her only friend after Oscar began spending less and less time with her.
• Plagiarism in Fiction: Odie has taken notice of Oscar copying his hairstyles, and it's made clear that he doesn't like it. However, he doesn't comment on it.
• Power Glows: At some point in Odd Squad's history, agents' badges would glow whenever they were feeling proud about themselves. However, the feature was taken away from the badges due to dragons suing the organization for copyright infringement.
• Precision F-Strike: As he's getting rejected by Olive, Todd gives an "odd-damnit" as he explains how scummy Oscar is.
• Psychological Projection: Oren sees Olive as someone with a huge ego who is also a bully towards other people, and confronts her on this. However, he ends up being the one bullying her, something that she calls him out on.
  Olive: Stop it! Look who's being the bully now!
• Pubescent Braces: Oscar is described as wearing braces beginning at the age of four, which falls in line with him revealing to Otto and Olive that he wears a retainer at night in "Flatastrophe".
• Related in the Adaptation: Although Polly Graph was never known to have any family in the series, this fanfiction portrays her as being the cousin of Oscar.
  • Todd, who was never stated to have any canonical siblings, has an older sister named Onya whom he attended the Odd Squad Academy with and whom taught him about phone numbers and addresses.
  • For whatever bizarre reason, Oscar's mother is Flo, the spokesperson for Progressive Insurance, while his father is Dr. Forrester.
• Running into the Window: When Oscar leaves Oprah's office after being given instructions for his locker and where to start working, he ends up walking right into one of the glass doors, which causes an air raid siren to sound as he apologizes and states that his nose makes that noise sometimes.
• Sarcasm-Blind: Oh yeah, is Oscar just as blind to Olive's sarcasm in this story as he is in the series.
  Olive: Well, let's fix Zoboomafoo first. I wasn't planning on sleeping tonight, anyhow.
  Oscar: Really?
  Olive: No, Oscar, that was sarcasm.
  Oscar: Oh.
• Sensory Overload: As a result of getting pie in her ears, Olive develops ASPD ^note not antisocial personality disorder, although it's never revealed what the acronym stands for, which causes her to become sensitive to loud noises, and has to take medication for it.
• Shout-Out: There are quite a lot of references hidden in this part, some as Easter Eggs and others as more blatant references.
  • When Oscar decides to work with Oksana as a cafeteria worker, she makes sure to drive him out of the department and recites a line clear out of The Empire Strikes Back.
  Oksana: Agent Ocean already altered my planned career enough. Pray I don't have another joker alter it any further.
  • In Chapter 15, Oscar goes to visit O'Quinncy, who gives him a stack of Bill Nye the Science Guy VCRs for him to watch, stating that "if Bill made science rule on PBS, maybe he'll do the same thing for you on Odd Squad."
  • Oscar and Opal's first case as partners involves them helping out a talking dog who ate some alphabet soup.
  • One case that Oscar and Olive are sent to solve involves them going to Animal Junction and helping out the Kratt Brothers, who have the odd problem of a striped scarf keeping avian creatures from delivering mail to the place.
  • Another case has Olive and Oscar helping out a girl who has a mystery box and doesn't know what's inside — a reference to the "Mystery Box" bumper that often runs on PBS Kids.
  • Two of the solo cases Oscar goes on in Chapter 19 has him helping out Mrs. Diller and Mr. Bleakman, and the next chapter has Todd and Olive going to Jetta Handover's house on 8 Eighth Street.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: It's all but stated that Olive doesn't have a thing for boys who are rude to her, brag about their own accomplishments, and put others down for their own benefit — which are all things that Todd does, which in turn is why she rejects him.
• Speech Impediment: At four years old, Oscar has a stutter, which goes hand-in-hand with his Shrinking Violet personality. As he grows up, he loses the stutter, but it comes back just as quickly as it left when he gets wind that Opal is going to be hired into the Medical department, and then it's nearly gone for good by the time Olive arrives and is partnered with him, only reappearing when stressed or upset.
• Suddenly Bilingual: Played for Drama, as the pie in Olive's ears causes her to develop the ability to hear and understand French, Vietnamese and the language of Lemon, but at the cost of her also developing sensitive hearing to loud noises.
• Sympathy for the Hero: In Chapter 16, it's explained that when Opal and Oscar both got the Jinx, the Shapeshifter took pity on them and decided to search for Jimmy Jinx and his Jinx Cube so they could be cured.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: This fanfiction runs with the "pies from the pienado are contaminated and victims get poisoned with them" theory that is prevalent in fanon due to "Training Day" being inconsistent with the pies' effects on the agents when hit with them.
• Taught by Experience: Oprah is well-aware of what's going on with Oscar and Olive, and how they have a relationship with each other that goes beyond friendship and straight into romance — which makes sense, considering she was in love with O'Donahue and thus would know about the perils of romantic relationships.
• Tempting Fate: After Todd scares Olive as a prank and he asks her why she and Oscar aren't out solving a case, Olive replies that Oprah hasn't given them one yet. Oscar doesn't even get a chance to warn her properly before the Director herself suddenly appears. She starts to give them a case, but when Todd tells her he's already solved the case he's given her, she takes the case she was originally planning for Olive and Oscar to solve and gives it to Todd instead, which renders his rude remark null and void, much to Olive's delight.
• They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: In Chapter 24, Opal tells Oscar to call her "Dr. O" now, as she works in the Medical Bay and not as an Investigation agent anymore.
• Three... Two... One...: Todd knows Olive is following him to 8 Eighth Street and times exactly when she's set to arrive while hiding in a shoe closet. Sure enough, he ends up being right on the dot and she emerges from the tubes, slamming into his back and knocking both of them out of the shoe closet.
• Translator Buddy: Oren is the first agent who can understand Olaf, and whenever Olaf speaks, only Oren can understand him, and what he says are just nonsensical words to outsiders.
• Triple Shifter: Ozzington, known as an architect in the original series, is stated to have served as a temporary leader of the Medical department and as the Lab Director of the Science department before retiring from Odd Squad in 1981.
• When She Smiles: Although Opal is stoic a lot of the time, she can't help but smile when she is welcomed into Odd Squad by Oprah.
• Yandere: Todd starts slipping into, and eventually falls into, being this. While Oscar is away solving cases and repairing gadgets in preparation for his Lab Director position, Todd decides to be Olive's unofficial partner, having developed feelings for her and wanting her to love him back. She notes that he flips between being genuinely nice to her and bullying her so frequently that she can't tell whether he's being nice or mean at times, and it's made abundantly clear that whatever love he has for her is one-sided. It doesn't help that he starts doing odd things that make her question him, but she never puts two and two together until he shows her a gadget he's made that can create any nose he desires, and she realizes that he likes him. In Chapter 21, she rejects him, and although she realizes she's made things worse, it's still the last straw that makes him undergo a Face–Heel Turn and become evil, harming Olive and her coworkers with a pienado just like in canon.
• You Can't Fight Fate: It's made clear from the beginning that Oscar's destiny in Odd Squad is to restart the Science Department and become the Head of Science. However, since his grandmother actively prevented him from being a scientist of any sort like his father, Oscar decides to try out different careers instead in the hopes of one sticking to him, but Oprah keeps sending him to different Lab Directors so they can convince him otherwise, and he eventually becomes the Lab Director after many trials and tribulations.

Part Three (Red Ships)

• Adaptational Explanation: Obfusco's origins and how he came to work at Odd Squad aren't touched upon in the show or in any other franchise media, but this fanfiction explains how he became Head of Events and Support and how he was a lonely misfit. It also explains that his Word Salad Philosophy manner of speaking is something he adopted to help him feel less of a misfit and eventually it became part of his regular speaking pattern.
• Adaptational Sexuality: Despite his sexuality never being revealed in canon (for obvious reasons), Obfusco is revealed to be gay in this story, as shown in Chapter 38 when he confides in Orchid about his feelings for Olaf.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Narrowly averted. Oprah is revealed to have toyed with the idea of developing feelings for Oscar (who quite obviously would never reciprocate the feelings), but realizes that Oscar is nothing like O'Donahue and that she shouldn't meddle in the rocky relationship that he had going with Olive lest she lose her leadership position over it, so she drops the idea.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Chapter 38 reveals that Obfusco never fit in when he and his siblings first joined Odd Squad, and he chalked it up to how many partners he went through whom he didn't really connect with, as well as his awkwardness around boys in particular.
• Amicable Exes: Oprah and O'Donahue may have broken up, but they're more than willing to keep things platonic with each other, which helps Oprah and her mental state. By Chapter 41, they've moved into being boyfriend and girlfriend again.
  • Similarly, Octavia and Oz become best friends again after the former rejects the latter, with both of them seeing different agents.
• Bait-and-Switch: When Otto suggests that Oscar and Opal go fight laser chickens, Olive scoffs and says that doing that would be too mean for two employees who are both their significant others and inexperienced on the field, and then she gets a mischievous grin on her face as she agrees to it.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: Oprah realizes that her yelling at her agents all the time makes her as much of a bully as Olga was, the agent of whom she despised.
• The Bet: Olive brings up the way O'Donnell and O'Callaghan eyed each other when she and Otto came back from Sector 21, and almost immediately, she, Otto and Oscar begin placing bets...that all end up being wrong when the two tube operators themselves pass by.
  Oscar: I'd give them about two weeks.
  Olive: A round of drinks at Club 24 says two days.
  Otto: Are you kidding? Knowing O'Donnell, I wouldn't bet more than two hours.
  O'Donnell: Hey, guys! How are my favorite agents doing?
  [pause as they look at her and O'Callaghan, arm in arm]
  O'Donnell: Y'all doing alright?
  Olive: Um, great! Thanks for all your help.
  Otto: Yeah, thank you so much!
  O'Callaghan: Anytime! Have a good evening, you three!
  [they walk away]'
  Olive, Otto and Oscar: Two minutes.
• Beyond the Impossible: If Oz's words are to be taken straight and not as an exaggeration, he and Octavia have apparently been best friends since before they were born — not just as already-born babies, while they were still in the wombs.
• Birds of a Feather: Obfusco and Olaf meet each other and hit it off due to them both having confusing speaking patterns and being hard for other agents to understand.
• Bi-Wildered: Oren struggles with his true sexuality for over a year after Olaf confesses his love for him and the two decide to try out a relationship, and eventually realizes that he's straight, meaning he has to turn Olaf's confession down.
• Bland-Name Product: The end of Chapter 37 introduces Oddmail, which is most likely a parody of Microsoft's Hotmail (now called Outlook).
• Blob Monster: A Blobisite is a dangerous species of blob that can get into piping and grow big enough to clog plumbing. It also doesn't hesitate to attack and eat people whole.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: At the end of Chapter 30, Opal addresses the reader and says that they have two more chapters to read involving two other ships before her relationship with Otto is explored more in-depth.
• Cassandra Truth: Oprah doesn't believe Octavia about the talking cantaloupe and orders her to go out onto the field and get her something that's actually odd in nature, much to Octavia's chagrin.
• Chick Magnet: Otto has apparently become this in Precinct 13579, with almost every single girl remarking on how hot or cute he is and how they're jealous of Olive because he's partners with her. Oksana knows it's because he's new and interesting and not because of who he actually is as a person.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Octavia and Oz have been friends since they were babies and grew up together, eventually joining Odd Squad together as well and getting into a romantic relationship when they grew older. However, when Oz turned himself invisible, the relationship fell apart, with Octavia distancing herself from him as he grew cold and bitter about both his invisibility and Octavia being distant.
• Child Prodigy: Otto somehow manages to get a 140 on an IQ test at the age of nine — a number so high, and from such a "lost-cause student", that the principal of his school immediately calls a board meeting to discuss the next course of action.
• Consummate Liar: Oscar and Olive decide to not tell Otto about their getting back together, and are forced to pretend to hate each other around him. They end up doing a pretty good job despite becoming tired of keeping up the ruse after a while, and Otto only finds out after a slip where Olive rests her head in Oscar's elbow.
• Cosplay: Octavia and Oren go to see Knights of the Bouillabaisse with the former dressed up as Persephone and the latter dressed up as Henry Skreever himself.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Oscar's thoughts in Chapter 32 show that if he had just talked to Olive, he would have known she still cared about him instead of having to go through the strife that came with her being bitter whenever she had to be in his presence, with him feeling guilt.
• *Cough* Snark *Cough*: When Otto explains that he's taking Opal to see Minions on the weekend, Oscar coughs under his breath, "Good luck with that, heh."
• Crazy Cat Lady: A variant with Oscar keeping a metric-ton of bunnies in his home from a bunny storm that ravaged Toronto at one point, although he isn't mentally ill.
• Crossing the Burnt Bridge: Oprah decides to go back to O'Donahue for help with the Equal Evan case three decades after he broke up with her. Although she's nervous and ends up nearly on the verge of an emotional breakdown a couple times, she ends up reconciling with him and the two team up once more.
• Deadpan Snarker: Due to her comically serious nature, Opal can deliver some snark that's pretty lighthearted and comedic.
  Opal: How bad are things between you two?
  Oscar: On your pain scale? Probably an eight or a nine.
  Dr. O: Ha, ha. If you're going to use the medical pain scale, does that make it better or worse than the Polish bee that stung you on the lip after the O Games?
• Delivery Not Desired: Oksana, in a fit of rage, writes two strongly-worded emails, one to Otto and one to Olive, and discards them both because the wording sounds too much like coy pleading to her. She eventually gives up, slams her laptop closed and settles for throwing an apple across the room.
• Descent into Addiction: Although Oprah was drinking juice boxes habitually when with O'Donahue as an Investigation agent, his departure caused the habit to form into a full-on addiction to the point where she has become The Alcoholic, and where she drinks up to a hundred juice boxes a day.
• Disabled in the Adaptation: Zig-zagged. Otto is stated to have been easily distracted, very hyperactive, and not being able to focus on things well. Although he was taken to a doctor to evaluate his behavior, the doctor refused to diagnose him with ADHD for some reason, and it's never stated whether Otto actually has a disability in the story or if he's just a quirky kid who happens to have a high intelligence and learns differently from others. In canon, Otto isn't shown to be disabled, whether confirmed or implied in any manner.
• Does Not Like Spam: Oprah apparently doesn't like drinking in water, just swimming in it.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Octavia acting distant of Oz when he manages to accidentally turn himself invisible, despite her assuring him that his invisibility will change nothing between them, is reminiscent of a person leaving their boyfriend or girlfriend when they become disabled in some way.
• The Dog Bites Back: Oscar decides to enact revenge on Odd Todd for Olive's sake, making sure all the tomatoes he throws at the ex-agent, as well as the pull of the ninety-nine magnets on his vest as the Flip-Flop-inator is brought back to him, is filled with vengeance, anger and hatred for how he hurt him and Olive.
  Oscar: [thinking] This is what you get for thinking you can mess with Olive. For taking away her kid honor and replacing it with grownup shame. For taking away her love of pies and replacing it with fear and loathing. For taking away her name and replacing it with only Scribbles. Don't...you...dare...hurt...my...girl!

  Oscar: [thinking] And this...this is what you get...for ever thinking...that you could degrade her, insult her, traumatize her...and take advantage of her...without me hearing about it.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After decades of suffering from relapses and emotional breakdowns from thinking about O'Donahue, Oprah finally works up the nerve to call him and the two decide to start over as friends, with Oprah heading to O'Donahue's house that night and them making plans to see The Force Awakens in theaters come December. When Oprah hangs up, she begins crying tears of joy.
• "Everybody Laughs" Ending: Subverted. The story seems to end with Olive, Oscar and Otto laughing in the bullpen over a remark from Oscar, but there's more after that.
• Face Palm: Olive's reaction to Oscar when he shows her the gesture he made when he told Odd Todd that his pants were "roomy but not overly so" — and it's definitely a real facepalm through and through.
  • She also has this reaction to Oscar getting fifty-three gutterballs in a row and still having hope that he's going to hit the pins with a throw.
• Finish Dialogue in Unison: Oprah and O'Donahue do this when the former works up the nerve to call the latter.
  O'Donahue: Is it because-
  Oprah: I just wanted to say-
  Oprah and O'Donahue: I miss you.
• From Bad to Worse: It was bad enough when the Boiler Room incident took place, but the pienado massacre happening soon after that — a week after, as a matter of fact — hasn't boded well on the states of both Olive and Oscar.
  Olive: [scared] Oscar? Oscar? What are we going to do?
  [long pause]
  Oscar: [as he hugs her] I-I don't know. I don't know what we're going to do. But I know I won't let him come between the two of us. Never again.
• The Gadfly: Olive and Otto decide to send their significant others to go fight a laser chicken when Oprah tells them to pick another case for Oscar and Opal to solve after they agree to solve another one together for fun. They come back two hours later — wiped out, covered in feathers and burn marks, and upset at Olive and Otto, who begin laughing.
• Genki Guy: Otto is a very hyperactive child, and as such, he is very energetic to the point where he manages to startle Olive when he first meets her.
• Good with Numbers: Orchid knows about trigonometry and calculus at the ripe young age of seven, and sees arithmetic like number remainders as too simple for her.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: When talking to Oscar about the temperature situation at Oprah's friend's pool, she thinks to herself that she's "done dealing with your crumpets", which is the second time in the story that "crumpets" is used as a stand-in for "shit".
• Gratuitous Spanish: Obfusco sometimes likes to pepper his sentences in Spanish, which is something that carries over from growing up in Los Angeles when it was under Spanish and Mexican rule.
• Hidden Depths: Otto's intelligence extends far beyond Odd Squad — he also knows quite a fair bit about gemstones, as he explains that Opal's name fits her because opals are plain on the outside, but they shine in a rainbow spectrum of color on the inside when held up to light. According to him, his cousin's birthstone is an opal, and she enjoys telling him about opals and other gemstones.
• Hypocritical Humor: As Opal leaves the Odd Squad Warehouse, Otto remarks that the story of how the two of them met embarrassed her more than it did him, then scolds Olive and Oscar for teasing her. Olive's quick to remind him of who's the jokester in the group, which earns her a scathing look from him.
  Otto: I think our story embarrassed her more than she'll admit. Your guys's teasing isn't helping, either.
  Olive: Says the one who makes all the jokes.
• I Have No Idea What I'm Doing: Otto shouts this just before he decides to make a risky gamble and throw all ten of his golden rings towards the robot princesses during the O Games.
• Immediate Self-Contradiction: Oscar finishes filming an Odd Report with O'Connor, which he sends to all agents' tablets for them to see. When Olive sees the notification on her tablet, she makes a disgusted expression, turns the tablet off and continues working, something that irks Oscar as he watches her, telling himself to not take it personally. Sure enough, he takes the reaction personally.
• Insistent Terminology: Otto apologizes to Opal for interrogating her during the events of "Moustache Confidential", saying that he never believed she was the culprit and that she's solved plenty of cases on her own without lucky charms. Opal corrects him by saying she solves medical cases, not field cases.
• Invisibility with Drawbacks: As Oz is invisible, holidays such as Halloween (that involve trick-or-treating) and Thanksgiving (where Octavia's family begin feeling awkward passing food and conversing with him) are problematic for him.
• I Remember It Like It Was Yesterday: Oscar says this verbatim when beginning his story of how he got to be a Lab Director.
• Ironic Echo: When Ori tells Orchid that her smashing up his Centigurp boxes happened that day, Orchid gives him three options of either apologizing, helping him with finding the Centigurps, or going to a movie with him, but tells him to choose wisely as he can only make one choice. At the end of the chapter, Ori poses three options to Orchid of apologizing for him having a puppy and not her, doing her laundry for her, or going to see a movie with her, and tells her she can only choose one. Having her words thrown back at her sends Orchid for quite an emotional loop as she tries to process what he's saying.
• Irrational Hatred: Although it's for a good reason, Olive sure loves to give Oscar a lot of grief, whether it's out loud or in her own thoughts, to the point where it borders on her just being petty.
• It's a Long Story: When Dr. O asks Olive about the dinosaur breakout from "6:00 to 6:05", she just tells her "never mind" as she thinks it'll take too long to explain.
• Jaw Drop: Narrowly averted. Oksana nearly has this reaction when Otto tells her he's sitting around waiting for people to vote for him, but keeps her mouth shut.
  • Played straight with Olive, who has this reaction when she sees the party room of the bowling alley decorated with tons of pictures of her, Otto and Oscar together.
• Just Friends: In Chapter 32, Oscar asks Olive if she ever saw Otto in a romantic light. She tells him that she never saw him that way, and that he's her best friend, nothing more.
• Lame Pun Reaction: Olive doesn't particularly enjoys Odd Todd's "I gotta pop out for a second" pun that he makes before blowing a bubble and disappearing with a loud "pop".
• Life of the Party: Inverted. Unlike her partner, Olive doesn't like huge parties and prefers doing low-key things with her friends and family for her birthday.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Olive intentionally does this when connecting the dots and finding out that Opal has a crush on Otto, resolving to keep the secret only to herself and not to tell Oprah (because she's pretty sure relationships are not allowed in Odd Squad), Oscar (because she learned that he and Opal had been partners previously, and Opal should tell Oscar herself if she so desires) or Otto (for obvious reasons).
• Love Confession: In Chapter 36, Otto meets up with Opal following the events of "Moustache Confidential" and chats with her, then this happens.
  Otto: Doctor, can I ask you something?
  Opal: You can call me Opal here.
  Otto: Okay then, Opal. Can I ask if you...I mean, I think...do you...like me?
  Opal: [sharp inhale] I'm a doctor, not a lover.
  Otto: Yes or no, Opal.
  Opal: [exhale] Yes.
• Love Confessor: Immediately after Opal admits she loves Otto, Orchid is revealed to have heard the entire thing, and decides to fake an intention of blackmailing them by saying that she won't tell on them...yet.
• Million to One Chance: Oscar tells Olive and Otto, who are fatigued and worn out from their trip through Sector 21 (detailed in "Trials and Tubulations"), that the chances of surviving in the Sector past sunset are 725 to 1, although Oscar has to think if that's the right statistic or not.
• Named by the Adaptation: Oscar's full name is "Daniel Oscar Berryman", as revealed in Chapter 30.
• Near-Death Experience: Olive realizes that she and Otto were lucky to inadvertently escape Sector 21 when they did, or else...well, she doesn't want to think about it, but it's all but stated they would have died.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: It's unintentional on his end, but Odd Todd faking a leg injury during the O Games, as well as him planting the Blobisite in Precinct 13579's plumbing a week before the pienado massacre, respectively helps Otto to realize his feelings for Opal and helps Olive and Oscar reconcile with each other.
• No Accounting for Taste: Lampshaded by Opal, who has to shake her head at Oscar teasing Otto by telling him "good luck" with the movie date when the weekend rolls around.
  Opal: Sometimes I wonder how I get along with you three at all.
• No Social Skills: Opal doesn't have very good social skills, which doesn't help with her ongoing crush on Otto, but she resolves to learn and get better.
• Oblivious to Love: Opal immediately begins to realize that she has a crush on Otto the moment she finds that he's endearing to her and that she's been noticing the agent more and more. However, she tries to deny her feelings by bringing up a range of excuses — Otto likes another girl, she's only eleven years old and shouldn't have a crush on anyone, and so on. It doesn't help that she's pretty weak in the realm of social skills.
  • After Precinct 13579 wins their first Jackie, Octavia finds that she feels flustered when talking to Oren and has no idea why. It turns out to be the start of a blossoming relationship between the two. Likewise, Oren is also struggling with his feelings for Octavia and develops the feeling of graciousness for the first time towards Sitcom Arch-Nemesis Otto, who won the O Games.
  • Averted for Olive, who is well aware that Opal is in love with Otto, but isn't sure whether he loves her back.
  • Also averted for Otto himself, who doesn't appear to have any conflicting feelings surrounding Opal and manages to realize early on that he is in love with her, without denying his feelings or questioning himself unlike Opal.
• Open Mouth, Insert Foot: When Oren asks Octavia about Oz, she doesn't take it lightly and snaps at him, saying that he doesn't care about other people, he insults Olive and Otto on the daily, and that he's nothing but a jerk. After the last comment she shuts her mouth and promptly apologizes, but Oren takes the comments in stride as he says she's certainly not wrong.
• Opposites Attract: Opal and Otto have two different personalities, and Opal doesn't want to get to know Otto any further than his name. However, the two end up eventually falling in love with each other, something Opal feels conflicted about as she asks herself how someone so silly could fall in love with someone so serious, and vice versa.
• Plant Person: There exists a sentient grapevine in the Creature Room that knows all the happenings of Precinct 13579. Ori manages to meet the grapevine while running around Headquarters in "Hold the Door" and befriends it, often coming to it for advice or to have a casual chat every now and then.
• Relationship-Salvaging Disaster: The incident with the Blobisite, explained in full in Olive's Last Partner, helps Olive and Oscar to rekindle the love they have for each other, and they manage to restart their relationship on much better terms.
• The Runaway: Chapter 37 reveals that Oksana was a runaway from Soviet Germany who eventually made it to Canada.
• Sadistic Choice: Otto is forced to choose between saving a currently-drowning Olive (and Oscar, although he doesn't know he's in there with her) and shrinking the Blobisite that is slathered all over the floor. He chooses the latter, which doesn't bode well for Olive nor Oscar, as Olive's Last Partner demonstrates.
• Shipper on Deck: Opal views Olive and Oscar as her One True Pairing.
  • Likewise, Olive decides to start shipping Opal and Otto after realizing that the two are in love with each other.
  • Olaf also starts to ship Oren and Octavia when he sees them befriending each other and chatting about their interests.
• Shout-Out: Oscar tries doing an online partner-matching database in order to move on from Olive, and the alternate match he gets (with Olive being his original match) is Blossom.
  • In Chapter 33, Opal is talking to Oscar about Soundcheck and remarks that Jimmy Z was once a member of the band and served as their tech person before he got fired from sleeping on the job all the time, hence why he works with the Kratt Brothers now.
  • At the end of Chapter 38, Orchid refers to herself as a "lambero" when saying goodbye to Obfusco. This serves as a nod to A Frozen Flower, an Odd Squad fanfiction by Perilheart that details Orchid's tumultuous life as a lambero, a monster of sorts with uncontrollable power and immense strength.
  • In Chapter 39, Polly Graph has an odd problem that she asks Oz to fix, which involves a duck walking up to her stand and asking her for various things.
  • If Chapter 40 is any indication, Orchid knew Ender Wiggin, and it's explained that he would have been considered for Odd Squad if the International Fleet hadn't claimed him from birth.
  • In Chapter 41, Otto makes the memetic "hand rainbow" gesture from Spongebob Squarepants when saying that he, Olive and Oscar are all friends because they judged each other.
  • At one point, Olive borrows the catchphrase of the Tenth Doctor when leaving for Club 24 with Otto and Oscar. They don't understand what she's saying until she explains that it's French and uses the translated English saying, "Let's go!"
  • After Oscar and Opal manage to get the Jinx Cube from Jimmy Jinx and cure everyone from the Jinx, Oprah allows Olive and Otto to pick another case for them to solve. One of the options on the list is a case involving an obsession with The Love Ducks, which she tells them not to pick.
  • According to Oprah, the Mathroom wants a wonderrific Little Red Riding Hood autograph for Christmas, but the Director doesn't know how to get one and laments why she couldn't ask for an autograph from Bootsy the Cat.
  • The poem in the birthday card that Olive is gifted at her birthday party are from the three main human characters of Cyberchase, whom Oscar explains are honorary Odd Squad agents.
• Sidetracked by the Analogy: Subverted. Otto says that Opal's name fits her because opals may look dull and white on the outside but are rainbow-colored on the inside when they're held up to the light, then says that opals are like snowflakes because no two are alike and each opal has its own unique color combo. Opal doesn't miss the analogies at all and finishes by saying that one wouldn't know opals are like snowflakes unless they held them up to the light and looked on the inside.
• Single Tear: Oz cries one of these just before walking out of the Storage Room and away from Octavia in Chapter 29.
  • Oprah also sheds a single tear as she manages to work up the nerves to call O'Donahue, although she had been crying a lot more than that earlier as a result of the mental breakdown.
• Sleep Cute: In Chapter 32, Olive visits Oscar at his house and the two fall asleep on the couch together watching Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, with their heads resting on each other's shoulders and them holding hands, with bunnies sitting on each of their laps to top it off.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Otto tells Olive and Oscar that Dr. O needs to be present so he can tell the story of how him and her got together. Sure enough, she appears suddenly behind them.
• Swirlie: One of the things Otto asks Olive about working at Odd Squad is if agents give swirlies to new employees.
• Tears of Joy: Oprah ends up crying these when she makes plans to see O'Donahue and the two decide to reconcile and start over after decades of her suffering from mental strife due to him breaking up with her.
• True Companions: Olive, Oscar and Otto are very good friends with each other even after all the hardships they've faced, and it most definitely shows.
• Tsundere: Orchid slips into this with Ori a couple times.
• Verbal Backpedaling: In Chapter 40, Orchid offers three choices for Ori after he tells her that her breaking his boxes just happened — she can apologize, help him with his Centigurp issue, or go to a movie with him. She immediately realizes what mistake she made and backtracks by saying that she's only letting him pick one of the options.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Inverted. Oscar is a Nice Guy who's loyal to Olive and to Odd Squad and will always help his girlfriend out in a pinch. Hurt Olive, however, and he will not hesitate to try and make sure the pain is given back to you in equal measure.
  Oscar: [thinking] Just try and mess with Olive again. Just try. Because next time you do, you'll have me to answer to. And I won't be this nice again.
• What Is This Feeling?: Since Oren is known for being a jerk and a bully, he finds feelings such as graciousness and pity weird.
  • Being that Orchid is manipulative and mischievous, she doesn't take too kindly to being cooperative and friendly with Ohlm, trying desperately to bring her old self back and eventually succeeding.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Oren struggles with adapting to the feeling of love, having never felt it before.
  • Similarly, Oksana also tries to fight the feeling of love inside of her when she interacts with Otto, wanting to be one of the few girls who doesn't fawn over him, but it doesn't last for very long.

Part Four (Blue Ships)

• Bittersweet Ending: Olive and Otto are promoted to the Management department as co-Directors, but as a result of being transferred to a different precinct, they have to leave their lovers behind. While Opal states that she and Otto will still get together and work things out between them, Olive and Oscar are forced to break up.
• Consummate Liar: Subverted. Oscar does a pretty good job at hiding his feelings surrounding Olive's promotion and puts on a facade in the meantime, but Olive sees right through it.
• Group Hug: Just like in canon, Olive, Otto and Oprah all share one, with Oscar joining as well.
• #HashtagForLaughs: Downplayed, as it's not completely played for laughs, but as Oscar tells Olive that Otto and Ohlm are attached at the hip, the two of them think the same thing: "#introvertprobs".
• invoked In Memoriam: In-universe — the beginning of the epilogue has a dedication to someone named Laila, who apparently died while on the front lines fighting for Odd Squad.
  IN LOVING MEMORY OF LAILA
  WHO FOUGHT IN THE NAME OF ODD SQUAD UNTIL THE VERY END
  OLIVE AND OTTO WILL FOREVER HAVE A PLACE FOR YOU
• Ironic Echo: In Chapter 41, Olive tells Otto that she wouldn't trade one day with him for anything, something she said as a Platonic Declaration of Love when the two were trapped in Sector 21. The epilogue has Olive telling Oscar that even when she hated him, she still wouldn't have traded one day with him for anything.
  • The opening lyrics of the Soundcheck song "The Force of Gravity" seem silly and lighthearted in the context of the song, but concerning Olive and Oscar, they are given a whole new, and very bittersweet, meaning.
  Boy
  There are times
  When being apart
  Even across the vast reaches of the cosmos
  Is the only way to truly come together.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Opal is fine with Otto being promoted and going with Olive because she thinks that the two of them are an unstoppable team and he needs to be happy with Olive.
  Olive: Wait! Why do you want him to leave?
  Opal: [crying more tears] He needs to be happy with you. He needs to work alongside you. And he won't admit it because he's happy you deserve this, but he's going to miss working with you in the days to come unless you invite him to be your co-Manager. And the same goes for you, too. Otto and I, we'd still see each other sometimes. We can work things out. [pause] But if anyone asks, I'm a doctor, not a therapist.
• Just Friends: Oscar and Olive decide to just be best friends following their breakup.
• Not Growing Up Sucks: Olive and Oscar break up, and Olive admits that the two of them still need time to be kids without romance getting in the way, and before they grow up into adults, when (or if) that happens.
• Single Tear: Subverted. Opal cries only two tears when explaining to Olive that Otto should go with her to Orville's precinct, then begins crying even more.
  • Played straight for Olive and Oscar at the end, where they each cry a single tear upon the former leaving for her new Headquarters.
• Take Care of the Kids: As Oscar is about to send Olive and Otto away from Precinct 13579, he silently tells Otto to "take care of her", knowing that they are Like Brother and Sister and have a sibling-like relationship with each other.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Olive picks herbal tea for her signature drink upon being promoted to the Management department.
• Wham Line: Opal delivers one to Olive that manages to render her at a complete loss for words.
  Opal: It wouldn't be a team anymore if you two split up. Which is why I say... [exhale] I say Otto should go with you.
• What Beautiful Eyes!: One thing Oscar loves about Olive is her eyes, which are depicted here as being brown with flecks of a gold color in them. However, when he looks at them after her promotion, his heart breaks instead of being filled up with love.

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