Fanfic / Forever And A Mile

"Because really...haven't you ever wondered about that Ballpit?"

Forever and A Mile is an Odd Squad One-Shot Fic written by BasilGrey. Originally written as part of the A Dip in the Inkwell collection of oneshots, it was given its own dedicated story due to its length.

The story follows Octavia, who is suffering from O'Brian's bullying and from him tube-blocking her. With no idea how to operate the tubes for herself and the threat of invoking O'Brian's wrath if she tells Oprah, as well as her partner Oz being away from work most of the time which leaves her unable to solve cases, she grows very sad and lonely, suffering from Sleep Deprivation due to using a large chair for a bed and treating the world aboveground as The Outside World which she only knows about but cannot picture.

That is, until she meets Opie, an agent who resides in the ball pit of Precinct 13579, a Magical Land and a Bottomless Pit that seemingly goes on forever. Together, the pair journey through dirt, water, and space, all while bonding over their being forgotten by others and becoming best friends.

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This fanfic contains examples of:

• Accidental Misnaming: Opie was originally referred to as "Obi" before the author was corrected and changed his name to the correct spelling.
• Adaptational Jerkass: O'Brian is more rude in this oneshot than he is in canon. As if his frequent workplace bullying of other agents via "tube-blocking" them and preventing them from using Tube Travel to go aboveground didn't make him enough of an asshole, he does it to Octavia of all agents, turning her into invoked The Woobie.
• Adaptation Expansion: The oneshot expands on Octavia's comment from "Life of O'Brian" about the titular agent tube-blocking her for so long that she forgot what the sky looked like, by deconstructing it and showing just how much being unable to go home has taken a toll on her.
  • In the series, the fate of Orbot when he told Oprah about O'Brian isn't explained. In this story, it's revealed that he got sent to the moon by O'Brian and has presumably been stuck there for a long time.
• And Then I Said: After meeting Opie, the scene cuts to Octavia finishing up her story of what happened to her with a "And that's what happened".
• Artistic License – Paleontology: Dinosaurs are a real thing in the world of Odd Squad, and almost all of them are living. However, Precinct 13579 also has an Archaeology Room which contains the fossilized head of a Tyrannosaurus rex, which can make things confusing.
• Artistic License – Physics: Setting aside the fact that this is Odd Squad and is a World of Weirdness where this is basically normal, the ball pit pretty much embodies this trope. One of the best examples is of Octavia and Opie arriving at a place with bamboo shoots and Octavia looking up at the layer of water above her, which she and Opie just swam through, and wondering how it can stay in midair and not come crashing down on her.
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: Opie and Octavia enter a level of the ball pit that is basically space, and there isn't enough oxygen for them to speak to each other, but both of them can breathe fine — presumably because it's not actually space. Subverted when Octavia begins to realize that she can't breathe because there's no oxygen, but she's not particularly worried about it.
• Birds of a Feather: Octavia and Opie hit it off due to having very similar circumstances. Octavia realizes that when Odd Squad agents leave work for the day, no one checks Headquarters to see if there are any agents still around, like her, and she feels lonely because of it. Opie is the same way — he stays in the ball pit, and while agents clean out the top layers of balls after every secret meeting held in there, they don't go any deeper, meaning that he gets forgotten and has never been found by anyone.
• Bottomless Pit: Apart from being a Magical Land, the ball pit is one. Opie, who lives in the ball pit, explains that it goes on forever, "and then some", but the levels in it change every time someone enters it.
• Brutal Honesty: Todd, when greeting Octavia, goes from Incoming Ham to bluntly telling her that she looks terrible.
  Todd: Eh, don't say sorry to me — say sorry to your reflection.
• Call-Forward: As Octavia wakes up in her old office chair that's clearly falling apart, she thinks to herself about how it would be nice to have a nice chair to sleep in, especially if it has a cupholder. The chair she's sitting in creaks and she begins to scrap the thought, but come "Best Seats in the House", she gets such a chair — two of them, in fact, and only on sheer luck.
• Cannot Spit It Out: One morning, Octavia runs into Oprah, who is surprised that she's at work early. Octavia realizes that she could tell Oprah about her entire strife with O'Brian, even though the last agent that did that apparently got sent to the moon by O'Brian himself, but instead, all she does is give a sheepishly chuckle and wish her boss a good morning. Later on, when assigning her a case regarding the World's Largest String Cheese being stolen, Oprah tells Octavia to talk to her if she needs anything, and Octavia simply adopts a hesitant face expression as she lies and tells her that she's okay.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: For telling Oprah about O'Brian and his bullying, Orbot got sent to the moon and still hasn't come back.
• Cute Kitten: Spider-kittens are far more tame and far friendlier than spider-cats. They often reside in gaps in the ball pit.
• Darker and Edgier: When compared to the other oneshots in A Dip in the Inkwell, which are light and humorous in nature.
• Downer Beginning: The story opens with O'Brian denying Octavia access to the tubes, and from there it all goes downhill.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After days of being trapped in Precinct 13579, Octavia doesn't just make a new friend in the form of Opie and goes on an amazing adventure in the ball pit with him, but he also reveals that he knows how to operate the tubes and offers to send her home, meaning that she can finally see the world aboveground again. Oz also comes back when she returns to Odd Squad the next day, meaning that she can also solve cases as an Investigation agent again like she used to.
• Excellent Judge of Character: Octavia doesn't feel comfortable being around Todd, since she feels he's too sarcastic, and his actions are too sudden and unpredictable for her taste. And anyone who knows Todd's future knows that she has every right to be.
• Gloomy Gray: Opie has gray eyes, befitting his plight of being left behind by agents in the ball pit.
• Hates Being Alone: After having lived in Precinct 13579 for weeks with her partner being practically nonexistent and with no one to talk to, Octavia begins to fear the thought of being alone. As such, her mood instantly lifts when she meets Opie, and the fear of being alone comes back when she thinks she's lost him.
• Hidden Depths: Despite being alone for a majority of his life, Opie has the ability to operate the tubes despite not working in the Maintenance/Transportation department. He offers to send Octavia home, in addition to talking with O'Brian and trying to get him to stop his tube-blocking of her, which she happily accepts.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: All Octavia wants is someone to talk to, but with her partner Oz gone nearly all the time and the two of them preferring to keep to themselves, she can't even rely on him to be that someone nor can she find someone willing to lend her an ear.
• Immediate Self-Contradiction: Opie suggests that he and Octavia go back to Precinct 13579's Headquarters due to how tired the latter looks, and she insists that she's not tired. Her struggle to get a good footing on the layer of plastic balls she's standing on, as well as her constantly blinking her eyes to try and focus, proves otherwise.
• The Insomniac: Due to being unable to find the Mattress Room and using a large Breakroom chair as a makeshift bed, Octavia doesn't get much sleep and ends up tossing and turning all throughout the night, which in turn leads to her developing Sleep Deprivation.
• I Work Alone: Defied by Oprah, who explicitly states that she doesn't like sending agents out by themselves on cases and would prefer if they went with their partners or, in the event that their partners are unavailable, with another agent who's willing and trustworthy.
• Kids Are Cruel: O'Brian, whose workplace bullying in the form of tube-blocking agents takes quite a toll on Octavia.
• Magical Land: The ball pit that Precinct 13579 has essentially is one. Opie describes it as being constantly changing, but at the same time very familiar, with every visit being an adventure. Like the Hall of Doors, there are places in the ball pit that change all the time, and Opie takes Octavia with him on an adventure to explore it. They eventually manage to hit the Archaeology Room that is seemingly way below the Earth, and then they hit water — and the world goes even deeper from there.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Spider-kittens, which have the heads of kittens and the bodies of tarantulas, apparently live in gaps in the ball pit. However, they're tame and friendly unlike their older cousins, the spider-cats.
• No Indoor Voice: Oprah, natch, who practically screams at Orchid when she calls her on her badge phone.
  Oprah: ORCHID! GET IN HERE! You're meeting Octavia by the sandbox! STAT!
  Orchid: Relax with the volume control, Sherman. I can hear you just fine.
  Oprah: [growls]
  Orchid: Coming! Alright! Sheesh...
• No-Sell: O'Brian's tube-blocking tactic that he uses when someone upsets him doesn't work on Opie because he lives in the ball pit and doesn't use the tubes.
• The Outside World: After a long time of living in Precinct 13579, the world aboveground becomes this to Octavia. She can barely remember what the sun and the sky look like, and when she tries to imagine what the world aboveground is like, she finds that while she has knowledge of things in the outside world like birds and trees, she can't picture them in her head at all.
  Octavia: I wish I could see the sky.
• Road Trip Across the Street: A variant not with a road trip, but with a ball pit Magical Land — Octavia asks Opie how far they've gone down into the sea of balls, and he guesses that they've likely gone a mile. She's quite impressed, since it seems like they've gone more than that to her.
• Sarcasm-Blind: It's implied that Octavia can't quite distinguish sarcasm from normal tones of voice, as when Orchid thanks her for helping her with recovering the World's Largest String Cheese, she only gives an unsure "You're...welcome?" in response, causing Orchid to roll her eyes as she walks away.
• Shrinking Violet: In addition to being a Nice Girl, Octavia is also shy — or at least too shy to stand up to O'Brian and his bullying.
• Sleep Deprivation: Octavia suffers from this as a result of sleeping in a Breakroom chair instead of a comfy bed.
• Title Drop: Octavia does one in response to Oz asking about Opie and the ball pit that closes out the story.
  Oz: How far does that thing go?
  Octavia: Forever...and a mile.
• The Woobie: Octavia, and how. Due to O'Brian tube-blocking her, and her being unable to figure out what she did to upset him, she has to live inside Precinct 13579, and the stress of knowing that she will never be able to escape hangs over her so much that she does extra paperwork to try and stave it off. At one point, she even passes by Oprah's office and notes that she has a nice purple sofa that she could use as a bed...but then finds that the doors are locked, and to make matters worse, she can't find the Mattress Room after an hour of searching through Headquarters, leading her to use a large chair from the Breakroom as a makeshift bed. Her partner, Oz, isn't around to help her either, which she believes is either due to him having to help his sick mother, or due to him going to the amusement park on "invisible business", which leaves her alone pretty much all the time. Needless to say, she gets the carpet yanked out from under her tons of times throughout the story, and it's hard not to feel sorry for her and what she's going through. Luckily, Opie appears in front of her and befriends her, and the pair hit it off, lifting her clear out of woobie status.
• Worldbuilding: Octavia and Opie go down a little too deep into the ball pit and find themselves in a portion of the Archaeology Room, which Octavia was unaware existed up until that point. While down there, they find a rather large fossilized head of a Tyrannosaurus rex.

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