Fanfic / Junior Officers

Junior Officers is an Octonauts Fan Fiction released on August 15, 2020^note technically, the first chapter, an introduction to the characters, was published in January of that year, but August 15th is when regular chapters began being published. It is written by NoonboryKedabory and hosted on FanFiction.Net.

This fic follows the Octonauts alongside four junior officers, who are being trained to become full-fledged Octonauts.

The titular junior officers are:

• Elekai Echidna, the serious son of a soldier. He is Tweak's apprentice.
• Kitsune Fox, a timid housewife and mother of one. She is Peso's apprentice.
• Deborah Deer, a bighearted, fresh-off-the-grid geek. She is Shellington's apprentice.
• Lekona Lion, a relaxed, beer-loving softie. He is Barnacles' apprentice.
• Sarabi Squirrel, a gruff, hotheaded Fifth Ranger. She is Kwazii's apprentice.

On September 10th, 2021, a French translation began publication. On April 2nd, 2023, the story was ported to Archive of Our Own.

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Junior Officers provides examples of:

#-L

• Abusive Parents:
  • Sarabi's mother. Sarabi mentions that she often had to cook her own meals because of her mother's neglectfulness.
  • Deborah's father, a sexist, racist hypocrite who believes he's entitled to his children's love.
  • Implied with Elekai's father. He once disappeared for an entire weekend, and then shouted at his wife upon his return that his whereabouts were none of her business.
• Action Mom: Kitsune took the job as an Octonaut to support her young son.
• Adaptational Gender Identity: There wasn't any evidence that Kwazii was transgender in the canonical series, but in "A Pirate's Tail", he's revealed to have been a girl before he became a guy. This is a reference to the fact that he was a girl in the original books prior to reprints.
• Adaptational Name Change: Shellington Sea Otter to Oliver Quincy Shellington.
• Adaptational Sexuality:
  • Tweak is a lesbian and has a girlfriend.
  • "The Realization" reveals that Shellington is bisexual.
• A Dog Named "Dog":
  • A short-nosed sea snake named Shorty.
  • A fin whale named Finn.
• Aerith and Bob:
  • The Junior Officers themselves: Elekai, Kitsune, Lekona, Sarabi, and then Deborah.
  • The baby Queensland lungfish: Rex, Leroy, Candace, Gina, Kimberly, and then Himeko and Orla.
• A Father to His Men: Captain Barnacles, as demonstrated by his taking care of Shellington while he was sick/experiencing a mental breakdown during the Kelp Forest arc. It's also mentioned that he sees Deborah as somewhat of a daughter figure.
• Affectionate Nickname:
  • Captain Barnacles sometimes refers to Shellington as "champ" and Deborah as "princess".
  • All of the Vegimals call Shellington "Shellydo".
  • As of "Heal", Deborah likes to call Shellington "Ollie".
  • In "Happy Birthday, Shellington", Lekona refers to Shellington as "skipper".
• Age Lift: Periwinkle is a toddler rather than a baby.
• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: In "Happy Birthday, Shellington", Shellington rambles like an idiot after downing five pints of beer.
• Alliterative Name:
  • All the Junior Officers minus Kitsune. Case in point: Elekai Echidna, Deborah Deer, Lekona Lion, and Sarabi Squirrel.
  • Some of the former Octonauts include Riviera Rottweiler, Zulimar Zebra, and Azura Aardvark.
• Ambiguously Bi: Deborah. She crushes on Shellington and gets together with him, but also enjoys lesbian romance manga and had her first kiss with a girl.
  "I feel like I might be bi, but I don't really know."
• Appetite Equals Health: In "The Swell Shark", Shellington being ill is signaled by his refusal to come eat breakfast.
• Archnemesis Dad: Deborah's father, whom she has all but cut contact with.
• Argument of Contradictions: Deborah and Lekona argue like this in "Haddock, Rising Seas, and Gloria" about whether a school of fish are haddock or cod.
• The Baby of the Bunch:
  • Of the junior officers, Sarabi (eighteen). Before her arrival, though, it was Deborah (eighteen)^note Deborah was born a few months before Sarabi.
  • Of the full-fledged Octonauts, it's Shellington (twenty-one).
  • "The Short-Nosed Sea Snake" shows that way back when the Octonauts were a relatively new team, Barnacles (then nineteen) was the youngest.
• Babysitting Episode: "Babysitting".
• Bad Boss: Captain Seacliff, the previous captain before Barnacles, was very abusive towards the other Octonauts, going as far to hit a nineteen-year-old junior officer, causing her to fall over into glass.
• Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: Deborah/Kitsune, Dashi, and Tweak/Sarabi, respectively.
• Bedhead-itis: Shellington's fur is mentioned to be frazzled and a bit greasy while he is sick in "The Undersea Twister".
• Benevolent Boss: Captain Barnacles, natch.
• Berserker Tears: Margaret has these after Calling the Old Man Out in "Margaret's Story".
• The Big Damn Kiss: Shellington and Deborah have one in "New Year's".
• Big Storm Episode: "River Riding Adventure".
• Bilingual Bonus:
  • Kitsune's name means "fox" in Japanese. She just so happens to be a fox.
  • Blanche (a white-sided dolphin)'s name means "white" in French.
  • One of the kelp fish is named Varech, which is French for "kelp".
• Birthday Episode: Kitsune, Shellington, Deborah, and Lekona all have one. "Margaret's Story" also takes place on Margaret's birthday.
• Bland-Name Product: In "Anime", Deborah uses a streaming site called Chewybun.
• Book Ends: "The Dogfish Sharks" begins and ends with characters talking about kelp cakes.
• Bottle Episode: "Anime", the shortest chapter only features two characters and takes place entirely within one room.
• Boyish Short Hair: Kitsune had this in her youth.
• Bully Bulldog: Shellington had to deal with one of these in his youth.
• Bully Hunter: At her second school, Sarabi would take photos of bullying and send them to her principal.
• Burger Fool: Sarabi mentions working a "crappy fast food job" before becoming a junior officer.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • "The Fin Whale" features a reappearance from Mitch the humpback whale.
  • Gigi the kelp fish from "The Kelp Fish" is the grown up version of one of the young kelp fish seen in "The Giant Kelp Forest".
• Butch Lesbian: Tweak, Anita, and Sarabi.
• Butt-Monkey: Shellington often gets kicked around for a joke. Deconstructed during the Kelp Forest arc, where this is shown to have taken a serious toll on his mental health, leading to a complete shutdown.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Margaret does this in her spotlight chapter, where she shouts at her father for being sexist, racist, and favouring David over her and Deborah.
• Canine Confusion: In "Ladies Night", Dashi the Dachshund drinks a lot of beer and only ends up getting hammered with no long-lasting ill effects. In real life, even a little bit of beer can make a dog incredibly ill. Granted, Dashi is anthropomorphic.
• Canon Character All Along: The little girl Barnacles meets in "Turning Wheels" is only revealed at the end to be Deborah.
• Cerebus Retcon: Numerous chapters have characters making jokes at Shellington's expense. Turns out this was not a good idea, as it causes his mental breakdown in "The Swell Shark".
• Character Name and the Noun Phrase: The chapter titled "Blythe and the Risso's Dolphin".
• Chore Character Exploration: In "The Undersea Twister", a crabby Deborah is shelving books in the library with Professor Inkling, and she's grumbling about how Barnacles yelled at her in the previous chapter. When she fears she'll get fired for yelling back at him, Professor Inkling reveals that the only Octonaut who's been fired was Seacliff, the former captain who abused his fellow Octonauts. He also mentions that Barnacles became captain shortly after Seacliff was fired.
• Christmas Episode: "The Christmas Island Red Crab".
• Clingy Child: In "Happy Birthday, Kitsune", when Kitsune shows up in the kitchen for her surprise birthday dinner, her son Ichiro runs over and hugs her legs because he's so excited to see her.
• Continuity Nod: In "Heal", Tunip makes Shellington kelp soup, the exact same thing he and the Vegimals were given when they were sick in the original series episode "The Mimic Octopus".
• Cool Old Lady: Atlantis is this in the present.
• Couch Gag: Post-"The Fin Whales", the disclaimer now simply says something silly, which changes each chapter.
• Crying at Your Birthday Party:
  • In "Margaret's Story", during Margaret's birthday party, Humphrey says that he does not want Margaret to act like a "slut". Margaret proceeds to chew him out for his mistreatment of her and retreats to her room in Berserker Tears.
  • A more positive example in "Happy Birthday, Kitsune". When Kitsune has received her gifts after her birthday dinner, she sheds a tear of joy.
• Dance of Romance: Lekona and Blythe share one under the stars in "Happy Birthday, Lekona".
• Deadpan Snarker: Behind her aggression, Sarabi's primary trait is sarcasm.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Initially cold and aloof, Sarabi eventually becomes better friends with the other Octonauts and even somewhat considers Deborah her sister.
• Dub Name Change:
  • In the French translation, Kitsune Fox and Deborah Deer were changed to Kitsune Renard and Deborah Cerf.
  • Conversed in "Anime":
  Kwazii: If this is from Japan, why do they all have English names?
  Deborah: Uh, sometimes when they dub anime into English, they give the characters English names to go along with it. I think Imogen was named Izumi in the original Japanese version.
• Early-Bird Cameo:
  • Lekona's wife Blythe made cameos in "Kitsune Fox in Hat Trouble" and "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dead Sea" before her official introduction in "Blythe and the Risso's Dolphin".
  • Sarabi was briefly mentioned in "The Undersea Twister" before making her official debut in "New Squirrel in Town".
• Edible Theme Naming:
  • "The Undersea Twister" features an angelfish named Jellybean.
  • "Mystery on Daytona Beach" features a panther named Taffy.
• Embarrassing Middle Name:
  • Deborah Marylou Deer.
  • Oliver Quincy Shellington.
• Family Theme Naming: The family of loons; Luisa, Luna, Lucas, and Luz.
• Fangirl: Deborah is very obviously an anime fan.
• Fantastic Racism: Deborah's father is prejudiced against non-deer.
• Feigning Healthiness: In "The Swell Shark", Shellington has a stomach flu and pretends to be well to avoid missing work. This backfires horribly, as he ends up humiliating himself by puking in the back of the GUP-A.
• Fell Asleep Standing Up: Deborah does this in a bonus scene from "The Lost Loon".
• Fictional Counterpart:
  • Intergalactic Imogen, Deborah's favourite anime, is the Octonauts equivalent of Sailor Moon.
  • Top of the Food Chain, a series Deborah enjoys, is the Octonauts equivalent of The Most Popular Girls in School'', with the character Jennifer being their equivalent of Trisha Capelletti.
  • Averted in "Happy Birthday, Deborah", which uses Barbie products instead of a fictional counterpart.
• Fiery Redhead: Kwazii and Sarabi are energetic/aggressive, respectively, and both have red fur.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Lekona is the Phlegmatic, Deborah is the Sanguine, Elekai and Sarabi are the Choleric, and Kitsune is the Melancholic.
• Friendly Pirate: Kwazii's backstory as a pirate is elaborated on more than in the original series^note He was a pirate known as "Kwazii the Brazen" until he was separated from his crew., and he's still as friendly as ever.
• Funetik Aksent:
  • Sometimes, the Vegimals' language is rendered as childish versions of English phrases. Example: "Shellydo gabada", spoken by Tominnow in "Heal", translates to "Shellington got better".
  • Some chapters render Kwazii's Cockney accent and/or Shellington's Scottish accent in this way (i.e "no" becomes "noo").
• Fun with Acronyms: The transition between scenes is marked with "BKPSDITTEKDL", which stands for the Octonauts' initials; Barnacles, Kwazii, Peso, Shellington, Dashi, Inkling, Tweak, Tunip, Elekai, Kitsune, Deborah, and Lekona.
  • In "New Squirrel in Town", it was updated with a "S" for Sarabi.
• Furry Reminder: A rare dramatic example; when Captain Barnacles breaks his leg, he roars.
• Gender-Blender Name: Lekona, despite having a rather feminine-sounding name, is male.
• Genki Girl: Deborah.
• Get Out!: Captain Barnacles yells at Lekona to do this in "Even the Best Fall Down Sometimes".
• The Ghost: Deborah's sister-in-law, Pamela. She's only spoken about and never seen.
• Girlish Pigtails: Deborah's main hairstyle.
• Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: While Deborah is sweet, bubbly, and all-around feminine, she likes camping and doesn't mind throwing herself straight into missions.
• Given Name Reveal:
  • "Heal" reveals that Shellington's first name is Oliver.
  • A bully mentioned in "Even the Best Fall Down Sometimes" has his name (Cullen) revealed during Shellington's drunken antics in "Happy Birthday, Shellington".
  • Deborah's father's name (Humphrey) is revealed in "Margaret's Story".
• Go-to-Sleep Ending: How "The Short-Nosed Sea Snake" ends.
• Graceful Ladies Like Purple: In Season 1, Deborah wears a purple dress and scrunchies.
• Gratuitous Japanese: "Midnight Emergency", which takes place in Kitsune's hometown of Iwaki, Japan, makes use of some Japanese words.
• Growling Gut: Shellington's stomach bubbled in "The Kelp Fish" due to his illness.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Lekona, who has a blond mane, always has his heart in the right place.
• Halloween Episode: "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dead Sea".
• Happily Adopted: "The Lost Loon" has a mother loon adopt a third chick who had been separated from her family^note Loons typically only lay two eggs at once.
• Hates Their Parent:
  • Deborah and especially Margaret hate their father Humphrey for being a verbally abusive misogynist.
  • Sarabi hates her neglectful mother. One chapter even mentions that she is dead to her.
• Heartfelt Apology:
  • In "Even The Best Fall Down Sometimes", Barnacles tells Shellington (who has recently suffered from an emotional breakdown due to Barnacles' unintentionally insensitive remarks) that he deeply regrets making Shellington feel like respect was something he had to earn from him. He then says that Shellington really does deserve respect because he's a great Octonaut and promises to treat Shellington differently.
  • In "The Undersea Twister," Barnacles goes to speak to Deborah, remorseful for having taken his frustration out on her. He asks Deborah what her father, Humphrey, has done to her (she angrily compared Barnacles to him before) and after she vents about Humphrey's Parental Favoritism and Fantastic Racism, Barnacles apologizes for what he said to her and says that he regrets having been anything like Humphrey. He then promises to always be there for her, and she hugs him, clearly forgiving him.
• Honesty Aesop: In "The Swell Shark", Shellington is severely ill with the stomach flu, but he lies that he feels fine and goes on a mission. He ends up vomiting, so he is taken back to the Octopod. Captain Barnacles goes to talk to him, and Shellington emotionally breaks down over how he thinks that it would have been selfish of him to call in sick because he already feels like an abysmal Octonaut. Captain Barnacles tells him that it wouldn't be selfish of him to have told the truth since he is a good Octonaut.
• How Do You Say: Done by Verdun in "The Short-Nosed Sea Snake". In this case, he mumbles in French for a moment before he figures out what the word is.^{So what word was it?}"Magnificent"
• Immaturity Insult: In "If All Else Fails", Deborah says her father Humphrey acted snide about Margaret dating a moose "like a freaking child".
• Inelegant Blubbering:
  • Done by Shellington during his mental breakdown in "The Swell Shark".
  • Done by Deborah after being shouted at in "Even the Best Fall Down Sometimes".
• Ironic Name:
  • A king penguin named Queenie.
  • A Queensland lungfish named Kingsley.
• It's All My Fault: Shellington's reaction to Captain Barnacles and Deborah's spat in "Even the Best Fall Down Sometimes".
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Deborah's father instantly accepting David's illegitimate daughter Stacy seems sweet...until you realize that he would have never acknowledged her had she been the child of Margaret or Deborah.
• Last-Name Basis: "Heal" reveals that Shellington is his surname, and his first name is Oliver.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Kitsune's Mom Mode.
• Like a Daughter to Me: Barnacles views Deborah as a daughter figure.
• Love Epiphany: In "The Realization", Shellington and Deborah realize they love each other.

M-Z

• Meaningful Name:
  • Kitsune's name means "fox". So... her name is "Fox Fox".
  • The dogfish shark featured in the eponymous chapter is named Lydia, after the species name sqaulidae.
  • The Atlantic white-sided dolphin from "The Fin Whale" is named Blanche.^note "Blanche" is the French word for "white"; specifically, the feminine version of the word
• Mellow Fellow: Lekona.
• Misdirected Outburst: In "Even the Best Fall Down Sometimes", Captain Barnacles is ashamed of himself for unintentionally being the cause of Shellington's mental breakdown. When Deborah comes in, he takes his anger out on her for her trying to stay optimistic at a time like this.
• Mistaken for Brooding: In "Even the Best Fall Down Sometimes", during Barnacles's rant towards Deborah, he mentions that he thinks that Shellington is still secretly hurting on the inside because of Barnacles's Innocently Insensitive remarks. Actually, Shellington has already healed from his emotional funk.
• Motherly Side Plait: Kitsune's main hairstyle.
• Multinational Team: The Octonauts have English^note Barnacles, Kwazii, Inkling, Mexican^note Peso, Scottish^note Shellington, Lekona, American^note Dashi, Tweak, New Guinea^note Elekai, Japanese^note Kitsune, and Canadian^note Deborah, Sarabi blood.
  • In the past, they also had French^note Verdun, Irish^note Atlantis and Spanish^note Zulimar blood.
• Never Say "Die": Used in "A Pirate's Tail" when discussing the fate of the previous lieutenant.
• No Communities Were Harmed: Averted; this fic makes frequent use of real-life locations, including Freshness Burger (a Japanese restaurant), Camp Chiplaquorgan (a Girl Guides camp located in the Maritimes), and Tim Horton's (a Canadian coffee shop chain).
• Noodle Incident:
  • "Heal" mentions an unspecified incident that caused Deborah to cut pickles out of her diet.
  • In "Atlantis: The Lost Octonaut", Sarabi mentions "the time with the skateboard".
• Not Where They Thought: In the chapter "The Queensland Lungfish", Kingsley the titular Queensland lungfish is found in the Boyne River. Barnacles informs him of where he actually is and Kingsley reveals that he thought he was in the Herbert River up until now.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • If Deborah is cursing, things have seriously gone south.
  • In "The Kelp Fish", Kwazii being silent is treated with major concern.
• Odd Name Out: Deborah, who has a normal name in contrast to the more...outlandish names of the other Octonauts, including the other Junior Officers.
• Official Couple:
  • Tweak has a girlfriend, Anita, Kitsune has a husband, Akio, and Lekona has a wife, Blythe.
  • As of "Heal", Shellington and Deborah.
• One-Steve Limit:
  • Lisa^note Elekai's mother and Luisa^note a mother loon.
  • Carolus^note a Caribou Scout and Carol^note Deborah's friend from school.
• Parental Favoritism: Deborah's father favours her brother David over her and her sister Margaret, solely because he's a boy.
• Parental Substitute: Deborah views Barnacles as a father figure.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Sarabi, who is one of the smallest Octonauts, but also one of the strongest.
• Precision F-Strike:
  • From "The Swell Shark":
  Captain Barnacles: Oh, son of a bitch, Shellington...
  • From "Even the Best Fall Down Sometimes":
  Deborah: You're just like my dad, you bastard!
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Two in "Even the Best Fall Down Sometimes":
  • "Something inside him just. Completely. Snapped."
  • "Get. Out."
• Queer Establishing Moment:
  • In "The Realization", Deborah and Shellington realize they love each other. They both think, "Will it just be Glenn/Donna all over again? What's a lad/girl to do?" The ending disclaimer reveals that Shellington is bisexual, as he previously had a crush on a male fox named Glenn (though he ended up losing his chance with him because he was too timid to confess his feelings). In Deborah's case, she had her first kiss with her best friend Donna, but neither of them felt the right clicks, so they decided they'd be Better as Friends.
  • "It Was Only a Kiss" elaborates more on Deborah falling under the questioning part of the LGBTQ spectrum. She kissed Donna and felt rather good about it, but Donna felt nothing from the kiss.
  • In "Valentine's Day", Kwazii admits he's never cared much about dating. Sarabi points out that he's aro, and he agrees with this.
  • In "Blythe and the Risso's Dolphin", Tweak says she hopes she has as much fun as Blythe and Lekona once she gets married to Anita, revealing that she's a Butch Lesbian.
  • In "A Pirate's Tail", Kwazii mentions in his narration that as a teen, he had been through four years of "identity crises". The ending disclaimer reveals that these "identity crises" refer to the fact that he's a trans man; he used to be female for a time until he became male.
• Quizzical Tilt:
  • Deborah does this in "The Undersea Twister" when Shellington apologizes for supposedly causing her argument with Captain Barnacles.
  • Shellington does this in "Cooking with Sarabi" while translating Tunip's Vegimalese.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Two back-to-back in "Even the Best Fall Down Sometimes"; one from Barnacles to Deborah over her optimism, and one from Deborah to Barnacles over taking his anger out on someone innocent.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Downplayed in "The Undersea Twister"; Deborah wears red and black to convey her anger.
• Relationship Upgrade: In "Family Reunion", Tweak and Anita get engaged.
• Resourceful Rodent: Sarabi Squirrel is rather clever. After having been neglected by her mother in her childhood, she has become independent as well as a very skilled chef. She's also quick-witted in missions and knows how to distract others to beat them in arm-wrestling.
• Running Gag:
  • Deborah's friends from school, who all have grandma names (Gloria, Mabel, Susan, etc.).
  • Lekona asking people to settle things over a pint.
  • "Haddock, Rising Seas, and Gloria": Dashi being interrupted while trying to tell others about the Gulf.
• The Sixth Ranger: Sarabi, who joins in Season 2.
• Shout-Out:
  • All of the Intergalactic Imogen characters get their names from Rainbow Magic fairies.
  • "The Lost Loon" mentions a manga about a girl named Haruka who becomes a princess.
  • The AO3 port of "Anime" adds three anime titles to Chewybun; Sailing on the Moon, Precious Cure Shining Bright, and Whisked Away by a Ghost.
  • One of the Donna Doxi books is titled Murmurs on the Pacific Express.
  • The Halloween chapter is titled "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dead Sea".
  • One of the joke disclaimers simply reads "Waluigi".
  • One chapter is titled "Atlantis: The Lost Octonaut".
• Shrinking Violet: Kitsune's main trait is timidity.
• Sick Episode:
  • In "Midnight Emergency", a younger Ichiro has what appears to be a cold.
  • Shellington spends the majority of the Kelp Forest arc in bed with stomach flu.
• Silence of Sadness:
  • In "The Kelp Fish", Kwazii is noted to be unusually quiet after having heard Shellington's emotional breakdown in the previous chapter.
  • In that same chapter, Shellington himself is very quiet, having hit his Darkest Hour. He doesn't respond to Kitsune trying to talk to him at all. It's not until near the end of the chapter that Peso gets him to speak again.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Sarabi, and to a lesser extent, Barnacles.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Zulimar Zebra was only mentioned once in "The Undersea Twister", but she is ultimately the reason Barnacles is captain.
• Soup Is Medicine: In "Heal", Tunip makes kelp soup for a sick Shellington.
• Stay in the Kitchen: Deborah's father is sexist as well as racist, as both Mrs. Deer and Margaret were forced to stop working because of him.
• Supreme Chef: Sarabi, who loves cooking.
• Team Mom: Kitsune, if you mean literally.
• Tears of Remorse: Captain Barnacles cries these after shouting at Deborah in "Even the Best Fall Down Sometimes".
• Those Two Guys: Amanda and Michelle.
• Token Evil Teammate:
  • "Evil" may be a stretch, but Sarabi is certainly more rude and hotheaded than the other Octonauts.
  • A more straigt example would be Seacliff, the previous captain, who was abusive towards his staff.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl:
  • Sarabi is the gruff, hotheaded tomboy to Deborah's bubbly, romantic Girly Girl.
  • Deborah is also the girly girl to Margaret's sporty, outspoken tomboy.
  • Meg is the adventurous tomboy to Finch's loving girly girl.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak:
  • While Tweak is still an engineer with no qualms about getting dirty, she still dreams of having a beautiful wedding.
  • Sarabi, as gruff as she is, still enjoys cooking.
• Trying Not to Cry: "Barnacles stiffened his expression. His eyes were stinging, but he resisted the urge to cry."
• T-Word Euphemism:
  • In "One Step Forward", Deborah says her father called her a "W word"^note "whore" over something she was wearing.
  • Her sister Margaret does the same thing in "Margaret's Story" when her father calls her "the S word"^note "slut".
• Unexpected Kindness:
  • In "The Undersea Twister", Deborah fears that Captain Barnacles might fire her because of their very heated argument the previous night. Inkling tells her he won't because he's such a Reasonable Authority Figure, and sure enough, he doesn't. While this in itself isn't kindness so much as a lack of meanness, Barnacles also hugs Deborah and and promises to give her a shoulder to lean on.
  • Another example involving "The Undersea Twister": It's said that David and Pamela were afraid that Humphrey would be furious that Pamela gave birth to Stacy before their wedding. Humphrey turned out to be quite accepting and loving towards Stacy, and he even called her his "golden grand-girl". Subverted, however, as this just makes him look worse because he wouldn't have been nearly as happy if it had happened to his daughters.
• Verbal Tic:
  • "Damn" seems to be Captain Barnacles' favorite word, as is "like" for Donna.
  • Elekai referring to authority figures only as "sir" or "ma'am".
• Vomit Discretion Shot: In "The Swell Shark", the perspective flips to the sick bay just before Shellington vomits.
• Wham Episode: "River Riding Adventure, Part 1" ends with Captain Barnacles breaking his leg.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Deborah has this reaction to Barnacles shouting at her in "Even the Best Fall Down Sometimes".
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: From "Even the Best Fall Down Sometimes":
  Captain Barnacles: I aimed to treat you^note Shellington respectfully from the moment I found you. And to this day, you've proven time and time again that you still deserve that respect.
• Younger Than They Look: In "Haddock, Rising Seas, and Gloria", Lekona is surprised to learn that Shellington is only twenty years old.

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