The Archer and the Arrow
is an Odd Squad fanfic written by lazey_hazey. The story's premise is a fairly simple one — Olive gets seriously injured by a villain, and she is believed to have died from it, leading Otto and everyone around him to mourn her loss while the villain in question has quite the Heel Realization. It is considered an Old Shame for the author, but is a nice read nonetheless and explores the concept of what ramifications a villain would face if they actually attacked an Odd Squad agent and they got seriously hurt as a result.
This fanfic contains examples of:
- Adventures in Comaland: While unconscious, Olive flashes back to the pienado incident, recalling how she stopped the pienado with Oscar making a Heroic Sacrifice and how her former partner was the mastermind behind the entire massacre.
- Bleed 'Em and Weep: After realizing that she killed Olive, Archer Anne lets a Single Tear roll down her face and becomes overwhelmed with regret and remorse. She's so remorseful, in fact, that she willingly surrenders herself to Odd Squad because she feels it's a fitting punishment for her after what she's done, stating that she shouldn't roam free with how dangerous she is.Archer Anne: [thinking] I'm a villain. This is my job. So then why do I feel so terrible about this?! I've let them all down. They're all going to hate me. I'm losing all my friends.
- Blind Alley: Subverted. When fleeing Archer Anne, Olive and Otto run into a passageway that's blocked off and begin to panic. Instead of Anne running past them, she manages to find them in the alleyway.
- Bullet Time: This occurs to Olive as she mentally runs through a list of what gadgets would take down Archer Anne, just before the villainess shoots her bow. She finds that none of them will, simply assumes that Anne will shoot one, then tells herself that of course the villainess is going to shoot one — she's an archer, meaning that if she lifts her bow, she's not going to use it without ammo.
- The Chase: Instead of fighting Archer Anne head-on, Olive and Otto make a break for it, running all throughout the city in the hopes of losing Anne. They don't, and she quickly finds them trapped in an alleyway with a blocked-off passageway.
- Death Wail: Subverted. Archer Anne wants to do this following her killing of Olive, to let all of her emotions out. However, she holds it in and instead surrenders herself to Odd Squad.
- Evil Laugh: Archer Anne naturally gives one just before aiming her bow at Olive and Otto.
- Expy: Archer Anne could be considered one of Archer Achilles, a canon Odd Squad villain who is also an archer. However, whereas Anne shoots arrows that create patches of grass when they land, Achilles can fire lasers with her bow at her enemies without using any arrows.
- Green and Mean: Archer Anne has green eyes, which fit both her villain status and her connection to nature.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Knowing that Otto will either be severely injured or will die from the hit, and knowing that she herself will face one of those two possibilities if she uses herself as a human shield to save him, Olive takes Archer Anne's arrow for Otto right to the side of her chest. She ends up collapsing, leading Otto to believe that she's about close to dying, but she turns out to have survived the hit due to the arrow not hitting any of her organs.
- If I Can't Have You…: A non-romantic variant with Olive, who tells Otto that if he doesn't become her co-Director, then the precinct in the next town over won't have a new Director at all following Orville's retirement.
- Immediate Self-Contradiction: Oprah encourages Oscar to leave her and be the great leader that she knows he is, stating that they'll visit each other just before walking away from him. She then comes back not a few seconds later and asks him if he'd like to hang out with her now.
- I Regret Nothing: Inverted and invoked. After stopping the pienado massacre, Olive swore to make Odd Todd regret the day for the rest of his life, then swore to never hurt him. Of course, anyone familiar with the show knows that the first promise is made good on despite not being only by her hands. The second one...not so much.
- It's Quiet… Too Quiet: Played for drama with Otto during his grieving, where he realizes this exact thing when coming back from a case and not seeing his partner next to him.
- I Will Fight No More Forever: Murdering Olive by shooting an arrow meant for Otto but with his partner making a Heroic Sacrifice instead is where Archer Anne draws the line, as she hands herself in to Odd Squad to be locked up.
- Leader Wannabe: Just like in canon, Olive wishes to be promoted to the Management department and become an Odd Squad Director.
- Narrative Poem: The epilogue is solely comprised of one of these, which details how everyone gets a happy ending and how that likely would never have been the case had Olive actually died from taking an arrow to the chest.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Olive and Otto leaving their shields in the Lab means that they're defenseless against Archer Anne and her arrows. As a result, Olive takes an arrow clear to the left side of her chest that she likely could have avoided taking had she used her shield.
- No One Should Survive That!: When making her Heroic Sacrifice for Otto, Olive takes an arrow to the side of her chest — an arrow that, when hitting land, creates a patch of multicolored grass. She's rendered barely conscious when falling back into Otto's arms for support, but completely loses consciousness by the time she's taken to the Medical Bay, and as a result, she is believed to have died by Otto, who mourns her loss. The next day, he goes back to Precinct 13579's Headquarters, where Dr. O tells him that Olive's Heroic Sacrifice was non-lethal and that she survived the attack because the arrow failed to hit any of her chest organs, nor did it even touch her ribcage. She even lampshades just how lucky it is that Olive is still alive and kicking afterwards.Dr. O: She's a lucky girl.Otto: [laughing] I'm lucky to have her.
- Nothing Can Save Us Now: Olive comes to this realization when she thinks of what gadgets she can use to block Archer Anne's attack and finds that there are none, nor does she have time to combine gadgets to create something that would block her shot.
- Not Quite Dead: After Olive makes a Heroic Sacrifice and gets an arrow to the side of the chest, she is believed to have died and Otto begins to mourn. Once she's taken to Dr. O's Medical Bay, the doctor tells Otto that Olive survived because the arrow didn't hit any of her organs.
- Only Friend: More like "only partner", but same thing — it's stated that despite Odd Todd having been her previous partner before Otto came along, Otto is essentially her only partner.
- Please, Don't Leave Me: In Chapter 6, it's stated that Otto's worst fear is losing Olive — whether it's by her nearly dying, or it's by her leaving him to work at another Odd Squad precinct. Of course, since the partner pair are Living Emotional Crutches to each other to some extent or another, it has some justification.
- Proportional Aging: Surprisingly averted. Odd Squad agents age normally in this story, as evidenced by Otto thinking about the future and how he and Olive will eventually become old enough to have to quit their jobs at Odd Squad, at the age of sixteen.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Shortly after bringing Olive to the Medical Bay, Otto becomes overwhelmed with emotion and leaves the room so he can grieve.
- They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: Oprah permits Oscar to call her by just that instead of by her title of "Ms. O", since he's the President of the Scientists now.
- Time Skip: Chapter 6 takes place sometime "in the future". Exactly when it takes place is never specified, but it is during the events of "O is Not For Over".
- Chapter 7 does another time jump that branches off from Chapter 6. As with the last one, the exact timeframe is not specified, but the chapter covers the events of "Oscar Strikes Back".
- Unbroken Vigil: Otto does this after taking Olive to the Medical Bay, but it doesn't last for the entire night, as he goes back home at one point after taking some time to mourn at Headquarters with Oscar and Dr. O at his side.
- Witness Protection: Instead of sending her to jail, Otto decides to let Archer Anne into Precinct 13579's villain rehab program, which she's grateful for.
- You Are Not Ready: In Chapter 7, Oscar asks himself if Oona is ready to handle the responsibility of being Precinct 13579's newest Lab Director, but knows that he himself isn't ready to leave Oprah nor is he ready to leave the Scientists that he leads.
