History Fanfic / Kaleidoscope

* BenevolentMageRuler: The Ice King was this, ruling over a kingdom that knew nothing but peace. [[spoiler: This rendered them woefully unprepared when the Pyresians came knocking.]]

* AtopAMountainOfCourses: [[spoiler:In the siege of the Khionian capital, Aenar went looking for Lyan and found Alys standing on a pile of dead palace attendants and officials. They had been murdered and displayed for him to find just so Alys can gloat.]]

** How ''utterly naïve'' is Aenar to think that Lyan would agree to [[spoiler: either running away with him and damn the consequences, or resign his life to living as a Pyresian?]]

* IdenticalStranger: Myrina Aretia and Lyan of Khione can pass for each other at a distance until either of them open their mouths. It's plausible that they're related somewhere far up the family tree, as the House of Aretus has produced military heroes who might have gotten the StandardHeroReward.

** TheReveal showed [[spoiler:Alys]] to be this - no matter what she did, she would be "humored" and disqualified for the throne on the basis of her gender, despite being the perfect person to carry on [[spoiler:Valar's]] dubious legacy (thanks to her DaddysGirl nature making her a GenerationXerox copy of him). She's made peace with this fact and is perfectly happy to [[spoiler:rule over what's left of Khione, after killing Aenar to make sure ''he'' doesn't get it handed to him.]]

* IWantGrandkids: Valar wants Aenar to produce an heir, IncompatibleOrientation notwithstanding. Alys doesn't get this demand because she's DaddysGirl and refuses to be married off (and in that situation any child of hers would be a foreigner anyway).

** Klio is named after Clio, the Muse of history. [[spoiler: She is the only senior Khione royal family member left alive after the invasion, and she fled with the truth back to her country. The public version of the story was distorted over time, without her input.]]

*** Valar(r) Targaryen - While there was a Targaryen by that name, the Pyresian was named after the High Valyrian sayings of ''valar morghulis'' (''all men must die'') and ''valar dohaeris'' (''all men must serve''). He is comprised of the worst parts of men in power: abusive, chauvinistic, manipulative, generally despicable. He is the cause of much death, and yet the duty of all his subjects is to serve him - including his son, to tragic effect.
*** Aenar Targaryen - Aenar the Exile, who took his family and fled the Doom of Valyria. The Targaryens only survived the Doom because of Aenar's flight, and the Pyresian royal family main line effectively ended with a chain of events starting from Aenar's death.

*** Ceryse Hightower (the first wife of Maegor I the Cruel) - A noble lady married into the Targaryen line and the one true legal queen of Maegor. Ceryse of Pyresia was Valar's true love.

* TwinSwitch: Lyan and Myrina attempted this as children, but they got found out fairly quickly - Myrina-as-Lyan because he would never be so attentive and quiet in a lesson, and Lyan-as-Myrina's attempt to mimic her voice was allegedly an epic failure. [[spoiler:It worked well in the climax, right until Aenar outs Myrina in a misguided attempt to save her life.]]

* WinterRoyalLady: Prince Lyan of Khione has white hair and blue eyes due to his ice powers, and dresses accordingly. He was named as a shoutout to Lyanna Stark, a noble lady [[spoiler:who died surrounded by winter roses, and lived in the wintry north]]. Khione, his country, is named after the Greek goddess of snow.

* HurtingHero: Yuuri, with his anxiety, occupational hazard and {{Angst}}. The narrative also goes into detail on [[spoiler: Victor relapsing into depression after Yuuri’s death, though it didn’t take long until Eros shows up.]]

* SilverFox: Minako, Yuuri's ballet teacher and later handler, is his ''mom's'' [[SenpaiKohai senpai]], but she looks younger and more attractive than his ''sister''.

* PeekABangs: Victor and Yurio both have one eye covered by their hair.

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: When there's a vacancy, the best Agent in a certain region will get KickedUpstairs to be the Handler. This happened to Minako when Yuuri was transferred to Tokyo after graduation. Agents' aim is to be the one that gets KickedUpstairs rather than dying on the job or retiring - this is a major source of conflict between Victor and Yuri, who are both strong contenders for Yakov's replacement. Yuri is upset his WorthyOpponent Victor seemingly gave up and ran away to Tokyo after his fiancé, and gets even ''more'' upset when Victor lets slip that the thought of retirement crossed his mind.

* SilverFox: Minako, Yuuri's ballet teacher and later handler, is his ''mom's'' [[SempaiKouhai senpai]], but she looks younger and more attractive than his ''sister''.

* ShesGotLegs: The gender-inverted version [[spoiler: - Eros uncrossing his legs -]] was written with the former Creator/TakarazukaRevue actress Yamato Yuuga’s motions during Theatre/SeraMyu in mind. She plays a man - Mamoru Chiba, Yuuri’s {{Expy}} - in those musicals.

* CriticalResearchFailure: InUniverse, verging on CultureClash. In chapter 1, Yuuri refers to Victor using his patronymic while trying to get his attention. This is not done in Russian culture, since people typically use "first name + patronymic" for older (40+) people, teachers of one's children, someone vastly above the speaker in social status, etc. He can be forgiven for thinking it's appropriate and analogous to some Japanese suffixes. It is "Vitya!" that Victor actually responds to - the correct form of address for him, as Yuuri's fiancé and peer.

* WeaponOfChoice:

*** ''passion and sheer perfection'': ''Film/GrandHotel'' (the stage adaptation). This fic takes it UpToEleven, with chapter names also being musical lines:

* AdultFear:
** The very premise: you spend your life - often from a very young age - battling threats that can level your city, if not the entire world. It’s well-paid, given the risk of injury, but once you lose your mobility and your reflexes have been dulled even slightly by age, you’re out of the running. If you have loved ones who aren’t part of the life, you cannot tell them about it. Your only source of emotional catharsis is other Agency-involved people. Should you be unfortunate enough to attach yourself to a Neutral and get yourself killed on the job, you will be written out of their existence. It will be as if you have never existed at all. If you are an Agent whose lover/partner/spouse/friend/sibling have died in the field, you will be stuck with your memories and grief for that person. It’s exactly why the Agency employs empaths and telepaths as therapists, fortunately, but it’s no substitution for talking to someone who knew the deceased well.
** Upon learning of a great secret, the Handlers decided to keep the full extent of the story from the persons involved in order to protect them. This ended up getting [[spoiler: Yuuri killed, delivering the Red Rose handily to the bad guys, and Victor mind-controlled, which means the Blue Rose would follow and cause TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.]]
** On the same theme of secret-keeping: Katerina, after [[spoiler: losing her husband to occupational hazard]], tried to keep her little boy as far away from the magical world as possible. She was turned in by Galina, someone she had thought she could trust. Galina was right to do so as Victor would end up playing an instrumental part in the world's survival, but Katya never knew that.

* VillainousAromanticAsexual: [[spoiler:Eros]] is a sex-repulsed aromantic asexual. That being said, his sex-repulsion can be chalked down to him being an EnergyBeing and finding human sexual/romantic practices strange and alien, Erin trying her best to annoy him with crudeness, and to [[spoiler:Yuuri's own repulsion.]] As the Earth dating pool is comprised entirely of humans, a species he despises, he's not likely to feel any attraction. [[spoiler: Upon his BackFromTheDead return, he deliberately uses sexually suggestive language and threats to press Yuuri's BerserkButton - reusing Erin's tactic.]]

* MohsScaleOfViolenceHardness: As it's DarkerAndEdgier from the Sailor Moon manga, it rates a 7. There's harm done to sentient beings, SpontaneousHumanCombustion, etc.

* WinterRoyalLady: Prince Lyan of Khione has white hair, pale skin, and blue eyes due to his ice powers, and dresses accordingly. He was named as a shoutout to Lyanna Stark, a noble lady [[spoiler:who died surrounded by winter roses, and lived in the wintry north]]. Khione, his country, is named after the Greek goddess of snow.

* {{Asexuality}}:
** Yuuri is demisexual (which falls under the grey-ace spectrum) and sex-repulsed in general. He can/will engage in sexual activity (and kinky roleplay) with people he has developed a deep bond with, but the topic of sex in general causes discomfort for him.
** Phichit is aromantic asexual. He's only interested in other people as friends. This becomes a plot point when VillainousAromanticAsexual [[spoiler:Eros]] tries to manipulate Phichit over to the dark side, but misinterprets his friendship with Yuuri as romantic. [[spoiler:Eros read it as unrequited love, while it's actually just a miscommunication/difference in perception of relationships. Yuuri doesn't have "best friends", but Phichit considers himself one of Yuuri's closest friends.]]
** As stated above, [[spoiler:Eros is a sex-repulsed VillainousAromanticAsexual.]] That being said, his sex-repulsion can be chalked down to him being an EnergyBeing and finding human sexual/romantic practices strange and alien, Erin trying her best to annoy him with crudeness, and to [[spoiler:Yuuri's own repulsion.]] As the Earth dating pool is comprised entirely of humans, a species he despises, he's not likely to feel any attraction. [[spoiler: Upon his BackFromTheDead return, he deliberately uses sexually suggestive language and threats to press Yuuri's BerserkButton - reusing Erin's tactic.]]

* AmicablyDivorced: Yakov and Lilia. They're no longer a couple, but they still respect each other as professionals.

* RealityEnsues:
** Victor can pull off attacks and maneuvers that are at the very limits of (super)human ability... but he's not immune to aging. In a career where youth counts, he's thinking about retirement at an age when most young adults have just started their professional lives.
** Despite being able to go toe to toe with Victor if necessary, Yuuri is hampered by his tendency to comfort eat. That would be a [[BigEater cute quirk]]... except that his food preferences count against him, even though it's fairly mundane rather than obviously unhealthy, because weight and body mass is unfortunately critical to his line of work. In addition to that, as with Victor, time is not on Yuuri's side (nor his PowerIncontinence), with retiring at 24 a serious possibility.

** The Agents' codenames refer to figures from Greek mythology. Maaya's is an oblique version (see MeaningfulName for explanation).

** The fluffy keychain Erin finds at D-Point. It belonged to an unnamed, deceased Agent (see AllForNothing for more details), and had held the key to his daughter's first car, which they had fixed up together.

* TurnOutLikeHisFather: Katerina desperately tried to hide her job from Victor because she did not want him to die as well, as she had already [[spoiler: lost Mikhail and is unable to fully grieve him.]] Turned out to be AllForNothing after a well-meaning Galina informed Yakov that little Vitya was a non-Active.

* WoundedGazelleGambit: Arguably the "panic attack" that [[spoiler: Eros]] pulled.

* AliensAndMonsters: The Agents start off fighting monsters, until the aliens show up.

* GovernmentConspiracy: AliensAndMonsters exist, and people are employed to protect the world from them.

** [[spoiler:Erin replicates the paint can trick from Film/HomeAlone ''specifically'' because she recalls seeing the WebVideo/{{Vsauce}} 3 video that replicates the scene with the conclusion that it would be fatal in real life. Additionally, Eros surviving his tumble down the stairs (with a big aversion of BloodlessCarnage compared to the original) recalls Film/DeathBecomesHer. Eros and Madeline are both attractive immortal human(oid)s, prideful and vain, emotionally and verbally abusive to their partners/henchmen who eventually snap and (try to) kill them.]]

** [[spoiler:Erin replicates the paint can trick from Film/HomeAlone ''specifically'' because she recalls seeing the WebVideo/{{Vsauce}} 3 video that replicates the scene with the conclusion that it would be fatal in real life. Additionally, Eros surviving his tumble down the stairs (with a big aversion of BloodlessCarnage compared to the original) recalls Film/DeathBecomesHer. Eros and Madeline are both immortal human(oid)s, prideful and vain, emotionally and verbally abusive to their partners/henchmen who eventually snap and (try to) kill them.]]

** [[spoiler:Erin replicates the paint can trick from Film/HomeAlone ''specifically'' because she recalls seeing the [[WebVideo/Vsauce]] 3 video that replicates the scene with the conclusion that it would be fatal in real life. Additionally, Eros surviving his tumble down the stairs (with a big aversion of BloodlessCarnage compared to the original) recalls Film/DeathBecomesHer. Eros and Madeline are both immortal human(oid)s, prideful and vain, emotionally and verbally abusive to their partners/henchmen who eventually snap and (try to) kill them.]]

* MohsScaleOfViolenceHardness: As it's DarkerAndEdgier from the Sailor Moon manga, it rates a 7. There's harm done to sentient beings, SpontaneousHumanCombustion, etc. |

** Yuri’s snarky remark about a character keeping another imprisoned and cutting the latter’s hair for a potion is lifted off Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire.
** The narration comparing Victor’s realization that [[spoiler: Yuuri’s dead because of him]] hitting him like a car on an icy road references Fanfic/TheLightOfDayIsFading - in which Victor actually did get hit by a car on an icy road, which also placed him in contact with a dark ManipulativeBastard.
*** Speaking of that fic, Victor’s parents’ name being Mikhail and Katerina is lifted off it, which in turn was lifted off Fanfic/SeparationAnxiety.
** Broken glass turning into sand upon impact with a shield is from Film/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix.

** Myrina Aretia was named after Myrina, queen of the Amazons. Aretias is an ancient name for Giresun Island. It is said to have been used by the Amazons for their fertility rituals. Furthermore, a legend holds that King Mithridates VI of Pontus, furious at his daughter falling in love with a poor shepherd, had the shepherd hung from a cherry tree in front of the tower where the princess was imprisoned on the island. She hung herself from the tower the next day. Myrina [[spoiler: killed herself by blowing up the armory, and her last thought was of her beloved prince, who would be dead in a MurderSuicide with his husband mere minutes afterwards.]]