History Fanfic / CatchingAir

** TheMagicComesBack: [[spoiler: The appearance of the characteristic violet colour in Arsenic's eyes, and the ''Abyss''i Familia, indicate that abyssal powers are coming back. Chapter 10 reveals that Rhinedottir is trying to recreate Visions.]]

* SelfHarm: The Yakshas caught Arsenic being sloppily punched by a drunken thug and not making any attempt to defend themselves, implying this is a sort of self-half by proxy, confusing the Yakshas and the Ordo even further.

* BoomHeadshot: The Yakshas' first objective is assasinated by Arsenic via a sniper bullet full of toxins to the head.

* ConvenientSlowDance: Combined with DanceOfDespair. Dancing a historical tango is part of Mondstadt's Evening of Mourning, and Xiao dances with Carmen in order to cheer him up due to his grief.

* TheDreaded: Shenhe, the Yakshas' coach and manager, retains her icy personality and the five super agents fear to get on her bad side.

* FromCataclysmToMyth: The game's fantasy elements, like the Visions and the Archons, are considered myth in the current modern day Teyvat; 2000 years ago, due to the war between the divine, the abyssal forces and humanity known as "The Last Stand", the elemental magic dissapeared from the world and the Archons died.

* PastExperienceNightmare: Xiao has constant nightmares about his DarkAndTroubledPast, especially about [[spoiler:the time he was kidnapped and forced to kill for the very same criminals who mobbed and killed his parents.]]

* SecretIdentityVocalShift: Arsenic hides their real voice by a robotic voice filter, which also hides the nuances of their entonation, making them sound cold and sarcastic. [[spoiler:In reality, Arsenic's voice is actually quite lyrical, dejected and remorseful, and in their civilian persona, his voice is coarse and strained, likely due to previous crying.]]

** TheMagicComesBack: [[spoiler: The appearance of the characteristic violet colour in Arsenic's eyes, and the ''Abyss''i Familia, indicate that abyssal powers are coming back. ''Chapter 9'' reveals that Rhinedottir is trying to recreate Visions.]]

* MysteriousWaif: Carmen, a young man who Xiao encounters in the Last Stand Monument, who gives Xiao very familiar red flags.

* WarMemorial: Mondstadt has the largest monument to the Last Stand in all of Teyvat. The Yaksha's visit allows for the perfect moment for worldbuilding and [[spoiler:might have allowed a fortuitous encounter between Xiao and Venti outside their "jobs".]]

* SecretIdentityVocalShift: Arsenic hides their real voice by a robotic voice filter, which also hides the nuances of their entonation, making them sound cold and sarcastic. [[spoiler:In reality, Arsenic's voice is actually quite lyrical, dejected and remorseful, and in their civilian persona, his voice is raspier.]]

** TheMagicComesBack: [[spoiler: The appearance of the characteristic violet colour in Arsenic's eyes, and the ''Abyss''i Familia, indicate that abyssal powers are coming back. ''Chapter 9'' reveals that the Familia is trying to recreate Visions.]]

* NothingIsScarier: There's absolutely ''no information'' on Arsenic whatsoever. Not even the Ordo Favonius' intelligence team could find anything about them. And in a time where EverythingIsOnline and, as Ningguang said, "the walls have ears", a deadly mercenary who's a complete unknown is the thing that disturbes everyone the most.

* SecretIdentityVocalShift: Arsenic hides their real voice by a robotic voice filter, which also hides the nuances of their entonation, making them sound cold and sarcastic. [[spoiler:In reality, Arsenic's voice is actually quite dejected and remorseful.]]

* ConvenientlySlowDance: Combined with DanceOfDespair. Dancing a historical tango is part of Mondstadt's Evening of Mourning, and Xiao dances with Carmen in order to cheer him up due to his grief.

** TheMagicComesBack: [[spoiler: The appearance of the characteristic violet colour in Arsenic's eyes, and the ''Abyss''i Familia, indicate that abyssal powers are coming back.]]

* NoiselessWalker: Arsenic's combat boots are deceptively light, and his steps are imperceptible to even Xiao.

* NothingIsScarier: There's absolutely ''no information'' on Arsenic whatsoever. Not even the Ordo Favonius' intellienge team could find anything about them. And in a time where EverythingIsOnline and, as Niangguang said, "the walls have ears", a deadly mercenary who's a complete unknown is the thing that disturbes everyone the most.

* WhamShot: From chapter 6: [[spoiler:"But, just before he lost sight of the mercenary, Alatus thought he saw a flash of violent pink encompass the shadowy figure’s eye." This implies that Arsenic (aka Venti) has somehow been infected with abyssal energy.]]

* SecretIdentityVocalShift: Arsenic hides their real voice by a robotic voice filther, which also hides the nuances of their entonation, making them sound cold and sarcastic. [[spoiler:In reality, Arsenic's voice is actually quite dejected and remorseful.]]

* TeamMom: Jiayi acts as the defacto leader of the Yakshas due to being the most grounded and levelheaded one. She descaletes Weijiang and Zixin's arguments, cares for the group's (especially Xiao's) emotional wellbeing and she's also the TeamChef. Xiao even called her "Jiejie"[[note]]Mandarin Chinese for "older sister"[[/note]] by [[FredudianSlip accident]] because of how much he associated her with that role.

* VitriolicBestBuds: Weijiang and Zixin are constantly arguing and egging each other, but it's clear they're as close as sibling who exasperate each other due to the amount of trust between them.

* GasLeakCoverUp: Twenty years ago, Mondstadt suffered a massive gas leak that destroyed a considerable amount of the city. Turns out it was an estimated cause; the reality is that it was a previous attempt from the Familia to build their Collider that ultimately failed.

* TheFaceless: Arsenic goes above and beyond to keep their face hidden, wearing an obscuring black mask alongside a hoodie and also wearing a gas mask due to their prefered assasination methods.

* BeautifulSingingVoice: Xiao catches the voice of someone singing while patrolling the streets of Mondstadt, and he's immediately ''fawning'' at its beauty and technique despite not understanding the lyrics. After recording the song and taking it to Keya for help in translating it, Kaeya is also amazed at the quality voice of the mysterious singer. [[spoiler:The fact that the owner of such beautiful voice is Arsenic surprises Xiao.]]

* OneDegreeOfSeparation: Albedo, the Ordo Favonius' head scientist is the son of Rhinedottir, the head of the Abyssi Familia.

* TheStateless: A [=DNA=] search reveales that there's no recorded information about Arsenic's real identity, not even civil nor medical records, neither in Mondstadt nor Liyue. Due to the secrecy of the mission, it's not possible to search in other nations' database but the lack of any info to PullTheThread is quite disturbing for everyone involved. [[spoiler:Considering Arsenic is Venti and his involvement with the Familia, he was either {{Unperson}}ed or his civilian persona is an InventedIndividual.]]
* TeamMom: Jiayi acts as the defacto leader of the Yakshas due to being the most grounded and levelheaded one. She descaletes Weijiang and Zixin's arguments, cares for the group's (especially Xiao's) emotional wellbeing and she's also the TeamChef. Xiao even called her "Jiejie"[[note]]Mandarin Chinese for "older sister"[[/note]] by accident because of how much he associated her with that role.

* BeautifulSingingVoice: Xiao catches the voice of someone singing while patrolling the streets of Mondstadt, and he's immediately at awe of its beauty and technique despite not understanding the lyrics. After recording the song and taking it to Keya for help in translating it, Kaeya is also amazed at the quality voice of the mysterious singer. [[spoiler:The fact that the owner of such beautiful voice is Arsenic surprises Xiao.]]

* CaughtOnTape: [[spoiler:Xiao accidentally left the recorder in his suit on, letting it record the entire conversation he had with Arsenic and left it in the Ordo Favonius' database. He's reluctant to reveal its existance to the other Yaksha and the Ordo, despite the useful information, because he left Arsenic go instead of attempting to capture them.]]

* FamilyOfChoice: They five Yakshas.

* SpoiledByTheCastList: It's pretty obvious that Arsenic would turn out to be Venti due to the xiaoven tag of the fic.

* TrappedInVillainy: [[spoiler:Xiao is starting to suspect Arsenic is trapped in the same situation he himself was before due to their seeming disregard for their life, going as far as to imagine Arsenic in the same padded room he was kept locked as a child.]]

* GratuitousGerman: The song Xiao hears is sang in Old Monstandian, which is German out of story.

* TheStateless: A [=DNA=] search reveales that there's no recorded information about Arsene's real identity, not even civil nor medical records, neither in Mondstadt nor Liyue. Due to the secrecy of the mission, it's not possible to search in other nations' database but the lack of any info to PullTheThread is quite disturbing for everyone involved. [[spoiler:Considering Arsene is Venti and his involvement with the Familia, he was either {{Unperson}}ed or his civilian persona is an InventedIndividual.]]

* CommonalityConnection: Xiao feels this way towards [[spoiler:Arsene]] over the fact that [[spoiler:they both are remorseful killers ForcedIntoEvil.]]

* WeaponOfMassDestruction: The Familia's goal seems to be the creation of a machine dubbed the Collider that, after getting more information, reveals it has the potential of destroying a ''fifth'' of Mondstadt. [[spoiler:Arsenic revealing that the previous Collider succeded without destroying that much of the city, implies its purpose isn't wanton destruction.]]

* WaifFu: Arsenic might be a FragileSpeedster, but their sufficiently skilled and atletic to land quite the devastating hit and their nimbleness makes them quite hard to take a hold.

* TeamMom: Jiayi acts as the defacto leader of the Yakshas due to being the most grounded and levelheaded. She descaletes Weijiang and Zixin's arguments, cares for the group's (especially Xiao's) emotional wellbeing and she's also the TeamChef. Xiao even called her "Jiejie"[[note]]Mandarin Chinese for "older sister"[[/note]] by accident because of how much he associated her with that role.

* BeautifulSingingVoice: Xiao catches the voice of someone singing while patrolling the streets of Mondstadt, and he's immediately amazed at its beauty and technique despite not understanding the lyrics. After recording the song and taking it to Keya for help in translating it, Kaeya is also amazed at the quality voice of the mysterious singer. [[spoiler:The fact that the owner of such beautiful voice is Arsenic surprises Xiao.]]

* CaughtOnTape: [[spoiler:Xiao accidentally left the recorder in his suit on, letting it record the entire conversation he had with Arsenic and left it in the Ordo Favonius' database. He's reluctant to reveal its existance to the other Yaksha and the Ordo, despite the useful information, because he left Arsenic go instead of attempting to capture her.]]
* CodeName: The Yakshas use their canonical names has code names, separated from their original, civilian names:

* TheFaceless: Arsenic goes above and beyond to keep their face hidden, wearing an obscuring black mask alongside a hoodie and also wearing a gas mask due to their prefered assasiantion methods.

** FoundFamilyViaWork: The five not only trained together under a very strict regime, but were also encouraged to spend as much time together as possible and even live together in their own dorms, in order to foment their camaraderie to the point of being a BandOfBrothers. Xiao especially sees them as the closest thing to a family ever since the tragedies of his past.

* {{Reincarnation}}: [[spoiler:There's subtle hints that the deceased archons have reincarnated in the current era, thanks to Xiao's rememberance of Zhongli's eyes shining golden for a second.
* SecretIdentityVocalShift: Arsenic hides their real voice by a robotic voice filther, which also hides the nuances of their entonation, making them sound cold and sarcastic. [[spoiler:In reality, Arsenic's voice is actually quite sad and dejected.]]

* BeautifulSingingVoice: Xiao catches the voice of someone singing while patrolling the streets of Mondstadt, and he's immediately amazed at its beauty and technique despite not understanding the lyrics. After recording the song and taking it to Keya for help in translating it, Kaeya is also amazed at the quality voice of the mysterious singer. [[spoiler:The fact that the owner os such beautiful voice is Arsenic surprises Xiao.]]

* PastExperiencesNightmares: Xiao has constant nightmares about his DarkAndTroubledPast, especially about [[spoiler:the time he was kidnapped and forced to kill for the very same criminals who mobbed and killed his parents.]]