TL;CR MEME

[retellers]

1. Comment with your character.
2. Receive comments from others.
3. Reply to their comments with long ballads and explanations of your characters' relationship throughout the game.
4. Suffer as we have suffered over your CR.

Comments

[antaressnipe]

YEA YOU SHOULD

Chiron and Emet certainly hit it off well in the beginning, didn’t they. I thought Emet’s grandpa sass would be more of a hurdle for CR, but instead Chiron found a very competent co-conspirator early on in the game – and really, for Chiron, that’s a big deal when he is so used to seeing others as potential students for him to guide. His age bottlenecks his CR into only a few slots, yet Emet managed to earn Chiron’s respect by being a fellow “immortal”: someone who was practical and underhanded when necessary, but still clearly had a heart underneath his world-weary expectations, and a wisdom befitting of his age.

It also brought out Chiron's "greek god" pragmatism, too. He is kind, gentle and wise, yes, but he is also cutting, ruthless, and brutality honest. And just because Chiron loves humanity does not mean he doesn't have his own list of grievances, and he has seen the mistakes humans make time and time again. Getting to be a little salty, a little exhausted, and knowing that Emet understood his viewpoints? Was a great way to further earn Chiron's trust (even if Chiron forever came down on the side of "no protect the children" while Emet just rolled his eyes).

And it’s partly because of that baseline trust that Chiron rarely pressed when it came to personal matters, and so wasn’t bothered if he knew little about Emet in comparison. Chiron is a MYTH. Everyone knows his story, so it meant nothing to him to share all the details that he did. And really, it was enough that they had so much common ground in the first place (and like, he noticed that when he didn't press, Emet just seemed more at ease around him, and Chiron preferred the other's comfort to his truths).

Given those circumstances, it didn’t take long for Chiron to realize he just liked spending time with him, even if they kept most talk to business. Which was another surprising turn of events for him. Chiron is used to being the one sought out for his intellect and skill; even in life, he did not have to go seeking the company of others. But there were moments in-game where Chiron wanted Emet's company for no other reason than he enjoyed it, and after week 2, couldn't even blame it on curses.

Then he learned about all of Emet’s Final Fantasy bullshit! And that bothered him! I cannot overstate how much that bothered him. Hands down, that was the most upset Chiron had been the entire game, and singlehandedly swerved his character arc.

THE TRUE LORE IS EMET CUCKED ME AND I WILL NEVER FORGIVE HIM.

Because knowing that there was someone out in the universe bearing that amount of pain, responsibility, and misery by themselves just. devastated him. For the longest time, Chiron wasn’t sure if Emet was a deity, didn't feel it was important enough to ask, but after Emet shared his history, Chiron looked at the other as if he were a tragic god who had not yet passed into myth. And given Chiron's own experience with death, his relationship to mythology, and how he is literally a myth hung in the sky for the world to remember, HE HAD SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT WHAT HE HAD LEARNED. And most importantly, that was the first time Chiron really sat down and wondered if he could accept his own death -- if he would be satisfied hearing everything Emet told him and just disappearing back into the void once everything was over.

To live for himself? Absolutely not. He lost the last war and was not interested in anything but returning to that cold sleep, for no other reason than he thought it had to be so. But living to help someone else, someone he cared for, whom he felt needed his help because there was absolutely no way life would abide his plan to turn back the clock (and because Chiron was just so, so convinced that if Emet wasn't dead, he was absolutely going to lose)? That he could do and accept as a worthy cause for living, no matter how brief or long. And Chiron is a believer in fate, too – not so much the idea that fate guides every decision a person makes, but sometimes pieces line up perfectly and you are left to make a very significant choice.

And that’s the choice Chiron eventually decided he’d make; to stick with Emet until he passed into death, so that this sad nerd could die with someone by his side. A very, very "no-strings attached" type of arrangement, what amounted to eternal companionship, but it’s like what he told Emet during his confession, too – yes, he was moved by Emet’s circumstances, but he never would have offered if he didn't care about him in the first place.

His decision, even if it gave Emet nearly all the power in their dynamic, was still something Chiron freely wanted to do. And that's why it never bothered him to offer.

THOUGH HIS UH, TIMING SUCKED PRETTY BADLY, DIDN'T IT? All of week 3 happened as Chiron was coming to terms with the weight of this decision, which is why he put off speaking about it for a while. He also had no misconceptions about how Emet viewed him (or how Chiron assumed Emet viewed him, at any rate); it just didn't seem right to bring this up without considering the full weight of those consequences...

But then Emet killed a man and needed Chiron's help covering his ass.

Due to Emet’s role, Chiron was prepared to lay down his life to see him and the rest of the game succeed – that’s the type of heroic spirit he is, and again, he’s dead. In his eyes, he is a chess piece to be used, and he gave Emet permission so many times to just use him. Meaning he was hilariously blindsided by how much Emet disliked the idea of him stupidly dying if it could be avoided. Like, I think that was the first (and probably last) time Chiron raised his voice at Emet to just shut the fuck up, you're not going to die on his watch, what do you mean you're upset about this?

(Everyone gives Chiron their condolences about Emet, but deadass, Chiron is exhausting to be with for this reason. He's not a centaur, he's a mule.)

And while Hansa later explained that Emet was perhaps a bit touchy about the prospect of losing Chiron when he'd just lost his son, that coupled with how much everyone else lost their shit at Chiron trying to scapegoat himself really put this centaur through an emotional wringer of his own making. So deep down, he didn't feel great about the timing of his confession to Emet either. The only reason he spoke of it is because Emet cashed in on that "YOU OWE ME THE LORE" promise, and Chiron is duty-bound. If Emet had just shot Chiron in the head, he probably would've thanked him for it.

So by the time he found out that Hansa also cared for rat grandpa, Chiron was a bit… relieved, frankly! Because that's the week he was lowkey panicking. It felt like he'd done too much emotional meddling AS EMET WARNED and had caused more harm than expected, but he can’t really change who he is at his core – if given the opportunity, and feeling there is no other way forward than to die, he’s going to yeet himself straight to it. At best, he will try to prepare everyone for his parting, and it's so difficult for him to put on the brakes when he feels he must act decisively.

But Hansa? At least he can be there for Emet, and Alex can be there for Hansa, so their presence in some ways felt like a failsafe for Chiron’s wish to see Emet given companionship after spending so much time alone. Y'know, just in case Chiron could not make good on his promise.

So in some ways, while Chiron was super calm and collected and chill and grateful to everyone when the OT4 started, he didn't enter the arrangement on even ground. He was there to make them happy; if he was able to stay, great, but if not, they could handle his departure.

If anything changed, it’s just that Chiron is... I don't want to say lonely, because he really did have a wholesome life surrounded by people who loved him, but since becoming a Heroic Spirit, he had not had the time to think about the future, and where he wanted to be for his own sake. Even that promise to Emet was more about Emet than it was Chiron. But being with Emet and the other two gave him a taste at actually living outside of duty. He didn't have to be satisfied serving the greater goal or coasting along, he didn't even have to give them anything to validate his presence! Instead he could settle in a way he hadn't had a chance to do since he was an immortal, and consider what actual happiness meant to him.

And he's discovered that Emet brings him a level of peace and understanding in the way that someone who is equally Old and Tired can. He loves Alex and Hansa dearly, yet still feels like the truest version of himself when he is with Emet. It's why even as he kept losing his memories and his sense of self, he felt comfortable with whatever decisions Emet came to -- in terms of their relationship, or even the fact that he gave Chiron permission to die for the greater good. Chiron knew it would hurt the OT4, but ultimately he was given leave to be a stupid horse, and despite reaching a point where Chiron would have been perfectly happy to live, it still meant a lot that Emet respected Chiron's wishes to be his self-sacrificial self in the end.

At endgame, his feelings aren’t… 100% romantic, honestly it’s more like DEEP PROFOUND SENSE OF DUTY AND CARE that absolutely does not skew towards platonic, I mentioned this to you on disco but Chiron still has to settle his own feelings over the fact that he'll never see his wife and children again -- but Chiron is very happy being with Emet at this point, an so he’ll stick around for as long as he’s allowed to be at his side.