#xiaoether

Honestly Xiao / Traveler works but I prefer Aether because of his characterization as the softer twin.

Lumine, from what I've seen and what the fandom seems to agree on, is a bit colder and more no nonsense of the two. She does the commissions for a paycheck and rolls her eyes when people randomly approach her with more. She makes her discomfort known but does it anyway because she is a good person who wants to help.

Aether is more of a chronic people pleaser. He'll grin and bear it, saving his snark for whenever he and Paimon are alone because he wasn't other people to see him as anything less than helpful and cooperative.

Enter Xiao. He shows up and doesn't want anything from the Traveler. He's self-sufficient and instead wants to help the Traveler, telling them to speak his name when they're in trouble. The Traveler refuses to take advantage of his offer and instead only calls him for cute, easy tasks (taste testing food).

The Traveler refuses to be a burden; Xiao already suffered enough. So the Traveler is kind, offering small gifts of food and quiet companionship because they care. Xiao never asked for anything but the Traveler gives and gives because that's what they know.

Xiao is easily overwhelmed by this shower of kindness, but they can't stop it. What they can do is attempt to offer kindness in return. Crystalflies to decorate their hair. Answering their call and letting himself be included in whatever the Traveler is up to now. Taste testing food.

But never once does he push. Xiao never asks for anything more than attempts at companionship, but even that is mostly in response to the Traveler always asking if Xiao would like to do something (Teapot lines). Xiao is unobtrusive, quiet. He expects nothing but is so grateful for chances to be around the Traveler after they've broken down their walls bit by bit.

The chasm quest highlights this. Xiao is fine being separated from the others, wanting to keep them at arms length because he himself is a danger with his karmic debt. But the Traveler is there. They are there and hurt. The Traveler that he KNOWS is a self sacrificial fool willing to do anything to save everyone else, but no one will save them.

So Xiao comes, to ensure the safety of the Traveler, the one person who had been nothing but patient and kind to him but that no one else seems to fret over.

And why would they? This is the famous gold haired traveler who had fought dragons and gods alike. They're a legend, unrivaled, peerless. A friend to the archons. A master swordsman. They see the Traveler as untouchable.

Just like the Yaksha.

Xiao understands what it's like to bear the burdens of this world. He understands what it feels like to be ordered around to solve problems. So he comes and offers himself as the sacrifice in his stead. He isn't asked to. No one wants him to. But if not Xiao, it would have been the Traveler. Xiao does it because he won't ask someone else to bear the burden.

To me, that's what it all boils down to. Both of them just want to help the other, but there are no expectations. No commissions or fights that they ask the other to join. No requests. Just two people who both shoulder a heavy burden finding solace in someone else who understands and asks for nothing.

They aren't the gold haired traveler and the Yaksha.

🫠

What do you MEAN they're alone on a little boat together at night with nothing but the gentle lamplight to guide them on the water while Xiao feels a rare moment of peace enough to relax with them WHAT