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YESSS THE WHITE LILIES, THE INTERTWINED FINGERS, THE HAND ON THE CHEEK, THE DUO POSE, THE BIG SWORD AND THE STAFF, THE TRAGEDY

xavier x clerith the crossover i didnt know I needed 😭✨🎀🙂‍↕️

i IMMEDIATELY thought of them while seeing mc and xav death scene so I had to...

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"How could I wear the crown when it means coating my hands in her blood?"

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Xavier: Feverish Attempts 🌡️

at the end of the day..

Feverish Attempts is a card about MC wanting Xavier to stop fighting alone (despite knowing he can handle things on his own)

and just let MC in..

She wants Xavier to rely on her not just during his vulnerable moments but also in combat, and in life..♡

Xavier believes that by hiding things about his identity, ever, etc he’s protecting MC

To an extent, he isnt wrong. But since the fateful encounter with MC happened, they grew close.

Ofc after that MC wants to know all of him, & be a part of HIS life as much as he is a part of HERS.

But change takes time.. It takes 21 Days to develop a new habit, & Xavier is in the process of coming to terms with the fact that he can rely on MC instead of feeling that he’ll worry her.

He's promised her and it’ll probably be explored further in his main story update in July.

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a bet + campfire for clerith? 👀

The fire burns well into the night. Even after a few hours it casts a warm orange glow across Cosmo Canyon, its flames flickering and dancing with a gentle, hypnotic sway and a soft crackle that hums through the air.

The crowd that was gathered has long since dispersed, their lanterns having floated so far that they can’t really be distinguished from the brilliant spill of stars overhead. Cloud’s own friends have peeled off one by one to head to their rooms and sleep - except for Aerith. She shook her head and said she wasn’t tired when he asked if she was ready to head in, and settled herself on the ground near the fire, sitting with her legs stretched out and leaning back on her hands.

“Don’t feel you need to wait up,” she had said to him, but he dismissed that with a shrug. The idea of leaving her alone makes his skin prickle with uneasiness. Cosmo Canyon might not be Midgar, but that doesn’t make it safe. Nowhere is safe right now, and Cloud could hardly call himself a bodyguard if he didn’t take that seriously.

So instead he sat himself down beside her, drawing one knee up to his chest and resting his arm on it, the Buster Sword on the ground within easy reach if any trouble finds them. Aerith watched with that teasing, twinkling look of hers, but didn’t say anything - just smiled and then craned her head backwards to look up at the sky overhead.

Cloud’s no stranger to sitting quietly, but there’s something so companionable about it, with Aerith, a sense of easy camaraderie and warmth that he’s never really experienced before. He feels relaxed sitting here with her (well, as relaxed as he ever is these days), watching the way the firelight moves across her face. 

It reminds him of sitting with her in the park in Sector Six, so close he could feel the warmth radiating from her. Only a few weeks ago and yet it feels like another lifetime. His heart had been beating a million miles an hour, everything about this girl leaving him feeling off balanced and confused, but even then he had been hoping that time together wouldn’t be their last. Of course, he hadn’t anticipated things turning out the way they have . . . but he doesn’t regret getting more time with her. She still leaves him off balance, but he understands her better now, he thinks.

“It’s so beautiful,” Aerith murmurs suddenly. 

Cloud has just enough time to think that yes, she is, before he realises with embarrassment that she’s talking about the sky and is glad the firelight helps obscure his blush.

“Thought you didn’t like the sky,” he says, a little more gruffly than he means to in his attempt not to let the direction of his thoughts show.

But as always his curtness doesn’t seem to phase Aerith, who glances over at him and shrugs. “I still don’t, not really. If I look too long I feel like I might float away. But that doesn’t mean I don’t think it’s beautiful as well. I’m . . . getting used to it, I guess. And I am glad that I’m getting to see and experience all these new things with you.”

Cloud’s glad he’s getting to experience them with her as well; it’s like being given a gift every time he sees her eyes light up when she sees something she’s never seen before, and when she smiles that smile that makes his breath catch. Even in Midgar he could see there was a burden she carries, one that weighs down on her, that she struggles to carry. He would carry it for her in a heartbeat if he could, because she was made for joy and laughter - to run forward and embrace the world with open arms. So while he can’t protect her from what they’re facing entirely, if somewhere in all they’re dealing with he can give her even small moments where her burdens are briefly lightened, then he’ll give her as many as he can. 

He opens his mouth to say - well, definitely not all of that but at least some of it, but as he meets Aerith’s green eyes he falters and the words get lost on the way and what he ends up saying instead is, “You won’t float away. I’d catch you if you did.” 

Aerith blinks, and then giggles. “I’d expect nothing less from my bodyguard.”

“Right,” Cloud says, annoyed with himself because it’s not what he wants to tell her - but then at the same time he’s not really sure he knows exactly what it is he does want to tell her.

“Mmm.” Aerith hums, looking at him like she knows what’s going through his mind, then leans back to stare up at the sky again. “Oh, look! That’s one of the constellations we took pictures of, right?”

Following the point of her finger, Cloud has to take a moment to dredge up the memory of the stars they went looking for earlier. 

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Speaking of . . .”

Cloud jumps as Aerith’s arm suddenly brushes against his and he realises she’s done her trick of shuffling closer without him noticing again. Looking back down he meets her gaze, now disconcertingly near his and filled with impish mischief. A strand of her hair has fallen into her eyes and his fingers itch to brush it back. 

“Can I see them?”

“See what?” Cloud asks, his mind unable to grasp any thought that isn’t about the warmth of Aerith’s shoulder bumping his, or the way he can now smell that light, flowery scent that seems to cling to her no matter where or how far they travel. Is that a Cetra thing, or just an Aerith thing?

“The photos you took of me earlier. You’ve still got them, right?”

Heat rises in his cheeks and he gives a stilted nod. “Yeah. I do.”

“Come on, then. Gimme.”

Aerith holds her hands out towards him, wiggling her fingers expectantly, and he can’t help chuckling as he reaches into his pocket and pulls out his wallet. He tucked the photos away in there as soon as they printed, wanting to keep them safe - wanting to keep her safe, he supposes.

He’s not sure he can explain what came over him when he took them; when he saw her praying, some strange feeling had crept down his spine, like if he took his eyes off her even for a moment she might disappear. Taking her picture, capturing that moment, it had been like an anchor somehow. As if the real, tangible photo in his hand could somehow let him keep her with him forever. 

The other ones . . . well, they had just been for fun. Her smile deserved to be photographed.

Nerves flutter through him as he hands the photos to her now. He had been pleased with how they turned out, but now he wonders how they might look through her eyes. Does she mind that he took them? She didn’t seem to earlier, she liked their selfie, but maybe now . . .

“I think these are the best photos anyone’s ever taken of me,” she announces after flicking through them for a moment. “You really are pretty good at this, you know.”

“You think?”

“Yeah.” She hands them back with a smile and he tucks them away into his wallet again. “Maybe when we get back to Midgar you should take up photography properly instead of being a merc.”

Cloud considers that. He hasn’t thought that far, hasn’t thought he could even begin to think about his future as long as he knows Sephiroth’s still out there. But now that Aerith has conjured the idea he does think about it, and he wonders if maybe a life holding a camera would be better than one holding a sword.

“You really never took pictures before?” Aerith asks.

“No. My mom had an old camera I played with sometimes as a kid, but not seriously.”

She makes a humming noise. “It’s a little strange to think of you as a kid - but I’m sure you were a cute one.”

Cloud can think of a few people who would disagree with that - or would have, rather, if they were still around.

“It’s funny, you know,” Aerith continues. “In some ways I feel like I’ve known you a really long time, like you’ve always been part of my life. But I also think it’s fun that there’s still so much to learn about each other, you know? I like that we can still surprise each other.”

He knows exactly what she means. It’s only been a couple of months since he fell through the roof of her church - and yet it’s strange to think that there was a time he didn’t know her. He can’t imagine his life without her in it any more.

“I don’t know . . .  I don’t think that there’s anything you can do to surprise me any more,” he says, gently teasing.

Aerith’s eyebrows shoot up. “Oh, really, mister?”

“Mm-hmm,” he nods, one corner of his mouth curling up into a faint smile. “I just kind of expect you to do the unexpected now. Whatever’s gonna make my life more difficult.”

“Cloud!” She’s scrambled up on to her knees, scowling at him the way she is in that last photo he took - more mock-offended than genuinely outraged, and making him want to tease her all the more. 

Is that how she feels when she’s laughing at him, he wonders?

“I guess I just know you pretty well, already.”

“Oh! You wanna bet?”

He cocks his head curiously. “Bet what?”

“I bet you that I can still surprise you.” She leans forward on hands and knees until her face is mere inches away from him, and his heart stutters nervously in his chest. “And if I win, you have to promise me that we’ll go back to the Gold Saucer one day and ride the Skywheel together.”

“Okay. And if I win you have to let me train you to build up your stamina.”

He’s been trying to coax her into doing exercises since their trip up the Corel mountains, but every time he suggests they work out she pulls a face and finds someone else in the party urgently needs her help or pretends she can’t hear him. 

Sitting back on her heels, Aerith nods and holds out her hand. “Fine. It’s a bet.”

“It’s a bet.” Cloud takes her hand with his, and his heart gives another unsteady thump. “So. Do we need a time limit? For how long you’ve got to try and surprise me?”

“Oh, no.” Aerith smiles. “I’m going to do it now.”

Before he has time to realise what’s happening, she pulls him in by the hand she’s holding and presses her lips to his.

For a moment Cloud freezes, his eyes wide, his mind struggling to understand that Aerith is kissing him. But she is, she’s kissing him, and her mouth is so much softer and warmer than he could ever have imagined (and he has imagined it, he’ll admit that much to himself now) and his pulse is racing, his breath caught in this throat, and he’s panicking because what if she stops kissing him and he’s still sat here like a statue –

Finally, finally, he remembers how to move again and he starts kissing her back before he loses the chance, slanting his mouth against hers and bringing his free hand up to cradle her face. She lets out a quiet noise between their lips, somewhere being a gasp and a giggle, and then he can feel she’s smiling and he thinks that her smile is the sweetest thing he’s ever tasted. The world around them has faded away; nothing exists but her, and this moment, and this kiss that makes him feel like golden sunlight is warming him from the inside out.

He’s not sure how long it actually lasts, only that it’s over too soon. When Aerith pulls back, he can see her pupils are blown wide and her cheeks are flushed nearly as red as her jacket - and if her smile has a touch of smugness to it, he can’t really blame her. 

For a moment they just stare at each other in the firelight, breathing heavily, then Aerith glances down at their still joined hands.

“I think,” she says, “I win,”

“I guess so,” Cloud agrees, though he really can’t say that he feels like he’s lost. 

“Mmm.” Aerith looks up at him again, mischief in her eyes. “But we could always go best two out of three.”

He laughs. “Yeah. I’d be good with that.”

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Youth (tending to the flowers)

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part 3 spoilers ‼️

Found you

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"This isn't just in my head?" He murmured. "You're real?"

some clerith art from @vanekaiiri commission by me 🎀 I'll cherish this piece forever thank you!! 🥹

A moment from chapter 4 from the fic "all i fear is nothing" by @clementessa

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leggy lance

bonus keith live reaction:

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my predictions for what I think (and hope) will happen in FF7R3 (temptative title Return??)

i used a lot of acronym but hopefully it's still clear to others too

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Final Fantasy VII Rebirth | ▶ dev. Square Enix

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Zack shooting his shot in CCR

Bonus:

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people who get stuck on the fact aerith initially flirted with cloud because of initial similarities to zack

but cloud from the start of meeting aerith has never been able to act like zack

cheeriness extroversion charming isnt natural for cloud

those are zack traits cloud lacks

cloud is not a romantic in the same way zack is

where zack would build a flower cart and call aerith angel at first meeting

cloud is all business at first when meeting aerith how much to pay for the flower or even out right reject it

even in story aerith admits as much and as soon as she realized it for herself she was starting to look for cloud beyond her zack colored glasses

“Cloud, I'm searching for you. I want to meet you.”

"I want to meet...... you"

And she does

cloud is awkwardly adorable

Cloud tells the flowers to learn to talk back to aerith

Cloud offers to walk her back home even though he actually does have somewhere to be

he snaps pictures of her when shes not looking and admits that he wasnt being sneaky about it

hes not showy with his feelings in the same way zack is

Aerith sees this knows this and still wants to know more because she loves Cloud and she wants to keep finding out more about him

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Gray-cookie

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Just a series of Gray protecting Juvia with his life 😌

It’s the way we still have people in this fandom thinking that Gray absolutely hates Juvia and would rather let her die and then ignoring these scenes is so laughable

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so glad FT100Q made Gray feelings for Juvia 10099% clear (even tho said feelings had always been there)

him being so open with his love for her when he's always been awkward and bad with feelings makes me 🥹🥹🥹💕

I feel like some people keep forgetting that Gray himself wanted to become a better person before confessing his feelings to Juvia. Like Gruvia’s relationship already felt mutual since the main series but it was nice to Hiro Mashima to have Gray verbally make this love declaration to get the haters to shut up about how much Gruvia “only benefits Juvia”

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I'm gonna be so serious, y'all are remembering POWDER and Ekko and not JINX and Ekko when screaming about how much you "wanted Timebomb endgame over Caitvi"

shoving JINX in a relationship with her current mental state is not a good writing choice whatsoever, because Ekko literally had to keep rewinding time because she kept trying to kill herself. If Anything, That relationship would be rushed and fanservice because they would have jumped the gun in 2 episodes vs the 2 seasons it took for Caitvi and showing their ups and downs throughout their whole relationship.

The alternate universe works because Powder doesn't become Jinx and the two don't separate, unlike this universe where the two have been at odds for 7 years and almost kill each other back in Ep 7 of S1.

"But Cait never said sorry!" she didn't really have to, because Vi never stopped being in love with the girl that she Knows Cait is at heart, the Cocktail Molotov scene in Act 2 makes that VERY apparent. Cait saying that she was waiting for Vi to recover to address Jinx is the start of it because Act 1 Cait wouldn't have even Considered doing that, because she was so gung-ho about putting a bullet into Jinx that she Demanded Vi move out of the way for her to do so. She holds herself accountable with the mistakes she's made ("We can't erase our mistakes. None of us." that wasn't just a line targeted at Jinx to prove a point, there's deeper meaning behind it), and moving the guards out of the cell proving that she trusts Vi and her judgment on Jinx is that apology, Caitlyn has always been an "acts of service" kinda person over being a "verbal" kinda person; it's all over the place in S1 but Especially here in S2. But even after she takes Vi's shirt off, you could tell by her eyes and body language that she was most likely going to stop herself again to apologize for hitting her because the wound was in the same spot she initially hit, which was part of the lead up for This wound to even happen, but Vi's the one that just pulls her back in instead.

I'm also gonna add on that Vi thinks she made the wrong choice in trusting Jinx and thinking Jinx's changed because Jinx locked her in the cell and ran away again. So why in the Hell would Vi go chasing after her Again to be met with the same result time and time again? Vi isn't responsible for Jinx's mental health and y'all saying that are just weird. And I think it's apparent that Stillwater probably wasn't even in the top 10 things in her head being with Caitlyn, she was just running wild on emotions that she hasn't allowed herself to feel like-- Ever. And even if it Was Vi probably would have said she wasn't comfortable being in a jail cell of all places.

What was I talking about? Oh right, Timebomb.

Like Yes, it's shitty that Ekko doesn't get a happy ending considering he's the most unproblematic in the entire show. But people tend to forget that at the end of the day, Arcane is a TRADGEDY. It's not She-ra, it's not The Owl House, it wasn't going to be wrapped up in a neat little bow where everyone gets to smile and walk into the sunset with their loved ones, especially considering the fact that this season's being used as build ups to other stories, it's relatively clear that this isn't the last we're going to see of a lot of these characters. When they come back into play? well... who's to say?

But also, let's address that a lot of the Caitvi hate is just straight up homophobia at this point because a lot of people can understand Mel's admission to manipulating Jayce as an apology but Cait's actions we're suddenly braindead and need shit completely spelled out. like good lord I'm so tired of this. Y'all would NEVER have survived Catradora let me tell ya...

(My next post is gonna be a long winded rant about Maddie so stay tuned for that...)

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viktor arcane has to be one of the characters ever.

he's gay. he's terminally ill. he's suicidal. he's from league of legends. he's in a toxic relationship with an orb. he also might be the orb(???). he bullshitted his way into the academy by pretending he went there. he rizzed up a guy so he wouldn't kill himself. he then tried to impress said guy by breaking into his boss's lab. then when he got caught he tried to play it off by saying he thought this big intimidating door was his bedroom door and he was just trying to sneak a guy in there. he nearly died because hetero sex was happening like a mile away. kinda. he took illegal drugs. he's also the apprentice of the guy who's making the illegal drugs and never mentions it. he's inspired off of the tale of frankenstein's monster. he got shot by a missle and fucking died. when he came back to life he immediately broke up his messy gay situationship and became jesus fucking christ.

truly one of the characters of all time