#and hesphael

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was talking to a friend and it turns out that in their head tesilid is always bloodied and half dead bc i keep sending those pics as reaction images 😭

"if i go korea i'll get you merch of him covered in blood" "why would there be merch of him covered in blood?!?!??"

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ora this post is so fun bc

let’s not forget that the timing on her part was entirely accidental. she didn’t really mean to prevent the dungeon sink; in fact i’m pretty sure she actually forgot about it. you’re telling me she could have been all the way back in the vinchester kingdom doing her little slice-of-life activities while tesilid’s entire life crumbled around him????? irinbi what the FUCK

and there's this line in webnovel ch 19, right before ailette goes to the vatican:

"Speaking of the protagonist, what is he doing while I'm busting my butt down here?" (...) I wonder what the young boy's life was like right now. Hopefully, he's not out there living the good life by himself."

like she Knew his life was going to get Fucked Up eventually, and she just did not care 😭 i think it didn't register for her that he was a real person who would carry that trauma for the rest of his life. and then she saw these three kids being very much kids, and like man... how can you not want them to grow up well. and then she dedicated the next 10 years of her life to protecting tesilid argente even though she never saw him again. ailette probably constantly read the original story to take notes and concoct plans and went "what the hell. you're telling me that kid i met back then will have to go through this? No."

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also hestio thinking that ephael was joking w plan B is suchhhh a fun piece of characterisation. I love it. i love characterising hestio as the softer and More Caring One, Actually, because of this. (and the many times when hestio is the one yelling at tesilid to look after himself better.) it just never crossed his mind that ephael was serious.

and hestio did die before ephael enacted Plan B, probably because once hestio died there was even less of a chance for them to defeat the dungeon boss. which is such a fun thought, honestly, because OG!hestio died not knowing his friend was capable of this, and canon!hestio just never gets to learn about it. ephael just goes hehehaha and be his silly self the whole time without anyone knowing that he's capable of such callousness and brutality at the same time. and of his capacity for heroism as well - he doesn't have many lines and at least 2 of them are him going "nah i don't really wanna save the world... i want to leave the religious order"... and then he goes and does this at age 10. because out of everyone trapped in the dungeon, tesilid was the most capable of saving the world after surviving it and the one who most "deserved" to live. crazy. he contains multitudes. in another story he could've been a main character.

i got the second volume today 🎉 the cover color schemes are switched…….THEY MATCH……..!!!! AGGHHHHHHHH

+ obligatory plan B mention. it truly never fails to make me sick (/pos). you may notice hestio absolutely thinks he’s joking / doesn’t even consider that an option! haha! i wonder how badly it hurt tesilid to see ephael massacre innocent children all to save HIM! did hestio die first? did he die last? even worse, did he agree??? rereading this has made me reevaluate just how absolutely FUCKED tesilid’s life was from the start. how did he not break sooner. me personally if the closest people i had to friends commited a massive murder suicide for the express purpose of me being the Lone Survivor i would actually just perish on the spot.

it really messes with me that the vibe of this little arc is so chill, because we as readers know that if ailette hadn’t happened to be there, Everyone In That Dungeon Would Be Dead. let’s not forget that the timing on her part was entirely accidental. she didn’t really mean to prevent the dungeon sink; in fact i’m pretty sure she actually forgot about it. you’re telling me she could have been all the way back in the vinchester kingdom doing her little slice-of-life activities while tesilid’s entire life crumbled around him????? irinbi what the FUCK

“the day of sacrifice has taken something from me every year after that” you can’t do this to me

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hesphael makes me so gngnggnghhhh because on the surface ephael is the stupid and boisterous one, and hestio is the sullen and serious guy with common sense and who keeps ephael in line. And then you peel them back a little and you realise that actually they're both fun-loving little guys - both hestio and ephael will gang up on their nearest victim (tesilid/ash) with lots of cheer. And then you peel back them even more and you realise that actually, much more than Hestio putting up with Ephael's careless attitude, Hestio is the super prissy fussy princess and everyone around him are the ones who are indulging him. And at the same time, Ephael is actually generally very level-headed and calm, and there's been multiple instances of him holding Hestio back. And that in a world where aura users are quite rare, Ephael is a advanced aura user while Hestio is a weak fragile supporter who yells "Hey Ephael!!! Take better care of your delicate supporter!!" with zero shame. Ephael may be the one who's always getting scolded and snarked at by Hestio, but he's definitely the one who's in charge of making sure Hestio doesn't accidentally kill himself. Do you get it do you get it.

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taps mic and clears my throat. good evening everyone. can we please consider shipping hestio with literally everybody else and to take a moment to marvel the world of flavours it opens us up to:

hesphael (hestio/ephael): childhood friends to lovers, sunshine and brooding dark person, person who always dashes ahead and person who reels them in (both ways, but in serious situations ephael is the one holding hestio back). best friends who are always in sync. constant good-natured ribbing, idiots to lovers

teshes (tesilid/hestio): doomed lovers. love cannot save us but it can certainly destroy us. maybe loving and being loved is just as bad or perhaps even worse than being loveless when youre a regressor. exploring the effects of regression on tesilid. if only we had the transmigrator's privilege (COUGH COUGH). could you please look after yourself? i am begging you. guy who values self-preservation and opportunism x guy who values principles and selflessness above all else. immovable object x very weak force; even if hestio had managed to convince tesilid to prioritise himself, it would have been for naught, because tesilid's destiny was always to have his very soul and character broken down and destroyed. doomed lovers. all of hestio's efforts and love are futile, even though it was all there. i wish we could grow old and die together, but i am perpetually only able to meet the young you. you are right in front of me, but i miss you.

reed/hestio: hestio being scared shitless. and also [redacted for spoilers]

ailette/hestio: also constant good-natured ribbing like hesphael - except ailette always comes up on top and hestio absolutely cannot take what he dished out. damsel in distress (hestio the fragile supporter) x OP knight in shining armour (ailette). hestio is almost perpectually blushing. they also trade tips on how to take care of their long luscious hair.

prinz/hestio: prickly and high-strung guy x calm and polite knight dynamic, similar to what you would find in teshes. except prinz is capable of looking after his own interests. maybe even a side dish of past one-sided teshes angst, because prinz' usual demeanor is literally just 0th tesilid but without the doormat philosophy that drives hestio crazy. (what could things have been, if tesilid had been allowed to look after himself?) [hey who let tesilid in here this isn't about him]

hestio/bianca: two dark-haired squishies with resting bitch faces. bianca has enough money to pamper hestio and i think that would be very funny. hestio also is absolutely NOT the kind of person bianca would want as a spouse (she had always planned to marry a talented knight, and he doesn't even have aura!) which adds an additional layer of angst and complexity and tension.

hestio/raewyn: raewyn also has enough money to pamper hestio. and he is also a dignified knight like prinz and characters like that are such a cute foil to hestio's loud bossy energy. raewyn protecting hestio.... 🥺🥺

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i could read a whole webtoon that's just hestio & ephael's slice of life adventures tbh

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i had more ideas on hesphael cooking stream AU based on ora's comic

this is a modern AU btw no time loops for tesilid

ephael was the one who started it bc it looked cool. being a youtuber seemed fun. why did he pick cooking? because he was hungry.

hestio watched the video because he was curious / he walked by the room as ephael was cooking

hestio is absolutely appalled.

hestio starts off as the roommate off screen (privacy) who always keeps interjecting and eventually he just grabs shit out of ephael's hands so that disasters don't happen. and then he just becomes a permanent fixture

ephael's channel hasn't gotten renamed yet so newcomers are always like "who is this guy"

hestio's solo streams are very calm and peaceful bc he doesn't have anyone to yell at. until the audience discovers that if they say stupid shit he'll call them stupid

so you see... this is the internet. some people would be into that

unfortunately for hestio, he and the rest of the trio grew up in a cult-like environment where they didn't have access to the internet or other kids who grew up with access to it. they only very recently managed to leave and are still trying their hardest to reintegrate into society. so hestio has no clue what's going on. bless him.

no one let him google his own name and find his fanbase (i'm sure he will cluelessly do it one day on his own anyway, out of curiosity)

ailette help them please ailette you need to babysit them, ailette please please where are you ailette!!!

tesilette are having a nice peaceful modern AU romance in the background with no angst

(jk i'm sure i'll find a way to work the tesilette angst back in, but for now the possibility of them simply having a nice meet-cute exists)

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chapter 256 fueling my ailette/hestio(/tes) delusions, thank you for the food!!!!!

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man what do you mean i actually have to think about how the plot will progress. what do you mean i cant just wait for the author to figure it out and present it to me. (i am the author)

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Ephael as a character is kind of crazy because he's the most laidback and cheerful guy in the whole series, he's described to have a perpetual smile on his face, he takes all of Hestio's snide remarks in his stride, he always keeps his cool during critical situations, and he doesn't swear when even Tesilid does. And then he does shit like come up with Plan B, and when the topic of the Vatican's absurb control over them comes up he turns into a bitter, snapping creature full of spite. And then half a beat later he turns back into his cheerful goofy self and makes fun of Hestio.

Novel 13 (after Ailette's first divine advent):

E: "What about all those times they said we were going to be the ones to save the world?"

H: Sounding much less bitter, his friend reasoned, "We're better off this way. Saving the world really isn't my thing. I might as well leave the church now."

E: "Pfft, how are you going to leave? You think the religious order is going to let us just pack up and go?"

H: "Yeah. Why not?"

E: "Yeah, no way that's happening." The blonde boy said dismissively. "They're going to work us like dogs even after world peace has been achieved. We're nothing more to them than pawns to keep the Vinchester Kingdom and Ragneif Republic of Magic at bay. That's the whole reason why they take in orphans, so that they could graft stigmata onto us."

Novel 19 (morning of the Day of Sacrifice):

“Only motherless, fatherless mutts like us should be here. Ah, how sad.”

He is like, 10 years old. What has he been through that he's so much more bitter than Hestio "yells at everything" Ligenel.

I'm honestly kind of wondering if Irinbi just hadn't figured out Hestio & Ephael's characterisation back then, or if Tapas screwed up the novel TL. It's a little weird that Ephael was the one explaining why there's no way the Vatican would let them go, when in every interaction since then he's always been the clueless guy who doesn't know a thing about dungeons so that a character can explain the worldbuilding to the readers. And in the webcomic they did swap lines for this part in Ch 13. Ephael's lines here do sound exactly like something Hestio would say, ngl. But Ephael being extremely pressed about his lot in life and wanting to return to the secular life is also a very consistent part of his characterisation since then, so like??? What goes on.

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hi guys, may i introduce you to the concept of ailette/hestio

If hesphael is ephael giving in to hestio with some jibes that have little to no heat behind them, then ailette/hestio is ailette returning hestio's energy even more and hestio not being able to take it. Ephael teases hestio with a ☺️ or 😄 face while ailette is like >:)) and she does not pull punches. she would embarrass him happily and watch him combust. They compete on a bunch of inconsequential things and hestio loses 80% of the time because ailette is just too cool like that.

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genderbend hesphael fic is up ✌️

ao3 link

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thinking also about the lines "ephael, get them!"/"uh... okay. (zooms towards the enemy despite the hesitance in his voice)" (toy mansion) and "ephael, why aren't you protecting your weak supporter!" (snow queen) and ephael seamlessly backing hestio up when he falters (reunion).

☝️methinks that hestio is this bossy and demanding firstly bc he's just like that and secondly bc ephael has enabled him all his life by meeting him wherever he stands. hestio has never really needed to be nicer to his friends because they both have the patience of saints. hestio is a little spoiled. he doesn't even have aura.

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eyes snap open. genderbend hestio/ephael lesbians. ephael flops herself on hestio all the time and gives her kisses all over just to annoy her.

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dating show AU hesphael where no one wants to pick either of them so theyre stuck w each other as the leftovers and discover they like each others' company actually

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im actually almost a whole week late, but happy anniversary to me reading the webnovel and completely losing my braincells to one tesilid argente (july 29)

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actually now that i think about it, i dont think ill stop writing s class heroine fic even when im done w teshes.... my brain has been rotating hesphael very loudly in the brain the past couple of weeks. i can't believe there's no hesphael content out there in the world.. mutter mutter gotta be the change you want to see in the world