#you can do it tesilina

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the difference in the way that ailette and tesilid appreciate each others' looks is really funny actually, bc ailette is like. 'even the way he scoops stew with his spoon is a work of art'. 'i wish i could store away that expression in a cupboard and take it out whenever i feel down'. and other things that compare tesilid to a magnificent work of art to be appreciated but not necessarily touched, where even laying your eyes on him is already a blessing. very excited to show off tesilid's face except for people who would be weird about it. then tesilid is here like. gulping loudly. blushing and covering his face. 'no keep your cape on'. 'now that i think about it, the strict order is said to be male...' sir. sir where is your mind going. sir ? ??

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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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i dont have the ability to describe my vision properly, but i just would like to say that my fixation has changed from teshes doomed yaoi -> tesilina x muriel toxic yuri

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tesilina is so down bad i can't even look at her. girl what are you doing 🫣 you can't be that forward oh my god

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what if i repurposed my 50k of planning for the genderbend AU for a muriel x tes fic. haha jk.... unless 😳

muriel spoilers, but woman who's a very determined flirt despite her job demanding she be chaste and pious x knight who's doing His Best to keep it together is literally what i wanted out of my genderbend AU. muriel please i need you to have more appearances soon, muriel please please

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character settings and dynamics of my s-class heroine genderbend AU

Tesilette dynamics get a little crazy and substantially different from canon here.

Trio & ReedAilette dynamics under cut, Tesilette in reblogs. If you're on mobile, read from here so you can scroll less.

(VERY long post under cut)

Hestio Ligenel

Literally the same characterisation as canon Hestio, idk what to tell you. Looks the same as well.

(Same HC as for canon Hestio) Very careful with her hair. God forbid anyone who messes with her bottles of shampoo and conditioner and hair oil

She’s a bit conflicted about the fact that she’s the only one among her friends without a nickname. Unfortunately, the fact is that her name is literally un-nicknameable

Ephael “Elphie” Chaletino

Decently buff

After the toy mansion, she trained like crazy to become stronger. There's only so much a supporter can do, after all, if the bruiser being buffed is weak to begin with

She would be even buffer if she had the choice, but unfortunately the stigma bearers are still treated like shit. Her diet is nowhere near optimal

Realised her given name was masculine when she was around 5. When she asked the orphanage’s caregiver why she was given this name, she was told that the old man priest who named her had passed a couple years ago so no one knows. They're all just using the name she was given

Ephael doesn’t really care about her name, though. She thinks it's funny when people see “Ephael” on the name list and waste their time looking for a man.

Tesilina gave her the nickname Elphie (Did you really think Hestio would’ve given her such a cute name?)

Hesphael dynamics

Ephael likes to flop over hestio and put her arms around hestio and lace her fingers together and to press kisses against her hair and ear and neck and to crow about how hestio can’t get rid of her. Hestio thinks they're just bantering.

Tesilina has to watch them be idiots for several years before Hestio finally figures it out.

Luckily for Tesilina, this happens before her regression starts so she doesn't have to sit through this a bajillion times

Tesilina “Tes” Argente

Hestio gave her her nickname because her name was too long.

Constantly harassed by men. Hestio & Ephael have taken to being her guard dogs and chasing off men on her behalf

Her being a stigma bearer ends up being good sometimes. When people try to retaliate against the three of them, Tesilina just says, “They were defending my honour… I have long since decided to devote myself to the Strict Order alone, after all” and then people can't really fault her for being so pious

(It doesn’t really work on all ppl when it’s a man whom people see as a respectable bachelor, especially if they're someone high-ranking within the vatican.)

When the subjugation is easy, incompetent men sometimes try to take her tank role in order to “protect the lady” in the name of “chivalry”. But when it’s hard, Tesilina becomes just a dispensable stigma bearer who is of course expected to tank at the risk of her life. It’s a headache for her because she’s deprived of opportunities to farm EXP and divine power, on top of being extremely condescending. She can’t even tell the men off for trying to do her job.

She’s still in the Knights of Worship division without Hestio & Ephael

Hestio & Ephael tried to transfer in but were thwarted by the division, who said that subjugations were "serious business, not outings for girlies to giggle"

Tesilina decided not to transfer out because dealing with their shit farms the Virtue of patience quite well. And because she’s never learned self-preservation in her life. Hestio had to stop herself from strangling Tesilina for this.

Reed

(MAJOR SPOILERS FOR NOVEL CH 130+ / WEBTOON S3 OR 4)

Present Round!Tesilina is more cutthroat than in canon, because the two friends who have accompanied her throughout her regressions have become a source of obsession for her.

She's seen them die too many times and in too many horrible ways

And they've always been protective of her as well, so it's impossible for her not to care about them. They - and not Ailett - are her crutch and her source of strength and what makes her feel like herself and a human, in a world that is determined to make her feel otherwise.

Like straight up she doesn't even gaf about Ailett anymore. She was interested for a short while but Ailett isn't the object of her obsession like in canon.

I hit tumblr's image limit so the full scene is here: link

The hair clip Reed is using is the one Hestio & Ephael bought her for her 15th birthday.

As Tesilina, she only ever wore it for formal occasions because she didn't want to risk breaking it in combat. As Reed, she’s now confident that she won’t get into fights that seriously endanger her, or the clip. And this counts as a formal occasion – she’s arranging their collective funerals.

The one Reed is using is stolen from the current round. She forgot to take it from the 100th because she was too preoccupied being empty and depressed and headed straight for the abyss. And when she had time to think in the 17th, she started to wish she had it. Well, it’s not like 17th really needs it anyway. 17th wasn't even supposed to be alive to use it.

Reed visits Hestio & Ephael right after watching her own funeral from the shadows. This scene is meant to be the chapter right after the scene above about Reed and Ailett's falling out.

This scene is a major spoiler for the fic, but this story is too ambitious and requires too much setup for me to realistically finish, so whatever. I hit tumblr's image limit, so here

Continued in reblogs:

Tesilette dynamics

Ailett's character settings

Bianca

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another idea for the genderbend AU:

At the start of Round 17, Ailett takes Tesilina to recover at her family's house on the Gillett estate instead of her childhood home

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Okay like hear me out. A man changing a woman's clothes is much less acceptable than the other way round. Ailett would Not risk Tesilina doubting her in the slightest. He needs a woman around to take primary charge of Tesilina's care while she's unconscious, and Ailett is Not letting her remain in her tattered and bloodied clothes until she regains consciousness.

We've seen in the comic that the Rodelines have a house within the estate that is kind of surrounded by some empty space, so I think it could work out. I think Ailett could sneak Tesilina in and out of the place. She just needs to convince her parents to keep it quiet, and honestly I think they can do it.

Ailett voice of course i didn't bring her back to the Vatican, when we met 10 years ago she and her friends were telling me about how poorly treated they were (Ailett is lying and the trio never had time to tell her that, but her parents don't need to know)

Ailett voice she saved me 10 years ago, was I supposed to just ditch her somewhere

Ailett manages to convince his parents not to tell anyone else on the estate that there's a very beautiful woman recuperating in their house at the moment, by weaving some sob story about the Vatican's evil clutches and how Tesilina is in this state because of them and how Tesilina is too recognisable and if people hear about a beautiful woman with silver hair around, they'll definitely send someone to drag poor Tesilina back, and we wouldn't want that, would we.

Ailett and Leonard are alchemists, so no one bats an eye when the Rodelines start buying more food than usual

Elthea and Leonard are there to witness it when Tesilina wakes up all traumatised and silent but still well-mannered enough to wash the dishes even before she regains her speech. They go slightly weepy and boom Tesilina is essentially adopted right off the bat. There are three Rodelines watching Tesilina like 🥺🥺🥺

I just want more people to look after Tesilina when she's at her worst okay 🥺 And I think it's meaningful for Tesilina if she sees the Rodeline couple come to care for her even before she has resolved to pretend to be good, and to see how very invested they are in her recovery and well-being

When Ailett and Tesilina return after the Magic Republic dungeon burst (with Tesilina now an official guest who can explore the rest of the grounds), Elthea and Leonard are so visibly happy to see that she's regained her health and confidence

Grabs you by the shoulders. I want the genderbend AU to be about Tesilina experiencing love in all its forms and not just romance. Being saved by and being driven to insanity by platonic love. Experiencing familial love. Learning to trust and love again after giving up all hope. (Okay the last one is the same as canon but now Tesilina gets to enjoy more aspects of life.)

And on that note, the song that I listen to while brainstorming this AU is Céline Dion's Love Again. I'm so in love with the hopeful swell of music in the chorus, and how firmly but gently the skng declares that you will love again.

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Was wondering if you had anything new to share about the genderbend AU? Also I love how you play around with Ailette and Tesilid’s respective roles as protector and damsel sorta and give them a twist/more intensity in this AU.

UEUEUEUEUE thank you for asking about it!!! ive been busy the past 2 weeks so i haven't had time to have any new brainrot about it and what new thoughts i have are very much in their early stages and might get scraped completely.

so i’ll maybe just talk about my conceptualisation of tesilette under cut! and some about reed/ailett too

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One of my favourite parts of s class heroine is how tesilid clearly plays the narrative role of damsel in distress (what with him being constantly saved and dependent on ailette for his safety and social status) but he still nonetheless has a lot of agency in the narrative because of all his secrets. I think I subconsciously tried to include more of this element of Tesilid having his own mind by making Tesilina have a more utilitarian view about her relationship with Ailett. As with canon, she has to work within the constraints of what the world forces her into, but she's still thinking a lot about what she should do and about how much she hates it.

LIKE. I’m a little insecure about how i made tesilett's r/s because it's a LOT less sweet than canon and that was one of the best parts of canon. But I do really like it??

The way I came up with it was:

okay if we're going to do a genderbend and not have it be a boring rehash of canon, then gender MUST have an important role to play

> this means that gender roles and the patriarchy would be terrible, moreso than I assume it is in canon (where gender is never an issue for Ailette and Bianca becoming knights or heiresses)

> sorry Tesilina…. this means worse sexual harrassment and gender roles…

> this means that the way other people view Tesilette would definitely change

and so that's how I arrived at Tesilina leaning way harder into making their relationship seem legit in the eyes of others. In a world where people policed women's behaviour more, people would already make assumptions about her that she can never truly debunk. I think that after so many lifetimes of working within her Restrictions, it's very natural for her to also make the best of this constraint. In canon Tesilid sometimes talks about trying to escort Ailette or living up to the role a knight, because gender roles. Here Tesilina instead goes *swoon* sir knight, sir saint, are you not going to catch me… (pleading eyes).

Tesilina's the girl who pretends to fall wrong and twist her ankle so a certain someone has to carry her. (Except with her luck she actually does twist it. Or maybe she actually twists it on purpose bc what the hell, Ailett can heal her anyway. It's morbidly fascinating to finally have someone who rushes to heal her. Seeing the almost frenzied concern spring on Ailett's face is heady. It's foreign. It's almost like Tesilina is doing this just to check that Ailett is still here by her side and will still heal her.)

((It's not something Tesilina has ever really done with anyone else. Few others have ever prioritised Tesilina's well-being to this extent. And it’s been a few thousand years since she felt the need check if Hestio and Ephael cared for her – she has the opposite problem for them, really, because she's forced to see how much they are willing to go through for/because of her CONSTANTLY throughout her regressions. Ailett had disappeared for all of that long, long time. She has to check if this is still real.))

I'm just like. HGNFHGNGHGNGHNG.

I don't have solid plans for where I'm going with this. I think it's something that would probably write itself out depending on how I actually write their dynamic… in the very unlikely event that I actually try to write fic for this.

But my very vague roadmap after this stage is that Tesilina eventually starts to become more secure in her relationship with Ailett (think the parts in canon where Tesilid starts to refer to her by nickname, and the fountain of life moment). And when she finally leaves crisis mode, she starts being able to realise that hey uhhh maybe that was a little manipulative. haha. nervous gulp. and a lot of guilt.

I think I can't really plan the fallout much because I don't have the blueprint from canon where Ailette finds out about his secrets too. But tbvh I think Ailette would forgive Tesilid for anything. In all worlds. Look at her trying to redeem Reed even after the Magic Republic burst, even though she herself counted the fatalities in i think the thousands and thought to herself that he was now past the point of no return.

But I think I might need to reread canon and try to do an Ailette character analysis 😔 I don't have a grasp on her character voice at all… It's really hard for me to write her.

I think Hestio and Ephael would definitely play important roles, because in this AU their busybodies whose lives are very enmeshed with Tesilina's. It's probably very disorienting for them because it's clear to them that Tesilina is falling for/has already fallen for Ailette, but she's still being very calculative and utilitarian about things and setting their relationship up for failure with all her lies, and they don't even understand why she's lying so much in the first place because (to them) it's so very out of character.

Anyway, in terms of actually new things I cooked up: Reed is now legitimately trying to kill Ailett. Haha. None of the “it’s enchanting how your eyes turn gold” and “i want you to fall to where i am” shit, Ailett and does not get out of this without major injuries. The instant he brought up Hestio and Ephael the kid gloves were off, and the instant he brought them to his frontline division he got on Reed’s hitlist.

Reed is truly going through it though. Unlike canon, Reed is a bundle of raw nerves and is incredibly sensitive because she just wants herself and her friends to stay dead already. Canon Reed turns Ailett down because he wants to burn the world down. Reed here turns Ailett down because he clearly doesn’t understand or align with her priorities, and she does not believe a happy ending is possible.

Please someone give her a hug she is so lonely.

Like she is doing all this for her friends but she can't even talk to them about it. The only person who knows the most about her regressions is now her biggest enemy.

Anyway the huge difference in 117 and 100th’s attitudes towards Ailett just makes me gnhghgnghgnghng because it’s just because Reed is in absolutely crisis mode rn and is unable to let her guard down. The right person at the wrong time. Slides down the wall. Tesilina is trying to put a ring on Ailett's finger and Reed is trying to kill him.

I might change this dynamic development later on bc this is literally at the earliest draft stage. But I like the idea of Reed/Ailett dynamic being like "who the fuck cares about some man I have my friends to worry about" and Tesilette being like "yeah we're going to lean into gender roles to get that bread"

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@orathearsonman exactly!! you get it...!

i feel like tesilina's reactions are one of the highlights of this AU honestly

also tesilette genderbend has the potential to be really funny. especially with hestio & ephael as the peanut gallery who have a lot to say.

Everyone: Tesilina is the most pious, dignified and demure lady ever, she is unreachable, untouchable, like the flower blooming on a cliff's edge, to be seen but not touched,

Tesilina: I'm going to put a ring on it. Watch me.

(this might just be me misinterpreting things, but honestly if it weren't for the fact that Tesilid is suicidal i think he would already be absentmindedly wondering about how many kids Ailette would like to have. if he hasn't already done this. like, the guy saw the in-laws accept him and jumped on the opportunity.)

Also I think Tesilina's more forward because the Vatican would be even more uptight about Tesilina's sexuality and relationships than with Tesilid. #womanhood. So when Aiden kidnaps Tesilina after the Saint Reveal, they REALLY go into an uproar and assume that this new saint is promiscuous and has already taken Tesilina in. (It doesn't really affect Aiden's standing in the Vatican, because he is The Saint they've been waiting for all this time, anyway.) Tesilina goes 'well, since we're already at this stage...' and leans into it even more than canon Tesilid already does with his in-laws.

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.