i don't know

Chimps are much admired for their tool use and for their problem-solving relationship with things as they find them...the orang is, let us say, not so replete with enterprise. Give an orangutan the hexagonal peg and the several shapes of hole, and then hide behind the two-way mirror and watch how he engages with the problem.

And watch and watch and watch--because he does not engage with the problem. He uses the peg to scratch his back, has a look-see at his right wrist, makes a half-hearted and soon abandoned attempt to use his fur as a macramé project, stares dreamily out the window if there is one and at nothing in particular if not, and the sun begins to set. (The sun will also set if you are observing a chimp, but the chimp is more amusing, so you are less likely to mark the moment in your notes. An orang observer has plenty of time to be a student of the vanities of sunset.)

You watch, and the orang dreams...when casually and as if thinking of something else, the orang slips the hexagonal peg into the hexagonal hole. And continues staring off dreamily."

No Love Is Wasted

Easthies doesn't believe in exceptions and Qifrey is only part of witch society by dint of a huge exception which he then repeated with Coco. Easthies is aggressively rulebound and all Qifrey did for his entire childhood was flout and break rules (alongside Olruggio, who at least has the Correct origins and, generally speaking, grew up into a fairly upstanding and very celebrated witch) and get away with it. Easthies even calls him (and the girls) insolent. His issue is very clear.

Qifrey also, notably, doesn't seem that overly fond of witch society, in general. Understandable given the way he's been talked about his entire life. But all that means is you've essentially got a rebellious troublemaker kid (Alaira even outright calls him a dissident of the Great Hall; idk the original Japanese there but boy is that a loaded word choice) growing up in the same neighborhood as an uptight wannabe hall monitor. Their parents know each other, so they've probably been forced into each other's company on occasion. Easthies appears to be a bit older making such forced socialization even worse in childhood. Then they, respectively, grow up into Guy Who Exists As Far Outside Of Society As Possible Whilst Still Being Considered Part of It (And Is Also Kind of Shady re: Great Cultural Taboos) and...a cop.

Vinanna was not Easthies's Childhood Master

He's her Apprentice to be the next Wise, like she invites Luluci to be in chapter 97.

Easthies's actual childhood master is this person we see in chapter 76, who is not a Knight at all. They have a similar haircut to Vinanna so initially I thought it could be her, but we have her in flashbacks in chapter 36 and 89 right in the same time period where she's in her Knight uniform, so her not wearing it in this scene in 76 doesn't make sense. I think this has to be someone else that's not a knight. If it was some sort of alternate uniform for Knights you think all the kid trainees would have identical ones.

Easthies continues to be this person's apprentice through at least the third test, he shows up in the Olly and Qifrey adventure montage in chapter 92 in this hat and robe set. It's possible there's an Officer/Enlisted divide in the Knights and Officers like Easthies have to do ordinary witch training through the 3rd/4th test but we just don't have that information to make a call. It's also possible something happened to his master that made him choose to quit his original path and become a knight.

The first time we see him as a knight is in Luluci's flashback, where he's with Vinanna while she's still a Knight and not Wise yet (check her hat on her desk).

Like everyone else in fandom, I assumed Easthies and Qifrey were forced to see each other a lot as kids because of Beldaruit and Vinanna's friendship, but after 97 it seems like that might not be true and it's entirely possible they didn't see each other much until they were teens.

2. Easthies Singles Qifrey Out to Help on Silver Eve

Though their animosity makes sense without there being an inciting incident, this interaction in the Silver Eve arc seems very weird without them having had a significant shared event in the past. Easthies singles Qifrey out to give him a sealed scroll in case something goes wrong. From chapter 50.

Qifrey uses it against Engeldale and explains what it is in chapter 69.

This interaction bugs me so much because I don't know what to make of it. Easthies might be assuming that Qifrey could be a target because of his connection to Beldaruit and is just trying to make sure Beldaruit doesn't have an obvious weakness to exploit but it's so weird. What a weird way to go about it as opposed to just, sending someone undercover to follow him. "I hate you, here's a shotgun." What the hell.

As for the second point, there's actually a really obvious answer to this for me. The shared event is Coco! Easthies doesn't give Qifrey the scroll because of Engendale. Qifrey ends up using it for that, but Easthies gives him the scroll immediately after finding out from the peeping creep that there's Brimhat activity (Dagda with a seal on his chest) at the festival. And when I say immediately I do mean immediately, narratively speaking. The creep reveals this to Easthies and Luluci at the end of Ch. 49 and Ch 50 opens with Easthies finding where Qifrey's atelier is hanging out and asking if there's anything strange to report. Qifrey, ofc, disliking both cops and Easthies, takes this as harassment, but Easthies is, actually very reasonably, checking in on the last people known to be involved in Brimhat activity aka the group that got attacked by Brimhats during the second test (an incident following which there are still two witches unaccounted for). It should also be noted that Olly has a similar scroll when he's fighting the leech later, raising the question of whether he just had one of his own or whether Easthies also gave him, the other adult at the atelier, one.

Qifrey wonders himself why Easthies wouldn't just say something was going on and concludes that witches are just inclined to withhold information. Which is fucking insane in this situation, but also unfortunately tracks. As for sending someone to follow/guard the atelier, no idea what the breakdown of numbers is for the Knights, but given Silver Eve, they just might not have had anyone to spare.

ALSO re: your tags

Oh my gosh thank you so much for pointing out the scroll is right after the Dagda reveal. I totally forgot those were back to back because I was jumping throughout chapters to construct the flashback timeline! Question answered! Once again, super weird that your answer here was to go around giving people shotguns, Easthies. But I guess it works?

Easthies being older than Qifrey by 3-5 years makes it more interesting in my mind, because in that case it very well might be you have to make it through the four tests before you become a knight which does, unfortunately, raise the question of how the fuck Utowin managed that. Which was what prompted me to debate if an Officer/Enlisted divide is possible, as we see Vinanna offering the position of Apprentice to Luluci, who we do see go through a traditional apprenticeship and not Utowin, which we never see with a master or taking the tests.

My general backstory timeline goes Utowin and Nauz (76), Finding Qifrey (36), the kids meeting (89), childhood antics through up to the tower (90-93), and then Luluci's story (49). But we don't know when Nauz happened relative to the Thristas. It's entirely possible Easthies was in Ghodrey when Qifrey was found and missed his whole introduction to the hall. And that Easthies and Olruggio could have met before either met Qifrey. I did not care that much about Easthies before chapter 97 and now I badly need his backstory to clarify what went down at the hall after Qifrey got back from the Tower of Tomes.

Olruggio not knowing Utowin is so important to me. He straight up does not remember you, buddy. Which to be fair Olly was what, 6 when he was traded to the Great Hall? Since he was too young for the first test. If he was an isolated gifted kid having never met the town's designated Fuck Up makes sense. Does imply that Olruggio never went back to Ghodrey, because if he did visit small towns don't hesitate to make you aware of the town fuck up immediately so you're sure to ostracize them too. If we go with the Easthies and Utowin being 3-5 years older timeline, Utowin being sponsored at the Great Hall by Easthies a few years into his knighthood would match up and would be around when Olruggio and Qifrey are ditching the place for good.

Also, admittedly, Utowin having never met Qifrey and having to still suffer through Easthies's weird rants over the years is a very funny idea. Hey when they finally met Qifrey had a sword! That was probably a pretty good first impression to be honest.

I definitely think an officer/enlisted divide could be a thing because yeah Utowin being so bad at being a witch (RIP that untreated ADHD) that he couldn't even draw his own snow shoes (which seem to be the northern equivalent of sylph shoes) makes it exceedingly hard to imagine him being able to join if it involves passing all four tests.

Olruggio's relationship with Ghodrey and his family (?) AND since we're here his master (?!?!?!?!?) are all such massive lacunas that it drives me crazy on the daily. But yes in all of that it is extremely important to me that Olly has no fucking idea who Utowin is. That one post from Utowin's POV about how Olly is the star football player who went off to be a barefoot tradwife in the boonies with some emo kid but is still pro and famous and simply does not remember him when he's like "hey, man, how it's going" is perfect. I think he could've maybe been like 8? or so when everything went down just because you don't HAVE to take it at 7 (Agott was 10) and the mentions of witches coming from the Great Hall to observe him, etc. makes me think maybe they were like building up the slate of potential masters for him before he had to choose. NUMBER ONE DRAFT PICK.

I think Easthies definitely could've ranted about Qifrey being an annoying nepo bitchbaby to Utowin (ESPECIALLY imo in the letters I imagine them exchanging in their youths), but in the panel you posted I think it's about the fact that Coco is one of Qifrey's apprentices and, as we know, she is Easthies' biggest opp so he immediately began keeping tabs on the atelier. Notably, Easthies seems to have never even met/seen Qifrey's apprentices, not just Coco, but Agott, Tetia, and Richeh as well, prior to the incident at the Staircase River.

In short, I think he and Qifrey are acquainted and don't like each other and never have, but like, weren't fanatics about it or anything. And THEN Qifrey adopted Easthies new Nemesis—a cute and well-meaning 12-year-old girl not bound by their authoritarian cultural mores—and things have been ESCALATING since.*

*The single funniest thing about Easthies beefing with this child because he thinks she presages the upending of their entire way of life is that he is, of course, correct. And it SHOULD be upended, but he's a cop so obviously he doesn't agree.

Native Habitat:

Fearsomely Goofy

or

Goofily Fearsome.