Ghost

Custas and Innia are more of Restys's apprentices, where as Tartah is in a weird way moreso Innia's apprentice. Their fiest real conversation was cold, blunt, but years later Tartah would come to accept as Innia's own form of care. She told him that she would not allow his silverwash to become a hinderance for them.

Shortly after, one of the ribbons had come amd covered his eyes, before he was overwhelmed with the scent of various vials. And one by one, a vial was brought to his nose, with Innia expecting him to identify it, and would not release him until he could get the correct one or he took too long as was told which one. She gave no assistance in identifiers, he would have to pick it out himself. And the two did this for months, until Tartah could identify a majority of components by scent alone, in his sleep. The first time he had done it, Innia almost looks proud and re-iterates that she said she would not allow the Silverwash to be a hinderance.

Agott did apologize. In chapter 58. That's 55 chapters AFTER she sent Coco to the Dadah Range. This doesn't make her apology any less valid, and it was definitely something she needed to do before she and Coco could grow closer, but it took time. It's been 10 chapters since Tartah betrayed Coco and he hasn't had a single appearance since. Comparing the two on the basis of who has and hasn't apologized is just silly when the circumstances are so different.

I think it's also pretty clear that Tartah didn't even realize how badly he hurt Coco until this moment. We don't know exactly what was going through his head when he chose to force the truth spell onto her, but judging from his prior characterization across the series, I highly doubt he was being purposefully malicious.

Yes, Agott and Tartah are parallels, but their character arcs are distinct to the point that comparing their actions and scaling them on who was worse seems illogical to me.

Tartah and Agott are two societal rejects. They were both deemed unfit to become witches of the calibre that was expected of them. Agott was rejected by her family and her mother for her "childish magic" and "lack of talent." Tartah was rejected by witches and masters because of his silverwash. These rejections make them adopt rigid societal views that are altered by Coco and Custas. Their interactions with outsiders, slowly becoming friends with Coco and custas, alter their worldview. Coco's unique ideas deviod of the rigidness installed in them by witch society spur them on to deviate and stay true to themselves. Tartah is able to find a way to accommodate himself in an abelist society due to Coco's help, and Agott is able to dismantle the toxic views from her household by interacting with Coco.

Ultimately, Agott's journey to fully dismantling her prejudice is a gradual and well written one. We see with every interaction how she manages to break away at old beliefs, beginning to see Coco as a witch on par with her and slowly develop her own criticisms of the witches code. Her prejudice fully breaks away in the silver Eve arc, where her and Coco's relationship is at its strongest, and we end up getting the most iconic Arcko moments. During this arc, Agott is able to access a safe space created by Qifrey and the other Qiflings. Even though she is an incredibly hyper independent character, she luckily has a support group present and is able to express herself freely. On the other hand, Tartah (another hyper independent character) further withdraws himself and slowly goes on a spiral, losing trust in adults to the point that he joins the brimhats because of how sick he has gotten of witch society.

Both Agott and Tartah are radicalised by their own experiences. Agott goes on to dismantle the views of witch society while Tartah arguably goes a step further and dismantles his views surrounding the whole system itself: how witch society even functions in the first place. Agott is implied to hold such criticisms, yet she doesn't voice them while Tartah is someone incredibly loud about the beliefs he holds.

im not sure which way itll go, and honestly im not sure which way i want it to go. some of my waffling here is that we dont know for sure what direction shirahama is taking the story when it comes to witch society and the legitimacy of the brimmed cap's beliefs. on the one hand, magic is an incredibly powerful and dangerous resource; you wouldnt put nuclear launch codes in the hands of every citizen. on the other hand, intentionally stagnating the development of things like medicine and ignoring the plights of the people you have sworn to help because the magic necessary to help them could be repurposed for evil is...hm. especially when we see time and again in that witches still inflict evil upon each other regardless of the law. hell id argue that the knights moralis unilaterally memoryblasting people for whatever is, in itself, evil, if only because it seems to be the one and only punishment for any crime, whether you were the perpetrator or the victim. like how is the punishment for a nasty adult selling glasses that let you see through clothes equal to the punishment for an innocent child getting forcibly experimented on with forbidden magic? what happens to witches who, idk, steal a loaf of bread ? who get in a fistfight at the bar ?

anyway. so if the story is about maintaining the current status quo while fighting to mitigate the evils perpetrated from their own side, the side of the "good", tartah + custas joining the brimcaps would be Bad while tartah + custas figuring out their individual curses and dipping would be Good. but if the story is about finding a middleground where forbidden magic could be used to help and save others, like with the counterclock table, tartah + custas could be perfect examples of moderation. ininia too maybe but shes fully brimcappilled rn

Yes, this is a theory post.

Anyway, hot take (FIRST AND LAST SPOILER WARNING FOR LIKE THE WHOLE MANGA GO READ)

Sorry these took me so long! I hope they are satisfactory hehe. They were quite fun to write! A lot just means a lot of fun to me! I quite enjoy complicated requests!

Olruggio has no need to study for the fifth test. He simply sets out one day “on commissions” and returns a week and a half later, Tartah in tow. Surprising Qifrey much the same way that Qifrey surprised him with Agott.

Agott however, finds out by accident. She wandered off in search of some rare components in the shop and happened upon Olruggio and Nolnoa discussing logistics.

She gives this information to Tetia, who plans a full welcome party in two days. She themes everything black-and-white, enjoying the challenge of playing with textures and patterns instead of colors.

Richeh covers the atelier in ribbons, and Coco paints a welcome banner that glows. (The welcome banner in question has a giant splotch due to Brushbuddy rolling around in the ink.)

Overall, the atelier upon Tartah’s arrival is welcoming— perfectly tailored to him. He's so not used to it.

So many shenanigans ensue… the girls are in Olruggio’s atelier constantly if Tartah isn't in Qifrey’s. The ateliers truly do function like one atelier with two teachers.

Everything has a label on it. If a written label isn't practical for some reason or another, shapes, patterns and contrast is used!

I think the Atelier in general would be pretty accessible to Tartah, as a lot of the high-contrast measures that help with a lack of depth perception also help with a lack of color vision. That, or Qifrey is now doing things that are helpful for him that he never would have bothered with for himself.

Tartah loves to be hands on when it comes to learning magic. He prefers tactile things over sitting and watching.

I think his apprentice uniform would have a ribbon. If Qifrey asked Olly about it, he'd remind him that “It was mine first”. Qifrey would be so, so happy that he still remembered after all these years but wouldn't say a thing. (He quickly has to change train of thought, the roots tingling behind his eye)

So. Many. Slumber parties.

Qifrey and Olly will bring the apprentices all their favorite snacks while they lay in a star with pens, ink and paper, just experimenting. Fairy lights are hung overhead, and many pillows and blankets end up ink stained.

Agott has to be dragged to the slumber parties by Tetia, but she enjoys it nonetheless.

No one invites Richeh, for she dislikes invitations. They feel too much like being ordered to attend an event for her. She still shows up, for she always goes searching for brushbuddy and decides to stay instead of just taking brushbuddy back to her room.

Coco, Tetia and Tartah set up the tent. Tetia leans more towards the aesthetics of it all, while Tartah leans more towards the engineering side of things. Coco likes to help out with both!

It takes Tartah a while to settle into the atelier, but I think he'd really flourish there. (Yes, it's technically two ateliers but you can't tell me it's not becoming just one big, blended family) .

Olly would stress out a lot beforehand that he wouldn't do well with an apprentice.

I’ve seen a lot of people across different platforms make the assumption that he does, seeing as the two canonically spent a lot of time together back in Kalhan studying apothecary, but after rereading a lot of their scenes together across the Silver Eve arc, I don’t think Custas knows about Tartah’s condition, or at the very least he doesn’t know how it’s impacted Tartah’s life and his place in witch society.

For most of the time we know him, Custas has the “witches can have/do anything because they have magic” mentality that most outsiders seem to possess, which shapes his relationships with both Coco and Tartah from as early as chapter 43. He believes that their lives must be easy because they have magic, and that they don’t need to struggle to have a place in society like he does. Ironically, the two witches he displays this sentiment towards are probably the two who fit this idea the least within the current story.

For Coco, we know she wasn’t born with the privileged life of a witch like Custas assumes. We can see her struggle with this throughout the early Silve Eve arc. She cannot tell him the truth about her being born an outsider without exposing the secret of magic, but she cannot keep her past a secret without feeling hypocritical.

With Tartah, this juxtaposition between how he’s perceived as a witch by Custas and his actual relationship with witch society is perhaps a bit more subtle, as these moments rarely cut to Tartah looking horrified the same way Coco does. Unlike Coco, Tartah was born into the privileged life of a witch as Custas says, yet he’s also someone who distinctly sits outside of both witch society at large and the outsiders. His silverwash means that most adult witches will never view him as a “real” witch due to his inabilities, but his status of being from a witch family means he’ll never be an outsider to the world of magic. He’s in a limbo, too much of a witch to be an outsider, not enough of a witch to be “normal”

You’d think, if Custas was aware of this distinction between Tartah and “normal” witches to some degree, it would have some up at some point between his claim in chapter 43 and his apology in chapter 45—but it doesn’t. Custas remains as unaware of Tartah’s social outsiderness as he does Coco’s literal outsiderness.

While this could all just be interpreted as Custas knowing about Tartah’s disability but not the effects it has on a witch, I’d like to bring up his reunion with Tartah and Coco in chapter 51. After becoming a brimmed cap and realizing that there were solutions for fixing his legs with magic, Custas is angry at how his supposed friends were “keeping” the fact that they could have healed his legs from him. It stuck out to me even on my first reading of this scene that Custas never once mentioned that Tartah ALSO has a disability that could have potentially been fixed with magic, because this fact would contradict his argument.

If Custas were to acknowledge the fact that Tartah explicitly pushed the narrative that magic cannot heal people while also being disabled and having access to magic, his argument that Coco and Tartah were keeping this magic away from him solely because he’s an outsider would fall apart. If Tartah is both a witch and someone who suffers from a disability, why wouldn’t they use magic to fix it? Custas can’t maintain his argument without acknowledging Tartah’s silverwash, but since he doesn’t, it’s more likely that he just doesn’t know about it at all.

I also don’t think that silverwash in general is common among outsiders, or at least not to the level it is in witch societies. Coco needed Qifrey to explain it to her, and Tartah’s first mention of it towards the end of chapter 13 is very offhanded, like he assumed that Coco already knew what it was. This would line up with him not realizing she was originally an outsider until later in chapter 16.

“She cannot tell him the truth about her being born an outsider without exposing the secret of magic,”

Wasn’t it clear that he knew the secret of magic, from the way he was arguing in 51? He knew that magic was a tool kept away from the common people.