bring me the finest muffins and bagels in all the land

staring at the stars.

olly teaching qifrey, agott teaching coco.

crushes

best friends

agott and olly yelling at coco and qifrey for being reckless

as time goes on, qifrey learns more about olly's time in ghodrey and he's often left a little confused. "your dad didn't praise your magic?" qifrey's thinking about how encouraging beldy is even when he messes up. olly laughs and brushes it off like it's no big deal, but from then on qifrey makes a point to always praise olly's magic. especially the magic that makes olly happy. the magic that doesn't serve any purpose other then to make olly smile. that's qifrey's favorite kind of olruggio magic. not the fire that keeps people alive, but the deer made of light that puts that soft look on olly's face. the look that gives qifrey butterflies in his stomach. you fast forward to adult olruggio and compliments from qifrey are the only ones he can react to without sputtering.

i can imagine a world where olruggio thinks his only value comes from what he's able to do with his magic to help others. qifrey is the first person who values olruggio the person before olruggio the witch. qifrey would love olly even if he wasn't olruggio of the torch. it's qifrey who gives him the nickname "olly" in the first place and olly's never had a nickname before. it's so humanizing to olly in a way qifrey is left baffled by, but it's olly getting to be like every other kid for once. he gets a fun nickname and he feels like maybe he won't be traded away this time. qifrey values him. not what he can do.

qifrey often feels a little lost in the world because his memory was wiped and he had his perspective on basic family and friendship dynamics ripped from him, but he learns how to take care of olly. it helps ground him. he learns how to make olly feel better when a spell doesn't work and olly's beating himself up about it. he learns how to bully olly into getting food with him in the cafeteria when olly forgets to eat. he learns to scooch over in bed when olly shows up in the middle of the night in tears bc he had a nightmare about noz again. olly doesn't wanna talk about it, he just wants to feel safe so he finds qifrey.