Until the wound becomes a window

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: とんがり帽子のアトリエ | Tongari Boushi no Atelier | Witch Hat Atelier (Manga) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Olruggio/Qifrey (Tongari Boushi no Atelier) Characters: Qifrey (Tongari Boushi no Atelier), Olruggio (Tongari Boushi no Atelier) Additional Tags: Character Study, qifrey pov, Hopeful Ending, Manga spoilers up to chapter 97, Implied alcoholism-adjacent behaviour but like within the canon-typical range, Olruggio suffers some conversational jumpscares in this one that would kill a lesser man, but thankfully as we all know the star of Ghodrey is built different, Mr. Qifrey ‘we must imagine Sisyphus fucking miserable actually. just bereft. out of his mind with grief’ Witch Hat Atelier, it’s been Olly depression hours in this atelier. tfw no qifrey Summary:

Something, equal parts wariness and weariness, stirs in Olruggio’s eyes whenever Qifrey makes some reference to the future — when he indirectly promises a tomorrow, a next week, an ‘after your commissions are done’. It’s the subtlest thing, a flicker, a spark; someone who knew him less well might not pick up on it. But Qifrey knows Olruggio as well as he knows himself, and he can hardly in good conscience begrudge him his flinch of cynicism. Not when it’s wholly his own fault for having put it there.

oh this is really neat seen together -- top image is when coco reaches out to touch qifrey's face while he's passed out in the romonon arc and how it's framed there, bottom image is coco's memory of what happened, from the great hall arc. it feels almost like this is an expression we don't get to see in the moment itself because the camera 'cuts away', but this might be what coco sees in that last frame (as she's apologizing) after his thousand yard stare of ptsd fades. man shirahama is so good at subtleties of expression. seeing the unsettling death stare juxtaposed with the pure 🥺 through coco vision is also somehow obscurely amusing to me. *coco voice* listen you have to understand he's just a little guy. and also my dad

But of course the thing is that neither of them are happy. Olruggio had put his sharp, gentle mind to work to ensure they never would be, and for it Qifrey owes him everything — every breath and every heartbeat; owes him in return so much better than anything he has to give.