Until the wound becomes a window

I hope shirahama is feeling very clever about having bb!qifrey's slow realization of what olruggio is actually like mirror the same process you go through as a first time reader. pardon the expression but she pulls off such a great slow burn there without ever changing the actual characterization at any point, just letting you see more and more and growing to understand it in context. you start out at 'oh and this scrungly guy lives in our house as well, I guess...?' and you end up at 'I don't want to seem dramatic or anything but this scrungly guy is literally the hearth the house is built around do you understand'

*silverwood whispering* one hug surely won't hurt qifrey come on qifrey come on kiss him under the pale moonlight qifrey you know you wanna... it got a foot/root in the door the first time in olruggio's arms I guess it sees no reason to change a winning strategy

*dries fond tear* they r so silly... so good and so silly.... the little smile she starts cracking in invitation to break the tension and how he takes her up on it is such a neat little detail of their interaction. (brushbuddy looking over at qifrey like '...hey man u good???' is also incredible)

shoutout to this frame from alllll the way back in chapter 43 btw :) qifrey holding olruggio's phantasmal fireball spell and uniquely rendered to look almost undressed as he does, for some reason. who's to say