𓆝.°• closer than you think
→ orufrey + implied arkco | rated T | 50.2k words | 6/6
oru tends to qifrey’s sick day, but he begins to act very strangely…?
part of a series (the waxing moon 1/?)
mainly oru pov | body swap | brimhat au | mutual pining x grief | hurt/comfort
author's review below [spoilers to entire fic]
HOLY SHIT I CAN'T BELIEVE I FINISHED IT AHAHHAHA
what started as a 5k word fic idea turned into one ten times long—purely because i couldn't help myself in making them suffer just a smidge more in every scene
the initial summary of the work was meant to be "What if Olruggio knew about Qifrey's light sensitivity?" with the concept of the girls calling oru in panic bc qifrey didnt prepare any breakfast or apparently left his room
their relationship is so so so so desperate, in knowing when there's something wrong even though they wouldn't be completely sure yet of what exactly. and that's the kicker here—because what if the cause is themselves? ow ow ow ow ow
so orufrey would do anything to assuage each other's unknown pain, yet keeping themselves at a distance to not assume overstepping (they're in each other's pants constantly though lmao)
about the au
for some context (& to indoctrinate (?!) you all into my insanity) into the waxing moon au:
brim!frey aka crow & brim!coco aka moth have been brought into canon world. they end up teaming with iguin and co, much to their cough cough hatred
obviously their backstories are different — and here's the definite fact, it's purely because crow clawed his way out of his coffin #girlboss go queen
this work is a prelude to the main fic :devious-hamster: so watch out
about orufrey
so ctyt merges these two; what if orufrey's relationship is hesitant, and what if there's a version that's already been severed? what if oru met a version of qifrey that makes him recontextualize their relationship together since its beginning? (what a loaded question bc ahem oru does nott know qifrey in full anw rn but wtv)
mind you they’ve known each other for a LONG time — qifrey knew oru for his entire remembered life, and im willing to bet they were each other’s first real friend ever ??
when you’ve known someone for that long and closely, you’re both bound to develop some form of mutual dependency. then here comes qifrey’s fear of true comfort (true dependency) changing how he acts and leading him to put on a mask in front of everyonee; i think in the manga, other characters saw him ‘maturing’ or ‘finally happy bc i moved out xoxo’
but hb oru? how did he perceive being on the receiving end of memory wipes and his first best friend’s personality seemingly changing drastically and how he keeps running away or hiding things? did he ever doubt their connection, their history, like ‘did i just misread the past?’ bc what is this bs rn !!
so oru finds himself selfish, when he finds himself content with qifrey leaving — so long as he returned back (which he does). he’s content with lies, wherein sure he’ll get mad but he folds immediately after it's acknowledged.
oru accepts the inconsistencies because he does find comfort in what he thinks they have and desperately wants to sustain that, with the only hesitance being his fear of hurting qifrey in return.
now comes crow, a clingier version of qifrey (definitely not because of some traumatic reason nope! /s), who voices things that we kinda know qifrey also would’ve if given the chance. oru initially tries to find reason for yet another behavioral change, but eventually caves into his reassurances and kinder gestures
because they hold each other so intimately to their heart & soul that it changes them simply by existing. they hold each other, and they do it so much closer than the other wld think
about everything in between
there are SOOO many nuggets of pure joy that ive added into this work. its wild. i didn't know you can do that with writing
[1] for one, is the concept of the master choosing the apprentice. here's the snippet i wrote in a blur ??
how all of them were adopted (kidnapped) ← also known as orufrey surprising each other with new daughters
- when agott was disowned by her family, she couldn't walk around the great hall without being harassed. seeing it one day during a walk w oru, qifrey came to her defense but immediately said she was his apprentice (he panicked) (he didnt even ask her) (or oru). they awkwardly did the process properly and agott just thinks it’d be easier to say she requested to be under qifrey’s wing
- tetia is still unknown to me my ball of sunshine <\3 im imagining her as a child of migrant witches, frequently meeting them at their outings (dates) to her town and getting closer to them (she’s collecting evidence for the Notebooks) (they are extremely worried for the Unsupervised Child). one day they invite her to their atelier and agott goes why is there another one .. & tetia goes omg im another one !! ;’) of course i say yes !! and they already love her to bits so they just go with the flow
- richeh is free from her previous master but becomes incredibly against joining other ateliers, even with qifrey’s help & assurances (though he hadn’t yet asked her to join his atelier, qifrey talked with oru about it). oru, misunderstanding that he already asked and she accepted (dont blame him he’s chronically sleep deprived), comes to pick richeh up “as qifrey’s apprentice.” richeh is both overwhelmed and overjoyed that they’re upholding their promise of protecting her to that extent (qifrey gets a heart attack seeing them arrive home together olly did you just STEAL a CHILD)
- meanwhile coco petrifies her mother and qifrey, not two seconds later, goes “be my apprentice” oru your husband is off his leash again
in the manga, the apprentice choosing their master is typically framed as a way for them to advance their magic, or as a form of protection and providing for the child (where are everyone's parents ......). here, it's adoption (even though its introduced as various accidents, they're welcomed all the same) — of orufrey reaching outwards to those who wouldn't've chosen masters because of their own reasons #the parents that stepped up yk
[2] secondly, i did a lil Think on spellcasting because MY GUYSSSSSSSSSS the system is so good it just flows like that
some honorable mentions:
the adjusted owlcat spell - ch 1; meant to be similar to the actual one in the manga & showcasing how experimental magic can be
the paired necklace that glows when the other is near - ch 2
the SKY NIGHT SPELL - ch 4? i think?
the cleaning spell - ch 5/6; btw if you caught it, other world olruggio was the one who taught it to crow!
the temporary healing spell - ch 6; with tattoos that faded after a while
unfortunately didn't get to expand on some of them + more but #me when magic fuels you
[3] third are the inserts of orufrey flashbacks - especially in chapter 4. no further comments i think im going to lose my mind if i continue humoring the lil tidbits i added in here
but have i told you how much i love thinking about child & teen orufrey ?? they're the most precious lil guys of all #no joke
it's especially so precious to me that it's oru remembering those memories; and crow, who is mostly fronting for qifrey during the entire work, #has no clue about it yessss....... YESSSSSSSSS
my favorite bit is on the letter 'who made you love magic?' yessss...................... YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS !!! (which, if it isn't clear, qifrey re-wrote his letter for oru but refused to show it to him afterwards)
(or maybe he did, then erased his memory again. who knows)
[4] fourth fun fact is robed, a brimhat oc (though was purely made to just be killed off here gee geez)
basically, the spell was only meant to create a spectral (?) projection of crow nearby, but it got messed up and switched their bodies. robed was the one who created and pushed for the spell to be activated, even though crow can immediately tell that it's a bum work
lowkey robed pisses me off AHAHAHAH dumb bitch go die!! <- he actually is, but by who let's just say it's a lil cute insect waiting for her father figure / annoying uncle to return
*if there's smt you want me to talk about, fl free to send an ask! #this hyperfixation will bring us both down .
about comments!
THE THING THAT PUSHED ME TO FINISH THIS WORK !!!!! i believe even from chapter 2 i was slowing down, stumped on how to write the next part (i even rewrote the entire chapter because i wasn't feeling the first draft)
'lo and behold these comments pushed me to keep it coming — heck, i started writing more and longer scenes too (if you notice my 2k+ chapters turning into 8k+ ones)
responding to some of them a bit more!
[...] and Im so excited to see how brimfrey can deal with this without being caught
the way he didn't even get caught even with his suspicious ass lurking around 😭😭 qifrey has always been a bit weird in his mannerisms, and the rest of the atelier just. accepts him like that
except,, for one though 👀
Also I kinda thought Moth was other world Coco, but then it seems the brimmhats are trying to manipulate other world Coco and call her Hope??
genuinely think i confused myself with this too LMAOO but essentially, all Coco's are Hope's! after all, hope is a concept :))
*other world coco is moth, but both coco and moth are hopes
to me, the brimhats of any reality want to use hope as if its theirs to control, and who better to start with than someone who can't stop hoping for a better outcome?
[all comments about who grabbed oru at the end of ch5]
OK THIS IS ON ME. <- took an unannounced, month-long hiatus between the two chapters. when in reality i more or less had the entire draft ready by my usual weekly schedule LMAOO
i ahem got a bit preoccupied by my other fic (tailor's daughter) and it gave me a headache switching between them trying to recall which drastically different tone is being used ahdsjkaDH
if im going to be honest, when i posted that ending i hadn't yet figured out who grabbed him ADHASJKD but it was the perfect chance to bridge the work to the main series / brimhat au ;))
did you catch it? crow thinking his olruggio is gone <3
that's all for now! thank you so much for reading this far ♡
𓆝.°• dying is fine, too → orufrey + implied arkco | rated G | 8.0k words | 2/2
5 times olruggio spent his birthday after running away to live in the woods and 1 time he spent it in the Tower of Tomes
extra to a series (the waxing moon 2/?)
oru pov | brimhat au (ish) | falling in love | hurt/comfort x angst | 5+1 things
author's review below [spoilers to entire fic]
added a tag < author is grinning ear to ear writing this > and i DON'T lie, because they're so precious to me my cheeks hurt
inspo came from me thinking oru's birthday is on ?? june 20 ?? instead of september 20 AND zombie stage because yes i love doomed narratives all around. i can't help myself it's like bee to honey ;;
anyways, this was initially intended to just be one short chapter but i fumbled again and made it 4 times longer than it should've been. since the +1 is ahem disproportionately darker compared to the other ones, i found it best to separate them as well
about the 5
olruggio runs away from the great hall after feeling lonely
qifrey claws his way out of the coffin beneath roots of silverwood trees (don't ask how he's just built like that)
immmmmmmmmmmmm so normal about them i promise. this part of the au grew from thinking "what if qifrey left the box himself?" which led to "ok so how does oru manage being in the great hall without meeting qifrey?" [SPOILERS(ish): below is his pov from that segment in closer than you think]
the answer is simple, he doesn't lololololol
not included in the fic is his weeks spent trying to reassure everyone that he's alright; that he's this shining beacon or sturdy pillar that is unaffected by the catastrophe left at Nauz. but the thing about unkept beacons and pillars is that they are doomed to shatter under the weight they carry
or maybe olruggio just wanted to be a farmer idk
anyways, he runs away and ends up in the silver forest (which. he stupidly doesn't realize is filled with silverwood trees until much later) that houses a white-haired boy. he's smaller, than him, malnutritioned because apparently he eats sticks ?? and leaves ?? but whatever go crazy young fellow
from a few trace meetings — and multiple scares from sickness — they grow closer, learning from each other. from qifrey to oru, it's what the forest is telling you.
from oru to qifrey, it's what a birthday is.
[end of spoilers for ctyt]
the idea of oru constantly dooming himself for qifrey is so . funny to me (saving him from the rain, sharing his birthday with him, giving a ribbon that reminds him of home)
he's also constantly wishing to share the secret of magic with him, knowing that qifrey could - and would - use it better than he had. eventually, he sheds off the hesitance contributed by the Pact, and is wholly in love with how he wields it (even though he's a horrible flier)
about the +1
this is the backstory and exposition to the entire series, in other world oru's pov !! qifrey and coco are brimhats, oru is an archivist, agathe is a librarian apprentice, and that's all so far
here, destroying unique texts leads them to be forgotten outside of the tower. they realize this after oru unintentionally ruins an entire section of the library. author's note within a note: it definitely would have been fine if he contained it, but it mixed with human's blood soooo lololol
a very fun, amazing, so cool fact that made me very happy is this:
The library shows your heart’s deepest desires, and in the moment of the seed taking root in Qifrey, all Olruggio wanted was a life outside with him. He really, really didn’t want to hurt his only friend.
LIKEEE ok slay
i have a feeling that the library "showing you your heart's inner desires" might just mean that it has everything you could have ever thought of, but seeing it as like a sentient thing that reacts to what you actually want, instead of what you claim or think you want, is so mwah
it reflects well in canon bc as if oru actually wanted to erase either of their memories. my guy chose suffering for them both (though it's more clueless (?) on his side), when he's out there yapping about living old together sure sure......
next part is this one
How could he find solace in his dreams, when the scent of flames is too familiar?
for context, our king is worked MIDNIGHT to MIDNIGHT as an archivist. he's living that kim soleum employed but not paid lifestyle fr
yet, despite that, he fears sleep because he's constantly smelling the scent of fire from destroying texts. and it ummmmm definitely makes him nostalgic about some things!
xx chatfic here i come
xx wha x zombie stage crossover here i come
^^ TO ADD
ZOMBIE STAGE Round 1 came out and instantly gave me the energy to conceptualize and finish this fic in . three days. doomed yuri and doomed yaoi can't stop me now (i mentioned this above and i will keep mentioning it omgg)
the lyrics were "[This place is already paradise / Living is fine] / Dying is fine" and "You are my god / You are my universe" so. ifykyk
because even across universes, doomed remains doomed
that's all for now! thank you so much for reading this far ♡
