The wait is over, everyone!!!! The shop has officially opened. Keep an eye out because bundle information will be posted soon (and linked under here). Pre-orders will be open until June 28, 11:59 PM EST.
Woohoooo this project is out!! I contributed one of the stories in the zine 🤭 in which a young Cait sleuths around her family mansion, and discovers something very curious…
Please check out all the amazing artists in this project! Really appreciate your support 💙
I have a sinking feeling about Qifrey and where his story is headed.
MASSIVE spoilers and maybe slightly long-winded theorizing below the cut.
I believe quite certainly that Qifrey intends to reveal the complete truth to Olruggio very soon, and that while he seems to be accepting his fate, he is trying to maintain as much control over the terms of his inevitable end as possible.
Following the events of Chapter 88, after he reveals his nature as a Silverwood host to Coco, he asks to postpone his complete confession, wishing to be able to reveal the truth elsewhere, in a peaceful place beneath a wide open sky where his roots would have room to comfortably grow. He has described the land around the atelier in this way many times before.
Later, when the entire group is finally reunited and Olruggio tells Qifrey they’re going home. Qifrey’s expression looks pained for a moment, before he answers, “Alright then. Let's go home. Our atelier awaits."
His verbal recognition of the atelier as his home is a rather glaring signal that he is beginning to accept his imminent end and has chosen the atelier as his ideal final resting place. This is hinted at early on in a sequence during which Beldaruit spoke to Riliphin of the Silverwoods, and implied that he knew of Qifrey’s condition as he privately worried that his beginning to think of the atelier as his home could be dangerous for him.
At a point during their journey home, we return to the group to find the girls all asleep, while Qifrey has distanced himself from the rest, sitting on the bank of a lake to write in his book. Olruggio joins him and points out how far he’s sitting from the fire.
I think this was probably intentional in an effort to be closer to the lake to keep himself anxious, since it is my personal theory that here, Qifrey is actually writing a letter to Olruggio in which he tells him the entire truth, and that the narration through the next arc is comprised of excerpts from that letter. The lake is intended to be a failsafe of sorts, since of course, we know that vocalizing the truth to Olly is Qifrey’s greatest comfort trigger, while water touching his skin is his biggest anxiety trigger. Given this, it makes sense for him to choose this particular spot to begin to release the truth so he has a means of keeping the Silverwood at bay readily available should he need it, which he evidently does later on.
In the segments that follow, Qifrey reminisces on how he and Olruggio crossed paths at the Great Hall and became close.
Through the end of chapter 91, we watch the story unfold neutrally as though it is happening in real time, with no narration, but in chapter 92, something shifts. As soon as Qifrey’s recount reaches the part of the story that would have been lost to Olruggio’s memory, a past-tense narrator voice begins to cut in, and suddenly, it becomes clear this story is being told to someone, not merely recalled, and not just to anyone, but to Olruggio by Qifrey. This is the strongest evidence that what we’re reading is actually the contents of a letter to Olruggio.
All of this indicates to me that Qifrey is not just reminiscing, but is actively preparing for the end. The telling of the story, the physical and emotional distance Qifrey has put between himself and the others, and his now repeated framing of the atelier as both home and the kind of place where he would want to be forever, are all supportive of that.
As far as we know, Qifrey hasn’t been the one to initiate a full confession since they were kids at the Tower of Tomes. Spilling his guts in a letter written under duress is probably a new tactic, and it’s a smart one, as it ensures Qifrey can get the complete truth out on his terms without the usual interruption from the Silvertree.
We also know that Qifrey would rather die than have his transformation hurt the people he loves, so at this point, I wouldn't put it past him to leave the letter at home where the others will find it before going off to trigger his transformation alone, or waiting until the others are gone to trigger it.
This is what has me especially worried for him now, because Olruggio and the girls just left the atelier, leaving Qifrey there by himself. Maybe I'm projecting (probably), but the thought of Qifrey leaving a note and then going off to essentially kill himself makes my stomach hurt. Painfully though, it does feel in character, especially now that he's vocalized his trust in his students, particularly Coco, to carry on his mission. Olruggio, please go home now, your husband is an active danger to himself!!
Fortunately, Hiehart and Jujy pay the atelier a visit, but even upon greeting them, he does already seem on edge and uncharacteristically down.
Hopefully, whatever Hiehart has to say will get Qifrey out of his head and convince him to keep living for a little while longer. I'm guessing he's going to ask Qifrey to take on Jujy as his apprentice. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
Anyways. To conclude, here is Qifrey’s directed narration/possible excerpts from a letter to Olruggio compiled:
Every day I turned my gaze away from the encroaching dread, and for as long as I was in the dark, I was happy. I greeted each morning with excitement, for with the rise of the sun came another adventure with you. I thought if I could retrieve the past I lost, my joy would be as genuine as yours, and perhaps I would have a real chance to share in your happiness. A child can dream. Like ordinary boys, we would share our visions of tomorrow with each other and we would laugh at how far away it all seemed.
Little did I know that felicity came with forgetting. It was a bliss born of ignorance. If I knew what I was… If I knew that I was never meant to be saved, I would've stayed far away from you, the sky’s kindest, most radiant star.
I once read an old poem that likened stars to boats sailing through the sky. But as far as I know, boats don’t twinkle like stars. The light doesn’t come from the vessel itself, but its guiding torch. Like your pyreball, it burns at the bow. A beacon of light in the dark.
After that fateful day, you would uncover my secret again and again. Each time you would respond with disbelief. Then your face would twist and turn in anguish. And after biting back a few words, you would show me grace, and comfort me and forgive me for lying to you. And then, without fail, the Silverwood’s roots would grow. You would offer me the same path back every time, and I would take it, adding to my mess of sins.
I had often considered leaving your side. I thought that perhaps traveling alone would save me from taking away your memories. But even that minute solace was enough for the Silverwood. I knew then that distance would do nothing but break my promise to you.
So I had another thought: A master never wants for worry with apprentices to look after. The selfishness behind my reason for taking on pupils made me ill, but they’d never have to know that. So I decided to put every fiber of my being toward becoming a good educator. If only I had known then what a joy it truly is to watch your students grow with each passing day.
It’s somewhat rare for a Silverwood to take root in people. Unlike animals, they tend to hold onto too much anxiety. Which is why the tree planted in Custus that gave him his legs raises some questions. My right eye was the only one to sprout during the experiments. It must have some connection to the Silverwood in Custas. For so long, I thought I was the only host, but now I'm not so sure. There could be more victims out there than I ever imagined.
Did I make the right choice?
Would it have been better to throw everything aside and hunt down the brimmed caps?
Doubts like these turn in my head, but the moment I see my atelier, I remember.
This is where my heart is. This is where I want to be.
You might think I'm an optimist. You're mistaken. It's actually a coping mechanism. It's very much in character for Shiragami, but Qifrey is a busy man. He’s too busy to just die. He’ll just let this letter lie under some bed and go deal with the kids’ third exam. What good will happen in the meantime? Olrugio will do a thorough cleaning (He will know!!!).
finally finished this thing I started last year, then took multiple months break on for surgery & moving, then cranked to the finish line this past month to have in time to give to some friends at fanime ^^ please enjoy my blankie feelings
ok so, I approached my local library with a proposal to donate a mural as a way to A: build portfolio/gain practical experience and B: give back to a beloved public institution. The director was very enthusiastic about it and i've been working on it since the beginning of March. Come with me as I endeavor to paint what is in all honesty an excessive amount of birds
I wanted the birds to look like they were actually in the space so first thing after doing the draft was to do a lighting study
after that I covered the walls in letters in lieu of a projector/vr headset bc i have neither of those :) Then i take a picture of the section of wall and superimpose the lineart over top of it so I can pencil in the lines
et voila
and that was a whole week on it's own so next comes the paintin' >:)
my chains are broken i am FREE. although i did have a great deal of fun with this, the barring on the wings itself took me like four days and i am READY to move on
this was a week and a half of continuous work so please excuse me for getting a little emotional in the bg 🙏
BIRD NUMBER 10!!! The Male Mallard Duck, Anas platyrhynchos
the male and female ones are gonna be posted separately bc they're taking a lot longer lol but yea! super happy i was able to capture the iridescent green of the head, i found metallic green and blue paint at a craft store that really made his head POP. it looks better in person i promise
ALSO!! As this is the 10th one, BIG announcement. The end is in sight!!!!! I plan to finish within the next 3 weeks and there will be a small dedication ceremony/ unveiling happening at the library to commemorate its completion on the 16th of May. If you live in the Western New York region and want to check it out for yourself shoot me a dm!
Also thank you everyone for your kind words and support throughout this whole process, it's been a genuine treat thinking there are potentially thousands of you out there cheering me on while I paint this 🥹
we're movin right along with bird numero 11!! The lady Mallard!! Anas platyrhyncos
the 16th is looming in the distance so i'm trying to get thru these as quickly as i can so i can have as much time for the GBH as possible. i still need to do the names next to all of them so i've got about a week and a half to finish everything which is GREAT because i have adhd and nothing gets my ass in gear like a fuckin deadline, let me tell you
power couple that they are, here's bird number 12 and 13,
the Northern Cardinals, Cardinalis cardinalis
and NOW that they are complete, ITS GO TIME, in the next five days (library's closed for mother's day 😭😭) i need to have the GBH fully rendered, the names of the birds vectored, weeded, masked, applied to the wall, and then painted, plus additional cattails throughout. I may be able to get away with just getting the GBH done in time for the unveiling and then just have the names and cattails added later, but i'm gonna really try to get it all done in time. BUT, i have a plan. Part of why i take so long on these is because i really am just figuring it out as I do it lmao. there have been many a time where i am sitting on top of the ladder googling "how to paint birds" but I think if i take the time tomorro to do all that figuring out how to approach it beforehand, this will go a lot faster. I may also recruit some of my artist friends to help with the placing of the names... hrmm we'll see.
Anyways, shout out to the librarian who tracked down exactly the thing i needed so i could figure out where to place the highlights in my birds eyes, ur the real mvp
thank you to everyone who reached out or got excited about this project, it genuinely gave me the fuel i needed to keep going. In total, the 480+ total hrs it took me to cover this wall pales in comparison to how long its expected to spend on there, hopefully imparting a sense of beauty and love for the natural world to the next generation and here's hoping i'm only getting started with these.
Fanmade Witch Hat Atelier spells come in two flavours
Magic air fryer
This is why magic is a trade secret
A Kugelblitz is type of black hole formed by concetrating a sufficiently high concentration of light, heat, or radiation into a given space to form an event horizon
The anime adding in Qifrey fidgeting with his fingers while saying that whole “oh Olruggio you’re back early haha wow” led me at first to believe that he intended to break the news to Olruggio more gently but didn’t get the chance to, but then the fact that he didn’t tell Coco that there’s a whole other adult person living in the atelier the whole time she’d been there leads me to the far more likely conclusion that he just straight up forgot
Ok the thing about that is that we see in both chapter and episode 2, when Qifrey talks to someone on the cell-phone-like contraption, that someone already approved Coco's apprenticeship. (Not hard to guess who- who would be responsible for teaching/apprenticeship decisions, has a history of taking on an outside apprentice, plus bending the rules generally? Hmm. Belda-who indeed.) This is reinforced by Qifrey picking up an official apprenticeship uniform before Coco completes her first test.
So at any point before arriving at the Atelier, Qifrey could have potentially given Olruggio a call (depending on how the cell phones work). Or written a letter. Or for fuck's sake, left a note on his door/on his workshop desk.
At any point, Qifrey could have said "Her apprenticeship has already been approved by the Wise in Teachings" instead of going for the rain spell or threatening to have his own memories erased. Everything about Qifrey's interactions with Olruggio speak to doing it for the [redacted] drama™️.
...
I do genuinely believe he just forgot to tell Coco, though.
As Qifrey is the guy who went “Agott is so responsible. Surely I can leave her alone with Coco for a day and they’ll get along famously. Surely she will not haze Coco and nothing dangerous will happen :)”
when James Baldwin said to be a pessimist means that you have agreed that human life is an academic matter. So I am forced to be an optimist. I am forced to believe that we can survive whatever we must survive.
Olruggio was having a normal day three hours ago. He was coming home after a long day at work looking forward to seeing his husband best friend and eating a warm dinner. Pat the kids on the head and then go lie down. NO Qifrey says I have obtained another child she's a part of an active criminal investigation and a sign that I am dipping back into my worst destructive behaviors that you thought I'd set down years ago you have to be okay with this right now or else I'll lobotomize myself. Also there's a rat in the living room.
Olruggio Of The Torch, Star Of Ghodrey, inventor of things such as the lightbulb (phantasmal fireball) the hairdryer (link rings), the streetlight (glowstone path), and the heating pad (snugstone)
in lieu of chapter 50, which is delayed due to satou coming down with covid, volume 5 of tongari kitchen ends with a charming little extra chapter featuring qifrey and orugio during their students days!
this extra chapter may have been inspired by this drawing shirahama did a couple of years ago
it's a good thing these two started cooking so early because i would feel so bad for the girls to have to deal with unseasoned vegetables boiled in water soup
and thus young qifrey discovered the joys of cooking, and would enjoy many years of night time fun with orugio thereafter
and with this, volume 5 is finally done! as i've posted about before, with the news that tongari kitchen will be officially translated into english i will be stopping my scanlations here, but my notes won't be going away completely!
i'm thinking of writing summaries for each chapter and translating the recipes found on the back pages going forward. i probably won't include any images aside from what might be publicly available from satou and the magazine, but it will probably be similar (though less wordy) to the summary i wrote for orugio's special chapter. if i end up purchasing english volumes, i might even post translation notes and compare to what i've come up previously. but in any case, i will still post tidbits about wha in general.
have a happy new year!
I noticed that chapter 7 of Tongari Kitchen (aka Kitchen of Witch Hat) wasn’t translated so I went and did it myself using screenshots of the digital tankoban. I’m not sure if other scanlation groups will upload their own version, so I appreciate if you don’t upload my translated pages to any website. For reference I plan to have my translation be available on Tumblr only (with a link to here on the WHA Reddit).
