NoelleNoa
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Summary
“You lack ambition,” Prince Leona drawls out in an idle way that makes the hairs in Ruggie’s tail stand up. “Everyone here either jumps at me to challenge the place of dorm leader, or they fake being a good pup to have a chance for an ambush. It’s annoying. I need someone to dump some work in. I’ll pay you.”
If Ruggie were a better person, perhaps he’d tell Leona of his neighbourhood’s situation and urge him to do something. To convince him so they can change a broken and divided country. If he had ambition, perhaps he’d aim to save the people just like him: to stop children from going to nicer streets and dig in the trash for scraps of food, to disband criminal groups, to create jobs.
However, Ruggie is not a better person. Surviving has always been all the ambition he can afford.
He accepts.
or: Ruggie Bucchi and survival.
Bookmarked by NoelleNoa
24 Apr 2026
Bookmarker's Notes
I'm so happy I found this fic again because the first time I read it, the narrative held a deep place in my heart. This is genuinely one of the best fics ever; the writing is so articulated and flows really nicely whilst being easy to understand. My favorite thing here being the characterizations of Leona and Ruggie and especially their relationship as a whole being explored in the wake of Book two in a way that makes sense for their characters while still following canon.
Especially reading this now hits close to home with Ruggie's description of poverty calling back to the stories my mom used to tell me from her time in our home country where government corruption and turmoil left her on the streets and forced to work at a food stall with the rest of my family. She even had to quit furthering her education into middle school because of it. I cried reading the part where Ruggie described being overjoyed that rain came after long periods of drought because all I could think about was my mom telling me about the way she and her small community would celebrate having meat to eat by grounding up a portion of it and throwing it like confetti to kids. The way Ruggie's grandmothers words highlight that their home is there, in that slum, made me sob; because those places are home. To me and my mother, despite the narrative perpetuated that our home country is devastated by hunger and poverty is true; our hearts are full of love for those shared in the struggle, who are like family for rising despite the odds. We collectively work with what we have to survive, each person making a name for themselves; like my mother who was able to come to the states and gain higher a education now, are giving back to our country through community effort that only comes from a love of the land and its people.
I'm sorry if that rant was a bit long and unrelated, but this is just very gut-wrenching as a re-read since even from my first read I resonated with this fic so deeply because of my mother and it hurts more now that my relationship with her is very strained and her presence in my life is gone. Not to mention Ruggie and how I deeply relate with his desire to not aspire for anything and to just be content with the bare necessities as I myself kind of gave up on life.
Onto the meat of the story itself, the whole beginning is so good at establishing how Ruggie isn't motivated as a character in line with his experiences in his childhood, and thus his only desire is to live comfortably and give back to his community from what money he gets from Leona and presumably odd jobs. I really love how you call to his possible guilt for not asking more out of Leona to actually do something progressive with these impoverished communities because he's so ingrained in his survivalist mindset that he believes inherently that he should be the one to give back as he imagines being able to do so dreaming, "counting the madols until they buy a house in a nicer part of town, until he can invite the kids there with all the meat they can dream of. Granny smiling without the weight of hunger and years, like in the scarce photos they have at home. Uncles and aunties dancing as if it were raining, singing, laughing."
The way his mindset is challenged when he starts to desire something (winning the spell drive tournament) is done very well as well; where he grows past from just wanting comfortability and sort of developing this kind of ego with the need to win to prove his status within Savannaclaw and in a way to me felt like his need to prove that he's grown from the scrappy kid with no prospects. The cherry on top of all of this being the way this is dragged into the light from Leona's overblot where the person he's trusted and been supported by crumbles what they have and reminds him of the drought he's had to suffer though (and I feel like this could also be an allegory for their class difference and how Leona's albeit inherent power over Ruggie is reminiscent of the relationship between the leadership of the sunset savanna and the slums being "the personification of everything Ruggie has lived at the whims of" but I digress). He hammers into his mind that despite their differences in class, their commonality is that no one expects anything to amount from either of them; once again the "drought" beating out his desire to wish for more. I also really like how it's these words that hurt Ruggie more rather than Leona physically hurting him but are also referred in a way later to establish how the two understand eachother.
Not to mention how Ruggie just internalizes this, not confronting Leona for his actions despite wanting to because he's conditioned himself to not push for anything that doesn't necessitate survival. The fact that Ruggie can't even
Oops I reached the character count; I'll continue this commentary on my comment on this work. Please read this! One of the best character studies I've read.
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in our blood by raiteijou
Fandoms: とんがり帽子のアトリエ | Tongari Boushi no Atelier | Witch Hat Atelier (Manga)
20 Apr 2026
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Summary
Tartah reached up to rhythmically drag his fingers against the tough fabric of the cap, traveling down until he was fidgeting with the band. It was Grandpa's. It represented lies and oppression. It was Grandpa's.
He tore his hand away and grit his teeth.
Far away from home, a young witch, just a boy, thinks about his silver-tinted world. He thinks about blood and uniforms. He thinks about his grandpa.
Bookmarked by NoelleNoa
23 Apr 2026
Bookmarker's Notes
I love this take on how Ininia and Tartah would interact! I feel like she'd lowkey hate him more than Coco and just seeing that come to fruition in their dialogue with one another is very nice :)
Also I'm genuinely so sad. Seeing the way he thinks about his grandpa after everything is so gut wrenching especially with the anime release of ep 4 and seeing them together at the starry sword... Reading this on top of that made me sob so hard my poor son :(
AND UGH THE THING ABOUT HIS POINTED HAT FROM HIS GRANDPA WAS DEVASTATING NOOOOO
Also the writing here is phenomenal I love it!!
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among shadows by shireith
Fandoms: とんがり帽子のアトリエ | Tongari Boushi no Atelier | Witch Hat Atelier (Manga)
04 Dec 2025
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Summary
“What were you dreaming about?”
“I don’t remember.”Tartah and Coustas, a sleepless night together.
Bookmarked by NoelleNoa
27 Mar 2026
Bookmarker's Notes
I've got two coustah fics- Count em', two coustah fics- both with amazing writing with this one in particular exploring the bond between Coustas and Tartah ensuing silver eve in addition with heavy guilt and sadness that made me cry :(
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mortal boys by shireith
Fandoms: とんがり帽子のアトリエ | Tongari Boushi no Atelier | Witch Hat Atelier (Manga)
06 Nov 2025
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Summary
“You look like him sometimes,” Tartah said. “Dagda.”
“You think? I don’t know. I’m starting to forget his face.”Tartah and Custas in time, far away from Kalhn and alone.
Bookmarked by NoelleNoa
27 Mar 2026
Bookmarker's Notes
I read this legit right after Tartah's actions in chapter 87 months ago and only just found it after making an acc but this hit like a TRUCK rereading oh my gosh. This is so sad. It really satisfies the urge to learn what happens to the boys after silver eve and it's so gut wrenching; the writing here is amazing <3
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Two Voices in the Air by DrMiniPie
Fandoms: とんがり帽子のアトリエ | Tongari Boushi no Atelier | Witch Hat Atelier (Manga)
08 Feb 2022
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Summary
Qifrey finally escapes from the Great Hall and moves into his very own atelier. He can’t wait to kick off his teaching career, but there's a bit of a hang-up...No one wants to be his student.
Bookmarked by NoelleNoa
13 Mar 2026
Bookmarker's Notes
I love this look into what happened in-between Qifrey's departure from the great hall and his own establishment of an atelier! It feels really cozy and no matter where you are with Witch Hat, it translates well into the narrative without revealing spoilers