#But you deserve it for bothering Lahabrea lol

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

copying anon over here because i went to save the ask to my drafts and tumblr sent it directly to the shadow realm, welp:

I dug through your rambles about Hermes, so I'm looking forward to thoughts on Erich with the ancient world's everything lol ~

ahhhh thank you, i'm glad you've enjoyed my rambles so far!! i've been taking the second half of the pandaemonium arc more slowly, partly because i'm been Out of It the last few days and partly because the direction the plotline with erich and lahabrea has taken a turn for has been leaving a really bad taste in my mouth. i've been making my way through it, though, and percolating Deeply on the He and how he and pandaemonium as a whole fit into all this. spoiler alert i love him even more now

(on the one hand, it finally helped me articulate some points that imo make or break an 'abusive parent sees the error of their ways and apologizes up and down and swears to do better, and both that and the context in which the abuse happened leave their victim feeling conflicted about it' arc. so there's that! on the other hand it, uh. it did so by very much being the goofus here lmao, and erich deserved better.)

(the way the whole thing is played off is also just, deeply deeply misogynistic. athena is top-tier nastywoman and i love her for it, and 'mothers--in particular white women, especially to their children of color--can be shitty and predatory and abusive and are accountable for it full stop,' is great abuse rep but fucking WOWZERS)

(which like, i will say that the overtones are not at all lost on me that athena repeatedly goes out of her way to prey on, abuse, and violate not just men of color but black men; dehumanizes them and treats them and their bodies as her property; and is strongly implied to have sexually abused erich in particular. and how the one who gets the brunt of it is her biracial, very VERY not white-passing son, who she isolated from the black side of his family to do whatever she wanted with. it is insanely fucking refreshing to see that shit not cushioned at ALL, and it really sucks that that had to come bundled in with the abuse apologia and misogyny.)

(i am also realizing that this is one of the reasons erich whitewashing, and how common it is in the fandom as well as official art, bothers me so much beyond the obvious. while it's uncertain how much of it was intentional, his narrative evokes not just real-world racism but colorism, and a specific brand of it and how it intersects with abuse. even if just on a doylist level erich was abused for being as dark-skinned as he is, and erasing that is even shittier than your run-of-the-mill whitewashing.)

(anyway. ANYWAY. anyway. all that is a post of its own and i haven't even gotten to the parts about ancient society yet. you see what i mean by having a lot of thoughts about him lmao)

i'm hoping to finish the last leg of the questline tonight so i can start fully putting my thoughts together because god there is SO MUCH, and i'm excited even if i foresee having to grit my teeth through the rest of the moments between him and lahabrea lmao

[themadchemist]

Pincushions and Poisonous Roses

This was written in response to this piece by @meepsthemiqo and it turned out waaay longer than I expected XD

Including @emetspersephone 's OC as well.

Anais had warned Fae and Persie about bothering Lahabrea again but they didn't listen, so she took matters into her own hands.

Don't mess with an Alchemist's lover again lol.

Word count: 1195

Lahabrea always caused a racket whenever he came to the alchemy department, whether it was because he was yelling or because the new recruits were going wild over seeing that "genius" up close... Yet, this time, it was completely different. Looking up at her lover, Anais' jaw dropped "What the hell happened this time?" he was covered in... Needles? And his face was as red as the mask that he removed to reveal the most pissed off look on his face that she's seen in a looong time. "Fae!" was the only word he spat out before asking her to pick the needles from his skin.

He was silent for the most part after explaining what happened and knowing him, Anais knew that it was not a good sign. "What's going on in that brilliant big brain of yours?" "Brilliant things. I'm going to make Fae regret-". It was never ended well when Lahabrea thought of taking revenge. "You already suspended her for a week and I'm pretty sure she regrets it since her dear Elidibus was hurt as well." she tried to calm her lover, even though Fae deserved some sort of punishment at this point...

"No don't even try. You convinced me to let it go last time and it only made her more annoying and wild. This time, I'm putting her in her place. I'll burn-" The Alchemist interrupted him by plucking the last and biggest needle out, causing him to wince in pain. "Please don't burn anything. Let me handle Fae, ok? I promise you'll be satisfied with the result" Anais said as she got up to fetch a potion that should help sooth the pain of the stings. "Will you make her suffer?" Lahabrea knew it was best to let her handle it, if only because he didn't want to accidentally burn his department down in the process. "Thoroughly." she rolled her eyes as she said that, he could be so childish sometimes. "Then include goobbue girl too." "Why? Persephone has nothing to do with it, right? It was Fae's doing." "Oh, please. That spiky little demon is her creation, you can smell her aether even on the bloody needles!" Anais picked one of the needles up and smelt it and Lahabrea was right, it smelled like Persie's aether... When were her friends going to learn that they shouldn't piss Lahabrea off more than he naturally was? "Fine, Persephone too. Just relax and trust me on this." she kissed his forehead before continuing her work.

_______________________

A week later, Fae and Persephone found a tiny fairy like green creature with thorns on it head and roses for hands on their desks, and both of them, being too weak for cute things, decided that it was ok to play with it instead of reporting finding an unknown creature in their offices. But who could blame them, anyone would be be enchanted with the tiny leafy creature when it fluttered its long eyelashes and danced so elegantly, jumping from their hands to their shoulders and heads, rubbing its soft roses on their cheeks and noses, to make them inhale the relaxing fragrance. Little did they know.

__________________________

Later that day, they met outside of the alchemy department when they came to see Anais about the weird symptoms they were experiencing. The sneezing, runny noses and itchy red spots on their skins, the signs of certain allergies that they were sure they didn't have.

They explained everything to the Alchemist as she pretended to check on them. She knew the exact cause and she was quite pleased with the results she saw, it was all part of her little plan.

"By the way, did you like my little gifts?" Anais asked innocently when she finished her check ups. She didn't exactly leave a note stating that they were from her but they'll know soon enough.

"Gifts?" "I didn't receive anything." Fae and Persephone replied as they tried to recall if they had received anything from Anais. "The tiny green fairies I left in your offices... The ones hiding in your robes. I can smell the aroma of their roses from here." she explained as she clapped her hands twice, prompting the creatures to come out and float back to her.

"Oh, they're yours? I didn't smell your aether in them." Fae inquired, suddenly feeling skeptic. "Oh yeah, these are my Roselias, they're still just prototypes though. But you probably didn't smell my aether because the aroma of their roses covered it. Anyway, what do you think?" Anais smiled a little too nicely as she said that.

"They're adorable! And the roses smell so lovely." Persephone said, a little too excitedly, making Anais slightly regret doing what she did to her. Maybe it was a little too cruel to exploit their weakness for cute and flowery creatures like this...

"What do they do?" Fae asked, her unease growing by the second. "They cure all sorts of allergies! But they can also inflict them if I reverse the spells. Wonderful, right?" "Then why don't you use them to cure us?" Fae had already figured it out but she wanted to make sure. "Because you need to suffer a bit more, but don't worry, it's nothing life threatening or anything and it'll go away in 2 days, or less, if Lahabrea decides that you've suffered enough, but I wouldn't count on it." Anais explained calmly as she sealed the Roselias away.

"But why?" Persie asked, sounding a little too sad for Anais' comfort. "Because you two need to pay for all that you did to Lahabrea, so consider this a lesson... And a warning. This time I was nice and merciful despite promising him to make you thoroughly suffer. Next time, it'll be more severe and it might be aimed at your beloveds. If only to give you a taste of your own medicine." She didn't really enjoy doing this, but they deserved some sort of punishment for bothering her dearest Lahabrea. He may not be the easiest person to get along with but their shenanigans went a little too far.

"Now, you're lucky I could convince him to let me handle it this time instead of subjecting you to his true wrath." which was scary and little too "fiery", and Anais didn't want her lover to get in trouble for it. "So now that we're even, I'll kindly ask you to leave him alone. You may not be so lucky if there was a next time." Anais hoped that they learned their lesson as she ushered them out of her office.

She could hear Fae and Persie call her an "Evil Witch" and "Poisonous meanie" respectively as she closed the door, but she didn't mind. They're the ones who played with fire, so it was only natural they got burned, although Anais hoped to keep the severity of these burns to a minimum.

Thankfully, Lahabrea had enough of seeing them suffer by the end of the first day and asked Anais to cure them, thus they were spared another 2 days of misery. She even gave each of them a correctly working Roselia as an apology.

[themadchemist]

@meepsthemiqo convinced me to write this even after I warned her lol (I actually finished this 3 days ago but only got to post it today) (was also written in class and wasn't proofread so it's not really that great lol)

Set after her piece where Fae interrupted a Convocation meeting to have a little talk with Emet Selch from the pov of Anais and Lahabrea who obviously had to complain about it.

Mentions of @meepsthemiqo 's and @emetspersephone' s ocs.

Word Count: 613

"Unbelievable! Absolutely unbelievable!" Lahabrea exclaimed when he entered his office and found Anais waiting for him there. "I know, I know, I missed the meeting, but I swear I just arrived. You won't believe what-" she started explaining herself in preparation for the lecture she'll get for missing the meeting, but it didn't come for he was complaining about an entirely different thing when he interrupted her.

"You got lost, again. I know." he hugged her before continuing. "This isn't what I'm talking about anyway." He wasn't angry at her? Anais was surprised, to say the least. Then if it wasn't her... "Oh? What happened then?" now she was curious, he was even more annoyed than usual, so it must have been pretty bad.

"Fae happened!" Fae... What did she do this time? As entertaining as her antics at Lahabrea's expanse were, she needs to remember that it was Anais who had to deal with the aftermath. "Fae? Don't tell me you got turned into a topiary again..." Anais had only heard about that accident and as hilarious as it was, it shouldn't happen again, who knows what might happen . "Oh, at least that was an accident! This time it was intended! She interrupted the meeting just to yell at that idiot Emet Selch! And guess about what." he didn't even let her say a word before he continued. "About his love life! She interrupted the meeting to lecture him about THAT. IN FRONT OF EVERYONE! Just for that goobbuegirl's sake!" Anais couldn't hold herself and burst into laughter. She could only imagine the architect's embarrassment. He deserved though, for what he did to her, but still...

"Now don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing his face become as red as his mask but Fae's behavior was unacceptable. I've half a mind to suspend her from work for that stunt." He was really pissed off to think of taking such measures.

"Come now, Brea, you can't do that. You know how valuable Fae is to this department, no one would be able to do her work in the meantime." Anais tried to calm her lover down. "Oh, it'd would only be for a week, to give myself a break from her antics." Of course, he didn't think of the other solution...

"How about you take a week off, you'll get your break from Fae and you'll spend some time with me." She was only staying in Amaurot for a short while before setting out on yet another long journey and she wanted to spend as much time as possible with him, but apparently the thought never crossed his mind. Typical oblivious Lahabrea.

"But I have too much-" "Work. I know,but it can wait, right? Surely your beloved Ana, whom you terribly missed and only staying here for a short while is far more important, yes?" "True, but-" "No buts. You'll get all the time with your precious work when I leave, but until then, I'll make you forget all about work... And Fae's shenanigans." Anais said she walked up to Lahabrea and wrapped her arms around his neck, who huffed in return and kissed her forehead. He should be convinced at this point.

"Fine. I'll hold you to that. Now would you please go bother someone else while I wrap up some things, I've had enough interruptions for one day." And he agreed. Didn't take much convincing this time.

"Ok, ok. I'll go hand my reports and run some errands. I'll pick you up afterwards." She said as she closed the door and headed to Elidibus' office, then she went to Fae's office to hear about what happened with Emet Selch.