#Redemption!Lute Au

[crystal-cliffs]

I’ve been working on this AU for awhile now and whilst the first chapter is not anywhere near done, yet I wanted to share a snippet from the beginning since I am quite proud of what I’ve managed to write down so far. 👍✨

It’s still subject to change though ofc

Emily pressed her wings flat against her back as she looked at Lute who was a few steps ahead of her. She had been deathly quiet as she led her to her apartment which put Emily on edge. The trial was definitely…a lot, but Lute was so loud then and now she seemed to have effectively shut down. She didn’t really know Lute but it seemed relatively out of character for her.

Lute stopped in front of a door and pushed it open.

Emily poked her head around and looked into the room as the former exorcist flipped a light switch on. “So this is where you live?” She stepped into the apartment behind Lute.

To her direct left was a small kitchen and to her right a dining room with a chandelier hanging from the ceiling. It wasn’t the aesthetic Emily expected from Lute but it was still very pretty.

“It’s nice.” She closed the door behind her and set the suitcase she brought against the wall.

Lute stared at her before walking over towards the coffee table without a word.

Emily followed her into the open living room which had a white sectional sofa, a white shag rug, and a light brown coffee table. A large TV was perched above an unlit fireplace and just to the side was a wall of windows with blackout curtains pulled back enough that you could see the bright lights of heaven shine against the dark sky. Further back was a hallway that led to three separate rooms from where Emily stood.

“Why are you so quiet?” Emily stopped behind the couch, her head tilted.

Lute still didn’t respond, instead clicking a lighter and hovering the flickering flame over three candles in the center of the table. Her black wings shuffled around her to obscure herself from Emily’s view. Emily’s gaze traveled over them and her stomach churned at the way the long primary feathers had been clipped away. Maybe she was being too casual for everything that just happened.

“Okay…that’s okay.” Emily leaned back and tapped her fingers on the edge of the couch. “I was only trying to make conversation.”

“Well stop it,” Lute bit back and sent a quick glare at her before she clicked the lighter closed. “I don’t want to talk to you.”

She clicked the lighter open again.

“…I know you don’t want me around, I wouldn’t want to be constantly looked after either if I was you, but that was the only way I could get Sera to let you stay. Did you want to fall?”

[again-and-then]

Charlie: Stupid

Vaggie: Smart

Lute: Stupid, but in a different font

Just something quick, want to make up for the newly erratic upload schedule and play around with their group dynamic lol.

[elizart5]

RR Guitarspear

Redemption Rehab Guitarspear for the soul tehehehe

[redemptionrehab]

Adam & Lute

[alice-after-dark]

Angel of Redemption Charlie AU - Helping Charlie Pack

Emily - "I packed all your art supplies, some therapy books, your favorite rainbow sprinkles, I wanted to put ice cream too but Sera said it would make a mess, oh and of course Mr. Snuggles!" (A well-loved pink plush unicorn and Charlie's first gift from Vaggie)

Sera - "Alright, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, conditioner, sunscreen, bug spray, enough clothes for at least a month, and I wrote your name on all your underwear."

Adam - *slips her a discreet brown paper bag* "I know you and Vag don't need condoms, so I got some other fun stuff for ya."

Lute - *hands her a fucking angelic steel trident*

[mistystarshine]

What should I post first, the first chapter of my Adamsapple fic or The Great Overlord Pissing Contest? Pros and cons of both

Going Nowhere Fast - Going Nowhere Fast is going to have very long chapters. Chapter one is complete at 16.6k. I do not have any sort of buffer written for it yet, so if I post it now, you will be in for a long wait for an update. But it is one of the better things I've written and I'm eager to see reactions.

Pissing Contest - I actually don't have the next fic for this one written either, but I've been sitting on it for a month and fics for this AU have been averaging about 8k, so I'll be able to get the next one out faster. I'd also maybe post chapter one of Going Nowhere Fast once fic four is done and alternate between the two of them. The Guitarspear truly starts in this fic. However, I suspect that it overall won't be as liked as Going Nowhere, although they do have very different audiences.

So! What should I post first? Going Nowhere Fast is slowburn Adamsapple, The Great Overlord Pissing Contest is Guitarspear with an emphasis on overlord politics.

[phenphoenix]

LUTE AND EMILY-

The gals, look at them go.

Lore tiiime

Alright, so Lute! Still fiercely loyal and a bit much- just not as sadistic anymore. Now, here's the fun part, she's still kinda an exorcist. Just now, instead of being under Adam, she's under Sera and Emily. And is in charge of keeping Adam distracted as well as the rest of hevan.

Decided to kinda mess around with the whole exorcist army and split them into like two halves. One half stays up in hevan, creating this image of the exterminations as though they were just going down into hell to try and "save souls." The half that Emily leads, and Lute helps command. The other half is what we see in the show. The half vaggie took part of and Sera leads. Adam knows about this, and is even suspicious about the whole "saving souls" deal. But keeps a blind eye because he trusts Lute so much.

Emily! Still sickly sweet, but give that missing sadistic nature from Swap!Lute to her. She's not as intense as Cannon!Lute but still enjoys going down to kill sinners once a year. All the while looking cute and innocent the whole time. However, she doesn't fully know that she's just further damming them. Sera is the only one who really knows what they are doing. So, while Emily is still killing them, she's thinking that their souls are being set free to get reincarnated or something like that. (Which can also lead to her disbelief is redemption, and the whole "hell is forever")

Of course, this is all based on headcannons. I'm going off of an apparent post made in the past, where they said that "when a sinner is killed, they become a mindless part of hell. That's why there are so many eyes in the walls and why hell seems "alive."" Or sonthing along those lines. Idk if that is still cannon. Or if reincarnation is even a thing in this version of the afterlife. But for the sake of this AU, I say all of it is.

So, in a way, all 4 of the angels are kinda swapped and meshed together. But hey, this is my AU, and it's all for fun and games, so whatever, lmao.

MASTERPOST

[king-dumbasz]

can you make something reader x Adam from hazbin hotel? There’s barely any love for this man :((

maybe something like sinner reader going to heaven and they’re totally in awe of heaven and soon the angels in it, including Adam. They wanna touch his wings and he’s like ‘AYO GET THIS SINNER OUTTA HERE’

(This is a au where he doesn’t die because my heart can’t handle that)

Wings

Adam x GN reader | Hazbin hotel

Okay, for what i understood is that Reader is a sinner who got redeemed and they want to touch Adam's wings, if I'm wrong please tell me

Tw: Just bad words

You're a sinner, but you didn't want to be there... Hell was... Hell!

So, as soon as you heard about the Hazbin Hotel and what the princess of hell wanted to do, you immediately went there and tried to get redeemed... And you did giant steps!

You got to heaven in no time. You were almost seen as some anomaly there in heaven, especially from the exterminators.

Emily was SOO happy that you were there, that she brought you everywhere, the ice cream shop with 🌈 rainbow sparkles 🌈 and then the zoo with fluffy animals! Then the toy shop, then the street... the cat café, the playground... She brought you everywhere.

While you and Emily were having fun as your first day in heaven, you see him

Adam. First man to ever be on earth.

That Adam.

Adam was walking while drinking a milkshake with his lieutenant, Lute.

What made your mind blow more was his sassy and cocky personality, but most importantly... His wings...

Emily also had wings, everyone had wings there... But his golden shiny, gorgeous wings were jaw dropping, heart stopping, mind blowing (paraphernalia you've ever laid your eyes upon!) wings you ever saw in your life and after life...

You need to touch them!

You slowly walk towards the first man ever... You reach out for his wings... and when you touch it, it's like the softest thing you've ever touched.

The delicate feeling of his feathers between your fingers.

But...

He felt it too...

Adam looks at your demonic yet angelic figure in a confused way.

Why there's a sinner here? Why are they close to him? How do they dare to touch him?!

"What- HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?? GET THIS FILTHY SINNER OUTTA HERE!"

Adam shouts as Lute points her spear towards you

"How did you get in the holy land, you foul demon?!"

"Adam! Lute! Stop! [Name] is not a demon anymore! Charlie was right about redemption!"

"oh.. well, that's unfortunate.."

"Why?"

"Because now I can't make fun of that bitch Charlie!"

He frowns

He's such a bitch I love him

Sorry for being late with this, but I was very busy these 2 weeks

[kaledya]

How does Adam and Lute view Charlie?

I'm still planning this AU, so what I'm saying is not certain and I am someone with really bad writing skills, but I will try to briefly explain what happened in this AU. Here's what happens. In the 1st episode when Charlie meets with Adam, the events do not develop as in the series, in general,

Adam has a serious attitude towards charlie, after charlie tells him the plans in a serious and detailed way, Adam briefly tells her that sinners can never experience redemption, that people who have made simple mistakes cannot be in hell, that people who are in hell deserve this pain and that they will continue to burn in hell unless they take back their sins. He also says that the real reason for the extermination in this AU is overpopulation and because of that,

Adam tells Charlie that if they don't do their job and the extermination ends, hell will be in a much bigger chaos than the chaos it is in now. He also tells Charlie that even if he and Lute accept the idea of redemption, it won't change anything, They can't decide what will happend, and then he says that there is nothing more to discuss and asks Charlie to leave.

(in this AU, Adam and Lute despise sinners and think Charlie's plan is illogical, but even though their attitude towards Charlie is cold and serious, they do not hate or insult her, they think it is unnecessary to insult someone who is trying to correct their father's mistake)

(In this AU, Adam and Lute are not evil, they are gray characters and their evilness depends on the point of view. Lute is an angel created for this job and he was raised to believe that what she did all her life was justice, so there is no reason for her to feel pity for the sinner. Except for his behavior in hell, Lute is really respected and loved by the other soldiers. Adam is a man who regrets the man he used to be, a man who has been changed in 10,000 years by the events with Lilith, and during this time he never pitied the sinner, because according to him, they were sent to hell by God's judgment).

[theyapper0]

Doodles for the finale and some things that I picture will be BIG points in S2 of this rewrite!!!

A lot of the post-finale stuff is written w the drawings BUT I do wanna say that the hotel isn't getting rebuilt in just one 4 minute song

It's gonna be something that's gonna be in the slow process of rebuilding over the course of season 2, serving not only of a physical representation of how the whole idea of the Hazbin Hotel is basically starting over from scratch due to what happened in the finale (tarnished reputation bc of Adam's death, redemption being possible, etc)

AND it will also be another force in the season why characters STILL won't take our gang seriously DESPITE THE FACT THAT CHARLIE AND VAGGIE'S THEORY WAS RIGHT, the hotel is nothing but scaffolding and garbage by the time season 2 takes place, who's gonna believe THAT PLACE is the holy grail for redemption?

And there's some ramblings about this rewrite and what im considering moving forward!!! Just about my thoughts for season 2!! Feel free to read, or not!

I'm still on the fence with how I wanna go about season 2. On one hand, Im really curious to see how the writers decided to have the next season play out in canon and I'd totally be willing to implement any ideas that I liked just like I did with what I have so far!!!!

But on the other hand..... I HAVE SO MANY IDEAS........ So many plotlines for the story and the characters that I WANNA DO!!!!!! I WANT LILITH TO BE THE ONE WHO ALASTOR MADE THE DEAL WITH, I WANT ALASTOR AND CHARLIE TO FIGHT, I WANT LUTE AND VAGGIE TO FAC EACH OTHER AGAIN I WANT EMILY AND CHARLIE TO BE ON AWFUL FOOTING I WANT SO MANY MANY MANY THINGS MAN!!!!!

I have a lot of ideas and theories that I wanna do in this that I KNOW will get disproven when the actual show gets its next season and Im scared of this turning into something else entirely.

I mean, Im not scared of it being something different, Im just worried that people wont wanna read it if it strays too far away from the source material. Ik a lot of people (myself ESPECIALLYYYY) get turned off when it comes to super convoluted aus that has so much story and shit and is so far away from canon, too much to follow -> ppl don't care (like i get it, I AM THE SAME WAY OK........)

But does this stuff make any sense??? idkkk

I have a couple posts worth of doodles that I'll be uploading w in these days so look forward to that!

And I definitely have some ideas that I'll be sharing about this rewrite's version of S2 so.... I guess if people like what I have planned for it, I'll keep going? IDK!!!!!!

Thanks for reading this jumbled mess!

[crystal-cliffs]

yay. emilute fan!! 🎉🎉 just got into the fandom, i love ur aus!

💜 @emiluteyuri

Awe tysmmm^^

And it’s always nice to know the Emilute ship has a new member, I love meeting people who do💜✨

As a treat I’ll put another piece of WIP that hasn’t been edited or revised yet

“Injury doesn’t happen often in Heaven but you got injured in Hell so who knows if leaving it exposed will be okay. Wouldn’t you rather be safe than sorry?”

“Then I’ll do it myself.” Lute dragged herself over and sat down on the couch. One of her wings knocked into Emily’s face and the Seraphim scooted over with a huff.

“You know how to do it?”

“Shouldn’t be too hard if you can do it,” Lute muttered as she reached for the rubber gauze instead.

“Spray it first-”

“Don’t tell me what to do,” Lute snapped and instead grabbed the small spray container. “I know what I’m doing.”

Emily tilted her head with a smile, but didn’t interfere. “I’m right here if you need help.”

Lute narrowed her eyes in focus as she sprayed the liquid onto the wound. She was meet with a slight wince before she grabbed the gauze again.

“Lute-.”

“I know what I’m doing!” She gripped the gauze tightly and returned to a silent focus. Her gaze flickering between what remained of her arm and the rubber gauze.

Emily took notice of how the feathers along Lute’s wings fluffed out again and started to try and shield herself like she did the other night. “Hey, relax.” Emily leaned forward to try and look at her. “Let me do it.”

Lute glared at Emily, but reluctantly tossed it over with an incoherent mumble.

[fanofstuff01]

Okay so my toxic trait is that I have to take any AU featuring Adam and Lucifer and make it into Adamsapple.

I took that popular swap AU of Adam as Charlie and Lute as Vaggie buut I made Lucifer Vaggie.

Let me tell you.

So Lilith and Adam were created as equals, two toddlers. They grew together, and with the guidance of Sera, one of the High Seraphims of Heaven. She was basically their mother, preparing them to be adults to “fulfill their purpose”.She grew attached to them a lot, as if they were her real children.

When the two reached the age 28, they were expected to lie together and make love to each other by the angels. But they couldn’t, they grew together and could never view each other that way.

Also as they grew up, the differences between the two also resurfaced. Lilith asked for more than the garden could offer while Adam was happy with his life in the garden, even though he’d prefer to have it a little different and not be always expected to make love to Lilith and protect her while she could to herself.

Sera obviously was the only one to truly see Lilith’s dreams of getting out of the garden and Adam’s never voiced want for his own life with his own choices.

So she offered the other angels the idea of letting them have free will, but it was rejec instantly. She also lost the privilege of going to the garden for other thousand years, just so she wouldn’t mess with “the God’s plan”.

Also, when the angels heard from Sera that the two were not happy together, they took Adam’s rib and created Eve, a new wife for him. She was created as an adult instead, with only her purpose. Adam and Eve actually fell in love.

Sera, still wanting to get to her children and save them, broke her punishment and got Eve to eat the apple.

No forcing, no tricks, she just told her that she’d be able to choose her path if she did and she ate it.

That let the sin to enter Earth, caused the humans to be banished from the garden and Sera to be cast to Hell.

Adam, Eve and Lilith all lived tough lives, but only Eve made it to Heaven. She was the last one to die and the first human soul to enter Heaven.

Because before that, winner and sinner system didn’t exist. So both Lilith and Adam’s souls just…. Vanished. Like they were never created.

Sera always hoped that they’d end up in Hell and she’d be able to get them back, so the news of their death death devastated her too much.

But then, she decided that maybe she could try and bring at least their start back.

With an ancient spell, she took her memory of their creation, and kind of repeated it, just with Hell’s dirt instead of Earth and them as actual children. It took her too much, but when she saw the two babies looking at her, she knew it was worth it.

Once again, she raised them herself, making them the official Prince and Princess of Hell and her kids. ((She also created Emily as their younger sister))

Then, around when the exterminations started and Adam was about 22 by human age, he came up with the idea of redemption.

-

Okay now to Lucifer. It’s not as long I swear.

So Lucifer and Michael twin Seraphims were created to protect Heaven and its citizens when winners and sinners begin to enter the realms. They were the twin, supposed members of the army of Heaven if there were anything threatening Heaven. ((They’d be at high position but not the leaders until they got old enough to be so))

Michael took his position very seriously and tried to appear as serious, while Lucifer was kind of in his own world and was way relaxed than Michael, while still a soldier.

Then they threw the idea of exterminations and chose Eve as the head, and Micahel, Lucifer and Charlie, a heaven born girl with a lot of “passion” for it as her second in commands.

Buut Lucifer couldn’t kill a demon Charlie stabbed him in the back and teared his wings and Adam found him blah blah blah.

—

Does this make sense??? Please tell me your thoughts, I wanna improve.

@things-arent-what-they-seem66 @decentsoupperson

@adambrainrot I changed it a bit but I still like the version I told you too lmao.

[elizart5]

Au Idea I have been living with since episode 1. All characters keep there personalities with a few tweaks. 7 years ago Adam fell from grace after the high seraphim found out he was protecting his son Caine from the exterminations, however when the exorcist angels found out they killed his son and left him there to rot. It took him a bit to recuperate but as soon as he got his wits together he went to find other fallen angels like himself, because sinners are the worst. He found lute in the greed ring working for mammon as a jester since he was the only one who would protect her, and we all know he is quite manipulative… as soon as Adam shows up though she leaves, they didn’t know each other well before since she fell 12 years ago for unknown reasons… together they have been brainstorming ideas to get back, killing sinners didn’t work since that was a sin, taking their substances and unholy possessions didn’t work either, that was stealing but finally, in the recent year Adam had an idea based on some rock article from the 90s grunge era. A rehab center where sinners go to redeem themselves and seek more pure lives, that would surely get him and Lute back to Heaven! It was selfless, they weren’t stealing AND they were going to stick it to the annoying reporter who mocked them every chance she got!

Just a thought, I wanna make a comic, digital not pencil. I really like Charlie and Lucifer’s designs😏

[redemptionrehab]

Even more

[alice-after-dark]

Ngl, your additions got my brain rolling on this AU again and I'm gonna make another post on it again soon to revamp a couple things.

I will say that the prejudice towards Sinners in this AU is considerably lessened and mostly comes from "winners" as opposed to the angels themselves. The whole point of Project Redemption is to see if they can cleanse and reform souls that were thought to be lost to Hell. Most of Heaven very much wants to help these Sinners and care a lot about what happens to them. There is some skepticism as to whether or not it's possible to redeem a fallen soul, but they are very eager to try. The pushback is actually the minority and is mostly from the former human population. It does trouble them that no one can concretely say what causes a soul to fall and they need to figure out what they can do to save as many souls as possible.

(Fun fact that Adam is much more like a frat boy big brother to Charlie in this AU and Lute is Vaggie's no-nonsense blunt bitch friend)

As for how Charlie would adjust to Hell, well...yeah, it's very much a total shock for her. I mean, she knew it was Hell, but she's never witnessed suffering like this before. She is very optimistic when she goes on the air to discuss her plan for redemption and by the time she leaves, she feels hopeless. She doesn't understand why they wouldn't want a shot at a better afterlife.

And yeah, people definitely have some high expectations and are a little disappointed that this self-doubting awkward girl is supposedly an angel sent there to save them. A lot of them don't trust her at all simply because she's an angel. There's definitely several Sinners who just expect her to cleanse their soul and send them on up to Heaven without having to do any work for it.

You think she gets disrespected now as the Princess of Hell? Hoo boy, does Angel Charlie get the runaround.

A Bit of a Different AU Than I Normally Do - Angel of Redemption Charlie

Nearly everything is exactly the same except that there are no exterminations and Charlie is not Lucifer's daughter but instead an angel sent from heaven to try and redeem the souls of Sinners.

Project Redemption is proposed at a meeting in Heaven and Charlie, a young angel, eagerly pleads to head the project. Sera is a little reluctant to let such a young angel (she's only 200 years old! she's practically an infant!) take on the task, but Charlie is determined.

Descending into Hell with her girlfriend and warrior angel protector, Vaggie, they set their sights on an abandoned hotel lingering on the outskirts of Pentagram City in the Pride Ring. They fix it up and get to work recruiting Sinners for the hotel.

Their arrival in Hell spreads like wildfire. Everyone is curious, so when Charlie requests a spot on 666 News' next broadcast, they jump at the chance. She announces the project to all of Hell...and gets laughed out of the studio.

Meanwhile, two demons are watching the broadcast from a room filled with monitors. One catches the devious grin of the other.

"Looks like someone found a new source of entertainment."

[bloogers-boogers]

Thinking of an au where Lucifer is still the king of hell but in this world Adam was a mere sinner and not the ‘first man’ but the first ‘willingly fallen angel’. People will say wouldn’t that be untrue bc Lucifer yada yada,, but nah, Lucifer didn’t expect to fall, so willingly he didn’t, at least not in this au ~ so anyways…

Adam was never created as a human, he was an angel and had been friends with Lucifer before his fall. They were both seraphim! Though Adam was made a few ranks below Lucifer, God created him as the embodiment of perfection and beauty ~ so all angels admired him for how he looked and was praised by the creator, even Lucifer.

Lucifer at the time never considered Adam as something more than a brother just like all of the other angels they just saw each other like that? The knowledge of romance was an oddity or some type of supernatural feeling no one experienced at the time but God would mention about when it came in describing the first humans.

And they weren’t entirely close either. They were just connected being very pampered and favored by God.

Fast forward to Lucifer already being casted to hell and married to Lilith. They eventually heard of a fallen angel landed in hell (by a deadly sin, I would like to say it was Satan who informed Lucifer of this bc yk that’s a freaking fallen angel). So Lucifer was shocked of this revelation. After all, it’s been like a century since Lucifer and Lilith gathered angels to go against heaven and then be casted to live in hell for the rest of eternity.

When Lucifer tracked the angel down, it took a while until his eyes landed on Adam. Yup. The Seraphim Adam he once knew as the living perfection of God’s hands turned as a sinner.

Once Lucifer helps Adam, picking his unconscious body and taking him to his castle to get heal. Adam wakes up and was greeted with a bomb of questions by both king and queen of hell of why the hell was he here. In this case Adam refuses to tell them why he fell and flees to never be seen.

Leaving Lucifer and Lilith speechless because why, when, how???

Years pases by and the whole incident is long forgotten, just like Lucifer’s marriage.

So everything is basically the same except Lucifer is more of a king than being shut in his castle depressed. I feel having the influence of Adam back in heaven kinda toughened him up a bit bc he shared a lot of things in common and well, God’s love. So there was some sorts of jealousy involved just like competition. Also having Lucifer near by kinda just softened Adam a ton which made it easier for him to be too vulnerable in hell.

Lucifer is much more colder though. He doesn’t have Charlie in this Au but Adam sorta does? He has Abel who has a similar personality and ambitions. His dream is redemption and thats why nothing much changes aside from that. But without Charlie Lucifer just doesn’t have anyone, and like they say, nothing is more scarier than someone who has nothing to lose.

Adam has a strained relationship with his son because he’s so blinded by Abel’s mother who’s very abusive and who Abel distanced himself from (unaware Adam is actually trapped in her chains/ she owns his soul), so they rarely ever talk or see each other but Adam loves his son more than anything.

Abel isn’t Adam’s only son he has 15 biological children! And 56 adoptive ones (exorcists that in this au are hellborn orphans/ who aren’t necessarily currently living in his area or home but are his nonetheless) Vaggie, Lute, and more. Adam is an overlord! The most powerful in wrath and was allowed to leave pride by a deal he made with Lilith thousands of year before she kinda bailed on hell.

He and Lucifer did cross paths throughout that time which made the whole falling incident more easier to forget considering Lucifer was no longer interested in wanting to know why Adam fell and just respected his privacy. The deal he made with Lilith needed to be reinforced from Lucifer’s power so it was necessary for the king of hell to be involved and grant Adam’s wish to leave pride and join wrath instead (he’s still a pride citizen he just isn’t forced to be there like the rest of the sinners/ is basically the only one allowed to have left his ring).

But getting to the plot. So Lucifer starts getting a bunch of complaints of Abel’s hotel and all the trouble he’s making with heaven. And the angels aka Sera haven’t stopped pestering his ass about it so he goes and seeks for this ‘Abel guy’ he has no idea who’s about (or who’s daddy did this one belonged to) and surprise surprise Lucifer becomes Abel’s Alastor ~ he joins in the hotel (with all the intention on screwing it over) being a sponsor, and ofc to this Abel’s all enthusiastic having the actual king of hell ‘on his side’ giving him ‘support’ of his dreams yk

And you can imagine the rest aksbwksheks Loving the idea of Hell greatest dad being Lucifer taunting Adam for being a better dad than him and Adam feeling challenged (bc he kinda is)