#pop au

[locusts-in-a-bird-cage]

So... I've been thinking about PoP some more and needed to put these down to paper

First things first: I'm renaming the au from 'Prince of Pride' (PoP) to 'Guided Potential'! It's just more fun and winks and nods at Emily as well, since she is the second main character <3

Al and Rosie being creeps lurking in the shadows- very them. Charlotte's outfit in this one is a direct copy of human Al's while having some subtle referenced to Lucifer in the gold embellishments.

Second things second, I've been thinking about what I'd like to do with season 2, since that's where much of the actual plot diversion would happen. Alastor's end of his deal with Rosie is to raise Charlotte to be The Devil (the title of the monarch of Hell rather than a Lu-specific moniker). Through manipulation of both Vox and Charlotte after the extermination, he gets her to declare herself The Devil in what would be Vox Dei (switching out the 'Cuz I'm the f*ror' lyric) as she declares war against Heaven, breaking his chains. This would be the new finale of season 2 instead of just episode 5.

Charlotte and Emily hugging <3 Their relationship gets complicated in season 2 as Charlotte is made aware of Lu and Emily's relationship (to many conflicted emotions), Em getting increasingly frustrating as she fixates on Vox, and Alastor's manipulations. At the end of the day, they are family and care about each other- Em is the only loved one to stick around without being forced to after all.

Below it is the end of the trial in season 1. In lieu of Vaggie not having the same role here as she does in canon, the dynamic shifting event at the end of this episode is Emily Falling. She got too radical and the elders decided she was a risk to their security. Lu is not happy with this but there's nothing he can/ will do so recently after his own return.

The furthest right is a much younger Emily with Lucifer. This is a few months after his sentence ended so she and Charlotte are still 13.

When he found out his sentence was ending, Lucifer made a deal with Heaven that he would sign off on an annual extermination of sinners as long as his family could ascend with him. Little did he know that his daughter wouldn't be able to as a hellborn being. He ends up being more than a bit of a wreck when the day does arrive and, desperate for any way to soothe his soul, emotionally adopts Emily. He's replacing one daughter that he can't get back with her best friend/ cousin and 'Lottie' is not happy when she eventually finds out.

Design-wise, Lu's palette is pink and yellow because he's the morningstar while Em's is blues and cool tones because she's polaris, the north star. If we want to go really in depth (and you know I do): Em being blue and white means she is a newer star and burns hotter while Lu is bigger and has dimmed from his experiences. Charlotte is all in reds at the end of season 2- she's older, wiser, colder, and building up to a supernova.

[bamthebatmobile]

A promise is a promise so BOOM 4TECH!SMARTY

Fun fact: imma repeat this but his outfit choice and vibe was an inspiration to baby saja due to his mass infantilization

[starzstruckdemon]

This started just being inspired by Kpop Demonhunters but, well, now it's entirely a demonhunters au because it just fits them far too well!

[j-a-n-e--d-o-e]

Popstar/Dancer au

Alhaitham was originally a ballet dancer who took part in street dance competitions to earn some extra cash to help pay for him grandmothers medical bills. He gets scouted by the Akasha record label to work as a background dancer for one of their singers, but his pretty face draws the managers attention, who decides to make him the next face of Akasha records.

Azar looks into him and finds the medical debts and uses it to pressure him into a contract. When that fails, he has a cop plant drugs on fellow dancer Nilou and offers to make it all go away if he just signs on the dotted line. He’ll even pull some strings to help with her future, isn’t that nice of him?

Alhaitham is a musician and plays guitar (he played a guitar, violin and clarinet to get a scholarship for private school before going Julliard) for one of their upcoming bands that quickly becomes internationally loved but after a falling out with Kaveh who goes on to break ties with Akasha records the band dissolves with most going their separate ways.

Azar keeps Alhaitham from leaving by threatening to use his contacts to blacklist Kaveh and destroy his career. Alhaitham doesn’t care about his own, his depts are paid, his grandmother has passed, and thanks to his time in a pop band he’ll never be accepted into any ballet company – but he does care about Kaveh. Azar originally intends to have him lip sync as a solo artist only to find out that Alhaitham actually has a decent singing voice and merely needs some coaching.

Alhaitham is considered a bad boy by the media due to his progressively harsher behaviour.

He’s technically pop, but his music tends to tread into any other genre that draws his attention.

Azar hates it but doesn’t say anything so long as it sells. Now that Kavehs career is secure, he could leave but doesn’t see any point as most of his friendships crashed and burned after he stayed with Akasha records, and he has a comfortable if toxic life now.

Nilou is aware of what Azar did and hates that she was used to manipulate Alhaitham. They aren’t close anymore - she can’t bair to watch him destroy himself - but she will always be there if he needs her. Dunyarzad was both of their patron before everything that happened, and one of the only people who knew everything. She had dreams of being a ballet dancer before it was discovered she had early onset Osteoarthritis, she would never dance again. Instead of letting this destroy her, she used her family money to support others who shared her dream. Her guilt over her inability to save Alhaitham from having his dreams stollen from him hurts deeply and doesn’t truly go away until she finally sees him happy again. Duny was the one who hinted to Nahida that there was something rotten going on in the company.

Alhaitham mentors Sethos, Cyno’s half-brother, who joins up with Akasha Records (instead of Silent Studios like Cyno) to try and get out of his brother’s shadow. Alhaitham does his best to protect the kid from Azars machinations, and once Sethos realises the danger he’s in, he helps him break from Akasha records. Sethos joins up with recently founded Rebirth Records, where he meets Nahida(the original owner of Akasha records who was ousted by Azar before she was old enough to even sit in the seat she inherited from her mother) and Wanderer.

Nahida and Wanderer both know bits and pieces of Alhaithams situation, Nahida from the records she managed to look at before Azar got rid of her (it was her investigation into AR hiring practises that caused him to target her), and wanderer from his time working at a ‘consultancy firm’ that handled issues for akasha records. So, when he asks them to help get Sethos out, they agree.

Alhaitham never considers joining RR because he knows that Kaveh has been looking into them and that the other would never join them if they were associated with him. He wants Kaveh to have the support and safety net of having a label behind him rather than just a patron like Dori.

Wanderer introduces Alhaitham to Arlecchino, the head of ‘the Hearth’ an international multibillion dollar media company at an award ceremony, mostly to piss Azar off. Neither he nor Azar actually expects anything to come from it, but Arlecchino knows a drowning man when she sees one and has a grudge against AR over them, destroying her childhood friend. Arle blames them alongside Clervie’s mother for her suicide and is more than happy to make them miserable.

She steals Alhaitham.

He leaves Akasha for the Hearths music label ‘Crimson Moon Studios’ but only starts to drag himself out of what he now realises was depression when Arlecchino has him begin working with her wife ‘Furina’ to bring Ballet and other forms of dance to the big screen with modern adaptations of well-loved stories. This is also how he and Nilou grow close again.

Things are starting to look up for him, only for a reporter to get a hold of Akasha records private data, including all the blackmail and threats he and other artists were subjected to.

[imlivinginyourtrashcan]

Look!!! Theyre having a sleepover!!!!

This was the oj photo but my pookie said i should tuck him

[bunnies-n-bowties]

*They both laugh*

@cutiewintersnow2

[locusts-in-a-bird-cage]

I wanted to take a crack at some PoP designs.

The only design note that I forgot to include is that I wanted to balance Alastor's shadow looking like his demon form when he was alive by making his shadow in Hell human :)

Textless version below

[locusts-in-a-bird-cage]

Have some screenshot redraws with PoP Charlie/ Charlotte with bonus notes to myself on how to move forward <3

Trying to balance this character still looking like Charlie while having a very different backstory and being functionally fused with Alastor has not been my friend. Also reigning in my reimagining tendencies (I almost gave her a chimera motif someone needs to stop me).

Without design notes: