#if you're in narrative campaign this one's got backstory lore and there's definitely parts of it that have been Implied but not explicitly

[glasyasbutch]

playlist: daybreak

this one goes out to the dead wife we're not having phone sex with

link to playlist on spotify

explanations below the cut

1. May It Be by 2Cellos

[Instrumental]

So the reason this is on here is bekah said "you need to find an instrumental that's like. two cello duet. that's daybreak to me" and i said you know what you're so right and spent multiple hours sorting through instrumental songs until I came upon this one, and in my lotr loving heart, I knew that I couldn't let her go.

If you're NOT a slut like me. May It Be is the closing credits song on the first movie, and its an elven blessing passed on to Sam and Frodo as they set out on their journey. About how darkness will come but they have a duty to fight on through it until the darkness too falls away.

And i just think. I JUST THINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! there's something so samfrodo about daybreak in the sense of like. They too left the comfort and safety of their home to join a party of adventurers to fight for something far bigger than themselves and in doing so formed a bond of intimacy that transcends platonic or romantic or sexual and then after it all they return home and they have everything set out for them. The hero's welcome, the world made safe, the comfort of a simple life with each other. but they don't get to keep it. "the shire was saved but not for me" and they have to be PARTED FOREVER because the process of their journey turned them into incompatible creatures even in their closeness and -

also its two cellos and bekah asked so nicely.

2. Battle Cry by The Family Crest

Oh my love, my heart, don't cry / We were born to die / For this moment, for all time / Oh I will fight for you, I will die for you

PALADIN ! ON ! PALADIN ! ROMANCE !

3. The World Is Ugly by My Chemical Romance

These are the lies and the lives of the taken / These are their hearts, but their hearts don't beat like ours / They burn 'cause they are all afraid, but mine beats twice as hard / 'Cause the world is ugly, but you're beautiful to me

bekah said some gay people got engaged to this at her mcr show last year and i should put this on daybreak and i said okay

so fun fact, in the many many bodies day and break had had before these ones, they slowly fell in love and were together for hundreds of years. and then. maybe 200? 250? years ago. they had a NASTY fucking divorce. like. Nasty. and hadn't been Together together since.this song is break to day, realizing over the past few lifetimes that they had fallen back in love with day.

they had to go through watching her die in some Really awful ways (the world is ugly), and loving her even harder with every horrible event (you're beautiful to me), waiting, just waiting, for day to realize (are you thinking of me like im thinking of you), and it all finally collapsing into inevitability the moment they stepped out of the aegis into the world of mortal emotion and mortal passion and mortal loss for the first time (their hearts don't beat like ours) and god. it's all so fragile. i have to say it. i love you i love you i love you i love you

4. Lover of Mine by 5 Seconds of Summer

I'll never give you away, 'cause I've already made that mistake / And if my name never fell off your lips again, I know it'd be such a shame / When I take a look at my life and all of my crimes, you're the only thing I think I got right

the last song was break falling for day the second time, this one's day falling for break again.

day was the one who really initiated the last breakup (who's surprised). he and break got into a really bad fight about whether what they were doing (dying over and over with no end) was Good or Not, break died soon after and had to get resculpted, day spent the ENTIRE time bitching to her partially made clay form and then the second break was back up said "you're welcome, by the way, for not leaving you dead. never talk to me again"

this is the song for the regret that's built up over the last couple hundred years, once the anger faded and he realized that nothing hurt more than seeing someone else take the title of sculptor because he hadn't been there for her like he used to, she hadn't wanted him like she used to, and the absolute cascade of love he was almost ashamed to admit to having again but he just couldn't hold it back anymore

5. I Go Where You Go by Bell X1

What if they need us, the other side of the world / Can our voice down the line really save them? / I go where you go, I go where you go

This song is about people leaving their kids to go on a romance re-sparking vacation, yes, but it's also about the decision to leave the only home you've ever known and the only purpose you've ever been given because you think you need to to save them, and because the OG party is so determined and so fragile and you're starting to realize you couldn't live with yourself if they got hurt so you need to save them too, but more than anything, it's because break thought she was going to be leaving by yourself and you said. um???? no me too

(not to samfrodo at you again but its so. i'm going to mordor alone. sure you are. and im coming with you.)

6. Her Song by The Family Crest

The weight of the world is resting on your back / And everyone you know says it gets much easier / When the weight of the world falls slack / Kick up your feet and let's move together, I'll set the sail if you lift the tether / All of the times that we've shared together, all of the sound and all kinds of weather / This is the way it should be forever, this is the way it could be forever

a second family crest song has hit the playlist.

it's so. this is the OG party extended honeymoon phase. everything is beautiful and we're young and in love and on top of the world and we do everything together and we're never apart and we have a rhythm going and it's just perfect. this is the way it could be forever. don't you just love the ending?

7. Ashes - Part 2 by The Struts

You were taken from me, but I can still see that smile / And I know that you tell me "move on", but it's taking a while / I find myself laughing at things you would say, and how through the bad times you'd say "it's okay" / You're living in me now and that's where you'll stay

the transition between the ending of the last song and the opening lines of this song makes me actually want to throw up on the floor. just btw.

also courtesy of bekah, this song is for the moments after the rift collapses with break still in it, thorn blasted back, sobbing and holding the shards of her god piece in bloody hands. the moments in which kez looks pale because they don't have any spells, and callie's not here but she wouldn't either, and there's actually no way to get her back without risking some horrible twist of the monkey's paw. she's really gone.

but day's going to take her home. day's going to take her home. a year and a day.

(also! the first verse about "drunk on the ceiling is not the best place" is ABSOLUTELY about the like full week long bender that day and kez went on in the immediate aftermath to cope. it was BAD and it was MESSY. and its not super important but it is special to me.)

8. She Ain't You by New Hollow

There's nothing, nothing on her mind, and she's far too, far too kind / So miss, me kiss, one more time, at least for old time's sake / 'Cause she's got your hair, and she's got your eyes, and she's got your exact same horoscope sign / She may be pretty, she's something new, but that means nothing / She ain't you

courtesy of morgan. the entire playlist could be this song 20 times in a row quite honestly. it's just. Day spent !!!! all that time!!!!! sculpting her to be as exact as possible to the old version. she tried so hard to get it right, so patient, so careful, like she always did. but handmade is handmade, and the differences are subtle, but they're There. And they're not fixable.

9. She Knows My Name by The Family Crest

So it's not that bad, when she goes / 'Cause she sings my name like it's a sad, sad song / Oh it's not that bad when she's away, that bad when she's away, that bad when she's away / She knows my name, she knows my name, she knows it well / And she knows my face, she knows my face, more than herself / But I wish her well, I wish her well, I wish her well

FAMILY CREST THREE FOR THREE . SORRY THEY WROTE EVERY SONG ABOUT MY D&D CHARACTERS' DOOMED ROMANCE.

It's day at break astral, and astral at day, and it's both of them at each other at once, and they love each other so much. but they also don't, how could they? they're different. break is astral now, and day is still day, which is a problem, because day now is Very different from the day that lives in the collective conscious flooding astral's nervous system. they might have to go. they might have to leave. if they do - i wish you well.

10. Boston by Augustana

You don't know me, and you don't even care, oh yeah / You said you don't know me, and you don't wear my chains, oh yeah / She said I think I'm going to Boston, think I'll start a new life / Think I'll start it over where no one knows my name

Day leaving the aegis ... TWO!!!!!! "You don't know me and you don't wear my chains" is the lyric of ALL TIME here, that really sums up why Day left.

It wasn't because Astral wasn't Break. He knew that would happen. He knew. He'd done it a million times before. He left because he had too many ties to everyone else - to Callie and Arthur and Thorn, and god, so many to Kez. Ties that Break had, but Astral didn't, and more importantly, Astral had no way of putting back on, while Day had no way of taking off.

also I hope "she knows my name, she knows it well" into "i'm going to boston where no one knows my name" makes you want to put your head in a hydraulic press as much as it makes me want to do that.

11. Best Intentions by Hodera

And when you picture this, I just want you to picture both my eyes looking intently / Hear my words as free verse poetry, feel my hands painting your body / Don't regret you ever met me, 'cause I know you couldn't love me / But if I must be a memory, won't you frame me / In a way that you will smile when you're picturing my face / And then I promise I won't call you like I did when I was drunk in Austin, Texas

courtesy of morgan. they left on bad terms, but not hating ones. and as much as they try to keep it final. every once in a while. they get a new one of astral's memories bleeding into the back of their mind through the collective consciousness. they're sure astral gets some of theirs. which is sort of the same thing as calling someone drunk from austin, texas.

Also wanted to throw morgan's thoughts in here: "I'm currently facedown thinking about calling the og adventure 'one crazy summer' and how it would feel to put it down so casually like that".

12. Long + Lost by Florence & The Machine

Without your love, I'll be / So long and lost, are you missing me ? / Is it too late to come on home? / All those bridges are old stone / Is it too late to come on home? / Can the city forgive? I hear its sad song

ripped unashamedly from the playlist for isa/tore (another d&d couple of mine going through a died and came back wrong kinda scenario. ask me about them.)

25 years is a long time to be away from someone. Even if they're hundreds of years old, 25 years is more than a blip in memory.

13. Saturn by Sleeping At Last

You taught me the courage of stars before you left / How light carries on endlessly even after death / With shortness of breath you explained the infinite / How rare and beautiful it is to even exist

saturn is a song Of All Time. it's a song for when you lie on the shower floor at 3am and think about how much you love everyone in your life and everyone no longer in your life and everyone who's in your life but one day won't be and how it mattered even if they left and how it mattered because they left and you just love a lot of people which means you lose a lot of people and that's. okay.

14. A Duet for Our Time: Of Anguish by Columbus State University Trombone Ensemble

[Instrumental]

once again. courtesy of bekah. i'm kissing you and your music taste so tenderly on the mouth.

if you don't want to listen to 6 minutes of trombones and get emo Real about two made up guys who loved each other too hard to lose each other and lost each other anyway. get out