u/jinxkmonsoon — reddlx

Lae'zel: Fuck Buttons - "Sweet Love For Planet Earth" -- I'm not too well-versed in githyanki culture, but I kind of feel that they don't have much time for all of that culture and so Lae probably doesn't have well-developed tastes. She'd just ask for accompaniment to crush her enemies to, so what better than the avalanche of brutal distortion that, if you sit with it long enough and let the waves of noise wash over you, you hear how pretty it is.

Karlach: Boris - "Farewell" -- Sorry for the basic bitch pick as well as going against her biker metal aesthetics, but here me out. This is Boris at their prettiest (this side of their gorgeous MBV cover), and despite the apparently sad song title, "Farewell" is actually the opening track of Pink. So to K, this is a song about going on and choosing to live (rocking out with her tail out, of course).

Jaheira: Vashti Bunyan - "Diamond Day" -- An old folk tune for an old folkie.

Halsin: The Pentangle - "Jack Orion" -- A song as long as Oakdaddy is.

Shadowheart: Hilary Woods - "Jesus Said" -- Lana Del Rey is too normie for our Tumblr sad girl, but she really connects to the line "Give me back my skin / To Live In." Not only that, but the second half of the song has a surprisingly banging beat, and sometimes a sad girl still wants to dance.

Astarion: A two-fer because I couldn't choose just one: Dum Dum Girls's "Evil Blooms", because the line, "Why be good / Be beautiful and sad," speaks to Astarion when he's feeling cute and bitchy. But in his more vulnerable moments, when he needs to scream into the storm, he'll blast the hell out of Ethel Cain's "Gibson Girl."

Isobel: Another two-fer, but this time because of lore! Before she died, US Girls - "Denise, Don't Wait" because she's worried about what her immortal girlfriend will do after she passes, but then after her resurrection, US Girls - "Time", because now she just wants to dance.

Dame Aylin: Dead Can Dance - "Summoning of the Muse" -- HAVE YOU HEARD THE BELLS? THE BELLS, FOR THE LESBIAN WITH NOT AN OUNCE OF SUBTLETY IN HER BODY

Gale: The Microphones - "I Want Wind to Blow" -- Not only does Gale have a tremendous nostalgia for early 2000s K Records, he used this song to practice his elemental spellcasting: "The rain dried up, the lightning let up."

Wyll: Tricky - "Christiansands" -- Whenever Wyll sings this at karaoke, he always changes the chorus: "I met a Christian in Christiansands / And a devil in Zariel's butthole."

Alfira: Joanna Newsom - "Only Skin" -- Even though the featured instrument is a harp and not a lute, in my headcannon Alfie is incredibly quick at picking up new instruments. And while Durge thinks this is an apt pick for her despite never having heard of this song, this is a song that runs through the full spectrum of human (and tiefling!) experience, with couplets that range from "I took my fishin' pole / Down to the swimming hole," to "We tramped through the poison oak / Heartbroke and inchoate."

Durge: King Missile - "Detachable Penis" -- The penis is Gortash.

Orin: Throbbing Gristle - "Hamburger Lady" -- Yeah I'm not linking this.

Abdirak: X-Ray Spex - "Oh Bondage Up Yours!" -- Irony, like Loviatar, is a cruel goddess.

Duke Ravengard: The Eagles - "Hotel California" -- Dadrock about being a prisoner.

u/jinxkmonsoon — 3 months ago

▲ 4 r/okbuddybaldur

NGL I'm pretty bad about getting my friends gifts come midwinter and usually end up giving them gift cards last minute but this time I'm getting my act together and thinking things through. I have some ideas already but wouldn't mind second opinions!

Lizzy is going through some rough times because she found out her deity is a POS who eats the souls of her more devoted followers. Thing is even though she's broken free of the Lich Queen she's just fully bought into the movement of her greatest rival (some bald dude with an Amish beard), so I think the Iliad might be good to illustrate that deities don't have mortal interests at heart. Also has a lot of good action to maintain her interest.
Pooky: I'm thinking Madeleine Miller's Circe would be a good pick, since it's about someone who for her supernaturally long life has been degraded and humiliated and tossed aside by everyone around her, but figures out how to rebuild her life by giving up power. Edit: on second thought, Atwood's Year Of the Flood would lyrically speak to him, as it's about a survivor on the run who finds a supportive group of weirdos and slowly learns to become an invaluable member of their team.
Karla has some health stuff going on and had a rough childhood, but she's more rough and tumble than the rest of my crew and I'm not entirely positive she can actually read. So, I think Dark Knight Returns could be more her speed, since it starts, "This would be a good death," and ends with, "This will be a good life." And also the Powerpuff Girls dvd box set, because Ao knows she needs some Bubbles in her life.
Shart: she's a goth, but I want to avoid the obvious Twilight or 50 Shades because I'm too much of a book snob to do that to anyone. Instead, I have my heart set on Jane Eyre, one of the best Gothic romances ever written, or maybe Bell Jar because of how beautifully Plath writes, and ~~dollars to donuts~~ gold pieces to rotten carrots she had a Plath phase when she was younger, even if she can't remember it. And speaking of: the Teen Titans dvd set, because it was the angsty teen upbringing that I wish I had, and I think you could do worse to fill in her missing childhood. And since she's roommates with Karla she can watch Powerpuff Girls too.
Windy: this is going to be a weird one. If I'm on my first Honour run, I giving him Camus' The Stranger. Otherwise, Paradise Lost, because Windy is a snob after my own heart who would appreciate Milton's dissertation on how morality would be empty if we didn't have free will. Under no circumstances will I give him Watchmen though, he'll definitely identify with Ozymandias.
Jah: would it be too obvious to give her How Stella Got Her Groove Back? Or, to go in a completely different direction, Elizabeth Moon's Remnant Population, which is about a badass cranky old lady.
Will: he's really into archetypal chivalry, which isn't my strongest suit, so I'll have to talk back on my comics collection and go with Grant Morrison's All- Star Superman, maybe the purest, most heart warming distillation of selfless heroism ever?
Bear Mattress: Emerson's self reliance.
Orin: full disclosure she's not actually part of my friend group, more of a friend of a friend, and I've never read this pick myself, but I heard that 120 Days of Sodom overlaps with her interests.

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u/jinxkmonsoon — 4 months ago