A playlist breakdown is exactly what it sounds like. I'll post each song in a characters playlist and talk a bit about why I picked the song/what specific lyrics stand out to me as the most "Them"

If there's any playlist you're interested in learning about, just drop a character name here.

I'm doing this now because once again it's slow at work so I want to do something, but not slow enough for me to comfortably work on actual writing.

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PLAYLIST TITLE: Helion's Hellion
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SONG ONE: Raise Hell by Dorothy

Reason: Hadyn, my beautiful demon child, likes to be a rebel just to be a rebel. She started smoking because it made her parents mad, she went to Avia because it made her parents mad, she rejected the Awakening because it made her parents mad... And not because she has anything against her parents. She loves them a lot. She just very much lives by her own rules. Also, some aspects of this song are kind of literal in later books lol.

Selected Lyrics:
Young blood, run like a river.
Young blood, never get chained.
Young blood, heaven need a sinner,
you can't raise hell with a saint.

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SONG TWO: Sylvia by Autoheart

Reason: This song is a perfect perfect perfect Hadyn and Sylva song, and it's really funny to me that the title is just one letter away from Sylva's name (I briefly considered changing her name to fit better but thought against it.)

Selected Lyrics:
Here we go, a team so formidible
They can try to separate us but they will fail.
We are gold and bright and happy in the night.
You and I, we're dancing fireworks.

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SONG THREE: Liar and the Lighter by Gabrielle Aplin

Reason: For so many reasons, this is a Hadyn song. She's the definition of fight or flight, in a way I'll expand on with track six of her playlist. But basically, as confident as Hadyn plays (and in many ways truly is) she is scared, always. Like a bird in a cage who's never been outside it.

Selected Lyrics:

Oh maybe someday I will be something more.
Real with arms and legs so I can walk away.
And stay away forever and some more.
.....

I'll stick around to watch this town fall down to it's knees,
You can pray the day that you hope is coming round real soon.
I will run and stay away in a place that I don't know well of.
You can chose a different song that you will soon love.

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SONG FOUR: Lilo by Lauren Aquilina

Reason: Lauren Aquilina is like, the Avia singer, lol. I cod very easily have made all Claire and Hadyn's songs by Lauren. This song plays into the friendship (or lacktherof) between Claire and Hadyn, where Claire will only associate with Hadyn when no one else knows, and Hadyn's annoyance about it.

Selected Lyrics:
Do I annoy you?
Do I offend you with my words?
Do I bore you?
Am I the worst thing you've ever heard?
.....
Do I embarrass you beyond belief?
I

s losing me such a big relief?
'Cause we won't ever be.

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SONG FIVE: In Too Deep by The Sweeplings

Reason: This song is for the regret Hadyn feels for a specific event in her childhood, which you'll learn about as soon as I post the final chapter of the first Avia novella.

Selected Lyrics:
Hush.
What is done is done.
Don't say a word,
keep the secret from your tongue.
Ooh, ooh, I'm in too deep,
w

hat I've done is killing me.

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SONG SIX: Train by Brick + Mortar

Reason: Hadyn is a very "flighty" person in the sense that when things get scary or intense she just wants to be gone. After everything with her parents went down she completely cut ties with the Awakening, and then later things lead her to want to run from the Academy too. Hadyn hates the thought that Indra is all there is in the world, and that she'll never be able to get free.

Selected Lyrics:
I smile in the face of failure.
I smile in the face of fear.
Cause I got a secret window,
and I'm gonna take you there.
....

Run, run, push it away.
Yeah, I'm always running.
All night, into the day,
yeah, I'm always running.

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SONG SEVEN: Fools by Lauren Aquilina

Reason: Another Lauren song. This one is for Hadyn's romantic relationship later in the series and her fear regarding opening up and trusting someone in a romantic sense.

Selected Lyrics:
The anticipation before the kiss,
mirrored in my shaking lips.
Oh God, I feel so unprepared.
The two of us so out of place,
m

y feelings written on my face.
Got what I want, but now I'm scared.

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SONG EIGHT: Criminals by MS MR

Reason: Later book spoilers if I go into too much detail here, but this song ties into book 5 big time.

Selected Lyrics:
Do you want a way out?
Do ya?
I don't want a way out,
you and I know the truth.
E

ven though it hurts,
I just wanna be a criminal with you.

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SONG NINE: Dance, Dance by Fall Out Boy

Reason: Hadyn obviously needed a song that talked about dancing on her playlist, but there something in the sarcastic nature of these lyrics that fits her dialogue tone, and the opening bit makes me think of her talking about Claire.

Selected Lyrics:
Weighed down with words too overdramatic.
Tonight is "it can't get much worse"
Versus "no one should ever feel like this."

I'm two quarters and a heart down.
A

nd I don't want to forget how your voice sounds.

These words are all I have so I write them.
I need them just to get by.

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SONG TEN: Sure as Hell by Tonight Alive

Reason: Just like "Everything is Color" on Claire's playlist, this is another one that perfectly fits the story and I need to include all the lyrics for rather than just a small chunk. This is the dramatic final book end credits song in my mind.

Selected Lyrics:

And as I'm looking back on the past few years,
it seems like I have conquered every fear I ever had,
or thought would hold me back,
but now we're standing on the edge and I just have to ask:

I don't regret a thing.
And I won't forget a thing.
And I didn't once pretend,
did you?
Did you?

I never felt more free,
I've never been more true,
never thought I'd see today with you.
I didn't picture this,
I wasn't hoping high.
Now I'm reaching for the things I left behind.
'Cause we're standing on the edge,
and its nothing less than perfect.
And I'm finally content
'cause I sure as hell meant all of it.

The tears well up and I
just can't help but smile.
I think about the way
this took me by surprise,
to see how far we've come.
My only wish:
That we would see the sun at the end of all of this.

And is it too proud to say that
I like who we became?
And I guess that growing up turned out to be okay.

The water shines,
sings to the sky.
The sea-spray,
it stings my eyes.
If I could stay,
I'd stay all night.