Trabia Garden

Before I get into the traditional talking too much about karaoke, I should mention that the annual Three-Sentence Ficathon is underway! Here's the current post, if you want to prompt or write anything.


Here is a very belated post about our karaoke-focused New Year's celebrations! Part of the reason this post was taking so long was because it's a pain to link to all the songs on YouTube, so I eventually abandoned the effort; I apologise for how spotty the linking is as a consequence.

It will surprise no one to learn that our household celebrated the turn of the year with karaoke on New Year's Eve. Here are the songs I performed!

- The Glee version of 'Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah', because New Year's Eve coincided with the seventh night of Hanukkah. A carefully calculated song choice; it's a Hanukkah song, so it was a way of saying 'happy Hanukkah!' to Rei, but it's a Glee song, so it was also a way of saying 'I want to affectionately inflict psychological damage upon you.' Rei responded by singing 'How Do You Spell Channukkahh' by the LeeVees.

- 'You and Me (But Mostly Me)', from The Book of Mormon. I modified the lyrics slightly to make this a solo, which frankly I think is in the spirit of the song. There was a lot of laughter at this one, and my housemates broke into applause at the end. 'Yes!' I declared, opening my arms to the sky. 'I deserve this!'

- At Rei's suggestion, the two of us duetted on 'Guy Love' from the Scrubs musical episode. Tem had not seen Scrubs and probably found the experience slightly puzzling.

- I was concerned that 'Dylan' by Emmy the Great might be too fast, but it turned out to be really fun to sing! This is a song I picked up from my time living with th_esaurus; she used to listen to it a lot.

- 'Last Surprise -Scramble-' from Persona 5 Strikers was also fast and fun! Everyone joined in on the too many 'oooooh's at the end.

- Rise Against songs are always both extremely intimidating and an absolute blast to sing, and 'Help Is On the Way' is no exception. I struggled with the 'RIGHT HERE' screams but had an earnest crack at them.

- Singing Gackt's 'Last Song' with Rei was a very nostalgic experience. I was nervous about singing in Japanese, but I think it went okay. It's amazing how the songs you listened to as a teenager stick with you, even if they're in a language you don't speak.

- Tem and I like to wait until everyone's let their guard down and then throw a duet from Death Note: The Musical into proceedings. On this occasion, the duet in question was 'The Way It Ends', so I got to play smug Light, one of my favourite Light Yagami modes (all of Light's modes are my favourite Light modes).

- I ran out of songs I was confident in, so I had to venture into my 'this is probably a bad idea' picks, which is how I ended up singing 'Big Enough' by Kirin J Callinan. There were incredible reactions from the room when the screaming cowboy kicked in. The fun thing about doing this song for karaoke is that, although it's a meme, only a very specific part of it is well known, so the audience may not suspect you're singing a meme song until you throw your head back and go AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH.

- Rei joined me for RichaadEB's metal cover of Touhou's 'Bad Apple', which is fortunate, because I don't think I would have been capable alone! That song really doesn't give you any breathing room.

- I enjoyed singing 'Body' by Marah! I'm always surprised by the vanishingly low viewcount on Marah's songs on YouTube; for a long time I struggled to find their songs on there at all. My brother listened to them a lot when we were teenagers, and I always assumed they were well known, but apparently not; he'd just got into an incredibly niche band, and landed me with a fondness for their songs as a consequence!

And a few others I don't have much commentary on: 'Burning in the Skies' by Linkin Park, 'This Old Sin' by Koethe, a repeat of the sea shanty version of 'Rockstar' by Nickelback.

My favourite performances by Rei included 'Don't Be a Lawyer' from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, the unfortunately named 'JAP' by the perplexingly named abingdon boys school, 'Fight Club' by Fitzy, and a couple of Tom Lehrer songs: 'Smut' (with relish) and 'The Masochism Tango' (Rei and Tem briefly tangoed together during this one, although fortunately they didn't follow the song's instructions to the letter).

Rei also performed 'Mother Mary' by Tom Auton, and the lyrics made me suspicious. 'Is this on your Billcifer playlist?' I asked, and Rei hastily shushed me. (Billcifer is Rei's Lucifer-inspired Bill/Dipper Gravity Falls AU; it's here, and I can strongly recommend it if that sounds like your thing! It's been great to see Rei's enthusiasm for working on it.)

My favourite of Tem's performances included 'Gettin' Bi' from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, 'Hurricane' from Death Note: The Musical (always a delight; Tem always puts such passion into 'I AM THE GOD OF A BRAVE NEW WORLD'), 'Godless, Lawless & Non-Monogamous' by New Here, and 'Monochrome' by BABYMETAL (with me and Ginger singing backup vocals).

I'm noting my favourite performances down in part so I can look up the original songs at some point, for those I wasn't familiar with already. One of the fun aspects of karaoke is getting to discover cool new music! However, there's always the risk that I'll seek out the original and go '...actually, I prefer this song when my friends are singing it.'

Rei, Tem and I did a couple of songs as a trio towards the end: 'Wait for It' from Hamilton and 'Six Feet' by Patent Pending. I was afraid that the Hamilton song would be too ambitious, but I think it worked out!

Tem and Rei did a magnificent duet of Sarah and the Safe Word's 'Something Is Afoot on Old Man McGrady's River', and wrapped up with the occasion-appropriate 'This Year' by the Mountain Goats. A great way to see 2024 out!

I distinctly remember seeing an advert for Lucifer on the side of a bus, a year or two ago, and going, 'I know literally nothing about this show other than its name and the smug-looking face of the protagonist on this advert, but I have the strong sense I would love it.' Turns out I was right! I'm glad to be watching it at last.

A few notes on episodes in the early second series:

'Sin-Eater': Lucifer, on being called in to investigate a homicide in which the victim had his crotch set on fire, immediately and gleefully makes as many puns as possible. It's great.

Lucifer: Goodness gracious, great balls of fire.
Decker: Lucifer.
Lucifer: I mean, I've heard of hot pants, but this really brings a new meaning to the term 'fire crotch', doesn't it?
Decker: Lucifer.
Lucifer: Wait, I have more.

There's such a childlike joy to this terrible man.

'Lady Parts': there was a throwaway line about Lucifer not liking cats, and I refuse to accept this. Lucifer would clearly adore cats. I need to write fanfiction in which Lucifer somehow finds himself charged with a cat and reluctantly comes to love it.

The 'girls' night out' scene was pretty incredible. Four recurring female characters in a scene together! And that's not even all the recurring female characters on the show! And then Decker and Maze, two major female characters I'd never expected to interact much, decide to move in together! I'm excited to see how that goes. (Maze is hilarious and I love that her first reaction to any problem is 'can I kill it?')

'Weaponizer': Lucifer very intensely trying out the catchphrase 'Welcome to Devil Time' is one of my favourite moments in the show. Lucifer is an absolute loser and I love him.


I'm getting the frustrating itch where I sort of want to try writing fanfiction for Lucifer, but I don't have any ideas (er, beyond the 'fix-it' fic where the thing I'm fixing is 'Lucifer doesn't like cats') or enough of a grasp of the characters. I feel there's a Lucifer fic I really want to write just out of reach, but I can't see the concept clearly!

A few stray notes on aspects of the show that interest me, while I try to pin down what I'd like to write for it:

- Lucifer can't be harmed or feel pain, except in Decker's vicinity. Could Lucifer ask Decker to hurt him so he can build up his pain resistance?

- Something about Lucifer isn't right. It unsettles Decker sometimes. But she can't work out what it is. Obviously it's not that he's actually the devil; that's ludicrous.

- Lucifer and his mother have a lot of weird sexual tension. I don't think I'm going to write the Lucifer/his mother fic that the fandom has tragically failed to provide. I was going to say 'letting Decker see and react to their dynamic could be fun', but, come to think of it, Lucifer's mother doesn't look old enough to have given birth to Lucifer, so I think Decker would just conclude, 'Okay, so Lucifer has a girlfriend he calls "Mum" and I don't think I want to look too far into this.'

- What is the nature of the relationship between Decker and Lucifer? He's intrigued by her; he values her. Does she consider him a friend? I think she does. A weird, difficult friend who's cheerfully open about the fact that he'd like to sleep with her. But he doesn't want to be her boyfriend, so there isn't serious 'I want our relationship to be this, he wants our relationship to be that' strain. He wants to continue being her weird, difficult friend; he just thinks it'd be fun if they also had sex sometimes.

We've started watching Lucifer as a household. I've only seen a handful of episodes, but so far it's a lot of fun! My housemates, who generally have little patience for the 'arsehole genius' character type, find it a lot more bearable when the arsehole has the excuse of literally being the Devil.

Lucifer, perpetually cheerful and smiley and morally bankrupt, does break the usual 'arsehole genius' frame in one respect: he has a surprising innocence to him. A lot of the time, he genuinely doesn't understand why his actions bother people!

'Manly Whatnots', episode four, is the best episode for two reasons:

- the scene where Decker hesitantly touches the wing scars on Lucifer's back and Lucifer, usually so affable, whips around and grabs her wrist with incredible intensity.
- Lucifer was talking about how he didn't feel pain or bleed (I announced 'DISAPPOINTING' aloud), and then we got an incredible scene where he talked Decker into shooting him in the leg to test it, and he experienced pain for the first time, and she went 'you're bleeding?? oh God of course you're bleeding I shot you.'


More Scrubs rewatch! There's a lot of sexism in this show that grates more now than it did in the early 2000s - to be fair, it's the characters being sexist more than the show itself, but there is a lot of sexism from the characters and it makes me like them less - but I'm still having fun.

I am finding myself increasingly intrigued by the prospect of messed-up Elliot/Cox. I wrote all that JD/Cox when I was younger and yet this never occurred to me! He calls her 'good girl' and I love it.

(EDIT: Wait, maybe this did occur to me when I was younger? I've just discovered this comment from 2008 in which I said 'Elliot/Cox is a pairing I've always sort of secretly liked.' Maybe I've changed less than I thought!)

Given my habit of writing fanfiction pairing one specific character up with everyone in their canon (I've now done this with Patrick Jane, Jeff Winger, Nagito Komaeda, Shuichi Saihara, Prompto Argentum, Mike Munroe, Alex of Oxenfree and Carlos of Zero Escape), I'm sort of tempted to attempt Perry Cox/everyone. I already ship Cox/JD, Cox/Elliot and Cox/Ben; Cox/Kelso is obvious; Cox/Carla is one-sided canon; Cox and Jordan used to be married (I really love Cox's 'I used to sit around and wonder why our friends weren't trying to destroy each other like we were' line about their relationship). Cox/Turk and Cox/Janitor might be more of a stretch, but Dr Cox is still an extremely shippable character. It might take some work to get the voices of the Scrubs characters back, though; I haven't written them in over a decade!

Although Dr Cox is exactly my type, i.e. an awful self-loathing wreck, I think Elliot might be challenging him for the title of my favourite Scrubs character. I've always enjoyed her for being a female character who's allowed to be an absolute disaster, but she's standing out to me more on this rewatch than she did when I was a teenager.