DVD Commentary: Cardcaptor Uhura
For 
rosaxx50, for the Fic DVD Commentary Meme (which is still open, fyi!)
I wrote this ficlet in response to a prompt from
sablin27: Can I use the wild card on: Uhura, Spock and Gaila chase friendly but flighty magical cards (a la Card Captor Sakura)?
This was a little tricky in that I have never read nor watched Cardcaptor Sakura (though I have read several volumes of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, because obviously one should read the weird AU remix before reading the original *headdesk*), but I have picked up enough via general fannish osmosis that I figured I could manage a short ficlet. Which I did. :)
---------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------
Cardcaptor Uhura: Nyota Uhura occasionally regrets her sense of responsibility, particularly when the magical cards she accidentally released onto Starfleet Academy campus get in the way of her classes. Fortunately (or unfortunately), Gaila and Spock make sure she never misses a crisis. (900 words)
So the title is nothing but a literal and factual description of the story concept, but I couldn't not because of the syllabic/phonetic similarities between 'Uhura' and 'Sakura'. Which is also why this is not called "Cardcaptor Nyota," even though I only call Uhura by her first name in the story text, since we are in her POV.
---------------------------------------------
Nyota's comm vibrates halfway through a warp navigation quiz.
She thinks about the possible consequences of checking her messages: public humiliation, an automatic failing mark if Professor Avci sees her texting. Then she thinks about the possible consequences of not answering, and fishes her comm out of her hoodie.
Random trivia: Avci was the surname of a girl I knew in elementary school. It is pronounced 'Aal-juh'. Everyone in town who saw it spelled before hearing it spoken tried to pronounce it 'Ah-vee-chee' or 'Ah-vee-see,' because that is what happens when a third of your town's population is Italian. *wry*
Gaila's sent her one word: CARD
Nyota lets her head thump down onto her desk, forehead smearing the scribbles and eraser marks of her latest equation, and curses her past self yet again for touching anything from the Song Library's special collections, even if all she was trying to do was put the intricately carved wood-bound book back from where some jerk had knocked it to the floor. Then she texts a quick answer.
Trying to jam in some backstory/explanation in as few words as possible and without interrupting the narrative flow TOO much.
i'm in the middle of a test; can we wait twenty minutes?
NO, Gaila texts back not even a second later. its making people laugh so hard they FALL UNCONSCIOUS this is not something people can overlook someones going to call the admiralty or the cdc if we dont hurry pretend youre sick or something and GET TO WILDE HALL
Gaila's disdain for punctuation and frequent use of ALL CAPS for emphasis is, of course, influenced by Homestuck where every single character has an individualized 'typing quirk' that helps identify the source of any given line of dialogue.
punctuation is still a thing that exists, Nyota sends, because habit is better than panicking. Then she grabs her backpack, tosses her half-finished test paper onto the professor's desk, and flees with only a mumbled, "Sorry, I have a thing," by way of an excuse. Hopefully she can make up the lost points on her midterm.
If I ever continued this, one way I might bring in more Star Trek characters is as a support study group for Uhura. I feel that Kirk would find that opportunity irresistible. *evil grin*
The other way to bring in extra characters, of course, would be to assign them all rough parallels to Cardcaptor Sakura characters. Kirk could be Yukito. *evil grin widens* (Bones would be Touya, probably -- he'd accidentally discover what Uhura, Gaila, and Spock are up to and run grumpy interference. I am not sure about Sulu and Chekov.)
did you tell spock? she texts as she sprints through Nguyen Hall, down the stairs at the east end, and out the door onto the south quad.
These campus building names -- Song Library, Wilde and Nguyen Halls -- are completely made up, btw. I just wanted to make sure they didn't all sound northwest European.
DUH, Gaila says. hes blowing around a bunch of pollen so the laughing maybe looks like a weird allergy symptom instead of magic YAY PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY but neither of us knows what card this is or what it wants its left academy grounds though heading southwest meet us at golden gate park
Oh look, Spock knows magic! Doesn't that conflict with science/logic? Don't be ridiculous; the only illogical move would be to deny the existence of a clearly observable phenomenon. I feel that all Vulcans probably know about magic, though only a few can use it, and they think most other Federation species are very silly for trying to keep it under wraps and only known to a select small community of active magic practitioners.
Twenty-five minutes later, Nyota has run across what feels like half of San Francisco, dodging exhausted clumps of still helplessly laughing cadets and civilians, and is crouched behind a tea bush in the hastily evacuated botanical gardens. The card-sprite flits from one flowering tree to the next while Nyota gulps for breath and listens to her unfairly attractive roommate and her equally unfairly attractive phonology TA hold a whispered battle over what to do next.
There are actually stupid amounts of research behind that simple 'twenty-five minutes later'. I had to find where Starfleet Academy will be located in future San Francisco. I had to find Golden Gate Park, and the location of the botanical garden within it. I had to check city street maps, and figure out where the hills were, and do some research on human running speeds, etc. For the record, that was a very fast trip, and only plausible because I decided that Uhura was a competitive long-distance runner in high school and kept up her training at the Academy.
"I don't need magic to see that we're obviously dealing with Delirium or Mischief," Gaila insists yet again. "Which means we should try to herd the sprite into the hedge maze and hit it with Calm so Nyota can seal and sign the card. This isn't rocket science!"
As you may notice, Uhura's deck does not correspond exactly to Clow's deck. This is partly because I find a bunch of the Clow Cards overly silly/cutesy, but mostly just as another little 'hey, alternate universe, different rules may apply!' signal.
Also, of course Gaila picked up the 'not rocket science' idiom. She's an engineer and also by necessity something of a linguist and anthropologist; I bet she loves phrases of that type.
"I can think of at least two other cards that might produce the observed effects, which logically implies that your certainty is misplaced," Spock says, with the particular lack of intonation that means he's repressing a strong desire to punch something. "Attempting capture without a better analysis only invites further chaos. If you stopped distracting me for even thirty seconds, I could begin scrying for--"
Vulcans: not actually emotionless! Just very good at control. Also, oh look, Spock not only knows magic, he can use it! (By this point, I hope it has become obvious that Gaila and Spock are acting as rough parallels to Tomoyo and Syaoran, respectively. Which is doubly fun because I ship both of them with Uhura, and I believe both their Cardcaptor Sakura counterparts are in love with Sakura. It's nice when things work out so tidily.)
At times like this, Nyota really wishes she were a little less ethical and therefore willing to steal the damned book that started this whole mess. The exhibit it was part of isn't on display anymore, and so far she and Gaila have only found two plausible excuses to request an hour studying it under a librarian's close supervision. And of course they can't photograph or copy the pages, because magic is never that convenient, so they're stuck relying on iffy memories and guesswork, plus a ballpoint pen that now doubles as the most ridiculous magic wand Nyota's ever heard of. (What they're going to do when it inevitably runs out of ink, she really doesn't want to think about.)
Again, trying to jam in backstory and handwaving without interrupting the story-flow too badly. I mean, there have to be reasons they aren't just looking the card up and making a plan from there.
"I don't care what card it is, and I'm not going to start by hitting it over the head with mind control," she says, interrupting the argument. "I'm going to try talking it down."
Of course she is! Partly because magical girl series tend to value friendship/relationships over brute power, and partly because she's working to be a communications officer. Talking and establishing relationships is what Uhura does.
"That never works!" Gaila whispers furiously. "And what if it hits you? You can't call any cards if you're laughing too hard to speak!"
"Technically speaking, communication has worked twice," Spock says. As Gaila hisses in fury, he adds, "I still advise against this. Without knowing which card this is, we have no way to predict how it will react to the thought of relinquishing its freedom."
The thing is, they're not wrong. Talking to an unbound card is always a risk -- even the ones with silly, ultra-specific uses are still powered by the same overwhelming magic. But the day Nyota starts using force without first trying to communicate is the day she'll stop recognizing herself in the mirror.
And like Spock said, asking politely has worked twice. Maybe today will be her third success.
"I'm trusting you guys to think of a backup plan," she says, and stands from behind the tea bush.
Behind her, Gaila and Spock have approximately three heart attacks apiece. Then they start planning how to fight and capture the card, much more efficiently than before.
The card-sprite -- a lovely, androgynous figure about ten centimeters tall, butterfly-winged, nearly translucent, and wrapped in shimmering rainbow bubbles -- flits upward in alarm and raises its hands. A bright pink glow gathers between its palms.
"Hello," Nyota says quickly, ballpoint pen held loosely between her fingers. "My name is Uhura, and I'm the one who accidentally blew you away from the rest of your deck. I hope you haven't had too many troubles out on your own. Would you like to come rejoin your friends?"
She holds her breath and hopes.
Spoiler: she gets the card. (I do not actually remember what name/powers I gave it. Since it was mostly a McGuffin, that never seemed especially important. Delirium and Mischief, as Gaila mentions, are two plausible options. The other two possibilities Spock mentions but doesn't name are... I think Joy? And something else I have utterly forgotten, whoops.)
---------------------------------------------
And I think that's pretty much everything!
If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently (
comments)
rosaxx50, for the Fic DVD Commentary Meme (which is still open, fyi!)
I wrote this ficlet in response to a prompt from
sablin27: Can I use the wild card on: Uhura, Spock and Gaila chase friendly but flighty magical cards (a la Card Captor Sakura)?
This was a little tricky in that I have never read nor watched Cardcaptor Sakura (though I have read several volumes of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, because obviously one should read the weird AU remix before reading the original *headdesk*), but I have picked up enough via general fannish osmosis that I figured I could manage a short ficlet. Which I did. :)
---------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------
Cardcaptor Uhura: Nyota Uhura occasionally regrets her sense of responsibility, particularly when the magical cards she accidentally released onto Starfleet Academy campus get in the way of her classes. Fortunately (or unfortunately), Gaila and Spock make sure she never misses a crisis. (900 words)
So the title is nothing but a literal and factual description of the story concept, but I couldn't not because of the syllabic/phonetic similarities between 'Uhura' and 'Sakura'. Which is also why this is not called "Cardcaptor Nyota," even though I only call Uhura by her first name in the story text, since we are in her POV.
---------------------------------------------
Nyota's comm vibrates halfway through a warp navigation quiz.
She thinks about the possible consequences of checking her messages: public humiliation, an automatic failing mark if Professor Avci sees her texting. Then she thinks about the possible consequences of not answering, and fishes her comm out of her hoodie.
Random trivia: Avci was the surname of a girl I knew in elementary school. It is pronounced 'Aal-juh'. Everyone in town who saw it spelled before hearing it spoken tried to pronounce it 'Ah-vee-chee' or 'Ah-vee-see,' because that is what happens when a third of your town's population is Italian. *wry*
Gaila's sent her one word: CARD
Nyota lets her head thump down onto her desk, forehead smearing the scribbles and eraser marks of her latest equation, and curses her past self yet again for touching anything from the Song Library's special collections, even if all she was trying to do was put the intricately carved wood-bound book back from where some jerk had knocked it to the floor. Then she texts a quick answer.
Trying to jam in some backstory/explanation in as few words as possible and without interrupting the narrative flow TOO much.
i'm in the middle of a test; can we wait twenty minutes?
NO, Gaila texts back not even a second later. its making people laugh so hard they FALL UNCONSCIOUS this is not something people can overlook someones going to call the admiralty or the cdc if we dont hurry pretend youre sick or something and GET TO WILDE HALL
Gaila's disdain for punctuation and frequent use of ALL CAPS for emphasis is, of course, influenced by Homestuck where every single character has an individualized 'typing quirk' that helps identify the source of any given line of dialogue.
punctuation is still a thing that exists, Nyota sends, because habit is better than panicking. Then she grabs her backpack, tosses her half-finished test paper onto the professor's desk, and flees with only a mumbled, "Sorry, I have a thing," by way of an excuse. Hopefully she can make up the lost points on her midterm.
If I ever continued this, one way I might bring in more Star Trek characters is as a support study group for Uhura. I feel that Kirk would find that opportunity irresistible. *evil grin*
The other way to bring in extra characters, of course, would be to assign them all rough parallels to Cardcaptor Sakura characters. Kirk could be Yukito. *evil grin widens* (Bones would be Touya, probably -- he'd accidentally discover what Uhura, Gaila, and Spock are up to and run grumpy interference. I am not sure about Sulu and Chekov.)
did you tell spock? she texts as she sprints through Nguyen Hall, down the stairs at the east end, and out the door onto the south quad.
These campus building names -- Song Library, Wilde and Nguyen Halls -- are completely made up, btw. I just wanted to make sure they didn't all sound northwest European.
DUH, Gaila says. hes blowing around a bunch of pollen so the laughing maybe looks like a weird allergy symptom instead of magic YAY PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY but neither of us knows what card this is or what it wants its left academy grounds though heading southwest meet us at golden gate park
Oh look, Spock knows magic! Doesn't that conflict with science/logic? Don't be ridiculous; the only illogical move would be to deny the existence of a clearly observable phenomenon. I feel that all Vulcans probably know about magic, though only a few can use it, and they think most other Federation species are very silly for trying to keep it under wraps and only known to a select small community of active magic practitioners.
Twenty-five minutes later, Nyota has run across what feels like half of San Francisco, dodging exhausted clumps of still helplessly laughing cadets and civilians, and is crouched behind a tea bush in the hastily evacuated botanical gardens. The card-sprite flits from one flowering tree to the next while Nyota gulps for breath and listens to her unfairly attractive roommate and her equally unfairly attractive phonology TA hold a whispered battle over what to do next.
There are actually stupid amounts of research behind that simple 'twenty-five minutes later'. I had to find where Starfleet Academy will be located in future San Francisco. I had to find Golden Gate Park, and the location of the botanical garden within it. I had to check city street maps, and figure out where the hills were, and do some research on human running speeds, etc. For the record, that was a very fast trip, and only plausible because I decided that Uhura was a competitive long-distance runner in high school and kept up her training at the Academy.
"I don't need magic to see that we're obviously dealing with Delirium or Mischief," Gaila insists yet again. "Which means we should try to herd the sprite into the hedge maze and hit it with Calm so Nyota can seal and sign the card. This isn't rocket science!"
As you may notice, Uhura's deck does not correspond exactly to Clow's deck. This is partly because I find a bunch of the Clow Cards overly silly/cutesy, but mostly just as another little 'hey, alternate universe, different rules may apply!' signal.
Also, of course Gaila picked up the 'not rocket science' idiom. She's an engineer and also by necessity something of a linguist and anthropologist; I bet she loves phrases of that type.
"I can think of at least two other cards that might produce the observed effects, which logically implies that your certainty is misplaced," Spock says, with the particular lack of intonation that means he's repressing a strong desire to punch something. "Attempting capture without a better analysis only invites further chaos. If you stopped distracting me for even thirty seconds, I could begin scrying for--"
Vulcans: not actually emotionless! Just very good at control. Also, oh look, Spock not only knows magic, he can use it! (By this point, I hope it has become obvious that Gaila and Spock are acting as rough parallels to Tomoyo and Syaoran, respectively. Which is doubly fun because I ship both of them with Uhura, and I believe both their Cardcaptor Sakura counterparts are in love with Sakura. It's nice when things work out so tidily.)
At times like this, Nyota really wishes she were a little less ethical and therefore willing to steal the damned book that started this whole mess. The exhibit it was part of isn't on display anymore, and so far she and Gaila have only found two plausible excuses to request an hour studying it under a librarian's close supervision. And of course they can't photograph or copy the pages, because magic is never that convenient, so they're stuck relying on iffy memories and guesswork, plus a ballpoint pen that now doubles as the most ridiculous magic wand Nyota's ever heard of. (What they're going to do when it inevitably runs out of ink, she really doesn't want to think about.)
Again, trying to jam in backstory and handwaving without interrupting the story-flow too badly. I mean, there have to be reasons they aren't just looking the card up and making a plan from there.
"I don't care what card it is, and I'm not going to start by hitting it over the head with mind control," she says, interrupting the argument. "I'm going to try talking it down."
Of course she is! Partly because magical girl series tend to value friendship/relationships over brute power, and partly because she's working to be a communications officer. Talking and establishing relationships is what Uhura does.
"That never works!" Gaila whispers furiously. "And what if it hits you? You can't call any cards if you're laughing too hard to speak!"
"Technically speaking, communication has worked twice," Spock says. As Gaila hisses in fury, he adds, "I still advise against this. Without knowing which card this is, we have no way to predict how it will react to the thought of relinquishing its freedom."
The thing is, they're not wrong. Talking to an unbound card is always a risk -- even the ones with silly, ultra-specific uses are still powered by the same overwhelming magic. But the day Nyota starts using force without first trying to communicate is the day she'll stop recognizing herself in the mirror.
And like Spock said, asking politely has worked twice. Maybe today will be her third success.
"I'm trusting you guys to think of a backup plan," she says, and stands from behind the tea bush.
Behind her, Gaila and Spock have approximately three heart attacks apiece. Then they start planning how to fight and capture the card, much more efficiently than before.
The card-sprite -- a lovely, androgynous figure about ten centimeters tall, butterfly-winged, nearly translucent, and wrapped in shimmering rainbow bubbles -- flits upward in alarm and raises its hands. A bright pink glow gathers between its palms.
"Hello," Nyota says quickly, ballpoint pen held loosely between her fingers. "My name is Uhura, and I'm the one who accidentally blew you away from the rest of your deck. I hope you haven't had too many troubles out on your own. Would you like to come rejoin your friends?"
She holds her breath and hopes.
Spoiler: she gets the card. (I do not actually remember what name/powers I gave it. Since it was mostly a McGuffin, that never seemed especially important. Delirium and Mischief, as Gaila mentions, are two plausible options. The other two possibilities Spock mentions but doesn't name are... I think Joy? And something else I have utterly forgotten, whoops.)
---------------------------------------------
And I think that's pretty much everything!
If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently (
comments)