Fic DVD commentary meme: Dream of Time Eternal

[snowynight]

I once had two fannish dream about Kirk and Spock together. Without constraints from my waking mind, their plot is surreal yet somehow makes sense in a dream logic way. They inspired me to write a fic that incorporate the dreams. I also want to challenge myself to effectively use dream as a plot device. The result is Dream of Time Eternal, in which Kirk discovered his feelings towards Spock through a series of dream.

Amid the gunshots and explosions, Jim ran after Spock through the open field to charge into the Klingons, the only way to get out alive from the ambush. Sweat clouded his eyes and his throat hurt, but he kept opening fire to disrupt the enemy and arrived at a safe place to regroup.

I felt that it was necessary to start this story in media res because the story premise meant that the readers would already spend a lot of time in Kirk's head. By starting the story with action, it would avoid the problem of too many thinking head. Kirk was after all a man of action.

Why do you do that with him?” A greyish-brown haired woman stared at Jim, her blue eyes full of sorrow. “I have always hoped for him to return home.” She pulled her robe closer as if bracing herself against coldness.

Jim’s guilt choked him while he replied, “I know.”

“You have called him away to the sea. He will always feel stranded on land. Will you at least take good care of him?”

“I will.”

“We can only hope, can’t we?” she asked, fading from Jim’s view.

Jim was walking with a young Vulcan woman who said, “Logic doesn’t dictate your decisions as it should. I have much reservation about your motive.”

Jim had never met her in real life, but in the dream he knew her. His dream self smiled and said, “You’re welcome to judge for yourself.”

This dream is actually based on my actual dream, but with many details changed to make narrative sense. For example, the first woman would be Carol Marcus in my dream. While my dream didn't need to give any rationale why she was involved, readers would be confused by her presence, so I changed her to Spock's mother, Amanda Grayson (hinted by the physical description).

The timeline of the fic isn't very specific, but the way Jim dreamed about Amanda without seeing her before foreshadowed the ending.

Spock was holding Jim in his heart, singing something soothing Jim had never heard of. Jim felt so warm, so safe, and so relaxed that he slept. The sound of a spaceship woke him from his sleep. Spock was taking him to Vulcan to save him, but the Federation’s war with Romulus forced them to take a dangerous shortcut.

This actually comes from my dream. Why does my subconscious think of role reversal of Search of Spock? No idea.

“Best two out of three, and let the best guy win,” Jim said as they both settled into a wrestling stance.

“Never!” Jim said while laughing, arching up to get his hands between their chests.

I put in the wrestling session to let them get physical and ante up my romance plot.

Pinned to the ground, with the winner’s hand around the loser’s neck. The skin underneath his hand was so delicate that the flowing blood underneath sounded as clear as a shout.

Obligatory Amok Times reference when the dream sequence gets more erotic.

I am here, [Jim] thought. With no mouth to speak, he stretched out his watery fingers trying to touch his friend, only for him to shy away.

The wind whispered to him, “Your friend will stay forever as a tree. You will nourish him so he will always stand, but you can never touch him until his barks break and bleed into you.”

I want to something surreal and haunting that befits a dream. I hope I succeed.

“We still cannot find our Eden.”

“We’re not born for one, or at least I am not,” Jim replied. Sensing his companion’s pain, he continued. “I wish I could build you one.”

Kirk isn't built for paradise, as he repeatedly stated during the series, but I think Spock wouldn't be so adverse to the idea of a place of total acceptance.


I love when characters realize their feeling for another in a quiet time, characters trying to find out whether their crush are into them and lose heart because how normal they behave - unaware that it's because their crush already love them back, and near death confession that characters to survive, so the fic have all of them. It's one of the rare fic that I manage to get Kirk confess first.

He took another breath. “I cherish you and I wish to live with you and love you as always. I don’t say it to pressure your or make you feel guilty for not feeling the same, but I think you deserve to know that you’re worthy of every love the universe can offer, and I hope you can find someone to create and share a paradise forever.”

And I am proud of these lines. Spock is straight forward and pragmatic when needed:

“Captain, you have operated under a faulty presumption, and I apologize for my role in your undue dismay.”

“What faulty presumption?” Jim parroted Spock’s words in shock.

“You presume that your feeling is unwelcome and one sided. However, it is not true.”

And of course this has to end with a dream that echoes the previous ones:

“Is it the end?” Jim asked.

“No, it is only the beginning,” Spock replied, holding him in his arms.

The abyss the lightning stuck open was filled with water. Soon it would become another oasis.

So this ends my rambling and I hope you find this entertaining.