DPP: In the beginning...

[workerbee73.livejournal.com]

Good morning, Shipper Nation.  Welcome to day two of my reign of terror the land of rainbows and kittens.  I have one question for you:


How did those crazy kids meet?

Disregard the lame-ass flashbacks in Daybreak for a moment.  I know that EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU has their own version in their head of how Kara and Lee met.  So guess what, peeps?  I want to hear it.
 
Was it funny? Angsty? Silly? Did sparks fly? Was it the traditional rom-com meetcute or a full-out confrontational exchange? Did the earth move and angles weep?  Did they know each other as kids?  Meet at the Academy?  Attend band camp together?


Whatever it is, I need to know, so spill, m'kay?  *g*

NOTE:  For purposes of this discussion, I'm asking you to forget about the DB flashbacks and go back and remember what your theory was before we were bombarded with all that.  (Not just because of the controversial table scene but because the meeting and subsequent early interactions of K/L deserve their OWN FRAKKING MINISERIES-- NOT FIVE MINUTES IN A HASTILY-WRITTEN FINALE.) 

Comments

[thrace-adama.livejournal.com]

The way they are in Claira's "Stupid Thing Last Night" and "Artemis Rising" and in Brynnmck's "Detour" is probably my favorite take on their early relationship. I love the idea that they were BFFs in and out of denial of all the UST everyone else saw between them.

But in terms of what I thought was closest to canon (at least before the finale), the way they met in "Decline and Fall" (after Kara and Zak had been dating for a while already) rang truest to me.

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

Interesting q. I'm not one who has one version of personal canon and sticks to it. I like to imagine all different sorts of meetings for them (and then write fic about it!) My various first meets:
--Kara almost got into the shower with Lee thinking he was Zak
--Kara and Zak had just started dating and she invited Lee to dance with her at a club and he said no (my first fic! spawned from that line in UB when she says he's been making the same mistake since he met me)
--They met in the simulators at the Academy where Kara blew him up multiple times
--Soon they will meet on the ice!

[workerbee73.livejournal.com]

Remind me of how they met in Decline and Fall....

[workerbee73.livejournal.com]

OMG, I LOVE the shower meetup-- did you ever write that? **silly brain can't remember**

I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL THEY MEET ON THE ICE!!!

[thrace-adama.livejournal.com]

I'm not one who has one version of personal canon and sticks to it. I like to imagine all different sorts of meetings for them...

Yeah, I love reading all the different versions too.

Soon they will meet on the ice!

Yay! Looking forward to that like whoa.

[thrace-adama.livejournal.com]

Yeah, she wrote that. I do believe that's "Laundry Day."

[cynicalshadows.livejournal.com]

In my head they met at the Academy and were rivals who became friends.

[workerbee73.livejournal.com]

Were they the same year? Different year? How did they become friends?

[workerbee73.livejournal.com]

Excellent. It's sad, my mind is going.

But at least the fic remains. ; P

[cynicalshadows.livejournal.com]

I see them being in different years but they got to know one another because Kara kept breaking Lee's records on the sims. They get pitted against one another in Academy-wide contests and are snarky with one another until they realize that the "rivalry" just pushes them both to be better and that they actually look forward to bantering with each other.

[workerbee73.livejournal.com]

I think what I love most of all (and what I adored prior to the DB flashbacks....


... is the fact that their past was unknown. There were all these amazing things you could fill in. Almost any scenario and any genre and any setting would work-- as long as you got the characters right.

There was such freedom and possibility in their beginning, and I really loved that.

[thrace-adama.livejournal.com]

Oh, Kara picks Lee up at the spaceport. Nothing too dramatic, but of course we all know how the story progresses and ends...

[workerbee73.livejournal.com]

That would make sense b/c I think Lee is supposed to be a few years older anyway, right?

It's great to think of them initally being adversarial. It's a natural fit and, by golly-- they do it so well. *g*

[thrace-adama.livejournal.com]

Yes, this.

[workerbee73.livejournal.com]

So, you're thinking they met in the Zak context?

[cosetteferaud.livejournal.com]

I like very much Daphnaea's take in her fabulous "Simulations". They met while Kara was dating Zak, immediately connected and became friends --not BBF a la Kara/Helo, though. And of course, there always was between them that tension/attraction they both knew existed but couldn't allow themselves to openly acknowledge.

Also, as Heather was saying, given the canon, "Decline and Fall" rings so very true :)

[stripes13.livejournal.com]

I love all of your different meeting fics!

ICE SKATING PILOTS!!!!!!!!! TOE PICK!!!!!!! : D

[cosetteferaud.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think that's why pre-mini fics are my favorite. So many possibilities and scenarios (and all of them believable --at least until the finale).

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

Yup. Laundry Day (http://taragel.livejournal.com/17325.html#cutid1). She doesn't actually get into the shower, just stands around teasing his naked self. Heh.

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to think of which fic first meeting I like the best. It's too hard to choose. I love all the academy fics which are all kind of variations on each other, you know?

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

I was rereading Simulations yesterday and trying to figure out why it's my favorite fic, when it's hardly the longest or most elaborate pre-mini fic (and I like all the pre-mini fics an awful lot). It really comes down to the scene where she tells him about her mom and they are sitting against the couch and she says "Don't tell Zak. I don't want him to pity me." and he says "I don't pity you." and she says "You're not him." and puts her head on his shoulder and he is quiet for a minute and then says "I know" and THERE IS STEALTHSNUGGLING!! Sniff.

OH! And also the whole Cadet Thrace/Cadet Adama What if? game! Love that!

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

Hee. Good memory!

[amidala-thrace.livejournal.com]

In my own mind, K/L met through Zak, and I thought this long before Daybreak was even a twinkle in RDM's eye. No Academy hijinks or "we knew each other before" - I do occasionally read and enjoy Academy fic, but it's not my personal canon. Don't know why, it just never has been. *shrug*

Kara and Lee were friends first, and there might have been a bit of the love-at-first-sight thing on his part, but he repressed that - our Lee is good at repression! - out of loyalty to Zak. Kara, for her part, found him attractive and probably had a few passing thoughts about what might have happened if she'd met Lee first, but again, her allegiance was first and foremost to her boyfriend/fiancé. (I waffle on whether or not Zak and Kara were engaged when she first met Lee - I tend to fall more on the side of "yes", but I also change my mind a lot. Ask me again tomorrow. ;D) To me, Zak represented for Kara the first relationship in which she was able to truly be herself, and could experience happiness and contentment. She also would not have given that up easily - after all, she did pass him for Basic Flight when he ought to have failed - not for a random one-night stand, and certainly not for Zak's own older brother, whom she probably saw as a bit of a stick-in-the-mud anyway. ;) And yes, I know my interpretation likely runs completely counter to RDM's, but it's one I am most unwilling to concede. :P

[innibis.livejournal.com]

It feels like I'm the only shipper in town who actively dislikes most supposedly canon compliant pre-mini stories.

I don't have a personal canon in terms of specifics (they met on this day, at that time, in that situation) but I am very married to my pilots pre-mini emotional canon - as you well know, Ms Bee.:) I need the two of them to be in a very specific place for the brig scene in the mini to make any sense at all - for their relationship going forward to make any sense at all.

The big thing for me is that they both loved Zak a lot, Kara met Zak first, and Kara never cheated on him with Lee, even though they both were aware of the attraction between them. There is no way they could have physically betrayed Zak and then come out friends at the end of the world. It makes absolutely no sense in relation to who they are as characters.

[cosetteferaud.livejournal.com]

"Don't tell Zak. I don't want him to pity me." and he says "I don't pity you." and she says "You're not him." and puts her head on his shoulder and he is quiet for a minute and then says "I know" and THERE IS STEALTHSNUGGLING!! Sniff.

THAT SCENE! <3333 It's the most perfect moment of the fic! (and that's what subtlety and elegance look like when you have to handle a topic as thorny as FORBIDDEN LOVE with your almost-brother/sister, btw).

Love the Cadet Thrace/Cadet Adama thing, and how Zak gets all jealous...