Friday: Pre-Canon

[with-rainfall.livejournal.com]

Today's theme is anything that happens before canon. If your canon has one-off prequel eps or books, feel free to count them as pre-canon, but if it's a whole official series it counts as canon rather than pre-canon.

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The rules are as follows:
*No more than five prompts in a row.
*No more than three prompts in the same fandom.
*No spoilers in prompts.

If your fill contains spoilers, warn and leave plenty of space.

Go forth and write! Some examples to get you going:

Any, any, life in the mountains
Tortall, Sarra(+ or/Weiryn), beauty comes at a cost

Comments

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Fullmetal Alchemist, The Risembool Trio(+Any Risembool chara), Ed's rehabilitation

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Burn Notice, Sam+Fiona(/Michael), Sure, Mikey's new girlfriend was hot, but she was crazy, and that just meant bad news for everyone.

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Frasier, Martin+Niles+Eddie, Bringing Eddie home for the first time

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Leverage, Parker+Eliot+Hardison, they'd run into each other prior to Nate's first gathering.

No fill

[scribblemyname]

but question: before or after the Rashomon job?

[jalu2.livejournal.com]

Supernatural, Sam+/Dean, why didn't Sam and Dean speak during that final year at Stanford?

[marlex.livejournal.com]

NCIS, Abby, her first day at NCIS

[marlex.livejournal.com]

Criminal Minds, Penelope, her first case

[marlex.livejournal.com]

NCIS, Ducky + Gibbs, The first time Ducky met Gibbs, he could tell he was damaged. He just didn't know how badly.

[marlex.livejournal.com]

Harry Potter, Hermione, getting her Hogwarts letter

[marlex.livejournal.com]

The Walking Dead, any, for some the zombie apocalypse was an improvement

[vesca-viridian.livejournal.com]

Dragon Knights, Rath, Life before he became a dragon never quite meshed with after (or even without clear memories of it little Rath knows he's different)

[vesca-viridian.livejournal.com]

DNAngel, Satoshi, memories of his mother were more bitter than sweet, like drinking a cup of coffee and finding a drizzle of sugar at the bottom

[vesca-viridian.livejournal.com]

Magic Kaito, Kaito (+Aoko?), When his dad died he had to learn magic on his own (when her mom died it left a void ((sort of curious about parallels))

[tigriswolf]

Once Upon a Time, Jefferson, his origin story

[tigriswolf]

Once Upon a Time, Jefferson + Rumplestiltskin, how they met

[tigriswolf]

Once Upon a Time, Jefferson, he spent a decade as the best assassin of all the worlds

[tigriswolf]

Avengers movieverse, Bruce Banner, when the Other Guy spat out the bullet

tw: depression, suicidal thoughts, attempted suicide

[ereshai.livejournal.com]

It took a long time to get used to the gun. Every time Bruce held it in his hand, the unfamiliar weight of it - it wasn't that heavy, really, but its potential for violence weighed on his mind – caused a deep uneasiness that caught the Other Guy’s attention. He had never liked guns, and he found it ironic that he had to turn to something only useful for death and destruction in order to prevent even more of the same.

Even so, sometimes only the knowledge that he had a way out kept him going. When it got to be too much – sometimes he thought it was already too much – he could end…everything. But first he had to stop being scared of the damn gun. As long as the Other Guy was unaware, it would all be over before he knew what was happening.

Bruce started taking the gun out at odd times; whenever he had a moment alone, during his meals, if he woke up in the middle of the night. He’d tell himself it was no big deal, just another tool. He used tools that could hurt all the time – needles, scalpels, even some medicines – and the pain they caused led to things getting better. The gun was no different.
One night, as he lay in his sleeping bag, he held the gun on his chest and thought of Betty. That always helped him to fall asleep, and it seemed to keep the Other Guy calm, too. He picked up the gun, cocked it, and waited for the usual stirring of apprehension. Nothing. He uncocked the gun, and slept better than he had for a long time; his exit plan would work when he needed it.

He didn't carry the gun with him during the day; guns inspired fear and violence, and most of the locals knew he would willingly give them anything they would be tempted to steal. The two young men – boys, really – in front of them didn't know that, though, and he concentrated on remaining calm as one of them pointed a gun at him while the other searched his pockets. They already had his medical bag. He was tempted, for about a second, to fight back and let them shoot him, but he couldn't do that to them. They shouldn't have to live with his murder just because he had a death wish. There was no guarantee he would be killed anyway, and he didn't want the Other Guy to make an appearance for something as minor as theft. He could replace whatever they took, eventually.

The two boys ran away, and he made his way back to his rented hovel. Nobody really owned it, but he paid the nearest neighbors for its use, and he was left alone. During his small evening meal, he heard a scuffling noise outside his door, and he went to check it out. His medical bag was sitting on the ground, and there was no one in sight. He took it inside and checked it; almost everything was there, and nothing was broken. That was nice; probably the nicest thing that had happened to him in a long time.

He finished eating and read by lantern light for a while before preparing for bed. The gun was still in its hiding place; he always worried someone come in and find it while he was gone during the day. With its oddly comforting weight on his chest, he closed his eyes and thought of Betty. Almost unconsciously, he picked up the gun, put the barrel in his mouth, and squeezed the trigger.

The Other Guy roared to life, and Bruce’s last thought before he was pushed aside in his own body was I’ll never be free.

[tigriswolf]

Highlander, Methos, he’s been 5000 for a very long time

[scribblemyname]

Queen's Thief, Eddis + Eugenides, the first time the court came to her crying for his blood

Fill! ish

[canonisrelative.livejournal.com]

Maybe not exactly what you asked for but OMG SOMEONE ELSE HAS READ QT AND I CAN'T EVEN *flails* I had to write something.

--

"Gen," she called, her voice as normal as she could manage considering she couldn't see her own hand in front of her face. "Eugenides. I know you're in here, stop hiding."

The scrape and flare of a flint and tinder and a candle sputtered the dark temple into murky relief. Helen -- Eddis -- blinked twice and stepped forward, mindful of the uneven flagstones of the floor.

Her cousin was curled under the altar, lean and miserable in clothes two sizes too big. A soldier's tabard hanging loose over a thief's lanky frame. A shadow beneath his right eye that didn't shift with the flickering light.

"I can't give them back," he said. "They're on the altar already."

"I know. And," She settled herself onto a stone bench, pointedly not looking at him, "I don't care."

He snorted, loud and irreverent. "Of course you don't. I never thought you would."

She frowned up at the marble statue of Hespira. "Why, then?"

Eugenides unfolded himself, stretched into his long limbs and came to sit beside her.

"They came to you, about me, didn't they?"

She arched an eyebrow as she turned to look at him. He wasn't usually one for stupid questions, and she told him so.

He laughed. "What did you tell them?"

"What do you imagine I told them?"

His laugh this time was brighter, more his own. "That if they couldn't keep their valuables to themselves, it was no concern of yours?"

"And do you imagine that gems and baubles are the only things of value to be stolen?"

The thing about her cousin was that he never made the same face twice. Not unless it was an act, and she knew all of those intimately. The expression on his face, now, was wholly new to her. He heard her, he understood. His was the face of a boy pretending to be a man pretending to be a boy and relieved beyond measure that the cousin whose life and opinion he valued beyond earthly treasure was worthy of his estimation.

Because no, Eddis told him with a look, trinkets weren't her concern. Loyalty, opinion, steadfast trust. Those were the things she valued, the things that no one but a true Thief could steal. Could steal for her or from her. Thank the gods she didn't have to wonder which way her thief leaned.

With his tired head on her shoulder -- complaining all the while that her tough leather jerkin had been more comfortable than this scratchy cloth-of-gold and silver thread and pointily-bejeweled nonsense -- he told her what he'd heard.

"You see, there was this mortal man called Hamiathes..."

[scribblemyname]

Leverage, Parker, her first trip through a field of lasers

[scribblemyname]

The Secret Garden, Dickon, he heard about Mary's coming before she got there

[scribblemyname]

Roswell, Maria/Michael, Maria never bought the theory that a boy who was tormenting you liked you

[scribblemyname]

Andromeda, Harper, when Harper got his cerebral port and jacked in

[icarus-chained.livejournal.com]

Wild Wild West (TV), James +/ Artie, in the early days of their partnership, it took James a while to realise that damn near anyone could be his partner in disguise

[ivotedforsaxon.livejournal.com]

X-Men (movieverse), John/Bobby, how they met.