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Author	Topic: The Lion Sleeps Tonight (JA): New post by HaiGan
DarthIshtar Title: Former CR Registered: Mar '01	Date Posted: 11/4/03 2:52pm Subject: RE: The Lion Sleeps Tonight (JA): The last-ish post...sort of
	Upping so someone else can get addicted to it. -----signature----- "I feel like a more down-to-earth Pink 5 when I'm writing Leah. Same attitude, less lip gloss." ~Me on how to get in the right mindset for Twilight fanfic.
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imzadi Registered: Sep '00	Date Posted: 11/14/03 11:26pm Subject: RE: The Lion Sleeps Tonight (JA): The last-ish post...sort of
	How many months later and I'm still thinking up ideas for this story? Ah, memories. Are we still doing an epilogue? -----signature----- "Another happy landing." "I have failed you, Anakin, I have failed you." ~ Obi-Wan
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HaiGan Registered: Nov '00	Date Posted: 2/25/04 4:31pm Subject: RE: The Lion Sleeps Tonight (JA): The last-ish post...sort of
	Punt To the top, because I've still got a loose end to tie up, and I really must get around to doing something about it! -----signature----- "You Can Run But You Can't Hide" A tale of friendship, healing, and Corellian fast food http://boards.theforce.net/message.asp?topic=17272301
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Jemmiah Registered: Mar '00	Date Posted: 3/11/04 11:19am Subject: RE: The Lion Sleeps Tonight (JA): The last-ish post...sort of
	I'll be joining you on the epilogue, HaiGan. Just have to finish Swings and Roundabouts first, though! -----signature----- The new improved Hell's Chance Cantina! Home for many assorted JA fanfic stories!: http://www.hellschancecantina.com/index.html Open to all: have a go at Star Wars Caption Contest no.7: http://www.hellschancecantina.com/Caption_comp.html
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HaiGan Registered: Nov '00	Date Posted: 3/28/04 8:01am Subject: RE: The Lion Sleeps Tonight (JA): The last-ish post...sort of - Date Edited: 11/23/04 2:31am (3 edits total) Edited By: HaiGan
	Right. It's about time I tidied a few of the loose ends I'm responsible for, so here's the first of some tidying-up posts...: ****** The Temple was disconcertingly normal. Yes, the Infirmary was busy, but no more so than on any other busy day. The Council members were, perhaps, a little more in evidence than was their habit, but if their manner was grave then that was not unusual. The Jedi who had been aboard the ill-fated Kaligari, and their rescuers, could be found here and there- some pale and tired, some sad, some weary but relieved, some stoic and silent- but by and large they had taken themselves away to private rooms, out of sight. Deaths were mourned, but this, also, was part of the daily flow of Jedi existence. A few strange faces passed through, and then were gone. Two familiar faces- one notorious- departed, but with little fuss. For those who remained, life went on. "Home again!" Thom commented cheerily as he gratefully flopped into a chair. "Home?" Barin glanced around their small apartment in a distracted manner, then sighed. "Well." "Well what?" Thom's mood sobered, and he turned a concerned eye on his Master. Barin had not been quiet, the past few days and hours. He had been organising, arranging, re-arranging, reassuring, mediating, giving and taking orders, and generally keeping himself too busy to sit down- let alone sleep. With nothing now left to do for those involved with the Kaligari, Barin seemed to drift aimlessly. He moved towards the window, looking out over the gathering clouds and the slow awakening of lights along the darkening streets of Coruscant. "The mission is over," he stated. "That's not it. Is it?" Thom told him, and it was only nominally a question. "You are free to see Nya now." Barin's tone was light. "Change the subject, why don't you?" Thom folded his arms and glared at his Master's back. "C'mon. What's up?" Then his voice softened. "That friend of yours..." he hesitated. "On Urior." Barin leaned his forehead against the cool glass. "S'okay to feel sad, y'know," said Thom. Barin gave a soft snort of humorless laughter. Thom sat back in his chair, arms still folded, watching the knight. The padawan frowned slightly as he thought. Finally, he stretched out a hand and locked the door and the window, with a little help from the Force. Barin whipped round, his expression both cold and defensive. Thom ignored the warning inherent in the knight's change of demeanor. "You gotta tell someone. You can't keep hiding stuff away in there forever. Go talk to Master An. Or Master Hauyne. Or me," he added, failing to prevent a whisper of disappointment from creeping into his voice. After the confidences they had shared, it would be nice to think that his Master would be willing to open up without needing surgical assistance. Barin whirled again. For a fraction of a second Thom thought the knight was going to punch the window, but instead his Master stilled and stared at the wall. "Fine," the knight said. "Sara died. She came back afterward. She told me... she told me to say sorry." Thom physically bit his tongue to stop himself from interrupting with a remark. Speaking at that point would surely have stopped his Master from continuing. "She said that if I wanted to make amends, I should make them to... Juli." Barin almost stuttered the name. "Uh... Juli?" Thom thought for a second, then recalled something Master Jinn had told him. It hadn't been the most pleasant way to find out about his Master's dark past. Not that there could be a nice way to find out that your own Master had actually raped another Padawan, but it would have been better to know the whole story. Although, Thom reminded himself, Master Jinn hadn't known the full story himself. He wondered, briefly, if anyone knew Kryztan's full story. Barin had been driven to his actions by his own Master- Barin himself might not be convinced about it but Thom was sure, and he knew the Council agreed or they would never have allowed the knight back into the Order. Had someone driven Kryztan into doing what he had? Would he be allowed back again, someday? And if someone or something had driven Kryztan towards the Dark Side... who or what was it? And who else might it still have within its reach? Every time someone submitted to the influence of the Dark Side, he became a little more susceptible to its call. If there was something within the Temple, working away a little at a time... Thom pulled his thoughts back to the present. "Oh. Juli. Right. That's tough. D'you know where to find her?" Barin's attention had seemingly fixed itself on his reflection in the window. "Yes. I know her street. I know her building. I know her room number. I know her routine. I could even list the places she has been, when she went, who was with her, what ships she traveled on. I know where she goes to eat, what her favorite foods are, when she's dieting, when she's eating for comfort. I know where she goes to cry." It was one of the rare moments when Thom was actually frightened by his Master. The knight spoke with no audible emotion at all, except for a strange, detached intensity. Thom was getting nothing through their bond. Barin had closed it off completely, locked himself away from his Padawan's mental senses. Thom would have made some sound- an exclamation, perhaps, a noise that echoed the sudden chill he felt- but his throat had frozen. Barin spoke again, softly this time. "I wanted to be sure that she never had to see me again." The eyes reflected in the window were bleak now, lost in the depths of self-condemnation. Thom managed a cough, revising whatever terrible conclusions his mind had been trying to draw moments before. "But... you're gonna try?" Barin did not even try to paraphrase Yoda's often-repeated mantra on trying. "How can I do anything, or say anything, that will ever make up for what I did? Anything I attempt can only be an insult." "Isn't that her decision? Not yours?" Thom cocked his head. "And if not... where does that put Kryztan?" The padawan was rather relieved to see his master's expression flicker towards puzzlement. It was certainly better than anything else he'd seen since they entered the apartment. He waited. The knight was intelligent enough to work out Thom's line of thinking for himself. The parallels were obvious. "I suspect Kryztan would not get anything but a hostile reception if he were to march right up to Jemmiah unannounced, even to apologise," Barin eventually said. Thom rolled his eyes. "So? You can use the comm. Stop making excuses." He jumped to his feet. "If it was anybody but you in your place, you'd be telling them to get on with it." A stranger might read irritation in the padawan's voice. Someone who knew him well would know it for frustrated concern, born of the knowledge that the only way to extract the knight from the fit of depression he was currently throwing himself into was to give him a hefty shove- and that the same shove could equally easily send him in deeper still. "You're Mister Do-The-Right-Thing. If anyone else had done what you did, and asked you for advice, you'd be the first to suggest that they gave an apology. Regardless of whether the injured party accepted it. So it's no good telling me that any apology would be adding insult to injury, 'cause all your doing is running away from things again. 'Cause being worthless is easier than trying to be something worthwhile. Well, hey, you made a promise, remember? To be a Jedi, first and forever. So go and keep it." Thom held his breath, waiting for the reaction. Barin turned slowly from the window, with a sheepish half smile, and a sigh, and a lift of his chin, although he did not meet his Padawan's gaze. "You are, as usual, right," he said. "And you are too wrapped up in yourself," Thom replied. "Did you say sorry to Sara?" "Yes, Barin admitted. "And what did she say?" Thom prodded. Barin's eyes flickered, but still did not meet Thom's own. "She said..." he shook his head. "She did not give her opinion of what I did to Juli. She said she did not blame me for what happened to Xanatos. Oh, and that whatever I'd done, I wasn't responsible for every scraped knee in the universe." "She's right," Thom said bluntly. "And you oughtta listen. Not to sound unsympathetic or anything, but this martyr complex, or whatever it is, is getting old. It's stopping you from thinking straight." That finally gained Barin's full attention. He stared at Thom for several seconds, his eyes widened slightly. Finally he nodded. "Yes. I should not be a Jedi, you know. The Council should never have allowed me to take the Trials." He lifted a hand to forestall Thom's protest. "Look at it as you would have me look at things. As a Jedi. A Jedi should be able to make decisions that are unaffected by their own personal circumstances and emotions. A Jedi should be able to act rationally whenever circumstances demand it. At the moment I cannot make that claim of myself. Not just the matter regarding Juli. Look how I acted when Sarge was hurt! What sort of a Jedi coerces a more senior and experienced Jedi into helping, without regard for the Master's own opinion?" "So you weren't exactly at your best-" "Even then, a Jedi should still act as a Jedi!" "No Jedi's perfect, Master. And you've been..." Thom amended himself in mid sentence. "...we've both been getting better. A bit at a time." "But I shall never be entirely better," Barin said, quietly. "There is always the darkness, waiting to find a weak spot... and old wounds are a weakness, and some wounds never entirely heal. If it might do anything to help Juli, however, then I will offer her an apology." Thom nodded as his Master's words reflected his own earlier thoughts. He put out a tentative hand towards Barin's shoulder. Physical contact with the knight was still not always welcome: another of those old wounds, wounds that marked the soul. "Not drowning any more, Master?" Barin placed his own hand on Thom's shoulder in return. "Treading water," he said. Thom gave him a long, searching look. "Make sure they give you some time before the next mission. Now comm Juli." Barin nodded, took a breath, and crossed to the holoterminal. It took only moments to tap in the required code. Thom watched him for a while, then slipped away to the small kitchen area and made a couple of hot drinks. It was a short message. It did not take long to write, although somewhat longer than the word count might have suggested. Barin turned away from the comms terminal and accepted a drink from his Padawan, expecting a long wait. He had barely taken a sip, however, when the chime of the terminal indicated a reply. The reply was a request for a visual link. It was not signed. Barin had no real expectations of what would happen, but he had a few regarding what would not. Given the speed of the response, he would have anticipated a direct "no", not a visual. The only other option he might have suggested would have been an assault on his life or, more likely, his manhood. He had not expected a face to face confrontation at range. He could easily have spent the next several hours debating with himself on the whys and wherefores, but ultimately the decision came down to taking the call or not, and no amount of thinking about it was going to change that. He took the call. It was not Juli who answered. It was a young female Jedi knight, a Mon Calamari. Her large, dark eyes glinted a smile when she saw who had responded. "Master Truthfinder!" "I am not a Master, merely a knight," Barin corrected her, nonplussed and hiding it beneath formality. Juli Andkris had left the Jedi Order without taking her Trials, and had mostly shunned contact with those connected to her former life. Barin could not blame her for that, although he could certainly accuse himself of being the reason she never achieved Knighthood. There was only one Jedi he would have expected to find in her home now, and this was not that man.. "Knight Truthfinder then, I'm sorry. I went to your lectures on undercover investigation work," the Calamari continued, enthusiasm brightening her expression. "I'm glad you called." "I was hoping to speak to Juli," Barin told her, managing not to fumble his words. "I do hope I have the right contact number?" The young Mon Calamari was instantly serious, and Barin revised his estimation of her age upwards a little. "Oh yes, Knight Truthfinder, but I'm afraid you won't be able to speak to her. What was it about? Your message wasn't very informative, although I assume it would have been obvious to Miss Andkris." "It's a private matter." Barin spoke with finality. The Calamari tilted her head. "You're a friend, then?" "We were Padawans together," Barin admitted. "Oh?" The Calamari nodded. "I thought it might be useful if I could talk to you, and now I'm sure of it. Could you possibly manage to come over, please? I'm presuming you know where it is. It shouldn't take too long, even by public aircar. If it's not too inconvenient, of course." "What has happened?" Barin demanded, certain by now that something had happened. "It's better if we discuss that when you come over, Knight Truthfinder." The Mon Calamari wasn't unfriendly, but she was very plain about it. Barin frowned. "Knight Anbar, isn't it? I remember you from the lectures." Anbar smiled again, looking pleased. Barin's frown faded. "Your comments on Mon Calamari sense of smell were very informative." "Thank you," Anbar said. "I suppose it was so obvious that the sensory organs of an aquatic species would be more effective underwater that most people would miss the fact. I do wish mine worked better on land, though. I even took a perfume makeover course and a wine tasting course, after your comments on the importance of smell. I mentioned your name when I requested permission- I hope you don't mind." "I doubt it will have any significant effect on my reputation," Barin replied, dryly. He glanced sideways towards the couch. Thom was sipping his drink and had a datapad switched on in his lap, contriving to position himself in a manner where he could both hear the conversation and could reasonably pretend not to have heard it if that would be a better option. "Is there any reason why my Padawan should not accompany me?" Barin asked the Mon calamari knight. Anbar paused for thought. "He has been with you for some time?" she asked. "Several years," Barin informed her. "He has accompanied me on a... variety of missions now." Anbar nodded. "Then I see no reason for him not to come, unless you know of one yourself." "I will keep no secrets from him," Barin said, with a tiny, sad little smile for Thom before he turned back to the holoterminal screen. "Not deliberately, anyway. Not in the end. We shall be with you shortly." -----signature----- "You Can Run But You Can't Hide" A tale of friendship, healing, and Corellian fast food http://boards.theforce.net/message.asp?topic=17272301
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Jemmiah Registered: Mar '00	Date Posted: 3/31/04 12:53pm Subject: RE: The Lion Sleeps Tonight (JA): The last-ish post...sort of
	I love the easy relationship Barin and Thom seem to have, and it seems as if the shock disclosure regarding Juli made in the snapshots has had a really positive outcome for the pair of them. But going to see her??? That's a BIG step to take, Barin! What has Thom talked you into? And what will the result be? I'm eager to find out! -----signature----- The new improved Hell's Chance Cantina! Home for many assorted JA fanfic stories!: http://www.hellschancecantina.com/index.html Open to all: have a go at Star Wars Caption Contest no.7: http://www.hellschancecantina.com/Caption_comp.html
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Miana Kenobi Title: Pacific Region RSA NSWFF Manager Registered: Apr '00	Date Posted: 3/31/04 6:19pm Subject: RE: The Lion Sleeps Tonight (JA): New post by HaiGan
	Dies of shock A POST?? NEVER!! Beautifully written, HaiGan!! I cannot wait to see this long-awaited meeting! -----signature----- You can't take the sky from me. He tini nga whetu e ngaro I te kapua iti. Dyslexics of the world, UNTIE!
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Healer_Leona Registered: Jul '00	Date Posted: 4/2/04 11:05am Subject: RE: The Lion Sleeps Tonight (JA): New post by HaiGan
	Needless to say I was surprised to see more here.. and ashamed that I haven't finished up as well.... "She said that if I wanted to make amends, I should make them to... Juli." -- oh my.. that's left the biggest lump in my throat. A couple paragraphs later I'm in tears. This all sounds very strange and very worriesome for Juli. Superb post. -----signature----- I'm older now and still running against the wind
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Jane Jinn Registered: Jan '00	Date Posted: 4/7/04 9:48am Subject: RE: The Lion Sleeps Tonight (JA): New post by HaiGan
	Barin's last name is Truthfinder, but Thom's should be Truthteller, in my opinion. In his eager puppy-dog-like way, he always manages to articulate the most profound and true things. 'Cause being worthless is easier than trying to be something worthwhile. Trying to be something worthwhile is definitely work, and you have to keep at it, every day. I like the way he knows there's a risk in giving Barin such a shove, but manages to do it the right way anyway. I liked Barin's reaction to discovering that Thom had locked the doors. It was almost like a flashback to worse times, wasn't it? Another fantastic post, HaiGan! Don't I remember that snapshot that Kit' wrote, where Juli ... ah ... took a fatal dive? It sounds like there's an investigation going on at the apartment right now; this Knight Anbar comes across as a budding detective. She took classes from Barin? Wanted to talk to him anyway? Hmm. As usual, I'm looking forward to more! -----signature----- Mostly retired now Just making the occasional guest appearance
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Healer_Leona Registered: Jul '00	Date Posted: 8/24/04 1:30pm Subject: RE: The Lion Sleeps Tonight (JA): New post by HaiGan
	Had to look for something here and lost myself in this wonderful thread again. Forgot HaiGan ahd somehting going... though I'm not one to talk with the couple of loose ends I need to finish up. This is still the most amazing thread out there. -----signature----- I'm older now and still running against the wind
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Lilith Demodae Registered: Oct '99	Date Posted: 8/25/04 9:12am Subject: RE: The Lion Sleeps Tonight (JA): New post by HaiGan
	So where's the rest? HaiGan, you really shouldn't keep doing this to us! Such wonderful writing and such gnawing curiosity.... -----signature----- This post is brought to you by: Vetinari / Vimes '08 Scorpion pits and Justice for all Once a Talon, Always a Talon!
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VadersMistress Registered: Apr '04	Date Posted: 10/30/04 12:32pm Subject: RE: The Lion Sleeps Tonight (JA): New post by HaiGan
	Wow. This is a GREAT story. I loved it!! Great job Master, and of course HaiGan. Such fabulous work from the both of you. -----signature----- And what it all comes down to is that I haven't got it figured out just yet. Would I rather be feared or loved? Um... Easy, both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me. Persia pwns your face.
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mouse2 Registered: Oct '99	Date Posted: 11/2/04 10:47am Subject: RE: The Lion Sleeps Tonight (JA): New post by HaiGan
	I had almost forgotten how much I enjoyed this. Minus the trips to the looney bin. I love Barin and Thom's relationship. Only Thom could get away with getting Barin to go see Juli. I don't think anyone else would have the nerve to bring up the subject. I'm really thinking this needs that epilogue. Too many loose ends flying about. I'm certainly game. Just looking for the time and bunnies! -----signature----- Want to know what ANTAR and TLST are? Visit Hell's Chance! http://www.hellschancecantina.com Proud Master to Lola64! I've gone into lurking mode... If you need me feel free to PM me...
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Jemmiah Registered: Mar '00	Date Posted: 3/19/05 3:26am Subject: RE: The Lion Sleeps Tonight (JA): New post by HaiGan
	Kicking this up in the vain hope I might be inspired to work on the epilogue. -----signature----- The new improved Hell's Chance Cantina! Home for many assorted JA fanfic stories!: http://www.hellschancecantina.com/index.html Open to all: have a go at Star Wars Caption Contest no.7: http://www.hellschancecantina.com/Caption_comp.html
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DarthIshtar Title: Former CR Registered: Mar '01	Date Posted: 7/25/05 4:36pm Subject: RE: The Lion Sleeps Tonight (JA): New post by HaiGan
	Oh, for the love of pete. I started this out with noble intentions to get more characterization ideas, then half-was tempted to abandon it around the middle of Urior, then decided to plow through and now after about 6 weeks of rereading, I finished it again! It still made me cry, still made me stupid... -----signature----- "I feel like a more down-to-earth Pink 5 when I'm writing Leah. Same attitude, less lip gloss." ~Me on how to get in the right mindset for Twilight fanfic.
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