Before - Legends You Can Run But You Can't Hide (New little postie 01/07/05)

Thank you^^ I won't stop by long, just long enough to post a little bit...

Chapter 5
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Simeon held open the door of An-Paj's office, nudging Thom through to the inside with an encouraging push. Thom hesitated, and the closing door bumped him gently from behind.

"So what d'you wanta know?" the Initiate asked, and his voice sounded apprehensive to his own ears.

Barin's eyebrow twitched in a gesture that was now very familiar to the initiate. "That sounds as if you know something incriminating."

Thom gave a boneless shrug. "I guess. Maybe. I don't want- I mean- uh-"

"Think it through first, then say it," the knight suggested.

Thom's eyes darted restlessly about the floor. He took a breath as if to speak, then let it out, then took another. "You ever play Swoop Racer?" he asked.

Barin betrayed no surprise. "I have ridden a swoop," he said.

"Uh." Thom decided he should have known that the knight would have ridden the real thing, not played some game about it. "I guess maybe it's the same. You know how sometimes you hit an air current and it goes a bit off, and you turn too fast when you try to fix it and it goes too far the other way, and you try to stop that and it just gets worse and worse and you end up hitting a wall?"

"I have never done that on a swoop," the knight replied, "but I know the phenomenon."

Thom kept his attention on the floor. "I think that was me and Brick," he said. "Only it was Dan that hit the wall." Now he did lift his head, anxiously studying the knight's face. "Did you look at Dan?"

The knight gave a single nod.

Thom nerved himself to ask. "Was he pushed?"

"There is insufficient evidence to form a definite conclusion," the knight replied, and even his tone of voice gave nothing away.

Thom's brow crinkled. "And in Basic?" Then he shook his head. "Never mind. I got it."

Barin closed his eyes for a second, breathing slowly. He remained like that long enough for Thom to start wondering if the knight had just decided to start meditating right there in An-Paj's office. It was almost a surprise when he started speaking, quite softly, almost to himself.

"The object of the exercise is to find out how and why Dan-Lo came to be injured, then take any steps necessary to prevent it happening again. It can be difficult to speak up if it will put somebody under suspicion. It is even harder if it means incriminating yourself. But not speaking up could mean that somebody else is hurt."

Thom started picking at his nails. There was no point in not saying anything. Not now. "I- we- I had Amoeba's lightsaber, you see, and-" he paused, and thought it through, and then started again on the whole saga of Ambianca's lightsaber. He wished he knew what Barin was thinking as he told the story. There was nothing readable about his face at all, his expression quiet and introspective and impossible to decipher. At least it wasn't as cold as usual.

"You ever play Sabacc?" Thom asked suddenly, and was rewarded with a completely unexpected start of surprise, a flash of keen interest, then a flicker of regret.

"I have been known to," the Barin admitted, and he avoided the Initiate's gaze as he schooled himself back into neutrality.

Thom tried not to wriggle with frustration. He was almost certain that he'd managed to impress the knight with that question. "So now you know all that, whatcha gonna do?"

Barin took out a hand-sized datapad. Thom sidled over to squint at the screen, noting with surprise that there was already a neat listing of date, time, various names, and a description of injuries signed by Hauyne. "I shall make an examination of the scene. Are you able to come with me and provide additional information?"

Thom jiggled a foot in a mixture of worry and curiosity. "Uh-huh. This is proper detectoring? Dan will be okay, won't he? I'm gonna be in trouble, I guess, right?"

"This is standard police procedure," Barin replied crisply. "It is probably a touch excessive in the circumstances. Consider it as an ins

 

Woohooo! Fantastic as always. It's funny how actually pointing ut the conscequences to kids always has a much bigger impact then just punishing them....

Kithera

 

Sweet convo! I like Barin's reaction to sabaac. Hehe. Little cockroach.

 

I have to agree with Kit'! It's amazing how letting kids know that one little act can turn out to be something a lot bigger.

Fabulous post Hai Gan!

 

You are back with more- Hurray

 

Keep on writing.

 

I remember the flashback post quite well. I really loved that Barin struggled so with his memories and instinctive reactions. Thom is quite a character and the two are matched so wonderfully together. Lovely job.

 

Hi, Haigan

I really really love your fic. In fact, I love it so much that I'm going to hunt down the first posting of it, or anywhere else I can find YCRBUCH.

Um, I don't really know what to say. I felt so intrigued by Barin, right from the start, as the mysterious knight, and Thom's caught my heart too. I wonder if he'll still remember about Barin's birthday being interesting. I nearly forgot it while feeling sorry for Barin and his flashback.

So I can only say that this is really wonderful writing and now I'm going on a hunt because I can't wait.

btw, I liked Barin's POV in the second part, because there was so much of his thinking in it. What I mean is that I really liked how Barin discovered things by watching and analysing the Brick and Thom.

I don't know why, but the part where Thom impersonates the Jedi Masters actually had me laughing out loud. I'm glad that I read ANTAR before this, so that I know a bit more about Sal-Fina and Ambianca.

So I'll just repeat myself again and say that I absolutely love your fic.
I love all the angst in it, the way you describe the characters and events, but most of all the enigmatic Barin Truthfinder. I hope that Thom can persuade Barin to quit wearing heels.

~Velo

 

hm..... is An-Paj's prescription Thom I wonder.....

 

Another lovely chapter. I am in awe of how well Barin deals with youngsters with no youngsters of his own to have learned through.

KD

 

More?

 

Another fab posting HaiGan - I can't wait to read about the investigation into DanLo's "accident".

 

UP ALREADY!!!!!

 

*pouts*

 

c'mon! how many times must I up to actually get a post?!

*pouts again*

*starts luring the author out with cookies and brownies and stroop waffles*