You Can Run But You Can't Hide (A Barin Truthfinder and Thom Capella story)

Where do I get the one-liners from? Actually, I was rather wondering where you got your semingly effortless flow of plot bunnies from, Jemmiah!

I'm glad people are enjoying the little tale so far; I'm still feeling a little guilty about Thom's spoof of Dimallie's clumsiness, but we'll get to that one, just as we'll get around to Barin again.

 

When you have a day time job as dull as my own one the bunnies have no problem biting!

A massive UP! for this thread

 

Another post is on the way very soon, I promise!

 

Okay HaiGan, I'm going to hold you to that!

Than again, how soon is soon? ?

 

Hurry. I just love your characters and their very compelling stories.

 

Oh, that was great! I loved the way Master Jerina indicated Ambianca and said "The one who seems to have forgotten her light saber?" Oh, that was sly and oh so delightful! And the way she took Suffie as her Padawan anyway. Now I'm waiting to see what happens to Thom next, and how long it takes before he finds out the name of "his" knight. Those impressions were so funny, too, and the way Sal-Fina didn't recognise herself!

 

I've done this in one go and I haven't had time to run it through a spellchecker, but I said I'd post soon so I'll shove it up now because I think it says what I want it to. My appologies for any typos that have crept into it.

[Okay, so I lied. One edit. ]

******

It was two full days before Chersh and Dan-Lo got to talk to Thom again. Master Fel hadn't even allowed him to visit the refectory to eat, putting him on a diet of water and ration-bars as part of his punishment. The instructors taking the initiates for classes had been told that he was in disgrace and was not allowed to speak with any of his classmates. His two friends spent most of their free time sitting on the roof of the small storage-shed at the edge of the Temple's vehicle park, playing sabbacc and rather sadly watching Thom's progress as he swept the expanse of permacrete with a hand-brush.

Their vigil was small comfort for Thom. His knees were sore, his back ached, and he completely failed to see any point whatsoever in the task he had been set. What was it supposed to teach him anyway? All it did was to encourage him to think about other things to alleviate the boredom. Other things like how he was going to put Bruck in his place, and how he was going to return Ambianca's lightsaber without letting her know who had taken it. He sat back on his heels to take the kinks out of his spine, and as he did so an idea finally presented itself, one so obvious that he wondered why he hadn't come up with it far sooner. A smile crept onto his face, and as he went back to sweeping he began whistling a jaunty little tune.

Chersh and Dan-Lo exchanged hopeful glances.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" asked Dan-Lo.

"Dan," Chersh announced, "I'm thinkin' we're gonna be back in business." He raised a hand high, and Dan-Lo gleefully slapped his palm.

Thom lifted his head just enough to grin at his friends from beneath his short dreadlocks. He went back to whistling. Before long he found himself being accompanied, and accompanied loudly and tunelessly at that. A quick glance was enough to show him that the other duetist was in fact a small shuttlecraft manoeuvring in to land and he hastily scuttled out of the way behind a parked aircar, where he dutifully went back to sweeping. There was no telling when Master Fel mightn't decide to check up on him and Chersh and Dan-Lo were not the best of lookouts when they were playing cards.

The shuttle settled to the ground, and Thom had reached the nose of the aircar when he spotted a pair of blue-skinned, sandalled feet walking past towards the landing vehicle. It was not uncommon for the Healer An-Paj to be on the scene to meet arriving transports, but usually the situation also involved stretchers and emergency medical equipment. Curious as ever, Thom crawled behind the aircar to get closer to the shuttle and peek at what was going on.

The ramp hissed down and a single passenger disembarked. Thom pressed closer to the side of the aircar, carefully masking his Force presence, trying not to lift his shields so fast that the action would in itself draw attention. It was easy enough to fool a couple of padawans, but he was pretty sure that fooling either An-Paj or the shuttle passenger would be a different matter entirely.

For one thing, the passenger had already spotted an impending Thom-style, syrup-flavoured surprise, and had turned the tables entirely.

"Healer An-Paj!" the blond-haired knight called out as he stepped off the ramp. "The Temple is not on fire, the shuttle has not crashed, I am in one piece, but you have nevertheless chosen to visit the landing bay." He gave a frown that was both suspicious and good-natured. "What do you know that I do not?"

"I've learned to expect the worse whenever you get back early from a mission," An-Paj replied as he dropped into step beside the knight, heading slowly back towards the main Temple building. "We've even discussed naming the new burns unit after you."

Thom crawled back along the length of the aircar as the two passed by, lying along

 

Wow! Wonderful post. You always have such a great flow to your posts. Great characterisation too.

Barin and Thom are obviously made for each other!

 

Wow! Great post Hai Gan! Thom's reaction when he heard his name was excellent! Please post more as soon as you can!

 

I like Barin more with each post he appears in! And Thom has his name!

 

Ditto here. Thom and Barin have firmly established themselves in my Favorite Fanfic Characters list.

 

That post had me grinning all over, from the way Thom was wondering what in the Force he was supposed to learn from sweeping, except how to alleviate the boredom, to the appearance of An-Paj, the banter between the healer and the knight, the mention of Kenobi ward, the revelation of Barin's name, and the way An-Paj offered to give him a check up before he had to go get grilled by the Council. Wonderful! Every line, every word!

 

I have to agree with everyone before me! Loving Thom and Barin more with each post!

 

Well, it's not as long as I'd like but the next part isn't quite finished yet; so here you go with what I've got.

******

Thom, Dan-Lo and Chersh sprawled over Chersh's bed, munching on neon-green jelly worms and comparing the colour of their tongues after each one. Tinny-sounding music was thumping away on a battered little datapad resting on the pillow. Bottles of something fizzy, sweet and probably nutritionally inconsequential were precariously propped beside them, threatening to spill at any moment.

"Nah. Still pink," said Thom, peering into Chersh's mouth. "Your teeth are a bit green, though."

"Try underneath again," said Dan-Lo.

At this rather curious suggestion the three raised the spare bedcovering that was heaped between them, and ducked their heads underneath.

"Cool!"

There was the sound of somebody blowing a raspberry.

"Please Mother Yyr!" giggled Dan-Lo, "Thom's flashing his tongue at me!"

"Rex Victory eatcha heart out. I've gotta smile that'll light up Coruscant!"

They emerged again, their hair even more disordered than usual after the spell beneath the covers. Dan-Lo also brought out a silver-and-blue metallic cylinder.

"Whatcha got there, Dan?" Chersh asked, poking it with a sticky finger.

"Let me guess," said Dan-Lo, flipping it around and around with one hand. "Amoeba's missing lightsaber, right Thom?"

"Uh-huh."

"Well?" demanded Chersh. "You gonna give it back?"

"Not exactly," replied Thom, grinning.

"Tell, tell!" Dan-Lo ordered, shuffling forwards on the bed.

The three heads bent together, and Thom's voice dropped to a dramatic whisper. "I don't see why we should squish Brick ourselves?" he reached over, took the lightsaber, and held it lengthways between his palms. "?when we can get someone else to do it for us."

The other two looked nonplussed for a second then simultaneously started laughing.

"You're gonna plant the thing on him?" Chersh schooled his face into a dubious frown. "I dunno, Thom," he said, slowly shaking his head. "Kinda impersonal, ain't it?"

The other two lunged. Thom caught Chersh under the shoulders, and Dan-Lo grabbed his legs. They staggered off the bed onto the floor amid falling drink-bottles, with Chersh wriggling and giggling between them.

"The window?" asked Thom breathlessly as they shuffled across the floor.

"How about the showers?" returned Dan-Lo, grabbing an escaping foot.

"Better stop struggling, Chersh, we're right over the laundry-chute," said Thom.

"My hands are slipping!" gasped Dan-Lo.

"Hang on, Dan, he's too heavy for just me!" Thom warned urgently, his eyes wide.

"NOOO!" Chersh grabbed at Thom as he felt himself falling, only to land safely on Dan-Lo's bed.

The others collapsed in helpless giggles as Chersh struggled into a sitting position. "Gotcha!" they said together.

Chersh said something unrepeatable, then joined in the laughter. "Okay, so how ya gonna make it work?"

Thom sobered up. "I don't know exactly. Not yet. We gotta make sure that Amoeba knows Brick's got it. Maybe put it with his stuff when they're training at the same time?"

"When do they ever do that?" asked Dan-Lo. "We'd have to follow them around all the time or something."

"An' we can't take too long 'cos Amoeba'll just get another one instead," added Chersh. The three sat in silent thought.

"Maybe we c'd tell each'f 'em that the other one's been sayin' things about 'em?" Chersh suggested after a while "Get 'em to challenge one another to a lightsaber match?"

"Might work," agreed Thom. "Or maybe we could hide it, then let Amoeba know where it is?"

"She'd get suspicious of that," Dan-Lo pointed out. "I mean, why would /we/ want to help her out?"

"True." Thom lapsed into silence again. Finally he spoke up. "Look, we've already given Amoeba what she deserved, right? So maybe we could try and be friendly. If that works, it's okay to tell her. If not, we go to plan b. and plant it on Brick where she's going to see it. We're gonna have to do some finding out before we can do that anyway. We got

 

Great post! Thom's reaction to the praise was excellent. I hope he finds Barin's file soon!

 

I just love Thom. He's so -real-. Yeah, he's a Jedi, but he's still a young boy and I love that he acts like one, even with Jedi training most of his life.

 

Thom's trying to be nice to AMbianca...that's nice

 

Can't believe it took me this long to find it! I've said it before, I'll say it again: HaiGan, you're a genius! Your characters are REAL people with REAL motivations. And there's no smiley for wild applause, or I'd insert a few.

I LOVE the way Amoeb--uh, Ambianca managed to convince Jerina to take Suffie as a Padawan, even though that wasn't her intention. And I love Barin --dresses like Sir Percival Blakeney, with the steel-trap mind of the Scarlet Pimpernel!

Let's see...have to find the button...ah! SUBSCRIBE!

--Renata

 

I liked the way the boys were comparing the colour of their tongues! And the way Master Sao had that nagging feeling that Thom was only doing well for some reason of his own, but she felt she should encourage him anyway. The way he reacted to the praise was good, too, and the way he thought he'd be nice to Ambianca. Great job!

 

I love Thom! I can't wait until he finds out about Barin!
More soon! Please!!!

 

No post today, sorry folks Maybe tomorrow, although I really ought to do something for TLST and BTSS before I finish the next post for this. Blame the fact that I'm massively behind at work after being off with that bad back.

 

Done, finally! Sorry for the delay, but the second half of this one is somewhat experimental and I found it quite tricky to get right. If anyone has their critiquing cap on, I would be most interested to get opinions on how well it works.

******

"Has he been in there long?"

Chersh jumped at Dan-Lo's question. He'd had his nose buried in a speeder catalogue while trying simultaneously to keep an eye on the door of one of the training-rooms, and hadn't spotted Dan-Lo coming up behind him. He was pretty sure he hadn't missed Bruck coming out, but he didn't have a clue how long he'd been waiting for the padawan and his Master to emerge. He shrugged. "I dunno how long they'd usually take."

Dan-Lo hmphed. He knew perfectly well that Chersh had been so busy ogling the sports-speeder section that he'd lost track of the time. "Never mind. I can watch for an hour, but then we've all got class."

"I've got /cookery/ next," Chersh said with disgust. "Hey, maybe we c'd poison Brick with one of my cakes?"

"Chersh, nobody would even taste one of your cakes. You'd better go, they might come out any moment."

As if it had been a prediction, the door to the practice-room opened. Chersh and Dan-Lo tried to look casual as Bruck's Master emerged. Bruck fell into step the required pace or two behind her. The two initiates felt Bruck's eyes fall suspiciously on them.

"Something wrong, padawan?" Master Tiros enquired.

"No, Master," Bruck said quickly, but as soon as his Master's back was turned once again, he scowled. He had seen those two initiates far too often recently for it to be coincidence. They were following him; and he knew from Ambianca that they were friends of the Floormop. Well, Bruck would have to tell Floormop to call off his little goons, or he'd be finding out just what did happen to people who weren't careful.

******

"He saw us, Thom," Dan-Lo said mournfully. "He definitely spotted us this time."

Thom squinted across the refectory to where Bruck sat with a few other padawans. "There's no point watching him if he knows he's being watched. Look, I'll do a bit after lunch."

"But ya not supposed to-" Chersh began.

"If I'm good enough, who's gonna notice?" Thom grinned. "You two leave together, so's Brick can see you. That way he'll know you're not around to follow him. Then your job is to try and make sure Master Fel doesn't notice I'm not around. He always thinks we're together anyway, so as long as he can see one of you he'll think I'm still where I'm supposed to be."

The others nodded, and the three finished off their meal amid their usual joking, flicking of food-pellets, and discussion of the Gabali game playing that afternoon. Thom returned his empty plate to the counter, picked up a drink, then quietly slipped into a spare seat on the end of one of the tables near the door, to wait. Chersh and Dan-Lo marched past Bruck, exchanging disparaging remarks about each other's favourite Gabali team, and headed out of the door.

Thom watched as Bruck spotted the two initiates leaving, hiding his grin behind his cup. He sipped slowly at his drink, then drained the rest in one go as Bruck stood up to leave. He counted five after the padawan went through the door, then went through after him. Bruck was headed in the direction of the practice rooms. Thom slipped along after him, keeping his distance while trying not to let the padawan out of his sight. Twice Bruck paused and looked back, as if he sensed Thom was there. Each time Thom stepped into a doorway, held his breath, and tried to imagine the Force around him as static, blocking his presence.

Thom tracked his quarry along another corridor and up a flight of stairs. Bruck looked back yet again, and Thom ducked into a side passage. Then the initiate forgot about Bruck altogether, because just as he was entering the passage at one end a familiar, slender, blonde figure crossed it at the other.

Thom ran on tiptoe down the passageway, popping his head around the corner. Barin was up ahead, a fair distance away. He certainly didn't han