Lion at the Gate by Kirby Crow & Lilith Sedai

[ausmac.livejournal.com]

It's Tuesday here, so here I go...

Title: Lion at the Gate
Author: Kirby Crow & Lilith Sedai
Rating:NC17
Pairing: Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan
Warnings: to quote the authors, "ambiguous consent". It has also variously been classified as kink and BDSM. A sweet romance this is not.

Author's e-mail, web site and/or LJ id:
It doesn’t appear to be on the M/A archive anymore, but it's archived at Kirby's site. I am unable to find a current website or email address for Lilith Sedai, if anyone has one I’d be happy to include it.
Kirby Crow
http://slashgirls.tripod.com/
Kirby’s contact details are available there.
Kirby also has an lj a kirbycrow

Link to story: http://slashgirls.tripod.com
I have provided the link to the main page as it is a warning page. The story can be found within the site.

Reasons for recommending:

Since I get to recommend first, I will rec what is probably my favorite TPM story.

It's pretty easy to recommend anything by Kirby Crow, either alone or with her co-conspirators (and I'd be surprised if many of her other stories aren't mentioned here in the future) but this one I.ve reread many times and love the most. It is my classification of an AR, that is, a story set in the Star Wars universe, but where the characters we know lived different lives. Here, Obi-Wan is still a Jedi, but Qui-Gon is something much more dark, and a whole lot more fascinating.

Quote from story:

Blindly, Obi-Wan returned the gentle caress, his hands clasping on the taller man's shoulders, his body trembling.

"It burns, I know," Qui-Gon's voice was husky and gentle, "That kiss of darkness. But you will learn to love it, as I have. To yearn for it. To seek it out and, eventually, to bend it to your will. It will add to your powers, my apprentice. It will make you stronger than you ever imagined."

Extra comments:
It's difficult not to give away anything about the story if one recommends it, but it is basically a story of conflict between two poles, two opposites, drawn together through violence to passion, and to a very unwilling love. I'm not sure if nowadays it would be considered a mite flowery in its language, but to me it will always be a poetic work that gets right to the heart of passion, the sort of hunger that can drive one to do terrible, and wonderful, things. It has violent sexual encounters that are more like ritual, Obi-Wan weeping in a way I can accept, and even though their Qui-Gon is very little like canon Qui-Gon, he is still a wonderful literary character and a fabulous foil for Obi-Wan. Although a sequel was written, I wasn’t as pleased with it as I was with the original, and much prefer the first story. I think it's a matter of "first love" for me.

I don’t know of another story in the fandom quite like Lion, and it will always be THE "dark Qui-Gon" story for me, the one that was my inspiration.

Comments

[kirby-crow.livejournal.com]

Is smooching allowed here? *smooch* :)

[ausmac.livejournal.com]

A decorous smooch is always appreciated. It's good to be able to share works written Way Back When for those newer readers who may not be as familiar with them.

[thalia]

Yay! Great way to start things off!

Lilith is cara_chapel. Her site seems to be down right now.

[badfalcon.livejournal.com]

*squeal*
i remember reading this and falling in love years ago and now i've gone back and re-read and re-fell in love all over again
thank you for the memory jog :)

[temve.livejournal.com]

That story, and Fuumin's artwork for it (correct me if I'm wrong, but it isn't anywhere on the web, is it? *snif*), makes me go 'guh' every time.

[nike-victory.livejournal.com]

Oooh! I first read that at TOTO. I think it's still there.

By the by, Lilith Sedai is cara_chapel, but her site's down because of RL reasons.

[maliwane.livejournal.com]

Oh yes! This is an awesome story. Great rec!!