Fifth Kata; Jinn's 12th Variation

Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan Fanfiction
Title:	Fifth Kata; Jinn's 12th Variation
Author(s):	Ruth Gifford
Date(s):	02 September 2002
Length:	30k
Genre:	slash fanfiction
Fandom:	Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
External Links:	Fifth Kata; Jinn's 12th Variation (Master & Apprentice)
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Fifth Kata; Jinn's 12th Variation is a Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan story by Ruth Gifford. It's categorized at the MA archive as "Fetish/Kink, BDSM".

Summary: After a surprising evening at a party, Qui-Gon Jinn processes the new things he's learned about himself. A response to the "leather or nothing" challenge.

Recs and Reviews

Told from a strong Qui POV, this story chronicles a mission that takes place on Rillva, a planet devastated by a disease that spent several generations killing anyone past the age of thirty. As a result of this disease, Jedi padawans are the major diplomats responsible for relations between Rillva and the Republic, and when Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are sent there on a mission, Obi-Wan is in charge. It's a new dynamic for Qui, and his reactions to it are fascinating. And then there's the way he reacts when one dynamic bleeds into a more personal one. [...]

Much of this story is told in flashbacks, so we discover the events of the previous night through Qui's eyes as he remembers them. I really enjoy non-linear stories, ones where we leap into the action midway through a scene or start at the end and work our way back to the beginning, and this one's not only done well, it's done for a reason -- we get to see how Qui centers, focuses, deals with a major change in his relationship with Obi-Wan.

I also like the way the description happens -- it's far more focused on what the events mean to Qui-Gon than on the events themselves, so while we find out (more or less) how he was tied up, hurt, pleased, and so on, we're more focused on how he felt about it at the time and how he comes to feel about it the morning after than we are on the actual "Insert Tab A into Slot B, with leather" aspects. As a result, this ends up being less "hot kinky smut" and more "kink as a way of discovering more about one's self and one's partner", and it works particularly well for Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, master and apprentice.