#Woman King

[spring-maidens]

a woman king, sword in hand

swing at some evil and bleed

[casualblu]

[twwings]

Big Festivids Recs Post!

Last weekend was the big Festivids GoLive, which meant the release into the wild of 160 brand new small fandom vids (aka fanvids, edits, etc.) Right now the collection's anonymous, but tomorrow is vidder reveals, so I wanted to write up a recs post for some of my absolute favourites from this year's collection. If you know Yuletide, well, Festivids is like Yuletide, celebrating small/weird/underappreciated fandoms! It's an exchange fest, so people ask for the small fandom vids of their heart and, then, receive one.

Honestly the collection this year is SO high quality, you should really go and browse the works yourself in their entirety; there are so many vids that I absolutely loved that I didn't put on this recs list, because I was trying not to get carried away (and also trying to get it done). But just to get you started, here are a smattering of my favourites. I tried to represent a bunch of vid genres and source types here, but ultimately it's just my taste.

RECS RECS RECS!

Andor: Level Up

AHHHH this is a vid about Andor and fascism and collective action and One Way Out and it's so gorgeously done. Perfect song choice, perfect vid, makes me cry and I will rewatch it many times.

Andor: be ready and be brave

Focusing on Ferrix, its history, its people, and its revolution. Absolute chills. Also I'm SO happy whenever I get to watch a vid to a Mountain Goats song.

Mosquita y Mari: como siempre soñé

Such a sweet, soft, slow romance vid. I ACHED for these two. Like reading a 300k slowburn but in three and a half minutes.

Dropout TV: Nothing in my Head

The Dropout TV vid of my DREAAAAAMS! (largely Game Changer but with lots of stuff in there!)

Taskmaster UK: Blood in the Cut

UHHHH. IT'S AMAZING??? It's hot and raw and kinky and hardcore. the vidder has the delicate, precise touch of a bloody scalpel. Yes, this is a vid for Taskmaster, the UK show where comedians do silly tasks. Because yeah, it's that show, but it's also this show.

Slash/Back: Uja

This vidder KNOWS how to vid horror. The way this vid cuts the most terrible images to make them barely-there, more horrifying for being rough slaps against my consciousness . . . yikes. Amazing vidding, super cool and scary, while also maintaining the uplifting, kickass, hopeful tone you want from a collective-action horror movie.

Janelle Monae: I Like That

Glorious, joyful, sexy celebration of being a free-ass motherfucker.

Star Trek: Lower Decks: Hard Times

Boimler vid about how he's essentially a redshirt who is just slightly too sweet to actually die. Absolutely adorable and hilarious.

Woman King: Upside Down

Absolute BANGER of a vid, great cuts, great movement, great character arc and great Dahomey women being amazing.

Romeo + Juliet: Magnetic

We all agree Harold Perrineau is the best Mercutio, SO, with that in mind, here is a flawless celebration of the best Mercutio.

Knives Out/Glass Onion: 'Til You Hit a Nerve

Brilliant comparison vid putting Marta from the first film together with Helen and Andi from the second one, drawing out the similarities and dissimilarities in a visual feast and with a badass powerwalk. Nothing not to love!

David Cronenberg's Films: body

This one is phenomenal. It takes David Cronenberg's entire filmography and condenses it into a vid about all the sexualized body horror. It is deeply horny and deeply disturbing and deeply fascinated by every single finger going into a hole in a body that shouldn't be there. It's soft and tentative and it's very graphic and violent, all at once.

The Wheel of Time: Velodrome

Tower politics and circularity and being bound to one another in every good way and every bad way; what a beautiful vid. I love how this is about a place, and about how that place draws these people together over and over in their shared experience and love and trauma.

The Midnight Sky: The Laughing Heart

Absolutely gorgeous vid of the film to a spoken word + music rendition of Charles Bukowski's "The Laughing Heart" (there is a light somewhere). I have not seen this film but I found this vid deeply moving.

Moby Dick: Queequeg and I

There are four (FOUR!!!) Moby Dick vids at Festivids this year, and they are all amazing combinations of a huge smorgasboard of sources, I heartily recommend them all, but I'll specifically rec two. This one is Queequeg and Ishmael to "Wouldn't It Be Nice" and it is the sweetest queerest thing ever. Queequeg and Ishmael get a happy ending shhhhh they do shhhhh yes this is how it happened they came out of the water they're fine

Moby Dick: a vulture feeds upon the heart forever

This vid is a fucking masterpiece. It is a huge archival multisource Moby Dick vid that weaves all these incredibly different visual together to make a coherent, tragic narrative. And like. The BOOK is not a coherent narrative! This is such gorgeous and amazing fanwork. Don't miss out on it.

Women's 100m Sprinting: Didn't Come to Play

This is GORGEOUS, I don't know anything about sprinting but I know I love these beautiful joyful powerful women running really fast and hugging each other and being amazing. The editing on this is so tight; the vid never stops for a second. Like a sprint?!?!?!

The Golem and the Jinni: סיפור הגולם

This is another book vid, but since this book doesn't have any adaptations, it's using entirely archival source and probably some documentaries and films to construct the story - or, really, construct the vibe of the book, construct the metaphors of the book, and the result is beautiful and powerful and meditative. It's about survival, and making life.

Jesus Christ Superstar: Hope on Fire

This is another umbrella vid, where the vidder is taking a bunch of different productions of the play and mashing them together. This vid focuses on Judas and Jesus/Judas, and it all feels so inevitable and tragic and real and cruel. I really loved it.

Jordan Peele's Films: Goodbye, Honey, You Call That Gone

This is such a wonderful mashup of Jordan Peele's three films, exploring all the parallels and differences and just the rich tapestry of his imagery.

猎罪图鉴 | Under the Skin: Put It On Me

I don't know this source but this was just so gorgeously put together; there's a focus on art and art objects, on hands moving and creating, that's just mesmerizing.

[247liveculture]

August 11, 1965, Actress and producer Viola Davis was born!

[gr00vyminibus]

The Elysian Feilds.

Divider is not mine, credits to whoever made it.

I wanted to give this little drabble an afterlife sense to it but you can imagine it however you want.

Fanta <3 : eat this snack for now pretty ppl. Heavily inspired by a little discussion with my moots. 💕

18+ ( good ole fashion Sapphic lovin' 😇)

Tags: @zeezeecave @mybonafidefeelings @masterajoy314 @xenaizogie @blacksapphhicmaddonna

"How does that feel love?" The first wife straddles Izogies back, her hand kneading into Izogie's tense muscles, wrap undone and loose under her chest. The exhausted woman can only reply with one word and the rest are pleased groans and sighs. The wife above smiles as the sounds encourage her to keep up with her service.

"Would you like me to massage your head, my sweet?" Izogie eyes open just the slightest bit to see her second wife on her knees just aching to spoil her even further.

"She's fine." The first wife says quietly as her eyes find the second wife in a curt manner, her toungue poking out of her mouth momentarily.

"I didn't ask you." Izogie smiles at their little argument that still manages to sound so soft and polite. The third wife didn't really argue much and she would cherish her own time with her miganon and exist by the other two as a meek soul. Only saying something when truly necessary.

The fourth wife chuckled to herself as she carefully bended Izogie's shea buttered legs, her calves expanding before she pulled it back and slid her hands up to massage her rough feet.

The third wife silently watched Izogie, any other chatter becoming background noise when the warrior met her gaze and blinked slowly. Her creasing eyes trying to stay open so she could continue their unspoken staring contest.

"Are you her mother?-"

"One can massage my back and the other can massage my head, that seem fair?" Izogie closed her eyes with her brows slightly raised and everything became silent until some grumbles of agreement commenced.

"What would you like to do princess?" She adressed the third wife and smiled with her eyes still closed. She heard some shuffling before a presence was felt near her face.

"I want to trace your skin.." The third wife reached out and swiping a thumb under her eye, swirling it on the apple of her cheek and bringing the finger all the way down to her chin, like a smoothing jade peice.

Izogie sighed and basked in the pleasurable services given to her. A slow hand scraping her scalp, the knuckles running through the knots of shoulders, and delicate fingers on her face.

This was Heaven.

Nights when all five women would sleep was enough to even fight the coldness of a winter storm. The second and fourth wife would lay ontop of her chest like a blanket while the other two rested beside her, hands either on izogies sternum or cheekbone.

When Izogie couldn't sleep they would all ask what she needed, different tones flowing inside her ear like a song. "What do you need baby?"

Sometimes dozens of kisses were all she needed, some of her temples, then on her jaw, maybe a few peppering her nose and eyes. But always one lingering one on her lips from each wife. Izogie felt herself smiling as she returned every kiss and sighed through the peppering of soft lips.

"There you go my love~"

"Sleepy now?"

"Rest, precious."

And loving was the absolute best, she would be doused in oceans of it, diving with no conscious but only harboring the sense of devotion. Multiple hands roamed her body like ribbon and squeezed any flesh they could their hands on. It was utopia to expeirence the immense love making.

"I'm happy you feel so good darling." The first wife spoke in her ear as she kissed the canal and trailed her needy lips to Izogies parted mouth. The wet tip of a toungue traced the corner of her mouth and swiped her upper lip twice as Izogie tipped her head back and caught the first wife's toungue finally slipping in her mouth.

The third wife paused her wet mouthing on Izogies expanse of skin and licked her fingers to occupy the digits on her abandoned clit. What a treat it was to hear her gasp and shiver under her touch.

"You're so beautiful Izo." The fourth wife chimed gently as she could hear a moan escape but it was muffled and the young lady knew it was because of her compliment. A smile made its way to her face as she dipped down to suck on the warriors hard and sensitive nipple, hand sliding vertically along her sleek abs.

The second wife was buried between Izogies thighs, eating her swell pussy with no mercy and patience. She was drinking up every drop Izogie provided, she could feel it through and through. Izogie parted from the first wife's mouth, her face screwing up in ecstasy. The first wife watched on in a haze as she silently beckoned the other three to watch.

"Look.. look she's so close?" Everyone watched the way Izogie tensed up and stilled, her moans finally breaking through and trembling over themselves as her climax was taking full force.

"Come on baby, spill." Izogie eyes rolled back slightly as she began to release her juices into the mouth of her lover. The praises that came from that made her pussy twitch and clench as everyone got gentler.

Oh what a dream it was to have four beautiful black wives at your beck and call.

[fluorescentbalaclava]

an oscar nomination for BLONDE a film where a FETUS TALKS and none for Woman King???? crying throwing up and about to throw toilet paper on the houses of the academy members

[queerasfact]

These are photographs of the Agojie - often called Dahomey Amazons by Europeans.

The Agojie were regiments of soldiers who served in the army of Dahomey (now Benin) in West Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries. Numbering around 8000 at their height in the 1840, they were renowned for their fearlessness in battle, and consdiered the backbone of the Dahomean army.

Recently, they’ve served as the inspiration for Black Panther’s Dora Milaje, and the story of The Woman King.

If you want to learn more, check out our podcast, where we chat about the history of the Agojie, as well as gender and sexuality in Dahomey.

[Images: three photographs of groups of Agojie, various armed with guns, knives and staffs 1 2 3]

[sinnamonscouture]

Lashana Lynch for Empire Magazine

[nzia-writes]

Tag list for Izogie x Fem? Tell me now.

[fandomgalore-blog]

Before Black History Month ends, here are some great black led films I enjoyed this month in no specific order. Hopefully you’ll check them out too. Let’s begin!

1. Waves (2019)

2. Training Day

3. 42

4. Race (2016)

5. Straight Outta Compton

6. Gridiron Gang

7. Sorry to Bother You

8. The Woman King

9. Beverly Hills Cop

10. Just Wright

Definitely go check all of these great films out!!!

[krusteekrabsblog]

izogie x shuri x reader ….. what typa Nickelodeon cross over iS THIS??🤤 pls hold while I read it🫰🏾

[elle-thinks]

The Woman King - Combatting the Masculinization of Black Women

I was a little scared to watch The Woman King. I saw from the trailers that the movie contained a bunch of badass, Black women, but I wasn't clear on the plot. The ambiguity of the film's story made me worried for what exactly the movie was trying to accomplish in its portrayal of these women. It wasn't until I'd read up on the women who created the film that I became more excited about seeing the movie. Fortunately, Gina Prince-Blythewood, Maria Bello, and Dana Stevens flooded the movie with opportunities to view womanhood in various perspectives, defining Black femininity through an ironically historical and contemporary lens.

Set in nineteenth-century Africa, the film depicts the typical local life found in history textbooks. In a general sense, most communities were patriarchal and expected piety from women. Additionally, a woman's primary role surrounded her family or tribe as a daughter, mother, or wife, etc. However, during this time period, the Dahomey Kingdom had an additional status for women as warriors, who were revered even more than their male soldier counterparts. It is this culture that the film focuses on and embellishes.

In today's context of modern feminism, the film was evidently intended to primarily show female empowerment. I believe the writers did a wonderful job in showcasing this through story. But the layers of the film can be savored in its representation of African, Black women. This was due to great directing.

Overall, I don't think this film was especially good in that it took artistic liberties, fine-tuned dialogue, or had amazing camera work. Additionally, it was a story we've seen in other forms before, and in my opinion, it failed to add a unique twist on the tale. Despite this, the film was impactful (though I'm a bit biased as a target audience member). There are several scenes that are hard to forget due to their level of intimacy and relevance to modern Black women. For example, one moment that lingers in my mind is when a mentor braids a mentee's hair. For me, that was a perfect example of Black femininity. It showcased their sisterly bond and drew upon generations of braiding in the Afrikan diaspora. It also displayed fortitude, as it was a warrior's hairstyle in this culture. This aspect made me recall warriors of the Southern United States who wore map-like braids and risked their lives to help others. There was much to unpack in that scene. Regardless of the film's execution, I think it accomplished it's goal in terms of representation and positive messaging.

The Woman King was an especially interesting film because it purposefully blurred the lines between masculinity and femininity in an appeal to progressive ideology. Additionally, it centered on brown-skinned and darker skinned women, who have consistently been considered less feminine/desirable than their lighter counterparts due to a Eurocentric standard of beauty. Seeing Viola Davis's bulging muscles and contortion of her face into a war cry is not something traditionally viewed as beautiful, and it may have even fed into some stereotypes surrounding the abrasiveness of Black women. Even so, the feminist motif of the film highlights the fact that women have many facets. As any dynamic character, Viola Davis performs in moments of vulnerability and delves into feminine energy in more usual ways later on. Her beauty is then displayed in her multidimensional character rather than relying solely on either her masculine or feminine behaviors.

All in all, the film was a pleasant watch. I appreciated it more for its purpose than its quality.

Additional comments:

Personally, I could have done without the rushed, lightskin subplot. I get, that it was used to show another key definition of femininity (I hope so anyways). Manz was giving body though.

[supernightboy08]

Two Black History Movies!

[illyanarasputinfan]

What did you do on your last date with your husband?

We went to the theater to watch The Woman King. It was very good. I really enjoyed it.

[gr00vyminibus]

A woman's heart.

Izogie x Black!fem Agojie

After drinking with Izogie your feelings become admitted.

Taglist: @zeezeecave @mybonafidefeelings @masterajoy314 @xenaizogie @blacksapphhicmaddonna

[A/N: Switched it up, I love mess and makeup tropes 😋]

Under the clay construction, the far moon shined on Izogie and you. Illuminating your individual brown shades of skin. Two friends enjoying the night breeze with liquor in their systems. Your eyes flickered to Izogie's flask in her hand and swiped it.

Her walking halted as she watched you take a few quick sips snd give it back, frowning at the heated sensation traveling down throat and into your chest.

Izogie wouldn't drink with just anyone, you were a loyal and special friend, eserving of letting your guard down around her.

"Slow down, lightweight." she chuckled sipping next from the flask. You gently bumped shoulders with her as a way of telling her to shut up.

She smiled with her head back and managed to keep drinking the whiskey that trickled down her mouth, a skinny drop slid down the corner of her lips and left a glimmering trail that you so desperately wanted to clean up.

She led you inside her chambers and made her self comfortable on the bed, leaning back against the wall while babysitting the flask on top of her raised knee.

"You're quiet, what's on your mind?"

"I couldn't tell you if I didn't know myself.." when you focused on the ground your head was empty but if you peered into her eyes the mental space inside of it would definitely many thoughts.

"look at me." The tip of her knuckle pushed your head up. Why was she so effortlessly seductive. This small action was weakening you as you unconsciously held her wrist and flipped it over to examine her nsils.

"Can I touch them?" Your eyes hesitantly pulled away from tracing the shape and analyzed her neutral and tipsy expression. Izogie sat up straighter and flexed her hand.

"Normally I don't like for people to touch them but,"

"go ahead." The pads of your fingers pricked against the sharp edge and slid down the other side of it. You separated her fingers and then matched the palm of your hands.

But they weren't the only thing you admired. There was a scar on her neck you wanted to kiss on and make a path up her jaw, then appreciate her nude lips.

Pecking her eyelids and brows, feeling the texture of her hair and so much more, much more you wanted to do with her.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Like what?"

"I cannot decipher it.." Izogie grumbled, smirk splintering her stoic facade. You wore a nervous smile on your face, sitting beside her.

"It is.." her looked at the ceiling "kind," she glanced at you.

"—intense even. Perhaps you.... nevermind." Izogie chuckled and grabbed the whiskey, internally cursing when she shook it, only a little left.

"Go on"

"I said nevermind."

"Well you brought it up in the first place, why shy away now?" A glare was thrown your way.

"Tell me what my look means."

"What, do you like me?" Izogie jokes thinking that'll stun you so hard you'd hold your breathe, she just wants to make you laugh is all.

But your pounding heart may have been audible to her ears. Maybe the gods above finally had the chance to answer your prayers that you chanted late at night. Or even begged for with a sigh whenever she let her eyes linger on you during instruction.

If you didn't have the liquor in your system you would've played it off smoothly but your heart demanded the floor so you let it speak before you could think about.

"... yeah." Her eyes slightened widened at you as you stared back, repeating yourself a bit louder and more clearer. Your eyes lowered to her lips eventually as courage grew within you by the minute.

"You're kidding"

"I'm not." You narrow your eyes.

"Swear, y/n."

"I swear." Izogie looked off somewhere and chuckled in disbelief, "you think I'm lying?" She nodded before synchronizing with her pointing finger.

"You had me alm-" An experimental kiss was placed on her lips; and as if on instict she pressed back into you but it stopped just as quick as it started.

"Y/n!" Izogie whisper-yelled but she wanted more and you noticed.

"You kissed me back."

"You confused me."

"How?" Well this is definitely not how you thought your confession would go. Izogie stopped herself from sputtering a response and just sighed loudly. You wanted her to explain though, she looked very thoutful right now.

Sealed lips getting grazed with her teeth as she pressed her thumb to her mouth.

"Why did you kiss me back?" You placed your hand on your thigh as you rested on your hip.

The reason was because she secretly craved you. The lady right to her eye level who never complained and accepted all consequences, good or bad. A restless and determined soul just striving for pride.

And although you didn't make yourself known, Izogie paid even better attention to you. You were meek but not frail hearted and that attracted her in ways she couldn't mentally seperate from her role as your teacher.

"If you don't want to speak I'll leave." She dropped her hand and pressed up against the wall better, her eyes still not meeting yours.

"We must forget this, the kiss. It never happened." Izogie finally looked at you and saw you avert your gaze almost shamefully as the painful lump formed in your throat.

"Okay." As usual you'd never complain and this time she didn't like it, deep inside she wanted wanted to argue and protest that the kiss meant something to save the outcome of this moment but this felt best.

You picked yourself up and went to exit the hut until she called for you.

"And Y/n?"

"Hm."

"Don't let anybody see you." Your toungue poked your inner cheek as you gently moved the flap aside to leave with the little decency you had left.

Because if you stayed longer you would have broken down.

•••

The next morning was the same but a little bit harder to bear since you had to act like you didn't kiss the woman of your dreams that coldly rejected you on the spot. She carried on better though, the emotions that swirled in her eyes last night were gone.

Izogie's back was straight, chin high and ready to do what she had to do while you were toeing the sand and avoiding her surveilling eyes.

"We will do a morning run to have your blood rushing for the day. Get in formation." All of them stood in straight line towards the straw gates of the palace.

"If you fall behind, jog or be high on your knees. There will be no walking, slouching.. or complaints." She walked around the back of the line where you were and looked over you purposefully. Ouch.

You breathed in and out through your nose and looked away from the sun to calm down, why did your emotions want to flood in now when you were so skilled at hiding them.

"A mɔ nǔ jɛ mɛ à?" Izogie called out as they agreed and started jogging towards and out of the gate. Your feet carried you for miles up and down hills, tredding through grassy plains. The synchronized huffs of others began to quiet in your ear.

"The oyo will catch you, hang you by your feet and cut your throat!" Loud claps and complaint were heard from the back as nawi, a trainee was getting scolded. You ran past a few girls to drown out her voice completely.

After a while the heat definitely got to you especially since you didn't eat breakfast. The feeling of dizziness attacked and the others caught up and surpassed you multiple times until you were the only one left walking in the back.

Except for one.

Izogie jogged up to you and eyed your state.

"pick it up, y/n. Your knees." You shut your eyes and continued walking begrudgingly.

"I can't– right now."

"I did not think I would have to remind you of this but what is the first rule of training." She moved infront you as you both continued traveling across the soil. You honestly couldn't care less about what it was but your mind instantly spoke out from memory.

"To always obey you."

"Do not forget it now, shake this off and catch up." You knew she was talking about the kiss and your attitude. You dropped your hands from your hips and jogged around her. Izogie felt like she nearly severed the ribbon of your relationship.

She would have to talk to you sooner or later, to see if you were on the same page.

•••

During sparring Izogie was as stern as usual maybe a bit colder now and stricter, she was buzzing by your ear like a mosquito. Correcting you on every little thing even your breathing and posture.

She thought if she instructed with you more you'd get the memo that Izogie was not aiming to ignore you and had no harsh feelings.

But it only agitated you to the point where you stopped fighting with your opponent and threw the spear on the ground. Your hands locking above your head as you marched off somewhere.

"Y/N!" That tone, Izogie never used that tone with you. So threatning and scorching. You shook it off and kept walking, there wasn't a consequence you couldn't handle. You just needed a break.

"She's so full of it.. I swear." You hissed, voice almost breaking as steady footsteps sounded behind you. There was a woven straw barrier that you could go behind and crumble down to your knees.

Away from everybody's instructions and orders.

You hit your hand against the dry clay as a hot lone tear rolled down your cheek. Izogie finally reached you with a hand balled up by her side. Her gaze hotter than molten lava but cooling to the sight of your evident pain. She crouched down to you as you covered the side of your face and crossed one arm over your chest.

Her eyes tracked your body language before speaking. "Why did you run off?"

"That's the question you ask.." You folded both arms over your chest now and continue not to look at her. Although, Izogie didn't like how you were unwilling do so, you were technically rejecting the warrior and it stung, just on the cusp of burning if you kept treating her like this.

"If it's because I was instructing you during the sparring, my intention was not order you around like some puppet.." She spoke blandly. Face still hardened from her own personal irritation.

"You were breathing down my neck, correcting everything."

"That is my job incase you have forgotten. I am your teacher, feedback as frustrating as it may seem is mandatory."

"Why all of sudden did you want to give me all that attention?" You looked at her, pink eyes incredulous and it confused her along with your question, her eyelids slowly blinked as she shook her head.

"What are you talking about y/n-"

"Don't make me feel stupid!" Her gaze softened before it deepened.

"Lower your voice."

"And if I don't, if I say no just once will that abuse your stupid ego! Forget about the training and the run, you broke me when you told me to forget that...." You sucked your teeth and looked away as tears brimmed over your lids yet again.

You abruptly got up and wiped your whole face as she got up next, albeit slowly.

"I'll tell you this, that kiss meant alot to me." You sniffed as she stared at you.

"I ran off because you still didn't understand that, or rather you do not want too. You're so stubborn but I guess my heart is too since I still... like you. Foolish of me?" You were about to walk around Izogie when she gently grabbed your arm and pulled you back infront of her.

"What-"

"Come to my room after dinner."

"...." you were truly done talking and Izogie sensed this.

"Please." You removed her hand and walked away from her freely as the warrior and swallowed a lump down her throat, her heart squeezing for you and twisting from your absence.

All she could do is hope you would come see her. And to believe with such emptiness in that possibility didn't make her the same for the rest of the day.

••

When dinner came around you took your sweet time, you ate slower and even got a second bowl, bathing time was luxurious in duration. Stretching for nearly an hour as you took that time to relax.

Eventually you went back to your hut and moisturized your skin while putting on some fresh clothes for bed.

Izogie wasn't going to string you along so easily anymore, she could beg outside your hut for all you cared. The warrior really hurt you this afternoon and to face her in her homely hut, with the atmosphere mirroring her every aspect was like sitting in a blood curdling steam room.

Izogie didn't expect much but she did, so she had back up plans if you didn't show up. The sky was only getting darker and nothing changed besides the position of the grey clouds.

Izogie sat on her bed thinking if she walked to your hut it come off as desperate but this was a now or never situation.

So she threw her pride away and got up, pushing her flap to the side and stepping out into the night.

"Y/n I would like to say that.. I am sorry and I should've never- no." Izogie cracked her knuckles and started over.

"I understand that kiss meant a lot to you and I made the mistake of...? watering it down to- mawu." Izogie sucked her teeth and bring a thumb to her temple like it pounded painfully. Your hut was in the distance and she saw it, her heart thumping at the rate of milliseconds.

When Izogie finally stood infront of it she licked her dry lips and shut her eyes momentarily.

Praying for this to go as she hoped.

Izogie reopened her eyes and called out, "y/n." You cracked an eye open from your fake sleeping and frowned. "Y/n are you awake?" You faintly smirked and raised off the ground, slowly creeping to the flap and standing infront.

"Maybe she's asleep... " you pulled it back and watched her whole form freeze.

"Are you just going to stand there or come inside." You swiftly turned on your heel and let her come through as she opted to stand up while you settled on your bamboo mat.

"I wanted to come and apologize about this afternoon and last night. I want to actually talk about it and why I did what I did, when you.. kissed me I," Izogie walked over to you and settled on her knees.

Her gaze penetrate yet nervous. You fixed your face on your propped hand and returned the look back, minus the nervousness.

"enjoyed it."

"You don't have to lie Izogie." You dismissed as your eyes drifted elsewhere momentarily.

"Y/n, I never lie to you." Izogie stated lowly as you blinked, eyes softening.

"I wasn't led by any conscious when I kissed you back and it scared me. I felt so content and.. selfish because it felt so good."

"Then why did you push me away?" The way your voice was contrasting and gentle pinched at her heart, the warrior nearly crumbling to her thoughts of embracing of you but that would come later on.

"Because I didn't want to start something that I couldn't finish. Imagining how attached I could've been to you and then one day you're gone made me push you away."

"How can you grow attached to me, I thought I was your friend." You tried to repel all of Izogie's sentiments with your assumptions of her. It was a test to see if she felt different than what you assumed.

"If you were just a friend, I wouldn't have been with you that night, I wouldn't have kissed you, went out of my way to talk to you this afternoon, or ask you to come room. Y/n you're more than a friend.." Izogie sighed as her hands gripped her skirt, almost tearing the material.

"And?" You sat up, face to face with her as your eyes ran over her features. The woman straightened her posture and reached for your hand.

You glanced down at it and looked back into her eyes, smooth and glassy. "And I like you." A sincere smile washed over your face as she mirrored it and swiped her thumb across your knuckle.

"I don't have to forget this too right?" She chuckled with you, the mood lifting just by your harmonious laughter. "No, you don't have to forget anything, especially not this." Izogie moved into you first and connected your lips in an exploring kiss.

It was slow and wondering over the plumness and bows of your lips, your breaths mixing into the perfect pheromone for love and devotion to one another. No matter how short or long it would last.

And this time Izogie would not be rejecting her hearts desire for you. Not when it felt this blissful and not when you both rightfully deserved it.

You pulled her down to the mat as the warrior made it up to you all night with skin to skin carreses and wet kisses along the expanses of your body.

She told you her feelings all through with feathery freedom resting on her shoulders.

[queerasfact]

As the blacksmith takes an iron bar and by fire changes its fashion, so we have changed our nature. We are no longer women, we are men.

Agojie soldier, 1850

The Agojie were regiments of soldiers who served in the army of Dahomey (now Benin) in West Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries. Numbering around 8000 at their height in the 1840, they were renowned for their fearlessness in battle, and consdiered the backbone of the Dahomean army. They were all assigned female at birth - check out our podcast where we discuss what quotes like this one tell us about their gender!

[Quote source: Frederick E. Forbes’ Dahomey and the Dahomans: Being the Journals of Two Missions to the King of Dahomey, and Residence at His Capital, in the Years 1849 and 1850, Volume 2 p119]