#viking chess

[spewagepipe]

The Evolution of RPGs: A Brief Tour of Late-Classical and Medieval European Strategy Games

As I mentioned, the advent of pure strategy games ushered in a truly profound diversity of tabletop games – but relatively few of those actually bear any significance to the evolution of RPGs. Still, some of them are pretty interesting in their own right, in my opinion, so here's a largely arbitrary selection of them.

Mancala: the poster child of the "sowing" genre. There's a now-debunked claim that some mancala boards date all the way back to the neolithic period, but the valid evidence says it emerged around 200 CE, which makes good sense (since that's when all the other strategy games are also starting to appear).

Nine Men's Morris: I gave the "alignment" games their own post discussing the arguments for a more ancient origin, but it's the same story as mancala: If we restrict ourselves to the strong evidence, then they show up towards the end of the classical period, in the first few hundred years CE.

Hnefatafl: hailing from northern Europe, this might be the first asymmetrical strategy game. One player is "defender" and the other is "invader", and they have different starting positions and victory conditions. Tafl games eventually go on to inspire the "fox game" genre of asymmetrical checkers-style games.

Rithmomachy: from some time before about 1000 CE, this seems to be a chess variant intended to teach players certain arithmetic and geometry concepts. Each piece has different movement and capturing rules depending on its geometrical shape and number values etched into its surface.

Neu-erfundenes grosses Koenig-Spiel: the last of our games today is from 1644 and the title literally translates to "newly-invented great king's game", which is the branding equivalent of releasing a game today under the name "Super Chess: 2025". One-sixth of the rulebook explains how to play the chess variant, and the other five-sixths explain the strategic principles of warfare and politics that supposedly motivate the various design changes. The most interesting feature is that it also comes with schematics for alternate boards that facilitate play between up to eight players simultaneously.

Click here for the index of my Evolution of RPGs posts.

[afrotumble]

[blogtib]

viking chess piece

[thegothicviking]

🎄Merry Yule! 🎄

[the-squeerrel]

why is it that the national museum of scotland can scan the lewis chessmen in 3d and publish it on sketchfab but the british museum has only regular photos like animals

[memories-of-ancients]

Hnefatafl game board and pieces (Vikings chess), uncovered near Kyiv, Ukraine, 10th - 11th century AD

from The National History Museum of Ukraine

[kickbackkanzaki]

The Dungeon Master and Chess Queen

You're the new student and chess captain at Hawkins High. When Eddie Munson asks you for tutoring you're certain you have him handled but you may have underestimated his strategy.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

"Eddie! Hey Eddie!" Dustin call and waved his had in front of Eddie's fixed eyes.

"Forget it, he's watching his girlfriend again," Gareth said between bites of his sandwich.

"Huh what?" Eddie jolted out of his trance and blinked at the Hellfire Club who were all staring at him.

"We were asking about the next campaign but you were too busy staring at Max's pretty friend," Mike explained in an annoyed tone.

You were sitting at a table across the cafeteria occupied by a motley mix of Robin, some of her band friends, a few chess club members and Max who was having her fire red hair tamed into a braid by your practised fingers.

"His girlfriend," Dustin repeated with a giggle.

"She's not my girlfriend," Eddie shot his young follower down, "I've never even spoken to her."

"You've been staring at her for weeks and you haven't talked once? Since when are you shy?" Dustin batted back and the whole table waited for an answer.

"It's not what you think," Eddie answered boredly.

"Sure dude."

"No really, she's up to something," the club leader came clean because there was no way Dustin would drop the subject otherwise. "People are always whispering to her and she hands out lunch bags randomly. It's weird."

"Maybe they're just hungry?"

"Think bigger Henderson. She's got a business going on."

"Why do you care?" Mike asked.

He didn't really care much for anyone's relationships since his own girlfriend had moved to California.

"Because Wheeler," Eddie answered impatiently. "I've spent six years building my cliental at this school and I'm not about to lose it to some new chick with a chess fetish."

"Dude," Jeff had just demolished his lunch and could finally talk. "Your balls are heavy and it's making you crazy. Just go ask her out before one of the basketball douchbags do."

The Hellfire Club's laughter was cut short when their leader's fist slammed the table.

"See! See!" Eddie half stood out of his seat and pointed across the cafeteria at you. "It's happening now."

A girl had approached you and said something that made you stop braiding and pull an item from your shoulder bag wrapped in brown paper.

Only because they were watching so intensely did the Hellfire Club see the crumpled note passed discretely between you two.

"That is it!" Eddie bellowed and shook the table so hard all the cafeteria plates jumped. "I'm putting an end to this now!"

The attention the Dungeon and Dragons players were giving you went totally unnoticed by yourself. Most of the time at school you dissociated mentally, preferring to solve puzzles in silence than listen to the state certified lessons.

But you enjoyed the company of your patchwork friends so you put up with the classes and cafeteria babble.

The first thing you'd done when you enrolled in Hawkins High was locate the chess club and challenge the reigning president for his position. He had demanded you win a simultaneous exhibit which you did by nailing all dozen club members in an hour.

Robin had been paired with you for chemistry and she'd won you over with her natural spunk and charm. Musical talent wasn't something you possessed but her band friends were nice and helped you navigate the school hierarchy.

You'd noticed Max pretty quickly as it was hard to miss that flaming hair. You sensed she was struggling with more than just the adjustment to freshman year and had taken her under your wing.

She'd pushed back at first, not wanting anyone to interfere with her problems but you persisted and she realised you wanted to support her, not fix her.

Max had booed braids as girly and dumb when you first offered to style her hair but after she read the books you loaned her on Viking women she'd relented.

You were so focused on keeping Max's hair threads even you didn't notice Eddie Munson sideling up to you holding his lunchbox.

"Have you got a moment?" he asked as everyone at the table stopped to stare at "The Freak" in his regular outfit of denim and leather.

"Sorry comrade," you said without looking up. "I am currently tackling a very complicated reverse braid and I have my friend Owen in check. So unless you can speed one of these along you'll have to come back later."

Eddie watched your fast hands weaving Max's hair for a few moments and decided to try the chess board instead. You had lost more pieces than Owen but your remaining ones were stronger. At the moment your queen and rook had Owen's king pinned and his other pieces were no support.

Eddie reached over and moved the trapped king in a direction Owen hadn't considered. You looked over for a second then knocked the king flat with a bishop you had been hiding in the back flank.

"Aww screw you man!" Owen whined and slumped back in his chair.

You and Max laughed and the final touches were added to Max's hairdo.

"There," you said handing her a mirror from your bag. "A true Valkyrie."

"So can we talk now?" Eddie asked naggingly.

"Alright," you said with a shrug and put the mirror back in your bag. "I'll see you in the carpark after school Max."

You gathered your things and followed Eddie out of the cafeteria and through the corridors to an out of order bathroom.

Without inhibitions you passed the door he held open for you and lent against a sink while Eddie made sure the cubicles were empty.

You only knew Eddie Munson by reputation and you were doubtful anything about that reputation was factual. Some had said he was into the occult and dangerous but you were yet to believe it.

So far he just seemed like a board game nerd who blew his eardrums out to metal music.

Satisfied you were alone Eddie kept a polite distance by a cubicle door and put on an professional expression.

"I'm all for empowering women in business but you need to stop," he began. "I've built a trusting relationship with the buyers here and I can't allow an interloper to come in and ruin it. So please, stay out of my territory."

For a moment you were both dead still and only a dripping tap could be heard.

"I think we have a misunderstanding," you said slowly breaking the silence and tried not to smile at his seriousness.

"I've seen your hustle lady," Eddie changed tactics and tried to sound suave. "Sneaking around handing out lunch bags like a suburban mummy. Only difference between us is I have more style."

You had a laugh a bit then. He was so serious it was adorable. The bell rang and you knew you had to resolve this misunderstanding quick.

"Come and see what I'm dealing and you'll understand I am no threat to your enterprise," you said with a smirk.

"Now?" Eddie asked uncertainly as a mass of students moved passed the door. "We'll be tardy."

"Come on, live dangerously," you teased with a wink.

You waited until the halls emptied and classroom doors closed then motioned for Eddie to follow. Both of you kept your footsteps light and peeked around each corner before scurrying towards the janitor's closet.

Eddie kept an eye out as you unfolded two hairpins from your pocket and worked the lock. After a bit of delicate maneuvering the lock popped and you both slipped inside, hitting the light switch as you went.

Eddie stood back as you dropped your bag and went over to a heating vent in the floor. The cover came loose with little effort and you pulled out a cardboard box.

Intrigued, Eddie stepped closer to take a cautious look at the contents.

"I deal in the most dangerous of contraband," you whispered seductively then theatrically opened the box.

"Books?"

"Brilliant books," you corrected and handed him a stack.

Eddie fumbled with the load then flipped through the pile reading each title aloud.

"Catcher in the Rye, The Colour Purple, The Bluest Eye, hang on why do I know these?" Eddie rarely read anything outside of fantasy but these were familiar to him.

He spied a bright red book in the box and the penny dropped.

"Holy shit!" he jumped on the spot and snatched the novel up. "This is the one they were picketing on the news!"

"The Handmaid's Tale," you said with a sagacious nod. "A frighteningly believable premonition of women's future. I've got a waiting list as long as my arm for that one."

"These are all banned aren't they? Is that what you've been dealing in? Illegal literature?"

"Ten dollars to loan, twenty to buy," you said and took the novels back to carefully replaced them in their box.

"I guess I owe you an apology," Eddie confessed and started smiling.

He was embarrassed to admit his spying and conspiracy theories had been paranoia but he could see the funny side to it. Eddie was man enough to admit when he'd made a fool of himself.

It was a nice smile you thought. Eddie's brown eyes warmed and you could feel your defensive shield melting a little. His leather jacket and demonic jewellery was just a facade too fool simple minds. Which accounted for most of the student body.

'Stop that,' you warned yourself when you started looking at his soft lips. 'It's a trap.'

"I thought you were dealing drugs but this is way more dangerous. Like state crime dangerous."

"Don't get turned on," you warned and tried to stop thinking of that smile. "In a small town there is no greater crime than new ideas."

"Baby you're speaking my language."

You were about to cuss him out for that moniker when there was a pounding on the door.

"Mr Munson!" came a shout. "I know you're in there! Unlock this door immediately!"

"What the fuck?" you gasped and quickly returned the contraband to its hiding place.

"Principal Higgins," Eddie blanched and his eyes rounded like a frightened deer. "He's been watching me all week. I think someone snitched on me."

Another bang rattled the door frame and you both backed into the tool shelf.

"Mr Munson! Open this door!"

Eddie looked down anxiously at his lunchbox with its hidden compartment full of weed. Higgins had searched his bag and locker heaps of times but he'd never suspected the unstylish lunch pail. If Higgins was to catch him holding it now...

He could see his underwhelming future flashing before his eyes. Expulsion, community service sentence, Wayne shaking his head in disappointment, a job cleaning septic tanks, alone on the couch every Friday feeding his beer gut, a funeral with three mourners.

"Final warning!" Higgins yelled then speaking to someone outside said in a quieter voice, "Unlock it."

"Drop your pants," you ordered as you snatched the lunch pail from Eddie's hand and dropped it on the tool shelf behind you.

"What?" Eddie asked frantically.

"Just do it!" you barked and grabbed his denim vest with both hands.

A second later maintenance man Sergio and Principal Higgins opened the door to see you kissing Eddie Munson madly. Your legs were wrapped tight around his waist as his hands gripped your arse tight under your skirt.

Your fingers were tangled in his hair which smelt fresh and clean to your surprise. You had expected the brown triffid to be knotty and full of crumbs but it was fabulous like a lion's mane.

Eddie's breathing was laboured as he strained holding you and tried not to trip on the jeans around his ankles. Your intimate proximity was overwhelming him and he was struggling to balance the conflicting feelings of fear and arousal.

The skin around your underwear was cool and firm in his hands but your lips were warm and soft. Only millimeters of fabric separated your privates and he could feel your heat warming his sensitive area.

"My office now!" Principal Higgins yelled and Sergio made his escape muttering about needing to be somewhere else.

With the mood instantly killed you dropped out of Eddie's hold and he rushed to pull his pants up. He had the decency to look embarrassed by the compromising situation but you were struggling not to smile at the principal's disapproving glare.

You enjoyed the childish thrill of upsetting authority figures, a fault you should grow out of but probably wouldn't.

You and Eddie were marched into the principal's office where you were subjected to a scolding about playing hooky, inappropriate behaviour and worst of all, not showing the proper school spirit.

Eddie took your hand as you sat side by side opposite Principal Higgins. You went to pull away but he winked and you realised he was trying to maintain the lovers charade.

The heat of your palm warmed the metal rings and his long fingers nearly enclosed your whole hand they were so long.

You zoned out for most of what Principal Higgins said, these speeches were liked cracked records to you now. Not that you incited trouble, it's just that you stood up for yourself - something an institution that demands blind obedience disliked.

"-don't let him influence you with his underachieving behaviour."

"Hang on what?" you were suddenly reengaged in the conversation. "Did you just take a swipe at Eddie?"

"Leave it darlin'," you hear Eddie mumble behind a pensive hand gesture.

"No, no," your irritation was up. "What do you mean underachieving? Eddie is in three of my classes and he shows up to every one on time. He shuts up, does his work and answers questions. Underachieving is how I'd describe those basketball Neanderthals who stumble in late and butcher Shakespeare."

Last week you had to sit through a double period of English where the basketball goons has sniggered as every mention of "ass" in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

"You're still new to this school," Higgins had changed his tone to one for a simpleton. "You may not know this is Mr Munson's third attempt at graduation."

"Which is brilliant," you said imitating his tone. "Most people would just give up."

Eddie squeezed your hand warningly but you were on a roll. Everything the principal said now was lubricant for your bulldozer.

Principal Higgins pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. He had heard about this in the staff room. How you took to an argument with the ferocity of a bulldog and pulled a verbal knife on any bully who crossed your path.

"You are one of our best students," he began.

"Oh piss off," you shot him down before he could continue. "I get the best grades but I'm an awful student. Which is why I never get approached for extra advancement or early college admission. You give all that to the 'best' students who are spoon fed conformists while the students who put in twice the work just to keep up get ignored."

"We accommodate every student," Higgins puffed his chest up defensively.

"No you don't!" you said louder and now you were the one squeezing Eddie's hand.

"The only college scouts who come here are after athletes. Art subjects are undersupplied, the library hasn't a single book published this decade and our history textbooks are written from a very biased, white, male view. Less than half of graduates go to college, most stay in Hawkins and find blue collar work. These kids are falling into apathy because you're putting all your attention on the golden children."

"You're suspended for the rest of the week," Higgins couldn't argue with you so he resorted to punishment. "I'll be calling your father."

"You'll wish you hadn't," you chuckled and grabbed your bag.

"You need to wait while I do the paperwork!" Higgins called as you walked to the door.

"Send me a fax," you replied nonchalantly and after a second remembered you were supposed to be madly in love with Eddie Munson.

"Farewell my darling," you said with longing and blew him a kiss.

Eddie caught it and held it over heart. He smiled again triggering a tingling sensation on your skin and you had a flashback to your tongue tickling his.

'Don't,' you warned yourself. 'You don't need the trouble.'

But you were going to get into a lot of trouble.

[saradika-graphics]

DIVIDERS MASTERLIST | AESTHETICS/THEMES

AESTHETIC - THEMES

— 50’s Neon Diner

— 70's Music / Flowers

Orange Retro

— 80's Music / Rock

— Academia

— Angel / Cherub

Angel Numbers

— Arrows

— Art Deco

Blue Version

— Art Nouveau

— Artist/Crafts

— Beige Daggers

— Blue & Orange Feathers

— Blood

— Books / Reading

— Bubbles

— Cameras/Photography

— Camping / Summer Camp

— Car/Roadtrip

— Casino / Cards

Part 2

— Celtic

— Chess Pieces / Card Suits

— Coffee / Cigarettes

— Cottagecore / Dark Academia

Part 2

— Cowboy

Part 2

Dark

Space

Christmas

— Cute Pastel

— Cybercore | Pink

Hot Pink

Green/Black

Blue/Orange

— Daggers

— Eclipse

— iOS Emojis

Part 2

— Fairy Lights

— Fantasy Weapons

— Forest

— Gems & Pearls

— Goblincore

— Greek

— Music Notes

— Ocean

Part 2

Part 3

— Off-Center Dividers

— Paper Airplanes

— Paper Textures

— Pink/Coquette

Blue & Purple

— Pirate/Mermaid

— Ravens/Moons/Roses

— Red/Black Scroll Work

Silver/Gold

— Red Riding Hood

— Rings (Engagement/Christmas)

— Royalty

Part 2

— Skeleton/Skull

Grey/White

— Smutty | Pastel

— Spooky Red / Deer

— Stained Glass

— Time

— Vampires

Royalty

— Viking

— Vintage Telephone

— Weapons

— Witchy

— Werewolves

— Windows/Webcore

Part 2

Part 3

✨(Everything was made using Canva - so check that app out if you’re looking to make your own! Credit is not required but a reblog would be great if you use! 💕) ✨

[theoutcastrogue]

That's a a chess piece from the Lewis chessmen! Probably made in Norway or thereabouts in the 12th century, and found in Scotland, on the Isle of Lewis.

The set includes kings, queens, knights, "warders" (the equivalent of rooks, something in between knights and pawns rank-wise), and pawns. Some of the warders are biting their shields, and they're reasonably assumed to represent berserkers.

berserker warder / vanilla warder

king and queen

bishop

knight and pawn

group shots

[the-man-who-invented-chess]

my biggest desire for chess was to make it a game where, if I went back in time and showed it to the vikings, they'd say "who are you? what is this?" and then kill me with an axe

[stone-and-glass]

[blogtib]

[nicka-nell]

A rainy Sunday

Pairing: Osamu x. Atsumu x, Bokuto x, Akaashi x, Iwaizumi x reader

Warning: fluff, comedy

Osamu is busy all week, keeping his store running. So he’s happy if you don’t do much on Sundays.

Lying on the sofa, doing nothing or cooking something simple together is his perfect Sunday.

So Osamu doesn’t really care whether it’s raining outside or not.

You’re both in the kitchen wanting to make a simple meal. Since you wanted to eat bao buns again, Osamu prepared the meat and started chopping the vegetables. In the meantime, you have put all the dry ingredients such as flour, yeast, sugar and salt into a bowl, which you have placed on the top edge of the kitchen board before putting a coconut in the middle of the cutting board. “What are ya doing with the coconut?” Osamu asks you, somewhat confused, as he cuts the carrots into small, thin strips.

“I’ve heard that the dough tastes better if you use coconut water. I wanna try it out,” you say and try to cut open the coconut with a knife. Skeptically Osamu observes you. His heart is bleeding as he watches you pushing the knife back and forth on the hard coconut shell, as if you were holding a saw in your hand. “You’ll make the knife blunt like this,” he says, receiving a sharp look from you before you try to use more force to open the coconut.

“Do ya need... help?” Osamu asks, but you just shake your head and press your weight against the knife when suddenly the kitchen board starts to sway and fly towards you. With the bowl containing the dry ingredients for the buns, of course… You hadn’t noticed that one edge of the board was hanging over the kitchen worktop.

The coconut and chopping board fall to the floor before you place the knife on the worktop, taking a deep breath as you turn towards Osamu. You’re covered in flour from your hairline to your pants. Your face, your top, everything. Osamu has to pull himself together not to laugh and your evil expression doesn’t make this funny picture of the little flour-minion which is standing in front of him any better. He opens his mouth and raises his finger, closes his mouth again before opening it again to say something, but you stop him directly.

“Don’t... even think about saying anything!” you say in a tense voice. But Osamu can’t hold back any longer. “Why are ya so flour-ious?” he says, bursting into laughter and smacking his hand on the worktop, still bawling his eyes out. “Osamu Miya, you’re a dead man,” you say and take a few steps towards him, but Osamu is quicker as he runs out of the kitchen and away from you.

Atsumu doesn’t like rainy days. Especially when he has a day off, he would like to meet up with you and his friends or simply go out with you.

In your apartment you can relax all day, and sometimes such a lazy day is nice. But it doesn’t have to be like this every day.

Today he had been looking forward to playing Viking chess outside in the park, but the rain canceled the little trip. 

“Babe, should we throw the football back and forth?” asks Atsumu as he looks at the collection of balls lying in a basket in the living room. You’ve come out of the bathroom, just shaking your head. You may have a large apartment, but playing with a ball in an apartment is never a good idea. 

“Come on, let’s go into the hallway and throw the ball to each other carefully and lightly,” he almost grumbles. In the end, you give in, just sigh and go with him into your long hallway to throw the ball back and forth a few times. “Did I tell ya that my mom wanted to invite us to a barbecue next weekend?” He asks as he catches the ball and throws it towards you with little force. With a soft huff, you catch it, adjust it in your hand and throw it back. “No, you didn’t. Should we bring something?”

“Just a salad, if it’s in our time,” he says, before throwing the ball again and, as expected, exactly what you always see in every damn commercial happens. Atsumu throws past you and hits the sculpture his mother had given you before it wobbles, falls to the ground, and breaks. A seagull or something that actually looks like it, with a muscular chest. However, its chest looks like two breasts, and then the seagull is wearing wide heart pants and is standing on a melted ice cream. The thing is actually really ugly, but it came from Atsumu’s mom. Eyes wide and mouth open, you look over at Atsumu, who just grimaces and mumbles “oops”.

“The next time your mother is here, she’ll immediately notice that the sculpture is missing. Ah damn, I knew that would happen... she’ll be so sad…” you sigh and run to the sculpture to see if there’s anything you can do to fix it. But no chance.

“Uh, I’ll just tell my mom it was yer clumsiness. After all, she likes her cute daughter-in-law. Anyway, I want to stay the kid she likes more. Don’t wanna see Samu as her fav kid,” Atsumu says and is about to take his phone out of his pocket when you run up to him and take it out of his hand. “Oh dare you, Atsumu Miya! You foul snake!”

We all know that Atsumu broke this ugly sculpture on purpose.

If the weather was nice, Bokuto and you would meet up outside with Akaashi or take your dog for a walk.

But today it’s really stormy. So you’re only going for a short walk today, using the rest of the time on the stress-free day to spend time together.

“Shall we do a spa day today? I’ll mix up a quick face mask and make us each a Gin Tonic with cucumber and lime and we’ll lie down on the sofa and continue watching our series?” You ask Bokuto, who nods with a broad grin and looks at you disappear into the bathroom. Bokuto loves it when you smear your face cream on his face. He doesn’t even know why. Well, maybe it’s because of his two older sisters, who always used him as a little make-up doll back then. Yet he liked it because these soft make-up brushes were just so soft and nice on his skin.

You come out of the bathroom, the masks already mixed in a small bowl, as you go into the kitchen to get your drinks ready. But then you hear a strange clicking sound coming from the living room. With the drinks and the bowl with the scrub in it on a tray, you walk into the living room, only to see Bokuto sitting on the floor with your dog. You have to hold back your laughter when you see him. 

“Koutarou baby, what are you doing?” you ask him as you walk towards him and put the tray down on the living room table. Bokuto has wrapped cling film around his forehead, smeared peanut butter on it and is currently trimming your dog’s claws while the dog calmly licks the peanut butter off Bokuto’s forehead.

“You said we were having a spa day. So our cute pookie here must have a spa day too. And the peanut butter makes it much easier to cut his claws. A great idea, isn’t it?” Bokuto says quite proud of himself as he trims the last of your dog’s claws and pushes the cling film off his forehead. 

So after your dog has had his claws trimmed, you throw yourselves onto the sofa with your masks on your faces and your dog between you, before you toast with your drinks and enjoy the series on the TV.

Akaashi doesn’t let rainy days spoil his mood.

He actually likes these days, and even more so when it’s a Sunday.

These are days when he can simply be quiet and relaxed at home, without stress at work or any other unnecessary events.

Akaashi is lying on the sofa, enjoying the patter of raindrops on your windows while reading a book on his Kindle. You’re also busy listening to music on your headphones while you fold the laundry in the bathroom and clean the apartment a bit. Nothing exciting, just the things you don’t usually get to do during the week. For Akaashi and you, you’ve already prepared a lunchbox for work tomorrow as you put your headphones away and join him in the living room.

Completely engrossed in his book, Akaashi lies there. His body stretched out on the sofa, the Kindle in front of him in his hands, while he rests his head on a pillow. You don’t want to disturb him by turning on the TV. So you tiptoe around him before crawling over to him on the sofa and slipping your head under his arms, which he is using to hold up his Kindle. With a tired smile, you look up at him briefly. He returns your smile with a soft “sleepy?” before you drop your head on his chest and listen to his heartbeat.

Your hands nestle around his upper body as you close your eyes. Akaashi readjusts the Kindle, puts it in one hand while he strokes your head with the other, giving you a kiss on the top of your head, before he moves his hand down to your back, holding you in his arms. Just like him, you are now enjoying the silence. The raindrops on your window and the storm outside.

Iwaizumi usually enjoys spending time with you. Whether it’s raining or not.

After all, some stores are also open on Sundays. Besides, you can also meet up with friends. 

You actually wanted to go to a gravel pit today to go swimming, but the weather ruined your plans. Because just as you’re about to go out the door, Iwaizumi in his swimming trunks, a shirt and flip-flops, and you in sandals and a summer dress, it starts to pour big raindrops. He clicks his tongue and disappointedly realizes that it’s supposed to rain all day from now on, so swimming outdoors is a thing of the past.

“Oh boy... I was really looking forward to going out with you again and having fun. After the last few exhausting weeks we’ve had, this would have been really great...” you sigh and look at the weather outside your open front door. Iwaizumi doesn’t miss your sad look. He had been happy about the trip, too.

He sighs in frustration, but then he takes a step outside, grabs you by the hand, before lifting it in a gentlemen style and pulling you towards him in the rain. “We can also have fun like this. The weather doesn’t have to dictate that, does it?” Says Iwaizumi and spins you around before he starts dancing with you in the rain.

At first you shriek as you feel the rain on your skin. Notice how your clothes get wet and stick to your body. But somehow this cold summer rain, on this incredibly warm day, is so refreshing on your skin, the whole situation so funny and somehow romantic, that you lean against him and continue dancing for several more minutes.

You don’t let the cars that drive past you on the main road next to your house bother you. Some even slow down and watch you briefly before driving on. But that doesn’t interrupt your dance. You have fun, enjoy the time together until it starts to thunder and, for your own safety, you go back into the house and end the day with a warm bath together.

Did you catch a cold because you were out in the rain and soaking wet? Yes, you did. But it was worth it.

here you can vote for the topic of the next haikyu smau -> vote here

[notnocturne]

academia things to research (for those who want to learn everything);

chess openings

renaissance painters and their muses

pompeii

places mentioned in Shakespeare

the vikings’ dental hygiene

traditional zulu weapons

the history of oxford

how to make a flower crown

the symbolism of the medusa tattoo, and others like it

the treaty of versailles

the benefits of black tea

untouched african tribes still existing today

traditional syrian food

the doppler effect

the history behind the michelin man

why do we see anger as red, sadness as blue, etc?

the printing press

why do we dream?

the art of wine tasting

discussions with diagnosed psychopaths

the history behind motor brands

different types of wasps and dragonflies

architecture terminology

the domestication of dogs

the creation of social etiquette

japanese instruments for tea-making

famous assassins in history

the sandy hook lawsuits

the stories behind the erected churches in italy

1900s russian fashion

the clicking song

the periodic table

chemicals in cigarettes

[ki-kink]

I have always felt like the brave , heroic, noble type inside but I am a scrawny nerd on the outside. Can you make my outside match my inside?

Bro, you think that’s all brave and noble? Sure, noble’s cool but it’s hella boring. If we're changing your look, we gotta spice up your vibe too.

You’re studying political science and sociology at Harvard? LOL, no way!

You’re at Radford grinding through a Bachelor in Sports Management. And you’re only cruising through that 'cause you let your dean hook you up and your coach's got your back. Brave? For sure! Heroic? Dude, you look like a Viking and act like one too. Noble? Talk to the astronomy, chess, and debate nerds. You used to roll with them, now you just roast 'em. Ain't nobody got time for that! If they ain't making you hit the books, it’s all about football, gym, and ragin'!