#verse: the martyr

[shinobinvku]

@woodblxssomcrowned sent: "So...are you going to marry my uncle? I think I would like having you as my aunt." (Smaller!Kana at Chitose)

The Ryuketsu woman can’t help but chuckle at the girl’s question. Rumors of her, Senju Tobirama, and a secret engagement have been circulating through the village, and seem to have reached even the smallest ears. Though none have dared to approach the two about such rumors, fortune favors the bold. Perhaps it’s time she set the record straight. 

“Well, to my knowledge your uncle has yet to propose, but I’m certain he has his reasons. Regardless, of whether we are married or not, it doesn’t diminish the love we have for one another, or you, Sweet Girl. I think I would like to have you as a niece. You are always welcome to call me ‘aunt’.” She replied, a warm smile widening across her painted lips.

[livwritesstuff]

Steve is home one day with his daughters when he realizes that his oldest, Moe, is ten.

Okay, obviously, he knew she was ten. She’s been ten for a while, as her birthday is in July and it’s now December, and the girls are discussing Christmas as they perceive it in their little girl worlds.

It’s really that Steve realizes that Moe is the same age Erica had been when he’d asked her to climb through air ducts and infiltrate a Russian military base.

It’s a realization that has Steve feeling a little nauseous, because Moe is ten and she’s plotting with her little sisters about how they’re going to stay awake on Christmas Eve to catch a glimpse of Santa (their conspiring has Steve worried for his and Ed’s own role in Christmas Eve and the way it hinges on the girls falling asleep as early as fucking possible), and she’d lost another baby tooth this morning and hasn’t stopped talking about what the tooth fairy might leave for her overnight, and she still sneaks into his and Eddie’s room after nightmares looking for snuggles, and she’s afraid of car washes and bugs, and she still wants to be read to before bed every night.

He’d been struck suddenly by how little Moe still is. Maybe he’s only thinking that because she’s his daughter – his first daughter, at that – but he still looks at that kid’s face and sees the newborn baby who’d made him a dad ten years ago.

He can’t imagine looking at her and seeing someone equipped to take on Erica had been asked to do, never mind actually asking her to do it, which is precisely what Steve had done twenty-five years ago.

It eats at him for the rest of the day.

“Just call her, Steve,” Eddie urges him after Steve brings it up for the sixth time that evening, “You clearly need to air this shit out.”

So Steve calls Erica.

Erica is in her mid-thirties now. She’s a kick-ass lawyer at a private firm in Indiana, and she picks up the phone on the second ring.

“This is Erica,” she says.

“Hey, it’s Steve.”

“What’s up,” she replies, still never one for beating around the bush.

“I just – I need to apologize.”

“For what?”

“For Scoops,” Steve says, “For Starcourt.”

Erica is silent for a while.

None of them really talk about any of that stuff anymore. They’d hashed everything out ages ago, until all that was left behind was the understanding that none of them would ever be able to truly move past it, that there would always be guilt and fear and pain they could never shake.

“Okay?” she finally says, question in her tone.

“I just…” Steve hesitates, “Look – I didn’t get it. I didn’t fully get how fucked up it was. I was the grown up in the situation and I should have put a stop to it but I was stupid and reckless, and now that Moe is ten, I can’t stop thinking about how insane it was for us to even consider roping you into that.”

“I agreed to it.”

“You were a kid.”

“You were a kid,” Erica insists.

“Eighteen isn’t a kid anymore.”

“Say that to me again when Moe’s eighteen and maybe I’ll believe you.”

Steve doesn't have anything to say to that, because Erica is probably right (though only time will tell, he supposes). Their phone call ends only a few minutes later with Erica telling him to go easy on himself and Steve saying he’d try before apologizing one more time.

“You gonna take her advice?” Eddie asks after he’s pulled a begrudging Steve into his arms.

“No,” he tells him, curling into his husband’s side and sticking his nose in Eddie’s neck so he doesn’t have to look him in the eye.

“Figures.”

[lovechristianity]

On the early morning of Tuesday, March 12, 2024, Fr. Takla the Samuelite, along with Fr. Yostos Abba Markos and Fr. Mina Abba Markos, were martyred after masked terrorists attacked the Monastery of St. Mark the Apostle and St. Samuel the Confessor in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The three blessed fathers were reportedly dragged, viciously slaughtered and stabbed.

All three victims were found with stab wounds while a fourth who survived alleged that he was hit by an iron rod before fleeing and hiding. The murders remain unknown at this stage, as the suspects reportedly left the scene without taking any valuable items.

Information has been revealed.

The Monastery bell was rung between 2:30 am and 3:00 am for prayers. Father Takla was the first to head to the Church he was stabbed in the heart on his path to the Church. Father Mina heard something and ran to see what happened, he was beheaded on his path to see father Takla. Then the murderers went to Father Youstos and beheaded him on his rooms door step.

Fr. Hegumen Takla El-Samuely, Fr. Yostos Ava Markos, Fr. Mina Ava Markos, O holy martyrs, pray for us. May your sacrifice strengthen our faith and our Church.

"If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you." - John 15:18

[ianthewife]

every time shit really hits the fan i just repeat like a mantra Sister Carpenter had it worse… Harrowhark Nonagesimus had it worse… Sister Carpenter had it worse… Harrowhark Nonagesimus had it worse… Sister Carpenter had it worse… Harrowhark Nonagesimus had it worse…

[cainposts]

The martyr of Solway is so Faulkner

[rabbits-of-negative-euphoria]

anyone else find the lyric

If you let me I will catch fire To let your glory and mercy shine

extremely sobering considering the direction Paramore has gone in?

[awkwardcourage]

∗ 18﹕ sender  comes  to  receiver  after  being  injured . | @hauntsect

"Oh my god, oh my god, Monarch!" Hughie tried not to crumple as Monarch's surprisingly heavy form slumped against him. He pressed a hand to his back to steady him and felt the unmistakeable wet warmth of blood and panic errupted. "Wh-what happened?!"

[britneyshakespeare]

His virtue was the brainstorm of a dreamer!

He died a fool. And may his fall pull down

his friend and all his century! We shall see

how they get on without me. For one evening,

the world belongs to me still. [...]

King Philip II of Spain, Don Carlos by Friedrich Schiller, Act V scene ii. Translation by Robert David MacDonald.

[troutlawyer]

Christians should just stop walking up to random people and trying to evangelize and just die out already because it’s obvious you all only care about bringing in new members because you can’t manage to keep people in your fucking churches LMAO

[willowswriting]

for @dcynnight continued from here

Josephine didn't think that Teddy was clueless at all. In fact she was aware that he was quite intelligent. She never went into something without first having done her research, she was a professional after all. However he was really the only chance that she had at receiving any type of insider information. She was fully aware that they were feeding her bullshit... that was usually always the first step when the person that she sat down with knew the line of work that she was in. "Are the two of you close?" she questioned, steering it away from a business intensive conversation into one a little more casual, hoping to maybe lower his guard just a smidge.

[neptuniadoesstuff]

Art request:

More Martyr-

You want Matyr here is Martyr! (But in a dress bcs his son may have forced him to do so as a sick joke)

Also sorry for my EXTREAMLY HORRIBLE HANDWRITING SKILLS! (I seriously can't write words correctly so here's a translation to my very rushed handwriting:

"Why do I have to wear this son?" - A very embarrassed Marty.

Deff not smtn u expected but then again I'm not really much in the mind space to make high effort stuff atm so just take this for the road. (Bcs Skool is kinda busy this week & also I spent all 9f my motivation on a frikin dragon with LONG AHH LEGS)

[shinobinvku]

@annienne sent: ❝ your mind is as deft as your blade, it would seem. ❞ | Tobirama to Chitose

❝Flattery will get you nowhere, Lord Senju, but please don’t stop trying,❞ Chitose quipped, using all her brute force to push Tobirama backward.  Their collided blades slide across one another, the steel so hot that it creates sparks. She takes a few paces back, giving herself a bit of distance from the Senju with her blade in hand, panting, sweat dripping down her jaw.

She hasn’t had a challenging match in quite some time. Not since she was back home in the Land of Rivers. Senju Tobirama’s swordsmanship was perhaps even greater than anyone she’d ever faced, including her master, Suitengu. He moved with such swiftness without the help of his Hiraishin. That would make this an unfair fight for sure.

Chitose lunges toward him with sleek, graceful movements. Their blades clash once more and their eyes meet, his confident gaze ever analytical, searching.

❝You’re holding back tremendously. If anything, you’re giving me quite the workout.❞ She smirks.

[myremnantarmy]

Stephen, filled with grace and power,

was working great wonders and signs among the people.

[symphoniecalando]

They aren't your family, anymore. They left you after you abandoned them, disowned you as you left them. They aren't your brothers anymore.

I have another family.

[direwombat]

fingers in the father's soil verse has deployed some brainworms today and now billie and solomon are rotating on one of those gas station hot dog rollers under a dim bulb in my brain

[psyche-tips-the-candle]

He's the kind of sacred that's really quite selfish

Martyr to himself and to himself alone

Makes the kind of sacrifice no one's noticing or asking for

Who'd ever take a saint with hollow bones?

He's the kind of holy that's really quite hollow

Worshipped at an altar all his own

He pens himself a penance more poetic than pathetic

It's he himself who's throwing the first stone