#the four horsemen edit

[anveyegres]

the four horsemen — iii. famine

" When He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, "Come." I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; but do not damage the oil and the wine." "

[besaya-glantaya]

A smokey eye but make it

moody mardy

babygirl cunty

[greasydumbfuck]

the holy trinity of frank castle character traits. to me

[charalysis]

Darksiders: Death

In this post, I am starting my series of analyzing the Four Horsemen from the Darksiders series. I will be pulling from the games and Abomination Vault (canon debates aside, I thinking the book is well written and a bit more of a view into Death as a person). I will reference real world psychology terms and try my best to avoid using outdated terminology.

Trigger Warnings: references to abuse, manipulation, gore and body horror, mentions of incest, sexual assault

So, to discuss Death, we must first establish a baseline for who he is.

Death was a Firstborn Nephalim, said to be the most violent and powerful of their kind, having so close a relationship to their angel and demon ancestry. In fact, it could be argued Death and Absalom were the strongest.

It seems to be also, Death and Absalom were close, close enough that Death felt immense regret over the older man's demise, so it may be implied that Absalom had a hand in bringing up his fellow Firsts.

In Death we can see the cruelty that so clearly marks all Firstborns.

After conquering their first world, the home of the Ravaiim, Death suggested he and his brothers craft their own weapons using the skills of the Ravaiim.

The Ravaiim were akin to cousins of the Makers, but among the oldest Old Ones. A race so old that "the line between craftsman and crafter was blurred". The Ravaiim used flesh to craft their weapons and items, imbuing them with power too.

Death, being the closest thing his kin had to a crafter, set to work using the technique himself... With the Ravaiim themselves as parts.

Thus were born the Grand Abominations, weapons so vile that eventually even the cruel Nephalim found it necessary to lock them away. These world ending creations are/were alive in a way; they are semi-sentient, at least enough to know what was done to create them. Their creation poisoned the Ravaiim homeland and created a stinking place so grotesque, even Hell was considered nicer. The Abominations, due to their awareness of what was done to them, loathe all of Creation and people often feel uneasy around them. An undisciplined mind may go mad wielding one, purely from the hatred they possess.

These things were Death's idea, made under his instruction. This, along with the dozens of genocides he partook in over centuries, is enough to paint a starting point of who this man is and how far he is willing to go for self benefit.

Now, to contextualize his behavior, I believe it'll help us to use some psychology terminology. Death, in our terms, shows signs of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). He shows a clear disregard for the safety of himself and others, a disregard for others feelings, and acts impulsively. He's prone to being manipulative, a liar, and seems prone to risk taking behaviors.

NOTE: This was once called sociopathy/psychopathy. THESE TERMS ARE OUTDATED AND NOT OFFICIAL DIAGNOSTIC TERMS. To many they may be considered offensive. People with ASPD do still experience emotions, but perhaps not the full range of emotions, a common one being empathy. This can result in cruel behavior, especially in children and teens, however therapy can be very helpful to individuals suffering from this condition. My reference here is not to diagnose this character, but to draw comparison and give an easier starting point into dissecting his personality and behavior. Do not go and demonize the people with ASPD over a post over a fictional character. I am simply trying to make this discussion simpler.

Now to start, I do fully believe Death is capable of genuine compassion and kindness, as shown in interactions he has with the Makers in particular. Its shown he experiences familial love with his reactions to Absalom's demise, and to War's imprisonment. It may also be seen in a small bit of Darksiders 3 with Fury's Nephilim's Respite flask, as he saw her penchant for trouble and chose to help make sure she didn't die from her own hubris.

However, despite his care for others, Death is not above using his own family for personal gains, even going so far as to nearly killing War for a plan of his. And he ends up not telling War the truth, leaving War believing he nearly died of his own failure, not because of Death's selfishness.

And ultimately, Death is selfish.

Death lies to people for his own benefit if he can get away with it. He lies through his teeth, or at minimum omits the truth. He keeps secrets because he is distrustful of others, even his fellow Horsemen. He also seems to view everyone else as idiots, insulting them and being needlessly mean.

I think maybe the reason he ends up helping the Makers so much is because they bite back. They banter with him and they're not afraid of him. They're there to help as long as he helps them. He's surprisingly honest with them too, telling him exactly what his intentions are. I think its safe to say that Death actually respects them to an extent, though Karn gets the brunt of his comments.

Back to his secrets, one of his biggest lies/secrets, in my opinion, is the Nephilim phylactery.

I don't think he hid the Nephilim souls out of guilt, not wholly. I fully believe he hid them with The Crowfather so he could find a way to bring them back one day. I think this because of his pause at the Well. He has the choice to bring them back and the only reason he doesn't is because of War. Even Lilith was convinced that he'd choose his dead kin over War, but he doesn't.

And War us truly where Death's snarky, uncaring half act breaks.

I'd say his choice to run off to gods know where to erase the crime War allegedly committed was extremely impulsive. Which, allow me to restate, HE WANTED TO UNDO A MASS EXTINCTION TO SAVE WAR FROM PUNISHMENT. He dove headfirst into his quest with zero regard for what was going to happen to himself. He jumps into the Well of Souls, sacrificing himself to bring back humanity and liberate his brother.

And what is it about War that makes Death so emotional?

We don't have a canon answer so far, but I do have to wonder at just how close they are.

I do possess a theory or two.

Theory One: Death is mildly obsessed with War as War is the youngest and last of the new Nephilim. War is a remnant of the last generation of their people and Death is keen on preserving his people in one fashion or another. War is very likely the first if them to speak against the violence of their people. War is violent himself, but not necessarily without cause, so I absolutely believe he spoke up first.

Two: Death views War as an innocent and naive boy. War is much, much more law oriented than the others, his angelic heritage shaping much of his views in seems. And to Death, perhaps, this is a sign of naivety and lack of experience. A baby to be shielded.

Three: Death raised War and sees him in a more parental manner. We don't know what raising kids was like for Nephilim, but I wouldn't be too surprised of it was a "everyone raises the young" over "parents raise their own". If that was the case, perhaps Death ended up watching War growing up more than he had other young Nephilim. That's not to say their " parent-child" bond would be healthy, clearly, but it would make sense as to why Death outright says he'd do anything to save War, and why he goes on a huge quest to revive humanity to save War. Why he ultimately sacrifices himself in the end too.

I do think that despite being incredibly self serving, selfish and arrogant, Death is ultimately self loathing. He hides his true thoughts under a thin veil of snark and dry humor, under anger and sharp words. In the book, he claims he never regrets his choices, only the execution, but I don't believe that. I do think he regrets creating the Abominations, not because of them necessarily, but because HE created something so vile.

I think he regrets killing the Nephilim because they were his kin and he was someone they all looked up to. Absalom trusted him and respected him. And he killed all of them because his beliefs had started to change.

And I firmly believe his mask isn't one of accessory. I think its a manifestation in a way of hiding from everyone.

After becoming Horsemen, Death runs away. Death hides from his brothers for ages before coming back to them in Abomination Vault.

He hides his feelings of self hate, guilt, and even affection behind snark, sarcasm, and cruelty. If he pushes others away, he needn't face the pain of their loss like he did with Absalom. But again... War is different. Before his descent into the Well, Death removes his mask.

The removal of his mask does seem to be a willingness to face forward and face the world. To face his future. I believe this for the fact that that room was the place where he metaphorically and literally faced his past, his demons. He finally let go of the Nephilim and his past with them. He let go of Absalom.

The Well is also where we seem him at his most vulnerable.

He defeats and lets go of Absalom, then goes to make his choice. Then he pauses and talks about getting to that point and still not knowing what to do. He sounds tired, broken, and like he's smiling to hold back emotions. The Crowfather consoles and councils him, and then Death makes him choice to help War by sacrificing himself and the Nephilim.

And taking off his mask is the most vulnerable he could be. He discards his physical mask, and likely in doing so its symbolic if him ridding himself of the metaphorical one.

Another character worth mentioning when discussing Death is Lilith.

Lilith, for context, is the "mother" if the Nephilim. She created Absalom first, but for all intents and purposes, she can be considered Death's mother.

Now, her tone when talking to him, in both game and book, is unusually... Flirty. And his reaction to her is visceral. He recoils and is tense, seemingly disgusted by her.

(Image Credit to @another-darksiders-blog )

These pages aren't exactly overt in what happened, but its very, very heavily implied that Lilith took advantage of Death and slept with him. Given his reactions to her, I dint exactly think he was very willing in these... Acts.

And further more, Lilith was actually counting on Death to resurrect and choose the Nephilim at the Well, as if he were the same Death she once knew, as if he hadn't changed. So I would be very, very unsurprised if she had sexually assaulted Death in some manner and abused him in other ways.

Overall it seems as if Death has had awful life experiences and copes by pushing others away and being angry. He's sarcastic and tends to not respond when called out (ie. Eideard asking "Isn't that what frightens you" when Death makes a snide joke about not having a soul).

In short, Death isn't a good person. He is a man shaped by horror and brutality and he struggles to adapt to new thinking, and struggles with emotion. However, I do think by the end of 2, he's changed for the better.

[ofsnakesliesandkings-blog]

Prophecy 3017 - "I see Four Riding, bringing the Ende, and the Angells of Hell ride with them, and Three shall Rise. And Four and Four Together be Four, an the Dark Angel sharl Own Defeat, Yette the Manne sharl claim his Own." Day 4- The four Horsemen

event by: @blairamok

[demon64]

Occasionally, I still think about how some of the Darksiders characters could work in a MOBA like LoL or SMITE. It's sort of a fun thought experiment. A couple posts ago I went over how I guessed the Horsemen could work, now let's try some of the other characters. Considering these are non-playable characters, I'll use what I can from the Darksiders games as a bit of a basis while also taking some inspiration from the move-sets of characters in MOBAs.

First, a slight addendum to a previous post about the topic. Death’s three abilities could be Teleport Slash, his summoning ghouls, and Dust acting as a sort of "scout" similar to Ashe's Hawkshot in League while his Ultimate is his Reaper Form. Fury's three abilities could be a dash, her one Hollowless Wrath attack in Ds3, an ability to pull an enemy towards you while her Ultimate would he her Havoc Form.

SAMAEL: Using his boss fight from Ds2 as a bit of inspiration, he would have lightning and fire as part of his kit. His first ability could be fire related, being something like summoning a pillar of flame in a specific area while his second ability could maybe be a skillshot of throwing a bolt of lightning which has a chance of stunning an enemy. His third ability could be based off of when he summons the huge balls of plasma during his boss fight, the ones Death has to dodge. Finally, his Ultimate could be something like him forming an aura of lightning and fire to boost his attacks. So I guess he's got bits of Aatrox, Brand, and Kennen as inspiration?

URIEL: Using he boss fight from Ds1 as a bit of inspiration, alongside that of Kayle from LoL. She has one ability where she launch a blade of energy at the enemies, another ability where she summons down a sword or two, while another is a dash attack or tempory shield that could grant invulnerability, and her Ultimate is... I don't know at the moment. I'm sorry.

The ARCHON: He could maybe like a weird mix of Kayne and Lux. Abilities based around both his Angelic nature and the Corruption infecting him, with his Ultimate being a huge beam attack from the Rod of Arafel. I'm sorry I can't think of how to go in depth compared to others.

The DESTROYER: His Ultimate is kinda easy. Make it turning into his huge dragon form. His overall move-set could be a bit like Shyvana's? Oh, or maybe his overall move-set could take a tiny bit of inspiration from both Deathwing and Diablo in Heroes of the Storm! That could maybe work?

Anyways! Hope you all enjoyed this! If you got any input, that's cool! I would love to hear from people what ideas they got!

[socially-awkward-skeleton]

⭐ one of my muse’s AU for Kit Cross - as requested by @strangefable​​ 

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse AU

Kit is an archangel sent to Earth to fight for humanity during the end of days, saving as many souls as she can. But even angels can be corrupted.

[love-in-decay]

can i? 🪦

hey friends I’m back with more good omens >:) this time we have the four hot horsemen

Source: Good Omens

Characters: War, Famine, Pollution & Death

Audio: spicyyaudio on Instagram

Flash Transition: wonuz on YouTube

[disneyprincessbuffyannesummers]

❝then i saw then the lamb broke one of the seven seals, and i heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, 'come.' i looked and behold, a white horse, and who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.❯

Revelations: 6: 1-2 New American Standard Bible

❮what about pestilence?❜ i ask, 'he was stopped,❯

War By Laura Thalassa

(Note, I paraphrased the conversation between War & Miriam for some reason).

[okariaonb]

[Good Omens] The Four Horsemen - Eat your Young

English subtiles:

Sous-Titres Français:

If you enjoy my videos and would like to support me, here’s my Ko-Fi link :

Si vous aimez mes vidéos et que vous souhaitez me soutenir, voici mon lien Ko-Fi :

[anveyegres]

the four horsemen — i. pestilence

" Then I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, "Come." I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer. "

[neil-gaiman]

Hello mr Gaiman, I Hope you're having a nice day.

(i don't know if anyone asked you this before), so i was reading the script of GO S1 ep1 and got curious, what made you change the names of the four horsemen of the apocalypse from Scarlett, White and Sable (sorry i don't know what Death was called) to War, Pollution and Famine ?

And why change White's (Pollution's) gender from male to female ?

The names they were using in polite company were still Scarlett (and Zingiber), White and Sable. Those are just the names of colours, though. (Zingiber means ginger in Latin.) They were War, Pollution and Famine all along, as they were in the book.

In the shooting scripts all of the Four Horsemen stuff happened in episode 1, but when it was edited together it was too distracting so we had to cut it a lot and break it up through the episodes. (I was saddest about the War stuff. We shot so much good stuff, and it was barely glimpsed.)

We changed Pollution/White from male to non-binary because it felt better for balance.

[shinesurge]

okay okay i have another ex-christian survey for y’all, creator edition: did your family ever see something you drew or wrote and think you were having Dreams And Visions revelations style. i painted a copy of the wonderbolts poster from mlp:fim for my room when i was a teenager and they thought it was supposed to be the four horsemen so they called the pastor for guidance.

[beaniegaebie]

i don't really have any solid conclusions about this yet but i noticed A Thing in a rewatch and i haven't found it mentioned elsewhere yet so here we go

(apologies for the appalling image quality you're about to see, i can't screenshot easily rn pls bear with)

OKAY so in the scene where crowley confronts gabriel about "shut up and die", something about the arrangement of book stacks caught my eye a little

the majority of the books are angled so that we mostly just see the page edges and not the spines clearly, EXCEPT for a particularly shiny and familiar colour combo right here-

but nothing too weird going on there, i thought, crowley coloured books in a bookshop so what? right up until i registered crowley's line when we get a closer look-

hhhhmmmmMMmmmm yes yes "everything just the way you wanted" huh, very interesting considering that we know how much thought goes into props huh

and for most of the shots we get of crowley in this position those freaking books are just quietly nestled right there in the corner-

look at that god damn framing i fuckin see you, you glorious bastards

so i paused to see if i could figure out what the hell was up with those fuckers and this is when i absolutely lost my mind, your honour

A and C you say?? in crowley colours???? framed like this?????? localised entirely within your kitchen???

anyway long story short they're two books from an Agatha Christie Crime Collection set (24 volumes, three stories per volume) and guess whats on the mfing front covers I'm-

(its a rant for another post but when paired with this other set of initials spotted in s2 i want to scream actually)

ANYWAY back to the books, through an absolutely unhinged comparison of the formatting of gold text blobs i reckon the two we have here are:

(on top) The Pale Horse; The Big Four, The Secret Adversary

(on bottom) 4:50 From Paddington, Lord Edgeware Dies, Murder in Mesopotamia

(I'm fairly confident but if anyone has a better image to confirm/correct this pls do)

now here is where I'll need a bunch of help from some Christie-heads out there bc I haven't read any of these and I've only seen the tv adaptation of one of them, so i dont know for sure if these are like A Clue, or A Cool Thing, or if I've just fully brainrotted myself into a fun lil corner here? wa-hoo

but here's some initial stuff that jumped out at me after skimming the basics:

(some of) the titles: Pale Horse/Big Four - death's horse ofc, the four horsemen mayb? the them+adam?? ; Mesopotamia is a very biblical choice bbz ; 4:50 From Paddington- azi likes trains i guess? idk that one's tenuous lmao ; honestly no idea with the other two but Secret Adversary feels a tad ominous

iirc Big Four just has kind of an unusual history, it was initially twelve short stories that she later compiled into one, and it was published fairly soon after christie's mysterious disappearance/reappearance

in Big Four, poirot fakes his death at one point and doesnt even let hastings in on it and I'm hoping sure its totally irrelevant to the ineffable bois

part of the Pale Horse story is a group of assassins that basically try to pass off all their murders as being actually caused by like ✨satanic powers✨ which is interesting

christie knew a fUCkton about poisonings thats why she wrote so many into her work and, while i don't believe the poison coffee theory myself, it sure is an interesting link with how cyanide is associated with almond smell/flavour and that metatron chooses almond syrup in particular

(ALSO random side note that is mostly meaningless but I've worked in a good few uk coffee shops and have never worked anywhere that stocks almond syrup; almond milk yes, hazelnut syrup yes, but never almond syrup...? prob just the places i worked though lmao)

EDIT forgotten point: I've seen some speculation that the bently's plate reading "CURTAIN" could be a reference to poirot's last story, along side that alternate scene of crowley ordering the sherry for "miss marple", its just one too many agatha christie references for my melted brain to handle and I'm SUS

so this is where i run out of idea steam and hand it over to you lot because i have no clue what this could mean, if it even means anything other than a cool set feature

is there something here actually or am i yelling into the void just for fun?

who knows, who cares!

[scary-grace]

Off-Script - a Shigaraki x f!Reader fic

Tomura's been Dabi's stunt double for almost a decade, and he's not easily impressed, but when he squares up with you for a fight scene, he finds himself caught off-guard in more ways than one. As the shoot progresses and sparks fly between the two of you, Tomura has to decide if you're worth the risk -- or if the best sparring partner he's ever had is all you'll ever be. (cross-posted to Ao3)

This is my second fic for @threadbaresweater's follower milestone event, with the prompt 'summer blockbuster'! As usual, thank you for running this event and congratulations on the milestone!

Chapter 1

“No.”

“No?” Midoriya Izuku repeats. He taps his headset, like there’s something wrong with it instead of what Dabi just said. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t do swordfighting,” Dabi says. “It’s in my contract.”

Midoriya looks baffled, just like every newbie director who’s ever hit their head against one of the batshit provisions in Dabi’s contracts. And Dabi’s not anywhere close to done with kicking the director around. “How come I’ve got a sword, anyway? Quicksilver didn’t have one in any of the other movies. Or the comics.”

In Tomura’s opinion, Dabi should keep his mouth shut about what happens in the X-Men comics. Everything he knows about the comics and the character he plays is something Tomura had to explain to him way too many times, in detail. “We’re rebooting the Apocalypse arc,” Midoriya says. “The premise is that Apocalypse rises in every age – long enough for people to forget about him in between – and the same characters have been fighting him the whole time, reincarnated over and over again. Only this time it’s different, because four of those characters have been chosen as Horsemen, and they’re fighting for Apocalypse, not against him.”

“Great. Why is there a swordfight?”

“In the original arc, technology provided a boost to the anti-Apocalypse forces,” Midoriya says. “By setting it in the Iron Age, we’re taking that advantage away. That’s why everyone has weapons. Including Quicksilver.”

“Cool.” Dabi lights up a cigarette. “I’m still not doing it.”

“But –”

“That’s what I pay him for.” Dabi jerks a thumb at Tomura. “Talk to him.”

Tomura’s been Dabi’s stunt double for basically all of Dabi’s career. Most stunt doubles stick to stunts, but over the years, Tomura’s role has expanded from stunts to include anything Dabi doesn’t feel like doing. Swordfighting isn’t a stunt. It should be well within Dabi’s skills. And it is – he just doesn’t want to do it. Which means that Tomura’s up.

Midoriya looks at Tomura hopefully. Tomura levers himself up off the wall and rolls his shoulders. “Yeah, okay. Let’s go.”

Midoriya follows him to costume and makeup, yapping the whole way, trying to figure out what he did to upset Dabi so much. Tomura thinks about explaining that it’s not Midoriya’s problem and Dabi’s just like that, then decides against it. Midoriya’s the one who decided not to recast Quicksilver, and Dabi isn’t exactly known for being easy to work with. He made his own bed. Tomura’s not here to tuck him in, and he’s not here to make excuses for Dabi. He’s here to do stunts. That’s it.

Quicksilver’s costume isn’t skintight, which makes it miles better than any of the other Quicksilver suits Tomura’s had to wear since Dabi was first cast in the franchise. It’s his first time in the outfit, so he asks the costumer about it. “There was no Lycra in the Iron Age,” Magne explains as she stitches one last panel into place. “The director wanted historically accurate materials. And the SFX team threatened to quit if they had to edit any more bulges out of the shots.”

That’s a relief. Whenever a new movie in the franchise comes out, the fan blogs make lists ranking all the bulges, which is awkward at best and career-threatening at worst, given the one time a list used a shot where Tomura was doubling Dabi and ranked it higher than Dabi had ever placed on his own. Midoriya is deeply weird, even as far as directors go, but Tomura will take the wins where he can get them.

He tunes back in to what Midoriya’s saying as Magne screws around with his hair to mimic Quicksilver’s signature look. “Who am I fighting again?”

“Psylocke. You read the script, right?”

Sure, Tomura read the script. The script isn’t the problem so much as the fact that the actress playing Psylocke quit last week. “Did you find a new one?”

“Of course!” Midoriya brightens up creepily fast. “Right, you should meet her! She’s – um –”

“Up at the site already,” Magne says, spraying Tomura with hairspray without warning him first. “She was pretty quick to costume. I didn’t even have to put her in a wig.”

Midoriya beams. “She’s great,” he says. “We’re lucky we found her on such short notice.”

“Who is she?”

Midoriya says a name Tomura’s never heard in his life. Magne hasn’t heard it, either. “Come again?”

“She’s on the newer side,” Midoriya says. His smile’s looking a little insane. “Are you ready yet?”

“Just a sec.” Magne sprays Tomura again, then attaches three motion-capture dots to his forehead. “There we go. All set.”

Tomura stands up, but he doesn’t get clear fast enough to avoid Magne’s customary ass-slap. “Break a leg,” she says.

“Thanks.” Tomura slinks out of the costume tent, already in a mood.

They drive to the site in one of the various beat-to-shit Jeeps Midoriya inherited from the person who directed the last X-Men movie. Midoriya drives, which is bad all on its own, but halfway there, Tomura realizes there’s someone missing. “Don’t we need Aizawa on this?”

“Aizawa’s choreographing the first big fight scene. Most of the actors haven’t done real swordfighting before, so it’s taking a while.” Midoriya’s grip on the steering wheel goes white-knuckled in a way that makes Tomura wonder if he should be bailing out of the car. He’s pretty sure he can do it without getting a single bruise. “Even if it’s just for a few tracking shots before we cut away to you – sorry, Dabi – chasing Psylocke, it needs to look good.”

That’s fair. Tomura hates a lazy background shot, on the rare occasions when he watches a movie. Midoriya glances at him. “I know you said you read the script, but – give me your take on what’s going on in the scene.”

Tomura’s heard Midoriya ask people that before. Correction: He’s heard him ask actors before. “I’m not an actor.”

“There’s not a ton of dialogue in this scene. The physical aspect has to tell the story,” Midoriya says. “So?”

He’s not going to let this go. Tomura decides to get it over with. “During the main fight, Psylocke lifts the artifact everybody’s fighting over and runs. Quicksilver goes to catch her, but she uses her mutation to slow down time around him, which puts him on the same playing field as she is. They fight, he pulls her mask off, and figures out she used to be on his side. Then she cheap-shots him and escapes with half the artifact. Did I get it?”

Midoriya nods, but he’s frowning. “Quicksilver and Psylocke are foil characters in this interpretation of the story. He’s Magneto’s son and she’s part of a family of heroes. When they recognize each other, it should be a shock – they’re not just seeing a friend who’s now an enemy, they’re each seeing the person they should have been. So the back half of the fight should, like, reflect that.”

Tomura doesn’t do emotional turmoil. “You want Dabi for this.”

“That was the plan,” Midoriya says. He sighs. “Just – do your best, okay?”

Tomura was doing high-wire stunts while Midoriya was still in high school. He doesn’t need hyping up for a swordfight he can do in his sleep. But just because he can do it in his sleep doesn’t mean the actress Midoriya pulled out of a cattle call will be any good at it. “Does Psylocke 2.0 know what she’s doing?”

“That’s why I picked her.”

Huh. Tomura crosses his arms over his chest and slouches in his seat for the remainder of the ride.

The site is up on a bluff, in a stretch of forest thick enough that barely any sunlight gets through. “This is supposed to be a nighttime scene, but thanks to the tree cover we can fake it,” Midoriya explains as he parks the Jeep and scrambles out. “Hey, guys! Over here!”

The crew looks like they’ve been waiting a while. Tomura knows most of them after spending the last seven years on the sets of various X-Men movies and hanging out at C-list afterparties. Of the group, he really only gets along with Spinner, who handles props. Everybody else is just someone else to be irritated with when they inevitably start bossing Tomura around. He props his feet on the dashboard and waits for something to happen.

“Psylocke! Quicksilver! Over here!”

Midoriya’s beckoning to him. Tomura forgot about Midoriya’s habit of using character names during shoots, and he thought Dabi was just using it as something to bitch about until right now. It’s annoying as hell. Tomura gets out of the car and skulks over, but someone else gets there first. Midoriya’s talking to her as Tomura approaches. “I know the script says you’re shooting with Dabi, but he, um, doesn’t do swordfights, so he sent his stunt double instead.”

“Oh.”

“It’s not you,” Midoriya says hurriedly. “He’s just having an off day.”

“An off year,” Tomura corrects. Midoriya jumps, steps aside, and gives Tomura his first look at you.

He sees right away what Magne meant about your hair – you match Psylocke’s design from the comments in length and color, even if the texture’s wrong. You’re a little shorter than the original actress, and you don’t look like an actress, even though the makeup artists already got to you. Actresses in big-budget films look a lot like each other, because they’re all wearing the same makeup and getting the same plastic surgeries, and they’re all the same kind of hot. You look way too much like a person. Like you should be behind the camera, not in front of it.

As Tomura sizes you up, he’s well aware that you’re doing the same thing to him, probably having the same thoughts. But you smile and hold out your hand to shake. “Hi. I’m looking forward to working with you.”

Tomura shakes your hand for lack of anything better to do. “Go see Spinner for props,” Midoriya instructs, “and think about how you want to do this. Maybe get in character also? I’m not sure how many takes we’ll get before the light changes.”

“Got it,” you say. “Spinner is –”

“The guy with the swords,” Tomura says. It’s hard not to roll his eyes, and it gets harder when you fall into step beside him. Spinner is waiting for you both behind the props table. “Hey.”

“I was expecting Dabi,” Spinner says, picking up a sword. When Tomura reaches for it, Spinner chucks it to one side and lifts another. “I was gonna give him that one, but you’re better than he is, so I can trust you with this.”

Instead of the kodachi, he’s holding out a tachi to Tomura. “See how you like the balance on that. And for you, Psylocke – one katana, coming right up.”

Tomura keeps one eye on you and your sword while he’s testing the balance on his. You’re not being stupid with it, at least not yet. Holding it properly is the lowest possible bar, but Tomura’s met plenty of actors who can’t even manage that, and at least your grip looks solid. You walk a few steps away to practice sheathing and unsheathing it, and Spinner elbows Tomura. He nods in your direction. “What do you think?”

“What rock did Midoriya find her under?”

“I think she’s a stage actor,” Spinners says. Great. “Mainly musicals. She’s never gotten cast as anything bigger than an understudy.”

Tomura would facepalm, except he’s holding a sword. “Still,” Spinner says speculatively, “the director’s not a total moron. He must have seen something he likes.”

“Yeah. He likes not having to blow the costume budget on a wig,” Tomura says, probably a little too loudly. He sees your shoulders stiffen, and you turn to face him. You don’t look like you’re going to cry or anything, but Tomura’s been wrong about that before. “What?”

“I was just going to ask if you wanted to practice, or if we’re doing it blind,” you say. Before Tomura can answer, you make the decision. “I say blind. It’ll look more authentic if we’ve never fought each other before.”

Tomura likes that idea, if only because the chaos will mask his total lack of acting skills, but he was counting on a practice round to test your actual abilities. Still, it’s your funeral. “Fine by me. I’m not going to go easy on you or anything.”

“I’m glad,” you say, and smile. Tomura already saw you smile once, but it was nowhere close to being this spooky. You have to be doing it on purpose. “I wasn’t planning to go easy on you, either.”

Tomura should say something – maybe along the lines of ‘we just got off on the wrong foot, don’t cut my fucking head off’ – but before he can, Midoriya orders everyone to places. He must have given you instructions ahead of time, because you vanish into the trees, leaving Tomura to follow Midoriya’s hyperspecific directions for hitting his first mark. “We’re just going to roll,” he says, as Tomura steps out of frame and braces himself to run. “I’ll call cut once things go sideways.”

Things go sideways in choreographed fight scenes all the time. Things going sideways in an improvised fight is a guarantee. “Right.”

“Psylocke, are you set?”

“Set,” you call out from somewhere.

Midoriya takes a deep breath, like he’s the one who’s about to start a fake fight. “Okay. Action!”

Fake-running and skidding to a stop isn’t Tomura’s specialty or anything, but he can make it work. He hits the mark Midoriya specified, raises his hand to the hilt of his sword without drawing it, and takes a look around. Right here and now, there’s no reason for Quicksilver to think that someone’s about to attack him. Even Psylocke using her powers to slow him down could just be a tactic to ensure her escape. She’s basically already escaped. All Quicksilver has to do is wait for her grip on time to slacken, and then –

A twig snaps behind Tomura and he throws himself forward into a roll, pivoting as he gets to his knees and drawing his sword in the same moment. You put a lot of strength and a lot of momentum into your first strike, and if this was a real fight, Tomura would be injured or dead. As it is, you checked yourself at the last second, and you take your time settling into your next attack, giving Tomura just a second or two to plan out his own.

No attack yet. His wingspan is wider than yours and the blade of his sword is longer, which means the first step for Quicksilver to avoid a katana through the neck is to get out of Psylocke’s range. You’re not screwing around, so Tomura won’t, either – he picks up a handful of leaf litter, throws it into your face, and gets to a safe distance, remembering at the last second to make it look even sort of stylized. It’s a movie, after all.

You’re taking it seriously. The suddenness of your first attack has Tomura on edge, and the lack of any direction or choreography means he’s got no idea what you’re going to do. They won’t be in the back half of the fight until he pulls your mask down, and haphazard grabs look stupid on camera. He needs to get your mask on the first try, and between now and then, he needs to put on a show.

Tomura strikes at you, and you duck, pivot, halfway inside his guard before he can reverse the strike. But you’re in too close to use your katana effectively – on purpose – and Tomura aims a punch at your torso, hoping you know how to fake a hit. You do. You exhale sharply, jerk backwards, and Tomura separates from you again.

Who the hell are you? Where did you come from? Why are you going this hard? It occurs to Tomura as he parries your counterstrike and returns a few of his own that these are the same thoughts Quicksilver would be having if any of this was real. Now that Tomura’s introduced hand-to-hand combat into the equation, you start using it, too, throwing a high kick that brushes ever so slightly against Tomura’s jaw. Tomura snaps his head sideways to make it look good, then lurches backwards in response to a fake punch to the solar plexus. He’s holding his own, and he’s in control of the fight, but to the camera and everybody else it’s going to look like Psylocke is handing Quicksilver his ass.

And you should be. Tomura underestimated you, then insulted you, and now you’re making him pay. But as interesting as the fight’s getting, it’s a movie, not a grudge match. Tomura shortens his attacks and you step in closer, close enough for him to grab your mask. Or it would be, if your face was where it’s supposed to be. Instead you’ve gotten all the way inside Tomura’s guard, stepped across him, and grabbed his shoulder with your free hand – and now you’re throwing him over your hip to the ground.

You’ve got the physical strength to pull it off – Tomura can feel it – but he gives you some help anyway, making the resulting fall look even harder than it’s supposed to. He lands flat on his back with you poised above him, pinning him down with your katana at the ready. Now would be a great time to grab the artifact, since it’s hanging on a loop around your neck, but Tomura’s got his orders, as stupid as they are. He reaches up, seizes the mask over your mouth and nose, and pulls it down.

You really can act. Tomura watches your expression shift from startled to shocked to something else, and you recoil backwards away from him. Tomura’s slow to rise, because Quicksilver’s supposed to be shocked, too. Dabi’s going to have to deal with whatever character choices Tomura’s making here, and he’s going to be pissed. Tomura doesn’t care. If Dabi wanted to have a say over what this fight looks like, he should have done it himself.

You’re pulling your mask over your face, pressing it down. You’re so busy with it that Tomura almost gets away clean with grabbing the artifact from around your neck. You catch him at the last minute and pull it back, and it splits cleanly between his hand and yours. You take one artfully reckless swing with your katana and Tomura ducks back just a little farther than he needs to. Which is when you turn and run, booking it out of frame and towards the far edge of the woods.

Some camera guy – Iida, Tomura thinks – chases after you. Tomura’s off the hook, but he holds still anyway. He’s gotten yelled at more than a few times for moving before the director’s officially called cut. But Midoriya isn’t calling cut. He keeps not calling it. Tomura can hear him, though. He’s muttering to himself.

“Hey, boss-man!” hollers the unit director – Togata, or something. “Want to call a cut?”

“Oh, oops! Cut! Definitely cut.” Midoriya sounds like he couldn’t give less of a shit. When Tomura turns to look at him, he’s got a notebook and he’s writing furiously. And mumbling again. Tomura’s worked with a lot of directors and more than a few weird ones, and once he rules out the hand fetishist and the guy who wanted the fight scenes to include real knives and real blood, Midoriya’s definitely the weirdest.

You come back from wherever you ran off to, and you don’t seem to think Midoriya’s as weird as everyone else does. “Are we waiting for notes?”

“Huh?”

“After we run a scene in a stage show, we get notes,” you say. You’re not quite breathing hard. Neither is Tomura. “Do you not do that around here?”

“Nah,” Togata or whoever says. “Usually the director just hollers at whoever screws up and makes everybody do another take.”

“Okay,” you say slowly. “Who screwed up? Was it me?”

“You certainly took some liberties with the scene,” Iida says. “The original intent –”

“You want original intent, don’t tell us to improv,” Tomura says. The fight with you was maybe the most intense fight scene he’s ever done. When Midoriya inevitably nixes it, Tomura wants a copy. He addresses you. “It wasn’t you. Somebody on the sound side probably fucked up.”

“Excuse me?” The sound tech – maybe Jiro? – looks like she wants to club Tomura to death with a boom mic. “I fucked up? If you two hadn’t gotten all –”

“Midoriya,” Togata sings out, patting Midoriya on the shoulder. Midoriya jumps. “Hey! Good to have you back! Should we get set for another take?”

“No.”

Mirio looks confused. He’s not the only one. “Are we taking this one back to the drawing board?”

“No.” Midoriya shuts his notebook and looks up, his eyes shining in the crazy way movie people get when they have a really wild idea. “That was the take. We’re done.”

“What?”

“That was it.” Midoriya’s grinning. “It was perfect.”

Now you look weirded out. Finally. “No notes?”

“We need some close-ups, but –” Midoriya grabs his radio and hollers for somebody to put Dabi in his costume “ – you guys did a great job. Like, even the timing – it’s going to be so easy to use those beats for close-ups, and all the character stuff – you were so in sync it was scary, but emotionally you were each totally on your own journey, and it looked –”

“Hey, take a breath. Don’t faint,” Jiro instructs. Midoriya sucks down some air, and Jiro turns to you. “You did your first fight scene in one take. Congrats.”

Spinner lifts the sword out of Tomura’s hand, then takes the two halves of the artifact from both of you. Tomura’s done here for now. He’ll hitch a ride back on the Jeep that brings Dabi up and find a place to nap. Hopefully. He feels a little too keyed up to take a break right now.

You’re still standing there, looking sort of dazed. It annoys Tomura for a second, until he remembers that you’re used to understudying in musicals, not shooting superhero movies. “Hey,” he says, and you startle. “That was a solid fight. You’re better than I thought.”

“That’s not hard,” you say. “All I had to do to be better than you thought I’d be was to not impale myself or anybody else.”

“I haven’t seen you work before today. Sue me,” Tomura says. “You know what you’re doing. That was a really good fight.”

You shrug. It pisses Tomura off. Fishing for compliments always does, and Tomura hates it – but instead of telling you to grow up, he tries to hit you over the head with it for real. “You might not know your head from your ass yet, but I do, and it was a good scene. I haven’t had a fight like that in –”

Years? A decade? Tomura doesn’t think he’s ever been in a fake fight that felt real without actually feeling unsafe. “That’s the best one I’ve done in a long time,” he says finally. “You’re a real actress now. That modesty shit isn’t cute.”

You shrug again and make your way over to where Midoriya and Iida are talking. You’re probably going to ask Midoriya if you did something wrong, and he’ll get weird and reshoot the whole thing. Or he won’t, and he’ll think you’re insecure, which drives most directors up the wall. The fight scene was good on the first take. That never happens. Excuse Tomura for wanting to enjoy it.

“Shigaraki,” Spinner says from behind Tomura, and Tomura looks at him. “That’s not how you talk to girls.”

“Huh?”

“You, like – negged her. A lot,” Spinner says. Bullshit. Tomura knows what negging is. He knows he wasn’t doing it. “You told her she sucks, and then you told her she doesn’t suck as much as you thought she did. And then you trashed her whole career before now –”

“When did I do that?” Tomura’s done with this. “I said she knew what she was doing.”

“Uh, yeah. She took you to the cleaners on camera,” Spinner says. “And I hate to be the one to say this, but you looked really into it.”

What does he mean, into it? Tomura was doing his job. If he doesn’t get into it, he has to do extra takes. “So, like I said,” Spinner continues, “if you want to talk to girls and have it go anywhere, you have to give actual compliments. Not just tell her you’re surprised she wasn’t worse.”

“That’s not what I said,” Tomura growls. He doesn’t like anything about this conversation – not what Spinner’s implying, not what Spinner’s telling him to do. “Since when do you give me advice about girls?”

“Since I’ve gone on a date in the last six months,” Spinner says without blinking. “When was the last time you went out?”

“I’ve been busy.”

“Dabi spent the last six months in rehab. You could have gotten out there,” Spinner says. Tomura glares at him. “All you did was work out and play League.”

“That’s what I was busy doing,” Tomura says. “I don’t need lessons on talking to girls.”

“Sure,” Spinner says. “Give her a real compliment next time. It’ll help.”

It’ll help with what? Tomura doesn’t know what Spinner thought he saw, but whatever it is, it wasn’t there. Tomura doesn’t date actresses. Or actors, in spite of what a bunch of Dabi’s fans seem to think is going on between the two of them. And even if Tomura was going to date an actress, he wouldn’t date somebody like you – somebody new to all of this, somebody naïve, somebody whose confidence can barely survive a single hit. Maybe you’ll be the kind of actress Tomura would date if you make it through this shoot alive. The fact that no actress would ever date Tomura doesn’t matter at all.

Even if this is the only blockbuster you ever do, he’ll get to fight you at least one more time. There’s another fight scene between Quicksilver and Psylocke later on in the script. As Tomura leans against a tree waiting for his ride to show up while you talk way too earnestly to Midoriya, he finds that he’s already looking forward to it.

[incorrect-soc]

The Four Horsemen: SoC edition

Babe, but like platonically: Ninej.

Dude, but like romantically: Wesper.

Sweetheart, but like rivalry: Nina x Kaz.

Bastard, but like partner: Helnik.

.Bonus.

Investment, but like I wanna get drunk on your laughter every night: Kanej.