exbex

Valkyrie can’t recall where she’s heard the phrase, or when; only that it’s been uttered somewhere in the void left by Thanos. It’s nothing that she’s called up from her own mind. Of this she is certain, because it’s such a people-of-Earth thing to say.

We’re human beings, not human doings.

It’s an interesting sentiment, if a puzzling one. From what Valkyrie has seen, with most beings lacking any sort of ability to spin any magic around their circumstances, they fill their realities with activity. In the course of building and rebuilding civilization, once the basic needs of food, water, and shelter are met, and there’s so much time to fill up, they always have to be doing something, maybe because by filling up the void, they’ll feel like they’re being something.

That’s the part that she understands. Filling the void either to create or destroy the silence.

“Because that’s what heroes do.” Thor had said it with the conviction that he knew exactly what he was. A man of action. And when there was nothing left for a hero to do, he thought of himself as nothing.

If she can ever muster strength to pick up the pieces of him, she’ll tell him what she’s learned. They should run towards their problems not because that’s what heroes do, but because that’s what needs to be done. Because Valkyrie has learned that, by patching herself together and letting the cracks become jagged seams, win or lose, that’s what it means to be.