Log: Thor, Sif, and Val Who: Sif and Val and Thor What: Sif, on Jane's recommendation, is dragging Thor out for a spar. She'll need some help. When: End of June Where: New Asgard Warnings: None
Jane had asked Sif to get Thor out of the house and give him a good spar. This she was capable of doing, but Sif also thought Val needed a distraction. So her first course of action was to recruit Val into the conspiracy. Which was how she ended up standing on Val's stoop rapping on her door. "Val! I need you to come out. Bring your sword. We're going to spar with Thor!"
Val had been working hard prepping the village for the long haul. She didn't know what was coming next or how long they'd be cut off, so she'd been working her tail off. She'd just sat down to eat when Sif knocked on her door.
Not one to turn down that she grabbed one of her swords and headed to open the door. "Oh good, he probably needs that. Also hello, Sif." She'd never turn a flight down, never ever.
That had been what Sif had guessed. She patted the hilt of her own blade, and gestured to Val to come along. "Hello, Val. Jane asked me to drag him out, and it's time and past time. He made a terrible mistake but he's got to get past it or we'll never fix this mess we're in. And if there's anyone who can lift his mood, it's you and me, preferably in a sparring ring." She started to move along towards the home Thor and Jane shared.
She grinned as they walked. "You are right. I need his help, I certainly can't do everything nor make you." She reached back to braid her hair as they approached his and Jane's house. "So forgo knocking and go right for the dragging right?" She grinned even wider as she politely knocked once.
Then, "Thor! Time to spar!"
Thor hadn’t watched this much television in ...weeks. Months maybe. Even when Jane was sick, he had spent his time busy, prepping for New Asgard, renovating and keeping busy with his hands. He had almost gotten back to his regular weight, if not his muscle tone when this all happened…. Which meant that in the last few weeks, he was back to being lazy.
So. So. Lazy.
When he heard the knock on the door, it threw him off, especially hearing Val’s voice. Jane had been leaving him alone which was a good thing and a bad thing really. He wasn’t being very open at all, and had really closed himself off. Depression was an easy thing for him to slip into.
“A spar?” He sighed heavily as he opened the door. His eyes widened. Val, he could have managed to distract but Sif too?
“At this time of day?” It was easily 2 pm. Way too late to start.
"No time like the present!" Sif told him. It sounded less like a friendly suggestion and more like an order.
“I’m not dressed for it,” he offered lamely. Sweat pants and hoodies weren’t really conducive to hand-to-hand combat.
Val, with zero shame and no hesitation, rifled through the closet and plucked clothes from it and threw them at him. "No excuses." Then a sly grin, "your king needs you up, moving and in fighting shape, don't you know?" Her tone was just as firm as Sif's was.
Thor was about to argue back that he was King but then he remembered no, Val was, and she was a better one than he. He’d heard of all the efforts she was doing to keep their village safe, safe from the havoc he had wreaked upon them.
And then suddenly he wanted to eat cookies.
Glancing around the house, he wondered idly where Jane was before realizing something. “You have given Jane advance notice of this endeavour.” It would explain why she wasn’t hovering. “I see that you both expect this to end well. Now I must decide if I will go along with this or return to my programme. This ‘Nailed It’ show is a metaphorical representation of my soul and it needs to be watched in the various languages available.”
"There is a fascinating piece of Midgardian technology called a DVR. I am sure there are many recorded versions of this program you can watch later," Sif told him. "For now, you need to spar, Thor." Sif bit back on several other things she was thinking; instead she moved toward one side of Thor, ready to grab his arm so Val could get the other and they could drag him out to the green if need be.
Val rolled her eyes at him, "Enough of this, Thor, you are a grown man." She moved in, linking her arm around his other one. "We've let you wallow long enough." She was happy to drag him out, with Sif's help.
Thor had all sorts of protests at the tip of his tongue but deep down, he knew they were right. He did have to stop wallowing. He did have to do something.
That didn’t mean he’d be happy about any of this. The reality was, he was still feeling depressed and this spar would take a lot of energy out of him … but in a way, it was good. It was better to fall asleep out of exhaustion rather than lay in bed, and let the train tracks of anxiety take him away to ..not sleeping.
“One hour,” he finally stated, as if he had any power and control over the situation. “I suppose I could use the exercise. And when it is done, you will leave me alone again.”
He knew this wouldn’t actually be the case, but at least he felt like he’d tried to save some face. Not much. Just a little bit.
He was right - he had zero control over how long, and if they'd leave him alone again or not. It wasn't going to hurt her any to do something besides work herself. Val threw herself into everything she did, running New Asgard was no different.