Of Thorns and Lightning

by Fiona Price

  "Ah, that's much better. Now, you look like the royalty you are. After all, I- we, rule Asgard. There will be a celebration tonight for your homecoming, Maize. Maize- ugh, must you touch everything?!" Thor spoke to a distracted Maize, frustrated. Maize was, once again indeed, touching everything.

  "What do the mortals call that? Thigmophilia?! Maize, please, some parts of Asgard are tens of thousands of years old-" Thor spoke again to a Maize that didn't seem to care that the ancient artifacts she was rubbing her hands all over were irreplaceable and priceless, and only existed in that exact spot in the universe.

  "Yes, I have to touch everything, Thor."

  "Well, if you're going to touch something, it might as well be Mjolnir."

  Maize spun around quickly, diverting all her attention back to Thor.

  "The hammer?!"

  "Yes, the hammer. Come, follow me."

  "I just got here, do you really think we should rush into this?" Maize asked nervously.

  "I won't force you to hold it and lift it, I know that what it means can be overwhelming to you, but I want you to be acquaintances with it at least." Thor clarified as they walked through the corridors to the throne room where the illustrious, storied hammer sat on a marble table. Thor approached it, Maize staying a few paces back. Thor picked up the hammer and tossed it up in the air gently, giving it a little spin before catching it in his hand again. He had a fond smile on his face before setting the hammer back down and noticing that Maize was standing back.

  "What are you waiting for?" Thor asked. "Come on in. Mjolnir won't bite."

  "I just don't think I'm ready." Maize spoke quietly, feeling vulnerable. This was her biggest fear.

  "Why dost you think that?" He inquired, using more Asgardian language.

  "I'm genuinely afraid I'm not going to be worthy." She responded, doubting herself and her capabilities.

  "Believe me, you are." Thor chuckled, knowing that she was worthy from the start and having it reaffirmed with her humbleness towards the hammer.

  "Go ahead." He encouraged gently with a smile. Maize trusted him and reached out towards the hammer slowly. She slid her wrist through the strap and curled her fingers around the handle, it had a mild electric buzz coursing through it, her body completing the circuit.

  "Be careful, it's not that heavy." He cautioned, afraid she would use an incredible amount of force to lift the hammer, assuming it was terribly heavy or not knowing what weight to expect, and have it swing around wildly. Maize still hesitated on lifting it.

  "You can do it, Maize." Thor spoke once more, and this time Maize went for it. She took a breath and shut her eyes, effortlessly lifting the hammer. She opened her right eye and saw her hammer had been lifted off the table, to her ultimate relief. She let out the huge breath her lungs had been holding in as a precaution.

  "Hey! It's much lighter than I thought it would be!" She exclaimed happily, letting it bounce in her hand. "It almost feels alive." She remarked, amazed.

  "It doesn't look like much, but you are wielding one of the most powerful weapons in the entire universe, Maize. You have most of the power inside of you, the hammer just helps and accentuates it. Though, you two must work together in order to be efficient. I know you don't want to ever let go because you're afraid you might never pick it up again, but Mjolnir will come back to you. Just like the Midgardian boomerang. If you summon it, it will return to the spot it was tossed from. Likewise, if you throw yourself with the hammer you will fly along with it, but you cannot take flight without it. So, don't go jumping off of things. That I do not advise." Thor spoke, giving Maize the crash-course on the hammer and how to wield it.

  Maize's biggest fear about being Thor had been squandered. She was utterly confident in herself that she would finish out her training. She knew that she would eventually, one day be capable of ruling all the land her eyes could see, and she was genuinely secure in that thought. She knew now more than ever that she could do this, and Thor knew that she had finally realized what he had known all along. It just took a little help from the hammer.

  Truly, and undoubtedly, two new gods had been born that day, and there was no stopping them now.

  We’re All in This Together

  "Well, I'll be seeing you all in therapy."

  ♦️

  Day 1

  Peter stood nervously outside the door of William's office that would be used for the Gods' group therapy sessions. Peter happened to be first in line out of all the new Gods; each were to receive a counseling session before the therapist could help them work through their problems as a group. Their dynamic wasn't going to have an easy remedy, since they all seemed to have a myriad of underlying problems that had to be dealt with first before they could all start dealing with each other in a healthy way.

  Peter felt like he was waiting forever before the therapist opened the door and asked to see him.

  "Mr. Lannigan?" She asked. He turned his attention towards her.

  "That's me," He spoke. The doctor was dressed in a well-tailored navy-blue pantsuit and an ivory blouse, her chestnut hair pinned up into a French twist. Even though she was a stranger, Peter got the sense that she would be easy to talk to. Someone good that was sure to help them.

  "Come on in, it's nice to meet you. I'm Dr. Enders. Please, take a seat." She introduced, the two of them going into William's office. She sat in the chair while she invited Peter to take a seat on the couch. He uncomfortably sat in the middle, his posture stiff and his hands clasped in his lap. The doctor picked up on this immediately.

  "What's on your mind, Peter? You seem uneasy."

  "Yeah. I just don't know what I want to talk about, you know? William wants this from all of us, but I don't know how I can give him what he wants all the time. I get the feeling like I'm his golden boy and in more ways than one he's like my dad, but I still feel a lot of pressure here."

  "It seems like you know exactly what you want to talk about." The doctor chuckled, letting him open up to her. If Peter just talked freely without any pressure to answer to a specific prompt, everything would soon be revealed.

  "He always wants me to be the friendly, neighborhood Arachne, but he's always working on some new technology and never lets me use it, but I still feel like I have so much to live up to. And my two best friends are mini-Gods too, and I can't help but sense that it's all changing. Maize, oh god. Maize's in Asgard, and I know she's going to come back a fucking superhuman and a real, bona fide Thor. She's going to be a different person, and I'm afraid I'm going to lose my best friends, especially because Jordie's crushing mad hard on Maize and I KNOW Dike feels some sort of way towards Meaghan and I don't know how I feel about either of that."

  "Have you tried voicing these concerns to your friends?"

  "No, I just keep quiet about it all. Mind my own business around the rest of these guys. I don't want to cause any trouble, since I know there are some people here who actively seek it out to make a scene. People change, and I'll deal with it on my own. I guess I'll find new friends if I lose Meaghan and Maize. I'm sure I'll find someone new. I've got to, right?" He spoke.

  "How do you often feel around the group?"

  "Tense, but detached. I don't get involved in all the drama a couple of them like to create. I feel like there's an inner circle and I'm not exactly part of it. Maybe that's because I'm not an original God, I'm kind of the new addition around here."

  "You're just as much a God as they are. Also, you don't want to find new friends, Peter. I can tell. You want to keep Meaghan and Maize, they seem very important to you. If you want to keep them, you have to communicate with them. You're right, people do change, but you must realize you're changing with them. Tell me, why does Meaghan and Dike's relationship bother you, as well as Maize and Jordie's?"

  "Well, I think Meaghan and Dike are the same person so it's kind of freaky and I think if they hook up, the whole universe will be off-balance and like, the Matrix will open up or whatever. I think it’s still kind of wei
rd. But they both seem happy from what I've seen and heard, so,"

  "And Maize?"

  "I don't know. I just don't want her with Jordie." He spoke, ending that conversation strain softly and abruptly. But he knew exactly why he didn't want them together. The doctor knew it too, she knew that he didn't want to say it.

  Peter wrung his hands together.

  The doctor wrote it all down.

  Talia was next.

  Day 2

  Everyone knew that Talia didn't want to go to her counseling session. She made that point loud and clear, since she sent the message to everyone that she didn't need it, it was stupid and if the whole team wasn't such a mess due to everyone else's imperfections but her own, they wouldn't even need to have this group therapy.

  She blamed it on Maize.

  Talia, Angelina and Ariel were all sitting in the living room together a little while before Talia's scheduled appointment. Talia was pacing the floor and Angelina and Ariel were sitting on separate chairs.

  "If she didn't go and cry about the club, then none of this would be happening right now."

  "Talia, you were the one that was, like, verbally abusing her in the club." Ariel spoke bravely. "In a way, you caused this too. Of course, she was going to cry! I would, too!"

  Talia stopped pacing right in her tracks.

  "Really, Ariel?"

  "Yeah, really. You said a lot of really shitty things to her that night, and this whole time."

  "I agree. I don't like her all that much, but I do agree that sometimes you were unnecessarily mean. Like, you went out of your way to humiliate her about her father. That was uncalled for. So maybe this will be good, Talia." Angelina piped in, following in Ariel's fearless steps.

  "And to think you two were on my side!" Talia scoffed.

  "Talia, sometimes people are going to disagree with you, you can't expect your friends to follow you blindly and agree with every single thing you say."

  "Whatever, don't even talk to me anymore, I don't want this shit." Talia spoke, storming off. Ariel and Angelina looked at each other with the same look in their eyes, then got up and went about their day.

  Talia stormed into William's office where the therapy session would be held. She was a few minutes early, and she startled Dr. Enders.

  "Oh! Talia! I wasn't expecting you for another half an hour!" She exclaimed, jumping a little bit in her seat at the sudden commotion in the office. She put her pen down and put her glasses on.

  "I don't want to do this, but I have to do this against my will, or I'll be grounded for basically my life. Let's get this over with, already." Talia huffed, plopping down on the couch. Dr. Enders got herself situated before beginning.

  "So, Talia, I'm aware that there is a lot of tension in the group," She began, Talia running wild with it from the start.

  "Oh, we're doomed, there's no doubt about that." Talia spoke confidently.

  "Why do you think that?"

  "Because half the so-called 'Gods' that got picked by some terrible mistake in the search and the processing cannot possibly be real Gods. It has to be some sort of horrible joke, I can't work with these people! I can't stand Maize! She's supposed to be the god of thunder and I don't even trust her to not fuck up something simple."

  "How so? What has Maize done to upset you, or mess something up?"

  "She walked into the gym one morning and it ruined my whole day. She walked over to Angelina on the beam and Angelina slipped and fell! My father spends more time with her than he does with me, just because he thinks she's special, or whatever. He's so invested in figuring her out that he rarely ever talks to me anymore, except to yell at me when I yell at Maize."

  "I think your issues with other team members are stemming from a deeper internal issue, and I think it's starting with Mr. Townsend. But explain to me how Maize's presence 'ruined your whole day'. What bothers you?"

  "Everyone is so captivated by her and I don't get it. I've said it once and I'll say it again here, I think she gets special treatment, more attention, even though everyone insists she doesn't."

  "Is it jealousy? Do you feel like she takes something away from you, like you aren't getting adequate positive reinforcement, or attention?"

  "Of course, I'm jealous of her. Everyone is. She is the kind of girl that can get whatever she wants. Have you seen her? She's gorgeous, and to top it off, she's a god. But what bothers me the most is that on top of her beauty and status, she's got the whole 'fucked up childhood, daddy issues, has never known real love and acceptance from family members' persona going for her, and that's why everyone sympathizes her. I see right through her."

  At Talia's last statement, it was clear to Dr. Enders what she was encountering. She wrote on her notepad, next to everything else she had observed, circling it and underlining it.

  God complex.

  Talia assumed that she knew everything about everybody and that it was painfully obvious, and everyone else had to be below her for not seeing it, or is to blame for some reason.

  It threw a wrench in the machine, but that didn't discourage the doctor.

  "It seems to me that you're not worried about the capabilities of the team as a whole. I sense an imbalance in the group that includes this image you have of Maize that may not necessarily be the truth."

  "This isn't High School Musical, okay? It's not supposed to be all fun and happy games. I don't like Maize, and I'm not sure if I care that what that's based on is true or not. That's just the way it is with me and her."

  "So, will you not consider working through your emotions about Maize and trying to create a connection that would ultimately help the group during intense battles? That is a time when the group has to trust each other and work with each other to minimize casualties and be the most efficient against an enemy."

  "No. Because unlike Troy and Gabriella, we are not all in this together."

  Day 3

  It was Meaghan's turn for therapy. The night before, she was hanging out with Peter in his room, talking about what Peter had encountered during his session.

  "I don't know, I think it helped a lot. I got a lot off of my chest that had been sitting dormant for a while and I was glad I had a neutral, uninvolved person to listen to it all. She didn't really ask a lot of questions, she sat back and let me talk, and I kind of just opened up." Peter spoke, spinning around in his desk chair slowly. Meaghan laid backwards off of his bed, her head hanging off the foot of the mattress. Her blonde hair touched the floor and blew slightly in the wind Peter was creating with his spinning.

  "Do you really think it's going to help us as a group, or do you think this is just a hail-Mary, last resort kind of plan for William in a desperate hope that we'll finally work together?"

  "I really think this will help, Meaghan. I don't know how, but maybe after listening to everybody she can pinpoint our strengths and weaknesses and she can really get us together."

  "I sure hope you're right, Peter."

  The next morning, Meaghan wasn't looking forward to the session, but she kept an open mind. It's what Dike would do.

  The door was open to William's office, and Meaghan knocked on the door lightly. The doctor stood up and turned around, inviting Meaghan to come in and sit down, to make herself comfortable. She was friendly and really seemed like she wanted to help. Meaghan sat down on the couch, her ankles crossed, and her fingers laced together, wishing that they'd skip the small talk and get right into questions.

  "So, Meaghan. Can you tell me what problems you have encountered with the team? What is hindering you all the most from working together as a group?"

  Meaghan knew the answer, and she was glad Maize was in Asgard.

  "I'm not saying Maize is the problem here, but there's no denying she took the longest amount of time to adjust to this whole setup, and I think that's where Talia's notion that she gets special treatment or whatever has stemmed from. Maize needed a different approach to it all, and William did everything he could to figure out what would wo
rk for her. She got a lot of attention focused on her with that, and then again when she started passing out, having visions and getting constant nosebleeds. William swore that he would help her figure it out, and a lot of time was devoted to her cause. Talia obviously didn't like that. I think it's all just a big misunderstanding."

  "And what about you, personally? How has your experience been with the team?"