Chapter Text
Living as a mortal was much easier than he thought. Of course, there was the undeniable benefit of being a god that could will certain things into existence if he needed, as well as having the same amount of knowledge as there is air on the earth. The god knew that it wouldn’t be difficult, per se, just maybe a little jarring. After all, he could choose to solve his problems the easy way, but if he were to be under the guise of a normal human, he needed struggles. Fortunately for him, Seshat wanted to come with him into the world of mortals while disguised as one. Perfect. He was now a working single dad, with a mildly strained relationship with his reckless young adult of a daughter. His job? A therapist, though he commonly does marriage and family counselling. He made a decent living, providing just enough for his daughter to go to college. Just enough. Seshat requested they not be too wealthy, and it would fit Thoth’s plan well.
This whole idea of ‘pretending to be a mortal’ was quite a vacation plan for him. Yes, vacation. Although that seemed a bit counterintuitive to someone who would want to take a break, it was everything that a god like Thoth could ever ask for.
Think about it—no one exactly wanted to deal with godly shenanigans all the time. Humans were much more tolerable.
No throwing of mountains and legendary weapons at each other, no copious amounts of destruction that can only heal through time, no eternity long drama and vendettas… At least, not to the degree as fatal as when the gods do it. It would be a lie to say humans didn’t do any of that as well. Mortals were quite catastrophic in their own way, but the vast majority of humans were, well, normal humans. The divine had the tendency to be strange and cataclysmic. There wasn’t exactly such a thing as a normal god.
Even Thoth himself, as much as he liked to distance himself from frustrating godliness, knew he was far from ordinary. Even by mystical standards, there was quite a lot about him that many would consider to be extraordinary. All of those characteristics had to go if he wanted this vacation of his to work. Gone was Thoth, the Egyptian god of knowledge, the heavenly scribe, the progenitor of inventors; while he was in his mortal form, everything about Thoth needed to disappear, or by the bare minimum, hide itself well from the inquisitive minds found in mortal society. He didn’t want to stand out. Much. He couldn’t made himself too famous, as that would only cause issues in the long run. But he had to have a clear, positive reputation in order to bring in patients and help them however he could. It wouldn’t be hard to formulate himself as an above average member of humanity. Though mostly average, he hoped.
He may have screwed himself over a bit, considering his success in healing couples, marriages, and generally helping people find themselves. A few months into it, and he was the talk of the town. Patients were reeled in, and he was invited to speak at multiple conventions. His will to help may have outweighed his initial plan of staying off the radar. Luckily for him, the hype around his reputation became a bit tamer over a few months of acting like a regular therapist, and so work eventually resumed in more decent amounts.
Thoth drove to work as usual. He grew to enjoy the act of driving calmly through morning roads to get to his office, passing by a drive-through to pick up a cup of coffee. Seshat finished everything that came out of the coffee maker, which was expected at this point. As he stopped by a red light, he recalled the rather boring procedure of simply manifesting wherever he needed to be. That was the less scenic option, but the god did prefer to be practical. It just happens that practicality in this context would result in possibly petrifying his mortal assistant and whoever else was there. That would be a bit too rigorous for him to fix up.
After the light turned green and he continued to drive, his cellphone rang—it was Laura calling him. He took one hand off the wheel, taking the call with his eyes still on the road.
“Good morning, Laura.” He greeted.
“Good morning, Mr. Thutmose.” She responded, the sound of her keyboard clicking was prominent in the background. “Alice and Lucas said they want to cancel the rest of their sessions.”
‘Oh, those two.’
He thought. Alice and Lucas were maybe only three sessions in, four if he would consider Alice coming in to ask about how couples’ therapy would work. According to her, they were in a constant on-off relationship, and the goal they set was to remain consistently together while also addressing their issues with each other in a healthy way. They had been off when Alice first got into contact with him, and so Thoth assumed they fixed a small issue, and thus believed the rest of their relationship was solid.
“What did you tell them?”
Laura sighed. “I told them it would be best to at least complete the 10-session plan that they agreed to.” He could hear the obvious frustration in her voice, but it was more than justified. The two were young, quite reckless and incredibly stubborn. Still, that made it all the more important for them to get the guidance that they needed. Postponing sessions were to be expected from a couple such as Alice and Lucas, but they haven’t completed half the number of meetings required. The best he’s done as a therapist was know the groundings of their relationship and set a goal for them. There haven’t been too many details on how they would approach it.
“Mm.” He nodded, a soft sigh following after. He couldn’t stop them from cancelling, nor would he try. However, being honest in a consumable way was important. “Ask Alice to reconsider. If they’re now confident enough to not need counselling, the best we can do to accommodate that is lessen the amount of sessions, just for closure.”
“Alright, I’ll text her back.” Laura then gasped; quiet muffling was audible as she moved her phone around. “—Oh, do you have Lucas’ number? I don’t see it here.”
“No, I don’t.” Thoth shifted, switching the phone to his other side. Lucas was always less willing to receive counselling. He wouldn’t open up during sessions, either. The young man was obviously incredibly skeptical about this whole thing, and even though he’s been chattier since, Thoth knew better than to leave the two at this. “You can try asking Alice.”
“Sure thing.” Laura replied. “You’re on your way here, right?”
“Yes. Who else is appointed for a morning session?”
Thoth heard the soft scratchiness of paper sliding against another and the flipping around. Laura cleared her throat. “A newcomer. She is scheduled to have her session an hour from now, though.”
It’s been quite a while since he’d had a new patient. Most of them asked for his consultancy back when his local prestige was at its prime; some stayed, others didn’t. There were occasional newbies looking for professional help, but not many decided to continue or extend their time, for various reasons.
“I see. I will arrive soon.”
He hangs up, setting his phone down at the side as he tapped the wheel in thought. Based on his experiences with sole women who entered his office, this one was likely just looking to inquire about therapeutic services. Multiple people came to his office, but they would commonly end up with a recommendation of another therapist who was ‘more experienced’ in a certain field. Thoth could help them, but alas, the mask of a human is one often limited. Keeping his identity under cover was, quite frankly, the most important thing to him as of moment. He would simply hope that the woman coming to see him today was actually here for couples’ counselling. As stoic as he presents himself to be, it did pain him to turn down people who he could help, just for the sake of mortal professionalism.
He parks the car, double checking what he was carrying. Thoth nearly forgot his phone which had fallen to the side of the seat. He slips it into his pocket before turning the key and locking the doors. The air was quite warm. Hopefully Laura decided to turn the air conditioning on. He enters his office, the simple white of the clinic lobby greeted him in a flash, soon followed by his human assistant. Her heels clacked against the floor loudly, greeting him with a smile.
“You’re just in time.”
Laura’s head tilted to one of the seats situated in the waiting room. His turquoise eyes landed on the figure of a woman, one he had not seen before, yet felt so familiar to him.