divinity || chaelisa

Part I. Face

It is a Sunday afternoon, radiant beams of sunlight crisscrossing the floors of New York's largest time capsule of beauty- the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It's quite packed today, the low rumblings of dozens of voices echoing all the way to the building's high glass ceilings. The usual suspects are here - tourists, couples, families - all passively soaking in the ancient abstractions, completely unaware of the deity who walks among them.

The golden-haired goddess wanders silently through the museum halls, inconspicuous to passersby as anything more than a soho collegiate twenty-something. Her human form looked a lot like herself, minus the ornate garb and crown of flowers. Such beautifications were much too out of place for the human world. She instead traded her toga for a rather loose-fitting cream cardigan, along with some leggings (which she found surprisingly comfortable) and a pair of old lace-up boots. The disguise fit Chaeyoung well. It softened her aura, adding just a enough roughness around the edges to make it considerably less obvious that she was of any godly origin. The only indicator, of course, was her unmistakably flawless visage- a face more gorgeous than anyone in all of heaven and Earth. The face of the goddess of beauty herself.

The face of Chaeyoung.

Chaeyoung often came here to New York, whenever her absence in Olympus was least noticeable. Of course, there was always the option of Rome, but after centuries of walking the same idyllic streets, she had grown tired of the pompousness and regality. Not to mention how her family members were always overly involving themselves in her business when she was present. To put it plainly... Rome bored her.

But this place, New York City, was truly a hidden gem. It was a culmination of so many things. A city, blanketed in wealth and propriety over an underbelly of unparalleled crassness, a giant hectic soup of chaos and comeliness all at the same time. That, to Chaeyoung, was the most complex kind of beauty you could fathom. The kind that wouldn't jump out at you at first glance. The kind you really had to think about. But once you understood it, you came to appreciate it for its singularity.

Of course, visiting the human world had its drawbacks. Chaeyoung was forced to come here in secret. Normally, the gods were free to do as they pleased here on earth. Chaeyoung's father was constantly having affairs with human women. Surely the goddess of love and beauty should have freedom to do whatever she desired?

Chaeyoung's sister, Jihyo, did not see it as such. She wasn't so keen on the idea of mingling with the mortals. As the goddess of wisdom, the latter deity was incessant on asserting her position as Sister Superior. It had been this way since the both of them were born - in perpetual disagreement over their morals.

"It is dangerous for you to toy with human men the way you do. How many half blood children have you birthed out of your promiscuity? Have you no respect?"

"My machinations in the mortal world are not of your concern, Jihyo."

"You are acting foolishly. You're practically a prostitute."

"Haha.. Sister I am the PATRON of prostitutes. Men gaze at women and will see her as nothing more than flesh and her sex. Is it not in the most cunning of her interests to use his lust to her benefit?"

"What exactly do you benefit from making human men fall in love with you?"

"That is quite simple. Entertainment."

Evidently, the pantheon wasn't the picture perfect family. The humans knew it too.

Ah, the humans. Chaeyoung's brother Jimin always said they were just like the gods themselves, only mortal. They had no otherworldly power, but their minds worked just the same. The way they fight and desire and yearn for things greater than themselves. Maybe that's why Chaeyoung loved them so much.