Gintsuki Shikibu

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Chris Ying - The Classic Fuckboy Jock

Chris is the type of guy who has three looks, and that’s it. 

When he wants to get dressed up, he is the type of guy you would look at and immediately think of as a complete douchebag. He wears Aeropastle, Ed Hardy, bedazzled jeans, and he has his ears pierced and he wears diamond studs in his ears that stick out of his primped, straightened and hair-sprayed platinum blond hair. He puts a lot of effort into his appearance if he’s going to a party, and he is absolutely the kind of guy you would read as a ‘rich pretty boy’, especially by the brands of clothing he wears, and how pristine he keeps his clothing. He likes to look good, and he takes a lot of pride in his appearance. And oddly enough, this does cause people to judge him, just in different ways than they would someone who is dressed very eccentrically. 

But most of the time, on a regular basis, when there’s not some party to attend or some occasion called for, he can be seen sporting one of his other two looks. 

He wears a lot of athleisure - he is a jock, and he definitely dresses like one. He plays a lot of sports or spends time working out, so it just makes sense for his life. Again, he is always seen in expensive brands, and a lot of the time he’s seen wearing sports clothing with school logos on it from his various years on school sports teams. It’s rare that he’s not wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt or some form of basketball shorts with very expensive sneakers. 

And his third look is: practically naked with some very old, worn, comfortable pajama pants. Anytime he’s at home, he hates clothing, and he wears the same pair of comfortable, worn-in pajama pants until they’re nearly ripping at the seams and begging for mercy, and then repeats the cycle with a new pair. Pants that were probably stolen from Dustin in order to be well-worn before he got to them. 

He is very predictable in the things he wears, and his style matches his lifestyle completely. Thanks to his clothing and his outward appearance, not a lot of people bother to look deeper and find the Chris beneath the air-brushed Ed Hardy shirts and the predictable sports gear. Even if they did, what would they see?

...

Chloe Li - The "It" Girl

Chloe is the definition of an ‘it’ girl, and her clothes absolutely speak to that. She wears a lot of trendy clothing - Juicy Couture matching sets, New Religion jeans, Playboy bedazzled shirts. She is everything a popular girl of the time should be: shiny, pink, polished, perfect. 

But as the daughter of a fashion designer, she is also ahead of the curve in a lot of ways and she is a trendsetter who is making waves with a lot of new styles. She is not afraid of bold patterns, bright colours, and of course, all her outfits are made with luxurious, expensive fabrics. And if her clothes not made by herself or her mother, they come from other expensive, designer brands. Everyone always watches out to see what she’s wearing and then follows her, and this puts immense pressure on her to be constantly perfect and to wear only the best for even the most average day of school. 

She is always sporting a designer handbag on her arm, and she is well known for wearing heels almost everywhere, even if they are a highly impractical shoe - she will take style over function any day, and gorgeous, designer heels always complete her picture perfect outfits. 

It’s rare for her not to be absolutely polished and perfect. With her mother’s entire brand resting on her back, she’s not just a girl, not just an average high school student - she is a walking advertisement for an entire company, one that will likely be her legacy someday. So of course, she can be nothing less than perfect at all times. No pressure, right?

Bailey Yu - The Wild Colorful Girl

Bailey has a very unique sense of style. On her journey of self discovery, discovering her true gender identity and getting to truly express it, she realized that other people’s ideas of ‘normal’ and ‘typical’ are absolutely overrated. If she is going to stand out at her high school due to being the only trans person, then she is going to stand out due to be awesomely, wildly dressed as well. People are going to stare, so let them stare for a reason.

Bailey’s style could be described as ‘scene girl’ - that’s probably what a lot of people would call it at first glance, but she is a lot more complex than that, way too complex to fit into any box. She does love the graphic tee shirts and layered, chunky jewelry that a lot of scene girls wear, but she also loves wearing head to toe colorful outfits, platform boots, and she usually prefers different skirts and dresses with wildly colorful and patterned tights instead of on trend skinny jeans. To her, every single day is an excuse to show off her awesome fashion, and she will always be the most over dressed person in the room. 

She is also obsessed with accessories, and while Coco Chanel said ‘you should look in the mirror and take one thing off before leaving the house’, Bailey believes in the opposite - you should find one more thing put on in order to make yourself stand out and look totally fabulous. (And Coco Chanel was a Nazi sympathizer, so who the hell wants to take advice from that old cow?).

Bailey is the type of girl who likes to make her own accessories for fun - making her own jewelry, and even going so far as to make cute accessories out of unexpected ‘junk’. She makes buttons out of bottlecaps, has made earrings out of old computer chips, and one time she even made a handbag out of one of her old childhood stuffed animals - which was difficult to explain when Dustin came into her room one day and found her gutting poor Gengar. But hey, anything for fashion. 

Bailey is someone who loves openly expressing herself with her style, and spiting society’s expectations while doing it, and that’s not likely to change anytime soon. The world would be pretty boring without anybody to challenge the status quo, right? 

...

James Zhang - The Thrift King

James is a thrift god.

His love for vintage fashion started in his own basement at home. He already loves everything outdated: movies, shows, music. It might be a tired stereotype, but he thinks that he was born in the wrong era. He definitely relates to ET more than anybody among his peers. So when he found several boxes of his parents vintage clothes from the 70s and 80s in the basement, he fell in love. Old corduroy pants, denim overalls, and lots and lots of vintage t-shirts with cool old logos that are already worn down and comfortable - let’s just say he hasn’t bought new clothing (except for underwear, of course) in a long, long time. 

He much prefers bidding people up on E-Bay for vintage denim jackets and spending hours at the hyper-curated thrift store a few towns over scanning the racks for vintage Star Wars t-shirts than to give into whatever the latest trend is. To him, nothing beats the comfort of wearing a pair of vintage jeans that have already been broken in. (And no, he doesn’t want to talk about how nagging and sensitive his skin is and how he would probably prefer not to wear clothes at all.) 

He loves it when his clothes have character - when his secondhand Chuck Taylors have scuffs on them, when his jeans might have a rip or two, unintentionally, unlike buying them ‘pre-distressed’. 

And just as he does with the different clubs and hobbies that he has tried out, he can be very experimental with his style, too. While his usual signature style is a simple pair of jeans and a graphic t-shirt, he can be known to show up to school wearing a ridiculous fancy hat, a fancy vintage vest and button up shirt, or even cowboy boots if he’s in the mood.

His closet is full of one-time style experiments that he tried on, enjoyed, and then never went back to during his general exploration of life and himself. A bright neon windbreaker from the 80s may not have been true James, but he’s glad that he wore it out, showed it off, and tried. He’s okay with people staring at him when he wears weird clothes because it means that he’s truly living it up. And a lot of the time, even if he doesn’t look good, they’re good conversation starters. 

There’s nothing worse than sitting on the sidelines and not being seen at all, right?

...

The second the police boats started to approach the island with their sirens wailing and spotlights beaming, it was every teen for themselves.  Solo cups were abandoned, beer cans tossed aside, and lawn chairs flipped over in everyone’s rush to get back to their boats before the cops made landfall.

Dustin found himself scrambling across the sand, trying to find Chris in the middle of the pandemonium before it was too late. Unfortunately, the wild crowd made it virtually impossible for him to see anything; he was lost in a haze of weed smoke and frantic limbs… which is why it was entirely unsurprising when he collided with another person hard enough to knock them both flat on their asses.

“Shit, sorry, are you…” Dustin’s words trailed off when he realized who it was he’d practically headbutted, “wait, Chloe? Do you know where my brother is?”

“He ran off to find you!” Chloe said, rubbing her forehead with one hand and holding her heels in the other, “this is a huge fucking mess. Krissy, Kristen, and Kamden ditched me as soon as shit went south,”

“You can catch a ride with us as soon as we find Chris,” Dustin offered, helping Chloe to her feet, “we gotta move, now!”

Spotlights continued to slice through the fog like blades as the cops got closer by the second. Someone shouted something about them having breathalyzers, but it was drowned out by the blaring megaphones coming from the police boats.

“This is the Pacific Cove Police Department! Stay where you are. Attempting to flee will be considered resisting arrest! This is your only warning; proceed to the shoreline in an orderly fashion with your hands visible!”

“God damn it, I knew I should’ve stayed home,” Dustin muttered to himself as he and Chloe continued through the crowd. It seemed absolutely fucking helpless; there was no sign of Chris anywhere.

However, just before the first police boat reached the shore, a shrill voice called out into the darkness.

“Dusty! Over here!”

Dustin nearly broke his neck from the speed at which he whipped his head around to see Chris and Bailey in the speedboat, riding parallel to the shoreline, with Bailey waving her hands frantically to get his attention. Dustin’s happiness to see them was immediately undercut by the realization that he was the one with the speedboat keys… until patting his pocket revealed that Chris must’ve stealthily lifted them without his notice.

Before Dustin and Chloe could hop aboard, another voice called out to him; this one a familiar baritone.

“Yo, Dustin! Hold up!” James was sprinting toward them, kicking up sand like the Roadrunner as he went. Despite it all, he was still clinging to a beer, “looks like I got left behind!”

Dustin just nodded and motioned for James to come along as he and Chloe waded into the surf, slogging their way to the speedboat.  The water was bitterly cold, and it immediately rushed through the strategic holes in Dustin’s leather pants, chilling him to the bone.  He ignored the cold as best he could, scrambling up into the boat and hauling Chloe in after him. James followed a second later, still somehow grinning, and before anyone could say a word, Chris slammed the throttle and got them the hell out of there.

For a second, it felt victorious; the wind in their hair, ocean spray on their faces, and the sound of sirens quickly fading into the background.  It was almost enough to make Dustin think they’d gotten away with it…

Until another spotlight hit them out of nowhere.

“FUCK!” Chloe squealed, ducking as low as she could, “they’re fucking chasing us!”

Sure enough, one of the police boats had peeled away from the others, and was now gaining on them.  The sirens started to shriek, and Dustin’s heart nearly punched a hole in his chest just so it could escape.

“This is the Pacific Cove Police Department. Kill your engine immediately and prepare to be boarded!”

“Fuck. That!” Chris said, hitting the throttle even harder. The speedboat groaned as it was pushed past it’s limit, reaching a speed that made everyone lurch forward and brace themselves against anything rooted to the ground… everyone except James that is, who was whooping and howling like he was having the time of his life.

“Chris slow down! You’re gonna flood the engine!” Dustin shouted, his voice barely audible over the competing sounds from the speedboat and police sirens.

“I’m not facing mom’s wrath if we get arrested!” Chris shot back, his eyes locked on the darkness ahead of them with fiery determination.  Dustin pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration, before turning back to see how close the cops were…

But what he saw was certainly not what he expected.

A wall of dense, white fog; much thicker than what was normal in Pacific Cove.  It was sudden and pervasive, crawling along the water’s surface like the limbs of a giant spider as it enveloped everything around them.

“Whoa… did anyone see that fog bank before we hit it?” Bailey asked, her eyes darting around rapidly.

“No,” James said, his tone finally serious, “there was nothing there. It just rolled in out of nowhere,”

Suddenly, the speedboat started to slow down; the sound of the engine softening into stillness.

“Why are we stopping?!” Chloe shook Chris’s arm, “we don’t know if we’re in the clear!”

“I didn’t do anything, look!” Chris gestured to the throttle, pushed as far forward as it would go, “I have no fucking clue what’s going on,”

“You probably flooded the engine. Would be a shame if someone warned you about that,” Dustin mumbled, rolling his eyes.

“I didn’t flood the fucking engine! Do you hear sputtering?”

“Well then how the fuck else would you explain it?”

“I don’t know. You tell me since you know every fucking thing,”

“Guys, chill for two seconds!” James cut in, ending the twins’ argument before it could spiral further, “what the hell is that?”

Dustin looked in the direction James was pointing, and his breath caught in his throat.  The overwhelming fog was slowly beginning to lift in front of them, but instead of seeing the shoreline of their town… instead they saw a series of ornate buildings, floating on the surface of the water like the laws of physics obeyed them and not the other way around. Each building was made of pale stone that looked like moonrock, topped with a sloped pagoda-style roof carved out of glittering silver and trimmed with glowing lanterns that swayed in the wind.

It was a huge and sprawling complex rather than a singular building; it looked almost like a village had somehow risen up from the seabed.

“That’s… a palace? A Chinese one, ancient too. Like, maybe Qin Dynasty? Maybe earlier,” Dustin said, mostly to himself as he continued to examine the structure.

“Oh my god we’re dead. We fucking died and now we’re in Heaven and I have to answer to my Chinese ancestors and I don’t even fucking speak Mandarin,” Chloe rambled, anxiously tapping her nails against the side of the boat.

“We’re not dead, we can’t be. I definitely wouldn’t be in Heaven if we were,” Chris narrowed his eyes on the building as the boat continued to drift closer to it, “Dustin, you’re sure it’s a Chinese palace?”

“Positive. Mom talks about this stuff all the time… if only you’d pay attention,”

“Okay Mr. Scholar, then can you explain why the fuck this palace is floating in front of us and not in the country or fucking CENTURY where it belongs?!”

“Not really, no,” Dustin admitted.

“Maybe we’re all stoned? I’m definitely stoned… but then again, I don’t usually hallucinate,” James said, and for the first time that night, his voice wavered. The grin was gone, instead he looked… rattled.

Before anyone could respond, a sharp, blinding pain split through Dustin’s skull, like lightning behind his eyes. He gasped and dropped to his knees…

And then came the voice.

Smooth. Detached. It didn’t echo so much as press against the inside of their heads.

“Inside the Palace of Radiant Clouds, you will meet what has always been yours to master,”

At first Dustin thought he was the only one to hear it, but a quick glance made it clear that everyone else was experiencing the same thing, based on the way they were clutching their ears and heads.

“What the fuck was THAT?!” Dustin and Chris cried out simultaneously.

“That voice… I think it wants us to go inside,” James said softly, watching intently as the boat drifted closer and closer.

“No way we’re doing that, are you dumb? We’re calling for help. At this point, even the police are a better option than going inside the creepy ghost palace that we were invited into by a disembodied voice,” Bailey rummaged through their bedazzled handbag and pulled out her flip phone.  However, instead of dialing anything, she just started at it in disbelief, “are you fucking kidding me? No bars… fucking AT&T,”

One by one, everyone else checked their phones as well, and surely enough they had no service either.

“Maybe we should go inside,” Chris suggested, though he didn’t sound very confident about it, “maybe there’s a landline or something in there,”

“Seriously dude? A landline in an Ancient Chinese palace?” Dustin shot him a look, “what, are we calling The Emperor collect?”

“A fucking weird Chinese palace that’s floating on water! A phone being in there would not be the weirdest thing about it! Besides, it’s not like anyone else has any ideas!”

As if responding to their argument, the boat shifted beneath them; pulled closer to the dock at the palace’s edge by an unseen current.

“Fuck it… why not,” James finally shrugged and leapt off the boat, landing on the polished wooden dock with a soft thud, “what? It’s better than just floating out here waiting for something worse to happen,”

Chris closed his eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, and followed James onto the dock.

“What the hell are you two doing? We are not going in there!” Bailey scolded, folding her arms and stomping her foot indignantly, “Dustin, please talk some sense into your brother,”

Dustin wanted to. He really, really did.  But there was something; call it a voice, intuition, whatever… it was urging him to go inside. Like the moon pulling the ocean.  He couldn’t explain it, wasn’t sure he wanted to… but he knew he needed to follow that feeling.

And so, he stepped off the boat, joining Chris and James on the dock.

“Oh hell no, these motherfuckers have lost their minds,” Chloe mumbled to herself, massaging her temples.

“I know it’s insane, and I can’t really give you a good reason to follow us,” Dustin began, “but I just have this feeling that we need to go inside. I promise we’ll bolt at the first sign of danger,”

Bailey and Chloe exchanged a long glance, looking like they were telepathically debating just how much of a dumbass Dustin was.  The silence was long and heavy, but eventually Bailey broke it with a deep sigh.

“Fine, but we stick together. No splitting up, and no losing sight of anyone, got it?”

“Got it,” Dustin nodded, reaching both hands out to help the girls off the boat.  Once everyone was on the dock, Chris tied the speedboat in place, and they all turned to face the palace.

The walls seemed to glow under the moonlight as it filtered through the ever-thickening fog. The wood beneath them creaked ominously as they took their first steps forward in unison, and Dustin started silently praying that he hadn’t just made the dumbest decision of his young life…

…

The palace interior was just as haunting as its exterior; a maze of winding halls and towering ceilings carved from smooth limestone, each step echoing across the black lacquered floors like a whisper in a cavern.

Dustin walked slightly ahead of the group, his eyes following the artwork etched into the walls as they went.  It looked like some sort of mural that was meant to tell a story; five people standing against an army, a huge cloud overhead striking the ground with lightning, and a truly terrifying figure in bulky armor with huge deer-like antlers.  He had no idea what it was supposed to depict, especially since he couldn’t read the archaic Chinese writing inscribed alongside it; was it a folktale? Ancient history? A prophecy?

Suddenly, that splitting pain from earlier returned in full force; knocking the wind right out of Dustin’s lungs.  He braced against the wall as that psychic voice echoed in his skull again.

“What was once will be again. You must be ready for the end of all things,”

“Okay, where the fuck is that coming from?!” Chloe yelled, gripping the side of her head. She was clearly prepped to continue her rant, but something else caught her attention, “wait… what is that?”

Dustin shifted his focus to what she was pointing at; a circular stone altar had suddenly appeared in the center of the room, directly in the path of moonlight streaming in through one of the high windows.  As he approached it, he noticed that a five-pointed star, almost like a pentagram was chiseled into the surface, and on the point of each star sat a ring.  They were fairly unassuming; each was a simple band of a solid color— red, black, white, yellow, and green.

“Oh man, you guys think these are worth anything?” Chris said, beaming as he approached the altar, “Mr. Liu’s Pawn Shop would probably pay a shitload for them,”

“Use your brain for two seconds Christian,” Bailey flicked his ear, “stealing from the haunted palace is probably the stupidest shit you’ve ever suggested,”

“But ghost voice clearly wants us to take them, right?” James said, turning to Dustin as if he’d somehow have the answer, “don’t you think that’s why it led us here?”

“H-how should I know?”

James stepped a bit closer and gently took Dustin’s hand, locking eyes with him.

“You were saying that you had a feeling in your gut that we should come inside the palace. It also looks like you get hit harder by that voice in our head than the rest of us. If anyone should make the call, it should be you,”

Dustin immediately felt overwhelmed; like he’d just been bowled over by a tidal wave. Not only from James (THE James Zhang) holding his hand, but by the mere idea that someone would defer to him on anything.  He blinked several times too many, before finally attempting to regain his composure and make a decision.

“I… I think we should take them. If nothing else, they might be a way out of this,”

James didn’t hesitate to grab the green one and slip it on his ring finger. Everyone held their breath, as if they were waiting for him to be struck down or something… but nothing happened. Dustin breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that he didn’t cause his crush to get cursed, before taking the black one for himself. It was too small to fit any finger other than his pinky, so he put it on and waited to see if he felt anything strange…

Nothing. Thank God.

Chris, Bailey, and Chloe took the remaining three next, and while Chris and Chloe were quick to put theirs on their middle and index fingers respectively, Bailey was hesitant.  She just held it in the palm of her hand, staring at it intently like it was going to jump up and bite her or something.

“It’s okay Bailey,” Chris reassured her, holding up his hand, “see? We all put them on and we’re still breathing,”

“Y-yeah, I know. I’m just… I don’t know, just forget it,” Bailey said shaking her head like she was trying to physically dislodge her anxiety.  After another long moment passed, she carefully moved the yellow ring down her thumb…

And then shit went crazy.

In an instant, Dustin found himself being pulled underwater; completely displaced from the palace and everyone else.  He could see the surface; the moon teasing him from beyond the barrier as an impossibly strong current pulled him down faster than he could think.  He never panicked underwater, not even once in his entire life. But now? He was completely out of his element.

He tried to calm himself down enough to remember what to do when caught in a riptide, but he couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe, and the deeper he went, the harder it was to even see. His lungs burned, his limbs ached, and the only thought he could muster was that he was going to die…

And he was going to do it without Chris.

But, before death could claim him, he felt the presence of someone else with him in the water. It was all at once reassuring and revitalizing, and that was before he laid eyes on the person.

The current slowed to a stop, allowing Dustin to float peacefully. He didn’t even feel like he needed to hold his breath anymore, though he wasn’t about to test that theory.

The water around him shifted and solidified until it became a humanoid shape. At first it was like a man-shaped bubble, but then the details started filling in; skin, hair, eyes, robes. When it was all done, Dustin nearly gasped at the sight.  It was the single most ethereal man he’d ever seen; skin like porcelain, hair long and black as the starless night sky, eyes like a fox, and flowing white robes. He looked like he’d just stepped out of a Chinese period drama about concubines and imperial succession.

The strange man said nothing; he just stared at Dustin with a quiet intensity that drifted somewhere between determination and pity.  He raised his hand and placed two fingers in the center of Dustin’s forehead, and then in an all-too-familiar voice, he spoke without moving his lips.