The Seething Chaos [Mass Child Awakening]

"You sure pain can exist in dreams? Maybe I have never experienced it....but I haven't," she explained, scratching her head. Lorielle would lower her hand when hearing Gabby's question, and seeing the figure, which she seemed to think was also a girl. "Oh. You don't see? That person over there," she said, gesturing to the now more noticeable figure standing out in the street, a good distance away from the group, but visible all the same. She would make a particular face towards Sagami of confusion. That name, 'Nyarlathotep'. "What do you even mean? What does that name have to do with this?" she asked. She had heard the name once before. Though, she remembered the unfavorable character who mentioned it. Could it be that Sagami was a part of it as well? The speculation would not end in her head, dream or not, she wanted to ask, though she did not want to risk a possible conflict, or getting off track.

She would listen to Cain, smirking lightly. 'Seems like he didn't get her to come over....' she thought. She would stay silent when he called her out. "Hey, let her be. Maybe she has her own agenda," she said. She understood those who at least, wanted to be alone. And it seemed like she was trying to be, the way she moved in the opposite direction away from them. "Oh well. Hope she will be alright," she said. It suddenly hit her at that moment, that he had mentioned the idea of checking their phones. That in mind, she pulled out her own, only showing a black screen, but she had stopped immediately. "Hang on...I am wearing actual clothes..." she just realized. Perhaps a dumb blonde moment, but she saw that not in her pajamas, she was now in regular clothes. Maybe this was a dream after all, or whoever or whatever took them there had stripped her down and dressed her. 'The criminal is probably a freak....' she thought to herself.

She would turn to her phone, pressing the on button, only to see nothing come up. Nothing was coming on, and she would press once more, hitting it against her thigh to possibly get it running again, but still did not work. "Stupid phone...mine isn't working....are anyone else's phones working at all?" she would ask, putting hers away. She would then turn her attention to Cain, listening to his rambling about who Nyarlathotep is. Then give a grimace when he mentioned hearing it from a cult. "Funny you should say that, I know another cultist who told me a similar thing. Wonder if he was the same guy..." she said, frowning, clearly indicating she either did not like the meeting, or did not like the person. Or perhaps both. Lorielle went with the third option. "But yes. Stay together for the time being. See what develops," she said. She was worried for the people with her, dream or not. part of her wanted to take it upon herself to guide them, and another part wanted to keep them safe. Whichever one that called upon Lorielle to make her suggestions was unknown. Though, if she could control her actions, and it was a dream, why wouldn't she?

“Why did this suddenly become a conversation about the occult?” She muttered after hearing Sagami talk. She turned to Lori, “I’m positive that pain can exist in dreams. It’s just that most people don’t remember it.” She looked further in the distance until she could finally see the person. It wasn’t immediate, but she did eventually put the face to a name, “That’s Vera. We can’t leave her to be all by herself.” Upon saying that, Gabby promptly ignored her own advice about there being safety in numbers and ran over to Vera.

When she saw the girl, she smiled, “I knew it was you.” Then it hit her, “You remember me, right? We had a staring contest the first time we met. Wait. It’s your long term, not your short term memory that has the problem, right?” She laughed nervously, “Sorry if that was insensitive.” She pointed in the direction she had come from, “You should join us. It’s not safe to be on your own.” Her face turned deep red when she realized that she may have done just that, “I’m not the best example. I just didn’t think you should be here alone. I don’t mean to be rude, but if you want to join us, you can. I won’t force you. I’ll just tell you that it’s probably safer and that all people seem to be really nice.” She would then go back to everyone else. If Vera would follow her and join them or not was up to her.

The first thing Gabby saw upon her return was Lori checking her phone and saying that it didn’t work. Gabby went to check her phone, seeing that hers didn’t seem to be working either, “Nothing for me. Maybe all the fog is interfering with the signal.” That wasn’t it. There had to have been something more going on. She started looking around their surroundings and tried to piece together everything that had been said so far. Maybe there was an answer in there somewhere. Even in the insane stories being told. Sagami seemed to believe what he said, after all, and now Cain and Lori where saying they had heard something similar. If only she didn't feel so lost with all the information going through her mind.

Kogami was whistling as he was walking up the block, seeing the other candidates for the power as he leans on one of the lamp post. He then looks around to them and makes a small sigh as he continues to sit down, his red enlarged bracelet making a small jingle. He then makes a small mutter as he starts to draw a face and write a small label under them. "Ehh... well.... this could get much worse.... it didn’t happen the way that i wanted it to happen though. That definitely is weird, oh well. " Taking a look at the people around them, he only recognized three faces in total. However, he decided not to interact with them, he was expecting lori to harass him about this place. However, Kogami's role here was just as mysterious, he had his own reasons of showing up that he wanted to keep private for the time being. He had no friends here at all, but it didn’t matter. That was not the point or the purpose, there was plenty of things that Kogami wanted to know as well. He didn’t have enough time to console them unless they decided to approach him, but he still continued to brainstorm his current ideas. However, not talking was uncharacteristic for Kogami, but he didn’t feel like explaining things at the moment. He was going to leave it to nyra, whatever ordeal they had to face. And if push comes to shove, he would back them up, it was simple for him at least.

Cain patted himself down with a shocked look in his eyes. Could it be...was it possible...
"Oh my God, Lori, you're right! I'm wearing clothes too! W-We all are!" He said as if this was the missing piece. The clue that would unravel this whole mystery. He gave a small smile and placed his hands back into his pockets. Was that joke mean? He honestly wasn't sure. Maybe he should cover his bases, just in case?

"Just messing around with you, Lor. And yeah, I get that she wants to be left alone. I might be an asocial moron, but even I can pick up on that. The problem is why she wants to be alone. We're stuck here in some weird foggy city with-" he whipped out his phone and checked it with a look that lasted fractions of a second before placing in back into his pocket, "-terrible cell reception and no idea how we ended up here or why. I get why someone might be apprehensive, problem is that, to me, it's suspicious.  I mean, yeah I don't trust any of you guys, no offense, but I trust some less than others. Same way she doesn't trust us, really. Only difference is that I'm playing the game." he said with a shrug. Normally he wouldn't be quite this frank. After all telling people that he didn't trust that he was watching them was a pretty bonehead move. It meant that if they actually were involved they'd be stepping up their act. Nothing was normal about this situation though. He was about to ask about their next plan, but an odd whistling he heard called his attention away.

"Well I guess since Gabby is winning over Miss Violet, and Miss Violet is poking around the storefronts we should go say hi to our newest guest. Oh, and before I forget..." He broke off suddenly and turned back to Vera before shouting out, "Copycat!" He was sure that would earn him another cold glare, but it wasn't a huge problem. He'd get the cold shivers when he was alone again. He started walking off in the direction he'd heard the whistling from in a rather sudden manner. As he approached he recognized Kogami and a small smirk crossed his face. He slowly clapped his hands a few times and nodded.

"Speak of the Devil. How about you go ahead and tell us what's up? Before things go all butterfly, right?" he said to Kogane like a confident kid at a magic show.

Lorielle watched Gabby as she walked towards the girl named "Vera". "I will trust her on this one," she said to the others with her, though, those would only be Cain and Sagami. She did not know why. Perhaps her opinionated nature was trying to put her in a state where she wanted to make sure her decisions were absolute. As she walked to Vera, Lori would scrunch her lips at Cain. He was teasing her clearly. Or she took it that way. "W-Well I mean," she began immediately trying to defend her silly comment, waving her hands by her face trying to grab his attention so she could make it clear. "At least in dreams, I am in pajamas usually, or in embarrassing clothing. I haven't been in a dream with clothing like these," she said, puffing her cheeks at him. Though, she did in fact think it was a funny joke, she would not admit that out loud. Though, it did seem odd that Gabby's and Cain's cell phones were not working. 'Well, I suppose not. If we all have bad reception here....' she thought, fairly unconvinced. Fog to her knowledge did not damage signals, or was she being a dumb blonde? It frustrated her. There really was no way to figure, but how would fog even do that? She would let out a sigh looking at Cain. "Trust is all you have when you do not know everything about the person...or distrust," she said, pausing to consider it to herself. Who among here did she truly trust? 'Well, I have no reason to doubt Cain...I trust Gabby...Never thought about Sagami, but maybe....as for Vera...' she would think on it. For some reason, she found it difficult to leave this subject in her head.

While Sagami remained silent, she would see Gabby returning around the time, breaking her train of thought, turning out to be triumphant after all with Vera. Lorielle would smile and nod. "Thank you for joining us. It'll be safer with us in a group. Name's Lorielle," she introduced mildly. She seemed like the wary type from what she did to avoid her and Cain when they addressed her. So she did not want to be too easily welcoming, but not hostile. "Gabby, maybe-" she managed before hearing a jingle sound out. It was clearly not that loud, but in a place as quiet as this, only made lively by the sound of them talking, a jingle was no difficult to be heard. She would turn in the direction, seeing Cain make a last word to Vera before moving on. She frowned at him when Vera made her comment out loud. "Well, just meeting may not qualify as teamwork just yet. Wish it did, but apparently not..." she said scratching the back of her head. Why was no one really sticking together? Well, really it was Cain. She was about to stop him from moving on, until Vera made one more comment. Was she just thinking these things out loud? Either way, the possibility did bring up a good point. What was out here? And would it really group them up if all it was going to do was kill them off one by one?

"Probably not one by one at least," she said. "Surely, if whatever brought us here wants to kill us, could they not have done it before we got here? Or if this is a dream, rather, kill us off and be done with it? Maybe force us apart rather than wait for us to do it? Actually, is whatever that brought us here even out to kill us? It probably has something to do with the contract we all apparently signed," she suggested. Surely they were not going to die here. The "Crawling Chaos" had something to do with this. Though, she would look ahead and see yet another figure standing back, hooded up a bit from the intersection, but still easy to see.....and easy to recognize. "Kogami. Why is he here...? This is getting better and better..." she said at a volume only the group near her could manage to hear, mostly to not cause a stir. She did let out an exasperated sigh. The last time they both met, he tried to do...something. Either way, it creeped her out. She would have called to Cain, but it seemed as though they knew each other, so she kept her mouth shut. She would turn to Gabby, Sagami, and Vera with a frown. "I wouldn't really recommend joining Cain...just from my own experience, the other man is....someone unsavory," she said, trying to put it as lightly as she could. She did not really make any movements to the two, and stayed with the other three, hoping that they will think the same and stick together for the time being.

Weaknesses:

Gabby stared at Lori as she introduced herself to Vera. When introductions were over, she leaned over to the purple haired girl and spoke low enough for only them to hear, “You can trust Lori. I mean, you don’t have to, but she hasn’t lead me wrong once since I met her. I can’t tell you much about the others, since I’ve only met Cain once before and we didn’t spend a lot of time together and I’m just learning Sagami’s name.” She motioned towards them as she said each person’s name, “It’s up to you what you think of each person though. Just because we’re friends doesn’t mean we have to have the same opinion on everything and everyone.” She went back to speaking normally, “Unless we work together to do something about our current situation, we’re not much of a team. The first step would probably be to figure out just what is going on.”

She nodded at Vera’s comment, even if it was on the darker side of possibilities. It could be that they weren’t alone. Heck, it could be that one of them was the culprit. The different scenarios ran through her head as Lori brought them up, “If they wanted to kill us one at a time, it would have been in their best interest to finish us all while we where apart and not up. We would have been defenseless and no one could watch our backs. Or, if it wanted us to all be together so it could kill us all at once, we would have to assume it’s strong and clever enough to do so. The mere fact that we all signed a contract with whatever the Crawling Chaos is means that he wanted us all to be here. Maybe he wants us dead, but that’s unlikely. You don’t sign contracts with people you plan to get rid of.” Then another question came to her mind, “What where the terms of that contract anyway? I never took the time to ask. Did anybody else?”

And Cain was off with another new person. She didn’t know when he had left, considering she was too lost in her thoughts. ‘How many of us are there anyway?’ She thought to herself. Lori, Vera, Cain, Sagami, herself, and now the new guy. So far, there were six people who had signed the contract, and none of them seemed to have much in common, aside from everybody knowing at least one other person. It was possible that they were chosen at random, but then why would they all know somebody. There had to be a reason each of them was here. She had gone quiet in her pursuit of an answer, only coming back to the real world when Lori voiced her concern about the man. She apparently didn’t like him. ‘That’s a red flag.’ She hadn’t seen Lori openly dislike a person once. Then again, she hadn’t known her that long. The point still stood though, “What’s wrong with him?”

“Namaste….Cain…” Kogami said, as if he was acknowledging his presence with the cult greeting that describes respect, but he kept writing in his book ritualistically. He did not make eye contact, but he continued to talk. “This place is called limbo, you were chosen by Nyra, as everyone else here. The way this works, is that those with the ambition or resolve to use the power, gets it.. or is that how it works. So either you have a great resolve, or   ambition… apart of the church, we are supposed to test the mantle of the chosen children of nyra. Lori was one of them..but I doubt she knew or even  cared since the religion was partially linked back to it. I tried to let her off easy so she wouldn’t end up here by just filling her in, guess she took this as a stalking red flag or.. Creepy whatever.. See… when  your destiny is predetermined like this, expect weird things to happen…like this… “ Kogami then continues to write, but then stops mid-way as he couldn’t finish his evaluation on Cain. He stops and looks at Cain face to face.” Not exactly the heaven that was promised, in the book of Nyra… limbo was described as an uncertain period of awaiting a decision or resolution,  the waiting period for the one person who proved themselves to be worthy of taking over and having their wish granted. It makes no sense, I know… but you aren’t necessarily in danger… and if there is danger… you would be given the power to fight it off.. or… that’s what’s supposed to happen.. either way, this separate dimension is just waiting to be used… by you… it could be you… who knows…” Kogami then stood up but kept his purple hood on, he then puts his book away. “If you read the book, you would know that limbo also has some of the dangers to watch out for besides the butterfly of calamity along with the false shepherds. Shadows, I guess you could call them the darkness in the hearts of everyone that takes form, strong beings that dwell along limbo… tormented souls that even died here…(in some Christian beliefs) the supposed abode of the souls of unbaptized infants, and of the just who died before Christ's coming....in any case...tormented beings that represent the dark side of humanity...  hmm… in any case..i am not your enemy… neither is anyone here that’s on the same boat. So try not to jump the gun before you fully assess the situation ahead… I am only here… to share as much information as I possibly can… but with lori playing gossip girl, and other might having suspicions of my place of peace that they describe as a “cult”  Just how far can you take the words of a young priest? Only with a grain of salt. With the name, the crawling chaos. It would be surprising if we can worship a man with such a name.. destruction can sometimes be considered as a necessity that is provided with its hidden meaning.  Like the black death,  which only pushed us to further our medical research.  The hidden meaning behind our contracts, why are we here?  Better yet…. Why did you sign it..why did you say yes? You wouldn’t be here….” Kogami then snapped his fingers” If you didn’t want to be…right?”

((As of right now, Sagami has been skipped in this Awakening topic. Should Chronos not post by 9/6/13 at 3:21 A.M., then it will be Kiriko's turn.))

Cain let out a long groan and arched his back. This whole situation was just exasperating. This was supposed to be an adventure or something, right? At the very least it should have been interesting. But nooo, his adventure was just foggy cities and school kids he hardly knew. He lowered his head began kneading his forehead. Could he really trust anything that Kogami said? After all, his being here at all was way past suspicious, and Lor already didn't trust him. On the other hand though, he seemed to be the one who knew the most here, and so far he'd been willing to co-operate. In the end Cain decided it was best to stay cautious and not make any judgments yet. Besides, if he kept Kogami close that meant he could keep an eye on him.

"Yeah, Namaste Kogami. Sorry about my lack of patience, but it should be obvious why I'm a little confrontational, eh? And yeah, Lor doesn't trust you but for now I'm working any angle I can. It's not like I can afford to just toss away leads right now." He said with a sigh. Cain tapped his foot on the ground and quickly glanced around to make sure nothing was listening in on the two of them. He didn't want to walk into an ambush here and even if he was hearing Kogami out, it'd be idiotic to drop his guard.

"Alright, so this is Limbo? I guess that bumps the 'They were dead the whole time' theory up a few notches. I'm glad you claim we aren't in danger, but I'm going to prepare for the worst all the same. Nothing personal, it's just how I do things." He said with a shrug. He looked back toward where he assumed the group was and made a quick gesture indicating he wished Kogami to follow.

"So if there are souls around here shouldn't they have shown up by now? Or maybe a little pop in from your gods? Seems pretty empty, all things considered. Oh, and pro-tip: You may want to lighten up on the whole 'destruction brings our advance' thing. Most people assume that carries a kinda 'cult-y' vibe. I get what you're saying though. I'm just not sure if the others would." he said taking a few steps back to the group before looking over his shoulder to glance at the young man once more.
"As for why I signed, well I figure it's obvious enough. I was bored. Any hidden meaning that might have must still be hidden off in this fog." he said before walking back once more and calling out.

"Come on, everyone's dying to meet you. Wouldn't want to keep them waiting would we?"

"Sticking together is important. Though, I would rather not have the man included," she said, clearly gesturing towards Kogami. It had been a while where she had been so openly disdainful of someone, but recent events had made her wary around that particular person. She would filter out his dialogue, much too focused on the safety of the team. Turning to Gabby, she would catch her question. 'I probably should have seen this come up...' she thought. "Well, to put it lightly, he is a bit of a creep. To put it heavily, he is untrustworthy, he has literally tried to bring me down an alleyway with him, and to join his silly cult. I am not even unjustified, the guy tried to grab at me the last time I saw him," she explained, crossing her arms, in a bit of a judgmental rant. She did not appreciate the man at all. She would not want the others to join him. She saw Vera not doing so, as she openly declared her trust for only Gabby, which was fine for her.

She would watch as Cain walked back to the group, and she would think when Cain seemed to bring up the similar point to Gabby, on the terms of the contract. She could actually remember the terms for the most part. "I believe to my knowledge, that the promise of a power of little description, would be granted if you signed the contract. But surely power in any form comes with a catch. I suppose we wait till our special benefactor of power appears? All we get from splitting off is Kogami, and I'd rather not for safety," she said, hoping Cain would get the picture and not include him. Better not to add pretentious, unneeded risk to the mix if the group is already fine as it is. Perhaps she was being a bit pushy as their need to stick together, but it is true. None of them know anything of where they are, and nothing can be done until something happens, or they all come to a unanimous agreement. Until then, she would wait there, and try to make sure the others remained.

Though Vera’s concerns were something Gabby didn’t exactly share, she nodded at her friend and spoke in the same hushed tone as before, “I understand, and don’t worry; there is nothing you could do that would make me think less of you. We’re friends, and I accept you for who you are.” She gave a small smile, “I’ll be supporting you too. Hopefully, this is all nothing anyway.” Hopefully being the key word there. This situation wasn’t shaping out that way so far. In fact, the longer they all stood here talking to each other, the more worried Gabby got. It was becoming clear to her that each passing second made their predicament more and more real, and she had no idea what was going to come next. Lori’s explanation of Kogami didn’t make her any less wary. If anything, it made her less trusting of everything around them. After all, the man himself had just gone on a rant about the basic belief of his cult. Most cults, to the blonde’s knowledge, ended up with everyone drinking the kool-aid and going to see some nonexistent god-like creature that lived on a meteor several galaxies away. She wasn’t touching that nonsense with a 50ft. pole sterilized with sulfuric acid.

Then Lori mentioned the terms of the contract. Gabby couldn’t believe she had signed something so indescriptive. She had definitely been out of it when she agreed to those terms, “Well, whoever had us sign the thing is being terribly slow about coming to meet us. Don’t you think? How long have we all been here anyway?” It was a rhetorical question, but someone would probably answer her, “You’re right though, Lori. If everyone is together now, it would be foolish of us to all split off.” Excluding not a few minutes ago when Gabby went off by herself to get Vera, of course. They hadn’t all been together when that happened, “Although maybe some of us could go off by themselves, since they seem to know so much.” She gave a smirk to Lori and pointed at Kogami. She didn’t hate the guy, she didn’t even know him. She only knew that Lori didn’t like him and that he was into telling people scary stories about the occult. That was enough for her to keep him away though. It was better that there was no tension in the group when they had no idea what was going on. And, since she knew Lori better, Kogami was out in her mind.

Kogami laughs hysterically, this was nothing new to him so he leans back on his chosen lamp post and starts to write in his book once again. “Well, there you have it. Better if you be friends many and to have an enemy of one, then be friends with one and have an enemy of many. So Enjoy yourself, be safe, and stick together. Ill most likely see you around again, but… like I was saying… this isn’t my story… this is yours… I’m only the guy who writes the book.” Kogami had no reason to argue, it was definitely their show and he already had his persona. He was only there as an insurance policy that things didn’t get too messy, and they would all obtain their power in one piece. But then he felt he had no reason to get involved with them whatsoever, he didn’t need friends. All he needed was a way to further his abilities even more so he could continue to be independent. Though this was something he didn’t need, this was something he wanted, but could never had. His destiny was already chosen for him, the only reason he hadn’t died yet, was because there were still things to do. Who knows when nyra will turn his back on him with his reckless attitude. Children will continue to act like children, kids on the playground, excluding someone from playing their game. He wanted to be more like Katsu, to eventually stop caring , to care even less then he does now. It was also going by pretty well being more emerged in the cult took most of his attention, and mind off other things.

But here he was, of his own free will, for the sake of others just waiting for him to attack him from behind. However, Kogami only responds to violence. So the things that they say can hardly bother him, it was nothing compared to what he experienced before. He hoped that Chronos would bandwagon, and leave him in peace. It was for his own sake as well, if he wanted to get by, have one or two of them give a shit enough, for that to happen, don’t give them a reason not to like you. But of course, its something kogami learned the hard way.