Kaija

Nice!

Huh.

Interesting, lol.

@_gaige_: @voracious: @containment:

Kaija simply shook her head as she watched Lizzy let the stranger bit into her arm. If the origins of the stranger's power were unclear before, she was certain what he was now. She wasn't surprised by Gaige's generous behavior nor the vampire's strange nature; after all, she too was something normally looked down upon, hated and feared by mankind. What did surprise her the fact that they had a vampire amongst them in broad daylight. Well, a vampire who managed to maintain its structural integrity and not burn up into dust in an instant. Of all the things that she didn't know about him, that was the one thing that she was actually curious to know; the rumors about his kind that everyone had apparently gotten wrong.

Maybe she'd ask him about it sometime later.

In the meantime, she continued to burn away the hazardous material. At least, until she heard the familiar sound of a blade piercing flesh and a body falling to the ground. Her eyes turned away from Gaige and Septimus to find one of the strangers lying on the ground, bleeding, while the other walked away with a bell in his hand. In truth... Kaija wasn't overly concerned with what she saw. The bell itself, to Kaija, was no different than a bone or limb cast aside by a kaiju that she had slain; something of no value or concern to her now that it no longer sought to spill her blood. It wasn't like she never kept a trinket or two from some of the more impactful battles in her life at the back of her closet. She heard Septimus' question to the man who had just stabbed his presumed ally but honestly didn't really care.

Her mission was to fight alongside Lizzy to protect a home that her engineer had loved with all of her heart. Whether or not her mission was successful was debatable, but the fact of the matter was... her mission had nothing to do with a tiny little dirty bell or a couple of strangers that she doubted she'd ever see again. He could go wherever he wanted at this point so long as he didn't cause her any trouble. Her focus, at the moment, was to help clean this place up and try to undo the damages that, well... both of the kaiju there that day had caused; intentional or not. She turned her attention back to Gaige.

"Hey Liz, I'll burn away as much of this crap as I can, but you might wanna take the vampire's offer. If they don't know how to work the land, I'll teach em'. I did grow up doing just this sort of thing after all," she was, of course, referring to the distant past where she lived on farmland in Burtelov, "You should see if that the stranger over there is okay, too." she gestured towards Castor, who was currently incapacitated.

Gaige and Septimus might find it odd how calm Kaija was witnessing a man get stabbed in cold blood and his attacker just walk off but... Kaija couldn't see how getting excited over it would do anyone any good at the moment. Well, there was that and the fact that she was used to seeing that sort of thing. If the man with the bell caused any trouble, she'd deal with that trouble. If he managed to bring back the Plaguefather, well, she had already dealt with him once, knew what she would be dealing with, and had a pretty good idea of how to get rid of him again. All things said...

Kaija simply felt like she had more pressing matters to concern herself with.

@_gaige_: @voracious: @containment:

Kaija remained still through the brief storm. For nearly two minutes, she simply knelt and acted as a shelter for Castor and Septimus. The fierce winds and debris that rocketed towards them bounced off of her back and her shield directed all of the hazardous chemicals falling from the sky away from the two who stood in the palm of her hand. As the bile fell from the sky, Kaija's attention was focused more towards Gaige than the two warriors who were with her at the time. If their objective was to keep the Arboretum from suffering damages, then they had failed. The Kaiju Slayer may not have been overly upset with the results of the battle in her hearts of hearts, but she couldn't help but worry about what must've been going through Lizzy's mind.

At the end of it, her shield was slightly deformed and covered in rust, the sheathing over her weapons looked as though it had suffered some decay, and her uniform itself was damaged; leaving portions of her back, arms and legs exposed and the tattoo on her back visible for all to see. Kaija wasn't overly worried about any of that, though. The battle was over and her suit contributed little to none to her overall durability or survival at her titanic stature, anyways. It was mostly there to protect her from shame and keep her pride intact.

Fortunately, it hadn't begun to malfunction quite yet.

The companion of one of the two who were with her during the storm emerged from a crater filled with bile; shouting his lungs off and mutating for a moment before falling to the ground, incapacitated. A glance downwards at Castor informed Kaija of his concern for his comrade without having to hear a single word. She rose to her feet, swiped away some of the hazardous chemicals near Pollux, then allowed the vampire and the anomaly to step down onto land. She'd leave Castor to look after him while she tended to her own.

"We have to burn the area that's been infected. Leaving it cleaned so it has time to regrow...but can someone else do that? Already feel like I let my home down."

In their moment of peace, Kaija looked around to find that the toxins scattered about the area weren't the only damages incurred by the Arboretum. It looked as though Uma had "struck again". A lesson that had been enforced by Gaoto, Axum, Bradshaw and every tutor that Kaija had learned from over the years was the importance of masterful footwork. It enhanced one's ability to maintain control and balance in a fight and helped to outmaneuver an opponent and take advantage of the mistakes that they make in the instant that opportunity presents itself. Unfortunately, after the Plaguefather had grown to his larger stature during their battle, every trained step that Kaija took had deformed the earth; upturning dirt, leaving craters in the ground, and otherwise adding to the damages. It was beyond her control, but also a clear illustration of why she preferred to best her opponents with skill as opposed to raw power.

"You're responsible for any damages you cause to the Arboretum."

The Goliath Arms may not have been the cause of her contribution to the damages, but Axum's words held true all the same. Her dagger would see more use before she left today.

"Yeah, I'll take care of it," she answered Gaige, releasing the blade of plasma once more for a less violent purpose, "Don't worry, Liz. I have no intention of leaving this place as it is."

She began to run the blade near the ground over areas that had been drowned in toxins and acid. The heat emanating from the plasma would work to vaporize most of the toxins at the surface that hadn't already drained into the ground, but she wouldn't be able to completely clear the plague without buring away all of the flora in the area with it. Still, it was a start.

"Is everyone alright?" Uma asked everyone in the area, hoping that she'd only receive honest answers is she got any replies at all.

No idea what happened inbetween those two events...?

Quite the character.

@thegodamnbatman: Oh geez.

Well, in Kaija's case it would be mental. And it would be dealing with the discovery that she was half demon and loving herself despite that fact. It was a struggle that she dealt with for months (real time) and spanned over the course of... probably more than a dozen RPs. Kinda changed the way she viewed herself and the world as well as her values and what she was willing to do to maintain a happy life.

I know that that's all very vague, but that's because it was the kind of conflict that spanned into most parts of the character's life at the time.

@incandescence:

Kaija was at a loss for words. No, that wasn't it. She didn't like her own response to Myné. She had a point that the soldier couldn't really argue against. The UNKD certainly didn't care what one's intentions were if they were trouble. But... the UNKD wasn't like Maverick or the BPD (Bludhaven Police Department). They were a specialized branch of the UN made to deal with Kaiju and assist in relief efforts after natural disasters; living or not. Where Maverick and the police dealt with metahumans who ate human portions of food and took up human amounts of space, it would never be economically favorable, let alone feasible, to even attempt to contain the goliaths that they encountered on a daily basis. The cold reality was that elimination was the only option when it came to a problematic giant. Now, Skyblaze wasn't a giant so a lot of these issues didn't really apply to her.

But that was only half of the problem.

Even if Kaija could promise Diara's safety around UNKD personnel, that was just about all that she could promise. If the UNKD, or any branch of the UN military, saw the girl as a problem worthy of their notice, they would work to change that fact and she was liable to become a prisoner or worse. It wasn't just about Skyblaze's safety, but her freedom and happiness. There was nothing that Kaija could say to convince either herself or Myné that the UNKD wouldn't take up arms against Diara, lethal or not, if she happened to make a "mistake" around them. Not without lying to her face, anyways. What Kaija could do was speak the truth of her intentions and what little she did know.

"I... have no idea what the UNKD thinks of that idea. I don't even know if they're aware that I want to help Diara or care. I didn't tell anyone that I was coming here before I left. It's not a secret that I'm here, I just didn't see the need to inform anyone that I was coming," Kaija began to wonder if wearing her work attire here was giving off the wrong vibes. She only put on the underarmor because she, in truth, wasn't... entirely convinced that she wouldn't get burned during her visit, "I'm not here on business, nor does this need to be business. I'm just someone who's concerned, is all. I apologize if my uniform gave off the wrong message. I'm here on my own behalf, not the UNKD's or anyone else's. I don't have to take her anywhere near a base or UNKD personnel if that would make you feel any better."

Kaija doubted that that would ease Myné's mind in the slightest, but it was all that she could say at that moment in good faith.