she spreads her wings and takes to the skies.

[yatagarasu]

Open Post: The Kay Faraday Edition
This is my permanent Kay Faraday open post. Spam me with prompts, picture prompts, AUs, and the like. Indicate canon point or universe when necessary. Please note that I don't do slash, smut, anything sexual or anything overly and excessively violent.
Canon	Future AU
Choose a canon point, any canon point! Even from AAI2, why not.	7-8 years later, AJ/DD era. Prosecutor who studied under Miles Edgeworth. Still hyper and makes thief jokes. Still the Yatagarasu.
Somarium	Mask or Menace
Lived with Edgeworth and Stitch. Recruited Ema, Trucy and Maya into the Yatagarasu. 19 years old. Had college plans.	Can command and talk to crows, replicate voices and sounds perfectly, and use Charter Magic. Juror for Teen Court.

Badger get!

code by cawaii

Comments

[truthsnomiracle]

[Kay's struggle going quite this far was not what Edgeworth had anticipated. This level of mental torment is clearly across the line, and his eyes widen in horror at what he's done. Uncertain of what else to do, he hesitantly reaches out to put a hand on Kay's shoulder.]

Kay, I...! Please be all right!

[yatagarasu]

[After crying out, Kay is suddenly still, head bowed, hands balled into fists on her lap, breathing hard. It felt so...so wrong, being told to do something, and an unseen force compelling her to obey without question. It was as if her personal space was violated, at a whole new level.

She didn't like it.]

[truthsnomiracle]

[Such a violation — consciously realized like this or not — was exactly what Edgeworth had feared in the first place, why he was weighing the options for guinea pigs so seriously before Kay volunteered, and why he was shocked and initially uncertain when she took the unthinkable step of doing so. Before Kay volunteered, he had spoken of what a violation a serious mind control device could theoretically be, and now she was obviously experiencing that in a glaring and painful way. There's no need for him to ask questions, no need for Kay to explain. Even Edgeworth has this much ability to empathize.

The prosecutor's comforting hand on Kay's shoulder tightens to a light grip as his eyes squeeze shut. ...Are those tears starting to leak out despite his best efforts?]

(Kay, I... I never meant to cause you such pain...)

[yatagarasu]

[Kay closes her eyes for a moment as she searches her mind...confirming that she has successfully fought the command and it's gone from her mind. She is no longer being compelled to bend to a will that isn't her own. In short, she's okay...and she notices Edgeworth gripping her shoulder.

Craning her neck, she looks up at him over her shoulder, a little dazed as if she had just come back down to earth. His eyes were still shut, unlike hers...wait, was he...crying? Or had he just closed his eyes a bit too hard?]

Mr. Edgeworth...?

[truthsnomiracle]

[Edgeworth's eyes open when Kay addresses him, his grip loosening but his hand not retreating just yet. The tears he squeezed out in his futile effort to hold them at bay are still making their way down his cheeks.]

Kay. Are you... all right now?

[yatagarasu]

[She lets out a soft gasp at the sight of his tears. Had she worried him enough for him to start crying? That's...amazing. And not in a good way.]

Yeah...what about you? [Kay looks concerned.]

[truthsnomiracle]

[Edgeworth stands tall and turns his head away, removing his hand from Kay's shoulder in order to grip his opposite elbow.]

...Hmph. I wasn't the one brought to harm.

[That sentence was spit rather angrily...]

[yatagarasu]

[Kay stands up and sighs, facing him.

Really, way to remind her that she's the one suffering for the sake of the truth here, but anyway.]

Well...no, but I'm okay...okay? [She blinks.]

[truthsnomiracle]

[Edgeworth continues to look away, still angry at himself and ashamed to look at Kay.]

Even if you are in fact all right now, prior to that, you clearly were not! I failed to anticipate...

[Edgeworth trails off, then hesitates. There are no further tears forthcoming, but the streaks from the single pair have yet to dry.]

This... doesn't trouble you?

[yatagarasu]

[She tilts her head to one side, trying to meet his eyes. Then she lowers her head instead.]

Not right now...but it did. [Kay knits her fingers together. It's the truth.] It's like having someone in your head who shouldn't be there...

[truthsnomiracle]

[Unfortunately, even now Edgeworth is loathe to let anyone see vulnerability or self-doubt in his eyes.]

I simply did not anticipate your struggle to throw off that influence to be so... torturous.

[yatagarasu]

That's okay...I didn't, either. [She volunteered for this, so why is Edgeworth so affected?]

It was pretty hard...and I just don't really like people forcing me to do things.

[truthsnomiracle]

[Because believe it or not, he does care about you — more so than he can fully make sense of.]

Please... accept my sincerest apologies. I hadn't imagined that no approach to testing how simply or not a command put through the filter could be resisted would be harmless.

[yatagarasu]

Mr. Edgeworth...you don't have to apologize.

[She stops knitting her fingers together, letting her arms drop to her sides.

After a moment of thought, she steps forward, opens her arms, and gives him a hug.]

[truthsnomiracle]

Gkk — mmnwngh —

[At first, Edgeworth simply freezes. On one hand, he prefers to avoid having people in his personal space at all, let alone doing anything so intimate as hugging him... but on the other, this is Kay, who's already trusted him to do more than that to her already by his measure... but on yet another hand, hasn't he already violated that trust? Why would she show affection to him so soon after that?

All in all, none of the gears in his head are fitting together right now, and it's obvious in his face and posture how much his brain is seizing up from a simple hug.]

[yatagarasu]

[Kay glances up at him. He looks like he's been doused with ice water instead of given a hug. She doesn't let go of him yet, though.]

Uh...Mr. Edgeworth...?

[truthsnomiracle]

[Being addressed does get Edgeworth's attention, but he looks uncharacteristically... dazed. He stares down at Kay with wide eyes, desperately trying to make sense of what he's seeing and of the arms around him. He tries to string together a coherent question, but it's hard right now — why is it hard? Isn't this what he does? — so he settles for the best compromise between all his clashing questions:]

Why?

[yatagarasu]

Because you looked so sorry, and I wanted to show you that you really don't have to apologize.

...And, I know you wouldn't let anything bad happen to me.

[truthsnomiracle]

OB...jection... I...

[Without really thinking about it, Edgeworth awkwardly yet tightly completes the hug — the embrace of a man who clearly never gives hugs, yet is afraid of something bringing the person in his arms to harm if he doesn't hold on tight.]

[yatagarasu]

...Overruled.

[Her voice is soft, but firm. In all honesty, Kay isn't just reassuring him, but also reassuring herself; that was not something she'd readily relive, and the hug is also for herself - to remember that Edgeworth was there to make sure nothing bad happened to her.]

We got what we came for, right? And we're gonna make sure something like that doesn't happen again.

[truthsnomiracle]

[Edgeworth is silent for a long moment to pull himself back together at last.]

...Indeed, your suffering was not in vain. We... should discuss and document the results. Furthermore, there is still more to be done here; we've yet to look through the rest of the cabin, we both agree that the locked drawers of the desks beg investigation, and...

[Edgeworth hesitates.]

...there are still things we have yet to prove about the capabilities of the hypnotic headphones, provided that you will permit further tests.

[yatagarasu]

[So, is he still hugging her? Kay is kind of leaning against him. But at that last bit, she remains silent. They had to find out everything they could in this place and that meant having to go through those tests again.

Kay didn't want to. She hated feeling as if a force had invaded her brain. But...the truth would be lost if she didn't.

She doesn't move for a while, tightening the hug a little bit as if assuring herself that someone's here to keep her safe.]

[truthsnomiracle]

[No, Edgeworth hasn't let go yet... but after a while, he begins looking awkward about this. Kay still seems uneasy, not that he blames her, but...]

...Er... Kay, I... um, can't retrieve my organizer like this.

[Moving on is important, after all.]

[yatagarasu]

[Kay blinks, tilting her head upward to look at him instead of his chest. She gives a little sheepish chuckle as she lets him go.]

Oh. There we go!

[truthsnomiracle]

Thank you.

[Edgeworth is quick to let go himself and take a step backward before fishing his organizer and pen out of the usual inner blazer pocket. He's still a bit off-balance inwardly, but the relative normalcy of writing down his observations and Kay's statements concerning the Impel filter test so far helps him return to an even keel. Once he's done that, he quickly reviews Kay's statements about the first test.]

It's rather striking how sharply different the two tests were in their results. Aside from the fact that your outward reactions were remarkably different, you seemed unsettlingly undisturbed by what happened when we discussed it afterward. Only when I brought the absence of your name to your attention did I notice even a twinge of fear from you.

[Edgeworth shudders at the memory of just how casual and matter-of-fact Kay was when she referred to her experience of anything he'd said at that time as obviously true.]