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

[yatagarasu]

Sounds like we'll have to move on to the next step - chipping away at your fear until your only reaction to having to go through that tunnel again is, "Challenge accepted!"

[truthsnomiracle]

Aren't we here for another purpose entirely?

[Sip.]

[yatagarasu]

[Kay drains her cup and puts it down beside her. Then she stands up gingerly, making sure she doesn't upset the cup - even though it's empty.]

Oh, right...but we'll talk about this later, okay? [Does she sound like she cares? Well, she does.]

[truthsnomiracle]

Very well. After all, that too is important if I'm to be placed in charge of more cases that straddle the water line. The lack of a basic understanding of undersea culture and the inherent and technological capabilities of merpeople would cause more truths to be lost than a mere inability to cope with stale air could, however.

[During the final half of this long statement, Edgeworth pours himself another cup of tea, a full one this time.]

[yatagarasu]

[She walks into the entrance of the cave, but remains in view. Then she suddenly turns to Edgeworth and tells him very cheerfully:]

Saving you in each and every case is gonna get pretty tiring, too!

[After a short laugh, Kay runs a hand along a ledge that has a few small, ornate boxes and some wooden statuettes. She selects two - that of a mermaid on a pedestal, and one of a man.]

[truthsnomiracle]

Need I remind you that planning ahead would frequently preclude the need for me to be saved in the first place?

[As for Kay's choice of wooden statuettes, the prosecutor merely waits patiently for an explanation.]

[yatagarasu]

"Frequently", but not always, if those mer-criminals are smart. Now that you're famous underwater as well as over water, you probably have a target on your back.

[So does Kay, but anyway, she walks back to the blanket and sits back down with a statuette in each hand. The mermaid is a beautiful one, with long wavy hair and an arm held aloft, while her opposite hand is at her chest. Her chest is covered by a garment made of seaweed, and her mouth is open in a silent song. The man, on the other hand, has a stoic expression and is dressed like a sailor. His hands are behind his back. Circumscribing their pedestals, close to the top, are grooves, showing that what's inside may be more important than the figures themselves.]

Anyway! You already know that my mom was a mermaid and my dad was completely human, and because of that, I can switch from being a mermaid or a human. You're thinking it's a great advantage, but being only half-mermaid isn't all that.

[Kay places the statuettes in front of Edgeworth.]

Full-blooded merpeople can play instruments to hypnotize people, but I can't. I always have to sing. I could play the flute for you right now and hope that you'll buy me that new issue of the Jammin' Ninja comic book when you hear me, but that's not gonna happen.

[truthsnomiracle]

[Edgeworth merely nods grimly at the danger Kay cites. Honestly, it's not entirely new to him.

That little detail of the statuettes doesn't escape Edgeworth's notice, and it's clear from the way he looks at the daises briefly.]

Is there any particular advantage to playing an instrument for that purpose?

[yatagarasu]

Well, if you pair a merperson playing an instrument with another one who's singing, they could nearly be unstoppable. And just because we have this kind of power doesn't mean we never get tired of singing...our throats get sore, too, and sometimes we even lose our voices.

[Kay idly strokes the detail in the mermaid statuette's hair with a finger.]

And since the power comes from within us, we can't use instruments like...um, drums or violins or cymbals.

[truthsnomiracle]

["Nearly unstoppable" is not something Edgeworth ever wanted hear concerning anyone's ability to override another's free will, and it shows despite his continued firmness.]

No percussion or string instruments, in other words — only those which depend on one's breath.

[yatagarasu]

Exactly.

[Kay notes the unease Edgeworth shows.]

Don't worry, I said "nearly", didn't I? And like I said on the ship, you can build up some immunity over time.

[truthsnomiracle]

Which is only of potential help to one who dedicates themselves fully to such relations. Is there really no other defense — nothing that could be given to a witness, for example?

[yatagarasu]

Hmmm... [She leans back while remaining seated, using her arms as support.] I'm trying to figure out if I missed something...

I wasn't kidding about people being tied to masts and having their ears plugged up, though.

[Kay rises up again and walks into her cave of treasures, but still doesn't leave Edgeworth's line of sight.]

[truthsnomiracle]

(Given that I've already asked her this question in the past, I suppose she must not know how one might investigate alternative solutions to the problem. For that matter, I suppose it's all too likely that merpeople have never considered it a problem to be solved at all...)

[Rather than sharing any of these pessimistic thoughts, however, Edgeworth simply watches Kay silently and waits.]

[yatagarasu]

[She finds a small wooden chest with a letter written on what looks like paper made of seaweed attached to the lock. When Kay opens it with one of the keys from her hairpin, it reveals nothing except a metal headband with an intricate wave design embossed on it.]

Oh! My relatives were working on something that can allow humans to listen to siren songs without getting hypnotized...but that's the thing. It's still a work in progress.

Plus, we don't know yet if two magic artifacts can be worn at the same time.

[truthsnomiracle]

Has science only made the strides necessary to allow such an effort recently, then? As for the matter of wearing multiple artifacts, one would think that would be a simple thing to test. Is there reason to suspect it would be dangerous to try?

[yatagarasu]

[Kay nods, replacing the headband in the chest.]

Not really, it's more like...some kinds of magic might be incompatible with others. That will cause one artifact to work and the other to malfunction, or something like that.

[truthsnomiracle]

In short, while merpeople have learned enough to create things on an individual basis, even experts among your kind have insufficient understanding of the underlying processes to make any sort of predictions concerning how those individual results might affect one another?

[yatagarasu]

They say magics of rival clans, or a clan that opposes another's beliefs, are the worst. It's not easy to manipulate them.

...Still, it's worth a try. It might be different with a human. [Kay reaches into the pocket of her shorts and pulls out the ring, attached to a belt loop by a very fine chain.]

[truthsnomiracle]

I don't believe you've spoken at length about these clans. Would you care to elaborate?

[yatagarasu]

[She slips the ring back into her pocket, inhales deeply and answers his question.]

There are different families of merpeople. Some really hate people...a lot, and want nothing to do with them or even the rest of us with human blood. Others are neutral and don't care either way. Still others, like mine, are very open to merpeople and humans being friends...and sometimes, more than that.

[Kay was proof of that.]

Those who are anti-human usually live far away from our cities. Depending on how deep their hatred is, it seeps into their magic. Basically, our will, our emotions, and our thoughts can influence how we make stuff, or even sing.

[truthsnomiracle]

That's... a rather strange notion to contemplate. Humanity has never had credible reports of such aspects of the mind affecting anything beyond one's own body at the most, unless one counts mere mundane self-expression as "external". Certainly the laws of physics don't include mood-dependent provisions. [And for that matter, he sounds disdainful of the very idea.] I'm left to wonder how it is that such matters could possibly differ to such an extreme.

[yatagarasu]

You could think of our world as an upside-down version of yours.

[She manages an amused smile at that before turning her attention back to everything else in the cave as if wondering what else was worth showing.]

[truthsnomiracle]

[That joke does not go over so well.]

I would rather think that logic will actually work when applied to undersea society.

[yatagarasu]

[When she looks at Edgeworth again, she is holding a pair of brass hoops large enough for a wrist - or perhaps an ankle - to slip through.]

The fact that I even exist and we can ensnare you just by singing is kind of beyond logic, though.