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The Preserve, Tuesday Late Afternoon

Fleeing work and the reserves as early as she could justify to herself (because Ino was many things, yes, and hard worker was definitely on that list), Ino wandered out to the preserve, ducking in amongst the branches and ignoring any of the trails in favour of first walking through the undergrowth and then, once that became too tiresome, took to the trees.

A small bit of time once up in the trees was spent just amusing herself by racing through them as silently as possible and making leaps that were rather on the unsafe side for most people but only made her grin.

Finding a comfortable niche in the crook of two branches, Ino flopped down comfortably and tugged out her notebook. She wouldn't need it, but it made for a good cover story, should that come up.

Then, she toyed with her shields. Experimented with them and seeing how they meshed with other activities that involved her, her mind, and a few of the birds that dared come see what was going on when she stopped moving. None of them would get hurt, she thought virtuously, so her using them as a training tool ought not disturb anyone.

All it really looked like, though, was a girl in a tree with a book in her lap. Meditating or some such as birds went about their day, fearless of her presence.

[Expecting one but open, sure! Posted early to accommodate work-induced SP.

ETA: Ino and Madison talking in the preserve is FB. The details and any powers usage is NFB, please.]

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After having two intense workshops today, Madison had decided that she needed to get out and do something relaxing.

She hadn't taken the time to really explore and photograph the preserve yet, which was why she headed out there, camera in hand. There was so much interesting foliage and wildlife to photograph, though she found the ring of angel statues awfully disturbing.

When Ino first realized that there was someone else in the preserve with her, it was a bird, in appearance that went to go and see who it was.

More practice, really, as the wee bird settled on a branch and eyed the other girl curiously for a few seconds before taking wing again.

Ino opened her eyes and, as she was already working on expanding her range to sense people figured that it would probably be all right if she tried it on Madison without her permission. It wasn't like she was going to read thoughts or anything, just get a sense of who was--there.

Carefully, using the patience she reserved for this power and other important things, Ino let her mind wander over to where Madison was.

Madison didn't even notice the bird because she was so focused on framing a shot of a gorgeous purple flower. She was crouched down and leaning forward, wanting the extreme close-up of the petals.

Ino didn’t take long to ‘find’ Madison. It helped that she’d already known where the other girl was, of course, but as she drifted closer mentally, Ino found that there was something else that caught her attention about her.

Something that was definitely not normal.

It wasn’t very ethical, of course, invading someone’s mind without their permission and keeping them from realizing you were even there was probably even further down the ethical scale. But she was curious and something was reading as possession-but-not-quite.

And Ino prided herself on knowing her possessions. It was the one area of mind powers that she had a great deal of expertise in.

But she hadn’t seen anything like this before. Nosing around and studying how it seemed to be done took her a little while as she made certain to tread carefully and keep any of ‘herself’ out of Madison’s notice mentally.

She didn’t know, now, if Madison had any sort of mental powers. But this, this was interesting. It wasn’t possession, Ino decided, tracing the energy back to... an amulet and contemplating that thoughtfully.

At least, Ino corrected herself, it wasn’t any form of possession that Ino had seen before. There didn’t appear to be anyone but Madison in that body but the energy was—unmistakable.

Pulling out of Madison’s head and not feeling guilty at all about the prolonged snooping, though she probably deserved or had earned herself a lecture of some sort, Ino stretched, startling a few birds and rolled out of the tree to land lightly and soundlessly on the ground below.

It took her mere minutes to get to where Madison was and to perch up in a tree to glance down at her.

“Yo.”

The voice startled Madison enough that she had the sensation of her heart beating fast in her chest. She looked around for the source and was mildly relieved when she recognized the owner.

"Hey, Ino, what are you doing up there?"

"I like trees and heights," Ino said, honestly enough. "My home is surrounded by them."

She tilted her head at Madison.

"What're you doing out here?"

Madison held up her camera. "Taking pictures. There's a lot of gorgeous nature out here."

"You seen any of the teal deer yet?" she asked lightly. "Now those are cute. You'd probably get told you'd shopped the photos or somethin' however, showing them anywhere but here. Or get people tellin' you that using dye on animals is bad-wrong. What's with the amulet?"

Ino was not going to win a subtle prize any time soon, no. But sometimes blunt got you places...

"No, I've heard about them but I haven't..." Madison trailed off as her brain finally processed Ino's last question. Her fingers flew up to the smooth black stone.

"Uh, what do you mean what's with it?" she asked, striving for a nonchalant tone. "It's just a necklace I like to wear."

Ino gave her an amused look.

"You got that whole 'students got powers' speech by now, I'm assuming?"

Madison nodded slowly. "... yeah, heard that. What's that got to do with my necklace?"

Ino tapped her head.

"I got a few things that let me sense stuff," she said, skimming over the whole 'oh, by the way, invaded your mind to explore this'. "I was practicin' over that way, and felt your amulet pinging weirdly."

Ron's advice to steer clear of psychics popped into her head and she bit her lower lip.

"... oh. Uh... well, see..." she wasn't really sure how to even begin explaining.

"Take your time," Ino said helpfully, because she didn't really plan on going anywhere, no. "I mean, it's probably some sort of secret, right?"

She clasped her hands behind her back. "I promise I'm good at keeping them."

Madison sighed. "I'm dead," she blurted out. "I got killed by a reaper but I stole his amulet so I seem like I'm still alive."

"So that's why you feel like you're possessed," she said thoughtfully.

While an eyebrow inched up, Ino had been around Fandom long enough that... well. Anything went.

Being dead was still a bit of a surprise.

"You're lookin' pretty good for a deal girl," Ino added, fixing her with a blue-eyed stare. "How's that amulet work and why did a reaper kill you?"

She'd ask questions for as long as she could. Whether or not she got answers, well, that was up to Madison.

"I don't really know," Madison admitted. "The reaper who was training me and Ron, the guy who is the boss of the reapers, are trying to figure out why Kairos was after me."

She rubbed the stone hanging around her neck. "Apparently I'm supposed to be a reaper, which is why the amulet works."

Ino chewed her lower lip.

"Wanna sit and talk a bit?" she suggested. "I've got some granola bars if we head back to where I was."

Some days she nearly lived off of granola bars. Eating healthy was for... people older and wiser than her, yeah.

"I don't really eat much," she admitted. "But... it would be nice to talk to someone, yeah."

Her smile went a bit rueful.

"Should've guessed that," Ino said, tilting her head and taking a few steps in the direction of her tree.

"That's 'cause... hm... I'd guess that--if the amulet keeps you alive, that means your body isn't really?"

"Actually, uh... my body is kind of just an illusion," Madison admitted. "I mean, it's all like three dimensional and everything. But my real body is... somewhere else. I'm still trying to find it."

Huuunh.

"Solid illusion," she commented, frowning slightly. "But--I'm sorry, this is pretty blunt, how'd your body get lost? Was there a period time between the amulet and you, uh..."

Dying?

"Yeah. Kairos showed up at the morgue to try to take my soul somewhere," she said. "Not really sure where he wanted to take me or why. Managed to fight him off and steal his amulet but he snatched my body."

She looked hesitant, which was rare for her though Madison wouldn't know that.

"Do you think that... if you get your body back, you'll be alive again?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "I kind of hope so but... I really don't know."

Madison was pretty uncomfortable with the conversation even though she had agreed to it.

"So, like... are you psychic or something?"

"I'm a psychic, yeah," she said, figuring it was pointless to deny it. "There's a few of us 'round here."

A beat.

"Don't, like, worry 'bout your thoughts from me," she said hastily. "I only found you out 'cause I was doin' something else here and I don't--snoop that way."

Unless it was for a mission.

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The Preserve, Tuesday Late Afternoon

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