{MIW} Picture in the Parking Lot

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Who would want a picture in the parking lot? Zoe didn't quite know the answer but she certainly knew where she'd been assigned for that particular day during Move-In Week. So she'd gathered up her provided school camera, grabbed the button and put it on her blouse, and then headed off to the parking lot.

Sure enough, there were people there. After all, several students were moving objects, either from dorms to apartments or from homes to dorms or some combination therein. Zoe had to smile some as she saw some of the families, including those with various nervous children going away for the first time. Thankfully the school didn't take anyone younger than eleven or so, but even those students seemed so young, especially to Zoe. It made her remember her own arrival, at eighteen, with a battered backpack filled with the remnants of an old life. Things had most definitely improved from there.

"W--would anyone like a photo?" Zoe asked, holding her camera out and moving through the crowd. She worked her way around the crowd and, despite herself, ended up taking at least a few shots of just people moving, enjoying each other's company and working. In fact, Zoe was very quickly starting to get a little too wrapped up on the whole taking random pictures thing.

[Cassie Stryker]

She tapped the camera girl on the shoulder briefly. Felt a tingle in her fingertips and rubbed her index finger against her thumb for a moment. That was odd. Anyways, she arched an eyebrow and looked down at the girl from her five foot eleven vantage point.

"You know you could get in trouble for taking pictures of people without asking." It was a plain sentence. There was just a bit of mild interest in her tone of voice.

"I assume you're already moved in or something?" She honestly wasn't sure. Cassidy herself was only a college freshman so she'd had to move in. But that wasn't too much trouble when instead of going up and down stairs you could teleport things in. She could do that right? That was allowed?

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

The girl must have been new, or at least, not someone that Zoe could remember meeting before now. Probably new, as, well, this was Move-in-week and all. There was a raised brow which already made Zoe feel bashful, and the statement that accompanied it certainly didn't alleviate that sensation in the slightest. "I know," she managed as a result. She was about to continue but the question came. That was easy enough: a nod.

"I was, um, an academy student for a year or so. I moved in during the summer," Zoe said, remembering all too well the awkwardness of coming back from her trip in June to find that her roommates had shifted. "I'm studying photography and, well, have been, that's why," she held up the school camera, almost placing it between them like a shield. "Would, ah, would you like a photo?" That was why most people approached Zoe, after all, particularly with that camera out.

[Cassie Stryker]

Cassidy nodded in understanding with what the girl was saying.

"Ah. I'm a college freshman myself. I've been around Bellefonte for a while but I haven't really been doing anything but going to classees. No social life whatsoever." She shrugged. Ah a photography student. And she offered to take Cassidy's picture.

"Umm...I have no issue with people taking pictures of me but I don't really need one. I already know what I look like. And my parents don't care." She chuckled. It was a sour fact of life for her at this point, but hiding her true feelings was something she was very good at.

"I've already moved in myself though, so I have nothing to do. Basically I'm people watching."

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe brightened slightly. "I've quite a few friends who--" she paused for a moment, mostly because the girl seemed to almost not want a picture, and, well, the reasoning for it struck Zoe as rather sad. Yes, there was that bit about already moving in and how this was mostly people watching but: "The pictures are about more than just, just seeing yourself," Zoe explained. "It's about, well, seeing yourself at a certain time? It's, well, you capture what you are, what you felt and everything around you, at just that particular moment. And it just keeps going and..."

Zoe gestured a few more times, as if circling something through into the distant future. Her hand sort of fell off after a while. She flushed. But she straightened herself, meeting the other girl's eyes. This was important, and if this girl thought that someone didn't think a picture of her was important then, well, Zoe was bound and determined to prove that idea as wrong as possible.

[Cassie Stryker]

"Well...there's nothing particularly glamourous about moving in. I finished it in about ten or fifteen minutes with my mutant ability. I suppose pictures would be nice for if I was on the track team and I won. That way I could see. But otherwise...I don't know I don't see the use. They're just going to be put into an album and forgotten. Better to remember the time vividly yourself." The girl was waxing poetic and Cassidy rarely understood that. The girl looked up and met Cassidy's eyes and the tall girl arched an eyebrow. Why was there so much conviction in those eyes?

"What? The Amish refuse photos all the time. At least I don't think they steal my soul. Although I'm not bashing their beliefs at all."

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe nearly wanted to cry out in frustration. She did encounter people like this, people who didn't get it. The whole remembering it vividly thing did have some point, but, well, there was ---

The Amish? Why was she even bringing up the Amish? Not to mention the bits about thinking that cameras would steal souls? Zoe was almost tempted to also point out that the girl didn't seem to have any problems bashing her beliefs to her face, as opposed to some group that had been brought up from out of no where.

"It's, well, it's like I said," Zoe said, raising the camera again for its use as an aid. "You capture something in that moment. We can always remember it, sure, but if we have a photo we can look at it and better remember. Or see things from a new perspective: you don't exactly get to look at yourself from someone else's eyes all that often. But I guess if that's, um, not something you're interested in, then I can't make you?" Zoe shrugged, not sure what else she could say if someone just wanted to steadfastly refuse to deal with pictures but for some reason wanted to bother a photographer.

[Cassie Stryker]

Cassidy shrugged. The girl seemed to be frustrated. Cassidy had a bad feeling she had something to do with that. She heard the explanation and sighed.

"Don't take it personally. I don't really care about anything in particular really. Running is something I like but other than that...well let's just say there's a reason why I faded into the background all this time at Bellefonte. I'm sure your photography's good. I'm sure there's a reason why people take photos to remember times. But...according to you photos are a way to remember good experiences. I've only had subpar or average ones so I guess I don't understand it yet." The girl smiled.

"I'm Cassidy Stryker by the way. I didn't actually strike up a conversation to get into an argument I promise." She chuckled.

"Everyone else is busy moving though and...helping isn't my thing. Not quite yet."

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Hard not to take it personally when someone effectively dismissed your passion, but Zoe swallowed it down, telling herself that the girl probably hadn't met it. The apathy actually worried her, made her look toward the other girl with concern in those big brown eyes of hers. She definitely heard the compliments embedded in there, or at least the well-meaning quasi-ones. "I'm sure there's been something--" Zoe began, pausing for a moment as the introduction came there. Cassidy Stryker struck her as a very strong name, and it made her also realize just how very much of a mouthful her own was, even if it was somewhat lyrical.

"Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe," she offered, letting the multi-syllabic bit dance along her tongue. She finished with a smile and a nod. "And I'm sure you could find something to help with if you wanted," Zoe turned, looking back across the lot, seeing everyone moving around, all the helpers and families and just, everyone pulling together.

"You'll never get a good experience if you don't go looking for one," Zoe added, looking over at Cassidy again and giving her a reassuring smile.

[Cassie Stryker]

"With all due respect, you don't know me and you don't know my life. I am content, but good experiences do not seek me out. My past is only proof of that. I have tried to find good experiences and they have soured rather spectacularly." She sighed. The girl had introduced herself and Cassidy would better like to dwell on that than her sordid past.

"Well that name's certainly a mouthful." Oops.

"Hm. I think I might've put my foot in it again. Apologies."

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Yet again the girl had to be rude, almost mean to Zoe. It definitely didn't make her want to stick around, yet at the same time, she couldn't help but wonder what had happened to leave someone feeling so jaded. Zoe considered prying further, asking, trying to again cheer the girl up. Though, well, it seemed as if she almost wanted to be sorrowful.

And apparently she noticed the mouthful which was Zoe's name. The poet let out a slight laugh at that. "No, it really is," she agreed, nodding. She wanted to focus on that, tempting though it was to point out how the other girl had been rather rude earlier. She licked her lip for a moment. "It's what happens when your parents want to combine families instead of having one wipe the other out," Zoe smiled slightly, remembering the way her parents had explained it to her. she again found herself looking to the families moving around.

"It's always good to make something new, move forward," she said. She kept her head turned toward the people, but she let her gaze shift sideways for a bit, hoping that the other girl caught what she was trying to imply.

[Cassie Stryker]

"Combine families..." Cassidy actually genuinely smiled this time.

"That's really nice, both sides thinking of the other in that way." She wished it had been like that in the Stryker family, but she was TRYING not to dwell on that. Somewhat unsuccessfully but trying just the same. Try something new...move forward...

"My hobby's running so...moving forward is a specialty of mine?" She wasn't sure what the other girl was getting at actually.

"Anyway, I'm counting college as a fresh start. I'm actually resolved to have a social life and not just the impeccable grades." She grinned.

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe nodded as the other girl offered her compliment. At least that wasn't accidentally slighting Zoe or anything involving her or her family. That was most definitely an improvement as far as the conversation went: Zoe had to give them that. And it was soon followed with the girl opening up, offering her own hobby. Sure, Zoe might not have been into running, but she could at least take it.

Especially that part about moving forward, which had Zoe smiling. It continued, talking about seeing college as the start of a new life, something fresh. There was also the bit about grades, which Zoe certainly logged away for later: something for them to share. For now: "So, would you say that this is part of the moment of you moving forward? Part of your first start?" she asked, sliding a sort of inquisitive tone, clearly hinting that this was definitely the sort of thing you wanted to immortalize in a photograph.

[Cassie Stryker]

Cassidy shrugged.

"Here's to hoping. It'd be about time. Of course, I can't forget the past. Otherwise my power will hurt people. But I might be able to go around using it defensively instead." She didn't see any of the hints. If there was one thing Cassidy could be it was dense.

"You might be one of the first people I've had a decent conversation with at Bellefonte so far actually. So maybe I'm improving a little bit in the social aspect. Or maybe you're just too nice for your own good, putting up with a rude lil' bitch like me." She laughed.

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Hoping: Zoe loved the word, so much so that she had to take a deep breath, as if she could inhale it and let it swim around inside her for a little bit. yes, there was mentions of not forgetting the past. Zoe couldn't argue with it, especially given her own power. She didn't want to hurt anyone with her power either, even if she'd had to.

The compliment struck her as rather odd, though the bit about being rude didn't. "It's alright, really," Zoe insisted, nodding. She adjusted her grip on her camera. "You know... this would be the moment that you've decided to hope and have a good conversation and move forward to try and stop the... the bitchiness."

Zoe shifted slightly and then leaned forward a little. "Now wouldn't you say that's something you'd want to remember in a photo?"