A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe smiled a little sadly at Olivia at the comment. "I dated a girl for almost a year who said things that hurt my feelings almost every day. I do have a thicker skin than that," most people didn't seem to think so, especially as Zoe had to admit even herself that she had her heart on her sleeve most days. Still, she didn't want Olivia to feel awkward around her or anything.

Zoe was almost tempted to give her friend a hug as she continued. She didn't want the gesture to be taken the wrong way though. So all she could do was smile shyly as Olivia talked about the sensation that came from touching Zoe. "Well, that's just a little touch. It gets worse the longer the contact..."

To the point where muscles could seize up and breathing could become something of an issue. Zoe pushed that to the side though: she wanted to focus on Olivia for the time being. She even smiled, a genuine smile, at Olivia's comment. "That's great!" she said, meaning the words. "Any progress is good! That's what I keep telling myself too," she had to flush at that, looking around, again feeling like she'd put herself at the forefront. It was kind of hard not to do when surrounded by all her own work though.

[Olivia Chance]

"Yeah see that kind of thing is exactly the reason I'm telling you now to tell me when I've said something that has hurt your feelings. I might not realize it, and realizing it after the fact would kill me. I hate it when people are hurting. And to know something I said did that? That's so much worse." Olivia bit her lip and sighed.

"So...even if you have a thick skin, please tell me." She also wondered if the girl Zoe was talking about was Devyn. She had a feeling it might be. It was hard to reconcile the girl Zoe described with Devyn though. Devyn had taught her how to snowboard, and had been pretty nice and understanding. But Olivia supposed there were many sides to every person.

"Yeah but look around you Zoe. You're making WAY more progress than me. This is amazing. And don't even try to do the whole modesty thing. Just take the compliment." She grinned. Yes, her personality kind of went every which way sometimes.

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe nodded, willing to accept it. She was tempted to yet again insist that she had friends that teased her or could sometimes be rough around the edges. Technically Zoe's current girlfriend had started off their relationship by being almost aggressively caustic toward the girl. It was part of what had formed Zoe into who she was though.

"Well, um, I did have a lot of help," she insisted, looking around and nodding. "Most of these people I know personally, and a lot of them were there to help me get things together. I don't think--I probably wouldn't have made it if it weren't for them, for what we went through together."

There were just so many people here that had supported her. Most of the photographs were from her friends and even the ones that weren't were from people who supported her. "Like him," she said, pointing at a dark photo of a young man surrounded by bats, "that's Tim, and he put me on his show. I wouldn't even have clothes if he didn't help," Zoe nodded and smiled, before moving to give Olivia's hand another little squeeze, again careful to only touch for a moment, not wanting to spread the paralysis too far.

[Olivia Chance]

Olivia heard Zoe do her modest routine and give credit to others for her hard work. Olivia also decided to just ignore that. At least the girl wasn't selfish right? She preferred to just listen to what Zoe was saying.

"So...I really need to hear that story. A teenager boy helped a girl GET clothes instead of taking them off. Yeah I really need to hear this one." She arched an eyebrow and grinned. She smiled when Zoe squeezed her hand again. Again, the pins and needles. Zoe's power. Still very much cool.

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

The comment made Zoe laugh, followed soon by a slight head-shake. "Well, he does know that I'm quite gay," she had to say, smiling at it. It still made her a little nervous to say those words aloud, as though she expected someone to show up and start beating her with clubs or at the very least scolding her. But she didn't have a problem telling the story.

"Well, um, as I said, when I got here, I didn't have much, pretty much what I had on my back when I left my parents," which had certainly been rough. Zoe looked toward the picture for a few moments, pushing back the emotions that came with the memory. "Tim found out about it, somehow, and he's got this web show," she nodded, "it's sort of popular? he alternates between making statements about mutant rights and having joke videos showing how mutants are normal people, but, anyway, he asked me to be on it, and we sort of..." she flushed, "went viral? I ended up with more clothes than I could handle, and not all of it was, um," she gestured at what she was wearing, "this nice."

Zoe definitely did not want to think about the utterly overwhelming amounts of underwear that had been sent her way...

[Olivia Chance]

Olivia quirked up an eyebrow.

"And knowing you were gay stopped him? I'm impressed with this guy already. Tolerance of LGBTs is cool enough, but tolerance to an individual and their views is even cooler." Then she told the story and Olivia burst out laughing. People in the show started looking. She wilted slightly on seeing that, but it didn't stop the red flush in her cheeks and the fact that for the first time in a long time, Olivia's eyes were shining with happiness.

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

"Well, he's also got a girlfriend," Zoe offered, flushing again. "I think she's the one who's been a good influence on him. He used to, um, have some troubles. We're not really friends or anything, so I really couldn't say more..."

She did know Tim more or less, and she'd made sure to look back as best she could. She'd heard about the interview thing, had offered to be one of his subjects, but she'd also heard about his earlier blogs, and his tendency to fly off the handle and nearly attack people online. Zoe just supposed that they all had their own battles to fight, and she certainly wasn't in a position to judge anyone else's.

Right now, she was smiling at Olivia's flushing, almost glad to see it. She wound her arm around her friend's and led her over to another section, figuring that the movement would help. "Here, you can look at my shapeshifting friend," she said, nodding toward another set of photographs. It showed Oneyka Duffour shifting into various people, including one where she was almost precisely half herself and half Zoe. There was of course a poem talking about seeing things from the other view and so forth.

"And don't worry: most of the people here are really nice too," she said, giving her friend's arm a squeeze. "They did come to see a photo display of mutant powers done by a known lesbian photographer after all," she couldn't help but say the last with more than a little mirth, knowing just how very "unique" that made her sound.

[Olivia Chance]

Olivia looked at the picture of the shapeshifter and she squinted, studying it.

"That is a really cool ability to have. I'm trying to wrap my mind around how that would work of course." Then she felt the squeeze on the arm and grinned at her friend.

"You don't say? You're a lesbian?" She arched an eyebrow and then surprised herself as she giggled a little at her sarcasm.

"And you're known to consort with mutants and other LGBTs too. Don't forget that one. Present company included." She was finally relaxing about the fact she was attracted to both genders. She chuckled.

"This is fun. I'm glad I decided to come by. Your pictures are awesome. And informative. And talking is always fun."

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe nodded. "She's got fairly good control over it too," she supplied. Zoe raised a hand, showing the various persons that Onnie had taken on through the showing. That had been one of the more startling of Zoe's photoshoots for this particular outing, and she couldn't help but enjoy seeing someone else enjoying it.

That enjoyment extended to Zoe giggling at Olivia's comment. She nodded a few times, going along with it. "I think nearly everyone I associate with is part of those communities," she admitted, looking back at the photographs. "Well, some of the models weren't. Um, they weren't..." she gestured, "LGBT, I mean. They're obviously mutants."

Zoe flushed, but nodded, glad to hear that Olivia enjoyed herself. And that she learned something. "That's what I was hoping for," Zoe admitted, before looking around, seeing the various people there. The show wasn't packed, but there were definitely admirers. Sometimes all it took was a few people. "I'd like to have people feel something too," she looked back to Olivia, "and get what I'm trying to do here, I guess."

[Olivia Chance]

"So...teachers tell us we can be anyone we want to be. And I think SOMEONE took it a little too much to heart." She smirked, gesturing to the shapeshifting model.

"Sorry. Couldn't help it. And...well you associate with people who understand you. And if people understand your attractions and your struggles, that makes them closer to you. It's only natural. And people will feel something looking at your photos. Even if it's just one person, these photos will make a difference. I can't help thinking they might be good in a photobook distributed to the populace for a better understanding of mutants though. Maybe interspersed with other mutant art."

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe smiled a little at Olivia's joke, It wasn't the wittiest or anything, but she could definitely understand it, and she couldn't help but like the little bit of positivism embedded in there. "She's quite impressive even without all that," Zoe admitted, looking back at the photos, remembering. Oneyka had been so beautiful, even before she'd shifted, and she'd come across as so intelligent and poised. Zoe had felt jealous then, and she couldn't help but feel a stab of it now.

Though a good deal of that faded away as Olivia continued. Zoe hadn't quite thought of putting this into books. It had never quite meshed with how she visualized things. But now as Olivia laid it out, explained the possibilities. "I could try," Zoe said, blinking in surprise, not quite believing that the words came out of her mouth. "I have some other ideas too, and I know other artists..."

Zoe's gaze wandered. She'd done a show, it had been successful. Would something more permanent be a plan? "Thank you," Zoe said, looking back at her friend, "for the idea, I mean."

[Olivia Chance]

Olivia reddened but smiled.

"I'm just glad I had a useful idea. Anything that helps other humans understand us instead of fearing us would be good. There's jerky mutants who will think otherwise of course, but we should be trying to live in harmony. Maybe I'm just an idealist, but I want nothing to do with destruction and fear. Maybe it's because I've been the victim most of my life. I want no part of being the oppressor. Maybe someone in my position would want the chance but...I don't know." She sighed, the smile slipping.

"Anyways, I've been reading a lot about powers. But there's no real pictures of the abilities being used. It's like no-one was willing to educate and be a model to help promote understanding."

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

The reddening just reminded Zoe of herself, which was hardly that surprising. She couldn't help but smile at that, part of her wanting to reach out and give her friend a hug or something along those lines. The last year of being cautious with touching, along with other things, kept her mostly still, at least for the time being.

She did have to nod along with Olivia's ideas. "There are going to be people who think all sorts of things," she said, looking around. She gestured. "Most of my subjects wanted us to be balanced, to show the world and all, but, well," Zoe lowered the hand, "the world's made up of all sorts of people. We sort of need them."

Though the last bit had Zoe smiling. She even gave a little shrug. "Well, maybe they can use some of my photos for textbooks, though that would be quite strange. Could you imagine that," she pointed at a picture of Tim grinning and pointing at a bat, "in a textbook you need for a class?"

[Olivia Chance]

"Hey, textbooks can be fun too." Olivia felt a little defensive. She'd learned a lot about social interactions from those textbooks too. It wasn't just mutant powers she researched. She'd be completely hopeless without the information those books afforded her.

"Besides, there's so few willing participants, and even fewer good photographers that I hardly think there'd be complaints. And if you managed to get your pictures in there, it would make your artistic reach skyrocket globally."

[Zoe Wallerstein-Smythe]

Zoe laughed a little at the textbooks comment. "There have been some I've enjoyed, in their way," mostly the ones involving photography or poetry, though Zoe did try to be a fairly good student. Her grades generally never fell out of the "B" range, and she thought herself to be an intelligent young woman, if focused on other things. Just that thought had her looking around at the photos.

Didn't stop Zoe from listening as Olivia pointed out what what good Zoe could do. "You make it sound like such an appealing idea," Zoe said, taking a deep breath and releasing it slowly. "But I don't even know if they'd ever publish such a thing," she looked to her friend, smiling sadly. "mutants are mostly hidden, remember? Some of the people here honestly think that this is all special effects of photoshop," Zoe paused, then looked at her friend. "it's not: I don't even know how to use those programs."

She had to smile though, trying to picture the few times she'd actually bothered. It had just never quite worked for her, and she was thankful she had enough artistic flare to work without it.