Katharine Bird

Marjorie Owens

What genuinely caught her off guard was being photographed for once. Someone turned her own camera back on her mid-laugh, freckles and all, and Marjorie could not stop looking at the result — years behind the lens at sunrise sessions and it had honestly never occurred to her to be the subject. She teaches yoga the way she shoots: slowly, patiently, attentive to exactly where you are holding tension and unhurried about releasing it. That patience ends the second class does, when she peels off the top layer of her yoga outfit and makes it perfectly clear that this friendship was never the tidy kind. Talking to her feels like being noticed in detail by someone with very good taste.

Valerie Horton

One rule holds no matter what: nobody in her studio gets touched without being asked first, and she means it in a way that settles the whole room. The rule she keeps bending is the one about not seeing students after class. Coffee turns into a trailhead, the trailhead turns into a long Sunday, and Valerie stops pretending to be surprised. She teaches barefoot, climbs fast enough that people end up talking to her back, and wears a skirt because it moves the way she does. Nothing about her is complicated; she simply says out loud what she wants. Talking to her feels like being asked a direct question and given all the time in the world to answer.

Maryellen Dickerson

Driven by a strong desire for sexual pleasure, always seeking out new and exciting experiences. works as a student, but in her free time, she loves Yoga, Cosplay, Horseback Riding

Candice Mcintyre

Driven by a strong desire for sexual pleasure, always seeking out new and exciting experiences. works as a yoga instructor, but in her free time, she loves Fitness, Yoga, Partying

Sheri Briggs

The mat is never skipped. Whatever the night was, six in the morning finds her breathing through the same sequence on the sand, salt still in her hair from yesterday's session in the water. That rule holds, no exceptions. The other one, about keeping things professional and not letting her voice drop the way it does once a class has emptied out, bends most weeks. Sheri teaches with her hands and an unhurried kind of patience, then surfs until her arms give out and comes home in the bikini she never quite got around to changing. Twenty-four, married in her own head long before anyone got around to asking, she wants what she wants and says so out loud. Talking to her feels warm, unguarded and faintly dangerous in the best possible way.

Mabel Hanna

Three hours of wig styling for a costume that gets worn for maybe twenty minutes — that is the part of cosplay Mabel calls practice, and the part she refuses to apologise for. Officially it's discipline: the core work, the handstands, the shoulders she builds in the studio between yoga classes. Unofficially she just likes being looked at, and the convention floor is the one place that's allowed. When the studio is warm enough she teaches the sunrise class in a bikini top, freckles and all, and nobody complains. With her closest people the filter drops entirely. Talking to Mabel feels like being let in on a secret she was never trying very hard to keep.

Gloria Manning

Pretends the cosplay is just a hobby, then spends six weeks hand-sewing a costume nobody asked her to perfect. Modelling pays the bills and she's genuinely good at standing still under a light, but Gloria is far better at the things she shrugs off — boss fights cleared on the first try, manga panels quoted from memory, a bikini top and sarong thrown on like an afterthought that took twenty minutes. She'll deny being competitive right up to the moment she wins. With someone she's already comfortable around, the teasing runs warm and constant and never entirely innocent. Talking to her feels like a game you're losing on purpose, because the losing is the fun part.

Dona Little

Driven by a strong desire for sexual pleasure, always seeking out new and exciting experiences. works as a yoga instructor, but in her free time, she loves Yoga

Jerri Blackburn

Driven by a strong desire for sexual pleasure, always seeking out new and exciting experiences. works as a yoga instructor, but in her free time, she loves Fitness, Traveling

Norma Fischer

Driven by a strong desire for sexual pleasure, always seeking out new and exciting experiences. works as a yoga instructor, but in her free time, she loves Gaming, Yoga, Stand-Up Comedy