* 𝗐𝗂𝗍𝗁 𝕡𝕠𝕚𝕤𝕠𝕟 .

Where: Brisbane City Botanic Gardens

Chi knew one thing for sure she wasn’t going to allow this off day go to waste, she had been eyeing the Botanic Gardens for months. The weather was nice and the scenery was just as beautiful, turning her head she smiled at a familiar face.

When: Saturday afternoon

With: Open

Caroline massaged her temples as she looked around the gift store.  Everything looked gorgeous but that was not helping her narrow down her search for a birthday present.  She picked up a scented candle and began to cough as she took a sniff.  Quickly putting that down she made her way over to the photo frames.  “Is it a bit egocentric to give someone a photo frame for their birthday with a photo of you in it?” she muttered out loud as she picked up a silver frame.

WHEN: Saturday mid afternoon

WITH: Open

Naomi had definitely been one to spread her wings and allowing herself to explore Brisbane was one of those opportunities. She found herself in an restaurant not too far from her house, she was working from home but after hitting an wall, she decided to go on the town and just explore, with her laptop this was right up her alley. After retrieving her food, she realized that order was incorrect. She wasn’t one to complain, as she waited in line, she tripped over her own two feet accidentally getting the floor dirty, mentally she face palmed.

“Damn just my luck.” She mumbled as she attempted to get the things from the ground starting her afternoon with an bang.

Brisbane, on late years, has become a huge place, she barely knows her neighbors, after all, so it’s odd that, while looking at the woman, Reina cannot get rid of the faint but lingering feeling of having seen her before, even when she can't really define where or why. At the end, she bends down to retrieve some of, what most be, the woman’s belongings.

“How can anyone be so clumsy?” Reina complains, more as a habit that from real annoyance and lets a heavy sign out of her lips. She stares back at the woman “It’s not your day, huh?” Reina smiles a bit, trying to empathic, lending the stuff back.

For once, Tommy wasn’t working.  After remembering yesterday that the Festival was even happening, he’d decided to give himself an actual real day off work and just wander about.  It was a pleasant excursion, if a little solitary.   Everywhere he looked, there were groups of friends, couples, families, kids running about - and then there was Tamir, all by himself.

He really should’ve rang someone up to come along; but who, really.

For now, he munched on some odd-flavoured popcorn (he wasn’t sure he liked it yet) as he watched people lining up for a turn on the mechanical bull.  It was entertaining, and Tommy got into cheering for those who lasted more than a few seconds atop the wildly bucking thing.

Glancing towards the person next to him, he nodded to the bull and said,  “Fancy going for a ride on that thing?  Not sure if it’s bravery or drunkenness.  Maybe a bit of both.”

He was on his way to grab another beer, when his eyes landed on something shining and resting on the ground. His curiosity caused him to kneel and grab the golden ring. Assuming it belonged to the person next to him, Chidi aimed to get their attention. “Is this yours?” The mistake was the fact that he did this before he moved up to stand still, caused strangers to assume he was the lamest person in the world that would ever propose in the middle of a barbecue festival.

“Oh, right–” he heard some commotion close to him and the other person, which caused him to instantly motion himself up. “I’m not asking you to marry me, it’d be one hell of an awkward situation in case this is really yours and whoever married you gets back to face this scene, huh?” Besides, Chidi really urged to never deal with this kind of situation in his life. Serious relationships: his nightmare.

“Yeah, you better hide that before my husband shows up and beats your ass”  she adds, because awkward sounds little in that hypothetic scenario. And contrary to her words, she extended her hand to him with her palm up, wanting to take a closer look at the ring, she is not a detective, of course not, but spending so much time Tamir has made her feel as if, just a little bit, besides, it would be a lie to say that Rei is not nosy.

A soft laugh escapes her. “You really are determined to break my heart today, Chidi, I would have said yes, without hesitation, but I guess I burger would do”. That's when Rei gets a little closer to him, to whisper  “The old man over there, I saw his heart break too when he realized that there is no proposal, we should get something for him too”  she says, half jokingly, half seriously.

Age: 33 years old Date of birth: April 10th, 1988 Gender and preferred pronouns: Cis woman - She/her Occupation: Wildlife and Landscape Photographer Place of birth: Brisbane, Australia Neighborhood: Kangaroo Point  Length of residency in Brisbane: 33 years

— 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐑𝐄𝐈𝐍𝐀

To many, born under an unlucky star. Starting with the lurid separation of her parents’, having no memories of the terrible even by itself but living the aftermath, which left her father as nothing more than a phantom limb and her mother like a shadow of the person she used to be, Reina always felt like her life was set on hard mode, battling uphill, learning to survive by her own, because her father betrayal was that storm her mother could not unwater, and, as the good daughter she always wanted to be, scare to causing more harm she learned to be a perfect little girl, always on time, always on right manners, always walking on her tiptoes.

Pretending being someone else can only take you so far, and I was during Reina’s teenage years when she could not keep the perfect facade anymore. At the end of the day she was her mother’s child, a rage ready to ignite, the spite moving her actions, Reina thinks, and perhaps it’s true, that she learned to hate before learn how to walk, and the reasons to fight never were scarce, with her story being to public and the neighbors who always wanted to talk about it, the classmates that always pointed out her flaws, even her mother, the two of them being too alike to cohabited the place for too long without any of them igniting.

Reina moved out of her mother’s house at age eighteen, a small and ramshackle apartment, for an even smaller and scruffier girl, her new life tasted like sweat and microwaved food, spending the day at part time jobs and the night at university, even though her life wasn’t a dream, barely resembling one, she didn’t mind as long as she could be free. At was during this time she found her peace on the outdoors, never being so passionate about anything, devoted only to the things that were convenient, she found magic on the way nature seemed to be so permanent, so resilient.

The photography gig was nothing but a matter of being on the right place at the right time, not planned, but almost like destiny, and the photographer of aforetime who decided to take her as a pupil, Reina learned the craft with devotion, later making a name for herself. Being a photographer became her life, spending the days trying to find the perfect landscape to capture and the nights dreaming about yet to see. And it was like the first time in her life she felt everything was in place.  

— 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘

+ determined, genuine, inventive -  stubborn, grouchy, resentful