Daryl/Zee: Letting you all know about Cary

I know the news about Cary's heart attack has been going up and down some group texts, but a lot of Inn folks lurk here to keep up with what's going on and might not find out otherwise.  I just want to let everyone know that it was mild, though they'll be keeping him in the hospital for observation for a couple of days.  We're not sure if it was triggered by the heatwave or something else.

The timing is especially lousy, not that there's ever a particularly good time for something like this, because Mackenzie is actually abroad right now.  She was down in Boston for a show while Scotland's Tartan Army was swarming the city, hit it off with a kilted fellow whose hair is an even brighter red than hers, and she said that, yeah, she thinks she's Scottish but she's adopted so she's not really in touch with that part of her heritage when asked.  Which sounds better than "under this pale exterior, I'm actually a Black woman ten or fifteen years older than I look".  He impulsively asks to let him show her Glasgow, she says yes, and Cory's cool with it because, as mentioned, the former Krystle has more than enough experience to deal with anything this guy might pull.  It does mean that she's been spending all day trying to pull together a flight back home and dealing with delays that messed with her transfer.

I'm second on his "in case of emergency" call list after Mack, so I left work, rented a car, and drove up as soon as I could.  Happily, there's been relatively little bullshit about a Black woman half his age being his girlfriend rather than a caretaker; Southern Maine can be lily-white at times but often pretty live-and-let-live, even if I've been getting some sideways glances.

Thankfully, Cary was awake for a couple hours tonight, and was in pretty good spirits, but tired.  I've taken work off through the holiday and I'll probably be sleeping in an uncomfortable chair next to him, waiting for Mack to show up.

It's hitting me kind of hard, harder than I expected.  We kept telling ourselves that our thing was kind of casual, friends with benefits and a unique shared experience, and maybe that's why it his so hard, because lovers come and go but people you've shared lives with are incredibly rare.  Elaine gets it; she's been texting me for updates ever since I called her.

Anyway, even though the doctors say he's going to be fine, spare Cary a moment if you can.

-Zee

Jordan/Yuan-Wei: Too much time to think right now

I mentioned a few months ago that I was trying not to jinx something, but I guess I may as well.  His name is Dominic Wong Tak-Lok and I think I may love him.

We met on a dating app, as you do, but it actually started to take off when we crossed paths at work.  He's a guy who would be about to break big if Hong Kong's film industry was what it once was, a pretty darn good screen fighter in one of the big stunt teams who has the charisma to jump to speaking roles; he's had a couple things - mostly stuff that goes straight to the likes of iQIY - where he's a sort of featured heavy, the guy that gives the star a run for his money on the way to the big showdown with the villain and lodges himself in your memory because that guy was sort of cool.  Anyway, he was in a fantasy action thing and I came on-set to set up mo-cap when needed and show the director monster designs to make sure that there was actually room for a bulky ten-foot-tall beastie on screen.  So I was putting some dots on him, he said funny meeting you here and poured on the flirting; I wasn't seeing anyone exclusively and he was my type, so I went with it.

Not that "my type" is particularly specific:  He's tall, well-muscled but just short of the super-sculpted way that Benny says isn't achievable without risking dehydration, and gets a nice five-o'clock shadow.  Some of his family emigrated back in the 1990s, so he's spent a fair amount of time in Vancouver, which means his English is pretty good and he doesn't think I'm weird for preferring baseball to soccer, and he respects that I'm good at my job so he doesn't try to mansplain movies to me.  He's got an impressive, responsive dick.

I wasn't expecting much more than some good sex and some good times.  I've been a woman for ten years, even if I figured to become a man again during the first, and though I've had boyfriends, I really only got hurt by something ending once, and that involved a bunch of weird Chen-ai Inn Conspiracy Shit.  I kind of figured that's how it was going to be, just because of who I am.  I figure that the Inn alters the parts of your brains that control gender identity and sexual orientation but don't mess with anything that speaks to your experiences or skills (I've read so much fucking neuroscience of gender for dummies shit since becoming Yuan-Wei) and just kind of figured that who I am was kind of set by the first twenty-five years of my life, where I was overweight, angry, overlooked by girls and pissed off about it.  I kind of go into relationships expecting the collapse.  And sometimes I wonder if how I behave as the girl in a relationship is really me, or me trying to be what I wanted girls to be as a guy, or how I think girls act, or how I think girls should act.

(If a therapist went to the Inn they could make so much fucking money from zoom sessions with folks who can't tell a regular shrink why they're fucked up)

It's been really good.  We both tend to work long hours, but Hong Kong is a good city for when you're looking to have a date at 3am, and when he's not working, he's a good cook and not weird about how I make more money than him so I sometimes pay for dinner.  We go to movies and elbow each other to point out stuff that we think is kind of funny or weird from a behind-the-scenes perspective.  His family is pretty cool about me being a couple years older and doesn't talk about my eggs running out or anything.  He has yet to fail to bring me to orgasm, and all that martial-arts training seems to translate well to how I kind of like being picked up and kind of manhandled without crossing a line.  Like, he knows his own strength and that I like to feel some power without actually getting hurt.

And, right now, sitting in this hospital, I wish the stunt coordinator on his current job had been similarly committed to people not getting fucking hurt.

it's so fucking ridiculous, because I was there to make sure something like this didn't happen, helping with green-screen work so that we could put a fake cement wall in behind him so that if he didn't manage to leap onto the car's hood in time, we wouldn't be crushed between them.  We do a lot of that stuff - folks don't realize how much CGI is letting folks do practical stunts safely - but some jackass figured they could store equipment behind the green screen, and Dominic's leg got pinned.  It's a pretty gnarly fracture - they brought him into the OR rather than just setting it with a cast - and they won't let me into his room, even though I'm the one that called his parents and told them where to come.

So, yeah, maybe I'm in love.  Can't imagine I'd be this freaked out otherwise.

-Jordo

Trip / Kat - Sleeping on the job

It seems that in the past couple of months I've developed a problem that neither I nor Kat have ever encountered prior. Falling asleep in the middle of the day. Now, by itself, I wouldn't think much of it... I mean, a nice nap after a big dinner isn't too uncommon - and I'm still getting used to this body. I'd wondered if this isn't some side-effect or something of that inn's "magic" or whatever, but it seems that I'm the only one to have developed a new affliction that neither person had before.

But it seems to be getting worse. Last week, I had to stop in the middle of chores and sit down. I subsequently fell asleep. Dad was pretty angry that I was "laying down on the job" when he found me. It didn't take long for him to realize that there was a problem when I didn't wake-up right away. The family doctor thinks I have narcolepsy or something similar and referred me to see the specialists at the University of Iowa Hospitals. He was pretty sure that it had nothing to do with the fall I took back in June, since I didn't hit my head or anything, but advised me to mention it to the University doctors.

Today, mom and I get to make the long trip to the see the doctors. Mom gets to drive us there, as nobody trusts me to make the long drive without falling asleep. I know this trip will be a pain - I hate not being in control... and mom is not the best with long drives, or driving in cities. Of course, I'd rather be with mom than dad, I'm sure he's going to be worried and fussing the whole time I'm gone. It's not like I'm having major surgery and might die. But I guess, right now, he sees me as his little girl - just like my sister, and just like Kat was before our trips to the inn. In a way, it's kind of nice.

Anyhow, I get to stay overnight at the hospital, so they can do some type of tests. I've never liked going the doctor or dentist, and I feel no different even in this body. The last thing I want is to be poked and prodded. It's not as if I didn't already feel like I was on-display or anything. I would accuse myself of worrying too much... but the last time I thought myself being overly-paranoid, I wound up waking with a whole new perspective... literally. I'm sure I'm going to be so nervous that I'm not going to be able to sleep - that should make things interesting for the doctors.