In which it's just another day around the house....

"This has got to be some kind of April Fool's joke...."

"What does?" I was wondering what the FedEx package John got today was.

"We switched to Apple?" He didn't sound especially pleased.

"Miskatonic?"

"Yeah. When they said they were upgrading everyone, I expected something like your person's laptop. Not one of these...."

"I thought MirrorBooks were supposed to be good," I said. Not that I know. I've never used a Mac, much less a Mirror.

"They're just - completely different...." He got it booted up. "Now what?"

"Dunno," Scaramoche said, coming over to look. "I've never used one. Just an iPhone. Some of my human-type friends have those.....

......Hey, short stuff, no popping the bubblewrap, 'k?"

"Do you know anyone who knows anything about these?" John was at a loss.

"Swan does, I think. Where is she, anyway?"

"Upstairs. Something about rehearsing for the Spring Talent Show," I said.

"Oh yeah. The Woodstock devas do that every year. I think she said they're doing Oscar Wilde's Salome."

~*~

Meanwhile, upstairs.....

"I would, that they presently bring me in a silver charger..."

"Silver charger?" JT, aka Herod, looked skeptical. "Man, Apple's getting all fancy-schmantzy with this new release. WHich one is this, iPhone ten or something?"

"JT, stick with the script, willya?" Zephyr, aka Herodious, sighed.

"Okay, so - what would you have in a silver charger, whatever the heck that is, oh fair and sweet Salome?"

Swan, in character, took a deep breath. "The head of Jablome."

"It's Jokannan...." Zephyr tried, and failed, to not laugh."What do you think his first name is? Heywood?"

"I told you we should have picked The Glass Menagerie..." Swan said, laughing as well.

"Swan? You got a sec?

"What is it?"

"You know how to set up a MirrorBook, don't you?"














"Yeah. I'll be right down."















"Okay, what do I do here?" John was looking helplessly at the screen.

"Okay, launch System Preferences...."

"Where?"

"Right here. Now, click on Mail, Contacts and Calendars - okay, good, they have your iCloud account all set up already. Looks like your Miskatonic account is set up already along with your Gmail. So click out of that - okay - and click here to open your mail...."









"Is it - oh good, it's syncing up with the server..."

"If they did this right, you shouldn't lose anything. Were these your folders before?"

"Yeah. Looks like everything's here. I just hope I can get to all my stuff. I had a lot of files on the main server,"

"They should have thought of that," she said.





"Okay, here's the new emails...." He opened one and frowned. "Okay, what do you devas know about the Unseelie?"

"They're jerks," Scaramouche said. Well, she actually described them as something else, but I won't repeat it here.

"And they're not supposed to be here now. It's the season of the Light Court," Swan added.

"Okay - but first, how do I hibernate this thing?

"Here. It's called "Safe Sleep."


He hibernated the computer. "So what else about the Unseelie?"

"What's all the interest int he Unseelie?" I said.

"There have been some reports of attempted abductions and a reported attempt at swapping out a newborn in Boston for a changeling," he explained. "It was foiled by an observant nurse in the maternity ward."

"Are they sure it isn't the Seelie?" Scaramouche said. "You can't trust some of them, either."

"The Seelie wouldn't normally swap roadkill for a newborn," he said.


"Um - no. Ew." Swan made a face.

"I haven't heard anything around here," Scaramouche said.

"I haven't, either. I'll ask Tallulah if she has," Swan said.

"Yeah, where is she?"

"Bearsville. Where else? She told me to tell you she ran into one of your New York friends up there last summer."

"Who?"

"Cheetah Chrome. When he was up there putting down the track for "Bad Blood."

"No way. And she didn't tell me?"

Nice. And she didn't tell ME, either? How come the devas get to meet all the cool people?


~*~

Swan is a tan Pukifee Mio. Tallulah will probably be here next month.

Bonus pic - Paisley and Swan

In which - (Re)introducing JT

Hi. And "meow" and all that stuff.

I'm JT.












You may remember me from Halloween 2013. I'm the - unquiet spirit, as Caroline calls me - who that West dude trapped in one of those spirit bottle things. Not pleasant. I managed to break out of the stupid thing and took over the body of a doll Caroline's person was working on. That was okay, but you know, there was stll the chance I could end up back in a spirit bottle. So I had to learn how to take a form on my own. I could have gone back to human, I guess, but I like the idea of being a black cat. So here I am.

Here's a little more of my story. So yeah, basically, I used to be human, but now I'm - well, whatever I am. It's not bad. I mean, I'm still around and all. And I still get to hang around with a bunch of my friends. Some of them are unquiet spirits like me and some are dolls - real ones, I mean - and some are devas like Scaramouche. I used to know her back when in the city. She hung out with the band I was in at the time. I think we were the first humans she made friends with. I'm not sure we were really the best choice, but she liked us, for whatever reason. And she was actually glad to see me.

I'm not afraid of that West guy coming back now - although I really do think he will at some point. He can't get me. I'm afraid he might be able to get to some of my friends - the unquiet spirits, that is - but if he does, I think we can rescue them. If Scaramouche can't, then her friend Devon's boyfriend can. Rafael himself is an unquiet spirit like me, from what I can figure out. I think he used to be some kind of Vodou priest - is that the right term? - from what Devon said. Anyway, he's from New Orleans, the scene of my last stand, just like Devon and her sister Gail and this other friend of theirs - I can't remember if Scaramouche called her Rue or Rhea.

So anyway, this is me.

And no, I have absolutely no desire to chase a stupid laser pointer. So don't even try that red dot thing with me. I'm not that kind of cat.















(JT is a Camilla Dynasty Wong in black. I think a black cat makes a pretty cool shell for an unquiet spirit.)