In which we have a tea party.....

 It was a nice afternoon for a tea party....


Until..........

"Excuse me, have you seen a blue box around here?"

"A blue box?" I was a little confused.

"Yeah, blue, has a light on top, says "Police Call Box" on it..."

"Wait, do you mean...." John started, but was interrupted by a very peculiar wheezing, swooshing, grinding-type noise...

 "There! That!"

Why does nothing that happens around here surprise me any more?

"Excuse me - is this Zarvos?"

"No, it's Earth, Doctor," the stranger replied.

"Missy? What are you doing here?"

"The same thing you are, apparently..." As she spoke, the box vanished with the same noise, only to reappear nearby on level ground.

"You always pick the worst places to land."

"Maddy? I thought I said...."

"Yeah, yeah. Stay in the TARDIS until we know it's safe. Which it is," she replied with an amused smile. "And it's also not Zarvos. It's Earth."

"And Missy? What are you doing here?"

"The same thing you are, apparently."

"Not exactly. I'm not recruiting Cybermen," Maddy replied.

"Neither am I. Now. I'm on vacation. Can't a Time Lady go on vacation without having her motives questioned? Besides, aren't you the one who's friends with a Dalek?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Friends with a Dalek?" The Doctor looked at her, wide-eyed. "What else weren't you going to tell me, old girl?"

"Well, if I told you it would spoil the surprise, now, wouldn't it?" Maddy said.

"What's a Dalek?" I had to ask.

"Pepper pot type thing. Nasty. Full of hate," the Doctor said. "It's all they know how to do."

"Well, not all of them. You haven't met the Eternal." Maddy looked at him.

"Yeah, he's pretty cool for being a mutant in a tin can." The speaker was...

"Kilbey?" This somehow explained a few things.

"Indeed. And this is the Lady Madrigal Baker, from Gallifrey, and her friend the Doctor."

"We're Time Lords, all of us. Missy, too," Maddy explained.

"At one point I believed us to be the last of our kind," the Doctor said.

"Not really," Maddy said, then whispered to me, "Long story. I'll explain later."

"What are you doing here?" I said.

"Lost, as usual," Kilbey said.

"Kilbey, we're not lost. We're on Earth," Maddy scolded. "We're actually supposed to meet my sisters here." She took out her phone - or what I guessed was a phone, anyway.

"This is Sigourney. She's the oldest next to me."

"This is Bowie..."

"Is that a publicity still?" The Doctor looked over her shoulder.

"No. I took this one." She looked at me. "My sister's a singer. Or she was, anyway, back on Gallifrey. I wish they'd stop saying we Patrexians never do anything useful. Isn't making others happy useful?"

"I should think so," The Doctor said. "But you know how they are back there. Nothing but logic and reason."

"Yeah, well, I know where they can stick that," she said.

"And this is Swan...."

"I know her! Only I thought she was a deva...."

"She has a gift of communication. She's been posing as one," Maddy said.

"And this is my youngest sister, Alcyone."

"And I just realized you're a doll," the Doctor said, looking at me. "Which means, if we're the same size..."

"We'll have to talk to Swan," Maddy said. "That's what we're here for, remember?"

Well, that and tea.....

In which I meet a star....

No, not John Ashton. Yet. But someday......

I'm referring to a name those of you in the Faerie Realm probably know....

Scaramouche's friend, Theda Ophelia Farrah.

Yes, THAT Theda Farrah. You might remember her from the classic A Hunter There Was.  For those of you who don't, she (quite obviously) played The Moose, who led the hapless Hunter first into temptation, then into ruin. You don't mess with The Moose.

Or her award-winning performance as Elan in the musical Les Moosearbles.

So what is she doing here, you ask?

"Faewood really doesn't look beyond that second pair of legs," she said with a sigh. "You would think they, of all elementals, would be a little more open-minded. But no. I don't want to sound conceited, but I'm not ashamed of who I am. I'm not going to have antler or leg removal just to fit in."

"Leg removal? They do that?" That seemed a little extreme to me.

"You wouldn't believe what some of these poor moose girls have done for a shot at the big time," she said. "Instead of being proud of who and what we are, they end up getting suckered into making themselves into something they're totally not. And I know of more than one who ended up not being able to walk on two legs afterwards. I'm not going to risk my health for a movie."

And here I thought humans - and fae - liked a girl with great legs. And you'd think the more. the better.

So anyway, Theda's on the East Coast now, planning on pursuing a career as a singer. She figures the music industry might be more receptive than the movies. And besides, she can sing.















A bonus publicity shot:

(Theda is a Doll Chateau Ada, named for silent film star Theda Bara.)

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 Hurricane Gail Storm (Deva) blows into town.....

"Good thing your person had Magic Erasers...." JT was saying. "Sorry about that."

"It's not the first time something self-destructed in that microwave," I said. "You're sweet to clean it up, though."

"Well, it was my fault," he said.

"Not really. You were just following instructions," Scaramouche pointed out.

"Like everyone involved in every conspiracy ever." He gave her a funny look.

"Ah yes. But smuggling plans for a nuclear bomb in your bra isn't on the same level as microwaving a pizza roll for a minute and a half on high," she pointed out.

"Until it detonates, that is," he said.

We were interrupted by a tiny little lightning bolt and an itty-bitty crack of thunder.

"Another supercell?" I looked around. "Don't let it rain on the floor. I don't think it's waterproofed."

"There's not enough humidity in here for it to rain. I'm just trying to...hey, come back here!"





"Got it!" Devon caught the wayward wannabe supercell.

"You went back to brunette," Scaramouche said.

"Yeah. A fortune teller told Rafael a dark woman would be coming into his life," she said. "He didn't believe her, but I didn't want to take any chances."

"Bad storm! You know better than that! Now sit!" I've heard people yell at storms before - heck, I've heard Maddy call them things I'm not supposed to repeat here - but I've never seen a storm do as it was told before. Leave it to Tempest.

"How do you get them to do that?" I don't think Devon ever entertained the idea of a pet thunderstorm, either.

"Mon amis!"

"Devon, mon soeur! I missed you, cherie!"

"Tempest, mon ami!"

"And you, cherie! Mon courageux petit wind deva. Didn't I tell you that you were more than they are, cherie?"

"I didn't know there were others like you," Zephyr said.

"Everyone, this is Gail, Devon's sister. She and Devon were the two storm devas I met after I left Oklahoma. She's the one who worked with Tempest to turn the tornado away from that little town."

"I couldn't have without Tempest and Hawthorne," Gail said.

"I was still a linden tree deva at the time," Devon said.

"One of their storms had taken the life of the tree I'd warded for almost fifty human years," Gail explained. "I was furious. But I decided I'd learn to work the storms myself, instead of waiting to be a victim of another one. That I wouldn't be like them. I'd learn to bring the rains without bringing destruction along with them."

"Then they sent a tornado right at us again," Devon said.

"Both my sister's tree and a little town called Bon Coeur were in its path," Gail said. "But Tempest and Hawthorne were also following them and trying to turn it. We didn't have a wind deva to help us, so we had to try to turn it. And let me tell you, mon amis, that was not easy. I'd been a storm deva long enough to have come face-to-face with a couple of hurricanes, but this thing - mon Dieu."

"It was what humans would call an EF-5," Tempest added. "We turned it mostly away from the town, but part of the business district, the elementary school and the church were all lost."

"But only buildings, ami. No lives. Only what could be replaced," Gail added.

"When the tree I warded reached its natural end, I decided I'd join my sister," Devon said. "Hey, is Rue coming up here?"

"Soon," Gail said. "Rue is our wind deva."

"I asked them to introduce me to Zephyr," Tempest said. "They had Rue by then. I needed someone to work with. Someone good."

"We look out for one another," Gail said. "Which is why we're here...."










(Gail is a tan Pukifee Vanilla. She's named for musician Gail Ann Dorsey and based on a character from my fanfiction days whose name was Tatiana - Tianna for short. And I totally made up the town of Bon Coeur, LA.)

In which - random photos!

So we're doing A Doll A Day on Flickr. Check out some of the photos.

The theme here was "Bright." But click on the photo and check out the cute little feathered photobomber outside.

Someone is threatening to file a formal protest with the ASPCA over getting her cage "Change"-d.

And this is why you shouldn't get "in between" a guinea pig and her food bowl.

Paisley: "Will you wait until I put the food in your bowl before you trample everyone to get to it?"

(No Hittys were harmed in the making of this photo.)

"New" year, new dress and that awesome new CD. And why is it so hard to find pink rocketship print fabric? Can't a girl be a space geek? Just sayin'.....

"Black and White." Not like there was much else in the way of color to begin with. One, it's January, and two, Scaramouche's wardrobe is almost as monochromatic as Maddys.....

"Dark." At least Aura didn't have to spend forty-five minutes sitting on a glass macaw for this one....

And last one for today - "Close Up." What can I say? Scaramouche is almost as much of a rock star as I am. Heck, she's almost as much of a rock star as John Ashton is.....

















Here's the link if you're interested: A Doll a Day 2015