Carmen Sandiego

Carmen was a lithe young woman with long brown hair who wore a “striking” red coat and matching hat. She described herself as an interdimensional and temporal thief.

At some point, she made her way into the Strange and Wonderful House. She was familiar with the Cheshire, a “mystic elevator” capable of going dimensions and going anywhere in the House due to somehow being the Cheshire Cat as well as an elevator, and seemed to intend to take control of it so as to become a multidimensional thief as well. Running into it just before it took off, she found that there was already a man there, who seemed to be at a loss about how to deal with the disappearing, reappearing buttons. She told him about the Cheshire and showed him how to stroke the walls until the whole elevator was purring, getting the Cheshire into a good mood. However, before the two could take advantage of their good work, a “kid” entered the Cheshire too and accidentally dropped a bagful of catnip, which Carmen instantly recognised as spelling a “world of trouble” for the elevator-cat's current occupants. (PROSE: Our Strange and Wonderful House: The Cheshire (Part 2), The Cheshire Cat (Part 3))

Behind the scenes

“Carmen” is clearly a thinly-veiled cameo by Carmen Sandiego, the focal character of the Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? franchise. Though starting out as a conventional lady thief and head of the generic criminal organisation V.I.L.E., she was depicted as having time-travel capabilities in the 1989 video game Where In Time Is Carmen Sandiego? and its TV series spin-off of the same name.