Alice had been wandering the halls of the dark and deserted museum for quite some time. Long enough, in fact, that when she paused in front of a glittering display of medieval armaments to collect her thoughts (and indeed, any clues as pertaining to the trail that she had been following and once again lost) she realized that she had traversed far more grounds than the museum should actually be able to offer. And since when had the museum in Ekoda featured such an exhibit...?

"`twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe. All mimsy were the borogoves, and the mome raths outgrabe."

A voice intoned solemnly from beyond the reaching shadows, and Alice's head whipped around to try and locate the speaker but she was alone. The skin on the back of her neck prickled in alarm and Alice reached slowly for the gun tucked up to her back. Something wasn't right.
There was flash of white in the periphery of her vision, a fluttering of pale fabric disappearing around a corner. Alice spun neatly on her heel, hair flaring out behind her and chased after the figure, only to turn the corner and abruptly find herself at a dead end. alone. Warm breath ghosted across her ear and the faint sound of laughter followed. There was no one beside her, but still the voice continued:

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun the frumious Bandersnatch!"

Alice reached once again for her gun, but found nothing there.  Her gaze was drawn to her side, where a long, thin blade lay affixed to the wall, strangely without any sort of plexiglass barrier between them. She traced a finger along its edge and pulled back to examine the fine welling of blood on her fingertip with a clinical expression.

"He took his vorpal sword in hand." She murmured curiously to herself, and took the sword down from the wall.

Once upon a time, for all good stories start with once upon a time, there was a great forest.  It stretched on for days, for countries, for unclaimed fairy tale after unclaimed fairy tale in fact.  This was the Great Wood, the Olde Wood, the Place Where All Things Start.  This was the forest of all the old tales and it will ever be, until men are legends that dogs tell each other around the fires at night.  Everything lives in the depths of these woods and nothing at all.  Be careful what you whisper when you go into the dark for even the trees are listening and stories have a way of happening here whether you want them to or not.

Deep in the darkness, in one of the less traveled spots, there lives a wolf.  The Wolf, if you will.  For he is the Big Bad, the Howler at the Door, the Winter Wolf, the Devourer, the Nightmare That Creeps In Windows, the Child's Warning and, occasionally, the Huffer and Puffer, though he's taken to outsourcing the last one after one particularly embarrassing incident involving a hay allergy.  He's the wise talking beast or the prehistoric feral fear.  He is, in short, whatever your story needs him to be.

Don't expect him to be particularly pleased or even helpful about it though.  He's been doing this job for a while now and he's getting sick of getting yanked out of rolling in dead animals just so that he can trot his fuzzy butt over to make menacing, half-assed attempts at your basket of treats and God help you if he has to dress in old lady drag One More Time!


OOC: so.  Here's Cloud to provide all your Big Bad Wolf TM needs.  Or frankly, the forest isn't above dragging him in to take over any animal need.  There appears to be a shortage of fairy animals going around at the moment, something about better paying jobs in Hollywood.  Does your story need a talking bear?  Suddenly you've got a snarky wolf as your guide.  Your brothers got the mill and all you got was a cat?  Well, it's a wolf now and it's not happy about having to wear boots or do all your work for you, you dolt.  Need that straw spun into gold by morning?  Looks like you're duck out of luck.  Wolves can't spin, though he does a very impressive cats cradle if you give him enough yarn and tie the knots for him.  Point being, if your fairy tale has an animal of any sort in it, you've now got a very grumpy wolf who can't say 'not interested' the way he'd really rather.  And, of course, he's still here for all your big bad wolfish metaphorical needs as well.

[ To anyone that has ever seen a picture of Hogwarts for read a decent description which probably wouldn't be too many people really, would recognize that the castle in this dream is undoubtedly the school for witchcraft and wizardry. It's a little different though as a forest of thorns have sprouted up all around it and make it quite inaccessible. ]

[ Nevertheless, the young Gryffindor who is having the dream can be seen fighting his way through the thorns wielding a mighty sword as he chops the thorns out of his way and tries to make a path to the castle. The sword, to anyone that maybe have read the books in their worlds will recognize that Harry is brandishing the sword of Gryffindor. ]

[ He's on a great and near impossible quest to rescue the princess at the top of the tower. In his dream That tower is the North Tower that the divination classes take place in. He doesn't seem to think much about these changes to his school as the fuzzy logic of dreams is enough to convince him all is as it should be. ]



(( ooc: So! You can either play the part of the 'Princess' Harry is set to rescue or you can be an ally he meets along the way or an enemy to stop him from reaching his goal. Otherwise, assume the princess he's rescuing is Cho Chang. ))

Conan didn't know how, but somehow he had arrived in a village that could only be described as quaint and European. He privately wondered if this was part of one of his mother's elaborate pranks.

But regardless of how he had arrived here and where he was, there was still a crime to solve. It had been tricky gathering the evidence, but nothing beyond his skills. Now there was only the deduction show to finish. He turns and points at one of the suspects.

"The murderer is you! You betrayed and killed your brother here in order to take his place as heir to the kingdom! But you made a mistake! You failed to realize that there was a witness to your crime!"

He ignores the shocked whispers of the onlookers around them.

"Yes! The golden goose saw everything!"