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Sheriff Marti     The warp gate closest to the signal is what seems like an old rickety doorway at a train station. There's nothing around the train station for miles, stretching on and on until the eyes water from the distant heat distortion. The sky is black, like ash, and the sun beats down like a disc of fury at all times, in the direct center of the sky. Something seems... wrong about this desert. The reason that is becomes clear soon enough.

    The joshua trees are way too colorful. The cacti are jagged and angular, and their spikes are too big. There's swirls of psychedelic sand carried by the wind. In the distance, a jackrabbit stands perfectly still, and will stand at that point in the horizon no matter how hard someone tries to catch it. An illusion, perhaps. This place is obviously supernatural in nature.

    Sarracenia would only know the direction the signal came from, out into that endless desert.
Sarracenia      Sarracenia is quite surprised at the small size of the gate. She had intended to bring in one of her airships, but with the entry point so small she instead enters on her own. As it sounded like trouble, the tall princess has donned her so-called 'battle dress' and rested her huge hammer over her shoulder before stepping through...only to find herself in what seems to be a derelict train station? And...what is wrong with those plants? She feels for a moment like she might have gotten a poison mushroom. Why are the colors so strange?

     And...why is there nothing and no one around?! The princess is starting to feel like this might have been a fool's errand. But, to abandon it now would be pointless. She reaches into her satchel and pulls out a leaf, then holds it up. In a puff of smoke she is endowed with raccoon ears and a tail, and she takes off at a sprint before taking to the sky, off into the endless desert from which the signal originated.
Sheriff Marti     From the sky she can see how someone could get lost in this place. There's no end to it, and landmarks are scarce. Eventually, she does find what she's looking for, though. Smoke trails up, and in the desert expanse she finds a wrecked motorcycle. It still burns from its recent crash, but the smoke swirls with strange colors. Not far from where it crashed but still far enough to lose sight of the smoke, there's a man in a modern sheriff's uniform. He appears to be propped up against a rock. His clothing is torn, and he looks bloody. He grips a revolver in his off hand, and his shiny, metallic badge in his other hand. He doesn't seem like he's dead, if he hasn't been here very long.

    He may be unconscious, because he doesn't see the shadow-like vulture with its bone-colored mask hopping toward him, squawking gently. It looks hungry.
Sarracenia      The smoking wreckage naturally catches her attention right away, and so Sarracenia heads for it. When she catches sight of the man slumped against the rock she makes her way down. She scowls slightly at the vulture and makes sure to land right between it and the man, and in a quick spin her raccoon tail delivers a sharp smack unless it is much quicker than most vultures.

     She turns to the injured man after that and raises an eyebrow before looking around. "...if you were attacked...where are the attackers?" she wonders aloud, then crouches down beside him. "Hello? Are you able to hear me?" she asks, her long reddish-blonde hair flowing in the desert wind. She reaches into her satchel and pulls out a green mushroom with white spots and big, cute black eyes. Whether he answers or not, she presses the mushroom to his chest, and in a burst of green light any wounds he has suffered would be at the least moderately healed.
Sheriff Marti     The vulture SQUAWKS in a distorted voice, and hops backwards a few steps to leer at her hungrily. It doesn't get any closer though.

    The sheriff stirs when the mushroom is used on him. His first instinct is to raise his gun and point it right at Sarracenia. His dark brown eyes briefly flash yellow, and he flinches, the gun soon lowered. He slowly gets up to a stand, pushing himself up using the rock he was laying against. He looks dried out, covered in dust. He looks like he's been out here a while. He stares past his sweat-soaked locks at her face, hunched in that exhausted way that survivors do. He frowns at her, looking her head to toe.

    His eyes linger on the ears for a second. His expression is plainly obvious. 'What the hell...?'

    "You here to kill me like the last one?" he wonders. He looks away from her then, and to the vulture. Then he raises his gun and shoots it right in the face without hesitating, caring little for the person in front of him or how loud it would be. The vulture SQUAWKS in pain, but then disappears in a puff of black smoke.
Sarracenia      Sarracenia's eyes narrow and her frown increases slightly when that gun is aimed at her, but when it is lowered her expression returns to a mor neutral one. She follows his gaze to her temporary ears, then blinks at his questions. "If I were here to kill you, you would have awakened in the next life." she says. When he raises the gun she covers her ears (the human ones not the raccoon ones) and mmphs. "I take it you do not like carrion birds?" she asks, before blinking at the puff of smoke. She stands up finally, then holds a gloved hand out toward the sheriff to help him up. "I am Princess Sarracenia Sundew, Crown Princess of the Sundew Kingdom. And you owe me a debt of gratitude. Now, would you be so kind as to tell me what has happened? How did a man of the law end up alone in a desert with his motorcycle giving off strange colored smoke while he lay dying against a rock with no apparent attackers in the vacinity?"
Sheriff Marti     Marti is soon standing up completely with her help. He breathes 'thanks' to her, and actually smiles, seeming pretty friendly once the gun thing isn't an issue anymore. He listens to her as she introduces herself, and his brow furrows in such a way that he isn't sure how to process what she just said to him. He decides to ignore the insanity of it for a second, then he says, "I don't know, I don't know, and I don't know." And he shrugs!

    "You got some water, and maybe directions out of this drug trip? I feel like discount Alice, if you know what I mean."

    "Keep an eye out for those things, though. The birds. They're dangerous. And anything else with that weird mask face. They'll try to kill you the first chance they get." He checks his ammo, and grunts, digging in his belt so he can reload it. "Let's go?"
Sarracenia      Sarracenia sighs softly at Marti's apparent lack of knowledge, but at his request she does reach into her shoulder bag and pull out a bottle of water. She hands it to Marti and smirks lightly. "I see." she says of his Alice comment, then looks toward where the vulture was. "Hmm...the wildlife is hostile?" she asks before nodding. "Should we head toward the station through which I entered?" she asks as she reaches into her satchel one more time and pulls out a large red leaf.

     She holds that out to Marti as well. "Here. This will allow you to fly. It will make the trip back to the abandoned train station much easier." she says, then smirks. "Unless you would prefer to walk through the desert." If Marti takes it, he would find that he now has ears and a tail like her own, and that those ears are poking through his hat. Or perhaps just part of the hat for the time being. "Do not worry. It is not permanent." she adds.

     "You did not tell me your name." she says as she starts to sprint back toward the technicolor smoke and after a short run takes to the sky. "Just run and leap and wag your tail!" she calls as she circles around him quickly.
Sheriff Marti     Marti takes the bottle of water and then the leaf-- he shouts in a startle when white smoke poofs and he suddenly has a pair of raccoon ears and a tail. He can feel them, and he looks mildly perturbed by the apparent presence of them. Then Sarracenia is running off and taking flight. Without wings. He squints up at her, lifting his hand to block the sunlight so he doesn't cook out his retinas. Then he sighs to himself, and guzzles down the whole bottle of water. He holsters his gun, and takes off at a jog, then a sprint, and then the tail wags and he's flying. It's surprisingly intuitive once he's been instructed.

    "Name's Marti!" he replies to her, preparing to follow her back to the train station. "Gotta say, this is a good change from fighting for my life! Weird as hell, but good!"
Sarracenia      Sarracenia actually smiles when Marti finally gives his name and admits that flying like this is fun. "Fighting for your life is rarely fun, in my experience!" she calls to Marti before taking off toward the train station. And has some real fun along the way! Flying barrel rolls and loops and spirals.

     But, after a bit of that she slows down to pace with Marti. "So, you do not know what happened to you at all?" she asks as they fly along. "It looked like something attacked you. I am guessing some of the wildlife of this world?"
Sheriff Marti     "Yeah, you know about as much as I do..." Marti explains, as they near the train station. "Got mobbed by a bunch of jackal-lookin' things with bone faces. Barely got out with my life." He flutters down as they get to the station. The moment he touches down, as if by magic or illusion, a train rolls into the station, shimmering out of the heat haze. He looks deeply startled by this, especially as the door to the inside opens. A blue light shines on him, and he scratches at his head for a second.

    A blue butterfly flits out of the train door, trailing light, and then lands on his badge. He doesn't seem to notice it. He steps forward, as if possessed, and right onto the train. Then the door shuts behind him, and the train silently leaves, disappearing from the other end of the heat haze with a distant, echoing train whistle.

    The warpgate door is still there, but the sheriff is nowhere to be seen. Huh.
Sarracenia      "Jackals with bone faces...?" That's pretty unusual even after her years in the Multiverse. Sarracenia lands beside Marti. "So-"

     She is interrupted by the sudden appearance of that train. "Wha-?!" She steps back even as the door opens and that butterfly flutters out. It lands on Marti and she blinks before reaching toward it just a bit. Then, Marti steps forward. "W-wait! Marti! Do not g-"

     "...aaaand he is gone." The princess sighs heavily as the train disappears once more. "Well...I hope wherever he ends up is at least better than here." She gives her hair a toss, then steps back through the doorway.