"But why?"

"Because if you don't, you'll be killed!"

"Oh, please. Stop being so damn dramatic."

"I'm not being dramatic, Terra. If you don't get yourself into a crew, soon, they'll come after you. You can't just run up and down the Vegas Strip, snatching purses and dealing drugs in their territory without reprisals. In fact, they've probably already got eyes on you."

A waitress delivers two coffees, then retreats behind the service counter to make another pot. Elise raises the sugar dispenser over Terra's cup, but Terra quickly places a palm over her mug.

"So how does this work? Do I start randomly approaching shady-looking people and hope they're not only connected, but in a good family? Do I sit here and wait for someone to approach me with an offer I can't refuse? Oh, I know, I'll put out an ad in the local newspaper!"

"I'm just trying to help you. Stop being a jackass."

Terra tries to whinny, then looks embarrassed.

"I've never met a donkey, so I don't know what they sound like."

Lifting the coffee cup to her lips, she blows steam off the top before taking a tentative sip and letting her gaze fall on what she could see of the boundless Vegas activity through the front windows. She had kin out there. She just wasn't sure how their first meeting might go. 

Didn't sisters fight a lot? It was high time Terra hunted down @TabithaGato and found out.

AlbertoJunior was minding his own business when he overheard someone speaking to a waitress

"I've never met a donkey, so I don't know what they sound like."

Junior looked up, recognized someone with style, as she drank her coffee as coffee was meant to be, and decided to stand up, to hand her his business card

Alberto Junior

AlbertoJunior & Ilene's - Suits, Crests & Donkeyriding

CEO - 3-legged Donkey Stable Manager - Dress- and Suitmaker

and before he left the shop, he whispered

If you ever need to know, give me a call..

A woman passes the window.

She would barely hold onto her coat against the deviance of the winds. Something had stirred the weather on the west coast and now howling gusts whistled down the strip with an outrageous agenda. Her hair whipped behind her, unable to be contained within her collar as previously attempted. Tammy's long dark locks were pulled straight out of her overcoat and lashed out behind her. The woman was small, thought bundled up at present to combat the weather. She walked with a determined stride, her hands held up to her face, gripping the lapels of her coat tightly and concealing the majority of her features.

Each business front she passed, her head strained to see the name against her hair and the winds rushing into her eyes. She was looking for something, or somewhere.

Just before passing out of sight of the window, she releases her coat with one hand and delves into her pocket. It bursts open and her face can be clearly seen. A small piece of paper is produced from her pocket, which she is attempting to examine.

Terra is looking at the card, and Elise is looking at AlbertoJunior's backside as he slips out the front door. A gust of wind pulls at it and yanks it back open when he releases the push bar, and an unseen spray of grit chitters onto the linoleum floor. Terra looks up at the sound, and the front window becomes a mirror when the next person walks by.

She's shorter and more petite, but the resemblance is striking. Long, dark hair. Oval face. Even her gait is similar. Standing abruptly, Terra nearly knocks her coffee over onto Elise, whose protests reach deaf ears. Placing a hand on the warm glass of the door to keep the wind from forcing it back closed, she calls out to the retreating form.

"Tammy. Tabitha.

"Gato!" 

That last one certainly got her attention. She watched as the young woman's shoulders jumped like she'd been jolted with a cattle prod. When she turned around and pulled her rebellious, wind-whipped hair from her face, Terra couldn't help but smile into the eyes of her sister.

Amber ones. Just like hers.

For a moment she just stood in the wind. Around her there was movement, chaos even. Her coat billowed excitedly as it was released from her grip and debris from the street hurtled past her. Tammy eventually shook herself out of the trance and darted inside, falling straight into her sisters arms. The door clattered closed behind her and there was a silent calm one more. The two hugged, long and hard. It wasn't long before the muffled questions began.

"Terra... how... why??" The words tumbled forth, laced with that faint Irish accent.

She pulled back from her sister and finally tidied her hair up, scrunching it into a velvet band pulled from her wrist. Her coat fell to a standstill and now hung from her shoulders, void of the life and energy previously possessing it. 

Elise is unceremoniously squished aside as Terra pushes into the booth next to her. The grasp she's got on Tammy's hands never lets up as she pulls her down onto the booth bench opposite. Leaning forward on her elbows, she speaks across their hands.

"When I finished school, I didn't know where I wanted to go. Nowhere felt right. So I just...wandered. No matter where I went, some money always turned up in my accounts. I figured it was our father, who else? Then when it stopped..."

A long, quiet moment passes as the two share a much shorter conversation, this one perfectly silent, as only siblings can manage.

"...I knew he was dead."

"Yes, he's dead."

"Your mother?"

"Also dead. Yours?"

"Yes. Just us, now."

Terra squeezes Tammy's hands and then slowly releases them, but doesn't pull back. 

"Seems I've got a bit of a taste for it, this lifestyle. I wasn't sure if you'd got it, too. With nothing better to do, it seemed a good idea to at least track you down and find out.

"Are you like him, Tam? Are you in it?"

Her chin crumples and her lips purse. The words exist but Tammy just couldn't find them. She looks up at Terra and offers a shrug.

"He tried ta' keep me out of it. I think somehow, he knew I'd find my way there. You were always the smart one, I used to just keep findin' trouble."

She looks down at her hands, turns them over to inspect the palm and then curls one inside the other.

"I've had a taste, in Detroit, a lady named Kate Logan took me in. I wasn't much use to her, young and stupid."

She looks back out of the window and finds a small sigh.

"Then I came here, lookin' for work. Luckily I found this guy, Pollution he calls himself, before I found tha' wrong sort of work."

She thinks for a moment, still watching her hands. It's within that moment the thought crosses her mind to ask.

"I don't suppose you-"

She glances to the side of Terra.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, who's your friend?"