06-04-2016, 09:46 AM
After a few hours, Carmelita lay on her back, staring up at the stars. Her fur was still matted with tears, but her eyes were dry.
“I’m sorry Sly.”
“We knew it could happen. I just… I didn’t want to believe it possible.”
She smiled weakly, imagining his reply.
“Yeah, well, I’ll keep going. To be honest, not sure what I’m doing, but I’ll keep doing it.”
“There’s a kid. Purple fur, three eyes, goes by Chip. No, she’s not like Neyla. More like Penny, maybe, or perhaps Bentley. I don’t know much about her, might have burnt those bridges already. I’ll try, though.”
Carmelita stayed silent for a moment.
“Heh, she’s probably wondering where I am. It was good to chat.”
She got to her feet, brushing the sand from her back and tracing her footsteps back. Ahead, she could see Chip by a fire, huddled uncomfortably. The girl had dragged a metal bench over, and found a blanket from somewhere. Carmelita took a seat next to her and followed her gaze to the flames.
“His name was Sly Cooper.”
Her voice was slightly hoarse, but it felt good to talk about him.
“He was an absolute gentleman at all times. It was maddening at first, since we butted heads in our lines of work, but then over time I began to see that it wasn’t a mask, that was actually who he was.”
“Of course, we kept meeting each other. He liked to call himself a ‘master thief’, I was one of Interpol’s best agents, and I began obsessing over him. Everywhere he went, I’d be hot on his raccoon-ringed tail, catching crook after crook.”
“Then, after a long set of events involving a large mechanical owl, he turned himself in to let his friends get away. That was the sort of person he was, and now I wasn’t worried about chasing him, I got to know him properly. It was amazing how much we clicked, there. The Cooper family had a tradition of stealing only from other thieves, usually those of the more malign variety, and all those crooks I’d caught chasing after him he’d softened up first, taunting them into making mistakes and revealing their hands in time for me to slap cuffs round their wrists.”
“It was the first time I allowed myself to let myself like him. Then he escaped after two hours in a helicopter, but it was the principle of the thing.”
“The next time we really got to talk, he faked amnesia after saving me from a death ray. There was a lot I could have done there, but… after some thought, I lied to him. Told him he was an Interpol agent, shuffled all the paperwork away so it seemed official, and then over the next year or so we had a lot of success. And we grew close. Very close.”
“It all came to an end when he had to go time travelling, and reveal he had been lying to me as much as I had been lying to him. That debacle didn’t finish, but we patched up our relationship by the end of it. Enough that after a few years of working together, from both sides of the law, we got married. I became his wife, and the technically legal private investigator for their operations. I’d become fed up with force corruption by that point, so it made sense.”
“Then after two long years of happy marriage… Sly died.”
“It was a mad scientist, obsessed with explosives. He had it out for Sly, and in order to save us my ringtail slammed a metal safe shut with himself and a bomb inside. We tracked the mad scientist and his cronies down, but after that I closed in on myself.”
Chip’s voice interrupted Carmelita’s pause.
“I’m sorry.”
Carmelita smiled and turned to see Chip’s three eyes staring at her.
“No, you were right. Tomorrow, let’s have a proper conversation. Tonight's had enough drama, I think.”
A shaky smile was exchanged between the two, and they headed inside to sleep.
“I’m sorry Sly.”
“We knew it could happen. I just… I didn’t want to believe it possible.”
She smiled weakly, imagining his reply.
“Yeah, well, I’ll keep going. To be honest, not sure what I’m doing, but I’ll keep doing it.”
“There’s a kid. Purple fur, three eyes, goes by Chip. No, she’s not like Neyla. More like Penny, maybe, or perhaps Bentley. I don’t know much about her, might have burnt those bridges already. I’ll try, though.”
Carmelita stayed silent for a moment.
“Heh, she’s probably wondering where I am. It was good to chat.”
She got to her feet, brushing the sand from her back and tracing her footsteps back. Ahead, she could see Chip by a fire, huddled uncomfortably. The girl had dragged a metal bench over, and found a blanket from somewhere. Carmelita took a seat next to her and followed her gaze to the flames.
“His name was Sly Cooper.”
Her voice was slightly hoarse, but it felt good to talk about him.
“He was an absolute gentleman at all times. It was maddening at first, since we butted heads in our lines of work, but then over time I began to see that it wasn’t a mask, that was actually who he was.”
“Of course, we kept meeting each other. He liked to call himself a ‘master thief’, I was one of Interpol’s best agents, and I began obsessing over him. Everywhere he went, I’d be hot on his raccoon-ringed tail, catching crook after crook.”
“Then, after a long set of events involving a large mechanical owl, he turned himself in to let his friends get away. That was the sort of person he was, and now I wasn’t worried about chasing him, I got to know him properly. It was amazing how much we clicked, there. The Cooper family had a tradition of stealing only from other thieves, usually those of the more malign variety, and all those crooks I’d caught chasing after him he’d softened up first, taunting them into making mistakes and revealing their hands in time for me to slap cuffs round their wrists.”
“It was the first time I allowed myself to let myself like him. Then he escaped after two hours in a helicopter, but it was the principle of the thing.”
“The next time we really got to talk, he faked amnesia after saving me from a death ray. There was a lot I could have done there, but… after some thought, I lied to him. Told him he was an Interpol agent, shuffled all the paperwork away so it seemed official, and then over the next year or so we had a lot of success. And we grew close. Very close.”
“It all came to an end when he had to go time travelling, and reveal he had been lying to me as much as I had been lying to him. That debacle didn’t finish, but we patched up our relationship by the end of it. Enough that after a few years of working together, from both sides of the law, we got married. I became his wife, and the technically legal private investigator for their operations. I’d become fed up with force corruption by that point, so it made sense.”
“Then after two long years of happy marriage… Sly died.”
“It was a mad scientist, obsessed with explosives. He had it out for Sly, and in order to save us my ringtail slammed a metal safe shut with himself and a bomb inside. We tracked the mad scientist and his cronies down, but after that I closed in on myself.”
Chip’s voice interrupted Carmelita’s pause.
“I’m sorry.”
Carmelita smiled and turned to see Chip’s three eyes staring at her.
“No, you were right. Tomorrow, let’s have a proper conversation. Tonight's had enough drama, I think.”
A shaky smile was exchanged between the two, and they headed inside to sleep.