We met with Mozzie several times over the course of the next few weeks, and he asked lots and lots of questions. He seemed to know what he was doing, so I answered all his questions to the best of my ability...and at the end of it, he called Mom and Dad to meet with him alone. Neither of them ever talked about the outcome of the session, but it left them both a little disturbed...
Mozzie leaned back in his chair as he stared at Sly and Carmelita. "Well, I've thoroughly analyzed all of you, and I can say that most of your family is surprisingly healthy - mentally speaking - all things considered. With everything you've all been through, I fully expected a great deal more to have to deal with, especially where Coco is concerned. I think that's mostly due to you two. As parents, you're to be commended."
"We...we did our best," Sly offered modestly, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. "Neither of us were exactly ready for parenthood..."
"But we couldn't exactly turn our back on her, either," Carmelita concluded, clutching her left elbow in her right hand nervously.
"Yes, but that brings me to the actual issue that I feel might threaten your family's well being...and it comes down to the two of you," Mozzie continued. "Specifically, in how you see each other."
"Eh?" Carmelita asked curiously.
"How so?" Sly inquired guardedly.
"Simply put, in the eyes of each other, you each have three distinct identities," Mozzie explained. "Sly, in our talks you sometimes referred to the suit here as Carmelita, sometimes as Miss Fox, and sometimes as Inspector. As I've been able to determine, you see her as three different people: Carmelita is the girl you have strong feelings for, and want to romance; Miss Fox is Coco's mother, working with you as a parent to raise and protect her; Inspector...well, I believe that's self explanatory."
"That's who she is when we're 'on the job' and she's chasing me," Sly deduced. "I hadn't really thought about it...but yeah, I see your point...but not the problem."
"I'm getting there," Mozzie explained. "I prefer to lay out all the pieces before showing how they should fit together. The suit here sees you similarly." He turned to Carmelita. "In our one on one sessions, you referred to him as Sly, Mr. Cooper, and That Ringtail. While I don't normally like such derogatory terms, I can tell there's nothing specist about it. I'm sure you're clever enough to put together what each name refers to without me explaining it."
Carmelita grunted, turning away to hide the red tinge in her cheeks from Sly. "Mr. Cooper's Coco's Dad, and Ringtail is him as the Master Thief," she explained.
"And Sly?" Mozzie coached. "It's important that you face and admit to your feelings."
Carmelita grumbled under her breath, then sighed. "Sly the person, who - if he weren't also the thief - is someone I'd consider romancing without hesitation or regrets," she concluded, causing Sly's eyes to pop open in surprise.
"And there we see the problem," Mozzie explained softly. "As you've worked together to raise Coco, you've both seen sides of yourselves - and each other - you never expected, and it is causing problems in how you see yourselves and each other. This boundary you've erected in your own minds - the triple identity of the other - it isn't healthy. At the moment, it helps you both deal with the situation - you more than Sly, Carmelita - but in the long term it can be a major problem...especially if you allow the other's perspective of you to start to define your interactions. That could lead to a self imposed SPD. Not pretty."
"And...what do you recommend?" Sly asked worriedly.
"Simply put, you both need to think about how you stand with each other," Mozzie detailed carefully. "You need to find a way to rationalize this triple view of each other, and find a way to see past that so you only interact with each other's true selves. And that's where the difficulty lies...as it comes with a very difficult choice for both of you. And I don't know if there is an answer that solves things for all of you."
"Choice?" Carmelita asked, homing in on what she felt was the important point. "What choice?"
"Simply put...family or duty," Mozzie explained. "You can each either go by duty - Carmelita as an Inspector catching criminals including Sly, and Sly as a Master Thief - or go by family, raising Coco. As things stand right now, I cannot find a way the two can be rationalized healthily. I hope the two of you do, as it's the only way I can see you all finding peace with yourselves and each other...for Coco's sake." He slowly stood up. "Besides, if you do...maybe that original suggested solution I offered would actually be possible."
He glanced back and forth between the pair, who were plainly lost in thought. He then shrugged his shoulders. "I'll leave you two to talk things out, or not. But for right now, I promised Coco I'd take her to get some bubblegum ice cream."
The ice cream was surprisingly delicious. I'm not sure what I thought it would taste like, but I enjoyed it...at least once I was able to get high enough with it that Uncle Murray couldn't swipe it.
Oooo. This is a tough call for Carmelita and Sly. Do it for Coco.
Looks like our parenting protagonists have three more views to consider.
Getting that bubblegum ice cream was certainly the high point of this chapter.
One of the options Mozzie* presented certainly sucks huh?
*Ask an Australian about this part of the joke.
7809145 Australian here, confirmed humorous.
That's Mozzie, jobs are fun, but the little weasel is pro family, through and through.
Also, saw what you did there with the ice cream. Very Nice.
Seriously, you two. One of you catches criminals, and the other one retrieves stolen items from criminals. There is a middle ground here. Even if it means tweaking the end of Sly 3 and opening of Sly 4.
7809159 THIS!
Open a legitimate business front: Cooper Asset Recovery and Protection. Private contractors who are paid to recover items stolen by other thieves, and who are also paid to guard items from being stolen again.
Master Thief skills are still used, and taking pictures of the stolen property before recovering it acts as proof of it being in the wrong person's collection.
Start it off by having known thieves with extensive collections as the targets, and contact owners of the stolen property by coordinating with police to distribute them according to theft reports. (Easy setup for game 2: building the reputation up so that people know that Sly is legitimate in this general way.)
I know this idea probably won't play well with your plans, Tats, but it is a thought that popped into my mind almost immediately.
Hehehehe, a nice chapter well done! Hohoho.
Mmm... I wanna play Sly now.
Nice job!
I've seen some stories where Sly and the crew aren't thieves so much as security testers. People hire them to steal from them and test their security, to make sure its airtight, or as close as can be with a Cooper on the job. That could be a possible middle ground.
Murray no swiping, Murray no swiping!
Oh man!
I expect the stone mask to be the breaking point for the three of them.
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clearly it's not bizarre enough butt, the mask I was talking about was the mask of dark earth.
Huh.... it never occurred to me that Ringtail could be seen as specist. I guess it's all in the tone and delivery.
Now that this analysis session is done, I've got a Pink pony and a merc with a mouth to watch.
Just make this world's version of a suicide squad, minus the bombs in their heads.
7809149 Asian here, confirmed confused. XD
By SPD, do you mean Split Personality Disorder? If so, I hear they changed it to Dissociative Identity Disorder. Either should be fine, but the initials confused me for a bit.
You're really going in depth here on what this kind of situation would actually be like. Very impressive. I really look forwards to more.
As much as I don't like therapists, I cannot fault Mozzie's logic here.
7809149 Canadian here, requesting explination
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On Wikipedia's disambiguation page for 'Mozzie', it says:
i could see the government hiring sly to steal information, and you know be general intelligent gathering raccoon.
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This man 7809949 has the correct information.
Here's hoping things progress faster between Sly and Carmelita than they did in the games. Looking forward to more.
Keep up the great work. Deus tecum.
7810174 like white collar
heck i bet the only reason they coppers never worked with the police is one the times the did not do that and bad cops/ the thrill
7812055 me gusta
7809149 explain please?
7810972 from my research what the doctor was talking about would explain Carmella's hot cold attitude to sly.
Once they work this out that should have a more stable relationship.
7817536 A popular Australian slang term for a mosquito is a 'Mozzie'. Mosquitoes suck blood. Humor ensues.
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SPD? Is Sly and Carmelita becoming Power Rangers?!
7809722 Apparently, it's also a type of Power Rangers. SPD Power Rangers!
Wait, isn't there a simple fix for this?
Since Coco is involved Carmelita has a direct connection to Sly regardless of her feelings. Couldn't she just recuse herself from any investigations incolving Sly? Honestly speaking she might only have to admit to one of those and it in no way affects her duty as an officer.
Alternatively, perhaps more comfortably, given how often the two work together and how well. Sly could instead become considered as a "special consultant" for certain arrests, allowing him to freely make use of his skills while officially working with Carmelita. Given the nature of his activities, his personal code to only steal from other criminals, he'd likely be considered highly valuable to an organization like interpol. Like this, they wouldn't even have to hire him as such.
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That doesn't work. If Interpol finds out Carmelita has a familial or romantic connection to Cooper all of her cases involving him will be put up for review, and they're not incompetent so they would figure out something is going on. Once they did she would either be fired for mishandling situations, arrested as an accessory, or have her career come to a screeching halt and probably regulated to a desk job, or worst of all Interpol would use her to lure Sly out and then arrest him. As for your second theory it could work for a while but you run into a major problem, and that is simply Sly is a thief by nature, he's not a law abiding citizen, sure he could take down other criminals but what are the odds that Interpol would let him keep another thief's ill gotten gains. If Sly sees something he likes he steals it, Interpol couldn't and wouldn't allow for something like that. They'd want to control his movements and play by a set of rules. Sly just can't go or that it's against the way he operates and it goes against his very nature.
SPD or split personality disorder isn't very a good thing to happen to people
Makes them a little cuckoo in the head
And it also makes them do questionable things that they aren't entirely aware of
As well as taxing on their sanity
I know this info because I've met a few people with SPD and it's not very easy to understand what they are saying sometimes they are gibbering nonsense and other times you can actually understand them
But It's random so you don't know what to expect
You won't know which personality is in control if you encounter the gibbering like an idiot one ignore it but if you encounter the other type the one you can understand listen to them but be wary because if they start gibbering like a moron you'll have to cut your conversation short and head elsewhere