Ending Credits

As everyone who's played a Sly game knows, the ending credits aren't just credits. They give little tidbits about what happened after the game. Whether it was just the bit where Clockwerk's eye glowed at the end of Sly 1, or if it was Bentley telling everyone about where every member of the gang went after the end of game 3, they provide flavor. Maybe not a 'happily ever after', not for anyone in jail, but certainly assistance.

But because I want to do credits, well, you're going to get a bit more than just cutscenes. If you don't care about anything else, just read the bolded stuff.

Of all the ideas I had throughout this story, one stayed constant: in each area I would have something that would appear in the final area. The towers, the moat, the wall. I tried my hardest to ensure each one would play a role; I failed with the wall in the fifth area, due to it being Holland, but succeeded elsewhere. The towers, in particular. I had a list: each one was initially scaled by one character, and in the finale, climbed by a different character. Because I loved the idea of something players dealt with early on coming back in the very end to be dealt with in an entirely different way. It also gave Dr. Foxworthy an extra layer of security: even if the compound was located, unless all four towers were brought back from the past, he'd be protected by the force field.

Bentley Voice-Over

(Carmelita bursts out of Interpol headquarters, a dozen medals around her neck, several sheets of paper crumpled in one hand. Sly strolls after her, a folder tucked under one arm, whistling.) Sly and Carmelita were thoroughly congratulated for exposing so much corruption in the world's police. They were then ordered to take a long vacation. Neither of them is to so much as blink at police work until their internal investigation is complete. Supposedly, it's to keep anyone from retaliating against them. I suspect it's really to keep Carmelita from making them all run for it before they can be apprehended.

I came up with this idea spring of 2017. My then-roommate had watched me play through the first three games, and bought the fourth for his PS3 because I only had it on Vita. Watching him play, thinking about the ending, I realized that there had to be a connection between Penelope sending the postcards and whatever happened in game 5, and game 5 had to involve finding Sly. So Penelope had to know when Sly was. And if she was sending postcards, then she wanted them to find him, so she couldn't actually be evil...

The ideas went from there. I spent a long time thinking they were working on making another Clockwerk, one that wanted to kill all thieves instead of just Coopers, but nixed that idea eventually. Clockwerk was just too... frighteningly unique. I wasn't going to actually write the thing. I was just thinking about it.

Then I mentioned it in passing to my friend D, who told me I not only needed to write this thing, I needed to send it to her so she could devour it, cackling. And put it on AO3 so she could brag about it to everyone, because she knew I'd do it awesome, and it would be so worth it. That level of enthusiasm is hard to argue with.

But I still wasn't sure, so I mentioned it to some other writer friends. O took it from there, informing me of all the good reasons to write fanfiction... not the least of which being that I really, really wanted to.

For the past almost-two-years, the pair of them squealed enthusiastically over my every idea, things I debated writing but hadn't yet, helped me work through plot problems, and informed me whether or not something sounded really fun to play. Without them, I don't know if we'd've gotten Zombie Unicorns (and yes, D, Murray got a swordfight like you were squealing about) and Bentley may have never gotten captured by The Contessa (that complicated so many things, O, but you were right: it was worth it).

(Khamen perches on a high shelf in shadows, fiddling with something on the nearby ceiling; he draws a long cord from it.) Khamen went on to a successful career, stealing from corrupt pharoahs and assisting the common people. When he wasn't stealing, he ran a store. (Khamen jumps from the cupboard to the floor in the center of a crowd of watchers and stands with a flourish. He pulls on the cord, and a fan of palm leaves starts turning on the ceiling, to great applause.) He had a knack for knowing just what would make the Egyptians' lives more comfortable.

Khamen was the obvious choice of ancestors to visit, and the only ancestor who I didn't change the order for: he was always going to be first. I went with Slytenkhamen II for the time period, but also because of his lack of fame. The first Slytenkhamen started the Thievious Raccoonus; having Sly visit that guy could've set up a time loop where Sly gave the guy the idea. Sly never mentions the Cooper Vault, which this guy founded, so we're safe there.

I honestly don't like Khamen much. Some of it's the time period and cultural, but he never developed much of a personality, and what he did develop seemed... determined to doubt the others' abilities. Particularly Bentley, because wheelchair. But some readers like him, and maybe I got the wrong vibe from him. It was a similar feel to the one I got from Salim in game 4, who I greatly dislike, so maybe it's just my reaction to that sort of character.

(A tiger in a prison uniform stirs a pot, anger stark on his face) Rajan was given kitchen work as a regular job at the prison. It's supposed to help with his therapy. Given the terms of his sentence, he isn't allowed access to spices of any sort—including regular old salt and pepper. His chart notes that the flavorless meals seem to help with his temper.

Rajan was always going to be the villain for this area. We know spice helps with brainwashing, and we've seen it grown in very hot areas before; bringing in Rajan, willing or not, would kill two birds with one stone. Early on, I started picturing this story as my love letter to the series, if such a thing were possible: I wanted to bring back all the best, favorite villains of the past for it. Since it was directly connected to game 4, both in time travel and in overarching plot, I nixed bringing back villains from game 4 (thanks again to O and D) but wanted to bring back two villains from each of the other games.

My original 'Sly Notes' file—I went through two or three, this one hasn't been updated since Oct. 2017, a month before I started writing—had these details on the area:

'Specifically, someone is breaking into Egyptian tombs and DOING STUFF in them (growing plants). There's also a person from the future, for some reason... and of all people, it's Rajan, who apparently showed up a few days after Sly did.

Jobs will include locating Sly (and Slyten), complete with joyous reunion... and Sly refusing to leave, explaining about someone else messing with things here. Including at a famous tomb that was supposed to be Slyten's greatest theft.'

Things changed.

Rajan's role in the overall plot was spice. We saw in game 2 that it can be used for hypnotism purposes; I imagine that helped with the gems as well. Either way, it would've helped Foxworthy keep control over his... assistants.

(A female raccoon in a dress uniform and eyepatch marches down a lavishly decorated hall, her crew behind her.) Henriette continued working as a privateer, stealing money and goods from other countries for England—and her own coffers. Other countries started referring to her as 'The Pirate Queen', a moniker that she used to her full advantage on shore. Still, her service was so notorious that it earned her an audience with the queen. (Henriette kneels before a lavishly decorated throne as the picture fades out.)

I know I upset several people with Henriette's offhand comment of 'Uncle Rioichi'. Some even commented on it; the popular headcanon is that Henriette and Rioichi are father and daughter. This particular piece of fan thought has never set well with me for a number of reasons, ranging from the timeline (During game 4, Rioichi's area, Henriette could be no older than 15 and would therefore still be in Japan/living with Rioichi, something any sensible game developer would gleefully use to their advantage) to their names (every Cooper has a name that reflects where they were born/did most of their stealing/the time period), to the locations they stole in (Japan VS the Caribbean), and even to how they stole (there is nothing you can say to convince me that a girl raised by/as a ninja would turn to piratry. They're possibly the two styles of thievery MOST unlike each other).

In any case, much as I love it as a detail, the rest of you fans can ignore it. It's unlikely we'll ever get confirmation either way, and it clearly doesn't affect her sailing skills.

According to that oldest notes file, Henriette was originally area 4. I also shoulda/coulda/woulda done something involving her using her hook to slide up and down ropes like the Rail Slide, rather than climbing, and her one eye made her less susceptible to hypnosis and 'visual' traps, so I should use them.

Instead, we got our easily irritated swimming sailor with her love of Sushi who, in true pirate fashion, never repeated an insult. (Seriously, go back and check, she never uses the same insult twice.) I think it was a fair trade.

(General Tsao sits in a room full of sewing machines, other inmates in long lines on either side of him.) General Tsao was determined to have too volatile a temper to be released. In order to relax, he's been forced to take up many calming hobbies, like yoga, and sewing. He regularly disrupts the other inmates with his rants about doing 'women's work'.

General Tsao almost wasn't in this story. I wanted to have Captain Lefwee going against Henriette... but sadly, he's one of two villains from Sly 3 confirmed dead (the other being Dr. M, which also made me rather sad. If Dr. M was alive, I wouldn't've had to make up Dr. Foxworthy). Tsao was actually my third choice, but he worked out well.

When writing things, this was the point where my second 'Sly Info' document started getting notes on Thiefnet. Thiefnet's been a major part of things since game 2 onward, and while I made the paraglider a permanent piece of Sly's equipment, giving players ways to customize their playstyle and their gadgets is as much a part of Sly games as stealing. After some thought, I settled on giving each character two thiefnet moves per area. In addition, I made notes of which ones I wanted to be required, and when. The Grapple Cam is 'MANDATORY EARLY ON', Throwable Wall Hooks are 'MANDATORY AREA 3' and Light As A Hippo is 'MANDATORY AT SOME POINT' (did I ever wind up specifying that?). By the end of area 2, I knew all of Murray's thiefnet moves through the game, had Sly's through area 4 and one of Bentley's area 5 ironed out (though I rearranged several of Bentley's for plot reasons as time went on), and... Carmelita's through area 3, which also got rearranged. It took some thinking.

In addition, there are five moves inspired by the various ancestors; you could even say the ancestors are the ones you pay to learn/earn them. Bentley gains Trap Sabotage from Khamen (very start of area 2), Murray learns Breaking Blow from Slaigh (area 4), Carmelita gets Otto's goggles (area 5), and Sly learns how to not-drown from Henriette and disguised pickpocket from Thaddeus. Each of these are required, both in the final area and before it.

General Tsao's role in the plan was treasure. The mind-control gems had to come from somewhere; so did all the metals and materials used in the robots. I suspect he also kept some of it for himself, though, because he really disliked those mind-control-gems.

(Thaddeus kneels on the streets of London, top hat protecting him from the rain. Chalk outlines mark the ground as police bustle in all directions) When not attending plays and introducing younger people to 'the fine arts', Thaddeus continued working with London police. He refined many of their skills for investigating crimes, many of which are still used by Interpol. It also ensured he was near-constantly surrounded by intelligent cops through his twilight years. (As the picture fades out, an owl's silhouette can be seen in the background).

I have to admit, Thaddeus gave me trouble. First it was the area—I had this whole idea about how I could set it during the construction of the clock tower, have many jobs revolving around sneaking through the dang thing as it was either newly completed or still under construction, including an epic heist that involved chasing The Contessa around the rafters and a boss fight under (or in) Big Ben... and would involve actually having some knowledge of the place. I am many things, but I'm not capable of envisioning places I've never been, or figuring out how rooms connect, unless I physically walk through it (either in person or as a character in a game). Geography and I are enemies, maps and I are rarely on speaking terms.

Once I gave that up, I asked myself other questions. Thaddeus's entry in the Thievious Raccoonus has a typo, shown in Goodbye My Sweet: the entry Sly and co consulted was written in either 1839 or 1893. By my records, whenever he wrote it, he would've been between the ages of 20-30 (My notes give every Cooper their most famous heist in that age range). If he was born 1810, wrote that in 1839 at the age of 29, then by the time we see him in 1875, the Cooper clan's most gentlemanly thief is in his 60's. That's old enough to be Sly's father or grandfather.

Sly's disguised himself as Thaddeus before and is arguably a gentleman thief himself. With everything we know of the man, it makes perfect sense that Thaddeus would assist the police... both proving himself even more of a gentleman and providing a possible role model for how Sly can proceed through his own life. And he has 'quiet disappointment' down pat.

And then I decided to write him as though Sherlock Holmes had the manners of a Victorian-era gentleman and a penchant for larceny, and we got a Cooper many people were surprised they loved. Myself included; he was a joy to write, instead of the stuffy old man I half-expected.

(The Contessa stands on a stage, wearing an elaborate ballgown) The Contessa won't be leaving prison for a long time, but she's been taking full advantage of some of the available options to immerse herself in acting opportunities. Apparently, adapting her own play in the Victorian era gave her a passion for theater. She even took up singing. (Onstage, she's joined by a lion in a white mask, who gives her a rose. He bows, she curtsy's, and it fades to black as they begin an elaborate dance number.)

You can't do something involving repeat Sly Cooper villains without The Contessa. Everyone who played Sly 2, or watched a playthrough of Sly 2, remembers her; barring Final Bosses (Clockwerk, Clockla/Neyla, Dr. M, Le Paradox) she may be the best Sly Cooper villain of all. I struggled to name her area for ages; I didn't want to make it obvious, but she deserved something good. 'Unto an evil counselor close heart, and ear, and eye, / And take a lesson from this tale of the Spider and the Fly.' Final line of the poem 'The Spider and the Fly.' It seemed... appropriate.

She scared the crud out of me when I first played Sly 2, at the ripe old age of 13; if it wasn't her, it was the guards that popped out of statues when I thought I was safe. It was the hourglass blinking from the window of her house (I didn't realize what it stood for until years later). It took at least a dozen playthroughs of Sly 2 before I'd let that hourglass see me, I was sure it set off an alarm or something. It was the prison. And then, it was the tanks. It was her treatment of Carmelita. It was ghosts and a Bad Mojo Bomb. It was Bentley's blatant, fearful awe at the mindshuffler, the thing he didn't think was real (Bentley being scared scares me, I admit it). It was watching to see if a bomb got dropped on your head and having guards suddenly change their patrols to investigate, catching you when you should've been safe.

Her boss fight was a bit of a letdown after all that, but considering everything going on around it, I could let it slide there. Not here. No, here I wanted The Contessa to freak out everyone again, but she's too intelligent to repeat old tricks. Bentley was the only character who she'd never captured before, so he was the victim. Sorry, Bentley.

The Contessa had several roles in the plan. Her hypnosis ability allowed Foxworthy to control Penelope; presumably, she also assisted in the creation of the gems, which is why they were in the advertisements (subliminal messaging). Further, she likely knew how to control the others best (psychological profiles, like the ones mentioned in Sly 2) and would certainly be able to use robo-cops to her advantage. Who said the robocops would return the things the thieves stole, after all? If they're programmed to enforce the law, that doesn't mean they obey it.

(Slaigh MacCooper hoists a sheep over his shoulders and races towards a barn; others, herding sheep their own way, follow.) Slaigh MacCooper continued assisting the peasants of Scotland in raising and keeping sheep, and fostered a fierce sense of Scottish pride. In later years, he founded several organizations to help keep 'those balmy maroons', The English, out of Scotland.

Let's not tell him about Henriette, shall we? In all seriousness, I find it easy to imagine Slaigh is grandfather/great-grandfather to both Henriette and Rioichi. Given his location and occupation, having one of his kids settle in Japan seems reasonable, as does having another of his children stay in Scotland or immigrate to England.

To be honest, I'm not sure where this guy came from, personality-wise. He was 'the strongest of the Coopers' and he invented the ability to sidle along walls/thin ledges, which indicates thefts involving a lot of cliffs or castles and towers... hence his area. But I was expecting to be writing someone who placed a lot of stock in strength and intimidation, who was essentially Murray with twice the brains and half the charm. Heck, my original notes on this area feature him 'Found in the dungeon of Mizz Ruby's castle, kilted and VERY ANGRY.'

Instead I got a cross between 'Everyone's favorite uncle' and 'The parent who is trying so hard not to be disappointed in you.' I'm not sure what happened.

(Mizz Ruby walks around a prison yard, drawing in the dirt with her tail) For summoning zombies a second time, Mizz Ruby was sentenced to life imprisonment. Unfortunately, in the worst case of Police Booking ever, she was sentenced to Cliff's End penitentiary in Greece, infamous for being built over an ancient graveyard. (Mizz Ruby finishes her drawing and claps her hands; skeletons begin to rise from the ground.) Additional forces have been sent to deal with her.

I still get irritated by Sly 1's rhythm game; they could've had such a good boss fight, she would've been such a frightening villain if you had to railslide instead of riding a mosquito and she had gravestone ghost generators to deal with instead of zig zag voo doo... but that didn't happen, and it can't be changed.

I will say that I had Tsao planned here very early on. I was doing my research on Scotland, and in among my notes on the wildlife I could use for guards (Scottish Terriers) and how it has more redheads than any country in the world, I learned that Scotland's national animal is the Unicorn. If I swapped Mizz Ruby over here, I could have ZOMBIE UNICORNS. I think my brain exploded a little at the thought.

As for how this area ended up with a fake heist...

'Hey, this job would use every character if it didn't fail so badly!' 'Huh. Usually it's only the heists that do that, and sometimes not even then.' 'Yeah, it's really interesting. We have three characters going to confront the Big Baddie and that's usually an end-of-level event.' 'I think the only time the boss fight wasn't the end of the level was Tsao, wasn't it?' 'Hey, yeah. I wonder if anyone'll think this is the heist?' 'Well, there's no slideshow in front of it. Should I do an extra slideshow?' And then I decided to stop discussing it with myself and go to outside sources. O and D both went 'YES, ZOMG, DO IT ALREADY' and I went 'K.'

Mizz Ruby's primary job was to get in contact with Clockwerk. This was essential in my original, let's-recreate-Clockwerk plan; later on, having a 'sentient robot' example would give Foxworthy proof it could be done, as well as providing a perfect thief-killing robot for him. Unfortunately (fortunately?), the way Clockwerk abandoned everything to launch himself into willy-nilly murder when Sly showed up, combined with his defeat at Carmelita's hands, persuaded Foxworthy the recreation wasn't worth continuing.

Thank Interpol for that.

Otto worked the whole war, saving hundreds of lives and never claiming the credit. Sly went to visit him again mid-war, bearing the Temporal Raccoonus. (Otto seizes Sly in a bear hug, which Sly hesitantly returns.) I left him there for a couple days to spare myself the jokes while the two talked about Sly's past adventures, literal past, and Otto wrote his entry.

If you ever hear me say 'Boy, do I miss writing Otto Van Cooper! I had so much fun with all those puns, it made me laugh. I wish I could just keep writing him, maybe even give him his own spin-off fanfic!' then I've been kidnapped and/or brainwashed. Send help.

In all seriousness, I wrote (hang on, checking my first draft) 31,106 words in area 5 without ever figuring out what to do with this guy. I did the first job, introduced him, he opened his mouth... and all I could think to put in was a bad pun. And then more bad puns. And still more bad puns. Every time he did anything BUT say a bad pun, I was in shock. There's probably a ton going on in this guy's head; considering his time period, his ace pilot status, and how he 'primarily stole from Germany', he must have been downright amazing both before and after his injury (my interpretation of his 'physical frailty' that led to him stealing with inventions).

I must admit, this area took an embarrassing amount of time to come up with. It must've been August or September 2018—nearly a year after I started writing this—that I took the time to actually do the research. 'Van' is often Dutch, which meant he may have lived in the Netherlands, not Germany... and I actually had to look it up to realize duh, Holland is in the Netherlands. If I wanted, I could have an entire area that was Sly 3, but... not.

I am horrific at maps. I drew maps. I went to in-game Holland and wandered around for a truly amazing amount of time, making note of windmills and barns and buildings, trying to figure out how they could be re-purposed. I took two places that I never got to explore to my satisfaction in Sly 3, the castle and the hotel, and I went everywhere. It was glorious.

(Winthorp stands in a courtroom, pleading with the judge) Winthorp confessed to everything—well, except the time machine use, no one would believe that—and got off with a slap on the wrist for insisting he was coerced by a superior officer. After his three-month prison term, he tried to go back into law enforcement, but his reputation was in tatters. (image of Winthorp unlocking an office building and strolling inside)He decided to try his hand at starting a private security company instead. His first employee? Tony 'the killer' B. (Tony follows Winthorp inside the office as the scene fades out.)

Yet again, Winthorp was not planned as the villain initially. I wanted to do two villains from each of the first three games. Penelope and Tsao were from three (if you want to make the argument that Penelope also stood for game 4, you can). Rajan and The Contessa were from two. Mizz Ruby and Muggshott were going to be from game 1, because it amused me to have Muggshott play a role in all the odd-numbered games. He would be working with Penelope, keeping her in line, while he himself was under at least as many gems in an effort to keep him in check.

But by the time I got halfway through area 4, I was reconsidering. No one with a brain would use Muggshott to watch over Penelope. I considered going with Sir Raleigh, but he just didn't fit. If I wanted to sell people on the idea that a cop was behind everything and make it believable, I needed actual evidence, not just the bad feelings some reviewers had about Dr. Foxworthy. I wanted everything to be far more evident, and believable, and undeniable, than Penelope's involvement in game 4.

I needed a cop.

Winthorp appeared in The Adventures of Sly Cooper, one of the comics produced between game releases. If I remember right, he was trying to give Carmelita flowers (she didn't notice). We know almost nothing about him. But what I did know made finding reasons for him to support Dr. Foxworthy pretty darn easy. And from there, I made things up and enjoyed myself.

Winthorp's role in the plan was easy: keep Penelope in line. Her behavior as the Black Knight was sloppy, and the postcards are evidence she's fighting the brainwashing... and they couldn't have that. In addition, as an Interpol member, he would theoretically have enough experience and knowledge to keep others in check, cop and criminal... and, if Mizz Ruby and The Contessa weren't lying (that the Big Bad was a cop and someone The Contessa had worked with before) his presence also opened up a bunch of unpleasant possibilities for Carmelita.

Some of you said it in reviews, some of you said it in PM's, some of you deliberately DID NOT say it, but if anyone legitimately didn't know Dr. Foxworthy was the overall villain by the end of this area, please tell me. I had people who figured it out in area 1 and people who figured it out in area 4 and... look, I was not trying to hide it, okay? I mean, I wasn't going to come right out and say it, any more than games 1-3 said 'Sly and Carmelita will eventually find a way to be together' before game 3's final boss. I left clues EVERYWHERE. Orange and white rug in the first chapter, orange and white penants flapping all over the place. Pictures of past villains on the wall Bentley went past in the sewer of Interpol, chapter 1, included everyone but Winthorp as people he'd rehabilitated (and a few to mislead you). I'm simultaneously proud and dismayed that it was so clear.

(Penelope leaves the gang, walking off into the unknown.) To everyone's shock, Carmelita didn't make Penelope go to jail... but even she was hesitant about staying with the gang. Eventually, she visited The Guru, who decided it would be beneficial if she became his student. After a few months, he told her to study the weather in Spain and compare it to various things in Persepolis, and not return until she found a connection. (Image of Penelope standing in the desert, a bag of peas in one hand as she argues with a shopkeeper.) So far, she hasn't had any success.

You know, I could have accepted Penelope's betrayal if it had been for a good reason. I know most of the fandom was enraged, outraged, Penelope would never do that... but I remember reading one person's opinion, pointing out that she was the Black Baron, that she disguised who she was for years to dogfight, that she was okay severely hurting/possibly murdering guards who betrayed her, that she habitually cheated. They made a great point.

Every member of the gang habitually steals, and will also cheat and lie as needed, but Penelope is the one who really scares me, who I genuinely believe would turn amoral if she had a reason. The problem is, the only reason they could come up with had nothing to do with her character. Penelope was many things in game 3, but she wasn't greedy; she was someone who looked for challenges (dogfighting, RC, rewiring things) and strove to prove herself capable/awesome... and sometimes failed or bit off more than she could chew (the rewiring incident in China with Murray). If she were greedy, she'd never have rebuilt the Cooper Vault with Bentley and protected most of the treasure, wouldn't've insisted on testing the gang's skills before joining them. I could believe she joined Le Paradox because he threatened Bentley, or she and Bentley had an argument about tech and she set out to prove her time-machine plans were better than his and needed Le Paradox's money, or she was insecure and Needed To Prove she was better than Bentley and got in over her head, or... but no, they had to turn her into a two-bit cartoon villain. Greed, of all things.

So, like most of the fandom, I subscribed to the brainwashing theory. Nothing else made sense. And I took that and ran with it, and here we are.

Carmelita was determined to prove the rest of her family wasn't like her uncle, so she took Sly to a family reunion. (Sly straightens his tie and holds out his arm; Carmelita rests her hand on it and the two walk into a huge room populated primarily by foxes.) While only Carmelita and Dr. Foxworthy have reached Interpol rank, Carmelita is still a fourth-generation police officer, and a good dozen of her relatives put Sly through interrogation. (Sly is cornered by several foxes, all of whom are trying to intimidate him.)

I can't imagine a Sly game without Carmelita; she may not be a thief, but she's in integral part of why this works. My choice to make her an active member of the gang this time was deliberate. The games have been moving towards having her and Sly be an item since the beginning; if that's to succeed, they need to understand each other and work together, and that means her being at least mostly okay with Sly being... well, Sly.

If you go through Thieves in Time, Carmelita has access to a binoc-u-com as a game mechanic but never uses it in a cutscene or for instructions; it's reasonable to assume Bentley never actually gave her one. Further, all her missions involve someone else nearby, either implied (the shooting contest in the old west would be very close to Sly's race course and likely had Tennessee and Bentley on standby) or explicit (every mission Carmelita has is shared with another character). The subtext screams that Bentley doesn't trust the cop, isn't using her whenever possible, and is keeping a close eye on her. I don't give them that luxury here: every area has missions that can only be completed by someone with Carmelita's skill set, and by the end of it all, the whole group has come to some sort of understanding.

Ignoring Carmelita, I can't imagine a Sly game without, well, Sly. I'm sure there are people who could make an entire game about finding him; four or five areas just devoted to tracking him down, visiting different time periods, making do with the ancestors' abilities in replacement for our master thief and only freeing him in the final heist. But there are at least a dozen reasons why I couldn't, wouldn't, do that myself. I don't think any of you mind.

After the reunion, Sly needed my help to fulfill a promise to Carmelita. (Image of Carmelita and Sly strolling into a restaurant in ancient Japan). I don't know why he promised her the best sushi she's ever had, but helping her meet his relatives after her family reunion seemed fair enough.

Writer Stats (Note: almost every chapter on both sites was uploaded on a Tuesday, usually between 4-5 PM EST. As such, these stats/this information is from 5 PM EST on the day of posting.)

Date Started Writing: November 1, 2017

Date Finished (minus the end credits): June 20, 2019

Total Word Count (Open Office count, master document/unedited, not including this chapter or author's notes): 150,219

Total Chapters (including this one): 108

Longest Chapter (not this one) : PoB, Operation: Pop That Weasel

Shortest Chapter: Predator In The Dunes (Intro)

Total E-mails In My FF/AO3 Alerts Folder (includes favorite/follow alerts, kudo alerts, and review alerts): 270 in 2018, 655 in 2019, 73 in 2020, for a total of 998 times I discovered people really, really liked this. And it never stopped being a wonderful surprise.

Murray decided he needed a change of pace. So, he went to Dimitri and asked if it would be possible. (Image of Murray in Dimitri's new nightclub, standing in front of a crowd of people.) Now, on the mornings the nightclub is closed, Murray teaches classes. There's a different one every day: self defense (montage of Murray punching and kicking), modern dance (Murray breakdances across the floor), yoga. (image of Murray and a number of other animals contorted in weird ways; Murray makes it look easy). It was a surprising success... to everyone except me, of course. I had no doubts about it.

Archive Of Our Own Stats

First Chapter Post Date: Feb. 16, 2018. (I meant to wait until my birthday to post, but couldn't last that long, so you got it a couple days early.)

Area 6 End Post Date: Feb. 11, 2020

Total Views (AO3 doesn't track per-day views, and counts it as one view no matter how many chapters are read): 4,306

Total Kudos: 95
You're all awesome, you know that?

Story Bookmarks: 13
Thanks for deciding this deserved space in your 'I wanna go back to this' place.

Story Subscriptions: 21

I have no idea how to check WHO is getting alerts when I update, I was trying to find other info when I stumbled upon this number and it's good I was sitting down. There are 21 of you on AO3 getting alerts when this updates? Really? I kinda just figured you were all wandering by once a month like 'hmmmm I wonder if anything interesting happened.' But 21 of you weren't. Thank you for this.

Total Comment Threads: 173

First Comment Received:

OMG OMG OMG.

This is one of the greatest beginnings to a Sly game I have ever seen, and I just wanna cuddle Carmelita SO MUCH.

-melodiesofliv, Feb. 17 2018

Last Comment Received:

Carmelita's going to need a whole lot of hugs after this, that's for sure.

(And please, take your time. You've definitely earned it.)

-Isaak_The_Dragon, Feb. 11 2020

Stats

The following stats do NOT include favorites, follows, reviews, etc. from the many, many alt accounts of the user who -stalked me.

First Chapter Post Date: April 10, 2018

Area 6 End Post Date: February 11, 2020

Total Views ( counts every chapter visited as a 'view', uses IP addresses or usernames or possibly witchcraft to identify individual visitors each day): 100,246

Most Views in a Single Day: 778 Nov. 19 2019

Most Visits in a Single Day: 114 Dec 13 2019- wait, no, you passed that. 118 Feb. 11, 2019. Can't get strikethrough working on this site...

I don't know what happened, people. October 2018, about 30 chapters and a fair amount of time after starting, the most visits/views in that month were 36 on the 2nd, 170 on the 9th . Jump ahead a year, this had 99 visits Oct 1 2019 and 536 views Oct. 8. Where did you all come from? How did you get here? Why are you so amazing and still spending your time here? Whatever the reason, thanks. Thank you SO. MUCH.

Story Favorites: 118

Seriously, people, HOW. You are AMAZING. If you told me, when I started posting this, there were 100+ people reading Sly Cooper fanfic I would've laughed at you. I tend to call this a 'small, but devoted' fandom, and 'not well known' compared to the PS2 mascots that are getting actual game remakes/movies/attention, and by the time we hit 50 I was actually making angry demands of my computer every time I got another 'You've been favorited!' email because we MUST have run out of fans by now. Where did you all come from?...how the ever-loving crud did I get another favorite Feb. 17?

Story Alerts: 106

So there's literally a hundred people who like this SO MUCH that they want e-mails when they can get the next part, because they enjoy it and want to see what happens next THAT BADLY, and that's just... it's... I mean... thank you.

...though I may have instinctively (and shrilly) demanded 'What are you doing?! ' at the screen when I continued getting story follows in February, and threw a full-on 'WHY?!' fit when I got a follow yesterday. I don't deserve your love/support/bweh, people.

Author Favorites: 30

I have one story. And you think it's good enough to be worthy of you telling the world 'This person? I like everything, or at least most, of what this person does. I remember their name; I associate it with something awesome, and I want to be able to find them again.' Or maybe you don't, and I'm just reading too much into it. But you didn't just favorite the story; you favorited ME, for some reason, and I cannot fathom why, what I did to be worthy of it. Thank you, all of you, SO MUCH.

Author Alerts: 31

I'm gonna tell you the truth, people: You confused me. I have one story. ONE. In my profile, I made it reasonably clear I wasn't planning on doing another until this one was finished, maybe not even then, and you still went out of your way to know EVERYTHING I wrote and get alerted. You believe(d?) in this story THAT MUCH. You could've just followed the story, not me, but you didn't (though some of you did both). And that... it just... thank you.

Total Reviews: 492

First Review Received:

sorry for my english, this looks nice I like the way bentley its the narrator, I'm on with this story

-zeronos6490, April 21 2018

Last Review Received:

Tomorrow's the day we find out if you'll do a sequel or not...

-LazinessRules, February 17 2020.

As for me, well, I've decided a break from inventing is in order. (Bentley adjusts his glasses, surrounded by hundreds of books.) And from stealing, too, for that matter. I'm going to get my doctorate in history from several prestigious universities. (Bentley opens his holographic keyboard and starts to hack his way into their computer systems.) The fast way. And then? I'm going to get published in academic journals. Let's revolutionize the way the world views the past.

When I wrote these credits the first time, I did all of it—the author's notes, the bolded text, and so forth—in just over a week. June 21-30, 2019. I meant to leave them completely the same, a spelling/grammar edit and filling in the stats but no more, and be done with it. But I've gone back to this one section and fiddled with it at least a dozen times since, as my answer's changed several times over the last few months—due to life, due to surprises, due to inspiration and burn-out and ideas all combining to be about as useful as Inspector Fox during game 3 (yeah, all the areas. You probably know what I'm talking about.)

So now, I'm going to take the time to answer a few questions that must've been/be on people's minds a lot more than the comments let on, and the comments/private messages featured a fair bit of them.

First: Why didn't I include Conner Cooper?

For those who don't know, in the Sly Collection's official strategy guide, Sly's dad gets a name. Conner. So, why didn't I use Sly's dad?

Short answer: Oh, no way in heck can I do anything with Sly's dad.

Long answer: Look, let's be realistic here: if Sly meets his father through time travel, it's the end of the Sly Series as we know it.

Sly has no strong love for rules. We know that. NONE of the Coopers do. There's already fic out there about Sly warning Tennessee about Clockwerk; the idea that Sly wouldn't want to warn all of his ancestors, and give them details, is preposterous. The only conceivable reason he doesn't/hasn't is because other characters won't let him (probably Bentley) because they know about/care about things like 'paradoxes' and 'alternate timelines/universes' and other sci-fi phenomenon. And there's enough distance—hundreds of years of difference—that he probably listened when it came to Bob, and Rioichi, and other Coopers. But his father? That's personal, even more so; that's his life, it's not some ancient in-the-history-books crud, that happened to him. Sly would say something. And if he wanted to enough, there's no way the others could stop him.

That's it, really. Sly would say something. And as far as I'm concerned, if Sly goes back in time and meets his dad and warns him, everything about the games—from meeting Bentley and Murray, to all of his adventures—wouldn't happen, because Sly's dad wouldn't die. If Sly meets his father, I have to choose between 'Temporal Paradox, existence is erased' and 'Alternate universe, there's another universe where Sly grew up with his dad alive' and, frankly, either way, it's the end of the Sly series as we know it. I couldn't do that, even if I had a good idea for an area/bad guy/etc. I'm not ready for this to end yet.

Yes. 'Yet'.

Question 2: Will there be a Sly 6?

That's the REAL reason this response has been re(rererererererererere)written. Because I finished Sly 5 in June, and was determined to be DONE with it. Let's NOT THINK ABOUT ANYTHING SLY for a year. I am just so sick of everything Sly.

But I was also phenomenally bored at my weekend job as a cashier, and have the unique talent of being able to scan groceries/carry on the same identical polite conversation 40 times an hour while also thinking about how the gang would rob the place, so I had ¾ of the plot issues for Sly 6 ironed out by the end of August, ended October with the first area-and-a-half outlined, and currently have Area 1's intro, job 1, slideshow 1, job 2, and half of job 4 written. I haven't written any of Job 3 because if I have to write anything involving hacking yet I will set myself on fire.

I want to complete playing KH3 and Pokemon Shield; I have a dozen books to read; I have a completed original work I'm sending to literary agents and an under-half-complete rough draft of an original work that I think'll be even better; I have a Splatoon fanfiction I wasn't planning to write that hit me over the head on January 10 and I'd accidentally written over 1k before I could talk myself out of it (It's on AO3 now. It'll be on once I stop cussing out the formatting issues. I think I'm half finished and it's only 17k, so it won't be like THIS monstrosity, thank lork). I just had two job interviews (3 and 4 weeks before this was posted) and another next week. This is all gonna keep me busy.

But more than that, I can't write Sly 6 until I've taken a step back for long enough that I can enjoy it, instead of putting my head on the desk and contemplating why anyone cares about the latest laser grid.

And once I do write it... let's be real. It's been ages since I started posting, but I think I had the first two areas (at least 1.5 areas) complete. I went back to the opening recon missions for every area at least four times, often more, adding and subtracting things that had pictures taken of them so future jobs would be done properly. I rearranged thiefnet move orders dozens of times for plot reasons. I wanted the murder statues in Holland to be the robots in the ending fight, and changed my mind on what they were SO MANY TIMES... I think I only stopped because I had to post it.

I won't start posting until I've got at least two full areas and a plan for the rest. More detailed than my current plan, anyway. Some of you have been asking questions, making suggestions... I'm not collabing with another fanfic author, picking up an orphaned idea, going to alternate realities, and so forth. I have one paragraph descriptions of what needs to be covered in each area for the overall plot to happen, I know each location, and I know (roughly) what the individual Problem/Solution for each area is. I do not have 7-10 jobs listed, each with a one or two-sentence description of what needs to happen, for areas 2+; I don't have any thiefnet moves/abilites decided on; I have no idea how to write the opening. That'll take a while.

In the meantime, you should know: I've been deliberately avoiding reading any Sly Cooper fic that takes place after Sly 4 and/or contains one or more of the ancestors I knew I'd bring back. I didn't/don't want to steal anyone's ideas/personalities/whatnot by mistake. I've messed up a couple times, but since there will be a Sly 6 in the future (ideally, with a smaller gap than the one between Sly 3 and Sly 4), I'll continue avoiding such fics.

If you're looking for good Sly Cooper fanfiction, I'd recommend popping over to AO3 and reading (Un)predictable and sequels by elinadsy for a PG-13+ retelling of game 2 and beyond featuring realistic jobs, PTSD from some of the crud they go through, and downright amazing character development. And if you like OC-insert fics at all whatsoever, head over to Stealing Comes With Practice by Uncommon-Aura (She's rewriting it and the rewrite'll be on AO3 eventually. I asked. It's still pretty darn funny, and on , so find it). Neither of them know I'm doing this, I don't think either of them are reading this, but they did Stuff I Like and I wanna point at them and shoo people their way.

ONE LAST DETAIL:

The following paragraph applies to everyone EXCEPT S82161, all of his alt accounts, and anyone associated with him:

If you've read all of Sly 5, thank you. If you wish, you may contact me to use Sly 5 and the characters I've created in your own works. Those on know I had a fair bit of trouble with some dodo-brain who hadn't read a word and made several accounts to pester me so they could use my stuff. (As of 2/12/2020, I've even received a PM from someone reading this, who S82161 contacted specifically to insult me, since they're blocked). You do NOT have my permission if you are that person or consider him your friend.

To make sure you've actually read it, send me a message asking first, and include the phrase 'pastrami pancakes' in the title. And if you do, please include some sort of credit back to me (a link to this fic, a mention that characters/events originated here, you can probably figure it out) and send me a message/leave a comment/get in contact in some way to let me know when it goes up. Stories are for sharing, but I worked hard on this and want people to know I did it.

...and even now, I can't quite believe I managed it. Have you SEEN the size of this thing? Good lork.

(Sly sits in a comfortable chair in the hide-out, leafing through an elegant leather-bound book: the Temporal Raccoonus. The camera zooms in to show what he's looking at: sentences, in different hands, describing bits and pieces of their adventures. A note on Carmelita's temper; a description of Bentley's chair. And drawing after drawing of Sly, Bentley, Murray, and Carmelita, individually and as a group, by all sorts of hands. They're in ink-washed paintings by Rioichi and block-like heiroglyphics from Khamen; elaborate sketches by Sir Galleth and black-and-white photographs Otto took when they slept. Sly turns the page. Alone in the center of the page are words, in Otto's newspaper-like printing:

Come see me again when you're done with your adventures.

I'll give you the missing pages.

If I left them in, Bentley would fall over, and I'd hate to have him dirty his shell.)

So long, everyone.
-EikaPrime