My Mind's Parable

Stanley was incredibly bored.

Bored to the point where he would rather count how many paper clips were in the entire parable than go through the story once again, but he had already done that twice over the years he had been here.

Bored to the point he would rather look for a real escape, but both of them know that doesnt exist here.

Bored to the point Stanley would rather create a new element, or maybe even create life, however he would go about doing that, but unfortunately, he is so bored, he would rather lie on the scratchy carpet of the office. 

“I take major offence to that stanley, you know all of the hard work i put into making sure you're safe here, I can't imagine what might happen if i let you create a new element.” The Narrator didn't really care that Stanley was horribly critiquing his work, because I mean, who doesn't love a bit of drama? Certainly not Narrator. 

Stanley had been looking rather exhausted lately, apparently so exhausted it broke through the fact he can't be exhausted. He always looked tired now that Narrator thinks about it, ever since he met Stanley in this unreal world he has been unhappy. So what can he do about it?

But Stanley had other ideas. He had a wonderful idea. A horrible, wonderful idea.

The gloomy office worker could pester The Narrator until he gave him something new! Or maybe not now that he thinks about it, he doesn't want anything similar to what happened last time. Maybe something small like.. Changing the texture of this horrible carpet. No that's too easy, how about.. Updated monitors? Newer computers with better computer screens. Yes, that's it! He definitely doesn't just want to see another person for the first time in forever. 

Stanley's face fell into a frown. He wished he had never been trapped here by the Narrator or whoever brought them here. Maybe if he was still a real person, he wouldn't yearn for the touch of another person. 

"I have been working on new content for you I'll have you know," the Narrator let out quietly. Mindlessly praying that Stanley couldn't hear what he said, he continued on.

"Maybe if you do the freedom ending I'll be more motivated and will be able to make content for you faster." Stanley wanted to lay down in his fake apartment and fall asleep forever but with the possibility of new content fast made Stanley feel …. Inspired? Motivated? A little less depressed? Stanley had no time to be thinking about how he felt when he had an opportunity like this. He was speeding off before a coin could land if one had been thrown.

Through the left door Stanley went, and he sped through the Narrator's lines so fast he couldn't even say one sentence before Stanley hit the cue of another. He chuckled to himself and watched how Stanley's face turned a bit more pink, and how he sped up just a little bit more. What was that? Maybe it means Stanley didn't like what he did. He stopped giggling. 

Stanley stopped right in front of the code to the secret door in the bosses office. He patiently waited for The Narrator to tell him the passcode. Narrator seemed to be doing something else, so Stanley tried to think of some stupid remark that would get Narrator's attention. However while doing that, he realized that he hadn’t signed a single thing to Narrator this whole run. How on earth did he know what he was thinking?

“Uh- apologies for not speaking up sooner, i did implement that feature. I- um. I thought it would make it easier for me to understand you?” He would have been angry at The Narrator for intruding on his privacy like that because of some … vulnerable thoughts he doesn't want him hearing. Stanley has somewhere to be so he carried on speeding through the route, noting to himself and maybe the Narrator if he heard it to sit in the broom closet for a while as payback.

Down the elevator, through the metal catwalk, he pushes down the off button, and for a few moments the world is dark. For each time he is plunged into darkness, if only for a moment, he feels human again. He feels like he has fears, like people rely on him and he relies on others. Like he has a purpose. But the door starts to shift and reveal the fictitious light of the outside, and it all leaves him once again.

Stanley takes a step into the outside, but he waits. He doesn't walk any further, to try and remember what it was like when the trees he saw were real.

“Stanley. I can't give you your surprise if you don't go through with the ending.” i know.

“What do you mean you know? Why wouldn't you have the game reset immediately to see your gift? Why would you wait?”

[ I don't know.] 

He finishes the freedom ending and the game resets before Narrator can give another questioning response. 

Stanley opens his eyes to ‘his’ apartment and ‘his wife’ ( his absolutely stunning gorgeous beautiful fantastic unstoppable terrific honorable wife ) 

"As you can see I've brought you to the bucket apartment ending.” Stanley would question how his Narrator changed where he spawned after a reset but he didn't care too much and let him continue.

 “You can rest here for now since you're so tired of the parable," Stanley was already on the bed taking his shoes off.

"and while you sleep I will get my work done." Stanley decided he was happy about The narrator creating new content. Maybe he’ll make some of the holiday DLCs he was ranting about a few resets ago. As he sat on the bed he raised his hands up to sign to the Narrator with a sort of hesitance.

[do you think you could..]

“Could what, Stanley? I can't even hear anything coming from your mind.” 

[could you update the computers?]

But Narrator didn’t respond quick enough. Be it that he didn't want to update the computers and pretended he didn't see what Stanley signed, or he simply was still thinking of a response to Stanley's request, if Stanley was unhappy before, he certainly was unhappy now.

He was worried. I mean how hard could updating the computers be anyway? Narrator is a god in this universe after all, it couldn't be that hard. But what if it is? What if it's some sort of impossible task not even his narrator could accomplish. Stanley had only ever seen his Narrator change and shift the parable around, never completely changing an asset, let alone create a way for the model to work as it would in the real world. Were the computers in the office even the standard ones in homes in 2013? Why do they look so outdated? Stanley swears they didn't look like that when he was real. Would Stanley have to leave the parable for Narrator to update it? Would he have to wait in the void with really nobody around him? God he hopes not, that's the main way TimeKeeper corrupted so badly. Stanley loves new places obviously, but what would he do in such an area? There really is nothing to do. What if he has to wait in a death ending? How far from the place of update would he have to be? His Narrator wouldn't be watching him, what could happen while Narrator is away? What if the game resets automatically? What if that part of the parable isn’t loaded in because he's working? Would he fall forever? Does the narrator have to reset the game himself? What- 

"Stanley?” he whispered quietly. A sound similar to trying to calm a scared animal. 

[What] Stanley was going to hope and pray that the Narrator hadn't heard his panicked thoughts or that they were too mixed up for him to hear them properly.

“I would be happy to update them for you, it's just that to update all of them I would have to put you somewhere-” the Narrator was cut off with more panicked thoughts from Stanley again, about where he would go and what would happen in each scenario. 

“Stanley,” he said his name in the same hushed tone as before, almost as if he were trying to replicate it perfectly. He hated being this open and vulnerable with Stanley because of how irrational Stanley could be sometimes, but he hated seeing Stanley so afraid. It reminded him of.. nevermind.

Stanley raised his hands to respond [ I'm sorry that I keep getting scared and cutting you off I just ..] he didn't finish the sentence but with his continuing background thoughts and his previous ones he was sure The Narrator knew what he meant.

“I think i may be able to put you in the zen room, of course i would block off the staircase, if you were to get the ending i'm not sure what would happen to you during the reset.. Let alone after. “ The odd pauses in the middle of his sentence made Stanley feel like The Narrator was a lot more worried than he wanted Stanley to know. It sounded like he rushed to say the end of it and just finish talking about those dreaded stairs. The narrator hoped Stanley was dreary enough to be unable to pick up on that.

“And when you get tired of the zen room, you can do something to get my attention and we can brainstorm other places for you to go .. together.” The Narrator didn't mean to say ‘together’ out loud. He was lucky Stanley was snuggling under the blanket and going to sleep by now. With such a heavy blanket over Stanley's ears, there was a pretty low chance Stanley even heard the whole of what he had said. 

‘Thank you for letting me sleep, Narry’ … was the last cohesive thought Stanley had before falling asleep.

"You're welcome Stanley. I hope you sleep well." He sounded anxious while saying that, maybe it was because of the silly nickname stanley had accidentally called him. But why would that make him nervous? Maybe a visit with his sister is in order, it's a tad bit obvious Narrator doesn't know much when it comes to humans. Instead he will tell himself he's nervous because he's worried any slight sound would wake his serene protagonist, the one that looked as if he wouldn't even wake from the kiss of his prince charming. Nothing made a sound in his head, and his face, oh his face. Perfectly tanned, would the rest of his body look like that? Wait- no. Narrator needs a meeting with the curator immediately. 

He was most definitely going to ignore how Stanley referred to him as his narrator and ignore the nickname Stanley called him because those were definitely one off things and would never happen again … right?

The Narrator cracked his metaphorical knuckles, and pulled up a monitor with what he needed to be working on.

- Create a model for yourself.

- Update Stanley's model.

Then, he typed one new project for himself to work on, and a reminder. 

- Update Stanley's computer as a test then update the rest of it works.

- Remember to meet with Curator soon.