Chapter Text
Stanley stepped out of the facility, and onto the gravel beyond. He found himself still in control of his body, letting him pace himself as he stepped further outside. The sun was warm on his skin, the light breeze ruffled his shirt, and noises of insects reached his ears. The usual outro he was used to, the handful of sentences, before he'd be reset weren't being spoken. He was outside, in the warmth of the sun, and he could move however he pleased. He didn't rush, instead he stood there and closed his eyes, basking in the warmth of the sun.
"Stanley felt the cool breeze upon his skin, the feeling of liberation, the immense possibility of the new path before him. And there was no need to rush. He could take a deep breath, feel the fresh air filling his lungs, the rays of the sun kissing his skin. He basked in the feeling of comfort and freedom it brought him, years of stress melting from his mind.", the Narrator's voice still managed to come from everywhere at once, even outside. But their voice was soft, gentle, just like the ending was supposed to be. It made Stanley smile, opening his eyes again to look around.
He knew he wouldn't be able to go wherever he wanted, fully aware this was still just part of the game. But he could move over to the tree nearby, settling beneath it, the grass warmed from the sun. He laid down with a long exhale, looking up past green leafs into the blue sky. This was nice. Stanley smiled to himself, letting his eyes fall closed again. He didn't know why the Narrator had chosen to alter this ending, but he greatly enjoyed that they had. He could finally actually enjoy the outside, even if just for a little while.
"This was exactly the way, right now, that things were meant to happen.", the Narrator slowly continued. Stanley knew he couldn't stay here forever, but he was still sad. He liked being here, in the warm sun. "And Stanley was happy.".
Stanley was back in his office, and he found he still had the items the Narrator had given him for entertainment. Mainly it were supplies for arts'n'crafts, since those were the easiest and fastest for the Narrator to give him, though that was enough for Stanley. It was nice to see they were still here, just like the things he had made during his break from the story. While he knew the break had been so the Narrator could work on altering the Freedom Ending undisturbed, it had still been nice. Though he wasn't sure why the Narrator hadn't erased the items again. They weren't needed anymore, weren't they? Or were they going to change more things, for which Stanley needed to stay put?
Getting out of his office, Stanley's thoughts wandered. Why had the Narrator decided to make the ending nicer? As far as he was aware, he hadn't really done anything to warrant anything nice -rather, he'd been finding glitches and places he wasn't supposed to be in. The only notable thing he had done was activating the Narrator after the power outage, and he didn't think that warranted a changed ending. Plus, it had seemed like the Narrator had wanted to do that even before the power outage.
Standing in front of the iconic two doors, Stanley wondered what to do. Maybe if he did something actually nice for the Narrator, he'd get something else nice? He couldn't really fathom why the Narrator was doing nice things for him -outside of rewarding him for some sort of good behaviour, or... wanting to make him think they were just getting nicer....
Thinking about the endings he thought the Narrator liked, he thought of the Freedom Ending, though they had just done that recently. They had (kinda) done the Countdown Ending before that. He personally liked the Confusion Ending a lot, though he wasn't sure what the Narrator thought about that one. Perhaps the Apartment Ending?... No, that one didn't end in either of their favour either.
"Is something the matter Stanley?", the Narrator spoke up eventually, after Stanley had been standing still for a while. Granted, they knew Stanley was likely just taking his time deciding on what ending he wanted to do, but it was a rare occurrence he stood around for this long just thinking. And well, since they've met twice now, the Narrator felt... more inclined to speak up outside of the story they had written. It was strange, but they felt less bothered by interacting with Stanley now. Was it just because they had met twice now? Was it because they had been vulnerable and Stanley hadn't done anything bad? Or was it because of something else?
"I was wondering why you changed the Freedom Ending, if I did anything. And I wondered if there was any ending you may like besides the ones we just did." Stanley answered, shrugging a bit. He was surprised the Narrator spoke to him, but it was nice, he supposed. While he hadn't felt especially lonely due to the Narrator's voice in general being with him, it was... different, now that he was spoken to. He felt how different it was not having anyone to talk with. And while he wasn't sure if the Narrator would keep talking with him, it may be nice if they did.
"What ending I like? That hardly matters Stanley. This is your story.", the Narrator replied, making Stanley roll his eyes. He shook his head, before signing again.
"Do you not have any preference? Any at all?"
The Narrator sighed, shaking their head lightly. They truly didn't understand Stanley. Why did he want to know what ending they liked? Their opinion didn't matter -they had made the story, and they had made it for Stanley. Though... they supposed they did like some of the endings more than others, after having seen them all being played by Stanley.
"I do enjoy the Freedom and Countdown Ending, though I'm also partial to the Games Ending. The Confusion Ending is also amusing.", the Narrator relented, sighing as they watched Stanley. Their answer seemed to have pleased him, because he smiled hearing it. They didn't understand. Why did their opinion matter to Stanley? It wasn't their story to play and enjoy, they just created it, and looked after it. They were just meant to record what Stanley did, how he reacted, and nothing more. And yet, here Stanley was, walking through the right door to presumably do one of those two endings.
The Narrator did as they always did: they narrated, and they watched. Stanley was making his way to the Games Ending it seemed. He did do that ending occasionally, though the Narrator figured the time it took to get to the different games was a bit too long for him to do it even more. They didn't especially mind either ways, though maybe Stanley would enjoy different games. Neither of the two they currently had were especially fun for the man -one he wasn't actually supposed to be in for long, and the other didn't leave a lot of room for the man to enjoy himself. Though Stanley always managed to entertain himself anyways.
While Stanley entertained himself with the baby-game (the Narrator had meant it as a joke, truthfully, but had written an ending just in case anyways. To learn Stanley would do the "Art Ending" before the rest of the Game Ending had been an experience), the Narrator found some other games for Stanley to get into. They had rather limited access to things of the "outside", but thankfully they had a lot of assets to make their own games with. Which simply included a lot of other games. Stanley's reality had been the first where they just straight up copied a game though, but it was only the environment anyways.
By the time Stanley moved on from the baby-game, the Narrator was already done. And as soon as Stanley was loaded into a new game instead of the usual one, Stanley's reaction- pleased them. The Narrator found themself smiling together with Stanley, as the man eagerly explored the tower he was now inside of. They improvised their lines, as they hadn't written any new ones yet, and watched how Stanley enjoyed exploring all the new items around, and how different everything looked. It was strangely nice. Not only did the Narrator enjoy the new reactions from Stanley, but they enjoyed the positivity of them. It was... weird. But they didn't mind.
When Stanley was put into the large arena, he didn't seem entirely convinced of how fun this could be. Until the Narrator spawned in a ball three times the size of Stanley, that was, which spurred the man into running full speed into it to watch it bounce away as he threw himself against it. Breathless laughter reached the Narrator as he watched Stanley now chasing the ball to slam his entire body into it, to slowly get it towards one of the goals. The Narrator decided that they were glad they had changed the games. Stanley seemed to enjoy himself, even though the arena was very big compared to the man.
But all good things come to an end, and so with about three other balls, Stanley eventually fell into one of the goals. The rest of the ending was unchanged, though Stanley seemed a bit more upset about being alone. Of course the Narrator was still watching him, as there was no real escape from them (and they were pretty sure Stanley knew that by now), but this ending was supposed to be without them. So they stayed quiet, as always, until eventually bringing it to a close and resetting the game again.
Stanley liked those new games, but he couldn't help but feel suspicious. Why was the Narrator suddenly changing things? They had said they saw no reason to change anything unless Stanley complained, and he hadn't. All he'd done was break the game and enjoy it, so why were they suddenly making things more enjoyable? Stanley didn't trust them, he didn't believe that the Narrator just randomly decided to make things better for him. Maybe they were planning something? Maybe they'd make another ending, a completely new one, but make it worse. Make it to rip away these good feelings.
Or maybe they were just nice. Maybe Stanley breaking their game so much had made them try and be nicer so he'd stop. Stanley had never felt especially positive nor negative towards the Narrator -he had thought they were rude and mean at first, until eventually his feelings had shifted towards them just being annoying and infuriating.
Since learning the Narrator was more than just a voice, but an android (and Stanley didn't know if they were AI or something different?) it made a lot more sense to him how they tended to treat him. It sounded a bit... like he was thinking lesser of an android's existence, but it just made sense to him that the Narrator didn't understand emotions, or how things would affect Stanley emotionally.
Though perhaps they were learning? Perhaps they did know, and they had intentionally made a lot of cruel endings? Stanley wasn't sure. The Narrator was a confusing being, and Stanley wasn't sure if he was up to understand them or not. They were a machine, and they had been created for a purpose. They had made this story, tailored towards Stanley, so maybe that had to do with their purpose. He remembered those documents he had seen in "their" halls, and that long name on the folder he had looked at. What had it been again? Some sort of... research and analysis tool? Maybe that had been about the Narrator. But what could they possibly be researching with Stanley?
Sighing to himself, Stanley knew he wouldn't be getting any answers any time soon. He supposed it didn't really matter anyways, since he was stuck here anyways. What did it matter why he was stuck? Or why the Narrator had made most endings some amount of cruel towards him? Sure, he didn't really care about it anymore now, but... well, if he weren't kind of certain the game would break, he would love to hit the Narrator. Maybe not bare-handed, considering the Narrator was made of metal. Though maybe....
Stanley shook his head, finally starting another run through the story. He couldn't get to the android anyways, and he didn't fancy breaking the game by breaking the Narrator and their machine. Could they even feel pain? Maybe if they were damaged it would hurt... The more he thought about it, the more he actually wanted to let the Narrator know that the story hadn't been the kindest to him. He knew words -or signs in his case- would likely not really get across just how bad it had been. Stanley remembered their first meeting, and how his words had been basically brushed off.
He listened to the Narrator narrate as usual, deciding he could go do the Confusion Ending. He enjoyed it himself, especially because he got to see more of the office he usually didn't. And the Adventure Line™ was fun too, making Stanley enjoy himself again and stop thinking about the Narrator and the nature of their game and whatnot.
That was until he heard the Narrator's voice glitch, and as he turned a corner, the office had started to glitch like with the "narrative contradiction". That was not normal. Stanley stopped walking, raising his hands to sign at the Narrator, when he heard a thump and crash kind of sound, like something heavy falling to the ground.
"Narrator? What's going on?" Stanley signed, waiting for an answer. He was confused, and a little worried -the game suddenly glitching when it wasn't supposed to was concerning. But he wasn't getting an answer. That was even more concerning, making Stanley frown in worry. The game was still running, so it wasn't another power outage.
"Stan- Stan- Stan- Stanley I believe I have glitched.", the Narrator's voice reached Stanley, stuck and repeating the first word like a broken recording. Stanley relaxed only slightly -while glad the game was fine, the Narrator wasn't. And they basically were the game.
"I cannot watch-", their voice cut off, "-be you should reset the game."
Stanley wasn't exactly sure what the Narrator meant, though he was guessing that the android couldn't watch him right now, but he should still finish the ending. Thankfully Stanley was already at the last fake-reset, so he could continue finishing the ending. It was weird without the Narrator doing their narrations, but it wasn't like Stanley had never been without them.
The game reset, and Stanley was back in his office. He supposed it was over now, right? Resets always seemed to fix things, though he supposed that the Narrator themself maybe wasn't included in that. They were in control of the game after all.
"Stanley I may need you to- -ay need you to- -ay need you to help me.", the Narrator's voice skipped again, though at least Stanley understood them anyways. He had the strong feeling they still weren't able to see him, so he didn't try and reply, instead leaving his office. If he needed to help the Narrator, he'd need to find his way to them, no?
"You should be a-", the Narrator cut off during their sentence again, tough Stanley tried his best to pay attention still, "-own the fake elevator."
Fake elevator? Stanley's brows furrowed as he walked -did they mean the one next to the boss' office? Probably, right? He wasn't sure what he "should be a-" with the elevator, but maybe they meant he could find them there. He wouldn't know where else to find them after all, since the halls leading to them were never just behind a door Stanley could normally access. So he made his way to the boss' office, without any of the Narrator's usual narrations, unsure if he liked the silence or not. He supposed not- it was strange, even more so now that he wasn't even doing an ending where the silence was supposed to be. Maybe because something was wrong with the Narrator.
Stanley got into the fake elevator and pressed the button to go down. The usual movements started, the music did, and Stanley leaned back doubting this would work. Granted, he's never actually stayed all that long in the elevator before -he got bored quickly of it, and the tight bright space wasn't pleasant for longer than a minute or two- so perhaps it had always connected to the Narrator's halls. That would certainly be handy to know for the future, though he supposed the Narrator could disable this once they were fixed.
"I hope you're co- co- co- coming.", the Narrator's voice was quiet, but Stanley still heard it over the music. He supposed they had no reason to trust that Stanley would actually come to help them, though what if he weren't? Would they be able to help themselves if he didn't show up eventually? He was kind of tempted, but they wouldn't ask him for help if they didn't actually need it, would they?
After a couple of minutes the elevator stopped, and the doors opened. Stanley was relieved to see the white tiled floor, and the pastel yellow walls. He had defaulted to just calling them "the Narrator's halls", since they weren't part of the office, but that was a mouthful. Maybe he should call it the lab? Not that it was much of a laboratory, was it? Backrooms also didn't really fit. Maybe science halls? It was shorter than saying the Narrator's halls at least, but still didn't feel right. He had to return to this another time, because he reached the Narrator's room.