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The room was broken and tilted, flooded with sand. Light was streaming in from behind Stanley, illuminating him as his sight returned to him from another skip. The button in front of him was gone, broken and laying on the ground. The mutilated remains of the Narrator were also on the ground, half buried in the sand, as broken as they had been skips ago.
He looked over at them, his eyes widening as he saw the changed expression, the little smile on their face. He started to turn, his mind reeling -he had thought the Narrator had long since broken down, died, sometime after he had last heard them speak- and he heard their core fizzle, heard it pop, saw the sparks as he witnessed their death.
He was ripped away from the game, his mind reeling in an empty void. His consciousness was teetering. He could hear steady beeping, could feel the heaviness of his limbs. He clung to the images of the office, to the sound of the Narrator's voice, the feeling of cool metal against his skin.
Stanley gasped like a fish out of water as he was thrown back into the game, landing harshly on the ground as everything around him spun. His mind was struggling to comprehend what had just happened, because that had not been a normal reset. That wasn't the normal tug on his mind, the moment of ease, before he was back in the office. It had been violent, it had been disruptive, and something inside of him told him it had been a close-call. Just not a close-call towards what.
Feeling nauseous, Stanley closed his eyes, focusing on his breathing. Once the feeling had settled, and he felt like the world had stopped moving without him, he opened his eyes again and stood. The Narrator hadn't said anything yet, and it worried him. After what had happened, they would've spoken to him. They may even have appeared in his office with him, after that... ending. But they were silent.
Now that he could focus at all, Stanley finally realized that he wasn't in the office. It looked like he'd been thrown into the halls where the Narrator was located, which was quite concerning to Stanley. He certainly wasn't supposed to be here. Was that why the Narrator hadn't said anything yet? Because they couldn't see Stanley, didn't know he was here?
Swallowing heavily, Stanley left the room he was in, and started trying to find his way to the Narrator. Every time he came here, he started out somewhere different, due to the different entrances he took. But he always found himself in the same halls, and he could find his way to the Narrator's room. It was concerning that he was here in the first place though, instead of in the office.
All he had to do was find the Narrator, and hope they were okay after what had happened. He had no idea how much time had passed in that room after all, and while he could do the math, he'd need time and some graphs for that at the very least. Considering how badly the Narrator had broken down though... it had been a long time at the very least.
With the Narrator's avatar completely breaking down, the simulation had been forced into a hard reset. It wouldn't have been enough to just reset the game, as that would've only brought the Narrator back into the control-room, and not connecting them back to the main-frame. The hard reset had put a stop to the ongoing game, forcing the Narrator back into their original and intended position.
It should have disconnected Stanley as well. Should, being the keyword there, as the man was very much still here and had been thrown into the only space that actually existed still. Stanley was left wandering through the halls like that, until he found his way to the control room. He couldn't have been more glad to find his way there, though he was worried for the Narrator.
Entering the room, most of the monitors were turned off. Some of them were flashing with warnings, some were just proclaiming a missing input. Stanley didn't really care about the monitors though, rounding the unmoving machine in the middle of the room to find the Narrator. The android was indeed sitting in their intended seat, though their body hung forward, barely hanging on with the cables connected to them. Their body was completely limp, their eyes closed, no sounds coming from their body. They didn't even have the clothes Stanley had gotten used to seeing them in.
Stanley swallowed heavily, gently helping the Narrator to sit leaned back in their seat, and making sure they were plugged in completely and properly. Seeing them like this was horrible. While they were no longer broken or damaged in appearance, Stanley could only see a lifeless form in front of him. Not moving, no fans whirring, no hum or light from their core. It was like they were dead, but they couldn't be, could they? He was still in the simulation, and he wouldn't be if the Narrator were dead.
The sight of them reminded Stanley of the time the power had gone out. They looked different now from back then, having altered their avatar to have a more powerful core, to keep them powered for longer as well as being able to generate some power. Just so they could stay longer with Stanley in the game. But it also reminded Stanley of the machine in the other room.
Holding onto hope, Stanley made his way to the adjacent room, where the power came from as well as where the back-up-system was. He's powered the Narrator on before, so maybe he could do it again? He had no idea, nor could he be sure that the Narrator was even in any state to be turned on, but what else was he supposed to do? He couldn't just sit around and do nothing, could he? So he did what he always did: trying his best.
Thankfully the terminal gave instructions on what it expected, and Stanley could follow them along without too much trouble. It still made him wish they had talked more about emergencies, and what to do then. The only thing they had talked about were in case of bugs or glitches, because they could be signs of an infection, and with the Narrator disconnected from the main-frame, he wasn't there to catch it before the game did. Though even if they had, this wasn't something Stanley ever could have expected, and he didn't think the Narrator had either.
Trying to turn the Narrator back on, Stanley came upon an error. An error that wanted to be fixed from the outside -outside the simulation. What was he supposed to do now? Even if he could disconnect from the simulation himself, there was no saying in what state his body was in, or where in the world he even was. He could be on the other side of the world for all he knew!
It was almost enough to make him give up. But only almost. Because Stanley still had an idea: the many papers scattered around this place. Of course, Stanley had no idea if there wouldn't be someone on the outside able to fix this, but in case there wasn't, he still had a chance. He may not understand all the scientific mumbo-jumbo, but he was going to try his hardest regardless.
Leaving the room again, Stanley briefly stopped by the Narrator. He grabbed their hands and gave them a squeeze, grounding himself. He'd get them back, one way or another, he was sure. With the silent promise made, Stanley left the room, and began scouring the halls and rooms of any and all documents and folders he could find that looked even vaguely helpful. No matter if he'd spend hours trying to read something, he'd do it, just in case it told him what to do.
To say the documents didn't make his head hurt would be a lie, of course. Stanley barely understood most of the things he was reading, but anything he deemed more helpful than not he sorted out to come back to again. And like that he went through everything he had found, hoping to find something regarding whatever had happened.
Stanley found some things related to the end of the simulation as well as things regarding resetting the simulation. He went over these papers again more slowly and carefully, trying to understand them. If he did understand them right, what had happened was a "hard reset", because the Narrator's in-simulation avatar had broken down and died. Normally that shouldn't be able to happen, of course, because while the Narrator was connected to the main-frame, he couldn't break and die. But the paper mentioned that if he was disconnected for whatever reasons, and he were to break or was powered off for about 12 hours, the entire simulation would reset to connect the Narrator back to the main-frame and fix his avatar as well as charge him.
But Stanley had been supposed to disconnect in such an event. It said so in the document; any connected human consciousness would be forcefully disconnected from the NaRRATOR in case of a hard reset. And yet Stanley was still here. It confused him, but he was... he was glad he was still here. No matter what his life was like outside of the simulation, he had grown fond of the Narrator, and if he were gone after the Narrator had broken... he'd feel horrible.
Sadly, that still didn't help him with the error he had encountered. He needed to find a way to fix that! But so far, these documents were rather useless. He sighed, but didn't give up, continuing to look through the documents to hopefully find something that spoke about errors. There had to be something, right? Some list or table that had errors listed?
Stanley had no idea how long he was there, getting a headache as he kept reading and looking through everything. But eventually, he found something related to errors. Most of them were about internal errors that the Narrator could encounter during a simulation, but Stanley hoped he'd find something for errors related to the hard resets. Or errors related to the Narrator themself even.
He stumbled upon something when he looked at the Narrator's blueprints, surprisingly enough. There was a manual reset he could possibly do, and if he understood it right, it would have no effect on the android's memories. It should just be a reset, but not erasing anything. So unless the Narrator's brain had been damaged during the last ending, it should be fine. Stanley wasn't entirely certain if it would fix the error he had encountered, but it should hopefully do the trick. He couldn't do it to the real Narrator after all, only the one in the simulation.
If that didn't work... Stanley had no other choice but to wait. He couldn't disconnect himself, and he wouldn't know what else to do. Was the Narrator powered off and the simulation would reset again? Or was the Narrator powered, but they weren't able to turn on, and he'd be stuck here alone?
He had to be optimistic. It would work. The Narrator would turn on again.
Stanley brought the blueprint with him back to the Narrator, finding him unchanged. He hadn't really expected anything to change, though he sure had hoped. No matter. Looking over the blueprints again, Stanley stepped up to the android. He'd have to remove the plate of their chest, and be extremely careful around their core. He didn't want to accidentally break something more, or cause another hard reset. Removing the plate shouldn't be too hard thankfully, but Stanley was scared he'd break something regardless. He put down the blueprint, and gently moved the Narrator's arms away, so he could reach their chest.
"I wish you were awake.", Stanley mumbled, feeling around the edges of the plate to find how to release it. It felt weird to be touching the android like this, especially while they were powered down. It made him remember how he used to not care about the Narrator's feelings, how he had treated them like their consent meant nothing. He still couldn't believe how he had gotten the Narrator to like him in any form, truly.
His fingers managed to release the plate from the Narrator's chest, and he could put it carefully to the ground. He was faced with the Narrator's core, open and vulnerable, and a lot of circuitry and cables. Stanley could see the golden tubes of the Narrator's "blood" as well, just like his fans, everything standing still. It was bizarre. Stanley looked at the blueprint again, feeling uneasy about having to do right about anything.
There were small differences between the blueprint and the Narrator, likely due to the changes they had made, but if Stanley was right, he'd have to reach into the Narrator's core to find the needed buttons. He really didn't want to.
Stanley braced himself with one hand on the Narrator's thigh, so he could lean down and see better. He tried to look into the core, but he couldn't exactly see anything. He'd have to rely on feeling it he supposed, so he hoped he wouldn't break anything. If he was gentle, like with their ports, it should be fine, right? This was only the Narrator's literal heart after all. No big deal.
He slowly reached his hand inside, tucking his thumb in as the sides of his palm were already nudging against the insides of the Narrator's core. His fingers weren't overly long, but at least also not chubby, which he was thankful for, hoping it'd make finding the small buttons he needed to find easier. His fingers entirely vanished inside the android's chest, and bits of his palm, until his fingers hit the end of the android's core. If the blueprint was right, it was semi-close to their back, with extra protective measures to keep the core safe.
Stanley carefully moved his fingers to find where the blueprints said the buttons would be. It would be two, and he should be able to press them with one hand, as he would need to press them at the same time. His fingers grazed over one, so he laid a finger onto it and searched for the other with the others. Once he found it, he took a deep breath, and pushed them both.
He held them down as instructed, feeling his heart beating with his nerves.
The core whirred to life around Stanley's fingers, his eyes growing wide as the golden light lit up his hand. He could feel a gentle warmth starting to envelope his hand, and a gentle pressure around his fingers. A soft hum came from the core, like gentle vibrations around his hand. As he heard the fans starting to whir, Stanley finally pulled his hand back, slow and careful.
Stanley lifted his head, being inches from the Narrator's face now. Their eyes opened a little, the gentle golden glow coming from them. Stanley was paralyzed, he couldn't move away, as the android slowly came to again. Their face lifted, their noses almost brushing against each other. A heart-beat passed, and Stanley finally gained control over his body again, pulling back with a heavy blush colouring his cheeks.
"Stanley?...", the Narrator's voice was quiet, a little uncertain, perhaps even a bit scared. Stanley had turned away, to hide his blush, but the scared tone of the Narrator made him look back towards him.
"Yes, it's me. Are you okay?", Stanley replied, stepping back up closer to the Narrator. They looked disoriented, their expression confused and lost. They had never looked so human to Stanley, and it.. it worried him, because that wasn't normal.
"I'm... There's a lot... wrong. But I'm... okay.", the Narrator replied slowly.Their mind was struggling to catch up with reality -corrupted memories of the eons they had spent alone, but also many warnings and errors were begging for their attention from the simulation itself. But the fact that Stanley was in front of them was much more pressing. Because he shouldn't be in front of them.
"How are you here?... The simulation experienced a full reset, you should've been... disconnected.", the Narrator was extremely confused, and also worried -because Stanley being here could mean a lot of things, bad things.
"I don't know. The reset wasn't pleasant though. And- I'm glad I wasn't. I had to reset you to turn on again.", Stanley motioned to their chest, which made the Narrator look down at themself. They were quiet for a moment, before fidgeting a bit, looking back up to Stanley and nodding.
"I... thank you. If you could...?", they motioned to the still removed plate, making Stanley's blush flare up again. He nodded and picked it up, leaning back over the Narrator to gently press the plate back into place. Having it removed must be similar to being nude to the Narrator, which didn't help Stanley's blush. Though having had his hand basically inside of the Narrator's core felt as intimate as was possible between them.
"How are you? Do you feel alright?", the Narrator questioned then, once Stanley had pulled back again. They were immensely worried for Stanley, because there shouldn't be a way for his consciousness to stay connected with a hard reset. Unless something hadn't worked right? Had the simulation glitched, or was their real machine damaged? They felt fine enough, though they needed to check on these errors...
"I feel okay. I have a bit of a headache?", Stanley shrugged a little, the Narrator's unease making him uneasy too. "Right after the reset I felt horrible. I felt nauseous, the world was spinning, I couldn't quite focus on anything, and I... I had a weird feeling. Like I had a close-call with something, just not with what.".
The Narrator listened quietly and attentively, nodding lightly. As far as they knew, forced disconnection from them had negative side-effects on the disconnected person, though wouldn't cause any damage to them. Stanley seemed to exhibit these side-effects, though he was still here. It was confusing them, and worrying as well.
"There's a lot of errors needing my attention... Will you be okay?", the Narrator couldn't do anything for Stanley right now. They needed to check on the simulation, and the game -if anything of that was still there- and they just couldn't do anything with or for Stanley right now. But the man smiled up at them, giving them a thumbs-up. The gesture made them smile a little, before they finally turned and lifted up to their computer.
Stanley watched them for a while, before he distracted himself with the papers covering the ground here. Curious about them, he began gathering some, reading them over. It was all about his story. Sitting down, Stanley started to read. Some of the papers were just the lines the Narrator said, and when they said them. Some of the papers were observations of the Narrator about Stanley. Some had doodles of the office or items in the office.
Sometimes, Stanley would find a personal opinion written on the pages. The Narrator's confusion why Stanley had made a certain choice, or commenting on a reaction. A lot of it was confusion, trying to figure out what they didn't understand. Sometimes though, Stanley would find little comments too though. Compliments.
"I like his smile. It reminds me of hers." Stanley read, making him curious about this "her". Maybe it was their creator?
"His hands are gentle. Is this the same?" He read, after notes of when Stanley had taught them to walk. He wondered what "this" could be "the same" of.
"I want to understand." he found the note small, maybe unrelated, making him tilt his head. He found such notes again and again, sometimes written on the empty backs of pages, sometimes squeezed between paragraphs, sometimes on the edges. And they were all along the same lines.
"I don't understand."
"Is this what she meant?"
"I want to understand."
"What is this?"
"Let me understand."
Stanley wondered what it was about. He knew the Narrator struggled with emotions, but this seemed like more. Something deeper, maybe. The Narrator had gone through many people and many stories, many simulations. They would know emotions by this point. They displayed them rather well with Stanley, he thought. Maybe there was a specific feeling they didn't understand? Emotions were complicated, and sometimes even naming them was impossible. Maybe it was something like that.
Looking up towards the Narrator, how they worked so focused, Stanley wondered if he could help them understand whatever they couldn't.