Archive of Our Own ^beta

'How long has it been since you pressed that button?’ This was the second time Stanley had pressed the button, The Narrator had gone on a rant about who knows what and Stanley had pressed the button again. The Timekeeper was being impatient, and Stanley tried “talking”, the both of them could communicate through Stanley’s thoughts, to The Timekeeper to distract them from however long The Narrator would talk.

‘It’s only been about five minutes! Don’t you have a clock or something where you are?’  Stanley would have responded with an eye roll, but he couldn’t move after he pressed the button. He could still think but that was it; he was paralyzed. 

‘The only clock that I had was an analog clock that wouldn’t stop ticking and I might have thrown it against a wall.’  The timekeeper replied without their usual snarky response, this was more timid.  ‘And this is so weird, I can barely hear any of your thoughts! Oh jeez, do you think The Narrator can hear your thoughts? If I can barely hear them I doubt that he can… Whatever, it’s probably fine.’  Now, The Timekeeper was more nervous… Why would they be nervous if The Narrator couldn’t hear Stanley and their thoughts? 

Stanley tried changing the subject,  ‘I never realized how long Narrator’s rants were. Usually, they seem pretty quick when I listen to what he’s saying.’ 

Just as Stanley finished his sentence, he was freed from the button. The Narrator spoke to Stanley and The Timekeeper kept quiet. But they couldn’t help but notice that whenever Stanley tried to answer his Narrator, The Narrator couldn’t hear what Stanley was thinking. Something was up, and The Timekeeper had to do something about it.

‘Stanley, Narrator can’t hear your thoughts. He doesn’t know you’ve been conscious .’  The Timekeeper spoke up when Stanley pressed the button again. Their tone was stern and serious, it was something that rarely occurred.  ‘I’m going to try to trap myself in here and take away the door so we can figure this out, okay?’ 

Stanley just nodded, whatever makes it so his Narrator knew he was listening. 

The button was pressed once more despite The Narrator’s pleading and the door disappeared. The Timekeeper could no longer hear Stanley’s thoughts. They could still hear The Narrator's thoughts but they couldn’t come clean about what happened. 

‘ Shit. Shit shit shit shit  fuck!’  They couldn’t get the door back no matter how hard they tried. It was gone, even from where The Timekeeper was at the beginning of every reset.  ‘If I had told The Narrator I was here before I got rid of the door maybe, just maybe he’d know what’s going on. Of course, I can’t say anything  now ! He tried deleting me!’ 

Eventually, after two and a half weeks, Stanley could move. The Timekeeper only knew because of The Narrator's excited rambling.

Years had gone by. Decades even. The Timekeeper couldn’t think of what might have happened to Stanley, let alone what would happen if The Narrator found out he was conscious now! They’d have to go through that  horrible  process of getting deleted again! No, they could wait it out. Stanley has his sign language! It’ll probably be fine. 

The Narrator had left to find something to help Stanley leave the room. The room that The Timekeeper had tried to trap themself in. The room no longer had a way out because The Timekeeper thought they could help. The room with that godforsaken, hellish button. The Narrator had come and gone many times but at one point, he never came back. The Timekeeper tried finding The Narrator but he was gone. Yet The Timekeeper could still hear The Narrator's thoughts,  ‘Where could he be, where could he be? How have I lost my protagonist? Could he have left? Is the button off the monitors somehow? I’ll bet it’s the same reason the bloody door vanished!’  That was all The Time Keeper bothered to listen to.

At some points, The Timekeeper could very, very slightly hear The Narrator calling out for the office worker. All The Timekeeper could think was that they should have told The Narrator they existed sooner. The Narrator, hell, even The Curator could help! They knew they weren’t the best at coding for this game. Sure, they were amazing at coding in the office but the parable was different than they were used to.

The Narrator had officially gone quiet; no thoughts, no speaking, no nothing. The Timekeeper assumed he was too far from them but they were too afraid to check. They didn’t want to disappear. They had to stay with Stanley, he was the only person to put up with them when they were in the office so they’d help him whenever they could. 

Finally, after 18.5 billion years, The Timekeeper heard Stanley’s thoughts. The room with the button had gone underwater, through the sea, broken, fixed, and stranded on some kind of beach and The Timekeeper couldn’t be happier when they heard Stanley’s thoughts.  ‘What happened back there?’

‘I’m not sure, the room wouldn’t let me in after the door was removed and I couldn’t ask The Narrator because I was afraid of getting deleted, or something worse happening? I don’t know. But the point is that you’re okay!’  All their words were jumbled together. Stanley could barely keep up. 

‘Do you think we’ll reset soon? And what happened to Narrator?’  Those were the only things on Stanley’s mind. The Narrator had just gone quiet at one point and Stanley wanted to know if the parable had any negative effects, yeah, that was it…

‘Stanley, your boyfriend’s fine. I’m not entirely sure why he stopped talking or thinking for that matter though. But I think I need to manually reset us this time. You’ll be in your office in   a moment!’  And with that, The Timekeeper was silent. Stanley wandered around a bit trying to ease his concern. 

Without warning, Stanley felt that falling-while-trying-to-sleep feeling that he knew all too well and opened his eyes to his office. The words he didn’t know he would ever miss in his ears saying what he knew all too well and opened his eyes to his office. The words he didn’t know he would ever miss in his ears saying what he’s heard thousands of times:

“This is the story of a man named Stanley…”