Love MegaBytes - a Lovebug AU Stanley x shadow!Narrator fanfic
Chapter 4
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Notes:
She/they pronouns for the Curator
she/her pronouns for Mariella
Content Warnings:
-Mentions of the Zending
-Mentions of canon character death
-Mentions of canon depictions of suicide
-Slight emotional manipulation
In my opinion, everything is light enough but you can skip the paragraph which begins with "Secondly..."
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From what he could gather from his limited experience and fabricated memories, Stanley found he always liked being held and holding someone. False pictures of him holding his wife’s hands after dining on their anniversary - when was it again?... Artificial flashes of holding a body close as they slept - the warmth of their skin, his head tucked on their chest, their calming breathing - who were them? The silly feeling of wanting to bite him to show how much he cared while they cuddled on the couch - where were they?
Stanley clenched its shoulders with trembling hands.
He knew these recollections had to be untrue, programmed into his mind since none of it were possible in the Parable.
Were his hands sinking in?
The only other human, Mariela, made real clear she didn’t like being touched. The Narrator sometimes would allow hang-out sessions for everyone - they were always fun - in those, she would only rarely lean against him, which was fine by him, this showed she liked his presence.
Or was the darkness crawling up to absorb them?
There were times Stanley would just hold the Bucket thing against his chest, their metallic body was no substitute for the warm skin of a human yet it was enough to comfort him for those moments of weakness - they always reassured him it was alright.
It didn’t matter right now. It didn’t matter if he was doomed. All that mattered was the shy touches it gave him as it let Stanley hold it.
Hands trailed up and down his spine, a head rested on his shoulder, even if the glasses made it uncomfortable. The man breathed in the scent which clung to its hair - black tea, books, and ink - this was how home would smell like…
This was how the Narrator would smell like– Shit.
Narrator.
Stanley needed to help the Narrator.
The one on his lap, as if sensing where Stanley’s train of thought was going, pushed brutally the man away from itself and stood up.
Pink shades and engulfing black shadows - oh gods, no, step way NO–
The vessel came to wake with a halt, mouth gasping for air, eyes shooting open, and heart hammering against his ribs.
It took a moment for Stanley to calm down and notice his situation, eyes adjusting to the rose-tinted semi-darkness. Firstly, he was still in the Broom Closet, which was a boon since he could plan.
Secondly - fuck - his body hurt everywhere, feeling like he had been crushed or like he had fallen off a high place over and over and that was feelings Stanley was intimately familiar with. He blamed the cramped space; blamed the pretzel position he slept in, worsening his wounds; blamed that fucking virus for starting all of this.
He didn’t blame the Narrator, it was not itself.
Slowly, he pushed himself to sit upright, every part of his model screaming in code of pain; he dealt with worse, stop complaining.
The third thing Stanley noticed, was the silence.
Had his eardrums really blown? The screeching couldn’t have been that bad… He took his hand to his left ear and snapped his finger as softly as he could yet loud enough for, hopefully, him to hear - Snap Snap. Instantly, relief flowed through his body and Stanley sighed with it, he hadn’t gone deaf, just hard of hearing, Stanley could work with that.
Even having just woken up, the avatar felt a great deal of exhaustion, but he had things to do, the Narrator needed him.
Game plan time.
From what he knew, the Parable wouldn’t function as well without the Narrator, so Stanley would have to really on auto triggers to get where he wanted. Programmers Gods, let them be enough.
Also, he should try to check on everyone to see if they were affected by the malware and maybe get some allies. First, though, he had to lose this shadow (pun intended). Next reset, perhaps Stanley could somehow outrun it, since now he knew what to expect, he could grab Bucket in the way too.
The Curator should be the one he visits first. The Museum also was a safe zone, and its keeper would be a good ally to have since she seemed to be smart. They together would make a better plan.
Step one planned, Stanley was determined now.
The rest of the steps? A plan B? Hm…
Well, Stanley was never really the smart one from the pair.
Now, all he needed was to cause a reset.
The nearest restart was the Madness Ending, but this one would need the Narrator for that one. And being trapped in a never-ending loop with his insane stalker shadow, well, a smaller never-ending loop. This would be the same as just opening the door now and embracing the monster, where the avatar was sure he would meet a slow and torturous end, maybe not even an end, just continuous horrors, and fake love. Even if the entity forgets later, Stanley would never. Smashing his head with the wrench sounded like a better idea… Unless… he could use… it couldn’t hurt trying…
Narrator? Stanley thought louder than before and pressed his ear against the door.
“S-Sta̵n̵҈ley?” a small broken voice was what answered back, like the other had been sobbing the whole time “Stanley! S̶t̷a̶҈-̶̸Stanley dear! I-I can’t see you. Please, c̵-come out, m̷y̷ d҈arlin҈g҉–”
“Come out, d҈e̸a̵r̶… Come out, l̵-̵l̸et me L̵̖͍͙͈͍͓̓͐̈́͑̆́͆̓͗̈́̓Ö̵̫̥̳̪̳͈̜̮̝̮̬̪͋̾̿͗̇͐V̴̠̪͚̘̪̦̫̳̦̠͕̥́͆̓͛͆̀͗͒͑͌̊E̵͎̮͖̜͐͑̉̓̈́͂̇̀̚ you.”
Sighing, Stanley shallowed dry and closed his eyes. How much he would give to hear that sentence from his Narrator?...
A lot. He would give everything.
“Please? Please d̴e҉a̵r̸, d̸-don't leave me to wait again...”
Oh, no. Don’t listen to it, Stanley. He was doing this for it. No skipping here. Never again.
I need to help you.
“Help? Oh, my d̷a̴҈r̴̸l̷̵i̴̵n̴̷g̶̵~, I d̷̢͉̣҇͆̂o҉̖̝̊̕͢n҈̢̰͐̽͑͠ͅ'̶̧̛͎̗̭͋͐t̵̡͔̰̃̇͂̕ͅdon’td҉̡͠o̶҇͜n҉̡҇'̸̛͜t҉҇͜ need help, I just need Y̵̨͖̝̲͈͔͆̾͂̍͌͒͞O̴͍̗͍̗͑̇̄͊̇̍̌̕͜Ų̴̛̘̯̌͆~”
So, with his best charmed inner voice, he thought Let’s restart then! I want to see that surprise~
“Oh… yes. Yes! Of course!” the Narrator exclaimed like it hadn’t thought of this before, the change was obvious… There was hope in that voice and that Crushed Stanely’s core “Now, just a second, dear. Reseting of cour–”
[ExecuteCommand(Reset);]
THE END IS NEVER THE END IS NEVER THE END IS NEVER
