AU where The Narrator absolutely despises his creations. He's gone through trial and error for a millennia, trying his best to make something Picture Perfect but never being able to. The Parable was his latest creation, and for a while, he thought it was decent. But sowly, "decent" became "not good enough." He hated the story, which he thought to be cliché and incomplete. Even the Zen room he started to dislike because to him, it just didn't fit in. But he'd already made Stanley, and for centuries, he'd been wanting to have someone else judge his work, get an opinion from an outside perspective. He couldn't bring himself to erase the Parable, and by connection, Stanley. So he lets him wander after the first few perfect runs.
And Stanley loves it all. At first, once he gained self-awareness and consciousness, he thought he was programmed to love it, then after that, thought he loved it purely because he'd grown used to it. But after learning of Narrator's self-consciousness towards The Parable, he realizes he wasn't meant to like it. He just does. He loves it all, even though some endings are less than tasteful.
He even adored the Zen room. He hated how he had to get out of it, and he would opt to stay there forever if he could, but he knows how much effort Narrator put into the Parable and wants to appreciate it all for him. He wants to, someday, alleviate his insecurity towards it.
(Aka: I wanted an excuse to have Stanley discover the Zen room for the first time, and while Narrator feels insecure about its existence, Stanley adores it. He tells Narrator it's beautiful, and Nar feels warm in the chest about his compliment/praise)
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