𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚕𝚎𝚢 𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚋𝚕𝚎 [𝙽𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚘𝚛 𝚡 𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚕𝚎𝚢]

6

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THE END IS NEVER THE END IS NEVER THE END

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Stanley, once more in his office, heard The Narrator's familiar voice and well-rehearsed lines. There was a twinge of more excitement in its tone, clearly excited to have Stanley see all the work it'd done for him.

And Stanley was excited to see all the work too.

He stood up, seeing the drab balloons decorating the desks, and that wonderful wonderful bucket perching on a greek type pillar. He could easily forget all the pain he constantly felt with The Bucket in his arms.

The two of them (with the bucket) went along the usual path, The Narrator making comments about The Bucket's effect on Stanley. Stanley knew deep in his heart that The Bucket didn't really do anything, but perhaps there was a placebo effect over him. His bones felt lighter, his pain wasn't so overbearing.

And so the story went, repeating all of the many endings and experiences. The two beings within the parable became evermore comfortable in one another's presence. They knew one another better than they knew themselves. They'd spent an unfathomable. The Narrator had every aspect of its script memorized, and Stanley had learned it by heart. They collected figurines together, they argued over the bucket together, and they spent every waking and resting moment together.

The Player returned occasionally; though Stanely had eventually grown numb to the time he spent trapped in his own brain, so long as he could focus on The Narrator's voice, and once they'd reached the epilogue, The Player stopped appearing once more. But The Narrator remained its cheerful self, instead of reverting to the depressive state that'd emerged the first time.

But The Narrator grew tired of its own game eventually. It hadn't a clue how to tell Stanley, nor did it have a clue how to get out of the game it had skillfully designed.

It didn't end up having to tell Stanley. It was clear in the tone of its voice; It wasn't happy anymore.

Stanley sat at his desk, typing out a simple question.

[Are you okay?]

"Oh, don't worry about it, Stanley. There's not exactly anything either of us could do about it." It gave a disappointed chuckle.

[Do about what?]

"Nothing, really... I can't really even put it into words."

[Try.]

"I'm bored. Not of you, Stanley, it could never be of you, it's just... Despite this being my own story, my own game, which I could do more than anything with, I'm bored of it."

Now that was an issue Stanley couldn't fix. He thought of all the things they'd done together, trying to come up with some kind of solution. Something they hadn't done in a while, perhaps?

With a sigh, The Narrator continued talking about its problem "I think I want to get out of the parable, Stanley. With you. This is embarrassing, Stanley, but I haven't ever seen the real world. I'm not entirely sure where I came from. I just appeared here, script in my hand, and began to tell your story."

It wanted to leave? That... may be doable, with some finagling. Stanley thought back to when The Player was here, all those resets ago. It was before Stanley had started to feel the pain and aching; before the skip button ending.

[I have an idea] Stanley typed out for The Narrator.

"I mean- You do?" It said, stopping its previous thoughts there and then.

[Escape Pod Ending.] Stanley typed out, hoping it would understand.

"The what? Stanley, I know all the endings of this place. There's no such thing as an 'Escape Pod Ending'"

[The Player did it. Multiple times. With The Bucket, even.]

"What happened in that ending? You're clearly still here."

[Just reset. Maybe it's different if you're there]

"Well, lead the way, my friend!"

Stanley did. He followed the route up to the boss's office, through the mustard walls, and up the concrete stairs. The mahogany and wood walls of the large office was intimidating, especially with the immense height of the ceilings. There was definitely an extreme wage discrepancy between the CEO and Stanley, even if Stanley couldn't remember how much he'd been paid before this whole parable situation.

Which had been the point Stanley realized his stupidity. He hated walking around more than he had to. You'd think after all this time and all these resets he'd have gotten rid of this chronic pain, but here he was.

Having no way to get back to the story himself, Stanley walked back to his office. He took an extra close look around the rooms on the way to the escape pod, hoping to see any indication that this plan would work at all.

He couldn't find any at all, nothing sitting just out of sight in the corners of the halls on the way to the pod that reminded Stanley of those old pneumatic tube systems. He sighed, stepping into the red and grey container, awaiting the reset.

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THE END IS NEVER THE END IS NEVER THE END

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"Stanley, what happened? We were heading to the boss's office and you just disappeared! I can't follow you if you do that!"

[It's the only way to get to the ending. I just forgot that I leave you behind to get there.]

"Well, how are we supposed to do this if I can't follow you?"

[Do you have a physical form?]

"Erm, I'm not quite sure. I can... I can try to go down there, but it may take a few resets. Can you find something to do while I work on this?" The Narrator told him. Stanley nodded, heading towards the pretty room with the lights.

The Narrator talked through its process as it tried to get down into the parable with Stanley; standard procedure when it went off to go do anything. It was a sign to Stanley that it was still there; that it wasn't going to leave. This had happened so frequently for so long that Stanley now had a basic understanding of how coding works.