Theocorp - A Stanley Parable AU

Chapter 6, In Which The Big Day Arrives

(THREE MONTHS LATER...)

Theo sat at his desk, eager to get back to work. And then he remembered that he had absolutely no work to do; he had finished the story two days prior. He leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath, stretching his arms out behind him. As he did, the strange tingling sensation that always happened to him randomly, well, happened, causing him to quickly shake his arms and lower them. 

The sensation had started happening to him the day after he fell down and hit his head. Theo thought that he had just hit a nerve or something, and went to get it checked out by a doctor, who said it was fine. Although, the doctor did inspect the cleanliness and quality of his corporate ear piercing, and prescribed him some saline solution that he had to use everyday to keep it from getting infected. 

Speaking of his ear clip, he hadn't told anyone he'd broken it. The damage was minimal: it still worked, it just didn't look as good. (Theo never thought they looked good in the first place, unlike lovebug, who thought they looked like something out of a comic book.) Theo took a moment to think about lovebug and his rabid obsession with superheroes. And then the door slammed open.

"Speak of the-- Think of the devil! What is it, Lovebug?" Theo asked, startled by Lovebug's loud and instantaneous entrance. The sensation returned, causing Theo to clench his fists and ignore it.

"DID YOU HEAR THE NEWS???" Lovebug yelled, as he ran over to Theo, high energy as ever, and shook him by his shoulders as if waking him up. "The CEO just told all of us that the project is ready! Meaning we'll finally know what we actually do here!" 

The project. something the CEO had been talking about for as long as Theo had known him. It had always intrigued him, as to why the CEO had kept it a secret, but now he was about to find out. He thought about it a moment, wondering what The Project could be. That is, until Lovebug leaned back and fell dramatically into his lap.

"Looking really nice today, Office Drone... Did you get a haircut? Ooh! New tie!" he remarked, his coy British accent shining through. Theo sighed annoyedly, stomping the heel of one of his leather loafers onto Lovebug's toe. This had become a common occurrence, as it was something you had to be used to if you knew Lovebug. 

"AAH! AAAAAHH! OW! thanks for that," he winced, standing up, hopping around the room clutching his foot, "but you could have just shaken me awake..."

"More satisfying." Theo explained, smiling sardonically. "Anyways, we have somewhere to be, don't we?" he stood up, grabbing his new laptop off of where it sat at the side of his desk, and stuffed it into his bag, along with a few papers. The two of them headed down to the lobby. Waiting for them was the ever-so-famous CEO's secretary, checking the time. 

"Lovebug, you said getting him would take you less than a minute! You were gone for FIFTEEN!", she complained, looking at him, slightly betrayed.

"I'm sorry, curator! I got distracted. I had to check my email."

"...And?"

"...And get coffee..."

"Anything else?"

"...I talked to a few people..."

"Ugh, Lovebug...", she said, facepalming.

"ADHD! I'm sorry! Forget it, he's here now. Let's go."

The three of them walked out into the plaza, with the rest of the company. It was really crowded, and a small stage had been set up. Theo shook his head, thinking about the CEO's crazy ego. the three of them sat on a nearby park bench, and waited. Suddenly, Curator's eyes widened. 

"Oh, nononono! I'm supposed to be up there! I- I have to go." She sprinted up to the stage and ran behind it, leaving Lovebug and Theo on their own. 

"She forgot to put her hair up..." Lovebug remarked, trailing off. He was holding the pencil she usually stuck in her bun. That's when Theo realized he was right, and remembered that Curator's grey-tinged hair had been flowing down past her shoulders, which she never usually left loose because she said it was "impractical." He laughed to himself, thinking about how she was going to yell at them later for not reminding her. 

He was, of course, cut short, because at that very moment, the famed CEO walked out onto the stage, tailcoat and everything. 

"Wow, he is tall...", Lovebug noted.

"Narrators and Gentletheos," announced Mr. Narrator, loudly. Theo groaned his own sense of humor. "We've done it. After just one year, we have done it! Done what? You may be asking. Honestly, Mr. Narrator, it seems like nothing has changed. Nothing at all. Well, my friends, we can finally start working!"

"Start... working?", Theo muttered to Lovebug. Lovebug just shrugged. "But... but we have been working..."

"But first, I must explain what we do here. You see, at Theocorp, we don't make physical things for individual people. We are a research facility of sorts. We sell information on how the human mind works to various corporations all across the multiverse! Oh, don't worry, you're not the test subjects. A being of slightly lower intelligence is taking that job." Theo looked over at lovebug. Could it be-? 

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Nononono, I'm pretty sure he meant someone who's not a Theo," lovebug whisper-shouted, slightly offended.

The CEO looked down at his hands, looked up again, and smiled nervously. Theo looked at him curiously.

"And that's all we can disclose at the moment, but for now, remember, YOU MATTER!" he said, pointing dramatically up at the glass dome above, coattails flying. And then, in a flash, he ran offstage. Theo realized that this was similar to what happened in the CEO's office... running away like he was late for something.

"Oh, wow," said Lovebug. "That was very helpful. I now know everything there is to know about the company." Theo could tell based on the way he was sitting fancily that he was trying to keep his composure. 

"What the hell..." he muttered under his breath. He was feeling extreme deja vu. More than that, he felt slightly betrayed. He thought that he would get to hear why everything was the way that it was, especially because he had been told he was an asset of extreme importance to the project.