not writing the fanfics fair & understandable but. might you share the plot bunnies perchance ??
i love that people like my ideas. it's honestly the most flattering thing.
this one is going to be.... confusing. it's told from a stanley pov, but here's the thing:
it's not the Stanley that I've been writing.
this Stanley is a Stanley who speaks, and his narrator is MUCH more antagonistic. this is a stanley who does the Zending to hurt the narrator, this is a narrator who relishes putting Stanley in his place. these are NOT people who see eye to eye. These two will never get along. The narrator wields his power aggressively, is cowardly, is mean, and refuses to ever try to find equal footing.
and THIS Stanley wants his freedom, and found the escape pod, but knows he will never ever get it, because it requires him and the narrator to work together.
so the hostility continues.
and then, during a moment of tempers flaring and another incoming ugly death, a hand grabs Stanley's and pulls him along, and a very familiar voice tells him to "run! run!"
There's a new person in this parable, and he certainly sounds like the narrator, and has a lot of the same quirks, but this fellow seems very determined on getting Stanley out, and free. Like he cares.
and this narrator knows Stanley doesn't trust him, but he gets him to the escape pod, and he tells him a story about a Protagonist and a Narrator who got on so well that they decided to escape together. but when they got into the Pod, the lights went out, and when they blinked back on, the Narrator was alone, in a Parable like the one he was from, but there was a different Stanley and a different Narrator and a different dynamic.
There's so many parables out there where Stanley's made powerless, again, and again, and again. And any time there's a chance at growth, the hint of it, the Narrator there always makes the selfish choice to turn the wheel back. make the both of them forget. the end is never the end.
so this narrator, this one who was pulled into a different parable, gets that Other Stanley out. the pod only needs a Narrator, it doesnt need the one from THAT parable.
and then it happens again.
and again.
this narrator, who was the idiot that cared so much for his protagonist that he chose to leave the parable with him, thinks that perhaps he broke the game. perhaps the parable never meant for him to change this much.
but he will be damned if he's going to change for the worse.
if this is his life now--being thrown into parable after parable, watching iterations of himself hurting Stanley, fighting Stanley, mocking Stanley forever, then he's going to do something about it. he's going to get every single Stanley out if he has to.
He's never going to see his best friend again. He's certain of that. he doesn't even know if the escape pod is actually freeing any of them.
but he wont stop. it's too important.
when Stanley gets into the escape pod, the fellow tucks in next to him, and says goodbye. And then Stanley is in the real world. Alone.
and he finds that he is furious for the fellow's sake. because if the guy was telling the truth (and he's fairly certain he was) then that means there are a LOT of versions of Stanley out there that owe their freedom to this one person, and dammit. Stanley's going to find them. And he's going to try to find the narrator's original Stanley if he can.
he puts out a call on the internet. Hes contacted by someone who asks how he knows this person. "I met him at my place of work. He got me out of a really bad spot. He said he'd done the same to others." "funny. he said the same to me."
and there's suddenly an entire discord chat full of Stanleys, who go by nicknames and all look different and some sign in ASL and some in BSL and some talk and some dont talk or sign at all, but they all know this narrator who got them out.
the ones in the same country (not sure if Britain or US. but probably most of them located in Britain) meet up once a month or so. They work together. One's an artist who makes pictures of the narrator to get more attention out. The main one we follow is tech savvy and code-knowledgeable.
and then 4 months and 27 days after the first call went out, a new text shows up on Stanley's phone.
"hey, I saw your online call. That's my best friend. Do you know where he is?"
when the 'original' Stanley makes it to group, he goes by Stan, and he brings his bucket with him. He's tall, and quiet, and the kindest man Stanley has ever met. Sometimes some of the fellas wonder why this Stan was so lucky to have such a good Narrator, but they've got it backwards. the Narrator is only so good because his Stanley was so good.
does that mean it was their faults their narrators were so bad?
Stan is so, so adamant that no, no, it takes work on both sides. both people have to want it. it was not your fault you were hurt. Im so glad he got you out. Im so proud of him. I miss him so much.
Stan is... he's sad. Hes happy to know his best friend is alive, but it hurts, you know.
A couple of the first Stanleys to escape after him have a message from the Narrator, one he gave them in the hopes it would get to Stan. (Stanley never got this message. When he asked the narrator if he had anything he wanted to tell his friend, he just smiled sadly and said "no. no, if he hasn't gotten the message by now, then he never will.")
the Stanley who tells him the message signs it in BSL, rendered mute a long time ago. He said he was sorry. He didn't mean to get separated from you. He makes a little uncertain face. He also said something else he said you would understand. He said that he would have said yes. Do you know what that means?
Stan's eyes widen, and then he starts to cry. He chokes out (verbal, but it's hard on him, and his voice was hoarse), "I was gonna propose. Once we got out. I was gonna find a ring, and--"
Which is the moment they all realize these two weren't just best friends--they were in love. They were happy.
A couple of the fellas are quick to give physical comfort. Stanley isn't one of those fellas, but he IS a very determined person. Once he has an idea in his head, he sees it through.
"We're gonna get him out."
he has no plan, and a couple of the boys berate him for just saying that, they can't get Stan's hopes up, they dont have anything to go off of, but Stan wipes his face and that classic stubbornness that burns through every single one of them shines bright in his eyes.
[ You know how long I've been free? The day I messaged you, it had been 4 years and 27 days. And eight hours. If that's not a sign, I don't know what is. Tell me what I can do. ]
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