The Narrator
Legacy Name: Louder

This is the story of a man named Stanley.

Stanley worked for a company in a big building where he was Employee Number 427. Orders came to him through a monitor on his desk telling him what buttons to push on his keyboard, how long to push them, and in what order. And although others might have considered it soul-rending, Stanley relished every moment that the orders came in, as though he had been made exactly for this job.

And Stanley was happy.

And then one day, something very peculiar happened. Something that would forever change Stanley. Something he would never quite forget.

He had been at his desk for nearly an hour when he realized that not one single order had arrived on the monitor for him to follow. Something was very clearly wrong. Stanley got up from his desk and stepped out of his office.

All of his co-workers were gone. What could it mean? Stanley decided to go to the meeting room; perhaps he had simply missed a memo.

When Stanley came to a set of two open doors, he entered the door on his left.

Enter the door on the left. | Enter the door on the right.

Yet there was not a single person in the meeting room either, only a rather ungainly piece of machinery standing against one wall.

Feeling a wave of disbelief, Stanley decided to go up to his boss's office, hoping he might find an answer there. He paid no attention whatsoever to the machine. Why would he? It had nothing to do with the story. Instead, Stanley continued through the next door.

Continue through the next door. | Examine the machine.

Stepping into his boss's office, Stanley was once again stunned to discover not an indication of any human life. Shocked, unraveled, Stanley wondered in disbelief who orchestrated this. What dark secret was being held from him? What he could not have known was that the keypad behind the boss's desk guarded the terrible truth. Incredibly, by simply pushing random buttons on the keypad, Stanley happened to input the correct code by sheer luck. He stepped into a newly opened secret passageway.

Descending deeper into the building, Stanley realized he felt a bit peculiar. It was a stirring of emotion in his chest as though he felt more free to think for himself, to question the nature of his job. Why did he feel this now, when for years it had never occurred to him? This question would not go unanswered for long.

Stanley walked straight ahead through the large door that read "Mind Control Facility." The lights rose on an enormous room packed with television screens. Each bore the number of an employee in the building - Stanley's co-workers. The lives of so many individuals reduced to images on a screen, and Stanley one of them, eternally monitored in this place where freedom meant nothing. Stanley decided that this machinery would never again exert its terrible power over another human life. And when at last he found the source of the room's power, he dismantled the controls once and for all.

And yet, even as an immense door slowly opened upon the world beyond the office, Stanley reflected on how many puzzles still lay unsolved. Where had his co-workers gone? How had he been freed from the machine's grasp? What other mysteries did this strange building hold?

But as sunlight streamed into the chamber, he realized none of this mattered to him, for it was not knowledge or even power that he had been seeking, but happiness. As Stanley stepped through the open door, he felt the cool breeze upon his skin, the feeling of liberation, the immense possibility of the new path before him. This was exactly the way, right now, that things were meant to happen.

And Stanley was happy.

Begin the game again.

the end is never the end

This was not the correct way to the meeting room, and Stanley knew it perfectly well.

Perhaps he wanted to stop by the employee lounge first, just to admire it. Or perhaps Stanley simply got confused and genuinely believed he was walking through the left door even as he strolled boldly through the right door. This is quite possible considering how easily Stanley became confused. In fact, Stanley was so bad at following directions, it's incredible he wasn't fired years ago.

Fortunately, Stanley could still reach the meeting room by detouring through the maintenance section of the office. He took the first open door on the left, walked straight through to the opposite door, and got back on track.

Go to the meeting room.

Awe-Inspiring Storyteller (wip)

> Profile and story by Balloon, based on The Stanley Parable.
> Pet image edits by Balloon.
> Background image screenshot and The Stanley Parable Adventure Line™ footer image from The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe.
> Settings adjusted by the Settings Character.