Beginnings, beginnings.. [1]
"This is a story about a man named Stanley."
"Stanley worked for a company in a big building where he was Employee 427."
"Employee 427's job was simple; he sat at his desk in room 427 and he pushed buttons on a keyboard."
"Orders came through a monitor on his desk, telling him what button to push, how long to push them, and in what order."
"This is what Employee 427 did for everyday of every month of every year, and althought others might have considered it soul rending, Stanley relished every moment that the orders came in, as though he had been made for this job."
"And Stanley was happy."
"..."
"And then one day, something very peculiar happened."
"Something that would forever changed Stanley; something he would never ever quite forget. He sat at his desk for nearly an hour when he realized that not a single order had arrived at the monitor for him to follow."
"No one had shown up to give him instructions, call a meeting, or even say 'hi'. Never in all his years at the company had this happened, this complete isolation."
"Something was very clearly wrong. Shocked, frozen solid, Stanley was unable to move for the longest time."
"But as he came to his wits and regained his senses, he got up from his desk and stepped out from the office. Unfortunately, the strange events continued pursuit."
"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 to his left."
"Yet, when Stanley arrived in the meeting room, there wasn't a single person there either."
"Feeling a wave of disbelief, Stanley decided to go to his boss's office, hoping he might find an answer there."
"Coming to a staircase, Stanley walked upstairs to his boss's office."
"Stepping inside his manager's office, Stanley was once again stunned to not discover any indication of human life."
"Shocked, unraveled, Stanley wondered in disbelief who orchestrated this, what dark secret was being held from him!"
"What he not had of known was that the keypad behind the boss's desk guarded the terrible truth that his boss had been keeping from him, and so the boss had assigned it an extra secret PIN number. 2-8-4-5."
"But, of course, Stanley couldn't had of possibly known this."
"Yet incredibly, by simply pushing numbers on the keypad, Stanley happened to input the correct code by sheer luck. Amazing. "
"He stepped into the newly opened passage that the keypad had triggered. Turning to his left inside the strange concrete room that he entered to, he found an elevator of which he then used."
"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 will not go unanswered for long."
"Stanley exited out of the elevator and walked straight ahead through the large door that read: "Mind Control Facility."
"The lights rose on an enormous room packed with television screens."
"What horrible secrets did this place hold, Stanley thought to himself. Did he have the strength to find out?"
"Now the monitors jumped to life, their true nature revealed."
"Each bore the number of an employee in the building, Stanley's co-workers."
"The lives of so many individuals reduced to mere images on a screen, and Stanley one of them, eternally monitored in this place where freedom meant nothing."
"This mind control facility.... It was so horrible to believe; it couldn't been true."
"Had Stanley been under someone's control all this time? Was this the only reason Stanley was happy with his boring job? That his emotions were manipulated to accept it blindly?"
"No! He refused to believe it. He couldn't accept it; his own life in someone else's control? Never!"
"It was unthinkable, wasn't it? Was it even possible?"
"Had he truly spent his entire life utterly blind to the world?"
"But as Stanley stepped into another elevator that took him up to a higher room. Here was the proof. The heart of the operation, controls labeled with emotions: 'happy' or 'sad' or 'content.'"
"Walking, eating, working... All of it monitored and controlled from this very place. "
"And as the cold reality of his past began to sink in, Stanley decided that this machinery would never again exert its terrible power over another human life. "
"For he will dismantle the controls once and for all."
"And when, at last, found the source of the room's power, he knew it was his duty, his obligation, to put an end to this horrible place and to everything it stood for. And so, he pushed the OFF button; cutting off the entire power of the factory."
...
....
Youtube Video
—Chapter one—
Middle of nowhere.
Stanley fell to the ground on his knees, a wide open smile plastered on his face. He raised both his hands triumphantly up into the air. The signs of fatigue and desperation, now gone from his face.
A bird that sat perched from on top a nearby tree, looked at the strange creature in surprise; wondering what it was so happy about.
Of course, it was not an intelligent creature itself. It didn't know what the being it was staring at went through. So it stared at the person for a few seconds, before it lost interest, opened its wings and flew away.
That is until, a loud screech interrupted its flight. With a sickening crunch, the helpless bird was met with a terrible, yet painless and swift death.
Stanley briefly turned his vision to the direction of the bird for a second, but quickly averted his eyes back to the blue sky.
Several beads of sweat dripped from his forehead. He was exhausted, tired, but he ignored this growing fatigue and enjoyed every second of this beautiful moment...
He was finally free. He had successfully escaped the hellish facility. His will was no longer tied to somebody else's grasp.
But, he couldn't help but feel so foolish. He had spent his entire life pressing buttons, following that wrenched computer's command. And worst of all; he had smiled all the way through it. Not a single time had he questioned it, mindlessly following its commands like a puppet.
But Stanley was a puppet! He was being controlled by that machine, that mind-controlling machine; All his emotions, his thoughts, his own will! And he was not been able to do anything about it.
That is.. Until today...
.....
And it was finally over... He was free..
.....
"Well.. then, how was it?" An all-too familiar voice spoke up. He could recognize that snobby british accent anywhere.
Stanley's joy instantly drained from his body, along with the wide open smile of his, that slowly faded into a emotionless expression on his face. Both of his hands completely fell down beside him.
Slowly, but surely. He got up to his knees, with his head that hung low. His body still devoid of any noticeable emotion... Stanley just stood there, motionless.
Several other crows sat among their brothers and sisters on a tree as they observed the strange being before them. They watched in curiosity as they wondered why the creature that was once a few seconds ago so happy-- suddenly turned into an stone-like statue.
Perhaps it was trying to amuse them? If it was, then what a bad job it was doing. So like the bird before them, they too lost interest and flew away, leaving the creature they thought was being 'silly' all alone.
A wind slowly blew across the field, gently shooking the trees and shrubbery around it. As it flew past Stanley, a cold chill shot up from his spine. He visibly shivered at that, but all the while ignored it.
"Well? Tell me what you think?" The voice spoked again: obviously waiting for an answer.
Stanley opened his mouth, trying to form some sort of appropriate reply, but then closed it again.
Why did he even bothered doing that? The 'narrator' which he dubbed, narrated anything, and everything for him.
It was really pointless either way, he did not have a voice to call his own.
Yet, he had still opened his mouth, expecting some sort of sound to come out of his throat. He couldn't just seem to get that worthless habit out of his head.
"O-o-f-f course!" The narrator lightly chuckled, as if trying to mock the voiceless human. "I'm sorry." He apologized. Though, Stanley could tell there was a little bit of sincerity in them.
Small, small sincerity.
"I forgot that you couldn't speak.. Well, could you at least give me a nod, or something to tell me if that story of mine was good?" The narrator's request was blatantly ignored as Stanley started to walk away.
"How rude! That was a lot of effort I had put in that. You ungrateful, degenerate prick!!" The narrator shouted at the Human who slowly grew smaller in the distance. He was quite pissed getting his most beautiful work promptly ignored like that; thought, the Narrator didn't really try to find the reason why Stanley had always done so-- Actually, he had never tried to find the reason; he was just angry at Stanley like that.
"At least I'm trying to liven up this god-forsaken place! All you could at least do was compliment on my story." Stanley grew smaller and smaller in the distance, before he completely disappeared from his sight, at least.. for now that is.
He didn't even try going after him; this had happened many times before, and so didn't bother trying to find him today.
The narrator spent a moment as he contemplated to himself on whether or not he should send him in another delusional world. Only this time replacing the giant carrots with screaming baby fetuses.
Oh wait... he had already done that one; Stanley was not very pleased that time.. He must be loosing his funny "touch" as he liked to call it.
He sighed again and grumbled angrily to himself for a few seconds, before he finally began working on cleaning up the "facility"
Piece by piece, the entire facility unmaterialized itself until it was all completely gone. The only evidence that something was ever there was due to the large field of missing grass.
——————————————>>>*****<<<————————————————
Stanley walked along the dirt path. The human lowered his head down, only to be met by a large amount of footprints, his footprints across the ground.
Where was he going? Surely he was going somewhere, if the identical footprints was any of any value: A path always leads to a 'place'
Then Stanley just remember where exactly he was going.
Nowhere.
He was going absolutely nowhere. Unlike actual pathways, the "paths" in this world went nowhere.
It still seemed strange to Stanley, even after up to this day; paths that lead to nowhere. How truly strange. What silly nonsense. Preposterous!
But for Stanley, this was the truth.
He had always gone the same routine
Every.
single.
day.
Once he gets forced to play in another one of the Narrator's annoying games or stories, he would wander around this accursed place mindlessly, before he would finally become tired and return back.
He didn't know why he had chosen the same dirt road every time. Was it probably because that going to other paths were really pointless since all these paths lead to nowhere?
Or was it because this particular one was special?
There was a very, very good reason why this was where he always had chosen to walk to.
This road.. This was where he had "woken" up. This road is the only thing reminding him that he did not belong to this place. This road was the only place that wasn't originally a part of this world.
The human knows that it belonged to his world.
....A world that he cannot remember... A world long forgotten. The taste of the memory that this road gave him was one of both sweet and a bitter one.
It reminded him of home-- but also a 'home' that he will never be able to get to.
A small, small frown crept up to the Human's face, but only just for a second.
Why couldn't he remember? He knew that was the sun, he knew those were trees. Yet, no matter how much he struggled to his mind to remember, he cannot attain a speck of any memory of how he gotten here.
He cannot remember his own name. His personality had long since faded away, leaving nothing but an empty husk.
Even after all this years-- or decades... Centuries? He had clung to what every bit of hope he had surprisingly left in him. Hoping someday, somehow he will be able to leave this prison.
Stanley gently observed his surroundings, finding endless forestry as far as his eye could physically see.
The trees and landscape may look alive, but Stanley knew better; he knew that this world was as dead as any other barren wasteland.
This world had forests that housed no animals, the only "animals" that roamed this world was those god damned birds that truly annoyed Stanley with their loud obnoxious "caws"
Skies without weather. Rivers without fish. And land without people, the only exception being Stanley and the Narrator.
Well, not like he needed to eat... He found, after spending many, many years in this place that he was Ageless. He didn't need sustenance. Stanley, but still yet, longs for a bite of any form of food.
But he did manage to catch one of those dang birds. His stomach could still recall the horrible taste that it gave. The flavor, permanently attached to his tongue, warning him never again dare to eat them.
Even though he didn't need to eat, he was not immortal. The human found out about it from personal painful experience...
Death.
Just the prospect of it truly terrified Stanley. He only attempted suicide, once. And had since long refrained from doing it.
He wanted to leave this world, even desperately tried suicide to achieve it. But, what happens then? Where would he end up? He just wanted to feel nothing, but at the same time, wanted to feel something.
The human sighed, now feeling the usual fatigue of his walk. Well, he at least definitely felt something.
He turned his head to a nearby fallen log, Stanley stretched his legs a few times, before he headed towards it. Time was still painfully and unfortunately young, so he had a few more hours before he had to head back.
The human sat down with an audible FLOMP.
'What now?' Stanley thought to himself. He fiddled with his thumbs, thinking of another way to pass time. There really wasn't an awful lot of things he could do. He could also surely still hear the Narrator angrily shouting in the far distant. Stanley definitely wasn't going back there soon either.
As he was about to get up, he hears a very low humming noise behind him. He looked behind himself alarmingly. What he saw at first, was some sort of small black dot blocking his vision. Then Stanley backed away terrified as the tiny dot grew larger and larger.
It kept growing in size until it became twice as big as he himself was. The strange humming noise stopping as Stanley fell to the ground, startled and terrified.
The man stayed on the ground, dreaded feeling manifesting inside of him, something bad was truly about to happen. He cautiously got up to his feet, still eyeing the perfectly oval surface in front of him with fear.
Any normal individual would've had of already ran away in complete utter fear. But, then again, Stanley wasn't really a normal individual. With a slow step forward, he took a closer look at it despite most senses in his brain telling him to turn tail and run.
With bravery reinforced with curiosity, he raised one finger and hesitatingly entered his entire right hand inside of it. Stanley let out a soundless gasp as his hand slid inside of it with no resistance whatsoever.
The human quickly retracted his hand in fear. No, nothing. His hand was still completely fine. The oval surface in front of him still devoid of any light and lacking any type of movement.
With complete determination to find an answer; Stanley shut his eyes and jumped inside it.
He opened his eyes, only to be surprised again to find himself in empty space. The human looked behind him, and saw the once featureless black surface replaced with the image of the same log he once sat on mere moments ago.
'What is happening?' This kept repeating in his mind. Stanley was no longer afraid-- Rather, now fully determined to find out what was going on.
Was this another one of the Narrator's pranks? He quickly took another peek outside, still hearing the Narrator faintly ranting in the distant.
No, couldn't be. He would've had of heard his snarky tone by now. And so, he pushed forward through the empty void. He found it strange how he could still see his hands and body yet, couldn't see anything else other than the light emanating from the portal behind him.
Stanley was not surprised to finally hear someone behind him.
"What in the hell is this?! Please get back here! You don't know what is out there." The Narrator pleaded, but of which Stanley chooses to ignore.
"Stanley, I'm saying it again, get back here! This is a very stupid idea." The Narrator's voice was now the one that grew smaller as Stanley walked further away from him.
"Stanley!!" His voice grew quieter and quieter until he could no longer barely hear him.
And just as his voice disappeared completely, Stanley gets blinded by a bright light; A light so bright it felt as if hot burning metal were suddenly placed on his eyes.
He had immediately regretted this decision.
Hundreds of memories zipped through his head as agonizing pain spread to every corner of his brain; reducing his mind to near rubble.
The first days of awakening inside the this world; the day he had found someone that called himself the Narrator.
That time where he had critically injured himself by falling from on top of a tree; *the time when he was narrowly saved by the Narrator.*
His first meal-- Which he happily vomited on the ground.
The days where he had spent running around in circles trying to find any sign of Human life. Anything at all.
The days where he had spent his time alone, gently crying to himself.
The days where he now only could feel nothing but cold, dead feeling inside of his soul.
The pain that attached itself to his brain quickly spread to his body. It was unbearable! Stanley had already stopped his voiceless screaming; for the pain was too great to even express.
Stanley was going to die. He had felt Death's embrace before, and he was feeling the exact same thing right now.
But wait, he felt something else.
Anger.
He had spent many years repeating the same thing over. All that time, just so he could unknowingly die a painful meaningless death? What was his purpose! Had the Universe only kept him there to sadistically torture him?! Then once it was done; it would have had him step inside a death trap? All the while laughing at the poor Human that went through many years of isolation.
Brilliant! Just brilliant!!
But Stanley was not going to have any of it.
Stanley gritted his teeth as he forced himself to bear with the excruciating pain. He raised his left hand and tried to grab something, anything!
And when he finally felt like he had gotten a hold of something, he balled his right hand into a fist...
And punched it as hard as he could.
——————————————>>>*****<<<————————————————
"M-maybe we shouldn't had of bothered stealing that?" Flim, the brother of Flam, ran alongside him.
"Nonsense! After that little stunt we had pulled, Windrunner will surely reward us handsomely."
"Get back here you imbeciles!" A Pony bandit shouted furiously at the two thieves. He, along with several other bandits, chased after them. Many of which carried sickly long daggers in their mouths.
"Look, these guys are just a buncha' grunts. Why don't we throw a few gems at them as a distraction? My legs are getting awfully sore from all this running." Flim calmly said, seemingly ignoring the danger the bandits posed, and all the while dodging a few poorly aimed arrows.
"Good thinking!" Flam levitated the bag he was carrying that carried the priceless loot. He then levitated a glowing red gem, several runes carved inside of it.
"No!" Flam exclaimed. "Not the Azerhan gem, that is too expensive to loose." His brother quickly placed the gem back in its place. He levitated another, this time, it was a plain looking green gem with a simple line carved into it.
"What is that? Why did we even have that? Throw that one; we won't need it." Flim complied and threw the gem at the bandits; hoping that would at least slow them down. And as planned, the gem completely shattered on impact on one of the bandits.
To their surprise thought, they all halted to a complete stop.
"YOU FOOLS! DO YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU HAD DONE?!" The two thieves both just laughed at them, unaware of what summoning they had done.
*CRACK*
At the sound of that, they too grind to a halt. A sudden gust of wind blew across the ponies, as several cracks of thunder boomed across the sky. Large dark clouds were starting to form, when mere moments ago the weather was as clear as day.
The bandits whimpered in fear, they immediately galloped away from the area, caring for the gems no more.
"Flim, what kind of gem was that?" Upon hearing this, Flim quickly grabbed a book inside the bag he was carrying, and turned a few pages searching for information on the gem he just threw.
"Ah yes, found it. Now let's see here.. The gem of storms. An elemental summoning gem capable of summoning a powerful tornado....umm..."
They both looked at each other with a dumb goofy grin.
"Eep?"
"Eep."
——————————————>>>*****<<<————————————————
"AGH!!"
Stanley opened his eyes. The pain, just as quickly as it appeared, evaporated from his body. His legs felt like it was about to collapse on itself any moment now. The massive headache that was pounding on his brain was not helping him at all. Stanley couldn't even remember the last time he had been in so much pain, aside from when he had first 'awoken'
"YHOU BHWOKE MWHA JHAW!" Stanley reeled himself around in shock at hearing another voice. "Y-Yhou.. Blhoodhy whangher!!"
Stanley's joy was short lived as the voice grew increasingly familiar.
There on the ground, was another Human clothed inside a dark red suit. He was currently trying to fix his broken jaw in place, all the while groaning in agony. Stanley looked at his right fist that was covered with splotches of blood, indicating that he indeed had, and in fact, punched the Narrator.
"Hwhat Irsh whro–" The Narrator was cut off as he was violently tackled to the ground. Stanley grabbed a hold of his neck and began choking him to death
The Narrator tried desperately to escape the enraged Human's grip; but found out his strength to be vastly superior to his.
He also found out that if he doesn't calm Stanley down soon; he is going to slowly suffocate to death, and die in a rather... Uncouth position.
Squeezing whatever amount of air he had left in his lunges, he manage to utter a few words.
"..please... S-Stanley... stop....." Fortunately for him, that had seem to do the trick.
The Narrator wheezed and writhed on the ground, and also at the same time gently rubbing his neck. Stanley had a smug look on his face, for finally being able to have a little pay back for all those times the Narrator had screwed with him.
"..w-what did you.... do that for?! Were you trying to kill me or what?!." The Narrator glared daggers at Stanley, thought he kept his distance, not wanting to provoke him any further.
"A-actually, don't answer that question."
Stanley on the other hand, took in his new surroundings. They were currently on what looked like miles, upon miles of rock and sand.
Stanley turned to the now very vulnerable Narrator with a stern look, demanding an explanation for this. The Narrator already tried to back away terrified, thinking he was about to get strangled again.
Fortunately for him, Stanley was cut off by a powerful gust of wind.
"I-I Think we should.. get out of here." Stanley stared at the distance; surely he could see a massive swirling formation of clouds, followed by several more violent gusts of wind.
Stanley looked to the West; seeing a much more clear weather in that direction, but the ground beneath it was cracked and drained of any moisture.
He then turned to the East; seeing slightly darker skies, but small patches of grass was noticeably visible.
South and North was not an option. North, because it was currently the direction of the massive tornado. And South, because there was a massive Mountain there.
West or East?
West - 8 votes.
East - 7 votes.
South East - 1 Vote. <--- Tis' a sad day.
".. I need... Water..." Six-hundred and sixty-six.
*Grumble*
".. I need... Food... and water.." Six-hundred and sixty-seven.
Stanley and the Narrator had been walking through the parched dessert for nearly an hour now. The Narrator-- who has been mumbling 'food and water' the entire time.
Even with the clear threat of Stanley choking him again; he found out that he wouldn't stop either way, so in the meanwhile he had just entertained himself by counting how many times he had said 'food and water'
"..I need water..."
*GRUMBLE*
"I need food... And water..." But why can't he just shut up?!
Despite the Narrators strong protests-- well, he was more of 'begging' to go the other way; though, he was still ended up being forced to go with him after one of the innocent looking plants had just decided sprout out of the ground, entangle him with its long tentacles, and tried to drag him below the ground as its next meal.
Thankfully, Stanley wasn't that far away yet, and was able to hear his cries for help. With the use of a nearby large branch, he was able to use it as a makeshift weapon against the carnivorous plant; and by some form of sheer luck and several swings, Stanley was able to hit a certain sensitive part of it, freeing the Narrator.
Unfortunately, in his act to save him; he ended up hitting the Narrator in the process. He fell to the ground, writhing and moaning in agony as he held his crotch with both hands.
Stanley made sure to safely store that memory inside his mind. It was the most amusing sight he had ever laid his eyes upon. And for the first time since he "awakened" Stanley, actually smiled.
That was short lived though; when they began their long and treacherous walk through the scorching desert.
"I would've taken my chances with the flesh eating plants rather than this burning heat!" The fact that the Narrator had been complaining for the past hour DID NOT help. He was very, very tempted to punch him in the face just to shut him up. Alas, he just did not bother loosing what precious energy he had left.
"You know? This is all your fault. If you hadn't had of went in that hole, portal-- Whatever! We WOULDN'T be here on... Where ever the fuck we are!!" That was true, if he hadn't went inside of there both of them wouldn't be here.
Stanley would resume his daily routine.
Stanley would still be in that god-forsaken place.
Stanley would truly walk there for all eternity; knowing that he could've escaped that numbing prison by walking inside the portal.
Stanley would finally go insane knowing that he could've prevented this by going inside the portal.
But because he did step inside the portal, he prevented this.
So Stanley will no longer resume his daily routine.
So Stanley would no longer be in that god-forsaken place.
So Stanley wouldn't truly walk there for all eternity; because he had manage to escape that numbing prison by walking inside the portal.
Stanley wouldn't go insane because he was no longer there.
Stanley has no regrets.
"...I need... Water..." AHHHHHHHHHHH!!
*GRUMBLE*
"...I need.. Food.. and water...-- Wait! WATER!!" Stanley was shoved away by the Narrator as he dashed past him.
He fortunately had manage to quickly catch himself before he fell on the ground. Stanley then turned his head to the direction the Narrator supposedly spotted water, sadly to his utter despair he still saw the same land for miles; yet, the Narrator was jumping around in joy like a madman as if there were suddenly a lake of spring water materializing in front of them.
"Oh! Precious, precious water!" The Narrator knelt down on his knees as he grabbed a good chunk of what look like dark brownish pieces of-- Oh shit.
"Thank the heav--" Stanley tackled him to the ground and forced his hands to release the chunk of petrified poop, before he was able eat it. Stanley slapped him a few times to try and snap him out of his deep twisted hallucination.
The Narrator violently pushed Stanley off of himself as he looked around in an almost animalistic behavior.
"No.. No.. NO! Where's the water?!?" He turned to Stanley with a massive scowl. Stanley, who was already exerting in exhaustion of tackling the Narrator twice, barely manage to defend himself as he in turn, was the one who got tackled to the ground. "You!"
"Y-you scared the water away. GAH! YOU FUCKING IDIOT!!" Stanley's face was assaulted by a barrage of punches from the frenzied Narrator. His nose at the same time, was assaulted by a powerful disgusting smell from the feces currently covering the Narrators hand.
With one last punch from the Narrator, he stood up and spoke.
"That is it, I'm done." His eyes rolled at the back of his head as he fell to the ground unconscious. Both of his hands already gathering flies.
Stanley gently touched his face and tried to asses the damage the Narrator has done. He winced in pain as he realized he had a broken nose-- Considering the amount of blows he had recieved; he was surprised he didn't had a black eye.
Dammnit.. This was going to slightly hinder his movements.
Stanley had got to admit; he had found many of the Narrator's little 'games' clever and brilliant. He had always thought the Narrator in person would be a very smart and rational person.
*urrrrrgggghhhh*
He now thinks he is a complete idiot.
Stanley wiped the blood dripping out of his nostril and tried to get up.
But he was tired.
They had walked for an hour and they still couldn't find anything. Joining the Narrator in his unconscious state was becoming a better option by the second...
No! They would die here if he fell unconscious, there has to be something, anything!! To keep themselves alive. He did not endure all of those just to die in an alien world of dehydration. Stanley will keep searching until his legs finally give out on him.
Fight? Or Join?