Even Narrators Lose Their Voice

Stanley stood in his office door, gaze hovering over the ceiling. His eyes looked tired but at least the deep bags weren't there anymore, thanks to the Narrator's allowance of naps. (It took an hour of arguing all because Narrator kept insisting that sleep wasn't needed, that it was a turned off function and that Stanley was just trying to get out of the story. Stanley just wanted a break. He ended up winning and slept for hours, much to his companion's discontent. Woke up to a very displeased Narrator. Ten out of ten experience, really.)

He stayed there in his doorframe, waiting for the Narrator to speak. To get the story going. But he hadn't talked at all this reset. It wasn't like him to be so quiet, to be utterly silent. Normally, Stanley couldn't get the man to shut up for five seconds but here, he was quieter than a mouse. It almost spooked him.

Stanley stepped out of the foreboding office and further into the first room of cubicles, eyes never leaving the ceiling as he walked painfully slow. Not a peep. Did the Narrator fall asleep? And after all that insisting that neither of them needed to sleep too. How ironic. Maybe he'd have to scare him awake or if he wasn't asleep, then that'd surely get a rise out of him. After all, the Broom Closet "Ending" hadn't seemed to do the trick. It was so boringly quiet that Stanley ended up resetting himself.

The man walked into the small, turning hallway, very prepared to start "screaming" the Narrator's name if there wasn't a single sound. The silence was too great and he was ready to either start being rudely obnoxious or start begging. He figured one of those would work.

"He uhm... went to the meeting room... Maybe he missed a memo."

Okay, well, at least he was talking now. But it wasn't at all what he was supposed to say and Stanley had heard just about every "on-script deviation" possible. And then there was the way he said it. Breathy and displaced. It sounded like his mind was elsewhere. Stanley huffed, crossing his arms, and he craned his neck upwards.

' Alright, what's up? '

Not even a sound was made in response. While Stanley would usually find this rude and/or irritating, it instead left him with a pit in his stomach and he didn't like it.

' Narrator? What's wrong? You haven't been talking at all for the past two resets.'

Still nothing.

Initially, when the Narrator didn't start the story the last reset, Stanley just took it as some form of break. Like the Narrator needed a minute after the reset previous. And that's why Stanley took them to the Broom Closet, so that the Narrator got his mind off of whatever was troubling him. But it seemed it didn't work and now Stanley was properly concerned.

He bit his tongue and traveled out of the hallway, into the next room of cubicles, and stood by a desk. Before this and the Broom Closet shenanigans, they had a bit of a run in with the Zending room. Stanley had simply forgotten how he got there the first time and accidentally led them through the red door. But the moment he realized where they were, he reset the game himself. He didn't dare drag the Narrator through that again, no matter how angry he could get at him, it'd just be cruel.

But...

Did it upset the Narrator? The very idea?

It was possible. Stanley sighed and leaned against the desk. No, no. That didn't make sense. The Narrator didn't have this sort of reaction the first time Stanley got that ending or any other upsetting ending. Why would he have it now?