The Stanley Parable: Alternate Endings

💐 Conversationalist Ending

"This is a story of a man named Stanley. Stanley worked for a company in a big building where he was Employee Number 427. Employee Number 427's job was simple. He sat at his desk in Room 427, and he pushed buttons on a keyboard. Orders came to him through a moniter on his desk telling him what buttons to push, how long to push them, and in what-"

Stanley let out a slight bored sigh and pressed the A button on his keyboard. The Narrator's voice cut off abruptly and the Narrator released a quiet huff of annoyance.

He pushed out his chair from under his desk and spun it around to face the door into his office. Stanley let out a little yawn before standing up and walking out of his office, slowly shutting the door behind him. He wandered out further into the hallway.

"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." In response to this, Stanley coughed, clearly not paying attention to what he was saying.

He had heard this several times before and was getting tired of the constant similar audios. He could tell the Narrator was getting bored of them too by the tone of his voice.

Stanley walked over to a corner of the room and sat down in front of a random plant in the corner. He stared at it in silence. He then put his hand out and held a leaf of it in his palm. "..Stanley went around touching every little thing in the office, but it didn't make a single difference, nor did it advance the story in any way." Stanley shrugged at this, continuing to stare at the plant.

He wondered how it lived in here, where everything was constantly restarting. Did it also die when he restarted? Or did it simply always live no matter the ending because it was just a plant. Did the plant live during the endings where he was there for days on end, or did it fade to non-existence?

"Stanley?" Stanley let go of the leaf and listened. He wasn't very sure on how to tell the Narrator he heard him, as he himself couldn't really talk in any of the restarts.

"Stanley, are you alright?" The Narrator had a slight concern to his voice. Stanley nodded, dropping the leaf from his hand, and it fell back in line with the plant as it usually appeared.

The Narrator went back to his hushed silence, while Stanley began to think of his own silence. Was there some way he could communicate with the Narrator other than nods or hand movements? Stanley had never been able to learn sign language nor did he ever try to.

Was there a way for him to talk? Would the Narrator let him? It was Stanley's story after all.

Stanley coughed again letting out a frustrated huff. "Are you sure you're alright?" The sudden voice again slightly scared Stanley. He nodded quickly and stood up again, turning away from the plant.

Stanley leaned against the nearest wall to the plant. Surely trying to talk wouldn't hurt anything right?

He let out another little cough before slightly holding his chest and stuttering out, "I- H-hello?" He stared at his hands in surprise, damn he should've tried that sooner.

The Narrator was in direct silence for a good 10 seconds or so before responding, "Wh- Hello Stanley" He seemed quite surprise by this change and Stanley noted that he wasn't only on a script because of this reaction.

"Hi" Stanley stuttered out. Even though it was simple enough to talk, Stanley hadn't done it in so long and in so many years that it kind of hurt his throat. "How in the holy hell are you talking?"

By this, Stanley couldnt really tell if the Narrator was confused or excited or both. Stanley just shrugged in response. "I was- just thinking about it." Stanley proudly smiled, moving off from against the wall and moving off towards the door to go to the secondary offices.

He continued off to the room with the two doors. The door shut behind him and he stood in front of the two open doors but no dialogue came. "You there, Narrator?" He muttered quietly.

"Oh, yes Stanley, I am. You have just completely baffled me by your ability to communicate so casually that it has confused me quite gravely." He paused and let out a embarrassed sigh, "Stanley, I'm going to restart, maybe this is a programing issue..."

Stanley let out a breathe of protest while the Narrator quietly rustled some papers. "But this is a good thing, surely!" Stanley stood there grumpily and the remaining two doors of the room closed.

The paper rustling paused, "Now why did those doors close-? Look what you did Stanley you completely broke the story!" He let out a huff of frustration and annoyance, "Restart..."

"No, no, not yet-" Stanley quickly protested again, but it was too late and the room's lights flickered off.