Chapter Text
A speech bubble popped up in front of him.
'This is the story of a man named Narry'
What?
'Narry worked for a company in a-'
WHAT!?
The Narrator lurched back in his- very uncomfortable -office chair, wide eyes staring at the space above his computer. The speech bubbles had continued, yet the room was entirely quiet, and..Narrator felt normal.
Horribly, horribly normal. Human.
'Employee number 427 was already off on a bad foot today, not letting Stanley finish his damn sentences'
Narrator stared at the speech bubble on the office wall, hardly noticing his glasses ever so slowly slipping down his nose. What's happening? What is this horrible nightmare? He swore just a minute ago he and Stanley had finished a run, a rather nice run, despite Stanley clinging onto that damn bucket like a lifeline. But everything was, really, normal! As normal as it could be! And now he's waking up in Stanley's place..? This is some horrible mistake.
'Stanley doesn't think this is a mistake, Narry, Stanley quite likes this.' The speech bubble warped, and the Narrator could almost hear the others' quiet snickers. That was the thing- Stanley never talked. Not out loud. Only noises. Laughs, snickers, sniffling, whatever. And it..only makes sense that his way of speaking to the Narrator would be through something like this. But it's horribly uncanny.
"Stanley, what's going on? Do you know how this happened?" Narrator sighs in an attempt to calm his racing heartbeat. It's weird having one after, well, never having one at all. The speech bubble stayed blank for a moment before finally filling with text again.
'Well, Stanley doesn't know how this happened, what was that about not having a heartbeat? Oh- Stanley doesn't have one either?! Weird, weird weird weird-'
"Stanley!" Narrator gasps with exasperation, frowning before shaking his head. "You have no idea? Really? Honestly, be honest with me." Narrator eyes the speech bubble, watching as the previous words slowly fade away. Strange.
'Honest, Stanley is being honest. It feels weird, but..Stanley quite likes being the one to boss around Narry.'
…
'Employee number 427s job was simple, he sat-'
Narrator abruptly stood up from the chair, grunting with frustration as he turned to look at the office door, away from the speech bubble. Only for the bubble to appear again on the wall across from him. "Stanley, are you doing that on purpose?" He mutters, curiosity briefly overriding anger.
'..well you turned around, and then Stanley was watching you from a different direction. Stanley doesn't think he has a body right now, he doesn't like this anymore-'
"Yes yes, ok Stanley. I understand it must be..jarring..which is why we need to fix this!" Narrator exclaimed, crossing his arms and huffing. The speech bubble went blank for a moment before a simple 'yeah' appeared, making the Narrator laugh despite himself. "Since when did you speak in the 3rd person?"
'Stanley always thinks in the third person, Narry. Surely you know that?'
Narrator rolls his eyes, huffing as he walks over to the door and opens it. "Right. Slipped my mind. I think- this could be a glitch in the system, perhaps we just need to do a normal run and then it'll go back to normal?"
The bubble, now on the door, simply flashed a 'thumbs-up' emoji in response, before-
'..but as he regained his wits and came to his senses, he got up from his desk, and stepped out of the office.'
The Narrator chuckled quietly, nodding a little before stepping outside.
This was strange to say the absolute least, but surely they'd be able to fix it.
Right?