#partially bc of the stanley parable

[fnvbennygecko]

you know how it feels when you wanna talk about something so bad to somebody but it’s like. *looks around* 

[mars-ipan]

ok well now i’m curious! what’re your stanley parable headcanons?

hehehehehehehehehehehehehe (<- has been granted power)

heads up this is gonna be a lot. also this is a mix of general hcs and design hcs! basically the same thing to me :]

first off stanley and the narrator are both autistic but in complete opposite ways and yes it leads to a lot of arguments because they both suck at compromise but also sometimes it works out for them. some of these dichotomies include:

narrator is “line all my toys up in a row” autistic and stanley is “knock down another kid’s block tower to get to the racecar i want bc i didn’t see it oops” autistic

(this is a popular hc but i like it bc it is canon-compliant) narrator is chatterbox autistic and stanley is nonverbal autistic

the narrator is very eloquent with his words and Needs Them To Be The Right Words when he articulates a sentence like he needs to describe the exact meaning of what he’s going for. he uses shit like “pontificate” in casual conversation. STANLEY however is a why use many word when few word do trick kinda guy and regularly uses shorthand when he signs

stanley would sooooo love an aac device (button + he doesn’t mind choppier sentences) but alas. the parable does not have them and the narrator wouldn’t be able to make a properly functioning one (think abt the jim button)

narrator stims: little vocal stims (humming, tutting, popping noises), flappy hands (smaller motions not big ones), bouncy legs, fretting with the corners of papers + hems of clothing (tho he hates messing up his clothes so he tries not to), taking things apart and putting them back together

stanley stims: button pressing (duh), clicking pens, CHEWING on everything (i am projecting but he is SUCHHHH a biter he has had a pen explode in his mouth several times), drumming his fingers on things (bucket good for this), foot tap a la sonic the hedgehog, bouncing, pressure/gravity (helps with parable-induced dissociation)

stanley practices his facial expressions a lot bc they’re one of his main forms of quick communication and he needs to make sure he’s understood. the narrator enjoys watching him practice and takes notes- if he has a physical form at that point in time he tries to mimic them so he can understand what they feel like

both stanley and the narrator are trapped in the parable. the narrator has no clue how he got there but he did so he took the space and made it an office

the narrator may be trapped in the parable but he is not confined to it. he can influence things outside of the parable (stanley’s world, our world) and he has partial control over the parable itself

along this line stanley is both the narrator’s oc and an outside person he brought in. the narrator wanted a character for his story so he made up stanley’s backstory and ported stanley into the parable from his actual job. stanley was chosen bc being nonverbal means he can’t talk and interfere with the story (so he thinks) and also he looked generic and those were his only criteria he had no clue stanley would be Like That (affectionate)

stanley doesn’t remember much pre-parable. he remembers stuff about himself but not places or other people or events

the narrator remembers pre-parable but has no clue why he’s in the parable now

stanley is expressive when communicating to others and only when communicating to others. when he’s not being actively social he is completely blank faced

stanley had braces as a kid

stanley also had several alt phases (namely goth, emo, scene, and skater) as a kid. some of these overlap with his braces era. he still has his ear piercings but he doesn’t wear anything in them anymore. he wanted small gauges as a kid but was too scared to get them so he wore earrings with mirrors in them to fake it

stanley already knew asl upon entering the parable. the narrator offered to give him knowledge of bsl so they could properly communicate but stanley refused bc Ew British He Is An American (skwaaaaa (<- bald eagle)) Thank You Very Much. so the narrator had to go learn asl to understand stanley

the narrator can read stanley’s mind but stanley HATESSSSS it bc it’s violating and feels gross so it doesn’t happen without his express permission. after a long enough time (eons) they become so close that the narrator can understand stanley really well through body language anyways so it’s kind of unnecessary

stanley can also eventually project his thoughts into the narrator’s mind which he hates less but still doesn’t like so he only does it when he can’t sign

the narrator is Not Human but he is also so painfully human

the narrator is equally disgusted and intrigued by humanity. he wants to learn but every time he learns something new he goes “ewww gross why do you do that” but most of the time it isn’t even the gross parts it’s just like. blinking

the narrator starts having an appearance after stanley spends about a century’s worth of resets pestering him about it. at first he’s just animated textures that show up in shadows and screens and reflections and such

but eventually stanley’s like “make a model like u did for me >:((“ and the narrator’s like “ugh FINE” but he doesn’t wanna make another super detailed person so he grabs one of the low-poly 3-frame audience models from the press conference ending and edits it in blender to be “him.”

issue is he’s not good at designing humans he doesn’t quite get it. stanley he basically imported into the game so it was more like converting him into a compatible file but the narrator doesn’t have any outside thing to port in. so he gets a lot of details wrong and ends up just a little uncanny

most of these get ironed out when stanley points out how weird it is (arms don’t bend like that, your hair needs more polygons, can you separate your fingers so we can hold hands so you can hold things i throw at you) but some of them stay. these include (but r not limited to):

his glasses, tie, and headpiece (over-the-ear because “in-the-ear is horrible for your hearing stanley i read an article on it really do you expect me to subject myself to that”) all float like they have no physical attachment to his body. the glasses have no frames the tie has no tie thingy to go around his neck (or clip) and the headpiece has no headband. they’re just On There

his outfit is not something an actual human being would come up with. he wanted the author sweater-and-collared-shirt look but more “sophisticated” so he went with a turtleneck a blazer and a tie (which he themed after The Adventure Line™️ partially because he thought stanley would like it) with slacks and dress shoes. stanley regularly makes fun of him for it [how r u not sweating to death you fucking dork] but the narrator REFUSES to change it

all of the narrator’s teeth are flat, like the ones in the front of our mouths. he had yet to look at a human mouth that closely (why would he look at a gross wet hole (<- lmao)) so he guessed. his thought process was “front teeth flat -> humans aren’t scary so probably no fangs -> they must all be flat.” he was wrong

i actually have a comic idea where stanley points out how creepy his teeth are and he “fixes” it to fuck with stanley. i would be throwing the monsterfuckers a bone with this one but it would also be a treat for me because teeth r really fun to draw

there’s something going on with his eyes (beyond their unnaturally yellow amber color.) maybe he blinks with his bottom eyelids or he doesn’t blink enough or the texture for his eyes is on both his glasses and his skin like a low poly ps1 model. not quite sure which yet but it’s something simple like that

he/it narrator supremacy. he prefers he/him when he has an appearance but in voice form is equally okay with both and doesn’t care if u switch it up

the narrator can scale his model up and down as he pleases so he’s a sizeshifter teehee. he likes to be taller than stanley (who is somewhere btwn 6’1” and 6’4”) but stanley likes when he’s more human-sized (aka abt a 1/2 foot shorter than him.) they argue over who’s “actually taller” a lot and yes the narrator uses Tall Mode for physical intimidation

the narrator switches between voice mode texture mode and model mode a lot. usually he’s a voice or a texture but sometimes he is a model As A Treat for stanley

the narrator is arospec + acespec (you can take my aspec hcs out of my cold dead hands). idk if he’s quoi or gray or what but essentially he doesn’t fully Understand This Thing Some Humans Do and he’d like to learn but he gets overstimulated easily so he needs a lot of time (especially with more physical stuff). he’s okay with it (and eventually even enthusiastic) but he needs to go slow

stanley is more than a bit impatient about this internally (he is So Touch Starved and also probably sexually frustrated) but he knows better than to be an actual asshole about this and waits as long as the narrator needs. thankfully they have forever

speaking of which it takes a Very Long Time for them to get their shit together. they Hate Each Other for a long time and then they Tolerate Each Other for a long time and then they become uneasy friends then frenemies then besties that insult each other and VERH INCREDIBLY SLOWLY they fall for each other but i mean they’ve loved each other the whole time. that being said they also have a lot of “Oh. Oh Shit I Am In Love With Him Huh” moments of varying sadness and horniness (stanley once realized he redid the countdown ending over and over not because he thought he could find an actually working combination but because there was something addicting in the thrill of it and the Monologue and the danger and the way his name was said and he needed. a Moment to process that. and also sometimes stanley would give the narrator A Look (usually some brat shit but sometimes it had deeper emotions??? maybe??? the narrator wasn’t good at reading them yet) and the narrator would get A Feeling and he’d be like “what was that what just happened what did he do to me just then whadda hell”)

while they’re figuring it out there is So Much Shame between the two of them. stanley fucks around and someone gets hurt and he feels bad or the narrator is a bit too mean and someone gets hurt and he feels bad etc. they’re both garbage at communicating but they do try to show each other they’re sorry. stanley will be less of a nuisance or will replay the freedom ending over and over and maybe even sometimes sign “sorry” at the ceiling and the narrator will try to make stanley laugh or throw little easter eggs in to try to get him to smile as an apology. there’s a lot of stepping on toes from both of them

this remains a thing when they eventually get together (this happens a while after the narrator makes his model) but they’re better at communicating by this point and this is around when they actually start talking about setting boundaries and understanding each other. the narrator wanted to avoid the conversation bc he was embarrassed and The People Pleasing but stanley strongly emphasized that it needed to happen which was good of him. they talk things out when someone oversteps or gets too mean and they very slowly get a little healthier

while stanley is the one to initiate the What Are We conversation the narrator is the one who actually does the dramatic sigh and turns with the wettest saddest eyes and goes “oh, stanley, what are we..???” and it takes all stanley has to not laugh at how cliche it is bc he knows it would hurt his feelings and this is a Serious Conversation That They Need To Have so he bites his tongue and signs smth along the lines of [what do you want to be?] and they move on with the conversation

they are still very codependent tho. Do Not Separate Them. infinite time together means they have some WILD fears of being alone

it fucked with stanley a lot actually. he wants more than anything to be independent but he can no longer envision himself without the narrator’s presence. he never fully makes his peace with it

anyways their boundary conversations include sexual boundaries (both because stanley had trouble knowing when was too much for the narrator and because the narrator had trouble controlling his strength). also kink discussion teehee :3 !!

they r soo bdsm both sexually and non-sexually like. that’s just the truth. fucking look at stanley he is incapable of being anything but a brat the whole game is a fucking power struggle. anyways. they are Not Healthy about it at first but stanley sits them down for a talk specifically about sex stuff and they spend a long time hashing things out. the narrator made a spreadsheet for both of them about it because he’s a big dork. they have dos and don’ts and safewords/signals and all that. i won’t get into specific kink hcs here but i might some other time bc bdsm/kink is interesting as hell :)

anywho!!

when the narrator narrates stanley “speaking” (like he does in some in-game lines) stanley’s mouth moves and air leaves his chest against his will but no sound comes out- it’s all the narrator. it’s one of the things the narrator has control over in the parable and stanley HATESSSSS it like viscerally. it makes him want to vomit. when the narrator realizes this he stops doing it unless he has to because when an in-game line is triggered he Has to follow the script he has no other choice (unless stanley cuts him off by triggering another line)

i’m projecting SOOOO hard with this one but as an artist the narrator has all of those Creative Mental Issues. he’s a people pleaser (lives for the validation of the fans and fears their scorn), he’s a perfectionist, he procrastinates, If Someone Interprets This In A Way I Did Not Intend I Will Be So Upset (unfortunately the nature of art is that no interpretation is wrong (within reason)), the only thing he hates more than creating is not creating, he is a major escapist, The Whole Shebang

that’s all i can think of for the main boys for now so i’m gonna go into other characters! 432 time yippeee !!!!

ok so in my mind 432 has like many many names that stanley gives him. the main two are Esper/Espie (from settings person- S P(er)) and Teeks (from TK/timekeeper). to 432 the full versions of these r like titles, and 432 is like a full legal name- it’s a bit more formal

funnily enough stanley refuses to give the narrator a name that isn’t “the narrator.” he makes a list of names and stanley vetoes them all. the narrator is jealous that TK gets so many names but he gets just his title

speaking of the narrator TK has INCREDIBLY mixed feelings on him. he hates him for trapping stanley in the parable, he blames the narrator for his current state of existence, but he knows the narrator makes stanley happy and he doesn’t think he’s that bad of a person, even with his (many (endless)) flaws. so he’s kindaaaa conflicted as all hell

when he realizes he and stanley are into each other (he learns this way before they do) he immediately gets SOOOO exasperated. world’s biggest hater. he’s like that guy from that post the fucking “can you guys not do that in public. i’m not homophobic i’m just a hater” that’s TK. it is really funny

he/they TK supremacy. i’m sticking to “he” for simplicity’s sake rn but after becoming entwined with the parable tk kinda felt a bit detached from humanity !!! but it/its felt dehumanizing in a bad way to him so he uses they bc it’s a lot more comfy.

oh yeah the nature of TK’s existence. unlike stanley TK never existed as a person outside of the parable. TK sorta willed himself into existence as a result of the narrator’s worldbuilding. this happened sometime between the release of the og game and ultra deluxe. because TK wasn’t meant to be a character as well as the erratic nature of his personality due to backstory, when he popped into existence he got glitched the fuck out and eventually became entwined with the parable. he both loves and resents this

TK loves it for many reasons. for starters, he likes stanley. he has memories of stanley in the office (memories that stanley doesn’t have)- stanley wasn’t mean to him, they had sort of a mutual “weird kid” solidarity- even if stanley never spoke to him. stanley never reported him to HR, or grimaced when he asked for a pencil, or gossiped about him with his coworkers. TK also likes the responsibility that being the settings person gives him. he likes the sliders, and the yes/no questions, and the talking- he can use it all to keep the wheel turning, keep the parable running- and that brings him comfort

however, TK hates being part of the parable as well. he knows he’s fiction, that he was never meant to exist. he knows that his memories of the office, of stanley, aren’t real, even though he also knows that He Knows Stanley. he feels bound to the parable, and he hates that he’s gone from being under the control of his horrible higher-ups to being under the control of whatever the parable even Is. it’s an uncomfortable truth for him

that being said, he needs the parable in order to exist, even moreso than stanley or the narrator, which is a part of why he’s so insistent that it go on forever. this ties into his obsession with keeping the wheel turning very nicely and i commend the writing of the actual game for that tasty little parallel

let it be said that the narrator is NOT TK’s dad. TK’s existence was influenced by the narrator but he came into being entirely independently. they have no familial relation

TK sees the narrator grab a model from the press conference and thinks “ohhhh i can do that!!!” so he does but the issue is he doesn’t know how to use blender so his model is REALLY janky and low-poly and he still moves at about 3 frames per second. his texture form can move faster but it’s still janky bc he still doesn’t know what he’s doing. interestingly enough while the narrator is confined to the hitboxes of the objects he projects his texture onto TK is not and can manipulate the shapes of shadows or pop out of mirrors n shit. perks of being literally a Part of the parable teehee :3c

unfortunately the rest of my TK design is still in the vague concepts stage so that’s all i know abt him physically. teehee !

TK is sooooo silly like even more than stanley. he’s very very reactive and emotional imagine if sodium were a person. incredibly volatile creature

the narrator had no clue that TK existed until TK started manifesting himself actively in the parable. it was a fucking jumpscare. the narrator still finds TK very offputting and kinda doesn’t like him but he’s more passive-aggressive about it. TK is straight up aggressive abt his dislike for the narrator

neither the narrator nor TK know everything about the parable. they are both wrong about several things and each other. not a single reliable narrator (heh) in this fucking universe

the parable is alive but not in a way we can comprehend. sorta animalistic but also omnipotent but also sentient but not. too complex for us to get

the curator (curie) is the same species as the narrator (also eldritch and unknowable but on a smaller scale than the parable. atoms to cells kinda deal)

the curator and the narrator know each other! i once saw a hc that they were siblings and i really like it but i don’t know if that’s my own personal hc. i don’t think their species has relationships like that but they do know each other

the curator is not trapped in the parable she’s just nosy and made her own little hidey-hole in it so she could spy on the narrator

she actually really likes what he’s done with the parable which is why she made her hiding spot into the museum. she also finds artistic processes interesting.

unlike the narrator who is an emotional and mental mess the curator has her shit together. not many problems with that woman

the curator has yet to make a physical model in my mind but if she did she would use stanley’s “wife” as a base (copying the model so the narrator wouldn’t notice it missing)

the curator is very supportive of stanley and the narrator being a thing (she thinks it’s good for both of them to learn to communicate better and if this is how they do that then sure!) and when stanley fucks up he sometimes comes to the museum to get advice from her. her advice can almost always be boiled down to “talk about it” but stanley appreciates the push very much. the narrator would never do this because he is far too prideful

mariella!!!! mariella is a semi-verbal autistic (the autism parable). she doesn’t speak often but if she starts going she may not stop for a while

unlike stanley, mariella doesn’t mind when the narrator “speaks” for her, and it’s how she likes to communicate when she’s not feeling like talking herself

while the narrator did import mariella’s model, her personality is entirely made up by him. she isn’t so much trapped in the parable either- she lives outside of it and sometimes interacts with it for story purposes

mariella is a well-adjusted human being but she likes to Party

stanley TK and mariella are besties and brunch buddies and they talk shit together and are silly

mariella is also supportive of stannarrator but she’s more actively excited. sometime over brunch stanley’s like “….guys i think i’m attracted to my narrator” and TK’s like “i’m well aware can you stop it” but at the same time mariella goes “oh thank you for noticing go bag him !!!!!” she hypes them up (much to TK’s dismay.) it makes stanley laugh but the narrator finds it just as embarrassing to have mariella cheerleading as he does to have TK praying on their downfall

i woke up today with more headcanons so i’m glad i queued this one moment :3

the narrator is sooooo agoraphobic he’s freaked out really bad by lots of people and big open spaces. it’s why the parable is mostly confined and why his discovery of TK is a big scare. it’s also why the curator doesn’t immediately alert him of her presence- she doesn’t want to over crowd him

this agoraphobia eventually spreads to stanley bc he got so used to being in the parable. similar to how he’d freak out if he was ever truly alone he’d panic in a big public space because all the people and stimulation would be incredibly overwhelming- if it gets loud enough for him to struggle to hear the narrator or crowded enough for him to lose sight of him he’d panic

if they ever escaped the parable they would be INCREDIBLY non-functional. they’d need therapy but i don’t think either of them could make the call to get an appointment. the narrator would be happy with a suburban-sized house but with the crowds and their lack of cash they’d probably need to squat somewhere rural where they wouldn’t be caught. but then all the empty space would freak the narrator out so after food and water the first priority would be building a fence so he doesn’t feel so lost. i don’t think either of them could get jobs but maybe stanley could get wifi working and do stuff remotely. MAYBE. stanley would be the only one with legal id in the first place but idk if it’d be valid

[mr-e-nigma]

How long before I replay both Portal games.

[sandyferal]

Very interested if any Stanley Parable fans have a voice claim for Stanley bc I honestly can never think of one.