Chapter Text
‘Narry, do you want to come mining with me?’ Stanley asked his partner, who was currently deforesting an entire area. The Narrator turned around, a look of disbelief on their face that the employee rolled his eyes at.
“Stanley, darling, can’t you see that I’m busy gathering the necessary materials for our house? We need shelter before nightfall and we are not going to be living in a dirt house.” They explained, letting out a huff before turning back to the tree they were in the process of chopping down. Stanley raised a brow at them.
‘You literally made a dirt house the first time you booted up this game.’
The Narrator tried to argue back but it came out in little stutters. “I- well, it was- I wasn’t r-really- Look! I wasn’t focused on building a beautiful house at the time, I was focused on finding other games since you didn’t like my story and game so much.”
‘Hm? When did I ever say that?’ Stanley asked, feigning innocence. His partner gawked at him.
“Who else is here that could give me a rating of one for the two times I asked for feedback!? Oh, that’s right, it’s you !” The Narrator retorted. Their protagonist let out a giggle but tried to hide it. “Hmph! And now you’re laughing at me.” They pouted, crossing their arms.
Stanley tried to hide his amused smirk as he signed a reply. ‘I thought your reactions were cute.’ Once again, his partner stared at him in disbelief. “I asked for your honest feedback, Stanley! Oh whatever, just go mining. By the time you’re back, our house will be a finished work of art!” Finally, they finished chopping down the tree they were at, the leaves slowly despawning and dropping apples, sticks, and saplings. Stanley shook his head and gazed lovingly at his partner before heading down into a nearby cave.
Upon entering, he immediately dug up some coal and made some torches. There were two paths so he went right. After lighting up and reaching the end of this opening, he frowned that he couldn’t find any iron, only a few strays of coal. While Stanley was backtracking, he noticed that he missed a few pieces of iron on the roof of the cave and he happily mined them up. They were quite big veins too. Once he reached the entrance, he entered the other path and immediately found more iron. It reminded him of the iconic two doors back in the office and he rolled his eyes at the thought of the Narrator telling him ‘I told you so! Left is the correct way both in here and the office!’ Maybe it was a good thing that his partner didn’t come with him on this mining trip.
Getting back on track, Stanley explored more of the cave. It branched out a few times as he went deeper but decided to block the openings for now and explore them at a later time. As the office worker walked further, he nearly fell down an opening but caught himself in time. Looking down, he gazed in awe at the sight.
It was a huge lush cave. Vines hung down from the ceiling, the glow berries growing from them lighting up the area, giving it a very magical feel. Waterfalls flowed from the walls of the cave, falling into the ponds below that were decorated with drip leaves. The floor of the cave was covered in a blanket of moss with azalea bushes sprinkled throughout. Stanley also noticed pink particles fluttering down and saw that there was a spore blossom on the ceiling as well, adding to the whimsical atmosphere. Looking closer, he noticed a few glow squids and axolotls swimming around in the little ponds filled by the waterfalls.
He wanted to come back here with his Narrator but for now, he climbed down one of the vines and looked for more resources, making sure to mark which vine he came down from.
The Narrator had finished clearing out a sufficient enough space they decided to build their’s and Stanley’s home on. The duo had spawned in a dark forest biome and the Narrator thought the giant mushrooms were an interesting change of scenery. The area that they cleared out was next to a giant lake that reminded them of the landscape in the Memory Zone. Although many painful memories took place there, it was still an important space for the Narrator. The two of them just agreed to not go back down into the dump of Steam reviews and enjoy the scenery above.
At first, they were going to rebuild the Memory Zone but decided on something different that had the same cottage-y feeling. They had a lot of dark oak wood from deforesting the area, as well as some regular oak and birch wood, and other various materials. It was still the middle of the day so they had quite some time to build.
They started off by making a random outline with some blocks to work from. When the Narrator had a rough shape they liked, they started building up the corners with the abundance of dark oak logs, varying the heights for some sections. Once they were satisfied with that, they changed out the blocks they used for the original outline with oak plants and built up from there to the height the logs were at, leaving space for windows and a door.
There was a section on the front left of the house that was the tallest since they wanted something that resembled a wizard’s tower or a watch tower of sorts once the roof was placed. On the right was a room that went slightly further than the water tower. The front of the house was the furthest back, the other two sections framing it in a way. There was also a room above, to the right. The back of the house remained pretty flat.
By the time the Narrator was finished building all of that, the sun was beginning to set dangerously low, meaning that mobs would begin to spawn. The house didn’t even have a roof yet! For now, they would be safe from everything but spiders that could crawl up the side of the house and haunt them. So, they quickly made some torches with the charcoal they made in the furnace since Stanley wasn’t back from his mining trip yet and planted them all over the place, some in the nearby forest surrounding them.
The Narrator made the birch logs into planks and filled the first floor of the house with them. They took out their yellow beds from the chest and placed them next to each other in the middle of the house since they hadn’t figured out a floor plan yet. Grabbing more of the dark oak logs, they created a lot of stairs for the roof. By now, night had fallen and their beloved Stanley still wasn’t back.
They grumbled. “Agh, I should’ve made him take a bed with him so we can sleep the night away! He better be coming back soon.” The Narrator huffed.
Footsteps were suddenly heard and they quickly turned around, their mood immediately brightening up when the door opened to reveal their lovely boyfriend, which quickly turned into worry once they saw the amount of ARROWS STUCK ON HIS BODY! Stanley seemed to have noticed his partner’s shocked and worried expression since he started to giggle.
“Wha- why are you giggling at me?! I’m seriously worried about you Stanley! Where did you go off to that caused you to get absolutely pelted with arrows?!” The Narrator asked, crossing his arms.
‘There were a lot of skeletons. It’s okay, I took them all out! I’m the strongest office worker alive!’ He signed confidently, jokingly flexing hoping to make his partner laugh. It worked a little since their face broke into a small smile that they tried to hide by looking away. Stanley walked closer to his Narrator and gave him a kiss, which they happily returned.
Stanley looked around the house that his partner began to build and gave them two thumbs up and a big smile. ‘You’ve been doing great, love. I could easily find my way back home since you went crazy on the torches. I like our cottage.’ He complimented, causing them to blush.
“T-thank you, Stanley. I’m glad you do.” They gave him a little peck on the cheek. “Now, can we go to sleep so I can put a roof over our heads tomorrow, please?” Stanley giggled and nodded. They both got into bed and fell asleep cuddling each other.