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Stanley doesn't know how this happened.
It started when he was very young, around eleven years old. He'd hear people talking inside his head. But he brushed it off as his parents wouldn't believe him if he said so. Besides that, it was just internal monologue, right? Everyone had different voices as your - confusing - internal monologue.
One voice in specific, always caught his attention. A British man.
He wasn't even British! How did he have a British voice inside of his head?! ...Must be due to his contact to media of other places, he thought. He always liked to watch random channels on TV from other countries.
At seventeen, however, stuff got a bit turbulent, per say. With a few people online he'd met, Stanley decided to ask them about his issues.
"bucketfan427: hey, does anyone else like, hear voices in their head or smth? lol"
"mrfrog: Uhm?? Are you having thoughts?"
"bucketfan427: no, its like. a bunch of different people talking while i try to think hehe"
His hands started to sweat as he saw the notification pop up. Deep down, he already knew the answer. It wasn't normal. But he needed to know for sure what other people thought, having a second opinion of sorts.
"mrfrog: Dude I gotta be honest with you, I dont think this is normal"
"julie1234: you sound like a system to me!!"
"mrfrog: Its best to not assume stuff like that so quickly but you better see a doctor man"
He closed shut his laptop as he got his answers.
The voices only seemed to grow louder as time went by, now that Stanley had "noticed" them. Frequently, there'd be fights between the posh British male voice and a more laidback American voice. He had no clue how or why, but he wish he could stop them both from talking. Funny thing is that, in the mix, there would be voices of characters from media he liked, so that was strange, he told himself with a shrug.
He went to his therapist, finally opening up to someone in real life about the voices, and her first reaction was "...Why didn't you tell me before?"
"Because I didn't- I didn't think it was a big deal," he was as honest as possible.
"Stanley," her voice was stern, "you are hearing voices. That is not normal."
After that, he quickly got sent to a psychiatrist a few days later, where she questioned him about his childhood - which he didn't remember -, his memory in general, and how the voices were.
"Stanley," she used the same tone as his therapist, as if there was something right under his nose he wasn't getting. "Have you heard of... OSDD?"
"What's that," he pretended to be dumb. Because this couldn't be happening. This couldn't be happening.
"Otherwise specified dissociative disorder," she explained. When Stanley tilted his head, the woman went for a more "informal" approach. "Have you heard of DID?" A nod. "It's like that, but not hitting all the criterias for it. It is a disassociative disorder, however, it doesn't fit the full criteria for it. Got it?"
A thumbs up, and that moment went like a blur for him.
Now, at thirty, he had grown more than used to the British man from his childhood, among others. He asked Stanley simply to call him "The Narrator", he had more or less a vision of his appearance, and he took care of the man. He reminded him to take his medicine, drink water and even shower when his illness got really bad.
Meanwhile, the laidback American - TK, as he asked to be called - barely appeared, but when he did, it was only to influence him to do bad stuff, such as drink his sorrows away.
That's what caused most of the conflicts between The Narrator and TK; while one wanted to protect him, the other wanted to harm him, in any way that he could. And that sucked.
But hey, he's been getting better at dealing with TK and others. So maybe it isn't so bad to be a system, as he has company, at least.