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Regardless of whether you shout out to him or not, he disappears around the corner and that same faint buzz echoes throughout the streets. You are now alone. Well, time to go back to your apartment. You pass by the- huh. That 'Zane" android you pushed down the stairs has disappeared. You swore he was still laying on the streets in a broken heap.
Eh, no skin off your back. You find yourself back in your apartment and you thank whatever god is out there that Ashton didn't break anything in here. You move the desk that was blocking the door over to its rightful place in the corner of the room. You take half an hour to clean up the mess of, well, everything near your front door.
You head over to your bed, ready to lay down and to collect your thoughts after everything, but your eyes turn over to the TV. While your desk was used to barricade the door, the table the TV rests on was spared. You're not sure why but some part of you didn't want to fuck with the position of the TV in your room too much.
Hm.
You kneel down in front of the TV. Something about what Benjamin said when you asked him about the TV MAN is bugging the ever loving shit out of you. You begin to tune the old hunk of shit to a signal, letting your hands wander as they fiddle with the knobs. "Listen here, you fucker. I have something to ask you.
>34, 84
>SIGNAL QUALITY: LOW. TIMING: PERFECT.
The unfiltered static haze of your boobtube barely clears up no matter what channel you try tuning to. Yet you can make out the outline of the TV MAN through the haze. His perfect smile, his sky blue suit, the offputting yet comforting aura around him.
"WELL-" BZZT. "WELL! BIT OF AN IMPROM-" BZZT. "-IST. WHAT SEEMS TO BE AILING YOU, MY DEAR NICOLE? IT'S A BIT TOO EARLY FOR THE NEWS BUT YOU CAUGHT ME RIGHT AS I WAS TAKI-" BZZT. "-RT BREAK. I CAN SPARE SOME TIME FOR M-" BZZT. "-ATED VIEWER!"
The static around him clears up for only a moment to show you where he's at. It's an old cafe somewhere in a city that you don't recognize in the slightest. The sky is a perfect sky blue, the sun is shining down without anything blocking it, the crowds of people passing by him look...happy? It's a city but it's not a City.
[UNSTABLE] HE'S IN A WORLD BARELY CONNECTED TO YOU THROUGH THE SIGNAL. THIS IS THE ONLY WAY YOU TWO CAN INTERACT. IT'S THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN EVER INTERACT.
[SEEKER OF THE CITY] There's no androids or drones or harvesters or signs of the Alphabet Companies or anything. It's just...a peaceful, everyday city. Your mind can hardly process it.
"WELL? THE SIGN-" BZZT! "-S SEEN BETTER DAYS. BEST TO ASK THE QUEST-" BZZT. "-EALLY WANT TO KNOW."
By your estimate of how weak the signal is, you probably only have time to ask <span class="mu-b">three questions</span>. <span class="mu-b">You COULD ask more than that</span> but every question after that is more and more likely to get lost in the signal, resulting in misinformation getting spread. You take a deep breath.
"Alright. Here's what I got to ask, mister."
