Quoted By:
"Mind you, <span class="mu-r">the more allies you have, the more people associated with you? The more they focus on them.</span>" Okay, that advice is good for avoiding them but what if you need to DEAL with them? He seems to pick up on this and the toothy grin he gives you says everything you need to know.
"Those pictures you have are a good direction. <span class="mu-b">Getting solid proof they exist and getting people to know about them will make them PANIC-</span>" BZZT. The signal is getting worse by the second. "-cken without a head, they'll make mistakes. They may glow-" BZZT. "-not wish to see the light. Nor does the light want to see-" BZZT.
Okay, so taking pictures of the corpse WAS a good idea. Even if the face is blurred out, you still have solid proof that they AREN'T just delusions in your head. Though this brings up another question.
"Why are you telling me these things?" You lean a bit closer to the screen. "Why do you tell me the things you do?" A horrid assault of canned laughter echoes through the speakers of your TV the MOMENT you finish asking this question. The crowds of people passing by the cafe he's sitting and the people sitting around at the cafe smile with an innocent hatred.
"Simple! The audience loves you and if you die, the audience wouldn't have someone to watch! So I help you so that the people on-" BZZT. "-n't lose their favorite schizophrenia nobody! It's simple as that, really."
"Wait." Your eyes narrow. "I'm being watched right now? And you're not being vague here, you're not talking about the silver ones, right?"
"Correcto! By my guess, there's about 60 people watching you RIGHT now! Though who knows how many of those people are real?" The TV MAN takes a long, prolonged sip from the cup of coffee on his table. "But if you want an actual answer? Because I worry about you. Because I want to keep you safe. The audience benefits from your safety but you're the only one of your kind I can talk to. That hopeless wreck hasn't talked to me in a while so you're the new star!"
...You have no idea what he means by audience and star and hopeless wreck. You really don't. All you can clue in is that, for whatever reason, this man seeks to keep you safe because he cares about you. And really, that's all you need. Static begins to flood the screen. Fuck, you have one more question to ask him.
"Where are you? I don't recognize that part of the City."
You can't even make out his face anymore, let alone the background he's in. You can just barely make out his audio and, fuck, it's so overwhelmed by static and garbage noise it's hard to make out.
>18!
But you make do. You piece together the words you can make out into a rough collection of sentences:
"<span class="mu-b">Where you deserve to live, Nicole.</span>"
"The sky is blue. The city is peaceful."
"You can't ever visit here. The City you're in and the one I'm in are so, so far apart."
"There's no Alphabet Company. No Cleaners. No anomalies. Just humanity at its finest."
