Anybody about for him to ask about the local geography?

… Or how about he just takes off, into the air, and surveys the area briefly.

In front of him, there's a mall, a very tall black building with a poorly maintained lawn and garden of tulips, a large, slightly burnt-looking rectangular building, a radio tower, a trailer park, and a factory in the distance. To his left, there are buildings, a college, a fenced in patch of incredibly dead looking land, a small forest, and some empty desert. To his right are more buildings, some warehouses, an airport, a hospital, and some structures off in the hills.

Behind him, just… the subway station?

The subway station, and behind it a pizza place, and some long buildings with mysterious metal antennae reaching into the sky, some residential-looking neighborhoods, and an area full of old-fashioned stucco and wood buildings. Off in the distance, there is an empty sandy area, dotted with scraggly bushes.

If he returns to the ground and produces a small circular disc of water near the stack thing and indicates that it should jump onto it, does it perhaps do as such?

It takes a bit to get the idea, but it hops onto the disk once it figures out what he wants.

Then the disc turns into a bubble and it flies up into the air with him. (It may be a bit scary. Poor stack thing.)

He goes towards the hospital.

The stack thing folds around itself until it's curled into sort of a loose ball, but seems to be looking around at the buildings beneath them.

A few people look up at them, then look away. The black and blue helicopters they pass don't noticeably react to them.

The hospital is long and blocky, about three stories tall, and covered in creamy brown stucco. Its sign reads "Night Vale General Hospital".

Tyler lands and lets the stack thing out, waiting a moment to check it's okay.

It uncurls and hops off of the disk, then leans into him for a few seconds.

No point saying anything – it won't understand – but he is in fact slightly sorry about that.

After it's done leaning (assuming it finishes), he walks into the hospital, with his floating balls of water near his hands. He leaves the bits of rock outside the entrance.

It follows him into the building.

The area inside the doors is clean, with a thin gray carpet and tan walls. There are a few empty chairs near the doors, and a set of advertising pamphlets in a holder on the reception desk. The area behind the desk is harder to see into, full of a partially-transparent haze.

… Tyler walks up to the reception desk and meanwhile tries to ascertain if there is water in the partially-transparent haze.

There is water in the partially-transparent haze. It shifts around as the haze asks "Hello, what are you here for today?"

"I wanted to report a subway that travels through dimensions. And also ask why this looks suspiciously like my planet but has no Relay and do you know of a way for me to possibly get back?"

Pause. "Also – are partially-transparent hazes composed of water that speak common around here? Because, apologies if that's a rude question, but I don't think I've ever encountered one before."

"Uh, this is a hospital, we don't really file reports of things like that. I heard that we're getting a new subway on the radio, but I hadn't tried it yet, is it good? I'm not sure why this planet looks like yours, if you're from a different one, it could be an alternate universe version of it, or just at a different time, or a weird coincidence or something. If you're here for the Blood-Space War, it's cancelled. If you want to file a missing person report, you probably want the Sheriff's Secret Police, but they're really backlogged right now and it sounds like who you're looking for might not be here?"

"Sentient patch of haze, and no, we're a minority here because it's so dry."

Pause. "I was mainly asking here since I'm totally lost and I thought a hospital might know where to go next, but everyone's acting weirdly like this is just an everyday occurrence. So. Probably the alternate universe idea."

"Okay. Welcome to town? If you're terrified and confused and want to become a citizen, there's paperwork and pamphlets for that at City Hall."

"– Just, hold on a sec, you called them the Sheriff's Secret Police? Uh, why…?"

"Because that's what they're called? Or- oh, because they're a secret, if that's what you meant?"

"… Yeah."

"Why are they a secret? I think a few decades ago we noticed that the police weren't secure the way they were, and so they were declared a secret and their cars were changed? Nothing else really changed, but we're all safer."

"… I'm confused how they're a secret just by adding that to their name. And – well, I guess different cars would help, but that's sorta just like undercover cops?"

"No, like, someone coulda done something with the information they were there, or the assumption they were. But unless someone's actually been here, they usually wouldn't guess we wouldn't have them."

"… Sorry, I don't think I caught that," he says. "They added 'secret' to the name so… people from out of town think you have them?"