week three - wednesday

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[ By Wednesday, the paranoia is settling in rather deeply, and for Jack, who is naturally a paranoid person, this doesn't bode well for him. He's been a ball of nervous energy, and he's gotta admit, he'd definitely be down for strangling the life out of someone right about now. He's full of nervous, manic energy, but he doesn't leave his room unless he truly has to. Most of the time, that would be a whim that Jack would absolutely indulge in. Hell, if he were at Hyperion? He'd just have some of the low performers get sent to his office until that nervous anxiety was completely gone. There was nothing quite as stress relieving as feeling someone's neck break under your hands.

But he knows he can't. There's something much bigger here. He has a hope of grasping what he's been chasing after for so long, and he won't let it slip between his fingers. And yet, there's always that nagging doubt in the back of his mind.

He knows it's not actually his dream.

His fingers tap against his datapad rhythmically for several long minutes, but finally, he just stands and calls out, since he's assuming she'll hear even here. ]

Hey, Al, you can hear me, right? —Ahhh, no, what do those idiots call you? Alice? Was that what won? AL-2955. Let's just go with the formal designation.

[ It's ironic that he would request company while he has paranoia lingering over him, but... It also makes him want answers that he's been a little reluctant to go digging for. ]

C'mere. I'm feeling like a little chat.

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[ Jack breathes out a short laugh first, because complying won't be any problem. He almost says as much, but the other topics take priority, so he lets it go. For her question, Jack shrugs. ]

Pleasing? I don't know about that. But less awkward? Yeah. Referring to someone by their full name every time, well, that doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, Alice. [ He pauses, seeming to consider something, then he adds: ] I mean, you want to be more human? You start out with the basics. Speaking more like one is probably a good start.

[ Jack pauses again, but as more of that anxiety drifts away, he ends up taking a seat at his desk. The rest of what she says is more interesting, since he's not here to give Humanity 101 lessons. Actually, it's an odd contradiction, because Jack especially is pretty strongly opposed to such things, and yet... He is one. Still, "technically," he would say, because that perception of himself is so blurry that he wasn't able to recognize that until he was told as much, but that's also partially why he wants to get away from the subject of AIs. He would rather believe that he's no longer one now that he has this flesh and blood body. ]

But, you know, since you've brought it up? There's an interesting little paradox in what you're saying there that I've been wondering about. Just curiosity more than it's pressing. Since, I mean, if it was a problem, obviously woulda said so from the start. Actually didn't because I'd figured there was a lock on it, but if I'm partially bearing the "thread" of all the lives here, then that's a little different than just being a leader making sure someone gets offed every week.

[ This is something he has been wondering idly, but hasn't really pursued, considering it doesn't matter to him nearly as much as other things. ]

What does being the Master Chief mean, exactly? Because the fact that I can screw over the Kampff if I'm the one that gets killed- That's pretty strange. They don't really need a leader, because it's not like I'm the one picking who gets to go be a killer if no one else steps up. So I'm feeling like there's something more here that I'm missing.