week three - tuesday morning

[ How did Jack convince Rhys to actually get his ass out of bed early in the morning and head to the gym? That's the real mystery here, not the murder. But, somehow, he's managed, even if Rhys is probably half asleep as Jack is going along to the gym. By comparison, Jack is already pretty animated and excited, so he's definitely starting off on the right foot by talking Rhys's ear off. ]

—I mean, look at you. I bet- No, I'm sure, you're one of those guys that has a craaa^aaazy metabolism so you can just eat pizza and garbage all day and just be stupidly skinny. Well, first thing's first, that's not normal, so you're gonna start working for it. Seriously. Maybe if you actually put on some muscle, you might actually be able to do a little more when you're on the verge of death instead of, I dunno, a certain handsome, built guy having to step in to clean things up for you. Which, I admit, times in the past? Not exactly based on muscle. Since, uh, kinda didn't matter with the whole hologram thing.

[ is there a buffer overflow yet ]

So c'mon, you, me, the weight room, maybe shooting a few hoops? Have you even been to a gym before? Actually, no, don't answer that, I have a guess and it's going to piss me off. So I'm pretending you have. The point is, we're making up for these past few weeks of doing goddamn nothing.

week three - monday i guess but who cares

[ So at some point during Jack's gym rendezvous, someone else's presence catches his attention. He actually notices Fiona before she heads to the track, and in truth, he doesn't actually consider going to bother her first. It could be that motive in part, but as soon as that thought dawns on Jack, he rather stubbornly wants to refute it. But he does wait. His justification is that he'd like to finish what he's currently doing, but in truth, it is that subtle hesitation making itself known.

But of course, it's not quite enough to keep Jack away just yet.

Fiona is probably well into her run when she'll be aware of someone else joining her, though whether she realizes it's Jack or not beforehand depends on how much she's paying attention. He's definitely here to chat, though, so he'll manage to catch up to her fairly easily. He may be old, but he's in shape. Though it's probably best not to think too much on why that is, considering being a genocidal maniac ends up being good cardio. ]

Y'know, this works out well. I was gonna come hunt you down—figure of speech, by the way—but you're saving me some of the trouble here. Wanted to talk to you, actually.

week three - wednesday

[ 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.