"It doesn't much matter what happens to me otherwise, if I'd be facing forced servitude without hope." That's Jet to Albert. Hope, but also a reason to make it easier on himself, to care about what happens to him instead of just everyone else. And it isn't just Jet that does that for him now. He's made a family, and they've made it abundantly clear that he should care because they do. Sam, Initiate, Terezi, and...

He finds, again, that he cares what Punchy thinks of him and wonders if he'd consider it a burden to be a little bit of that family too.

"I don't know what, exactly. Something mentally, I think mostly to keep him pliable, it doesn't seem like brainwashing. He's just mixed up." Just. There's nothing 'just' about it, in either sense of the word.

"Anything you can find out - safely - would be appreciated."