Dialogue Essays: Jubel's Been On The Run

Jubel's been on the run since he was fifteen, just a dumb kid with an AI in his head, searching for answers to why the AI was there in the first place. He can't remember all the details, not even close, but what he knows is this. He used to be a street kid, the kind that no one ever thought would make it past ten or fifteen. He remembers just clawing for his place under the sun and not even knowing what for, because what's the point when you're going to eventually die some messy young death anyway? And that's the extent of his memories. It all just skids to a halt like running into a glass wall. He tries all the time to remember who he used to be but it doesn't ever work and sometimes he's just too tired to even try to be anyone at all because he doesn't even know if he wants to be that person anymore. The street kid that he used to be, puny five-foot two creature wouldn't survive, but he's still there sometimes, the impulse to act and the recognition that hey, this is that person I used to be, and Jubel guards that part of him as his best-kept secret. Because that

Jubel still doesn't know why Hugh had helped him back then, but he isn't going to complain. Long story short, they'd escaped and it turned out that Hugh could hack basically anything, and they'd made it out alive. Then Jubel had gone on the run for a few years from their kidnappers, all while finding clues about who he, they used to be. Because Hugh didn't know who he was either. But he had a lot of knowledge programmed into his brain, mostly done during his creation, though he couldn't have been older than Jubel. Maybe even five or six years younger and that's what really made him tick. Because it doesn't matter what you do, you can steal or fight or kill, but you don't lay a finger on children. Ever. It's the unspoken