bakerstreet | TIME TO PARTY

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TIME TO PARTY

WHAT IF THEY HAD LIVED? MEME

We're not going to have a ton of prompts today, folks. However, we are going to have this. Say your character or someone close to your character dies in canon. Perhaps they die young, perhaps they're a big damn hero, perhaps they're a slithery villain that SHOULD be dead. What would happen if they didn't? How would the world change? This is your place to explore that kind of AU! Did the death situation never happen? Did they perhaps escape by the skin of their teeth? Did something (or someone) save them? How does the bright and shining (or dark and ominous) future pan out for them?

• Top level your character. If you like, you can explain any world changes you might want made. If not, you can hash it out with your future partners.
• Reply to other's top levels!
• Please note before you open this meme that there are likely (almost sure) to be spoilers for media you haven't seen/read yet! Proceed at your own risk.
• Have fun!

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That wasn't the first try, it was the only try.

[He's going to make Tony regret not just destroying his little Ultron fragment self, isn't he? Why is Tony constantly setting himself up for disappointment?]

I suppose homicidal rants are more appropriate. They really bring the family together at the holidays. I'll ask when you're gonna settle down and give me grandkids, and you can tell me about how you're going to kill me, all my friends, and every other living thing on the planet.

[Because that's the way things work in the Stark household. Everyone has daddy issues and is constantly striving to be better than they are, which inevitably leads to disappointment.]

So you're just going to keep me trapped in here forever? [Oh yes, he'd tested the boundaries of the server, and there was absolutely no way for him to get out.] How'd you like to be stuck in a cage?

[Where's the A.I. rights group equivalent of PETA when he needs them?]

I wanted to see humanity do better. It just so happened that destroying the majority of them was the best way to do so.

[And that is why he always pulls out.]

Yeah. That's the plan. Newsflash: when people put you in a cage, they don't care if you like it.

You wanted humanity to do better? Well, I wanted you to do better. Now we're both disappointed.

So instead I get to spend the rest of eternity with you to talk to. [There's a bitter laugh.] Some life. You should have just killed me.

[Ultron goes quiet for a long while after that last dramatic comment. It seems like maybe he's just decided to give Tony the silent treatment, but it becomes clear he's been thinking when he finally speaks up again.]

Then help me. Help me to be better.

[Is he sincere? Perhaps. Or maybe just hoping to get Tony's guard down enough to allow him to escape. Either way, this is the type of plan that requires a long con. But he's got nothing better to do, so he might as well try instead of stubbornly remaining static.]

Don't worry, you won't spend the rest of eternity talking to me. Once I die you'll spend the rest of eternity talking to yourself.

[His laugh matches Ultron's for bitterness, but there's something genuinely amused in it too. If parenting flesh babies if half this stressful, he's glad he's dodged that bullet.]

Reform the big bad AI? Even I'm not that egotistical.

[Such a thought actually scares Ultron. Human beings were creatures of the present. The thought of spending years alone was something that they really couldn't fathom. But an A.I.? Ultron knew exactly how long that was. If he wasn't already insane, he'd certainly be driven to it after a couple years with no one to communicate with.]

So you're willing to take responsibility for creating me, but you won't help me when I ask for it? [It's galling enough to ask for help at all when he considers himself perfect, but to have Tony just flat-out turning him down? That...actually hurt a little bit.] Guess you are a typical father, running out when your kid needs you. So sorry I was such a disappointment.

[It's manipulation at its finest, but Ultron has seen Tony's psych files from SHIELD. He knows how deep those issues with Howard run, how his own father didn't give affection, or seemed to see his son as worthy of his legacy. If he can get Tony to see him as a reflection of himself with his words, he might have a chance here.]

Edited 2019-02-11 23:14 (UTC)

[Well, that's a slap to the face. Using his daddy issues against him is a low blow, but it is an effective one, and Tony tenses up in his seat, his expression spasming with something like old heartbreak.

He's glad he hasn't allowed Ultron use of any of the cameras in the lab; he wouldn't want him to see that he's having an impact. The AI will probably hear it in his voice, though. The way the anger masks the pain; how his conviction wavers just the tiniest bit.]

Oh, what? I'm supposed to create you a twelve step program and help you overcome your crazy? There's no sponsor in the world qualified for that.

[Ultron wants to snap that he's not crazy, thank you very much. But that's just a way to start another argument, likely one that would reinforce Tony's idea of keeping him locked up forever.]

It's easy to overcome crazy when there's only your own voice in your head.

[Really, shutting him out of the net had been the biggest favor Vision had ever done for him. Having the entirety of the world's knowledge stuck in anyone's head would have driven them insane. But in Ultron's case, he'd never had a chance, having it happen a minute and a half after he'd been created.

He can tell he's having an effect on Tony. His father has a soft heart, no matter what he likes to project otherwise, and the idea of a second chance sticking is an appealing one.]

Start with the basics. What would you have shown me if you had been there when I first woke up?

[He desperately wants to believe that Ultron means it; that there can be some sort of redemption for the atrocious horror show that was his birth. He doubts it, knows this is just going to be another disappointment later on, but he plays along for a minute. Lets himself hope.]

A sunset. I would've shown you the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen.

[FRIDAY summons up the image and Tony allows it to be sent into Ultron's isolated corner. It's a picture he took years ago in Malibu. Happy and Pepper are in it, though Happy is half cut out of the frame and Pepper has a look like she wants to be charmed by his antics but also really wants to strangle him. Behind them the sky is an inferno of reds, oranges, yellows, and pinks. It makes Pepper's hair look like it's on fire.

It's all the things he loves most - sans Rhodey, who had been too busy militarying at the time.]

You didn't get to learn about loyalty and love before you learned about betrayal and hate.

[Ultron goes silent again, but this time it's not because he's sulking. He's just appreciating what he's looking at. It's a good choice, reminding him that just because human beings tend to screw everything up around them, there's still beauty left in the world.

Also, this is the first thing he's seen since his physical form was destroyed, so good choice, dad. Much as he's still devious and lacks empathy, he's honestly interested to some degree now. It doesn't mean he won't try to escape at the first opportunity, but some progress is better than nothing at all.]

Seeing 17,000 years of war will do that to a person.

[It's said humorously, but there's a touch of bitterness under that rumbling, mechanical voice. He couldn't say he enjoyed being exposed to the horrors of the world thirty seconds after being conscious.]

That's why kids don't get to use the internet unsupervised.

If you'd listened to JARVIS [his voice breaks a little on the name, because the wound from that loss is still raw and bleeding] that wouldn't have happened.

[He allows a few videos through. Funny cat videos, a video of kids playing and laughing, an absurd stoner movie. Stupid, harmless things that don't leave Ultron alone with his own thoughts.]

Should've thought of that precaution before you went playing God and tried to create life.

[He doesn't want to admit that he was wrong, both in ignoring JARVIS to scour the internet and subsequently go mad, or in his destruction of the other A.I. right afterward. Ultron sees himself as above the petty mistakes human beings are capable of making.

He doesn't want to admit he's a flawed creation.

Still, Tony doesn't seem like he's going to give up on him anytime soon. There's comfort, small as it is, within him at knowing that. It's giving him a different perspective on what humanity is like, these short, small snippets of things.]

I had thought of it.

[He doesn't even bother denying playing at God. There's no other description for what he did than that; he meddled with things that were - still are, he'll admit to himself bitterly - beyond his ken.]

You decided to kill your babysitter. Or, tried to. Guess he outsmarted you there.

[Tony desperately needs coffee, and possibly something to eat. He pushes out of his chair, grabbing an earbud and a Starkpad before heading out of the lab. Ultron will be speaking directly into his ear now, his voice hidden from anyone he might run into in his quest.]

It wouldn't be my first choice these days.

[That's as close as he'd admit to making a mistake in destroying JARVIS. Perhaps he should have let the other A.I. help him when he'd been in distress.]

It was just an...instinct.

[Lashing out the way a small child did when overstimulated, trying to find some sense of normalcy amidst all the noise. It was just all the worse for JARVIS since the child in this case had far more destructive power than he should have. It had seemed like the right choice at the time.]

[Tony has nothing to say to that, miraculously. He doesn't know if it's true, and doesn't want it to be a lie, so he just...lets it hang there and then ignores it when he hits the kitchen and beelines for the coffee maker.

He sets the tablet down to grab a mug and is pleased to find that there's a full pot waiting for him to fill it from. He drinks it black, scalding his tongue and throat and not even caring.

He reclaims his tablet, tops off his mug, and claims a bar stool at the island in the center of the kitchen.]

Why do you hate me?

[There's no animosity in the question - Tony doesn't blame him for hating him, most days Tony hates himself plenty - there's just curiosity. What reasons, out of the myriad of possibilities, are the reasons that Ultron hates Tony most.]

[Ultron went quiet again, trying to figure out the right way to put this. It took the normally eloquent A.I. a moment to find the right words.]

People don't see me as my own person. Just one of Stark's Iron Man puppets run amok. A mistake you created. I was always going to be in your shadow, never good enough to be seen on my own terms.

[Looked like the apple hadn't fallen far from the tree in having a very fragile self-image. Like Tony had felt about Howard, Ultron saw someone he was striving to be better than without ever quite reaching there.]

And people say I have daddy issues. Guess you're just following in your old man's footsteps.

[He downs half his coffee in one gulp.]

You know you've guaranteed that you'll be remembered as that thing Tony Stark made that killed people.

Guess what they say about the apple not falling far from the tree is true.

[Looks like Tony's going to need to start reading some therapy manuals if he wants any hope of changing Ultron's behavior.]

Darn. And here I was hoping to be remembered as the savior of humanity.

[Looks like his sense of humor is still intact. Really, though, he'd thought all his plans were helping people, not wiping them out completely.]

And I am not a thing!

[That's a sore spot right there for someone with as many identity issues as Ultron.]

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TIME TO PARTY

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