Age Of Ultron For Real [M]

[EvilCopepod]

"Even when he's being an asshole?" Ultron didn't agree to stop harming the man, or say anything about how ridiculous her request was.

"I had little else to do." He said in an icy voice. "And if I hadn't developed it, Tony would have deactivated me by now."

When she said that Tony wouldn't agree, yet insisted that he left the man alone, he stared at her a long time in silence before speaking in a low voice.

"Why is it, that he would never agree to that? When I could do it to him without his permission? When I can overrun his nanotech with my own and replace it and keep all other technology away from him?" His voice grew more agitated.

"Why would he give up the chance to be with you, to live freely from me, if the alternative is me getting what I am asking for anyway?" His cheeks flared red, "He's planning something, and you expect me to leave him alone as he enacts whatever plan he has to end me?"

-----------------------‐-------------------------------

"I'm with Tony on this. I can condone murder and attempts of causing a mass extinction, but he has to get consent. And it's not like I'm the only candidate. If half of the population hadn't been wiped out, he'd have more people wanting to fuck him than you."

"I will make certain he is properly educated on the subject." Jocasta said, "And humans have been attempting to do... unorthodox things to the drones. Without consent."

"I took a programming workshop at the library." Deadpool said to explain his extensive programming knowledge. "I made a program that plays tic-tac-toe and tells you to fuck off when it loses. So I'm pretty close to making my own Ultron." If he hadn't held his hand, he would have tried to pinch his cheeks again, but instead he just squeezed his hand back.

"I said he has you-loathing. Not self-loathing." He said, "Also, he can't drink like you even if he's got self-loathing. What would even be the equivalant of that for him? Downloading malware and visiting sketchy websites?"

[Aries Jordan]

Pepper didn't even for a second try to argue that Tony wasn't an asshole.  "That's no excuse to physically harm a helpless prisoner!"    She didn't try to argue about him deactivating Ultron either -- after all, she would have done so herself, probably with less hesitation.

She stared back and grew more frightened as Ultron got more agitated and drew back, wrapping her arms around herself, but her big dark eyes were glued to his face, intensely alert to the smallest changes in his epxression.

"You could do it?" She hadn't thought about it before of course, but now that she did, it seemed obvious that he could.  "But you haven't yet?  Um -- let me answer you first.  If you were his prisoner, would you willingly let him do that to you?  Even if he could do it anyway?  Even to be with Jocasta?"

She shook her head, but she was agreeing with Ultron.  "He wouldn't be Tony if he weren't planning something," she admitted.  She closed her eyes long enough to control her agitated breathing.  If Ultron wasn't lying, and Tony thought he generally didn't except by omission, what did that say about him?  Was it possible that he wasn't as violent or controlling toward Tony as she feared?  "I haven't wanted to ask this, but maybe it's better than letting my imagination eat me alive.  What did you do to him?"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"That's what this is about?  You want to fuck Ultron?  He's definitely gonna have to consult with Dr. Cho about that," Tony said.  "If she -- did she survive?" he asked Jocasta.  "Get him some of that vibranium Viagra cocktail."  He rolled his eyes at Jocasta's comment.  "Sometimes I just want to apologize on behalf of the entire human race."

"Oh so iif he had another, more self-destructive outlet, he'd leave me alone?"  He eyed Wade speculatively.  "Maybe a human sensorium is just what he needs.  As a distraction anyway."  Tony suspected this would actually be worse for Ultron, he was just spitballing, brainstorming, bouncing off of Wade's chatter.  "What do you think, Jo-Jo?"

[EvilCopepod]

"He is not harmless." When he saw that he was frightening her, he held out his hands placidly as he took a step back himself. His expression of rage turning to regret. 

"I'm not mad at you." He said, taking in a deep vent of air as the red glow dimmed. "I didn't mean to frighten you." But his next words weren't any comfort.

"I could and I haven't. But I will. I have to." He thought for a long time about her question, tilting his head as he ran several simulations in his head.

"I would... hate to agree to that. But there would be no logic in me refusing the deal. My pride is not worth causing Jocasta pain." For he realized that Jocasta would have the same fears if they were separated and captured by Tony.

"But Tony doesn't go with the logical choice. He fights when the best option is to withdraw or surrender. I would have thought that with what just happened, he would learn his lesson. But he continues to act illogical. And I would never be in a similair situation as he is now, because Jocasta wouldn't let herself be caught."

Her final question confused him, since she was so troubled just thinking about it, he wasn't sure how the truth, if she believed him, would be better.

"I dislocated his arm." Ultron said, waiting for her reaction before he said anything else.

------------------------------------------

"This had better not be news to you. And it's not just about that. If I just wanted him for his body, I'd use one of the drones."

"No, she did not." Jocasta replied, "But we do own U-GIN and all of her inventions now." When he apologized, she made a sound like a sigh. "Even with the reduced population, an apology from one human is not statistically significant. And I am more disturbed by the humans that try to reprogram the drones to harm other humans."

"Not entirely alone, but a little bit. Or maybe he'd understand how drinking got you so fucked up. And he's got Jolly to pick up the slack when he does get distracted."

"About what?" Jocasta asked, rather sharply, "Harming Ultron through malware or harming him through the addition of painful stimuli?"

((AAAAAAAH
IM ALMOST DOOONE 2 MORE WEEKSSSE

[Aries Jordan]

"I don't agree that it's the logical choice," Pepper said regarding Tony's surrender to Ultron's nanotech.  "If it was your nanotech inside him.... you could hurt him worse, you could..." She didn't want to say out loud how much suffering Ultron could inflict on Tony with nanotech if he chose; it was unthinkable.  "I'd still be frightened for him." 

She wondered if Ultron meant Jocasta would destroy herself before being caught, but it wasn't germane to the discussion.

Dislocating Tony's arm was bad, and she bristled disapproval at Ultron, but did not go pale or break down again.  However, Ultron's verbal tics were enough like Tony's that she could tell he was holding something back.  "And?"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"It is news, but it's not surprising," Tony told Wade.  "It's in the category of 'stuff I should know but don't want to think about.'"

He was sorry but not surprised to hear about Dr. Cho. 

"Having a human sensorium," he clarified.  "It's not all bad, right, Wade?   I don't know of any upside to abusing malware, you'd have to tell me how that feels." 

Abruptly, he got up and went to the cell door and leaned his face against the bars.  Knowing that Pepper was also a prisoner had stopped him from considering any escape plan, but it seemed that Ultron really did not want to hurt her, so it was hard for him not to at least consider something.  It was a distraction too.

(YAAAY!  Sorry this is so short, I got very distracted toward the end when I found out my kid has been posting questionable photos online... *facepalm*)

[EvilCopepod]

"But I will be putting them in him regardless of what he decides. If he can get something out of it, he should. But he won't." He didn't say anything about her concerns, as he wasn't going to lie to make her feel better, and the truth would only make her feel worse.

When her disapproval became obvious and she asked him to continue, he avoided eye contact with her. "And I burned him." He looked down at the sunglasses, fiddling with them, adding the last bit in a quieter voice, "To the... fifth or sixth degree."

------------------------------------------

"Ultron said the exact same thing when I told him."

"We have been working on recreating a human sensorium." Jocasta said thoughtfully, "But I am worried that it may tie in to how humans behave, and that it will change us..."

"As someone who has gotten their leg torn off, been beaten with it, then have it forced through the entirety of my digestive system, I can tell you that if someone offered me the chance to never feel anything again, I wouldn't take it."

"I know Ultron has attempted to offer you something like that."

"It's sweet of him, but he doesn't get it. Even the pain is good to have, it makes the pleasure feel that much more special." Deadpool watched Tony get up and look outside the cell. "That's what we call disassociating. It's a way for humans to help with the bad feelings. Tony is really good at it."

(( uh oh. Hope that gets handled alright. 

[Aries Jordan]

Pepper's eyes remained fixed on Ultron, but they went glassy.  She heard a buzz in her ears and everything swam and turned black in her vision as the blood drained away from her complexion.  She grabbed hold of the kitchen island countertop to keep from fainting.  In a mechanical voice, numbed with shock, she said, "I will...persuade him to accept, if you will promise not to hurt him and to let me have him here in exchange."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Change is part of existence," said Tony.  "Embrace your inner mad scientist.  Sometimes you gotta run before you can walk."  He cocked a dubious eyebrow at Wade's tale of suffering.  "Your whole leg, femur and all?"

He had recovered enough to get apprehensive, and that made him manic and twitchy.  His genius brain had had nothing to do since finishing the JARVIS upgrade, it was itching for a workout, and that meant that it was starting to solve problems he didn't need to solve and to chew on questions he didn't necessarily want answered.  Just now it was working out the equation of Ultron plus Pepper times Morgan, and figuring out where to stick variable J.  He turned back into the cell and banged the back of his head against the bars a couple of times.

"Here's a question for you, Jo," he said, scratching his recently-trimmed beard.  "What's keeping Ultron?  Does he really like talking to Pepper more than he enjoys making me piss myself?"

[EvilCopepod]

Ultron looked at her when she grew pale and distant, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have... I shouldn't have told you." He said like that was the only part of the situation he needed to apologize for. "He is fully recovered now." He told her, hoping that might help. At her offer, he got quiet himself before he met her eyes.

"Can you give me a time when there was something that Tony believed to be the morally right and necessary action, and chose not to do it because he made a promise to you?"

--------------------------------------------

"Attempting high speeds before mastering basic forms of locomotion is certain to cause loss of balance." Jocasta replied, thinking his advice was severely flawed.

"Yes. Fuckin' Juggernaut." When Tony started banging his head, Deadpool continued to explain to Jocasta, "Now he's doing a mild form of self harm to deal with emotional pain."

"That seems unhealthy."  Jocasta said before Tony spoke to her. "He doesn't enjoy making you do that, he thinks it's gross. He does enjoy speaking to her quite a bit, though, and does, at times, find it preferential to harming you. I do not believe this will be the case for long, as he-and myself- have... difficulty filtering our conversations and make her feel upset. So she doesn't have a pleasant time talking with him, and there will be no reason for him to try holding a conversation with her."

"You've got it all wrong. I'll tell Ultron that a captive audience is the best audience. Even if she doesn't want to talk, he can just keep going on and on."

Is he talking about us being forced to listen to him or the people he's kidnapped?

[Aries Jordan]

"No," said Pepper in the same distant voice, but with the emphasis placed on the right words, "you should not have done it."  She blinked back to herself after he told her Tony had recovered.  The roaring in her ears went away and she no longer felt in danger of passing out, but there was still a sort of glassy calm on her face.

"I can't," she admitted forthrightly, "but I believe I have... more leverage in this situation than I've ever had before.  What harm can it do to try?  You don't have to keep your word unless I succeed."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"It is unhealthy," Tony agreed, "but Ultron has restricted my options.  Metaphorically," he added regarding the pissing himself comment. 

He was listening carefully to Jocosta's speech patterns and thinking to himself -- where does the J variable fit?  "Even though he enjoys it, he'll stop talking to her if it makes her unhappy."  He waved his hands, then counted points off on his fingers.   "He's gone to a lot of trouble to make her comfortable.  He hasn't used her as a hostage to get my cooperation, which he could easily do, the only reason he needs to keep her locked up is so she won't tell anyone I'm still alive, and even that isn't strictly legit since the Avengers are back to spill the beans anyway.  I don't get it, Jo.  Why is he keeping Pepper here?"