Room 307, Wednesday Evening

[dollpocalypse]

Freshly back from what had been, without a doubt, the coolest class ever, Topher was back in his room, playing around with his AI schematics. Yes, strictly speaking, those had been part of a collaborative project with Tony -- or even loosely speaking, really, because the project had been sort of for Tony in the first place -- but come on, could you resist the appeal of poking at artificial intelligence schematics right after having a class taught by someone who was, to all appearances, an actual artificial intelligence?

Didn't think so.

And it wasn't like he was going to actually implement them, or anything. But if he was working on coding a distinctly terrifying personality just to see if he could, then that was totally okay.

Yup. Totally okay.

[[door and post open!]]

Comments

[ultron_junior]

Victor appeared at Topher's door and leaned in. "Hey," he said. "So are you busy or anything?"

He needed to share his somebody-looks-like-me trauma, and, while Topher wasn't precisely comforting, he tended to be logical. Logic was usually a better way to talk Victor down.

[dollpocalypse]

You could tell that Topher was the best big sibling ever because of how he gave one last longing look at his evil code before closing his laptop. "Nah, what's up?"

[ultron_junior]

"Did you see me talking to that guy Jackson during class today?"

Because clearly that had been the interesting part about what had happened in the classroom.

[dollpocalypse]

Topher thought back. "...I might've been distracted?"

He had definitely been distracted. Crushing on GLaDOS, mostly, with a minor side-crush on the shiny portals and the long-fall boots.

Hush.

"Why, was he a dick to you? I heard from that guy Stiles that he's a dick."

[ultron_junior]

No, no, the boots were awesome! Any other day and Vic would have been all about a good crush on the boots.

"Well, yeah, but it's why he was a dick that bugs me," Victor said carefully. "I look like some guy he and Stiles know at home."

He had android feels about it.

[dollpocalypse]

"Whoa," Topher said, sitting up properly now instead of where he'd been sprawled on his bed for optimal computer-use. "You think he's... like you? All... sparky and stuff?"

Very diplomatic there.

[ultron_junior]

"I asked Stiles and he said the other guy has different powers," Victor said, with a tiny smile at the 'sparky.'

"But, y'know, what if he's like me but he he lies? What if he just doesn't know? I mean, just from an engineering standpoint, I wouldn't make just one copy of a prototype and stop, would you?"

On the other hand, Ultron had been kind of terrible at planning.

He flopped back against the wall, heedless of that. "I could be, like, one in a series of 50 scattered all over the country. Like in that cylon show."

[dollpocalypse]

"Okay, first of all, that wouldn't be the worst thing," Topher informed him. Thanks, Topher. "But he could also be... you know, just a dude with your face? Like Kate and Natalie, or me and that weird guy who talks to his toy tiger."

[ultron_junior]

"Dude, if there are 50 of me, probably 30 of them are evil," Victor said pessimistically.

Kate and Calvin hadn't been around much since he came to the island, but after remembering back to the week on the changed island Victor thought he knew what Topher meant.

"And, I dunno," he said, frowning. "I want to think it could just be a weird coincidence..."

[dollpocalypse]

"I mean, it probably is," Topher said. "Like, if he doesn't even have the same powers as you... do you know what they are like? Maybe they're not even the kind that could be programmed."

[ultron_junior]

"Stiles said fur, but that could be a mutant thing," Victor said. "Either Ultron used a mom with the gene, or it was spontaneous, or he added in a little extra DNA as a science project."

He sighed. "I could tell if I met the guy, but that'd be weird."

[dollpocalypse]

"Yeah, you'd get all magnety, wouldn't you?" Topher guessed. "Which might mean sporadic hugging. And that would be awkward."

But possibly nice! Victor did have the look of a good hugger.

[ultron_junior]

Victor laughed at that mental image. "Well, first, I'd sense his network, and second, I'd probably, um, have a seizure. But the spontaneous hug theory is way more interesting, so let's go with that."

[dollpocalypse]

"...yeah, the seizing would be a lot worse," Topher decided. "So maybe try to... not meet him? That would be my brotherly advice."

He was so wise.

"I'd just go with the concluding he's a weird doppelganger thing," he concluded. "And anyway, Stiles seems cool, so if he likes him? Probably not evil."

[ultron_junior]

"Maybe," Victor said, though he knew that if he found out Scott was on campus he'd have 20 seizures before he passed up the chance to poke at him. "I hope so. Anyhow, it's not like I can do anything about it, short of demanding Stiles take me home and introduce me. And that'd be a little bit weird."

Just a touch, Victor. But he had considered it.

[dollpocalypse]

"He might want you to buy him dinner first," Topher supplied, because come on, the opening was right there. "Or in his case, Cheetos. Probably Cheetos."

...Let's hope humor helped your android issues, Victor.

[ultron_junior]

Victor took a second, but when he got it, he snorted an actual laugh. "Okay. No hitting on the guy whose best friend I look like. Understood."

He closed his eyes, opened them feeling more centered. Still kind of worried, but centered. "So how are you tonight? I should ask, now that I've been Mr. Random Issues all over you."

[dollpocalypse]

Let's face it, Victor/Stiles would be both the cutest and the weirdest ship ever.

"Eh, they're reasonable cyborg issues," Topher declared, waving a hand. "I'm mostly stuck on the whole thing where holy crap, we have an AI as a teacher. And coding. Also coding."

The two were related.

[ultron_junior]

"Always coding," Victor said, not that he wasn't curious what the project was. "I have no idea what to think of GLADoS yet. She seems kind of ..... advanced, just to teach gym."

[dollpocalypse]

"I think you mean she seems kind of fantastic," Topher corrected him. "And... robotic of some kind, which is a massive plus, and either that room has some impressive tech in it or she does."

So basically, he loved her. A lot.

"I was... kinda seeing if I could make Tony's and my AI project a little more like her."

Because Topher wanted to be killed by neurotoxin. Or something.

[ultron_junior]

"She might be part of the room," Victor speculated. "All the tech we saw could be integrated. Hard to tell without talking to her more than we got to."

He drummed his fingers together. "You want your AI to teach gym?"

That was a joke. Sort of.

[dollpocalypse]

"Yeah, I have to figure out when her office hours are so I can go meet her," Topher decided. "You know. 'Meet.' However that works."

Because he was a stalker, okay? This couldn't be news.

Then, grinning-- "And nah, I just want it to be really mean. We were originally going for 'rude and British,' but she's kind of awesome even without being British, so..."

[ultron_junior]

"So you figure, Americans can be rude too," Victor finished. "Okay, but -- and this might be me being dumb -- how come you want it to be a jackass to you?"

[dollpocalypse]

Funnily enough, this very question would come up again later in Topher's life, except Amy Acker would be on top of him.

"...For entertainment?" Duh, Victor. "Plus, then if I'm using it to check my work or whatever, it's better if it doesn't just agree with whatever I say."

[ultron_junior]

"Make it smart enough and it'll be able to disagree with you without being a jerk," Victor said, but idly: This was Topher's project, not his. "But hey, if you think insults are funny, go forth."

[dollpocalypse]

"That's the plan," Topher decided. "It's just for practice, anyway. I... have no idea what's going on with the actual project."

Seeing as how he hadn't had an actual conversation with Tony that hadn't led to skittering away ever since the BDE and all.

[ultron_junior]

"It's been a weird month," Victor shrugged. "I can see letting stuff kind of fall to the side."

[dollpocalypse]

Topher nodded. "Especially, uh, Tony stuff."

Wow, that nervous tic of wringing the hell out of his hands was really something.

"So yeah."

[ultron_junior]

Victor was, for a 17-year-old left-brained half-android, a fairly intuitive person.

However, he was still 17 and left-brained, and the only times he'd seen Tony and Topher together recently, there had been a lot of other distractions. So: "... there's a Tony problem?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Um." Now, it was possible that Topher was a drama queen, mind. "In the other world? And stuff? There was... fighting and stuff. And he and I haven't really talked about it, so..."

[ultron_junior]

"So, he's probably cool with it, right?" Victor guessed. "I mean, if he wanted to say something, he would. It's not like it was totally us."

Repressing and being cool with something were totally the same thing, right?

[dollpocalypse]

Topher mumbled a slightly-less-than-fully-intelligible version of-- "Well for me and him it sort of almost was."

Awkward.

[ultron_junior]

"Except with a whole bunch of experiences you hadn't had," Victor said, a bit unsteady, and now he was rubbing at the spot of skin inside his elbow that hid his access port. "I don't know. I'm just saying, to him it's probably over."

[dollpocalypse]

"Maybe," Topher mumbled, but he wasn't quite convinced. On account of having the weirdest guilt issues ever. He'd never had a moral crisis before, okay? "It's hard to tell. He's all... Tony."

Eloquent.

[ultron_junior]

"Still better than the one at home," Victor mumbled back, and sighed. "Look, you think he'd even take the time to talk to you if he thought you were broken deep down?"

[dollpocalypse]

"Kind of," Topher said. "He talks to his supervillains, probably. Provides banter and stuff."

Topher, really.

[ultron_junior]

Victor reached over to swat Topher lightly on the shoulder, rolling his eyes. "Right. And he also takes supervillains to the Savage Land. For banter."

[dollpocalypse]

Topher had to admit Victor had a point there. "He might if he's trying something strategic with them?" he tried, but without much conviction behind it. Because... no. "Okay, I see your point."

[ultron_junior]

"Good. Sometimes I have one," Victor said firmly, and ran a hand back through his hair before something else occurred to him. "Are you still mad at him?"

[dollpocalypse]

"What? No." Topher blinked. "He was all... you know, doing good stuff. Like. Anti-me stuff. Which was good."

[ultron_junior]

"Oh! Right." That actually made sense. "So ... I dunno, man. I think it will be okay."

[dollpocalypse]

"If you say so," Topher said, a little dubiously but not nearly as much as he would've been at the beginning of the conversation. "Man, Fandom sucks sometimes."