Status: Finished. No sequel.

My Favorite

Age - 13 Years

“Jarvis?” I called as I hunched over the desk in my room. I’d grown out of dolls and toys and cartoons soon after my tenth birthday. I’d become increasingly interested in computers and electronics, leading my father to buy me the state of the art tools I begged and pleaded for. If it got me out of his hair, he would oblige immediately.

“How may I assist you, Miss Stark?”

“Can you help me with my homework?”

“Absolutely. What do you need help with?” I didn’t need help. Jarvis knew that, too. But I was lonely, always lonely. I didn’t have many friends, they were more interested in being friends with my money than with me. Their parents knew we went to school together, and pushed them to get into my circle. I didn’t want that, so I didn’t really talk to anyone besides Jarvis.

He’d been upgraded a lot, recently. Dad finally perfected his emotion programming, so conversing with Jarvis was like talking to an actual person. I often forgot that Jarvis was only an A.I., which made it less sad that my only friend wasn’t even corporeal.

As Jarvis explained the problems to me – as he’d always done, because he was the one who taught me almost everything I knew – I halfheartedly wished that we had a real butler, so that I could feel less solitary in the world.

“Are you alright, Miss Stark?” I broke myself out of my thoughts and looked up at the ceiling. I wasn’t even sure if that was the right place to look. But Jarvis was everywhere, and that only seemed right.

“I wish you were real, Jarvis.”

“I am most certainly real, Miss Stark. I am no figment of your imagination.”

“I meant like a person, Jarvis. I wish you were a person.”

“Oh. I am sorry for the misunderstanding, Miss. I’m afraid I am not real in that sense of the word. It is near impossible.”

“Near impossible? How is it near impossible?” I asked, sitting up in my chair. Jarvis was silent for a short time, as if processing my request, and finally answered.

“In the same way that Sir has me uploaded into multiple areas, such as Stark Tower, his suit, and your cellphone, I can be loaded into an animatronic body. But it would be very difficult – a convincing and fully functional body would take years to perfect, and Sir would need to write a program for me to know the workings of the body. It would take time, something Sir does not have much of, in these times.”

I looked up and wondered what it would take to build a body for Jarvis. Time, money, and definitely the brains – I don’t have any of those, but maybe Jarvis could help me?