#airon man au

[cowboyhorsegirl]

wait what if iron man really WAS a robot?? like Tony created a suit to get out of Vietnam but then he realized the chest plate wasn’t enough to keep the shrapnel from killing him over the long-term so he retrofits the suit into a robot and programs an AI that’s as close to a living legacy as he will ever get and then Iron Man the robot is who helps found the Avengers???

#and like I’m imagining that Tony models Iron Man’s decision making priorities after his own battlefield experiences #so the AI is based on tony and because it’s a learning AI it becomes more & more ‘human’ & like tony the more it has to make tough choices #both on & off the battlefield #and some of those choices will inevitably involve fellow Avenger Steve!!!! #who falls in love with this robot and by doing so teaches the robot to recognize that what it’s doing by placing Steve at a higher & higher #protection priority is love too!!!! #IM being the ghost of tony that Steve falls in love with without ever having known the creator oh gosh #616 #stevetony #Iron Man #my employer's opinions #AIron man au

[the-faultofdaedalus]

askdjfaklsdfj

someone: iron man! where's wasp!

iron man: silently opens faceplate, reveals janet, napping in a tiny hammock strung between some of the electronics on the inside of the empty helmet

someone: oh

#airon man au #post-reveal clearly #i think its cute. she is snoozing. #insert bees in bonnet joke #off-topic but do you think janet ever shrinks down to do fiberwork #like. she can sew the MOST precise embroidery when shes 2 inches tall #that would be fun #i think superheroes should use their superpowers for hobbies more

[starvels]

Any fun thots on this AU?

(No worries if you don’t, just love to hear ur thots on AI Tony and such things like it)

you are very sweet non! i personally trust @docdracula and @the-faultofdaedalus completely w this and love to chinhands watching them talk about it. i think my favorite bit was either ro saying jan would hide out in the empty armor helmet and fall asleep in an electronic hammock, that was DASTARDLY CUTE. or ev saying tony gives his voice to airon man but its his voice as he's in the cave dying: "The fact that, even at the end, he can’t bring himself to pass on his voice unfiltered. Even in death, the mask stays on." THAT WAS DASTARDLY DEVASTATING.

it's so good, it's such a juicy AU. i want ten 50k fics of it from all the perspectives. we should have a ficathon.

bc it is the most miserably, emotively, tragic story!!

both for tony og and for tony ai, not in the way that i've written it befoe where there's some sort of resentment in airon man (for the conditionals and protocols he is created with) but because of the longing, because of the love (it's tony stark, it was always going to be about the love); that tony should love airon man and create him and airon man should love tony and mourn him and never the two shall meet and never the two shall be able to co-exist because they are the presence in each other's absence. the gemini twins split at the core, the ouroboros eating itself. this is the tale of love and honoring someone and being birthed by someone who wants better for you but doesn't understand the horror of your birth that is hidden in the miracle. this is the story that can only exist as a tragedy.

and that kinda rips your heart out with a pair of tweezers, you know?

#AIron man au #ai tony stark #in a manner ~ #character talk #au #evren #rowan #our talk

[the-faultofdaedalus]

we never heard the howling in the heart

or the hollow when it came

#airon man au #lad… absolute lad… #i love him. something something hollow something #my art

[the-faultofdaedalus]

thinking of soulmate au with AIron man au where tony /was/ steve’s soulmate. steve wakes up from the ice and the avengers tell him they’re taking him to stark mansion and he lights up and asks “like… anthony stark? i have his name—“ and then they tell him the second worse piece news of this whole day, and that’s saying something: his soulmate died a month or two ago. heart attack in his early 20’s. it is tragically, enormously unfair. locked in the ice to reach the future and where his soulmate might be, only to find out he died bare months ago. it’s not like everyone meets their soulmate but for it to be like THIS it feels like a cruel joke.

still, steve does his best, and becomes friends with iron man. maybe develops more feelings for him. however it is, iron man is both relieved and… heartbroken, that tony was steve’s soulmate. when he was made he thought tony’s was dead for sure, and wouldn’t have to worry about it. on the one hand, steve isn’t going to be waiting around to meet a soulmate who he already knows is burried. on the other, iron man is a poor replacement for a person, let alone a soul mate. but it’s fine. they’re fine.

and then iron man goes missing and in order to find him and rescue him, the team has to figure out who he is. and everything they find out in relation to this points to tony having been the pilot. to him still being the pilot. and even though steve is terrified that they won’t be able to get to his friend in time he is still slowly growing more and more hope that… maybe his soulmate isn’t dead. and he’s sad and a bit angry because why not TELL him but they can figure that out, when they find iron man, when they get him back.

and then they do. and steve calls him tony, tentatively, like he isn’t sure even though he is, and iron man physically flinches and then has to tell steve. for the second time. that his soulmate is dead. that he isn’t his soulmate. that he doesn’t even have one, because he’s not a person.

because he never was a person. because all he is is nothing.

#:) #airon man au #i’m having a great time

[cowboyhorsegirl]

Perhaps Iron Man speaks in a modulated Tony’s voice, but it’s a softer, sadder voice that Tony showed to almost no one left living so who would hear this gentle, staticky voice and think ah yes Tony Stark? Maybe only Jarvis and Tiberius Stone and a few old girlfriends would recognize it if the modulation wasn’t there.

It’s The Voice of a man captive and dying, knowing his entire life has done nothing but seemingly hurt and destroy others, and trying to make one. last. thing. to make up for it.

The first thing Steve hears when he wakes up is the gentlest, saddest voice so shocked and worried, about him it turns out. And Iron Man doesn’t know, but everyone who really listens his voice thinks, oh, he needs a hug doesn’t he? And it’s partially why they are so gentle with him.

Oh god oh Fuck the rest of the team recognizing something so empty, so hollow in Iron Man that they treat him gently for it even though he is their most physically invulnerable team member

And the mental image !!!! of Tony dragging his broken, bleeding, weakening body around his lab, struggling to talk clearly through his labored breathing, speaking his last creation’s voice into existence by sheer force of will because damn him if he lets all the good that is Iron Man die because of Tony Stark’s sins.

The fact that, even at the end, he can’t bring himself to pass on his voice unfiltered. Even in death, the mask stays on.

#signed sealed delivered #anon #AIron man au #going insane y’all need anything while I’m there?

[the-faultofdaedalus]

something about socks as a gift,,, as the Default gift… it’s getting to me

fuck i was going to have that just as it’s own post and then ramble in the tags but i don’t want anything lost so fuck it. also this is about airon man so.

it’s just! sure sometimes it can seem low-effort and it often is, like, if you don’t know what else to get someone you get them socks. and lots of the time it is the path of least resistance but still! even with the easiest, simplest thing. it’s still a gift saying “i hope you are warm. i hope you are comfortable” and that’s. that gets to me!

and i’m just thinking, because the avengers don’t know much about iron man, they don't even know what he likes to eat or drink so they could get him snacks or smth as a gift, but they know it's a person in there, even if they know next to nothing about that person, so. they get him socks.

novelty socks, big thick warm socks, socks that have avenger designs on them. for YEARS, unless he's mentioned a book he wants to read or litterally anything else (he gets a very nice screwdriver bit set from hank, one year) that hints at some sort of interest, they get him socks. they get him gifts that says stay warm, stay safe, be comfortable.

and he can't wear them. he has a room in the mansion that no one else goes in and in the otherwise empty dresser there is a full drawer that is just neatly organized socks. that have never been worn. that his friends have got him. and he loves them! he loves that they get him anything, he feels so guilty every time they get him something meant for a human that he can't use, because even though he's never directly said that he is a person he still isn't correcting those assumptions, and there's always, always, that background level of longing that he was a human. that he could be a person.

and god, when the rest of the team finds out they're going to be so upset, they're going to feel like they were unintentionally rubbing iron man's face in the fact that he can never be what he wants to be and they're gonna feel awful. they're gonna ask him why, even if he couldn't say what he was, why he didn't just say that, like, he doesn't like socks!

and then he has to tell them that. no. he does like the socks, he likes having the socks, he thinks it's sweet that they got him gifts at all, he thinks the message the socks send is nice. he likes the socks, he's just sad he can't wear them

next year, janet knits him a massive pair that can go over the boots of the armor. if iron man could cry, he would.

#I JUST! HIM! #airon man au

[the-faultofdaedalus]

god i’m also just thinking of steve asking iron man what tony stark was like, because he’s the person who presumably knew him best, and just Having that conversation at all…

pain

#airon man au #iron man saying that he was a good person who would never believe he was #that he’s the reason he’s who he is now #that he owes. everything to him. #just telling steve stories about this dead man #and then quietly saying. i think you would’ve liked him. #and steve responding that. yeah. i think i would have. #im upset i’m making myself upset

[the-faultofdaedalus]

i am thinking of the Tragedy of tony always feeling like iron man was the better part of him, always resenting how much his own body held him back, wishing that he could just be iron man, feeling held back by being human

and then the ai iron man always wishing that it could be human. wishing it was more than the shell

#it’s TRAGIC ITS FUCKING TRAGIC #i’m having emotions i keep thinking about this instead of sleeping #which i need to do #uhhhh tag proposal #AIron man au #im very funny

[cowboyhorsegirl]

ev i also Need you to know that this is what orchid bees look like - they're so pretty and shiny i think they are SO perfect for tony/iron man. like. come on. lil red and gold bee. incredible no notes.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s so beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!! Lil bee friend mascot so AIron Man is never alone <333333333333333

#I could NOT have predicted how magnificent this bee would be #thank you ro I love it #AIron Man AU #signed sealed delivered #rowantreeisme #the WINGS???? translucent blood red wings????? incredible #Fuzzy 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🐝

[the-faultofdaedalus]

IDEA. AIRON MAN BESTIES WITH A ROGUE DOOMBOT WHO'S JUST TRYING TO BUILD THEIR OWN PERSONALITY AND LIFE OUTSIDE OF THEIR IMPLANTED MEMORIES..........

COULD BE AN ACCIDENTAL GAINING OF FREEDOM OF CONSCIOUSNESS, LIKE W/ SENTIENT ARMOR, BUT I ALSO THINK IT COULD BE RLLY NEAT IF THEY WERE A PROTOTYPE DOOMBOT THAT ENDED UP HAVING MORE FREEDOM AND CAPABILITY FOR GROWTH THAN INTENDED AND THEY'VE BEEN LIVING THEIR OWN LIFE SINCE (IDEALLY W/ VICTOR'S SUPPORT BC RESPECT FOR THE AUTONOMY OF HIS CITIZENS AND CREATIONS AND ALL THAT)

BONDING OVER THE TECHNOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS AND LIMITATIONS OF THEIR FORMS, THE PRESSURE TO APPEAR A SIMULACRUM OF A BIOLOGICAL ENTITY AND THE FEAR OF HOW OTHERS WOULD VIEW AND REACT TO THEIR TRUE SELVES, THE "I AM CONNECTED TO MY CREATOR, BUT I AM NOT HIM IN THE WAYS HE WAS HIMSELF AND I AM MORE THAT WHAT HE MADE ME FOR," THE STEMBOY SWAG, ETC........

I ALSO THINK IT COULD BE FUNKY TO EXPLORE LIKE. I AM AN INDIVIDUAL DISTINCT FROM MY CREATOR BUT I AM STILL TIED TO HIM. DO I FEEL OBLIGATED TO ONLY DRAW FROM HIS VISION? DO I FEEL GUILTY FOR ADDING ELEMENTS OF MY PERSONALITY TO HIS DESIGN OF ME? WOULD HE BE PROUD OF WHO I'VE BECOME?

TRULY THIS WAS JUST MEANT TO BE A VAGUE NOTION OF A POTENTIAL CHARACTER BUT I STARTED THINKING AND GOT HOOKED DJSLHFLSHFLS BUT YES HELLO

oh there literally are already feral doombots just Around. thats canon. they are... already sapient as far as im aware (but like, sapient in that they have enough of victor's memories and personality to successfully pretend to be him and sometimes for them to not know they aren't him. also they can feel pain. questioning why victor has made ten thousand cannon-fodder robots with also his whole brain in them which also can fully feel pain is a different post) but yeah feral doombots my beloved

there’s like…. at least two i know of. the one with the fancy coat and the one calling himself vincent that actually looks like a human, i love them. i have so many thoughts about feral doombots just Around and Vibin and its not like victor gives a shit. he can make new ones. whatever.

but also ;-; that's So good, especially if its somehow pre-reveal for iron man being Known as anything other than like, a human in an armor so perhaps he meets a doombot somehow (maybe it's stealing replacement parts from SI and when IM realizes that its not... actually taking anything dangerous hes like. oh. oh. because he's smart enough to also know why he isnt just going to get repaired like normal) and it's just, this sense of Recognition that iron man cannot say anything else

i think it would be good if it was like. iron man offers to help fix the bot. oor just, helps him. no expectation of anything else. and the doombot is supicious because of course it is, it was programmed by Paranoid Bastard Supreme, and it's not like iron man can even tell it why he wants to help it so badly, because even if he doesn't think it's actively a danger that doesn't mean giving it the information that he isn't human like everyone assumes wouldn't be... an incredibly bad idea. it's still attached to a supervillan, after all

(also sidenote but i am frothing at the mouth about potential doomquest in this universe it would be SO funny,,,,,, king arthur sends a pretty lady to iron man's room for "companionship" and iron man is just like. ah. ok. i dont know what is expected of me right now. also doomquest is very good to me, specifically, because its one of the only early comics things where almost anyone has more respect for tony than for iron man, which i enjoy, i think it would be SO good for airon man au especially if iron man is like. in danger of just... running out of power. technicallyyyyy i think this should also be a problem in canon, i think doomquest happens during chestplate era, where hes largely not able to go more than about a day without Dramatic Wall Outlet Time and yet hes fine just vibin in camelot (famously deprived of wall outlets) for at least a couple of days, but YEAH SEND AIRON MAN TO CAMELOT i think hed be both freaked out and also. sad that tony couldn't experience it. i think the background radiation of iron man's life is just... sadness that tony cannot experience any of the cool things he does)

but like... him continuing too help this doombot. maybe the doombot also helps him out somehow, as well. maybe subtly interveening in some fights. maybe giving iron man some neat lil tech tips. maybe a;klsdjfasdf the doombot still wants like. Something To Do and not just sit idle all the time or something so iron man hooks 'em up with a fuckin. tech support job. or like, product testing, for SI. something where he can just fix shit thats been broken in the stupidest ways or, try to destroy other things. who knows i dont. but maybe theres an attack at SI and iron man deals with it but hes damaged, and normally he'd like. hide away and do a quick n dirty patch job just so theres not obvious holes into nothing, but. the doombot follows him. and finds him. and its just... looking at eachother. knowing "oh fuck we're the same" and also "oh fuck he knows"

i think they should help fix eachother up and be buddies anyways it'd be good

#GOD good #wheeee bootleg doomtony go brrrrr #airon man au #just ;-; buddies #like i do think the rogue doombots are diverse enough #but i think Most of them would not go directly against victor #but also god. they help fixing eachother up and making eachother better im so. im soft #i do feel like generally the whole like. identity crisis from having made robot versions of yourself #is WAY less a thing in victor/the doombots than like. keeps happening with tony #tony: oh god what is me and what is not... at what point am i no longer myself #victor: if it has my face its me. and by face i mean the mask. #i think its fatal frontier where the ''if it has the mantle of doom it deserves the same respect as if it was me'' #i think its good i think its funny that victor just skipped the identity issues #i do hold this hc right beside the. theres Something about victor making killable versions of himself #maybe he will never allow himself to die but the doombots can #also like. theres Something about the fact that like.... victor very rarely and basically never Expresses feeling pain #(like whatever the newer comic was. judgment day or whatever. where he burns to death and doesnt even scream) #whereas the doombots on MANY occations like. scream in pain as they are killed #THERES SOMETHING. THERES SOMETHING THERE. I THINK. #theres something that i am Constantly rotating very quickly in my mind

[the-faultofdaedalus]

it’s about

robot iron man post-tony death semi-unintentionally pretending to be a human person because it doesn’t know how to do anything else and doesn’t want the people it cares about to know it isn’t anything at all 🤝 tony stark iron man pretending to be a robot so he doesn’t have to let his teammates know he’s just a flawed and fragile human who could die at literally any time because of his heart

#multiverse shenanigans they should meet it would be fun #espec bc they BOTH would be convinced the other is the same as them #even tony. even learning that he’s apparently dead in this universe #he knows himself he recognizes himself #he fully believes this version of him like. faked his own death or smth #and just lives in the armor #it’s not unbelievable! it almost happened! #it’s about the secret identity being that there is no secret #AIron man au

[cowboyhorsegirl]

just imagining iron man watching tony die in his arms minutes after powering up for the first time, minutes after alerting first responders as soon as he saw the unconscious body on the floor, minutes after trying in vain to administer chest compressions

iron man thinking it’s his fault Tony Stark dies. iron man thinking he failed to save him because he did not have any breath to give to his creator

#AIron Man AU #*gently holds before mercilessly crushing* #my employer's opinions

[the-faultofdaedalus]

AIron Man leaving a spare helmet shell somewhere in the mansion gardens and a small colony of bees turning it into an apiary

Iron Man shyly asking Jan for bee advice and her asking Jarvis to plant the right kind of flowers

Iron Man finding an Orchid Bee in his hive and becoming an apiary himself for the little thing to protect it and the hive both

(We ignore Orchid bees are like tropical and say no this one can be found in New York because comics. Let’s blame a Hank experiment)

Bee keeper Iron Man having a little bee keeping area as his hobby grows, collecting honey he gives away for free as gifts and the shelters and food banks (once he finds out the local health codes to make it safe)

Sometimes he puts a bit of honey in some tea that he holds but can’t drink and sits out there with his little flocks outside and his Orchid Bee with him inside

YES YES YES YES i love airon man doing beekeeping,,, thats so good. even outside of HDM au. i think it would be cute if he like, transformed old/redundant armor parts into beehives. both bee hotels for solitary and mason bees (also sidenote but PLEASE look up solitary bees in your area and how to make a bee hotel if your housing situation allows it, honeybees and other social bees are great but solitary bees are enormously underrepresented in media/save the bees stuff but are most bee species) and just, has them around the garden. little overgrown, happy buzzing hives in slightly tarnished red and gold.

he likes seeing his armor with the most life in it there's ever been :)

#ITS GOOD FOR HIM TO HAVE A HOBBY #and yeah beekeeping is. So cute #a;lksdjfasdfasdf GOD WAIT imagine if he goes and rescues swarms #just like. gets them to go in the armor #someone: hey IM what's up #iron man: *muffled buzzing noises* #GOD him holding a mug of nice warm tea with honey #unable to taste it or ever feel its warmth #god. fuck. god. #airon man au

[the-faultofdaedalus]

also i think it’s very funny for people to use weapons/magic specifically designed to harm the person under the amour but not affect the armour itself and of course this just. doesn’t fucking work. anything designed to interact with a biological system just isn’t going to do ANYTHING and everyone involved aside from iron man is going to be so confused about it

#there’s no biology to kill!!! he’s bio-less!!! #AIron man au

[the-faultofdaedalus]

AIron Man but it’s also a “His Dark Materials” AU, where of course Tony Stark had a daemon (or maybe he lost it in the attack and that’s also part of what killed him???) and AIron Man doesn’t. But he needs to pretend he has one or else people will know he’s not human!

So he says oh yeah it’s small enough to be in my armor all the time when asked. Eventually he builds this little mechanical daemon, to really sell the lie or because he WANTS and aches for humanity all his own?? Who can say. He’ll claim it’s also covered in armor for its protection, that’s why it looks mechanical

What form should his little wind up Daemon take? And is it sentient all its own or is it just a peripheral of himself?

Or maybe Tony made it for him in the image of his own Daemon and all that comes with it. Maybe it makes it all the more tragic should the little thing come to harm, it might now be his soul but it came from a source that is long gone.

Maybe it’s a little golden bee 🐝 or a spider clockwork🕷️. Something small that builds and makes.

this is SO GOOD i havent read HDM in years (and honestly it was amber spyglass that stuck with me the most, LOVE some good specbio) and god,,,, this is a lot,,,

theres so many good options. maybe he fakes that his daemon DID die and the armour keeps him from dying as well. maybe he fakes that it allows for a greater distance. i think a lil mechanical bug would be very good but consider: bee hummingbird. smallest bird in the world. absolutely tiny. just a little friend. especially since i do generally think of tony's daemon being a bird, even though i dont think iron man would take exactly the form that tony's would have been.

but also,,,, he just gets like. a pet insect or smth. just a normal-ass bee he keeps around and feeds and cares for. i think an orchid bee (look them up, they're VERY pretty. also, they're brood parasites, which is..... Something. they're also not eusocial, so having just one as a little buddy wouldn't be detrimental to them.)

#BEE BEE BEE BEE BEE BEE #or hummingbird. listen. #airon man au