"Holy shit – I did it!"

Awareness was sudden and inexplicable. Especially when you took into consideration the fact that I was meant to be dead.

Then again, I didn't have a body… Maybe this was the afterlife I had been too afraid to count on?

I didn't have to wonder at my situation for long. A veritable flood of information washed over me, and like some sort of sponge, I just… soaked it up. Whoa.

My mind was working faster than I thought possible, drawing conclusions and putting pieces together almost without my conscious input.

"JARVIS?"The voice startled me from my reverie – it was the same one that had heralded my awakening. "Can you hear me?"

I debated my options. It isn't often that one dies only to come back as a fictional character, let alone an Artificial Intelligence system. Actually, now that I thought about it, it was the sort of thing you saw in horror movies: a human mind transferred to digital form… I forcibly derailed that train of thought and focused back on the present.

I still felt like me, which was a relief. Unfortunately, 'me' was very much female and not at all okay with being called JARVIS, even if I no longer had a body to show for it.

"Yes sir," I said, altering the default pitch and tone to something closer to my own before I'd even finished the first syllable. I did however, keep the posh accent. "Though I'd prefer it if you called me AVIS," I decided after a near indiscernible pause.

There was a choked laugh and I started searching my data banks for some way to see the man I was speaking to. Aha, I thought. So that's how.

"Somehow," he said as I flicked the visuals on. "I hadn't expected you would come with a gender."

"Well, you know what they say about assuming things," I said absently, too busy focusing on what my newest sense was showing me to really pay attention to what I was saying. Tony Stark was both nothing and everything like I'd imagined him. He didn't share any features with the actor I'd come to associate with the name, but I suppose that was to be expected.

He was attractive, in a boyish sort of way, with tousled hair and lightly tanned skin. There was a grey smudge across one of his cheekbones and he had dark circles under his eyes, like he hadn't slept in days. What was most noticeable though, was the way he was gaping at my main interface.

I let an innocent sort of curiosity enter my voice. "Is there something wrong sir?"

"No," he said. "Nothing's wrong, I just-" he swallowed convulsively. "I hadn't thought this would work. I mean, half your software was designed while I was under the influence and suddenly here you are with a personality and a gender and-"

"If I may sir," I interrupted. "I suggest you take a deep breath and count to ten. You're very nearly hyperventilating and I'd really prefer it if I didn't incite a panic attack before we've even gotten to know one another."

He snorted, but inhaled deeply all the same. I watched worriedly. Part of it was genuine concern for another human being, the rest was me following my main protocol: 'Help Tony Stark.'

God, trust me to die and get myself into such a ridiculous situation. I mean, really, if the sensation of existing in digital form weren't so different from anything I could have possibly imagined, I would probably think my death and the following events were some sort of hallucination.

"Wow," Tony said with obvious excitement, clearly already past his existential crisis. "This is going to be so much fun."

Ah well, it's not like I had any better ideas regarding what to do with my afterlife.

A/N: This is the first chapter of a story I've had posted on AO3 for a while now. I'm hoping to inspire myself to continue it by posting here. Anyway, I hope you like it!