"Multiple personality disorder?" Inside Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, Stark and Steve exchanged puzzled looks, then simultaneously turned towards Charles who had dropped this diagnosis.
"Tony, I remember telling you before that Shiller is mentally ill," Charles said.
Steve turned his gaze towards Stark, who rubbed his nose and said, "I thought that was an adjective, you know, he's sometimes a bit..."
He sighed and admitted, "Okay, I knew he wasn't quite right. There's this vibe that he..."
Stark gesticulated, trying to find the words. After a few seconds, he said, "He's trying to pass as a normal person, but his understanding of normal life is so inadequate that it feels like he's trying too hard."
"Isn't that a bit exaggerated?" Steve reminisced, responding, "I think he's pretty normal."
"You know what? Peter still believes that his good doctor is indeed a regular guy," Stark shook his head, "Even if he's not mentally ill, he's definitely a damned conman."
"What I'm more curious about is if he really is suffering from multiple personality disorder, why haven't we seen his other personalities emerge before?" Steve turned to Charles with the question.
"Typically, individuals diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder develop other personalities after particular stimuli. It might just be that some stimuli have now brought his other personalities to the surface."
"Stimuli? What kind of stimuli has he recently been exposed to?" Stark pondered aloud, rubbing his chin, "Although it's possible Hydra affected him, I have a feeling we're not on the right track..."
"You might want to consider another approach," Charles suggested, "Remember when you invited me to adjust the personality analysis module for your AI butler, Jarvis, in your lab? The purpose was to provide you with support in psychology and behavior."
"I must admit, you've truly achieved incredible results in artificial intelligence. It feels like I'm not communicating with a machine, but teaching a real person."
"Jarvis is an excellent student. He has unparalleled advantages in learning, and his comprehension and associative abilities far exceed the level of an intelligent life form. You could say he's achieved mastery."
"If he had a body, I believe he could easily earn several PhDs. He might even teach at a renowned university."
Stark, unusually modest in front of Charles, expressed his surprise, "To be honest, I just hoped he would help me analyze suspicious people. If he's truly that intelligent, wouldn't I have a portable expert in psychology?"
Charles shook his head, "In theory, he could be considered an expert. But empathy is vital in psychological therapy. Jarvis' understanding of psychology and behavior is based on somewhat rigid logic. His grasp of emotions hasn't reached this level yet, so you shouldn't rely on him to solve your mental issues."
Stark chuckled, "I recall a certain greedy doctor who charged me a few million dollars. Now, with the roles reversed, I can let Jarvis treat him..."
Charles smiled, "I bet that would be an interesting scene, but don't get your hopes up too high. Shiller must have some level of awareness about his condition, or that is to say..."
Charles showed an odd expression, triggering Stark to prompt, "What?"
"From my understanding of him, his situation might exceed Jarvis' therapeutic capabilities."
"Alright, I was just mentioning it," Stark said casually, "Anyway, if a real problem comes up, we still have you, Professor, don't we?"
Charles' expression became even stranger. After a pause, he sighed and said, "Actually, his condition might also exceed my therapeutic capabilities."
Stark gestured dismissively. He felt Charles was just being modest. Ever since Stark started knowing Professor X, he had to admit that this was a man of high moral standing. Powerful, gentle, humble, polite; you could hardly ever hear him boasting about his accomplishments. Hence, Stark simply chalked it up to Charles being modest.
However, he soon realized his mistake.
It was another morning, and Shiller was standing by the buffet counter at SHIELD's canteen, selecting bread. He heard the mechanical clank from behind and without turning said, "This is the first time I'm learning that your armor needs to eat."
"Hey, aren't you going to look back? Check out this beautiful fella, fresh from genius Stark's lab!" Stark spread his arms. The passing SHIELD agents turned their heads to marvel at Stark's shimmering new armor.
Shiller's Mark Armor from the Civil War incident had been scrapped due to its severe damage and depleted energy. The armor Stark was now wearing was a brand new Mark Armor, still shiny from the factory.
Natasha happened to walk by and whistled at Stark. He pointed at her approvingly, indicating her good taste, which made the surrounding agents cheer louder. Stark soared into the sky with a "whoosh," increasing the cheers. He waved his arms like a superstar.
Shiller finished selecting his bread, grabbed a small piece of cheese, a burger and some lettuce, then walked off to the dining table without a backward glance.
Once the crowd had dispersed and Stark was back on the ground, a blue analysis panel appeared in his vision. He asked, "What's the result, Jarvis? Have you figured it out?"
"Behavioral data is insufficient. I need to continue collecting data."
"All right..." Stark turned around to get food, and then sat down opposite Shiller with a "clack", his face guard raised. Shiller glanced at him and said, "You said yesterday your anxiety wasn't acting up. Why wear the armor for meals today?"
"Is there a necessary connection?" Stark asked, not understanding.
"Of course, the reason you used to like wearing armor all the time is because of the terror and unease brought about by your anxiety disorder. You saw mechanical weapons as a sort of solace, a way to alleviate your anxiety."
"Uh... it's not because of that this time." Stark denied, but bringing up his anxiety disorder reminded him of other things. As he ate, he asked, "By the way, how exactly did my anxiety disorder get better? I can't remember when I started noticing an improvement."
"If you need it, I can send you his medical records. Though I always felt he was too verbose when analysing the causes of illnesses, it should be enough for a layman to understand." Shiller said, wiping his sleeve.
"He?" Stark stared at Shiller inquiring, "Who do you mean?"
"My other personality, who else? You and Steve Rogers must have gone overnight to find Professor X, right? Then he told you that I have multiple personality disorder."
"It seems that even though you have different personalities, you still share your mind-reading abilities."
"It's not mind reading, just psychology."
Stark found that the man in front of him, who claimed to be another personality of Shiller, spoke and expressed himself somewhat differently than the Shiller he was familiar with. His voice seemed colder, pitch lower, expressions were less variant, and Stark noticed that his blink rate was completely constant.
Then, he looked down at Shiller's plate. After messing around with a fried egg yesterday, today he was messing with a beef patty, moving it from left to right, then right to left, eventually putting it aside as if disgusted.
"Aren't you going to eat?" Stark asked, leading to Shiller shaking his head, prompting Stark to ask again, "Then why did you take it?"
"Because there were no more fried eggs."
"So why, when there are no more fried eggs, do you have to take a beef patty? And then not eat it, just push it around?"
Shiller pursed his lips, showing an expression of slight impatience, as if he couldn't communicate with Stark at all. "Because I need something round, understand?"
Stark didn't at all, but he did realize one thing: this personality was definitely off their rocker.
"Do you know? Where I live, no one cares about these trivial matters. The way you're looking at me makes me seem like a madman, but in fact I'm just a normal person, not accustomed to your society." Shiller continued speaking while eating.
"Your living place?" Stark became even more confused. He had never encountered such a weird patient before. Out of curiosity, he asked, "So what is your identity? Do you share memories? Can you communicate?"
"Why not ask that artificial intelligence that's about to tell you the result?" Shiller said without lifting his head.
Then Jarvis' voice rang in Stark's ear, but it wasn't the usual string of data reports he usually heard, but a hesitant voice, "Sir, I suspect there's a problem with my behavioral analysis data..."
"What's wrong?"
"I conducted the detailed analysis and obtained the data, but... it doesn't seem like data I should have gotten."
Stark spread soft cheese on his bread. He said, "Don't worry, this system indeed needs some debugging, so it's normal to have some issues. Give me the data first."
"Behavioral logic analysis completed, autism spectrum disorder probability is 58%, antisocial personality disorder is 22%, Asperger syndrome is approximately 11%, other comprehensive disorders are around 9%. More importantly, this does not coincide at all with Dr. Shiller's recorded behavioral logic..."
Looking at the sequence of medical terms he had never seen before, Stark wasn't surprised. Jarvis then said, "I feel there may be some problems with the data that this system analyzed..."
"Analyzing the data, I can't determine which one is actually Dr. Shiller's primary personality. This does not match the symptoms of dissociative identity disorder. No matter which of the two personalities that have appeared, they both express too complete and independent to be a potential secondary personality."
Jarvis tried to explain to Stark about the related knowledge, and Stark listened very seriously, and he understood basically all of it. He concluded, "So, you're saying that comparing the performances of these two personalities, you can't judge which of them is the main personality occupying the leading position. This doesn't look like multiple personality disorder but rather like two souls living in one body?"
"Wait..." Stark narrowed his eyes, "Do you still remember what Steve mentioned before? If one day he becomes a stranger, we mustn't rule out the possibility of him becoming Hydra..."
With that, Stark slowly looked up, pretending to be casual, and tried to observe Shiller. It was just right, those familiar eyes across from him were also looking at him with a slightly icy gaze.