Noise was easy, except for how it wasn't. Jarvis could hum and cough and whine high in the back of his throat, snort and groan and laugh (after a fashion, anyway, though it was more like a bark of sound than the way anyone else shared amusement). All of those things were possible according to the anatomy that remained intact, but they were all absolutely discouraged on every possible level. Even those sounds that were sort of incidental to being living and breathing- like breathing or sneezing or coughing, or making noises the way people did when they stubbed a toe or burned their fingers- weren't allowed. No one wanted to hear them and they were uncomfortable reminders that Avoxes were people... or they used to be, anyway.
Jarvis didn't know what to do with himself in the moment. It was so daring to sit like this, to let himself look at Master Stark- his face, the animated twist of his mouth and gesture of hands that probably needed a wipe before oil ended up on the furniture- that Jarvis could feel it like a fever. It brought a flush to his cheeks and a slight judder to his heartbeat, and his hands felt clammy where he still held list and pen close, like letting them go would represent some final loss of pretense. Then he would just be sitting. Idle.
Mention of his age, that vague moment in time in which his family and the Starks had occupied the same social circles, made him shrug and gesture roughly a couple of feet off the ground. This big, which wasn't big at all, followed with a little pinch between his brows that conveyed disapproval attached to nothing at all. He couldn't remember boredom or what that older man might've yammered on about, and Master Stark's scores hadn't stuck with him at all. No reason for him to memorize them.
But. Seemed like he ought to be responding somehow, even if a moment later, he'd ducked down again to hide what was probably irrational pleasure at interacting. Smiling like an idiot wouldn't make this appear like any better of a decision between the two of them. So long as he kept it minimal, there was still room to go back and pretend none of this ever happened.