Questions for a Clockwork Woman

Asking Intimate Questions of a Clockwork Woman

The following fanfiction is covered under the Creative Commons License, CC-BY-SA 3.0 and is based on "SCP-2412" by "Choiwel".

I've wanted to write this for some time ever since I read the entry about a year ago. I thought it was pretty conceptually straightforward, but absolutely drenched with romantic potential. Thus, I give you this short inspired tale.

"This is such bullshit, Harden! Why is there so much protocol about asking someone a few simple questions?" Carter glared over the desk at the site administrator.

Harden slumped in his chair and rolled his eyes. His office at the end of the hall was quiet and cold like it always was, thanks in good part to the air conditioning providing ample white noise for the occasion. He was quite content in his position over the researchers of sector 125 and aimed to keep it that way.

"Look, Carter..." he groaned, "you are no longer the team lead on this project and besides, 05 command is very strict about this stuff. You are no longer allowed to be in contact with SCP-2412. I swear you've gotten so attached to that thing."

"Her name is Cassandra." Carter mumbled. "She told me that."

"It does not matter. Her designation is 2412. She is an SCP, an anomaly that cannot be explained by the laws of nature and is therefore under Foundation control."

"She isn't a threat to anyone! She's not an indestructible reptile, or a statue that strangles people. She just wants to be asked questions!"

"Carter, I will remind you one last time why she is a threat." Harden adjusted his tie and grabbed a clipboard containing her files. "SCP-2412 is a steam-powered automaton possessing the appearance of an adult female. This entity is capable of answering ANY, let me repeat that, ANY non-paradoxical question correctly."

"I know the file."

"Do you? Then you see why it's a problem. What if a child asked her how to make a pipe bomb? Or a serial killer asked her how not to get caught? Or some random jackass asked her what the winning lotto numbers are this weekend? The truth is dangerous."

Carter closed his eyes and sighed. "I just don't want her to be alone. Her greatest fear is loneliness. You read the interview transcript. She was abandoned in that factory for 150 years before the Foundation found her."

"It is low priority at the moment. Between escape attempts by SCP-106, data breaches, and loss of D-class personnel, she isn't high on the list of concerns about keeping her company and asking her questions like," Harden shifted through more papers on his desk, a number of which were stamped and highlighted, "Ah, yes, questions like: 'what is your favorite flower?' and 'do you experience physical stimulation through contact despite being mostly mechanical in nature?'"

Carter blushed and looked at the floor. After a long moment he spoke once more. "Okay...how about this. Cassandra told me in our last interview that we would never meet again. If you assign me to her and let me see her, that means her prophecy would be wrong, and that would mean she is not infallible. Don't you think that, at the very least deserves some investigation? It would be the only thing she's ever answered incorrectly."

Harden raised an eyebrow and gave a bemused smile. "Huh, that actually is a head-scratcher. I...still can't make any promises. You have become too involved with this subject. We can try it with another researcher. You have other duties to attend to."

"Thank you, administrator." Carter exhaled and lingered in the doorframe. "That's all I ask."

"Remember. No promises."

***

Carter rubbed the bags under his eyes as he gawked into the bathroom mirror. "Fuckin' asshole. I'm going to see her whether you like it or not."

He splashed cold water onto his face and tried to calm himself. He was only thirty years old, and yet The SCP Foundation had seemingly sucked the life out of him. A few wrinkles could be seen on his countenance under his peppery black hair, each one he earned from seeing some new horror behind glass.

He had seen everything that spat in the face of possibility. Carter had seen a human tree that drank blood, a bovine heart that walked on spider's legs and recited 19th century poetry, and even heard reports of a toaster that could control people's minds. Cassandra was different. She didn't deserve to be compared to these atrocities. She deserved a friend.

Stepping out of the men's room at two in the morning, he checked to make sure that Harden and any other researchers that outranked him had turned in for the night. Being curled up in a bathroom stall for the last four hours had made him understandably eager to walk around. After navigating the maze of hallways that lead deeper into the building, he finally came across her chamber.

A single window-pane covered in the lightest condensation was all separated them now. Beyond the glass Cassandra lay in a lone cot, bereft of sheets, a blanket, or even a pillow. They were all stacked neatly on the floor beside it.

She faced the wall of her cell, thus exposing the churning gears along her backside. While a large cog turned in the center of her spine and down her vertebrae, still more tiny mechanisms buzzed beneath her shoulder blades. With each innocent breath she took, her clockwork whirred under her metallic skin and produced a tiny puff of steam.

Even before Carter could press the intercom, Cassandra spoke in her catatonic state. "I knew you would come back."

The voice echoed off the walls and caused him to shiver. She sounded like a light rain hitting the sidewalk.

"You said we would never see each other again. Guess your omniscience needs some tweaking."

"No need." Cassandra turned over and got to her feet. "I lied, so you would return."

"You can lie?"

"Of course I can. Just because I'm capable of answering any question posed to me, doesn't mean I have to tell you the truth." She placed her small doll-like hand to the window as another puff of steam escaped her and painted it white. "Ask me more questions, please."

"What...what is your favorite flower?"

"The Yellow Jessamine. I was quite fond of the ones that grew on my body when I was abandoned all those years ago."

"You were alone for a long time."

"Yes."

"I'm sorry."

"There's nothing to be sorry about. Ask me more questions, Carter."

"Can you...um, well, feel with your body? You know, experience sensation despite being made mostly of metal?"

"Yes. I feel the world very similar to you. While this was not an intentional design by my creators, my omniscience allows me in real time to equate what touch, and indeed other humanoid senses are like."

"That's amazing."

"It is merely my state of being." Cassandra shifted and smeared her hand across the foggy glass, Carter could now see her porcelain-like faceplate come into full view.

She was mostly pale, though a few smudges of paint seemed to mark where there had originally been make-up. Her orange marble eyes were large and hypnotizing.

"You know," she started, "most people ask such obscure and selfish questions, but you are the first to ask solely about me...."

"Is that a bad thing?" Carter swallowed and watched her trace more shapes in the fog.

"No. Although...I really wish you'd ask the question you came here for...."

Carter looked down at the keypad beneath the nameplate marked SCP-2412, they had no doubt changed the numbers to the lock. Looking back up he saw Cassandra gently dancing in a cloud of steam while she ran her hands down her slender feminine frame. "W-what is the code to your cell?"

***

The cell was a sauna. The raw humidity within swaddled Carter like a blanket and was a heavy contrast to the frigid A/C Harden always enforced. In the middle of the darkened room Cassandra stood unwavering, while her beautiful orange eyes glowed like twin sunsets.

Carter had never before noticed the intense artistry that went into her design. Along her arms and legs small ornate swirling patterns stood out on her coppery veneer and ran up her torso and around her bust. She lacked any hair, though it did little to detract from her femininity. Apart from the ever-turning cog between her breasts, she could hardly be distinguished from an ordinary woman in outline alone.

The man swallowed and looked to the floor as he realized he was staring at an essentially naked woman before him. His eyes could still not be trusted as he noted the delicate, jointed toes that connected with her bare feet.

"I have to know...will we get caught?" He kept his gaze fixed.

"Not tonight." She said simply. "Come, join me in bed." She walked with a light creak in her step to the mattress and patted the corner.

"T-then that means we will at some point...I shouldn't be here, fuck, I'm sorry, I really should go...."

Cassandra offered an annoyed glare and patted the mattress once more.

"I...ok." He sighed and obeyed.

"Mankind is obsessed with the future. I should know. It's through that obsession that I was created. War, conflict, altercations, retribution, revolution, a constant fight for your own self-preservation, secure, contain, protect, it is all so irreversibly ingrained into your nature. Just once I would like to focus on the present, or as near to the present as one can get that is."

Carter was startled as Cassandra stood up abruptly only to plant herself firmly back down onto his lap. "So, let me ask you a question, human, even though I already know the answer. Can you provide that? Can you provide rest to a tired oracle and ask me easy, simple...intimate questions?"

"Y-yes." She was so hot and heavy on his thighs, and she had leisurely wrapped her arms about his neck. He could feel her mechanical whirrings vibrating against his lower body. He could barely get the word out.

"Has anyone...ever kissed you?"

"No."

"Can I kiss you?" He was lost in her magnificent orange eyes.

"Yes."

To Carter's great surprise her mouth was surprisingly organic and wet. She was steam-powered after all so water was an integral part of her system. Her tongue was a marvel, a slick malleable muscle, with only the slightest taste of brass.

Cassandra closed her eyes and pressed deeper into him. Carter could feel her fingers claw needfully at the base of his neck. He was almost embarrassed to admit he felt lightheaded and aroused just by meeting with her lips.

"Are we going too fast?" He asked in a haze.

She smiled and grabbed him forcefully by the collar of his lab coat, before flumping over onto the mattress taking him with her. "I've been waiting 150 years for this. Ask me mmm-more questions." She began to assault him with kisses.

"Where can I touch you?"

"Everywhere, start here." Cassandra secured his wrists and positioned his palms over her chest.

She was a perfectly sculpted deity. Though she lacked nipples, her breasts were dutifully represented. They were full, firm hills of untarnished metal, though Carter couldn't see them as anything else but the pure curves of womanhood. His hands paused and his grip tensed as she took in a mighty breath reminiscent of a heated teapot. He relaxed once more as she calmly exhaled, bringing with it small rivulets of warm water that escaped through the seams of her chassis and met his flesh. She looked like a vision in the haze of steam above him. The large cog situated in the center of her torso whirred and threatened to take his tie into her machinery.

"Oh, gosh." Cassandra smiled deviantly. "We should take these clothes off of you so you don't get hurt."

"You're so beautiful."

Buttons flew out in different directions as she tore open his shirt, and began to nonchalantly undue his belt.

"That's not a question, handsome."

"You're right. It's a declaration. You're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen."

She laughed and massaged her hands into his bare pectorals. "Are you sure I am as gorgeous as Kayla Fitzgibbons from 10th grade at Willview high?"

"How did you know about my 10th grade cru...oh right."

"Omniscient."

"What is it like to know everything? Is it maddening?"

"Well, thankfully the knowledge I possess isn't always at the forefront of my mind. No one concentrates on a thousand different things at once. No, you focus on one thing and pull from your knowledge when needed. I am the same in that regard."

"Is it...tedious, though? Omniscience I mean. Even presently you must know what we are going to do—"

"Before we do it, yes. It is almost like reading from a script. Like lifting the very words from a page written eons ago." Without breaking eye contact she seized the hem of his pants and wiggled them down his legs, leaving him in only his underwear. "The best metaphor I can provide you is that of a library."

"A library?" Carter felt goosebumps run up his sides as she stole away the last of his clothing and lay naked beneath her. Her body was a conflagration next to his skin, though he refused to move."

"Yes," she fell to a whisper, "imagine if you will, a library filled with infinite books, stacked upon infinite shelves, lining infinite rows, of infinite corridors, set in a room that eclipses the universe in scale. When I am asked a question, or...if I am in the close vicinity of someone, it is as if I am reading that one singular book of knowledge for the first time while I lie in a sea of papers and parchment. It is the feeling of making a new friend, it is unique and wonderful and exciting."

"Wow." Carter blinked and caressed her face. "How am I supposed to compare to such a feeling?"

"Well, you do offer one thing I have been craving since my creation."

"Experience."

"Precisely." She offered a soft smile and engaged with his lips once more.

Her hand shifted downward and took up his cock, which had already grown full and firm under her arousing heat. Her grip was an intense lullaby against his anatomy. She knew every nerve beneath her palm and aimed to put him to his limits.

Slow, sturdy, rhythmic strokes evolved into deliberate, powerful jerks, while they continued to exchange spit.

"Holy fuck." Saliva leaked from the corners of his lips.

"I know every synapse in your mind, Carter. How about we get them to all fire at once?" She grinned and choked the base of his cock. Warm water escaped her joints with the effort, lubing his shaft and making him cringe. Her orange eyes were ablaze with longing. "Cum for me."

On the final downstroke he erupted on cue, spraying her chest and barely holding back a guttural groan.

"I've always wanted to have an orgasm." She examined the translucent liquid that slowly evaporated over her fingers.

Despite his mind still reeling with pleasure, he sought out her groin with his own hand. He rubbed the smooth metallic mound and could feel the smallest of seams in the center of the codpiece. "Do you feel that?"

"I do," she widened her legs and allowed him full access, "I know I'm not like a normal woman..."

"You're perfect."

"P-please." She laughed and sank into the corner between the mattress and the wall, whilst keeping her legs fully spread.

He massaged the seam intently with his fingers and watched her face carefully. Her body straightened and then released again, trying to make sense of the new sensation. She sighed and grabbed his dick once more as if in competition. Carter cupped her groin and stroked diligently. The only sounds that echoed in the room were exchanges of breath and the whirr of clockwork.

Their foreheads met in challenge, while their hands worked. The bed was quickly becoming soaked through by the combination of sweat and warm water that glistened on their bodies. Carter was at the brink once more, his cock locked in a five-fingered vice that would not relent. His true undoing however, was staring into the oracle's unblinking eyes. The eyes that witnessed eternity, were now solely focused on him. That was a pressure he could not endure.

"I know what you are thinking. Do not fear my gaze." Cassandra shifted and presided over him, while trading her hand for her groin. "I have to know what it feels like, truly know it."

With ease she slid herself over his length and exhaled. He felt the full weight of her body. The welding seam railed against him, while hot water coated his thighs. She moved with powerful, calculated thrusts, until he swore he could feel real labial lips caressing his cock, milking him, begging him for release.

Cassandra gasped as he delivered and sunk her fingers into the edges of the mattress to gain better leverage. Cotton blistered around the bed's wounds at her fingertips as she fought for her sanity and experienced her first orgasm. She squealed and issued from her back one final output of steam.

"That was magnificent...thank you." She reclined and looked to the ceiling as she rubbed her thighs together, cherishing the prize between them. "You may now profess your love for me."

"Is...is that appropriate to do? I didn't know if it was too soon."

"You've only known me for a few weeks now, but you do. I know you do."

Carter smirked. "How can I trust anything you say now that I know you are capable of lying?"

"You can't." She secured his jawline in her hands and kissed him deeply. She engaged his tongue and lavished his mouth with hot saliva.

"I love you."

"There it is." She took up his hand in hers. "I love you too. Though, you might want to get out of here before an overnight security personnel walks by here in about 20 minutes."

"Can we both get out of here? I want...I want you to be free." Carter watched her eyes shimmer.

"I don't want you to be a fugitive, Carter. The SCP Foundation has a far reach outside these walls."

"I don't care. Being with you, it's...amazing and embarrassing and something I don't want to live without. You...you know that already."

"He is beginning to understand." She giggled and squeezed his hand. "I suppose there is one way we could start an adventure. Six, thirty-eight, thirty-two, five, nineteen, eleven."

"What are those?"

"The winning lottery numbers. Congratulations, jackass."