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Disclaimer: This is gonna be a weird one for a lot of people. This was a piece based off the world of the Dire Machines by the artist Ratbat. Perhaps the only 'living machine' pornography I enjoy, when it cames to real-world depictions of vehicles in an erotic manner, without being given humanoid shapes. So you've been warned. But if you're interested, give their art a look. You may even unlock a new kink
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Marcus heard the whine of the F-35A long before he saw it, the squealing of its wheels hitting the tarmac just barely audible over the screaming of jet turbines only just starting to wind down.
She came most weeks, several times a week typically. A confident thing that went where she pleased, visiting to chat with the local light planes. She had most of the Dire Machines here enamoured with her beauty and her prowess; easy to do when her competition were Cessnas, Robinson helos and the odd truck like Diego on the ground meant to help out at the airfield.
Jezebel was a next-generation stealth multirole fighter with a carefree attitude and a wanderer's spirit, plus an assertive air that commanded those other machines around her.
She flaunted this, revelled in the adulation she received, which Marcus found ironic for a stealth plane.
That being said, she was friendly enough, not so full of herself that she was insufferable to those around her, and the light planes always had gossip she was eager to hear, and she had juicy tales of her own.
Why she could just disappear from wherever her base was -- Marcus honestly did not know -- at her discretion, he didn't understand.
But, she was a Dire Machine, she didn't have to follow military orders, especially not if she wasn't interested in serving.
It wasn't long after that the engines of the jet had whined down that Marcus heard the excited chattering of the airfield's other residents. He glanced behind him and saw them trundling along, always eager to hear the latest from Jezebel.
Marcus didn't pay them much mind; Jezebel wasn't much of a concern to him. Hell, he'd only ever interacted with her once or twice, and there wasn't much going on when they did. Marcus didn't know anything about military aircraft beyond the basics, and he wasn't interested in being around the haughty Lightning more than he had to.
He didn't know why, he just felt... far too unfamiliar with her to be comfortable.
So, he returned his attention to the winch motor he was working on, normally meant for hauling out light engines for overhauls or replacement. Of course, the engine of a Dire Machine was utterly gunked up with the artificial, nanite-composed 'flesh' that could regenerate most damage a Dire Machine could suffer. There wasn't much demand for the likes of Marcus these days, save for the fact some Dire Machines seem to enjoy getting looked at by Mechanics, and for the odd mechanical device that couldn't become a Dire Machine.
He sighed out, and tinkered with the motor for a few more minutes, unable to figure out why it was working. By now his hands were covered in grease from his work. He mumbled and grabbed a rag from the bench, and started wiping his hands down.
That's when he heard the sliding hangar doors grind open a little more.
He turned around and found himself face-to-nose with the F-35 herself, a sharklike grin arcing from either side of her nosecone, just in front of the forward landing gear. Angular eyes peered at him from just beneath the empty cockpit's front, and he could hear the dull thrum of electricity pulsing within the jet's body. The Hangar was plenty spacious for a typical light plane, but she was taking up a lot more space than they did, with much less room to move around.
He blinked in surprise; he'd never expected a jet to be able to roll around on the ground so quietly. Maybe stealth jets were sneaky in more ways than one.
Still, he cleared his throat and crossed his arms.
"May I help you?" he asked, able to see his messy-black hair in the reflection of Jezebel's cockpit; if it were shinier, he'd be able to make out the blue hues of his eyes in the dull red-tinted glass.
"Help me? Can't a girl just say hello?" she answered with a hint of amusement.
Her voice wasn't quite human. Feminine, yes, and rather soft, but it had a deepness to it, and a slight reverb that gave her tone an artificial feel.
"Well, hello," Marcus added, shifting his weight from one foot to another. Though he might've been putting up a front of calm aloofness, he was honestly not sure how to feel or react; this was the first time Jezebel had ever sought him out directly. And he'd never met her in such an 'intimate' space, so to speak; there was no one else here but them. "Forgive me, I'm not exactly used to personal visits."
"I'm sure. The other girls tell me you keep to yourself," Jezebel remarked. Naturally, the others had probably told Jezebel all about the resident mechanic. Those girls loved gossip as much as any human girl.
"I have a lot of work to do," he said, though it was a slight lie; yes, he often had things to attend to, but for the most part, there wasn't a lot of laborious jobs he had to perform now. The Dires made things much easier around the airfield, and they could usually deal with a lot of their problems by themselves. "I don't get a lot of time to chat around."
He moved from one table to another, picking up a screwdriver with a ratchet torque system for tight spaces.
"Well, I find that hard to believe," Jezebel commented, her eyes slowly tracking him, giving Marcus the shivers; plane-based Dires tended to have more predatory eyes than their land-machine counterparts, but fighter jets were particularly sharp-eyed. He felt like he was being sized up, and that turning his back to this machine would turn him into dinner. "A mechanic only has so much work to do these days. Most of us can take care of ourselves. And some of the heavier stuff... well, we can help out there too, you know."
"Don't remind me," he said, grumbling as he recalled the odd fleeting desire to have a machine that didn't have nanite-based flesh turning it into a living, artificial organism. He liked getting inside of things, and most complex mechanical machines now found that a rather intimate idea.
Not that it mattered for many, since their insides were all gunked up with grey, malleable 'flesh'.
"What? Upset you can't just take us apart and figure us out? Don't you like a challenge... something mysterious, something that needs intimacy to prise out all the secrets~"
She laughed softly, and Marcus swear he could feel the bass in his chest reverberating through the ground.
He mumbled and tried to ignore the mildly flirty tone she spoke with.
"No offence, but I prefer machines that make sense. People are hard to decipher, and you lot are people too."
"Oh, I'm so delighted that you think that!" Jezebel said with some slight mock delight. "There are many still that don't think much of us, don't think we're people."
"Well, you are, but I didn't necessarily say that as a compliment. You know how annoying people can be?" he said, waving a wrench at her as he moved to yet another table. "Humans, Dires, what makes them tick doesn't always make sense."
He started working on a small motor, using the wrench to loosen some bolts.
"Mmm... and I suppose that includes you," Jezebel quipped. "What makes you tick?"
"Working with my hands relaxes me, and I'm all fine with my current lack of human contact. The dire machines here are plenty company for me. Not much more than that," he said, unaware of Jezebel quietly closing the door to the hangar... and slowly creeping closer, dendrites slithering forth from ports all over her underside.
"Mmm... but I'm interested in what makes you
really
tick... what makes you jump and shiver~"
He lifted his head up, a quizzical expression on his face. He didn't look at at Jezebel.
"Wait, what the hell are you talking--"