From the Exploits of Lydia Lovage, Lady Adventurer and Inventress
Instalment the First: Amatory Attack of the Amok Automaton
Author's Notes: This is the extended version of a photo-story I wrote (using cosplay photos by someone else, thus the original isn't appropriate for Literotica). If you are interested in seeing the original you can find it on Imagefap by searching my name under Users and going to my galleries, or by a general search of "steampunk" which will produce the "Steamphuck'd" gallery as one of the hits. My galleries there contain a number of other photo-stories on various themes, both SF&F and not.
While I've labeled this the 1st installment (or instalment in the Queen's English) I'm not sure how much more I'll write more along these lines. Producing the appropriate level of purple prose without going too far (not to mention racking my brain for Victorian-style bawdy language) is not nearly as easy as one might think.
Recently returned from her successful solitary overflight of the Himalayas in her newest self-designed high altitude dirigible, during which she dropped a peak-impaling spike surmounted by the Union Jack atop unscaled Mount Everest, Lady Lydia Lovage travels home to her estate after having received the plaudits of both the Royal Society and the Geographical Society at separate well-attended events.
When Lydia stops her open-topped steam-phaeton at the door of her manse she is still dressed in expeditionary attire consisting of a khaki morning coat, white silk blouse, pinstriped gold corset/skirt with a dark protective overskirt, buckled leather calf-boots, and a solar topee. This is not anything like what she had worn for her travels to and over the frigid high plateaux of Tibet, but Norfolk had requested she don this particular outfit for the soiree he'd held in her honor and one simply does not turn down the petition of a Duke. Lithely leaping down from the light vehicle, Lydia raises her goggles and unwinds her protective driving scarf.
"Come along, ManFRIED. It is high time I resume my scientific work," she calls back to her traveling companion. "By using the time provided by those rather tedious award ceremonies to productively cogitate, I have arrived at several new possible inventions that deserve investigation."
The target of Lady Lovage's words climbs down from the back of the carriage. ManFRIED (Man-Facsimile, Ractiocinating Independent Electrovoltaic Domiciliary) is in Lydia's own well-founded opinion one of her best creations, a fully independent automaton that serves as her butler, assistant, and general factotum. ManFRIED had in fact steered Lydia's steam-phaeton from the Lovage estate to London to meet Lydia there, and had not been involved in a single major collision along the way, a triumph in itself.
However, unbeknownst to Lady Lovage it so happens that as ManFRIED was awaiting the rendezvous with his mistress he was approached by an agent of the sinister Count Rasputinoffsky. The Russian reprobate's representative surreptitiously inserted a very special new gear set into the highly-miniaturized Baggage Engine which serves to control the automaton's behavior. But like a venomous asp concealed in an innocent basket of fruit, the nefarious set of instructions as yet lies in wait.
"Bring my bags inside, ManFRIED, but leave them at the foot of the stairs," Lydia instructs. "I shall unpack them later, right now I am simply brimming with eagerness to return to work."
A pair of tiny semaphore flags pop up from the top of the automaton's cranium, which for aesthetic purposes resembles a solar topee (interchangeable with one shaped like a top hat for formal occasions). These wag out a question using a modified nautical alphabet.
"No, no need to fire up the rest of the staff automatons as yet. That will take too long and can wait," Lydia says.
The staff mentioned are earlier efforts of Lydia's and are not nearly as effective nor as multi-purposed as ManFRIED, and banking their fires to build up sufficient steam for them to work properly is a prolonged operation. At the same time the exchange reminds the inventress that she needs to resume her research into methods for giving ManFRIED a voice. The semaphore system is flexible but can take a tediously long time to complete ManFRIED's message, and it also requires her to be looking directly at his head to read each spelled-out word. Admittedly however it is far faster and more compact than her initial attempt at a vociferator, which employed a vast array of wax cylinders with a single word inscribed by stylus on each.
Unlocking and throwing open the door to her manse, Lydia heads for the stairs to her sizable underground laboratory/workshop. She notes with approval that ManFRIED has done a good job in her absence of keeping the boilers topped up and the furnaces fueled, as a loss of power could have had deleterious effects on various of her sensitive instruments. Humming cheerfully to herself Lady Lovage checks the readings on various gauges and dials.
As she progresses through the lab she spots the shrouded form of her hands-free automatic daguerreotype and decides this would be a good time to commemorate her recent triumph by a self-portrait. Removing the device's covering Lydia loads the hopper of the device with the necessary silverized glass plates. As she finishes this and places herself on a stool in front of the inhuman portraitist, ManFRIED descends the stairs and moves to join her.
Lady Lovage looks up from her seated position and smiles. "You wish to be part of the portrait, ManFRIED? Very well, I suppose it could not hurt to have a depiction of myself and my trusty servant. Stand beside me."
Just then the great Steam Clock of the estate strikes the seventh hour. ManFRIED's human-like hands come down to rest on Lydia's shoulders, where he starts pressing down firmly and his grip steadily tightens.
"Restrain yourself, ManFRIED," Lydia murmurs, still smiling at the lens of the daguerreotype as she waits for the mechanism to fire. "Remember, human flesh is delicate, we've gone over that in the past."
Despite Lady Lovage's cautionary words, the automaton's powerful hands do not slacken. Instead they swiftly descend to the lapels of the morning coat the inventress wears and pull sharply in both directions, ripping the garment open and sending the metal button popping off to fly straight at the automated daguerreotype. The latter-named device goes off at this very instant, memorializing the moment of wide-eyed surprise on Lady Lovage's visage.
"ManFRIED, what in the name of Science are you doing?" Lydia acutely inquires, her brows arched.
The mechanical servant does not respond except by restaining Lady Lovage with a tight grasp on her clothing to prevent her rising from her chair. As ManFRIED's armature and sinews are constructed of Lydia's own state-of-the-art steel alloy her subsequent struggles are quite futile.
Having forced the inventress back to a seated posture, ManFRIED's digitary manipulators once more swiftly shift downward and seize the bodice Lady Lovage wears under her coat. This garment too is opened, revealing her pale, shapely bosom. With a click and a bright flash the dagguerreotype records a second image, this one dramatically displaying her bared left breast as well as the small metal baton that pierces her perky nipple. The inventress blushes hotly at the way this particular "secret apparatus" of her own design has been betrayed.
"Oh, my! That is not at all proper behavior for a gentleman, and even less so for a domestic servant!" Lydia squeals as ManFRIED once more prevents her from escaping his relentless molestations, before his hands clutch again at her silk blouse.
"ManFRIED, your actions suggest that you must be overheating," Lydia observes, attempting to reason with the runaway machine. "Case this untoward activity at once so that I may renew the grease on your gear train and dampen your miniaturized boilers! Otherwise I am afraid your internal pressure will become so great as to require you to blow off steam."
None of Lydia's commands, suggestions, or attempts to struggle have any observable effect on the obstreperous automaton. While pinning both of Lady Lovage's wrists in one of his mechanical hands, ManFRIED uses the other to fully open her blouse. Then for good measure the machine begins to tweak each of her nipples, drawing sharp cries of protest from his unwilling victim.
"Really, ManFRIED! This sort of lascivious conduct is not in any way appropriate or within the bounds of the acceptable relationship between a gentlelady and her manservent," Lydia scolds. "I have no idea why you have suddenly developed unfulfilled masculine desires of this sort, but in any event the appropriate venue for expressing them would be one of Doctor Desiree's Pneumatic Pleasuredromes, where I am certain they could provide a suitable Vulcanized Houri for the sort of crude usages you are instead inflicting on your creator and employer!"
If the automaton notices the words of his mistress he most certainly pays them no attention. Rather, his quick mechanical fingers continue their depredations. ManFRIED's next cunning manouevre is to disarray the riding skirt Lady Lovage wears. This reveals the rather exotic manner in which Lydia has neglected to don suitable bloomers beneath the skirt to shield her nethers. This indiscretion makes it simple for the wayward servant to begin fingering Lydia's palace of the physical act of love, in a most direct and blatant manner.
"Oooh! Now that is MOST certainly an act of over-familiarity on your part, ManFRIED!" the inventress protests. "You have not even formally asked me to accompany you to a social occasion where we might become better acquainted before embarking on this extremely intrusive and personal act. Not to mention the fact that in polite society your presumptuous cosseting of such a delicate area would normally be reserved for a couple already engaged to be married, which we most certainly are not!"
