#such a beautiful aeormaton design

[poisonghoulart]

S.I.L.A.H.A - Beauty

[kingcael]

Hello! I've been following for ages and I was so excited to see you credited for the new CR art! I saw you asked for questions, so I have two!

Corellon is the god of beauty, traditionally associated with elves but currently being represented by a robot. How did you approach designing the god of beauty specifically in the manifestation of a machine?

I'm super interested in the Wildmother, given how angry-wolf Taliesin's playing her, and I love the expression you drew her with. Any thoughts on designing a nature god to be furious?

It’s all a bit surreal tbh! Thank you so much!

1. For this project since the mortal and divine forms are so entwined, my work began after Hannah was mostly finished the Aeormaton version, so I extrapolated with the sculptural lines she had created and added the minimal canonical details we know of Corellon. For me the beauty in the machine is the design, using natural and organic elements and shaping them with intention. To be honest I imagine beautiful clockwork and machinery as an art form, Corellon’s mortal form is a shrine in himself, a perfected piece of art fit for him to inhabit.

2. Nature seems to encompass the spectrum of human emotion on a grand scale, every element has its corresponding catastrophe, a breeze can become a tempest the same way annoyance can become fury. Knowing the Brutalist abnegation of nature in Aeor, it wasn’t hard to imagine how rejected and affronted the Wildmother would feel, her shrine is made purely in defiance of the manufactured stone around her, (why hers is more covered than the others actually) so the fury was natural to include. Her direct look out is also meant to conjure defiance, challenging the viewer to acknowledge her inevitable reclamation.

[cringefaecompilation]

okay since i have felt i've been really negative i am going to be positive and talk about something near and dear to my heart. fanart redesigns!

this design of braius by @phi-guy is delightful, including the mustache variant. i'm not a big fan of him as a character, but this is a great compromise with the holstein patterns on his humanoid face that previously left a few furries disappointed.

fcg is a very tough character to stylize, given the whole... aeormaton of it all and that they're so intricately designed that any attempts to move any part of their body around tend to make things they do in-game not make sense. the blades of grass emblem being revealed as bloody fingerstreaks, for one. but this design by hugo cardenas strikes a good balance between canon and fanon where you don't have to sacrifice accuracy for imagination or vice versa

imogen sadly doesn't receive a lot of redesigns in fandom and even got hate (?!) for people putting glasses on her. but for the people that do a little more than that, i would have to give my favorite design to @rokiie! it's subtle, but i love that she's musclechubby and mixed, and her curly hair and ponytail is adorable. @jadequarze also has a nice looking mog, though theirs is more angular than bulky.

ashton is another character hard to redesign... because his original design is so damned complex it feels like a downgrade to change it. so not a lot of people do and focus more on his outfit and body type. so that's why these two, by @magscherer and @ladysantos are so great! little tweaks that make him fat or simplify him are so nice

@lyadrielle has the most complex chet redesign i've ever seen. i love how in-depth it is, and even if full head of hair chet isn't canon, i still adore the fluffiness of it. also quick shout out to @colealexart giving chetney a mustache because i love it.

conversely from her girlfriend, people love to redesign laudna, if not just to pump up her creepy factor over her "bizzarely beautiful" factor. @astoriacolumnstaircase and @paragonraptors do this in a fun-scary way! i love how spindly they make her, like a praying mantis. for a more scary-scary way, @cpprcoyote's laudnas are stunningly creepy and lovely. @galacticjonah's take on her is also very cute with her billowing fabrics surrounding her like a security blanket. good stuff!

being the mixed orym truther guy, naturally i love art that makes him a man of color, and this art by @therosecleric hits the mark for how i see him in my head. i love his curls, his jaw, and his strong nose, and it's always good to give him muscles in a way that don't make him look like a tween who powerlifts. the previously mentioned @magscherer's art of him is a bit more hobbit-y but still scratches the same itch. love me a brown eyed orym. @jennydolfen also gets points for her terrific hobbit/halfling proportions

@jam-etc's critical role redesigns might not be for everyone, but i love 'em all. dorian here looks so friendly and seeing his native culture depicted so overtly in his outfit is awesome! no whitewashed dorians allowed. on the same token, here's a repeat of @therosecleric's dorian art because it also is great to see him with curly hair and a wide nose. this design by @caitmayart with dark cloudy speckles on his body is incredibly nice as well.

and of goddamn course fearne gets the most art. it's fearne! there are so many good pieces of her i could not choose one. i love ones that play up her goat-y nature, like @willowbirds, @rainbow-roll-art, and @phi-guy again. and i love fat fearnes, like these two by @marmadelin and @countslimeula. this one by @maluspumilaa is so beautiful, making her a little more fey and extremely animalistic. all fearnes is good fearnes

[utilitycaster]

what are those 5 things? 👀

Seeing people start admit that maybe Imogen and Laudna did in fact pressure Fearne excessively hard to take the shard. I think it's good Fearne took it in the end, but yeah they really made it difficult for her to express her doubts and that was shitty of them. I got extensive hate for saying that at the time from people who are literally saying the same thing now. It's very funny.

The (entirely valid) complaints I've seen that people care more about imo/dna as a ship than Laudna as a character and are making her book solely about the fact that Imogen will show up in it. I pointed out this exact same problem occurring while Laudna was dead, almost two years ago.

Caleb considering leaving the Nein means they aren't really bonded. Imogen considering leaving Bells Hells means she's so perfect and caring and selfless and noble and good. Anyway yeah sure I definitely believe that if Imogen were a man played by Liam everyone would definitely be totally uncritical and love everything she did. (This is also a layered one, given how Twitter has been bashing Orym nonstop for over a year).

I know it's been a month and I've said this repeatedly so this is a bit tacky but I'm still riding the absolute Irony High of people being like "STOP TALKING ABOUT HUBRIS STOP TALKING ABOUT HUBRIS anyway of COURSE Bells Hells would NEVER see the gods as a messed up family, just like them" and then jump cut to Laudna literally saying that. It's just genuinely so funny that people mad at everyone calling Aeor full of hubris proceeded to get their wax wings straight up vaporized at the top of episode 102.

People calling imo/dna the bestest most organic most slow-burn sapphic ship ever (it's not even the longest slow-burn f/f ship on Critical Role; even if you're stupid enough to count the two years we know virtually nothing about just for the purposes of padding out the time to eliminate Beauyasha on a technicality - nevermind that slowburn is about the length of the story itself and not the length of time the characters have known each other, since it's obvious that if someone said 'here's Jane and Kate, they've known each other for 300 years, now they are kissing' this would not be a satisfying slowburn unless like, you went back and filled in the 300 years - Kimallura STILL wins) but as someone who received a decent amount of harassment for saying it wasn't very interesting and as such kept tabs on the people engaging in that harassment...they've been dropping like flies. If it's the best sapphic ship ever and it's canon and you're in the top 5 ships for the show of all time on ao3 and Delilah's gone and they're going to get their cottage, funny how a good chunk of the shippers haven't even managed to stay interested in CR. Also why are half the people who HAVE kept up like hmmmm what if I threw Fearne or Ashton in there. Like believe me, I support a poly hells situation, but uh. quite a tumble for what people used to call the Beating Heart Of The Campaign (TM).

Bonus! This is below a cut because it has spoilers for next week's Re-Slayer's Take that's only out for Beacon subscribers but

we see Devexian, and he meets Frog (an aeormaton PC) and his overall statement on Aeor is "it created us to serve, and we fought for our autonomy. It was both a beautiful and terrible place. Anyway the past is past, what's important is that we as aeormatons take our chance to live now, and my personal goal is not just to bring back as many aeormatons as I can, but learn how to make more aeormatons." He is completely uninterested, at least in 839 PD, in any sort of action against the gods. Like, I think he regrets the fall of Aeor because a lot of Aeormatons and knowledge died in it but he literally is like "your life is defined by your own choices, not your designation at the time of Aeor." The actual survivors of the fall of Aeor are like anyway, we want acceptance, autonomy, and the means to control our own production in modern day Exandria. Ludinus whomst.

[ludinusdaleth]

okay listened to that reslayers take episode devexian scene and as the first devexian thottie i have thoughts and analyses! god i missed him.

-i was wondering about this for years but matt continues to use he/it for dev, so i assume that is his pronoun set for certain.

-its palm can split to create a minor illusion

-he sought frog out. this is fascinating to me. he doesnt usually look for his children, as we know from fcg & frida's struggle to understand themselves and almost anger at d for not giving them context to themselves.

-touch seems to be a very intimate thing among aeormatons. devexian reaches for frogs hand and takes it within a minute of meeting her, and asks if he can inspect her jaw for her designation.

-"you, like most of us, are.... beautiful". he is in awe at his people's beauty, rightfully so. and at times, his own (he likes his jawline. me too. hes thrilled with having a modicum of attention at being drawn by frog)

-"what is your designation- pardon that. what is your name?" like an old man learning new social norms, it's obvious aeormatons used to refer to themselves with designations. but hes trying to learn how other aeormatons integrated into a non militaristic society, that doesnt always see them as different.

-some do see them differently, however. dev says it is best to not show their identities to just about everyone. it vaguely alludes to some who would destroy aeormatons.

-he is DEEPLY motivated by curiosity. he seems goddamn powered by it.

-as i expected, he's well aware of aeor's truth. he thinks it was beautiful, but also calls it terrible.

-also as i expected, he notably dodges any of frog's questions about their culture and ways of existence from aeor. he admires her curiosity but is deeply adamant she find her own way, says whatever she decides in this life is what she was meant for, not her aeorian life.

-here's a big one: when frog asks if their folk had family, "a gulf between them, grows cold". he then tries to get stoic again. it seems his primary motivation is he wants to create more of them, to create more aeormatons free of war, to have metallic family - it is the literal only thing he requests of frog, that if she wishes, she can find the secret to their creation. i find this a very interesting parralel to ludinus and how he refuses to be the parent of his metaphor and yet wishes to guide exandria's future and clearly agonizes over family when he himself feels he doesnt have one.

-does not seem to like tomb raiders. he mentions plunderers of ancient sites who would take not only aeormaton remains but any old tech and seems not exactly happy about it. im sure he feels a Lot about that for obvious reasons.

-has a quick temper, maybe specifically about vasselheims ways.

[vaultofcobaltandjade]

Alright folks, Ao3 is temporarily down, so it's time for some meta Thoughts. Something I've been thinking about lately, especially with the recent interactions between Ashton and the Bright Queen, is how both Ashton and FCG might/did view their own bodily autonomy and how this affected their friendship as well as their gender identities. In this essay, I will...

As an Aeormaton, FCG had a demonstrably dehumanizing view of their metallic body, from not believing they had a soul to being willing to sell or sacrifice themself as a mere object to their final moment of utilizing their body's design to save their friends. I don't remember him ever saying that Dancer was his "owner" at any point, maybe just his "maker" or "creator" in the earlier episodes, but there seemed to be a very different dynamic with the Division of Public Benefit--aka with automatons that Dancer did create--versus with Bells Hells where everyone encouraged him to see himself as equal with a soul like any of theirs. Plus, the discovery of what he was originally created for and the actual Murder Bot moments on stream likely only increased any feelings of powerlessness over his body. Although all beings are technically "created" by others against their wills, FCG was built with a specific purpose they were meant to fulfill and then presumably be disassembled or repurposed after that task had been completed.

And with the gender thing: I've been thinking about the wider implications of having automaton and construct PCs. Historically, a lot of robotic characters in media have either been referred to as a genderless yet dehumanized it or forced into a human concept of the gender binary, the former being mostly because they're meant to be portrayed as non-sentient objects and the latter being mostly projection and attempting to erase the creators' (and audience's) fear of the unknown. So the choice to give some automatons in Exandria sentience and soul and the room for some genderfuckery has allowed for FCG's largely unaired but undoubtedly beautiful gender journey. (I mean, the irony and Pun Value of a robit being nonbinary is hilarious on its own.)

So while I can't know for sure how much FCG's he/they pronouns were chosen in relation to--or in defiance of--the historical depictions of robots I mentioned, there was undoubtedly a theme of reclaiming bodily autonomy throughout their arc.

Moving onto our other favorite he/they C3 PC though... Ashton's own history with their body isn't much better.

I mean, their first memory is the ritual of the Shard of Ka'Mort and being unwillingly portaled away to another continent, which later resulted in their entire body being transformed into stone and gem. (And while this is purely in headcanon territory, it wouldn't be that far off to imagine that maybe their father Efterin the cult leader may have even had Ashton for ulterior purposes, like having a sorta cult heir or even fully intending to give Ashton up for the ritual from the get-go, which would be incredibly dark and further lend to their lack of bodily autonomy.) Then, there's The Fall. The cracks and gold scars, the half-blindness, the head injury and slag glass. Even though it saved his life and has been used to his benefit since, he never asked Milo to pour the Potion of Possibility into his head or to get his unfathomable and unique dunamantic Rage abilities. And then, there's the recent Shard stuff, both the incident with the Rau'shan Shard--especially how it literally rejected him--and the full activation of the Ka'Mort Shard with its resulting Titan transformations. While I can't quite remember if Ashton's chronic pain began with the initial transformation in Bassuras or after The Fall, there's gotta be frustration and helplessness present whenever their body doesn't want to cooperate because of the pain and Exhaustion. Plus, there's the literal mind/body control moments that have happened where some enemy magically puppeteers Ashton's strength against his friends--similar in some ways to FCG's Murder Bot moments.

Back to the gender thing: I'm sure part of Ashton's gender feelings are from their pretty queerpunk, very genderfuck identities, which can be a statement of reclaiming bodily autonomy in and of itself. But I will always remember how Tal made a point in the CR Sick Day Stream to state that Ashton could have anything in their pants, and making them potentially AFAB/transmasc brings up even more complications with gender dysphoria and bodily autonomy.

So. All this is to say: a) Ashton and FCG's friendship and bonding over mutual Gender and Trauma and Self-Hatred and Lack of Bodily Autonomy and such will always be everything to me, and b) it's starting to make a lot more sense why Ashton is throwing himself into the proverbial fire by recklessly showing people like the Bright Queen or even Essek his dunamantic abilities despite the warnings and despite prior experience with hubris-induced mistakes. (This is especially the case in the wake of FCG's sacrificial death, but that's a whole other Long Post about Ashton's grief over the friend they started this campaign with and how they could have very well learned the wrong lesson from that self-sacrifice.) Ashton likely hasn't felt like they've ever truly had full autonomy over their body or, at the very least, that their relationship to their body has been Complicated. He's talked about how people in Jrusar would ogle at the hole in his head, often for a charge--much like how people would offer to buy FCG or even how a circus performer sells tickets for a spectacle. So really, it's not that far of a stretch to have people "examining" or experimenting on him. And with how little Ashton knows about his own body and what's inside it and how it works (even their dunamantic class abilities are purposefully left to random chance), of course he's going to be motivated to put himself in the hands of those more knowledgeable and experienced. If he's never had full autonomy over his body, is it really his to give away for experimentation in the first place? Has he ever learned to entirely respect his body or to feel a sense of power or control over it--especially outside of combat when he can kinda harness his unique abilities?

Most importantly, will Ashton get a moment of reclaiming full autonomy over their body--and, consequently, their life--in a similar arc to FCG, or will some entity--like the Bright Queen, according to a lot of fans' fears--inevitably take advantage of their self-neglect in order to gain control over their body with little regard to their mind or will?

Only time will tell... which is why chronomancy is the greatest magic of all ;)

[essektheylyss]

Trick or treat! 🧛‍♀️

For you, my friend, I have... ✨file organization! ✨(partially because I thought you'd find it funny but also because I do love my absurd fic document, which has some truly wild amounts of granularity)

Scrivener is 100% my preferred writing program because it lets me do this kind of nonsense. It also lets me create folders with vague ass names like "Molaesmyr" that I look back at and go "what the fuck was that supposed to be?" I genuinely do not know. I also only have a vague idea of what "letters" was supposed to be (unrelated to the Aeormaton, intended to be epistolary).

Also for the record, none of my to do lists, schedules, or planning docs at the top have been followed, but I do tend to keep fairly up to date on which fics need to be moved up to the published section.

Also, the beauty of having the option or not of titling things is truly so much power. My concept for "part-time soulmate, full-time problem" has since been jossed, but I WILL find a way to use that lyric as a shadowgast fic title, because I find it hilarious.

Planning docs for longfics DO actually tend to be followed! They are generally the fic summary (which I tend to write in advance for longfics), the structural outline, and sometimes notable OCs or particular lore of that particular fic that I need to keep track of.

You can also see my section structures in these, which drive me nuts because there is no good way to have AO3 do sections that isn't just... a chapter label. Also my penchant for titling chapters in the drafting phase and then abandoning them while posting because I refuse to lock myself into needing to title every chapter.

For only a stone's throw away, I'm probably going to have a designated "section opener" chapter because there are, as you might notice here, some found documents involved, and would in that case keep the section titles, but we'll see how I feel about that later. I only just finished the first chapter so it'll be a while.

[teansouprmyjam]

From the critical role ask game! Aasimar 👀

thank you for the ask anon!!!!

aasimar: what is your favorite location in exandria (or out of it)

i could talk about my favorite places forever so i'll try to keep it short

Aeor has a special place in my heart because it's got it all!!!! (except a decent tavern) It's an ancient ruin with magical relics and historical records forgotten to time, fucked up abominations, aeormatons, giants, a portal to the astral sea!!! it was literally punched from the sky by the gods!!!! the whole design of it with the crater showing its different levels!!! it's so cool!!!!!!!!!!!

There's obviously also Whitestone..... It's so beautiful and creepy and lively and Taliesin and Matt did such an incredible job. Whitestone along with Blumenthal and Nicodranas are all places that feel like home!

Other than that I'm very much obsessed with Molaesmyr and Rosohna. Vasselheim is also up there amongst the places I hope they go back to!!!! I want to peel its layers like an onion.

[12pt-times-new-roman]

this post has major spoilers for the final arc of Critical Role C2, and minor spoilers for episode 9 of C3.

so uh

FCG is an Aeormaton (confirmed by Matt to CritRoleStats), a race of automatons made specifically in Aeor, and other things have been referred to as "automatons" so Aeormatons are most definitely something different or at the very least a subrace, not just Exandria's version of warforged

FCG has no idea how old they are. They could very well have been built in Aeor, got severely damaged in the fall, and were woken up when Dancer pieced them back together.

FCG cannot access or doesn't remember huge swaths of their memory about their creator and associates, and their dialogue during that scene (C3E6 I think) is almost identical to Charlie's dialogue pre-repair terminal in C2E134/135, down to the words they use and stumble over.

FCG, Charlie, and Devexian all refer to the people around them as "associates," and both FCG and Charlie stumble over the words "it appears" — and I simply refuse to believe until proven otherwise that this wasn't intentional on Sam's part.

There is brumestone being smuggled into Jrusar, an extremely rare and highly controlled material that can only be found (iirc), that is controlled by an airship guild in Ank'harel. If what Matt said about it in C2 still holds, the only source of enchanted brumestone is from wrecked sky cities or airships, because it's the material that kept sky cities like Aeor aloft.

Chetney overheard this conversation (end of C3E9):

Unknown: Our patron is pushing for legislation in the coming weeks, so whatever you plot, it must be quickened. Ira: Your dulled mind fails to grasp the beautiful pattern I've already constructed across this city. Unknown: Ira, I'm serious. But let us get this over with, so I never have to deal with your cruel arrogance again. Ira: Then bring me some riff-raff from the steps. People no one would miss. And maybe a Mahaan child to spice things up. This next wave will — Unknown: I will most certainly not bring you a child, you freak. I endure only a short time longer. Finish your work, and be gone from my life. Ira: Of course. Once my work is done, I shall leave.

Ira was the name of one of the Somnovem, specifically the one named for and designed on wrath who could shoot fireballs from his eye, the one who actually approved of the vengeance that the Mighty Nein sought against Lucien, and the one who urged the Nein to go to the Aether Crux to destroy the other Somnovem.

Cognouza's whole thing was "the pattern." Fractal patterns that repeated over and over again, systems of nine — "the pattern" is what put those eyes on Beau and Caleb after they read the book, the thing that gave the Nein eyes during a lair action called the Pattern Revealed, and — most notably, I think — the pattern that Cognouza's streets and buildings followed as they duplicated and expanded outwards.

I have yet to notice Matt reusing names, though I'm sure he does with the insane number of NPCs he has and that's totally understandable, we all do it — but I honestly cannot find it within myself to even consider believing that Matt reused the name for one of the main villains of the final arc of Campaign 2 for an NPC who talks about beautiful patterns across cityscapes.

If Delilah Briarwood can be killed a dozen times and still become a warlock patron, who's to say that the Somnovem couldn't become patrons too, once their souls were released from Cognouza? Who's to say that they weren't concecuted (cause we know that at least the Genesis Ward had and was studying a Luxon Beacon) and that their souls didn't get reborn into new bodies once they were freed? Hell, who's to say some of em weren't liches who couldn't return until Cognouza was destroyed because Cognouza itself was their technically-still-living body?

I just really love Aeor and all the lore attached to it, it's so cool, maybe I'm biased but there's so much more to be explored there and goddamn if Matt hasn't set himself up with some excellent narrative avenues for that...

so, in summary,

(edit: fixed the [unintelligible] tag!)

[theitalianmafia]

It's robot smut

FCG has been worked on by others before, plenty of times. Simple bolt adjustments shouldn't feel like much of anything, but somehow FRIDA's touch does something to them.

They cannot relate to someone with a flesh body, and someone with a flesh body cannot relate to them, not in the way FRIDA relates. Those with real bodies may be able to know a lot about a mechanical one, but they will never feel what it's like to exist as one. The sensations are fundamentally different.

Just as they will never understand taste, those without mechanical forms will never understand what FCG feels in this moment.

FRIDA knows just where to adjust the bolts. Their touch is delicate and caring, understanding, in a way they've never felt. FCG melts into the sensation, floating on a cloud.

Then, they finish adjusting the bolts, and their hands leave their body. FCG is left wanting more, but they're nervous to ask for it. What do they even ask for? There is no guide for this. They are the only two like themselves that they know.

FRIDA suggests they hold hands as they power down for the night. FCG thinks this is a wonderful idea, eagerly taking their partner's hand and leaning gently on them as they go into sleep mode.

But FCG wakes up sometime a couple hours into the night, mind racing with thoughts of things they wanted FRIDA to do to them. They squeeze the other Aeormaton's hand to wake them.

"FRIDA?"

FRIDA's emerald green eyes flicker to life once more, looking down at the much smaller bot. "Yes? Is everything alright, FCG?"

"Oh! Yeah, I'm fine, I just... I was thinkin' about earlier tonight. I enjoyed it very much." FCG looks away bashfully.

"Oh?" FRIDA lightly touches the side of FCG's face with a featherlight brush of rose gold knuckles. This sends an inexplicable shiver through the little yellow Aeormaton. Yes. More of that, please.

FCG stands up tall to rest their chin on FRIDA's shoulder. "I can't really stop thinking about it," they whisper, knowing the walls between rooms are thin. "I think I would like to do it more."

FRIDA hugs them close and presses their metal lips to the other robot's temple with a small clink. "More bolt adjusting, or something else?"

FCG was new to making decisions for themself, without the help of a coin flip. Thinking selfish thoughts, for their own pleasure. Everyone else always came first, but right now it was just the two of them. It was just FCG and FRIDA, and what they wanted.

"I... want to see what happens when you touch my core," they say, with much more confidence than what they had been expecting. FRIDA's hands wander to FCG's chest in response, running a finger along the seam where the cavity would open.

FCG's hands go to FRIDA's chest as well, picking at the buttons of their coat. They lock eyes, understanding in an instant that they both want this. Still, they exchange words of confirmation, and a little face bump, before continuing to open each other up.

They had been sitting on the floor, neither requiring a bed, but they decided it would give them some more privacy to continue on the soft surface of FRIDA's bed, hopefully muffling at least some of the sounds their metal bodies would make. Thin walls, after all.

FRIDA picks them up and lays FCG gently on the bed, and climbs on top. Straddling the other, FRIDA easily picks off their chest plate. Like with the bolt adjusting, this was done with a deep understanding and care of the mechanical form. Love for it. FCG was not merely a curiosity or a thing to be studied and taken apart to FRIDA. They treated their body like the living thing it was.

FCG fumbles with the buttons of FRIDA's double-breasted coat, growing ever more embarrassed by their seeming incapability to undo them all. FRIDA laughs a gentle laugh like a bird song, undoing the rest of the buttons and shrugging off the coat.

Emerald and rose gold floods FCG's vision. They sit up, inspecting the beautiful chest plate. FRIDA's design is more complicated and refined than their own, so it takes them a moment to find where it opens. In fact, they can't seem to find exactly where it might open.

Just as they are about to poke somewhere to see if it does something, FRIDA's chest begins to open of its own accord. Several layered plates are pulled out of the way and arranged almost like petals by an elegant mechanism that leaves FRIDA's chest splayed open and vulnerable.

"Oh, wow," FCG gasps.

"Perhaps I should be the one to lie down, since I am larger," FRIDA suggests, sinking into the bed, submitting entirely. FCG finds themself sitting up with hands planted on the bed on either side of FRIDA's face.

More unusual thoughts and emotions fill FCG, selfish ones. FRIDA is mine. This is all mine. They spit up some oil onto their hand and begin working it into the delicate machinery of FRIDA's chest.

FRIDA arches their back, pushing their chest up into the touch. Their own fingers dip into their mouth and come out covered in oil, then are worked into FCG's open chest cavity.

Once again it's FRIDA who is able to open up FCG first. Gentle fingers masterfully work their way though the components in front of their core, and stop to admire it's blue glow.

"What a beautiful thing we have at our center," FRIDA says.

FCG leans down and kisses them. There is an aggressive side to FCG, one normally kept under wraps, but it wants to come out and play. The inside of FRIDA's chest isn't as fancy and complicated as their exterior plating, and the smaller Aeormaton is able to find their own way further in. FCG does not pause to admire the core, instead rubbing it decisively, making little arcane sparks leap off the surface. The aggressive side wants FRIDA to squirm.

And squirm they do, even letting out a little moan. Not wanting to be outdone, FRIDA does the same to FCG. This is like a button that makes FCG growl, holding down FRIDA's other arm as their hand bears down on its mission to overwhelm FRIDA's core, make them squirm, beg.

And unlike humans, they do not need to take breaks. They keep each other on waves of sensation and pleasure for hours until they decide they ought to actually power down for the night.