fe-noumenal

[fe-noumenal]

There is Apostles of Mercy book giveaway on GoodReads

#apostles of mercy #axiom's end #noumena

[fe-noumenal]

Silly question, but how does one go about getting an ARC of Apostles of Mercy?

There is a giveaway on GoodReads right now.

I got mine because I'm working with Lindsay on some promotional material. We are still discussing the details, but it will hopefully come through.

It would really help if everyone hyped up this book on social media. Fanart, fanfiction, recs, etc. so the publisher will pick up the remaining two books.

[fe-noumenal]

Ampersand, Cora, Kaveh, and Nikola from Truth of the Divine.

I started this forever ago and have finally accepted that I’ll likely never finish it. So if you see any unfinished parts, no you didn’t.

[fe-noumenal]

Apostles of Mercy ARC

So through unforeseen sequence of events I received advance reading copy straight from Lindsay. I got a permission to talk about it on social media, but I'm still not sure what I should tell or not. My thoughts are still scattered, but they are positive. This is certainly a fitting next chapter that expands on the ideas from the pervious books in a satisfyingly way.

What a ride!

They really do become the Joker.

I read some of the reviews that pose this books as a conclusion of the series. THIS IS ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE! AoM ends with a very exciting hook that HAS to be explored. The next two books are still in plans so go and preorder Apostles of Mercy. You mother has to preorder it. Your dog has to preorder it.

(And my name is used in one of the newspaper snippets. I exist in Noumena universe. It's canon. It's official. I'm ecstatic.)

#noumena #apostles of mercy #ampersand #every time Amps calls Cora “my love” aaaaaaaaa

[fe-noumenal]

The first review of a pre-read of Apostles of Mercy just appeared on goodreads and it's just that:

HOW I'M SUPPOSED TO WAIT 5 MORE MONTHS??!!!!!?

#noumena

[fe-noumenal]

I just want those aliens to be happy for once

#this is a noumena post

[fe-noumenal]

MASSIVE APOSTLES OF MERCY SPOILERS!!!!

So I preordered a physical copy of Apostles of Mercy today from my country's Amazon. And to my infinite surprise there was a pretty detailed plot summary here. I haven't seen this on US or Canada Amazons, or nowhere else, so I post it here. Read at your own risk, there are big spoilers there.

I'm so excited! There is so much material here to speculate!

So first - it appears that Cora and Amperand were able to communicate through high language and it went poorly. Yikes! This is the most interesting direction it could have went and I can't wait to read those chapters. It probably will be the highlight of the book. And Ampersand being somewhat vindicated in trying to hide things from Cora... Delicious.

Next - a hostile interaction with transients? When I last speculated, I thought they would provide an alternative for a treatment for Nikola nad Ampersand. Here they seem to be portrayed as antagonists. Buuuut this description can't spoil the WHOLE book. I still believe that transients will become allies. After all this is a series about the empathy. (or not, either way it will be exciting)

The inciting incident seems to be a kidnapping. The aliens take what is "most dear" to both of them. Yeah, it must be Nikola. Or Cora's family. But I'm not sure about the latter, since they were mostly omitted in the TotD.

I'm vibrating in my seat at Cora and Ampersand "taking extreme measures". I really hope they will become Hades and Persephone in this book and it will end at them being true gods of the dead.

My excitement cannot be contained and I don't know how I will survive next 6 months. Take care Noumena fans!

#apostles of mercy #truth of the divine #noumena #axiom's end

[fe-noumenal]

The Metaphor (with flat version)

[fe-noumenal]

Went feral and drew this all in one sitting. Here is a full reference sheet with my refined drawings of my personal Ampersand head-canons (From the book Axiom's End by Lindsay Ellis).

I'm not the type of person to highlight or make notes in my books. So trying to remember every detail of how the author described Ampersand's appearance was difficult. Especially since this book isn't wide-spread enough to have the characteristics listed anywhere online from what I could find.

What I remembered and how my brain interpreted it:

A face like a mask, large enough for a hand to spread on. Since I had "gray aliens" in my head when this was brought up, a triangle shape came to my mind.

Large amber/orange eyes with multiple red pupils like "stars". When closed, the eyes have a membrane like film that slides over top. I envisioned it to be slightly transparent based on that description.

Frills like feathers on the head that spread out into a flower-like appearance. Since he was described as robotic, I went with something that looked akin to blades or scales but still inspired by birds and placed in a crown.

Openings on the side of the neck that admitted sound (while reading, I envisioned them as flaps, almost skin like, that vibrated). Since the sounds were described as dolphin or whale-like, I felt this could be the one thing on the body more "organic" and not rigid.

The body itself is said to have the posture like a dinosaur or velociraptor with a rough exoskeleton shell. My feet were also inspired by this dinosaur/bird theme since the amygdala are described as plantigrades, and Cora described his footprints as "bird-like".

The arms are described as always being in a "mantis pose" or, as I like to call it, the "autism t-rex pose." The length of these arms changed in my mind a lot, but in the end, considering how much they use their arms, I went with long instead of short like a t-rex.

The hands were directly inspired by @deanu's drawing here. I loved their design, because it kept in mind the "spider" aspects the hands are described to have, without them being literal scissor fingers like I see in a lot of other fanart. Since that is not how I envisioned them while reading but wasn't exactly sure how I felt before seeing @deanu's fanart.

The fact this raptor body didn't have a tail was jarring for me to envision upon first reading, but a shell casing on his back that ever so slightly curved past the rear quickly formed in my mind. This made him feel less naked in my head and I don't know why.

In canon, I don't think Ampersand is this tall. I believe it states Cora comes up to his chin(?). But, I had to go against canon here. I love my monsters taaaall.

I hope you enjoyed my ramblings and my head-canons <3

[fe-noumenal]

Apostles of Marcy cover reveal

It's so beautiful!

We have a butterfly here (a butterfly effect)? With spotted wings (Rorschach test?), 10 green lines (10 dimensions?) overlapped by orange lines (dimensions corssing-over?, maybe those represent strings, since in this universe the strings theory is true) and large orange spot in the center (sun and solar radiation?).

Everybody post your theories!

#noumena #apostles of mercy #lindsay ellis #truth of the divine #axiom's end

[fe-noumenal]

Possible origin of amygdaline design

When I was gathering references for my own amygdaline design attempt (which is still in works) I came upon this animatronic of Edgar the Bug  from Men in Black. In the final cut the digital model was used instead, which was much less interesting.  

It fits pretty close to the description of Genome and transients - it has almond shaped eyes, insect mandibles, a mic of exoskeleton and skin, the mantid like hands with sharp fingers. 

It even has scorpion like tail.

I think, with little modifications, it’s what Lindsay imagined. 

#noumena #axiom's end #truth of the divine #lindsay ellis #apostles of mercy #amygdalines

[fe-noumenal]

Noumena crackship!

Enjoy this Sol/Stelo/Krias fanart. They are going to put eggs in him.

#noumena #monster fucker #cursed #i have sinned

[fe-noumenal]

Thinking about the different relationships characters have with “Truth” in Axiom’s End and Truth of the Divine…

- For Nils, truth is a human right but some people are more human than others. Nils’s slogan is “truth is a human right.” But his actions in TODT paint him as either cognitive dissonance-ing himself away from his own lies, or as a blatant, corrupted manipulator. Truth is a human right, except when he secretly blackmails Kaveh, schemes to indoctrinate his children for gain, and requests political favors in exchange for information. 

- For Kaveh, the means to truth do not justify the ends if the means cause more suffering than the ends prevent. Kaveh worked with Nils on at least one of the same projects, outing government atrocities that Sol was wrapped up in. But Kaveh believes this is a truth that needs to be outed to save lives and hold the government accountable, not to get his name in an article or book. When he has the truth of what Nils is willing to do his own integrity as a truth seeker and human being helps him make the easy decision to never want to work with Nils ever again. 

- For Cora, lying is seen as a way to protect herself and protect others, but if she goes too far it does the opposite. Cora tells little white lies, usually in the pursuit of peace. “I believe you,” she says when she doesn’t believe somebody, but doesn’t want to fight. She manipulates and minces interpretations of Ampersand’s comments for the sake of keeping peace. Her omissions of truth rarely cause great harm but neither do they ever help anything. However, as her illness progresses, little white lies snowball until she’s lying about the state of her own mental health, until she breaks. She hurts herself and her loved ones by proximity.

- For Luciana, it feels like telling the truth has only caused harm in the long run. Luciana wants to believe in her own goodness, and therefore cannot conceive that she would ever do something like breaking a NDA or hurting her family. She’s so concerned with being correct that she hurts her family, anyway. And still, that truth hurts. 

- For Ampersand, the truth will only make you suffer, so omission is an act of self-sacrifice; his instability for your stability. Ampersand always lies by omission, telling half truths or distracting from the real truth. He’s exactly like Cora but to the extreme, omitting truth because he believes the truth will hurt those around him. However, he’s gone so far down this hole of omission that his problems never get solved; he hurts himself, he hurts all his loved ones, and he knows he needs help but feels too broken to seek it. 

- For Nikola, there is no reason why he needs to lie or omit; the end is near, anyway. Nikola only tells the truth, as he understands it. His truth is pessimistic but his actions optimistic, something Kaveh notes about their friendship. When he says he’s ready to die but takes care of his body and mind, he isn’t lying about wanting to die. He wants to have hope but he is compelled to let the humans understand the odds of their hopelessness, all the same. 

- For the pequod superorganism, truth is a tangible thing they can hold in their hands, and they consume it like their sister-species “consumes” planets. The general pequod society, if Nikola is right, thinks that they can keeping going and going and going, that the universe is a black-and-white thing they can pull apart. But Nikola sees it as something bigger and incomprehensible than either pequod or human beings. There is a divinity- the unknown- which they can never touch. But the superorganism will keep trying to understand, anyways. They will destroy themselves and the miracle of other intelligent life in their endless pursuit of black-and-white.

- For the human superorganism- particularly the USA where the story is set- truth is only a tool. General Porter thinks he deserves the truth on the basis of his position of power and very likely his ethnicity and sex. He wants to use it to kill people. The general government agencies depicted, including ROSA, think they deserve to know everything they can squeeze out of Ampersand, even at the expense of their alien guest’s health. Political parties want the truth by any means to use it for their own political campaigns. Even those with less power- middle class to poor people- use truth and speculation of the truth for their own agendas, to discriminate against others, particularly Jewish and Muslim communities. The truth here does more harm than good, fought over like a commodity, manipulated and repurposed. You have the truth, now what? “He was a hero,” “he was a species traitor,” he’s great for views.

[fe-noumenal]

So, I woke up at excited today

#I think all conflicts should be resolved this way

[fe-noumenal]

So, I woke up at excited today

#THIS #I would die

[fe-noumenal]

So, I woke up at excited today

[fe-noumenal]

I wonder if we will ever get a confirmation when exactly did Ampersand bond to Cora. Or if it even was a concrete moment or it happened gradually. 

“But they are never unidirectional; they always flow both ways. So if I was able to do it to you, then you were able to do it to me.”

I was literally just thinking about a human being the instigator for a human/amygdaline or human/human bond when I reached a chapter of TOTD with that quote- where Ampersand confirms if he can bond to a human then a human could do it to an amygdaline… and that’s super interesting…

I hope we learn more about that in book 3; imagine finding out that humans were bonding to each other the whole time and not even knowing it, but then again I think people would have noticed if they had a version of high language.

I like the idea of, after the time skip for book 3, Cora, Ampersand, and Nikola forming a phyle either intentionally or unintentionally. Like, with Cora being the instigator. I could totally see Nik being 100% down like "oh shit yeah let's see if you can do it" out of scientific curiosity, but also it would be 😚👌 if Cora bonded to Nik accidentally out of a developed affection (as unlikely as that is)

After hundreds of years as an oligarch not allowed to have a complete family unit, a phyle would probably feel so comforting to poor Ampersand... probably all of them tbh.....