#noumena

[squishy-lombax]

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.

Edit: I have no concept for how tall 8ft but this is the generally the height i envisioned.

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

#ampersand #axiom's end #noumena #alien #reference sheet #character design #book #reading #monster fucker #anthro #scalie #lindsay ellis #axioms end #noumena series

[genuflectx]

The Metaphor (with flat version)

#axioms end #axiom's end #totd #terato #noumena #art

[sajirah]

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.

#my art #fanart #truth of the divine #axioms end #lindsay ellis #noumena #ampersand #cora sabino #kaveh mazandarani #nikola

[artbyvampiraptor]

Struggling struggling struggling to make a good Ampersand design, my alien cyborg blorbo,help I just wanted to draw something because the Apostles of Mercy cover was recently released and I'm vibrating with excitement

#noumena #ampersand #axiom's end #truth of the divine #apostles of mercy #lindsay ellis #noumena fan art #amygdalan #alien #this series activates my autism like something else is2g

[noumena-ramblings]

I swear I’m gonna be normal I’m gonna be so so normal about this

#noumena #axioms end #truth of the divine #lindsay ellis #own #apostles of mercy

[amygdaline]

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.

#axioms end #axiom's end #truth of the divine #TOTD #noumena #im not sure how to place sol's relationship with the truth #he doesnt seem to be a liar nor an omitter hes just along for the ride #however he DOES have an accurate lie-dar and i think he knows cora has been lying or omitting for most of the books #even if he doesnt always know the exact depth of her omission hes been trained on lying and probably assumes lying of most people

[fe-noumenal]

I ship Kaveh/Nikola so much 

#truth of the divine #noumena #kavehxnik #monster romance #nikxkaveh

[titles-for-tangents]

So there I was checking to see if there was a summary was up yet for "Apostles of Mercy" when I spotted this little rather telling detail

There's no summary up on B&N yet as of this posting but it's up an Amazon, and both have three quotes of incredible praise. Let's zoom in on this one in particular by the incredible, indelible Jamie Loftis:

"Lindsay Ellis shows us that humans are just as much the other as their alien counterparts with incredible detail, humor, and empathy, and never better than in this un-put-downable conclusion to the Noumena saga. Cora Sabino has officially joined the pantheon of first contact heroines." - Jamie Loftis, New York Times bestselling author of Raw Dog

CONCLUSION?!!?!

I knew Noumena was originally published under a three-book deal with Macmillian Press, and that it would hopefully go to a full five-book series depending on the success of the first three. What then, pray tell, on earth happened to the other two?

#i have questions #apostles of mercy #noumena #lindsay ellis #jamie loftis #books #quotes #macmillian #barnes & noble #book series #axiom’s end #truth of the divine #I have many more speculations

[boiledbloodyguts]

Started reading Axiom's end, here's my version of Cora!

#cora sabino #axiom's end #noumena #my art

[glitter-and-be-gay]

Apostles of Mercy - Book review

by Lindsay Ellis

Lindsay Ellis has once again crafted a novel that encompasses the breadth of people's (very pointedly not referring only to "human" here) emotions when faced with desperate situations. The myriad reactions to fear, the things we will do to save ourselves and those we love, the urges to be cruel or compassionate in the face of impending doom, and how there are always choices.

There is infinite nuance in how Ellis writes her characters. It makes one wonder what one would do in those circumstances, between a rock and a hard place. The times when we would choose cruelty over mercy. It's easiest to imagine oneself as noble and self-sacrificing, but I know how irritable I am when I haven't slept well, so I cannot possibly imagine being my very best self when faced with horrific existential quandaries. I hope never to find out. Some of these characters are irredeemable, and it comes down to their own choices when the only unforgivable sin is protracted callous self-interest.

I believe we are, slowly but surely, societally moving away from finding earnest hope and love as a way to move forward naïve. Ellis very carefully steps away from nebulous revolutions as a solution to anything and advocates for slow, steady changes in policy as the only way to fix any problems we are dealing with. The solution is not blowing up the Bad Guys because there are fundamentally no collective Bad Guys. There are individuals who make choices. American imperialist politics and the military are scrutinised from within.

And then there's the romance. How the characters love each other is incredibly compelling. I can't go into any detail without spoiling things, but one of the most touching scenes in the book is one I did not expect at all. I simply can't wait to read what Ellis publishes next.

#books #reading #book review #booklr #my book tag #Apostles of Mercy #Axiom's End #Noumena #Lindsay Ellis #sci-fi #sci-fi books #Ampersand #my beloved

[squishy-lombax]

So, of course I couldn't draw Ampersand without drawing Cora too! (From the book Axiom's End)

Now, when it comes to human characters, I suck at remembering specific details about their appearance. A mental image usually pops into my head after the first description and it refuses to change. However, I hope my version isn't too off-base.

I know Cora has dyed hair because she mentions the fade out being bad at the beginning. As for the color, I remember her stating something about wheat, but I thought that was the dyed part and not her natural color. Especially considering her dad is from Span(?) and has black hair. I also imaged her mom with black hair, but I can't remember if that was actually mentioned. Although her last name is also heard in the Hispanic community. After reading the whole story and seeing artwork depicting her as blonde and white was jarring. But it is probably closer to canon.

The outfits presented were pretty self explanatory. The only thing I had a little fun with was the iconic maxi dress. While reading, I didn't really know what a 70s style maxi dress looked like, so I envisioned it very plain. But after getting some Google inspiration, I decided to jazz it up a bit.

Ngl, I don't remember any mention about shoes. Except for one sentence I think towards the beginning mentioning sneakers. Since I don't remember shoes ever mentioned again, I figured she never changed them throughout the story. Which took place over 3 or so weeks, so I guess it's believable.

Anyways, this is roughly what my Cora looks like! I say "my" Cora because I doubt this fits canon, but as I said before, I suck at envisioning human characters accurately and instead just insert a random actor or cartoon character to play the part.

I hope you like it!

#Cora Sabino #axiom's end #noumena #book #reading #scifi #monster fucker #character design #reference sheet #lindsay ellis #noumena series #axioms end

[genuflectx]

"The eyes closing was a development, and a disturbing one, but otherwise it hadn't moved."

rip ampersand

#axiom's end #noumena #axioms end #amygdaline #terato #art

[anordinarypot]

Lindsay Ellis you can’t just pull me in with “oooOOO first contact with aliens sci fi set in your childhood years OOOoo” and then get me utterly immersed in the political and deeply emotional analysis of humanity like that it’s not FAIR

#axiom's end #noumena #lindsay ellis #truth of the divine #books #sci fi

[haveyoureadthisscifibook]

vote yes if you have finished the entire book.

vote no if you have not finished the entire book.

(faq · submit a book)

#scifi #books #Axiom's End #Lindsay Ellis #Noumena #poll #result: no #l: English

[noumena-ramblings]

So, I woke up at excited today

#truth of the divine #own #noumena #axioms end #lindsay ellis

[amygdaline]

“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.....

#axioms end #noumena #truth of the divine #amygdaline #totd