#Axiom's end

[0anhonestpuck0]

If you know, you know 😏

[fe-noumenal]

My problematic OPT is plotting world domination.

[genuflectx]

The Metaphor (with flat version)

[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

[comradegoblin]

Is it bad I like Sol? I feel like I'm not supposed to like Sol but I like Sol 👀

[innocet]

Started a noumena discord server, if anyone’s interested! It’s all ages at the moment (this might change depending on the demographics of our first members) so come on in!

[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

[keeg-draws-stuff]

[foxpearlwilder]

some rough sketches of amygdalines. i imagine they have slightly different crests and eyes, also that & has a hUge head compared to the rest

[delta-hexagon]

i finished Axiom's End and aaaaa

AAAAA!!

oiuhhghhghf amygdaline aaaaaaa

WOW what a BOOK!!!!! the ending!!!

[whentheynameyoujoy]

OK, fuck it, I have thoughts.

So I like Axiom’s End. Its theme may hit as subtly as a sledgehammer but it’s saved by the characters and the way it’s delivered. The whole point is about not truly being able to comprehend the mysterious Other, about communication and knowledge not being a panacea to bigotry and supremacism, about how studying the Other can often lead to the reinforcement of said bigotry as you confirm your prejudices and refuse to abandon your point of view where you’re the default, the morally superior and the Other at best a flawed imitation, at worst a contemptible aberration. And you arrive at this and the usual “wait, this is actually about our world, isn’t it” via the protagonists and their own personal failure to truly comprehend one another, even though at the same time they’re aware of their respective cultures’ atrocities. Again, unsubtle but it works.

And then Truth of the Divine comes and it just doesn’t. The theme is utterly divorced from the characters’ inner journeys. It’s literally a “wise accomplished guy sees further than the protagonist and informs her of the theme which they then spend the rest of the book trying to effect”. The idea that “if you deny rights to aliens, you create a legal framework which then allows humanity to keep indulging its centuries-long human rights abuses” isn’t even less on the nose than what the previous book presented but because it comes to the story as a monologue and the response is “oh I never thought about it that way, guess that’s what we’re doing now” it reads like a Medium article preaching to the choir.

And I absolutely am going to blame this on Kaveh or rather the way he’s designed. For the theme to be a result of a learning process, you really need someone like Timothy Snyder not realizing until his 50s that the U.S. healthcare system is a bit shit, because he’d never been affected by its shittiness before. You need a person of privilege. You obviously can’t do “I discovered racism exists” via an Iranian refugee who got his big break by exposing CIA torture sites in the Middle East.

But OK, fine, I guess that the world doesn’t need another white savior “I learned something today” narrative (let’s ignore it could have been Miranda having a leopards ate my face moment). But to really drive the final nail in the coffin, Kaveh isn’t even particularly complex as a character. He’s endlessly understanding and empathetic and soooo self-aware, absolutely would never use Cora to his advantage, no siree, he genuinely loves her and wants to take care of her and never abuses his worldliness and is a great fuck and exactly what she needs at this stage in her life and he never has doubts about anything and his demons are long behind him and only serve as a means for Cora to learn there is a light at the end of the tunnel and his connection to Nils doesn’t amount to much in terms of character flaws and he believes the idea of daddy issues is stupid and he opens doors to a better future for Cora and stands up for her and is loaded but his wealth doesn’t affect his worldview whatsoever and his dick is uuuuge and throbbing and oh my fucking god I get it he’s perfect I could not give less of a shit about him why is this Gary Stu taking up so much space.

And this, kids, is how momma found herself yearning for the tertiary CIA agent who most likely has a past of torturing people. Simply because he seems to have something, anything else going on behind what’s readily apparent.

[perks-of-quirks]

If I have to do this "character a thinks they're in an x genre / movie and character b thinks they're in a y genre/ movie" for the noumena series I'd say

Cora thinks she's in independence day / Louise from Arrival witht he trauma from War of the Worlds

Ampersand thinks he's an alien romance novel protagonist / war romance drama. Protecting his human from his past deeds and politics of his species, dealing with his past love life, trying to survive it.

Of course both are correct.

[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. 

[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!

[literary-illuminati]

The books share remarkably little in common so it's actually kind of funny to imagine doing a proper comparison of Exordia and Axiom's End on the basis of '21st century period piece about a terrifying alien whose a rebel from a galaxy-spanning empire that lands on earth and forms a bond with a lowkey burnout fuckup of a woman with a terrible family history living in a major American city'.

[arvadthecursed]

Ampersand and Cora hugged for the first time and HHHHHHGH HE'S SO SWEET!!!!! I WANNA CRY I LOVE THEMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!