#axioms end

[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.

[genuflectx]

The Metaphor (with flat version)

[stimpry]

axioms end inspired alien AU!!!! :D

basically sniper is cora and scout is ampersand

[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

[whatthesquids]

I can’t believe i spent so much time thinking of this meme art AND made it AND THEN forgot to post it

[starwarspissorgy]

Me at the start of Axiom's End: she set this series in the Bush administration to critique post 9/11 American politics

Me most of the way through Truth of the Divine: she set this series in the oughts to justify Cora having custom song ringtones for everyone in her contacts

[nerves-nebula]

Diversity win! This heterogametic functionally agender female alien uses he/him pronouns (as a social play to be taken seriously & seen as superior to his human translator)

God I fucking love this series I wanna savor it so bad but I can’t stop listeningggg

[mintmentos]

Obsessed with cora having a breakdown one one side of the bed over thinking ‘it wouldn’t be the worst thing’ to fuck an alien while ampersand is having a breakdown on the other side of the bed because he wants to know her as intimately as he knows how (experiencing life as she does)

[canismajorisisastar]

I'm sobbing and screaming and throwing up. Where are you, Axiom's End/Noumena series by Lindsay Ellis fans...?? I NEED TO BE IN THE FANDOM BUT I CAN'T FIND IT!! Augh.

[noumena-ramblings]

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

[secretsofthewilde]

Just finished reading Apostles of Mercy by Lindsay Ellis and uh...

[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.

[genuflectx]

Aight forget my vent comic this just arrived

We ball

[the-enterprising-bookworm]

Axiom's End got me yearning more than any romance book...like oof I didn't know I rly want a large alien who cuddles up to me in bed and pets my hair and asks about my emotions in a soothing androgynous computer voice. that's all!

[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!

[cutekitten6]

As a durian loving malaysian named Isabel (who was 21 when Cora started this journey also at 21), I am being FED by Apostles of Mercy my god Lindsay Ellis I love you