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Description

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. The feet were also inspired by this dinosaur/bird theme since the amygdala are described as plantigrades. At first I was going to make the feet smaller because of how silent the species is described. However, I read that elephants are known to be very quiet despite their foot size, so I went with a size I felt could support their weight.

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 scissors 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

Description

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. The feet were also inspired by this dinosaur/bird theme since the amygdala are described as plantigrades. At first I was going to make the feet smaller because of how silent the species is described. However, I read that elephants are known to be very quiet despite their foot size, so I went with a size I felt could support their weight.

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 scissors 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