#proto nemesis

[maukiki1-but-cringefail]

i ordered this bad boy and during the agonizingly long amount of time it took to arrive i was thinking i wonder if she can hold up a bey? like if i could display a beyblade on her servos? well the awnser is yes and i think it looks raw as fuck

and heres a silly one ahgsisbwjesqhvexn looks like shes trying to pose with a short person😭😭

and heres a failed attempt😭

[grineerios]

Carrion hordes trill their profane Accord with Eldritch plans; To cosmic forms from tangent planes; We End As We Began- (Nyx Nemesis/Nyx and Excalibur Proto/Excalibur)

A massive thank-you to BethTheBeek and VeriTimeLord for helping me get this shot. Yall are the coolest.

I put *so* much thought into this shot and I need to tell people about it. I wanted to include both themes for the contest (Steel and mirrors), as well as make nods towards the 11th anniversary of warframe.

Nyx (11) Nyx is the 11th warframe to be released (If you count Excalibur prime, which I do.)

Proto Skins (Steel/Mirrors) The proto skins have plenty of metallic, exposed swordsteel parts, alongside being a reflection of what we have to look forward to with WF: 1999.

Excalibur (Steel/Mirrors) Excalibur wields his exalted blade. You seriously can't go wrong with swords tbh. Excalibur also contrasts with Nyx here as a pair of mirrored warframes, as Nyx was initially intended to be a feminine counterpart to Excalibur. As equally as he and his proto are mirrors of each other, so is he a mirror of Nyx as well.

Dex Colors/Helmet/Weapon (Anniversary/11) Proto Excalibur uses the Dex helmet, there is a Dex Nikana on modern Excalibur's hip, and both of the modern frames use colors exclusively found on the Dex color picker.

this took me forever to finally settle on an idea, but i'm fairly happy with how it turned out. <3

[rastronomicals]

7:40 AM EDT June 22, 2024:

Proto-Kaw - "Totus Nemesis" From the album   Early Recordings From Kansas 1971-73 (September 17, 2002)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

[lovinglonerhybrid]

What if the lostlight was in transformers prime.

Idk if I’m ever going to get it done but I had an idea that if the lostlight was in tfp it would be really interesting.

Cybertron has been abandoned and there most likely weren’t enough ships for every cybertronion. The crew of the lost light is made up of bots mostly forgotten or left behind by the rest of their race.

Minimus and Dominus ambus where left behind because they where found out to be turbofoxes by the other nobles. The two open the ambus manor to others who were outcast.

Chromedome who was two depressed to get out of bed gets dragged in by brainstorm a double agent who sucked at his job and was left due to the hazard his experiments caused.

Rung finds the manor searching for energon for his trapped patients Whirl and Fortress Maximus. The three were left when rung barricaded them all in a room after hearing talk of the other two getting executed due to their mental health. Fort max and whirl get saved and they all three stay .

Ambulon and first aid join after being left in a testing facility. They takeover an old room and turn it into a makeshift medbay.

Cyclonus and tailgate are found in an old temple for unicron. Cyclonus found tailgate after shockwave left his body in his lab. The elder mech took him and placed an old temple spark into his frame reanimated the dead mech.

Ravage slinks in one day with story’s of how bad megatron has gotten. With them are rumble,frenzy,and skids who hitched a ride when the cassettes left the decepticons.

Swerve is found by the others in the back room of his bar witch he refused to leave. With him they also find a vehicon who named himself ten .

Anode and lug come with proto sparks that had been abandoned to die by the senate. There are three sparks one bonds to first aid and ambulon as caregivers. The other two are put into what is refereed to as the nesting room.

Whirl adopts a swarm of mutated scraplets and names her whirl jr.

The last bot to join the crew well they are stranded on cybertron is deadlock who was tricked by a jealous starscream into being left behind by the nemesis.

Deadlock gets chosen by one of the proto sparks to be its caregiver deadlock names this little sparkling hot rod.

Eventually hot rod runs away and befriends a titan mech who is a spaceship Lost Light.

[red-moon-at-night]

I decided to draw my designs for Helen and Paris :)

There are some notes about the designs under the read more but I think I should stress this one up here: Paris is not short, Helen is just really tall (as in, at least 6'5" and YES you are seeing that number correctly)

Design notes:

"rich-haired helen", "helen of the lovely hair", etc. + the etymology of Helen's name being associated with a proto-Indo-European sun goddess = designing her hair to resemble literal rays of sunlight.

The height difference... listen, I wish I already had other characters drawn so I could put them altogether and you could see the full effect of Helen's height. Alas, you must use your imagination. As for the 'why': well, I have multiple answers for that. The main one being that I enjoy going along with the version of Helen that has Zeus and Nemesis for parents (as seen in cypria fragment 8). It's a fun way to portray some of her divine parentage, by having her be literally larger than life and very very tall. People probably listen better to a very imposing figure. Also, it creates interesting implications for certain events that happen (e.g. the kidnapping, Odysseus and Diomedes taking the Palladium from inside of Troy but not Helen, etc.)

Paris can have both short hair and long hair. The solution: put a phrygian cap on that man and tuck all that hair in it. Boom, problem solved.

Paris is wearing eye makeup because of course he would wear it.

The clothing designs are not set in stone at all and are the most flexible part of this for me. I did my sort-of-research-sort-of-freestyling thing here, mainly because these references were more about the body types/facial features/overall vibe for me. Which I'm happy with! At one point Helen was also wearing a red chlamys like Paris but then I reminded myself himations exist and corrected that lol. Helen can totally wear a cloak if she wants to (and I was half-tempted to leave it like that...)

One day I'll draw Paris in his very patterned elaborate clothing... today is not that day.

[vynxwave]

Soundwave Bio/Description Compilation

+ anything else I felt like including

1986 Marvel G1 The Transformers Universe #3

1984 G1

1984 G1 Sunbow voice acting audition sheet [Source]

1990 Action Master

2002 Heroes of Cybertron

2003 Dreamwave Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye #6

2006 Cybertron

Collectors' Club #9

2007 Titanium

2008 Animated

2010 Transformers: Nefarious

Information is power. Nothing moves on the orb below me without my being aware of it. I see and hear everything, be it out in the open or behind closed doors. My reach is invisible, intangible. My grip... cast-iron.

2010 Transformers: Nefarious (perhaps this is also relevant)

2011 Transformers: Convergence (prose story in Transformers: Dark of The Moon Movie Adaptation)

Something was wrong with this region. Something about space itself felt unaccountably wrong—and this trouble Soundwave. Soundwave was an intelligence officer. He reveled in the streams of data—transmissions, radiations, sounds, sights—that flowed around him. Soundwave trafficked in information, not feelings. So his uneasiness about this region bothered him. He walked down the passageway toward the bridge of the Nemesis, the Decepticon spacecraft he commanded. Lord Megatron had assigned him a task—assigned it to Soundwave over Megatron's favored lieutenants such as the sociopath Shockwave and the impetuous upstart Starscream. It was a point of pride for Soundwave—this was his mission and his responsibility to make sense of the findings.

Soundwave hated this creature. Hated the way its cells divided and apoptosized, hated the bacteria that lived in it, hated the sound of the liquids churning through its body, hated the hair that sprouted from its frail outer coating, hated the syntax that was wired into the crude synapses that crackled in its head, hated the sounds that came out of it. He hated this particular creature more than the rest of the species, but only slightly. Gould's usefulness outweighed Soundwave's contempt. […]

2011 Dark of the Moon (unreleased)

2010 WFC & 2011 FOC

Fall of Cybertron [secondary source, original unarchived]

Ability: Eject Mini-Cons Soundwave is known for being unquestionably loyal to Megatron. Commanding an armada of Mini-Con Deployers, Soundwave can infiltrate and acquire enemy intel. Soundwave is often not trusted by other Decepticons out of fear he might also spy on them and report back to Megatron.

2013 Transformers: The Ultimate Pop-Up Universe (aligned continuity) [source 1] [source 2]

2010 Transformers: Exodus (error: despite his exclusion from this list, Frenzy does exist in this book)

Soundwave was a different matter. Spymaster extraordinaire, controller of a horde of Minicons so small that Megatron could crush several of them with a footstep, Soundwave was the only gladiator Megatron had ever fought who had a chance of beating him—they had met in a match to first wound rather than death; otherwise only one of them would still exist. He was nearly as single-minded as Megatron, nearly as dedicated. He possessed a suite of abilities that Megatron very nearly envied, with his multiple transformations and the triple Minicons that he contained within his proto-form and could eject into combat at any moment. These were Rumble, Ravage, and Laserbeak.

Crystal City had stood for teracycles, a monument to the union of Cybertronian ingenuity and aesthetics. It shimmered and glowed as the various materials of its composition caught different spectra of light, creating a prismatic show that was visible for dozens of hics in any direction. During certain atmospheric conditions, even the citizens of Iacon could see it shimmering like a mirage just over the horizon. It was a monument both to achievement and to the aristocracy of Cybertron that demanded beauty along with function. Scientific research went hand-in-hand with artistic innovation here. Soundwave hated the place. To him it reeked of self-indulgence,

2014 Transformers: Retribution

“At once,” Soundwave replied in his usual monotone. Starscream knew there was no need to vocalize what was merely standard operating procedure, but he did it anyway to remind Soundwave that he was second in command on this bridge. He enjoyed reminding all of them every chance he got. Soundwave might be Megatron’s loyal pet, but as far as Starscream was concerned, he was nothing more than a jumped-up communications officer with visions of spymaster grandeur, though he was nothing if not obedient: [...]

“Lord Megatron, I have completed my interrogation of the traitor Axer and have obtained the precise location of the Autobots. Would you like to see the playback of the questioning?” He said it with enough unrestrained relish that Megatron waved his hand wearily in assent. Sometimes you had to indulge your subordinates. [...] When Axer’s screams grew loud enough to drown out Soundwave’s questions, Megatron decided that it was time to move things along. There was no doubt in his mind that Soundwave could watch this video over and over again—and that he probably already had.

2012 Prime

2007 IDW Spotlight: Soundwave

2017 IDW Hasbro Heroes Sourcebook #3

(short guide to IDW1's Soundwave characterizations: yellow visor = opportunist (like in Marvel comics) & red visor = loyalist (like in Sunbow cartoon))

2015 Devastation

2022 Royal Mail Stamp bio [source 1] [source 2]

2020 Siege Webpage (military insignias)

2022 Legacy [Source]

2022 When EarthSpark's trailer dropped [Source]

A Con of few words, Soundwave maintains a cold exterior by choosing to express himself through his fists.

2023 Transformers EarthSpark: The Official Guidebook

[crimescrimson]

Types of Tyrants In Resident Evil: Proto-T001 in Resident Evil 0 (2002) | T-002 in Resident Evil (2002) | T-00 (Mr X) in Resident Evil 2 (2019) | Nemesis T-Type in Resident Evil 3 (2020) | Tyrant R in Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles (2009) | T.A.L.O.S in Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles (2007) | The Bandersnatch in Resident Evil: Code Veronica X (2000) | T-078 in Resident Evil: Code Veronica X (2000)

[thetrickster-blr-blog]

ANARKY (Beware The Batman)

This is my own redraw of Anarky from the "Beware The Batman" cartoon. While I know everyone has their own opinions on the show (or don't know it exists), I will admit that it has always been one of my favorite Batman shows. One of the most polarizing things about the show is its inclusion of obscure Batman villains like Professor Pyg & Magpie and using them as placeholders for the primary Batman villains. And though I certainly am one to be critical of vast departures in comic-to-screen adaptations, I am willing to forgive certain decisions if they make sense or at least have good reasoning. Case in point: The show's depiction of Anarky.

I will admit that this is kind of a terrible Anarky. He's not a politically conscious teenage anti-hero/anti-villain who masquerades as an adult to further his political rebellion and has an on/off relationship with the Bat Family. Instead, he's basically the show's answer to The Joker. And while I normally wouldn't be so forgiving of such a change to a character that I like and respect, I am willing to accept it if what they make is at least good. And while this isn't a good Anarky, IT IS A GREAT VILLAIN. One thing I like so much about this Anarky is that they basically made him the "Anti-Batman". He dresses in a nearly accurate costume to Batman's, save for it having a hood, an "A" as its symbol, and being entirely white. He even has similar gadgets, though made to kill people as opposed to Batman's non-lethal gadgets. He's also a master combatant who can hold his own against Batman (He was basically the proto Nemesis). I also like how they use him as a Joker placeholder while still making him his own character. Instead of being a maniacal mass-murdering cartoon villain dressed in a purple tuxedo, he's a much more reserved and calculated mastermind who often manipulates others into unknowingly doing his bidding; like when he tricked Batman and Lady Shiva into nearly unleashing an epidemic or when he teamed up with Harvey Dent to take down Batman, which led to the latter getting scarred and becoming Two-Face. He's also not clown-themed in any way, instead going for more of a Chess theme with him as the "White King" and Batman as the "Black King". I also really like his portrayal by Wallace Langham. Instead of being a very off-the-wall over-the-top hammy performance, he's soft-spoken and mellow, but with hints of malice behind his voice. He kind of sounds like Neil Patrick Harris if he had Schizophrenia. Anarky barely ever loses his cool and hardly ever raises his voice, which adds to his menace.

That's all I have to say really. What are your opinions of "Beware The Batman" or this version of Anarky?

[blazing-butterfly]

Rough outline cast list for Transformers: Bug Wars

Autobugs:

Entomus Prime (he/him) - leader, rhinoceros beetle

Honeybee (she/her) - scout, bee (formerly Pesticon Buzzbomb - warrior, fighter jet)

Spring-Kick (he/him) - warrior, grasshopper/berserk mode

Hotspot (he/him) - scientist, firefly

Longarm (she/her) - warrior, praying mantis

Micronus Prime (he/him) - spirit guide, tardigrade

Somnolent (he/him) - mystic, cicada

Proto (she/her) - child, caterpillar (grows into Whirlwind - mystic, butterfly)

Blackout (she/her) - stealth agent, spider

Pesticons:

Centatron (he/him) - leader, centipede

the Stingers: Starsting, Warpspin & Thunderbolt (all she/her) - warriors, wasps

Darkweb (he/him) - scientist, spider

Nemesis (he/him) - super-soldier, stag beetle

Jetstorm (he/him) - scout, dragonfly

the Dreadnought (it/its) - drill tank, scorpion

the Great Devourer (it/its) - monster, worm combiner

Civilians (one-off and background characters):

Syringe (she/her) - thief, mosquito

Augur (he/him) - energon farmer, weevil

Traction (he/him) - delivery bot, pillbug

Pincer (he/him) - bandit, earwig

Fortune (she/her) - energon farmer, ladybug

Mire (she/her) - bureaucrat, snail

Rebar (he/him) - hacker, stick bug

Ignite (she/her) - miner, ant

Tremor (he/him) - miner, termite

Disperse (he/him) - journalist, stink bug

Whisker (he/him) - energon farmer, longhorn beetle

Razorclaw (he/him) - space pirate, crab

the Scavenger (it/its) - spaceship, giant lobster

[redrosesartcabin]

9.Scenario: The Blow Job

A little nsfw sceanario I couldn’t keep out of my head.

Obvious warning: NSFW found below! This time gender is not specified in this NSFW scenario

(Edited) This chapter was new and is now also posted on ao3

Megatron x reader fanficition ( can be found here as well https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redrosessoulcabin)

Link to the previous chapter: https://www.tumblr.com/redrosesartcabin/722532045498335232/8scenario-lemon-cake?source=share

Link to the first post:

Link to the next chapter: https://www.tumblr.com/redrosesartcabin/722642109442801664/10scenario-tell-me-of-the-nemesis

—

It had been one of those hot summer nights where you had slept with Megatron in the barn. You then always slept on his chassis right above the calming whir of his spark, a soft blanket below you as well as a thick pillow to give you more comfort and one very thin blanket on top of you.

This time you woke up to an unusual but more than welcoming sight. As your eyelids fluttered open you saw his spike freed from his panel and erect right in your field of vision. You turned your head around to his face to find out if he was still sleeping but noticed you couldn’t see it because of his chest being so ridiculously muscular, a fact which together with the erect cock now made you as horny as he seemed to be, though you tried to push those feelings away for now. Carefully, you crawled over the chassis until you could see his face. His optics were still dark, and he was breathing evenly, so that meant he was still asleep or ‘in stasis’ as it was called for Cybertronians.

“He must have a nice little dream, and it better be about me”, you whispered to yourself, crawling back and you tried to ignore this thing happening, but you just couldn’t. Instead, you felt your body, against your own nervous thoughts, now crawl towards his spike.

It was the first time you faced it without mass displacement and with both utter fear and fascination, you inspected it, your hand feeling the soft parts that were the proto-form as well as the metallic, blue ridges you’ve come to know, quite literally, inside and out. Without further thinking, your tongue travelled, licking over it, then you stood up carefully until you reached the tip, tasting some pre-cum. Only then you noticed you had never tasted his cum and you couldn’t possibly describe what it could be compared to. It was like nothing you’ve ever tasted, just like with your first and also every kiss after. It was neither good nor bad but you were electrified by it.

As you kept going, licking the tip like a huge ice cream cone, you suddenly heard a dark, familiar chuckle.

“Baby, baby, baby…what are we doing there, hm?”, Megatron asked, his voice still sounding a bit rusty.

“Seemed you needed a little assistance here”, you answered, your mouth on autopilot whilst your heart was making summer saults in your chest, “Sorry if-“

“No no”, Megatron interrupted you, a stupidly cocky grin adorning his faceplate, “Please, continue”

[firesofdainix]

What has Sol been doing when not watching the other planets? Would Helios really admonish his giants in case they went through with consuming the smaller beings?

Looking out for any signs of Nemesis in the Oort cloud, sleeping, in one of the Stellar meetings that happens from time to time, talks to Mercury, all that jazz! In the Proto Era, Sol didn't really... KNOW or notice the Rocky planets, and he'd been involved in an incident where he had killed one of the planets, so yes, maybe Helios will admonish his Giants, but he shouldn't expect to be listened to after all the BS he did.

[mrcompass]

The Antichrists of Beyblade (Part 2): Rago the Blasphemer.

Rago is the main antagonist of Beyblade Metal Fury, making him the final adversary in the Metal Saga trilogy. His character is tied to the concept of the antichrist as he is the one destined to wield Nemesis, the God of Destruction. Rago only appeared in 8 episodes before being defeated for good, and even though he seems flat as a character, the lore surrounding him makes up for the lack of characterization.

Rago first appears when Doji finds him in an ancient temple behind a cascade and soon leads him to Pluto and Nemesis. He is presented as King Hades' descendant who "inherited the same spirit and power" and immediately takes control of Proto Nemesis. Rago realizes that the bey is not powerful enough, highlighting a special connection with this ancient and dark artifact.

Rago's design and personality are meant to emulate his true nature: the wielder of Nemesis, he is nothing more, nothing less. As such, he is a ruthless, brutal, and sometimes sadistic person. His biggest personality trait is his habit of insulting his opponents as worms. His design is particularly ominous; he is tall and bigger than most characters, his dark hair is long with spikes, looking more similar to tendrils than horns. He wears a cap like Ryuga, Damian, and Aguma, and his clothing is reminiscent of ancient Greece. It's like Rago comes from ancient times, showing that he is completely disconnected from the world. Rago, with his haircut, red eyes, and clothing, looks closer to King Hades than Pluto, even though the latter claimed and took pride in his affiliation. This is meant to show us that Rago, and not Pluto, embodies King Hades' will, that he is the one destined to wield Nemesis.

As for his similarities with the antichrist, the beast of the apocalypse is said to come from the sea; Rago's temple is located behind water, and Hades's kingdom emerges from the water. The antichrist brings the apocalypse/armageddon; Nemesis's special move is Armageddon, and the bey was bringing the end of the world. The beast says insults against the righteous and servants of God and denies the Son; Rago constantly insults other characters. His opponents are hardworking bladers (for the most part) and are passionate, unlike him. By calling them worms, he denies their achievement and their humanity at the same time.

He himself lacks humanity; his behavior is far from human. In the manga, he is nothing more than Nemesis's incarnation. His design is a human version of the God of Destruction, who will later use Rago as a simple way to communicate and throw insults.

Furthermore, Rago received Nemesis from Pluto and King Hades, like the antichrist received authority and power from the devil itself. Hades is the Greek equivalent of Pluto, and as the king of hell in mythology, he is often seen as an evil god in works of fiction (like the Hercules Disney movie or Saint Seiya) when he is not. In the Bible, the Devil miraculously heals the beast, and in Metal Fury, a fragment of Fusion Hades (Pluto's bey) allows Nemesis to escape the seal and miraculously come back. Finally, he, alongside Pluto and Nemesis, shares a similar end; they are thrown into a bottomless pit while the antichrist and the devil were thrown into a lake of fire for all eternity.

I would argue that Rago is more complex than he seems as he shares some parallels with Damian. Both were the top bladers of their evil organization, they both defeated an emperor, they possessed powerful beys that had unique mode changes involving the fusion wheel. Both believed to be special and got their strength through unconventional methods (the arrangement and stealing the power of the legendary blader). They both accomplish the will of someone else. And they both served that will to bring a so-called new world, as Rago even said:

"Be grateful that I will put an end to this mistaken history that you are living in right now. I, the child of the Black Sun, Rago, with my own hands, will do this."

He is a genocidal maniac whose only purpose is to wield Nemesis and to bring its power to its full potential in order to destroy the world. His worldview rests on that alone and is completely flawed, like Damian's. However, he didn't choose that; he was born to be like that. He received the spirit of Hades, and there was no way he could have avoided his destiny. Damian is who he is because of Ziggurat, but Ziggurat is a mortal man who played god, and his actions aren't comparable to Rago's. In Metal Fury, it is said that the legendary blader can't avoid their destiny, and Rago is no different. So in the end, who should we blame: Rago embodying a purpose that was created for him, or Hades who created that purpose in the first place?

[rastronomicals]

5:28 PM EDT April 10, 2024:

Proto-Kaw - "Totus Nemesis" From the album   Early Recordings From Kansas 1971-73 (September 17, 2002)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

[fantasyinvader]

Had a bit of a thought today. Indulge once again in my theory that Almyra was founded by members of the Elites' clans who fled Fodlan rather than bend the knee to the Empire. There's a lot this would explain and add to Claude's arc, and I think one of these things is explaining why he believes the Church wants to keep Fodlan isolated.

If the proto-Almyrans fled Fodlan, think about who they were fleeing from. The Empire, who they viewed as a bunch of religious zealots according to the Shadow Library. The unit description for Nemesis also says that they were led to believe that the people of the Empire were being deceived and they were liberating them according to the guy who is fighting under pretenses. We have a people driven from their homeland, seemingly viewing those who bend the knee as cowards (which included the children of the heroes who had "sacred" weapons) while they were courageous because they fled to fight again another day. We also have Edelgard's belief that she'll get along with Almyra because they don't believe in the Goddess.

How much you wanna bet that Almyrans view the War of Heroes as the Empire conquering Fodlan to push their beliefs onto others, with the only options being to accept the Church of Seiros and abandon the beliefs that flourished under Nemesis or to flee? From there, as well as building a bigass wall to keep Almyra out, Claude came to the conclusion the Church wanted to keep Fodlan isolated?

Plus, there was also this bugging me. Remember the information that Solon tried to slip Claude? The stuff about the Immaculate/White One? Why would that have sway on Claude unless there's some history there, like Almyrans remember the Immaculate One as this terrifying monster and showing Claude how it ties into Church doctrine is meant to remind him of that? And thinking about it, is Claude's white wyvern meant to be a jab at Rhea, metaphorically taming the beast and turning it into Claude's own personal mount? You know, before Claude learns the truth, realizes that Almyra is based on a pretty fucked up culture influenced by the Agarthans, and then goes home to reform it in Verdant Wind? Hell, Claude using the Church in Flayn's ending, showing Almyra the beliefs they had long demonized, is said to be effective so it probably stands to reason that Cyril isn't a fluke. Almyran commoners would accept the Church's teachings, which include telling nobility that they have some goddamn responsibilities to those they preside over.

[spidersorcerer]

✨💚🍩 for Kerberos too? >:3

✨-How did I come up with his name?

Kerberos is a proto-Indo-European word meaning “spotted”, but it is also thought to be the word from which “Cerberus” is derived.

💚-His gender and sexuality?

Ker is a trans man! His sexuality for the time being is just unlabeled because I honestly haven’t figured that out for him lol. It may just remain unlabeled for him though.

🍩-His arch nemesis or rival?

Definitely more of a rival than an arch nemesis, but that title could easily go to my gf’s character, Raine, another netrunner! While Ker carries out most of what Barghest needs done net-wise, they occasionally will hire outside help, Raine being one of their top choices. Both, shockingly, are more similar than they will ever be willing to admit, both having almost been killed while netrunning and both being on the run from Netwatch. However, as far as morals and ethics go, are complete opposites. Raine is no saint, but Ker is sitting just a little below the 9th circle of hell.

[the---hermit]

The Black Corsair by Emilio Salgari

This is, believe it or not, the first book I read by Salgari. He is one of the biggest classic adventure authors in Italy, and let me tell you the man was obessesed with pirates. So many of his book series are about pirates, which makes it even more unbeliavable that I never read one of his novels before. The Black Corsair is the first novel in his Corsairs of the Antilles series. The story is centered around the black corsair, of course, who is a feared pirate in the Caribbean. This pirate, the former Lord of Ventimiglia, is seeking revenge for the murder of his brothers. In fact the story's main topic is revenge. The black corsair swears he will avenge his brothers by killing the entire family of the governor of Maracaibo, his nemesis and the man who executed two of his brothers.

For some reason going into this I wasn't expecting the black corsair to be a positive character, I thought he would be a villain of some sort. Instead he is represented as this incredibly skilled and brave pirate, who is also very honorable. This is peak romanticization of the pirate figure, and let me tell you I am here for it. For some reason pirates have always been fascinating to me, and this novel plays a lot into this fascination for this type of characters. It's also set during the golden age of piracy, so you couldn't ask for more. The narration was a bit slow, but I listened to the audiobook which honestly didn't make it too bad, it's actually pretty entertaining. It's a classic that was first published in 1898, so you should keep it in mind obviously. But as I said it's really adventurous and entrtaining, it was the perfect audiobook choice for summer (so much so that I am listening to the sequel at the moment). Salgari was an insanely prolific author and I am very curious to read more of his books. Of course I will have to read at least the first Sandocan book as that is probably his most famous character (of which I remember very little from the animated series I would watch in the morning before school when I was a kid), but I read he wrote some of the first proto sci-fi in Italy and I am very intrigued by it. What makes things even more absurd is that this man didn't travel at all. He wrote adventures set in basically all continents all thanks to his library loans, which really shows you the power of reading, because the settings feel very authentic. Although the book is a bit slow I feel like it's a classic that could work for people who haven't read a lot of classics. It's adventurous nature makes it feel engaging and the writing wasn't too difficult to follow. As I said the audiobook version in my opinion was a winner so I would recommend that option if possible, but overall it was a nice classic to add to my read pile.

I read this book for the black and white cover prompt of the jumbo reading challenge (I know there two colored swirls but this is the closest I can get for this prompt with the books I own atm).