#IN HER SPECTRE FORM

[sofiiif]

[majosullivan]

HOW ARE WE FEELING RIGHT NOW NEVERMORE FANDOM? ARE WE ABOUT TO LOSE IT? ARE WE HANGING ON BY THE THINNEST OF THREADS?

[in-fair-verona-we-set-our-scene]

I think Slay the Princess is so popular partially because the *gets stabbed* "I'm in love" reaction is both intentional on the part of the developers and then they completely follow through on it.

[stinkypeanutbutter]

here me out . .

Nevermore X SBG au .

you can applaud me now ☝️

[eschercaine]

SPOILER ALERT: Nevermore Academy students in their Spectre forms (3/?)

[verdemoth]

i’ve posted this set of guys together in a lineup but i never got around to sharing more about them individually, so i’m gonna do that!

Tune here is an original member of the EEG, one of the first researchers approached by Sojourner and Pathfinder, the founders, back when the whole operation was just some barely funded passion project, and the properties of the Otherworld were poorly understood. She was a team leader for decades up until he met a tragic demise on what should have been a routine mission. He’s since been declared M.I.A. (in truth she Stayed Alive Wrong)

-> Tune and Odyssey were queerplatonic partners. They met each other in their school years and hit it off quickly. They signed on with the project as a package deal and for years they were a team of two and both set out for field research and exploration, but following an Incident that injured them both, Odyssey left the field for a different role and the various teams were consolidated into one unit for safety reasons. As a precaution, future expeditions would need at least three active participants.

-> Tune was very confident and self-assured, and naturally fell into a leadership role within the new system. He had a knack for assessing and utilizing the strengths of her teammates and encouraging teamwork and communication.

-> In the early days they were quite cocky and perhaps a bit too reckless, but the decades of her employment with the EEG mellowed her out somewhat. What really drew her to the initial job offer was the thrill of adventuring in uncharted lands full of unknown dangers.

-> In general, Opportunity tended to prioritize the pursuit of knowledge above his own safety, though being in charge of a team who depended on her for their own well-being helped to balance out this impulse.

-> In that early incident, Tune received a concussion that had lasting effects in the form of frequent migraines and insomnia. She wasn’t very vocal about her struggles, and he was more inclined to push through the pain than slow down and wait for it to pass.

-> Age didn’t temper her active lifestyle, either. As she neared her 50s they were still up to shit like free climbing vertical cliffs to get a good vantage point (and for the fun of it).

-> She was up to just that, on a mission with her sibling Spirit and friend Curiosity when a terrible, unnatural storm hit without warning. The Otherworld had always been a turbulent place, the landscape and climate always changing, but the team’s experience and technology should have been enough to sense the shift coming, but it caught them unawares.

-> Tune and his two teammates lost contact with mission control and each other for more than an hour. When the storm cleared, Curiosity and Spirit and the two constructs accompanying them were all recovered, but no trace of Opportunity could be found. Reluctantly, the team came to the decision to abandon the search.

-> Opportunity still exists, in some form. They haven’t had a run in with her old team in the few years since her disappearance. Mentally she’s not all there, retaining only their instincts and basic desires. He’s generally passive, but whatever the storm did to him left them with a connection to the shifting terrain of the Otherworld, which responds to their presence and volatile feelings. She’s usually surrounded by a storm like the one that changed her. He wants to be found, but… if she encountered and recognized her team, it’s likely he would seek to drive them out with force in a misguided attempt to protect them from the Otherworld’s many hazards.

[coconut530]

MANIFESTING GIRLBOSS STYLE

[daydreamerdrew]

Iron Man (1968) #41

[blacktabbygames]

Slay the Princess Concept Art

We shared a bunch of concept art on Twitter today. Sharing it here, too, where you can find it all in one post. Post contains spoilers, so proceed with caution (or just play the game already if you haven't 😉)

Going to start with the first piece of concept art Abby drew for the game.

In the earliest stages of development, we toyed around with the concept of there being multiple "end game" forms of the Princess.

The initial outline, rather than being tied together by an overarching metanarrative, structured a full playthrough as a 5-6 chapter long, self-contained journey down a single route, determined by your decisions in chapter 1. Here's an alternative late-game form:

The idea of deviating end-game forms didn't lost for very long, though. As we explored the game's themes more deeply, it made the most sense for there to be a singular "true" form.

If your reality is shaped by subjectivity and perception, then the "truth" has to be what's left when that subjectivity is swept away. the Shifting Mound's final design feels like that initial truth for the Princess, though there's also another truth if you push back against her and press on into the final cabin.

We really liked this "void" design, and I played around with the idea of it being an intermediary to the final form. The "void" Princess would be what you saw upon encountering the final Princess without understanding your own truth, but once you had that understanding, you would see her as the Shifting Mound, as depicted in the game.

That gave way to the intermediary design of the SM being a sea of disembodied limbs, and we also took parts of both designs and incorporated them into the protagonist (particularly the wings.) You can see the eyes and feathers for this void form in the ending card of the original trailer below:

You can see extremely early concept art for the spectre (top), nightmare (top-right), stranger (left), beast (bottom) and ??? (right) as well!

The eyes became a motif in the Nightmare route (Paranoid's manifestation of the fear of being watched), but I also like to think of them as a part of The Long Quiet's truth. You are space and emptiness, but you're also that which observes those things, and it's your perceptions that give the Shifting Mound shape.

Anyways, on the note of the original original concepts for the game, the Princess was initially going to remain human for several loops before taking on more monstrous forms. Some concepts of that are below. Had to get Abby to tone down some of the more horrifically cartoonish designs because they creeped me out and I didn't want to romance them in a video game.

We had to hold our cards close to our chest in the non-metanarrative early drafts, which is part of why, even in the first demo, the cabin doesn't really change much in chapter 2. More room to subtly play with the concept of transformation over time.

There were a lot of reasons we moved in a different direction for the full release. The branching was unmanageably large to write, and the game felt like a slog to write.

Using an overarching narrative as a framing mechanism in the final version gave us a lot more freedom to explore wildly divergent ideas within routes while still driving the player towards the originally planned finale.

Anyways, now we've got some concept art for individual princesses. There's a lot more than this lying around somewhere, but it's all in sketchbooks, and we'll probably wait until we make an art book to show it off.

First is the tower, who really didn't change much at all. (She got a little thicker, I guess. All of the Princesses did)

Not a lot to say about her, other than the fact that we knew we wanted a set piece where she gets so big that the trees and cabin orbit around her.

The stranger went through many many redesigns over the course of development. Here, she was a "princess skin" filled with a hive of sentient bugs. The script wasn't working for me, though, so instead she became a peak behind the curtains without the necessary context to know her.

A lot of people ask how these earlier drafts of the Stranger route would have played out, and the answer is I can't tell you, because I couldn't figure out something worth writing.

The writing process for individual routes didn't really start with outlines or plot beats. Rather, the routes started from a theme and a relationship dynamic, and I organically found their outcomes by exploring actions within those themes, and then seeing if those passed Abby's editor brain.

Neither of us found actions we wanted to explore with those versions of the Stranger, at least actions that weren't a beat-by-beat retelling of chapter 1, which contained way too much variation to put on a single chapter 2 route.

If each princess examines a relationship formed by perception and first impressions, the Stranger examines one that's fundamentally unknowable. One where you've seen too much, too quickly.

An insect hive-mind pretending to be a person seemed like a good starting point, but it was too difficult to write any interactions that didn't immediately feel knowable, if still strange. So the final version of the Stranger was designed in such a way where her unknowability makes interacting with her on a human level fundamentally impossible, and you don't get to have a real conversation with her unless you satisfy extremely specific criteria.

Anyways next up is the razor's final form. We decided she needed more swords.

Hearts became an accidental motif very quickly in the development process, too. (The fact that it is only strikes to the heart that fell her in the demo was accidental, but it felt poetic so we extended it to the rest of the game.)

So on top of adding more swords, we made her heart visible. This is something we did with the fury as well, as a way of showing their emotional (and physical) vulnerability.

Here's an early version of the Adversary and what would eventually become the Eye of the Needle, back when she was still called the Fury. Originally her hair was going to be fire (as seen on the right), but it didn't feel right in its execution.

She's hit the gym since this concept art. Good for her :)

And we're going to end with the Beast, who at this point was called the Adversary. I think this was before the Witch was added? The Beast was originally designed to be a Questing Beast who lurked in the shadows, where you'd only see glimpses of her, and where each glimpse would make her appear to be a different animal. This was too difficult to execute, though we gave her a more chimera-like appearance in the final game.

This design was from when we still has the Voice of the Obsessed, and the route was going to be a more feral mirror of what eventually became the Adversary, but it felt too thematically similar while being less interesting, so we moved in the direction of making the Beast about consumption as a form of love.

Anyways, that's all we've got for you right now. Hope this was fun!

[thebubblesareevil]

Only the best Kings wear pink! Pt 1

Pt 2

Danny had decided, inter-lair political party meeting briefings were a truly underutilized form of torture that he personally thought should be inflicted upon only the worst kinds of criminals; not your King.

Fright Knight disagreed.

At least he finally let him move around instead of suffering through forced resurrection via boredom (it’s happened before, not a fun meeting). That being said, he would admit to being a little distracted by all the servants rushing around frantically. It had even managed to distract Fright.

No one seemed panicked so clearly it wasn’t an attack, but what….

Danny felt someone staring at him. He covertly nodded to Fright to keep talking as he created an invisible clone to search for his stalker.

He didn’t have to look far, they weren’t hiding very well. Not 20 ft away a young ghost gawked at him from behind a column. She had her glowing blonde hair in 2 braided pigtails and her ragged dress looked like she came from one of the medieval lairs. Danny carefully kneeled down, trying to make himself look small as he tapped her on the shoulder.

The little girl spun around, clearly terrified at being caught. Danny gave her a soft smile.

“Please don’t eat me Mr Ghost King sir!!!” She cried out.

Danny snorted and burst out laughing. His booming laughter echoed though the castle walls causing many of the servants to pause in their search.

“Now why in the realms would you think I’m going to eat you?!” Danny asked though his chuckles. “You wouldn’t be more than a bite full at best.” He poked her sides causing her to giggle.

“Would too! I’m bigger the Sally!” She paused, rethinking her words. “But I’d taste quite foul! I would, I swear!”

Danny grinned turning to Fright Knight. The little ghost squeaked when she saw the Spirit of Halloween and backed into the King causing her to freeze.

Danny gently picked her up, cradling her in one arm. “Did you hear that Fright?! She said she’d taste foul!” He smirked “I suppose there’s only one thing to do then!”

Fright Knight eyed his King a bit warily, still not used to his antics. “Sire?”

Danny grinned, motioning to one of the nervous maids. “We‘ll have to sweeten her up!”

Miette bowed before her King, trying to hide her nervous glances at the girl.

“Miette! Would you be a dear and prepare some sweets and tea in the garden for my honored guest? Fright, will you be joining us?” Danny asked the startled Knight.

“As you wish my Liege, though…might I request some pumpkin pie?” He asked Miette.

The maid blinked at the request.

“Of course Sir Fright.” She answered a bit dazed.

“Wonderful! We’ll meet you in the garden after we swing by Spectre’s quarters.” He grinned down at the frightened ghost. “Every princess must look her best for afternoon tea after all!”

The little girl frowned. “But I’m not a princess?” She said, tilting her head.

“Of course you are! Every little girl is a princess! That’s just a fact of life.” Danny nodded solemnly.

“But we’re not alive?” She pouted “Mummy said so!”

Danny shrugged. “That doesn’t change much, I’m still alive after all so it still counts.” He said finally.

They stopped in front of two massive doors covered in random drawing. Danny knocked on the door. The little ghost shrunk back in Danny’s arms.

The door opened to reveal a young ghost, not much bigger than the one in his arms.

“Hey Ellie!” Danny grinned. “Do you have any princess dresses left or did you set them all on fire?”

Ellie groaned. “Lilac just restocked the closet. You’d think she’d learn by now.”

Danny grinned. “Perfect! Would you mind helping our guest into one of them? She’s joining us for tea!”

Ellie floated up to see the tiny ghost trying to make herself smaller in her dad’s arms.

“Oh? And who are you?” She asked curiously.

“Emma.” She squeaked. Ellie grinned.

“Alright Emma, how do you feel about pink?!”

———

A little while latter you could find the Ghost King: ruler of the infinite realms, Fright Knight: the most feared general of the Kings legion and little Emma: the little princess from 2 Lairs over (only on the 5th of each month); newly decked out in a glowing tiara and the frilliest pink dress Ellie could find (with no singes); all sitting in the Royal gardens in Phantoms keep debating the merits of pink sparkles vs rainbow glitter.

Her mother nearly wept in relief that her daughter was safe, though she was a bit dazed by what she was seeing.

“You must be Emma’s mum!” Danny grinned. “We were just finishing up afternoon tea.

Emma jumped from her seat and raced over to her mummy to tell her all about her day.

“I’m so sorry for my daughter’s intrusion, your majesty!” She cried out, fear outweighing shock as she quickly bowed.

“Nonsense!” Danny laughed, looking down at Emma. “You’re welcome here anytime Emma. After all, you never did tell me what happened to you Aunt Agatha.” He smiled “You’ll have to finish your story next time.”

Emma ran up to give Danny a hug, he happily picked her up and held the young ghost.

“Thank you for the tea and cakes Mr ghost king! Can I bring Beatrice next time? She’ll never believe me otherwise!”

Danny chuckled. “The more the merrier, though I suggest you give your mother some proper warning before you run off to strange lairs without permission.”

Emma pouted. “I promise!” She swore as Danny handed her to her mother.

Danny was a little sad to see the little girl go but he had plenty of work to do.

“Sire, shall we continue the briefing?” Fright Knight piped up.

Danny groan, Fright Knight grinned. (He liked his new king)

———

The next month, when the lairs lined up once more Danny was greeted with the grinning Emma, the frightened faces of at least 6 other little ghosts and the nervous form of Emma’s mother.

Danny grinned. “Miette!” He shouted behind him. “Can you bring some more tables to the gardens. It looks like we’re having a proper tea party this time!”

And so began to annual monthly tea party at Phantom’s keep.

(Lilac was so glad to see all the dresses she made put to good use)

[incorrectnevermorequotes]

Lenore : *currently dealing with Montressor, ada in her spectre form, going through her worst fear, fighting people*

Pluto in the back beating the shit out of will with a crowbar: JUSTICE FOR DUKE MOTHER FUCKERS!!! *hits him again*

[srslyblvck]

fractured bonds, kaz brekker

pairing: kaz brekker x fem!reader

synopsis: y/n is captured by pekka's men, kaz goes to rescue her.

warnings: violence, wounds, blood

word count: 1.1k

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ KETTERDAM THRIVED IN CHAOS, its streets alive with the cacophony of crime and commerce, where fortunes were made and lost in the blink of an eye. The city was a merciless beast, feeding on the weak and vulnerable, yet it offered endless opportunities to those daring enough to seize them. Shadows lurked in every corner, and danger was a constant companion. The Barrel, in particular, was a cesspool of vice, a playground for criminals and schemers. It was here, amidst the darkened alleys and looming warehouses, that Kaz Brekker ruled, the indomitable leader of the Dregs, a gang as feared as the city itself.

But tonight, Ketterdam's chaos had turned against Kaz. For days, he and the Crows had been searching for Y/N, scouring every corner of the city, but to no avail. She had been taken by Pekka Rollins' men, and the thought of her in their clutches gnawed at him like a festering wound. He moved through the shadows, his cane tapping rhythmically against the cobblestones, his mind a tempest of rage and fear. He couldn't afford to lose her—not Y/N, who had become an indispensable part of the Crows and, though he'd never admit it, to him.

Kaz Brekker's cane tapped against the cobblestone as he manoeuvred through the narrow alleys of Ketterdam. Each step was calculated, and precise, masking the storm brewing inside him.

The abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of the city loomed like a spectre, its windows dark and broken, the stench of decay thick in the air. Kaz moved with purpose, his steps steady despite the limp that had become a part of him. The information had been hard-won, pried from the lips of a desperate informant, but it had led him here. Alone, with no time to gather the rest of the Crows, he pushed open the creaking door and stepped inside.

The warehouse loomed before him, a hulking shadow against the night sky. Kaz slipped inside, silent as a ghost. The smell hit him first—damp, decay, and the unmistakable copper tang of blood. He gritted his teeth, his gloved hand tightening on his cane. He moved through the debris-strewn space, his eyes scanning the darkness for any sign of Y/N.

And then he saw her.

Y/N was crumpled in a corner, her form barely recognizable through the bruises and blood. Kaz's heart lurched, a rare flicker of emotion breaking through his cold exterior. He approached her cautiously, his steps careful, as if the very ground could betray him.

"Y/N," he murmured, his voice a low rasp. There was no response. He crouched down, his knee protesting the movement, but he ignored the pain. He reached out, his gloved hand hovering above her battered form.

Her eyelids fluttered, and she let out a small, pained moan. Kaz's jaw tightened. He needed to get her out of here. Now. He slid his arm under her shoulders, preparing to lift her.

"No," she whispered, her voice cracked and weak. "Kaz... you don't have to..."

"Be quiet," he snapped, though there was a rare gentleness in his tone. He shifted his cane to his left hand and, with deliberate care, slid his arms beneath her fragile frame. She gasped in pain, but he held her close, his grip firm but as gentle as he could manage.

Kaz moved as quickly as his injury would allow, each step a calculated effort. The warehouse loomed around them, a labyrinth of shadows and decay, but he navigated it with practised ease. Y/N's weight was a reminder of her fragility, of how close they had come to losing her.

Kaz moved swiftly, the warehouse fading into the night as he carried her back to the Slat. Each step was a testament to his determination, the pain in his leg a distant echo compared to the fear of losing her. He burst through the doors, the sudden commotion drawing the attention of the Crows who had gathered in his absence.

"Nina!" Kaz barked, his voice commanding, brooking no argument. The Heartrender appeared, her face a mask of concern as she saw Y/n's condition. Inej and the others followed, their expressions ranging from shock to fury.

"Fix her," Kaz ordered, his eyes hard as steel. He laid Y/n down gently on the nearest table, stepping back to give Nina space. The Heartrender's hands moved with practiced precision, the room falling silent as she worked.

Kaz stood like a sentinel, his gaze never leaving Y/n. "If anything happens to her—" he began, his voice low and dangerous, but Nina cut him off.

"Nothing will happen to her, Kaz," she said firmly, her hands moving over Y/n's wounds with surety. The confidence in her voice was a balm, but it did little to ease the storm raging within him.

He watched Nina work, every second stretching into an eternity. Y/N's breathing grew steadier, her face relaxing as the pain ebbed. When Nina finally stepped back, exhaustion lining her features, Kaz felt a fraction of the tension ease.

"She'll need rest," Nina said, wiping her hands on a cloth. "But she'll recover."

Kaz nodded, the closest he could come to expressing gratitude. He moved to Y/N's side, looking down at her peaceful face. The sight of her, alive and breathing, was a balm to his frayed nerves.

Kaz's cold fury resurfaced. He left the Slat without a word, his destination clear in his mind. Pekka Rollins would pay for this. Breaking into Pekka's base was no easy feat, but Kaz was a master of the impossible. He moved like a ghost, his cane an extension of his will as he dispatched guards and slipped through security measures.

He finally reached the heart of Pekka's lair, where the man himself lounged, surrounded by his most trusted men. Kaz didn't hesitate. With a swift, brutal efficiency, he fought his way through them, his movements precise and lethal. His cane became a weapon, its steel tip striking with deadly accuracy.

Pekka, taken by surprise, found himself on his knees, staring up at Kaz with a mix of fear and fury.

"You think you can take what's mine and get away with it?" Kaz's voice was a deadly whisper. "If you ever lay a hand on any of my Crows again, I will destroy you. And don't think for a second that I won't."

Pekka glared at him, but Kaz's cold, unyielding gaze didn't waver. He turned and left, his message delivered, leaving Pekka to contemplate the consequences of his actions.

Hours passed, the Slat gradually returning to its usual state of organized chaos. Kaz remained by Y/N's side, his mind a whirlwind of plans and strategies. Pekka Rollins would pay for this. He would tear the Barrel apart brick by brick if he had to.

Y/N stirred, her eyes opening slowly. She looked up at him, confusion giving way to relief. "Kaz..."

"You're safe now," he said, his voice as cold and steady as ever. "Rest. We'll talk later."

She nodded, too exhausted to argue. As she drifted back to sleep, Kaz allowed himself a rare moment of vulnerability. He reached out, his gloved hand brushing a stray strand of hair from her face. It was a fleeting touch, almost imperceptible, but it spoke volumes.

Kaz Brekker, the Bastard of the Barrel, had his weaknesses. And Y/N was the most dangerous one of all.

[lynxgriffin]

If you have the time could you draw some of the other Princesses you encountered in your playthrough? Also maybe some of the voices but I could see that being hard (Paranoid was the GOAT). Regardless if you do so I hope you're having a great day!

Just a couple more little doodles...I loved the chimera look for the Den, and of course the Spectre was just so charming, she was one of my favorite princesses! (Razor was also a big fav, but ho boy drawing her final form...)

And gotta draw Voice of the Paranoid, absolute MVP

(And thank you!)

[blackvelvetcorvid]

♡ The Lady in White ♡

Sketch of Annabel in her spectre form

(Pencil, marker, glitter pen)

Im not obsessed, you are...

[queeranarchism]

Feel like this should be getting some more attention.

"Now, an investigation by the Guardian and the Israeli-based magazines +972 and Local Call can reveal how Israel has run an almost decade-long secret “war” against the court. The country deployed its intelligence agencies to surveil, hack, pressure, smear and allegedly threaten senior ICC staff in an effort to derail the court’s inquiries. ...

It is this spectre of prosecutions in The Hague that one former Israeli intelligence official said had led the “entire military and political establishment” to regard the counteroffensive against the ICC “as a war that had to be waged, and one that Israel needed to be defended against. It was described in military terms.”

That “war” commenced in January 2015, when it was confirmed that Palestine would join the court after it was recognised as a state by the UN general assembly. Its accession was condemned by Israeli officials as a form of “diplomatic terrorism”. ...

On 16 January 2015, within weeks of Palestine joining, Bensouda opened a preliminary examination into what in the legalese of the court was called “the situation in Palestine”. The following month, two men who had managed to obtain the prosecutor’s private address turned up at her home in The Hague. ....

“If Fatou Bensouda spoke to any person in the West Bank or Gaza, then that phone call would enter [intercept] systems,” one source said. Another said there was no hesitation internally over spying on the prosecutor, adding: “With Bensouda, she’s black and African, so who cares?” ....

after the ICC had opened a full investigation into the Palestine case, Gantz designated Al-Haq and five other Palestinian rights groups as “terrorist organisations”, a label that was rejected by multiple European states and later found by the CIA to be unsupported by evidence. The organisations said the designations were a “targeted assault” against those most actively engaging with the ICC. ....

A core ICC principle, known as complementarity, prevents the prosecutor from investigating or trying individuals if they are the subject of credible state-level investigations or criminal proceedings.

Israeli surveillance operatives were asked to find out which specific incidents might form part of a future ICC prosecution, multiple sources said, in order to enable Israeli investigative bodies to “open investigations retroactively” in the same cases.

“If materials were transferred to the ICC, we had to understand exactly what they were, to ensure that the IDF investigated them independently and sufficiently so that they could claim complementarity,” one source explained."

28 May 2024

[fanaticsnail]

I'm so glad u liked the idea of the shanks shenanigans! All I can think about is him going "WHERE THE HELL is this woman?"

Where is my bride?

Thank you for propelling the Shanks thought. I love it and its made my mind dance a little bit. Allow me to share a small glimpse of where his little plot is leading my mind away. @sordidmusings & @feral-artistry, thank you for always hearing my thoughts before I run with them like a mad woman.

Here is the direction I'm running with: snippet under the cut!

Shanks awoke in a cold sweat, his mind racing with the cool chill of horrifying thoughts that began to once again plague him.

The eyes. There was something in the eyes. Those haunting eyes that had consumed his thoughts with visions of his own mortality. His heart began to bind, a covenant once again sealing his fate with the circlet of gold he thought once was lost. No whisper of a face, nor semblance of a name were granted to him. Only those eyes.

The only sound that rang in his ears was a laugh akin to the greatest melody and a soft whisper of appreciation. Shanks closed his eyes, focussing on the words coming to him. He hung on every single one of the words springing into his thoughts, his fist balled and lying firmly on his right knee.

"What a beautiful ring, Luffy! Thank you, Captain. I will cherish it always." The melodic laugh relayed and echoed within the chasms of his mind. He furrowed his brows in deep focus, searching for more words to hold firm to.

"Let's make it interesting, huh? I'll wait at the chapel and by the sun meeting the horizon, setting its light over the ocean on the seventh day - I will wed the next person to ask me. Always wanted to get married, and what a fun way to do it. Seven days should give Zoro enough time to recover, no?"

Shanks' eyes reopened: meeting with a spectre of a woman of unspeakable horrors.

Eyes as deep as the sea; pupil-less and unblinking, hair as black as ink and skin as pale and grey as the clouds that split the storm over the ocean.

"Seven days, Red-Hair Shanks," Her otherworldly voice hissed its warning at him, "And I will lay claim to your soul."

"Sapsorrow," Shanks whispered, continuing to stare into her transparent form as it faded from vision in tufts of scentless smoke, "I will find her. Mark my words, witch. I will find her."

"May the sea carry you home to her, Captain," The spectre spoke, a bitter and haunting laugh followed and shook the walls of the captain's quarters.

Shanks flung the duvet from his body, his bare feet finding the floor and carrying him above.

"All hands! All hands to the deck!" He shouted, running to begin releasing the rigging from the mast and unrolling the sheets. Beckman was the first to arise at the commotion.

"Where's the battle, Captain?" He roared, his grey eyes scanning over the sea for an incoming enemy.

"Sapsorrow, Becks," He stuttered, his eyes wide and frantic, "Seven days until she kills me. Gotta find her." Beckman stepped closer to his captain, searching his wild eyes and witnessing his hair sticking to his paled forehead under the glue of sweat.

"I've got to find my bride and wed her in seven days."