fleets: UM. So sorry about the huge delay. I don't think the next one should be that long a wait since I finished Desert Sands and this is the only fanfic I'm working on. The delay unfortunately had to do with a lot of rl stuff (nothing bad! just tons of different entertainment options on top of real life obligations).

I haven't abandoned this story though! I love what I've planned for it, so I really do want to finish it :)

Also thank you so much to the people who reviewed and sent me encouragement during my absence. I read and reread them recently and I'd be lying if I said they didn't help spur me on a real inspiration kick. Thank you so much, and thank you for your patience!

Chapter 7: Caph

(Helda): Vaati, won't you join us?

(Sheik): Come on Hil- I mean Helda, he'll be fine.

(Helda): It'll be more fun if we're together…

(Sheik): Vaati when you want to join us we'll be at-

Muted group chat.

Eyes closed, Vaati took a deep breath, taking in the quiet that he was left with once he'd muted the group chat. And yet, it was not entirely quiet. The gurgle of water as the snow melted into hidden creeks, the crackle of some creature stepping on the thin layer of frost, the distant howl of the wind rushing through the mountains; he was kept company by the subtle orchestra once the abrasive voices, a little too loud for his liking, finally disappeared.

It was late afternoon according to the data from the SS. Zelda had returned home after the day's classes, and had logged on to Asphodel to meet in the game with Hilda. He'd had no choice but to join their session, and not being eager to be friendly with the newcomer, he'd flown away to where they couldn't follow.

His head tilted towards the sky, he watched the greys of the dull clouds blanketing the sky swirl into each other, and then he slowly leaned himself against the craggy rocks of the cliff he was standing on. His fingers touched snow, and he let them linger long enough for him to feel the sting of cold, mentally studying a sensation he hadn't experienced in, well…

Years.

Asphodel. While it bothered him that there was something that wasn't entirely real about it, it was the closest he'd been to experiencing life for the first time in ages. The geography of the world even seemed to emulate the Hyrule he'd once known, as though the ones who'd designed it had been inspired by the old tales.

Vaati snorted to himself at the thought. It was absurd to think man had found a way to finally create entire worlds; fake worlds, but worlds nonetheless. It was almost like they thought themselves gods, without the power of one.

The humor of it left as quickly as it had come, and Vaati's cynical sneer dipped. On the one hand, he was glad for having some kind of world beyond an endless abyss, where he could pretend to live. But that was all it was; pretend. It was a bitter consolation, and one that he couldn't help but imagine that whatever god up there would expect him to feel grateful. Grateful? The thought that someone, somewhere, figured that he ought to be thankful for a situation that was fractionally better than before only angered him.

In the distant fields below him, he watched the markers of the rest of his "party" wander towards a settlement a few miles to the west. Even if he looked away, he couldn't completely ignore the markers from his thoughts. It had a way of burrowing into his mind - a faint blue glow in the edge of his vision, an unnatural sensation that someone was standing behind him - small cues poked and prodded to remind him that he'd wandered too far from the rest of the group. He had some difficulty ignoring it at first, similar to how he'd been hounded by the dozens of stimuli from the SS device when he'd first regained consciousness, but he was becoming less twitchy about it by the hour.

Everything was loud. Hilda was very loud. She was apparently Sheik's friend, and she seemed a little too eager to put herself in his space. At the very least, she'd learned to treat him less like a curiosity to be ogled, but when he'd heard that she would be joining Asphodel today he hadn't been keen on sticking around. He could have killed her like he'd done with Sheik, except he already knew that it wouldn't be a permanent solution, and when she inevitably came back it would most likely make her even louder.

If that were possible.

Sheik wasn't loud. And because of that, he almost didn't mind when the blond felt the need to force conversation on him. At first Vaati had figured Sheik was as artificial as the rest of Asphodel: an 'avatar' of the Zelda who lived beyond his digital prison. He'd imagined Sheik was Zelda playing pretend: another reminder that he had been given an imitation of life as some kind of sick consolation prize. Sheik irritated him at times, especially due to the fact that he was a constant reminder of the royals that had done him in, but… Vaati had learned that Sheik was real in his reactions, raw and passionate with fire behind those red eyes. And, despite everything, it was a realness that was reassuring.

Oddly enough, Vaati sometimes felt that Sheik was more real than Zelda; like Sheik was a presentation of Zelda that was honest and unafraid.

Briefly he wished he could have that sliver of reality with him, but the price of having the loud one come along as well wasn't worth it. Besides, thinking such things almost made him sound like he was eager for Sheik's company, but that was simply absurd. He put up with Sheik because he had been forced to learn to put up with him. A cruel, infuriating situation to be quite honest.

The snow touching his fingers began to sting with the beginnings of frostbite. He kept his hands on the snow long enough until the sensation became uncomfortable, and then he brought his fingertips up to his face. His skin had turned red, though tinged with blue. Soon enough, however, the biting of the cold left his fingers until he couldn't recall its sensation.

He continued to study his fingers for some time, rubbing his thumb along them thoughtfully, and then something seemed to occur to him and he pushed himself away from the wall. He turned slowly around to face the face of the mountain, and then, with a faint frown, he hovered into the air with the wind swirling gently around his ankles.

At least with Hilda here, he could explore Asphodel on his own. It wasn't as though he needed an excuse to leave without Sheik, but he almost (and he hated the word) felt obligated to allow the blonde to accompany him. He both loathed and craved their company, no doubt a product of the confusion that came from having been alone for so long, and at least with Hilda he had an excuse for himself to leave. With Hilda, he could go off on his own while the other two did their own thing.

Vaati flew up over some of the steeper mountain crags, paths that were impossible to scale on foot. He'd been curious to see the limits of this world, and he suspected that, as vast as this world was, he would eventually come across a boundary that he could not pass. Indeed, he managed to find one: beyond the mountains where no normal 'player' could traverse, Vaati encountered what appeared to be such an edge. Here, the scenery suddenly blurred and lost detail, and the rocks beneath his feet disappeared into some kind of deep fog. The fog extended in an unnaturally straight line, cutting across the air like an impassable wall.

Intrigued, the sorcerer hovered closer to the fog. He was met with some resistance when he reached his hand towards it, but with some effort he managed to push through. He decided to keep going.

The air suddenly became thick, and there was a clamping sensation around his neck.

Suffocating.

Out of the corner of his eyes he could see the red 'health bar' blinking and growing shorter with every second he remained in the fog. There was a burning sensation in his lungs, which he calmly identified as something like pain. But it wasn't real pain, no. He knew real pain, and he knew what it was like to come close to dying. Compared to that, this sensation was dull, like an afterthought of the real thing.

His health continued to decrease. He considered it, not in any hurry to step back out of the fog and into safety. Do I miss the pain? he wondered. It was simply another sensation to him, like the sting of the snow or the brush of wind; a feeling that had been missing while he'd been trapped within the void. The fact that he recognized this feeling to be artificial only filled him with morbid curiosity with what would happen if it were taken too far. He watched the health bar blink dangerously close to zero.

I wonder what would happen should I die here.

Is death as fictitious as the rest of this world?

His throat burned. His health continued to drop.

30HP.

20.

10.

"This soul does not find this home satisfactory, I see."

The sudden, unexpected voice prompted Vaati to whirl around to see the speaker. As soon as he did so, he felt himself grabbed roughly by the wrist, and then flung out of the fog. His health remained at just a sliver left, and to reflect it he felt his body about to collapse from fatigue. Vaati lowered himself atop one of the mountain crags that he'd been floating over, and he narrowed his eyes at the figure who was watching him with a mischievous grin on their face. He rubbed his wrist where they had been grabbed: it hadn't hurt, but he was disgusted by the unwelcome touch.

The figure was ambiguously male with a youthful, boyish face. They hovered in the air, leaning towards him with their legs crossed and their chin resting on their hands as the bobbled their foot almost childishly. Their hair and eyes, however, hinted at aged experience, for the tousled strands were grayed and fine and the yellowed eyes were somewhat clouded.

That wasn't what was disconcerting about this individual, however. They didn't look like they belonged in Asphodel: their two legs were no longer of flesh but machine, plated with black and gold. Large chunks of their torso that peeked out from behind the heavy cloak that covered them also appeared to have robotic augmentations, and their entire right arm was also completely mechanical.

Vaati tensed, suddenly wishing he hadn't injured himself to the point where he was in danger of losing a fight. He hadn't felt threatened by anyone in this world until now - this person was something else. No one was supposed to be able to follow him here, for he'd been certain that none of the other players had the ability to fly like he did.

No player could follow, then -

"You're not a player," Vaati narrowed his eyes at the figure hovering over him, still bobbing their foot to an imaginary rhythm.

Their smile broadened slightly. "A god," they clarified.

Vaati maintained a passive expression, but his brows raised ever so slightly at their simple yet outrageous remark. Eventually, he scoffed, "Don't be ridiculous." His tone, however, betrayed his uncertainty.

"Says the one who called themselves god."

The temperature seemed to drop, then, and the wind whistled a warning as Vaati stared at the newcomer. This was the first time anyone had referenced his past.

Truth, then?

Menace began to take shape the longer he studied the other's knowing smile, for if there was one thing he despised more than the void, it was the so called gods. "You have something to do with this," he said quietly, words threatening like a sword unhurriedly unsheathed.

The god continued to bob their foot, grinning childishly while watching Vaati with fascination. "I brought you back."

"Back? Back?" A thin-lipped sneer. The sorcerer didn't raise his voice, but the tremor lingering upon it was neither due to the cold nor fear. He clenched his fists, the knuckles going white. "Do you honestly think this is living?"

He remembered who he'd been, all those years ago, filled with pride and accomplishment when he'd finally seized the Wishing Cap for himself. His ignorance of what he would face preserved the drunken glee of holding the power to change the world as he saw fit. He was a god, the world was his. A snap of his fingers and the wind would obey his every whim. A passing thought would make men bow.

He'd been free.

It had lasted no longer than a few weeks before he'd been imprisoned, and from that time forth he'd been forced to endure a cruel cycle of repetition. Each time he'd been allowed to escape he would taste that freedom for no longer than a few months before he was restrained once again. Each time his cynicism and bitterness grew to the point where it wasn't pride in his powers he was filled with, but wrath. And now, this. He'd served his time, he deserved more than this mockery of life. "Let me out," he hissed venomously.

The response surprised him. "Oh, I intend to," the youth replied. Their grin widened when they noticed Vaati appear taken aback by the comment. "I have my own limitations, small steps first. By the time I succeed, you will be truly alive again: a body of your own, with the ability to feel. To bleed." They chuckled to themselves at this, and then they swung themselves over to have a sit on the rocks near Vaati in a show to be slightly less threatening.

Cautious, Vaati refused to take up their invitation to relax, remaining standing where he was. "Who are you," he demanded.

"You may address me as Caph. I am a god in the sphere of reincarnation, or at least, one of them." A flicker passed over their clouded eyes and their tone became less flippant, carrying leaden weight. The hint of their true age showed as their bobbing foot slowed, and the machinery in their legs whirred to a stop. "You have questions, no doubt," they observed, and when Vaati made no indication of denying the comment, they continued.

"You mortals are quickly working towards achieving creation of artificial life. AI. Sentient programs. You do this without a second thought to what this implies in the grand scheme of things, but it's a truly amazing feat if you succeed," Caph explained. Here, there was a hint of something close to envy, and Vaati finally noticed how the robotic augments, from the way they were wired with a somewhat novice quality, had most likely been made by Caph themselves. The envy was quickly obscured by an audible snort. "That got me thinking: do I have to be so limited in what I can do, when mortals are on the cusp of achieving something close to what had previously only been within the power of gods? I have limitations on what I can achieve with reincarnation, for not even I can bring back the dead even if I can grant them a new life. Souls often forget the lives they had before, when they are granted a chance to start again. However… what if I could displace them into a new body, but somehow allow them to retain their memories? That is almost like bringing back the dead." Amber swiveled towards Vaati. "That is where you come in."

"So I'm just a tool for you to play with." Though Vaati wasn't surprised to learn that he hadn't been brought back to consciousness out of charity from the gods, it was something of a relief to know for sure. At the same time, he was unsettled by the fact that the sole reason he'd earned this one's interest was because of some personal project. An experiment.

Caph smirked at Vaati who listened with disgust. "But we both benefit if I succeed. I get to sate my curiosity, you get another chance." Their smirk fell a little, then. "I cannot simply experiment with clean souls, however. If something went wrong, the gods who deal with shepherding the dead would undoubtedly come after me, and I would rather not get in conflict with them. You, however," a nod, "The other gods wouldn't care if your soul was destroyed under my mistake. They left you to rot, forgotten, to spend an eternity not quite alive but not quite dead."

Vaati's ears twitched. 'Rot' was a good way to describe what he'd been left to. Frozen, unable to exert any change. Floating endlessly in a void, deprived of all senses. Alone, desperately holding on to sanity, thoughts slipping through his fingers and becoming less coherent with every tick of an unseen clock.

It was only through sheer spite and determination that he'd kept together, relatively speaking.

"If things don't go as planned and you die, or… worse…, no one would have an issue."

"I would," the sorcerer interjected, his thoughts returning once more to the present.

"Come now, at least you have a chance at being yourself again with me."

For the first time since Caph had revealed themselves to him, Vaati paused to listen. His initial reaction to 'gods' defaulted to 'hostile,' usually, but this one seemed to be a… defector of sorts. Unlike what he thought of most gods, this one was acting for their own personal interests, and that was far more predictable than those who blathered on about illusions like the 'greater good' and 'justice.' However, he couldn't hide his apprehension. What reasonable motive could they possibly have for betraying their pantheon by setting the Wind Mage free? "And if you succeed and I go free, what then?" he asked. The unspoken follow-up was, "Would I be set free only for you to hunt me down again?"

Caph appeared to be prepared for the question. A single shoulder rose and fell in an offhand shrug. "My sphere of influence is reincarnation. My curiosity sated, I wouldn't report you to those who might have a… ah, stricter should we say, way of handling things. Surely you of all people can sympathize with wondering if something… can be done?" they flashed a conspiratorial grin. "That is all I want. To see if I can overcome this challenge I have set upon myself."

When Vaati didn't grin back, the god gave another half-hearted shrug. "Unfortunately I cannot simply create a body for you. You are probably wondering why you were placed here, in this device, if my intention was to revive you with a true body. The best I could do was to have you matched with a, compatible vessel, I suppose you can call it."

It took a few seconds for Vaati to realize what Caph was getting at. Then, it hit him, and the wrath that had been sated began to resurface. His eyes took on a fierce fire, and his lips began to curl back into a snarl. "You aren't serious," he finally said.

Caph was talking about Zelda. The vessel they spoke of was Zelda. It wasn't that he was opposed to taking over bodies, changing his form, or resorting to possession. No, that wasn't it.

Then what was it?

Caph mirrored the question that had been whispered from a small voice in the corners of Vaati's consciousness. "I am," they replied simply, a thin brow raised slightly, surprised by Vaati's sudden anger. "You two aren't so different, Vaati, and you even chose them yourself. This Zelda is also in possession of the Triforce, something you've always tried to obtain. I'm practically giving you a gift wrapped present, Vaati."

And that was true. The sorcerer couldn't even deny that the god was wrong, and somehow this infuriated him more. If what Caph said was true, he would be back in the real world, albeit in a body that wasn't his own but that wasn't something he was unused to. On top of that, he would be in possession of a power that had alluded him for centuries, and this time it was simply being given to him. His eyes bore through Caph, trying desperately to find some kind of catch, some pitfall that they were trying to get him to fall for. However, the god only returned the frank smile they'd had from the start, and Vaati could see no indication of deception.

Then why did this suggestion disgust, no, anger him so?

"All I need is your verbal permission. I cannot do this without it, as I am still bound to certain rules, which is why I am here today," Caph hummed, their foot bobbing playfully once more.

"And what," Vaati asked, voice low and barely containing a tremor of rage, "happens to the host if I agree?"

The air was deathly silent, the simulated winds stilling as though they, too, were afraid of incurring the wrath of the sky's lord. Caph's eyes flickered behind greying strands, gauging Vaati's reaction with interest. There was a long pause while the god seemed to weigh whether it was worth answering the sorcerer's question, before they finally replied, "They switch places with you."

"So they're trapped here," Vaati snapped immediately. Like me, now.

"It's not like you of all people care about what happens to someone else," Caph sneered. Then, their sneer vanished. "Or do you?"

"Leave."

Caph returned a thin-lipped smile at the sorcerer who'd closed the distance between them and was now towering over the god menacingly. "Think on it, Vaati. I will give you some time to adjust to the idea." And with those words, the wind picked up once more and Caph vanished, melting into the swirl of snow. Vaati's fingers trembled, not from cold but from barely tamed rage.

Think on it, Vaati.

"There is nothing to think on," he spat into the air, and he ignored the jeers that seemed to haunt him through the wind, howling between the mountain's peaks.

No one else knew more than he did the weight of imprisonment.

Think on it.

Only those who'd never experienced what he'd experienced would suggest such a thing so lightly.

How far would you go to escape this centuries old curse?

Ah. That was the question, wasn't it.

He was oh so tired.

And the wind was much too gentle here.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"So when's the boyfriend going to join us?"

Hilda waited five seconds, but when Sheik continued to fight through a patch of Deku Babas without so much as acknowledging her, she sighed. "No reaction, huh?" She casually sidestepped a projectile fired from one the plants and torched it with her staff. She chewed on her lip while she watched Sheik finish off the ravenous plants, and glanced over her shoulder from time to time in the direction where Vaati's location marker was.

"It got old after the second time, Hilda."

"I thought it was cute seeing you all flustered." She brightened, and then giggled at the embarrassed red that had crept up along Sheik's mask. "There it is!" she cried, while Sheik rolled his eyes and shook his head with a grumble. She stopped laughing when she noticed the rogue quickly turn to hide his face and make his way swiftly towards the deeper woods. "Oh, let's not go any further this way, actually…" she said as she caught up to him, gently stopping him with her hand.

The blonde cocked his head, puzzled. Hilda's expression had changed from playful to grave, and she was looking past the shadows cast by the thick trunks of the ancient woods with worry. "Maybe if we had Vaati here we could think about it, but…" she trailed off.

"I know you wanted to meet him, but I think he needs time. It sounded like he's been through a lot," Sheik supplied, but he could tell from Hilda's apprehension that this wasn't just her trying to convince him to follow her way. Her brows were furrowed, and she still hadn't let go of his wrist. The enchantress peered into the woods for a few more seconds.

"It's just," she started, her voice lowering to a hush. "Sheik, did you hear about the glitches that were showing up in the game recently?"

"I haven't read the game updates too carefully." He hadn't had much time to, especially with worrying over Vaati and, well, mostly worrying over Vaati. "Hilda, what's wrong?" It wasn't really like her to back out of a challenging new area or to forgo the possibility of shiny new loot.

Hilda's lips flattened into a frown, as though she were weighing her greed against her self-preservation. Then, with a final decision, she shook her head and pulled Sheik away from the woods. "It's mostly happening in high level areas, just past the Lost Woods, which is in that direction," she nodded towards the darker part of the woods they'd been walking towards. "Apparently some of the raid bosses have gone missing, and they wouldn't respawn even after Nindoten tried resetting them to fix the issue."

"Huh," Sheik grunted. Missing raid bosses was certainly odd, but a glitch like that wasn't something that would warrant Hilda to pass up an opportunity to hunt through a challenging area. Hilda continued, answering his thoughts.

"It's not that they're gone from the game, they don't respawn because they're freeroaming now. Some players on the forums said that it's almost like they got a mind of their own."

Sheik snickered. "You've been reading too many creepypasta posts, Hilda."

"Nindoten confirmed it! And that's not the only thing," Hilda pouted. She twirled her staff and set fire to another Deku Baba that Sheik had missed earlier. "There's some talk about a weird NPC that isn't… isn't normal. They're unnamed, and you can't see any of their stats, no health bar or anything. The worst part is that some players challenged them and died instantly. Couldn't respawn, and their account reset."

"Reset as in…"

"It's like their characters actually died, Sheik. Gone." Hilda waved her hands in emphasis. Then, she took a deep breath. "Nindoten is currently looking into it and has asked all players to stay away from the buggy NPC."

Died. Sheik mulled over what Hilda had told him, turning a small dagger in his hand distractedly. His first thought went to Vaati, wondering what would happen if the sorcerer encountered the glitchy NPC and was killed in the encounter. Would he come back? He would be okay… right?

He needed to tell Vaati to stay away from this NPC at all costs.

"Do we know how to identify this NPC?" Sheik asked. He'd joked about creepypasta earlier, but there was something about the description of the NPC that unsettled him with its familiarity. Vaati had also shown a similar kind of overpowered potential, and he couldn't help but consider the possibility that another person like Vaati had made it into the game. The only difference was that Vaati couldn't permanently delete a player like this new NPC, but…

"Nindoten was vague and unhelpful. Their support is honestly terrible," Hilda grumbled. "They don't want to admit it yet, but everyone's saying they've been hacked. The NPC has dark skin and red hair. Male. Oh, and they have a unique rank."

"Like Vaati," Sheik said slowly. Vaati had the title 'Reincarnated Wrath,' a title that wasn't even supposed to exist in the game. At his comment, both Sheik and Hilda stopped walking, and they stared at each other in unsettled shock at the parallels that were being unraveled between the unknown NPC and the mysterious sorcerer.

"Their rank was 'Demon King.'" Hilda turned her head in the direction of Vaati's marker. "You don't think…" she trailed off.

Though she didn't finish her thought, Sheik knew that she was thinking the same thing he was. There was another character, no, another person, trapped, just like Vaati was. It couldn't be denied, also, that the rank titles 'Wrath' and 'Demon King' were rather ominous, though Vaati himself hadn't revealed himself to be dangerous thus far. Irritable, perhaps, but not dangerous. At least, that's what Sheik liked to believe.

And if it were true that this Demon King was another person trapped within programming, it revisited the question: just who had been the unknown sender of Vaati's 'download code'?

"Do you think Vaati knows about this?" Hilda asked. "Hey, Sheik?" she repeated, when she saw the rogue's shoulders stiffen. Then, she turned slowly when she realized that Sheik was looking at something behind her. No, not something.

Someone.

"Vaati."

Speak of the devil.

The sorcerer had shown up without any warning of showing save for the slight rush of wind that Sheik was only just getting used to identifying. The enchantress and the rogue stared blankly at the sorcerer, and there was a bit of an awkward silence while the two wondered if the sorcerer knew they had been talking about him. Sheik was the first to open his mouth to speak, but then hesitated when he saw Vaati do the same.

In fact, he was caught off guard by how… almost rattled the sorcerer looked. He regretted making a motion to speak, for Vaati also stopped himself when he saw Sheik begin to speak. In that split second, Vaati seemed to instantly change his mind, his eyes steeled, and he turned away. He'd walled himself off.

"Vaati, what is it?" Sheik asked, and then his voice nearly cracked at the end when he caught sight of a flicker of emotion on Vaati's normally passive face, the initial wall breaking slightly at Sheik's question.

Pain, as the sorcerer opened his mouth to speak once more, almost like he wanted to tell Sheik something but a part of him was holding back, afraid. It was the most human expression that Sheik had seen him reveal, and the rawness of it frightened him. And then, Vaati hesitated, pulling back as his expression became shadowed. His face darkened, becoming unreadable, and then without another word he strode over, sliding past the startled Hilda and reaching for Sheik.

Sheik stepped backwards reflexively, but Vaati's strides quickly closed the distance between them. To Sheik's surprise, Vaati grabbed his right hand firmly, pulling him close. The sorcerer made no explanation as to his sudden actions, and clasped both hands around Sheik's right hand, lost in his thoughts as he ran a thumb along the rough leather of the rogue's gloves.

As much as Sheik wanted to ask what had unsettled the sorcerer, he kept his quiet, afraid to send him further into reclusion if he pressed too much. There was something that hurt Sheik, the way Vaati seemed to absentmindedly trace a triangle with his thumb on the back of his hand. Vaati gazed upon it with both resignation and… an almost lonely kind of longing.

"You don't belong here," he finally whispered, and he released Sheik's hand, though it almost seemed like his fingers lingered just a few seconds longer than necessary, reluctant to let go. He looked up slowly, and Sheik held his breath when he saw the intensity of the fire burning behind Vaati's red eyes. They were the fires tended by a man who had once tried to change the fate he'd been chained to. Still trying to. "But neither do I."

And without another word, Vaati logged out of Asphodel, leaving Sheik and Hilda wondering what he'd meant.

fleets: I know I said this chapter would be long to make up for my long absence, but I think the next segment belongs in the next chapter, not here. oops.
(I'm also sweating bullets about my English this chapter since I've been so out of practice, but please bear with me as I try to get myself back on track :') . If anything reads glaringly weird I'll try to catch it at not-3am.)

Anyhoo, Caph. I have an admission to make. I took their design straight from Castor, from Puzzle and Dragons, a fun phone app. Castor's my favorite card. Uh. Yeah. Also the god concept I'm using here bleeds into some of the ideas I played with in Desert Sands, but it's by no means necessary to have read that story to read this one (might throw in some references and nods to characters from that story though).

I purposely made it ambiguous whether Vaati's longing for Sheik or the Triforce or freedom or all three. Not sure if I pulled it off, but the shipping bias in me says yes to all three. If it looks kind of shippy if you squint, you didn't imagine it.

Last, I'm sorry about the lack of Neko Atsume when I'd advertised the story as such. It'll be included, I prom. Very soon. Very very soon.

Serpent Tailed Angel: (whistles innocently about 3am)
Vaati and internet was probably the worst idea ever.

Patchworkcrows: I can't believe Vaati was defeated by a trip to the flusher.

Apocalypse-Mage: Ahhh glad you liked the fluff! More to come, though not without a ride on the angst train first for good measure. B)

… aaaaand we're back to less happy Vaati this chapter. Thank you Caph. Not done with the fluff though, it'll be slow going though :D

TyrantChimera: That loveable jerk side is in there somewhere! It's gotten buried with centuries of, well, pretty much torture. But it's there!

AquilaMage: Hahahaha I love how people caught on to the 3am regrets line XD
And ahhhh thank you so much! And glad you liked the brief bit of fluff. More eventually, though this chapter was kind of ouch.

Cheza the Flower Maiden: Yes, yes he does. Vaati miiiight be able to mess with the outside world. Veran's got a special trick up her sleeve to be able to do that though ;). And oh good point! I'd say yes, tentatively for the moment. (Sheerow was and still is Vaati's public enemy number one)

pickle: I daydream way too much hahaha. Thank you pickle! :D

Ai Star: Ahhh thank you Ai! (and wow hello long time reader, always nice to see an old face :') )

Zadria Cerulean: Ahhh thank you! I figured we'd want a small fluff break before diving right on back into angstville haha. More fluff hopefully soonish though~

Mirria1: I suppose it might be! It's still in genfic category, which is what I'm most comfortable with, and was actually inspired by Avilux (my first modern Zelda fic). I kind of wanted to do a rewrite of that story, but instead it spawned this :D (and so sorry if anything was really confusing!)