#young garland

Neirin.

Neirin.

The name echoed dimly in his thoughts, drifting about like a drowning victim seeking driftwood on which to cling.  The android absently chewed his lower lip, searching his databanks for the name, finding nothing.  No relevant data.

Neirin has died.

No relevant data.

So why did his mind immediately struggle to deny it?  Why did his throat feel so tight?  Why did his eyes sting?  Why was it so hard to move, to breathe, to think?

Neirin has died.

Why did he feel like screaming?

Now you have nothing left but your mission.

When had there ever been anything else?

Do you understand?

For a moment he simply stared, uncertain.  Healing properties...?  The ability to restore or maintain youth?  In hair?  Absurd.  

Then again, he hadn’t encountered hair that had been imbued with magical properties before meeting Rapunzel - how was he to know whether such a thing was possible?  And she was an unusual young woman, perhaps she was only...

...No. Her body language did not appear to suggest she was jesting.

In fact, she appeared anxious.

Why?

“You-!”  

But it isn’t him, it , can’t be, I saw him dead, saw it, saw it.  

“Tell me,” he begs, his voice barely more than a whisper.  “Please, if you know, just...”

Please come back.  Please don’t leave me again.  Please.  Tell me who you are.

⊙﹏☉ = What flusters the character

Five-thousand-year-old Garland isn’t flustered by much, and if he is, he doesn’t show it.  He’s been around long enough that he’s seen and heard pretty much everything, very little surprises him, and he doesn’t reveal weakness often enough to show if he’s been caught off his guard.

Searching memory.  Matching data found.  Name: Rapunzel.  Relevant terms: hair, holiday, friend.

“Rapunzel.  Temporal data shows you have been gone for an extended period of time.”  Though time was irrelevant on Terra, it nevertheless passed elsewhere.  “I am...”  

Process emotion.

[12:27:13 AM] Sasha: Hey Garland do you wanna build a snowman

[12:27:32 AM] LeFox Sanaii: "A what. o no"

[12:27:41 AM] Sasha: ...it doesn't have to be a snowman