Welcome to Gaia! ::

Few things in the world stressed Cryptomelane out as much as realizing that he couldn’t find Ympe.

What in the Hell had even happened? He hadn’t turned his back for very long. Only long enough to assist some freshly minted Lieutenant who couldn’t figure out how to make her pen turn into a tablet. Nothing around them had been on the list of Things In Which Ympe Takes Any Reliable Interest (no statuettes or sculptures, nothing metal or shiny that Ympe could actually steal [unlike benches and streetlamps and the like], no dangly, sparkly things). Cryptomelane hadn’t thought there was any notable risk of Ympe wandering off.

But now, here he was, tromping through a bunch of wildflowers that he didn’t want to deal with, looking for Ympe.

Yes, he knew that he could simply call his little youma companion to his side. Even as Cryptomelane frantically looked around this particular park, he knew perfectly well that he could do this. But unless they were separated by an actual, materially significant distance—unless Ympe was down in the Rift while Cryptomelane had need of his friend elsewhere, or something like that—Cryptomelane hated summoning Ympe like that. Never once had Ympe indicated that he didn’t appreciate it or anything. But it felt condescending all the same. Disrespectful toward both Ympe’s intelligence and his agency. Like a way of mistreating him while pretending not to do that, even though anyone with eyes could probably see the absolute lack of regard for Ympe as a sapient being in his own right, with his own thoughts and feelings.

(At least, this was true in Cryptomelane’s own mind and he had absolutely no desire to hear anyone contradict him. Maybe he had a short list of people from whom he’d accept some degree of criticism on this point: Industria, obviously, because a man who didn’t take seriously what his lady had to say didn’t deserve to call himself anything to her; Brassite, who had better people skills than Cryptomelane; General Amazonite, as befit the discrepancy between their ranks; the General Sovereigns, assuming any of them cared; and, most importantly, Ympe himself.

Otherwise, though, everyone needed to keep their mouths shut with their incorrect opinions about how to best respect a youma.)

Half-breathless, Cryptomelane periodically stopped in his wandering to close his eyes and feel around on his aura senses. An Order aura signature was nearby, in addition to the weaker Chaotic energy signature that he knew to be Ympe’s. That former aura made it imperative for Cryptomelane to find his dear friend, before he got himself into trouble.……

“Ympe!” Cryptomelane called out into the dark of the park around him. “Ympe, where are you? This isn’t funny!”

Ympe himself, meanwhile, was blissfully oblivious to whatever his human had gotten onto worrying about. Even the fact that Cryptomelane had started worrying escaped Ympe’s notice. As soon as he’d entered the flowers, Ympe hadn’t paid much attention to anything beyond his own experiences.

Strictly speaking, Ympe tended to prefer other objects, when he was in the mood to take things. Glittery baubles, metallic trinkets, little stone carvings that distinctly lacked the potency of Rift crystal but nevertheless got a shine to them when you put in the effort to polish them (“you” here mostly meaning Cryptomelane, Ympe’s Melly, the human who Ympe adored above all others). Ympe’s fingers got, he had heard, very sticky when he was put in proximity to such souvenirs. He rarely ever had any designs for anything to do with them, any ideas for how he might use them beyond filling up the chest of treasures that Melly had put in the office for him.

Even so—despite the blanket of wildflowers in the park tonight really not being relevant to Ympe’s usual interests—they’d smelled so good that he hadn’t been able to help himself. Once he’d started sniffing them, the world around him had seemed to light up bright. Following the scent more than anything, Ympe had wandered into the flowers. Wandered quite a ways into the park, even. He had no idea how long it had been, but when he heard Melly calling his name, his little ears pricked up.

Fortunately, a human-looking shape stood nearby. Cackling with delight and relief, Ympe scrambled toward them and threw himself at their hip. One of his hands curled tight around their belt.

“It’s ‘kay, Melly,” he said, following it with a string of giggles. “Ympe’s right here, promise promise!”

Except the aura………really didn’t feel right?

Maybe there was just an Order senshi nearby who Ympe was sensing.