Arutesting... This was originally unrelated but fits, sort of, into Selkie. For the first time, Arukenimon has to deal with the idea that a Mummymon left completely unencourged may eventually wander... Mummymon woke up tied down. He blinked, and blinked again, discomfited, as it became apparant that was nearly all he *could* do. His coat and shirt were opened, letting the tethers bite into the skin of his chest. And there was something very familiar about the feel and the scent of the tethers that bound him. "Arukenimon?" "I'm right here," she answered, stepping into view. She was armed with a short, wicked-looking knife. One of his, as it happened. She leaned over him and cut a shallow, curving line into his chest. He gasped a little when the steel touched him, moaning outright as it split the top layers of his hide, his unease leaving him. His eye was locked on Arukenimon, on her every movement... She was so astonishingly attractive like this... Even if she thought she was hurting him- even *better* if she thought she was hurting him! She paused at the end of the stroke and he whispered, "what... what are you doing, Arukenimon?" "I'm performing a rite," she answered, "despite what your anatomy seems to think. Not that 'think' is the right word for it. Don't interrupt me." He tried to stay silent, feeling drops of blood run down his sides, watching her cut another line into him, and another, but he couldn't gather the brains to speculate on what the whole might be. He was too overwhelmingly turned on. He knew he didn't have what it took to hide that sort of thing. He sighed, deep and slow. "You're more perverted than I gave you credit for," she mumbled, annoyed, trying to keep her hand steady as Mummymon's chest practically heaved with lustful breaths. "I can't help it," he cried softly, defensive. "Arukenimon, that feels so wonderful..." "Well, it's not going to in a minute," she shot back, pushing the knife deeper, right into the surface of the muscle. He cried out with pain, feeling the metal invade, cold and biting, and the blood pool across his skin. Oh, god, how it hurt! His cry drew out long and deep, soft even, and he hissed through his teeth and grunted, "Oh, Aru*kenimon..*" "Are you *serious?*" Arukenimon shouted, dropping her arms to her sides. "I'm sorry," he breathed. "You certainly are." He closed his eye and sighed. And then felt the point of the knife on his cheekbone. His eye flashed open and found her leaning down to stare him in the face, her eyes still invisible behind her shades. The shine of the knife glinted at the bottom of his field of vision as she traced its point back and forth beneath his eye. "Arukenimon?" he whispered, worry creeping into his voice. "Would you sigh like that if I blinded you?" she asked coolly. He looked back in plain terror, a splash of cold panic dousing the comfortable warmth he'd been feeling under her strange care. "Please, don't," he whispered. "If I did," she mused, "I'd be rid of you at last, wouldn't I? You'd be utterly useless, instead of just *mostly* useless..." "Please don't," he cried softly, a big tear falling from the corner of his eye. "If I did- what would you do?" Arukenimon smiled. This was more *like* it... He sobbed, suddenly straining hard against his bonds, but he couldn't get free. She'd wrapped him too well. Hard as he tried, he could barely move... She moved the point to his eyelid, pushed just enough to bite. He stopped struggling and held stock-still, staring pleadingly up at her. "What *would* you do?" "I don't know," he whimpered. "Please, Arukenimon... Please don't..." She smiled. "Say it, Mummymon. Please don't *what?*" "Please... Please don't c-cut out my eye," he sobbed, and degenerated into a bawling frenzy, his eye squeezed shut tight. "Right, then," she hissed, "I don't want to see you with that human again. Swear." "What? Why? ...You mean Alice?" "SWEAR." "I swear," he aquiesced, stumbling over the words, lost.