#:luke:aiyla

[munofmanyminds]

closed starter for @dcrknesshums

Their version of society at this point was very far from what either of them had known prior to the outbreak. But it worked, kept things running smoothly, kept everyone in line. Except for the occasional slip, of course - like the mistake her father and brother had made. A costly mistake by all accounts, but not one they'd be paying for themselves. Usually people were killed or ostracized for that kind of thing, but them? No. They'd offered her instead. Trading her for their own safety and comfort like she was barely more than a cow. And she was such a pretty little thing, the idea had amused him enough to grant a rare bit of mercy.

So the next morning, she was yanked out of her bed and dragged before him by her hair. Thrown at his feet, a boot at her back sent her face first into the floor beneath her. It caused a roar of laughter form the small group of men surrounding her, but Luke only smirked at the display, eyeing his new plaything while the laughter quieted. Once sound had subsided, he stepped forward, tucking the tip of his boot under her chin to force her face upwards, her eyes to meet the chilled mirth in his gaze. "Welcome to your new life, slave."

[munofmanyminds]

Sympathy was not something Luke had ever even half convincingly managed to fake. Even as a kid, he'd never quite gotten the hang of it - not in the way the other kids had. So her crying, her shaking, all her begging and pleading, did nothing to encourage mercy. No part of him felt even a little inclined to give in. Instead, she was met with a cold smile, eyes trailing the evidence of her hysterical display on her face. One might even get the sense that he was enjoying it. And if he didn't, well, it was quite certain that the men around him did. In fact, the more pathetically she sobbed and begged for reprieve, the worse their laughter got. Comments getting more cruel and more salacious by the minute - like Luke's threat that they'd get to fuck her in the ass had sparked a roaring fire that now wanted nothing more than to consume her.

"Damn right you're fucking sorry," he agreed harshly when she croaked at him. Unlike the rest of them though, Luke wasn't caught up in the mood - in the building heat. Instead he was steady as chilled water. Focused entirely on the slave, like the men around him were mere background noise designed to increase her discomfort and nothing more. Just part of the scene he'd set up for her.

When the girl got back to work, Luke tilted his head, sharp gaze watching her with growing displeasure as she attempted - poorly - to do as she was told. "Don't you know how to use your fucking tongue, huh?" he taunted her, eyes narrowing. "How about I shove your face into the mud where we keep the pigs instead? How about that? Hold you down until you gasp for air and get a good mouthful of that shit? Out there where everyone can see how fucking pathetic you are." While he spoke, as though to demonstrate, he pushed against her head and mashed her features into the leather, rubbing her cheeks, her nose, her chin into the dirt that lingered. The wetness of her tears made the dirt cake together and stick to her skin in muddy smears. Then he yanked her head up to face him again, cruel smile playing on his lips. "Come to think of it, I like that idea," he mused almost to himself. Faux sweetness clung to his following words then: "Would you like that, slave? You might make some new friends out there."

if the humiliation wasn't enough, the fact she could hardly keep the bile rising in her throat down made this just as unbearable. aiyla tried to push any reminder of what she was actually doing to back of her mind, enough so that she could get through it without vomiting, but it was incredibly difficult with the sounds that continued to swell around her and bring her right back to the present; laughter, ridicule, mockery. aiyla was a performer, so it wasn't the audience that scared her. instead, it was the nature of their intent; nefarious and cruel, with the objective being to make her feel worthless. unfortunately, it was working, and at this point — aiyla felt like she equated to nothing more than the rotten, wooden floorboards beneath her; a surface to be walked on. she knew this was part of the process, breaking her down until she was nothing but a brainless drone who did anything and everything he asked without restraint.... but, unfortunately for aiyla, she wasn't there yet. right now, she felt every ounce of boiling hot hatred pulsing through her, trying to manifest itself into resistance, but being snuffed out anytime it flickered above the surface.

when the boot was lifted off her back and the weighted presence of his men seemed to relax, aiyla thought she had done a sufficient job and would be given some kind of reprieve. water felt like a tall ask but, a gulp of fresh air that wasn't polluted with dirt or debris would ease the tightness of her chest and, hopefully, settle the nausea swelling in her stomach. alas, it never came, and instead, aiyla was shrieking as her head was once more yanked up; lips swollen and face puffy, spit dampening her chin as she had tried her best not to swallow whatever it was that was caked onto his boots. ❛ i'm — i'm sorry, ❜ aiyla attempted to squeak in reply, her throat clamping shut as the awkward angle made her windpipe feel as if it were about to snap. her cries, though they had never ceased, once more began shaking her entire body, making her bones practically rattle beneath her skin.

slave. the word stung more than any other insult he could have hurled at her, and in this short period of time she had quickly learned there were many. moisture came rolling hot down her cheeks once more, sobbing hysterically against the leather of his boot as she was once more smushed against it, tears dripping onto the toe of it and seasoning the leather with salt and humility amongst all else. aiyla tried again, desperate to appease him at this point just for the sole purpose of getting the action over with, but she kept stopping every couple of seconds to gasp for breath, to swallow the contents of her stomach whenever they rose up into her throat, and to croak out a plea usually encompassed by a hard, chest-tightening sob.

[munofmanyminds]

They always had pride at first, the new ones. It was the thrill of breaking that pride apart that caused Luke to take on his own little projects every once in a while. And given the circumstances surrounding this one's demotion if you will, she was a shoe in for that one available and surely highly... coveted spot. Life in a settlement like this one was peaceful for the most part, which suited most people well after months and months on the run, on high alert, on edge, but Luke was of a different breed. He got... bored instead. So he'd found ways to entertain himself, to keep things interesting, to sate that innate need for blood, violence, cruelty.

"Better," he acknowledged roughly when Aiyla finally did as she was told and ran her tongue over the surface of his boot. He nodded his head at the men above her, causing them to step back - the boot on her back finally lifting. He watched her with a cold smile on his lips, a hint of cruel satisfaction in his dark eyes surfacing when she gagged and sputtered at the taste. She was a mess of tears, face red and swollen as she sobbed and begged beneath his firm gaze, and it was such a fucking thrill. But when saliva dripped onto his boot from the hysterical female's open mouth, he licked his lips and tilted his head, his features hardening. "Fucking useless," he all but growled at her.

Then - without warning - he twisted his hand in her hair, forcing her head to tilt. "You're supposed to be cleaning my boots, you worthless whore. What do you call this shit, huh?" He pointed at the offensive substance, making sure the issue really sunk in. Then, using her face as a makeshift cloth, Luke wiped the drool off on her cheek before pushing her mouth back against the leather. "My patience is wearing thin, slave." He warned her then, the timbre of his voice downright ominous.

it felt as if her hair was being practically pulled from each of the strands respected follicles, knowing his fingers would likely be entwined by long, unruly strands after he was finished with her. when he was finished. IF he ever finished. aiyla knew well her efforts wouldn't be acknowledged as anything other than fuel for worse punishment, but what was left of her pride clung onto the fact that she didn't want to so easily be humiliated. then again, the entire exchange had been rather public; her family trading her like a farm animal in exchange for forgiveness. aiyla knew plenty of luke, she had always listened intently to the gossip disguised as every day conversation, but she would never forgive herself if she didn't at least try to fight back. even when the efforts would eventually fail, at least she had the knowledge that she hadn't given in right away.

however, luke's inquiry made aiyla's eyes snap open, and the intensity of the threat was enough to momentarily silence her as air trapped itself in her throat and prevented noise from coming out. it wasn't until another man stepped forward and was hurling up the skirt of her dress that aiyla was mobile again, flailing her arms back to urge the fabric back into place, cries and pleads resuming as she fought harder and harder against the weight of luke's grasp. failed efforts were still efforts, weren't they ??

he had to be one of the most diabolical men to ever walk this planet, and at this point, she would rather be hurled out to the infected and torn apart limb by limb than have to endure a moment longer of this. aiyla wished he would just fucking kill her.

but, she tried. she tried her best to just get through whatever this was because she knew if it came down to licking his boot and being dead, aiyla would be pleading for his shoe in her mouth the moment her life flashed before her eyes. the view from halfway down would haunt her, and she knew that, so she tried. the moment her tongue met leather, the vile taste of sweat, dirt, and iron made her face twist and she heaved; gagging as bile immediately rose up her throat and burnt the back of it. lids were wrinkled from how tightly shut her eyes were squeezed, and nails threatened to pierce wooden floorboards as she tried to breathe through her nose. aiyla kept gagging, her tears hot as they were wrung out from screwed-shut eyes, her sobs louder now that her mouth was opened to give them room to echo, saliva dripping from the corners as she begged, and pleaded, and willed herself not to vomit.

[munofmanyminds]

Despite the amused smirk that found its way onto his lips, Luke's tongue curled against the roof of his mouth, creating a soft clucking sound of reprimand when the hysterical girl refused to do as she'd been told. Oh good. He did so enjoy breaking in the disobedient ones. He'd almost been concerned she'd be too smart - too aware of her circumstances - to give him much bang for his buck. Denying him in front of his men? That was her first mistake.

Her thrashing only made the male's hold on her hair tighten, the strain on her scalp firm and steady as a vice. He lifted her tearstained features from his boot to look down at her. "Would you rather I let the guys take turns raping your ass?" He mused, a brow rising quizzically. The coldness in his gaze was a clear indication he had absolutely no qualms about making good on the threat. And as though to underline exactly how easy it would be, someone above and behind her kicked apart her legs and yanked her dress up with a low whistle. "It's a nice fuckin' ass alright," the unseen male drawled. Once more, the group's roaring laughter at her expense was the dominant sound in the room, even drowning out the noise of people working outside.

Once the sound lowered enough for Aiyla to hear him again, Luke leaned in to make sure his face filled her entire field of vision. "Do as you're fucking told or suffer for it, you little cunt. Trust me when I tell you, there is always something worse I can put you through." Not that he wouldn't anyway, but she'd discover that soon enough. He yanked her head back down to his boot, this time angling her head so that her lips pressed into the leather instead of her nose. "Now... Lick. It. Clean."

the pitiful yelp that came from aiyla in response to her hair being tugged made the tears welled up in her eyes come streaking down her cheeks. blood drained from most of her face and instead pooled in her cheeks as humiliation made them burn hot. she tried not to cry, she tried to swallow her sobs, but instead she choked on them; coughing as the emotion clogged her throat. aiyla had tried, she really had, but her entire life she had been coddled. her brother was put into martial arts classes while she took piano lessons. her brother played sports while she was sent away to a private, all-girls boarding school. even when she became an adult, her parents never let her stray far... but now ?? after the outbreak ?? it felt like she was a weight they couldn't wait to get rid of... and get rid of her they had.

aiyla's sobs could no longer be contained as her face was smushed against his boot, turning hysterical as his words sank deep into her and made her completely incapable of forming words if she wanted to. she tried to pull her face away, tried to turn it enough to free it of the weight of his foot making the cartilage of her nose bend, pressing her palms into the wood beneath her and trying to push herself away. aiyla had never been spoken to like this, laughed at, and it was already a feeling that just made her wish she was dead. she'd rather starve than do something as degrading as lick his boot. aiyla shook her head violently, not able to voice her protest due to how hard she was crying, gasping for breath as she tried to squirm away from him.

[munofmanyminds]

The outbreak had done a lot of things to a lot of people, but at the very core of it, the way civilization had crumbled had less to do with people changing and more to do with a very basic truth: this world was survival of the fittest. It weeded out the weak, the soft, the gentle - and gave ample room for the violent, the cruel, the oppressors to come into power. That was doubly true of Luke and the men who ran this settlement with him. So really, who gave a shit about preserving humanity, when this world was their fucking playground.

She looked so... fragile, staring up at him with tear-filled eyes. Surely, this girl had only survived due to the patronage of others. He had a hard time imagining her as particularly forceful; not in the way their reality demanded. "Please?" This time, Luke mockingly joined the laughter that chorused around her. Crouching down in front of the horizontal girl then, he took a chunk of her hair in a large hand, yanking her head back in a way that forced her neck to strain painfully. "Your family decided you were a pathetic little bitch they couldn't be bothered to feed anymore," he told her then, the cruelty in his words underlined entirely by the harshness of his tone and the smirk he granted her. "So you should be thanking me for keeping you around instead of throwing you to the walkers. In fact..." he pushed her face into the tip of his booth, squishing her nose against the worn leather, "you can start by licking my boots clean." Ignoring the sadistic chortles of laughter that once more resounded in their vicinity, he licked his lips. "Go on, bitch. Do it. Show me you're worth your next fucking meal."

they had just given her up — traded her away for a mistake she had no involvement in making. aiyla knew she wasn't the most useful, and since the outbreak she hadn't even mastered the art of shooting a gun, but when she had sank to her knees and prayed the night prior for change... she didn't think it would have come with being given away by her own family. the wood was harsh against her skin as she was thrown down to it, the wind rightfully knocked the fuck out of her as her frame met the floor, gasping for breath as the weight of a boot pressed on her spine and laughter sounded around her like she was nothing more than a circus animal.

animal — a fitting word to describe her now, it seemed.

his boot smelt like soil and worn leather, the smell infiltrating her nostrils and, coupled with the intensity of how she had hit the floor and the sting in her scalp from how her hair had been pulled, brought tears to her eyes. looking up at luke, a man she had feared since the moment they arrived, aiyla could feel the horror in her expression before it even showed itself on her features. she knew the outbreak had changed people, it had changed her, but as fragile as humanity was... people like luke had no intention of being cautious when it came to preserving it. ❛ please — ❜ aiyla begged, but she knew the effort would be fruitless. luke didn't show mercy; he never had. ❛ i didn't... i didn't do anything wrong.❜