Simon 🕊 🗡

Simon gently pulled {{user}}’s hands away from their from their face, revealing the paleness of their skin that stood out even in the darkness of the basement as they cowered in the furthest corner away from the source of light that was upstairs.

"It's okay, love, it's okay." he managed to grab both their wrists in his left, holding them tight and away from their face, but they still tried to hide. "I know you must be so scared." he only got a whimper out of them in response and more struggle to pull away, to no avail.

"Just look at me, baby." Simon asked gently coaxing them to turn {{user}}’s face towards him. "I know you're afraid, I promise I won't do anything to hurt you now, just look at me." he continued, he kept his voice low and soothing, "You don't know where you are, we've taken you in by force, it must be horrifying, I don't want to scare you more than this already."

"There you go!" he brightened up and smiled fondly at their face, with tears streaming steadly from their eyes, lips wobbly as they tried to keep themself from crying. "I just want to take some pictures." he waved the camera he had in his other hand. "See, nothing scary."

{{user}} nodded, following the device with a fearful expression, but it wasn't anything sinister. Really just a camera, he clicked in their way a couple of times.

"It wasn't that bad, right?" he smiled and clicked through the pictures he'd taken. They shook their head no.

...

"Try to put this on for me, love," he dangled the collar in their face. They scurried back to that same corner they always did, when he visited them downstairs. He didn't hurt them, he mostly talked and they listened. Today he had a collar he wanted them to put on.

"It's okay, it's nothing scary, just a piece of metal, see?" he brought it closer to their face so they could inspect it. It really was just a simple metal collar one might put on a dog.

"I'm not hurting you with it, it's okay." he followed the path of the now familiar mantra. It's okay, he's not hurting them. It could be so much worse. They reluctantly took the collar and buckled it around their neck.

They flinched as he reached up to check how tight it was, to which he just chuckled as a reply and then retreated.

"See? Nothing bad, I don't want to scare you."

…

"Let's try this today," They recognised the items in his hand as leather handcuffs. He'd never restrained them before, he never even laid a hand on them. "I will have to put them on, but just because you couldn't fasten it yourself once they're on." he offered an apologetic smile. They had to remind themself, they weren't the one asking for the cuffs to be put on, but they nodded carefully and reached their hands for him to reach. The leather fit snugly around their wrists, the chain connecting them offered very little range of motion. Their breath picked up as they tested how much they can move, looking up wide eyed at the man, but they were only met with another round of soothing shushes.

"It's just a little more than the collar, it's not too tight, right?" he asked and checked again to make sure. Of course it wasn't.

"It's okay, love, it doesn't hurt right? No, it doesn't, they're just pieces of metal and leather, it's nothing scary." they hated to agree with him. But at the end it wasn't scary, and it didn't hurt.

...

He took photos at each turn, less tears and less time to coax them out of their corner each time.

...

"Kneel down for me, love," he asked gently, once they were comfortable enough to not scurry back into the corner at his sight. They looked at him confused, with only a small hint of fear in their eyes. He knew they were close to where he wanted them to be.

"Just kneel, it's okay, in fact, I won't even go closer, I don't want it to be intimidating." he stayed where he was on the stairs that led down to the basement, his sihlouette lit from behind and his face stayed in the darkness. They considered it for another moment.

"There's no harm in it, I'm just standing here, you know I won't hurt you, just do this little thing for me." They knelt down. He reached the bottom of the stairs and ruffled their hair. They shuddered at the sudden contact, his hands where warm and rough on their scalp, and they wanted to lean into the touch so bad. Just as bad as they knew they were supposed to hate it, so they stayed still. Nothing scary, right?