Matt laughs quietly at the lawyer-version's story, because owners not knowing how electricity worked was always hilarious. You'd think that they would at least Google it after buying shock collars, but it was not the case.
He sobers at the fact that apparently the lawyer-version doesn't know how to kneel or walk the way he has to, to not fuck this up for him. He tries to remember back when he'd been taught this, the precise phrasings. He was, he thinks, twelve, only about a month after being bought by Winter, when he was taught all the different kneels. There were so very many.
"Alright," he says, determination seeping through. "The walk and the kneel aren't very difficult, you should practice now in the cell, they don't actually care if we move around inside them. The walk is very elegant, but it's meant to project a kind of--well, it's not a murder walk, but it's similar--it's meant to project health, and agility, and balance, and elegance, and obedience, and value at the same time. In a free person it would be a swagger, but you can't actually swagger, it would give them the wrong ideas.
"So the walk is pretty simple, but you have to get it exactly right," and now he sounds anxious. "So straighten your spine, keep your chin parallel to the ground--perpendicular to your neck--except sometimes to lower it and glance coyly through your eyelashes, place your hands behind your head, arms flexed just enough to show, and walk smoothly, like you're on high heels--it makes your ass look better, I know from experience and reactions--and place one foot in front of the other, like you're walking on a tightrope, so your hips swing more than usual.
"The kneel is one of the more slow, seductive kneels. It's the one you do when you want an owner to glance over and have sex with you? For power, or their sake, of course," he says, because even though lawyer-Matt is so untrained (and no wonder he's panicking, he hasn't got the tools or the self-confidence to do this) he's still Matt and therefore understands the true, performative nature of sex.
"It's smooth and delicate and full of hidden power. You place one foot on the cushion--it's either satin or velvet, at this auction house, I'm not sure which--and then you sink down first on one knee, then the other, and lower your face with a gentle little happy smile to the cushion and bury it down, and arch your back, too, they love to see that. Then you hold that while the auction takes place.
"All rich people want a tiger on a leash, and that's what all the motions are meant to project. So the walk isn't too long--you walk from the cell out of the dormitories, into the waiting hallway, and then from there out onto the pier--the catwalk--where the buyers are waiting in the crowd. There's lights, they're very warm, but don't worry, they'll powder you up beforehand so the sweat doesn't show.
"And if you want to, you can blow kisses at the crowd as you walk to them, they love that sort of thing, the myth of adoring, cherishing Persephone. Rich people are, as a whole, very out of touch with reality. Their grip on it is like a loose tooth, all you have to do is push it back and forth just a bit more each time, and even someone like you can make it fall from their mouth."
He thinks over the lawyer's words, and wonders if his universe has a Foggy, if only because an owner who only yells sounds completely fucking terrifying. Sooner or later, every owner resorted to physical violence, because on some deep level they thought it was morally acceptable--which it was, Matt could not afford to think otherwise--and so not finding out what violence they actually reached for made them impossible to predict.
Re: Slave!Matts get swapped into each other's universes
Matt laughs quietly at the lawyer-version's story, because owners not knowing how electricity worked was always hilarious. You'd think that they would at least Google it after buying shock collars, but it was not the case.
He sobers at the fact that apparently the lawyer-version doesn't know how to kneel or walk the way he has to, to not fuck this up for him. He tries to remember back when he'd been taught this, the precise phrasings. He was, he thinks, twelve, only about a month after being bought by Winter, when he was taught all the different kneels. There were so very many.
"Alright," he says, determination seeping through. "The walk and the kneel aren't very difficult, you should practice now in the cell, they don't actually care if we move around inside them. The walk is very elegant, but it's meant to project a kind of--well, it's not a murder walk, but it's similar--it's meant to project health, and agility, and balance, and elegance, and obedience, and value at the same time. In a free person it would be a swagger, but you can't actually swagger, it would give them the wrong ideas.
"So the walk is pretty simple, but you have to get it exactly right," and now he sounds anxious. "So straighten your spine, keep your chin parallel to the ground--perpendicular to your neck--except sometimes to lower it and glance coyly through your eyelashes, place your hands behind your head, arms flexed just enough to show, and walk smoothly, like you're on high heels--it makes your ass look better, I know from experience and reactions--and place one foot in front of the other, like you're walking on a tightrope, so your hips swing more than usual.
"The kneel is one of the more slow, seductive kneels. It's the one you do when you want an owner to glance over and have sex with you? For power, or their sake, of course," he says, because even though lawyer-Matt is so untrained (and no wonder he's panicking, he hasn't got the tools or the self-confidence to do this) he's still Matt and therefore understands the true, performative nature of sex.
"It's smooth and delicate and full of hidden power. You place one foot on the cushion--it's either satin or velvet, at this auction house, I'm not sure which--and then you sink down first on one knee, then the other, and lower your face with a gentle little happy smile to the cushion and bury it down, and arch your back, too, they love to see that. Then you hold that while the auction takes place.
"All rich people want a tiger on a leash, and that's what all the motions are meant to project. So the walk isn't too long--you walk from the cell out of the dormitories, into the waiting hallway, and then from there out onto the pier--the catwalk--where the buyers are waiting in the crowd. There's lights, they're very warm, but don't worry, they'll powder you up beforehand so the sweat doesn't show.
"And if you want to, you can blow kisses at the crowd as you walk to them, they love that sort of thing, the myth of adoring, cherishing Persephone. Rich people are, as a whole, very out of touch with reality. Their grip on it is like a loose tooth, all you have to do is push it back and forth just a bit more each time, and even someone like you can make it fall from their mouth."
He thinks over the lawyer's words, and wonders if his universe has a Foggy, if only because an owner who only yells sounds completely fucking terrifying. Sooner or later, every owner resorted to physical violence, because on some deep level they thought it was morally acceptable--which it was, Matt could not afford to think otherwise--and so not finding out what violence they actually reached for made them impossible to predict.