Again, sorry for the delay...work's been a hassle...

Submission

As a rare act of mercy, Skulker left Phantom alone other than feeding times for the next two days, which struck Phantom as both welcoming and suspicious. Why would Skulker waste two punishment days that could be spent trying to make him garner more?

After that initial thought, Phantom decided to not look the gift horse in the mouth, and prayed that Skulker had gotten his fun out of the way and would just leave him alone for the remaining two weeks he had left.

'Fat chance of THAT happening...he wouldnt brand you just to leave you alone. He's planning something.'

And fuck that voice for taking away any sense of comfort he had. But the stupid voice had a point. Skulker had made it CLEAR that ANY infraction would result in that horrifying experience from two days ago.

Phantom came to the sudden realization that his residual speed healing had left his body feeling almost normal by now, and suddenly felt sick to his stomach. Skulker was letting him heal so he wouldnt break his new toy too quickly. That could mean worse things to come.

And that scared Phantom. Genuinely scared him. He couldnt survive much more of what happened two days ago, and for ANY infraction, real or imaginary, Skulker would just do it again.

'I have to get out of here, I have to...!'

'Then just follow his stupid rules! Two weeks, that's all you need. You can last two weeks if you swallow your stupid pride!'

Stupid voice had a point. It had a point about a lot of things.

...come to think of it, whose voice even WAS it? His own? Then why the hell would it keep contradicting him?

Nothing but silence in his head. He sighed. Shit. Now what?

Skulker walking into the room answered that for him. The robot smirked at the halfa's obvious fear, and sat the food and water bowls down. "Eat," he commanded, sitting back on his heels next to the cage to watch. Phantom bit back a retort and leaned down, cursing the fact that he was visibly shaking from Skulker's presence. He could hardly keep the food down as it was, but he forced himself to swallow every bite, knowing Skulker would just tack on another punishment for not being 'grateful'.

Skulker kept an unblinking watch on Phantom as the halfa ate, grinning to himself. Fear. Palpable fear was radiating off of the halfa, and it tasted so sweet. But it was just a taste of what Skulker TRULY wanted.

True, he wanted Phantom to fear, him, but he also wanted absolute obedience. He wanted control. And it was obvious his new, harsher methods were working to reap the desired results.

He looked up when Phantom finished slurping the last of the water from the bowl, and grinned, holding up the chain. "Let's try this again, boy," he said, reaching in and hooking the chain to Phantom's collar. Phantom stiffened at the contact, but made no move whatsoever that could be misconstrued as defiance.

Skulker smirked, leading Phantom out of the cage and into the living room, kicking back into his chair, pointing to the floor in front of his chair. Knowing he was to be used as a footstool again, Phantom knelt down anyway, grunting when Skulker's heavy boots landed on his back, which had barely healed from the scarring as it was.

The mech pulled out his whittling tools, grinning to himself. "If anything else," he remarked, "I know you're at least good for furniture, if not companionship. At least Kujo knows how to fetch."

Phantom ground his teeth together, swearing out loud in his head but saying nothing, forcing himself to not rise to Skulker's baiting. Skulker made a noncommittal sound as he carved out a pattern carefully with his knife.

"Ah, right, cant forget," he murmured as though to himself, "you're good for a decent fuck too."

Phantom stiffened underneath his boots, and he could see the halfa's hands clench into the floor. "It's a compliment," he said, using the firm tone that demanded obedience. "This is where you say 'thank you'."

Absolute disgust and fury spiked through Phantom's veins. THANK HIM!? He should THANK Skulker for that?! Phantom opened his mouth to substitute a word for 'thank' in that phrase, but Skulker pressed his foot down onto Phantom's head with the very real threat of stomping it to the floor.

"I gave you a compliment," Skulker said in that firm voice. "Thank me."

Phantom's eyes clenched shut, his jaw aching from how tightly it was clamped. 'No, no, no, no, no, I WONT!'

Skulker's eyes narrowed. "Have it your way." He reached down and jerked Phantom up, keeping the chain taut until the halfa was pulled between his legs. Keeping the chain tight, he reached in and unbuckled his belt, relishing the panic rising in the boy's eyes. Phantom tried to jerk away, but Skulker's hold didnt give a bit as he pulled himself out of his pants. He tried to scramble away but Skulker jerked on the chain again, cutting off the boy's air.

Phantom's face was turning an interesting mix of red and pale green by this point as he tried to gasp for air, and the need to breathe was exceeding his need to escape for a moment, giving Skulker the opportunity to grab his head and force it down onto his metal appendage, an inch or so in Phantom's mouth before the halfa found the sense to struggle to keep his head up. Thankfully, Skulker paused in forcing the issue.

"You are going to learn manners," he growled, "one way or the other. You're going to suck until I say stop, and every time I lift your head up, you will say 'thank you Master'. Every time you DONT, I'm going to cut something off. And believe me, it will be something you'll want to keep. Am I understood?"

Phantom's wide, teary eyes had pupils at near pinpoints from terror, and Skulker saw the belief in his threats in them. "Am I understood?" he repeated, holding up his knife. Phantom made a quick affirmative gargling sound, clenching his eyes shut. "Then get to it."

Not able to suppress a whimper of disgust and fear, Phantom set to the task of sucking on Skulker's metal cock, fighting like mad to keep his bile down. The only comfort to this was that it wasnt covered in ectoblood this time, so Phantom clung to that one tiny shred of mercy as tightly as he could. Without warning, Skulker jerked his head up, tapping the knife on the arm of the chair.

Swallowing hard, Phantom let out a shaky "Th..thank you M...Master..." before he was shoved back down, Skulker's fingers clenched tightly in his hair. Fighting back his gag reflex, Phantom resumed sucking Skulker off, the time of being pulled up for a thanking alternating between one to several minutes, always when he least expected it.

This went on for what seemed like forever before Skulker's fingers suddenly clenched into his skull almost hard enough to crack it, his head being kept in place as he felt -to his disgust- the metal appendage in his mouth heat up and pulse slightly. By that point, his throat hurt, his jaw as on fire, and all he wanted to do was END THIS.

Skulker growled softly, pulling Phantom up by the scalp, holding him there until he growled louder with impatience. Phantom, too busy taking deep breaths while trying not to move his jaw too much, didnt notice until Skulker's knife was at the corner of his eye. It took a moment of panic for him to remember to say, "Th-thank you, Master!" before he was going to lose it.

"Good boy," Skulker said, letting go of Phantom's head, letting the halfa drop to the floor, then heavily propping his legs up on Phantom's back, picking up a block of wood and starting on a new whittling project, as though nothing had just happened at all.

Under Skulker's boots, Phantom's whole body trembled as he struggled to swallow without whimpering in pain, which proved to be a fruitless feat. He was content to drool like a beast if it meant he didnt have to hurt anymore, and closed his eyes, falling into a stress-induced sleep quickly, dreaming of a world without this pain...

Skulker finished his little leisure project two hours later, glancing to find his pet asleep on the floor, and smiled to himself. Phantom really was adorable when he was unawares. He quietly nudged the halfa with his boot. "Wake up," he said firmly.

Phantom shifted slightly, lifting his head, looking still half-asleep. Skulker jostled the chain quietly. "If you're going to sleep, you sleep where I cant step on you," he said, tugging the chain again. "Back into your cage." He stood to head back to the holding room...and blinked with some small measure of surprise when Phantom shakily shifted to his hands and knees to follow without a word of protest. Not wanting to look this particular gift horse in the mouth, Skulker led the way back to the cage and turned it intangible, watching as Phantom crawled inside and keeled back over to go back to sleep.

"Well, well..." Skulker mused to himself. "Do wonders ever cease?" He smirked and patted Phantom's head. "I'll make a house-trained pet out of you yet, boy." He unclipped the leash from Phantom's collar and headed out, resisting the urge to whoop with success at Phantom's display of submission.

*kowtows with apology* FORGIVE MY DELAY!