How Much For That Twi'lek in the Window?

[Louise]

She had never been to one of these affairs.

No, it was droll business usually left to those who worked for her to do. Not to mention the risk of being seen. Buying slaves. Usually for a death sentence. Think of it as recycling, being efficient. When auctioning off slaves, they always seemed to dress up the weak, the old, the infirm to get some monetary worth out of them when in reality they were worth as much as the very clothes upon their back.

Thalia liked to buy them, give them a purpose because they weren't much good for anything else.

Of course, like any good monster she was one to play with her food. Gave them hope, a bath, a hot meal and things took a turn for the sinister. She didn't buy them to be slaves, she bought them to be soup. After the elation of comfort came the terror of their impending demise, at the peak of despair they tasted like heaven. The ambrosia of terror. Sometimes she was quick, and on other occasions she took her time, keeping a single victim alive and draining them drip by metaphorical drip.

As stated before, she didn't usually appear at the auctions, letting her servants do all legwork for her. Inspections, haggling, and anything else that was involved in the process. However, this time boredom drove her to come along for a change. It was funny. She had this image in her head of how these things usually went, but her image did not fall in line with reality. Where she had pictured clean and sterile, they had given her colourful and pungent. It was almost quaint, in a sense. Bringing a small, satisfied smile to lightly rouged lips.

Dressed in moderate fineries she came to the market, flanked by a pair of guards and alongside her a single advisor. It was good to have people in your life. People were useful. So why not buy some more?

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Thalia Gorsceux"]
Rett stood on the small upraised platform, there were thick chains around his neck connected to his hand and his ankles. His clothes were naught but rags and his red skin was stained with sweat. His lips were turned down into a frown, showing the edges of his filed down teeth. There was a hint of anger to him, but then there was a hint of anger to everyone that was standing around him.

Noticeably, he was the only Twi'lek.

The slave sat there, his eyes watching the crowd.

He hated them. All of them. They were each and every one of them nothing but evil and cruel. He hated them. Rett watched the crowd, his eyes never lingering, always watching. The crowd seemed to rumble as the auctioneer began to walk up the three steps to the platform.

His eyes followed the man.

Rett wanted to rip his throat out, kill him and get out of here, but he couldn't. Rett knew that even if he managed to kill the man he couldn't get away. It was pointless.

 

[Louise]

The market wasn't just one big auction, but in fact several.

After all slaves had different purposes, house slaves, gladiators, sex slaves, there were so many specific uses and categories for slaves that if they were all sold under one generic auction then it would be an absolute pain to attend, having to sift through scantily clad and weeping women when all you wanted was some fighters for your illegal cage fighting business.

Thalia stayed away from sex slaves, having no interest in those kind of depravities but rather made her way towards where fighters could be found. She liked an old curr, beaten and broken, no real use to fight ever again but still they tried to make a profit from them.

The red caught her eye.

Twi'lek, and not in a thong. That made a change of pace. He looked positively savage. Not to mention angry. Probably owned by a xenophobe, the amount of people that owned slaves that were human and loathed aliens was great. She could at least sympathise with him on that account, fortunately for her she could blend in with humanity and didn't have great lekku giving the game away.

“I want him,” she said to her advisor with a clipped tone. Without hesitation the man entered into the auctioneer's game. The creature would likely be expensive, even male Twi'leks didn't come cheap.

Smile, you could be dead.

Anzat telepathy, what a karking cop-out.

[member="Rett"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Thalia Gorsceux"]

Rett didn't know what the voice in his head was, but it most definitely wasn't his.

His eyes went wide, his head jumped up to face the crowd, and his pale yellow eyes began to search almost desperately. What happened here? Who was this? How the hell did they speak in his mind? For a brief few seconds Rett looked at the sky. The sun blazed there, but not as hot as it had in the passed few days.

Was he hallucinating?

No, he had had water only a short few moments ago. He wasn't dehydrated or anything of the sort, she was fine.

His eyes began to dart around. Was this some sort of magic? Someone capable of talking in other peoples minds. Panic set in. Another trick of the slave masters? Another trap or way to hold him? His heart began to beat fast in his chest.

Rett didn't understand.

 

[Louise]

She smiled, lips forming an expression most coy and mischievous, observing as the twi'lek looked around, first up and then side-to-side as if it might have offered him so clue as to who was communicating with him like this.

Are you afraid?

It was there in his panic that she could sense it, smell it even. Her hidden proboscises almost came out to play in the small burst of excitement that found her. He was special, he had a strong life essence and that only meant one of two things. Either he was very lucky, or he was Force sensitive.

I'm going to buy you.

Now, given the chains and the slave status one could easily cross the creature's luck off of the list. The frantic bidding around her melted away into nothing more than background noise as she poured her complete focus upon him. You don't exist for over two-hundred years without knowing a thing or two, or tasting a thing or two. The soup of a Force User was somewhere on the line of divine. It was marvellous, delicious, somewhere close to ecstasy.

Was he now upgraded to lunch?

I won't hurt you.

Definitely. However, just outright buying him like a candy bar was no fun, had no adventure. What if she grew him? Made him stronger, and like a fine wine aged and preserved him. Let the vintage of soup become grand and powerful, then uncork the bottle.

[member="Rett"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Thalia Gorsceux"]

Panic set in.

The voice?

What was it? Who was it? Someone in the audience? One of the noblemen or women who stood out there? It had to be. It had said they were going to buy him. His heart began to drum in his chest, resounding over and over again in his ears drowning out all other noise. He feared. Not because of the beating that might happen in the future, not because of his further life as slave.

He feared because a Master that could get in his head was a truly terrifying prospect.

For his entire life Rett had had but one sanctuary, one place to call his own, one place that he could hide away and move to when things got bad. His head. This voice, it spoke to him, burrowed into his mind like a drill and touched his basest thoughts. The pupils of eyes eyes shrunk slightly as panic set in.

He didn't believe the voices last line.

Only a fool would.

The Auction began to go faster now, the three slaves ahead of Rett being sold rather quickly. Then the Lethan twi'lek came up for sale, and Rett's throat constircted.

 

[Louise]

It wasn't much for reassurance, and the creature's fear grew, almost giving her a severe case of the morbid giggles.

His panic was similar to that of her victims not long before their demise. No, no, it would be a long time before he would meet that end. A new problem lay in his fear, however. Thalia couldn't in her right mind make somebody that was afraid of her strong, that could only lead to an inevitable betrayal and her own demise if she wasn't careful.

Being a slave isn't really a solid trust exercise for life.

You're still afraid.

The bidding began for the red twi'lek. The amount of credits steadily rising in a fast paced bidding war that only those trained in the art of the auction could keep up with. She, however, kept her focus upon him. If Thalia truly wanted to sedate the creature, she could have. Her method of hypnotic seduction was to mesmerised and lure one into dream-like and bewitched state. Truth be told, she very much enjoyed his panic and would continue this small game until the bidding was done.

It is inevitable.

[member="Rett"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Thalia Gorsceux"]

Rett's eyes darted all around, searching the crowd for someone, anyone that looked to be out of place. He was not trained in such things however, and he could barely tell one aristocrat apart from another one, they all looked the same to him. Each one cruel, each one evil, each one twisted and turned into a husk of a sapient through years of callous upbringing.

His eyes fell on the auctioneer.

He could kill him.

He could end the mans life and earn himself a death sentence. Would that be better than going with this voice? Would that be better than falling prey to some cruel Mistress that would do naught but torture and destroy him. Rett licked his lips, contemplating what he could do, what he should do. The voice spoke to him again, though he now began to block it out completely. Perhaps it was an hallucination, perhaps it was a dream, perhaps he was simply making it up because of the stress of the situation.

The auction began to reach a head, the bidding getting faster and higher.

A lethan Twi'lek was worth quite a bit, even when he was scarred.

 

[Louise]

Lifting up a glove to her mouth, the wealthy woman silently giggled into the back of her hand.

Perhaps she would stop with her telepathy at this stage, before she managed to push the poor creature over the edge without having even purchased him. It wouldn't have done much for his value if he pissed himself upon the stage, or tried to lash out against the crowd. Who wants a feral incontinent slave? Nobody. Unless you're into that, of course.

Eventually the bids started to slow from other parties. There may have been those here with deeper pockets than her but they didn't desire him as much as Thalia did. The way her advisor snapped back with a new offer in a split second also helped to dissuade them.

She wanted for nothing.

Thirteen thousand, five hundred credits; expensive snack if there ever was.

At the moment she knew that the morsel was his, the anzat turned her back upon the auction and began to make her way back to the ship. They would do whatever needed to be done, paperwork, finalising and then actually paying. Then he would be brought back to her upon the very generic luxury yacht.

[member="Rett"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Thalia Gorsceux"]

It was a few hours later that The Lethan Twi'lek found himself standing within the very spacious center room of a Luxury Yacht. The chains were still around his neck, hands, and feet and there was a certain sense of anger about him. His file down teeth were grinding at one another, and the rage that he held in his eyes threatened to consume him.

Another rich person who claimed him. Another wealthy aristocrat who wanted nothing but to use him. Rage boiled down within him, something sliding around his head, exploring his senses. In the distance he could feel the call of something, the push or influence, but he ignored it, shaking his head and denying the instinct to reach out for it.

Something wasn't right.

His scowl deepened as he felt the scratch of the incision in the back of his head.

They had placed a chip there, something that he had not had before. It was a slave control device, if he made moves to escape or harm his new owner, the chip would explode. His former master had been far more Crude, though for some strange reason Rett minded this less.

At least he had a way out now.

 

[Louise]

Thalia sat waiting for him upon a very spacious couch, it wasn't overly fancy, I mean the décor of the center room was actually simplistic, modern in black and white. Well made furniture, of course but not the fanciest it could have been. Of course, this wasn't the ship that Thalia Dolores Gorsceux was normally seen in by the public eye. Yes, of course, let me turn up to a slave auction with a big neon sign stating: Yes, I like the crimes against sentient kind!

She scowled as soon as she set emerald eyes upon him, he was still dressed like an animal.

“Now really” she said exasperated to the advisor who would one day get a name, a personality and a submission in the Codex. The voice was the same as the one that he had heard in his head, yet a little different, a little more demure, with a hint of innocence but he had already heard the truth. “Get rid of those chains.”

Upon the table was set two large glasses of water, one for her and one for her purchase. She waited for the advisor to do as order and remove those barbaric restraints.

“You can come and take a seat if you like,” she offered, face passive and neutral, “there's a glass of water here for you, I imagine you must be thirsty.”

[member="Rett"]

 

[Aela Talith]

The Chains were removed, but Rett didn't budge an inch.

The demure woman in front of him presented a facade of innocents, of neutrality, of kindness. He wasn't sure whether to believe it. The Lethan was naturally skeptical. No one had ever been kind to him, he had had no friends growing up, no quiet confidants, no benefactors that secretly handed him bread or drink. No one, no one at all had ever been kind to Rett, and certainly no one had ever spoken to him in that tone.

His eyes shifted to the glass of water.

Was it poisoned?

No. No that was silly. Why would she spend almost fifteen thousand credits on him only to poison him within fifteen minutes of getting him on board her ship? He may have not known how to read or write, but he knew a foolish idea when he thought of one.

His head shook slightly.

“No.” He denied her, only because it was the one thing that came to his mind. He couldn't accept water, he couldn't sit down. No he had to be weary, he had to learn what she wanted, then he could see what he would do.

For a brief moment a thought flickered in his head.

Can I kill her?

 

[Louise]

This was clearly going to take time.

Not as if Thalia didn't have time, having already knocked two centuries down in her relative youth. Being a long-lived species at least gave one a sense of patience, even if the power of riches took some of that away. Grand manipulations could come later, she would have to play with kid gloves initially.

“That's perfectly fine,” she said quietly, reaching herself for one of the glasses of water with her gloved hand. Slowly, the Anzat took a drink, was she intentionally making water look like the absolute vitae or life, or was it just your own thirst that made it look that way.

Setting the water back down she looked back into the yellow eyes of the slave, as if trying to fathom him out but, well, instead of attempting to decipher him by staring, she simply asked.

“Will you tell me a little about yourself?”

[member="Rett"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Thalia Gorsceux"]

He looked apprehensively at her.

Wouldn't she already know? Wouldn't she already have every little detail about him? The auctioneers would have told her, they would have given her every single detail about his life. Height, weight, behavior. Everything. What did she mean tell her about himself? That didn't make any sense at all. His head cocked involuntarily to the side.

“I am a Slave.” Rett said carefully.

Is that what she wanted?

To reiterate that he was s slave? That he was worth nothing? Was she trying to establish her control?

There wasn't any need for that, Rett already knew what he was, what situation he was in. Rett knew very well, and he was already plotting to break out from underneath her control. Or at least he thought he was.

 

[Louise]

Her brow furrowed, of course she knew all the technical details, the livestock information. What she wanted to know was about him, the twi'lek, his feelings, his pain, his heart. As if he was going to spill those feelings onto the table when he was so guarded that he couldn't have a drink of water.

The light frown indicated her displeasure but she didn't follow it up with any scolding. Perhaps he was too stupid to understand, but likely it was a life dominated by fear and hatred that left his conversation stunted.

“I intend for you to become a part of my personal guard,” she stated simply, unsure of how he would take that information. Likely it would grant her an air of vulnerability, she was a person that relied upon a personal guard after all.

“If you are to be in charge of my life, I would like to know about you,” she said to him slowly, “are you nothing but a slave? Surely there is more to you than that?”

[member="Rett"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Thalia Gorsceux"]

Personal Guard?

Apparently this woman wasn't aware of the circumstances of his sale. He had failed as a bodyguard, had cause the death of his charge. Why she wanted him to be in charge of protecting her was beyond his understanding. His eyes narrowed, and he spoke more carefully. He was still weary of her, of what she really wanted.

“I enjoyed the gardens.” Rett said Sheepishly.

He really didn't understand.

She had outright told him her intent, yet it seemed like such an impossibility that he still doubted it could be true. Him? A guard again? Impossible, not after what had happened, and certainty not for someone like her.

 

[Louise]

“Yes,” Thalia responded, lacing slender digits together as she nodded at the twi'lek, as if prodding him for more, “that's a start, that's good.”

The creature of mistrust would eventually have to let down his guard. After all, she was no cruel xenophobe. Of course that was to say there were no illusions that she wasn't a monster in her own right but at least it was hidden to the public eye. He would find out in time what she did and how she did it but he would also understand that it wasn't going to happen to him.

Not just yet, anyway.

Thalia Gorsceux didn't own slaves after all.

No, she had paid servants who lived within her manor. It was hardly much of a wage, but when provided with free board and food, one didn't need much else, not when they were a cog in her machine.

Slaves are food, not employees.

“I want you to be comfortable around me,” she admitted, voice soft and delicate, “do you have a name? Your own name?”

[member="Rett"]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Thalia Gorsceux"]

Comfortable? How could he be comfortable around someone that owned him? His lips turned down for a few seconds, though quickly they returned to a neutral expression. He tried to hide the emotions that he was feeling, tried to hide the trepidation and fear that was coursing through him like a raging river. Yellow eyes darted about the room for a few seconds, he observed everything, tried to take anything he could in. Eventually they landed on Thalia again.

“Rett.” He said it carefully.

His own name.

That was the only name that he had ever had. It was the name that he had been given, and one that he had never questioned.

Truthfully he liked it. He liked the way it sounded and the way it flowed off the tongue. It worked in both Huttese and Galactic Basic, flowing easily when spoken. The Twi'lek suddenly smiled at the thought of another name though, one that he would give himself. He had no idea what the name would be, but it would be something all his own.

The smile quickly disappeared.

 

[Louise]

The small smile did not go unnoticed by the Anzat.

What thoughts and come and pleased him? Thoughts that appeared upon his face before having to be smothered. Were they dangerous thoughts? Whimsical? At least within him there was the capacity for amusement, if not happiness. It would greatly help in the journey, he needed to be at ease with her. To trust her. If she were to fatten up her prize pig with the Force she would need his trust.

“Then [member="Rett"],” she began, “may I call you that?”

Fingers became unlaced, and her ever straight posture shifted up from the large sofa until she was standing.

“I imagine that you must be tired. There is a guest bedroom aboard this vessel waiting for you,” she said, still speaking properly but not forcing any warmth into her tones, “it is an en suite,” Thalia continued before stopping, a minuscule smile seemingly appearing upon her face, “that is to say, it has a refresher should you wish to use it.”

Slender arms found themselves crossed beneath her bosom, as she observed the lethan twi'kek. “My advisor, Enos will show you to the room, but first, do you have any questions you might want to ask me? Anything you want to know?”

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Thalia Gorsceux"]

Rett wasn't exactly sure what to do. An extra room, a refresher? A suite? He barely knew what any of those terms actually meant. He had never had a refresher, simply a bucket of water to wash in, a room to himself? No, he had always stayed in the slave quarters. What was Rett to do with all of these things?

How did one even operate a Refresher?

“I...” He prattled off.

No. He couldn't ask her that. He couldn't ask how a refresher worked. She mentioned a man, Enos. He would ask him. Yes that made much more sense. Yet he had spoken now, he had to ask her something else, had to get her off of thinking he was an idiot. Rett knew he couldn't appear to be prey to this woman, to his new owner.

“Where are you taking me?” That was a good question, though any answer would likely be lost on him.