♋ (AU Mirror Y'rehl, of course!)
The andorian stood out amongst the other slaves at the auction. It wasn’t just his brilliantly blue skin-- it was largely due to the fact that he was clearly out of place in mannerisms. Rather than the broken stare of the others, he had the panicked and fearful look of someone who’d been beaten into obedience for the moment but clearly wasn’t ‘broken’ as one would expect.
Being snagged by the orions after his ship had fun afoul of another trader’s vessel had been the last thing Thelos had ever expected to come of his life. He’d avoided the slave traders until now... but here he was, tied and recoiling from the leering gazes of the spectators. Blending in wasn’t much of an option... but he wanted to seem as undesirable as possible. The result was that he looked even more distressed than he’d intended to before.
Hearing a bid called out for him was like a nightmare come alive, but he didn’t have time to protest before he was dragged forward. He was unused to the collar-- how aggressively he resisted it was an indicator of that much.
“He’s yours,” the orion handler said with disinterest. “Good luck.”
Thelos glared at the ground, but he was much more scared than angry. He didn’t know whether or not his life was about to become eve more a nightmare.