The Slave Auction Meme

[toastysocks]

>The Slave Auction Meme

The Slave Auction Meme



❧ Leave a comment with the character's name, fandom, and whether your character will be playing the part of 'slave' or 'master', plus preferences for scenarios if you have any.
❧ Respond to others with one of the scenarios below or feel free to make up your own.
❧ Please remember to be respectful of others while you play

Warning: Be aware that this meme deals with dark subjects like slavery and may also contain non-consensual/dubiously consensual sex, violence, and kink.

SLAVES

1. The Newbie - This is your very first auction and you don't quite know what to expect. Hopefully you remember your training and don't disgrace yourself in front of your new master. Hopefully someone thinks you're worth buying at all.

2. The Oldtimer - You've been bought and sold and bought again so many times. You've seen it all before and don't think this time is going to be much different. In fact, the only real anxiety you've got is whether or not someone's going to pay for a more than slightly used slave.

3. The Pet - You're a pleasure slave. A bed warmer. A decorative piece of artwork. You're meant to look pretty and be pleasing and not much else.

4. The Guard - Your master hired you because of your ability to swing a sword or shoot a gun, not your looks.

5. The Escape Artist - Somehow you always manage to squirm out of your master's chains. Too bad you seem to get caught after a while. Maybe your next daring escape will be permanent. Then again, maybe your next master has special ways of keeping you locked up.

6. The Undercover - You aren't a slave at all, you're just pretending to be one. Why? Well that's up to you. Either way, your cover is blown if you don't act the part.

7. The Specialist - You have a skill that no one else has. Something rare and valuable. Something your master needs more than anything else.

MASTERS

1. The Customer - You've owned slaves before and this trip to the market is nothing new to you. Still, you're hoping to find something worth your while.

2. The Gift - Someone bought a pet for you, isn't that nice of them? Or maybe it isn't so nice. Did you even want a slave in the first place? Well you're stuck with one now.

3. The Giver - You're selecting a slave for someone else, and they need to be perfect. Perhaps you'd better test them out first to make sure you're getting your money's worth.

4. The Trainer - You specialize in taming unruly slaves and making them over into perfect, obedient, well-trained pets.

5. The Rebel - You hate the idea of slavery, but the system isn't going to go away any time soon, so the next best thing is to buy up any slave you can get your hands on and free them, right?

6. The Companion - You want someone to be with you always, someone you can talk to and depend on, someone who will never leave your side. It's a good thing that money can buy that these days.

7. The Undercover - You're not actually a Master. You're at the auction for an entirely different reason. Maybe it's special policework, maybe you're trying to hunt down a certain someone. Either way, your cover is blown unless you act the part.

As always, feel free to use a combination of scenarios or make up your own if you have other ideas.


Snagged from here.

Comments

wouldn't be tony otherwise

[tarmairon]

For his part, Gene's acting totally normal, because everything is totally normal. Mostly.

Last night had not been entirely unusual. Gene knows he's attractive; it was part of why he'd been slung around as a bed slave so often. He'd hoped that Stark was above that, but...well, at least he'd stopped? Which baffles him all the more. He can't understand that. Why had Stark stopped? Gene's his personal slave, not just his personal chef. He'd do what was asked of him - or demanded of him. Or forced on him. It was usually the last one.

But Stark had stopped.

"Is everything all right?" And he does mean everything. His tone is perfectly mild; maybe too mild. He's more subdued this morning than usual; there's not even the usual light banter.

[starksolutions]

"Hangover," Tony mumbles around his coffee mug, not meeting Gene's eyes. Which his true, but also not the full truth. The full truth is that he's thoroughly ashamed of his behavior last night and wants nothing more than to bolt out the door and hide in the lab until both of them can pretend it never happened. At least this morning he has a good excuse to scarf down his breakfast and run.

[tarmairon]

"Here." Gene puts down a glass of water down on the table. "Drink up. I've worked for a lot of people and I've found there's no better way to fight a hangover than water."

He's pretty sure it's not just the hangover, but he'll let Tony save face.

[starksolutions]

Tony glares at the cup. Drinking water, in the morning, instead of coffee? What kind of heathen do you take him for, Gene?

Still, he downs the rest of his coffee and replaces the mug with the glass of water. Once he's tossed back the painkillers, he applies himself to his breakfast, plowing through it like it's a mission. Man, he's never been so excited to get to a meeting.

He's about halfway done when he breaks his moody silence to say, "It's a heart implant." He's still looking at his plate. "Someone tried to kill me up when I was fifteen, because they had a grudge against my dad. It was a bomb. You probably knew that. But my dad tried to keep quiet how bad it was. I was... pretty much done for. I only lived because of this." He taps his chest. "It's sort of like a pacemaker on steroids. Experimental. They didn't have any idea if it was going to work." Or how long it will keep working.

Tony shrugs. "It did, so, here I am." He goes back to his meal.

It's both an explanation and a deflection: talking about one awkward, uncomfortable thing so he doesn't have to talk about something worse (ie, him kissing Gene last night). It was inevitable that Gene would eventually see the implant, anyway, so at least they're getting it out of the way.

[tarmairon]

Gene nods; he'd heard that, vaguely. They don't really give slaves CNN. But that seems to explain that.

"I'm sorry," he says, and it's not a perfunctory apology. Because he really does think that's horrible. Granted - horrible in a different way than what he'd been through, but still. He wouldn't have wished that on Tony, who, despite (because of?) the previous night's incident, is the most moral master Gene's ever had.

I love worldbuilding for off-the-cuff aus

[starksolutions]

Gene's sympathy actually sounds genuine, and that's almost worse than if he'd been indifferent, because it's giving Tony that stupid, selfish hope again that Gene actually gives a shit about him. As a person, not just as the rich guy who provides his room and board.

"It was ten years ago," Tony says dismissively. He's long over being melodramatic and self-pitying about it. It's just part of who he is, now. (Besides, he's way too busy being melodramatic and self-pitying about current events.)

He finishes the last of his breakfast, chugs the water, and stands. Quick, run, before Gene has time to start another conversation! "Better get going."

It's half the fun

[tarmairon]

And just like that, Tony's finished his breakfast and is all too eager to get up and out. Gene can take a hint.

"Right. You're back for dinner?" In case the schedule had changed in the last five minutes...

[starksolutions]

"Don't know. Maybe. I'll text you if anything comes up on my schedule."

Which, of course, translates to, 'I will be holing up in my lab and distracting myself with science all night, and for the foreseeable future, because I'm a spoiled, neurotic manbaby and I don't know how to deal constructively with my feelings.'

And that's exactly what he does.

Instead of texting Gene, Tony, like a total coward, he has Trish send Gene an updated schedule that gives him the next two days off. Then he buries himself in his inventions.

He returns to his default diet of junk food, protein bars, and coffee, and whenever he does return to his apartment, it's always briefly, and at odd hours of the night. It's not at all unusual for Tony to get caught up in his work and vanish for a couple days, but given the circumstances, it's probably pretty obvious that he's avoiding Gene.

If Gene wants to know what the hell his problem is, he's probably going to have to ambush him. Or maybe he'll get over it in a few days.

[tarmairon]

This is extremely obvious and extremely unsettling.

Gene lets Tony have his time. Fine. God only knows he needed to think, too. But he's always been a light sleeper, so when he hears Tony come back at dick-o'-clock the next day, he edges out of his rooms and into the main area.

"Tony?"

[starksolutions]

Tony's slinking to his room to hopefully catch a few hours of sleep before Gene wakes up, but Gene, damn him, has an uncanny sense or timing. Or maybe, like, mutant superhearing or something. Or he never sleeps.

Whatever the reason: busted.

Tony freezes when Gene says his name, and then turns around, looking hunted. "Gene." He tries to play it cool. "Didn't expect to see you up this late."

[tarmairon]

Gene shrugs. "I'm a light sleeper." He's had to be. It's what's kept him alive and in some masters' good graces. If he can predict what they need almost before they even know it, he's golden.

But Tony's sometimes a little harder to read.

"Do you need anything?" Again, no banter. He doesn't think Tony's really in the mood for it.

[starksolutions]

'Light sleeper,' great. Just what Tony needs. Maybe he should upgrade Gene's suite with soundproofing.

"Nope. I'm good. Just crashing for a few hours. Everything alright with you?"

[tarmairon]

"Everything's fine." People rarely ask him that, and when they do ask, he figures they don't actually want to know.

There sure is an elephant in the room, huh?

[starksolutions]

"Great. Yeah. Okay." Totally fake smile. Tony tries not to fidget awkwardly. "Then I'm gonna. You know. Hit the hay. So." He starts sidling away.

[tarmairon]

Gene nods and retreats to his own rooms.

Well, this confirms something - Tony's been avoiding him, which is something he's never experienced before. And Tony's being awkward around him, like they're equals, or something.

He shakes his head as he pads back to bed. He'll deal with that in the morning.

[starksolutions]

Good god, this is excruciating. At least when he's having a fight with Pepper, or Rhodey's mad at him, they all have their own spaces to retreat to to let things blow over. Having Gene hovering over him constantly is seriously stressing him out.

Tony goes to bed. He tosses and turns for a while, fixating on this stupid situation he's gotten himself into. He kind of wants to give up on sleep and sneak back down to the lab, but Gene might catch him again on the way out, and that would just make things worse.

Finally, he groans, rolls over, and reaches for his phone.

"sorry," he texts. And then a minute later, "about the other night. it was out of line."

He gives an annoyed grunt and stuffs his phone under his pillow. Maybe that will assuage his conscience enough to let him sleep. Maybe Gene won't say anything about it in the morning. Maybe he'll stop looking at Tony like an anthropologist whose subject has done something odd and who's waiting for more data points.

He does eventually sleep, and actually shows up for breakfast the next morning. He still looks a little twitchy, though.

gene, internally: [now playing "gonna make you sweat" by c+c music factory]

[tarmairon]

Gene's trying to go back to sleep when his phone buzzes. As much as he'd love to ignore it, he can't, so he picks it up and reads the messages.

Hm.

Well, he should say something.

Don't worry about it. Get some sleep.

A little terse, but he's usually brief via text.

When Tony comes out the next morning, Gene's already nearly done with breakfast. "Morning. Sleep okay?"

[starksolutions]

"Uh. Sure, I guess." Tony pours himself some coffee and sits, waiting for Gene to finish the food.

Gene's return text last night (which he hadn't seen till he'd gotten up, on account of shoving his phone under his pillow so he couldn't obsess over it) had soothed his nerves somewhat, but he's still feeling pretty awkward.

[tarmairon]

It doesn't take too long for Gene to finish making food, and he plates the omelet before putting it down in front of Tony.

"Good. I thought you were going to stay out for a solid week. Not that I minded the time off." Banter is at 1%.

[starksolutions]

Ooh. Yeah. Tony chuckles halfheartedly. "Well, you know. I lose track of time down there." Sometimes intentionally.

Tony has a sinking feeling that this is gonna be one of those 'definitely knows what's up but is going to keep politely stepping around it until you spit it out yourself' conversations, like he sometimes has with his dad.

Maybe it's best to head it off and get it over with.

"The other night - that isn't what... I wasn't thinking straight." He shakes his head. "I should listen to Pepper and Rhodey," he says, with a hint of bitterness. "They keep telling me I act like a tool when I'm drunk."

[tarmairon]

Well you sure weren't thinking straight, dahoihoi.

"I told you, don't worry about it," Gene says as firmly as he dares - which, with Tony, is reasonably so. "You didn't offend me. I'm a difficult man to offend. And that is far from the worst thing anyone's ever done around or to me, drunk or sober. So you're in the clear."

[starksolutions]

That's supposed to make him feel better, and it should, but instead all Tony can think is that he's put himself on the same footing as Gene's previous masters.

"Great," Tony says sourly. "So I'm not the worst. Real high bar, huh?"

He's gone from 'guy who doesn't do that sort of thing' to 'guy who does that sort of thing, but not the really bad stuff,' which is really not an accomplishment to be proud of, no matter how you slice it.

[tarmairon]

Gene sighs and does something he doesn't normally do - he sits down across the table from Tony.

"No," he says, "you're not the worst. As a matter of fact, you're better than all of them. Do you know why?

"Because you stopped."

[starksolutions]

Tony glowers and stabs his omelette. He eats a few bites, refusing to meet Gene's eyes even though he's sat down right across from him.

"You didn't think I would?" He barks out a humorless laugh. "Why would I, right? I'm just some rich asshole who always gets what he wants."

[tarmairon]

"Self-pity's a terrible look on you," Gene comments. "So's putting words into other people's mouths. What I'm saying is, you've designated me as your personal chef, but we both know I'm your personal slave. You don't have to be kind to me. Hell - you don't even have to treat me like a human. But you do.

"So I'm going to rise above my station for a moment and ask you frankly: what the hell's crawled up your ass about this? Because it feels like you're taking this personally. And you're doing a pretty poor job of hiding the fact that you're sulking."