[ When Shiro starts talking, and does not take the chance with her back turned and foolishly exposing the bracelet, gradually she brings her arm back down. In her mind, she checks off what she had already suspected: the bracelet is for her to "protect herself", to get him to "comply", to harm him...
To kill him if he doesn't kill her first.
Her fists clench and her shoulders tense at the last part. Through implications, she figures that Zarkon also sees Shiro as a threat. Being Champion can garner a certain level of influence -- respect -- in the Arena, even if most of the attention is that of animosity. Rising to become Champion, specially coming from a conquered, weaker people does not gain one favors: it is an open act of defiance to the Galran Empire.
Allura shuts her eyes briefly, trying to find an opening. Zarkon might just have found out her little ruse: feign displeasure over her gifts, breaking the electrocution device, faking death and disease with the use of the plants in her garden... ]
How rude of them. [ Her voice comes flat, a failed attempt at humor. ] But you read well. I don't like the idea of being so closely monitored. Can't a lady have a right to her privacy anymore?
[ Privacy. Dignity. Self-worth. Identity.
She turns her head, not quite looking over her shoulder. Not quite willing to face Shiro when her mind is in a panic, when the tendrils of fear pluck at her hopes like the start of a requiem. ]
If I had not spoken to you, if I had forced myself on-- [ No. She cannot even complete that thought. Never can she truly force someone into intimacy, much less when she is implicitly being forced into it by her enemy. ] If I acted the way the diplomat expects me to right off, what would you have done?
no subject
To kill him if he doesn't kill her first.
Her fists clench and her shoulders tense at the last part. Through implications, she figures that Zarkon also sees Shiro as a threat. Being Champion can garner a certain level of influence -- respect -- in the Arena, even if most of the attention is that of animosity. Rising to become Champion, specially coming from a conquered, weaker people does not gain one favors: it is an open act of defiance to the Galran Empire.
Allura shuts her eyes briefly, trying to find an opening. Zarkon might just have found out her little ruse: feign displeasure over her gifts, breaking the electrocution device, faking death and disease with the use of the plants in her garden... ]
How rude of them. [ Her voice comes flat, a failed attempt at humor. ] But you read well. I don't like the idea of being so closely monitored. Can't a lady have a right to her privacy anymore?
[ Privacy. Dignity. Self-worth. Identity.
She turns her head, not quite looking over her shoulder. Not quite willing to face Shiro when her mind is in a panic, when the tendrils of fear pluck at her hopes like the start of a requiem. ]
If I had not spoken to you, if I had forced myself on-- [ No. She cannot even complete that thought. Never can she truly force someone into intimacy, much less when she is implicitly being forced into it by her enemy. ] If I acted the way the diplomat expects me to right off, what would you have done?