"You don't get it, do you? If they just wanted caged fighters to let out into the arenas..."

It was hard to explain the concept of reality vids to someone for whom mass communication probably amounted to someone manually sticking flies up around town, or riding a horse from place to place and shouting. Shepard sighed and ran a hand through her hair, probably not for the last time that day.

"We're entertainment. Part of that is showing that they have power over us-- that we're declawed, like a pet tiger or something. We can walk around inside the cage, but if you put even one toe out of line, they'll cut it off. Being well fed and reasonably well cared for between arenas doesn't change the fact that we've got a--" Not a gun, she wouldn't know what a gun was, not yet anyways. Maybe they could find a peacekeeper and use him as an educational tool, "...An axe over our heads at all time. If that much is all it takes to satisfy your definition of liberty, Seeker, I really don't know how to help you."