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When Marco stumbled across the media library, he concluded that this had to be the best day so far on this freaky meatship.

Music. Massive screens. A giant, alien entertainment centre. And, most importantly - video games.

Marco was immediately drawn to the tall white box with the strange looking controllers. He snorted when he saw the name "Wii" (who though that was a good idea? The puns where almost too easy) but hey, this was clearly gaming of the future. Or gaming of a strange and bizarre alien race - it was hard to tell. Either way, it was cool, and Marco was so going to try it out.

He fished around for a vaguely interesting looking game, bypassing all the ones that looked boring (Wii Fit? Cricket? Imagine: Fashion Idol?! pfft), eventually settling on Escape from Bug Island.

Marco had been a bug before. Waaaaay too many times. Now he could squish them in safe video game fun.

But as Marco began to play, his good mood rapidly diminished. Who thought up this whole "swinging around the controller" thing? What the hell was going on with that animation?

"What the hell is with this?!" He yelled, as he tried to get the control to do what he wanted dammit. "This is nuts! GAMING OF THE FUTURE IS CRAP!"

[[ooc: For reference, this is the extraodinarily bad game Marco is playing.]]

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"It's not the fact that they're aliens that's the problem," Marco pointed out. "It the fact that they hold all the cards, and we don't know what they really intend. And did any of the telepaths actually manage to read them? We only talked to the Daligig through the communicators while they were sitting around on some other ship. And if I were them, and I wanted to fool some mind-readers, I wouldn't talk to them myself. I'd convince someone else to talk to them for me, and make that person believe what I want the telepaths to believe. Those guys we saw? For all we know, they're just the puppets of someone else."

While he was saying all of that, Marco had been staring intently at the screen, apparently focused on setting up the game rather than pointing out all the possible ways the Daligig could be screwing them over.

"The disk stores data. Information. You keep a lot of information in your head, right? Like memories? But hey, people don't walk about with fifty-foot wide heads. Well, this is kinda the same principal. Except with less squishy-brain matter. The machine is what reads the information on the disc and transforms it into what you see on the screen."

Katara did look a little stricken by the idea. Things like this, after all, had a tendency to make her think of one person in particular, and so she did look a little paler. She shook her head though, as if she were trying to win a private battle.

"It's possible that might be the case. If so....we'll deal when it happens. I have someone I have to help in the midst of all of this craziness, and while I'm not going to ignore any of you guys, he comes first. But if it is true, all of it, then I want to stop these Ohm in any way. They've destroyed our worlds and forced us here. I may not advocate fighting all the time, but if it has to happen, I think we should win."

Katara paused, then stared at Marco's disk. "That's amazing! How do they do it?"

Marco gave her a look our of the corner of his eye. "I'm not saying that these Ohm guys don't need to be fought. Maybe they do. But believing everything the Daligig tell us at face value is stupid."

He paused a little at the thought of trying to explain exactly how video games consoles worked. To someone who seemed to know nothing about how technology. Man, was this what Ax felt like all the time? "Well. That would be a very long and complicated explanation. Plus I...don't exactly now all the specifics myself. Anyways, video games are not for understanding. Video games are for having fun."

He tossed her an extra controller, settled down to play, and sent her a smirk. "Come on. You can learn how these things work while I kick your butt."

Katara nodded. "I think at this point, believing what anyone says at face value is pretty dumb. Even the people here have proven themselves to be liars sometimes. But I also think that the more that you start to learn about the people here, the more you realize that it isn't possible that we were all gathered here on a whim. This was planned because they need us for something."

Katara watched him with interest. "So these video games, are they supposed to be training modules for fighting later, or are they just for recreation? It hurts my eyes a little. It's so bright."

At the insult, Katara raised her eyebrows. "Those sounds like fighting words. I think I have a reason to start learning how to play these things after all."

"Obviously. Except we might not like whatever it is that they need us for. And we can't exactly decide we don't want to be involved and go somewhere else, can we?"

"Some video games are used for military training, yeah, but most? Are for fun." Marco fiddled around with the controls, until he managed to turn down the brightness. "There. And yes, they are fighting words. So pick a character."

"No we can't," Katara said, and here her face changed: the curious waterbender was gone for the moment and Katara was focused on what she knew was inevitable: a fight. "There's talk of a new enemy though, one on the ship. The best way to beat it is supposedly working together because its supposed to be a god. I don't know about you, but in my world we just ended a war. I hate that I have to get caught into one all over again."

"It's on now," Katara said teasingly, then looked at the character selection. "HEY, its Samus! And Sheik and...oh HEY, its Pikachu!"

Well, no doubt what character she was going to pick now.

"What, another one? Already? Eesh, can't we at least have a break before big nasty comes along? And yeah, I definitely feel you on not wanting another war. Ours ended three years ago. More is not fun."

Marco blinked at her response to the characters though. "Wait...you don't know what a console is but you recognise Samus and Pikachu? You mean they're...oh you have got to be kidding me! Them too?"

Katara lowered her head a little, and now a look of determination crossing her face. "It won't be as easy either. This guy is someone that attacks you in dreams. That's really frightening. But I know for sure that we'll beat him."

After all, he was the one hurting Aang. She wasn't likely to forgive him for that.

Katara shrugged. "Well yeah. Samus doesn't talk a whole lot, and Pikachu is cute and actually easier to understand now that I've traveled with a flying Bison and a lemur."

Marco frowned. "Wait, dreams? Like how Selene said she can go poking around in people's dreams?"

"Flying bison? Okay, I don't know what kind of universe you lived in if it has flying bison floating around the place, but it has got to be insane!"

Katara nodded. "Actually, Selene is not the only person that can go poking around in people's dreams. If you ever meet a girl named Roxie, she could show you a thing or two about it too."

At this, Katara did take things a little personal. "There's nothing weird about that! I'll have you know that without Appa we would have beenb captured a long time ago. Never doubt the helpfullness if a Flying Bison!"

He didn't have to know that they were extinct now.

"I'd rather not go poking around in other people's heads, thank you very much," Marco said. "And I'd rather be the only one in mine, too."

"Helpful, maybe. Doesn't change the fact that it's insane."

"Well, you can't do it, only Roxie and Selene can anyway," Katara replied, "And you know, despite people's need for protection, going into dreams isn't necessarily a bad thing, not now anyway. If an enemy is going to try and attack us from dreams, better to have people who know how to fight that way, right?"

At this, Katara bristled. "Its not insane! For all I know, I'll bet you have things from your world I think is insane!"

Marco shrugged. He had already gotten the impression that Selene would try to stay out of his dreams as much as possible, but still. "Yeah, I guess. But I'm happy to leave that to other people, thanks."

"Oh, I know there are things from my world that are insane. But you don't see me going around pretending they're not insane, do you?"

Katara had half a mind to tell him off, because she was really getting sick of certain other people's ignorance and close mindedness of others. But just as she was about to start thundering, she remembered something she hadn't bothered to think about: her last fight with Asuka, where the girl had allowed herself to look vulnerable to someone like her. No, it was HER that needed to change, to not get so angry. had she forgotten so quickly?

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, think what you want about what's insane and what isn't. You're going to see a lot more insanity than Sky Bison the longer you stay here, trust me."

"This place is plenty insane," Marco agreed. "I mean, come on? A ship made out of meat? Who decides to make a ship out of meat?"

"Well, I can't stay I didn't think that too when I got here. I thought I was actually taken prisoner again in my world. But the ship...isn't that supposed to be an organic ship too, unlike the ones I've been hearng about that are just vessels?"

Marco shrugged. "I guess an organic ship makes sense. It's still freaky, though."

"Besides, I'm more curious about what is in the rooms we aren't allowed to go into anymore," Katara said. "Like, that enemy we have to fight is probably in Escherville. Do you know anything about that painter?"

Marco sent her an odd look. "What painter? And where's Escherville?"

"Well," Katara sais, and here is where the nerdier part of her came out, "When I was in the Media Library once, I looked up the name Escher. The place is actually based on the painter of M.C. Escher, who was famous for painting lots on intersecting crazy stairs. Apparently he was big on mathematics and crazy constructions. Guess that's why they call it that. It's in the City though. People stay away."

See this? This is Marco staring at you and your nerdiness. "You bothered to go and look that up just because some place in the City is called Esherville?"

"Well yeah," Katara said, oblivious to Marco's stare. "I've never been there myself, and its a place that we're told to not go to, right? So I figured I had a right to at least get an idea of what's down there. Now I know its probably so twisted I'd get lost. That, and the sleeping evil thingy down there."

Now, Marco was staring for a completely different reason. Mainly that he had no idea what she was going on about.

"Okay, you've lost me. What on earth are you talking about? What the heck is this place, and what sleeping evil thingy?"

Katara sighed. "Yeah, you're new, aren't you? I keep forgetting. Sorry."

She sighed. "The place is like a labyrinth. Stairs and stairs and mazes. Not a place you want to get lost in, to be honest. As for the sleeping evil thing, he's a god that invades dreams. So all the people you've met that can go through dreams? They don't compare to someone who will mess with your head because they can."

"That guy you said was attacking people in their dreams?" Marco said. "If you all know where he is, how come no one's gone to deal with him?"