"Help them with what?"

“—humans are complicated!”

Their antennae scrunch up along with their face.

“Voluntary pleasant simulations should be a safe template for observation environments! But humans simulate so many things that are problematic for them, and they’re so good at filling in details, and now—they keep getting stuck!”

Camillo represses the urge to sproing an antenna like a curl of hair.

"...you experience machined a bunch of people?"

“—do humans have this technology too?”

"No we do not. Unless the technology is just dreaming, in which case yes we do."

“Oh.”

“…but! That’s why you’re here! You can wake them up!”

"Uh. Sure. I guess. Mission accepted."

This is a weird dream but kind of an entertaining one.

“Okay! I can’t stop the environments from ripening right now! But when they do — when you go to sleep, I can put you in the right other, um—”

“Do you have a name?”

"...Camillo."

Somehow he's not sure anyone in a dream has ever asked his name before. Seems like the sort of thing people in dreams just know.

“Oh we’re almost the same! I’m Chamomile.”

“I can try to route your locus to the right Camillo! And then you can terminate their branch to help them wake up!”

"How do I terminate their branch."

“Oh, sorry! You kill them!”

"Yeah you know what that makes sense actually."

They nod vigorously.

“And then once you’ve gotten enough people out I can start a cascade and the dreamweaver will have to reovulate! And everything will be okay again!”

The thing their antennae do when they nod is hilarious.

"Sure, sure. Normal dream stuff."

“Normal dream stuff?”

They lean in across a couple of light blobs.

"--never mind."

Why is he being guilt-tripped by his own dreams.

"Uh. None of that made sense but dreams usually don't."

“Oh! Okay. That’s consistent across many species!”

Camillo is going to use his dream abilities to do loop-the-loops now.