Jotha ran a hand through his thinning hair before eating another spoonful. He chewed slowly, working the thoughts over in his head. “Dreams are only that, Ren. Dreams. If you let yourself get caught up in them, you’re going to end up living in your head. We need you here. Fairies? Hmph.” He ran his spoon up the side of his steel serving bowl and licked the slop off.

“Who would WANT to live here?” Ren sighed. “You think the world is only what you can understand. If you lived for the rest of your life in a VR-pod, would that be any less real than this?” She waved her spoon around, indicating the bare walls, the steady throbbing of machinery. “Some people couldn’t see fairies even before. You have to know how to.”

Jotha pushed himself up, dropping his empty bowl into the dispenser. “If you want to see something bad enough, you will. I only want to see what’s really there. If you can dream us more food, or get the fairies to bring us supplies, then good. I have work to do. Real work. So we all can dream on.”