"I guess it's nice of your saboteurs to be so, uh, considerate? Instead of just chloroforming people or murdering them."

"Oh, they do often just murder them."

"Oh, of course."

"Some advocate for wider availability, with the idea that it would cut down on that.  But there isn't much barrier to anyone organized getting ahold of some, so lawmakers think we're at the correct level of inconvenience to reduce total harm."

"Sounds like a tricky balance to strike. Anyway, no idea how it'd interact with my interdimensional brain. - what was the painkiller I took, I was expecting ibuprofen or acetaminophen."

"Orsitametconen."

"......well, I've never heard of that in my life so if I start frothing at the mouth or something it's probably that." He prods his sore elbow.

"Noted."

His elbow feels fine, a touch sore if he really pokes it.  And his headache's gone too.

"Works great for its stated purpose though!"

"I am very glad to hear it."

"And I haven't noticed any side effects. Are there any it's normally expected to have that I should keep an eye on?"

"It can exacerbate side effects of some classes of other medications taken with it.  It's not advised to take any with alcohol, but that doesn't stop, stereotypically, college students from doing so with the intention of both heading off their hangover and having a stronger buzz.  When this goes poorly it tends to be in the direction of leading to injury rather than by a direct medical cause."

"Oh, well, fortunately I don't drink. Not that this would be a great time to go on a drinking spree even if that were a thing I did."

"It might help.  It like, probably would instead not, but it might!"

"Let's not and say we did and then immediately retract that claim so as not to contaminate anybody's data about alcohol's interaction with awakenings."

"Ha!  Do people who drink ever try and see if it helps?"

"Probably! I don't know about it in particular, just my sense that the biology's not listening."

"That makes sense."

"Do you feel well enough for shopping, Haru, or should I send Ariel on a solo quest for shoes, clothes, and groceries after lunch?"

"I don't... love the idea of being insane in public any more than I have to?"

"It's fine, I love field trips.  Do you know your sizes for everything?"

"Uh, I'm not sure I should expect clothing sizes to be consistent across universes, but -" he does.

"I can get stuff with some give, but those don't sound obviously wrong to me.  What colors and stuff do you like?"

"I usually just go with, like, blue jeans, and T-shirts in - I guess not literally any color, I'm not the wears-pink kind of gay. Black red grey blue white green brown whatever."

"Cool.  And sneakers?  It's early enough that if we need to return them I can just go right back, probably."