"Mmhm."

"...Are you in high school now?" Julien fishes for a conversation topic.

"Right now I am in a convenience store named Princess but in the spirit you meant the question yeah."

"How was that going?"

"Fine pretty much? I do well in school. I was going to go to college and be a doctor but obviously this plan has been somewhat derailed."

"Yeah.  ...I kept trying to do my homework, while the other you was babysitting.  Now even if I get a power that still wants me to go back to college that'll probably have been worthless, I guess."

"Not even the interesting kind of homework?" He emerges to wash his hands.

"I mean, some of it.  Pretty hard, though.  At least at this level of - intellectual ability."

"God, yeah, I assume nobody's really sharp while they're awakening - no, that's not right, some people probably get like, hyperfocusing tendencies or something that can work out that way? - people are not as a rule really sharp while awakening but I'm illiterate and I hate it."

"I'm sorry.  ...You were reading a lot of Les Mis.  Like, really a lot.  So, uh, I can tell that would be rough for you."

"Huh, do I - yeah I bet I do, I like, get A's in French but that's high school curriculum, I bet I practice a lot if I have to be talking to people all the time anyway?"

"Yeah, you're fluent and onto working on something else."

Hands dry. "What else?"

"I don't remember."

Svetka switches to holding Haru's arm.  "If you're trustworthy to be left alone, Julien, Haru and I will go shopping?

"Yes, ma'am."

Then Haru can get steered out into the main area.  They sell balaclavas here; Svetka heads for them first and collects three.  "Anything you'd like?"

"What am I packing for, here, what's the ETA to halls of Parliament, do I need to be provisioning a week's campout or what."

"We will have another chance to make purchases later today."

"Doesn't really answer my question but okay. Now the question is do I recognize any of these products or are they all dimensional nonsense because no way can I read an ingredients list." What's on offer.

Various snacky things, mostly.  There are still Lay's potato chips and Cokes, though he doesn't spot any other brand matches.  Generally the niches are the same as he's used to, and it just seems like other things are sometimes filling them.

"I will share the timeline with you once it is developed."  Svetka grabs a pack of gummy snakes.

He'll take pretzels and some kind of candy bar with a picture of a raspberry on it and a bottle of water. "What's complicated about developing it, do you have to like make a ton of phone calls or something?"

"There is information I do not yet have, yes."

Julien emerges and comes over to hug Haru.

"Would you like anything, Julien?"