And eventually they stop at a convenience store. Sable finds a spot in the parking lot and waits for a song to end before turning off the car.

Lily finds herself tearing up slightly as she sits in the car, listening to a song she feels like she should know well somehow.

Do or die, you'll never make me 
Because the world will never take my heart 
Go and try, you'll never break me
We want it all, we wanna play this part
I won't explain or say I'm sorry
I'm unashamed, I'm gonna show my scar
Give a cheer for all the broken
Listen here, because it's who we are
I'm just a man, I'm not a hero
Just a boy, who had to sing this song 

She dries her tears as best she can with her shirt-sleeve and exhales, and gives Sable a watery smile. 

"It's everywhere when you're looking for it," she says softly. "It really is." 

Sable nods and squeezes Lily tenderly. "Yeah, it is. There's a quote I like that captures it well. I don't remember the exact phrasing, but it's something to the effect of conditions on this world being such that everyone you meet is the walking wounded, that we've never seen a fully sane or untraumatized human."

"I don't think there's such a thing even on my world. It's better there, but... there's still a long cold sleep with no certain outcome in everyone's future, there. Death hasn't been defeated yet, even by my people. But there's degrees, you know. Better and worse." 

She exhales. "Well. Chocolate?" She smiles, a little self-deprecatingly. 

Sable smiles softly and squeezes Lily again, then nods. "Chocolate."

Out they go into the store.

Lillian casts her gaze around the store. It's a fairly utilitarian space, with old-style fluorescent lighting and utilitarian metal shelving, with a checkout at one end and promotional signage cramming every aisle. There's an icee machine and a wurst bar, a snack aisle crammed with chips and jerky and gummies (peach rings!), fridges with energy drinks and cola and juice and milk (strawberry milk included!), even including some drinks with packaging that, in tiny text, have a legend reading "ALC 5.0%vol" - that probably means they're alcoholic, she'll have to ask Sable what the proper name is - and then there's an aisle of crappy shelf-stable groceries (ramen, a couple kinds of cereal) and a hat-stand of tiny cheap plushies with little heart-shaped tags. 

At the checkout counter there's an explosion of bright packaging - more candy in kinds she's never seen, suspicious pills claiming to improve sexual stamina, gum, mints... and a big sign advertising "LOTTO MAX TICKETS HERE" that makes her want to scowl. There's also little cartons behind the counter with fancy labelling on them that she's not sure what they're for, but anything this world considers dangerous enough to not want to hand out casually probably is graceless in the extreme. 

Her gaze falls on the clerk, and she absently notes that he's got darker skin than most of the people she's seen around in the malls and so on. An ethnic minority? She'll have to talk to Sable about that too. 

Sable leads the way further inside, heading for the snack aisle, where a large chunk of it is reserved for various sorts of chocolate bars. She picks out some M&Ms, a Hershey's bar, and then one of the fancier bars. "Anything else you want while we're here?"

"Can we grab some of the peach rings? And I'm tempted to try an icee. And if you really want to spoil me maybe a little thing of strawberry milk?" 

"What's the point of having a shiny new daughter if I don't get to spoil her once in a while?"

She grabs the peach rings, a bottle of strawberry milk, and then heads for the icee machine. "What flavor do you want, sweetie?"

"Blue!" 

Lillian follows Sable over to the icee machine, feeling a little overstimulated by all the advertising in the store, her brain ticking over with Implications. Do the suspicious pills actually work? Are lotteries just everywhere in this world? What on earth is in those boxes behind the counter that's more dangerous than alcohol? 

Sable fills up a blue icee, and then off to the cashier they go. 

The cashier has a noticeable accent, even through whatever translation effect is on Lily, so her guess of ethnic minority is probably correct.

Soon enough, they're leaving the store and getting into their car.

"Okay, we're going to have to unpack that," Lilian says. "Lottery at convenience stores, really? That's just plain a tax on hope, that can't be good for the commons. And the alcohol, and the pills at the checkout — I assume they don't actually work? — and whatever was in those cartons behind the desk?"

She slurps hard on her icee, then winces and clutches her head as brain freeze kicks in. "Ow. Okay, you can tell me about all this at home, right now I just want to drink my icee and think a little. And maybe try some chocolate. Please don't put the music back on, I think it's a little too earnest for us right now." 

Sable pats Lily's shoulder and nods. "Off we go then."

And they drive.

Lillian slurps her icee. This world is complicated and brain freeze is simple. It hurts but in a good way. 

(Twenty year old her would like to chime in about that but she can be quiet right now, she is busy.)

It's not a very long drive.

Soon enough, Sable pulls into the driveway and stops the car. She grabs all the bags except the candy — Lily can carry that — and hauls them to the porch, where she unlocks the door.

Lily grabs the candy and her slurpee and into the house she goes, where she kicks off her shoes and then flops down on the couch in the sitting room and lets out a huge sigh. 

"Whew. That was... A lot. Super fun and super educational, but a lot. Thanks, mom, that was really excellent." 

"Glad to, sweetie. Want me to answer your questions about the convenience store now?"

"Please. It's concerning. I am concerned." 

"Very valid to be concerned. Let's see... Lotteries are exactly as terrible as you think, the pills don't work and are occasionally mildly toxic, the alcohol is called beer and is one of the milder kinds, and the cartons are full of cigarettes, which are paper-wrapped sticks of shredded tobacco, an herb which is a fairly addictive mild stimulant that causes progressive lung damage and eventually cancer. Did I miss anything?"

"Yeah, that about covers it. Worse than I imagined. I can imagine an addictive stimulant being that way - that's ellecol in some ways on my world, though it is possible to not kill yourself with it even if you drink - but the pervasiveness of the lottery and all the advertising in that shop goes to show a lot of how poisoned the commons is. So it's bad to have sex, but if you do have sex you're supposed to be good at it and it's shameful to 'underperform'?" She rubs the bridge of her nose. "Graces. What an awful normal. Makes you look at ellecol in a whole new light too." 

"So, let me see if I got this right about sex in this world. You're not supposed to have it, especially if you're going through puberty when you're most horny. You aren't educated about it so you can do it well or safely, but you bear social ridicule or serious health consequences if you fuck badly or unwisely. And, taking advantage of people's anxieties, some people sell mild poisons to people on the grounds that they'll make them better at sex." 

"Pretty much," she replies, her voice dry. "Earth's norms about sex are basically terrible in as many ways as we can manage at once."

Lillian lets out a heavy sigh and nods.

"Alright. One more thing. I don't know how to phrase this in a culturally sensitive way so I'm going to stumble forward and try my best. The clerk at the convenience store seemed to be an ethnic minority. Is it usual that immigrants get the worst jobs around here?"