"I don't want to get another headache on top of my ice cream one," Dinah says. "We can play, but no cheating."
Meanwhile, nom. Ice cream is delicious.
Dinah plays white and advances a pawn.
"Who else are you going to visit?"
"I'd visit Lung if he wasn't in the Birdcage. Might try to arrange a meeting with Faultline's crew. Or Accord. I've already visited like a third of the heroes and rogues on the east coast. I kinda want to visit Panacea, but for some reason she doesn't want me copying her power. Unless there's a good reason I'm not gonna stomp all over that."
"Accord's power for someone who wasn't Accord might be neat. I wonder why Panacea doesn't want it. Did you ask her sister?"
"I did not ask. I may as well, now that you mention it. I can already heal most things, but a new kind never hurts. I did copy her for about an hour way back when - but that was before I got really really good at copying."
Dinah's bishop takes Gren's knight.
She sighs and looks at the knight contemplatively. "Behemoth got my friend Knight. I want to end it. If I can't copy you well enough to ask myself, can I get some predictions about some plans in about two months?"
"The Protectorate questions me to capacity most days," Dinah says. "But I can probably spare you a few."
"Yvette's questioned to her limit too from what I hear. Being a precog can be a lot of pressure, huh. Being big in any way, really. Eidolon and Panacea probably feel more guilty about days off than I do."
She thinks for a moment. "I think I'm well suited to being pressured like that. I take things as they come. If I snap I'll probably disappear to some random island and blow up rocks, not kill someone. And it's still a good feeling even if it gets stale, helping people."
That pawn's sacrifice will surely be appreciated by someone. Gren's next few moves put her queen in a risky but powerful position.
"I think I've got as much of your power as I'm gonna get. Chance I find Coil in the next few days is eighty one point four percent, and it hurt my head a lot more than I think it does to you."
"Tea and darkness and lying down help. My parents don't let me have any kind of pills but that would probably help more if I got the right kind."
...Her skin starts glowing faintly.
Her ice cream is almost gone by now. She's a fast eater, apparently. "I don't suppose you know where Coil's got to? I'm inclined to hunt him down and my chances are pretty good."
"Last I checked he was still active and in Brockton Bay, but that's all I have."
Gren's queen takes Dinah's rook, but is now more or less trapped by a bishop and pawns.
Gren has more pieces at this point, but less control over the board. She moves a pawn to block the check.
"Maybe you should copy someone who can help with Thinker headaches. There must be someone."
"If there is I haven't heard of them. They'd be almost as useful as Dauntless, that's for sure."
"I haven't asked the Protectorate about it because - well, I'd basically want them over every day, and - it's complicated - but if you could copy one you could fix yourself fine, I bet."