"Pretty good! I wouldn't want to keep it, not like this, but it's doing what I hoped for. My precognition I have to decide what I'm going to do in advance to pretty high granularity or be precogging something that has nothing to do with my actions or it doesn't work, my job is set up to accommodate that so I think it's normal, you might have gotten something like that."

"Huh. Makes sense. It could be useful once I get past the learning curve. I wonder if you could make a chanter into a sort of- occasional eclipsed that way, without any of the usual drawbacks of learning control. I'd need to chant Gift nearly constantly for it to really enable that, but there might be people who would go for that."

"Yeah! When I copied flying I didn't have to relearn anything and you weren't even eclipsed to begin with and you were fine with your precognition at least insofar as you did not render New York uninhabitable."

"Good news all around. Why don't you play with your new gift while I try to figure out precog."

"I am! Simultaneously!" she giggles.

Great. Great. She would be perfectly charming if he wasn't worrying about this right now, which makes her kind of grating instead. Dottie tries not to look annoyed by her being happy (that's what makes her so good at co-chanting Gift, it would be such a productive partnership).

What can he do with this. Dottie goes to sit on the bed and grabs the notepad sitting on the table. He waits until Isabella looks- not distracted, but just not actively looking in his direction, and writes 'I killed someone and I don't want to be extradited, help'.

He looks ahead.

Precogged Isabella eventually notices and calls an ambulance before even reading the note.

She's considerate! Why does she have to be considerate? The problem is that the second he trusts her with this, she'll never trust him again, and he can't undo that. What if that means he goes to jail? What if that means they're walking free and alive for the next sixty years while he's in jail because he killed them. He can't do that. He won't.

"Hey. So it looks like I can't get past you calling the ambulance. Could you try- deciding not to do that? I'm testing the boundaries of this."

"So the problem with that is that people in precognitions do not know that they are in precognitions, and if you actually for real in real life went totally unresponsive I would super call you an ambulance! I could go somewhere else where I wouldn't notice it right away?"

"Oh, wow, that's- I hadn't thought about that at all. Right, because if they could tell- does that mean the simulation hypothesis is discredited here? No, I shouldn't jump to conclusions, I'm not even slightly a scientist. It's fine, I was trying to precog a conversation with you about what Gift you got to see if you could have conversations that will never happen- my version is more limited, so I'll need to think of something with less scope."

"If I need to do that I sometimes script it all out in advance with a few branches, but if you're not able to - direct your hypothetical self to take actions - that won't work for you."

"If I can, I don't have the hang of it yet. I'll try copying differently next time."

What happens if he starts an action just before he precogs- that doesn't require making his precogged self do anything, technically, it just continues on from where he started. Dottie starts a throwing motion, like he's throwing the notepad to Isabella, and then looks ahead-

- then he kinda drops it on the floor and she does read it that time, and she - pockets the note and calls the ambulance.

That might be the best he's going to be able to get with his Gift this limited. His range is- he doesn't know what his range is. He was aiming for eight months, which means it's probably closer to two months or less, but- what if he keeps that one going? What does Isabella do after pocketing the note and calling the ambulance? He's out of the picture- does she keep it to herself? That's not no information, so it's worth trying for.

She sits, thinking, but doesn't say anything, and the paramedics take him away and then he sees the inside of the ambulance.

-right. It makes sense that he can only follow his perspective. Dottie cuts that one short. Okay. He crosses out what he wrote on the note. He can just- wait, until he knows Isabella a little better. Until he has more of a foothold.

How is she doing?

She doesn't look like she's doing anything but she looks pretty happy about it.

That's nice. Dottie will try a few other things, as long as he has his limited precog. If he stands up with intent to walk around the entire hotel, can he get a mental map of it that way? He looks ahead-

He can go a few steps and then there is a question of exactly how to turn toward the door and he goes catatonic again.

Okay. So clearly, he needs to work on getting a better copy. This kind of extended troubleshooting isn't worth whatever benefits he might be able to get from precogging. What was wrong with the way he was thinking? He didn't really plan, he just wanted to have precog that went out eight months. But eclipsed normally design their powers- what if Dottie comes up with a design for his precog, next time?

He tamps down his frustration as he Googles 'precognition design suggestions'.

Google is not very helpful with this question, unfortunately. He mostly gets results on how some people pay precogs to prevent other precogs from stealing information from the future and thereby avoid paying for it.

Sure. He does have someone right next to him who's put some time and effort into answering the question for herself. Dottie tries to put on a face that doesn't say 'I'm worried about covering up my past crimes'. He likes Isabella- she's smart, is paying for his hotel room, and she gets excited first contact. All very charming qualities in a person. Friendly, not frustrated. Yeah. He can probably sustain this for a couple of weeks, if no one manages to cross worlds.

"Hey, Isabella?"

He walks over, prepared to wave a hand in front of her face in case she's decided to get lost in whatever hypercog she got.

"- yeah?"

"Sorry if I'm interrupting. I was wondering if you had any advice on designing my own precog power. This one isn't going to cut it, but I'd love to be able to have one of my own. I think if I do the design work beforehand, I might get something more useful out of the next Gift."