"I mean, I assume the user interface for precognition varies a lot, but I have obviously only experienced my kind."

"It's promising to find any similarity. Most mundane skills are copyable and the way it feels to be inside them is probably completely different, person to person. I don't know, maybe I'm just being optimistic."

"Does repeated use of the chant on the same thing net you cumulative benefits?"

"You can. Charm-Gift is less flexible- you know, I don't know why there isn't a name for it, they're distinct enough. Mind if I call the one Triumph and the other Envy?"

"Can't scare me."

"Triumph is less flexible. You can only use it on the thing that would make you feel the most triumphant. Now, that can change after you make enough progress in something, if you're not someone who gets satisfied easily. But I've heard of people who just- run out of things Triumph will work on. I can't imagine it, being like that, but apparently there are cases. Frankly, I think Triumph was made for you, even if Churn or Bile turns out to be more useful for Eclipse. You're definitely not easily satisfied."

"Call me a malcontent," she agrees.

"You've heard the myth of Tantalus, right? Always hungry, always thirsty, with what he wants barely out of reach. There are ways to take Gift pretty far, if you're good enough at wanting things."

A productive partnership, if only he can figure out how to find the right path, the one that lets him win. Otherwise, he's just her ticket to a world with thousands more of him. He'll...sell his services, however that ends up working out, and he'll try to get functional precog. Dottie reminds himself of the plan, again, to fight the instinct to panic.

"Tantalus never got anything! The key is to continue wanting things after you get stuff."

"Any other Greek myths you want to venture an opinion on? Prometheus? Daedalus? Echo?"

"Prometheus was right, Daedalus was a brilliant engineer and a lackluster parent, Echo did nothing wrong."

"Do you think we can blame Daedalus for his son's folly? Hubris is something everyone struggles with, if they aren't struggling with complacency instead."

"I mean, also, it's not warmer higher up, but ignoring that part and assuming as was borne out that Daedalus was correct to warn him about that, he could have stood to know more about Icarus's character and what kind of warnings would be called for."

"That's true. Kids do lie, though. My parents don't know everything about me."

"I mean, sure, and the mythology doesn't exactly dwell on the subject, but I feel like if your kid does something stupid and kills themselves when you knew they were going to be in a situation to be tempted to do that then probably you're going to be kicking yourself and this is not wholly unfair."

"Maybe. Maybe not. Depending on the interpretation, Persephone's strict upbringing leads her to run off with Hades- or it's that Persephone would rather stay with her mother, but Hades kidnaps her because she's left unattended- but it's the same story, as far as Demeter knows. Only Persephone- and Icarus- know the truth. Why did he go near the sun- maybe it was recklessness, or hubris, or suicide- the story looks the same, to Daedalus. A parent's love isn't a panacea."

"I guess a suicide interpretation of Icarus is not unreasonable."

"Not the best topic of conversation, though. Were you ever an enthusiast of mythology? I was obsessed with the stuff when I was a kid. Came right after my comic book phase."

"I like the Odyssey a lot, and the Illiad some, and the - somewhat digested disjointed assembly of myths - are good as cultural touchstones and aesthetic guidelines but less fun as stories, for me."

"What kind of stories do you like?"

"I am one of those people who actually likes the stuff they assign in English class. - I suppose your English class may differ. I like Shakespeare and Dickens and Austen and suchlike. Old stuff that you can only still find because it stood the test of time."

"I can understand that. I'm partial to the stuff it takes work to understand well- Shakespeare, Joyce...it's not that Dickens and Austen don't, but it's not quite the right standard. It's pretentious, but I do actually enjoy it -and comic books, which take a different kind of work, but work all the same."

"I've never been that into comic books. The comic book movies are sometimes a good time."

"Really? Most of them were kind of - cheesy. The recent Fantastic Four trilogy? Unless your movies are different."

"I don't believe ours was a trilogy."