Dinah Alcott
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<infobox> <title source="name"><default>Dinah Alcott</default></title>
<image source="Image"></image> <image source="image"></image> <group><header>Basic Information</header> <label>Civilian Name</label> <label>Aliases</label> <label>Gender</label><default>Unknown</default> <label>Death</label> <label>Age</label><default>Unknown</default> <label>Post-timeskip</label> <label>Ward start</label> <label>Relations</label> <label>Family</label></group> <group><header>Professional Status</header> <label>Occupation</label> <label>Classification</label> <label>Unique Features</label> <label>Alignment</label>
<label>Status</label><format><label>Location</label> <label>Teams</label> <label>Previous Team(s)</label> <label>Base of Operations</label></group> <group><header>First Appearance</header> <label>Worm Debut</label> <label>Ward Debut</label></group> </infobox> Dinah Alcott is the niece of Brockton Bay's mayor.
Personality
Before getting her powers she was a normal girl with friends.<ref name=12.2/> Without Coil's interference she might have just stopped trying to use her power.<ref name=14.1c1>Not so much that precogs are rare, but that they’re limited. The future is awfully big.
Look at Dinah – her ability crippled her early on, and if Coil hadn’t kidnapped her, she might have abandoned it, avoided using it, because it was that hard. As it stands, she has to search the myriad futures to prune away realities until she finds the answers to very specific questions. AND she’s the third most powerful precog in the setting.
As Coil notes in his interlude (Interlude 8), there’s two major classifications of serial murderer. The controlled one that sticks to rituals and routines, and the unpredictable ones that are hard to catch because you don’t know where they’re going to strike next. The Nine are the latter.
Add the fact that you can’t exactly stick a police tail on them, and any attempt to get in their way is liable to end up badly, and it can be hard to keep track of them. Figure they’ll retire for weeks at a time (see Aisha’s interlude where they’re kicking back in the apartment) and only really cut loose in areas where there’s chaos, and visibility might be low as well. - Comment by Wildbow on Prey 14.1</ref>
Her personality was obscured by her forced drugging and was instead obsessed with her candy, her understanding of the addiction.[citation needed] Her relative complacency during the event could be effected by the fact she knew she might get to come home someday.<ref>Interlude 11f</ref>
She was interested in keeping humanity going and was willing to do morally questionable things to ensure survival.<ref name="22.1">Excerpt from Cell 22.1</ref>
Relationships
Parents
Persumably healthy and was willing to return to them.
Coil
Her captor and mentor. Was completely fine with his death.
Taylor Hebert
Met her a few times but had only two possibly three conversations of note with her. Was protective towards her both for being grateful for the hero's assistance and because of her role in saving the world.
Appearance
Dinah is described as a pre-adolescent girl with straight, dark-brown hair.<ref>Excerpt from Queen 18.1</ref> While in Coil's custody she was heavily drugged,<ref name="11f"> - Excerpt from Interlude 11f</ref> and appeared as visibly malnourished.<ref>“And as for you, little miss, you seem undernourished.”
“I haven’t had much of an appetite for a while.” (Medical examination describing her condition after being released from Coil's confinement) - Excerpt from Queen 18.1</ref>
Later, she cut her hair short.<ref name="22.1">Excerpt from Cell 22.1</ref>
Abilities and Powers
Dinah has the ability to see the likelihood of something occurring in the future which her power resolves into a percentage chance. She does this by perceiving trillions of possible universes and sorting them into groups based on a single event.
At Coil's insistence, Dinah also demonstrated the ability to pick out a single timeline and interpret it which was used to see a future where Crawler did not kill her, Coil, and the Travelers. It allowed them to find the situation where they could escape and then employ it.
She can't help but use her power if someone asks her a question, and lying about the answer messes up her power for a while after.<ref>“Headaches,” Dinah answered, pressing her hands to her head, “It breaks my power. It takes days, sometimes weeks before everything is sorted out and working again. Headaches the entire time, until everything is sorted out, worse headaches if I try to get numbers in the meantime. Have to be careful, can’t muddle things up. Can’t lie about the numbers, can’t look at what happens, or it just becomes chaos. Safer to keep a distance, to make and follow rules. Safer to just ask the questions and let things fall into place.” - Excerpt from Interlude 11f</ref> Likely because the thinking and actions relating to this answer effects the results.
Her power was not absolute,<ref name="18.1"> don’t know. There’s too many capes and too many capes with powers that make it fuzzy, because some powers make it harder and a bunch of those powers together make it impossible. I don’t know what happens to start all of it and I don’t know much of what happens during, but billions are dead afterward.” - Queen 18.1</ref> it could be affected by "stoppers" likely Thinkers who have powers that can cause the actions of others to change.<ref name="21.7 e1">The other three-quarters of that board were almost entirely clear, but for one index card in the upper-right:
limits to Dinah ability: can’t see accurately points of interaction with power immune capes, precogs, situ change Thinkers. Limited sight past points of interaction. these are ‘stoppers’
Hartford: No known stoppers in area.
Enfield: No known stoppers in area.
Chicopee: No known stoppers in area.
Southbridge: No known stoppers in area.
Boston, Charlestown Area: Yes stoppers, no direct interaction b/w any stoppers and Nine. call to dble check with Still. no interaction
Toybox: No known stoppers.
It made a lot of sense. Tracking Jack’s trail of destruction from the point he’d left the city, finding the point where Dinah couldn’t or shouldn’t be able to see, using them to narrow down possibilities. - Excerpt from Imago 21.7</ref>
History
Background
Triggered at school. Was not aware of this at the time. Complained of various kinds of headaches for weeks, before going home sick.<ref name=12.2/>
Story Start
While the Undersiders raided a local Bank Dinah was kidnapped from her home.<ref name=12.2>“Dinah Alcott,” Weld spoke. All eyes turned to the metal-skinned boy.
“Beg pardon?” Coil asked.
“Thursday, April fourteenth of this year, Dinah Alcott was kidnapped from her home and has not been seen since. Dinah had missed several weeks of classes with crippling headaches in the months before her disappearance. Investigation found no clear medical causes. Police interviewed her friends. She had confided to them that she thought she could see the future, but doing so hurt her.” - Excerpt from Plague 12.2</ref><ref>Never!
She was having bad headaches and was home from school. Newscaster error. Wildbow comment on RPG.net</ref>
A newspaper article carried news of her kidnapping but there was no news of a ransom note or similar.<ref name="4.1">We hadn’t made the front page for any of the major papers, the first bit of good news. We made page three of the Bulletin, coming behind a one and a half page story on an Amber Alert and a General Motors advertisement. Part of the reason we hadn’t attracted all that much attention was probably because the bank was hedging about the amount taken. While we had escaped with more than forty thousand dollars, the paper was reporting losses of only twelve. All in all, the story had been more focused on the property damage, most of which was caused by Glory Girl and the Wards, and the fact that the darkness we’d used to cover our escape had stopped all traffic downtown for an hour. I’d been quietly elated by all of that. Anything that downplayed the magnitude of the crime I’d helped commit was a good point in my book. - Excerpt from Shell 4.1</ref>
Her existence was revealed to the Undersiders possibly as a test of loyalty.<ref name="7.11">“You’d know if you watched the news,” I told Regent, “If you read the paper. I hate that I have to explain this, when I don’t even want to think about it. She’s the missing kid. Remember our bank robbery? How we were weren’t even front page news because an amber alert took priority? That was her. Dinah Alcott.” - Excerpt from Buzz 7.11</ref>
Post-Leviathan
When looking over the data stolen from the PRT and learning that the Slaughterhouse Nine were in the area Dinah prophesied that Jack Slash would be the one that would trigger the world-ending event.
Was instrumental in saving the personnel at Coil's base when Crawler decided to pay a visit.<ref>Interlude 11f</ref>
Post-Slaughterhouse Nine
She set herself up as a rogue, selling answers both for funds and in order to steer the future so that the End of the World would kill fewer people.<ref name="22.1" />
After Coil's endgame began she was given to Skitter to return but this turned out to be a ruse.When Coil was killed, she was freed.<ref name="16.13">Her voice was barely above a whisper as she stared down at the ground between us, “I’ve been waiting for this for so very long.”
It didn’t sound like an accusation. More the words of someone who had been forced to watch the clock for days, weeks, months. Anticipating a possible moment that might never come.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m sorry it took so long.” - Excerpt from Monarch 16.13</ref>
The Protectorate later sent along Assault to confirm that she was returned<ref name="18.3 e1">“You have Coil’s precog in your custody?” Miss Militia asked. “Dinah Alcott?”
“I took her home,” I said. “Her powers are currently disabled, so resist the urge to go to her and ask her for help with this situation. Everything she’s been through, she deserves some peace.”
“Assault,” Miss Militia said, “Let’s get some confirmation that at least some of what they said is the truth. Get in touch with the Alcotts.” - Excerpt from Queen 18.3</ref>
The Timeskip
Found herself in Faultline’s Crew, the exact circumstances are unknown.
Gold Morning
Was at the Cauldron meeting with her new team and provided valuable information about how things came about.
Despite willingly trying to assist Khepri, she was not allowed to participate in the Gold Morning. Instead, the goddess returned the note she'd kept, the one that said "I'm sorry".
Was later brought to the undersiders meeting where she toasted those fallen and was lied to.<ref>Interlude: End</ref>
Ward
Still in the business and provided a valuable piece of advice for surviving humanity.<ref>The humans who have come through the end of the world with hate in their hearts are taking marching orders from the same young precognitive who predicted the end of the world two years in advance. Well, one order with some advice. We don’t know her aim yet, but she’ll be high up on our list. I want a Contessa of my own. - Excerpt from Interlude 8.y II</ref> Was targeted by Teacher, according to him, she has links to anti-parahuman faction, and Gary Nieves.<ref>“Alcott? She’s been in the anti-parahuman orbit.”
“We looked in on her. She’s upset. She’s meeting Gary Nieves shortly.” - Excerpt from Interlude 15.z II</ref>
She admittedly opposed Earth Cheit and Shin interventions and attempted to act against Teacher, but was countered by Cristine Mathers.<ref name="16.3II"/>
Post-Attack on Teacher
Following the Teacher's defeat by The Wardens, terror-attack on mayor Wynn and call to evacuate The City, Nieves brought Dinah to Wardens.<ref name="16.1II">From Within 16.1</ref> Dinah argued that Contessa is untrustworthy.<ref name="16.2II">From Within 16.2</ref> She reported her previous manipulations to The Wardens, but denied examinations by Thinkers and threatened with Palanquin involvement if she was detained. She prophesied several almost imminent catastrophes with mass civilian casualties, all with Contessa overseeing them.<ref name="16.3II">From Within 16.3</ref>
Trivia
- Identified by the author as the third most powerful precognitive in the Worm setting.<ref name=14.1c1/>
- Her verbose and formal word choice when addressing others, along with her mature behavior for her age, have lead to speculations of Dinah having Asperger's syndrome.[citation needed]
Fanart Gallery
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Illustration by Janainaart
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Illustration by Synapse Kisses
References
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