Clairvoyance
Train with Brian and Aisha at Home
You weren't going to be friends with Brian or Aisha anytime soon, but Combat Flow was useful. You weren't sure if training with the hydra would improve it, though, and training with someone who had actual experience consistently would probably pay dividends in the future. More than that, maybe having an example to show the hydra what serious sparring that doesn't involve nearly killing each other looked like.Click to shrink...
Taylor pressed her lips together. The way Brian was speaking made her feel… distant, in a way she couldn't place, as if Brian wasn't speaking to someone that he was familiar with; someone that he couldn't trust. But, at the same time, spending time with the hydra exhausted her. She couldn't even call it fun, not in the same way fighting Aisha and Brian was.
"Sure thing," she said. "I just need to make sure with my dad, and if he says no, then I'll call you back. Otherwise, we should be good to go."
"Good." Short, clipped, and hard; Brian's voice grew even more distant. "I… suggest you clean up," he said.
"Sure thing," Taylor said, before hanging up before the conversation could get any more awkward. A part of her liked Brian; part of it was shallow since he was attractive, but another part was because until the end of two nights ago, when she'd told him about the incident, they seemed to genuinely get along. During their training session later tonight, she would press Aisha for a few more details while she trained Combat Flow.
Taylor then pursed her lips, remembering that she wasn't exactly flush for time. Magister said that she'd ideally have two-to-three weeks until she'd have to throw Taylor into her tower again. Knowing what her combat skills were and improving them was important, but she figured that she'd been neglecting her Warrior arts since her Psychic powers still far outweighed her other powers. Maybe, during her combat training today, she'd be able to figure something out.
In the meantime, she'd go over to the hydra and figure out what to teach it.
~
What will you teach me? the hydra asked.
Frankly, Taylor didn't trust the hydra not to mess around with Telekinesis, so that was out. Hypercognition… the hydra already had Mental Shielding, and she didn't want to make it faster too.
She briefly considered offering to teach it Thoughtography. "What are your thoughts about Thoughtography?" she asked.
Explain.
Taylor instead demonstrated Thoughtography for the snake, writing something down in front of it with her mind.
Looks dumb. No.
"It…" Taylor pinched the bridge of her nose. "Are you a child?"
Yes, head-loser.
Taylor suppressed the urge to strange the hydra with her bare hands. "Fine, what about Clairvoyance."
Strong sight?
"Yes, the ability to see behind your head." The 'language translation' in her head wasn't quite familiar with the term 'Clairvoyance', but the gist of it went through.
Teach!
"Fine…" Taylor muttered, trying to remember how she learned Clairvoyance. It had been the second art she'd learned, when Senior had pressed her by shutting off her normal sight in the astral space. She'd also been under pressure, too, and considering how she didn't know how to turn training into a game or trial, she was going to have trouble teaching it as well. "Give me second to think of a lesson plan." Using Hypercognition, she sped up her thinking so that she wouldn't make the hydra become impatient.
Hypercognition: 21 → 22
As she thought, though, she realized how hard the idea of teaching it would be. She didn't have the right context for teaching arts; she'd never taught anyone a thing in her life, ever. She still didn't really understand how Clairvoyance worked, either.
What Magister told her about the art of Clairvoyance still confused her. The simple explanation had been that the soul could innately sense mass and matter, and that Clairvoyance expanded its range and detail. How it did so was something Magister said that she couldn't simplify.
And to Magister, that had been the simplification of the explanation. Before that, Magister had said things about quasi-dimensional membranes and… Image Stars…
"Well," Taylor started off. "Its view is subject to the cognitive limitations of the Image Star," she said, parroting Magister from the previous night.
Obvious. Next?
… that was obvious to the hydra? Taylor wanted to tear her hair out.
"You… ugh, you do your best to just… you know, imagine everything around you in a big mental picture," she said, feeling a little frustrated. "There's not much too it other than that. Shut off all your senses and try to get a feel for where things are relative to you. Got it?"
Understood. The hydra's inner eyelids shut, and it stopped moving.
Ten minutes later (in which Taylor did some homework), the hydra opened its inner eyelids once more. Not working, it hissed at her, clearly annoyed.
Taylor sighed. "Well, I can't tell you what you're doing wrong, so—"
Will fix it. A second later, the hydra closed its eyes again, and a stream of thoughts started flowing from the psychic tendril the hydra used to telepathically communicate with Taylor. Taylor winced as, just like with Magister, her head began to ache, though not nearly as badly.
Most of the hydra's thoughts were… scatter-brained, to say the least. Taylor was pleased that it wasn't thinking of eating her if she failed to teach it how to use Clairvoyance, though that was mostly because of the effort it was pouring in to learn Clairvoyance in the first place. Instead, it battled thoughts of eating more luxurious eggs and bathing in the sunlight that came in through the glass window to try focusing on everything around it.
It was failing, Taylor was immediately able to tell. It was imagining, sure, but only in a casual sense. It wasn't the hydra trying to understand where things were, more like 'this is what I think here should be'.
"Okay, I have a new idea," Taylor said, thinking of an exercise they could do. "Slither into my hands, and we're going to try something out." Obediently, the hydra slithered into her hands, and Taylor wrapped the hydra around her chest. "I'm going to walk around this attic, and I will occasionally press you into a wall. The second before I do so, you will send me a telepathic message that we're about to run into a wall. Got it?"
Explain.
Taylor sighed. "If you don't figure out strong-sight soon, we're going to be running into walls often.
Understood.
And with that began their training. This, more than anything, made Taylor empathize with Magister, since teaching was hard. You had to understand what your student understood, then you had to try to figure out a way to repair the student's understanding if it was flawed. After the fourth time Taylor pressed the hydra into a wall, she had to admit that teaching really was an art form.
Hurts, the hydra complained.
"Walk it off," Taylor said snappily. Then she realized what she said. "Slither it off after we're done. This is the best way I can teach you for now," she said, not mentioning the fact that she could technically try and replicate Senior's training method. That would involve teaching the hydra Hypercognition, however, which was not something she wanted to do yet, if ever.
The hydra bumped into the walls repeatedly, and it quickly began looking fed up with this entire training process. That would just make it harder for in in the long run, though, so Taylor decided to try something else.
"Instead of focusing on everything around you," she suggested. "Try mentally visualizing only one side of this attic. Once you can do that, we'll try moving on to another portion of the attic."
How to mentally visualize? the hydra asked.
"Think about what it looks like; not what you want it to look like, but what it actually looks like," Taylor said. "Not what it should look like, but what you know it looks like."
Explain.
Taylor pressed her lips together. "When you take a step forward, or… well, slither forward in your case, everything moves towards you or away from you, right? It depends on which way you're going." The hydra nodded uncertainly. "Then what you're supposed to do is just kind of… keep track of where they're coming from or going to."
It was how Taylor had developed her first mental model in the playground of the astral space, after all. She'd been forced to experiment and try escaping the simulacra with no vision, and in doing so, she gained a strong sense of where things were. But that hadn't been enough; she'd had to know where they were relative to her, and it was knowing where they were relative to herself that allowed her to properly react. It was what allowed her to learn Clairvoyance in the first place.
"Which parts of my body are touching you," Taylor asked. "You can move around for only a second to learn more."
The hydra slithered over her body, then sent her an accurate mental image.
"What about the rest of my body? Where is the rest of me relative to those touch points?"
The mental image filled out again, even the parts that the hydra couldn't see.
New Art (Pathless): Tutoring 3
The initial levels in Tutoring pleased her, not just because of her new art, but because it confirmed that she'd taught the hydra something. Sure enough, the hydra's mental range began to expand; it began applying the concept of mass being located relative to other masses at a wider scale, starting with the touch points of Taylor and moving onto the rest of her, then the rest of the room.
Strong-sight! Strong-sight!
"Yes, yes, good job," Taylor said tiredly. As she did so, she looked out of the window and saw a pair of figures walking down the street towards her house. "I'm going to be having guests over, so make sure you don't get seen. We'll talk about you helping me with Telepathy later."
Right! the hydra said, not even phased. More practice strong-sight!
"Yes, yes, keep going," Taylor said distractedly, walking downstairs. "Good night."
Night! Strong-sight!
The hydra was definitely too weird for her to handle. She walked downstairs, nursing some aches and pains from the previous night. While the hydra had healed away all the injuries, the pain was still awful to deal with, and the hydra hadn't gotten rid of that. Moreover, the hydra had recreated the golden ropy scar on its back once more, essentially confirming Taylor's little theory that it wanted that scar for some reason, likely for the aesthetics.
Those thoughts were then driven out of Taylor's mind as the doorbell rang, where Taylor remembered something else. Right now, it was 6:45, and Dad usually returned home from work at the union at 6:15.
"Coming!" Dad said, making Taylor freeze. "Hello, how can I… uh, help you."
"This is the Hebert residence, correct?" Brian's smooth voice came out from the threshold of their house. "We're here to see Taylor."
Dad opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Taylor clambered down the stairs so that she could mediate before anything drastically went wrong. "H-Hey, Brian. This is my dad. Dad, this is Brian, the guy who I was training martial arts with two nights ago."
Brian took that opportunity to speak. "Aisha had wanted to have another session tonight, and I was free. However, my apartment is being renovated tonight, so I asked Taylor if I could come here to practice and train her. She agreed. Are there any problems, Mr. Hebert?"
Brian's tone was smooth and concise, and even as he spoke, Dad frowned. "Taylor, this is the second time in a few days that you've been training martial arts. Is there something I should know about?"
"N-No," Taylor lied, shaking her head. "Where's Aisha, by the way—"
"Nice place, Taylor." Brian was shoved to the side as Aisha walked inside, looking around appreciatively. "Definitely not the worst place that I've ever been."
Dad took a long stare at Taylor, and she almost wanted to shrivel at his long, disappointed look. She'd been far too distant from him lately, too distant to be normal. It could have been excused by the Locker Incident, but now it was getting clearer that Taylor was just avoiding Dad.
"Sorry," she whispered to Dad. "I do like training, though."
Dad said nothing; then he sighed. "Do you kids mind if I watch? I wouldn't mind learning a thing or two."
"Feel free," Brian said casually, swatting away Aisha's hand as she went to touch a picture on their wall. "Aisha, please."
"Ugh, fine. Where are we going to have this?"
Dad paused. "The attic should be empty—"
"N-no!" Taylor interrupted. As several heads turned her way, she figured that she had to lie on the spot. "I've made a… well, I've made a huge mess up there, and I need to clean it up. I was doing homework there earlier."
"In the attic?"
Stop making good points, Dad. "I… wanted a change of scenery?" Why, oh why did that come out as a question?! Taylor saw Brian's eyes grow even colder, and she knew that he was suspecting something.
"… so, it is porn?" Aisha asked, raising an eyebrow. Taylor almost choked on her saliva as Aisha continued. "Mad science experiments? Are you hiding dead bodies up there?"
"I… what?" Taylor asked. "No, of course not."
"Then mind if I come up there and see what the scenery was?" Aisha asked.
Dad was looking at the stairwell. "Never mind, we can go there," Taylor said, figuring that saying anything else would just dig herself deeper into her hole. Though, as she led everyone up the stairs, she figured that she'd just dug herself a new hole instead.
How was she going to hide the hydra?! Worse than that, the saw was covered in blood. Using telekinesis to remotely move objects in the attic around while she led Dad, Aisha, and Brian up the stairs, she was able to throw the saw to the side. The hydra was more of an issue, though; for some reason, every time she tried to move it with Telekinesis, it threw her off without even trying.
And she knew it wasn't trying, because it was napping.
'Practicing strong-sight my ass!' Taylor raged, quickly trying to think of the solution even as she locked the attic hatch from the inside using Telekinesis. 'Make things even harder for me, why don't you?!'
Telekinesis: 18 → 19
The level increase was a small consolation, as she kept trying to just move it. Her grip kept sliding off, as if the hydra was covered in oil. Frustrated, she was about to give up when she realized that she had a different option entirely.
Using telekinesis to manipulate the saw, she lifted it back up from where she'd thrown it to the side, before using it like a dustpan to scoop up the hydra's body and cart it off to the side. While she couldn't directly manipulate the hydra for some unexplained reason, manipulating it indirectly was fair game.
Telekinesis: 19 → 20
"There we go!" Taylor said triumphantly, pretending to finally wrench the hatch open. "Nothing to… see…"
There were bloodstains from Taylor's fight with the hydra earlier, as well as from the hydra using the saw to cut its own head off last night. Worse, they were dried bloodstains, meaning that she couldn't use Hydrokinesis to clean them off now. Thoughtography might be an option, but as Aisha stared at the bloodstain in confusion, Taylor figured that it was too late to do anything.
"… so, are you actually a serial-killer?" Aisha then asked, edging away from Taylor slightly.
"Yeah, sure, why not?" Taylor said, a little frustrated.
"Taylor, what have you been doing up here, besides your homework?" Dad said, looking at the set of papers on the ground. "Why is there blood? Taylor, I—"
"This place will be perfect, sir," Brian interrupted, looking around. Strangely, as he looked at Taylor now, he was less cold, as if that strange non-trustworthiness he'd considered her with earlier had lessened. "As for this blood… Taylor, have you been trying to use weapons without training?"
"Yes?" Taylor said.
Dad looked at her in shock. "I – why?!"
"Figures." Brian crossed his arms. "You need to get way better at self-defense, Taylor, but that doesn't mean that you should try to go full army-mode."
"R-right. Sorry," Taylor said, wondering why Brian was covering for her. The amount of blood on the floor was clearly not from mishandling a weapon, but Brian was pretending it was. "I'll return them to you later. Okay?"
"Sure thing." The coldness hadn't returned, but Brian was far more contemplative than he'd been before. "It looks like you're not ready to use them, too."
Dad's lips were pursed, and Taylor figured that, no matter what happened tonight, he'd be keeping a closer eye on her than he'd been keeping before. She'd been careless with how she'd hid things, and she'd figured that the attic was 'her' space, that Dad would continue to not use it. She figured that wasn't an option anymore.
A part of her wanted to just tell him about everything, so that she wouldn't have to keep anymore secrets. A larger part balked at the idea. She knew that she was doing things dangerously, and that the tower was no joke. Injuries were par for the course now, and though the hydra's 'healing water' was something to help mitigate that issue, it wasn't a perfect solution, especially since the hydra would only be with her for a week.
Dad didn't want to see her die, and she agreed. But she imagined that, to Dad, that would mean her not getting into situations where she could die, whereas to her, it was getting strong enough that she wouldn't have to worry about that, and she'd only know if she was getting stronger if she continuously challenged herself. She was delaying the inevitable, but for now, it was the only thing that she could do.
Either way, she'd need to move the hydra to her room tonight and tell it that they would have to spar some place that Dad wouldn't be able to randomly stumble upon. She also needed to learn how to keep her cool better and get on top of things.
"Yeah, I wasn't ready," Taylor admitted. "But I'll stop doing that, and I figured that we might as well start training again."
The coldness in Brian's eyes returned, but not to the degree as it had been before. "Then let's begin."
~
Combat Flow: 14 → 17
~
Brian was near merciless when it came to sparring this time around, but Taylor made sure not to activate Hypercognition. She didn't need to engender anymore suspicion around her.
It didn't seem to work, though. She and Brian continued training together for thirty minutes, with Aisha and Dad just watching them exchange blows. They never went too far, and the blows were light, but they were fast. Taylor was beginning to run into a wall she hadn't thought she would encounter; namely, that of her own body.
She was getting more skilled in combat, true, but even if she was able to react in time, even if she used Hypercognition, Brian was simply built better. His muscles were thick, but they didn't seem to slow him down by much. He was faster than her too, and that meant that, even if Taylor wanted to counter one of Brian's moves, he'd be able to pull it off unless she reacted pre-emptively. That would involve Hypercognition, but Hypercognition would only help if her muscles reacted in time.
Combat Flow: 17 → 18
At that final level, she walked backward. "I'm… I'm tired," she said. "N-Need to take a break."
"Stamina is important. Are you physically active, Taylor?"
"… no?" she said, wincing a little. Sure, she'd been physically active recently, but that was more due to situations where she'd needed to run a lot more than her being fit. "Figures that I should exercise more, huh?"
If human learns Dream Nebula, then human no needs exercise. Human still fights good
Oh, so now the hydra woke up. Using Clairvoyance, Taylor saw that the hydra had risen from its slumber and was watching the spar. Luckily, the hydra remembered the rule where Taylor had told it that it couldn't be seen; it was simply hiding off to the side and observing the spars.
"Take a break," he said, before turning to Aisha. "You wanted to do this, right?" Well, it's time to train."
"Can't I train with Taylor?"
"I need to make sure that you remember everything that you're supposed to remember. Also, you should probably let Taylor catch her breath."
Aisha grumbled, but then nodded, getting into a fighting stance. A little relieved, Taylor walked over to the side to sit next to Dad.
"… so, these are the friends that you're training martial arts with?" Dad asked.
"Sure, whatever," she said, not caring about Dad thinking of them as friends or not. Parents always wanted their kids to have lots of friends, didn't they? Though, as she looked at Dad, she lowered her voice. "They're nice people, though."
"I can tell," Dad said, snorting. "That Aisha has… quite the imagination." Dad then looked at Taylor out of the corner of his eye. "What about Emma? She hasn't been around for years. I know that you two have drifted apart, but…"
Taylor wanted nothing more than to end this damned conversation. Dad was still friends with Emma's dad, since Emma's dad had been around to help Dad with Mom's death. She didn't want to cause more unnecessary social conflict, after all.
"She's… doing her own thing now," Taylor said evasively. "A-anyway, sorry for keeping quiet about this."
"You aren't injured or being blackmailed, are you?" Dad asked. Taylor shook her head. "Any form of coercion, kid?"
"No, nothing like that."
"Then why is fighting so important to you now?"
Taylor sighed. "I… I can't explain it," she said. "But a lot of it comes from that incident two weeks ago. Even if it never happens again, I need to be ready in case someone tries it again."
Dad pursed his lips. "I can save some money and try to re-open the investigation—"
"Even if no one actually does it again, it's for my own peace of my mind," Taylor said, cutting Dad's offer off prematurely. "I'll be safer, okay?"
"… do you mind if I join in," Dad asked. "I'd like to start learning these martial arts too, then. Show me what you've learned."
Taylor sighed. "… sure, I guess.
~
Tutoring: 3 → 5
~
As it turned out, she wasn't just teaching her father how to fight, but Aisha as well. Once Brian noticed how well Dad was improving after Taylor started teaching him (she knew a lot now, both from her own experiences and because of the program), he'd had her start teaching Aisha so that he could start reviewing things with Dad.
"Hands up in front," Taylor ordered, feinting with one hand and tapping Aisha's stomach with another. "Even if you react to block in time, if you just rely on reflexes for defense, you're going get hurt against anyone with half of a brain cell."
Tutoring: 5 → 6
Aisha groaned. "You're worse than Brian is."
"I know, I'm new to this—"
"No, I mean with the whole, 'do things properly' thing."
Taylor's brows furrowed. "What, do you want to do things incorrectly, then?"
"No, but doing things correctly isn't as fun," Aisha said, even as she corrected her stance a little. "It's just doing things because you have to, not doing things because you want to."
"Isn't getting hurt something you don't want to do?" Taylor pointed out.
"If it's just that, I can carry around Mace or some kind of weapon," Aisha said frankly, lashing out with a quick tap to Taylor's shoulder. "I do this because I want to, not because I need to. Plus, you're fun to talk to."
Taylor blinked. "You're joking," she said flatly. "Me?"
"Yes, you. Talking to my other friends is sometimes boring, they don't really get me as much as you and Brian do," Aisha said idly. "I can call you a serial killer and you take it in stride."
Taylor shook her head. "Not really, that was kind of concerning how easily you talked about it. Kinda freaked me out, honestly."
Aisha grinned. "Oh, so you are a serial killer?"
"N-No, I…" Taylor groaned. "You suck." Aisha snickered in response.
Hunting is good. Keep practicing.
You're not helping, Taylor shot back at the hydra's commentary.
Still, Taylor couldn't help but notice something about that conversation that piqued her interest. Aisha said that talking to her other friends was sometimes boring. Other friends. Did that mean that Aisha considered Taylor a friend?
Was Taylor just reading into things? Was she just hoping for things to get better? Was it a slip of a tongue, or did Aisha actually think of Taylor as a friend instead of someone she could just tease without alienation?
Eventually, Taylor got tired again, and as Dad did as well, Aisha and Brian continued working together while Taylor and Dad simply caught their breath. Taylor, taking the moment, decided to quell her unease and check her Task to see if she'd succeeded.
To train in the 'Psychic' Path, you must complete the task set by your mentor in the 'Psychic' Path
Task: 'Make a Friend' v2
(2/1) Person/Being You Reliably Enjoy Spending Time With
-(0/1) Person/Being You Trust to Reliably Enjoy Spending Time with YouClick to expand...
While that was progress, it made her pinch her lips. Right… right. Of course she didn't trust Aisha to be her friend, Aisha looked pretty enough and was charismatic enough to make lots of friends, according to her and Brian. That meant that Aisha would only like her as far as Taylor played her game correctly; training with her and responding to Aisha's jabs with good humor. Aisha treated her friends differently depending on how those friends reacted. Taylor could imagine Aisha dropping her with ease.
No, she couldn't really trust Aisha.
"I'm going to go make some food for us," Dad said, groaning and going downstairs. "Stay safe, Taylor."
"Sure thing, Dad," Taylor said, frowning. If she was going to find someone that would genuinely be a reliable friend, she'd need the ability to read minds. She couldn't do that yet, though, without breaking her subject's mind. She'd have to learn how to do so subtly from one of the more experienced telepaths that she knew.
In the meantime, she'd take the opportunity to practice her other abilities. With but a thought, she activated Hypercognition and Psychic Sense in tandem, reasoning that if she improved her Psychic Sense to the point where she could see how telepaths read minds instead of breaking them, she would be able to replicate it.
And as she used Psychic Sense, she realized something else entirely.
Brian was like Sophia.
Not in the 'she's a bitch' way, but in the 'there's a weird colored tumor in his head'. Just like with Sophia, there was a large purplish-black blob in the back of Brian's mind, pulsing with every punch he threw and every jab he blocked. Looking at it, Taylor got the odd impression that it wanted to expand, but that it couldn't for whatever reason.
There wasn't that much color other than the purplish black blob, though, and it was far less prominent and noticeable that Sophia's had been. She'd only noticed it because there wasn't any other color in Brian's psyche. Looking at Aisha, meanwhile, revealed nothing there except a weird… distortion thing in the back of her mind, the exact size and shape of the purplish-black blobs. Taylor, briefly, wondered if it was something that the blackish-purple blob was gestating in or settling in.
Psychic Sense: 12 → 13
The thought reminded her of horror movies like 'Attack of the Body Snatchers' or whatever. It reminded her of the need to understand just what those colors even were. She briefly considered asking the hydra about it, only for the thought to leave her mind as Aisha stumbled and tripped over herself.
"Are you okay?" Brian asked, eyes flashing with concern.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Aisha then held her stomach. "Hungry, though. What's for dinner?"
"My dad's making something. You two are probably invited," Taylor said, figuring that Dad would probably be hospitable to guests.
"Sounds good to me. You have a movie that we can watch?"
Taylor blinked. "We have some old Disney stuff, if that's up your alley."
"Fine by me." Aisha yawned, before opening the hatch and walking downstairs. "Mind if I get some snacks in the meantime?" Even if Taylor were to say no, Aisha was already walking downstairs. Now, only Brian and her were upstairs (and the hydra, though it was hidden).
"… so, what was the whole deal about the 'weapons' thing?" Taylor asked. "We both know that you never talked to me about that."
"Obviously," Brian said. "What about the blood? Are you going to tell me where it actually came from?" Taylor said nothing. "Let's cut to the chase, then. Taylor Hebert, I know what you are."
Taylor paused. "Huh?"
"I know what you are," Brian repeated. "I know that you have powers. I know that you're parahuman, even if I'm the only other person that knows."
PathlessPsychicWarriorCombat Flow: (18/30) (Novice)
Cartography: (5/10) (Acolyte)
Ciphering: (4/10) (Acolyte)
Drawing: (6/10) (Acolyte)
Keyboard Dexterity: (11/30) (Novice)
Tutoring: (6/10) (Acolyte)
New Art (Pathless): Tutoring 3
Tutoring: 3 → 6
Combat Flow: 14 → 18
Hypercognition: 21 → 22
Telekinesis: 18 → 20
Psychic Sense: 12 → 13
What should Taylor do?
[]: Lie, Tell Him That You Don't Have Powers
You don't know how he figured it out, but you weren't exactly chomping at the bit to tell him everything. Hell, you didn't want to tell him anything. If he's going to come forward with an accusation like that, he'd need proof, and even then, you'd deny and deflect until the cows came home. You needed to keep this a secret, no matter what.
[]: Tell Him The Modified Truth
You don't know how he figured it out, but you weren't exactly chomping at the bit to tell him everything. However, if he was able to figure it out, he was probably more knowledgeable about these things that you gave him credit for. Telling a lie would be too risky, especially if you didn't know how he was able to find out. Fish for information, figure out how he found out, and tell him a doctored version of the truth to keep your secret safe, or possibly mislead him if it came down to it.
-[]: Ask for Advice
He knew the truth, but he was also Aisha's brother, and that had to count for something. Instead of antagonizing him and making this nothing but a problem, getting help from him would probably help in the long run (such as someone helping with excuses, for instance). Plus, he came to you upfront about it; if you could win him over enough that you could ask for advice on how to help handle things, you would turn this from a problem into a solution for a different problem entirely.
[]: Turn It Around, Reveal Brian's Secret
That ominous, pulsing thing in Brian's head… maybe it tied into things. It was abnormal, and it sat in the back of Brian's mind… could it have something to do with superpowers? Brian was competent at fighting, scarily cold at times… he might be a cape, though it was only a hunch. And if he was a cape, then he'd be a villain, since he wasn't one of the Wards that you saw on T.V. If he wanted to blackmail you, you'd make sure that he knew you could do the same thing; only if it came down to it, though. If he respected your wish for privacy, you'd do the same.
-[]: Ask for Advice
He knew the truth, but he was also Aisha's brother, and that had to count for something. Instead of antagonizing him and making this nothing but a problem, getting help from him would probably help in the long run (such as someone helping with excuses, for instance). Plus, he came to you upfront about it; if you could win him over enough that you could ask for advice on how to help handle things, you would turn this from a problem into a solution for a