Jack Burnett knew it was technically summer break, but it didn’t feel like it to him. The teenager flopped on his bed in his room, worn out from another day’s worth of research. He’d spent many long hours at the library wracking his brains over how to utilize his attack as Sailor Sinope for something other than its seemingly main use and still had nothing to show for it. He'd read stories about tricksters, detectives, information brokers, manipulators, and black-mailers, but found very little he could apply to his own magic. It just seemed like too specific an ability.
 
If his magic had actually let him know things instead of just making people think he knew things, he could have worked with that. Even if they still wanted to beat him up or threaten him, having the actual knowledge might have provided him with some advantage or at least some sort of defense against their threats. Without knowing for real, though, all he could do was make empty threats and bluffs.
 
If he was especially clever, he could try to decipher what, exactly, it was they thought he knew, but that came with its own risks because probing too much could have exposed the limitations of his own magic. He had already had to explain how it worked to a couple of White Moon Senshi just to keep them from punching him in the face. At least his defenselessness upon his surrender seemed to pacify them and get them to back off. And he was relatively certain they wouldn’t go around telling everyone else how his magic worked, but what if that only because they were Order beings?
 
If he encountered a Negaverse agent - one who would have rejoiced in the admittance of his weakness and used it to their advantage instead of backing off - he dreaded to think what would happen to him then. And it was likely they’d go around telling their fellow agents what his magic consisted of as well. Sinope still didn’t know if his powers would work on someone who already knew what they did. He hadn’t had tried to test it out because to try to fool someone twice seemed too dangerous, even if it was an Order being.
 
Jack rolled over onto his back, staring up at the glow-in-the-dark, star-studded ceiling of his bedroom. If he was going to be ready to encounter any sort of powered person, no matter their alignment, allegiance, or personal morals, he had to master how to use his magic. Not in terms of how to perform it, since that seemed easy enough, but to determine under what circumstances to use it, how best to utilize it, and for what reasons.
 
He pondered over what he’d read and learned at the library combined with his actual experiences in using his power. The most important thing he felt to note was the unique insight his magic gave him into a person. Even if he didn’t know the secret they thought he knew, their reaction to their belief of this was valuable knowledge in itself. It seemed possible to disrupt even the most impassive of poker faces and the most solid of composures. It was possible to fluster and emotionally impair them; to cause them to slip up in battle or make stupid mistakes. That was something, right?
 
It wasn’t guaranteed what the reaction would be, though, because it still depended on the secret and the person. The more desperate the person was to protect their secret or the more panic-stricken they became, the more hazardous that made things for Sinope. It made them willing to hurt him or worse in order to get him to keep his mouth shut. That was the main problem. So how could he overcome that?
 
Maybe if he took up some sort of self-defense discipline, he could use it to defend himself. There were so many kinds, though, and they took so long to learn. Krav Maga? Mixed Martial Arts? Karate? Taekwondo? Jiu - Jitsu? Capoeira? Maybe if he just learned the basics of a few, it would be enough. He figured he should start looking into a few classes while he was still on summer break from high school.
 
Jack was the sort to greatly prefer using his mind over his muscles, however. He knew there were self-defense techniques that even his slightly-scrawnier-than-average build could use against a larger, brawnier opponent, but if he could solve things with his wits instead, he considered that a greater feat. There had to be another way.
 
Think like a trickster…think like a trickster… What would a trickster do? Well…if a trickster from the stories he’d read had his power, they wouldn’t hesitate to use it. And if or when an opponent started to get angry and attack out of desperation…a trickster would play upon the fact that their opponent was concerned about what they knew, because that would be the power the trickster would have over their opponent.
 
They might ask their opponent why they were concerned about him knowing their secret. Rationally speaking, they would be strangers, so what would it matter to them what a stranger knew about them? That way they could distract the opponent by encouraging them to think rationally without suggesting anything about the secret itself, thus drawing attention away from the concept that the trickster might not actually know it. Furthermore, any response provided could be used as clues to piece together what the secret actually was.
 
While the opponent considered that, whether the answer would be obvious or obscure to them, the trickster could hit them with another question such as what their opponent thought they would do with their information. The trick seemed to keep them off balance by causing them confusing through questioning themselves. It wouldn’t work as well on individuals with strong resolve or a clear goal in mind, but it was a plan of sorts. He could work with that. Feeling a little better, Jack smiled to himself, closed his eyes, and fell straight to sleep.