What's your superpower?

[lirazel]

I am very good at name and voice recognition. If I see an actor in one project, I can tell you everything else I've ever seen them in. If I'm listening to Podcast A, I may think, "That voice sounds familiar," and I go look up the person and find that they were once on a single episode of Podcast B that I listened to last year. When I was watching Arcane, obviously I recognized Shohreh Aghdashloo's voice, but she has a VERY distinctive voice so that isn't a surprise. What is a surprise is that I recognized Even Lindley's voice from the handful of You Are Good episodes she's been on, even though her part in Arcane is definitely a bit part.

I'm so good with faces that if I see you at one event and didn't even get introduced or learn your name, I'm still probably going to recognize you when I see you at another event. I'm so good with faces that I don't understand the whole "these white guys all look alike!" memes that go around the internet often. I'm so good with faces that I was truly and deeply shocked the other day when I finally put it together that Vanozza from The Borgias is Sorsha from Willow. (In my defense, the two projects were made more than 20 years apart and I hadn't seen Joanne Whalley in anything in the interim, so I didn't know how she aged.)

elperian assures me that this is my superpower, and I think that is probably correct.

So what is your superpower? What's the thing you're really good at that most people aren't?

Comments

[pauraque]

I'm good with voices too, but I feel like it's less an innate power than something I honed when I got interested in voice actors and started consciously listening for them in games and animated media. I enjoy picking out prolific voice actors even when they're "doing voices" and noticing the tiny differences between the different actors who have portrayed classic cartoon characters that have iconic voices. But maybe I'm only able to do that because I had some ability for it to start with!

Faces are horrible for me though. If I'm not faceblind I'm at least very face-nearsighted and usually go by other cues to recognize people. It's a good thing all those white guys don't sound alike because they sure do look alike.

There have been a lot of people who thought I could magically make electronics work by standing near them. When I worked in retail management I was often called over to fix a computer or cash register but as soon as I got close it fixed itself. But I suspect the magic was not coming from me, but from the evil spirits that conspire to embarrass people by causing the car to stop making the noise as soon as you try to show it to the mechanic, etc.

[lirazel]

I enjoy picking out prolific voice actors even when they're "doing voices" and noticing the tiny differences between the different actors who have portrayed classic cartoon characters that have iconic voices.

This is delightful! I'm glad it brings you joy.

There have been a lot of people who thought I could magically make electronics work by standing near them.

Well that's the premise of a short fantasy story if ever I heard one!

But I suspect the magic was not coming from me, but from the evil spirits that conspire to embarrass people by causing the car to stop making the noise as soon as you try to show it to the mechanic, etc.

Yes, that is some strong magic!