Innate Talents

[Windsong]

Got something that just comes naturally?

Maybe you're a natural speaker, able to move hearts and minds with words. A mediator able to defuse any situation with little more than an expression and calming words.

How about a green thumb? Black thumb?

To date my father never ceases to point out how quick to grasp mechanical things I've always been. Whether it had been RC cars growing up, appliances that had broken, or even an automobile, it's always come so easily to just understand how they work.

Does your talent help you at all in day to say life? If so, how?

Was your ability taught? Learned from watching? A labor of love?

Politics is tiring and drama is demanding. Let's hear what people are good at.

 

[Grothnor]

I can unleash some absolutely titanic belches.

For example, when I was in middle school, we didn't have a cafeteria (the school had one wing under construction for my entire middle school career, and that wing included the cafeteria). Instead, we had the 'food cart'. The lunch ladies would wheel it out into a hallway where everyone would form a line and buy their food. Considering that middle schoolers only got about 40 minutes for lunch, including the time it took to drop our books off at our lockers before food and pick them up after (our school had a dumb rule prohibiting middle schoolers from carrying their backpacks everywhere), the food cart had around 50 people crowded around it at practically all times. You can imagine the volume of noise coming from 50+ chatty middle schoolers.

So also due to the lack of cafeteria, we had to eat wherever we could find: empty classrooms, staircases, outside or sometimes on the floor. For some reason, my friends had decided to eat in the hallway, right next to the food cart. I had brown-bagged my lunch and had packed a can of diet coke. I didn't realize it at the time, but I ended up chugging the thing, so naturally I had to burp. When I did, two things happened. First, my vision blurred from the vibrations the belch was causing. Second, everyone in the hall, for a good half second, was completely silent.

 

[Pahn]

In person, I'm good at making people feel comfortable.

I can joke around with anyone. I think my face looks friendly? Strangers stop me in the street to ask me questions or chat... It can be both awkward and interesting. I think it's because I can easily detect the mood, like I have some kind of superpower to determine the amount of tension and hormones in a room lulz.

I'm also a quick student regarding handicrafts like crochet, knitting, sewing, needlework... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I love knitting though.

 

[Windsong]

I can unleash some absolutely titanic belches.

For example, when I was in middle school, we didn't have a cafeteria (the school had one wing under construction for my entire middle school career, and that wing included the cafeteria). Instead, we had the 'food cart'. The lunch ladies would wheel it out into a hallway where everyone would form a line and buy their food. Considering that middle schoolers only got about 40 minutes for lunch, including the time it took to drop our books off at our lockers before food and pick them up after (our school had a dumb rule prohibiting middle schoolers from carrying their backpacks everywhere), the food cart had around 50 people crowded around it at practically all times. You can imagine the volume of noise coming from 50+ chatty middle schoolers.

So also due to the lack of cafeteria, we had to eat wherever we could find: empty classrooms, staircases, outside or sometimes on the floor. For some reason, my friends had decided to eat in the hallway, right next to the food cart. I had brown-bagged my lunch and had packed a can of diet coke. I didn't realize it at the time, but I ended up chugging the thing, so naturally I had to burp. When I did, two things happened. First, my vision blurred from the vibrations the belch was causing. Second, everyone in the hall, for a good half second, was completely silent.

I'm honestly not sure if that's what was in my mind for 'talent'.

But hats off either way. Insert an appropriate HIMYM response image.

[spoili]as a middle school custodian those burps horrify me because they're usually instantly followed by vomiting because the kid doesn't know how to close his esophagus [/spoili]

 

[Grothnor]

Does your talent help you at all in day to say life? If so, how?

Not in the least. It makes my friends laugh though.

Was your ability taught? Learned from watching? A labor of love?

I dunno, but I think I may have some kind of esophageal issue, like GERD or something because I burp (and get heartburn) all the time. The rest is just projection I learned from singing.

 

[Icy]

I'm good at perceiving, remembering, and associating small details — whether related to conduct, aesthetics, creative work, or environmental — which is basically a facet of me being low-key neurotic. It does help me I guess, but it also made me a perfectionist and anorexic.

 

[Icy]

I can unleash some absolutely titanic belches.

Bruh, next you'll be telling us you're green irl too.

 

[Brovo]

The one innate talent I can claim to have is that, at any moment's notice, I can cut myself away from how I'm feeling to focus purely on what's happening in front of me. If I'm feeling intense sorrow, or loss, or fury, I can put it aside without hesitation to get through whatever situation I'm in first. It's very rare for me to be absolutely overwhelmed by emotion, to the point that I lose control. You would have to take an extreme event or put me under undue, long term stress to get me to start breaking down. This also means that in casual social interactions, I can put on any face I like, and people tend to be none the wiser. I can feel completely terrible inside, but smile as brightly as the mid day sun. I can loathe the person I'm talking to, but sell them something as though they're my best friend.

This innate talent does seem to come with a cost, though.

It's hard to keep up long term social interactions with groups of people I don't know. It grinds away at me until I'm so mentally fatigued that I can barely remember how to get home, or how to express how I'm feeling. It makes me blunt as hell on the Internet, because putting on these social masquerades is firstly a lie, and secondly it treats the people I'm talking to like insecure children. (Plus, the Internet is my escape from wearing a masquerade all day in the real world. This is something I suspect most people can relate to, though not quite to the same level I do.) When I do openly express my emotions they tend to be intense and make me frail. Then, there are people who get the wrong idea about me, and think I'm cold towards them because I hate them, when the reality is far simpler.

As for how I gained it?

A lifetime of work. So I guess a labour of love.

I wanted to be a good person, yet, whenever I was in pain (which was often when I was a teenager), I would lash out at people and hurt them emotionally. All because I was hurting emotionally. The emotions I felt did not necessarily reflect the reality in which I lived, and even if they did, that didn't make it right for me to lash out at others. Dealing pain only begets further pain. Between this and other factors, I threw my entire personal life behind logic and reason, behind building a moral code, and discipline, and control. As much as I could muster. I didn't want to hurt anyone anymore, nor be hurt by anyone anymore.

I'm much better at it now than I used to be. Even now, underneath this calm persona I keep on these forums, the ferret-loving science-spewing debate guy that apologizes when he does wrong? There are a bunch of emotions I feel, intense though they are, that I am in control of, and express each in turn as I feel it most appropriate. And, if it becomes necessary, I can stop feeling those emotions, put on a persona, and walk away until I can vent without fear of reprisal.

/real talk. Now back to ferrets.

 

[ᴛᴏᴄᴋᴀ]

I have absolutely no talent at all. None. I'm one of those weird people that possess no skills that come naturally. Any talent that I have, I had to work my ass off for. =/

 

[Windsong]

I have absolutely no talent at all. None. I'm one of those weird people that possess no skills that come naturally. Any talent that I have, I had to work my ass off for. =/

Come on now. Maybe you've yet to find it?

What if you've a knack for patience? Raising kids surely isn't for the weak (though they still pop them out in droves).

Something something.. Success isn't always obvious.. Famous person.. I can't recall.

 

[Brovo]

Come on now. Maybe you've yet to find it?

What if you've a knack for patience? Raising kids surely isn't for the weak (though they still pop them out in droves).

Something something.. Success isn't always obvious.. Famous person.. I can't recall.

Sometimes being totally average might be just what her kids need to always have the anchor of normalcy in their lives. That's a useful talent.

 

[ᴛᴏᴄᴋᴀ]

Come on now. Maybe you've yet to find it?

What if you've a knack for patience? Raising kids surely isn't for the weak (though they still pop them out in droves).

Something something.. Success isn't always obvious.. Famous person.. I can't recall.

Forgetting things. The only thing I have a knack for. I have the shortest memory of anyone alive.

I had to change a password today. So I went changed it....and between typing it in the first time and retyping it, I forgot the password. That's how shitty my memory is.

 

[LogicfromLogic]

If sarcasm is a talent then I'm set. I have a quip to most anything.

Skyrim:

'You here to join the Dawnguard?'

Me: 'No, I'm the baker. I thought we can have a celebration every time you idiots did something right.'

 

[Gwazi Magnum]

Can't think of one specifically where I haven't seen others far out pace me.

If anything I'd have to say my talent is being a Jack of all Trades Geek.

I can get into most Geek hobbies with ease, and get along with all kinds of Geek Social Circles.
But without fail enter the middle zone, where I know slightly more than the average person so people relatively new to that hobby (or geekdom at a whole) will see me as someone with immense knowledge, but I know little enough that those who chose to dedicate themselves to that hobby would lump me in the 'casual' group.

In fact this phenomian also goes beyond geek hobbies. When it comes to a social life I seem extroverted to most introverts, but extroverts would call me introverted. I possess enough social skills that those who struggle with being social see me as talented, but the everyday person can see my weak points. Not enough to tell I have Autism, but enough to enter the 'oddball' territory.

 

[Pahn]

The one innate talent I can claim to have is that, at any moment's notice, I can cut myself away from how I'm feeling to focus purely on what's happening in front of me. If I'm feeling intense sorrow, or loss, or fury, I can put it aside without hesitation to get through whatever situation I'm in first. It's very rare for me to be absolutely overwhelmed by emotion, to the point that I lose control. You would have to take an extreme event or put me under undue, long term stress to get me to start breaking down. This also means that in casual social interactions, I can put on any face I like, and people tend to be none the wiser. I can feel completely terrible inside, but smile as brightly as the mid day sun. I can loathe the person I'm talking to, but sell them something as though they're my best friend.

This innate talent does seem to come with a cost, though.

It's hard to keep up long term social interactions with groups of people I don't know. It grinds away at me until I'm so mentally fatigued that I can barely remember how to get home, or how to express how I'm feeling. It makes me blunt as hell on the Internet, because putting on these social masquerades is firstly a lie, and secondly it treats the people I'm talking to like insecure children. (Plus, the Internet is my escape from wearing a masquerade all day in the real world. This is something I suspect most people can relate to, though not quite to the same level I do.) When I do openly express my emotions they tend to be intense and make me frail. Then, there are people who get the wrong idea about me, and think I'm cold towards them because I hate them, when the reality is far simpler.

As for how I gained it?

A lifetime of work. So I guess a labour of love.

I wanted to be a good person, yet, whenever I was in pain (which was often when I was a teenager), I would lash out at people and hurt them emotionally. All because I was hurting emotionally. The emotions I felt did not necessarily reflect the reality in which I lived, and even if they did, that didn't make it right for me to lash out at others. Dealing pain only begets further pain. Between this and other factors, I threw my entire personal life behind logic and reason, behind building a moral code, and discipline, and control. As much as I could muster. I didn't want to hurt anyone anymore, nor be hurt by anyone anymore.

I'm much better at it now than I used to be. Even now, underneath this calm persona I keep on these forums, the ferret-loving science-spewing debate guy that apologizes when he does wrong? There are a bunch of emotions I feel, intense though they are, that I am in control of, and express each in turn as I feel it most appropriate. And, if it becomes necessary, I can stop feeling those emotions, put on a persona, and walk away until I can vent without fear of reprisal.

/real talk. Now back to ferrets.

*

Somewhere, I think a lot of people build defense mechanisms like this to help them grow up and go through life with minimum damage. I've learned to adapt to situations in a split of a second before they get out of hand. Like sensing an upcoming storm or something, and being able to tell the mood of the room / of the people. Is it a talent? Eh, I'd say it's more of a way of living than anything else.

 

[Robeatics]

I don't know when I started writing, but it's always been a big part of who I am. In middle school, I would sit down at my mom's computer right after school and pump out page after page, not even thinking about how bad the writing was, just excited to tell a story. Now, I'm more timid with my writing because I know I can write better, but I don't know precisely how. The meanest critic will always be yourself, I guess.

I'm also pretty good with my hands, and with arranging images and objects in my mind, but that's probably just an artist's eye I've built over the years. Oh, and I'm good at riddles. And puzzles in general.

 

[Windsong]

I don't know when I started writing, but it's always been a big part of who I am. In middle school, I would sit down at my mom's computer right after school and pump out page after page, not even thinking about how bad the writing was, just excited to tell a story. Now, I'm more timid with my writing because I know I can write better, but I don't know precisely how. The meanest critic will always be yourself, I guess.

I'm also pretty good with my hands, and with arranging images and objects in my mind, but that's probably just an artist's eye I've built over the years. Oh, and I'm good at riddles. And puzzles in general.

I think a lot of people must've done that around that age. Least it seems to be. My ex wrote vampire fanfics, wife did roleplays with me (how we met), and I did roleplays as well.

 

[Rainjay]

I have the talent of forgetting just about everything. My brain is a natural repressor.

It's kicking me in the face now that it's finals time.

In seriousness, though, I'm also one of those people without an innate talent. And I lack, for the most part, learned talents. My talent is being... talentless?

 

[Windsong]

My talent is being... talentless?

Like Nydanna, I doubt that. Everyone's got something, no matter how small. It could be so simple or you've mastered it so completely it's second nature.

You're young. May not have found it yet?

[spoili]Who knows, maybe people are post-apocalyptic survival masters naturally and will never know?[/spoili]

 

[Peter Feels]

Among other things, I'm good at being succinct.