What is your superpower?

[helel ben shachar]

I think we all have a superpower that can be used for good but maybe it's not immediatly obvious as to what it is. I'm not talking about X-ray vision, telekinesis, or stuff of the movies. Causal observation easily confirms that there are no analogs of these things in real life, but maybe, just maybe, you have a minor superpower.

This thought came to my attention a couple weeks ago as I was at an intersection downtown waiting to walk across it. I noticed a couple across the intersection had a number of kids with them and they were waiting on the light so that they could cross to my side of the intersection. I've walked my route for years so I'm familiar with traffic patterns and have been known to cross on a 'don't walk' light because it was perfectly safe to do because there was no traffic at that time or a vehicle(s) were far enough away that our paths wouldn't catastrophically intersect if I went ahead and walked.

So back to the couple and the kids. The intersection at the moment was perfectly safe to cross but I chose not to. Most mindful parents, when they have kids with them, tend to cross intersections safely, with the light if you will, because it's a subtle learning moment for the kids. Wait until the 'walk' light in order to be safe. Then it occured to me that for the longest time that if there are impressionable kids at an intersection that I always crossed when the 'Walk' sign was lit so as to not set a bad example. I realized that my rather subtle superpower was not setting a bad example as to how cross an intersection when kids are present. It just never really occurred to me, or at least I hadn't really thought about it that way, that I had been doing that for as long as I can remember.

So my superpower turned out to be setting a good example for kids at intersections. What's yours?

 

[Arasirsul]

My superpower is that, when given the choice of queues, I have the uncanny ability to slow the one I get into and reduce the IQ of everyone in front of me in that queue to room temperature or below.

In centigrade.

 

[Apotheoun]

My internal clock synchronizes itself perfectly with my oven timer. I'll put something in the oven, and when I go to check on it, it always has <1 minute left on it.

This superpower does not extend to Microwaves, and my super weakness is that my internal clock completely fails while in the shower. 10 minute shower? Nope! Actually 45 minutes. Also bullets, I'm probably weak to bullets.

 

[Semi On]

Parking. I always find a spot right up front without having to drive around or wait.

 

[Telwar]

If I just get up and go randomly without consciously thinking about it, I can get to the metro platform when a train is coming in.

 

[SuperDave]

I'm Batman.

 

[whoisit]

The amazing ability to clog any toilet that is not my own.

 

[Vastamious]

If I stand behind you whatever you had an issues works just by uttering "show me what you did".

 

[blahpony]

In threads, I never hit post until I'm d

 

[thekaj]

I have hyper-sensitivity to pressure changes via my ears. I can tell when someone has closed a window somewhere else in the house. The problem is that they're so sensitive that I can't go more than about 10 feet underwater without feeling like my head is going to implode, and if someone has a car window open just right to cause some turbulence, it's like someone is trying to play the bongos on my head.

 

[PhaseShifter]

Invisibility, in two different flavors.

Conversational invisibility: In a group discussion, people forget I'm there whenever I'm not speaking.

Invisibility to automatic doors: I admit this one's intermittent, or I've yet to figure out what exactly triggers it. But it's great because I don't have to use an entire plate glass window like normal people when I feel the compulsion to walk into a large plate of glass at the supermarket.

Also related to glass doors: When I was a kid, I thought learning to read in mirror reflections would make me James Bond or something. Who knew I would one day be defeated by businesses putting transparent "push" or "pull" labels on glass doors?

 

[Ardax]

There's no bolt or screw I can't shear the head off of.

 

[fitten]

I wake up 5 to 15 minutes before my alarm clock goes off.

 

[hotflungwok]

I project an aura that compels any woman to reveal that she has a husband, BF, SO, etc in the first 60 sec after meeting me.

 

[continuum]

Parking. I always find a spot right up front without having to drive around or wait.

I am the opposite. I will drive into a lot, find zero empty spots and have to circle to wait for one to open, which will be in the farthest corner of the lot.

As soon as I park my car and walk across the entire expanse of the parking lot to the store or restaurant I intend to enter, a parking spot directly in front of the business will open up as soon as I am within 15 feet of said business.

 

[Helpless Will]

Chaos.

Not sure if I attract it, find it because the potential was there and I merely uncovered it, I'm inept enough to be the root cause of most of it, have extraordinarily poor decision making skills, or what, but unusual things happen around me, frequently enough that I have a reputation as a chaos magnet among those who've known me for any length of time.

Sometimes it's a positive, sometimes it's a negative, but invariably, I show up, and the chaos will arrive. Often, it does seem to have shown up slightly ahead of me, and is laying in wait to ambush me.

It was kind enough to provide a herald recently;

Spoiler

 

[raphael_as]

When I pull up to an intersection, I have the uncanny ability to attract any and all traffic within a 2.5 mile radius to that specific location.

My superpower is that, when given the choice of queues...

I have this one too. To the point where my family point-blank does not let me select a line to stand in.

 

[Shavano]

<crosses fingers> bones inexplicably resistant to breaking, but it hurts like f***-all when they don't break.

Power acquired at age 10 by running full speed into a concrete block wall, head first. Concussion yes. Permanent skull deformation yes. Wall dented yes. Cracked skull no.

Impervious to poison ivy. It's just another plant to me.

 

[NervousEnergy]

Slacking and procrastination.

 

[Semi On]

Parking. I always find a spot right up front without having to drive around or wait.

I am the opposite. I will drive into a lot, find zero empty spots and have to circle to wait for one to open, which will be in the farthest corner of the lot.

As soon as I park my car and walk across the entire expanse of the parking lot to the store or restaurant I intend to enter, a parking spot directly in front of the business will open up as soon as I am within 15 feet of said business.

So you are my super enemy. /narrows eyes.

 

[continuum]

I am the yin to your yang. Without me, your superpower could not exist.

 

[Made in Hurry]

I seem to collect life experiences, not completely drowning, but not really succeeding either.

 

[Bravehamster]

I have an excellent sense of direction and location, so much so that it really irritates me when people point for things like "Let's go to the park" (gestures in a completely wrong direction) and I compulsively have to correct them.

 

[Ardax]

I did think of another superpower, but I haven't needed to use it in years. I used to be able to tell the time within 5 minutes of accuracy... as long as it was dark out. During the day? I'd be lucky to be within an hour.

 

[Shavano]

Slacking and procrastination.

Those are super un-powers.

 

[tk421]

It's something that other members of my family also possess, but if I go into an empty or nearly empty restaurant, within minutes, it will be packed.

 

[yd]

I call sense of direction....which is good as it is my wife's kryptonite.

 

[NervousEnergy]

Slacking and procrastination.

Those are super un-powers.

And yet I raise them to a truly terrifying degree. I can even seem to be full of drive and energy, but this is just my disguise.

 

[asbath]

My superpower is that I can flawlessly back any car, of any size, into a parking stall. Every time.

I cannot, for the life of me, pull into a parking stall without having to correct at least twice.

 

[continuum]

Don't you drive a car so small, it could fit into most rural Canadian parking stalls sideways?

 

[rtrefz]

I have a pretty good time sense, usually accurate within 5 minutes.

 

[cc bcc]

Can one loose his superpower? I’d hate to stop being immortal.

 

[Utwig]

I speak 8 languages.

 

[Petruchio]

It's something that other members of my family also possess, but if I go into an empty or nearly empty restaurant, within minutes, it will be packed.

Yup, this is mine (and my wife's). She has many times commented that restaurants should pay *us* to eat there, since they'd make it up with the additional business brought in by our field of attraction.

 

[Jeremy Reimer]

I can, without even realizing I am doing it, cause people to laugh just as they are taking a drink, causing hilarious spit-takes.

 

[Mark086]

It's something that other members of my family also possess, but if I go into an empty or nearly empty restaurant, within minutes, it will be packed.

Yup, this is mine (and my wife's). She has many times commented that restaurants should pay *us* to eat there, since they'd make it up with the additional business brought in by our field of attraction.

I can show up and the place will empty. I should be paid to stay home.

 

[Carhole]

I can visualize things down to the most minute details ...which will never happen.

Runner up: inventing things that already exist.

 

[zAmboni]

There's no bolt or screw I can't shear the head off of.

I have yet to find a nail that I could not bend.

Guess it goes with my superpower of botching any easy fix job. For example, I was replacing the broken cables on garage door assembly and hear a "cling" on the floor. Turns out that I broke off a part of the cable roller drum (how????) that would now need to be replaced.

I'm guessing that such superpower could come in handy....say a bad guy was trying to get away in a car. I would notice that a bird pooped on the hood. When I would run over to clean it off the back axle of the car would fall off.

 

[Ral]

I don't know if it's a superpower per-sé, but in a time when most people seem to rely on their satnav, I still like to look at the map before I go somewhere I haven't been before. When I then get there, I "recognise" the route from the map, so it seems I can pretty accurately translate the map to a 3D view.

According to my partner, I can cause traffic chaos, just by uttering the words "huh, it's quiet on the roads today", or something similar.

 

[Cabusha]

The ability to see how someone used to look 20 years ago, then on a double take see how they actually look today.