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[ re: "super deduction" ] ranpo reducing his ridiculous intelligence to a skill in order to dig his way out of isolation, then to take advantage of the connotations ( ie, avoid all the legal redtape since it's supernatural ), and /then/ to soften the blow of annihilating & humiliating certain adversaries.
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SO MANY USES. but the most important is to normalize himself.
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which is funny... normalizing himself by claiming to possess a supernatural ability, hmmmm.
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Ranpo is the masterrrr of doublethink.
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i do think he has learned how to compartmentalize even his own brain-- i tend to lean toward, er, that he really does limit his observations. i think it places extreme strain upon him were he to consistently maintain his observation of the surrounding world; even without focusing? he uh
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spoNGES sooo much information that he doesn't necessarily know ~how~ he registered such as, he might know whether someone who isn't present at the office has been in that day due to the condition of their desk, based off whether the janitorial staff has adjusted a seat just so, the state of their trash, which he might have only given a cursory glance
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ETC ETC. it seems ridiculous because it /is/ ridiculous, and it'd overwhelm him to constantly be absorbing these minor details that come back to him when he intentionally focuses on an issue
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before Fukuzawa provided him with a physical tool for focusing/dismissing info, that whole ordeal, he was bombarded ALL THE TIME
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it was exhausting and irritating, and people asking him questions? PISSED HIM OFF BECAUSE JUST LOOK AROUND YOU, SUSAN!!
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FUCKIN HELL ASKING HIM DUMB QUESTIONS
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it was the onslaught of information and "obvious" things that for others, their brains would filter out as irrelevant
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yet to ranpo's brain, he knows every detail /is/ relevant, or could be for some particular reason, so he does have it stored, and he does have it stored in branching ways that allow it to easily apply to whether or not X or Y has happened
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it may not even seem to have a link to the question at hand, but it does if you follow the entire chain to the end
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Ranpo's brain struggles to /ignore/ information like that which will most likely never be useful in the future unless it so happens to be job-related
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THE FOURTH REASON: For himself.
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He likes to think of it as a separate entity/ability, something he can turn off and on, even though that is a bit of self-deception as well
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He stores the same amount of information, yet intentionally lets his focus drift to other things --specific things like picking at a candy wrapper or playing on his cellphone, looking at the shape of a cloud and thinking what it looks like
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He can get distracted very easily by intentionally??? distracting himself??
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There is no chance that he was walking around with Atsushi and Fukuchi, knowing of the imminent danger, and only waited til his glasses -- - that was a part of his own self-directed restrictions, too much trust in Fukuzawa as well, but the info he used to solve it??
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he'd had all along. he just didn't focus on putting 2 and 2 together 'til just then, as directed.
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Similarly, he could probably answer a question lightning fast without being able to trace the direct steps back to when he plucked from some frayed strands of information
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idk, I'm trying to explain a wild tangle that is his brain. It's a veryyyy sloppy jungle up there that Ranpo himself will never really tame
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He's an expert at "blocking" ; if it's useless, excessive, overkill, unnecessary to come to some conclusion, he will divert his focus and/or straight shut his eyes and wave off the thoughts
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Thiiiiiiiiis
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can go poorly if he's trying to avoid a subject
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that issss useful, necessary, that he just wants to avoid because it's annoying or hard to handle
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But best believe he will resist it. His brain has a lottttt of practice compartmentalizing, which includes his feelings and trauma. He mostly recognizes them on a more logical and informational basis. Processing them is absolutely not familiar
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So, yeah, as I've mentioned in other memes, he does have a need to constantly be fiddling with something or balancing in his chair, or looking around, demands a companion on the train and to new places because fuck if he doesn't let his focus wander
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He /could/ 100% memorize all the train loops in Japan but you know what he will also do
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he will also notice some nice smell and go to check it out
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miss a train
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probably get on a different one
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These are things he does, as well as noticing strange things between perfect strangers since he has nothing else to keep him focused on where he's expected to be later
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Time is funky like that. Really shouldn't apply to geniuses, if you ask him
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he'll be there when he gets there, and you'll be grateful for it
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-- okay, somehow rambling about his brain brought us full circle. ANYWAY.
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Yes, amazing man. Best skill user in the world.
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Because he isss a skill user!!
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You know another thing?
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Since we're on this subject now.
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( i say to myself )
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Ranpo /does/ love attention and praise and impressing people, but very often he alsoooo enjoys STEALING THE OPPORTUNITY TO PRAISE FROM PEOPLE
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especially when it's something STUPID EASY TO FIGURE OUT LIKE WO W W YOU ARE DUMB IF YOU DIDN'T SEE WHAT HE SAW
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cos most people, even impressed, won't trip over themselves to point out how amazingly 1% he is, how stellar, golden etc etc
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ESPECIALLY IF THEY THINK IT'S A SKILL
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if it's something he does just like snapping his fingers
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it's not something to fawn over nearly so much. he's not like a chessmaster solving the world's famine problems etc etc
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he is just a skill used-- and his ego! being what it is, they acknowledge his ability without really uh
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placing him on this isolating pedestal. If anything, he's a fuckin prick who is very, very useful and yeah, okay, he's always right, and there's no reason to deny it -- it's a supernatural ability
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of course he's right
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Nobody would be amazed if someone with x-ray vision could tell you what was in a sealed metal box
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he can SEE IT
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duhhhh
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Ranpo loves praise that's well-earned, and especially from people he respects, obv from people he cares about
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he kinda finds praise from total strangers a little dull unless they think he's an idiot or a child
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then it's fun to destroy them for L I F E
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destroy them so utterly they can never look themselves in the mirror again without
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remembering how stupidddd they are haha!!! < 333
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Praise from Fukuzawa is awesome. Praise from the other ADA members is fun because they're just as over the top and he kinda mighttt get off on being held in such esteem ahem ahem
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but it's obviously mostly light-hearted, just matter-of-fact
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obv he carries them
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When he's being serious
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most praise would get a handwave because yeah yeah no that was obvious to any old idiot
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you'd need to be somewhat on his level to get a different response
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but he hiiiighly doubts someone like, say, Dazai, would bother
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it's meaningless
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Ranpo's not sure he'd take it seriously. It's like stating a fact that he's a genius
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what's the real point
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no dazai wouldn't praise him in earnest like that. just as ranpo isn't reallyyyy praising dazai to call him brilliant
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dazai already knows that. a more pointless compliment couldn't be imagined
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Praise from Fukuzawa is more about the person it comes from
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The attention, the rarity of it
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the fact he's earnest, too
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it wouldn't even really be about his smarts, would it.
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FUKUZAWA where arE YOU
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sob sorry that derailed the topic
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If anything, praising Dazai's mind is for the purpose of assuring others that he is trustworthy when it comes to enacting plans. It's for others, dumber people
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no offense
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Ranpo doesn't really mean to hurt feelings when he calls people dumb, btw. They just are slow
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comparatively
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which means nothing cos that's everyone else mostly
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Not the best idea to react poorly when he calls you dumb or stupid. Generally speaking, it's not ill-spirited, but he does have a habit of falling back on those words when he thinks someone is cluttering their mind needlessly as well
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being smart can make you stupid, too
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now i'm just rambling pft
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ANYWAY. Time for another shower. Maybe I'll be back later if I think of something else to mention.
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Not now, but I may try to touch more on his doublethink. At times, he does intentionally let the lines blur.