Encounter of the weird kind

[chicar]

Do you ever have one of this encounter who make you say ''well, that different'' ?

Disclaimer: Is not because this is weird than it is unworthy of your respect. This thread who surely being full of thing who are simply symptomatic of a different lifestyle, and maybe kinda look awesome.

Let me begin the festivitys:

1- Once in the bus, i overheard a girl complain than a companion of her would surely not love her because she a ghoul. I don't know if she was a overdedicated vampire goth or someone playing a LARP, but it not everyday you find yourself in a freaking Vampire's Diary's episodes.

2-In the bus again, i had the frightening bad luck to be sit few bench away of a ex-convict who just have been freed. Nothing bad happended be reassured.

3-One day, i decided to do a walk in the old town. What a chance ! It was the day there were more furrys by square centimeter than in Disneyworld.

[Aleister Crow]

I did, not long ago. I posted about it here.

[Mr. Boltneck]

I am a loon-magnet, so that sort of thing happens to me any time I'm someplace with enough people. Instances include the man who followed me through downtown San Francisco, screaming that he knew I was with the FBI, and demanding to know why we were persecuting him. Or the man who approached me at the bus stop on 4th Street, and stated, in a slurred and peculiar dialect of Mexican Spanish, that he had a desire for human breast milk, and wanting to know how best to obtain it. Or the one-armed man who left off talking to himself, and crossed a street in the Noe Valley district, to take up an explanation in midstream, as to why, from what I could make out, it had been necessary for him to kill his brother—it was never clear to me that his brother had ever had any actual objective existence, nor that he could tell me from whatever phooka or phantasm he was holding forth to before I walked past.
I sometimes think that a good video crew with hidden cameras could follow me around any largish city, and come up with something close to a David Lynch production.

[Siliconous Skumins]

Oh yes - count me in as a nutter magnet!



Too many to list, but a striking one that comes to mind is this:

I was on an underground train, midway between stations there is a powercut and the train grinds to a sudden halt. Most of the lights go out, save for a few of the emergency lights that have actually been serviced at some recent time...   
The train was very crowded, and we were all standing there in near darkness unable to move past each other, when suddenly a male voice from somewhere to my right quietly says " Hur-hur, Uhhh, Hur, it's DARK Isn't it!..." in a very slow and creepy way. 

I took no chances and swam through the crowd like a salmon in a fast flowing river!  And so did two others who were standing within earshot...



Another would be the time I was stopped by a bloke in the street, he was actually walking in front of me, when he suddenly turned around and said "Have ya been 'cross tha neew bridge yet?" (referring to the most recent Newcastle addition, the "blinking eye" bridge across the river Tyne)

Me:  "uh.....no?!?..."

Nutter: "Ah hiv, iz great!"

Me: ".......Oooookay....??"

Nutter: "Ah've bin A-cross five times!..."

Me: ..... *backing away* oooooooKAY!!!...." *continues walking away at slightly faster pace* 


About 30 seconds after that, a bloke driving his car down a road that is closed to all traffic except buses, stops his car and reverses back up the street at high speed and screeches to a halt opposite me. He then winds the window down and shouts in a London area accent "OI, Mate! - Where can I grab a curry 'round 'ere, I'm F***ING starving!??"

Me: "....Uh.....I....Uh.....Try down there, on the next street..." *pointing vaguely in the direction* (I don't really care, and have no idea if there is a indian take-away or not, at this point I'm more concerned about the nutter...)

Nutter in car: "Izzzit any good?"

Me: "uh, dunno...."  *lost track of nutter #1, getting nervous*

At this point I'm scanning the area around me, looking for more nutters, and trying to work out where nutter #1 has disappeared to, and wether I'm in any danger.  So I wasn't really prepared for what happens next...

Nutter in car follows my general directions by DRIVING OVER THE PAVEMENT AND DOWN A PEDESTRIAN ONLY AREA!!    People were litterally trying to run and move out of his way in time. 

At this point I just thought "F**K-IT, I'm done!"  I turned around and and stated walking back home - I wasn't going to even attempt public transport as with my current score for the day, I knew it was asking for trouble...  I must have checked about 20 times that I wasn't being followed back home by a trail of nutters!


SS

[qubehead]

Years ago, I was browsing around in Sears when a youngish man accosted me: "Hey there, Robert! Long time no see, whatcha been up to?" My name is not Robert, but that didn't bother me, at least at first, because why? Because this fellow was a dead ringer for an old classmate of mine, Roy, who indeed I had lost touch with. I figured he'd just gotten my name wrong, shook hands heartily and began small-talking. The conversation soon took a 'who's on first/what's on 2nd' turn; I slowly realized that this was not Roy, any more than I was Robert. Neither of us had ever seen each other in our lives, but each mistook the other for someone we knew. Once this became clear, we had a good laugh and parted amicably.

[Capt. Dirigible]

In work just yesterday (I work on the registration desk of a medical history library) just as we're closing a bloke comes in and says "Can I ask a quick question?" Thinking it would be along the lines of 'How do I join?" or "What are your opening hours?" etc.. I say yes. He askes "How do they do shrunken heads?"

As it turns out they explained this on QI and I was able to give him a rough approximation of the process. When I'd finished he says in wonderment  "Oh!!...So they don't shrink the skull?"  


The Countess is a major Nutter-Magnet. They just seem to home in on her. She reckons that's how we met! Well you know what they say..everyone has had the experience with the 'Nutter On The Bus'..and if you haven't..you're 'The Nutter'.

[The Corsair]

Well you know what they say..everyone has had the experience with the 'Nutter On The Bus'..and if you haven't..you're 'The Nutter'.

This is so undeniably, incredibly true.

I sit down on the bus toward the back. A man who looks a tad scruffy comes on and sits in the seat in front of me. We get a few scraggly-looking Maoris and Polynesians on that bus as it passes through a few suburbs they are predominant in. Some of these suburbs are also quite rough.

So, the bus sets off. Suddenly the guy takes off his brown leather jacket, putting it over the seat in front of him, and reveals he has no shirt on underneath. It's a freezing cold day and he's sitting there with only a pair of shorts on. He then starts opening all the windows he can reach around him, also getting up to open some of the ones across the aisle from him. We're freezing our arses off now (and we're dressed for the weather in fleeces etc) and he's got no shirt on...

Suddenly, he spins around and goes 'Do any of you want me to shut these windows? I know it's cold, it's just I need them open!'
I've never seen a group of strangers reach such a unanimous decision so quickly. A big 'no, it's fine' shot out from us and my god you could smell the fear.

I guess, though, given that his shirt was off it was clear he wasn't concealing any weapons unless they were in his shorts (is that a knife in your pocket?)

[kidkunjer]

not i recently (well in china EVERYONE'S weird),
but my sister was on a long distance bus journey in England and she sat next to a woman who started a long and disturbing sob story. About half way through the woman asked "hey, mind if i smoke crack?" and my sister assumed she said something else, so said yes.
After several hours of passive crack smoking my poor sister was feeling extremely strange.

[D.Oakes]

One night my fiance and I were watching a movie and a knock came at the door.  It was a friend of mine requesting the use of some of my holy water to get her one friend to snap out of some sort of demonic trance...business as usual. 

Waiting on the train home in Philadelphia after my trip to New Orleans I had a conversation with a man also waiting on the same train.  We were talking about jobs and I said that I was an artist and photographer.  Well one thing leads to another and he's suggesting when I'm back in Philly to visit a friend of his that he owes money to.  "He's owns a construction company.....he is a very generous man....gambling debts....the people working for him....."  At that point I realized that I was getting an offer to work for a very generous business owner who helps people pay off gambling debts in Philly.  I hoped I was not reading too much into it, but just to be safe I made sure to sit as far away from that man as possible. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

THE MAFIA!!!!!!!

Probably the most frustrating thing for me is that I have my really cool strange encounters while I'm half asleep.  One day back in high school I was at a breakfast drinking a cup of coffee.  A rather tall gentleman approached me and we struck up a good conversation.  As my eyes focused I realized I was talking to a Congressman...... 

Another time I was getting tired at a concert, the band we were seeing was once a local band who had just made it into the mainstream, the event was over and a friend and I were starting to leave when suddenly this crazy long haired kid brushed by us.  We both did a double take and realized it was the drummer.  Ended up talking to the band.  Their guitarist informed me that they loved what I was wearing (kinda 1920's-30's get up with an old Police coat from 1936) and had noticed me in the audience.  (you know when you are at a big concert and you think the band was looking directly at you....sometimes they are)  A few months later Halestorm came out with the video for Familiar Taste of Poison which featured 1920's-30's styling.   

[Aleister Crow]

Well you know what they say..everyone has had the experience with the 'Nutter On The Bus'..and if you haven't..you're 'The Nutter'.

Uh-oh.

[Captain Lyerly]

Mine follow two patterns.

The first is "you work here, right, let me ask you..."  I don't work there.  Never have, wherever it is I have been asked.  But I get it All. The.  Time.  This morning, looking through some antique tools in a largish antiques mall - "Is this your booth too?"  Um... no, I don't have any booths.  Yesterday, at the Celtic Festival - "Excuse me, can you tell me why (Some Band) isn't playing here this year?"  So tempted to say that the lead fiddle got caught committing bestiality and incest at the same time, but I was polite.

The second?  Ooh, my.  "Entschuldigung!  Entschuldigung!"  I am walking down a street in the south end of the Khan el-Kalili in Cairo - and somebody is addressing me in German (okay, I have quite a bit of German ancestry) and asking for directions.  Now, I can get by quite well in Arabic, even through the awful Egyptian accent, but "my German is a bit rusty"; however, I end up helping the lady out - and following from a distance to make sure she doesn't get mugged.  A few days later, the group I was with went to the Pyramids, and rode some fine Arabian horses across the Giza plateau and down to the river plain... one of the ladies with us asked the name of her horse; the trail boss named off all of them but mine.  "What's the name of this one?" I ask.  "Oh, no name yet - new horse here."  So, yes, I have been through the desert... on a horse... with no name.

Weirder, and more deadly.  It seems (knock on wood) to have ended now, but for a number of years there "don't be there after I am gone" was the rule to follow.  1988, I was returning from a posting to Turkey.  Changed planes in Frankfurt; flew on Pan Am Flight 103 - a couple of weeks later, 103 was falling on Lockerbie.  1990, I made several trips back and forth from the shore in Haifa to the ship by water taxi; the next ship in Haifa was the Saratoga, and the same water taxi sank, killing 21 US Sailors.  Early 1996, I was billeted for a short time in Dhammam - in Khobar Towers - a few weeks later, there was a terrorist attack on the Towers.  In 2000, I was aboard the USS The Sullivans when we pulled into Aden.  The next ship in was the USS Cole.  Found out after the fact that the terrorists had attempted to target us, but sank their little boat at the dock.  in 2006, in At Taji, I was in my trailer at lunch time and heard a couple of distant bangs, then a whoooooshBANG - took out a trailer two rows short of mine.  I don't go to that sort of place any more, as I figure my luck has about run out. 



Chas.

[MWBailey]

Well you know what they say..everyone has had the experience with the 'Nutter On The Bus'..and if you haven't..you're 'The Nutter'.

Uh-oh.

Yes. Quite...

[von Corax]

Many years ago, when I lived in The City At the Centre of Itself*, Ontario, I grew a full beard for a while, and on at least two occasions complete strangers struck up conversations with me during which I eventually revealed that a) I am not Jewish and b) I am not from Newfoundland. On another, a young chap approached me cautiously and asked if I was his long-lost brother (he swore I was a dead-ringer) — who he had last seen in Newfoundland.

Some years later when I was living in The City of Reeks*, Ontario, people would regularly comment on my resemblance to Kelsey Grammer. One chap — a complete stranger — did so by shouting across a crowded restaurant, "Hey Frasier! How's Diane?"

Finally, a weird encounter with a relatively normal person: I had moved to The City of Reeks to attend the community college there. The day after I moved into the student residence, I decided on the spur of the moment to go check out the Chinese restaurant next door. Seated at the first table inside were a woman I had not seen in ten years (the sister of a highschool chum who I had not seen in five years) and her friend who were driving home from Cow City*, Alberta by way of Michigan and who had decided, on the spur of the moment, to stop for dinner at that same restaurant.

*Just for the record, these are nicknames — mostly my own — for actual Canadian cities.

[frances]

I attract people who want to spill their life story.  It can be hard to get away from them.  Walking around with the dog is useful as she gets bored easily and starts to walk off down the road - so I can legitimately say goodbye and follow smartish, thank goodness.

[Siliconous Skumins]

I attract people who want to spill their life story.  It can be hard to get away from them.  Walking around with the dog is useful as she gets bored easily and starts to walk off down the road - so I can legitimately say goodbye and follow smartish, thank goodness.

Yeah, I have had that happen to me a few times with random strangers...except they always want to unburden some deep painfull or shocking event.  I really hate when that happens. 

Highlights include a blood soaked lesbian that was beaten up by her partner and was going to throw herself off a bridge, A woman who's father was drunk and committed suicide by throwing himself over a bridge (she was standing on the bridge on the anniversary of his death - the one right next to the one the lesbian was going to use...), a woman who confessed that her father had been.....a very bad man, and finally the sister of a man who was caught performing a sex act on a horse - she was the odd one out, she quite happily admitted it was her brother (and that he was always doing stuff like that!), and then went on to tell about how her father had Peyronie's disease (yes - a bent penis!!) and that bends completely to the left. Thankfully she didn't mention how she knew that... 

There are some conversations in life, that you can completely do without hearing! 

SS

[Ulysses Reynolds]

I attract people who want to spill their life story.  It can be hard to get away from them.  Walking around with the dog is useful as she gets bored easily and starts to walk off down the road - so I can legitimately say goodbye and follow smartish, thank goodness.

Yeah, I have had that happen to me a few times with random strangers...except they always want to unburden some deep painfull or shocking event.  I really hate when that happens. 

Highlights include a blood soaked lesbian that was beaten up by her partner and was going to throw herself off a bridge, A woman who's father was drunk and committed suicide by throwing himself over a bridge (she was standing on the bridge on the anniversary of his death - the one right next to the one the lesbian was going to use...), a woman who confessed that her father had been.....a very bad man, and finally the sister of a man who was caught performing a sex act on a horse - she was the odd one out, she quite happily admitted it was her brother (and that he was always doing stuff like that!), and then went on to tell about how her father had Peyronie's disease (yes - a bent penis!!) and that bends completely to the left. Thankfully she didn't mention how she knew that... 

There are some conversations in life, that you can completely do without hearing! 

SS

Agreed. Now It seems that I attract drunks. Doesn't matter where I go, theres gonna be a drunk guy who wants to shake my hand and blabber on about stuff I could care less about. Sigh, why drunk people why?

[Mercury Wells]

Dash becosh youse our beshtish fwriend,*Hic* 

[TVC15]

A couple of times within the same month, I was asleep when...Wait, that's the one the doctors told me never to tell anyone outside the walls. Sorry.

[MattieFinch]

 Well, I'm a very weird person (or, so I hear  ) but I have met quite a few people even stranger than me! My Dad says that he's a magnet for the crazies and has informed me that my similar magnetic forces might be proof that it's genetic  

 On one occasion, while at home with my younger brother and cousin, (we were in the conjoined kitchen/dining/ living room area that also enters into the backyard) a random man comes through our back sliding doors and sits himself down right next to me at the dining table. I was just about to eat some soup, you see, and so this whole situation became even more bothersome. I was just about to take a sip when this scraggly man comes in and sits down. Ugh! Well, my brother and cousin (ages 14 and 10) were thoroughly freaked out. Even more so when the man closed the blinds and asked us if we speak english (I was very tempted to say "no hablo ingles!" but my Spanish is atrocious...) and then turned to my cousin and asked him if he would drive him out of there. Luckily, my parents were home, so while the man was browsing around I just got up and walked into my parents room. "There's some weird guy in the house" I inform them. Well, to cut to the chase my Dad ended up beating this guy up in the backyard. The cops came (they were already looking for the this man, which I guess is why he was hiding in our house) and took him away. It was a very weird thing, and the man himself was very strange, not to mention why out of every house on the block he chose ours  . But, the worst part of this whole thing is that when it was done my soup had went cold. Nothing worse than microwaved minestrone  

 another time I had this odd fellow at high school try to hang out with me and my brother. My brother and I babysat our cousins after school everyday (our Mum provided daycare services for around five of our cousins, from morning til night so we liked to give her a break) and we took lunch break as our time to just draw pictures and listen to music. Then, that guy came along and would talk non stop about his past drug use, other criminal activities, and even showed us his ankle bracelet for being on house arrest. I finally bit and asked how he got it, to which he said, "you know blowing stuff up. Huh huh, like a car  ". Okie-dokie then. He followed me around the school, and would pop out of nowhere. The weirdest part was when he wrote poetry about my brother and I. He recited it to us and it was kinda creepy. One line said "cuz your sister is going to leave you, and you'll be left alone, no one to protect you". It was about my upcoming graduation and leaving highschool, but it was just... weird.

 Eh, weird moments are the spice of life, right? Or is that cinnamon?

[Horse Brass]

Well, I'm a very weird person (or, so I hear  ) but I have met quite a few people even stranger than me!

When I used to work in the city, some of the more colourful inhabitants would sometimes greet me as I went past, even if I'd never seen them before. They didn't do that with other random strangers walking past, but my wife used to say they recognised a kindred spirit. 

I had one guy rush up to me, tap me on the cheek three times, then sigh with relief because I was real. After a short, mostly one-sided discussion he decided that he really liked me, and offered to take me to his place of power where if I was accepted I could turn into a bird and fly over the city. I politely turned him down, saying I preferred to keep my hooves on the ground, which led to him being very apologetic that his place of power only did birds, he couldn't turn me into a horse. It was probably bad of me to say that to him, but he did seem to calm down somewhat, and he stopped trying to drag me down a dark alley.

I don't get many nutters on the bus, but one really stands out. I heard the bus driver say, "Oh God, no!" before pulling up to let on someone who appeared fairly normal. As soon as he stepped in the door though, we were hit by the smell! The English language doesn't have the words to describe it, if you've read Terry Pratchett's descriptions of Foul Ole Ron you'll have a vague idea. And then, on a bus with 4 passengers, he sat opposite me! I got a 10 minute monologue on how bathing does irreperable damage to the skin, how he was once washed by a hospital after being hit by a car, and his lawsuits against the hospital were dismissed, but after all these years his skin still felt sticky and unnatural. I couldn't answer him, if I'd opened my mouth I'd have thrown up. After he got off, the driver opened all the doors and windows and we stood in the stop for a few minutes to let the bus air out. One of the other passengers asked why the driver had let him on, apparently he'd complained to the Department of Transport about buses not stopping for him, and any driver who continued to discriminate against him would be sacked.

Standing out to people can get ugly though. I was once sitting on a train on my way to uni when the ticket inspectors got on. One of them immediately bolted over to me, demanded to see my ticket, and tore it up without looking at it! I then got written up for travelling without a ticket, while the one who'd torn my ticket up kept saying to the other two, "You get to tell the real crazies after a few years in the job, God knows what this one would do if we let him stay on here all day."

[bicyclebuilder]

I guess if you want to meet weird people, you have to ride the bus. I've met ex-drug addict, ex-freefighter, a drag queen who was planning on going out of the closet.
I used to ride the bus (public transport, not a schoolbus) to school. One day, I met a beautifull young lady. Not "supermodel" but more "girl next door" type. She sat down across me, kind of sad looking. I guess I looked at her a bit longer than usual, because she started chatting at me. Turns out, she ran away from home to her former boyfriend, who cheated on her and threw her out. To earn money, she started tripping. (for a young teen that I was, this was starting to get interesting.  ) I asked:"so how does it work? Do they come to you or do you come to them?" She said:"I come to them. It's easier that way." Me:"Don't you find it hard to strip?" "no," she said,"it's just a skill. Ones you get used to it, it becomes second nature." "so... ehm. If you don't mind me asking. Do you strip all the way?" "ofcourse," she said, "that's the only way to see what you've got!" Now it's getting to hot for me. I was speachless. A lovely young girl, just an average girl next door, a stripper. Than she said:"And after that I put tape on the edges and paint." 

Our daughter, who was about 1/2 year old when this happened, also has a weirdo-magnet. One day we went to the market. Along the way, we saw a man with one arm missing. He walked over to her buggy and said:"aren't you a friendly little girl." Our daughter, the friendly little girl she was, smiled at the man. Her eyes went a couple of times to the void where the man's arm used to be. He said:"have a nice day." and wanted to continue his walk. Our daughter waved at him:"bye bye". The man waved back. She looked at him, raised her other arm:"bye bye" The man waved again and went on. As little as she was, she knew something was wrong. 

[Capt. Dirigible]

Standing out to people can get ugly though. I was once sitting on a train on my way to uni when the ticket inspectors got on. One of them immediately bolted over to me, demanded to see my ticket, and tore it up without looking at it! I then got written up for travelling without a ticket, while the one who'd torn my ticket up kept saying to the other two, "You get to tell the real crazies after a few years in the job, God knows what this one would do if we let him stay on here all day."

That's outrageous!! I hope you reported him.

[Smaggers]

Many yeas ago I worked for the now defunct Microprose.

There was a computer graphics expo, and it was decreet that we should have a booth there for the purpose of recruiting.
Two of us there, myself and the head of design, Terry. We have just set up and in walks a nerd.  Not just any nerd but clearly an ubernerd.  Sandals, corduroy trousers, thick bottle-end glasses and an old anorak, a school satchel slung over his shoulder. 
Imagine Moss, but white and skinny, and a bit older and tattier.

He starts telling us about his ideas for video games. Reaching into his satchel he pulls out what might be a childs drawing, done in wax crayon and mounted with sellotape on black construction paper.
"These", he says "are the Tool Aliens, they collect tools."
"Right" I say.
"There's more.."
And there were, many more, each more badly drawn and sketchily described than the last, some in crayon, some in felt-tip pen.
Eventually Terry, genius, manages to get a word in edgeways. "You see," he says "These are more arcade style games, Microprose is more about strategy and simulation games, I'm afraid your style doesn't quite fit"
I cotton on.
"Codemasters might be more in your line," I say "They have a booth just around the corner."
Off he wanders, a happy man.

I apologise to anyone who was on the Codies stand that day.

Turns out the guy was Dennis Greenidge, something of an industry legend, that's legend as in slightly unreal character rather than veteran guru.
He would turn up at any trade shows and desperately try to get people interested in gainfully employing him. 
There was even a documentary made about him, "Greenidge meantime".
http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2010/10/the-cosmic-world-of-dennis-greenidge.html

[Siliconous Skumins]

Many yeas ago I worked for the now defunct Microprose.

There was a computer graphics expo, and it was decreet that we should have a booth there for the purpose of recruiting.
Two of us there, myself and the head of design, Terry. We have just set up and in walks a nerd.  Not just any nerd but clearly an ubernerd.  Sandals, corduroy trousers, thick bottle-end glasses and an old anorak, a school satchel slung over his shoulder. 
Imagine Moss, but white and skinny, and a bit older and tattier.

I'm not sure, but I think I spotted Dennis at one of the Maker Faire events in Newcastle. He's an "interesting" fellow....  Looks like a living 'Spitting Image' puppet!

SS

[Horse Brass]

Standing out to people can get ugly though. I was once sitting on a train on my way to uni when the ticket inspectors got on. One of them immediately bolted over to me, demanded to see my ticket, and tore it up without looking at it! I then got written up for travelling without a ticket, while the one who'd torn my ticket up kept saying to the other two, "You get to tell the real crazies after a few years in the job, God knows what this one would do if we let him stay on here all day."

That's outrageous!! I hope you reported him.

At the time, I knew someone who worked as a ticket inspector, so I asked her how to report someone. When I described this guy, she said, "Don't. His mates will tell him who complained, and then you'll be screwed." I've found that people who abuse their authority usually do it because they think they're covered, and they're usually right.