Random Encounter Table: 00, DM's Choice.

[gothwalk]

I was getting off the train in Dun Laoghaire this morning, while trying to put the SCA Known World Handbook in my bag as I walked, and nearly crashed into someone. The reason I nearly crashed into her was that she was about five feet tall, and the only sign of her presence at my eye level was an antenna sticking out of the huge green pack she was carrying. I stepped back, and followed the usual routine for when I've been spending too much time in Davon rather than Dublin, which is to bow slightly and sweep out an arm in the direction of travel. And then I saw her properly. She was about five feet tall, black, dressed in army camo gear, dark glasses, with a stars-and-stripes bandana on her head, a pack nearly as big as she was with a load of radio gear in the top - and a machine gun. I don't know one gun from another, but this was definitely something that meant business. She took a step back, looked at me over the shades... and then said, in a good solid Deep South accent "Hail, and well met!" and walked past me onto the train just as the doors closed.

I think I stood there gaping for a minute. I'm telling you, the weird follows me around.

Comments

[silja.livejournal.com]

A machine gun in Dun Laoghaire ?!? Openly ?!? Even assuming it is a replica, I wonder what the gardai have to say about that....

[gothwalk.livejournal.com]

*nods* That's what I was wondering. Now, if I was grutok, I'd know what kind of gun it was, and be able to make a guess at real or not, but all I can say is that it sure looked real.

But yeah, openly and casually.

[sciamachy.livejournal.com]

An airsofter maybe?

[gothwalk.livejournal.com]

How realistic would that look?

[sciamachy.livejournal.com]

Extremely. Airsofters go for realism first and foremost. boglin has a H&K MP5 that looks and feels just like the real thing. Often they use the real guns with the insides taken out and replaced with air & paint pellet workings. cutietrol has ridden in helicopters and trained under ex-SAS troopers in CQB techniques. They're like you are with swords, only with guns, IYSWIM.

[gothwalk.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know a few folks who do it; didn't know the guns were that realistic, though. Maybe that was it. It'd probably explain the "hail and well met" bit too...

[wyvernfriend.livejournal.com]

You know that's all too true!

[radegund.livejournal.com]

What a bizarre story!

Wish it was a story - the notion of diminutive gunpersons wandering the suburbs greeting strangers in archaic fashion is distinctly unsettling...

[ariadnesthread.livejournal.com]

Once again, you prove what the man told you--you *are* the Wizard of Duke Street. :-)

Very cool random encounter. My random encounters are usually with slightly scary, stalkerish middle-aged men. I seem to be a weirdo magnet. Why couldn't I be an attractive-single-straight-guy magnet?

[bastun.livejournal.com]

You are a walking Fortean event horizon...

[ailbhe]

What do you do when you meet really short people, if 5' doesn't register at your eye level?

Guns scary weird.

[gothwalk.livejournal.com]

Normally I'm paying more attention to all areas of the height spectrum; I'm not much more than average height myself. She just got me at a bad moment, trying to get off the train, put a book in my bag, and see what time it was all at once.

Gun scary weird indeed.

[mr-wombat.livejournal.com]

Could be worse, you could have had greg's reaction to short people and screamed before running away.

[bardiphouka.livejournal.com]

Thinking...I didn't consider it that strange...wonder what that says?

[crimmycat.livejournal.com]

You prolly made her random encounter table, too. I don't meet many people who come off the train nearly running me down, then stop and bow and sweep out an arm in the direction I'm going.

Not that I don't do it myself, now and then, but it 'tis far rarer to have it happen to me. :-)

[queenofhalves]

what a terrific anecdote. i think i'd be wondering if it really happened.