There was a bad accident one night in our neighborhood. Some idiot teenager blew a stop sign and T-boned a minivan with a family inside. The minivan was folded pretty badly, the teen's BMW was toast. The teen and his passenger were staggering around in the street while people tried to get these two very bloody kids to sit down and wait for the ambulance. The family in the minivan looked all right, just shaken up (except for the very young children who thought it quite exciting and fun).
While everyone else had things under control, a friend and I took it on ourselves to get some flares and block the intersection. You know how it goes with an accident. Suddenly everybody has business that way. So while my friend is laying out the flares, I'm directing traffic away. For the most part they're cooperating.
Except for one guy. He was hell-bent on going through that intersection no matter who was laying in the road and bleeding to death. I started walking at his car, giving hand signs that anyone with half a brain would see means "turn around". When he kept coming, I held up my hand in a universal sign for "stop". Nope, not this guy. He actually accelerated. At this point, the intersection was now lit up with car headlights from bystanders wanting to provide plenty of illumination. The flares were out. Car parts were all over the street and yes, one of the teenagers had collapsed in the road. He was being tended to, and ambulances were fast approaching from head on to his idiot, who insisted that he was right.
I got pretty miffed at that point and started walking right at the guy, fists clenched and rage obvious on my face (according to my friend). Everybody started yelling "He's not going to stop! He's going to hit you!" What came out from my mouth came out with a loud roar:
"HE WOULDN'T DARE!!!"
In hindsight, it was pretty suicidal on my part. I'm a meat sack, he's in a mid-sized car. At any rate, my friend swore that she saw me seem to get bigger, and for a moment she believed that I could have actually stopped that car with my bare hands. Fortunately I didn't have to find out if I could have. He slid to a stop a short distance from me and turned around.
I don't know what I would have done if he hadn't stopped (except for bled a lot).
(These days, I'm sure that's a 4e power somewhere, probably a Barbarian power. I know in Martial Powers 2, the picture of that white minotaur is what reminded me of this incident. Maybe that says something.)
I've done plenty of crazy/stupid things in my time. They've all worked out exactly as expected. I'll just say that, for a fair amount of my life, it could easily be said that my motto was '**** it, why not.'
Stupidist thing I've done was choose my college based on it being far enough from home that I *had* to move.
The most crazy-stupid thing I've done was accidentally out myself to a group of friends by blurting out about all the gay porn on my harddrive while very, very drunk.
Edit: In other news, I've led a pretty boring life.
Only at work. Risking breaking your neck to save a couple minutes of work is what being a good worker is all about.
Walking ankle deep in broken/jagged glass where the glass is actually 4 feet deep.
Hopping into a working bailer to stomp down cardboard
Climbing 10 feet up onto the wobbly forks of a forklift to attach paperwork to package.
Performing splits over a mass of televisions to fix a door.
You know I barely even noticed herniating myself working that job. It's probably for the best I was fired.
I leaked out of both ends for a full day before I build up my tolerance to the bacteria there. Not pretty.
But after that I could eat anything there without getting sick. . . or well getting sick too often. . .
(These days, I'm sure that's a 4e power somewhere, probably a Barbarian power. I know in Martial Powers 2, the picture of that white minotaur is what reminded me of this incident. Maybe that says something.)
Druid level 1 encounter; Cull the Herd. You deal damage by staring at them .
I don't even tend to remember life threatening danger very well, I mostly just shrug it off and keep on chugging. That can't be a good evolutionary path, huh? I was going 120 in an oldsmobile at 3am, on my way to work, and decided to swerve to avoid a crane that decided to stand in the middle of the road. Five dougnuts later, I was flying back down the road, not even shaken. It truely is a miriacle that I have not gotten myself killed yet.
There's not much else you can do. You weren't killed, the car wasn't damaged, and I don't think the crane would have been impressed if you stopped to see if he needed you call an ambulance. You might as well drive on!
Congrats TA.
TA Nah, slowing would have nothing but bore you to death. My husband's got a hopped up Camaro and was kicking down 132 out here in California's central valley. The needle was buried. The top end on the speedometer was 130, I think. Anyway, he comes to a rise and eases up on the gas. You never know what's going to be on the other side. He was thinking traffic or debris. What he found was Officer Jelly Doughnut on a motorcycle that probably could have disappeared up his butt. He said he kinda looked like Sheriff Buford T. Justice, Jackie Gleason's role in Smokey & the Bandit. He did his best to slow it down but knew he'd been caught. He pulled over and the cop came swaggering up and told him (I kid you not!) "I got you at 120, 93, and 85. Which one you wanna plead to?" (IIRC, those were the speeds. The ranges are correct, though.) My husband sheepishly smiled and said "85?" The cop laughed and said "Well, at least ya ain't stupid!" The next half hour was a lecture on speed and safety. I think he was just trying to keep my husband there to make damned sure that speeding didn't get him anywhere faster than it otherwise would. What I will never get over is that no ticket was issued! I swear, he's got the Ticket-Proof feat! I swear, I can't do 5 over without nailed!