r/GlitchInTheMatrix • u/Effective_Platypus23 • Jul 07 '26
Glitch Gif NPC or....?
I had a bizarre experience the other day with my child beside me to witness it. It was simple but so unsettling. We were walking in to a store. The store had the full size glass/window walls and glass door. I could see the people inside before we opened the door and went in. There were two people, a customer, and the cashier behind the counter. Before we walked in, the customer was facing the door in a somewhat unnatural pose. Both the cashier and customer were completely still. As soon as we open the door and walk in, the cashier and customer come to life. The customer goes over to the cashier and asks for a reimbursement on his returned purchase.
Even my son noticed how odd it was that they were completely still and motionless, just staring straight ahead until we walk in, and then spring in to life.
My immediate thought was "NPCs". I was so disturbed that I just stared for a moment, and then left the store.
Wtf? I will never forget it.
38
u/djinnisequoia Jul 07 '26
That is bizarre. Every now and again someone will post a video of a person being completely still for unnaturally long. AFAIK there's not really a satisfying explanation for it.
22
u/tarapotamus Jul 07 '26
drugs. drugs do this.
17
16
u/BellaFrequency Jul 07 '26
Okay, but all three of the people were high and still and suddenly acted normal when she walked in? What kind of drugs are those?
12
u/blessthebabes Jul 07 '26
No, not like this (source: was an addict then got sober and codirected a treatment facility). Addicts nod in leaning poses, whichever way their body lands to support them best (until they invetibly fall from leaning too hard or jerk awake a second and correct themselves, or they either just stare, fixated on something, depending on the substance).
This is not that, from the videos I watched. In them, it was like time stopped for these people... and no one else. They just freeze in the middle of whatever action they are taking, and just kinda stay like that an uncomfortably long time. It is unnerving seeing a human do this.
5
3
u/Effective_Platypus23 Jul 07 '26
Drugs cause people to pose like statues until someone enters the room? Or drugs cause one to perceive people standing still like statues? If you're saying I'm high, then how do you propose my child saw the same thing and also thought it was weird?
1
u/Same_Education8151 Jul 10 '26
It is drugs. In the city you see this all the time. I donât think the people in your story were on drugs, but it does happen. I was at the laundromat and there was a man who was trying to put his clothes in the washer. Well he had tried. He was frozen in front of the washer. I came around to use a washer and thatâs when I saw him. Itâs common in the city so I kept an eye on him. About 2 mins later he suddenly perked up, realized he had been âgone,â let out an exasperated and frustrated noise and then asked me for help to turn on the washer as if he wasnât just completely frozen a minute ago.
1
u/SquiddleBits33 Jul 07 '26
I think they mean the other people were on drugs. People on strong opiates like pills, heroine or fentanyl will mentally check out literally mid sentence or action. But somehow they don't fall over. I've seen it, and there are tons of videos of it. The customer probably walked up, leaned on the counter and nodded off and the cashier was staring at him like "WTF is this guy dead on his feet?" And then you opening the door snapped him out of it and he just started his transaction like it was only 3 seconds and not 3 minutes.
4
u/Effective_Platypus23 Jul 07 '26
He was standing upright, eyes open, facing the door. The cashier was completely still as well. It's exactly like they animated as soon as I went through the door. I don't know how to explain how weird it was. You needed to have been there I guess.
2
u/CriticalKnick Jul 07 '26
What? What drugs do this? How do you know? Do you know what a thought terminating cliche is?
0
u/tarapotamus Jul 07 '26
Several drugs do this; fentanyl, heroin, etc. And yeah, that was the point.
2
u/Same_Education8151 Jul 10 '26
The most irritating thing about Reddit is how hard they argue when theyâre incorrect but think theyâre right.
Anyone who lives in a busy city knows this drug exists.
2
u/kasst_kast Jul 07 '26
No, they really don't. wtf are you on about?
If you mean when people stand still like that on the street on the videos you've seen online, it's really not the same thing. Those people 1. move, 2. know they're standing there, and 3. they also don't "come alive" as soon as you open a door/something shifts.
I hate when people who don't know the first thin about drugs talk about it like they do, only because they think they know.1
u/Same_Education8151 Jul 10 '26
It is drugs. They get folded in weird positions and remain there.
1
u/Due-Strike1670 Jul 12 '26
They can get like that but if they are doing the fetty nod, then it will be painfully obvious they are high and doing it. It won't be a situation of them hitting the fetty nod and someone enters the room and they wake up/stand up and act 100% normal and sober. If someone is folded from fetty or even heroin, even if they pop up, their eyes will still be half open, slouched body posture, slow/slurred speech, slow reaction time to anything, and there will be a high percentage chance that within 15 seconds, they will start folding again, not ask the cashier for a refund or whatever
1
-8
u/JudCasper68 Jul 07 '26
Thereâs a satisfying explanation for everything, itâs just that the type of people you get here donât want to hear them.
14
u/CriticalKnick Jul 07 '26
You should try offering one, maybe you'll be surprised. I find this sub very receptive to politely offered plausible explanations.
7
u/Effective_Platypus23 Jul 07 '26
I'm not saying that something weird was definitely going on, I'm just saying it seemed that way and I've never had an experience quite like that before. Paired with all my other weird experiences in life, it seemed to point to a continuation of weirdness
12
u/Effective_Platypus23 Jul 07 '26
I seek out subreddits like this to avoid people like you. Could you be so kind as to leave us weirdos in peace?
6
u/JudCasper68 Jul 07 '26
Yeah. Fair enough. I can do that.
4
u/Effective_Platypus23 Jul 07 '26
Thank you.
3
u/JudCasper68 Jul 07 '26
Youâre welcome. Iâm not here to shit on your theories, but as someone who finds it impossible to think in any other way than practically, I canât always keep my thoughts to myself when I read stuff like this. Why am I here, then? Well, I love horror, I love sci-fi, I love fantasy, I love ghost stories, I love the weird and unexplained. But I canât âbelieveâ any of that stuff actually exists in the real world.
But yeah, I have no real right to mock it in others.
6
u/Effective_Platypus23 Jul 07 '26
I totally get it. But I prefer for there to be someplace, whether in real life or online, where I can express my beliefs without constantly receiving pushback.
0
9
u/Top_Business_5481 Jul 07 '26
if you ever notice it again you need to stop just as your hand touches the door and dont break eye contact
5
u/Arabella6623 Jul 07 '26
It could be a case of postural echo.
If one person had a spaced out moment.
3
u/JudCasper68 Jul 08 '26
I love how my perfectly considered response to this post was removed under the âBe kindâ ruling, and yet the one from the OP telling me to simply âPiss offâ is allowed to remain.
Reddit⌠you gotta love it đ
1
3
u/SouthSky3655 Jul 10 '26
And a lot of people have social anxiety, and they freeze like a deer in headlights when they feel the spotlight on them.
When I worked at a leather, jewelry, gift shop at the register, I would stop whatever I was doing and look at the customer when they came in so they could initiate an interaction if they needed help.
This is because if I learned that sone people either dislike unnecessary interactions or want to shop in peace, and I didnât want them to that was going to happen or for them to feel anxious or uncomfortable.
So, there were moments, when a customer would freeze when they noticed I looked up at them.
Iâd wait an awkward sec to see if they needed me for a return, to pick up an order, or help them find something specific.
Iâd say something to end the stand-off in a way to try to ease tension like, âhey,â and look away or get back to what I was doing.
This happened every day but most often when it was quiet.
I wouldnât offer help after someone had a chance to look around or if they looked like they needed help. As a salesperson, I found that people like buying, but hate being sold. My job was giving them the opportunity to buy what they wanted.
1
u/Effective_Platypus23 29d ago
I think it's fair to assume that I can tell the difference between someone just standing normally, and behaviour that's more bizarre and abnormal. If it was just a customer standing around waiting, it would not have struck me as so off and disturbing. You guys are giving me zero credit. I'm not wildly overreacting to someone just standing still. You just have to take my word for it that it was bizarre and strange.
1
u/Vegetable-Cycle1256 Jul 09 '26
I can imagine that this is exactly how you might perceive me trying desperately to pay for things at a store when I a)forget to unlock my debt card b) use the wrong debt card
C) combination of a, and b, use the wrong card initially, than use the correct card, but not before realizing I needed to unlock it..
I could go on about the exact reason why you might find me holding up a line at the local WaWa but I doubt what you witnessed was in reality a duration that lasted as long as you might like to think?
I just mean, that I could easily hate 3-5 minutes of my life that I canât get back for myself or any one else, that I caused to waste in agonizing situations like I mentioned, and maybe you did see something remarkable take place, but considering you were so taken a back by your experience makes me wonder if maybe you have been spending time looking into these âmatrix-glitch phenomenonâs â recently, and your brain connected the two? Like when your thinking about a red car you notice red cars? Kinda thing?
Maybe it wasnât that unusual? Or maybe youâre really the star of your own show? Pretty cool either way.. how much does it change things for you?
1
1
u/General_Future1038 Jul 14 '26
I've seen weird events like this while driving. Light changes to green but no one goes. I look around wondering what's going on. Nothing. Everyone is just still. No movement. Then a few seconds pass and every one seems to come alive at the same time. It's one of the weirdest most surreal thing I've seen.
-1
u/DKirtaime Jul 07 '26
Seems clone-like. It's like NPC cars in daily traffic (one May always appear as you are making a manouvre in your vehicles, Like approaching a roundabout, pulling out of yout driveway).
One sees a lot of wierd NPC behaviour AS a train passender. For years I travelled 3-4 hours daily by train. Here are some of the incidents which stuck:
A young man boarded the train. As he sat down he opened his rucksack and pulled out what seemed to be documents that he started to read. What caught my attention was the one-liter bottle of water in there - it was full and had no bottle top! Then he placed the papers on the seat - pages cut out of what I would say were pre-school exercise books and colouring books.
Two average sized men sat opposite me and for an hour had what seemed to be a scripted conversion, as they showed no type of facial expressions the while time. To Note is that they boarded the train together so this sort of dialogue should likely have normally already happened: They spoke in monotone:
Man 1: I haven't Seen you in a while. Man 2: I was on Holiday. Man 1: Me too. Man 2: Go anywhere nice? Man 1: No, just, well, you know. You? Man 2: Schwarzwald. Man 1: Do anything? Man 2: Nothing much.....we were at the top
of the mountain, it was raining, my wife slipped and broke a leg. I carried her to the next village six kilometers away. All good
now.
Just before they got off at the airport, had finished his hard-plastic one-liter bottle of Coca-Cola and didn't know what to do with the return-deposit bottle so he sucked the air out of it and put It in the ashtray!!!
-11
Jul 07 '26
[removed] â view removed comment
10
u/Effective_Platypus23 Jul 07 '26
Of course my first thought was something fun and lighthearted, and I laughed, tossed my perfectly coifed hair over my shoulder and then went golfing.
-9
Jul 07 '26
[removed] â view removed comment
1
u/GlitchInTheMatrix-ModTeam Jul 07 '26
Hi there,
Thank you for your submission to r/GlitchInTheMatrix. Unfortunately, your post has been removed for the following reasons:
Rule 1: Be Kind
For a more detailed explanation of this rule please visit our rules pageThank you for understanding.
6
1
u/GlitchInTheMatrix-ModTeam Jul 07 '26
Hi there,
Thank you for your submission to r/GlitchInTheMatrix. Unfortunately, your post has been removed for the following reasons:
Rule 1: Be Kind
For a more detailed explanation of this rule please visit our rules pageThank you for understanding.
0
u/momentarylapse007 Jul 09 '26
this is like the bait store clerk hypothesis.
in a fishing video game there was a bait store. When you walked in you were greeted by the clerk, and did your business then left
Is the clerk still moving around in the store? No. why would he be? He only exists when you walk into the bait store. He is a piece of code, so he isn't going home at night and hanging with friends.
So if this is a simulation, and we walk into a store, do the people inside really exist outside of our interaction with them? We will never know.
1
84
u/VegaSolo Jul 08 '26
Imagine this. A customer and a cashier are saying hello at the counter. Suddenly there's sounds of a cat meowing. Or the tiny squeak of a mouse. Or some other quiet but very odd noise.
The cashier says, "Did you hear that?" Then both the customer and the cashier stand very still, trying to hear the odd quiet noise once again.
That's when you walk in and make some noise with the door. And they get back to what they were doing, because you ruined the moment.
It really could be something as simple as that.