Hungry at 4 am so I decide to drop by my local 24 hour eatery. I seat myself and order food, everything goes as per usual.

Cue this tall, chiseled, leanly muscled and malignant-looking 27-odd year old guy who decides to have a smoke just opposite my table. He's accompanied by two lackies and a woman who is presumably his girlfriend. Tattoos cover every inch of his visible skin. Holy shit man. He's got a tan unlike any I've ever seen before.

I've never felt so endangered before. Felt like a god damn pig on a spit sitting next to a starving tiger accompanied by three hyenas. His lackeys were so deferential that they let him fill the air with his loud foreign banter. He kept making jokes about slitting someone's throat. His girlfriend looked like she wasn't sure if she wanted to run away or stay locked there with his arm over her shoulder. The intimidation was absolute, and he didn't have to lift a single finger.

Anyway, I cleared off ASAP. Holy shit. How does one develop that kind of demeanor? The schoolmates my grandmother was always paranoid of being gangsters never even approached 5% of the pure menace this man exuded. The fear was instinctual.

Has anyone ever had a similar experience? Has anyone ever dealt with bad boys like this before? How does one even deal with people like this? I mean, like, once you get past the trying-not-to-quiver stage. This isn't even about pills anymore. This is like waking up to realize that you've been living a closeted life in the daytime unaware that real monsters lurked in the shadows of the night.

How does one develop that kind of demeanor?