Most people will probably think I'm just making this up or that I've been reading too much weird stuff. But I think they're already among us. I live in a regular neighborhood (Lasnamäe). But starting around midsummer, I began noticing odd things about how some people around me behave. At first it was little things — facial expressions that were too "uniform," strange pauses in conversation, as if the person would freeze for a second before responding. One incident stuck with me in particular. A man was standing in front of me at the store. Totally ordinary, nothing remarkable about him. But when the cashier asked if he needed a bag, he didn't answer right away — it was like he… "buffered." A 3–4 second pause, and then he replied, but the intonation was really strange, like he was mimicking human speech. Then I started noticing that some people behave too similarly — they rarely blink, show almost zero emotion, and there are those pauses before every response… Yes, I know, it sounds like paranoia. Most people will think I've watched too much sci-fi. But I can't shake the feeling (and I'm scared to even write this) that some of the "people" around me aren't quite people. Or… aren't fully people anymore. I'm not saying it's widespread. But there seem to be just enough of them to blend in. If anyone has noticed something similar — especially those "freezes" in people's behavior or strange reactions — let me know. I need to understand whether this is just in my head, or if someone else sees it too.