History Website / GoodbyeStrangers

[[https://strangers.atrocityland.com/ Goodbye Strangers]] is an online bestiary/ongoing interactive project that details mysterious, semi-tangible creatures [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment called Strangers.]] Solid and visible but completely unnoticed to most of the world, they live exclusively in populated areas and cause various weird, often dangerous phenomena all around the world. Chewing wires, clogging gas tanks, inducing stutters, [[BreadEggsMilkSquick luring people to deserted areas to mangle them beyond recognition...]] Strangers are mostly disinterested in humans, but their influence is often more harm than good.

* AlternateHistory: The Zeroworld module/game is based on Pokémon. Pokémon still exists in this universe, but its popularity never took off. In fact, the series was cancelled after the fifth generation due to what Space Madness describes as 'references to real world acts of barbarity'. The ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' franchise also exists but also is wildly different. It released a game called ''Sonic & Eggman'' in 1996 for a console called the Sega 64 Entertainment System. Another difference is that the film ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'' was never finished and the leftover sets were used by ''Creator/OrsonWelles'' to make a movie called ''The Fearful Frontier'' that was supposed to be his masterpiece but was poorly received and damaged his reputation significantly.

* BlandNameProduct: The entry for the bibidrini in the Sweeter Smoke module mentions a product with a weird-tasting filling called "Splushers."

* BodyHorror: Several strangers, such as the ladroni; whose body is filled with bile duplicated from the stomachs of people nearby and is [[VomitIndiscretionShot constantly vomiting]] the corrosive mixture everywhere it goes.

* FictionalVideoGame: ''Zeroworld'' is an in-universe video game based on Pokémon. It has Pokédex-like entries for strangers that describe the suffering inflicted on them by humans in a BadFuture, which ended up coming true.

** This could also arguably apply to the extinct kineticontouri.

* TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou: Happens in-universe. The module ''Zeroworld'' is set in a time period where strangers have become visible and interactable to everyone, and are ruthlessly exploited as a result. Olivia North's meddling and The Flood make this future come true. It also happens in the ''Behind the Curtain'' storyline which starts as a fictionalized account of how ''Goodbye Strangers'' was written but then things get weird when [[spoiler:the author is kidnapped by a group of people who claim that strangers are real]].
* ThemeNaming: You're going to see a lot of strangers with the '-droni' suffix.

* TorturedMonster: Many varieties of stranger, especially the ones of the melancholic disposition, live very miserable existences. The tindromi is trapped inside of its own armored skin and can never move but is constantly struggling. The buledroni is always sad and doesn't do much besides constantly crying.

* WeaksauceWeakness: Some Strangers don't react well to certain substances, like water or sunlight.
** Notably, the simdroni can be killed by ''noise.''

->''baby. perfect round baby. (also, you're not allowed to hurt it. it's a rule that i made up, so, it's pretty much canon at this point.)''
-->--'''Kazma Bones on the dodomuri'''.

->''"We know you're out there, thinking it's fun - tapping, letting it come up to you, feeling time slow down - well guess what, if you fall flat on your face, which a bunch of you will, it won't be a "bogulhigh" any more because not only will it take you apart piece by piece, but it's gonna feel like it's lasting for weeks! They call that the "living hell dissection" for a reason and it's hard not to get freaked out just thinking about this gruesome way to die! Hope that's enough to get you to take it seriously, kids!"''
-->--'''Chuck Rockwell'''.

->''"The ambidroni makes you cry while you're sleeping, but other than a wet pillow in the morning, it's just a friendly and shy stranger that can't hurt you and doesn't seem to want to anyway. All the same, please don't lay on the floor, try to suck it up through a straw, and then choke to death when it gets lodged halfway down your windpipe. You wouldn't think we'd need another warning about this but [[WorldGoneMad that's the kind of crazy mixed up world we're all spinning around in]]."''
-->--'''Chuck Rockwell'''.

* OurSoulsAreDifferent: The equivalent of a soul in this setting is called a thoughtform. Humans and animals both have thoughtforms, but gain their thoughtforms through different processes. Animals naturally develop their own thoughtforms, while most humans bond with a free thoughtform during fetal development. A human who develops their own thoughtform is called a blank. While blanks are not able to see strangers, they can sense other things that normal humans can't. Oddly though, animals apparently can see strangers, but are mostly immune to the effects that strangers have. A ghost is a thoughtform that does not have a body. While ghosts are intelligent, they cannot gain new memories. Strangers do not have a thoughtform, and because of this they don't appear to actually have a proper mind even though they display emotions. The nature of ghost strangers is unclear. Entities from the Fade, such as gosdragons, do not have a thoughtform, but instead have a nurenform, which have very different abilities than a thoughtform. Nurenforms gain power to affect reality as they transcend from the limitations of their body, while thoughtforms mainly expand their awareness of reality as they transcend and don't gain significant power. What other sorts of entities have for a soul has not been well described yet, although the Alphabetarians can assimilate thoughtforms into themselves and the Probotaxazatonians can also steal thoughtforms and use them as drugs. A human who loses their thoughtform becomes an empty.

* PsychicAssistedSuicide: The [[https://strangers.atrocityland.com/enter/site/module/elist/s_trezzedari.html Tressedari]] makes nearby children walk into traffic.

* BigDumbObject: The glassheads are huge structures made of glass tubes that are found in deep space.

* InvisibleToNormals: Only sensitives can see Strangers. Notably, sensitivity is ''not'' genetic, and individuals who belong to local minorities then to have a higher chance to become a sensitive.

* BestialityIsDepraved: A few of the entries in the "Sweeter Smoke" module imply that that the Kazma has had sex with some of the Strangers. And in the "Sickos Only" module, Default talks about the abuse inflicted on stranger by his partner Bracey and shows images of strangers in various forms of bondage and with various injuries. Although apparently people don't consider sex with strangers to be bestiality, as strangers are not really alive or sentient in the same way animals are.

* BestialityIsDepraved: A few of the entries in the "Sweeter Smoke" module imply that that the Kazma has had sex with some of the Strangers. And the "Sickos Only" module appears to have been written from the perspective of someone whose partner enjoys sexually abusing the entities. Although apparently people don't consider sex with strangers to be bestiality, as strangers are not really alive or sentient in the same way animals are.

* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: Many strangers kill humans in gruesome ways but you can't really hate them for it because they don't really have minds in the same way that people or animals do. They can be viewed as more of a weird natural phenomenon than as villains. Meanwhile, humans extract drugs and other useful substances from strangers, use them as living batteries, and even sexually abuse them. While it is debatable if strangers actually have enough of a mind to actually suffer from what humans do to them, the ''Zeroworld'' game depicts humans as the villains for how they exploit strangers.

* NonMaliciousMonster: While some varieties of stranger, especially those of the choleric temperament, attack and kill humans, many varieties cause harm with only their presence unwillingly or without their awareness. Although since strangers don't have very much of a mind it is a stretch to call even the very aggressive ones malicious. They have emotions but their intelligence is extremely limited and they don't have free will or a sense of self.

* Gaia'sLament: The environment is devastated in the VHZ future. Wild animals have been driven almost entirely to extinction.

** The "Noninveterate"[[note]]"Inveterate" means "has habits/interests that are long-established and unlikely to change"[[/note]] class from the Red Module ramps the weirdness UpToEleven.

* AlternateHistory: The Zeroworld module/game is based on Pokémon. Pokémon still exists in this universe, but its popularity never took off. In fact, the series was cancelled after the fifth generation due to what Space Madness describes as 'references to real world acts of barbarity'. The ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' franchise also exists but also is different. It released a game called ''Sonic & Eggman'' in 1996 for a console called the Sega 64 Entertainment System. Another difference is that the film ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'' was never finished and the leftover sets were used by ''Creator/OrsonWelles'' to make a movie called ''The Fearful Frontier'' that was supposed to be his masterpiece but was poorly received and damaged his reputation significantly.

* AlternateHistory: The Zeroworld module/game is based on Pokémon. Pokémon still exists in this universe, but its popularity never took off. In fact, the series was cancelled after the fifth generation due to what Space Madness describes as 'references to real world acts of barbarity'. The ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' franchise also exists but also is different. It released a game called ''Sonic & Eggman'' in 1996 for a console called the Sega 64 Entertainment System. Another difference is that the film ''Film/2001ASpaceOdyssey'' was never finished and the leftover sets were used by ''Creator/OrsonWelles'' to make a movie called ''The Fearful Frontier'' that was supposed to be his masterpiece but was poorly received and damaged his reputation significantly.

* AlienGeometries: And the Alphabetarians and Animalarians are extremely weird. They look like two dimensional beings but they actually are higher dimensional beings we are only seeing a small part of. The Animalarians look like children's drawings of animals that are always facing towards the viewer, but their bodies are described as being like a flipbook whose spine stretches from the dimension of the Alphabetarians. And the Alphabetarians look like living letters, but they are described as being vast dimensional tunnels that absorb any thoughtform that they intersect with. Looking at them is painful.

* AlienGeometries: And the Alphabetarians and Animalarians are extremely weird. They look like two dimensional beings but they actually are higher dimensional beings we are only seeing a small part of. The Animalarians look like children's drawings of animals that are always facing towards the viewer, but their bodies are described as being like a flipbook whose spite stretches from the dimension of the Alphabetarians. And the Alphabetarians look like living letters, but they are described as being vast dimensional tunnels that absorb any thoughtform that they intersect with. Looking at them is painful.

* AlternateHistory: The Zeroworld module/game is based on Pokémon. Pokémon still exists in this universe, but its popularity never took off. In fact, the series was cancelled after the fifth generation due to what Space Madness describes as 'references to real world acts of barbarity'. The ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' franchise also exists but also is different. It released a game called ''Sonic & Eggman'' in 1996 for a console called the Sega 64 Entertainment System. Another difference is that the film ''Film/2001ASpaceOdyssey'' was never finished and the leftover sets were used by ''Film/OrsonWelles'' to make a movie called ''The Fearful Frontier'' that was supposed to be his masterpiece but was poorly received and damaged his reputation significantly.

* AlternateHistory: The Zeroworld module/game is based on Pokémon. Pokémon still exists in this universe, but its popularity never took off. In fact, the series was cancelled after the fifth generation due to what Space Madness describes as 'references to real world acts of barbarity'. The ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' franchise also exists but also is different. It released a game called ''Sonic & Eggman'' in 1996 for a console called the Sega 64 Entertainment System. Another difference is that the film ''Film/2001ASpaceOdyssey'' was never finished and the leftover sets were used by ''Film/OrsonWells'' to make a movie called ''The Fearful Frontier'' that was supposed to be his masterpiece but was poorly received and damaged his reputation significantly.

* AlternateHistory: The Zeroworld module/game is based on Pokémon. Pokémon still exists in this universe, but its popularity never took off. In fact, the series was cancelled after the fifth generation due to what Space Madness describes as 'references to real world acts of barbarity'. The ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' franchise also exists but also is different. It released a game called ''Sonic & Eggman'' in 1996 for a console called the Sega 64 Entertainment System.