and, bring on the menagerie

Now, we return to the cities. There, the rails grow colder by the day, the red bricks crumble, and the strangers keep coming.

On its surface, Primer , with the On its surface, Module 2 acts as a rather straightforward continuation of, with the xoridromel being the first of the increasingly abstracted new entries.

1



Or "zone", as geographical regions tend to be denoted more often than not.

By the time Module 2 is released, the number of strains reaches the hundreds, and infestations can be found within every country1 on earth. Over time, a scattering of insular sensitive communities coalesce, as well. Both online and off, individuals band together and attempt to observe, catalog, and hunt the strains – and ultimately, rationalize and validate their experiences.

IQ

( the insensitive quality ) "There is something that enables them to live in fields that diverge from our own; most evidently, spatially, but by proxy, most certainly in terms of their inner worlds, as well. ( ... ) the thing that sets them apart from us ( ... ) some system that regulates both their physical detachment and the depth of their internal qualia. It is this 'insensitive quality' that shows us just how detached strangers are from the human experience; how different from us they are." Maeng, Chihun. personal journal #1, 98



stability "A stranger's overall health and constitution may be denoted by its stability. Stable strangers are less prone to illness, thrive more readily, and display a uniformity in their behaviours, whereas less stable strangers are shorter-lived, prone to disease and infection, and display a greater degree of erraticism. Stability can also be used to estimate a stranger's lifespan – a stranger with a stability of 35% tends to reach its maximum lifespan 35% of the time." Maeng, Chihun. personal journal #17, 278 "There is something that enables them to live in fields that diverge from our own; most evidently, spatially, but by proxy, most certainly in terms of their inner worlds, as well. ( ... ) the thing that sets them apart from us ( ... ) some system that regulates both their physical detachment and the depth of their internal qualia. It is this 'insensitive quality' that shows us just how detached strangers are from the human experience; how different from us they are.""A stranger's overall health and constitution may be denoted by its. Stable strangers are less prone to illness, thrive more readily, and display a uniformity in their behaviours, whereas less stable strangers are shorter-lived, prone to disease and infection, and display a greater degree of erraticism. Stability can also be used to estimate a stranger's lifespan – a stranger with a stability of 35% tends to reach its maximum lifespan 35% of the time."

For those sensitives who discover it, the Strangers website proves an invaluable resource into the strangers' behaviours and effects, and saves many a sensitive from chancing an encounter with a dangerous strain. It also gives definite names for several of the phenomenon that have shaped the infestation thus far, giving some insight into concepts such as prevalence and stability.

Nonetheless, it cannot be treated as an exhaustive source. Idiosyncrasies, stylizations, as well as outright contradictions add layers of obfuscation. Many strangers are missing minor details, with some lacking description altogether, or used purely for aesthetic effect.

prevalence "Current research and analysis suggests that a strain's prevalence denotes the likelihood of their appearance – thus, a strain with a prevalence of 100% appears in 100% of ideal urban environments. Human activity, however, does seem to be a requirement for their generation; a stranger that generates amongst the copses of urban parks never appears in the wilderness, and the strains that thrive in the harbor are unobserved in the open seas." Wurlitzer, Georne. personal notes, #30



constancy "We knew, by this point, that it was not only possible, but highly likely for them to be present one day, and absent the next; even within locked rooms and sealed boxes, they came and went freely. We measured this as their constancy – or, the likelihood that it would be where we left it when we came back. They needed their secrecy, the same as us...we never saw when they left, we never saw when they came back." Muto, Alex. unpublished memoirs "Current research and analysis suggests that a strain'sdenotes the likelihood of their appearance – thus, a strain with a prevalence of 100% appears in 100% of ideal urban environments. Human activity, however, does seem to be a requirement for their generation; a stranger that generates amongst the copses of urban parks never appears in the wilderness, and the strains that thrive in the harbor are unobserved in the open seas.""We knew, by this point, that it was not only possible, but highly likely for them to be present one day, and absent the next; even within locked rooms and sealed boxes, they came and went freely. We measured this as their– or, the likelihood that it would be where we left it when we came back. They needed their secrecy, the same as us...we never saw when they left, we never saw when they came back."

Indeed, instead of acting as a resource for sensitives, the author's intentions appear focused on deconstructing systems of organization and conveying moods and sensations, with the involvement of outside artists, such as Felix Kramer and Carly Sorge, helping to reaffirm the project as something of an abstract, autobiographical work.

Rather than focus solely on the strains (such as the lume, above), Rather than focus solely on the strains The Known Unknowns documents the individual encounters, although its textual content (which exists solely through metadata) leaves out many crucial details.

Though most within the ever-growing fandom are unaware of the strangers' existence as anything outside of a fictional work, there are those readers who do begin to recognize their own sensitivity after reading the website's contents – and others who only believe they possess the trait. So these strays and other runaways slip into the deeper sensitive community, which can no longer escape public notice.

Spurred by a desire to both maintain an insular network, as well as sever their reliance upon a flawed primary work, several independent factions of sensitives construct their own third-party add-ons for the website. Developed by the North Mural sensitive community, The Known Unknowns is one such work. This same group of individuals is also responsible for a later add-on which allowed comments2 to be merged with entries themselves, in the hopes of creating a bulletin board-like resource.3

2 Because the contents of Goodbye Strangers exist as a collection of many disparate materials, the archival of these "annotated" entries proves frustrating to those within both the fandom and sensitive community who might wish for a more traditional entry. note to self: revise or reconsider approach? 3 Criminal conspiracies, illicit chemical production, and melodramatic interpersonal tensions lead to the community's eventual breakup.

To the greater public, however, the "sensitives" are a fringe and delusional fanatic group – a stigma that casts the fandom, as a whole, in a largely negative light.

Realizing the increasingly problematic reputation of both the fandom and any publicly known sensitive groups, a small community of sensitive writers, known as the Partisans, recedes further into secrecy.

oh.

I'm dirty now.

This group, led by such otherwise well-known authors as Alex Muto and Jealous Fontaine, place veiled allusions towards strangers in their written works in the hopes of subtly shifting mainstream culture – notably, the academics – into a "primed" state for the eventual reveal of the infestation's reality.

"The whole thing is ridiculous. I never even knew about the website until someone showed me this conspiracy. And I never said any of the things they're attributing to me." – Jealous Fontaine, in their final interview.

To facilitate this goal, the Partisans formulate their own internal add-on for the website, which embeds fragments of their writing into the page's contents, allowing other sensitive writers and media creators to see which passages reference the strain.

oops. i'm scared now, too. oh no, i'm really, really scared.™



this

and so much more

can be yours

In this manner, the Partisans display a greater prudence than many other sensitive groups. Having seen the general public's negative response to the implication that strangers might be real, the Partisans' hope is that if enough sensitives within different fields focus on making the reality unavoidable on a subconscious level, it will wash over society in a way that cannot be ignored, and the world will have no choice but to WAKE UP.