#avatar concepts

A Catholic priest feeding on the confessions of his parishioners.

A soccer mom spreading gossip on Facebook.

A redditor who shares horrifying facts about the world and the creatures in it that nobody wants to know about.

A "psychic" who gives cold readings, picking up and sharing the worst facts about people at their shows.

A TikTok addict who mindlessly scrolls through their feed, which consists of nothing but candid videos of people who have no idea they're being filmed.

And, of course, the FBI and NSA agents watching us all through our webcams. (Hope you enjoyed seeing me scratch my boob, Mark!)

Edit: Also, this guy apparently

A plastic surgeon who constantly "upsells" their services.

A PUA who has perfected the art of "negging" to the point that their partners end up resorting to extreme measures for the "ideal body.

TikTok influencers selling their latest MLM anti-aging product.

A butcher who slaughters... non-standard animals, adding them to the ground beef.

Animal breeders who inbreed their dogs and cats and birds and fish until the breed "ideal" is unrecognizable as what it originally started as.

The personal trainer at the gym, constantly belittling his clients until they've gained so much muscle they can barely move.

A transplant surgeon who replaces more than they're supposed to.

A software developer who creates filters that stretch and bend and distort you until you no longer recognize yourself in the photos. And eventually, the mirror.

A political advisor who's the power behind the throne. A similar looking man was the advisor seventy-five years ago. Fifty years before that. A hundred years before that. How old is he? How long has he bee pulling these strings?

A Wikipedia editor quietly linking pages together. The links don't always seem to go where a user would expect, but they go exactly where the editor intends them to go.

A young woman who spends her time running ten, twenty, a hundred different accounts on various social media sites. Nothing she posts is true; her accounts are layers of sockpuppets upon trolls upon catfish. She appears to be young, but she is slowly crafting her fourth world-changing conspiracy. The first one was done eons ago, before it was considered appropriate for a young woman like her to be able to read and write.

The leader of a powerful and well-known cult, hiding in plain sight. He pulls the strings of his underlings, telling them to give a little more, a little more, just a little more. The members, in turn, snare others to bring in. A little more, they say. If you give just a little more, perhaps you can be as successful as I am. As our leader is. And when the entire town becomes part of the network… why, then it's simply time to expand.

The teacher in charge of the anti-drug program at a school. They provide all sorts of information on why drugs are bad and how to avoid them. "They will make you feel all of these incredible sensations," the teacher whispers into the students' ears. "They will make you feel so lovely, but they are deadly. Here is the man who sells them, and where he is. His prices are cheap, so it will be tempting. You should avoid him at all costs." They tell their contact that there is a new group of students coming his way.

An entomologist who has dedicated her life to studying creatures that the world finds both revolting and fascinating. She welcomes her subject into her home, eventually to the point of rejecting human interaction. All the more time to study her little friends. When someone finally calls in a wellness check, she's nowhere to be found. Her house is empty, save for some very large cobwebs.

A caver leaving any method of communication behind, taking only a headlamp. Why would they want to leave?

A researcher developing ways to go deeper and deeper into the ocean. When their family and friends ask why, they chuckle and say simply that all life comes from the sea. They don't add that they long to go back.

A subway conductor on a dilapidated-looking train. The temperature rises, and nobody blinks. That's normal, they think, wiping sweat from their brows. Passengers' ears pop, and nobody says anything; who mentions that to a car full of strangers? The time drags on--minutes, hours, days (but it can't be days, can it?)--and the darkness shows no sign of letting up. They start looking at each other, fear in their eyes, shirts soaked with sweat, huddled in corners, mistrustful of the others, mistrustful of themselves, and—the doors open. The light nearly blinds them. One man rolls on the floor clutching his ears as they pop painfully. A woman looks around, terrified, unsure if she's been released from her hellish nightmare, and notices the large digital clocks on the walls of the platform. No time has passed. None at all. She's disheveled, stinking of sweat and fear, but no time has passed. Everyone else frantically follows her onto the platform, all except the man with the popping ears. A young man, originally wearing a nicely tailored suit, now simply in his pants, turns around to check, but the train is gone, without a sound to mark its departure.

The undertaker who sleeps in the coffins he builds. He wants his clients to be comfortable, he tells his friends. Why then, they respond, do you close the lids?

A man punished for a crime he did not commit. He has refused to answer the questions of the court. He lays out in the open, the third day of his sentence. People implore him to answer, crying or cheering or screaming with anger. Each breath is a struggle, but he stands firm. He does not relent. He is immobile, and his heart strains to push the blood through his system. He has heard the cracks, deep in his body and mind, as he breaks. The judge looks down upon him, demanding once more for the man to answer him. The man is prone, unable to move, face sun-blistered and spattered in bird shit. The judge tells him that this is his last chance. The man smiles and takes a last Choking breath. As he exhales, he says the last words he will ever speak: more weight.

A child who decides to dig a hole to China in her backyard. When her mother goes to get her for lunch, she finds nothing but a child-sized hole that quickly becomes far too narrow for anyone to crawl through. When investigators come to search the scene, they find nothing: no end to the tunnel, no sign of the plastic red shovel the little girl was digging with, and nowhere the discarded dirt might have gone. Nothing but the marks on the wall. Nothing but a dirty chipped baby tooth.

A college advisor who urges their advisees to avoid extracurriculars.

The foreman of large warehouse who spends his weekends designing his workers' shifts so that they never see each other.

The librarian who does not allow talking in her library. From anyone.

The absent moderator of a long-standing discord server. Instead of being given participation roles, new users languish away in the limbo of the waiting room, saying nothing.

A cult leader who not only encourages cult members to cut ties with their family, but also discourages relationships with each other.

The creator of an auto-dialling network designed to call elderly people once a week. There is no pre-recorded message. It is simply designed to give them hope that someone hasn't forgotten about them.

A tour guide who leaves his group scattered around the unfamiliar city. He is so animated and outgoing that nobody notices the tour shrinking bit by bit until there are only a few people left.

A telephone line repairman who doesn't fix the lines. Nobody has heard from the families in his service area for years.

Enrico Fermi, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, and their students and peers.

Those who look up at the night sky, illuminated by more suns than we can possibly comprehend.

Those who reasoned that if there are other suns and other planets, there should be other life.

Those who stare into the gaze into the dark emptiness.

Those who have never heard the sky's strange music

Those who hear only silence instead.

Those who live their lives asking a simple three word question, and and receive only the sound of an empty univse in reply: Where is everyone?

A golf course groundskeeper who gives lost players directions to the next hole. The next hole is much farther away than it should be.

The millionaire living in the topmost floor of the tallest building in a massive megalopolis. Not only is he higher than everyone else, but he's in the perfect place to observe just how big the city is. It sprawls out in every direction, just as packed near the horizon as it is directly below.

A trail guide leading their group up a mountain. And up. And up. And up.

A team of oceanologists pushing the limits of technology to send their subs, both manned and unmanned, deeper and deeper, fighting the opposing force of the Choke, to try to find the bottom to a seemingly endless sea. They never do.

The lighthouse keeper who spends their days looking out at the ocean, blowing the foghorn even on clear days, relishing the way it echoes off nothing.

The proprietor of the local gas station right off the interstate who gives out-of-towners wrong directions on purpose. (Just drive about thirty miles, then take the left at the fork. Your map must be wrong ma'am, I swear that fork's there.)

An architect who creates false panels and tunnels to nowhere in their buildings. (That book you pulled yesterday revealed a hidden passage. It's a shame it does nothing today.)

His apprentice, who has mastered the art of making homes bigger on the inside. (A hallway that is longer on some days than on others. An abnormally deep basement. And... that door can't lead anywhere... can it?)

The lady who does the corn maze every year. (The town forgets the stragglers who exit the maze looking a few years older, confused about the date.)

The little girl who talks about her imaginary friend ("I know he's not real," she says to her concerned father, "It's hard for him to exist!") until one day, it's as if she never existed.

The young man, raised by a woman who was not his mother, and confronts her with the memories and dreams that have followed him his whole life. ("Those are just dreams," she tells him, caressing him and soothing his fears. "You've always been my son.")

The person with ADHD who just had their keys. Didn't they? (Or did I set them down somewhere... No, I swear I had them! I know this is the third set we've replace this year but--)

A tourist walking the historic downtown streets. He has no destination, but his phone and map are in his bag. (But he can't find a place to orient himself on his map, and his phone has no signal. None of the doors will open, and when he turns to retrace his steps, it's a different street.)

The manager of a hotel who has spent a great deal of time ensuring that every floor is exactly the same and that the elevators are constantly out of order. (How long have you been going up these stairs? How long are these hallways? And... who removed the room numbers?)

The director of a television show where everything remains status quo at the end of each episode. It has been going longer than anyone can remember. No episode guides can be found for it, but every actor looks the same in every episode. (It's filmed in front of a live studio audience, but why does the laughter sound like screaming?)

A group of travelers, two men, one woman, a boy, and his pet, follow a path southeast from New York to Topeka. (Don't worry, they aren't lost. There are other worlds than these.)

Junji Ito