Tonyn (fullname: Zhan Donglin, Chinese: 詹冬临 “Winter Born”) is an IT admin and amateur artist who designed Alice’s appearance and serves as her guardian. He is a close friend of Alice’s chief engineer, Zoey.
Personality
Tonyn is usually a calm, stern, and prudent man who prefers to plan ahead and tackle tasks one at a time. But deep inside, he has a short temper and hot-headed nature that sometimes lead to impatience and rage when pushed too far. Alice likens him to a frozen, dormant volcano.
Despite appearing cold and distant, Tonyn is a kind-hearted person who struggles to refuse requests and often interferes in things that disturb him.
Tonyn likes to integrate traditional cultural elements into his creations, aiming to modernize the core philosophy rather than merely copying its superficial appearance.
Specialties
Tonyn is not an engineer, but he is a handy and resourceful technician with the patience to read documentation. He excels at fixing things and can perform maintenance on Alice’s Lynx 1 body and operating system.
Tonyn’s hobby is drawing. He uses a clean and unassuming art style to depict popular culture subjects. Although he doubts his artistic skills are industry-ready and doesn’t draw often, his work has garnered a following online.
Tonyn is a good cook. He has a natural fondness for food, especially high-calorie junk food. He was once a chubby guy from overeating, but lost weight through more than a decade of hard work. Now he tries his best to stay away from binge-eating.
Tonyn has a background in martial arts, which he practiced while trying to lose weight. The community’s youth martial arts class occasionally invites him to substitute for the instructor.
As a native of Guancheng district in Dongguan city, Tonyn is well-versed in the area’s historical anecdotes.
Life
Tonyn works as an editor for a government agency and also serves as the IT administrator due to his computer skills. He occasionally handles electricity and plumbing issues, too. He is often called upon to fix things by friends, making him “everybody’s handyman”.
Living in an old house with a small courtyard in historical downtown Guancheng, Tonyn maintains a simple and tidy lifestyle, keeping his home organized and clutter-free.
He usually commutes on a heavily modified mountain bike.
Relationships
Tonyn and Zoey were middle school classmates with different talents, interests, and personalities, yet they maintained a close friendship till this day. Alice was created largely through their collaboration. Tonyn often found himself helping Zoey with her ambitious projects and tidying up her messy home during visits.
Tonyn is not a member of the International Space Cooperation. Initially, he agreed to create a rough sketch of Alice’s appearance at Zoey’s request, but was gradually drawn into the project by Zoey’s “foot-in-the-door effect” maneuvers. He eventually became as Alice’s appearance designer, gave her a Chinese name, took on the role of her guardian. Tonyn insisted on participating in the Alice Project as a volunteer and refused any compensation.
Tonyn raises Alice as his own daughter, spending much time reading books on parenting and psychology. He is a strict parent who does not tolerate Alice’s naughty behaviors. Alice would behave when he is around.
During holidays, Tonyn takes Alice to museums and cultural landmarks. He sometimes brings her to his friend’s tailor shop, where she can design and create her own clothing.
Tonyn frequently advises Zoey on Alice’s education, suggesting that the International Space Cooperation limit her public exposure to prevent her from losing herself in stardom.
The local community sees Mingzhu’s potential in martial art, and they hire Tonyn as her martial arts teacher. Her friends sometimes join the training, too. Tonyn and Mingzhu share a common interest in food and often exchange information about delicacies in the city. In addition to physical training, Tonyn is also teaching Mingzhu to cook.
Role in Aizu Worship
When temporarily using a robotic vacuum cleaner as her body, Alice occasionally sees a black rat “servicing” her Lynx 1 body. She believes this to be a glitch in her visual system that confuses Tony with a rat. As a result, Tonyn is typically depicted as a black rat in Aizu worship among the Evernight Era robots.
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