Zoey the Spirit Sable

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Zoey (full name: Zhou Yi, Chinese: 周易) is a spirit sable. His human identity is a scientist both at the United Nations and the World Spirit Animal Alliance, works in Songshan Lake, Dongguan City. He serves as the chief engineer of Alice, Leiting‘s robot classmate. He is an easy-going and witty scientist who excels both at human science and spirit power research.

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Origin

A sable from the Great Xing’an mountains: Zoey was originally a sable (scientific name: Martes zibellina princeps, conservation status: Least Concerned) from the Great Xing’an Mountains in northeast China. He became a spirit animal as a cub and was raised by the local Spirit Animal Association.

Going to Dongguan: Zoey started school in the northeast provinces. Once his talent was recognized, he was sent to Dongguan for middle school, where he became classmates with Tonyn the Spirit Rat.

Name: After becoming a spirit animal, he named himself after the ancient Chinese classic, the Book of Changes (Zhou Yi / 周易), seeking inspiration from its wisdom and insight into the universe’s secrets.

Personality

Light-hearted and thick-skin: Zoey is a light-hearted man who likes fooling around. He takes a casual, laid-back approach to work and life, never overly concerned about gains and losses. He has a thick skin, doesn’t take criticism personally, and can readily admit his own mistakes.

Confident and eager for challenges: Zoey is confident in his abilities and embraces challenges when others hesitate. However, he occasionally faces setbacks as he took on more than he can handle.

Humble: Zoey’s colleagues view him as a genius, but he often downplays his role. He refers to Alice as a product of the UN community, built on numerous prior projects, that his contribution is just a small piece of the puzzle.

Highly focused and workaholic: Zoey has strong focus at work, enjoying the feeling of being immersed in the flow. He doesn’t mind working overtime.

Savvy and adaptable: Zoey is a shrewd and sophisticated person who quickly adjusts to his surroundings.

Specialties

A genius scientist on both human technology and spirit power: Zoey is an expert in advanced human technologies and spirit power research. He aims to “peek into the secrets of the universe” and “extend the boundaries of imagination” through his research. Known for his innovative designs and exceptional programming skills, he played a key role in developing the smart spirit band for spirit animals, contributing significantly to its theoretical research, engineering, and trial production.

Making the most out of limited resources: Zoey consistently achieves remarkable results on a very low budget.

Poor drawing skills but a competent storyteller: Zoey’s drawing skills are lacking, but he can convey complex ideas effectively through his simple and amusing scribbles.

Falls asleep easily, sleeps soundly, and sleepwalks: Zoey suffers from chronic sleep deprivation due to his tight schedule. As soon as he finishes his tasks, he falls asleep immediately and nothing can wake him up – a common behavior for sables. He sometimes works while sleepwalking, having written significant portions of Alice‘s AI code in this state – now he struggles to understand those codes himself.

Extensive connections: Zoey works for both United Nations and World Spirit Animal Alliance, and he often assists colleagues with their tasks (if the subject interests him), earning a lot of goodwill. When he needs help, he can tap into a broad network for support.

Severe myopia: Zoey has severe myopia in both eyes due to excessive eye strain from overworking. Without glasses, he struggles to see things clearly. When it is inconvenience to wear glasses, he uses a spell to correct his vision.

Two fur colors: Zoey has pure black summer fur and pure white winter fur. He can control which color to use with a shape-shifting spell.

Life

Disorganized lifestyle: Zoey pays little attention to luxuries, investing minimal energy in food, clothing, and other necessities. He eats cat food and dog food all the time because they are convenient. His home is chaotic; he rarely cleans or organizes the place. He often sleeps in the office, the lab, or his minivan. Tonyn frequently helps tidy up his apartment and reminds him to be neater when meeting others.

Frequent business trips: Zoey works for the United Nations and World Spirit Animal Alliance, his duties require him to travel around the world frequently. He spends less than half the year in his hometown, Dongguan.

A Scientist and Coordinator of the World Spirit Animal Alliance: Zoey is a scientist and coordinator for the World Spirit Animal Alliance. He has made significant contributions to scientific research and coordinated local spirit animal associations in support of the alliance’s initiatives.

Accompanying his daughter: Zoey understood that he can’t be with Alice often, so he entrusts her to Tonyn. Whenever he returns to Dongguan, he makes sure to spend some time with Alice.

Mobile workstation: Zoe drives a work-issued electric mini-van – it’s a common, cheap model but packed with tools, equipment, and even some hidden features. The van is basically as his mobile workstation. Sometimes he also uses a flatbed tricycle.

Relationships

Alice, Zoey’s robot daughter: Zoey treats Alice like his daughter. Due to his busy work schedule and frequent business trips, he entrusts her care to Tonyn. However, when in Dongguan, he occasionally brings her new gadgets for testing (toys to play with) or takes her to factories to learn about how things (especially herself) are made. If Alice behaves well, he beams with pride and boasts, “My daughter did this and that.” As a parent who spoils his child, Zoey prioritizes Alice’s creativity but neglects her manners. Consequently, Alice often pushes boundaries with her mischievous behavior.

Tonyn, Zoey’s close friend, old classmate and the co-guardian of Alice: Zoey and Tonyn the Spirit Rat were middle school classmates. Despite their different specialties, interests, and personalities, they maintained a close friendship. Zoey enjoys teasing the over-serious Tonyn but also relies on him for help with tasks that he is not good at.

Alice was largely the result of the collaboration between Zoey and Tonyn. Tonyn not only provided Alice’s styling design, but also took on the main responsibility of her guardianship. However, Zoey and Tonyn have very different ideas when it comes to engineering and parenting, often argue or even fight in their animal forms because of this.

Zoey appreciates Tonyn’s cooking; whenever he is in Dongguan, Tonyn either invites him over for dinner or delivers meals to him directly. However, Tonyn can’t stand Zoey’s messy apartment resembling a garbage dump, so he occasionally helps tidy it up.

Cloud, Alice’s pet rabbit: Alice’s pet rabbit Cloud is intensely hostile towards Zoey. He once transformed into his sable form to scare the rabbit off, but to his surprise, “playing human for too long has numbed his predator instinct.” Without using lethal moves, he just couldn’t win the fight. Now there is nothing he can do to this unruly rabbit.

Old neighbors in the town: Zoey, Tonyn the Spirit Rat, Libbie the Spirit Oryx and Bailian the Spirit Mouse were old neighbors with a bond so close they felt like family.