The short statured troublemaker.

•Full Name:
Sofi "Zoo" Wong

•Theme Song:
Magic That Was Never Used

•Age:
18

•Height:
~1.40 meters. [4’7”]

•Weight:
~36 kg [79 lbs]

•Birthday:
Thursday, 1st April, 1993

•Eye Color:
Light Blue

•Hair Color:
Originally a redhead, but sometimes dyes her hair to a random color.
Sometimes she dyes it multi-colored. She even dyes her tail.

•Favorite set of clothes:
Sofi has no fashion sense and doesn’t really care about what she’s wearing. Most of her clothes are either stolen or have been given to her by Ellie, and Sofi just throws on whatever is nearest and cleanest when she gets dressed. The only times she tries to dress up normally is when she needs to blend in for whatever reason. Her lack of noticeable feminine features makes it easy for her to pass as a boy if she so wishes.

By now, she’s pretty much made a thing out of trying to stay mismatched. Here’s what she’s commonly seen wearing:

A yellow cap with a blue screen and a black button on top.
By now, it is very worn out and faded, but it is an important cap to her, almost as if it was a part of herself. She wears it all the time. Very good to hide her ears with.

A big flower earring with a golden bud, red petals and green leaves.
Sofi stole it from a locker room in a bathhouse. She pierced her own ear so she could wear it. Lately, she’s starting to regret doing so, since she’s getting tired of it. She chose a pretty bad spot to put in the ring too.

A small yellow ribbon.
Attached to her braid, to keep it from unraveling.

A red sweater.
A very unique sweater. It has a large white exclamation mark on the chest, the left sleeve is short and the right sleeve is long.

A golden bracelet.
Yet another stolen treasure. She wears it on her left arm. On the inside, there's an inscription saying "Jenny". She does not know or care who “Jenny” is, she just really liked the bracelet.

A yellow skirt with suspenders.
It's got a blue stripe with a black zig zag pattern in the middle and a dark green stripe with big light green dots at the bottom, separated by a yellow stripe.

A black stocking with red hearts on her left leg.
She has the right one somewhere as well. She likes them a lot, so in case one breaks, she still has one left.

A white sock on her right leg.
A plain sock. She's got a dozen.

Pink shoes.
Without shoelaces, because she doesn't want to accidently trip when making a quick escape.

A little bell attached to a ring on her tail.
It no longer rings, though. It was gifted to her by Zu as a sign of their friendship. It used to ring back when Zu gave her it originally, however she removed the hammer to stop it ringing as she disliked having something noisy that could attract attention attached to her. The shell is still intact though and Zu didn’t seem to notice it no longer ringing.

Orange underwear.
Nothing out of the ordinary, surprisingly. Perhaps not the most feminine sort.

•Breast size:
AA50
She's flat as a board.

•Location:
Sofi lives in a poorly maintained two story house in the slums of Granköping. She rents it for practically nothing thanks to Ellie. The rather unkempt yard is filled with traps and wires that’ll make noise and reveal unwanted visitors, should they activate any of them.

•Occupation:
Works as a cashier at an Asian fast food restaurant. She got the job mostly thanks to her part asian look and the fact she speaks fluent swedish. It’s far from her dream job, in actuality, she despises it. But it pays the bills and she gets free food during the breaks, even if she’s not particularly fond of the food served there. Sometimes she calls in sick just to skip work.

•Personality:
On the surface, Sofi seems like just another defiant and angsty runt. But there’s a lot more to Sofi than she lets on. Coming from a family which abused her both verbally and physically, she grew up developing a strategy consisting of lying, cheating and stealing to make life easier for herself. This lead to severe trust issues, she’d trust nobody and nobody would trust her. A really frustrating situation, since nobody would believe her when she actually told the truth and she’d still end up getting punished for something she didn’t do. People made fun of her short height, slightly asian features, her cat features and her shabby clothes at school, making every day a chore. Her reaction to all of these issues was to isolate herself from other people the best she could.

She pushes away anyone that wants to come close to her. Her experience has taught her that attempting to be understood always ends in betrayal or pain. If she comes across people in love or friends having fun together, it’ll make her wince and sour her mood. Her social skills are abysmal and she has trouble opening up to people or making friends of her own. Being nice is emotionally taxing on Sofi. The only people she has let get close to her and are on good terms with her are Ellie and Zu, but even from them she keeps some things hidden.

Sofi is also very egocentric. She seldom cares about other people’s feelings or opinions. Only her own matters and she always chooses to go her own way. If people can’t handle it, tough luck. She hates being told what to do and nagging at her will only make her more defiant. The only reason she’d choose to follow someone else’s instructions is if she came out on top in the end. Otherwise she’d most likely not even consider it. But ever since she befriended Ellie and Zu, she’s opened up quite a bit. With Zu, she dares to show her true self, a person who just wants to experience her childhood while having fun with a friend. To Ellie, she’s more prone to showing her vulnerable side, but only because Ellie has gained her complete trust in not telling anyone about it. Though, her actions are never truly free from the broken upbringing she’s had.

Due to her short height, Sofi has an inferiority complex that clashes with her ego. Since she cannot do certain things like driving a car, reaching high places and often needs assistance or needs to have things adapted for her small frame, she often feels weak and left out. Therefore, Sofi always makes sure to make herself heard and seen amongst friends and crowds. Bragging, being insulting, loud and annoying are some of her favorite means of gaining attention. She’s quite good at provoking arguments and fights too, especially with how rude she can be. If things get violent, she often opts to flee. Only in extremely dire situations would she choose to fight, and then she’d try to get ahold of anything she could use as a weapon.

However, her short height isn’t a total negative. Since she’s so small, she is very quick and nimble, making her escapes through tiny and narrow areas where a regular sized person wouldn’t fit. She’s quite believable when posing and acting like an innocent child, which has come in handy quite a few times. Even so, she hardly thinks it makes up for all the problems she encounters.

Sofi’s view on sex and sexuality is extremely skewed. She’s very uncomfortable with the concept and either laughs it off or goes off on a tangent on how stupid and disgusting she thinks it is. Unfortunately her body reminds her of it once a month, which usually makes her often bad mood even more sour. Imagining some kid growing inside of her grosses her out completely. It’s so bad that she sometimes wishes she was born as male. Ironically, she often uses descriptions of sexual acts such as oral or anal as insults, thinking of those as disgusting and wrong, more so than vaginal intercourse.

To summarize, Sofi has kleptomaniac, pyromaniac and sociopathic tendencies sometimes bordering on the psychopathic. She would likely be diagnosed with some form of “Antisocial personality disorder” and would greatly benefit from a lot more help than she wants or will likely ever accept.

•Interests/hobbies:
Sofi likes to steal things. Not only because she’s poor and may really want something, but because the challenge and accomplishment of successfully going through with the theft is very rewarding to her ego. It often leads to her winding up with a bunch of junk she doesn’t actually want or need, though.

She loves blowing stuff up and setting things on fire, the bigger the better. But since explosives of any kind are hard to come across, she’s often relegated to using matches and lighter fluid, or a lighter combined with a bottle of hairspray. The aforementioned useless stolen objects are often good to experiment with on an old grill in her backyard when her destructive cravings come calling. So far, she has not progressed beyond setting things on fire in her yard.

If she can mess with people, Sofi is a very happy person. Practical jokes, pranks and getting innocent people into trouble are things she sometimes attempts, with very little sympathy for the victim. She’ll usually watch from a safe distance, so she doesn’t miss out on the fun, but also doesn’t get directly involved or blamed for the mischief.

•Likes:
Sofi likes to be a pain in the ass and provoke people. She's very quick at making snarky comments and comebacks, which can make anybody tire of her presence in just a short amount of time. Her favorite insult is calling people “Hippos”.

Sofi likes to compete, but only if it is something in which she has the advantage. So it's more that she likes to win. This usually doesn’t stop her from bragging and saying she’d win easily, even if it is something she’s not good at. If she loses, she’ll put the blame on anything imaginable, accuse her competitor of cheating or claim that the activity in question isn’t worth her effort anyway. She will never blame herself.

She enjoys watching things get demolished or blown up, like car crashes or buildings getting wrecked. Even better, to demolish something herself. Destruction is awesome.

Sneaking around, climbing things and go where many people wouldn't think to go or look. From there on, she can sit still and spy on people, which is another thing she enjoys. Spying on people and taking notes of their habits to use them against them has almost become a hobby.

•Dislikes:
Getting in contact with any kind of authority. They don't get along very well. Sofi wants to be free to do whatever she wants to. She flaunts rules, regulations, laws and societal expectations as much as she thinks she can get away with it.

Even though she often takes advantage of her short height, she often flies into a rage if anyone so much as mentions her short stature.

She dislikes candy, it tastes funny to her. If she ate one, she'll gag and almost throw up. She likes other junk food, though.

Rain and wind and cold. She's had enough of freezing and being wet already in her short life. The lack of proper winter clothes usually makes her stay inside as much as she can during fall and winter.

Anything lovey-dovey or emotional. Sofi does not believe in showing other people her inner feelings and emotions. She doesn't like seeing other people expressing them either. It disgusts and annoys her, since she lacked that kind of attention completely during her youth.

She hates to be called by her real name, and will promptly tell anybody that her name is now "Zoo". This makes it difficult for her if she needs to confirm her identity. She’s considering changing her legal name to Zoo, but then she’d have to make up a new fake name to use when wanting to remain anonymous. This dilemma has her stumped, so she’s sticking with her current situation, since she really likes calling herself Zoo.

•Favorite Food:
Fish. She'll put fish on anything. Oh, and pizza, pizza is good too.

•Favorite Animal:
Fish, the tastiest thing on earth!

•Music Tastes:
Sofi doesn't listen to much music. All she knows is she hates songs about romance, love and other melodramatic bullshit.
Her tastes probably lean toward rock, punk and electronic. Songs with strong anti-establishment undertones or lyrics particularly appeal as well.

•Linguistic Quirk:
Isn’t afraid to tell people what she really thinks of them, and more.

•Top Kinks:
Absolutely not.

•Important/Dear items:
Her yellow cap.
She is seldom seen without it. It reminds her of old times. It might be worn out and sun-bleached, but it's her favorite hat.

A black laptop.
She stole it from a teacher in her school. Sofi does not have much computer knowledge, and she has no internet connection, so she doesn't use it much. It is only used to play minesweeper, solitaire and similar things installed by the laptop’s previous owner.

A portable gaming console.
Another stolen piece from her school. There was a few games in the case when she took it, so she plays them when she's bored.

A camp bed.
A cheap bed she bought, along with a pillow and a cover. It's still pretty damn comfy.

A breakfast TV and some old consoles.
Pretty old stuff, but it works. She has a limited range of games, so she often plays the same games over and over.

A cell phone.
The original owner, an old lady, never locked it, so Sofi can use it for calling and such things. The SIM has not been deactivated and the phone not disabled. The silly old lady is probably still paying for it.

Inlines.
Makes traveling faster and less expensive. A birthday present from Ellie, though she doesn't fancy the protective gear that came with. If she's going anywhere far, she uses them for her own protection and to draw less attention from others.

•Goal in life:
Sofi doesn't really have a goal to aim for, she just wants to spend her every day enjoying herself. She has a childish dream of becoming a master thief one day.

•Greatest fears:
Sofi fears to once again become abandoned by those who she trusted. To be treated like dirt and be made out to be the bad guy by those who have the authority.

Her own sexuality and reproductive organs. Sofi cannot imagine anything scarier than having something grow inside of her and then have to birth it and take care of it. She hates to be reminded of what purpose her breasts serve.

•Relationships:
Sofi never lets anyone get too close to her. She doesn't want anyone finding out what she's like and telling on her. She only fully trusts Zu and Ellie.

Zu:
Sofi was first put off by Zu because of her mental setback, but was surprised by how she ignored Sofi’s coldness and kept pestering her with gifts and happiness. After learning about Zu’s past, she found herself almost pitying the girl. In either case, it made her see Zu in a new light. As someone who’s in a situation similar to hers, but way worse, and wasn’t trying to one-up theirs against hers, Sofi could open up a little. Eventually, it lead to them becoming really great friends, against all odds. Even if Sofi sometimes can be ignorant towards Zu’s feelings by teasing her and pushing her to do things she doesn’t want to, the both of them can have really fun together. Not to mention, Zu is the only one who consistently calls Sofi by her preferred name, Zoo.

Zara:
From day one, Zara and Sofi have never really gotten along. Their differences in personality and personal beliefs are too wide. Zara’s very promiscuous orientation and high sense of justice versus her own denial of sexuality and thieving ways have only lead to trouble. They’re both extremely good at provoking each other, which often results in fights, both verbal and sometimes even physical. Since Zara is both larger and stronger than Sofi, Sofi often loses the physical fights, which makes her very bitter. Because she can’t win against Zara in a fist fight and she fears Zara’s outbursts of rage, instead she often takes revenge by stealing or messing with Zara’s stuff.

Ellie:
Without the help of Ellie, Sofi would be in way worse state than she is today. Whilst she was first skeptical and dismissive about accepting Ellie’s help, she’s very grateful of it now, though she has difficulties showing it. If she ever has problems, she knows she can always trust Ellie to listen and try to solve them, even if it stings to reach out and ask for assistance. Sofi would never try to hurt or steal from Ellie, that’s how much she respects her. Ellie often invites her to come eat or socialize with her and their friends, which Sofi enjoys a lot, even if her social skills are pretty bad. She might decline sometimes, Sofi doesn’t want to feel like she’s leeching off of Ellie to survive. Ellie’s already done so much for her.

Sixten:
Sixten is Sofi’s second best friend. Though she was pretty skeptical of him when they first met, they’ve since sorted out their misconceptions of each other. He’s pretty chill and always taking her jabs at him with a cool attitude or a witty comeback out of nowhere that sometimes leaves her stumped. They share some interests, like video games, the outside, urban exploration and competitive games. Since Sofi is too poor to afford new consoles, she absolutely loves visiting Sixten and playing some of the latest titles on his. He doesn’t mind her doing so and they sometimes compete in multiplayer games. The second reason why Sofi loves to visit Sixten is because of his cooking skills. He’s great with seafood and fish dishes, which is one of Sofi’s absolute favorites. The one thing she doesn’t enjoy is when Zu and Sixten start cuddling with each other in front of her. If that happens, she groans loudly or quickly leaves the room.

Hampus:
Sofi can’t make up her mind about Hampus. He’s straightforward and quick witted, so there’s a lot of trash talk and play-fighting going on between them, which Sofi finds fun. Especially if they’re doing something competitive, then they can really get going. But he often makes blatant sexual remarks about her as if he’s hitting on her, which she isn’t used to. She’s not sure how to react to such comments, since she denies her sexuality. It makes her get strange ideas. He’s not in town very often, so they seldom meet. Maybe that’s for the best.

Parents:
Sofi’s dad is a Chinese man named Kim Wong. He moved to Sweden with his parents at a young age. He has a pretty short temper and fell into the trap of getting addicted to gambling and beer.
Her mother’s name was Hanna Lundgren. She was a drop out who could be rather unsympathetic and egoistic at times.

Sofi hates her parents. They didn’t care much for her either, and weren’t shy about telling her. She doesn’t know where her father is now, nor does she care. Her mother is dead, but she didn’t feel much upon hearing the news. Mentioning them to her might upset her.

She does, however, like her grandparents on her mother’s side. They actually cared and worried about her, but they were too old and old fashioned to understand Sofi’s problems. She holds no grudge against them, even if she ran away from them.

•Skills/Special Abilities:
Is very skilled at stealing and tricking people.
Is quick-witted and can talk and/or sneak away from most situations.

•If You Could Have Three Wishes?:
Wish 1: "I wish I was taller!"
Wish 2: "I wish I had an endless supply of money!"
Wish 3: "I wish for an unlimited amount of wishes!"

•Random & Miscellaneous Facts:
1. Sofi always thinks she's better than you. If she isn't, you either cheated or it's not worth being good at.
2. Sofi sometimes wishes she was a boy instead of a girl. Girl bodies are just so bothersome.
3. Sofi was supposed to wear overalls, but this was changed into a skirt pretty quickly.
4. She cuts her own hair, which makes it uneven and rough. She doesn't have the best scissors in the world.
5. Sofi never tells anyone her real name or what happened to her during her childhood.
6. She is very intelligent and a quick thinker, however she is poorly educated and has limited desire to learn.
7. Sofi has a limited grasp of English. She can understand some words, but can’t engage in conversation.
8. Her favorite way to insult someone is to call them a hippo, for some reason.
9. Her below average height is most likely due to what they call "Nutritional Short Stature".

•Backstory:
Kim and Hanna Wong were a poor couple. They barely had any money to their name, and many of their days were spent arguing with each other, sometimes for the most mundane reasons. This only led to the couple growing more and more selfish. So when they found out Hanna was pregnant, they immediately thought of a way to make a profit off of it, and not abort it.

And so little Sofi Wong was born. She was born a few weeks early, on the first of april. Her health was a concern when she was shown to be very light and small, not to mention her cat-like features being a complete surprise.
Sadly, however, the baby did not have healing powers as some other cat-like people do.
It was quite the disappointment for the couple, but a baby was better than no baby, so they kept her.

Sofi grew up with constant arguing around her, and as she grew older, she was often asked or bribed to pick sides, often with candy or promises of toys and such. At a young age she learned how to act and choose to get the best possible outcome for her.

Her parents didn't have any friends with kids, so she was pretty lonely during her childhood. Sure, she met other kids in the playgrounds nearby, but she was often left out, both because she had her cat features and because she was shorter than other kids her age. They started to bully her to the point of making her cry and run home to mommy.

But at home, she didn't get much comfort. Both her mom and dad didn't seem to care that she was sad or upset. They simply told her to go to her room or watch TV. This made Sofi even more sad and she spent many days in her room, refusing to go outside, which ended up with her starting to argue and fight with her parents. This led to her starting to steal money from her parents, while cleverly putting the blame on her mom or dad, depending on how much she took. Most of the time she didn't get caught.

When Sofi turned 7 and started going to school, she wound up in the same class as the kids who used to bully her around the playground. They hadn't changed a bit and continued their bullying. Instead of becoming sad, Sofi only grew more angry, hateful and most of all, jealous. She started planning ideas for revenge and stole from them whenever she got the chance, both belongings and money. Of course, she was accused of stealing a lot, but her experience of acting innocent and leaving no traces made it impossible to bust her. Some people stopped suspecting her, while others kept blaming her due to her background. She used the money she stole to buy food, sweets or toys.

She managed to steal a Game Boy, which she used to play a lot when she was home. She was not very skilled at it, but it was a way better time waster than her few toys or watching TV. The games made her imagination expand and she considered actually trying out the revenge plans she had come up with during her time in school.

Although very simple, it gave Sofi a great feeling of success and joy at the expense of others. They were very easy traps and pranks, like putting up wires for people to stumble upon or placing containers of water upon doors. Sofi had not felt this great in years and this encouraged her into planning more complex and bigger pranks. She started to become very alert and observant about her surroundings and mentally took notes of what could be used as material or distractions. She was not able to prank too much however, the teachers were on the look for whoever was setting them up.

Sofi often drifted off to daydreaming in class and she never spoke to other kids. She kept to herself and tried to ignore the bullies when they tried to get to her. When she started second grade, none of her classmates paid much attention to her anymore, except for the bullies. She just wished they would leave her alone, but no. Stealing from them was not something she could do very often either without the risk of getting found out, so she couldn't get her revenge very often.

Eventually, she got fed up with the bullies calling her poor, a midget and a freak. Near the end of second grade, on a warm spring day, she snapped. She was outside during lunch break, getting pushed around because her clothes were old and worn out. She suddenly charged into the kid she thought was the most annoying and headbutted him in the stomach, tired of being made fun of all the time. They both fell over on the ground and Sofi grabbed his collar and started to shake him, repeatedly smashing his head into the asphalt while screaming how much she hated him.

The other bullies were too shocked to help their friend out, they didn't expect Sofi to ever fight back. One of them finally came to his senses and ran to get a teacher. When the teacher came running out to stop the fight, Sofi was mercilessly punching the kid in the head and body, letting out her pent up anger at him. The teacher pulled Sofi off of him, but was unable to hold her for long, as she was struggling violently. She got out of the teacher's grip and ran away, only stopping and turning around to tell them again how much she hated all of them, before speeding off, leaving the school grounds.

Her adrenaline was pumping and she felt like she wanted to run away forever. However, she just ran home and shut herself into her room. Her parents were not at home at that time, so she was all alone with her feelings. She threw herself into her bed and felt the tears welling up. She hated being short. She hated having a freaky tail and weird ears. She hated her classmates. She hated her school. She hated her parents. And everyone hated her. What was the point of continuing like this, she thought. She wished she never had been born and that her useless life would end right there and then. Exhausted, she fell asleep.

She was harshly woken up a few hours later by her parents slamming her door open. She knew what was going to happen and she felt unusually calm. Her dad was furious and started yelling at her, demanding to know why she had beat up that kid. She cursed the teachers for not being able to keep their mouths shut inside her head. Sofi tried to defend herself, but her dad didn't listen, neither did her mom. As punishment, she was grounded and was not allowed to watch TV. Luckily, her parents didn't know of the stolen Game Boy she had.

The next day in school, Sofi was forced to apologize to the kid, who had gotten a few bruises, but no serious injuries. She reluctantly faked an apology to the kid and hoped they would leave her alone from now on. But sadly, that was not the case. Now she started getting bullied for punching like a girl too. As they had finally gotten a reaction out of her, they tried to provoke her even more and Sofi fell right into their trap. She got into fights with the bullies a lot during the rest of the term, some more serious than others. She got scolded by her teachers and yelled at and punished by her parents, rather than getting help from anyone.

Sofi was very glad when the summer break finally came. Yet, she felt very heavy-hearted. She hadn't done well in classes and she was still grounded because of all the fighting she had been part of. She was forced to do most of the chores around the house that summer. Rarely was she allowed to go outside. Sofi was not happy with this and the tension between her and her parents grew. Needless to say, they argued a lot more.

That summer was long and boring. She was almost relieved when school started again, but then she remembered what waited for her there. She kept ending up in fights and her grades kept getting worse. She just felt like she didn't belong anywhere. She got the blame for everything and when she tried to reach for help, no one was there for her. Not even pranking and stealing cheered her up as it used to. The school tried to make their consultant talk to both her and the kids that bullied her, but he took the bullies' version of the story as the true one, causing Sofi to get blamed for, and accused of even more things.

Things went on like that until one cold December day, when her father had gotten enough of being called and notified of Sofi's fisticuffs and hullabaloo. He confronted Sofi, yelling at her to stop fighting the other kids and leave them alone. She yelled back at him that she was merely defending herself and that if she didn't, they would beat her to a pulp. But as usual, her father didn't listen to anything she said; he just wanted the constant calling to stop. He grabbed her by the throat and stared at her with furious eyes. Sofi returned the stare, though hers was mostly of surprise and hate.

Spit hit her face, forcing her to close her eyes and look away, as her father growled out that if she didn't start to do as she's told and become a disciplined girl, he'd beat her. Sofi quickly yelled back that he didn't dare to do that. In response, he tightened his grip around her throat. She coughed up to let her go, and she was sent flying. She didn't get any time to react before she hit the wall and fell to the floor with a crash, losing her breath. While she was crying and trying to get her breath back, she heard her mother yell to keep it down and be careful to not damage the wall; the landlord might make them pay for it if it broke.

She crawled back into her room and locked her door. She grabbed her only stuffed animal for comfort and cried into it. She started thinking about running away from home, but she soon fell asleep.

Sofi didn't get any christmas presents that year, even though she had avoided getting into any fights after that day. She was very disappointed, but she was not surprised. Her thoughts about running away came back to her. She had no friends, no money, no one to help her. It was wearing her out, mentally.

When she went back to school, she tried to avoid getting involved with other people. She stayed low, trying to ignore the bullies and focus more on schoolwork, but it didn't work at all times though, as she was easily provoked. At least she didn't end up in fights as often. But whenever she did, her father would beat her. She couldn't fight back, which made her take out her anger by fighting with the bullies again, and she was right back where she started. Near the end of the term, she was pretty roughed up, having bruises all over her body, along with a few scars. The summer break was very welcome that year.

Nothing unusual happened during the summer break. She was grounded as usual, but she didn't have anything to do outside anyway. She played the same old games on her Game Boy while the days passed by.

Then something unusual happened. It was a foggy and drizzly Saturday near the end of the summer break when an overjoyed roar erupted from the Wong's living room. Out of curiosity Sofi ran to check out what the fuss was all about. Her mother also came to find out what had made Kim so happy. Apparently, he had won the lottery pot of around 19 million crowns. Hanna and Sofi were also overjoyed, thinking that they would not have to live in poverty anymore. Kim noticed this and jumped towards them triumphantly.

"HA! You think you'll get a share of my money, don’t you?!" he shouted at them. "But then you think wrong; I won it, I’m keeping it! I'm a millionaire, I don't need you," he pointed at Hanna and then moved his finger to Sofi. "and especially not you, anymore!". Sofi took a step back.

"What do you mean by that?!" Hanna growled, a second before Sofi could ask that herself.

"I'm going to leave you behind in this shithole and move to China! Or Thailand! Or perhaps America!" He laughed. "You'll never see me again, as you wished for so many times!"

Sofi could see her mother grit her teeth in rage. She herself was still confused as to what was going to happen.

"W-what about me?" she asked carefully. "Can't I go with you?"

"Fuck no!" Kim spat at her. "You're the outcome of our poverty! I don't want to be reminded of this life when I move away!"

Sofi was shocked to hear that, even though she didn't fully understand what he meant. While her mom and dad continued arguing, she went to her room, not sure what to think. She never thought her dad would leave her and her mother behind, even though they argued all the time. To hear that he actually didn't want anything to do with her hit her harder than she thought. Like so many other times, Sofi went to bed early, her mind and heart full of questions, anger and sadness.

When she woke up the next morning, it was unusually quiet. She got out of her bed and walked into the kitchen where her mother sat, eating breakfast in silence.

"Where's dad?" she asked.
"He left." Hanna replied, callously.
"...Where to?"
"Don't know."
"...When is-" Sofi got cut off.

"He's not coming back!! He left us forever, don't you understand?!" Her mother almost yelled at her. She wanted to yell back at her, but for some reason, something was holding her back. Sofi stood in place for a couple of minutes in silence, trying to comprehend the events of today and yesterday.

"I'm going to give you away." Hanna said without warning. At first, Sofi couldn't believe her ears.
"W-what?" she stuttered out. "Give me away?"

"Yes. I won't take care of you by myself." Her mother didn't even look at her. "I'm going to make a phone call to the Social Services on Monday. You'll end up in a foster home somewhere."

Sofi felt a stinging feeling in her heart. First her dad leaves her and now she's going to be given away? She'd been feeling bad before, but hearing this was just heartbreaking.

"I'M NOT GOING TO A FOSTER HOME!!!" She yelled. "I'm staying here!!" She yelled, trying to hold back her tears.

"Yes, you are, period. You're too troublesome to keep around." Hanna said coldly.
"But-!" Sofi tried.
"Period."

Sofi stormed back to her room. In her anger, she started wrecking her room, hoping someone would notice that she's not feeling well. Her books, ornaments, all thrown at the wall. Her desk, swiped clean like they do in those action movies. She even tore up her bed sheets and some of her clothing.
It wasn’t until she dropped the TV that she found nothing else to break. So she stood there, in the middle of the mess she created, screaming as loud as she could, until she ran out of breath.

But, no reaction from her mother. She slumped down on the floor, crying. Entangling herself in the leftover sheet and blankets on the floor, she almost passed out from sheer exhaustion.

Her thoughts dwelled back to running away from home, and she started planning out her escape. She'd take a few of her important belongings, that she had not broken, some food from the fridge, lock the door to her room and escape through the window. She just had to wait until nightfall... The thought alone satisfied her so much, she fell asleep immediately.

When she woke up, it was dark outside. Now or never, she thought. She sneaked out of her room and luckily for her, her mother had already gone to sleep. She grabbed her backpack and collected her belongings just as she planned. She sneaked back into her room and locked the door as quietly as she could. Just as according to her plan, she locked her door, opened a window and threw out her backpack, climbing through and jumping out of it herself.

The rainy weekend had made the air chilly, but it would take more to stop her from running away.
She took off in the direction of the city of Granköping and ran for a while before slowing down and catching her breath. When spotting the still busy streets, she kept off the roads and away from populated areas. Soon she was out on the road leading away from the small town and towards Granköping.

After an hour, regret sank in. She felt very uneasy and unfamiliar with the surroundings. Only a reminder of why she was running away gave her strength, so she forced herself to keep going. It took way longer than she expected to walk to the city and she was getting tired already. With only a pair of worn out jeans and a sweater, she had no spare clothes to ward off the incessant rain.

The cold was becoming too much, so she decided to look for a place to sleep. She held her backpack over her head as she ran up the road, looking for anywhere to take shelter. As the rain only fell harder, she saw a hammock under a roof, in a yard next to the desolate road. Luck befell her as she reached it, for a couple of blankets were laying on it. She wasted no time and took the blankets to curl up inside of them. It was still cold, but it at least blocked the wind and gave her a chance for rest.

Still cold and shivering, but out of the wind, she thought about what to do next morning. Convincing herself that people would start looking for her, she decided to stick to the shadows. Stealing to get by until she had a better plan. Her head didn’t even want to think about housing, as it would be difficult to find a place where should live for free. She wanted to go home, but she didn’t want to be placed in the hands of complete strangers.

The sound of a car turning on woke Sofi up. From under her blankets she could hear the slowly subsiding rain. The blankets had kept her a little warm and she really didn't want to leave it, curling up and pulling her tail in between her legs. A rumble from her stomach revealed that she was getting hungry, so she braced herself to meet the cold for a few minutes before opening up her little cocoon of blankets to reach for her bag.

While chewing on some cookies, she looked around, it looked like the residents had left for work, so she made use of this window and started to walk towards her goal again. Not long after, the sun broke through the rainy clouds, bringing some warmth to the shivering girl.

A few hours later she finally arrived at the outskirts of Granköping city. The buildings became larger and the people on the street increased in number as she navigated deeper into the city. Sofi pondered on what she would do now. She had already consumed most of her provisions, so finding something to eat was her first thought. Having some money on her, she could at least afford a hot dog and something to drink before having to beg for money or steal food.

But her money didn’t last long. She bought her food at a small kiosk, and now only had a mere few coins left. But for now, her hunger problem was solved and she could start looking into finding a place to hide. Searching around the streets and back alleys, she realized that finding a safe spot to sleep in the middle of the city was a bad idea. She thought she could be mugged or murdered or something, so she decided to head for a less dense area, in the opposite direction from where she came.

As dusk fell upon the city, she desperately needed to find a safe location she could rest at, away from what she perceived as unfriendly faces during her trek. She managed to sneak into a big apartment complex, finding a corner in the stairwell to pat down her jacket as a blanket and her backpack as a pillow.

Awoken by a man delivering papers opening the main door, she jumped up in surprise. She gave the excuse of being locked out of her apartment, and scurried off before he could ask anything else.

The cold outside air made her feel like she was freezing. She collected her thoughts and realized that she couldn’t keep doing that. She needed a place where she could remain undisturbed and warm herself up. And in a passing thought, she wondered if people were starting to look for her.

She snatched a newspaper from a mailbox, but found no notice of her disappearance. Perhaps it was too early for the papers to pick up on her story. Surely she’d be written about in tomorrow’s paper. Then someone would find her, send her back home and make her mother realize she wasn’t that bad afterall and not send her to a foster home. While walking around, lost in thoughts like these, the cityfolk started to wake up and ready themselves for work or school.

Before long, she noticed that she’d walked into a residential area, which pleased her as she was more used to such environments. Surely she’d manage to sneak into someone’s garden and find a shed to hide in. Some protection from the harsh elements.

This continued for a few nights, a process of finding shelter and stealing nourishment, quick and agile just like the cat people often are. One day, she found a row of houses that were ready to be demolished. However, the demolition notices on all the doors were awfully outdated. Perhaps something had come up and people hadn’t bothered to look further into it yet? Either way, she deemed it safe enough for her to shack in.

Finally, a place where she could stay. While she no longer had to move around all the time, it was only a temporary location at best, but at least she could practice her pickpocketing and take a little more time to shoplift without being caught. Her small frame was ideal for escaping the few times in which she’d been caught, using her natural flexibility to use hiding spots or take shortcuts a grown adult couldn’t.

But the cold weather was creeping up on her, and she still hadn’t seen any headlines about a missing child. Nothing indicating that she was being missed. She felt bad. She smelled bad and hadn’t had a satisfying meal for quite a while. With no electricity or running water, all she could do in her safe location was think and think, and with extended thought came regret.

What if she had stayed at home? She’d be in a warm house with a warm bed. Even if she’d been given away, another family would have taken care of her. Maybe even given her new clothes and warm food! She could have made new friends if she’d moved somewhere with a new school. Instead, a month had passed and she hadn’t felt more unwanted than she did now. She wondered why, what she did to deserve this life. On top of that her homesickness had really started to surface, gnawing at her frustrated and sad heart.

But a noise interrupted her thoughts. A burglar? A thief? What’s there to steal?
She kept silent and hid in a corner. Loud noises along with laughter and chatty conversation erupted a few rooms away. Teenagers looking to trash something out of boredom, it would appear.

A strange sense of courage inspired her, or maybe it was possessiveness. Either way, temporary home or not, she wouldn’t stand for it to be trashed by some kids.
She yelled “No! Don’t break my house!” The loud noise startled the teenagers, and quickly they fled.

Paranoid, she spent an hour staying up, waiting in fear for one of them to come back. Eventually she went back to her mattress, remaining vigilant until she passed out.

Sofi woke up to a strong gust of wind. The sun was already shining in through the window. She must’ve slept for quite a while. It was colder than usual, thanks to the wind. After a short investigation, she found that a window had been broken. By piling up a bunch of furniture, she managed to cover it up. The effort made her body ache for food, so she set out to find something to eat.

When she got out onto the streets she could not help but feel she was being watched. This feeling lingered when she got closer to the commercial area she had grown used to shoplifting from. When she failed to sneak out anything that could satisfy her hunger for long, the feeling lingered even more prominently, no matter where she went. Yet, she couldn’t see anybody following her. Growing tired of being chased by ghosts, she returned home, tired and hungry.

The next morning Sofi found a paper held in place by a rock at her front door. Written on the paper was an offer of a full meal at the local burger joint, at 16:00 today. But it didn’t say who it was from. This raised alarms in her head as she was very hungry, but also very paranoid. Although she remained skeptical, her hunger persuaded her to go.

Arriving at the burger place, a teen gestured for her to come and sit down at a table, together with his two buddies. Confident that the presence of others at different tables meant she likely would not be hurt, she sat down on the remaining empty chair.

The teens, two boys and one girl, introduced themselves to her. They explained that they had taken an interest in her, since she was so young and living on the streets. They wanted to know her story, and would pay for her meal in exchange.

This was the first time anybody had taken interest in Sofi. The fact that they wanted to listen to her was almost enough to make her spill her life story to these strangers. But the food definitely helped. She agreed to their terms, but demanded to get the food first. She was starving after all.

The food was so good she almost cried. When finished, the teens started to ask about her past. At first she only gave short answers, but it didn’t take long before she was telling her life story in detail. She tried her best to hold back her tears when she explained her mother had not even attempted to find her.

The teens pitied her so much that they made offers for her to stay at their places to eat, shower and sleep provided their parents weren’t at home. Sofi found it difficult to say no to such an offer, but accepted it only if they promised not to tell anybody about it. The last thing she wanted was to be sent away to a foster home.

For the next few weeks, Sofi cycled through staying at the teens’ different homes. It felt nice to sleep in warmth once again, and she could take as many hot showers as she wanted to. The various game consoles the teens owned kept her from being bored when she was left alone during the days. The teens would blame it on growth spurts if their parents complained about missing food.

In the middle of October, she was finally reported missing in the papers. Her mother had driven off the road and crashed into a tree, believed to be under influence of alcohol. She was found dead at the scene. When police had informed her family about the matter, Sofi’s grandparents had been worried about the deceased’s daughter, who was nowhere to be found. The father had left the country alone and hadn’t left any ways to contact him, making the police believe he was not coming back. The grandparents had shared a photo of her, which was now showing in the daily newspapers.

Unlike Sofi, the teenagers had seen this article and reported to the police that she was currently living in their homes. When the police came to escort Sofi away, she felt complete and utterly betrayed. Instead of being sent to a foster home, she was taken in by her grandparents. Whilst she didn’t like it, she had no reason to be angry at her grandparents. Unlike her parents and other people she’d met, they were actually worried about her. So she stayed with them.

This also meant that she had to go back to school. She had to talk with teachers and the school curator a lot when she came back, but they still didn’t seem to understand her problems. Still seeing her as the problem, it didn’t help her case when the bullying started all over again mere days after she returned. It was subtle, but she knew it was there and aimed at her. She made great attempts to ignore it, and managed to stay level headed through the rest of the year.

But in the early spring, just about two weeks away from her 11th birthday, she once again had enough. During class, she received bumps and hits and things were thrown at her whenever the teacher was busy and not looking. In an outburst of rage, she flipped her desk forward, grabbed her chair and threw it towards the boy who was the most active against her.

He dodged the chair, but Sofi lunged at him shortly after. They fell on the floor and after a short brawl the teacher intervened. He tried to hold her, but she managed to slip out of his grip and stormed out of the school. Once she had made her way out of the school grounds, she contemplated on where to go.

She didn’t want to go back to school again. There was nothing there for her. She didn’t have a single friend and she was classified as a problem child. They didn’t say it, but she knew. That also meant she couldn’t go back to her grandparents. They were nice to her, but they didn’t have much connection. At most they’d play board games together or look through old family albums. If she went back they’d just make her go back to school.

Her mind was dark and she felt beaten down. She saw no other way out but to run away and get by on her own again. With the little money she had, she bought provisions in the shape of a few candy bars and a soda. It would have to suffice. She rid her backpack of unnecessary school junk and prepared herself for a long walk. Granköping is what she had in her sights yet again.

The first place she aimed for was the old building she lived in last time. But when she managed to find her way back there, the buildings had finally been torn down. Disappointed, but not defeated, she decided to try to find another place in Granköping where she could live. With that in mind, she started walking around the city.

Dark thoughts raced through her mind whilst she walked. She had felt emotionally numb for a long time now. When she was told her mom had died in that accident, she hadn’t felt a single thing. It had become difficult to care about anything. Except for wanting to torture the stupid kids at school, she felt no reason as to why she should return and educate herself. She contemplated why she’d been brought into a world where no one wanted her. Why would they expect her to follow their rules when she didn’t get anything but hate and doubt in return? If anything, it only led her to wanting to destroy the world, just like it’s been trying to destroy her.

It was at that point she decided she should give herself a new name. She’d create havoc on this world like a bunch of rampaging wild animals. The only thing that could stop that havoc was only herself. Her body was like a zoo, and she was the zookeeper. If anybody was to anger the animals inside of her, she’d let them loose.

“Zoo.” she thought. That’ll be her name from now on.

While life on the streets was not easy, Sofi managed to get by on her own for over a year. She survived on shoplifting from various cafés, stores and supermarkets, the free sample stands was something she often visited. Her thieving skills improved a lot and with her short stature she could easily play the role of an innocent young child and disappear in crowds or behind corners. She learnt that staying in the same place for too long wasn’t ideal, so she was often on the move, circulating between places to stay at and steal from.

In the early fall, Sofi developed a nasty cough. Together with a fever and a body that generally felt very wrought, she felt sick like a dog. Unbeknownst to her, she caught pneumonia. She’d been sick before and thought she could simply power through it, but she kept getting worse and worse. After struggling to stay awake and find something to eat, she passed out on the streets.

When she came to, she found herself in a hospital. This is where she met Ellie, a doctor of imposing size, who had cured her of her illness. Ellie was curious about who Sofi was, since the hospital couldn’t let a child back out on the streets without knowing there’d be anybody to take care of her. Sofi didn’t want to tell her anything, but Ellie’s genuine concern about her made her soften up a little and give up her name.

The situation didn’t turn out much better when Ellie returned after doing some research on her. She had found out Sofi was parentless, homeless and reported missing. This led into a huge argument of what should be done with her. Ellie strongly argued that she should go back to live with her grandparents and start school again. Sofi had to open up even more to explain why she wasn’t going to let that happen. It was suggested that she could move into a foster home or with Ellie herself. But Sofi would have none of it.

Ellie compromised that if she let Sofi live by herself in a place she’d rent for her, help her go to a different school AND have her visit Ellie every now and then, she’d agree to let Sofi go. It was something she could get behind. She wasn’t sure why this doctor had taken such a liking to her, but a warm and safe place to stay was something she had truly missed. She didn’t care much for the school aspect of the deal, but she figured it could help her pass the boredom.

Sofi accepted the terms. Until all the preparations were made, Ellie made her stay at the hospital. When she finally got to see what her new place looked like, she didn’t know whether to be disappointed or amazed. Before her was a slightly run-down two story house. While Ellie gave her a tour of the house she explained that she was able to let Sofi live there due to the low rent. All Sofi had to do if she wanted to stay was to stay in school.

Ellie accompanied Sofi to her first day at the new school, making sure everything went smoothly. She had to repeat two classes due to her long absence, meaning she started mid 4th grade again. Even though she was around two years older than her new classmates, she was shorter than all of them. She had her doubts about this, but after a few days nobody had made fun of her short height or called her names. It was refreshing to be left alone. Still, she did not really care to make friends with anybody.

After around two weeks, Sofi was invited to Ellie’s place. It was a luxurious villa, which made her feel a bit excited to be able to enter it. But before they could do so, Ellie had something important to tell her about her adoptive daughter, Zu. Like Sofi, she had been abandoned by her parents and was suffering the dire consequences of it. She was advised to be careful with her. How could anybody have had it worse than herself, Sofi thought.

Her egocentric view was soon shattered when she actually met the girl. She was unique to say the least. When they entered the villa, the girl had come running towards them, stark naked. Upon seeing Sofi she let out a cry and ran back into the house. Ellie apologized and went to dress the girl while she told Sofi to take a seat in her living room.

When Ellie came back, Zu only peeked at her from behind the nurse. Apparently she was shy as a mouse. Ellie tried to introduce them, but Zu clung to her butt and wouldn’t let go. The nurse sighed and told Sofi that she’d start making dinner so that they could get to business soon. And so Sofi was left alone in the living room to watch TV while waiting.

It didn’t take long before the shy girl quietly entered the room and sat down on the opposite far end of the couch. She slowly inched her way towards Sofi, who tried her best to ignore her, since she had no idea how to handle this situation. When Zu was almost next to her, Sofi couldn’t take it anymore and asked what she wanted. Zu flinched a little but introduced herself and asked what her name was. Sofi was a bit taken aback, because the way she spoke sounded weird. Still, she told her that her name was Zoo. The girl repeated her name and smiled. Her next question was if she wanted to become her friend.

Sofi really wanted to tell her no, but even she could tell that’d be really inappropriate. Reluctantly she answered yes. This seemed to satisfy the girl as she showed a bright smile and started to swing her legs on the couch. None of them said a word until Ellie called that dinner was ready.

After dinner, Sofi and Ellie went to her office to talk. Ellie spilled out all the facts about Zu and what she had been through, as well as what she expected from Sofi if they were going to continue to be on good terms. A bit overwhelmed by all of this, Sofi was sent home to think about it all. To know that Zu had spent more than half of her life locked inside of a basement scared her. She looked so happy despite all of that. She couldn’t tell a girl like that to go fuck herself.

The next time she met with Ellie, she was told how happy Zu was to have made friends with her. She really wanted to see her again. Sofi sighed internally, she didn’t really have much of a choice but to go along with Zu’s will.

Over the following months, an odd friendship bloomed. Perhaps it was because they’d both been abandoned and had troubled upbringings giving them a common ground. Zu’s bubbly and playful personality made something awaken inside of Sofi as well. Something that wasn’t just darkness and insecurity. She dared to play and show her emotions again, albeit only with Zu. But, it still made her uncomfortable whenever Zu would suddenly throw her clothes off. That was something she’d never get used to.

However, she didn’t get on as well with Zu’s so-called “second mom;” Zara. She was very direct and didn’t hold back on pointing out perceived flaws or making her opinion known. Not to mention how open she was with her sexuality, something Sofi did not care for at all. Whenever they met they’d always end up frustrated with each other, with it only growing worse from there. Sofi tries her hardest to minimize contact with Zara, if at all possible.

But even if Sofi now had a home, friends and a school to go to, she was unable to give up her pranking and thieving ways. She still lacked a source of income. Ellie managed to find her a part time job at a Chinese food restaurant, which she accepted, even if she hated going there.

While Sofi now managed to get through her school semesters without getting into too much trouble, she learned that Zu didn’t have that same amount of luck. Apparently she had been abused and molested by some boy in her class. Absolutely vile, thought Sofi. She wasn’t sure how to react to this information, and she became uncertain of what would be proper to do at a time like this. Unable to come to a satisfactory conclusion, she isolated herself from everyone the entire summer period.

Once she felt ready to meet up with her friends again, a few things had changed. The major change was that there were now a whole lot more boys around, who Sofi now had to get to know. The younger brother, Hampus, she thought was weird, way too hands on. The older brother, Sixten, on the other hand, she got along better with. They even shared a few interests, and she would often go to bother him on her own, when Zu was busy with the third boy, Elias, whom Zu now was almost glued to all the time. She never got a chance to get to know him.

As Sofi mostly coasted through her school years, focusing more on having fun than actually learning anything, Zu shifted boyfriend from Elias to Sixten. She didn’t really care why, but having the both of them less available really annoyed her. Especially since Zu had graduated and those two spent a lot of time together, sometimes making her feel like a third wheel. Sofi would often start to feel left out and her jealousy would reach a peak where she wouldn’t want to see either of them. However, Zu got a job at a mansion some distance away from the city, so Sofi could at least bother Sixten during the weekdays. Her jealousy would shatter once she saw Zu again, and she greeted her with pure joy. They were still best friends after all.

Her own graduation came and went without much fanfare. Sofi had no interest in seeking further education, so her part time job at the chinese restaurant became a full time job. She had gotten used to the place, and since most of her co-workers barely even spoke swedish, she could just fuck off and do whatever she pleased once her shift was over. The way she liked living her life. Ellie tried to coerce her into doing something more with her life, but without success. Sofi wanted to live her life her way.

•Current Life:
When she isn't working, Sofi tends to get bored pretty easily now that Zu is away at her work on the weekdays. So she'll hang out with Sixten instead, since he's in the same kind of situation. During the weekends, she sometimes hangs out with the both of them together.

Since she doesn't have the greatest income, she still goes out thieving. Ellie wants her to pursue a higher education, but Sofi doesn't really care for that. She very much prefers to make her own fun instead.

•Phew~!
Sofi is a troubled and troublesome character, so it is difficult to put it all in words! But this should suffice to explain her thoroughly enough! If anything still is unclear, do leave a comment and I'll see if I can answer it.