灵狐阿幸

灵狐阿幸 (Sachi the Spirit Fox) 是我为 SCSI 接口的现代平台系统“Squishy”设计的吉祥物。这是该设计在 2023 年重新绘制的第二版。重绘的原因是我觉得 2021 年绘制的第一版不太好看了，重画的过程中我还新增了人类形态、动物形态和漂白事故的小故事。

阿幸和她的 IBM 9348-002 磁带机、磁带、磁带机的 SCSI 接口线缆，还有支持连接 SCSI 设备的旧式 IBM Thinkpad 笔记本。

Squishy (发音为“四故一喜”) 的发音类似于 SCSI (发音为“四喀喜”)。SCSI 是一种在距今非常久远的老式服务器中常见的数据接口，常被用来用来连接磁盘、磁碟机、磁带机等存储设备。这种接口在 1990 年代个人电脑开始普及的时候就已经被 IDE 接口替代了，而 IDE 接口后来又相继被 SATA 接口、M.2 接口所替代。我想对于 2000 年之后出生的人来说，SCSI 接口应该比较陌生了吧。

Squishy 就是用来在现代的计算机系统中连接老式 SCSI 设备的一套软件和硬件系统，这个项目是自由开源的。项目的网站是：https://github.com/squishy-scsi/squishy

阿幸之所以是一只灰色的日式巫女狐狸精，是因为 Squishy 的维护者发来的演示录像中使用了一台日版的 IBM 9348-002 磁带机，它的标识是日语的。我寻思要不就顺水推舟设计个日系的角色吧。

阿幸的服装是神道教巫女服，我为此仔细研究了巫女服装的结构和穿着流程，按照真实的结构严谨地绘制，而不是盲目地根据以往动漫作品抽象过的印象随便画，这对于我理解服装的剪裁是一节很有益的入门课。阿幸的花型发饰则是磁带做的绳结。原本是赤狐的她被漂白成 IBM 9348-002 磁带机的配色的故事则是受 Youtube 视频博主 8-Bit Guy 的老旧电脑修复视频的启发。

阿幸的名字“幸”的日语训读是“さち”，发音为“撒启”，是计算机术语 Search (查找、搜索) 的近音。“幸”字的日语音读是“コウ”(寇)，和日语习惯给狐狸叫声配的拟音词“コン”(空) 是近似的。她喜欢研究古日本史，人缘也非常好，所以其他日本灵兽按照近古日本称呼受喜爱的女性邻里的方式昵称她“阿幸”(お幸, O-Sachi)，发音为“哦撒启”。从语感上应该接近中文的“幸姐”。阿幸名字的这个点子里还有一部分来自于“阿信的故事”中的阿信 (お信)，因为这是我很小的时候留下深刻印象的电视剧 (主题曲是“永远相信”的那一部)。

阿幸平时化身为人形，以“须贺幸子教授”的身份在某大学教授计算机科学和古日本史。她灵力不足的时候会附身到摆在她办公桌上的一台 IBM 9348-002 磁带机里面暂避风头。

本来阿幸的 IBM 9348-002 磁带机因为年代久远早已无法工作，外壳也严重发黄，黄得跟她原本的赤狐毛色一般。她有一个出身正统神官世家的学生，尽管不相信祖上的那一套“骗人的把戏”，却似乎凭着某种天赋隐约察觉到“须贺教授似乎有点不对劲”。某次阿幸附身在磁带机的时候，这个学生仿照网上的视频“帮教授漂白并修好了她的磁带机”，从那以后阿幸的毛色就变成了灰白色。

阿幸的这套设计之所以做得这么细致，其实纯粹是我任由自己的玩心随性而发。其实我觉得 Squishy 项目本身也是这种玩心驱动的吧。而在后来我重画第二版的时候，我又新增了她的人类形态和动物形态，加上她隐藏自己身份在大学里任教的设定，可以视作日后我的原创作品“千变灵兽”的概念雏形。

说不定我以后会让阿幸在千变灵兽中客串一个配角，毕竟她的创作帮助孵化了千变灵兽这个难产多年的项目，不能不说是一个缘分。

Sachi the Spirit Fox

Sachi the Spirit Fox is the mascot I designed for Squishy, a free and open source modern SCSI platform. This is the 2nd version of her design. I updated her looks in 2023 because the 1st version in 2021 did not look so well after I improved my art skill. I’ve also added her human and animal forms, as well as a small story about how her fur got bleached.

The picture above showcases Sachi and her IBM 9348-002 9-track magnetic tape drive, a tape roll, the SCSI cable of the drive, and an old IBM ThinkPad laptop that can connect to the drive via a SCSI connection.

“Squishy” is kind of a word-play of SCSI (skasi). SCSI was a widely used data interface back in the old times. Some old servers used SCSI ports to connect hard drives, disk drives, and magnetic tape drives, etc. SCSI was replaced by the IDE interface in 1990s when personal computer became popular, and IDE was later replaced by SATA, M.2 in succession. For those who were born after 2000, they probably haven’t heard of SCSI.

Squishy is a platform for working with old SCSI devices with modern systems in a flexible manner. It has a software part and a hardware part. Squishy is a free and open source project. You can visit its website here: https://github.com/squishy-scsi/squishy

During our discussion about the mascot, the maintainer of Squishy sent me a demo using a Japanese version of IBM 9348-002 magnetic tape drive. Every label on that machine was in Japanese. So I designed a mascot inspired by Japanese culture.

Sachi wears a proper Shinto maiden costume. Instead of blindly following the stereotypical, simplified ones often seen in anime, I studied real world maiden costumes very carefully — especially the tailoring and the process of putting on the costume. It was a very educational experience for me to understand how actual clothing works.

Sachi’s flower-like hair decoration were made from used magnetic tapes. The small story of her red fox fur getting bleached into the color scheme of a IBM 9348-002 drive was inspired by Youtuber 8-Bit Guy’s retrobriting videos.

Sachi’s Japanese name is “さち”, it sounds similar to “Search”. It can be converted into kanji “幸”, which means “good luck” and reads “コウ (kou)”, similar to “kon” — a sound Japanese people attribute to “fox noises”.

Sachi likes to study ancient Japanese history. She is friendly and ready to help others, many Japanese spirit animals like to call her “O-Sachi” — a way ancient Japanese people call popular female figures in local community. The inspiration of this nickname partly came from the famous 1983 Japanese TV drama “Oshin” which left a strong impression in my childhood.

Sachi usually disguises herself as human, and assumes the identity of Professor Suga Sachiko to teach Computer Science and Ancient Japanese History. When her spirit power runs out, she hides herself by possessing an IBM 9348-002 tape drive on her office’s desk.

Sachi’s IBM 9348-002 tape drive was old and broken. The plastic parts were so severely yellowed to the point to resemble Sachi’s original red fox fur. One of her students came from a family with Shinto background, and they sensed something off with Sachi and her tape drive. One day when Sachi was hiding inside the tape drive, this student, out of good will, repaired the machine and retrobrited everything. Sachi’s fur was bleached into light grey just like the bleached tape drive, and it stayed that way since.

Sachi’s design had no use to be this thorough and intricate, but I had a lot of fun working on her. Maybe Squishy as a project exists because it is fun to do whatever the maintainer wants to. Such is the way of free and open source, I suppose.

When I designed the 2nd version in 2023, I added Sachi’s human and animal forms, and the world building about her disguises as a human professor to teach in a college. This idea later developed into a key concept in my original project “Spirit Animals in Disguise“.

Perhaps I will give Sachi a cameo role in Spirit Animals in Disguise. After all, my project had been in the development hell for as long as I can remember, until she came along, and provided the final missing piece of the puzzle.