by Indagare

Delmar “Del” Nova, a human anthropologist, has been assigned to write on Ambara Down and other zoomorphic places in hopes of improving relations and understanding between the high cities and various earth-bound areas. In particular the hope is for better relations between the Reclamation Project (and High Empyros) and Ambara Down. He is given Tavistad “Tav” Ridgerunner, a jackalope, as both a guide and a bodyguard.

He is attacked and chased by mysterious Reclamation Project guards who want to kill him and frame the zoomorphs. Del and Tav first try to escape them in Prefecture Hall, but leave soon after to a diner owned and run by Hespera Evenstar near the outskirts of Ambara Down. She serves them food and they are met there by three more of Tav's friends: Orven Lightwing (an eagle), Sobit Waveglider (a crocodile), and Marana “Ran” Quagmire (a frog).

After finding out the coin bag he was given is bugged, Del acts as bait for the guards. He's knocked out, but on recovering he finds out the attempt on his life is the scheme of Director Kyla, a human supremacist who initially believed furries would lead to the extinction of humans, but ultimately came to desire a war that would mean the end of all furries and humans. He's able to defeat her in combat in a zoomorph village just inside the Furry Development while Tav and his friends take out the guards that were helping her (non-networked robots).

Director Kyla is removed from her position and word of her assassination attempt gets around.

Del comes from a high city, but not from High Empyros. Director Kyla also was from there before her removal. His city has a light pollution problem that causes the night sky to appear as a large, black dome with only a few high-magnitude stars showing. The city has efficiency apartments that are (just) large enough for the occupant and include fold-in bed, cloths-cleaning units, a shower, and a food printer. (Think of the tiny apartments in Tokyo.) Though he gets permission to stargaze (after a three month wait), the various rooftop gardens are technically available to the public at any time.

Del has written a treatise on the thirteen cities in the Reclamation Project and has been on the surface enough to write knowledgeably on various zoomorphic cultures. All his works are considered very impressive and are why he's assigned to Ambara Down. Despite what should be fame and fortune he lives fairly humbly and does not put on airs.

Tav is a Heraldic. Heraldics all look like various mythological creatures, and all of them have special augmentations giving them fantastic abilities. Tav's main abilities are a super-leap and super strength (he can carry and jump with Del with ease). Using these augments is draining and requires a lot of food after.

Heraldics are considered extinct. They were originally created as a form of living pokemon. None are too worried about announcing it since someone claiming to see a living Heraldic would be treated like a modern person claiming to have seen a unicorn. Anyone they do tell it to, even after exhibiting their abilities, would simply assume they're augmented zoomorphs using Heraldic as a joke.

There are three unnamed employees of the Damselfly: a male-presenting liger with a rainbow mane and a female-presenting human that work dayshift as bartenders and a large, muscular frilled lizard who works as greeter and bouncer. They all have sleeveless black shirts by way of uniforms.

Hespera is an augmented human. She has dark skin, purple eyes, pointy ears, and multicolored hair like a sunset (yellow near her eyebrows, deep black in the back). She is very much into tech and has put some in her menus, dishes, and even silverware that allow her to move them around remotely to impress guests. These are not part of a network that Pax can use. She and Tav have a running gag around any newcomers of pretending to be seriously irked with one another. It doesn't last long before one of them starts laughing.

Orven is male, Sobit is female, and Ran is genderfluid. All three like to act tougher and scarier than they really are, especially around humans.

Del is currently staying with Tav in Tav's apartment. He has a monthly stippen from the Reclamation Project for his reports on Ambara's culture and people.