Tarek

Name: Tarek Voss (TAH-rek VOSS) Species: Dingo (Anthro) Age: Late 20s

Appearance Build: Lean, muscular build with predatory grace. Fur: Sandy gold with darker streaks along muzzle and ears. Eyes: Piercing amber, sharp and calculating. Clothing: Corporate tactical: reinforced nanoweave armoured jacket, dark trousers, slim-fit combat boots, matte black gloves. Augmentations: Enhanced reflex implants and ocular targeting systems. Direct neural link for instant mission updates and tracking overlays.

Personality Core Traits: Opportunistic, ruthless, and highly adaptive. Temperment: Calm until the hunt begins; then relentless. Humour: Dark, used rarely Values: Efficiency, dominance, and results above all else. Flaws: Focused on his job, extremely manipulative, and dangerously impulsive when provoked. Motivations: To maintain his reputation as the corporation’s most effective predator. To enjoy the thrill of the hunt as every target is a challenge.

Quirks: Often leaves uncomfortable silences to stretch, feels no compulsion to fill the void. Meticulous in his checks of equipment, from his pistols to his car to his cooker, he has a pre-use routine for each.

Background Origin: Tarek was born in one of Echelon City’s lower-tier districts, where survival meant being fast, clever, and ruthless. His family had little influence, and opportunities were scarce. From a young age, Tarek learned that strength wasn’t enough—you needed strategy. He grew up watching how people thrive in the corporate jungle and decided he’d become one of them, no matter the cost. Career: He started as a low-level operative for a security subcontractor, handling simple jobs before moving up to more deniable ops. His efficiency and lack of hesitation caught the attention of a major corporation, which recruited him into their internal “fixer” division. He quickly rose through the ranks by doing what others wouldn’t—tracking targets, eliminating threats, and cleaning up messes before they hit the headlines. Every job was an opportunity to prove his worth, and Tarek never missed. Current Status: Now in his late-20s, Tarek is one of the corporation’s most trusted enforcers. He operates in the grey zones where legality bends and morality doesn’t matter. His reputation is built on precision, results and unwavering discretion: when Tarek takes a contract, the problem disappears without a ripple. He enjoys the hunt, the control, and the quiet satisfaction of being indispensable. In a city where power is everything, Tarek has carved out his own.

Era & Tone Timeframe: Near-future, late 21st century. Tone: Gritty realism with corporate dominance, systemic inequality, and species tension. No flashy neon cyberpunk, think utilitarian tech, militarized streets, and omnipresent surveillance.

Species Premise Humans and anthros evolved side by side, forming distinct cultures but sharing the same world. Centuries of uneasy coexistence led to integration but not equality. Today, megacorporations rule everything: law enforcement, healthcare, infrastructure. Governments are hollow shells; justice is a subscription service.

Echelon City A sprawling metropolis built of steel, glass and concrete. Some older areas have brick-built tenements and factories, but most was cleared and redeveloped Corporate towers dominate the skyline, casting shadows over slums and industrial zones. Streets hum with delivery drones, armored patrols, and the desperation of those living paycheck to paycheck.

Society Humans: Dominant in the board rooms, and use the money and power this gives them to remain there. However, despite corporare power being weilded primarily by humans, there is little solidarity between executives and the rest of humanity; some 98% of humans are economically endangered: no- or low-income work, no job security, no savings. Anthros: Valued for physical attributes and adaptability. Larger, predator species are often employed in security and enforcement roles, with smaller anthros finding roles in more detail-oriented, delicate work. Prides and Prejudices: Many humans distrust anthros; centuries of media manipulation have this deeply engrained. Anthros are equally as wary around humans; learned experience being hard to shake, even if the vast majority of humans have more in common with them than the rich elites. Discrimination against cuts both ways, with in not being uncommon for bars, restaurants, hotels, and shops to be officially human or anthro only. This has bled into the false narrative that some areas are 'no go" zones for humans, again perpetrated by the predominantly human owned media Law & Order: Corporations own police forces, courts, and prisons. Dissent is punished harshly, and loyalty rewarded (at least until those loyal are no longer needed)

Technology Cybernetics: Commonly available but ofter utilitarian as provided to assist with work. Reinforced limbs, joints and bones are common amongst labourers. Ocular implants tend to be used by security personnel. Neural links find a home with white-collar workers of all types. Many companies will advertise their augmentation program as a benefit of working for them, despite the reality being they oblnly provide them as a deep cost-benefit analysis shows they improve productivity and, more important for some, tie staff to roles; it's hard to quit a job when their technology is embedded so deep it needs intrusive surgery to remove. Fashion-focused implants do exist, but are rarely seen outside if celebrity culture due to cost. Surveillance: Omnipresent. Between CCTV, an overbearing security and police presence in the streets, and digital tracking, privacy is as good as dead. Facial recognition camera report of where you go. Digital payment providers track what you buy and where. Algorithmic analysis of what you say and type identifies underlying attitudes, thoughts and predicts what you will do next. Analog Resistance: Amongst all this, a subculture clings to old tech - things like paper notes, dumb phones, cd players, physical cash - as a way to evade the ever present tracjing. It's a broad church, with members having their own reasons for being a part of the subculture. Some use old tech to regain some semblance of a private life, whilst others are using it to try and evade detection of their crimes.