Zooway NO Safety Net

Worldbuilding: Contemporary America. All characters are anthropomorphic animals, but the world operates on real human rules—money, privilege, visas, prejudice. All of it. Four college graduates from different backgrounds set out on a road trip together. Caspian — Coyote The "extra son" of an upper-middle-class white family. Has resources but no inheritance. Can spend, but can't hold power. Lila — Pronghorn A white American woman on the climb. Every move is calculated. Her dignity and her self-interest are constantly at war—and she can't make peace with either. Jake — Raccoon A Chinese international student. A pragmatist from an outsider middle class. His way of handling things is nothing like how most people in the States do it. Karim — Sand Cat The wealthy son of a Middle Eastern family from a turbulent country—yet somehow the most invisible of the group. Money doesn't mean everything in America. Status is what matters. And he knows it.