[ WP ] You live in a world where sentient beings evolved from various species instead of only primates . There are reptilians , avians , etc ...

I had always considered myself an open minded and progressive individual, which initially was one of the reasons that made me move from the desolate countryside village I grew up in and into the vast metropolis Nhew Y'ork was nowadays. And while moving out of your parents house is surely always something one could be excited about with all that being-your-own-captain and emancipating stuff going on but could I've guessed it would turn out like this?... okay yeah I probably could've... 
 
 `` JACKSON!'' 
 
 The scratchy voice startled me to a degree that nearly made me drop the two plain white cups I was holding. 
 
 `` Are you lissstening?! Where'ssss your head boy?!'' 
 
 I sighed - in my head only, considering my boss could and would pick up on the scent of the air leaving my mouth. Plus he was the type to not only comment but be offended by it. I turned around and faced the large reptilian man just in time to witness his split tongue slithering out and back into his mouth in a fraction of a second. 
 
 `` Yes Mr. Iguano I am, I... I was just lost in thought.'' 
 
 His narrow pupils, framed by an iris in the color of brown desert sand, narrowed even further and I hastily added: 
 `` Sir. Here's your coffee, sir.'' 
 
 Though the label coffee mostly was for identifying the purpose of the drink only it still was a fitting name for the grey, muddy beverage in my book. His tongue darted out of his mouth as if he considered saying something, but then he simply took the mug and turned towards the window the have a few silent sips in the sunshine that made its way into the room through the shutters. Tension I had n't realised I had accumulated left my body noticeably. 
 `` Do you have another task for me, Sir?'' I asked him to which he only waved lazily. I was free to go. Upon closing the door I sighed again, this time for real and started to make my way towards the break room. I realised I still had the second mug in my hand and took a sip myself - it was real coffee for me though. At my destination I was pleasantly surprised to see Seri - a humanoid with brilliant yellow feathers covering her slim, agile body. She turned around as I entered the room and her small beak moved in a fashion I had come to recognize as a smile. I blushed a little out of habit because I had had a mild crush on her for the last few months until I had decided to move on. 
 
 `` Heya Charlie. How's it going?'' she chirped, literally. 
 
 Some of the avians, especially the songbird kind, had that really melodic way of speaking. It was fascinating and distracting at the same time. And me still liking her to some degree did n't help on that front. 
 
 `` Hey Seri. Not much really. Mr. Iguano is terrifying as always and I do n't have much to do apart from getting copies or some kind of brew for some kind of min...'' I stopped. I had meant to say minx which was slang for the new-age races but kind of... racist? 
 
 `` Sorry. ``, I said. She had n't stopped `` smiling''. I guess she'd had to deal with worse. And now that I thought about it I could n't help but wonder which generation of her ancestors went sentient. It was different for every species. 
 
 `` Do n't worry Charlie, you've got my permission to use that word. After all you're my little minx!'' 
 
 `` Urgh, please no I beg you.'' 
 
 Too late, she was already getting a kick out of it. 
 
 `` Oh but you're me wittle human and I...'' 
 
 Luckily she was forced to stop there, as her superior entered the room. Or forced himself into it more like as he had to duck through the door, which already was more like a gate than a door. His ill fitting suit stretched dangerously thin over the huge muscles covered in thick black fur. As with most sentients his species had gotten bigger when they evolved. Only that gorillas had been considerably big to begin with. 
 
 `` Ms. Flavi, sorry to...'' he stopped to cough violently and I had to grab and hold my mug as the table shook in rhythm. He then proceeded fumble with a small paper box trying to get one of the cigarettes out which seemed incredibly tiny compared to his huge paws. 
 `` Sorry to interrupt your break but you're needed in the SA-Department. Some new hawk type and nobody understands him and I think...'' He coughed again, less violent now that he somehow had managed to light his cig. `` I think they classified him a PSC 3 so be careful.'' 
 
 Seri just nodded, gave me an apologetic look and went on her way. I was left with Mr. Gorilla. Whose last name was kind of the equivalent in genericness to a Mr. Smith, but I never understood why that was an appropriate comparison. I had yet to meet someone called Mr. or Mrs. Human. Mr. Gorilla glared at me and continued chain-smoking. I was only the intern after all. The small human trainee in the A.R.E.S.E. - the Administration for recently evolved sentient entities. 
 -- - 
 The day passed slowly, as any day did in the bureau. I guess you couldn ’ t expect any excitement to be had as the intern, but still after 3 months of being the general drudge I was at the point of throwing the towel. Oh how I yearned to at least be able to sneak a peek at Seris job. She was working in the sentient assimilation department which handled the task of working with newly sentient beings - beings who had awoken as people called it. But, contrary to what one would assume when hearing about accelerated evolution triggers, those didn ’ t apply to an entire species at a time but happened seemingly at random. Sometimes a lot of individual animals awoke - like in the Yukon incident, where several moose gained consciousness only to be massacred by another recently awoken pack of wolves who didn ’ t have their instincts in check yet. One of the reasons ARESE was founded. 
 And sometimes it only happened to a single individual. Which then lead to some really depressing stories like that of the now accomplished philosopher M. Aldabra, who awoke to realize he was not only the lone conscious representative of his species but also that the latter was nearly extinct. 
 Not that the world wasn ’ t being swarmed with new intelligent beings every day. Official estimates assumed the number of new unique sentient life was in the dozens every week for the last two decades. And thus far only the Chordates - the major group including mammals, birds and reptiles - had had awoken cases. Overpopulation had already been a problem but know it was through the roof - quite literally because interestingly enough where skyscraper buildings were at an all time high, some of the avian species had started constructing sophisticated nest-like complexes on roofs in heavily populated areas. Furthermore there was an entire department in the ARESE whose only job was to plan and prepare for the worst case scenario: when the Invertebrates would start to awaken. Which then would include every insect-species, outnumbering the other races by the tens of thousands. It was a scary thought indeed. I tried not to dwell on it for too long, because while I wasn ’ t exactly insectophobic I did get a bit squeamish when confronted with a larger amount of those pesky little multi pods. 
 
 The sun, unseen by me in the vast corridors of the ARESE headquarters for the last hours, had progressed quite a bit and was tinting the streets of Manhattan in gold. Quite a few reptile-type guys were sitting in the last glow of our star to warm their bodies bevore it would be gone for the night. Some of them really had a hard time with regular work schedules because of the need for external warming and labor unions were pushing for regulations on that front. The unions in general really had a lot to do these days with new workplace needs arising every week and a ton of discrimination cases. But still the streets were bustling with activity and that would only increase once the nocturnals got up. I strolled in the general direction of my apartment and was planning to stop for groceries along the way. It was quite a few blocks I would have to walk but even after all the weeks I had already spent in the city there was still a spectacle to be witnessed around every corner. 
 A big feline-type vendor was in the process of apologizing profoundly to a small amphibian customer at his stall for something I could only guess relating to the grilled frogs on a stick the cat was selling. Meanwhile a flock of teenage bird-types were playing a complicated looking game with a ball all in the air above the streets. It seemed that one bird of prey, a hawk maybe, was especially good at whatever he was doing because an owl-type girl was moon-eyeing him with the kind of expression only a teenager in love could make. Who also had exceedingly big near caricatural eyes. 
 
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 Edit: Added some background stuff. Still would love to hear criticism.
