It had been about a year since the first borrower was (publicly) discovered, now. After that fateful day, companies flocked to the trend-- pet stores were suddenly selling the tiny humanoids, animal control facilities were practically overrun, there were people selling them on Facebook Marketplace like litters of puppies. Companies started to make accessories, clothing, bougie cages, everything.

Having a pet borrower was the latest fad. No one really saw them as people, they were pets, just like a cat or a dog. Influencers especially took off with the idea-- some in more unsavory ways than others. Sure, there were people that tried to protest, tried to talk about how borrowers were people, too-- there would always be the groups that argued against the morality of keeping something so humanoid as a pet.

But Schlatt? Schlatt couldn't care less about morality-- he wanted one, so he bought one. Simple as that.

He picked out a borrower from his local Petsmart, splurged on an enclosure and all sorts of accessories, clothes, and other nonsense he thought might be good for content. He didn't think twice. He brought it home, set up its huge-- excessive, really-- cage, and sat down to interact with it for a bit before he started shoving it in front of a camera (besides the updates he'd posted to Snapchat and the vlog he'd filmed at the pet store, anyway).

Without any caution, he scoops the little thing out of the cardboard carton, relishing in the surreal feeling of a tiny human-like body less than half a foot tall just-- in his palm.

"Look at you," he coos. It might have been perceived as condescending, had this been a real human.