Sanders Sanctuary for Borrowers/Tinies
Hello! Welcome to this AU! Have an info dump post to get yourself acclimated to the universe! And read the first fic installment if you havenât here!Â
Content Warnings: Mentions of abuse (of both humans and borrowers), lots of talk about treating people as pets, starvation, mentions of intelligent people being used as science experiments, minor character death, please let me know if I should add anything!
The Sanders Sanctuary for Borrowers (or as itâs publicly known, the Sanders Sanctuary for Tinies) is located in and around the farmhouse of one Thomas Sanders.Â
Officially to the public, the sanctuary is a place where tinies who were in bad situations, such as an abusive owner, an illegal zoo, or underground fight club, can be taken to recover. Unofficially, the mission of the sanctuary is to rescue any borrower it can, from any situation where theyâre being exploited by humans, whether the rest of society deems it âabusiveâ or not.Â
The Sanctuary currently has two human âemployees,â Thomas Sanders, the founder, and Deacon Jacobs, Thomasâs best friend. Thomas would love to one day bring in more humans to help, but for now, Dee is the only one he trusts to keep the secret of the sanctuaryâs true purpose.Â
The eventual goal is to turn the sanctuary into a force for change; through education and rescue work, Thomas hopes to change the publicâs perception of borrowers and stop their mistreatment at the hands of society.Â
The sanctuary is designed to allow the borrowers to live as independently as possible, if they so wish, and the eventual goal is to have it be completely borrower run and serviced, though there simply isnât enough manpower yet for this to happen.
Thomas is a 30 year old actor and singer who moved to the country when he inherited a big farmhouse and a little chunk of land from his Aunt Patty.Â
He mostly does stage acting, which is where he met Deacon, and itâs his biggest passion besides helping borrowers.Â
He doesnât have very many human friends in the area, and everyone in the small town thatâs near his house thinks heâs a bit weird: a city boy who moved out to the country and started a sanctuary for tinies? But heâs super friendly and polite to everyone, so thereâs no ill will. More like animosity, which for the kind of operation he runs, suits Thomas just fine.Â
Thomas is very active online, where there are a smattering of other Tiny Rights groups. The groups are mostly advocating for safer care of pet tinies and against using tinies as lab subjects or who are fighting and spreading awareness about the illegal zoos or fight clubs, very few of them view tinies as people (think groups in our world that are against animal cruelty), but there are a few who do see that truth, and Thomas has been working to grow that community as best he can.Â
Deacon is a 28 year set designer and builder, and worked in the same theater as Thomas for about five years or so. Heâs snarky and a bit abrasive at times, so he didnât have many friends, but Thomas reached out to him and the two just clicked instantly.Â
Deacon (or Dee, for short) was the first person who Thomas confided in about the tinies that he found, and surprised Thomas with the knowledge that he already knew that the creatures were intelligent and that they called themselves borrowers.Â
When Dee was a child, he was in a pretty abusive household, and he used to hide in the attic when his parents got into one of their many screaming matches. There was a borrower living in that attic, and they became Deeâs only friend. For a long time, that borrower was Deeâs refuge from his parents, but his mom found out about the âpestâ in the house and had animal control come to catch it and take it away one day while Dee was at school. He never even got to say goodbye.Â
When Thomas expressed interest in Dee about the sanctuary, Dee immediately offered his services. He knows its unlikely, but a tiny part of him hopes that one day heâll find that borrower again.Â
Deacon is the one who designed and built most of the more elaborate structures at the sanctuary, and once they started having borrowers actually living there, he helps them with the upkeep of the facilities and follows their lead on what needs to happen for things to run more smoothly.Â
Borrowers (in the order that they arrived at the Sanctuary)
Joan and Talyn are wild borrowers who lived by borrowing from Thomasâs Aunt Patty for years. When Thomas moved into the house, their borrowing woke him up in the middle of the night (Patty was a much heavier sleeper than Thomas is) and they were discovered.
They were initially very wary of Thomas, but when he realized how scared they were, he backed off. They were prepared to leave, but then they realized Thomas was leaving food out for them and that he hadnât called animal control, so they decided to stay and give the guy a chance.Â
Joan and Talyn are the only borrowers at the sanctuary who have been free their entire lives. They helped Thomas design his facility so that it would be a borrowerâs idea of a sanctuary, not a humanâs idea of one, and they help to find and bring other borrowers to the sanctuary.Â
The first borrower besides Joan and Talyn to arrive at the sanctuary, Roman was born in captivity and raised for the pet trade. His owners were a rich couple who had expensive and exotic tastes.Â
He was kept in a gilded cage in their sitting room during the day, and was expected to pose elegantly when people were in the room.Â
One day the lady of the house overheard him singing to himself to pass the time, and after that, he was also made to sing for guests.Â
He ended up at the sanctuary after the mansion burnt down in a fire; his owners only evacuated the âessentials,â so he was left in his cage as the house burnt around him. A support beam ended up falling in just the right way, knocking his cage down and damaging the door enough for him to crawl out and escape the house.Â
For a few days, he was alone, wandering the city streets in search of food and shelter. Heâd been dependant on humans his entire life and had no idea how to survive, so when Deacon found him and asked if he needed help, Roman was all too eager to accept.Â
Logan was bred in captivity and was used as a lab-tiny. He was used for product testing (cosmetics, mostly), and still considers himself very fortunate, as he only encountered severe side effects two or three times over the course of his life in the lab.Â
He never thought heâd know a life outside of the lab, but one night, an intern didnât close his cage door properly and he took a chance on escape. He knew he might get himself killed if he tried, but he didnât care, heâd take the chance on freedom.Â
He succeeded, and managed to survive on his own for a couple months before Joan and Talyn found him on one of their scouting missions. He accepted their invitation to come back with them, and has lived at the sanctuary ever since.
Logan hates how borrowers are assumed to be inferior simply because of their size with a burning passion. Heâs determined to prove that borrowers are just as intelligent as humans.
He taught himself how to read in the lab, and when he arrived at the sanctuary, attended online schooling (because online, everyone assumes youâre a human). He got a high school diploma in less than two years, and is working on his college degree now.Â
Emile was born into the pet trade like Roman. He was bought for a little girlâs birthday present, and genuinely loved his human.Â
He was by her side as she grew up, she told him about her day every single day when she got home from school, he met her best friends, he cried with her the first time she got her heart broken, and she let him roam free around her bedroom (though her parents wouldnât allow him to roam the rest of the house.)Â
They both thought that theyâd be together forever, but then her dad got a job in a new city, and their new apartment didnât allow pets.Â
Emile had to be given away, and the home that he ended up in was not a nice one. He was no longer allowed to walk about as he pleased, he wasnât fed very much, and he was basically neglected. The worst thing for him though, was watching his old humanâs friend be neglected alongside him. Their parents were drug users, and didnât care about much else, and it broke Emileâs heart to see such a sweet kid wilting away.Â
When the parents were both arrested for drug use, the teen was put into foster care, and the police were planning on just dumping Emile at a shelter, but Thomas had caught wind of the case and offered to take him in, which no one else had a problem with.Â
Emile wants to train to be a therapist to help both humans and borrowers alike work through their pain and trauma.Â
Remy was born free, but was captured as a young teen by a group of humans that use tinies in underground fighting tournaments.Â
Definitely had the worst of things physically. Was covered in cuts and bruises when he was rescued, not to mention dozens of old injuries that had never really healed properly.Â
He fought just well enough to make it worth his handlerâs while to keep him after losses. Was found when the police raided the operation. Unfortunately, while they did make a few arrests, most of the participants got away, along with all the other tinies. Remy was left behind because heâd just been knocked out losing a fight, so when the police get there theyâre met with a few spectators who were too drunk to run away and one unconscious tiny in the middle of the ring.Â
After being made to fight at night and sleep during the day, his sleep schedule is all out of whack, and he basically sleeps whenever his boyd gives out and he crashes. He doesnât like bright lights or loud noises very much, and he wears dark glasses to keep everything a little dimmer.Â
Patton and Virgil are brothers who were born free. They were captured when Patton was 19 and Virgil 16 and sold to a pet store.Â
Patton was sold right away, and spent just over a year living with a kind old man who needed a companion. But then, the old man passed away in his sleep, and Patton nearly starved to death with no one to take care of him. He was eventually found and taken to a shelter, who then called the Sanders Sanctuary. (more on this)
Patton was half dead when he was brought to the sanctuary, but when he started to recover physically, his mental state stayed very poor. Eventually, Emile was able to coax his story out of him, and Thomas and Deacon decided that their next mission was to track Virgil down and reunite the two brothers.Â
Virgil spent two years wasting away unwanted in the pet store, until after nine months of looking, Deacon finally tracked him down and brought him to the Sanders Sanctuary to be with Patton again.Â
Patton and Virgil join Joan and Talyn in helping borrowers who were born in captivity learn more about borrower culture and what it means to be self-sufficient. The two are still pretty shaken after everything theyâve been through, but with the help of everyone at the sanctuary, theyâre beginning to heal.
Follow this blog for more content in the Sanders Sanctuary verse, and asks are open!
