Minis_Minis - Novels2

This article is about the snack food. For other uses, see Mini(disambiguation).

Minis are the main snack food produced by Peace Corp. They are best known for providing an ethical alternative to the Thrang’s traditional practice of eating Humans, thereby facilitating peace between Humans and Thrang. Today, due to the advent of miniaturization technology, Minis are available both in regular size, for consumption by Thrang, or in miniature size, for consumption by Humans.

Contents[hide]

1 Versions

2 History

3 Production

4 Economics

5 Cultural Influence

6 Research

7 Ethics

8 See Also

Versions

Minis are available in two main varieties: Still Minis, which remain stationary as they are eaten, and Moving Minis, which move around. Still Minis were the first snack food product sold by Peace Corp. However, due to changing popular demand, as well as the logistical difficulties associated with preserving Still Minis on long interstellar trips, Moving Minis are becoming far more common.

Additionally, Minis are available as either Classic Minis, which are meant for consumption by Thrang, and are the size of a Human, or Mini Minis, which are miniaturized for consumption by Humans.

Each of these types of Minis are available in many different flavors. For Mini Minis, the flavors include standard, strawberry, lemon, watermelon, blueberry, and mixed. Classic Minis are available in various Thrang flavors.

History

Main Article: History of Human-Thrang relations

For most of Human and Thrang history, the two races have been in a state of total war, as the Thrang are obligate carnivores who prefer Human meat. Peace Corp was initially formed in 3410 as a Human military organization, meant to defend against Thrang raids on Human settlements.

After the invention of interdimensional travel in 3702 which allowed for the production of minis, Peace Corp began a long, but successful process of transition from military protection of Human interests against the historical threat of the Thrang, to economic diplomacy. Today, the company is jointly owned by Humans and Thrang, and is at the forefront of upholding the historic peace between the two races.

Such a peace would not have been considered possible before 3702, but today Human-Thrang relations are quite amicable in nature. Since then, Humans and Thrang have engaged in significant mutually beneficial cultural and economic exchange, particularly after the introduction of Mini minis.

Production

Main Article: Mini Production

Minis are produced using members of the Homo genus originating from one of the many non-aligned dimensions. Specimens are gathered discreetly from these dimensions using a number of proprietary methods. Specimens are ethically sourced: for each gathering, a new dimension is located, and it is confirmed that this dimension is not a part of the Coalition.

Once the specimens have been secured, they are collected together for processing, with the primary goal of consumer safety. The first step is cleaning and disinfection of the specimens, which removes all foreign or toxic items from them. For Still Minis, the specimens are slaughtered, and sprayed with preservatives and fresheners before being packaged. However, for Moving Minis, which are more common today, the specimens are submerged in a proprietary mixture for declawing. This declawing mixture, in addition to acting as a mild paralytic to reduce the specimen’s motion to safe levels upon consumption, also dulls and softens the specimen’s claws and teeth. This prevents the specimen from causing internal damage to the consumer via biting or scratching, and is thus a crucial component of consumer protection for the Moving Minis product line. After this, various flavorings are added, and they are packaged.

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Peace Corp has run experimental programs with the goal of producing minis through agricultural means, but these have ended in failure. They have determined that minis are too unruly, too resource intensive, and reproduce too slowly for it to be more profitable to raise them as livestock instead of gathering them from the many available non-aligned dimensions.

Economics

The first deliveries of minis to the Thrang were used as a bargaining chip during the Last Thrang War, extolling the Thrang to stop fighting and accept a peaceful resolution to their grievances. Although tensions between the Humans and the Thrang remained high for many decades afterwards, and there were several close calls, there was no more war between Humans and Thrang as soon as the Peace Corp began delivering tribute to the Thrang aristocracy in the form of minis in 3704(They were far more expensive to produce in those times).

As the scale of mini production increased, it became viable to sell them on the open market. In 3713, when the Peace Corp, then still fully Human-owned, released their first minis for general purchase by Thrang, the cost was roughly 6000& per mini(roughly 1,000,000& today adjusted for inflation). This meant that even a fairly well-to-do Thrang could only afford one once in a while, as a rare delicacy, and so the advertisements focused on them being high-quality and high-class, with pictures of elegant Human models on the packaging.

Today, with the massive scale of Peace Corp’s operation, and the improvements to efficiency and storage brought about by the Moving Mini Production Process, the cost has decreased drastically, to only around 1,000&. This makes minis a common cheap snack for both Thrangs and Humans.

Cultural Influence

Minis have had a remarkable influence on both Human culture and Thrang culture. The most notable influence, of course, is that of the historic century of peace between the two races. Today, the Thrang consume vastly more minis than the number of Humans they consumed at the height of their empire during the Wars. The historical Human hatred of the Thrang has slowly but surely died out, and more and more aspects of Thrang culture are being embraced by Humans, just as more aspects of Human culture are being embraced by Thrang.

Minis were the inspiration for the 3752 horror classic The Fatal Mistake, in which a Coalition Human is mistakenly gathered by Peace Corp and sold as a mini. Although the premise of the movie has never been shown to have happened in real life, it has become somewhat of an urban legend, which has contributed to Human opposition to Peace Corp.

Research

Main article: Research on minis

Due to the many biological similarities between minis and Humans, mini production has also had significant application in biological and medical research. Many life-saving drugs and surgical procedures for use on Humans have been developed through testing on Classic minis. In addition, cancer research has made massive progress in recent years due to the development of Nanophage for use with cancer-induced minis.

Minis can also be trained to perform rudimentary tasks through operant conditioning. It was briefly thought that this might find some use in industry, but due to the inability to communicate high-level concepts to the minis, it remains little more than an oddity for display at a circus.

Some ethical concerns have been brought up relating to research on minis. For more information, see the next section.

Ethics

Main article: Ethics of mini production and usage

Some organizations have raised ethical concerns about the treatment of minis, due to their perceived similarity to Humans, and due to the possibility of a Coalition Human being mistaken for a mini during gathering. There is no basis to conclude that PeaceCorp has ever made such a mistake. They perform DNA tests on all of their minis before processing to make sure this will never happen, and they have never once found a Coalition Human in one of their batches.

As for the perceived similarity to Humans, many are concerned due to the loud noises Moving minis sometimes make before and/or during consumption, which is often interpreted anthropomorphically as a sign of distress. The general consensus, however, is that this behavior is merely an instinctual, evolved response to predators, and not an ethical concern.

Others have brought up concerns relating to some hotly disputed scientific findings suggesting that minis possess a rudimentary form of language. Although it is demonstrably the case that minis convey information to each other through auditory means, from our observations of mini behavior, it appears that the primary purpose of this is a simple way to request food, help, or sex from other minis, or to warn them about predators.

In any case, the debate about the treatment of minis in food production and research is ongoing. Some regulations have passed through the Coalition Senate providing for adequate space for minis in storage, and requiring sufficient justification for research involving minis. Though some fringe activists advocate for a halt to all mini production, this would certainly result in a crippling of the economy and a collapse of the historic peace. That is why most mini activists advocate for a more reasonable approach to ensuring the humane treatment of minis.

Minis

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