Mini

A mini is a creature created by a misspelling made in a fanfic or (rarely) a published work. Minis may be adopted by PPC agents and/or their writers, though if the mini is part of an Official Fanfiction University, one has to ask permission from the course coordinator (a.k.a. the OFU's author). Minis, unfortunately, cannot accompany agents on missions, but they're good for chasing off intruders and disposing of the body of your latest Mary Sue.

Minis vary according to fandom. For example, The Lord of the Rings has mini-Balrogs, Harry Potter has mini-Aragogs, Pirates of the Caribbean has Misspelled Monkeys, etc. Mini-Balrogs were the original minis, debuting in Miss Cam's Official Fanfiction University of Middle-earth.

What Makes a Mini?
Broadly speaking, minis are created by misspellings of proper nouns: the names of people, places, and things. These are generally words that are capitalized, but may also include uncapitalized special words in the continuum, such as the names of fictional plant and animal species or the terms for special abilities, especially if they are also words from a fictional language. Per OFUM, mini names are typically capitalized whether the source word is or not.

We discourage minis based on incorrect initial capitalization, such as harry instead of Harry, for a few reasons:


 * 1) That's not the precedent OFUM set.
 * 2) It's debatable whether capitalization errors actually count as spelling errors.
 * 3) Doing this may result in two minis with the same name, which is confusing.
 * 4) Some of us object to compounding the error with improperly capitalized sentences such as "harry the mini-Aragog hissed at the agent" in our own stories.

Some writers do count initial capitalization errors as minis, however.

Incorrect internal capitalization, such as Middle-Earth instead of Middle-earth or DrAco instead of Draco, certainly generates a mini.

Leaving off diacritical marks does not create minis, since not all word processors and fanfic hosting platforms can handle them. If a letter with a diacritical gets butchered and it's not fixed, however, that's a mini. Spacing and hyphenation errors definitely make minis. Inserting special characters where they don't belong also creates minis.

Characteristics and Behavior
Each mini is unique. If an already-discovered mini is mentioned again in another badfic (in other words, if the same typo is made), the original mini will be called into the new mission. It will then have to be returned to the OFU or response center it was living in prior. Since the existence of minis is ensured by continued misspellings, they can't be killed. If they are fatally injured, they'll pop up again the next time their name-mistake is mentioned, and they'll have no memory of dying.

Minis are always created when a proper noun is misspelled, but what they do once created varies from mission to mission. In most missions, the mini simply appears next to the canon when their name is misspelled. Sometimes, though, the mini takes on the role in the story that the canon would have had if not for the typo. This may be more likely if the misspelling is persistent, but a persistent misspelling may result in a character replacement instead of or in addition to a mini.

Sometimes, if an original character who is not a Sue has their name misspelled, they will change form instead of causing a mini.

A mini might have a quirk in their appearance or behavior that relates to the typo which created them. For instance, in Little Miss Mary, when "Death Eaters" was spelled as "Death Easters," the resulting mini-Aragog had ears like the Easter Bunny.

Minis are mostly harmless to agents, and thus mini-Balrogs can be carried by an agent wearing protective gear and venomous minis are unable to kill even if they bite or sting. They can, however, cause mild pain, the better for educating OFU students through it.

Creating New Mini Types
The creation of new mini types is reserved for either a) the creator of the OFU in that continuum, or b) if there is no OFU, the first person to write about them in a mission to that continuum. The reason for this is that, while it's fun to dream up mini types, it isn't fair to the people actually writing in a new continuum if the perks of doing so are gone when they get there.

There are probably some instances in which minis were named before this rule was agreed upon. In that case, if the original mini-namer can't be found and there are no instances of that type of mini anywhere, it's probably okay to petition the Board to make them something different if you want to.

When possible, mini types are created according to the following criteria:


 * They should be based on a type of monstrous creature in the continuum, preferably an enemy to the protagonists.
 * They should make good OFU guards.
 * They should be unique to that continuum.
 * Minis may be nicknamed after a notable example of their type (e.g. mini-Aragogs), but they should not be based on a particular character.
 * Minis based on humans or humanoids should be especially avoided. They look like small children, and because they are treated as pets, this creeps some people out.

Sometimes, however, it is not possible to hit any of those criteria, in which case exceptions are made. In realistic, all-human continua, picking an otherwise inanimate object (e.g. mini-telescreens) is one solution to the problem of the creep-out factor.