#this was a lot but so fun to answer!!

[thefanciestborrower]

Heyo, CJ! I'm really sorry, but since you did say I could ask…

CW: Mentions of digestion

Considering it's highly illegal to digest a human, is there a system in case anyone does attempt to do so? How does it work? What is the punishment?

You mentioned that bones and organ meat are an essential part of their diet, do they consume it from animals now? How is their food prepared?

Can you explain a bit more how the third "lung" works? Is there any positive change on the mini-giant upon consuming a human friend, do they only feel satisfied/full (or satiated in case of cravings), can it be used in a therapeutic way for both parties? Does it act or interfere in the release of neurotransmitters?

And mhm, I'm aware of the comfort and curiosity with James and Ben, but I meant in a more generalized or biological way, because since they don't consume humans as food anymore (but still crave them), would their bodies adapt?

JUST ONE MORE THING, I'M SORRY-

How long did it take for them to stop having humans as food? What started it and how did society took it?

Oh boy this took me so long to answer lol but I hope I got all your questions!! Also never be sorry for these long asks because oh my goodness I love them lmao

CW: Mentions of digestion below the cut

Considering it's highly illegal to digest a human, is there a system in case anyone does attempt to do so? How does it work? What is the punishment?

There is, but I’m still working on fleshing all that out since this whole thing started as a silly little highschool vore sitcom hahah. Basically though it would be very difficult for someone to eat and digest a human without anyone noticing. For starters, it takes about a week or two to digest a full human, and during that time it’s going to be pretty obvious what they’ve done. Especially those first four or five days. See, mini giants don’t tend to eat large meals like that at all anymore, so if someone has a suspiciously human sized gut that’s definitely softer than it should be well...that’s not good news. There’s also just general police investigation type stuff and it will be noticed if someone just, goes missing. Missing persons reports and stuff you know? Combine that with the fact that the guilty party will have to hide away for a while and bingo, not too hard to find. It’s also worth mentioning that articles of clothing, especially shoes, wreak havoc on the digestive system, so those would need to be spit up, which would definitely be some evidence as well. 

The punishment is basically a first degree murder trial and the repercussions that come with it since, well that’s what eating someone for real is. 

You mentioned that bones and organ meat are an essential part of their diet, do they consume it from animals now? How is their food prepared? 

So food typically consists of things like whole roast chickens, large cuts of beef, pork, and venison, whole fish, and other things like that, which often means bones don’t even need to be added separately. Like, you know how we eat chicken and other cuts of pork and beef off the bone? They’d just eat the bone with the meat. Bones can also be bought separately, usually from larger prey items like beef, elk, bison, and other such animals, and are a fairly common snack food. Antlers are also popular, especially among young giants who’s fangs are still coming in, since they’re cheaper than some bones. 

Meals will be prepared pretty similar to the ways we’re used to. Roasted meat, soups, sandwiches, and fried meat, are all common dishes. The only difference is bone won’t generally be removed from a piece of meat and may even be added to certain dishes as both a garnish and part of the meal. Similar things go for organs. Organ meat is a staple for 90% of the kinds of soups you’ll find, and things like liver are very popular because of how big the organ is. Especially sliced on things like sandwiches. Think of it being just another common lunch meat. Heart and kidneys are also fairly popular snack foods and you can genuinely just buy like, a bag of them in the grocery store seasoned all sorts of different ways. 

Also, prepared meat will tend to be on the raw side of things, so always make sure you specify how you need things cooked if you’re human

Can you explain a bit more how the third "lung" works? Is there any positive change on the mini-giant upon consuming a human friend, do they only feel satisfied/full (or satiated in case of cravings), can it be used in a therapeutic way for both parties? Does it act or interfere in the release of neurotransmitters?

And mhm, I'm aware of the comfort and curiosity with James and Ben, but I meant in a more generalized or biological way, because since they don't consume humans as food anymore (but still crave them), would their bodies adapt? 

The third ‘lung’ is a pretty wonky system tbh so forgive me this is gonna get a little wack. Basically it’s like this...separate little organ that acts as a sort of bellows to pump some fresh air from the lungs into the stomach, and pump out deoxygenated air back out. It doesn’t take much more effort than maybe breathing a little deeper. The operation of the third lung is mostly involuntary actually! It automatically kicks in whenever there’s movement in a giant’s stomach, and the operation of the lung signals acid production to stop as well. If they wanted to digest something still alive they’d need to make the conscious decision to do so in order for the third lung to shut down and acid production to begin. 

Ingestion of a human helps mini giants produce certain neurochemicals like serotonin, dopamine, and melatonin, that greatly improve their overall mood and cognitive function. So like, basically if you super need to study for a last minute test it’s not a bad idea to eat your human friend before hand lmao. As for the human side of things, even though acid production is shut off for the time a human is ingested, there are still some very mild enzymes chilling in the giant’s stomach that will essentially remove most of the humans’s already dead skin and hair cells, so it’s like an extra exfoliating bath. 

Even though the effects are positive many humans and even giants have very mixed opinions about the issue. 

How long did it take for them to stop having humans as food? What started it and how did society took it?

Oh gosh okay here comes the history nerd brain lol

So eating humans purely for food was already falling out of practice since maybe....the 1500s? It still happened a lot of course, but it was more a means of executing prisoners of war than anything. Although depending on the rank of said prisoners of war it wouldn’t be too uncommon for the king or other high members of the aristocracy to eat them as a show of power. Nobels could also decide what to do with any human found on their lands, and most decreed that said humans were to be brought to them, since I think they may have been considered a delicacy of sorts. 

Peace treaties and even alliances were eventually drawn between most human and giant kingdoms, and while that didn’t solve every problem my any means, it certainly paved the way for eventual proper integration. 

Around the time of the Enlightenment both human and giant philosophers were proposing ideas on the equality of their species (or at least equality in intelligence) and both began looking at each other less as beasts and prey items, and more as fellow sapient beings. 

Fast forward to the 1800s and things are a lot more integrated. Most mini giants live in smaller towns on the outskirts of large cities just because they’re not generally fans of cramped cities, but for the few who do live in cities they are more than able to get jobs and even attend universities if they so choose. People are still very wary of them and things aren’t perfect, but it’s better than it used to be. 

Much later in around the 20s eating people was pretty much outlawed very enforced too, but that didn’t stop things from getting kinda bad during the prohibition because it was the prohibition lol. Eating someone was also a pretty popular way among mobs to dispose of witnesses or generally just have a good time, and people rarely looked into those sorts of disappearances anyways. 

Present day where we find Ben and James things are far from perfect, but they’re also the best they’ve ever been. There are quite a few human/giant cities with accommodations made for both species and the general fear of giants is at an all time low. Doesn’t mean some people aren’t still jerks, but you also won’t get arrested for eating someone so long as you have expressed consent and it’s clear they aren’t being harmed. It’s especially common for young giants and humans to play together this way actually, which means more and more humans and giants are growing up together used to the idea of being eaten by/eating their friends and thats lead to some all around great improvements.