getting context or arguments working with ajax mini panels

I've been researching for a couple of days now on trying to find the optimal solution for including multiple content items in one quicktab without having to code a custom block. Panels mini-panels seems the natural fit-- especially if you're then placing that quicktab on a panels page.

However, the node context and/or views arguments don't survive the trip to a mini panel. I'd like to work on adding this, but I've being going over and over the code and I'm not sure where to look.

Any advice/hints/magical incantations for where to start would be greatly appreciated ;-)