This is why you wash your yinglet before bringing it home
Out-of-Placers
A story of inconvenient changes
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The common folk definitely regularly ask themselves such questions as “How is this possible, in an environment with as low annual moisture as ours?”, in exactly that class of language.
The thirsty seeds of salted grass
clinging cloyingly to clowders of scavs,
reforming lands to fill their needs,
quietly killing the quality of the soil.
Ohh, is so, so bad, but also is de easiest way to make foods salty, to add some dried salt grass to de recipe. Is why de humans tried to grow de stuff in de first place, and is one of our common trade goods zhat comes out of enclaves.
But if it requires saltwater to grow, why not skip the middle man and just harvest sea salt?
Perhaps the seawater has some undesirable substance in it that the saltgrass filters out?
Perhaps the saltgrass contains additional nutrients made by the plant, or tastes better?
Personally, I’d guess it’s mostly because picking some grass, rinsing it and drying it on a rack is much easier and faster than collecting, straining, and evaporating enough seawater to make an equivalent amount of salt.
Simple answer is de water is less salty zhan de ocean on Earzh, so takes more effort to get de impurities out, per volume of evaporated water, why do the effort for zhis when de plants do it for you?
The second answer is flavor! Is like asking you to season zhings wizh table salt alone. De seagrass (scavgrass) ads more zhan mere salty flavor, giving it a richer kind of taste. Is why on Earzh de empires fought over spices, when zhey all could make salt from sea waters, ja?
Now I wanna see a yinglet being washed. >.>
I was gonna say that it probably doesn’t look unlike a fluffy cat being washed or a drowned rat. But honestly, considering their semi-aquatic lifestyle, I wouldn’t be surprised if their fur is somewhat water resistant like an otter or beaver.
I being a Yinglet, would say yes, and no. Wizh our vast and varied genetics, some get de good fur, and some do not. De common Yinglet (me) does not have rain repellent fur, is why we have zhose stick legs and arms to keep our bodies dry. In cold weather we grow a zhicker pelt, but for critters who have water resistant fur or feathers, zhey usually need a type of oil gland zhat needs to be constantly used to keep zheir fur water repellant.
yippee, more lore drops, it feels like its been a bit since the last one
All of a sudden Yinglet Soap makes more sense, eh? Kills every fekking zhing save for us.
However much I respect Scholar G’mindel, zhis does smack of discrimination. De Grass was already zhere before we were a zhing, and can prove it by de zhickness of de bog marshes (very zhick, and smelly to dig in) so while we are a vector of transmission, de common bush rat is far more likely de critter most responsible for spreading de salt grass in a mutualistic fashion zhat benefits de rat (zhey look like salt grass) and de Grass gets to spread.
How did the Yinglets not leave a trail of this saltgrass leading to their current enclave? Or does it require a certain density of seeds before it will Really take?
It needs soil and either saltwater OR other adult saltgrass nearby to sprout. The yinglets dug a canal of seawater into their enclave that they use for farming, and it presumably had plenty of opportunities to establish itself while they did so. But if the yinglets just walked along the sandy beach to get here, or travelled far enough inland that the seawater didn’t reach the path, it wouldn’t be able to sprout.
Now I want to know: out of respect, does Vizlet make her entourage bathe, or at least brush themselves thoroughly, before coming to town with her? The guards let her through no questions asked, and she’s well groomed, but do random street vendors have to pass a hygeine inspection before they’re let in? It would be really easy to accidentally draw that salt-grass in from the shore right next to town, and they’ve got to protect the natural fresh water source.
Judging by the tapering off of the green streak on the map, I suspect the seeds don’t stay in fur long enough to be carried the whole way, and/or can’t survive without a source of saltwater such as the sea and conspecifics. The latter may even be a selective pressure on the former, causing whatever adhesive/velcro/etc they use to hitch rides on animals to break off after a certain amount of travel so they disperse to new territories while mostly staying in viable habitat. So that streak is probably growing, and will be a problem for Val Salia in coming decades, so I suspect “wash your yinglet before bringing it home” is mostly a precaution endorsed by Trademaster Viracroix being proactive. Vizlet probably encourages her entourage to comply, but probably more for hygeine in general than this specific hygeine issue.
If it were about stopping the spread of salt grass, I would be more worried about the random street vendors, and I imagine washing after exiting the green streak where it has already spread (no matter how thoroughly you wash before that, you’re probably picking up more seeds as you walk through the stuff enough route). If I were a city planner for Val Salia, my instinct would be to set up free baths (maybe some brushes tied to stationary objects so that no one accidentally walks off with them) at the northeast entrance before worrying about inspection; I think more yinglets would comply given the opportunity but no enforcement than enforcement but no opportunity. Especially if random other stuff that gets in their fur on the road itches – they probably get some sorts of ticks and chiggers and lice which can be mitigated by the same measures as salt grass seeds.
I assume it deposits salt into soil as a waste product of desalinating sea water for its own purposes. Thus seeds escaping pots and planters and pet yinglets would only salt the Earth if you water them with seawater, yes? And they would die if you don’t, so containment should be perfectly achievable by inaction alone?