"This juice is delicious." Jatydid fiddled with their empty glass, tilting it back and forth. "But brineberries were consumed for the salt, and this is too sweet to be a brine."
"That's why its delicious." Skylar rolled their eye, not quite like a human where their eyeball would spin around in their socket, but rather Skylsr twisted their entire eyestalk three hundred sixty degrees.
"But we need salt, a lot of it." Jatydid pointed to themselves. "Without it the delicate balance of ions in our bodies gets out of whack, and-”
“Osmosis,” Skylar raised a tentacle as they interrupted, “the very life giving process we survive by in our natural bodies, would, be,” They flopped onto the counter, body jiggling as they waved their tentacles in the air, “terminated!” Tentacles and eyestalk slapped against the counter as Skylar did their best to hold still.
Jatydid cleared their throat, “Exactly.” Walking past Skylar, Jatydid picked up the blender Axter had built based on Earth’s schematics. “With this you can include at least a little bit of the kwineberry skin for the salt.”
“But the juice will taste like brine. And that’s why no one was eating the kwineberries.” Skylar hefted themselves off the counter. “And besides, that’s what the salt suppliments are for.”
“Expensive, and our bodies don’t break it down as quickly as we need it.” Jatydid grumbled. “It wouldn’t kill you to at least gives your customers the option of drinking their salt. You make everyone’s drink to order anyway.”
Skylar sighed. “Fiiine.” They picked up a kwineberry and held it up to their eye. “If Benti agrees we can have a half-brine and a brine option. No, half, or full skin blended together for the juice.” Skylar pointed to the door. “Happy now?”
“Yes.” Skyar watched their parent walk through the door and went back to studying the hairy skin of the brineberry.
Word count: 315
