#irkborne

I got this idea in my head that won't go away.

How does Zim bathe if he has never encountered water before?

The biggest clue is that in the Rise of Zit Boy Zim demands "cleansing chalk". He even refers to it as soap.

Only one thing comes to mind whenever I hear/watch that part: chinchillas. I remembered hearing that they couldn't be bathed regularly in soap and water because it would put their little bodies in shock and perish. So, I did a little more research.

Chinchillas come from an area in the world that even in the high mountains their rain fall is roughly non-existent. What little water they have must be reserved for drinking only. But the place has a lot of volcanic ash. Buy rolling around in the very fine soil they excess oils are absorbed and debris are rubbed off.

From what little we have seen of Irk it is highly industrialized leading to an arid environment. Zim also in the Wettening had never encountered rain before lending more to the fact that his home world is very similar to a chinchilla's natural environment.

It would make sense that Irkens would adapt to something very different when it came to bathing.

Now let's not confuse dirt, what all Irkens seem to hate, with volcanic ash. Ash isn't actually dirty. The process of burning would eliminate germs. The chemical composition is also incredibly different having raised the acidic and carbon levels significantly.

He didn’t hear him enter the room. He thought he was staying late at target practice, but something fumbles in his hands. A tub of butter. He turns, mortified, claws slam shut his laptop.

“Red! I–EH–didn’t know you’d be back so early! I was just, um, I was going to make popcorn, yes!”

louder, for the irken in the back

It’s also suddenly starting to dawn on him what he asked of Red.

!!! *slams fists down*

Zim and friendship is a rare thing but when he loves, specifically an older role model he wants to impress, he LOVES. It’ll more so be worship however. Zim can’t go in the middle; he can only do 0 or 100. Either Zim begrudgingly loves but hides it to the point it’s nearly non existant and treats them awful, or kisses the very ground they walk on.

Zim and his ‘friendship’ with Red in particular is the latter as he’d do anything for Red far beyond just being programmed into loyalty. He wants to show him everything, like an over excited younger sibling that would happily wave all the lasers he made into his face and show him blueprints. He’d want to fly ships together and explode nearby planets and rocks and basically do everything with him as he’s attached to his hip

(oh millions say otherwise)

The obliviously innocent Irken tilts one of his antenna in confusion. He never has really understood slang and euphemisms.

“Does Zim wish to be screwed? Would you screw Zim?” It was another word for ‘attack’ right?