fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2888 ]

[ SECRET POST #2888 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2888 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 060 secrets from Secret Submission Post #413.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 1 (rape) - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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09. http://i59.tinypic.com/oadudw.png

I think authors should stop describing how characters smell regardless.

No way! I'm with OP, I'm obsessive about scents and get irritated when a writer's description contradicts my (awesome, but noncanon and therefore not authoritative) concepts of what characters would smell like. However, I appreciate that writers TRY. Scents are evocative and intimate, so there's a great payoff when writers nail it.

... at least until the day we get the electronic equivalent of distributing scratch-n-sniff cards with fics.

I want to see more characters' scents in fanfic, but realistic and well-described ones. Not like "Squall smelt like strawberries and evergreen."

this is the exact reason I base all scents either off perfumes or candles. Best way to find "manly" scents is to find "manly" candles. B&N had a good selection. :P

(no subject)

darkmanifest - 2014-11-30 00:41 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2014-11-30 02:26 (UTC) - Expand

She smelled like baby puke and ammonia.

He smelled like day-old sweat, juniper, and mink musk.

They kissed.

Me too. They're almost never like anyone I ever smelled.

TBF, if they wanted to be accurate to my reality, they would have to describe every single character with "He/she smelled like a person".

Or taste.

I really don't want to know how characters taste. It's almost never accurate, and it slips a little into cannibal territory (unless that's what the author is going for).

It always cracks me up when fics describe how characters taste. I think my favorite was one where Agent Scully tasted like peaches and coffee. It was during a kiss, so not completely impossible if she'd just eaten a peach and had a cup of coffee, but still kind of silly.

Most of the time the descriptions of a character's scent are ridiculous anyway. They're always some weird combination of smells that would realistically never go together and/or that no one would actually smell like.

Especially if the character does certain jobs that leave a distinctive smell on them, and they don't get mentioned. Honestly you do not want to be up close to a blacksmith, he won't smell of woodsmoke and springwater.

Personally I'm tired of vanilla scented women and smoke/cinnamon scented men. Are they the only scents in fanfic world?

I'll give vanilla credit: it's so widespread in perfumes that it's a very good guess. But how the hell so many men who aren't smokers, arsonists or pitmasters smell like smoke, that's beyond me.

"She smelled of fresh sweat, the sourness of her breath was overwelmed by fake cinnamon and something that resembled pickle juice."

I just want an asshole to smell like ass for once.

What, you mean assholes don't smell like roses and lavender and don't taste like eclairs made from the breast milk of an angel?

This whole discussion seems so alien to me because humans do not smell good to me. Food smells good. Food scent on humans is offputting. Some flowers smell okay; flower scent on humans is either meh or nasty, if the perfume is too overpowering.

umm...
Some humans find pleasant scents boring? I know about some beautiful music I can't stand becuse it is so monotonous. Maybe the same thing can happen for every sense?

There've been some fun discussions on the Fragrantica forum where people have paired perfumes with fictional characters. For example, the Game of Thrones thread:
http://www.fragrantica.com/board/viewtopic.php?id=108058

Although many of the selections have to do with the perfume name rather than the scent's appropriateness, I think (e.g. Jon Snow = Frederic Malle L'Eau d'Hiver, Petyr Baelish = By Kilian Cruel Intentions).

One of my favorite NBC Hannibal fics is written from his perspective, and it features some gorgeously evocative descriptions of the colognes/perfumes that a couple of the characters wear. The author uses a fair amount of technical perfume lingo, or whatever you call it, and it's awesome because not only does it make sense for Hannibal to know (and care) about this stuff, the choices themselves are also good.

I agree though, I'm strangely annoyed when a character's scent is described "incorrectly".

Link links?

Sillage, by cicak. :D (Fair warning though, it's rated Explicit and it's very NSFW, at least at the end. If that's not your cup of tea, you can just read until that bit starts.)

I feel you on this, OP. At least as far as the first half of the secret is concerned. Here is my rant on that below:

If I'm reading a fic with a ship at all, I'll usually play "'Jesus Christ NO' Scent Bingo" for all the facepalm- and cringe-inducing tropes that get thoughtlessly recycled in a fic. Example, if the female character smells like strawberries (The X-Files fandom was INFAMOUS for this, and as a woman, I have literally never found a shampoo that smells exclusively of strawberries), or if they smell like vanilla, or if they smell like strawberries AND vanilla, I will mark something for each of those. Mark another one if a character smells like something that realistically there is NO FRAKKING WAY THEY COULD SMELL LIKE IT (e.g. if Brienne of Tarth smells like a fucking bed of flowers).

Mark one in bingo if the author fucking cops out and writes "[Character X smelled like Scent A and Scent B] and something uniquely them." Could you be ANY more bland and typical and lazy??? They're obviously at that point describing smell because they think they're supposed to, not because it's relevant to the plot or the character's point of view in which they are writing. And for someone like me, who is very strongly connected to their sense of smell, those little lackluster character details are sO frustrating!

That above "something uniquely them" is also true of TASTE -- if the characters are French kissing at any point, I will bet you FIVE DOLLARS that that statement will make it to the end of that paragraph. Like, of COURSE they taste unique from other people? But they sure as shit aren't gonna taste like chocolate and raspberries unless they literally JUST popped something in their mouth. And even then, chocolate taste gets sour once you eat it *very* quickly.

TL;DR I don't headcanon perfumes cause I don't have time for that shit, but basically YES.

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