What do you think Serenity smells like?

POSTED BY: gojiro
UPDATED: Sunday, October 17, 2004 18:30
VIEWED: 11512
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ZOID

Sunday, October 17, 2004 4:58 PM

In my mind's er, nose, she smells like a mixture of waste recycling plant, stockyard and machine shop. ZOE: "No, I mean 'What's that?', sir", MAL: "Just step around it. Something must've been living in here."

Likewise, all the biological refuse of the inhabitants is probably being reclaimed somewhere on board the ship and reused for drinking water and 'protein paste' birthday cakes. Somewhere beneath the show's surface, I suspect, lies the old joke: "Life is like a sh*t sandwich: The more bread you have, the less sh*t you have to take." Rich people in the 'verse are probably forced to eat less paste than the 'underachievers'. Instead, they get real strawberries and "hot cheese", which -- in accordance with 'trickle down economics' -- means increased generation of high-quality paste for the poor.

You know: An example of the rich doing their part for society... Or how about, making it possible for the masses to eat?

I wonder, if the recycler ever broke down, someone might utter, "Paste, paste everywhere, but not a dollop to eat"...

Scatologically,

zoid

P.S.
Jonathan 'Dean' Swift is my hero.
_________________________________________________

"Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me." The Ballad of Serenity

Only 186 days, 12 hours, 24 minutes, and 55 seconds left until The BDM!

BILLYUNO

Sunday, October 17, 2004 5:14 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by WildHeavenFarm:
Like Lowes or Home Depot, without the lumber. And I bet it has that same fine gray dust that settles on everything and seems magnetically attracted to human skin and hair.

Actually I would bet that the set of the ship smells EXACTLY like a Lowes or Home Depot.

"Your talent for alienating people is near miraculous!"

ROCKETJOCK

Sunday, October 17, 2004 5:26 PM

As a former Navy man, I probably have a better idea of what a big tin can full of people smells like than most. Of course Serenity has a female population factor that would alter that a little, and not just from the scent of Inara's incense.

One observation I'd like to add though: after you've lived in a closed (or semi closed) aromatic environment for a few days, your brain starts editing the familiar background smell out. It's like the way you can sleep through your alarm clock's ticking, even if it's a noisy-ass Baby Ben; the familiar gets filtered. So after a few days on Serenity you'd stop noticing the olfactory landscape, at least as much.

And parenthetically, I'm pretty sure that the cargo deck got a good scrubdown following the five-hundred-thousand-hamburgers-on-the-hoof incident. If nothing else, Simon would insist for sanitary reasons. Which probably means he'd get stuck with most of it...

"Hermanos! The Devil has built a robot! Andale!" -- Numero Cinco

CAPTAINHARBATKIN

Sunday, October 17, 2004 5:28 PM

Well, a bit of speculation here.

I spent a bit of time in the navy, and oddly enough, even down in the engine rooms when reasonably clean, they DON'T smell like a machine shop. Now, I base this on one of the oldest, cruddiest ships in the Navy at the time, an old destroyer with 35+ years of service. Brass polish? Yes, when we were polishing brass. Paint when we were painting, soap when we were scrubbing the deck, that sort of thing.

Yes, in the machine shop with the cutting oil and lathes and such, yes, you could smell that, some. But on the mess deck, it smelled like a cheap, clean diner. In the electronic spaces, pretty much nothing. Ships office smelled like an office, barber shop, like a barber shop.

The submarine might be a closer comparion, but I'v never been aboard one of the SSBNs which would have the long cruises, totally submerged. My friends at the time that had been, made no comment, so it's mostly not an issue, I suggest.

And finally, one comment re: cargo and by products (and GREASE for that matter). If there were organic odors, simply open the ship to vacuum, or at least the cargo deck. In space, organic compounds will "boil" away pretty darn quickly, and yes, that would include grease, oil, manure, etc. Organic volatiles just are not going to be a long term issue, even without an advanced technology.

YMMV, of course.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
...they'll rape us to death, eat our flesh, and sew our skins into their
clothing - and if we're very, very lucky, they'll do it in that order.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ANNIK

Sunday, October 17, 2004 6:30 PM

Great thread ... great ideas. I can 'smell' all these descriptions perfectly.

But ... if they truly live in a post-petroleum product era (no more Earth to get fossil fuels from), what types of oils and grease and such would they be using, and what would they smell like?

I know I can smell margarine vs. butter vs. olive oil at 10' no problem. I LMGAO when I read about the person who could smell 'scentless' products ... I'm exactly the same way. I'm even favoured to react to the *filler* materials in medications (the so-called "inert" materials ... the ones that *don't* get listed in the CPS because they're supposedly inert). Gack.

Any thoughts on smells for synthetic lubrication, etc? (Yeah, I know, these already exist in some areas but I'm not going to go there. )

Cheers,
Annik
... my sister's a ship. We had a complicated childhood.

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