Describe for me, please

I'm not sure how to describe it except something like:

"Oh, that breath. Damn smoker."

It will make a difference whether you talking about cigarettes, cigars, or pipe tobacco. Each one is different.

... not very helpful, but as I recall it is an enveloping stench that completely surrounds you, as if you had on their clothes yourself. So maybe shape your word about that.

The stench of extinguished bonfires, bodily decay and a cancer ward twenty years from now.

Cassiopeia said:

um..I'm not being clear.

What's it like..not their breath...but their clothing...is it dusty? is there an acrid smell? pungent...you see what i mean now?

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There's a stale smell, like they've been sleeping in an ashtray. And it's not a wafting smell, but more like a solid wall that smacks you in the face. There's no subtlety to it.

Yes. Without a doubt. I'd definitely know they were there.

Yes, if it's fresh enough, it definitely stings the nose. And for an asthmatic, the lungs. It really stinks, and the cheaper the cigarette, the more nasty it smells.

For me, tobacco stinks. I've been around freshly rolled tobacco leaves to make a cigar, and it still smells bad to me. Pipes, cigars, cigarettes.....don't like any of it. Can't breathe around any of it, either.

Yes...it would definitely wake me. If they had just smoked a cigarette and then walked into the room I was sleeping in...I'd awaken. It's appalling. The radius of stench always surprises me.

It's stale and all-pervasive. The smell gets into their hair, clothes, skin, breath, everything.

It took ages to get the damn smell out of everything removed from my gran's house after she died. The nicotine turned everything yellow - even her wall clock and nothing smelled clean.

I can't stand the smell of smokers and their belongings - can you tell? Even if they wash, they smell as if they don't. The smoke ruins it. Even if they're covered in deodorant, the smoke still chokes you.

Insults are tricky things. It's easy to forget that not everyone shares the same sense of humor.

Not often mine is the only post left up amongst a shedload of deleted stuff.

I really must work harder on this 'pissing people off' thing. My powers...they fade...

Cass...I just came back because I had another thought. I don't know what happened here in my absence???


If you are in the room sleeping and you're a smoker...chances are you would also awaken...with a strong craving for a cigarette. So it would depend on how the person reacts to the smell of smoke. It would depend on how they feel about it. So you would have to decide how your character sees smoke before deciding how it would smell to them. It could be a good smell...or a comforting smell...even if they themselves are not smokers. The answer, I suppose, is yours to make.

scarletpeaches said:

It's stale and all-pervasive. The smell gets into their hair, clothes, skin, breath, everything.

It took ages to get the damn smell out of everything removed from my gran's house after she died. The nicotine turned everything yellow - even her wall clock and nothing smelled clean.

I can't stand the smell of smokers and their belongings - can you tell? Even if they wash, they smell as if they don't. The smoke ruins it. Even if they're covered in deodorant, the smoke still chokes you.

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Yep. My brother gave me one of those new fangled phones the other day...with the full qwerty board and huge screen and all the bells and whistles. He said I was living in the dinosaur age of ugly little flip phones. He was upgrading AGAIN...so just gave me his almost new one. I was happy to get all the bells and whistle for free...but the damn thing smells so much like smoke I don't want to answer it when it rings. I try to keep it as far away from myself as possible. Who knew a phone would hold on to that smell for so long!

How about "He smelled like he had been burning leaves at the corner saloon." something like that?

"He smelled like the rag mom used to clean the ashbin."

Sorry for the deletions Cass,but you know me by now. It's hard to read how people find you offensive. if I didn't like all of you, it wouldn't bother me.

I think smoke seems to react differently with different personal chemistries. Some people can smoke a lot and the smell that lingers isn't really offensive, just sort of spicy, but mellow. Clothes and hair almost always smell a bit musty, it tickles my nose. And then there are some people who just reek of wet ash. It's a heavy, yellow (if that makes any sense) tang that hits the back of your throat. Kind of like burned and rotting leaves at the edge of a landfill.

See? See? Perks even makes a rank smell like smoke poetic.

God I hate you and your pesky talent sometimes.

That was poetic? Neato.

You're vewwy sweet to me.

My mother smokes but somehow manages not to smell too bad. This guy I work with smokes and when he sat down next to me during a meeting yesterday it was like a wall of throat-raw stench. It smelled musty and yellow. Not wet but dry. The smell settled as the meeting went on, but when he stood up, it wafted over me again. It always imparts the sense that I've taken on the smell. That it's permeated my hair and clothes because it's in my nose and I can smell it on myself.