Just a random SGA question poll

[resonant]

... because I like to know these things.

[Poll #557655]




(Way on back when I was attempting to write Shanghai Noon slash, I was in chat moaning, "I can't write a Western! I don't know what anything smells like!" And cin1607 said, "It smells like smoke. Trust me. If it doesn't smell like smoke, it smells like gunpowder.")

Comments

[vamysteryfan.livejournal.com]

Well, not to be gross or anything, in Westerns the air probably smells like manure. Horse manure littered the streets and they didn't have modern plumbing, if you catch my drift.

I'm thinking Atlantis has way more advanced waste treatment facilities, so to speak. So the outside air would smell clean. I think the indoor air when they first got there smelled musty and now it smells like the typical American office building (no smoking allowed.)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

W00t? Aidan Gillen and Jackie Chan? Where, where!

[elishavah.livejournal.com]

Cripes. Now you've got me wondering whether the oceans on Atlantis are saltwater.

[cesperanza.livejournal.com]

What a you question!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson. Untitled and unfinished. One day I may get around to figuring out what's wrong in the middle and fixing it.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Wow. I thought that was canonically established and I just hadn't managed to see that episode yet. You mean it's not known? Wow.

And of course there's a whole family of elements/combinations that are designated as "salts," right? So even if it were salt, there's no guarantee it would be salt like earth salt, which means it could smell different.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I can't help it. I have to know these things.

Maybe next I should ask for speculations on what the characters smell like.

[rhi]

What a wonderful question!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

Yes, that's what I feared ;) any chance of changing your mind and changing to AG?

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

Fish.

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

When you're a few days out at sea there isn't really much of a distinct smell. The smell of "sea air" is more "dead sea creatures washed up on a beach," and if you're not actually near a beach you don't get it. Although perhaps there is some barnacle growth and seaweed and dead crabs and stuff on the pilings of Atlantis, I don't know.

I imagine the indoor air smells like Typical American Office Building.

Interestingly, when we'd been in the waters of the Bahamas - mostly flat, sandy, coral islands - for several months, then sailed for the Dominican Republic, it was amazing how the scent of the air changed as we approached land. From 15 miles out we could smell the dirt, the trees, the vegetation. It was a truly stunning and obvious transition.

(ran out of space in the box)

[ali-in-london.livejournal.com]

How about the indoor air?

That'd depend on where you were; could be kit-cleaning stuff (polish, whatever the guns and other bits of military kit are cleaned with), lab supplies (and that'd depend on what lab you're in), food, incense and scented oils (I'm willing to bet money that the Athosians have little personal rituals involving both). Dust, but probably not much, as I imagine that Atlantis has a lot of ventilation.

Now I'm wondering whether the Stargate has a smell when it is activated.

Also wondering whether McKay would do the same thing I (and a few other people I know) do when I get a new computer: put my head in the box and take a deeeeeeep sniff. There's just something about the smell of new tech.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Er, no. It's rather more canonically moored than most of my stories are.

Plus, haven't seen Shanghai Knights. Had to look Gillen up on the imdb just to see who he was. Cute.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Now I'm wondering whether the Stargate has a smell when it is activated.

Oh.My.God. That's an absolutely stunning idea. I love it.

Wonder if Teyla and Ronon have trained their senses of smell? So that people are always going, "How'd you know where my quarters were?" and they just shrug because they could smell, like, Rodney's powerbar/coffee/electronics/hypoallergenic deodorant smell from halfway down the hall.

[hinokumo.livejournal.com]

If it doesn't smell like smoke, it smells like gunpowder

That's a good description and an interesting poll. Are you just curious or writing a fic? *hopeful nudge* Also, Shanghai Noon slash! I love Owen and Jackie :D Did you finish the fic, and if so, where can I read it?

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

Oh, noon, forget it *g* But still: you never saw Queer as Folk?!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Huh. Which also makes me think: Who on Atlantis is/was a smoker? Or did they ban smokers, or at least gently encourage them not to make a one-way trip to a World Without Tobacco? And if so, did anybody make the trip just the same, reasoning that maybe the best way to quit was to be on another planet?

Perhaps this explains why Kavanagh is so pissy?

Or even Rodney?

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Actually no. I'm stunningly out of touch with popular culture; mostly what I know about TV shows, I know from reading the slash.

I wouldn't have a clue about SGA if merryish and astolat hadn't bombarded me with DVDs till they found a format that my old computer could read.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

Yeah, I hear that more and more, I am suddenly surrounded by people that were pimped into fandoms by people plying them with DVDs.


It totally does not count that fenriswolf sent me Farscape, no sirre.

[panisdead.livejournal.com]

Hypoallergenic! Deodorant!

::loves::

[aphedas.livejournal.com]

Damn, I can't believe that didn't even occur to me. Thinking about it, I think it's likely that it would have a similar chemical composition to the Earth's oceans, because the plant life on the mainland seems very similar to the Earth's, which suggests a similar soil composition. So I'd think that the crust would probably be fairly like Earth's, and it's mainly, iirc, the years of erosion that has led to the salts in the sea. But, I don't recall any mention of ocean life, and nor can I recall if the Ancients actually evolved on that planet (is it ever said?), and if there's no life in the ocean that would remove at least some of the similarities to Earth, though not, I think, the sodium and chloride concentrations. But, yes, it's probable that the smell is subtly different in a way that no one can quite put their finger on.

Hello, I was surfing sga_flashfic flist, if you're wondering how I got here, and the poll seemed interesting.

[axiom_of_stripe]

note: i have no idea what atlantis smells like. i just felt like giving random answers. :)

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

Does salt have any smell? The smell of the oceans here are mainly due to the types of algae and seaweed growing in them. That's why lakes smell all wrong. (They do, they do!)

So the smell of the Atlantis sea would depend on how nutrient rich it is, and how much organic stuff is floating around in it. Which would be related to the kind of currents they have, and how much subsurface water upwells, and, er, other stuff. My minor oceanography knowledge is all coastal. *g*

I think the Atlantis ocean smells pretty. ::nods::

[elishavah.livejournal.com]

It's kind of accepted in the SG universe that planets are just like Earth, unless the difference is mentioned or visibly obvious. Which is stupid, because M-class doesn't guarantee exact replica, but that'd be the SG way.

SGA's been somewhat better about that, though. And they haven't mentioned anything about the water that makes up the majority of the planet, as far as I can remember (although my mind is awfully sieve-like these days), so it's fun to think that maybe it isn't saltwater.

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

And this is still the sum total of my knowledge about Due South.