"It is the citrus one I want," Tommy said. "With a hint of musk."
"Right-o" Dominikus smiled. He booted up his olfactory computer, a LINE, of course, designers always preferred the LINEd version. So much sleeker.
The combination of smells was a tricky business. To become a smell designer was a tedious task requiring at least four years of schooling, but to be a smell architect took at least 8 years and another 5 or so of experience before the final thesis could be written and one were allowed to generate olfactory spaces. Dominikus failed his entrance exam to architecture, hence his final decision to become a smell designer.
Harder still was the combining of tastes and smells, thus the "Chef" was one of the hardest things to become. Years ago, the mastery of sight and space had taken over the world, but that time had passed, along with the world of sound.
The chemosensory had taken over.
Sight, sound, touch! So passe!
Smell was so instant, so perceptive. Wasn't a designer meant to be intuitive! To work from something inside, and not outside. The design world was now completely intuitive! Where it should be. Designers were born and trained, but never, never, made.
Dominikus ran Olfac-shop, an intuitive computer programme where he could combine smells and put together a series to advertise Tommy's latest business venture. He had a date with Sylvia later, his girlfriend of 2 and a quarter years. She had passed her architect's exam. They had planned to become Olfactory Architects together, when they first became a couple. Where had that gone? But the practical aspects of their differing education came in handy. He was working and cash flowed in, because whatever it was, Dominikus was a very good Olfactory Designer. They could be married in another 2 years, at the rate Dominikus was going.
He whistled a tune as he touched and tuned the various molecules in the air. The sweet, cloying scent of musk. The sharp tang of citrus. Perhaps, a walnut tint would settle the Whole. It would be a desirable scent. A scent he had been working on previously returned to his mind, perhaps by including that combination he could create a completely new scent, one which would boggle Tommy's mind. It had induced the exact element of desire back then in the Olfactory Factory, and the advertisement it had been used in had been featured in "Arts" the foremost Design Magazine, which was unusual for a commercial venture.
Dominikus knew he was meant for greater things.
He saved his work, picked up his soft leather bag (Chamois, with a hint of Africa, an amazing scent, designed by a student, Mark Theis, a very promising kid) and walked out of his Working Zone and into the busy street. He had to follow Orchid street and turn off into Skunk road for a little before entering Winery street on the left, where Sylvia said she would be waiting. He liked Winery street, a very old and ancient part of the city, "well-aged, and very hippy" as Sylvia loved to say, architect-style. And the chef's who worked there were the top of their line, very inspiring for an Olfactory Designer.
Skunk Road, on the other hand, was a rather sleazy part of town. Dark and dingy, it had the cold, metallic smell of old engines and dried blood. He turned in from the bustle of Orchid Road and pulled his coat closer toward himself, enveloping his face with the expensive Damask.
Which was a type of wool and a smell, of course. Smells were woven into the threads, a wonderful way of introducing special combinations that suited each individual. Fearsome. If Dominikus hadn't become an Olfactory Designer of Wholes, perhaps he would have gone into the Garment line. He heard a rather loud sound behind the walls of skunk street, some shouting, but enveloped himself further in the folds of his damask, separating himself as much as he could from the skunk zone.
Winery Road at last. Dominikus frowned to himself. Smell, so fleeting, gone in an instant, but sometimes pervasive. Unfortunate, that smells were molecular. The stench of Skunk Road still hung around him. But ah, he had arrived.
--extract from A World Defined By Odors, by Faith Zhou
