well, I think that expired...

[chanter1944]

Written on the work computer this morning, then e-mailed over and lightly edited for the sake of elaboration.



Me: *sniffs* *sniffs*

Me: Ewwwww.

Me: Hey T, are you in audible distance? Something smells funky up here. Is it just me?

T the clever coworker, who is in fact in audible distance: I smell that too! I thought it was my trash, but it's empty.

Me: And there's just a granola bar wrapper in mine.

Us: *proceed to literally sniff around*

M the new coworker: Somebody [name is too muffled to make out] made some popcorn earlier.

T the clever coworker: Oh. Hang on. *exits, stage microwave, then comes back* Yep, he made some popcorn.

Me: It smells like somebody imbued it with some evil.

T the clever coworker, clearly referencing demons and exorcisms: Latin popcorn.

Me: Akumatized popcorn.

He didn't get it.

Granted I don't imagine you could akumatize popcorn in its usual form, but still. Peeeeeee-u!

An hour after the initial conversation, it still stinks like corrupted kernels up here. This isn't burnt, as that just smells like dark incense. It's... bile sickly. And rather sickening. I'd open a window, but we don't have any, and the ventilation system isn't clearing it out. Yuck! :(

*sniffs forearm, which smells like BPAL perfume*


Added just before hitting post: The second floor of the office continued to smell like popcorn+tuna (my boss's description), or alternatively popcorn+queasiness, well into the afternoon. Not even my spicy pasta lunch could drown it out entirely. ... God it was foul.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming, which may or may not include non-infernal popcorn!

Comments

[alexseanchai]

…we know being human is not a requirement for being akumatized: see Robostus. I keep, therefore, wanting to see an akumatized pet. (I mean, Fang, but I'm not counting Fang unless he gets akumatized again and it's separately from Jagged this time.)

but some scientific research has indicated that plants have communicative abilities that might indicate they feel emotion. and the animist worldview posits plants feel emotion, or at any rate that plant spirits do.

…akumatized rosebush??? 😸

[chanter1944]

Akumatized animals I can easily see. Plants could also, IMO, be a possibility. The key seems to be awareness rather than humanity.

I was working off the fact that the corn was long since picked, packaged and popped as the limiting factor.

[alexseanchai]

that's true, yes.

[siliconshaman]

The stuff that makes popcorn taste buttery can go rancid, if some clueless person made expired popcorn, that could explain it.

Still like the idea of Evil!Popcorn.

[chanter1944]

Oh, eew. I would not be at all surprised if that's what went. It certainly smelled like it. I honestly thought for a second that somebody might have thrown up.

Now I'm grateful that the worst issue I've ever had with expired popcorn is it tasting a bit stale.

[acelightning]

The stuff they use as artificial butter flavor, diacetyl, can cause lung disease if inhaled in quantity (i.e., by people who work with the substance). Another chemical, butyric acid, is used as a "buttery" flavoring, but it can also smell like vomit, or rancid parmesan cheese. I love popcorn, but I can't stand "artificial butter flavoring" (and I also find the smell of overheated vegetable shortening objectionable.) There are some types of popcorn that use ghee - Indian-style clarified butter - for flavoring, and they're pretty good. See if you can find a microwave brand (probably marketed as "all-natural, organic") that contains ghee.

[chanter1944]

Ooh, cheers. :) Think I'll keep an eye out for popcorn made with ghee in future! I don't usually use butter at all on mine if I'm popping popcorn, but I generally make mine at home, in an air popper thingie, and not in a microwave. This was somebody's office snack stash, I think. And it definitely smelled kinda pukey.

[technoshaman]

Oh, ugh, it's just barf-stuff (the Kodak plant ~40 miles from where I grew up used that crap. Ugh!)... I thought you were gonna need an exorcist.

[acelightning]

What on Earth was the Kodak plant using diacetyl (and/or butyric acid) for? My daughter-in-law grew up in Rochester, and her family still lives there - my husband and I have a standing invitation so we don't have to be alone at Christmas.

[technoshaman]

Making film, as I understand it.

[acelightning]

I think similar chemicals were used as plasticizers, which would make sense in film base. Of course, photographic chemicals always did smell nasty :-(

[thnidu]

Would *somebody* please explain what "akumatized" means? All the hits I saw in a web search just used it without explanation. A fanfic expression, yes?

[chanter1944]

Ah, sorry. It's a reference to Miraculous Ladybug. The main, big boss villain has, courtesy the magic of another character who is currently his captive, the ability to bestow powers on people while making them his devoted follower. He's called the magical purple butterflies that are his means of power bestowal akumas, and to be under the influence of one of them is to be akumatized. Make sense?

[thnidu]

Um,,, yes, from the detail you've given, and given that I have no familiarity whatsoever with this setting and character.